why get the real thing for free when you can pay for a fake?

this coffeeshop i’m sitting at is next door to a tanning salon.

interesting fact #1: colorado gets over 300 days of sunshine a year. regardless of temperature, it’s usually sunny here.

interesting fact #2: when it warms up, the traffic going in and out of the tanning salon goes way up.

what’s up with that? i can understand not wanting to get a natural tan in 20 degree weather. that’s just not pleasant. but when it gets warmer, why do people insist on getting fake tans?

day to day, where do you want to be?

been totally digging on the band Gomez for a day or so. i’d heard their stuff, but never knew who it was. very good stuff.

anyhow.

if you’ve followed my wife’s blog, you know about the ingested coinage incident. sammy last saturday swallowed a dime. since it had been almost a week and we hadn’t seen it ‘reappear’ yet, we thought we should get him checked out just to be safe. of course, a deposit was made into his diaper account merely an hour after the doctor visit. thanks to high deductible insurance plans, we’re going to feel the pain of that one. i call sam my human slot machine now.

took the girls on a ‘date’ to the mall yesterday. it was one of those epic father/daughter moments… browsing through the little jewelry/accessories stores, trying to mentally block out the strains of hannah montana that fill the air while simultaneously showing interest in the 48th different hair tie that has been proclaimed ‘the prettiest one yet’. we browsed several stores, bought a couple things, and generally just enjoyed our time together.

then we came home, and since this was ‘kids get to hang out with dad day’, i took a voucher i got for free tickets (by shopping at the thrift store! yay for cheap pants!) to the Colorado Crush game. arena football isn’t exactly the same as ‘normal’ football… it’s a weird kind of mutant sort of football. but it was fun. we drove downtown, parked in the garage by espnzone, and walked over to pepsi center. we took our nosebleed seats (fortunately, no noses were literally bleeding today), and munched on some smarmy nachos while we watched the game. we then walked back into downtown, grabbed a couple slices of cheesecake for priscilla, then drove home.

things that were good:

• hanging out with my kids
• sammy safely ‘eliminating’ the dime
• watching a sporting event

things that were not so good:

• the imending x-ray bill
• tummy ache from eating at kung fu panda panda express at the mall.
• being distracted by a car driving laterally across the parking garage toward the exit and clipping a pillar, thus mangling up one of the doors on our passport pretty good

and finally, photos from the game (sam calls them the ‘colorado crunch’ - SO CUTE).

They call it the best view in the city.

It’s hard to disagree. We were at the Museum of Nature and Science, and on the west side they have a terrace which looks out over downtown and the Rockies are in the distance. I didn’t have a tripod with me, but I thought the only way to even catch a glimpse of this view is with a panoramic shot. So with no tripod, and about 45 minutes in photoshop to manually stitch together the poorly aligned shots, here’s the view of our great city from the Museum of Nature and Science, 4th level, looking west towards downtown. On the very right (north), you can barely make out the water towers of Westminster and Thornton. If you look close enough, you can also spot all my stitches. The photos didn’t go together too well in parts, but I think I recovered nicely. Enjoy. Click on the tiny version below for the larger (approx 4000 pixels) version.

the tax man cometh…

… and giveth us money. but it wasn’t without a bit of wrangling and a lot of squinting at the computer screen in confusion (think “GW Bush face”). but finally, with my contract work and my LLC and my regular job and a few other weirdnesses, taxes are finally done. i had to prepare and file personal taxes, which were a BEAR due to all the self-employment and such, for both federal and part-year colorado, then i had to prepare and file taxes for the LLC, which were a GRIZZLY BEAR, due to me not being an accountant and keeping crappy records, for both federal and colorado. oh the humanity. but it’s done, and now i can move on to more pressing issues, like how will we stay afloat until our refund comes?

on the bright side, we’re so dirt poor that even the united states government takes pity on us. earned income credit? child credit? additional child credit? rebate? YOU GOT IT (poor suckers.)!

the rockies play their first game of the season today. it’s been a long winter.

barista competition write-up

for anyone who’s interested, I did a write-up on the Mountain Regional Barista Competition at Denver Metroblogs.

still my heart, hold my tongue

there is for the moment a 5-string bass living in my office. i got it out to noodle with, and sam decided to throw down some smoking bass lines. it was fun.

a good friend is in town for a barista competition. he’ll be judging, i’ll just be going to enjoy the sights/sounds/smells and hopefully the occasional taste. i’ve been trying to keep control on the things that have been triggering my acid reflux for the past several months. it’s been ranging from mild to really painful over the last 12-16 months. i’ve just recently been able to narrow down the triggers, and i’ve been keeping a tight reign (mostly) on those things. thankfully, it seems that caffeine and alcohol (ie, coffee and beer, aka, my two favoritest things in the world) are only triggers when i’ve already pushed the edge with some other things, so if i’m good, the occasional beer or espresso (or pipeline porter, if you want to put those things together) won’t send me crying to my room in pain.

this weekend marks my first official weekend at jacob’s well. there are still some details to work out, and the official meeting with the leadership team, but that will come in time. it’s exciting to get hopping on this. there’s so much to be done. for instance, i currently have a large amount of sound gear, functional and non-functional, living in my garage. they moved out of their office, so i’m hanging on to all this extra stuff until we can evaluate its worth, and either keep it or sell it. i’m aiming to sell most of it, so we can buy an aviom system.

some weird stuff going down at the computer school. without going into details, i’m beginning to see why they cycle through instructors so much. there’s some serious passive-aggressive stuff going on. i think it will all work out ok… but the jury is still out on that.

today is the first full day i’ve taken off since february 10th. for those doing the math, that’s almost three weeks. i’ve had days that had some relaxing time, but it’s been that long since i’ve done all day with no work stuff. being near my computer is bad, i’ve almost worked several times today. in reality, i did send off some files first thing this morning, but outside of that, i’m resisting the urge to dive into some projects. there’s enough going on, that it feels like i should be making more money than i really am. it’s a little discouraging to be working a lot and not making all that much. back when i was not working so much, it felt natural to be broke all the time. it was like a trade-off. yeah, i’m broke, but the relaxed lifestyle is nice… only now i’m working much harder and i’m just as broke. that’s not the way it should be. but, that’s how it is right now. and today, i plan on lounging out on our new-to-us couch and reading a bit. i picked up surprised by hope, the latest book by nt wright. he’s basically laying out the theology of heaven and the resurrection, one that is grossly misundertood by christians in general today. i’m only a couple chapters is, and so far it is a very gripping book. once i’m through it, i think i’ll write a chapter by chapter review… it’s worth it and requires more than a passing paragraph. in something completely opposite to that, i also plan on reading through a bit of super/system (a course in power poker!) today as well.

its taken me all morning to wind down and begin to relax. i hope it stays that way…

i don’t even have any recent photos to start this post with.

that’s how lazy i’ve become. i don’t have any recent photos, so you get a BORING words only post. sorry about that.

things are getting kinda crazy around here. it’s currently sunny and 25, with 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. it will be gone in a day or so, and by the weekend it should be 55 degrees. so weird.

i’m currently hanging at this new coffeeshop in town called forza… it’s a franchise from a seattle place. it’s pretty decent, they definitely are better than any of the other shops here in the suburbs. it’s still got that suburban vibe, but i’m enjoying it. the customer service is outstanding… these are definitely the friendliest baristas in town.

speaking of coffee, it looks like ray will be heading this way, as our little suburban enclave is holding a regional barista competition. it’s a good excuse for him to come out. should be fun… hopefully it’s snowy, that would make it even more fun.

the final bit of news is that i’m finalizing some details with a church in the area to do the worship pastor thing, while working towards planting a campus (i’ll write more about the multi-site thing as we move along) in the downtown area of denver in the next couple years. lots of fun to be had. heck, lots of work to be had, but it seems like this is going to be the gig for us. i’ll write more about it in a couple weeks. and since i only write every couple weeks, it might be in my next post!

so for now, i’m just sitting at forza, writing in the ol’ blog, wrapping up a website design proposal, and generally enjoying the fact that i can sit at a coffeeshop and call it “work”.

more weather commentary, from the desk of The Teach.

i’m currently teaching a web design class, and the students are diligently working through a project, so i thought i’d complain/brag/comment about the weather. no photo today due to me not being at either of my own computers. check this page, it’s a camera pretty close to where i am now.

it’s cold. frickin’ cold. it’s currently 7 degrees with a wind chill of -5. it’s snowing ever so lightly. i gotta say, winter here is fun. it is cold, which makes driving hard sometimes, and heating bills are high… but it’s a fun kind of winter. it actually FEELS like winter, unlike much of the NW winter, which feels like spring. and fall. and summer.

so the class i’m teaching is a Dreamweaver class… which i don’t like. Dreamweaver is a great tool, but i just don’t really use it that much. it lets too many people design web pages who have no business doing so. that being said, i’ve worked with the folks at the school here to actually flip the web design curriculum over, and do it more logically. students will start with an “integrated web design” class (which i’m writing!), that covers html/css, image optimization, design principles, as well as an overview of cms, blogging platforms, design tools, etc. then once they understand the CRAFT of web design, they can proceed and use some of the TOOLS of web design, like dreamweaver, flash, stuff like that. then, students coming into the dreamweaver class won’t be completely clueless about web design. just mostly clueless, like me.

curriculum issues aside, this teaching thing is fun. i’ve enjoyed it quite a bit… what’s funny, is my most enjoyable classes have been the uber-basic– the mostly older folks who have next to no experience using computers at all… it requires more patience, but it’s so much more fun than the more advanced classes.

led worship at a church in thornton last week– there’s some long term possibilities at this church. i’ll know more later in the week. i’m leading again this weekend. they do a saturday night service only, so after that i busted it up to eagle to lead sunday morning, which was not a good idea. my voice was completely trashed, and i was tired… it worked out fine, but i won’t be doing that on a consistent basis, thankfully.

i’m hoping the students choose an hour-long lunch break (i offer the choice of 30 minutes and an earlier release to help beat traffic, or an hour for lunch and normal release) so i can go back over to the coffeeshop and get the latte i was denied by them being closed when i showed up due to the holiday. the sign on the window said they would open at 8, i had to stop waiting by 8:15 and get to class.

1 de-gree

i’m currently in eagle, colorado, where the temperature is a blistering 1 degree. oh yeah, i can’t wait to go outside this morning.

it’s right there behind you, attached to the ocean.

there’s the beach.

well, after the christmas-palooza in vancouver, we headed down to bandon to spend some time with priscilla’s family. we were there 7 days. it was a complete turnaround from being in vancouver, as there was a lot of sitting around– and i mean that in a good way. it was challenging at times to cope with having nothing to do, but once you embrace it, it’s a good way to shut off your brain for a few days. now we’re back up here, and we have a few busy days ahead of us before we fly home on monday.

this epic vacation is a weird experience. it’s been cool to not have to work, though i have done a few minor tasks here and there, but nothing huge or taxing. i can’t think of a time in my adult life i’ve been removed from work (or looking for work, in the unemployed days) for this long in one stretch. if we don’t hit the ground running, with a sense of renewal and of being refreshed, after this long, then i’m not sure we have the capacity to be refreshed. i will say, it’s the first vacation i’ve ever taken that i’m itching to settle back into life. i’m not aching to be home, i’m very much enjoying being here, i’m just ready to hit a normal sort of life-rhythm again. life rhythm tends to be elusive as it is, and when you intentionally leave it behind for a long period of time, you crave it. i think that craving will give us a renewed desire to live in a more intentional rhythmic way, much like when we unplugged everything in may and moved to colorado– the interruption and change forced a new rhythm of life, and i think this vacation will accomplish something similar. at least that’s what i’m hoping.

week 2 of the epic monster vacation of 07/08, in the books. and no, i will not be doing a “year in review” post. so there.