zzzzzzzz

After traveling to Phoenix for a Thursday night game this week, I'm able to rejoice in the fact that preseason is over. What does that mean for me? Not much, really, aside from games being a little more exciting. The "holiday" weekend holds no meaning for me as I'll be at work every single day of it.

In Phoenix, the weather was predictably balmy. At 6:30 in the evening with the sun completely covered, the thermometer still read 100. We stayed in the downtown Hyatt Regency, just a short walk from the Diamondbacks’ Chase Field and the Suns’ and Coyotes’ U.S. Airways Center. A co-worker and I took a walk to the D-backs baseball field and peeked through the windows to catch the tail-end of their matinee game.

The highlight of the trip was seeing the brand new Cardinals Stadium. Talk about an impressive structure. The field rolls into the stadium from an adjacent lot where it gets sun and water. As such, the field is raised on a concrete surface and all of the limited seating in that end is movable. So it felt kind of like an oversized basketball arena to me.

Apologies for the boring tangent... back to (relatively more) interesting things.

Last weekend, I had a rare day off. I took the opportunity to go up to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day. It was, just as I remembered, stunning. This was my first time driving up to the Continental Divide. Here and there, one drives mere feet from rather precipitous drops. Driving through the clouds was particularly enjoyable. I reached a peak height of 12,005 feet while hiking around one of the visitor centers.

I finally watched I Heart Huckabees for the first time ever last night. Good movie. It came highly recommended and didn't disappoint.

One quick rant… I never thought I’d be so annoyed to live in Denver. Now, the city is great, don’t get me wrong. But the normal remarks that my name draws are quadrupled here. It’s to the point where I don’t give my real name when people ask at Panera, the dry cleaners, the barber, etc. It’s not that I don’t like my name, but I think I need to find a viable alternative as long as I’m living here.

I’ve recently been introduced to Pandora Web Radio. I suggest checking it out. It’s my new favorite way to enjoy work. In addition to, you know, the inherent joy of working.

Life is good. I work too much. I am tired. I miss the Midwest. But life is good.