Chris came to visit

And it was glorious!

It was totally last minute, but so much fun. Both Nick and I were able to rearrange our work schedules so we could spend the maximum amount of time with Chris. He's an old college buddy whom I haven't seen in far too long.

We packed a lot into three days.

We played a bunch of games with our friend Keefe (Star Fluxx, Nuclear War, Illuminati), who totally trounced us at Illuminati, as usual. After that, we headed downtown and got lunch at Pete's Kitchen (a little greasy spoon diner that's a Denver fixture). It was delicious. Then we set off to catch a tour of the Great Divide Brewing Co. There was a very drunk, very garrulous man on the tour who seemed to be intent on telling the tour guide lots of things the guide already knew ("You guys are such a little brewing company, but you ship all over the country! You've got a really special thing going here, do you know that?" Yeah, man. He knows that).

We hit the Tattered Cover and Red Mango (Chris fell in love with it). I lined up a behind the scenes tour at the museum, which was AWESOME. We got to go onto the roof and walked around the catwalks above the dioramas. It was so much fun. Then, the boys participated in the museum's taste and genetics study, which involves getting your tongue painted blue.

My two favorite dudes with blue tongues after
participating in the museum's research study

We played Cards Against Humanity and Chris petted the heck out of Amber, Nick's corgi. She didn't like that at all. (False. She loved it.)

Then he went home. It was sad. I've decided that Chris will now visit us at least once a month. I wish I was rich so I could make that happen.

I like having guests. It gives me an excuse to get out and explore.

Backyard camping & Jiffy Pop

"I don't know how to say this without sounding like a stoner ... but I seriously love all you guys."

Nick said it best.

Last weekend, we went backyard camping with Keefe, Kelsey, Kirk (who are siblings and have been friends with Nick since he was in high school).  It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: we pitched a tent in the yard, filled it with sleeping bags, cooked s'mores on the grill, and woke up when dawn shone through the green nylon sides of the tent.

Oh, and we made JiffyPop on the stove. So that's number 14 off the list.
14. Make JiffyPop on the stove.


It was one of the best nights I've had in a long time. There was laughter and general shenanigans and shared nostalgia.

The cat in the video above managed to escape out the screen door and ended up in the neighbor's yard.  Kirk had to climb over the fence and retrieve him.  We felt a mix of sheepishness and daring.

The marshmallows didn't get very toasted over the grill, but they were definitely gooey and made delicious s'mores.  I had one for breakfast the next morning.

Poor Keefe is a restless sleeper and flails around a bit - it's partly sad, because you know he's not getting any rest, but it's also partly hilarious.  We had to all press pillows over our faces to stifle our hyper, late-night hysterics.  Nick was going crazy with laughter - I haven't seen him laugh that hard since college.  It was great.

In all, it was a fantastic night.  Hopefully I'll have many more such adventures this summer.

p.s. I'm going to be in Chicago for an interview - expect a post about that particular adventure soon!

One down, twenty-four to go.

18. Go for an evening bike ride.

A couple days ago, my friends Bryan&Amy (who, incidentally, live in the apartment above mine) called me up and asked if I wanted to take a bike ride down to a local ice cream shop called Liks.

Obviously I said yes.  I mean, come on, I might be lactose intolerant, but it's handmade ice cream in, like, a zillion flavors.

 We took off when it was still light out.  We took back roads through quiet neighborhoods.  We've had a lot of rain here lately, and all the budding trees decided at once to unroll their leaves.  It was all golden and green and warm.  There's nothing like riding your bike in late, late afternoon to bring you straight back to childhood.

We sat out on Liks patio, where I enjoyed my supernormal stimulus of a s'mores cone.  There was a black lab tied to a nearby bench who was happily snuffling up all the scents the warm evening breeze brought him.  The light went from gold to orange to a dusky blueish purple.

We rode home in semi-darkness, as the light leaked away over the mountains, and it felt like being at summer camp.  There was the same kind of reckless happiness.  We pedaled hard, zipping down hills and racing past sleepy houses, grinning.  We joked about clothespinning playing cards to our wheels and wearing denim jackets, forming our own neighborhood bike gang.

This might have to become a weekly thing.