Downtown Action

I was walking toward my gym downtown today, when I saw a formidable police cordon spanning at least two blocks surrounding the Denver Post building. Police yelled - rather viciously - at any bikers or pedestrians that got near the building (they put up yellow police tape around the building shortly after I took the picture to the left). I asked a police officer on the next block what was going on, but he refused to answer, saying only "Trust me, you don't want to be near that building."

What a mystery! After I returned to the office, I found an article in the Denver Post that likely explained this crazy scene. Apparently there was a bank robbery and suspected backpack bomb just blocks away from my office.

A Night Out - Bobby Lee!

Julia and I went on a date night this weekend to see Bobby Lee, of MadTV and Harold and Kumar fame, do his raunchy stand up comedy at the Improv. We speculated on whether he'd strip down to his skivvies (as he is wont to do), and as you can see from my camera phone picture, Bobby did not disappoint. The poor guy on the chair blushed through a comically aggressive lap dance while his niece watched from the audience.

As expected, Bobby Lee was hilarious; and we decided we should make it a point to check out more live stand up acts. Tons of great comedians come to Denver (Stapleton is just minutes from our neighborhood) and great deals can be had. This show was just $20 per ticket; not bad for a date night!

Old Friends from Florida

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to update our blog with photos from our friends Todd and Bethany's visit to Denver in April. My photos are posted in four parts, and Julia's (better) photos are on her site. We had a great time sampling a myriad of Colorado microbrews (our friends are quite the beer aficionados, and Todd taught us quite a bit about beer appreciation), watching the Rockies slog through a loss in the rain, hiking in mountain lion-infested snowy trails, and merrily touring historic Denver government institutions, among other adventures. Todd and I also nerded out over far too many hours at the Denver zoo, to the annoyance of our wives. It was a treat to have our good friends use their vacation time to visit us in our new home - thanks again guys!

Crazy Colorado

To say the least, the weather here in Denver has been topsy-turvy this Spring. I took the photo on the left last week when Julia and I drove home from work - it was sunny and cool on our morning commute, and then this happened by noon. Sliding buses and cars littered the streets, wheels spinning ineffectively. Visibility was hampered by blinding, high velocity gobs of snow. Thankfully Julia's car has excellent Blizzak snow tires - which I recommend to anyone who lives in this state - so we got home safely.

After a mostly dry and snowless winter, it's been pretty strange to be beset by the sporadic and intense snow we've seen in the last couple of weeks. Even today the snow in the mountains was so fierce, I-70 closed down, making it impossible for us to drive up for snowboarding until tomorrow. Ah well, it's all part of the adventure of living in Colorado!

Puerto Rico has better radio stations

As Drake notes we recently returned from our trip to Puerto Rico! It was a wonderful time as we explored San Juan, visited the Camuy Caves, trekked up the El Yunque rain forest, and made our way over to the island of Vieques where we drank fruity drinks and soaked up some rays for the remainder of the trip.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the U.S. but it is very much an entirely different culture. This was most apparent our first morning on Vieques. See, cockfighting is a popular sport in P.R. and every house in Vieques had a coop for their prize rooster. Most of us have experienced waking up to a rooster crowing but imagine waking up to hundreds of them competing for the alpha crow. It's absolutely frightening and after closing the window and putting earplugs in we determined the only way to sleep was to drown them out with the hum of the AC unit.
Another popular island animal is the horse. Horses run free on Vieques. The ones that end up domesticated serve as transportation for the locals. Imgaine the common teenage boy with baggy pants, gold chains, a wife beater on, and his cap tilted. Now imagine that same boy jumping bareback onto a horse, riding it with a group of friends to the local tavern, and tying it up as he goes inside for beer. Talk about low carbon emissions!
Oh, and did I mention that roadkill comes in the form of iguanas?
It was a wonderful trip and most importantly we had some quality time with our dear, northwestern friends Paul and Marilyn.

Puerto Rico Pics

Julia and I posted pictures from our adventure to Puerto Rico. As usual Julia's photo album is lushly high resolution and beautiful, while my pictures are a slushy distorted mess, taken with a children's camera.

The image on the left is one we hope to submit to the Denver Post - their travel section prints selected readers' vacation pictures if they are shown holding the Post's travel section. The native savage in the background is actually our friend Paul, who was apparently spear fishing for sand crabs.

The Emkos in Puerto Rico - Caliente!

This is a great week for our little family. Our old friends, the Huckanses, visited us in Denver and shared in a weekend of exhilarating snowboarding in Vail and Breckenridge. Then we all flew out to Puerto Rico for our long awaited vacation in the tropical sun (we went from ice and snow to blazing hot beach in a couple days - how often do you get to do that?).

Julia and I spent yesterday exploring Old San Juan, a beautiful peninsula that exudes Spanish-styled antiquity. Today we climbed through enormous natural caves in Camuy. Puerto Rico has some of the most lush, tropical vegetation, as well as some of the friendliest people I've encountered in a long time. We're trying to brush up on our Spanish, but luckily most of the people here seem to be bilingual. Tomorrow we plan to hike through the rain forest, and afterwards meet up with the Huckanses on the idylic resort island Vieques. So far, Puerto Rico is everything we could have hoped for. Hasta Luego!