Nuggets playoff game

Last night I went to game 5 of the Nuggets-Warriors game with Kirk and some of his friends.  I've never sat closer to the action at an NBA game!

The Nuggets won the game, forcing a Game 6 in Oakland.

Here's the player of the game, Ty Lawson leaving the court:

I was able to record the game (using my phone), and I just watched it again tonight.  Here I am on TV wearing a light blue shirt and waving my yellow towel to the left of Wilson Chandler's shoulder (right after Chandler hit an early 3-pointer):

Vienna

I went to Vienna for the European Geosciences Union meeting.  I got there a couple of days early to do some sightseeing.  Unfortunately, it was cool and overcast for the first few days.  The first thing I took a picture of after getting of the train was the hotel I stayed in the last time I was in Vienna!

For the first two nights, I stayed at a hotel situated in an alley, which had a nice European feel.

As nice as the cobblestones look, they are kind of a pain to walk on.

I went to the Albertina museum, which had some drawings by Rubens and Rembrandt.  They also had Albrecht Duerer's Young Hare, as well as some paintings by Picasso.  Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

I went for a nice long walk on Saturday, much of it along the Donaukanal (the canal that connects old town Vienna to the Danube).

Many of the trees along the canal, like the one on the right bank, had ball-shaped plants living in them.  I'm not sure what they are.

On Sunday, I walked around Prater park, a huge park across the canal from my hotel.

The park is home to the Riesenrad, or giant wheel, a Ferris wheel built in the late 1800s.

According to Wikipedia, it appeared in such movies as The Third Man and The Living Daylights, which I guess is the large Ferris wheel in this movie poster.

At this pond, there was a strong smell of ozone, so I took this picture then promptly left the area.

Note more of those plants in the trees.

Also on Sunday, I moved to a hotel near to the conference site.  I had a nice view of the Kaiserwasser out my window.

Of the nine days I was there, only three or four were sunny. 

At the end of the week, thanks to a birthday present from Sara, I went to the Volksoper to take in the opera, Die Fledermaus.

 

It was the first opera I've seen.  There were subtitles on the screen at the top of the curtain (supratitles?), but they were more of a general paraphrasing of the action, so I missed most of the jokes and subtleties of the dialogue.  

Overall, it was a fun trip.  I never quite got over my jet lag, so hopefully I won't have to readjust too much now that I'm home!

Hallowe'en

I took Brett's suggestion this year and dressed up as Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons.


I used red hair spray to color my hair, but with that and regular hair spray, I wasn't able to make my hair stand up!

I opted for the Cape Fear version, because that's one of my favorite Simpsons episodes.

Another New Phone

I got a new iPhone this week:


In other news, I had to deal with a blinding sun on my way in to Boulder this evening. It was blinding even with sunglasses on!

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

Watching the Tour de France this year inspired me to volunteer for the first USA Pro Cycling Challenge, a week long bike race in Colorado. The final stage was today, and it went from Golden to Denver. I volunteered as a course marshal in Golden. I was positioned two blocks from the start. Before the race began, there were festivities in the park across the street, and several people were riding old-time bicycles.


Once the race started, I decided not to take any pictures. I circled myself in this photograph I found on the internet.


Here's the full-sized photograph.


I'm wearing a yellow shirt to the left of the full-time course marshal standing in the middle of the road. As you can see, I had to "contain" quite a few people!

The riders made a loop north of Golden, then came back to the same intersection. This time around, I was deputized by the real course marshal to stand on a median in the middle of the road with my yellow vest. I had a great view that only a few photographers and a TV cameraman had.

Once the race was past, I meandered past the park


and past the start



to catch a bit more of the race before the riders left Golden and headed for Denver.

This video shows the festive atmosphere of the race:


While filming this, I was caught in a Denver Post photograph!



On my walk back to my car, I took this picture of Washington Street going through downtown Golden.


When I got home and watched the race on TV, they edited the coverage and showed only the Denver part of the race (that's why I went online to find two of these photographs).

It was a fun time. Maybe Boulder will get a stage in the race next year!

Wet Weekend

It's been raining a lot lately around Boulder, and this weekend was no exception. Friday night, I skipped the Street Faire, partly because of the weather. Saturday, I went for a picnic at Chautauqua with Rich, Sara, and Sara's nephew Anthony.



I took these pictures from under my umbrella. This was the first rain shower -- the second one we waited out inside Rich's car!

Today, the four of us went hiking at the Brainard Lake area. We ended up hiking around Long Lake:


There was a lot of snow and mud on the trail:


Rich demonstrates one technique for getting off a mound of snow:




This picture shows Long Lake feeding into the South St. Vrain Creek:


I just discovered I completed the St. Vrain trifecta: North St. Vrain last Sunday, Middle St. Vrain last Monday, and the South St. Vrain today!

We managed to avoid getting rained on during our hike, but between the snow and the mud, our shoes certainly got wet.

Fourth of July Weekend

Melting snow was the theme for me this 4th of July. Starting Friday night at Boulder Creek:


I took this video from the walkway under Broadway:


Sunday, I went hiking with Sara at the Wild Basin part of Rocky Mountain National Park. We had views of Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker on our way in:


We made it all the way to Ouzel Falls:


Then came back by Calypso Cascade:


At this point, Sara took the easier and shorter hike (it was her first hike since ACL surgery) to the Wild Basin trailhead, and I went back to Allenspark to get the car.


Monday, I picnicked with (L to R) Fatma, Harald, Roya, Roberto, and Karl:


The highlight of the hike was crossing the creek:


After a barbeque at our picnic site, we headed back to Boulder and watched the fireworks from near Roya's place:

My first youtube video

Thanks to Harald's suggestion, I took my fox vs. magpie footage and made my first youtube video!

Busy and Productive Weekend

As I usually do, I walked downtown Friday night for the Louisville Street Faire. On my way, I saw the prettiest weed I'd ever seen:


The northern catalpas have been in bloom the last week or so. They are a bean pod producing tree:


The Samples played at the Street Faire. They are from Boulder, and made it somewhat big in the 90s, although I'd never heard any of their music.


It was another fun night, and not nearly as packed as last week!


Saturday morning I met Josh, Sara, and Rich downtown for coffee. We all took pictures of this weed growing out of the side of the building:


Josh gave Sara and me a ride home. Just before we got to my place, we saw Andy sitting on his front porch playing his guitar.


We eventually joined him on his porch, where he played a few more songs before his wife, Joan, and their dog, Lenox, came out to join us.


Saturday afternoon, I went over to Roya's place for a barbeque. Sunday I went back downtown for more coffee and lunch, and then did productive things around the house, like doing a little weeding and finally putting together the bicycle that's been sitting in my dining room for almost two years!

Middle of the Week Update

Tuesday morning, on my way into work, I caught the waning moon setting just above the Flatirons.


I also caught that magpie sitting on the light post!

Tuesday evening, Terri joined Tara, Cora, and me for trivia.


Unfortunately, we didn't do so well: 12th out of 37 teams.

This evening, I went to the park in Louisville for the first in the Concerts in the Park series. Laughing Hands was playing. There isn't a lot of information about them online, but apparently they released some albums in the '80s.


My allergies were acting up, so I stayed in the back (near the road). I ended up taking a lot of pictures of clouds, so here they are!

I liked this shadow (you can kind of see it in the picture above, as well):


If you look closely, you can see a plane flying in front of this cloud:


Here it is!


The sunset reminded me of a forest fire burning on the other side of these trees:


The concert was a good one -- they played a variety of string instruments with interesting sounds.