Colorado Springs

On Saturday, May 4th, I drove down to Colorado Springs to visit Terri and Mike for the day.  We went to the Cave of the Winds, west of the city.

The cave was located up the side of a mountain, which gave us a good view of the town of Manitou Springs:

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!

DU hockey game

A week ago Friday, I went to a DU hockey game, which is something I'd been meaning to do since I moved to Colorado.

DU beat the University of North Dakota in an exciting game!

More trivia success

Two more trivia victories, giving us four in a row, and five of the last six! 

Me flashing the secret "E" sign for "Eurolunch":

Trivia success

We've come in first in trivia two of the last three weeks.

I think it has something to do with fewer questions aimed at children of the 1990s.

Emy

I got the sad news over the weekend that my parents had to put their dog, Emy, to sleep.  Emy was so named because they got her when they were visiting Atlanta for my graduation from Emory.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of her:

We went on many long walks with Emy.  She always liked it when I sprinted for home, even though she had no problems keeping up!  She also helped my train for the Bolder Boulder when I ran it a few years ago.  She was diagnosed with cancer last August, but luckily I was able to see her over Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Bye Emser!