Activities « Wheels within Wheels

Archive for the ‘Activities’ Category

Going to the Faire

Thursday, June 11th, 2015

I’ve been kind of neglecting posting for a while. Nothing much to say, and not a lot going on. Also, busy at work.

That’s changed a bit – this weekend, I’ll be manning a booth for my company at the Denver Mini Maker Faire at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I’ve been working on software for an application to demonstrate our new Mercury boards. Our booth will be right next to the Denver Hackerspace booth. We’ll definitely be talking with them to find out how they’re using the supplies and equipment we donated when we moved from our old office to our current location.

I’ll have to find the booths for the Denver Mad Scientists and Epilog Laser, since I have friends that should be at both.

The show runs 9 am-5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. We’ll be setting up our booth tomorrow. Should be fun. Please show up if you’re in the area.

Posted in Activities, Fun Stuff, Software | Comments Closed

That’s Entertainment

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

I took Marion to Bette Midler’s show at the Pepsi Center last night. It was her only appearance here as part of her Divine Intervention tour. I’d never seen her before in person, although I have seen both of her concert movies. We had very good seats, and it was a very good show.

I’d certainly be willing to see her in concert again.

Posted in Activities, Fun Stuff, Song and Dance | Comments Closed

If I hadn’t already made plans …

Friday, May 15th, 2015

to be at Ukefest, I might have been tempted to attend this, which is taking place in my old neighborhood. As it is, though, Ukefest wins hands-down.

Posted in Activities, Fun Stuff, Wow! | Comments Closed

Denver Ukefest this weekend

Friday, May 15th, 2015

It actually started last night with the Heavy Metal Uke Jam, but I had class last night elsewhere. I’ll be going to the concert tonight, then spending tomorrow attending workshops and the Saturday night concert.

This is the 8th Annual Denver Ukefest, and I’ve been to all of them except #1 and #3.

Posted in Activities, Fun Stuff, Music, Song and Dance, Ukulele | Comments Closed

Wildlife note

Wednesday, May 13th, 2015

I’ve had my hummingbird feeder up for a little more than a week. Saw my first hummingbird last night. I’ve heard a couple near work. It would be nice if my feeder drew more of them.

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Hit a milestone

Friday, April 17th, 2015

… so I’m taking Marion out for sushi tonight. I promised her that I’d do it when I hit my second weight-loss milestone. The first was losing the ten pounds I gained after I broke my ankle a few years ago.

That weight was very hard for me to lose. However, I slowly started losing weight after being sick a few months ago, and got the first ten pounds off about a month ago. Yesterday, I hit the second milestone, which was to weight less than 200 pounds at my morning weigh-in. We couldn’t go out for dinner last night because we had dance classes, so we’re doing it tonight.

The next milestone is to stay under 200 – I expect to be bouncing back and forth across the 200-pound line for a week, roughly, before I stay consistently under it. I think my best weight was 185, but I haven’t weighed that little for thirty years or more.

Posted in Activities, Food and Drink, It's all about me | Comments Closed

Fun and interesting

Sunday, March 29th, 2015

We went to a concert last night at the Arvada Center. The Colorado Chamber Orchestra presented their spring concert, which included Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony #5: Reformation. They also performed Remembrance, by Michael Udow, a local composer.

I didn’t care for Remembrance, but everything else was quite nice. Fanfare for the Common Man was different from every other performance of it I’ve attended, because it was performed “in the round.” Our seats were pretty close to the center, and we were surrounded by the brass section, with French horns to our right, trumpets/cornets to the left, and trombones and tubas behind us, with the remainder of the orchestra on stage. The music director for the orchestra, Michael Blomster, first performed the piece forty years ago, with Aaron Copland conducting, which I thought was an interesting bit of information.

All in all, a very nice concert that I quite enjoyed.

Posted in Activities, Music | Comments Closed

Homemakers

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

Last weekend, we went up to Steamboat Springs to visit with Marion’s cousin Hal. It was a good weekend – the last hurrah for the ski season – and we had a good time. The highlight of the trip, though, was what we saw on the trip. We usually drive from Denver to Silverthorne, take state highway 9 north to Kremmling, then turn west to go through Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat.

We often see pronghorn antelope near Kremmling, and this trip was no exception. We also saw a few bighorn sheep grazing beside the highway, but the highlight was just on the northern edge of Silverthorne. Click for larger.

Beautiful. This was the best photo I got of them. I did get this nice one of the male (I think) flying off.

Then yesterday evening, we went for a walk. I’d noticed on my commute to and from work that there seemed to be something nesting in a field by Standley Lake. The route we normally take doesn’t go too close to that field, but we detoured to see if I was correct about there being an active nest there.

I was.

I took a large number of photos, but this is the best one that shows both the nesting parent and the fledgling. On the far side of the field, there was a couple sitting in their backyard. The woman got my attention and directed me to where I could see the male.

I got a number of good photos of him, but I like this one the best, because of the way his horns are being blown by the wind. The lady also told me that the nest had been shared for several years between the owls and a pair of red-tailed hawks.

I presume the hawks nest later in the season. I’ll keep my eyes open for that.

Posted in Activities, Photos | Comments Closed

Best laid plans, and all that

Sunday, March 15th, 2015

I posted yesterday’s thing on Pi Day a few minutes early. Part of that was a simple mistake, but part was because I needed to get out of the house to get to a meeting in the northern part of Boulder.

Unfortunately, when I got to the front door, it wouldn’t open for me. The handle would twist, but the latch wouldn’t withdraw. Eventually, I went out the back door and got a screwdriver from the garage so I could disassemble the doorknob in order to get on with my day – my back door lock can’t be accessed from the outside, so I need my front door working. I ended up putting the doorknob back in place without the latch mechanism, and relying on my deadbolt while I went to the meeting and stopped at a hardware store later for a replacement.

I need to rely on my deadbolt, anyway. The last time I had problems with my front door, I was locked out, and the locksmith who came ended up breaking the jamb by shouldering the door, because he couldn’t drill out the lock properly.

In any case, I have a new doorknob and key, so I’ll need to get some duplicates made. I’ll also have to see if I have the rekeying tool for the deadbolt, which would let me cut down by one the number of keys I have to carry.

Posted in Activities, It's all about me | Comments Closed

The Few, the Proud, the …

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

Deaf?
Distracted?
Drugged?

I ordered a pizza for lunch today – I had some errands to run, and thought it would be a good thing to take back to the office. It didn’t go as smoothly as I expected.

Me: Hi, I’d like to place a to-go order.
Him: Is that for pickup?
Me: Yes.
Him: Your first name?
Me: Steve.
Him: (something unintelligible, but certainly not “Steve”)?
Me: No, Steve. S-T-E-V-E.
Him: Okay, what do you want?
Me: A ten-inch Super Goomba.
Him: Super Goomba, okay. What size?
Me: Ten-inch.

Then he told me it would be ready in 15-20 minutes, and how much it would cost. I finished my errands and entered their door to the sound of their extremely loud bell.

Him: Are you here to order or pick up?
Me: Pick up.
Him: Pete?
Me: No, Steve.
Him: Super Goomba?
Me: That’s it.

We then completed the transaction. If I didn’t like their food so much, I’d be tempted to go elsewhere. Then again, there is entertainment value.

Posted in Activities, Food and Drink | Comments Closed

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