Piggy Sunset

Biking on the Kokopelli Trail

Saturday Morning in Colorado was the beginning to a very hot day. I think it hit 100 degrees. What better thing to do on a day like this than go mountain biking with Maggie and Fernando through the red rock in the desert. My idea! As the others cried out to us..."Drink lots of water", we headed out to the kokopelli trail. It was beautiful but 5 miles seemed like an eternity in that weather and terrain. After doing the first loop we decided to head back to town for lunch and try to avoid heat exhaustion.

Once we got back to town to drop off the bikes, Fernando noticed a pizza place across the street with a sign claiming it was the "greatest pizza". We just had to try it. Inside, we met the owner, Jen. She was a really cool chick from New Jersey. She wanted to stay away from the big cities and live some place where she could chill out and enjoy the scenery. So she ended up with a pizza shop on main street in Fruita, Idaho. It's definitely working for her. She looks like she is in her twenties but is really in her forties.

After lunch, we dropped Maggie off at the campground but Fernando and I were not yet ready to endure the heat again, so we decided to take an air conditioned road trip to Grand Junction. I told Fernando that this was *his* time to choose what he wanted to do for the next several hours. But then when we got to Junction I saw a sign for the Colorado National Monument and I kinda hijacked the rest of his time. It went something like this...."oooo, look, the Colorado National Monument...that would be cool, we should go"...Fernando: "ok". Wow that was easy.

We had no idea what to expect for the monument. Next thing we knew we were entering a national park and driving through red rock! There were a ton of cool rock formations but we still had no idea about the monument. We finally came across the information center and found out that the whole park is considered the "monument".

Ah ha.

That evening, the sun set beautifully over Country Jam and it was indeed a sight to behold. The large blow up pig over the stand that sold Dave's Famous Barbecue was like a beacon. A giant pork silhouette in the sun as if to say "you have arrived, this is Country Jam at its best. Barbecue, Tim Mcgraw, country music, beer and cowboy hats. It just doesn't get any better - but let's just throw a sunset on top of it and outdo ourselves. ". The big apple barbecue could never have this ambiance. Eat your heart out New York.


Pig Sunset

Sunday
Sunday was the day I was looking forward to the most - horseback riding and white water rafting. We rode on horses through the canyons and it was a lot of fun. I haven't been on a horse in a very long time. So the guy is giving us instructions on how to hold the reigns - pull to the left if you want her to go left, same for the right, pull back if you want her to stop, and lift the reins if you want them to go faster. We take off and head toward the mountains but have to cross a highway. My horse is going pretty slow and I am in the middle of the road. Then the guide turns around to me and says "raise your hand!". So, I put my right hand up in the air just like I would have to answer a question in school. They all start laughing at me...apparently he meant for me to raise my hand with the reigns to make the horse trot.

Later that day, the second part of our "saddle and paddle" tour was beginning. Apparently I didn't ask enough questions when booking the trip. I thought we had signed up for white water rafting, but instead I had signed us up for a river float. I was thinking the guide was a little crazy when she suggested before the trip that we pack the cooler with some beers. I'm thinkin, there's no way I'm gonna go down rapids with a buzz. About two hours into it I was praying for a beer. Instead, Fernando entertained us by taking the guide's seat, giving her a break, and rowing us down the river. He even rowed us through a class .5 rapids. That's point 5, not 5. :)

Later that day, Fernando, Maggie, and I headed back to Salt Lake. On the way we made a pit stop in the middle of nowhere to check out the stars! End of a great day.


Horseback Riding

Cheese Mongers and Broken Flatware

Fernando and I just made our first trip together - or at least first trip requiring an airplane. We headed out to Utah and Colorado.

Our first day there we went to meet up with some old friends in the morning (Tracy and Jeremy), then to my dentist. I know its a little strange that I try to always make it to my old dentist there but he's really great. Never tells me I have cavities (kidding). Let's just give a shout out to Dr. Sands in salt lake. If any of you are looking for a dentist (or, if any of you need to complete a follow up appt-ahem-Maggie) please look him up. He is the bomb diggity of dentists. Tell him I sent you. Sorry for the commercial break. Back now to our regularly scheduled program.

After the dentist, the most natural thing to do is go and mess up those clean choppers with some comida mexicana. I'm talkin some Cafe Rio. I think I blogged on and on before about the wonderfulness of their salads with the warm handmade tortilla, beans, rice, fire grilled chicken on a bed of greens with tostada chips and tomatillo dressing. Yum.

Then it was off to golf at wingpointe. It was here that Fernando got his first hole in one. OK. Not really. But I felt the story was dragging a little. To top off the day we went to Rodezio grill with Maggie, Greg and Cindy - good friends fro SLC. We stuffed ourselves silly with meat - more than any normal person should eat in one session. We were gluttons.

Day 2
Day 2 started with a trip to Harmon's. For those who don't know...think Mr Rogers theme song then sing this (out loud, or in your head. Its more fun out loud). "Harmon's is the grocer in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your..." You get the point. So my dad was raving about the new store that had went up and we decided to to that particular store to pick up some things we needed for dinner. That's when we met the cheese monger. And no, I'm not being mean, that's what her name tag said. But it didn't stop me from a little snickering. She was really cool and opened up several packs of cheese we wanted to try. Whatever we were interested in, she just cut it open and let us try it. We tried all kinds of obscure cheeses - those that has to be flown down from the mountains of Sweden where only certain kinds of goats live. Who knew there was so much to know about cheese?

Later we golfed at South Mountain. I think between the two of us Fernando and I lost three sleeves of balls. It was the altitude. Truth be told, it was mostly all my doing but it seemed like less if I throw him under the bus with me.

After golf we BBQd with Kenny and Denise. During dinner there came a time when it was painfully clear that Fernando and I belong together. It happened right after he broke their fork and I broke their napkin ring. After apologies we decided it was important to have a picture to commemorate the event.

Big Apple Grapple

There comes a time in everyone's life when we all make important choices that will shape who we will become. This weekend was hopefully one of my life-defining moments. And its all thanks to Vince for talking me into it.

Vince was an avid arm wrestler in the bar scene. I heard tales on the street that he could single handedly arm wrestle 3 drunk frat boys simultaneously- and win. And so it goes.

Each year, New York City hosts the Big Apple Grapple. It is an Arm Wrestling competition where people from all over (including other countries...making it an "international" competition) come to flex their biceps and smack down the competition. This year, the Big Apple Grapple was run in conjunction with the New York City Bar Show. The Bar show is a convention center event where people pay to come see bar stuff- like bar glasses, stoppers, dispensers, liquors, etc. And they get the added bonus of seeing the arm wrestling event as well as a bartending competition.

So, it was 30$ to get into the "Bar Show" but also 30$ if you wanted to get into the Bar Show and also register to compete in the Big Apple Grapple - and you get FREE TSHIRT! Needless to say, it was a no brainer. I always wanted a NYC Arms t-shirt.

Upon arriving, I started sizing up my competition. There were several women there but the challenge was determining who was competing and who was there to cheer on their man. The key was looking at their hand to see if they had a number stamped on it.

I was entered in as an amateur and was in the middle weight class. I'm not exactly sure how many women were signed up for the event - but I think, in total, there were 6. There were for sure 4 in my weight class. So... the announcer comes onto the stage and eventually calls my number. I am really nervous to be on stage in front of all these people, arm wrestling of all things. Whoda thunk it? I am paired up with a woman named Denise (i think). The referee takes our hands and we get our grips. He says, "ready...GO!" and Denise who is much older than me takes me down in about 5 seconds. She has done this many times before. After the match, Denise comes over to say hello. First she tells me about her claim to fame - she was on Howard Stern's "Private Parts" - self described as the "woman who swallowed the 13 inch Kielbasa". Then, she offers to give me some tips... ON ARMWRESTLING! Get your mind outta the gutter. She obviously was quite aware that I have never done this before. She shows me how to grip, how to shape my wrist, etc. This is good because this is a double elimination competition so I have one more to go.

Next, the emcee calls my name again. This time I am paired up to arm wrestle the Canadian National Champion. Oh Crap. Does this mean I am representing the USA here????? Um. Oh. No.

She's a cute woman. Thin, blond, cute pink shirt. I'm thinkin, okay, this isn't so bad. She goes over to the powder - I dont know what kind of powder it is, so let's just call it Arm Wraslin powder. She slathers her hand with the powder and immediately I know she ain't messin around. We go to the post and she gets leverage with one leg by wrapping it around the leg of the table. Oh crap again. We get our grip... I completely forgot everything the Kielbasa lady just taught me... and "Ready, GO!" And its a NEW WORLD RECORD!!! 2 seconds and she had me pinned. Ok, I made up the world record part. So, needless to say. She kicked my butt. But I was on the NBC news and I am famous. In my mind I was the USA representative in the middle weight class. Always good to be famous in our own minds.

The boys fared just as well as I did. Meaning... they lost too. THEY, however, Didn't have to wrestle any champions of other countries. I mean, I think if I got to wrestle some amateurs, I probably coulda held my own. Maybe.


Vince at the Table

Mermaids and Pirates

This weekend was the annual Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Fernando, Amore Jr. and myself went for a looksie. For those of you who don't know about Coney Island or the Mermaid Parade here it is:

Coney Island: Beach at the edge of Brooklyn with the famous Cyclone rollercoaster, other rides, fried food and a paintball game called Shoot the Freak. Also home to the annual 4th of July hot dog eating contest that is broadcast on ESPN. For a fuller picture - Surf avenue (the main street) is old and dirty. There are lots of run down food shacks, litter in the street, and other random shops that really don't belong on a beach boulevard (like the two discount furniture stores). The train station into Coney Island is brand new, but it is the only new and nice thing there. The beach is PACKED with people. Barely any room to do anything. And, if you wander through the umbrellas down the beach you will hit some pockets of mary jane smoke and get a contact high. The water looks pretty dirty too.

The Mermaid Parade - an annual parade to usher in Summer. People dress like sea things- sea creatures, sea gods, mermaids, clams, lobsters, pirates, etc. It is like halloween in the middle of summer. It is also famously known for the topless women who join the parade with painted bodies or pasties. The parade has an underlying hippy-ish theme.

This year was a little different than most. They are getting ready to tear down lots of Coney Island to build new developments. Many of the paraders were protesting the development and the things that will come along with it like Starbucks and other big chain businesses.

You know, I'm kind of on the fence with this one. In one way, I can understand the desire to preserve Coney Island. But it's a dump. If they would just clean up the streets, paint the old buildings, and revitalize the pavillion it would be fine. You could get the best of both worlds. They don't need to raze the whole thing and start over, but I definitely think it needs a lot of work. So, we shall see what happens. This year is the last year that it will all be intact. For better or worse!

Sex and the City - Cliche Night

The Girls

So, I decided to be totally cliche with the new Sex and the City movie and plan a "girls night" to go see the flick. It was done up right.... I had the evite all pimped out with the Pink and Black theme - complete with picture of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda all decked out in designer clothes that I don't even know half the names of.

We went for cocktails (of course) before the movie. Jackie had her very first cosmo - a rite of passage for those girls in the movie. We took this picture to commemorate the evening with my camera phone.

Side note, apparently we werent the only girls with this idea. There were two other tables of women in the bar having cocktails that I also saw in the theater. Hence the cliche.

JPM Corporate Challenge

I've been in NYC for 4.5 years now. Technically, I'm right over the river, but its might as well be the 6th borough...at least price/people wise it is. Each year I have meant to participate in the JPM Corporate Challenge 5k around central park. And, each year I either try to sign up too late or am going to be out of town or something like that. This year I actually made it to the run! It poured on us with our nice white t-shirts given to us from our company...but we made due and perservered. I didn't have some excellent race winning run, but I was happy with my 35 minutes. Here is a pic of me with some of my co-workers. Good peeps.

Sooooo-Weeeeeee

HOLY SMOKES!!!! Literally. Today I went with Fernando and his friend...lets call him The Groz to the most amazing wonderful festival that has ever been held in New York City. The BIG APPLE BARBEQUE. For those of you who know me well, this can only be described as a little slice of heaven on earth. We arrived mid day and parked a few blocks away. The smell of all the barbeque had wafted all the way over to Park Avenue from the west side. My stomach rumbled as soon as that savory breeze hit my nose.

It was like a carnival for carnivores. We approached the "fair" and found tent after tent of barbeque-ers peddling their wares. Spare ribs, baby back ribs, chicken, and more. It was a sweltering hot day and the heat from the pits just added to the intensity...but it didn't matter. Let there be smoke!!!!

We quickly found the beer tents (after all, it was SOOO hot we needed some kind of refreshment. Its not like they had "soda" or "water" tents!). There was fittingly a nice hee-haw band playing. A guy in a union suit with a washboard and a harmonica was on stage with the rest of his band.. The rest of them were mostly looking like a normal band, minus the fiddler - who they boasted was the Tallest fiddler in New York City. Quite the accomplishmnet apparently. I think I should try for the tallest female accoridon player in New York. I think I could possibly be THE ONE. You never know though, there might be an Inga or Helga out there that could give me the smack down on some tall fancy accordion playing. Speaking of SMACK DOWNS... I have an upcoming post you are gonna love for my most recent smack down experience. Coming soon (like 3 posts away).

We had a few beers then went to find our cornucopia of barbeque to consume. But, the lines for the BBQ on the street were ridiculously long. To stand outside a bunch of tents with fires ablaze to cook the food on top of the sweltering heat for an extended period of time was pretty much unthinkable. So we did what any normal New Yorkers would do... we said screw it and went to Blue Smoke (a bbq restaurant) down the block and ate in comfort at a nice table with air conditioning. You see, New Yorkers are troopers when they HAVE to be, but not really at other times. This is definitely a different culture than any other people in the US that I have been around.... Upcoming post about that too (look for the one on Grand Junction where people endure 100 degree weather - like 4 posts away).


Below: Fernando and The Groz excited like little boys on Christmas morning trying to decide where to go first with the Barbeque Map