Rocky Mountain High

My wife and I flew to Denver this past weekend for some medical stuff and for a little R&R. We planned on arriving on Friday night but, due to some blizzard someplace, we ended up flying on a different airline and stumbling into our hotel at five in the morning on Saturday. As you can imagine, we slept through a good portion of the day. When we were conscious, we made our way to The Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore that simply kicked a**. We spent a few sleep-addled hours wandering over three floors of books. We came back to our hotel with armloads of the stuff, including: The Knight by Gene Wolfe; Krakatoa by Simon Winchester; and Hold the Enlightenment by Tim Cahill.

My eyes were a little bit too big for my brain, for I was already hip-deep in A Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Mr. Johnson hails from Sheridan, Wyoming, and is a good friend of my cousin Dorothy (who has a cameo of sorts in the book!). It was an entertaining mystery set in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains and I am just impressed by the fact that he finished the book and got it published. My hat off to you, sir.

A little helpful hint to travelers in Denver: don't eat the venison fajitas. Trust me on this.

On Sunday, we killed time at the local art museum. It wasn't as bad as we thought! Several of the obligatory Monets were on hand and the Asian art collection was pretty cool. But the highlight of the day was the french restaraunt Le Central, on 8th Ave. Outstanding lamb shank and bread pudding, for a very reasonable price. we liked it so much we ate there again on Monday.

But aren't there supposed to be mountains? It was so grey and foggy, they were nowhere to be seen. How can one lose a mountain range?

Monday was spent at the hospital on a whirlwind schedule of pokes and prods. The less said about it the better. It did snow heavily overnight, which was neat, and the sun came out that afternoon, treating me to a glimpse of those crazy mountains.

And speaking of medical stuff: I am happy to report that my friend is now home from the hospital. She got through the first round of chemo and the results look good. She has several more rounds of this, of course, but we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Now I am back at home and work. I am up to my eyeballs in production documents and legal briefs. Grrr.

I've been listening to a lot of Soundgarden lately. I've also craved cheese. Is there a connection? What's up with that?

Hey, check out Grinding Metal in my Links section. The slacker finally got around to updating it. He claims he's been busy with his wedding. Some excuse.