Well - this will be the last post of July and the last post in which you, my readers, try to figure out what I'm quoting in the title. I see all three of you really need to update your Netflix queue to include one of the better shows to hit television since Arrested Development.

That said, I think my top 5 comedies that were/on TV are:

1. Seinfeld
2. Arrested Development
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
4. The Office
5. Flight of the Conchords (although, 4 and 5 haven't really been on long enough to be able to determine that - but that's the list as of now).
   

We're off to the north woods, John Candy style for the weekend/week. Then we'll hit Mad-town, home of Camp Randall stadium, the stadium with the most envy of the Big House in all the land. Wow - it's almost college football season. Not sure how good the Victors will be this year, that makes me sad. You Badgers fans were hoping for a different kind of wow, weren't you?

Anyway, I've come to learn that my readers need to brush up on their pop culture trivia so I've decided that in August, I'm going to run a little contest - this time, for a prize. Like extreme sports band-aids, a squash from our garden or a Portland Beavers bobblehead from '94. No, I kid, I kid. I think it'll be for a cooler prize than that, like a signed autograph 8x10 glossy, Dolph Lundgren style.

So, for the last week of July, I go away, to the land of no internet and no cell phone reception. I hope to come back a more enlightened being, which will be impossible not to accomplish. Perhaps I'll learn how to levitate.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye - adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu. Brush up on your pc trivia while I'm gone, will you?!

Oh, and watch this clip:

Tags: awesome crap, tv, pop culture

One of my favorite day hikes in Colorado is the Mitchell Lake to Blue Lake trail in Brainard Lake Recreation Area. We headed up there on Sunday to beat the heat and get into the mountains.

If you haven't yet done this hike - I highly recommend it. To get to Brainard Lake from Boulder, take Lee Hill Drive just off North Broadway (LOTS and LOTS of road bikers, so be prepared to be the pedestrian) to Old Stage Road. Old Stage will dead end - take a left onto Left Hand Canyon into Ward. Once through Ward, take a right onto Highway 72 (Peak to Peak) and then an immediate left into Brainard Lake Rec. Area. The drive from Boulder is about a 1/2 hour.

If you want to take a more scenic drive and have a little extra time, you can just follow Canyon Road into Nederland and then follow the signs to Highway 72. Go north on Highway 72 and Brainard Lake will be on your left just past Ward. Takes a little longer - about 45-50 minutes.

Now - back to those bikers. I think the road bikers in Boulder are insane. Boulder has three major roads that swerve through the Canyons into the Indian Peaks Wilderness area.

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Tags: day hikes, boulder, things to do in boulder

Okay - I'm back in action. My crap-ass computer is back from wherever it went and now equipped with a new system board and hard drive, so I should be good for, oh, about a month. I just bought it less than a year ago, hence the animosity. I guess life could be worse. I just saw a burly guy walking down the street with bright yellow crocs on.

I've updated Flickr for all of you voyeurs out there. Well, and for me as I need an alternative to relying on my pos cpu to actually not crash and save pics.

Now for the real news: Doug and I have a community garden plot a block away from our house. We planted everything from seeds a little over a month ago and now have a good amount of produce growing (disclaimer: by using the term 'growing' I actually mean that there is green stuff in our garden that makes it look pretty. Not many plants have fruit on them, yet). We planted yellow squash, green peppers, cucumbers, onions (both yellow and chives), tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and a handful of flowers. Tonight, we enjoyed our first meal with our fresh produce - a yellow squash. Below is a pic of our garden (just the first plot is ours) and our yummy dinner tonight.

We had a huge yellow squash to work with! So, I cut it up...

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Tags: community garden, conversations with doug, cooking

So, I'll bore you with something else. My computer is still on the lam, so I won't have any pretty updates (that means with pictures) for at least a week and a half. I have some great pics from Marc's wedding and Jess's bachelorette party to share.

In the meantime, I'm going to run a blog experiement and see if anyone catches on to it (Burnie - you can't participate). Just to give you a hint - this is the first one. I think I'll do it for the month of July - good luck all.

My travel is slowing down - at least for a few weeks. In the last two months, I've been to Austin, Texas, Southern California (LA area), Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey (all in the same trip, of course, but it sounds a lot cooler to say all three states than the mid-Atlantic) and Portland, Oregon. Next up: Wisconsin and then back to the love of my life, Portland, Oregon. It's a full summer ya'll.

For your reading enjoyment - Nate has returned to the blogging world - http://www.bumpersmash.blogspot.com/  His blog is sure to be full of some very entertaining crap. Much more entertaining than my crap. For instance, he has a conversation going about mustachioed baseball players as you're wasting time reading this. Very hip. Get over there.

Speaking of entertaining - we (at work) are doing some work with the Travel Channel and got our hands on a sneak peek video of the 2nd half of Anthony Bourdain's 4th season of No Reservations which premiered last night with an episode in Laos. It's a great video:

Tags: travel, anthony bourdain, summertime