Saturday, December 30, 2006

Denver snowstorm photos





Here's photos of the Capitol Hill neighborhood after round two of the storm!
Round two (round one was before Christmas, as if you could forget) began around 11 a.m. Thursday.

In these photos, it's Friday morning, and it looks like at least a light vehicle with a blade came through on 9th Street on Thursday night, even if the plows didn't make it. Lots of people were out shoveling the sidewalks Friday morning, early, so the sidewalks were good.

Mayor Hickenlooper enacted the snow emergency routes, which meant no parking on those streets or you could be ticketed and towed. But the mayor, who made part of his campaign for office a pledge to lower parking meter rates (and he did!), and the city didn't ticket anyone and only three cars were towed. The mayor said most people complied with the snow route thing. Although, I have to say there were lots of cars still on Logan, even right under the snow route sign. Bill Vidal with Public Works though says city officials decided to be flexible with ticketing and towing when they saw many snow route signs were all covered up by snow. They only towed when they absolutely had to, to get the plows in, and the cars were only towed a short distance.

As of yesterday, Vidal was saying an estimated 45 percent of neighborhood streets had not had a heavy plow come through to break through ice -- in some cases as thick as 10 inches! -- left over from the last storm, so that's why the Mayfair and Baker neighborhoods looked like maybe nothing had been through yet.

Next priority:
_ Digging out neighborhoods
_ Parking areas for commercial , small businesses so they can get some business back and be ready for New Year's Eve

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Turducken!

I hope your holidays have been happy. My family had a 15-pound turducken from Cajun Creations to feed 11 people for $104 (about a third of that cost was for shipping from New Orleans of a fresh frozen turkey stuffed with a boneless duck stuffed with a boneless chicken). Our turducken, (or tur-duc-hen, as the label said) had a shrimp and crawfish stuffing. Our tasters said it was pretty moist, a little salty , but tasty. Paired with Blue Moon Belgian style ale and cranberry sauce (made with fresh cranberries and orange juice, not from the can) it was a tasty dinner.

So, here's the turducken before (defrost for two days in the fridge):



and after four hours of cooking, plus some slicing and chopping, some oohing and aahing:

Saturday, December 16, 2006

What I learned in Chicago

_Northwestern grad Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be the commencement speaker at Northwestern this summer.
_I went to Chicago this week and had brunch at Tempo. Try the waffles with blueberries and strawberries, and get some hot cocoa. Or the Gold Coast omelette with egg whites is supposed to be good. Also in Chicago, my friend got her eyebrows threaded at this place on Wells, a few blocks south of Grand. It's cheaper if you can find a place on Devon though, so go there instead.
_The view from the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn at Merchandise Mart at night is lovely!
_The El gets you from here to there pretty cheaply, but it's still going to smell like urine sometimes

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Broncos warmup

Spend some time with Denver Broncos safety Nick Ferguson before the game against the San Diego Chargers today. (audio and photos)

Friday, December 08, 2006

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

"Such Great Heights"

The Original (Postal Service)




Perhaps you've heard the cover by Iron and Wine. Now hear Ben Gibbard's acoustic version



Ben Folds' cover! (Folds and conspirators)




You haven't made it as a songwriter til the a capella groups take you on (Treblemakers)

Saturday, December 02, 2006

brrrrrr

Well, it's snowing again today. If you made it to the Denver Art Museum today, it's FREE! You need a ticket though. Because of the weather, there may still be some left at this hour. Remember to check out the Anschutz Gallery.



What is your favorite cold weather drink?

_BAILEY'S AND COFFEE
_HOT COCOA AND SCHNAPPS
_HOT APPLE PIE: (Tuaca+hot apple cider, with whipped cream and a cinnamon stick)