Hockey Playoffs

We went to Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals tonight between the Anaheim Ducks and the Dallas Stars.

We started the evening across the street from the stadium at JT Schmidts, but it was standing room only so we stayed for just one drink. Our tickets were on the club level so we hit the nicer bar since we were early for the game.

This is not the first ice hockey game that Callum has been too, we went to one when my Mum was here in January. Last time we tried to use these silicone ear plugs on him to try and keep the noise down and limit the amount of frights he got. But they were a hassle and kept falling out. So this time we upped the ante and bought some proper ear protection. The only downside is that Callum looks a little like he is from Star Wars when wearing them.

Anyway, it was actually a pretty decent game with the right amount of fighting and penalties (seriously why would you watch Ice Hockey if it wasn't for the ever present possibility of two guys dropping their sticks and punching each other out). As an added bonus, the Ducks won and forced a Game 6 on Sunday night.

Also, as you can see in the photos, the hearing protection worked so well that Callum slept though most of the whole game.

Here are some photos.

Ducks Playoff

Hearing Damage is Suprisingly Entertaining

The details of the first real concert I ever went to have faded in my mind somewhat, but here is what I remember.

It was at Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide. It was a school night and I went with 2 or three friends from high school. Somebody else's Mum (its a story about Australia so I am going to spell Mum that way) dropped us off and another someone else's Mum picked us up at the door. The support band (which now with hind sight was a really good deal) was Cheap Trick, touring on the strength of "The Flame" (you know you remember it). The headline band was The Angels touring in support of their "Beyond Salvation" album.

I recall coming out of that concert and squeezing into the back seat of the car, hot, sweaty and dirty (can't even imagine what we smelled like to the driver) and basically screaming at each other because our ears were ringing so badly we could barely hear. This was the start of a long tradition of loud concerts and repetitive hearing damage. I have faith that science will be ready to just implant new hardware in my head to fix the issue if it ever becomes a problem in the future.

Anyway, The Angels were a huge band in Australia in the late 70's and then through most of 80's and even marginally into the 90's. However, I expect no one reading this blog from other parts of the world have even remotely heard of them. Definitely a rock n' roll band, not something your mother would be interested in, but not heavy metal either. They broke up sometime during the 90's, but have just announced they are getting back together. Yay!

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,23556647-10388,00.html

How 'bout Them Carrots

Callum meet Carrots, Carrots meet Callum. Enough said.

Fort Collins

We drove up from Denver last night and are spending the weekend in Fort Collins with our friends Brian and Nikki.

Today we hit 2 really great breweries (Brian and Nikki share our love of good beer). We went to New Belgian and also Odell (see the photos below). Got to try some local brews they have that they don't ship to California and best of all they were within walking distance of the house.

We came home and chilled out for a while after that. Then we hit Coopersmith's brewery which is a much smaller operation than the other 2. This is where Callum did his "Cup Hands" act (see the photos).

For dinner we went to a Scottish restaurant called Stonehouse Grille. The food was pretty decent and we had some Scottish beers to wash it down with.

We ended tonight back at Brian and Nikki's with some more beers that we had picked up along the way over the last few days and a few rounds of Guitar Hero on the Nintendo Wii.

Here are the photos.

Fort Collins

We are going to hang out with Brian and Nikki for most of tomorrow then back on the plane tomorrow night and we should be home around 11pm local time.

Around Boulder

I had an afternoon to spare today so I did some sightseeing. I hit a couple of breweries and a meadery and also walked around downtown Boulder a little. Then I went for a drive up into the mountains, where the weather deteriorated drastically into heavy snow and whiteout conditions pretty quickly. But by the time I got to where I was heading things had cleared up and it was bright and sunny (still wickedly cold though).

Here is a bunch of photos from the last few days in Boulder.

Boulder

Off to the airport to get Jen and Callum and then north up Interstate 25 for about an hour to Fort Collins.

I Am Now A Master - I Have The Certificate To Prove IT

So this is going to be super uninteresting to almost everyone that reads this blog because it is extremely geeky. But nonetheless, I am going to tell you anyway.

I finished my training today and I am now officially a Certified ScrumMaster. Yeah, its a bit of an ostentatious title, trust me, I am aware. But, basically it means I am able to lead my team at work developing software following the "Scrum" methodology (see I told you this was all very geeky).

Ironically I have been running various software teams in the last couple of years following agile methodologies already, but now I have a certificate, which basically is just good resume fodder if nothing else.

The Cute Doesn't Stop When I Am Out Of Town

Jen sent this to me today while I was in class here in Boulder.