Archive for category Homelife

It’s no secret hereabouts that I’m a big Colorado sports fan. Through good times and bad, I root for my Rockies, Avalanche, Nuggets, and, of course, my Broncos. I can’t really help it. Born in the Rockies, it’s in my blood. Just like lovin’ me some John Denver singing “Rocky Mountain High.”

At the same time, I consider myself a fairly rational fan. In my classes I preach critical thinking every chance I get, and I like to practice what I preach. Sure, I get a little riled up now and again in the heat of the moment — it’s for this reason that my wife bought me a designated “Broncos Pillow” that I can put into a headlock and beat into submission or pick up and throw at the offending referee on the TV — but on the whole I just enjoy being a fan. It’s fun.

I also like to think that I’m a pretty well informed fan. I try to know as much as I can about everything in life, and football is no different at all. In that respect, I like to look at the big picture in the development of my teams. It’s not just the game-of-the-moment that matters to me, it’s what is being built on a larger scale.

It thus pains me to say that today I was having a hard time seeing a light at the end of the particular tunnel that the Broncos have entered. It’s a dark, dark place when you lose by 456 points at home to the Raiders (oh, wasn’t that many? sure felt like it) and then follow it up by heading to the international stage in London and losing to the 1-win 49ers behind their 3rd-string QB. That’s not cool, Broncos.

Never one to get too down on my team, I decided to respond in proper American fashion (especially appropriate to election season!) by ditching reality. This evening I loaded Madden up on the Wii and dialed up a 5-minute-quarters game between the digital Broncos and the digital Colts. I confess I’m not very good at all the joystick jockeying and button bashing required to control the players, so I just ran the game in a “coach” mode, where I called the plays and left it up to the game to run them.

Final score: Broncos 105, Colts 3.

I know it isn’t reality, but I do feel a little better now.

What a day.  What a week.

For some reason, driving home at the end of a long day tonight, a song came on the radio that I hadn’t heard in many years.  Somehow it fit the mood perfectly.

Ain’t a half-bad song, either:

Life’s good here. Nothing to report beyond being busy.

To keep you occupied, here’s a terrific version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” I bet you didn’t think about how great the lyrics were before:

A few years back, we spent an enjoyable few days staying at the Albuquerque home of some long-time friends. One evening, Tom — a stalwart friend since middle school — took me out onto his back patio one evening and hit a switch. At once, the patio was awash in the heart-warming glow of Christmas lights that had been strung around the patio roof.

It was really cool, and I wanted it.

Of course, we don’t really have a patio like they do, and most of the time it’s too bloody buggy here at El Cid to use one if we had it.

The solution? Bring the lights indoors. Into the house. That, I figured, would be really cool.

I’ve been wanting to do this project ever since, but I also didn’t want to spend much money on it.  As with the new tent trailer (or the Commander, or …), this was a patience project: we figured out exactly what we wanted (in this case enough commercial-grade white-strand lights to encircle the family room) and then waited, waited, and waited some more until we found what we wanted at a price we could afford.

I’m pleased, then, to announce that the lights have arrived in our house.  Install took about an hour (we have crown moulding, so most of it is just tucked up).  Now when you flick a switch, you get an illuminated gloriousness that just instinctively makes you happy.  Here’s a shot of one corner to give you a feel for the thing (don’t mind the mess):

It's Christmas in August! Happy Hannukwanzmastide, everybody!

Am I the only one who can’t help but smile at that?