Midnight

Soul food

Soul food pictures. Click to view.

BBQ and Zinfandels

BBQ and Zinfandel pictures. Click to view.

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

It doesn't hurt me
Do you want to feel how it feels
Do you want to know, know that it doesn't hurt me
Do you want to hear 'bout the deal that I'm making
You, you and me,

CHORUS

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could oh...

You don't want to hurt me
But see how deep the bullet lies
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder
Ooh there is thunder in our hearts
Is there so much hate for the ones we love
'Tell me we both matter don't we
You
You and me
You and me won't be unhappy

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with god
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could oh...

You
You and me
You and me won't be unhappy
C'mon baby c'mon darlin'
Let me steal this moment from you now
Cone on angel, c'mon, c'mon darling
Let's exchange the experience oh,

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no ploblems.

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no ploblems.

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no ploblems.

And if I only could
Be running up that hill
With no problems.

--Kate Bush.

Sick

Sore throat and tweaked back from lifting on Friday.

frozen chiller

Yep, it's a frozen chiller. I can fix that....

Fucking hot in here

I think the chiller froze up. No, I haven't screwed with the condensor yet. I don't have any airflow although the blower is running. I called repair....and turned it off to see if it will un-thaw before tomorrow. It's hot as fuck in here.

Good thing I have a chiller on the fish tank or I'd have a couple grand worth of dead things in there.

Crazy dreams

I hate those crazy dream nights. Last night was pretty interesting: surrounded by old study buddies from college, asking Caroline how god was doing (she's in seminary), some blind guy shows up at the door wondering if I have any work for him (yeah, can you walk my dog), bird bird birds everywhere...like a Hitchcock movie.

I talked to Fiona yesterday...it sounds like she's off to some retreat for a few days before law school starts up again.

Tonight I'm actually going to someone else's dinner. It should be fun.

I'd better get to the gym.

Blah

Blah. Feeling Blah. Workout went fine...house is clean after the dinner last night.... Dog is good. I think he's sleeping. We kind of wore him out last night playing with some toys.

dinner@home -- mexican theme dinner

Mexican theme dinner pictures. Click to view.

Global dance party

The new phone takes pictures.

Cindey, myspace.

Think 7 hours of trance, electronic, dance. Paul Oakenfold, et al. I think I'm deaf.

Home at 2:30AM. I'm supposed to be hiking with Danelle soon.

Friday

Fondue dinner down south tonight. Workout went fine. Dog sheds on command. Hot as fuck out. Got a nap in. Shopped for supplies. Shipped some boxes. Got a plant in the mail. Saw a movie. Bought tickets online for a concert tomorrow.

David Gray

My Oh My:

What on earth is going on in my heart
Has it turned as cold as stone
Seems these days I don't feel anything
Less it cuts me right down to the bone
What on earth is going on in my heart

My oh my you know it just don't stop
It's in my mind I wanna tear it up
I've tried to fight it tried to turn it off
But it's not enough
It takes a lotta love
It takes a lotta love my friend
To keep your heart from freezing
To push on till the end
My oh my

What on earth is going on in my head
You know I used to be so sure
You know I used to be so definite
Thought I knew what love was for
I look around these days and I'm not so sure


My oh my you know it just don't stop
It's in my mind I wanna tear it up
I've tried to fight it tried to turn it off
But it's not enough
It takes a lotta love
It takes a lotta love my friend
To keep your heart from freezing
To push on till the end
My oh my you know I just can't win
I burn it down it comes right back again
What kinda world is this we're living in
where you never win
It takes a lotta love
It takes a lotta love these days
To keep your heart from freezing
To keep your spirit free

My oh my you know it just don't stop
It's in my mind I wanna tear it up
I've tried to fight it tried to turn it off
But it's not enough
It takes a lotta love
It takes a lotta love my friend
To keep your heart from freezing
To push on till the end
My oh my it just don't stop
My oh my it just don't stop
My oh my it just don't stop

--David Gray

Spanish wine tasting at CapuVino

I went to a Spanish wine tasting at CapuVino last night. It was fun. Click to view the pictures.

Mountain lions

My friend Joe was mountain biking in white ranch open space above Boulder the other day. He came around a corner on the trail and found a mountain lion waiting for him. Luckily it ran off when he started screaming.

Since firearms are prohibited in open space around there, but not 1 mile farther into the national forest, I would say the wildlife division's answer to this problem is 'pedal faster'.

Dolts.

Air conditioner testing

When the dorks built this house, they undersized the air conditioner unit. Basically that means that when it's hot out (around 100F for some time now) the thing runs all day long and the house warms up from about 72F to about 80+F. That's kind of annoying. I've been doing some testing on the chiller unit on the furnace under normal running conditions and when the outside condenser is sprayed down with water (increases the condenser efficiency due to evaporative cooling)

normally:
inlet 68.3F
outlet 49.4F

with a water spray:
inlet 68.3F
outlet 43.7F

so basically were talking about another 5.7F temperature drop at the outlet. Since the mass flow rate of air in the furnace is the same, the heat transfer rate of the chiller on the furnace has increased.

I may try a short piece of hose drip line around the top of the outside condenser and put it on a timer for the hotter parts of the day. We'll see if we can keep the house at 72F without that temperature climb during the afternoon.

Applejacks

Applejacks is easily the best liquor store I've ever been in. It's like walking into a warehouse. Last night I stopped by after dinner and grabbed some wines I was looking for.

I've found my secret -- take pictures of the bottles. I do that at my wine events anyway, so all I need after that is to print them out. You just walk around with the pictures....Nirvana.

Tuesday late

Not much excitement today. A movie, some dinner with Karen and the fiance at Nine75 (good food), and that is about it. The dog is going nuts on some new squeaky toy I gave him a few days ago.

Tomorrow I have a wine event at capuvino. It should be interesting.

The last weekend was busy, and good. Fiona came in for the Missy Higgins concert, and we spent some time in Vail packing up stuff from her condo, which is under contract.

dinner@home -- chinese theme dinner

Chinese theme dinner pictures. Click to view.

2005-July-09 wine ratings -- syrah

Wine rating results in pdf format. Click to download.
Syrah

Refused -- return to sender

During my divorce I had a big red stamp made for all of the ex wife's mail -- REFUSED RETURN TO SENDER

I'd happily stamp away day after day -- IRS notifications, bills, bank statements, letters from friends, winning lottery ticket notifications, Ed McMahon invitations to the White House for dinner with the President. I didn't care.

Most of the mail stopped, but every once in a while I get that old joy back again, like yesterday.

Here's stamping for you, kid.

2005-July-09 wine event pictures -- Syrah

Syrah wine event pictures. Click to view.

Next wine event August 13, 2005 -- Malbec

Malbec $35 or less
Saturday August 13, 2005 Broomfield 7PM

Malbec[mahl-BEHK]
A French red-wine grape grown in BORDEAUX, in parts of the LOIRE VALLEY, and in CAHORS. In Bordeaux, where Malbec is called Cot or Pressac, it plays a subordinate role to and is usually BLENDED with CABERNET FRANC, CABERNET SAUVIGNON, and MERLOT. In the Loire Valley Malbec again plays a lesser role as it's blended with GAMAY and Cabernet Franc. However, in Cahors, where dark-colored, full-flavored, TANNIC wines are produced, Malbec is the prominent variety, usually blended with small amounts of Merlot and Tannat. In Cahors, Malbec is called Auxerrois, which causes some confusion because it's unrelated to an entirely different variety-AUXERROIS BLANC. Malbec is widely planted in Argentina and Chile but has only modest acreage in Australia and the United States

Special instructions: Bring some food to share with the group, and one bottle of wine per person or couple.

dinner@home -- seafood theme dinner

Last night I had a seafood theme dinner party. It was definitely fun. Click to view the pictures.

Website changes

I wiped the old website, and replaced the location of the index file with the blogger index. sjvarley.com is now a weblog. I wasn't updating the website anymore anyway -- everything has been going into the blog. Pictures, whatever. It wasn't worth the time to do both, and blogger makes it just too easy to post.

Sushi tonight, which should be fun. Last night I was up to 2am helping Laurie with her computer problems. Yuck.

I'm off for a starbucks and some cardio. It looks like a nice day outside.

Feed change

The feed location has changed to the root of the Domain.

Wed

Worked out, walked the dog, did some dishes.... building some prototypes for a client due Friday. I need to do a partial water change on the fish tank tonight, and help Laurie with some computer problems.

Not much else going on besides that -- I have a sushi dinner Thursday, seafood dinner party Friday, and the wine event on Saturday.

I told brother Doug that I'd design him a power converter soon, so I'll probably do that after getting some work done.

Not much else going on besides that.

Still alive

I'm still alive.

packed

Packed and ready. All the gear, food, etc. is 46.6 pounds including a litre of water.

There is plenty of water where I'm going, and I have a filter. The dog has his own pack. I told him he'd have to carry his own food.

Backpacking

I'll be backpacking in the mountains with Thomas this weekend. I'm packing the gear now.

Backpack...check...glock...check...

You get the idea.

Spa dinner theme pictures

Healthy dinner theme last night...for once. Click to view.