Pumpkin Picking Fun

Yesterday I took my girls to the pumpkin patch at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. If you were in Denver yesterday, you know the day was pure autumn splendor; sunny and warm with beautifully colored trees in every direction.

I've never been to the Chatfield location of the botanic gardens. The grounds were lovely, even now in the fall. The pumpkin patch was immense, a huge field with all kinds of little paths leading to all kinds of pumpkins. You can find whatever you might be looking for: big, small, green, orange or green-and-orange. I've never been to a pumpkin patch and I think it's a great way to select your pumpkins. You get to hunt for the perfect one and actually pull it off the vine.

Two pieces of advice, however, for anyone thinking about going:

1) If it's going to be 85 degrees, just skip it. My girls were overheated and crabby almost instantly. And it wasn't actually 85 degrees. I think it was more like 70. It's a long hike from the car to the patch, then there's hunting for pumpkins, paying for them and getting back to the car. Which brings me to--

2) Bring a wagon. Pumpkins are heavy! and big! and it's a long way to the car! Everyone else there already knew this, and I guess it seems obvious, but the thought hadn't occurred to me. I found three small pumpkins I thought I could get back to the car, but had to abandon them shortly before checkout to deal with my ill-tempered children.

Here is the pumpkin we came home with, which my friend gave us surely out of sympathy. My daughter happily carried it all the way back to the car, as if she hadn't just thrown the tantrum that caused me to abandon my three super-cool pumpkins. She hopes to carve a jack-o-lantern and make pie with it.

Bodypump

About 15 people asked me 'what happened?' today. They were referring to my inability to bend my knees or climb stairs. And apparently I didn't do a very good job of covering up my unsteady gait and quivering thighs. One person said I was walking like a 92-year old with dual hip and knee replacements and another said I looked just like Pinnoccio. It's true. I couldn't hide it; several muscle groups in my legs were painful to the touch and acted like they were made of jell-o. Certain arm and shoulder muscles hurt too, but not nearly as bad as my lower half.

Bodypump is the reason. Bodypump is a class at the Y. It's offered every Monday and Thursday and is extremely popular. I have two friends who swear by this class and I had been thinking about going for the last 8 months but have put it off for two reasons.

First, the childcare room is always bursting at the seams during this class, and because my second child has been such a separation-anxiety freak this last year I've been working out at less-popular hours. Second, I've been very intimidated by Bodypump's use of weight bars, stair-steps and other heavy exercise equipment. Well Number 2 is cool with the childcare room now and someone pointed out that a triathlete should not be intimidated by this class. I agreed, so I had to do it.

It wasn't scary, I had a good time, both my friends were there, plus I met a few more. After the class yesterday I cleaned the car and totally reorganized all the toys in our house to bag up as many as I could to take to Goodwill.

I was quite surprised to not be able to get down the stairs this morning. And now, as I'm about to head for bed nearly 36 hours after the Bodypump class, I still can't stand, sit or climb stairs without the use of handrails.

What's interesting about this is that I usually work out about 4 times per week. 1-2 times a week I'm lifting weights via circuit training; the rest of my week is cardio. Most people would say I'm in pretty good shape. Obviously I am not. Obviously I am neglecting several minor or major muscle groups, I know not which. Today has been a humbling experience and I look forward to kicking this class in the soft and squishy bootie.

SummerFest Music Series on Old South Pearl Street

I just returned home from BrewGrass, the first of a two-part music series on Old South Pearl Street. I did not make a day of it; it was an after-dinner thought for something to occupy the kids until bedtime. So around 7-ish my husband and I (and uncle Tim) loaded the girls into the bike trailer and headed up the street to see the sights.

It was awesome, people, even for the brief hour and a half we were there. It was everything you'd want in an outdoor festival: wristbands, drink tickets, great music and lots of hip, happening people. Normally I wouldn't want to bring the kids to something like this, but they loved the scene as much as we did. They enjoyed dancing to the music and accosting every poor soul with a dog to see if the dog was friendly, if they could pet it, and what its name was. There was plenty of good food and drink, the weather was fine, and August 9 I can guarantee we will be back for Blues & Brews, the second installment of this fine summer offering. And did I mention it only cost $1 to get in? Lovely.

Review: The Corner Office

Both of my readers have commented about my lack of new posts, so I have been sufficiently inspired to write again. And I even have something to report:

Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting friends! downtown! for drinks AND dinner! Friends from college made a surprise last-minute trip from Dallas and I was able to secure a babysitter and it was awesome. The gin was flowing, the conversation was grand. And the locale for our happy reunion? Not bad at all. I wanted to take them someplace hip and urban. Hip, like our friends, and urban because we wanted it to be close to their hotel, the Grand Hyatt. I chose The Corner Office, the martini bar at the Curtis Hotel in Denver's Theater District. My husband had been there twice and thought highly of it.

The decor was awesome; definitely my favorite part of the restaurant. As you can see from the pic, it is very cool and contemporary. The food was pretty good, too. To be honest, I wasn't totally hungry from that order of BK onion rings I had while the girls ate their chicken nugget fast-food dinners before we left. But everything we had was great. To start we ordered hummus and pita bread; both were exceptional. The bread especially, which was piping hot and buttery. My Tanquerey and tonic was perfectly made. My sup was the highly recommended lobster mac n' cheese, which delivered on all its promises. It was creamy, cheesy and chock-full o' tasty lobster--just what I wanted. My husband enjoyed the grilled cheese sandwich/tomato soup entree. Sure, we eat mac n' cheese and grilled cheese at least once a week with the kids at home, so I can't really explain why we would both choose something so ordinary on a rare evening out together. But somehow they took these American standards and turned them into something spectacular.

I do have a criticism, however. It may not seem like much, but since we were entertaining out-of-state guests I was offended more than I would normally be. The hostesses and wait staff were shabbily dressed. By this I mean it looked like they came to work wearing the same clothes they cleaned the bathroom and/or garage in earlier that day. I know it sounds petty, but I like to present Denver in the most positive light whenever I can. To be greeted by a couple of girls wearing such faded, worn-out jeans was embarrassing. I was going for hip and urban and what I got was scrappy and lazy. So...yeah, it's not really that big of deal, but there it is anyways.

Lipgloss

It's not just for lips. Lipgloss is also a weekly club night every Friday at La Rumba, located at 99 W. 9th Ave. The Westword voted it Best Club Night in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. During my last two years B.C. (before children), my husband and I were regular Friday night attenders of Lipgloss, when it was located at 60 South (now the 3 Kings Tavern). We made friends with the hipsters and my husband was even a guest DJ once or twice. We are fans of brit-pop and indie music, and that's what this night is all about. It's totally fun (and rare) to go out for a night and hear nothing but music you love. I think a lot of people don't really pay attention to that sort of thing, but for Chris and I, music makes the world go round (especially great music) and to find a place full of kindred spirits, well, it was just like that little girl in the Blind Melon video that opens the gates and finds hundreds of other bees just like her.

So two kids and four years later, weekly club nights have fallen to about 256 on the to-do list.

But I still love good music and I still like to dance and last Friday I got to! There's still no cover before 10 and there's still $2 gin and tonics and it was so totally fantastic I vow to go regularly once again, although it may only be once every few months.

La Rumba is a much nicer venue than 6o South, and there's way more people now, and the music is quite different. I didn't recognize most of the songs. But I still loved it. DJ Tyler Jacobson was as hospitable as ever, and the music has such a good beat you don't need to know it to love dancing to it. And there are still traces of its Brit-pop roots. Fit But You Know It was a pleasant surprise around the midnight hour.

I was trying to talk a few preschool-moms into coming out dancing recently, and now that I've been back I will be even more animate in my coersion. This place is friendly and non-intimidating. The music will get your body moving. Lipgloss provides the best night out in Denver and I recommend it to everyone!

Review: the Raconteurs at the Fillmore

Monday night you would not have known I was a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). I was a girl-about-town rocking out with The Raconteurs . It was a show I've been looking forward to for weeks, and I was especially pleased that both my brother and two of my best friends were able to be in attendance. I was planning on writing a review, but the one from the Denver Post pretty much says it all, plus there are pictures. I wanted to take pictures with my phone, but it was so hot in there I thought my sweaty-self best not be photographed.

But I will highlight the best points of the article, for those too lazy to head to the link:

• Benson and White share frontman duties in a manner almost unheard of in modern indie rock.
• White...was...looking like he was having far more fun with his boys than he ever did with the White Stripes.
• White was looking like the whitest white man in America

but the main thing...

• I stupidly stood to the side, where lyrics at the Fillmore are always unintelligible. After a move behind the soundboard, things got muuuuch better.

I will probably never stand to the side again. I can't believe how much better it was behind the soundbooth.

Sunday was the 26th running of the Cherry Creek Sneak and my 2nd running of it. This 5-mile jog is often called the official start of the running season. I don't really know if that's true or not, but with these cute little cherries running around all over everything, why wouldn't you want to run it? It was a spectacular morning and a spectacular race. The t-shirts were good this year and made a great uniform for race day. I finished in 48:45, placing 159th of 433 runners in my division. This is a great improvement over last year, where I placed 284th of 414. My time in the 2007 race was 58:14.

So Go Me!; I improved. But I still crossed the finish line right behind an 80 year-old man and just in front of a woman pushing a DOUBLE jogging stroller. So I stay humble and hope for an even better race in 2009.

Season Opener

We attended our first Rockies game of the season last week. It was the first of only two Cubs/Rockies games at Coors Field this year. My husband is an avid Cubs fan so we pretty much had to go to one or the other. I was very excited to go, especially after last season's stirring finale, my only regret being that I don't have a Rockies hat to wear. Everyone who saw us thought we were a Cubbies household!

It was an interesting experience bringing both of our kids, and I can't say it was totally enjoyable. First, we didn't arrive until the 5th inning. A not-so-short-trip to the nearest Urgent Care facility slowed us down a bit. As we were unloading the car at the train station, my older daughter, who was swinging on the stoller, fell on the pavement while holding the handlebar and trapped her fingers underneath. She simply lost a fingernail, but it was hard to tell how bad the damage was while she was screaming and squirting blood immediately afterwards. It looked like a nail had gone through her finger. So, while we were fortunate that it was not a serious injury, it was bad news for the game as we didn't make it to the game until right around the kids' bedtime.

It was hard to get food because there was too much for one person to carry. I was thinking I could put the two bottles of water I purchased in my purse so I could focus on carrying the three brats and cup o'fries. For whatever reason, though, they took the caps off both bottles and kept them! Our 19 month old cried every time the crowd cheered. She also couldn't sit in the seat without it flipping up on her. So I had to hold her but all she wanted to do was squirm. Our 3-1/2 year old was ready to leave after two innings. It was quite difficult to watch the game. Somehow the Rockies scored 5 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but I was only aware of one.

I looked around, though, and there were kids everywhere. And all the other parents and all the other kids I saw looked like they were having fun, enjoying the game and had everything under control. I don't know what we were doing wrong. Perhaps next time will be better.

More on spring...

Denver on Tuesday

Denver on Wednesday