On the last day of what would be the biggest snowstorm of 2013 for Fort Collins—in April, no less—I emerged from the garage at noon wielding a snow shovel for the third time in three days when I heard my neighbor’s wail.

“There’s almost no more room to put all this snow!” she exclaimed. I quickly could see what she was talking about: apparently, seven or eight inches of snow had blanketed my driveway overnight, and that was after I had already cleared out the total of fourteen inches from the last two days. Crazy. Continue reading »

Considering that we live in the Golden Age of Automobiles—at least when it comes to modern aesthetic and ridiculous amounts of horsepower—just about any car show today is worth at least its ticket’s weight in silver. But a gold medal-worthy show would have a had an example of the recently unveiled next-generation iteration of an American icon, especially when its name rhymes with “whet.” So while no promises were made, I kept both my fingers and toes crossed that the tech- and carbon-laden 2014 Corvette could be viewed from the Denver Convention Center floor.

But it was not to be. Lame. My disappointment about that was on par with how I felt last year when I learned that Porsche had not brought any cars to the show. Continue reading »

“I think I’m becoming something of a Microsoft fanboi,” I confessed to various people over the last few months.

A fan of Microshaft, Winblows, Windoze? For a person who grew up with Apple computers used in elementary and high school, Macs and Unix machines at Stanford, and attended college with Larry Page and Sergei Brin (founders of Google), this may seem as treasonous as a U.S. congressman defecting over to Russia. But just as Dmitri Medvedev’s country is much farther from taking over the world than the old U.S.S.R. was, Bill Gates’ company has all of a sudden went from virtual monopoly to a company that is struggling to get a foothold in the tablet and cell phone marketplace.

The good thing about Microsoft’s weak position is that it has been forced to innovate. No longer is it spewing out blue screen-flashing crap that people had to buy like it was doing pre-Windows 7 (the first truly excellent version of Windows in my opinion). So it caught my attention, and just in time too—when I was about to make a clean sweep of all the antiquated technologies in my life. Continue reading »

We were inside Bondi’s Beach Bar when Katherine started mentioning something about butt cheeks.

Sure, this booze joint may have had a beach theme, but no one had disrobed, nor were we looking at nudie magazines. Instead, this was an observation Katherine made about Hector’s oil painting. Which also was not of naked people frolicking in the sand, but rather… aspen trees. Continue reading »

There were several parallels between this marathon and the very first one I ever ran. First, it was immediately preceded by two weeks of travel and vacation (in this case, Florida and Jamaica). Second, there was a complete lack of training. For the Silicon Valley Marathon I did a long run of seven miles; for this one—the Mercedes Marathon of Birmingham, Alabama—my longest training run was five. Prolonged illness and lack of discipline were the major culprits here; in any case, in both races, I came to the starting line just trying to wing it.

Similar preparation, different result? No! There is just no way to fake your way through a whole marathon. Continue reading »

Prior to going to Jamaica, I haven’t tried any of the country’s cuisine—unless you count the pseudo-Caribbean faire served up by Rasta Pasta or the Island Grill in Fort Collins. Hence, eating in Jamaica was a real treat. Continue reading »