Trip Update

I was planning to put this post up last night, but Mandy and I got stuck in a Paper Mario marathon that lasted until 1:00AM. You'll all be happy to know that we beat the game this afternoon, and Count Bleck was defeated. Rest assured.

We arrived back in Cinci Friday night about 11:30PM. After collecting our bags, we made it home about 1:30AM. The flight wasn't too bad apart from a death dive that happened about 15 minutes into the flight when the plane hit some turbulence that caused the plane to bank about 45 degrees to starboard. Everyone on the plane gasped, a few screamed, and I sighed. Other than that, the flight was good. We even landed about 10 minutes early.

An apartment has been procured. We signed the lease Friday, and after much wrangling with the certifiably insane landlady, we were handed our keys. Here is a link to the apartment on Google Maps.

The apartment is located south of Denver, in a neighborhood called Platt Park. It's a very eclectic area, complete with books stores, coffee shops, bars, live music venues, and a movie theater about five blocks away. Another very cool aspect of the location is that is near both the bus line and the light-rail transit system. Mandy's school is about 8 miles away, so that's really cool.

The apartment is in a single building. It has two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and lots of windows. The cost is a little shy of $200 less than what we are paying to live in Cinci, so that's good, especially considering neither us have jobs yet. It's also cool because it's a 6-month lease, and when the lease is up, it goes month-to-month with no additional charge. We're kind of looking at it as a place to hold up, get better aquainted with the city, and find our semi-permanent place. If we end up really liking it, we'll probably stay on through Spring. The only major downside is the fact that's ground-level and we can't have a dog, but that's being pretty nit-picky.

Here's a short video I shot of the apartment. Keep in mind it was shot on our little Cannon Powershot, so the quality totally sucks.

(An amazing tour of the new apartment)

Here are a few more pictures from the trip. I'll update the blog with more info on our moving schedule tomorrow. The important part is we're having a company move our stuff to Denver and we'll be back in GR for about two weeks over the 4th of July holiday. Hooray! This will likely be the last time we're in town until Thanksgiving.

(Hard at work looking for apartments)


(King of the mountain)


(A creek running through the Rockies)


(One of many shots of the Rockies driving W I-70)


(A comparison of the SUV we rented and the Canyonaro from The Simpsons)


(Looking on towards a bright and shining future)

Clear Air

The hunt is on. We continue to seek out apartments and cool places to see. We've found a couple places that are really good looking. They're on the pricey side, but nothing we can't handle. One is in a more urban setting, walking distance to restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. It is complete with hardwood floors, lots of windows, and all utilities are included. It's a bit of a hike to the school Mandy will be attending, so that's a concern.

The other place is a townhouse. It's beautiful, spacious, clean, and right near her school. It's more expensive than the first, which probably puts it out of the running. The other catch is it's in really suburban area. Chain restaurants, malls, and auto places are on every corner. It's right next to the mountains, and it really laid out nicely. It's a tough call either way.

We're trying to find more places to check out today, but we're not getting many responses from people. Hopefully, we'll have our decision made this afternoon and have our appliation and deposit off to the place we want to stay.

Here are a few pictures of the city.

(View of the Rockies to the west)


(One of the many beautiful homes downtown Denver)


(Driving into Denver)

The other great thing about the area is what's going on. There are so many events, nature trails, and festivals, it's been hard for us to pick which ones to check out. For example; there's a Breckenridge Film Festival tonight. This is a seasonal event where local filmmakers get together to watch films... in the beer gardens behind a microbrewery. There are little mini-magazine I've picked up that just show what's playing in the many locals film houses. The print edition of The Onion is free, it's everywhere.

The trick is going to be making enough money that we don't have to always be dipping into our savings to pay for rent and other necessities. With all the opportunity in this area, those prospects are looking good. More to come...

"Well I'm going out west where the wind blow tall..." -Tom Waits

(Denver at Twilight)

Mandy and I are flying out tomorrow morning. We should arrive in Denver around 10:00AM MDT. Our hotel provides an internet connection for $9.99 a day, which totally sucks. I'll try to keep this updated at the various free WiFi spots I can find peppered throughout the city.

I'll post some pics and thoughts as they come about.

On a sad note, our cat Athena has escaped from Mandy's parent's house and is lost somewhere in their neighborhood. The little bugger loves to dart out of open doors, run away, and hide. Our guess is she's hiding somewhere in the neighborhood right now. It's really crappy timing considering how we have to concentrate on our apartment hunting, but now we're totally distracted by the missing cat. Ah life. So full of little twisty turns.

We'll keep everyone updated on both the trip and Athena.

"And I'll be high as a kite by then." -Elton John