Earth Day

On Saturday, we celebrated Earth at the Fort Collins Annual Earth Day Fair at City Park. The fair featured great bands, green businesses, environmental non-profits, and a sweet beer garden.

Dave and I biked up to the park for the long afternoon to meet Marc and Einstein and see Julia at the table for the organization she works for, Community for Sustainable Energy. CforSE had a kid's coloring table we popped down for and a raffle fundraiser. Julia is a hardworking canvasser at CforSE, organizing people door-to-door, getting support for Fort Sun 2021, an initiative to make Fort Collins energy independent by 2021 with solar panels, electric cars and low energy bills. That would make Fort Collins an even cooler place to live.

We hit some great tents all around the fair. We talked to the fine folks at the Food Co-op and snagged some delicious organic chocolate pieces; learned about vermicompost (worm compost - worms eat all your compost and turn it into high quality top soil); got a free pansy in a give-away from the local Ace Hardware (not organic, but we planted it in a cup and will plant it in Montana); we perused the selection of used hiking and camping gear from a gear recylerly company; and we watched three huge Great Dane puppies wrestle for hours at the Great Dane Rescue tent.

We topped off the Fair at the beer garden with some New Belgium beer, listening to the speakers and bands.

The last speaker was Dr John Fitch of Sustaining Tomorrow Today. (I was, in fairness, complaining about how long he went on and on, thinking that speakers were allotted 15 minutes but Marc corrected me that they have 45 minutes and so I actually started listening to what he was saying...). He described how vital it is that we take measures now to sustain the planet and that means on an individual level and the policy level. One idea he talked briefly about is of Transition Towns, where local communities come together to figure out how to make the community work sustainably in a post-carbon world. That means that the town would develop a local economy, have local food, public transportation and bike routes, and renewable energy, to survive and thrive when oil becomes scarce and expensive. It's an idea that I just came across recently and will be studying - and might just share with you on our blog!

We ended Earth Day at Washington's Bar and Grill for 1 cent burgers. It's hard to ignore a sign for 1 cent burgers but it turned out you had to buy one and then get one for 1 cent. Misleading, sure, but we forgave them because the burger was delicious. (Yes, downing any beef product is probably the worst way to celebrate Earth Day.)

The topic of conversation centered on what we all agreed was a classic debate: in a duel, who would win - John Jamison or The Most Interesting Man in the World. The general consensus among the bartenders and customers favored The Most Interesting Man in the World, unless the duel were over whiskey, then Jamison would take the cake.

Weren't we surprised then none other then The Most Interesting Man in the World would greet us at our next stop, the liquor store, for some beer to end the night at Jess and Julia's place.

Debate settled.

Easter

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!

We hope everybody had a wonderful weekend and a great Easter.  It was a dreary day out in Fort Collins so we stayed in for most of it.  Then we went to Marc's house for dinner.

Here is a special shout out to Sean, John, and Marc for putting together an amazing feast that had all our pants unbuttoned.

After that settled, and Lizzie made dessert, we colored some eggs.

Red Rocks, Golden, Lyons

Early morning flight back to Denver. Upon our arrival we picked up our backs and waited for Marc. It wasn't long before he got us and we were eating some food. It was such a beautiful day we ate outside and discussed what to do. Since we were already in Denver we took a trip to Red Rocks Amphitheater.

There was quite a bit of people out on account of the weather. But that didn't make the view any less spectacular. Partly up in the mountains an amphitheater etched into the stone.

There was a lot of people running back and forth and up and down the aisles and rows. We thought it would be fun to watch Einstein run up all of the seats. To do that someone had to bring him down. So I went with him. His finish time blew mine away but we were both beat.

From there we drove into Golden. Lots of pretty scenery along the way. We stopped at the Mountaineering Museum so Marc could get some books. Then we layed out in the lawn.

After that we continued along the road to Lyons. There we took a stroll through a small park and past a brewery (that's right, past a brewery) to Lyon's Classic Pinball.

There is over 30 pinball games from the past four decades. Basically an all pinball arcade. There was definitely some unique ones among the group. Most notably a two player vs. jousting one, and a gigantic one.

The ball was the size of a pool ball

Then it was back to Fort Collins. As we pulled into town it began to rain. Right by the house we saw a dog run across the street. There was some people in the lot who looked like they were the owners. Until we saw the dog continuing down the street and running in the middle of a lane. We pulled up to her and I jumped out hesitant to get close. However she jumped right in the car. Boo and Einstein were not very happy about that. We drove back to the parking lot and got her our and on a leash. Her tags said that her name was Eva. Liz called the number and the owner was on his way to meet us. Turns out she escaped from a second story! What a day. Tired and wet we called it over.

Eva looking for her master

Now we know why I've been limping.

I'm hurt.

For the past couple of months I've had this embarrassing limp in my back leg. It first started bothering me, I think, after the big blizzard in Chicago. Lizzie and I were hanging out at Dave's house - we were stuck there because the snow was too deep to get the car out! - and Dave took me out to play in the snow. It was over my head! But I had a great time tramping through the snow drifts and burying myself in the snow. I didn't feel so hot the next day. I was limping a little because my leg was sore.

I tried to walk it off. And it worked pretty well - I only limped once in awhile, especially after a big day of walking or playing. Everybody thought it was probably my hips bothering me because that's typical in lab breeds like me. It's called hip dysplasia and it means that your leg bone doesn't quite fit into your hip socket and the rubbing causes pain and arthritis. It seemed to make sense because it's not like I got in a big accident and injured myself, my leg just seemed to be a little stiff.

So in February - against my wishes - Lizzie and Dave took me to the Vet in Burbank. I needed to get some booster shots before our big trip out west and they could also find out what was going on with my hips. The Vet confirmed it for us - I probably had early onset of hip dysplasia. He suggested taking glucosamine vitamins, loosing 7-10 pounds, exercising regularly but the only real solution was a very expensive hip replacement surgery.

We opted for the preventive medicine approach and if I was still hurt in a few months, we would consider surgery. Now Lizzie practically starves me everyday with just two cups of food and my snacks cut in half, just so I can shed some pounds, and I'm taking chewable vitamins that I love.

But last week, the three of us went for a long walk at the park near Jess and Julia's place in Fort Collins and the next day, I held my whole leg up. It was too painful to put pressure on it. I was sad.

While Liz and Dave jet set to Chicago, my brother Einstein's dad Marc made a vet appointment for me to get checked out. I stayed with Marc all week and he took good care of me. He even gave me a bath.

Then yesterday, Marc and Liz took me and my brother to the vet.

That's when we got the news. I hurt my knee - not my hip - pretty bad. I was so happy that the Vet was able to tell them what's going on with my leg because, you know, I can't tell them myself. It turns out I've torn the cruciate ligament in my knee. The Vet told us it's like a rope that can fray bit by bit and so there may not have been a big event - like the blizzard - that busted my knee. It could've been hurt little by little until now.

The worst part: the only answer is surgery. It's like knee replacement surgery in people. They cut up the top of my tibia and then screw it together in place so that the muscles and cartilage can grow to repair the injured ligament. The Vet told us that this kind of surgery is fairly common because lots of big dogs like me bust their knees.

The Vet said if I don't get the surgery, it'll never heal and because I put so much weight on my other leg, it's just a matter of time that I'll injure that knee and hip. Then I'll need surgery on both legs. On the bright side, she said it absolutely makes dogs feel better right away - so much so that I'll want to go run and play. That'll make it hard for me to sit around for the six to eights weeks I'll need to be calm and relaxed to recover. Good thing I really like laying on the couch.

Lizzie, Dave and I sat down and had a heart to heart about it. The best thing we can do is have the surgery as soon as possible and then we can have as much time as possible to recover here in Colorado before they have to start work at the farm in Montana.

So it looks like we're going to skip our plan to get on the road all through May in Wyoming and Montana and stay here in Fort Collins for me to get the surgery and start the recovery. Lizzie and Dave are going to look for some short time work to cover the cost.

So now I've got some pain meds and Lizzie is going to call around for the best deal to get surgery. I'm not looking forward to it but I'll be happier when I feel better and can run and play like a young dog like me should.

ICADP Repeal Celebration, Chicago

A victory party 37 years in the making!

This is old news to all of our friends and family in Illinois and northwest Indiana, but: Illinois got rid of the death penalty! Huzzah!

In March, Gov. Quinn signed the legislation that would (finally) end Illinois' terrible practice of executing people. (Long story short: Illinois nearly killed 20 innocent guys that were sent to death row because of faulty evidence, witness misidentification, prosecutorial misconduct, or DNA evidence, or a combination of those... and it's incredibly expensive when we have an alternative that is life without the possibility of parole that costs less, keeps dangerous people behind bars and doesn't kill the wrong person.)

Getting the legislation to the Governor's desk was a long, arduous, sometimes painful, political process that began over 30 years ago when ICADP was founded. I only witnessed the last two years or so as a field organizer on the campaign.

The Repeal Celebration on Thursday, April 20th, at Architechtural Anarchy in Chicago was a spectacular tribute to the hundreds - maybe thousands - of people who worked for so long to expose the real problems with Illinois' death penalty system, who lobbied, wrote letters, called their legislators, helped with events, fought to free innocent men on death row, and made repeal happen. We shied away from calling it a victory party but that's what it was to me - a campaign that we won, which can be so rare in organizing and policy work for justice.

Sparing you all the gory details, the location was spectacular, the food was impeccable and the company was wonderful. I'm was so grateful and honored that my family came out to support us - my Mom, Dad, brothers John and Matt and Matt's wife Kristina - and of course, Dave, who I roped into running our "going out of business" merchandise table (He's been roped into helping ICADP on more then one occasion and has always done so willingly!).

It was great to have the whole ICADP crew together one last time - our fearless leader Jeremy (my boss), our staff members Beth, Katie and Mara; our PR guy and token Republican Ryan; our national team advisors Colleen, Shari and Abe; our whole board and volunteers (too many to name), and the legislators that pushed the bill in Springfield.

It was, I think, the perfect end for what will be a highlight of our careers of many of us.

After the party, we headed to nearby Skylark bar with a bunch of people from the party and to meet our friends Anna and Colin. We were psyched that our friend Paul was in town from Virginia and came out and Dave's cousin Tommy and aunt and uncle Caroline and Tom. We toasted our victory again and again until last call. Dave and I got back to my parent's house and in bed by about 4am in time to sleep for a couple hours before our morning flight back to Colorado.

It was great to be home for the whole week and see our families and friends one more time before the fall but we were more then ready to get back to our "home" in the Vouse (the van-house) in Colorado.

Bloomington, Illinois

The splendor of Colorado is apparently not enough for us. So we grabbed our backpacks and hopped a flight back home to Chicago last week!

Before we left home over a month ago, I planned to fly back home sometime in late-April for ICADP's big victory party to celebrate Illinois becoming the 16th state to repeal the death penalty. How could I miss it? But then we heard through the facebook-grapevine that a week before, Heartland Community College in Bloomington was hosting the inaugural opening of the Joe McCauley Art Gallery in memory of Dave's friend Nate's dad. So we made a trip of it!

It was Joe McCauley's first one-man show featuring his own work and it was combined with a silent-auction of student art for a scholarship in his name for art students. Joe was an artist and art professor at HCC since it opened in '90 until his death in '09. At the reception for the gallery opening, a few of his colleagues and his son Brian described his passion for the work, students and his family. I was surprised and pleased to hear one his closest colleagues tell us about how the two of them were regulars at the Bloomington Trades & Labor Council meetings, walked picket lines whenever there was labor strife and was a leader in the faculty union. My kinda guy.

The gallery was beautiful. The silent auction was a little out of our price range with starting bids at $100 (pretty much everything that costs money is out of our price range these days...) but there were plenty I would've loved to own. Here is a sampling of his work.

We were stoked to see Nate, his brother Brian, sister Julia and his mom Lori and our friends Dan, Twyla, Arcadia, Eric, Ryan and many more. We didn't tell anybody we were coming into town for the reception so they were surprised to see us. I'm happy to report that the auction raised over $6000 for the scholarship fund. The gallery and scholarship are a lasting tribute at the school to a teacher who made a significant impact on students, the community and his friends and colleagues.

Arcadia and her dad

After the party we were invited to a friend of Nate's for a cookout. It was lots of great people, good beer, and delicious kebabs. The best part was when the party all moved to the rooftop and Nate's friend Courtney broke out her fire hoola-hoop. Dave took some classic pics we had to show you:

Nate with an LED hoop

"Art enriches life, helps to make it tolerable, and more liveable." - Joe McCauley

FoCoMx and Estes Park

We had a pretty busy weekend.  It was the third annual Fort Collins Music Experiment (FoCoMx.)  Over two nights they had 260 local bands playing at 30 different venues throughout Fort Collins.  Needless to say we couldn't see everyone.

It was a hard to decide which bands to see because we had not heard of any of them.  But I think we lucked out pretty well.  Almost all of the bands we saw were fantastic.  And we even got to visit some breweries to catch some music.

After all of that excitement we took a zero day on Sunday.  We all layed around the house until evening and dinner.  Then a movie on the couch and bed.

Back at it again on Monday.  Marc came over in the morning and the three of us and the two dogs loaded up the car and headed to Estes Park.  It took us a little while to drive into the mountains but it was a spectacular view.  As we pulled into town we stopped off at the visitor center for a little info and to let the dogs run.  The center is right by the river.  Boo and Einstein were super excited to play in it.

From there we took the river walk along the back side of downtown.  It was very scenic and we stopped into a few shops along the way.  We continued walking down to the Estes Park Brewery.

View of the brewery with snow capped mountains

It was a cool brewery.  We hung out in the tap room tasting everything and then went upstairs for some lunch.  And more beer of course.

On our way out of Estes Park we drove by the Stanley Hotel.  Even from the outside it looked a little eerie.  The rest of the day was filled up with driving part of the peak to peak highway.  Stunning views most of the drive.  And then it was back to FoCo.

As our adventure continues I've begun storing our photos on Winkflash.  As much as I love Picasa we just needed more space.  Eventually I'll have all of our pictures in one place.  Here is the link to our Winkflash album.

Saturday in the Park

Feel like another lazy day. Slept in some this morning before I finally got let out. But there was a bowl of food waiting for me when we got back in. MMMM kibble!

Then we went for a long walk. We took a the spring creek trail past the park. We stopped under a bridge so I could play in the stream. It was so much fun. Then on the way back we ran around the park for a little bit.

I was pretty tired after that so thankfully we headed home. When we got back home I wanted to take an nap. But this crazy thing they call a Roomba was running amok in the house. I wasn't quite sure what to do.

Eventually it got put away and I could relax. Everyone is talking about going out tonight but I'm going to stay in and relax after the exciting day I had.

Election Day in FoCo

On Tuesday, it was Election Day here in Fort Collins. Well, it's a mail-in ballot and they were due to the City Clerk on Tuesday so it wasn't as exciting everyone lining up at the polls to vote. But exciting none the less because we'd finally hear the results of the ballot initiative for ranked voting campaigned for by our friend Marc.

It was a nervous wait for the results. We kept refreshing the city clerk's website waiting for results with the campaign committee and volunteers at the headquarters.

Then just before 9pm, the news arrived: the measure had failed. It was a big disappointment. You can read about it here in The Collegian.

What else can you do when you lose an election then to drink away your sadness?

And so we did. We polished off all the boxed wine and beer at the party and then after

midnight, went across the street to Avo's bar til close. Marc, Jess, Julia, Dave, Aaron (a campaign volunteer who'd had more then a few!) and I ended the night at Jess and Julia's, drinking whiskey til the sun came up.

On the bright side, the campaign for ranked voting will continue and voters will have another chance to choose it in the next election.

This weekend we're going to the FoCoMX music festival - over 200 bands in 20 venues - and making big plans for camping and Utah adventures before we leave Colorado for good.

Denver

Thursday morning we packed up our stuff from Marc's and got on the road for Denver.  Liz was meeting with the Colorado Coalition to offer some help after her success in Illinois.  We got there a little early and cruised around the neighborhood for a bit.  While Liz was working I took a nap and a bike ride.


Once she was done we mounted up the bikes and rode out to the REI flagship store.  We needed to return a couple things and I wanted a new seat for my bike.  We also went there because it was huge and amazing.  Several floors of merchandise and a climbing wall.

From there we rode into LoDo (the Lower Downtown) for dinner.  When we were driving into town we heard a chef being interviewed on NPR.  His description of the food made our mouths water.  So we tracked the place down.  It's called Vesta Dipping Grill.  They have 30 different kinds of sauces that range from a sweet chili ginger to a hot sauce that was aged in a whiskey barrel for a month.

We only tried a third of the sauces.  They were all good but some were out of this world.  We were both stuffed for the ride back to the van.


The next day we headed to the south side of town to meet up with Liz's friend Leslie for breakfast.  We met at a small place called Gaia Bistro and had another tasty meal. 

Back downtown we parked the van and were once again on two wheels a piece.  First we rode up to the capitol building.  We were waiting for a tour to start but decided to just walk around ourselves.  


After that we were just riding around scoping out the city.  We happened upon the Great Divide Brewery.  It took Liz some work but she was able to convince me to step inside.  

I got a 13 beer flight 

A couple beers later they announced that there was a tour beginning so we jumped on board.  Pretty standard tour but always enjoyable.  Finished up our beers and started riding back to the van.  We tried to stop at a bakery for dessert but it was closed.


Then we drove to the west side of town.  Ate some pizza at an Italian place and then walked over to check out some art studios.  There was a lot of great pictures but about the third or fourth studio we went into we were both amazed.  Striking images that were also puns.

Flaming Banana Foster

We started chatting with the artist, Ryan Rice, and he is a pretty cool guy.  Shameless Plug.  


Our last stop of the night was Tenn Street Coffee.  A little coffeeshop/bookstore where Liz's friend John Statz was playing a show.  Another Shameless Plug.

Finally we decided to head back to Fort Collins for the night.