The first photo is from a nice evening movie night at the Esquire in Denver. I think this was the first time I've been to the Esquire, though I keep wanting to. I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel.
I'd like to think that if I caught up with these, I'd start posting them once a week again. Of course by the time I catch up I'll already be done. Oh well. Here is the next installment of my weekly photo project. These photos range from April ino the beginning of June, just before my big trip to World Cup. Those will show up in the next post. The first photo is from a nice evening movie night at the Esquire in Denver. I think this was the first time I've been to the Esquire, though I keep wanting to. I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel. The following weekend, Tiff and I went for a hike up to Hanging Lake in Colorado. I took a bunch of pictures on the hike, including the lake and waterfall. For some reason though, I really liked how this tree looked laying down in the lake. The following week I was off to Connecticut. I happened to be on my way to Brazil, but took a detour to CT for my brother's surprise stag party. I also got to see Jon's new house, not pictured on the left :). This is a shed in his backyard, which of course looks like a miniature house. It was amusing to me. After spending most of the week in Brazil for work, I then went to Atlanta before heading back to Denver. I did many things there, but the main attraction was the three-day music festival Shaky Knees. The below shot was when I first walked in on the first day. Later on that weekend (Sunday, which is the next week) we took in an Atlanta Braves game. Memorial Day weekend came, with my first camping trip of the year. I went with some friends out to Crested Butte, and everyone brought their dogs. They all had a great time together. Yes, this is two photos in a row featuring Otis. I am just too happy about this impromptu weekend morning photo of Otis and his mommy sitting on the front steps. The final photo doesn't really seem too spectacular. Anyone can take a photo from a plane while being among the clouds. The thing is, I didn't take this photo from a plane. I happen to be up on Mount Evans, home of the highest paved road in North America. While driving to the top, we crossed through the clouds into a higher plane. It made for some spectacular photos, but again I like how this one looks like I'm in the sky but really standing on the ground.
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I am always interested in trying to cook new foods and recipes, hence the goal to try 10 new recipes. Thanks to my recent business travels, I have been finding foods that I haven't thought about cooking before but would like to try. Unfortunately I tend to not think about it and forget those ideas. While walking around World Market last weekend, I came across a Tikka Masala Curry in a jar. I spent about a total of three weeks in India last Fall and tried many foods. One thing I consistently liked was Chicken Tikka Masala (which I've also liked at Indian restaurants in the US prior to visiting India). The jar I found does show a basic recipe on the back, which mainly is just adding chicken to the sauce and simmering. So I took that "recipe" and modified it to what I wanted in my dish. The items I chose are as follows...
I started by peeling, cutting and boiling one potato. While that was boiling, I cut the rest of the vegetables and the chicken. Photos were taken in progress, I used only a third of that chicken pack and chopped the garlic more fine. I then started boiling water for the rice and began cooking the chicken and garlic in a wok. When the chicken was starting to brown, the pepper was added. Soon after I added the curry, while also cooking the rice. A few minutes into simmering the sauce in the wok, the final ingredient was added to the mix...the boiled potatoes. While that was left to simmer, the asparagus was cooked in a separate frying pan as a side dish. The final step to the meal was putting the Naan (purchased at the grocery store) into the oven to heat up for a few minutes. I was quite pleased with the timing of every piece of this meal completing at about the same time. Though I didn't make the curry from scratch, it was fun trying out a new dish. Next time I would definitely be interested in trying to make my own curry. I will have to do some research.
Final verdict...I was overall happy with the way everything turned out. It felt like a meal I would have had in India. I did however find the curry to be a bit bland. I wish I had added some seasonings and spice to give it some more flavor. Everything I ate in India was bursting with flavor, and this didn't do that. I would probably add a chile pepper of some sort and a few spices if I were to use this curry again. Otherwise, a good meal! The batch photo posts continue! This next installment of random weekly photos provides a fund group of Denver and Hong Kong! This first photo is something I happened to discover while walking around downtown Denver over St. Patrick's Day weekend. I had never seen this before. As everyone should know, this mural depicts the Battle of Hoth. :) The following week I had the pleasure of performing my civic duty by being a juror on a court case. I spent the better part of a week in the courthouse, seen below. Near the end of March, I had the pleasure of hosting my friend Kevin from Connecticut. We did a few touristy things, including a visit to the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. The below photo is a wall of the various products that falls under the Coors (and Miller) family of beverages. It was then off to China for work! I was there for about two weeks. The week days were spent in Zhongshan working while the weekends were spent in the much more exciting Hong Kong. I took a day trip out to Ngong Ping, home of a giant Buddha (2nd largest in the world). I thought about posting a photo of that, but I really like the uniqueness of this sign showing distances to various points of interest around the world. It really puts into perspective how far around the world I was. I spent one more night in Hong Kong at the end of the two weeks before flying back home. There are so many lights and signs (and a combination of the two) around Hong Kong. I took this one just outside my hotel. I'm not sure how long it has been going on, but apparently there is a thing on Facebook called Throwback Thursday. People post old photos on Thursday and as far as I can tell, it's just because everyone else is doing it. Well, in my last list...88 in 888...one of my goals was to post an old photo of me once a month for a year. I did that through the 2011 calendar year. In fact, here's my first post over three years ago! Anyway, just wanted to point out that I recently became aware of #tbt and that is not why I'm posting old photos. My new list has the same goal, and here is my third entry... I'm not sure what year this is from. Maybe 1st or 2nd grade.
Playing catch up yet again...here is my next installment of my weekly photos. These photos run from January to March. The first is of a nice warm weekend afternoon in January. I took Otis to the dog park and he was thrilled as usual. This year I decided to (or more like talked into) learning how to ski. I had tried it once before in Taos, and it was definitely not too pleasant. The second time around I decided to take some lessons. The next photo is of the second time of the season, which was in fact my first time going up the mountain after the lesson. It was a beautiful day at Copper Mountain. Another great winter weekend led to a visit to the Denver Zoo. Unlike my first visit to the zoo, I didn't bring my SLR with me. I did still take a bunch of fun photos of animals, including this little guy appearing to ham it up for the camera. At the end of January, I had a conference for work to attend in Colorado Springs. On my way back to Denver, we took a slight detour to Garden of the Gods. This was my first visit, and it was beautiful with the snow and red rock. Of course the photo I choose here does not show the more popular rock formations, but I just love the way this photo looks. It was taken while walking on a trail in the park. I went from snow to beaches with a work trip to Brazil in February. I spent a week there (two weekends), and the below photo was during my first weekend walking around Florianopolis. It was nice to be out in shorts and sandals. The following weekend I took a walk down the other end of Florianopolis, and found this sculpture capturing the colorful and fun nature of Florianopolis (or Floripa in Portuguese). What did I do when I got back to Denver? I left the next weekend for Albuquerque of course! The annual Mardi Gras party was being held, and this year's theme was aquatic. I don't normally use pictures of myself on here, but I didn't have a good group shot and this one is sort of fun. Finally, I end this submission of photos with a new experience. For a surprise birthday weekend, I took Tiff to the mountains for hot springs and dogsledding. It was a great time! The dogsledding was such a fun and unique experience. And as you can see, we had a beautiful day for it. Since I started my new job, I found myself cooking less. I believe a combination of reasons led to this. Settling into a new place, travelling a lot for work and eating out a lot with coworkers at lunch kept me from cooking more and bringing lunch to work.
Tiff and I are trying to not only cook more (and thus eat out less), but also work out more. But this isn't about the working out, it is about the cooking. On my first list (88 in 888), I had a goal to try 10 new recipes. Unfortunately I only tried 2 and therefore didn't accomplish the goal. When creating my second list (101 in 1001), I decided to go for it again. 79. Try 10 new recipes (1/10) This was my first go at a new recipe during the new list. I found the recipes on Allrecipes.com, which is where I find most recipes. The particular recipe calls for a specific blend of pesto, feta and pine nuts for the stuffing as well as a variety of spices and balsamic vinegar for the outside of the chops. I ended up making some slight modifications, including replacing the pine nuts with crushed walnuts. I am quite pleased with how the food came out. Tiff prepared the side, which in this case was fried brussel sprouts, which were quite delicious. We also included a salad. Overall a great meal that I would definitely recommend that does not take too long to prepare. I believe this picture was taken on vacation in Lake George, NY. We vacationed there a few times, and it was always a great out-of-state family destination within driving distance.
19. Post an old picture of me online once a month for a year (1/12)
It seems as good a time as any to start old photos of myself again. The goal is to post one a month for a year. It is always fun to look back and reminisce about good times in the past. I believe this photo is from the Polar Caves in New Hampshire. As you can see, I'm there with my brother Jon and sporting my two favorite baseball teams and a fanny pack. Again I have a collection of photo selections for my 52 Week Photo Project. In this post we have five, spanning four different states but interestingly no Colorado. The first photo (or #11) comes from the countryside of Georgia during Thanksgiving. I sadly didn't take many pictures on that trip, but I did spot this guy staring back at me... Then it was off to California for work. I did however take a detour to LA to visit a friend of mine. We went out to eat in downtown LA and saw this beautiful array of Macaroons. Another photo from my adventures in California... I then went to Albuquerque for a weekend, then Colorado for four days, then off to Connecticut for the holidays. That's right, within a few weeks I went to Georgia, then Colorado, then California, then New Mexico, then Colorado again, then to New England, which technically included New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The bottom photo is a neighborhood cat that's been hanging out in my parents' back yard lately. Near the end of my trip in New England included a day in Newport, RI. Below is one of the most famous landmarks there, The Breakers, a mansion along the cliffwalk.
I spent two weeks in India for work. Though I was busy working much of the time, I was able to go on a couple of excursions on the weekends. The first day trip included a visit to a bird sanctuary, botanical gardens and Mysore Palace (seen below). The second day trip took place on my last day in India. I was driven a few hours from Delhi to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Of course I took many pictures of the Taj Mahal, but i can only choose one for this. I love the symmetry and angle of the chosen image. It might not be obvious that it's the Taj Mahal, but I enjoy that about this photo. Just so you can see a full image of the Taj Mahal, I have included on of my other photos below. Since I had spent a couple weeks in India, I missed the first few weeks of the NBA season. When I returned, I went to my first Nuggets game of the season. Last season I went to around 15 games, so I was looking forward to getting to some games again. The photo below captures the Nuggets and Bulls warming up, as well as the new large screen inside the Pepsi Center.
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