Trip to Aspen

Aspen 2006

Aug 27, 2006 - 24 Photos

It is Sunday and Kerri and I just finished three days in Aspen for Casey and Katie's wedding. We drove up on Friday with our friends Pat and Brooke after spending a few days in Denver. On the way up, we stopped in Idaho Springs for lunch at a local Colorado microbrewery called Tommyknocker's. Not being beer drinkers, Kerri and I knocked back a couple of cold root beers. And I had a bowl of the best chili I've ever had in my life. If you ever find yourself in Idaho Springs, Colorado, order the chili. :-)

In Aspen, Brooke and Pat's friend Jeremy was nice enough to let us stay at his house. Well, it wasn't his house exactly. It was the $35 million dollar vacation home next to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's place that he is the caretaker for. Wow—what an amazing place this house was. It must have been 8-10 thousand square feet, on 300 acres, pool, 2 hot tubs, bocce ball court, motor bikes, a 60" plasma screen TV, and 3 server racks to run the entire house. The best feature of the entire place was the Indonesian Tea House that Jeremy built right outside that sits on the pond. What a relaxing place to sit and—well—relax.

On Friday night, we went out to dinner in downtown Aspen. I've been really lucky to go to a lot of amazing places in the last 10 years (New York, San Francisco, Miami, Paris, St. Tropez, etc.), but I have never seen money like there is in Aspen. It just oozes money. But not in a good way. We had a fantastic dinner at Campo De Fiori, hit the hot tub back at our borrowed mansion, and then called it a night in preparation for the big wedding the next day.

The next morning, Kerri (wedding planner) and Brooke (maid of honor) left the house early to begin the wedding preparations. Pat, Jeremy, and I took the opportunity to have some guy time.

• 10:26 AM: Huge omelet breakfast at one of the cafes from the movie "Aspen Extreme". Yum.
  
• 11:46 AM: Go in hot tub.
  
• 12:33 AM: Jump on the trampoline. No broken bones.
  
• 1:16 PM: Play soccer—the three of us against the two dogs that live at the house. Dogs win.
  
• 2:04 PM: Ride dirt bikes around property. Avoided broken bones again. OK to show up for wedding.
  
• 3:34 PM: Shoot guns at cans on the fence. Miss.
  
• 3:53 PM: Jump in shower.
  
• 4:00 PM: Leave for wedding.

We arrived at the wedding right on time to catch the gondola at Little Nell up to the top of the mountain for the ceremony which was held on an outcropping overlooking an amazing mountain view. Then inside for dinner, some wine, and some dancing.

All in all, a fantastic Aspen weekend.

Car-less

While Kerri and I have been in Denver this past week, we took the opportunity to turn in the Mercedes at the end of our lease. For the three years we drove it, it was a great car. And we weren't too bad to it—showing it Salt Lake City, Dallas, Napa, and Denver. :-)

Bye Bye Mercedes!

We have not yet bought a car in Costa Rica so—for the time being—we are car-less. It's a bit odd—this is the first time we have not owned a car since 1997. Hopefully we'll be able to find a car in Costa Rica soon. We've been taking taxis for the last 7 months which hasn't been the end of the world because our time in Costa Rica has been so erratic, but it has gotten very old very quickly and its now time to pony up and buy something. Problem is, 1) cars in Costa Rica are very expensive (40-50% more than in the US), and 2) financing is very difficult to get and even more expensive.

Before our travel schedule got crazy in June and July, Kerri and I went out searching for a car last May. We were beyond lucky when we rolled up to the first dealership we saw, found a 2002 Mitsubushi Montero Sport that we loved, and at a price we felt we could afford. We had a mechanic come by to look at the car, he gave us the thumbs up, so we put a $200 deposit down to hold the car. Yes, a $200 deposit.

We started talking on the way home and Kerri reminded me of some guidance we had heard from another ex-pat to do your due diligence when buying a car in Costa Rica as a lot vehicles in Costa Rica came from Louisiana in 2005. We asked why that would matter and he reminded us that Hurricane Katrina had hit Louisiana in 2005. Insurance companies wrote off the cars that were in the hurricane as losses, then turned around and sold them at auction to dealers who cleaned them up, and then turned around and shipped them to Mexico, Central America, and South America to sell. Apparently, to sell to unsuspecting ex-pats.

So we went home, logged-on to CarFax.com and ran the VIN number from the Montero Sport. Not only did the vehicle's last known address appear as New Orleans, Louisiana, but the last registered mileage reading on file from 3 years previous was 128,000 miles. The odometer now read 78,000 miles. Not only had the vehicle been salvaged from the hurricane, but somewhere between Louisiana and Costa Rica, someone had turned back the odometer 50,000 miles—at least.

We called the dealership and got our $200 back. Rest assured, we'll be checking the VIN on any further cars we look at.

Trip to Denver

Denver 2006

Aug 25, 2006 - 1 Photo

Kerri and I just finished up our trip to Denver. It was great to be back "home". Drive our old streets. See our old friends. Eat at our old restaurants. Kerri and I really love Denver and—had it not been for this job—would not have moved away from there. But perhaps some day we'll be back!

The first night, we had dinner with our good friends Toby and Angie and Pat and Brooke at one of our favorite restaurants—Cuba Cuba. Brooke had planned a "Girls Night Out" with Kerri and the girls from Premier Image, so it was "bye bye" to the boys. The second night, we went out with a big group of people to the Rio Grande and paid tribute to their famous margaritas. As I've mentioned many times on this blog, it was so great to have good Mexican food again!

Then it was off to Aspen for the wedding we were in town for...

Jumping Back Into the Pool

Whenever Kerri and I come back into the US, it takes me about 24 hours to re-adjust. 24 hours before I stop telling the taxi driver "derecha", "izquierda", and "directo". 24 hours before I stop saying "Buenas" to every cashier I walk up to. 24 hours before I stop pulling out the colored bills from my wallet and instead start reaching for the boring green ones.

And then the same thing happens again when I go back to Costa Rica. For 24 hours, I forget how to speak Spanish altogether. I walk out of the airport and break into English with Christian, our Costa Rican driver. He just gives me this look as if to say, "So do you think I learned how to speak English in the two weeks you were gone?" Disculpe, Christian—mi culpa. But by the next morning, it has all come back to me.

It's like jumping into a really cold pool. Right when you jump in, all you can think to yourself is, "What was I thinking???" Then after about 2 minutes, you've adjusted to the temperature, it feels fine, and you're now talking everyone else into getting in the pool because "the water is actually quite pleasant." Right.

The next time you go to jump in, you know it will eventually feel fine—but the first 2 minutes are still rough. And so are the first 24 hours off the plane.

Los Muebles Para Casa Mango

Costa Rica House 2006

Aug 23, 2006 - 17 Photos

I completely forgot to post something about this—Kerri and I have finally completed furnishing Casa Mango (our house) in Costa Rica. It's named Casa Mango because we have a huge mango tree in our front yard. So now you all have a place to come stay! And it's all-inclusive. Well, all-inclusive if you like to eat mangos.

E-mail me the dates you would like to come visit.

Picture Pages, Picture Pages

I've started using Google's Picasa.

If you have tried it yet, do. It's awesome. You download the free software, it helps you sort all of the photos on your computer into nice albums, then with one click of a button it automatically uploads the photos you want to albums online. No more browse-upload-caption, browse-upload-caption, browse-upload-caption.

Anyways, I've included a list in the right hand navigation of all my most recent photo albums that will stay there permanently, but here's the list so far in case you want to check them out:

• Toronto 2006
  
• Aspen 2006
  
• Denver 2006
  
• Costa Rica House 2006
  
• Las Vegas 2006
  
• Cancun 2006
  
• Europe 2006
  
• Miami 2006
  
• Bahamas 2006
  
• Panama 2006
  
• Miami Heat Game 2006
  
• Jaco 2006
  
• WPT Shooting Stars 2006

PS—If you didn't get the subject line of my post, then you didn't watch this show growing up.

Unexpected Visitors

We have a new guard dog at Casa de Mango. Well, actually, its more like a guard toad. Kerri and I came home the other night to find this guy sitting in front of our front door. And now he seems to show up every few nights. We held up a CD next to him to show how big he is.

Our New Guard Toad

We have geckos all over our house. Kerri found one in her shirt in the closet the other day. Another one jumped out of my closet and landed on my leg the other day. I've been showering with one for the last two days. She doesn't seem to want to leave the bathroom.

Actual Size Shown

Kerri explained to me that "it" was a "she" when it walked across a window and the sunlight shown through her skin and you could see gecko eggs inside her belly. Girl from Hawaii: No big deal. Boy from Portland: Not cool with sharing my bathroom with a gecko, even a friendly pregnant gecko.

• Between Kerri and I, we've killed no less than 5 scorpions--in our house.
  
• The other day, we went over to a friend's house for a barbeque and he showed us the tarantula he had just caught in a plastic bag.
  
• There are monkeys that throw things at you when you walk in the park.

If there's one thing that's clear down here it's that we don't live here--we're just renting from the local wildlife.

Loading Up (or Not?) in Dallas

When we moved down to Costa Rica, we put a bunch of our stuff in storage at our friend Megan's house in Dallas. Wait--let me re-phrase that. When we moved down to Costa Rica, Kerri drove a 20-foot long U-Haul truck by herself for 3 days from Denver to Dallas and got stranded in Kansas when she hit a tornado while I was sunning myself down in Costa Rica. OK--I was probably actually working, but that's not the version she tells. ;-) Since Dallas is a common point-of-entry into the United States from Costa Rica, we figured that we would pick up a little stuff each time we went into the States and bring it back down with us.

So on this last trip back to Costa Rica from Las Vegas, we stopped in Dallas for 2 nights to pick up a load of our stuff. As we started to rifle through the 20 or so boxes in Dallas, we quickly realized how little of it we actually needed. We'd been living down in Costa Rica now for 6 months with maybe 10% of the stuff we own and were doing just fine. In the end, we filled one more extra suitcase and took our golf clubs.

Now, granted, it is great to always have access to all of your stuff. To be able to pull out the blender/cuisinart/insert other random appliance here/etc. whenever you need it. To be able to spend a random Saturday afternoon looking through a box of old high school memories. Or to hold on to that favorite shirt that you haven't worn in over 2 years and that is filling your closet but that you just can't seem to part with.

But in the end, Costa Rica has been a great lesson for us in really how little "stuff" we actuallly need to get by in life.

(Megan--So sorry to have left you with so many boxes. We'll put them in storage the next time we come through Dallas. And dinner at Three Forks is on us the next time we are in Dallas!)

The 2006 World Series of Poker

Kerri and I just returned from 3 weeks in Las Vegas for the 2006 World Series of Poker. 3 days can be a long time in Vegas, so you can only imagine what 3 weeks was like. :-) We stayed at the Rio the whole time because that is where the World Series is held and it was actually quite nice. All of the rooms are "suites" so they are a little bigger than normal which made a real difference given the amount of time we were there.

2006 World Series of Poker

We spent most of our time working at the Paradise Poker booth at the Gaming Expo, watching the Main Event, or helping run the Roller Girls, the street marketing team that was promoting Paradise throughout Vegas during the tournament.

Dinner at Batista's

Ladies at Hard Rock

We had a lot of visitors. Marsha and Ken. Michael and Alyssa. Brooke and Pat. Allyson. We always make sure to get two queens wherever we go so that friends and family can come and stay with us!

Pat and Brooke

Ladies Eating Cotton Candy

Kerri had quite the luck with the pokerati. She ran into Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (2001 World Series Champion) several times (he was staying on our floor) and talked to him for 20 minutes one day. The next night we were up at the Voodoo Lounge in the Rio and she met Steve Dannenmann (2005 World Series Runner up and winner of $4+ million).

Ladies and Steve Dannenmann

Jamie Gold walked away as the 2006 Champion and winner of $12 million. Not too shabby for two weeks' worth of work. Although he may not be able to keep it all.

And Sadie is "All-In"