My last three blog posts

My last 3 blog posts have NO comments. None at all. Throw me a friggin' bone here, people. Isn't the point of blogging to share a bunch of stupid stories with people and then have them comment on said stupid stories? Do my stories need to get stupider? More stupid? Stupid-endous? Stupidtacular? I feel like they are getting stupider by the second... I can feel the stupid.

Fun stuff from Jury Duty

So it was a couple of weeks ago that I went to jury duty. Iv'e pretty much told everyone about the facts of the case and how it turned out. So I'm going to post a few things that I thought were interesting about the whole experience.

Some interesting names of people in my jury pool:
Quintas
Robota (yes, as in "domo arigato, Mrs. Robota, domo domo....)
And Melinda, the baliff.

The jury sits in a slightly raised seating area, on the side of the courtroom. There are two rows of chairs, with a small wall separating the jury seating area from the courtroom floor. I found it highly amusing that someone had carved graffiti on the inside of that wall from the jury seats! Someone had been so bored during a trial that they pulled out their car keys and started carving on the wall! (There are no pocket knives or any sharp objects allowed into the building so I figure they did it with car keys.)

Our judge was an older man, who had come out of retirement to help with the case overload in Arapahoe county. (Talk about an overload, the case I was on was already 2 years old....) He was a very astute judge, who was spot on with the information on the case and was very sharp. I did find it amusing though that it looked like he was asleep during most of the trial. He would lean back in his chair, and look out through the bottom of his eyelids through his glasses. Just when I was convinced he would start snoring, one of the lawyers would object to something and he would instantly take care of it.

Couple of things I learned:
The state does provide enough coffee for everyone. (In both the jury selection room and in the actual jurors deliberation room)
They do NOT provide food. (muffins, doughnuts, etc.)
Your job is required by law to pay you for at least 3 days worth of jury duty. After that, the government will pay you $50 dollars a day....I'm still waiting for my $50 check!

Castlewood Canyon

So I live on the Southeast end of the Denver Metro area. I really liked it when I lived on the west side of town, becuase I was close to the foothills and plenty of good hiking. But, I don't, so I either have to drive accross town, or find somewhere near me to hike. I have heard of a place called Castlewood Canyon, which is near Parker. (about 15 miles from my place.)

So last weekend I took a drive there to check it out. The closer I got to the park, I realized that it is far enough out of town and is down inside a nice canyon with pine trees and cool rock formations. As I drove up to the gate, I rolled down my window to pay my entry fee (its a state park, which was kind of a downer...) and the Ranger at the gate had a bullsnake wrapped around her neck! I said" Hi! How much do I owe?" She said "6 dollars." I said, "Ok, do you know you have a snake around your neck?" She laughed and said"Yes, this is Sid. He's super nice." I quickly said goodbye to the Ranger and Sid and drove in to find a parking space.

I found a spot near one of the trails and just started to walk. It was a 4 mile loop so I figured that was perfect for what I wanted to do. The trail was nice, relatively unkept (which was nice) and had plenty of shade with the big pine trees. The trail wrapped down into the canyon, and ran away from Parker Road. It actually went far enough so I couldn't hear the traffic and was really starting to have a nice outdoor experience. It's about at this point, that I something caught my eye, so I stopped to take a look....it was a deer leg just off the trail. Now, I have seen carcases of animals before and they don't really bother me. But what really caught my attention, was that this particular leg was completely cleaned of all meat. Stripped raw. And, the rest of the deer body wasn't anywhere nearby..... so something had taken this leg and dragged it over by the trail to eat it...

If there was any doubt that I was actually having a good outdoor experience, it was now gone. I continued hiking for a couple more miles and then came back. I didn't see any wild life except for birds and squirrels. But the hike was nice, the views were great and Sid was a nice snake. I will definetely head over there again.

Slacking

Yes I'm slacking with the blogs. Yes I went hiking at Castlewood Canyon this last weekend and want to post about it. Yes Iv'e been through two days of jury duty and want to post about it. No I'm not going to do it now. Thanks.

Go back to Oregon, lady!

Dear Lady from Oregon,
I know you will never read this, because you are not one of my blog followers. But that's ok. I'm just putting this out there into the universe. I'm sure some karma will come back to get you. But let me tell you this, I don't appreciate you cutting me off on the interstate, and then throwing your half eaten bagel out the window. As it exploded on the ground and lauched chunks onto my clean truck, I was not happy. Then as you proceded to quickly change lanes and cut off another person, I really wasn't happy. So please, take your polluting, non-safe driving, jerky ass back to Oregon. We (all descent Coloradoan's) don't want you here.

Lost

Iv'e been thinking about this post for a while...not sure I'll actually be able to cover everything Iv'e thought about, but here's my best shot.

I saw an episode of Lost in my Television Appreciation class at Metro back in 2004. The episode I saw was when Sayid met Danielle, and she told him that she hadn't seen "other people" on the island, but she knew they were there....then Sayid went out into the jungle and heard the "chi chi ahh ahh" of the others in the jungle...I was hooked.

Although the show's quality has declined over the years, Iv'e always looked forward to watching the weeks' episode, and speculating on what will happen. It's been more than just a TV show to me, and to many people. Here's some things that I will always remember when I think about Lost.

1. The reason I bought a Tivo was because of Lost. I had to work every Wed. night, and my VCR would not record Lost correctly and I would be pissed! So I upgraded to a DVR and ditched the VCR for good. Thanks, Lost.

2. Cameron's old web board was there, but not really being used. Lost gave us all an excuse to log on every Wed. night, or Thursday morning to discuss the episode and throw out therories about the show and what would happen. Then after talking about Lost, we would go on to discuss any old topic. It was a great way to have a social connection with people I didn't get to see very often. Thanks, Lost.

3. I was able to introduce the show to most all of my good friends. I can take credit for turning them on to a good show, and I can continue to build my massive ego with that knowledge. Thanks, Lost.

4. Every year, the season finale would fall on the week that we would take our traditional memorial day camping trip. I would always look forward to coming home from my sweet ass camping trip, and being able to watch the season finale. It was always a great ending to a great few days. I still think of Lost when I think of camping at Lake Dillon. Thanks, Lost.

I'm sure there are many memories of the show that I am forgetting. And maybe it's a little sentimental. But even though the show isn't what it was in the first 2 seasons, it's still one of my favorite shows, and it will be missed.

Thanks, Lost.

The Donkeys and Donkey fans

My Dad always calls the Denver Broncos, "The Donkeys." It's not really a derogetory term, as he is pretty impartial if the Broncos win or loose. I share the same enthusiasm about the Broncos. I am a very casual fan, who will watch the games on Sundays even though I occasionally fall asleep on the couch during them. But overall I really don't care what happens to them. So here is my list of grievances against the Donkeys and their fans:

1. I was excited when Denver drafted Jay Cutler a couple years ago. Cutler is mobile, has a strong arm, and brings a swagger to the game. He also made it to the PRO BOWL. I will revisit this fact in a minute... Then Josh McDaniels comes to town and decides that Matt Cassel is a better QB than Cutler, even though Cassel has little NFL experience. So Cutler's hand is forced, and he asks for a trade. Suddenly, the Denver media and fans just decide to turn on Cutler and call him the bad guy. How would you feel if your brand new boss came into town, and wanted to replace you with some other guy without even giving you a chance? After you had proven to be one of the top performers at your job the year before? It's rediculous. So the Broncos traded one of my favorite players.

2. McDaniels can't get along with Brandon Marshall. Somehow he manages to piss off one of the leagues most exciting young players. All Marshall wanted was a long term deal, which he had earned as one of the leagues top recievers the 2 years before. Great recievers are hard to come by, and he too, like Cutler was traded.

3. Denver completely blows this years' draft, with a 1st round selection of Tim Tebow, Florida QB. Every NFL draft person, scout and housewife knows that Tebow doesn't have the skills to play QB at the NFL level, at least for a couple years, if ever. He still has an ackward throwing motion, and poor footwork. They could have picked Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame, or stuck with the recently aquired Brady Quinn. But no, they have to go with the QB from the spread system who is way overhyped. C'mon Donkeys...

4. The fans - Now, I occasionally jump on the bandwagon, i'll admit. Like the Nuggets for the playoffs. I don't watch basketball throughout the regular season (another blog for another time) but I will watch the playoff games. But Donkey fans, it's a different story. Take last year for instance..The Broncos opened up the season going 6-0, where McDaniels was appointed football czar to Obama and Kyle Orton was the next John Elway. Every media outlet was all about the Donkeys, talking about Super Bowls and championships. Then Denver manages to loose 8 of their 10 next games and drop out of the playoff race......what happened? McDaniels was the end all/be all of coaches? Kyle Orton was the leader that Denver needed. Where are all the die hard fans now?

All this adds up to a couple of things. As long as the Donkeys continue to trade away their best players and waste draft picks for an unproven coach, I will continue to call them the Donkeys, and fall asleep during every game Sunday afternoon.

Oh yeah, and they should wear those ugly brown and yellow uniforms every game until they make it back to the Super Bowl.