Mile High Mile

Today Eric, our friend Matt, and I ran in the Mile High Mile Run at 8:15 this morning! Aren't you impressed?! We certainly were, as none of us are runners. It was literally only a mile run and schools, cub scout groups and mayoral candidates took part in the race. It's really not about being the quickest to finish the mile {it's not timed}, it's about having a good time and raising money for Denver's environmental charity, the GreenWay Foundation. 

The track, if you will, was pretty neat. The starting line was in front of Invesco Field {Bronco's stadium}, you ran around the perimeter of the stadium, into the field and the finish line was the 50 yard line!

Neither of us had been in Bronco's stadium before so it was fun to get to be on the field the first time! 

Stadium entrance and the starting line

I think the organizers wanted us to feel like official race runners so they gave out track tags! Too Funny.

Run, Eric, Run!

Tunnel to the field

Woo! 50 Yard Line/Finish Line

Laundry Room Re-do

It's common knowledge that we've had some "plumbing issues" since this past summer. Earlier this past week we had another issue with water not staying in the pipes like it should. This time there was so much water that came out of a pipe in the laundry room that it soaked the carpet {who puts carpet in a laundry room in the first place?!} So after a day and a half of having towels down and a fan going the rug was still wet and was beginning to develop, what I'll nicely call a "funk". Our landlord, not only got a new plumber to come and take a look at the pipes {there may be a collapsed portion of pipe in the alley- scope on Monday, so we'll keep you posted}, but she gave us the go ahead on ripping out the gross carpet and putting down vinyl flooring! 

Before you ask, no we didn't tile the floor, because a) the concrete was uneven  and b)vinyl was cheap and would serve the same purpose tile would for 1/2 the cost. Eric had the day off on Friday, so when I left for work we had smelly carpet and when I got home I had a nice clean laundry room!

The removed carpet

The concrete that had stuff on it that required Eric to scrape the floor before putting the vinyl down.

Vinyl going down

Finished product :)

Eric's Birthday Weekend

Eric's official birthday was Saturday, but we started celebrating on Friday night. We went to Carmine's on Penn,  a local, family-style Italian restaurant, with a group of 9 friends. We ate so well! The food there was amazing and we had a great, late night with friends. Eric also got some very nice gifts from friends.

Saturday was a little bit bittersweet. Eric opened the presents I got him, and we went to the beer store so he could stock up on brewing supplies for a batch he wanted to start on Sunday, so all that was exciting. However, it was the one year anniversary of Eric's brother, Adam's passing. Adam lost a hard fought battle with cancer on April 2, 2010. We love him and miss him a great deal. 

Sunday was craziness in the kitchen! Eric brewed beer, I made chocolate chip cookies and then Eric cooked Osso Bucco. It was a dish Adam had mentioned wanting to cook, so Eric thought it'd be appropriate to give it a shot. Osso Bucco is an Italian dish {apparently we're on an Italian cooking kick}, and it's veal shanks cooked in a vegetable and white wine sauce. It was really yummy {sorry! we ate it before I thought about getting pictures}, but I think we could have used pork. Veal tasted very similar and was double the cost of pork! Oh well, live and learn. For dessert we had key lime cheesecake. It's Eric's favorite cheesecake and something that I have made him for his last 5 birthdays! 

All in all it was a good birthday weekend. I'm already trying to figure out what I should do for his birthday next year since he'll be the big 3-0!

This is one of 6 copper cups that Eric received from friends. They are the cups that Moscow Mules are made in - the good ones anyway. The drink is really refreshing for summer and the recipe can be found here , if you're interested.

A digital meat thermometer, a peppercorn blend and Bourbon smoked sea salt. All my gifts to Eric. He was surprised at how excited he was over salt & pepper!

Key Lime Cheesecake. Yes, I know you wish you had taste-o-vision.