Symbolic

In case it isn't obvious, this is an ice sculpture, they put it outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art today at noon. This picture was taken at 8 pm. One of the guys in charge was bemoaning the fact that it wasn't melting faster.

Denver has been invaded!

Denver has turned into a city I hardly recognize in the past 24 hours. It's amazing to see people on the streets on Sunday. There was a long line for the Boulder-bound bus this morning at 9 am. Cops with full riot gear are all over the place. Temporary structures are all over the place and apparently 15,000 people from the media are also here. Pics and updates later, I've taken lots of them. Saw John Connyors and many people who worship him speak tonight. It's so cool to be part of history and see so much surrounding the political process. There will be such a variety of activities going on all week, all I can think is how sad would it be to miss some cool concert or speaking engagement with some fascinating person?

“The geeks shall inherit the earth”

The title of this blog is the motto of TechStars--a Boulder-based incubator for 10 startups every summer. Tonight was an end-of-summer party in Boulder hosted by one of the TechStars founders. I was invited by the owners of the company I'll be working for soon (since they were part of the TechStars incubator this summer).

The idea of being part of an incubator has always fascinated me--I think once upon a time I thought the only way I'd ever be able to get into business would be to be part of one of these programs. It was fun to see so many young, very intelligent people who have walked away from good corporate jobs to try their hand at a startup. What's cool, too, is the incubator is its own business. Its owners are people who provide a variety of advice, help the young entrepreneurs meet investors, mentor them and give them things like money and desk space. They do all of this in exchange for a percentage ownership in each of the companies. Win-win, you think?

So I had a great time hanging out with a large contingent of the company, had some beers and it was one of those magical summer evenings.

Meanwhile, back in my regular life, Denver is becoming a really hectic, chaotic mess of temporary structures, glitz from t.v. crews, barriers, cops, you name it. I am truly dreading if I need to drive. Right now my gas gauge is below empty so I hope that's incentive enough to not be tempted to get in the car and go anywhere. All week.

Also, I've been finishing up stuff at my job. I have only good things to say about how they took my news about leaving (very shocking considering the reaction I got last time I changed jobs). They also took me and the group's intern to lunch today. It's sad to say goodbye to my co-workers as I like them very much, but we're already planning on getting together for more rock band...

And this morning started with breakfast with an old co-worker and friend from ReadyTalk. Fun to catch up with him...and have good breakfast. Now with all day today being spent eating and socializing, it's hard to calm down to sleep, thus the really lengthy post.

So, as for the title of this post, what do you think? I'm absolutely positive of it, except that it might be short-lived as geeks have this tendency to not reproduce (I'm living proof of that).

at the right time

sometimes people and things are placed purposely. After a long day, I ran an errand and, while leaving the building I had been to, I saw some tents concerning running so it made sense to check it out. A moment later there was one of my teammates standing there and he talked me into a beer. I needed that! Turns out there's this organized run and it's sponsored by a bar. Smart business!

M.O.

There's almost never a dull moment in my life. I try to keep it that way. For someone who steers clear of roller coasters, I still manage to do all sorts of things that scare me to pieces. Here are two examples.

Tonight it was time to start getting comfy with the cross bike since I would like to race it this fall and winter. No guarantees on that. I did MANY laps on the grass at Wash Park (perfectly gorgeous out there, btw) before I could fester up the courage to dismount via throwing my right leg over the bike and land gracefully on the left. I'm such a chicken. There will be lots of group cross training sessions so hopefully those help. It'll be fun to point and laugh if I try to race (you're welcome to do so, btw).

As a side note, betcha had no idea how many goose turds there are in the grass!

The news I alluded to in the last post is that I'm changing jobs (again). I've been at this one for a little over 4 months and it's felt like longer than that (in a good way). I like the people very much, I enjoy the work and I haven't had any complaints since I started in April.

However, an opportunity I couldn't refuse recently (as in the day after my 31st birthday) came along in the form of a lunchtime call that I returned while standing outside of Whole Foods. The position is VP of Technology in a small tech company in Broomfield. I'll be in the position to help the company grow, be part of the decision making, still be able to stay close enough to the technical side of the business and take on management responsibilities. If you know me, you might imagine how thrilled I am at the possibilities.

I love small business and especially being able to test out theories and ideas from the many business books I've read over the past 10 years. I have dreamed about being in this kind of position for so long. The owners of the company and its employees have a great deal of my respect as I have gotten to know them through a variety of interactions. I would not have made the move if I weren't 100% comfortable about the people. I'd imagine, as is typically true in start-ups, that there will be some crazy hours and trusting in each other will be a major component of the company's success.

Here we go, time for another wild ride!

Rainy Day

Today was an officially rainy day. The sun did come out in Colorado style, but well into the afternoon. Everyone here had to be happy since most lawns are well burned at this point in the summer.

It was a good time to get to the gym and start lifting again. I got back to my old gym and it felt so great to be there. It's the only gym that I really relish going to...the workouts there never seem to be as long or challenging as in other gyms. Maybe it's because of the lack of people, the lack of worry of having to get to certain weights or machines in time before someone else takes them.

They televised track racing on tv today! Very cool to watch Taylor Phinney...he might not have won today but it's a very good chance we will see lots of winning out of him in the future.

I'll be cheering at N. Boulder park tomorrow if it's dry out. Hope to see lots of my Boulderite riding buddies up there. I've gotten to Boulder so few times this summer, it's pitiful! For the record, I miss the Boulder riding and the people I've ridden with lots in the past. An Ecopass might be coming my way and another change that should facilitate somewhat more Boulder riding in the future. Monday's blog will explain more. :)

Watched the movie Wall-E tonight, it's another brilliant Pixar creation. It's astounding what they dream up and then are able to execute so beautifully. Who needs actors and actresses?

Gold

Just a quick shout out to Kristin Armstrong who took the Gold in the Time Trial (the one who wins the TT is the best cyclist in my opinion). She's an outstanding competitor and represents the sport well. Congrats to Kristin! (As a side note, they actually showed pieces of the women's TT on prime time t.v. last night.) And if you're wondering, yes, I've raced against her, (last year in Nature Valley), but there was *no* similarity in our finishing times.

Mt. Evans and a Wedding in a Day

Rode with some teammates today up Mt. Evans...then down and more miles (hard effort on many of them) because it was looking like I might be late for the wedding that I needed to get to by 5 pm. 96 miles total. Epic. Amazingly fun. And, it appears that my base might not be as badly damaged as I thought it had been from all of the time I've not been training. We had sag support provided by Kim...it was the best support ever & allowed for 3 wardrobe changes during the ride to continually keep warm & dry. It was chilly up there, but by far the best weather I've ever seen on Mt. Evans. We all had a great time. And then off to the wedding! I changed and showered at my teammate's home and flew off to the wedding. Made it just a few minutes late, but didn't miss much and was able to sneak in unnoticeably. It was so well done (did you know that Colorado has a castle? Yes it does, and it's so beautiful and warm, much unlike you'd expect a castle to be on the inside).


Here are the two love birds eating their mint chocolate cake.
This picture doesn't do the castle justice. It's so high, the views are unbelievable.

Oh yeah, and the cuisine was buffalo, trout, mixed greens, potatoes and steamed veggies. What a post-ride meal. Hopefully now the adrenaline of the whole day has passed, it would be nice to sleep. Tomorrow is, once again, a full day.

31

Goodness, apparently I'm updating Facebook a lot more than this blog! Lots going on, but when I stepped out of work Tuesday, it felt like the first breath of summer air I've breathed this year. Magical! Wednesday I turned 31...10 years since 21. I'm happy to be older now. Wouldn't wish to rewind the clock a moment.

In an attempt to make my bday last as long as it possibly could, I woke up at 5:15 and went for a solo ride to think about the upcoming year. The camera came with me...the goal of the ride was to find something that would symbolize 31.
This painted brick wall jumped out and seemed the obvious choice. Then I thought about it, how appropriate! Wednesday evening I went out with a few co-workers and we had beers together (I switched from the standard Guinness or stout on tap to pale ale and it was quite good). It was fun to have a celebration of sorts for my bday and I didn't expect that from the work crowd (though they are usually in the mood for going out). After that a couple of us went to an indoor gym and climbed the walls.

The next celebration was tonight--Carol's bachelorette party. The girls met up in LoDo and we had such a fun time! I was sad that I had recently thrown away the extra candy necklaces from Arrick's bachelorette party...they would have come in handy. Alas, Carol received a candy bra and a few other candy items unmentionable on a pg blog such as this one. ;) We had a super fun time, it was great to see her and others from the women's peloton whom I've not seen in a very long time.

Carol and Tim are getting married this weekend! So that celebration will be coming soon, I can't wait. They are such a good couple, it's awesome to see people like them get together and tie the knot.

Sunday is the bday party with family. Another fun time! I'll take it, considering I've been all work and no play girl for too long this summer.

Fed Center Spectator

Today I didn't end up racing. It was cookin' out there in the sun. Not being fully rested, it just didn't seem like a good idea to try to race again, as much as I wanted to. It's pretty important that it is a good experience (okay, now, how many races have I done and not liked? I can count them on one hand & I've probably done around 100 races--for those of you who aren't familiar with bike racing, 100 is a low number compared to most people who have been racing awhile). But, racing after training is a much different animal than going in without having a real interval training session since, ummm, last year at this time.

ColoBikeLaw.com did a fabulous job of organizing the race. It seemed to go like clock-work to me (sitting at the registration table). And, it was sooooo cool seeing many friends, teammates (old and new) and getting all excited to be back in the pack.

The one thing that keeps bouncing through my head is what a good idea cross racing would be. Only issue is that it seems easy to tip over when mounting and dismounting. My bike is getting older and I don't have spare tubes, tires, etc. but this year might be different than years past when I'm just too tired from racing all season to consider cross racing. We'll see!