Fresh in February

Now that Justin Timberlake is back doing what he does best, I figure I should get back at it, too. So, I'll be bringing you something fresh every day in February.

First up - you should know that the New Year brought in new views and a new roommate for me.

Every morning that I wake up, I turn over, look at my new roommate and light up as I wonder to myself how I got so lucky. Because even on cloudy days, which we've had quite a few of recently, this one never looses it's gleam.

So, everyone, meet my new roommate.

Denver.

Open House

The month of July was like one big open house - I hosted two of my best friends, two separate weeks within two weeks, I went to an open house as I considered buying my first home (not happening) and thanks to some closure over Strongbows on a rainy afternoon - my heart was, once again, one big open house.

Lisa left sea level for the mile high mid-July. Her first night here, we broke her in to Colorado with a camping trip.

The rest involved a night of Saturday Night Shenanigans (which always end with a trip to Benny Blanco's for a late-night slice of that NY pizza), bottomless mimosas (I know, you're shocked), Jazz in the Park, Film on the Rocks with E.T. and a backyard barbecue.

Linz, Lisa and I (among those few fav others) have been friends since we were 12 and we've changed, moved, loved and lost in the meantime. We've found ourselves in 2012, lucky enough to get together not just once (Lauren's wedding) but twice (CA --> DEN) and it really fills my heart with warmth and love. Yes, it's true, the older we get, the harder it is to get away and get that time with the ones who've known you the longest and have you watched you grow from girls in to women and love you just the same. But when it does happen - it reminds us of who we are, where we came from and how incredibly lucky we are to have the friendships that we do.

The six days between when Lisa departed and Chloe came from Denver: Round Two, brought the UMS which was an adventure all in and of itself. The only one who really got a break during that time was Gordon and that's only because he was in a cone.

....And heartbroken, apparently.

Chloe arrived and this trip brought us Florence + the Machine at Red Rocks (where, yes, I cried again), a movie at the Mayan with My Two Dads, dinner at Linger, rooftop drinks at the Irish Snug and Symphony on the Rocks. Oh, and champagne, of course.

Fill that in with a visit from Aunt Karen and all the times that I am lucky to drive a quick 30 minutes to meet Pengs in Morrison for drinks and well, it's no wonder July flew by.

 So I grasp at the last month of Summer with open arms, an open heart and well, always an open house. 

We'll be waiting for you. 
 

Colorado : One Year Anniversary

January 9, 2012 officially marked one year since I arrived to the state of Colorado. The day before, of course, marked the day that I left Las Vegas - and you know me, I'm always looking for a reason to celebrate. Everything is an event, and this - the one year anniversary of the Great Kate Escape - would be no different.

The original plan was to ice skate and have an Italian (see: wine-filled) dinner at JJ Madwell's but in Colorado form, the forecast called for snow on Saturday - making the outlook on the trip up to Evergreen/Pine less than desirable (hey, I may be one year in but that still doesn't mean I like driving in the snow).

So, we called in Plan B - as in Broncos.

In case you've been sleeping - the Broncos played the Steelers this past Sunday in the first round of the AFC playoffs. The Wicklers, with Michael in tow, came down the hill and we headed to the Irish Snug for a little Sunday game watching action - which turned out to be a total understatement of the word action.

This Sunday turned in to quite the celebration - not only for my one year, and not only for the Broncos actually beating the Steelers in OT - but for the Tebowing Broncos tees that deserved a celebration all on their own. #hysterical

And now, we have something to wear this Sunday. Go, Broncos! 

Shots of Cheese : Twenty : Neighborhood

My whole life I've wanted to live in a neighborhood where I could walk around smiling at people who passed me by (and receive a smile back), stop and talk to the guy who walks his dog at the same time I do, visit the local coffee shop, walk my dog around a city park with the most beautiful hanging trees you've ever seen, wander around looking at the houses that have been standing for 100+ years, watch the leaves turn colors come fall and have the ability to walk, bike or cab to everything I need.

I got all that when I moved to Capitol Hill. 

What I didn't expect was the pain of on-street parking (although you should see my parrallel parking skills now), shoes strung over the wire outside of my balcony, and my rent to increase an absurd amount thanks for the demand for such a neighborhood.

But hey, you take the good with the bad. And the good is so worth it.

Neighborhood
Taken in Capitol Hill on Corona St.
Captured on November 2, 2011

Fall Foliage

Sunday afternoon, Gord and I took a drive up to Pine, for a little doggie playtime and a little mommy mimosa time.

As we were taking the (long) drive up 285, I can't believe we didn't crash. You see, I've never really lived anywhere to witness the change of the seasons. Sure, I grew up in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area but when I was 7, I think I was way more concerned with jumping in to the leave pile than appreciating the true beauty of them being on the tree before the fall.

Eventually, I pulled over - for Gordon's safety - to take some photos (filter free) to share with you here because you should see this. 

If time (and weather) abides, I would love to get up to Rocky National Park or Aspen, to lie on my back and take in all the colors.

And yes, then jump in to a giant pile of leaves.

Happy fall, my babies.

Good Vibrations

I don't know how much more Americana you get then The Beach Boys.

Yes. I may be biased. If you know Carl Knoch, my father, you can understand why. The Beach Boys were my very first concert at Merriweather Pavillions in Columbia, MD. I was 5-years-old and enjoyed the view from my father's shoulders.

Another....my dad, obviously, a huge Beach Boys fan - wouldn't allow us to listen to the Beach Boys on our way to Stone Harbor for the annual Knoch family beach trip - until we could smell the ocean. I remember every year, rolling down the window, sniffing as hard as Gordon - trying to get just one whiff of saltwater in the air so I could tell him, "Dad, it's time."

More? Ok. Depends on who you ask - but my dad and I are convinced that my first official word was Ba-Ba-Ba because of Barbara Ann - you know, the one to take your hand who's got you rockin' and rollin' who made you take a chance when you were lookin' for romance.

Last one. I promise. 'God Only Knows' has been on every single love mix c.d./playlist I've ever made a boyfriend. Did you date me? Then you know it's true. It's one of the greatest love songs ever written (next to 'Escape' - the Pina Colada song) - that and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' - which, wouldn't you know it - is another song by the Beach Boys.

Obviously - these boys from California have been a huge influence on my life, so you can understand my excitement when I found out that they were performing at Colorado Remembers - a free concert on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th at Civic Center Park (five blocks from my place). I immediately shared on Facebook (I know, shocking) that I was so excited to re-live my first concert at age 28. My new friend, Jennie, responded with a "we're so going!"

Leading up to this date - I watched a ton of September 11th specials. The 'Dateline' with Tom Brokaw - tears - so many tears. We all spent the weekend talking about where we were, who we were with and how we couldn't believe that it had been ten years. By the time the actual date of September 11th rolled around on Sunday - I was ready for a celebration of life. Thankfully, this celebration happened to be led by the Beach Boys.

Jennie and I danced our butts off to Sloop John B, Be True To Your School, Help Me Rhonda, Surfin' USA, I Get Around, Kokomo and, of course, Good Vibrations. And thanks to Mike Love and co. - we were, indeed, feelin' those Good Vibrations on a day that certainly needed a little California sunshine.

Beers and Bikes: Tour de Fat 2011

Part of moving to Colorado requires one saying goodbye to her love of Michelob Ultra and hello to a better beer drinking future. I chose to adopt New Belgium as my favorite CO brewery after tasting Mothership Wit for the first time on our camping trip back in June. If you know me, you know that I have the tendency to become very, very loyal to brands (i.e. their dream consumer). For example, 1995 - 2005 I wore all Volcom, all the time - which has now been replaced with all H&M, all the time. Toms on my feet. I've got six pairs (three with holes now in the upper left toe which makes me feel like a hobo and causes me to question said loyalty but I digress...). And since moving to CO and discovering another requirement - that of the Nalgene bottle - I now own three and have a forth picked out as soon as they launch their translucent line next week.

As part of adopting New Belgium as my brand for beer, I made sure I was not going to miss their annual bike parade party for the people aka: Tour de Fat.

Tour de Fat is an annual tour put on by New Belgium that travels across 13 cities with the mission of connecting people with bikes, beer and community. And that they did here in Denver on Saturday. With the best of New Belgium beers priced at 1 per token and tokens only costing a 5 spot a piece, it's no wonder $50,000 was raised to benefit Bike Denver. We also were incredibly Denver in the fact that we were at 93% sustainable thanks to New Belgium's Composting Offices and, well, us being Denver.

Josh, Linz and I had to get creative with our bike lock-up when we arrived to City Park where the event was taking place. See here. That's three bikes on one U-lock.

Kristen and Jake (recently back from their summer in Alaska....YAY!) joined us, as well and overall it was an afternoon full of people watching, costume commenting, games, beer and biking. They had Rideable ARTifcats where you could ride these crazy bikes with shoes as wheels or wheels of wheels. The boys played Toss the Tire and this girl even got herself a tour tee-shirt which she hasn't done since Britney back in 2000.

We had so much fun we had no choice but to recover by picking up Popeye's Chicken on the way back to my place - making it the first, and possibly not the last, time I ever had fried chicken in my basket. 

We've already all made the pact to get up nice and early for Tour de Fat 2012 and I'm pretty sure Josh is going to start sewing our costumes together next week.

 I mean - honestly, what is better than an afternoon filled with the above? Love live the tour!

Q-U-E-E-N-O!

I attended Drag Queen Bingo at Hamburger Mary's last night with my friends Taylor and Tommy. Prior to last week and seeing Taylor tag himself at said Bingo, I had no idea that something so genius existed, otherwise, we all know if would have made the Discovering Denver post.

Hosted by Empresses' Jackie Summers and Brittany Michaels - this is not your grandmother's Bingo. The ladies will call you out for just about anything, their language will make you blush and the shapes you have to get marked on your Bingo card - well let's just say they're not your traditional hard ways.

As I'm drinking my glass of wine, thinking about how my stomach hurts just from laughing so hard and likely those free coconut shots the ladies brought around last round - this girl goes ahead and gets B-I-N-G-O.


Yup, that's right - first time with the Queens is a charm, my babies, and this blondie has $15 to blow at Hamburger Mary's.

So if you're looking for me on a Tuesday around 9 p.m. - look no further than 17th and Pearl. I'll be the one with the boa on...oh wait...well, ok, I'll be the one in flats.

+ Mores in CO

Over the 4th of July, I was not just celebrating the Independence of America but also, the arrival of my +more.

Wait...have I ever explained the whole +more thing to you guys? Because if not, you're probably WTF'ing right now. A couple years back (2 maybe?), Lauren and I were shopping at Patty's Closet in Vegas. There was a man there, who seemed a little light in his loafers but was certainly following Lauren around the store as if that wasn't the case - but I digress. We tend to get the sister question a lot. Gee, I have no idea why.


So, the man, who was an employee of Patty's Closet, asked us if we were sisters. Lauren answered that no, we were just best friends and I felt the need to chime in "and more!" - because, apparently, I just didn't feel that the term BEST FRIENDS really captured us and what we have. It still doesn't. You know what does though? +more.

Moving on.....+more came in on a Friday night and in our typical style, we decided to scratch going out for a drink and just pick up a (Sexy!) pizza, enjoy some wine, exchange some gifts and spend the next 3 hours catching up as if we don't talk on the phone 6 times a week.

Saturday brought Dazbog and bagels in the Cheesman with Gordon, followed by meeting Andy for lunch at Parisi in the Highlands. Yes, we like to eat, OK? It's like our thing.

We then headed to DAM to check out their newest exhibit - Marvelous Mud. And you know what was truly marvelous about this particular trip? It was FREE. Yeah, thanks to my shiny new Colorado license, we were officially residents and got to roam the museum for free. Which was especially good since we got there at 4:15 and the museum closed at 5 (really DAM, on a Saturday?!).






Saturday night brought more eating - this time at City O City, a vegetarian restaurant in my neighborhood that makes the best Moscow Mule in the city. Then bars bars and more bars and stump stump stump



We, appropriately, coined it 'redneck golf' as you basically take turns hammering a nail in to a tree stump - this quickly became Lauren's favorite discovery of the trip. ...Before sleep sleep and then eat eat (yum Steuben's for breakfast) before heading to Morrison for a little...oh, what's that.....DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER ACTION?


Oh yes, my friends, that is not Sasquatch much to man's belief, but Dog himself. In the flesh. At the Morrison Inn.

I know, we couldn't believe it either so we had no choice but to burn off some of our excitement by a few games of good 'ol Big Buck Hunter. Which, as you know, and is evident below, we take very very seriously.




We stayed up in Pine that night where Michael, Lauren and I took Linzi and Josh for everything they had (or just their pride for that night) in an intense (or just really fun) game of Cranium (and of course) - SHOTSKIS!



Monday brought grill time followed by a last hurrah dinner and a movie for +mores.



As always, having a piece of home in my new home made this for a highlighted weekend of the summer.


Love you +more! Can't wait for our next reunion (3 weeks!).