Drive.

My undying love for Ryan Gosling is no secret but even I have to admit when I saw the trailer for 'Drive' I was like 'Hmm - fast and furious?' but at the same time - I knew that my boy does not sign on to a bad movie.

Fast forward to this past week as the buzz started to build around 'Drive.' 97% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Friday. Rave reviews from my most respected film critics. And then EW listed it as their #1 MUST for the week.

SOLD.

So last night, I met Andy and Angela for dinner at (the newly remodeled) City o City before seeing catching a 7:20 showing of what I will now list as one of my favorite movies.

The entire movie was totally unexpected. Violent at times. Intense. Gosling, even with limited lines, does not disappoint. And in case me telling you to go or the fact that it stars the hottest man alive isn't enough to get you to go - then the soundtrack should. 80's electronica heaven. Preview here.

You can thank me later.

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.

SSFDenver

Hey, Denver - could you feel the ground shake a little bit last week? Yeah that was from Eener and I shakin' it to Watch the Throne. Could you hear the giggles coming from Apartment 17 in Capitol Hill? Yeah that was Eener and I dying over the latest episode of The Soup. And could you hear my heart break Sunday around 6 when I had to return Eener to the airport so she could get back to Vegas and being a mommy to Max?

It was a great weekend - full of eating, drinking, laughing and catching up as two girlfriends who haven't had one-on-one time in months usually do. We took it easy with Gordon - had brunch filled with mimosas and Bloody Mary's - visited Morrison - and caught a Rockies game. All in less than 48 hours.

Leaving Vegas was easy in lots of ways - but it was hard in a lot of ways, too - and Eener, you were one of those hard ways. Thank you so much for taking your first "Mommy-Free" weekend to come and visit your Knochers.

I miss you already.

Discovering Denver #32: AQUA GOLF!

Much to my (pleasent) surprise, I was told by my date on Monday that we would be heading to Aqua Golf for our Tuesday night outing. You mean the place where the driving range is located over a giant lake and you just hit balls in to the water?!? Once he confirmed, that yes, that was indeed the idea of Aqua Golf - I think my response was something along the lines of....

SO. EXCITED.

I'd been to a driving range once before - and I'm pretty sure that once before was some time in high school. Now my put-put skills are pretty much on lock but um actual golfing skills - eh, not so much.

As my date was trying to show me that there was a tab bit more to golf than just swinging at the ball and trying to hit it as far as possible - I started to think that Old Fashioned (or two) I'd had over dinner may have not been the best idea. I could not remember to not swing my arms or my hips, letting my upper body do the work all while keeping my left foot firmly on the ground.

Luckily, I had a very patient teacher and eventually - about 100 balls and likely 132 swings in (I may have missed the mark a few times)- I got the hang of it**.

*Kind of. *And am still so incredibly sore two days later.


Watch out, Tiger. Or maybe this means I can finally play in JT's Shriners Open. Hey, a girl can dream.

Discovering Denver #25: Brunch at Jonesy's

Every once in awhile, I have to go back to either my 100 post or my Discovering Denver post and most of the time - I realize that I have since completed something on the list that I can now cross off and share with you.

Since my last visit - I've realized that thanks to my shiny new dating life - I've not only done one thing on my Discovering Denver list but I am going to be able to mark off another come tonight.

I had brunch at Jonesy's a few weekends back. I had the French Toast that is served with maple syrup (dad would be proud) and vanilla bean whipped cream (which I would have eaten as an entire plate itself). Unfortunately, I was heading up to Pine that afternoon so I was unable to take advantage of the bottomless mimosa offer but the coffee was superb. As was the company. So overall - Jonesy's gets a five-star rating from me and I am sure it won't be long until I return.

Afterall - I've got to get back for those bottomless mimosas.

Denver Cruiser Ride

Last night was my first experience of the Denver Cruiser Ride. And let me tell you, it will not be my last.

Even before I moved here, I had heard about this gathering of bike riders every Wednesday night throughout the summer in Denver. From what I gathered, it was some kind of bar crawl with a route map that people followed and each week had a theme. So I thought it would just be some kind of fun community get-together that got people out and active and drunk in the middle of the week. Well I am here to say - it is much, much more than that.

I had marked my calendar months ago for the Circus themed week, knowing that it would be a carnival of sorts and seemed much more me than the Rave theme that is next week. There are three start bars to choose from - Linzi and I picked the Skylark which is about a 3 mile ride from my house. We were slightly afraid that we were going to pass it but as we pulled up on our bikes - we quickly realized there was no way in hell that could ever happen. Hundreds of people, along with hundreds of bikes, were out front of the bar and I'd say 50% of them were in some kind of circus getup.

Pumped and ready - I went to pull my i.d. out of my fanny pack (some things never change and/or go out of style, my babies) and realized that I LEFT IT AT HOME. 3 MILES AWAY. In typical Linz and Kate style - we decide not to bike back but instead call a cab, have him run us back to my place, grab my i.d. and get a ride back in time to ride with everyone to the second stop of the evening. Well, (our) luck would have it and by the time the cab got us back to Skylark - the masses had departed. Making lemons in to lemonade - or rather jager into jagerbombs - we took this opportunity to take advantage of the empty bar and drink in peace before biking the 3 miles to the next stop.

By the time Linzi and I arrived to the C.O.D. (Circle of Death) in Civic Center Park - a crowd of oh, I'd say 3,000 (not an exaggeration) had gathered. I am being totally serious when I tell you that I have never quite see anything like it in my life. There were guys dressed as clowns, people half-naked running around with balloons tied to them, girls in spandex and then a giant circle of people just riding bikes around - I am sure - intoxicated (hence the C.O.D.). There were unicycles and carts and lit-up bikes and the best people watching experience you can imagine.




If you think your city has a bike scene - I challenge you to come experience a summer Wednesday night in Denver. This city made me proud last night - while also, blowing my mind.

I cannot believe that this has been happening five blocks from my house for the entire summer and I had no idea. It is truly, truly something to see. I've checked the theme schedule for the remainder of the season (rides happen through September 28th) and you can bet your front wheel that we will be back.