what's gnu

*didn't go on my bighorn fishing trip because i'm still under the weather. but bb has vowed to get me out fishing this weekend if i feel up to it.

*there are some new links to other blogs over on the right. check 'em out.

*our company's been gone for a couple weeks now, and jenn and i have miraculously managed to keep the condo spotless ever since. amazing.

*the ski season ends april 9th. snow total as of today: 409 inches.

*the bummer is that the doctor told me not to ski for at least a month. so, technically, i'm not allowed to go before the season is over. but i'm feeling better, so we'll see.

*my tough, funny, talented uncle fred was recently diagnosed with emphysema. please everyone say a prayer for him if you get a chance.

link o' the day:

my favorite local fly shop.

where lies...

the soul of a country?

i just discovered the following poem in an "ode to denver" piece by alan prendergast, my favorite journalist for denver's westword and husband of a former DPL coworker. check it out:

High treason

I do not love my country. Its abstract splendor
is beyond my grasp.
But (although it sounds bad) I would give my life
for ten places in it, for certain people,
seaports, pinewoods, fortresses,
a run-down city, gray, grotesque,
various figures from its history
mountains
(and three or four rivers).

José Emilio Pacheco

wow, i really love that. it looks like his published works are fairly difficult to get ahold of, but there are some sites out there with a few translated poems on them. check out this one, and read the bleak and dramatic "the elements of the night" while you're at it.

link o' the day:

i'm quoted in an article from today's steamboat pilot.

verizon can bite me

seriously. they can totally bite me.

my old phone crapped out on me, so i ordered a fancy new nokia open face phone (i.e. not a flip-phone) that had a camera and video capture features.

they sent it to me without a battery cover.

upon calling them, they told me my only option was to buy a new one that they would ship to me, and they'd then credit my visa when i sent them back the one without the battery cover i already had (which wouldn't happen until the next billing cycle). they wouldn't even consider just sending out a new battery cover. that's retarded.

so i told them i wasn't going to pay for another phone when i'd already paid for this one. they told me my other option was to drive down to silverthorne (90 miles away) where there was a dealer that actually had the phone i ordered in stock, since no one in steamboat did. i could then just swap at the store. so i drove down to silverthorne last weekend, where i promptly found the store i was supposed to go to was closed saturday, sunday and monday for a "much-needed vacation."

you know that scene in national lampoon's vacation where clark w. griswold punches the statue of wally the moose, then promptly takes john candy and the entire amusement park hostage so that he can have his godd%mn family vacation?

that was almost me.

instead, i drove home. halfway to steamboat, i stopped at a bar in crappy kremmling and listened to some redneck badmouth everyone in town to his drunk-ass friends while i watched the illini give away a game they had won to washington in the final 5 minutes.

i called verizon on monday and raised hell. they called a local dealer where i finally got this phone for 10 bucks, and they promised me they'd refund my card as soon as i shipped back the other phone (which i did yesterday).

this phone doesn't have a camera, but i don't really care; besides, i have since heard that camera phones get crappier reception anyway. it's tiny, open-faced, and it was ten freaking bucks. i love it.

that was my phone saga.

i'm headed to the bighorn river in montana wednesday through sunday next week, with my denver buddy frank coyne and his flyfishing club, for hopefully some fantastic fishing.

link o' the day:

this show is awesome, and the dudes on these boats are crazy nuts.

a pound of curry in my gut

so folks, remember over the new year when i had my stomach flu in arizona?

it turns out a severe stomach virus can set events into motion that may eventually lead to appendicitis. and that is exactly what happened to me.

at 2:00 in the morning last tuesday, i was admitted to the ER at st. anthony's hospital in denver with accute appendicitis. at 4:30 later that morning, i had an emergency appendectomy. it did not rupture, but the doctor said that it was "well on its way."

jenn and i were down that monday to get the subaru fixed, since it had crapped out on her the day before on her way to a volleyball tournament. we got it back late monday afternoon, and decided to drive back to steamboat the next day. we had thai food for dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed around 10:30, at which point i was pretty uncomfortable. after a half hour of feeling like someone was taking a hot butter knife and stabbing me in my right side with it, i woke jenn up and she drove me to the ER.

what a shitty week.

but, i am on the mend, and putting in about 5 hours a day at work. i'm sore, i can't move too quickly, but the incisions are healing and my insides are feeling better and better.

it was my first surgery ever, and i was freaked out. but jenn, god bless her, was so calming, and so confident. i love my wife a whoooooooole bunch.

thanks to everyone who called or emailed with well wishes. i should be back to posting semi-regularly in the coming weeks.

david