Weekends!

Last weekend was super busy (by my standards):

Friday Jason's work hosted a picnic for employees' families, so we spent the afternoon there. I mostly sat around, talking to wives. Jason kicked a ball out from under a little girl so that she fell on the ground, but he assures me that it wasn't mean.

Saturday we skipped the Peach Festival to go on an exploratory bike ride, which was great. We usually ride around the lake by our house, and in neighborhoods around here. Our lake is very crowded! People are walking, jogging, riding bikes, ditching tricycles in the path, chasing loose dogs, etc... On our Saturday bike ride, we rode around a different little pond, and we only saw about 8 other people the whole time! It was really nice to not have to dodge around anyone, or get out of the way of anyone. We could just ride fast, and that's what's fun. Though I will confess that our local lake has the perfect Colorado view of clean water, sunflowers, pretty trees, and gorgeous mountains in the background. The other place -- not nearly as pretty scenery.

Saturday night we went to ROLLER DERBY! The Mile High Club played against the Seattle Rat City Rollergirls. Usually they just divide the Roller Dolls up into 3 teams and play against each other and another Colorado team (we've always seen double headers until last weekend). This was FUN! The competition was stiffer and the game was more exciting. Our team won, but the score went back and forth and I was worried for a little bit -- Seattle has really good defense.

The best parts about the night were these:

1. In front of us were some newcomers to the sport, and they got REALLY into it. The dude, as soon as he heard cheering, would leap out of his seat and scream and wave. The chick finally put down her rhinestone-covered pink cell phone and started to pay attention!

2. At an earlier game, I entered a drawing and won a gift certificate to a Denver furnishings store called Mod Livin'. I was really excited! But it's kind of pricey, so we ended up getting a kitchen timer, and having to pay like $6 or $8 on top of the gift certificate. It's a cute timer, but we never would have paid $30+ for it on our own. Well, on Saturday, we entered the drawing again, and guess what! Jason won the gift certificate to Mod Livin'! Oh no! Now we'll have to find another cute kitchen item there. I wish we could afford some of the cool, mod furniture they sell, but we can't right now.

3. We saw a few people leaving with 5 minutes left on the clock. Um, there were only like 500 of us there so there really wasn't any problem getting out of the Denver Coliseum parking lot.

4. The halftime show was the Denver Cruisers, a group of people who get together every Wednesday night and ride their (sometimes crazy) bikes around in an agreed-upon area. They go in different directions, running into each other, and trying to push each other off their bikes. It doesn't sound like a halftime show, but somehow it was extremely entertaining and fun to watch! This was the moment when rhinestone-covered pink cell phone girl started to like roller derby.

Spanning the full range of classiness, on Sunday we attended Polo. Yes, with horses and riding crops and tally ho! (Okay, there was no tally ho!). We took a fancy picnic, consisting of mimosas, bloody marys, bud lights, a rotisserie chicken, brie, baguettes, crackers, grapes, and cherries. A lady there had a real glass for her bloody mary, and she remembered the pickle spear, so she beat me on fancy. We had keg cups.

The polo players were really nice, and so was everyone else. They invited us to their BBQ! It was fun to watch, and pretty exciting to see and hear the horses running so fast and breathing SO LOUDLY and turning on a dime. I would go again, and so would Courtney, but I'm not sure about Jason or Dustin.

I found out about polo from the book People Who Sweat, in which Robin Chotzinoff reported that Cream drummer Ginger Baker had moved to Colorado so he could play more polo. After the matches, he would play free jazz sets with brave local musicians. Sadly, those days are over. I believe he is now in South Africa (anyone know for sure?). Still, it's pretty cool to see anyone play polo, for free, with a great picnic and a great view, and some great company.

This weekend: nothing is planned. We may go watch some roller derby in Greeley tomorrow, but one of us doesn't seem excited about the idea. I won't name names.

I hope you all have a good weekend! What are you going to do?