It’s hard to believe, but our 1 year anniversary is quickly approaching. What are we doing to celebrate? This Thursday Kyllan and I will be joining my parents on a trip to Barcelona and a Mediterranean cruise. Kyllan has had a busy month at the hospital and it is always stressful at the lab, so this trip could not have come at a better time. We will be sailing on the Norwegian Gem with ports of call in Valletta, Malta; Naples, Italy; Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy; Livorno, Italy and Villeranche, France. Our anniversary falls on the day at sea. As you see, we will be pretty busy. I don’t know how feasible it will be to upload photos and make post while at sea, so sharing may have to wait until we get back. I may make a few post that will auto post while we are away.

I was so excited when I heard that Obama would be giving his speech to accept the nomination of the democratic party at Invesco Field. I rushed to sign up for tickets. Well, that feels like months ago. The party finally announced their plan to distribute tickets, and it didn’t sound to promising. Still, Kyllan and my parents were ready to make last minute plans just in case things worked out… Things didn’t work out. I am actually a little angry about how the whole situation played out, but I won’t go into that here.

There are a few photos from Kyllan’s visit to Denver on my Flickr.

Also, my cousin Robyn has recently started a blog, Sunshine Days. She mostly post about her two young daughters Samaya and Aleesha. I’ve really had a lot fun keeping up with the girls and reading Robyn’s tales of motherhood. You’ll be able to find a link to her blog in the right hand side bar under “friends and family.”

Kyllan will be in town this weekend. We may try and do some touristy things and spend some time down town.

Will skip past the staying at the lab until 5am Friday and the dog poop on my doormat incident… Early Friday morning I, like so many others, set out to buy an iPhone. At 9:30am I found myself at an AT&T store with a line two blocks long. When I spoke to one of the store employees, I was shocked to learn that was not the line to buy an iPhone. They had sold out of iPhones an hour ago. The line in front of the store was to pay for a phone and come back later when the store received more shipments and then wait in another line… on Tuesday. Luckily, we have two Apple stores in Denver and the boss was expecting me in late; It was his experiment that keep me in the lab until 5am. I made my way over to the Cherry Creek mall location figuring I would have to wait in line 45 minutes to an hour. Surely the line would not be very long. Most people have 9 to 5 jobs. Well, the line stretched the entire distance of the mall and began to loop back around. There had to be more that 500 people. I sucked it up, went to work and figured that the madness would be over on Saturday and I could walk right into the store and get one. When I arrived at the mall on Saturday the line was much shorter, but still an estimated 3 hrs long. If Kyllan had been there I may have actually waited. We could have chatted a little bit. We could have taken turns walking around the mall. But, I was by myself and at this point my excitement had started to dwindle. I made a final attempt Sunday. No line. I walked straight into the store… Only to be told they were sold out.

Now what? I am not really excited anymore. It’s time for a new phone, but I am not waiting in line for one. If things calm down and supply seems steady, I may make another attempt this week. If not, it may be a while.

Barack Obama will begin airing his first general election ad, “Country I Love,” today. This article in the Washington Post discusses some of its more subtle, and not so subtle, messages. Another discusses his decision to opt out of general election general financing.

Another boring week. It looks like it is going to be a pretty boring weekend too. For some strange reason it is still snowing in Denver. I can’t wait to move someplace sunny.

Things have been crazy in the lab recently; I’ve been trying to generate data for a grant renewal. I thought things were going to calm down a bit now that it has been submitted, but it appears that I can keep dreaming. I have a big meeting and a few presentations to give this month.

While we haven’t given much political commentary recently, our friends have, offering up post on both Spitzer and Obama.

I forgot to post about March Madness and the NCAA Tourney. The first tip off is in a few hours, making it too late for everyone to get their picks in, so there will be no Cody Report bracket pool this year. We saved a box of Thin Mints to give to the winner again, but I guess we will just have to eat them ourselves. .. I am taking Memphis all the way!

Well…  I guess no one wanted to talk politics :-)  I got busy this week and did not get to follow-up after Primary day.  The caucus took way longer than expected and I (along with many other people) were concerned about if the process was being done right.  I didn’t get home until after 10pm.  There was really no one assigned to guide it, but we fortunately had a few people that knew how it was supposed to work…kinda.  They had to assign a temporary caucus president, seargent-at-arms and secretaries.   I ended up volunteering to help the secretary help everyone sign the caucus sheets b/c it was more than one person could handle.  They did not expect that many people to show up to the caucus.  Apparently that was the most Democrats that had voted in my county ever (the county is heavily Republican and ALL of the local elected officials are Republican.  There weren’t even any local democrats who ran).   After all was said and done, I ended up volunteering to be a delegate that would go to the County caucus.  From the County caucus, they choose delegates to go to the State Caucus, and from there they choose delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention.  I probably will not go past the County, but I am looking forward to the experience and learning more about what seems to be a very complicated (and often unorganized) process.  So… I still remain excited about the campaign and how our political system works (or doesn’t work).  It’s also interesting to feel excited about supporting a candidate, especially being an Independent and not having a party affiliation since I first registered to vote ten years ago.

William is headed into town tonight, so it should be a great weekend.  I hope everyone else has a nice weekend too!

The Oscar nominations were released today and “No Country for Old Men” and “There will be Blood” came out with the most. I have not seen either movie as usually is the case with the Oscar nominees. “Juno” was one of the nominations for best picture and as William mentioned, we did see that over the holidays. It will be interesting to see if there will be an awards ceremony this year due to the writer’s strike. I am really starting to wonder how long it will last and what type of programming will remain beyond the strike.

So… b/c it is so cold in Denver, I doubt William and I have many outdoor activities planned. A few movies may be planned. Any recommendations for movies either on video or theaters? Anyone have a favorite movie that they feel EVERYONE should see?