A little jaunt into the hills of Wyoming. Some RZR riding, hanging with the locals, a fun weekend.

When I'm cranky, I like to dress like I'm someone else. This morning I woke up in a foul mood, and so decided to channel and old lady from the Upper East side who puts on lots of crazy clothes and rather than looking strange she just looks crack-tastic. I'll share a photo of today's outfit soon.

Yo Tambien
Originally uploaded by Haska.

Tambien (meaning "also" in Spanish) is the second restaurant from the guys who brought you Mezcal on Colfax. It's a great spot in Cherry Creek featuring all of the usual tequilas, and great Mexican eats. But the best part? All Mexican BBQ on Sundays from 2:00 on. Open flames with Carne Asada, corn on the cob with crema and chili powder, and fresh cut fruit with chili and lime. It's not quite being in Mazatlan, but it's as close as I can get on a Sunday.

My oasis
Originally uploaded by Haska.

After five years of trying to garden, I FINALLY have plants that miraculously spring up each year. It looks lush! Ok, it looks healthy. At any rate, the work has paid off, I now have a little slice of heaven in which to sunbathe, relax, eat breakfast, write! It 'Swonderful!

No pictures of this, and for that I'm sure my friends will thank me later. :) But we all went to the screening of Sex And the City and then had a grade-school style sleep over! (well, grade-schoolers don't drink Cosmos...)

If you haven't seen the movie, you should—even if you never watched the series—because to quote my favorite bloggers, the Go Fug Yourself Girls, "We watched the movie, but really we watched the clothes."

IMG00125.jpg
Originally uploaded by Haska.

Great, great show! Probably the earliest I've been to the Rocks in at least 5 or 6 years, so a really fun way to kick off The Summer Vacation! I hadn't heard The National much, but I really like their sound. Modest Mouse (click that link to see a photo from the band) was good as good, but I'm not their biggest fan, so I wasn't too into it.

But R.E.M. — WOW! I can't say enough about the show. They played their new stuff (they ARE actually promoting an album) but a bunch of cool old stuff too (Fall On Me, Orange Crush, Worlds Leader Pretend) and some good deep tracks. Plus, they utilized the screens behind them in interesting ways—I'm sure Michael Stipe's appreciation of experimental film influenced the "second show" as I like to think of it.

No photos from this, but we took a little side trip on the motorcycle to Los Alamos. Or as Paris likes to call it, "The Town That Science Built." One of the main objectives of the labs now, (post-cold war) is to maintain the nuclear weapons we currently have in our nation's arsenal. I wasn't too interested in seeing this because I thought it was going to be uber-nationalistic and really depressing. But in fact, I was somewhat awed by what goes into "testing" a nuclear weapon if you can't detonate it.

I was also enthralled by the numerous other labs that do work on everything from the Human Genome Project, to Nano-technology. Of course the big draw is still the history behind The Manhattan Project. But even if you're not keen on that sort of thing, I would still recommend taking a day-trip to Los Alamos if you're in Santa Fe.

Another aspect that makes the trip so cool is the interesting topography of the region. Los Alamos was built along side a dormant volcano. And the resulting hills and valleys throughout the town were left behind from an ancient eruption—very cool.