Dennish Lehane

Jefferson Public library has a program where they bring famous authors in to talk about their work & answer questions. In years past they brought in Amy Tan and Anne Lamott. This year it was Dennis Lehane.

Dennis Lehane has written quite a few best sellers. Shutter Island, Mystic River, and Gone, Baby, Gone are some of the few novels he has written which have also been made into feature films.

After seeing Gone, Baby, Gone in the theaters I was determined to read the book. I then discovered it was part of a series about two private detectives so I picked up the first novel and it was excellent! I knew I was hooked and read the entire series in a couple months. I highly recommend the entire series as it is phenomenal story telling! Although his material gets dark and is for those with a strong stomach.

I had a long day and was not planning on going to hear hims speak but I realized this is a once in a life time event and I may not have this opportunity again. Currently he is my favorite author so I had to hear him speak. I have not read all his works and most likely will not but I am glad to hear he is doing one more novel with the private detectives so I am very happy & excited for when it comes out.

House sitting for the second weekend in a row

I took a gig for a couple friends who live on south Broadway just north of Hampden. It is a nice neighborhood and had a plenty of personality with all the thrift stores, clothing stores, and boutiques. I had lunch at a small mom & pop place called Pete's Cafe. Good food but excellent service! It was the only place I was able to get out and enjoy. I am disappointed I didn't get to visit a Chinese restaurant down there called Twin Dragon. They have amazing plum wine!!

I did get the chance to wander around parts of Denver I do not always see. I found a city park that I have never heard of before, it is Ruby Hill and located on a hill. Which is odd as most of Denver is fairly flat and does not have many hills. This place had plenty of great views of Denver. I could see the golden top of the watch tower by DU and a few surrounding building tops over the tree line. It is such an unusual view of Denver plus the hill made it seem like San Franciso or some other city with hills & unusual views of the city.

I wasn't going to take this gig but my friends have a ton of movies and I have not watched Dirty Harry movies or the Original Firefly TV series. I enjoyed both! They have two dogs & five cats so I also spent most of the weekend coughing, sneezing, and using a hair roller to clean myself off. I do dislike pet hair with a passion so I brought the pet hair roller with me. Fifteen years I have been doing this and the most important thing I have learned is bring a hair roller!!

My Favorite Neighborhood to house sit

My favortie neighborhood to house sit is in Park Hill on 17th Near City Park. It is a nice neighborhood with those tall trees one doesn’t see anywhere else in Denver unless they are on Monaco or along 6th ave. The houses have the older architecture style & look which makes them look out of place for Denver. Every time I drive through the neighborhood I think I’m in a city by the coast like Seattle or maybe Syracuse (even though it isn’t near the coast).

There are plenty of coffee shops & restaurants near by. St Marks Coffee shop is on the opposite side of city park. There are a couple streets a half a mile away where the entire block is one long stretch of shops. Mostly cafes, restaurants, and bars with a laundry mat or a book store here or there. I can never remember the name of the Pancake place on 8th & Colorado Blvd where there is always an hour wait to be seated. They serve the best pancakes I have ever eaten!

Those are a few of the places I look forward to being close too. The nice thing about the neighborhood is there are so many things to do. I usually jog around City Park and or a walk along 17th looking at all the large & beautiful houses. I try to visit a couple of the Greek restaurants on Colfax closer to East High School. My current favorite is a kabob restaurant which is further east on Colfax, close to Monaco & Colfax.

The house I am in is has wood floors, a title bathroom, beautiful kitchen but it isn’t very well insulated. I am always running the heater in winter and these fall mornings it is difficult to get out of a warm bed. The family doesn’t have a PC or internet access and until recently they didn’t have their TV hooked up. I would usually rent movies but not having a TV is nice. There is so much to do in this neighborhood I would feel guilty watching TV when I could be out jogging, eating a Gyro, enjoying a coffee at St Marks.

So far I have eaten at an amazing Middle Eastern kabob restaurant & walked around the fountain at City Park at night. At night there is a fountain which lights up with different colored lights. It is not as spectacular of a water show as the fountains in front of the Bellagio but it is more colorful and just as entertaining at night. I like this neighborhood enough I think I will start looking at houses in the area!

Interest in exploring lakewood

After having lived in lakewood for a year I should know more about the local eateries, coffee shops, and restaurants but sadly I do not. The last year I have tightened my spending budget and have focused on a variety of activities which keep me occupied enough that exploring my new home neighborhood is not the first thing on my mind.

I have been over whelmed with guilt about my lack of exploring and I have also been fantasizing about what it would be like to be one of the TV personalities who travel the globe eating at local restaurants while it is filmed and then shown on the travel or food channel. Needless to say the time came for me to stop procrastinating and start eating at the food places in the neighborhood.

These are my experiences to date:

Kona Coffee
I have repeatedly visited Kona Coffee on the weekend & way to work. It is a couple blocks away from my bus stop so I can show up early to get some joe before catching the bus to work. They have a weird hawaiian theme in a very small space which feels odd. Not the type of place to hang out in except to finish any food & drink. They carry Coda coffee which has a darker but some what muted taste compared to Starbucks. I don't like their drip coffee but it is not bad. Breakfast foods seem decent and the specialty coffees seem quite good. Different enough from starbucks I will stop in from time to time for a specialty drink.

French Press
I have been in the French Press one morning for breakfast. It is nice as it looks like what I imagine a french cafe would look like. Food is great and I will return for cheap but delicious food. So far I have only had their drip coffee and it is not anything memorable. I was some what disappointed but at least I found a great place to hangout for breakfast on the weekends!!

Tuk-tuk Thai noodles
I love their pad thai & thai Iced tea. While quiet it has a nice bar that faces the street so I can see outside. This is definitely a place I will return to as long as I live in lakewood.

Up soon...Sushi restaurants!! I'm excited!!!!

Lazy

I know I'm lazy when I not even willing to spell my last name. It has two syllabols and eight letters.

That is lazy!!

Independent Film Screening...Now I am cool

Being able to say I have attended a film screening for an independent movie makes me sound cool. Probably only to artsey film & college kids and independent film makers but it I think it makes me sound cool...or like I have nothing else to do...wait a minute...

A friend of mine's brother lived in a L.A. for a few years and is a film maker. He usually works in comedy but had to do a film about L.A. While making this film he was working through some personal issues as well as influenced by the L.A. culture. His movie was a bunch of stories of various vampires in L.A. They were all connected in a way by characters but it was not really about vampires. There were good people and many vampires who were lost and of course one evil one. Mainly the movie was about all the hurtful things people do to each other which is true of life but also a commentary on L.A.(so the film maker says).

I can't relate to the vampire idea too much but I can relate to the piece of people hurting each other and people being lost and all the bad things they do while searching for something. I am amazed at how many times I have found myself considering doing something that would or could hurt someone. These things are never nefarious or egregious. Usually I'm not thinking about the other person's best interests and it is more of a loss of awareness of others. I have always thought the most selfish people are those who do so on purpose. I can be plenty selfish just by getting wrapped up in my own interests and not thinking of others.