Starfest

Last weekend, Alison and I had the opportunity to attend one of the most spectacular events of all time. In brief, during the preceding week I became acquainted with the supreme commander of Denver's annual science fiction/video gaming/horror film convention aptly named Starfest. I've always been curious about this sort of thing so I asked for more information. He told me that if I came he would let me in for free. Needless to say, we went.

Before we get to the photos, I'll just give a brief description of the event. The main focus of the event seemed to be the intergalactic mingling of sci-fi enthusiasts. There were lots of other activities that we checked out though. You could engage in a Bat'leth battle, talk to someone about building a replica of R2D2, sing intergalactic karaoke, watch movies, play guitar hero, purchase some memorabilia, or get your picture taken with some people I've never heard of but who are apparently very cool in some circles. Basically it was (for the lack of a better term) a geek free-for-all.

The hotel where the convention was held had a big indoor courtyard surrounded by hotel rooms. Many of the participants got creative with their balconies and decorated them. As you can see, there were a few Star Wars fans in the house.

Not only were there Star Wars fans present, many of the actual Star Warriors decided to make an appearance. Darth Vader didn't cut us with his light saber, but I can only assume that it was because he was distracted by choking people in far away places using the dark side of the force.

We were also menaced by Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper.

I had to use the old Jedi mind trick to get out of this one.

Alison really wanted to buy the Data plate and I really liked the Captain Picard plate. Since we could really only justify buying one Star Trek plate and we couldn't agree on which one to get, we decided that we just wouldn't get any at all.

I also had the opportunity to hang with Skeletor for a few moments. He told me that he killed He-man, which was unfortunate. I asked him if he had also killed She-ra. He said that she had recently grown a beard and was in hiding. I think that he was lying about killing He-man though, because He-man holds the powers of Greyskull.

These fellows were having a creativity party. They made up their own science fiction-themed costumes on the spot and decided to have a basketball throwing war in the hallway. It was pretty awesome. You can tell how much fun it was by looking at the uncostumed man on the left. YES!

The moral of this post is that if you ever have the opportunity to witness one of these conventions, you should seize it. You may feel a little uncomfortable in your normal clothes, but it's worth the turn-the-table shame that these social outcasts make you feel. If nothing else, you'll have the chance to peer into a realm of fantasy beyond your wildest dreams.

Clarification

Abrade:
transitive verb1 a: to rub or wear away especially by friction b: to irritate or roughen by rubbing2: to wear down in spirit : irritate, weary

When I read Brandon's post, I turned to him and said, "You're really weird."

Then, I had to secretly look up "abrade." I got an idea of what it meant from his post, but wanted to be sure. Who in their spare time thinks up anagrams to random phrases? I had basically forgotten what an anagram was until I got to know Brandon.

And, it really didn't take me that long to notice my husband's cleanly shaven face. This is how it happened...I walk in the door from a long day at a conference about couples therapy, go immediately to the kitchen table to dump all my bags while saying the normal "Hi honey, how are you." Then I walk over to the sofa kiss him and that's when I notice the lack of the Amish Beard. "Ahh!" I exclaim. "It's gone!" Then I stroke his hairless face with a smile.

It was about a 45 second process.

A few minutes later, after we each discussed our day, I got up from the sofa, headed towards our bedroom, and raised my arms over my head, hands in a fist-- a Rocky style cheering motion.

"What's that about?" Brandon asks.

"No more beard!!"

"I thought you liked it"

"I said I 30% liked it and 70% didn't like it." I turned around, smiled at him and said, "I just really like your shaven face, that's all."

Clarification #2: Regardless of Brandon's facial hair or posting style, he's still my favorite person in the whole world.

That's all. I just needed to let the Internet know those few things.

Abrades Him

Today, I cut off the Amish beard. That phase of my life is over for now, but I leave it with many fond memories. I've been able to reflect on my beard and I think that the best way to express my feelings are through anagrams of the term "Amish beard".

"Abrades Him"--my beard went through a couple of really itchy phases but I wouldn't say that it was really abrasive to me. A more appropriate phrase might have been "abrades her" because of the sensation that Alison felt on her face when we greeted each other. In fact, she didn't notice that I shaved it off tonight until she kissed me. I could have made "abrades her" if I had grown a "She-Ra beard" but that just doesn't make any sense. Also, having a She-Ra beard might abrade my masculine image.

"Bad Hairs Me"--some people didn't seem to think that my beard was my best look. They thought these hairs were bad on me. If you want to know who, just look at the comments for that post. The Amish beard did help me to connect with a simpler life and Abe Lincoln, but it was not my most attractive look. I'm not expecting this style of beard to become fashionable any time soon.

"Hairs Be Mad"--when I looked at the disembodied beard hairs on the bathroom floor, they looked back at me angrily with their hair-eyes. I felt like I had betrayed them. We had grown so close and shared so much. I hope that someday they will forgive me.

Amish Beard

Check out my Amish beard that I've been growing for about a month (left). Today I decided that I needed to clean it up a little bit, so I put a fade on it and cleaned up the borders (right). I think that I probably violated the principles of the Amish by using electric hair clippers; but I'm just not good enough to get a tight fade using just scissors.

I Changed Our Picture

The irony of our new picture is that our blog is entitled "Alison and Brandon in the Mile High City" and the picture was taken very near to sea level. It's too bad there isn't a known treatment for all the minds which were just blown.

Costco Dinner

When I came home this afternoon, Brandon and I began the usual conversation of what we should do for dinner. In a lazy, whiny voice, I put my head on Brandon's shoulder and said, "I kind of just want to go and have pizza at Costco."

Brandon instantly starting laughing and said, "That's awesome because that is exactly what I wanted to suggest to you but was too afriad I was going to be shot down!"

Woa...what is the likelihood that we would both want cheap, filling, just-greasy-enough pizza slices, a super cheap fountain drink, and possibly have a churro for dessert???? Freaky. We have only had Costco dinner once before, so its not a regular option.

Anyways, now you know what we had for dinner tonight. When we came home, we became bona-fide fat Americans by plopping our snack-bar bellies on the couch and watching that horrific show Moment of Truth. We won't be doing that again. Unlike Costco dinner, that show sucks. It makes you feel bad when you watch it.

All right, now back to homework...

Moab

It is finally the time to show the world some pictures from our very fun trip to southern Utah. We spent about four days down there and figured that we hiked about 30 miles throughout our stay.

Our first hike was in Arches National Park--the Devil's Garden trail. Brandon got a kick out of that name and for THE REST OF THE TRIP pointed to random things and said "Oh, that there's the Devil's Toilet...that's the Devil's Nordic Track...that's the Devil's missing baby...the Devil's Eyeball" etc. I realized that I myself am fairly pathetic because I laughed out loud about 80% of the time. One of the reasons we work is that I laugh at his jokes without being prompted.

Here are some of the images from that hike:

If you ever do that hike, we totally recommend doing the Primitive Loop...there's some really neat scenery that you miss if you stick to the main trail.
Above is Double O...one of my favorite arches in the entire park. Of course, pictures don't do it justice.
This is when Brandon almost died. I managed to snap this picture before racing over to him and pulling him to safety. Just kidding.
This is Partition Arch.

We spent our first night in a campground typically reserved for RV's. I'm a sucker for these campgrounds because the have hot showers and flush toilets. The particular one we stayed at also had a hot tub, which was an AWESOME way to remind ourselves that yes, we were on vacation and yes, it was time to relax.

Here's me getting breakfast ready that next morning:
While it is a pretty nerdy picture, I show it because you can see our bathing suits and towels on the table...we put them there the night before to dry out. Unfortunately, it was soooo cold that night that they were covered with a nice healthy layer of ice on them in the morning.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed down to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. If you haven't been...GO. It is beautiful. We wanted to get there first thing in the morning to snatch a campsite since you can't reserve them ahead of time. Luckily, it wasn't a problem. This is my favorite picture of Brandon looking like an ape:
He actually had just finished setting up the tent...and I didn't even have to help. He's the dear of the year.

Later that day, we did a really neat hike...I don't remember the name, but it was a loop hike that takes you up one canyon and then out another.
As the afternoon progressed, it became quite cold and snowy. Here's us huddling in a little sandstone cubby-hole, trying to stay warm from the wind. It didn't really work. We decided that the best thing was just to keep moving. It is kind of a cute picture though, eh?
We took about a billion pictures at this particular spot...where the trail took us up a ridge that separated the two canyons. The landscape down there is just so enchanting. We couldn't get enough.

I noticed that this is Brandon's pose in every photo. I think he is just always thinking, "Are you finished? You just took a photo that looks exactly like this two seconds ago." This is one exception, though:
Apparently all trail markers resemble poop. That is the difference between boys and girls my friends.

That night was exceptionally cold. When you are camping and it is freezing there isn't much you can do except for sit in your sleeping bag in the tent or sit in the car, out of the wind. We did a little of both. Anyways...when we woke up in the morning, there were several inches of snow on the ground. Yikes!
The snow didn't dampen our plans too much though. That is mainly because when you are out in the middle of no where, there really isn't a Plan B. We had already paid for our camp site for the upcoming night and knew that we would either be cold in Canyonlands or cold in Moab. Pick your poison, I suppose. So we chose to stay where we were, do the hike we had planned, and just put on extra clothes.

The hike we did that day, Chesler Park, was beautiful. Perhaps one of my favorites ever. BUT, I'm getting bored posting. Which means you are probably bored reading this. So...I'm going to take a break. We are having the Mormon missionaries over for dinner and I need to get some stuff ready. Peace out folks...we'll be back!