Vegetarian BBQ!

Posted In: Everyday life — May 15, 2005 @ 8:21 am — Peter

Yesterday was pretty hectic during the day as I had 101 things I was trying to get done. Early in the morning, I got started on some homework and participated on the online course discussion forum. Shortly after I wrapped that up, I called my coworker Susan to see about paying her a visit to pick up a spare lawn mower she had. Our lawn was quite out of control and in some areas of the backyard it was nearly a foot high. She got back to me and we set a time for me to come by around noon. I was certain it would not take me that long and I would be back in Denver for the Vegetarian Meetup at 2pm. Turns out the drive to the mountains north of Boulder took alot longer than I had estimated. The route to her house involves taking the main drag through Boulder all the way through the city. This definitely added 15 minutes to the ride. After getting into the mountains, I was worried I had passed her house up. I went to call her but my phone was no longer receiving a signal. After a few more twists and turns on the mountain road, I found her dirt road. This was my first time visiting a mountain home and I must say, it was beautiful. She has several acres of land that is densely populated with trees wild flowers and even a rushing creek! I brought Iris with me and felt there was enough open space for her to run free. Susan has two dogs and they were very welcoming to Iris. At one point we took them down the creek and let the doggies splash around a bit. I took a few pictures of her house and surrounding scenery.

The lawnmowers were a bit of a pain. Neither of us were well versed with mowers in terms of their first start after being in storage. To add to the confusion, one of the mowers was missing the bar used for toggling the engine kill. After reviewing the manuals and messing with the various switches and buttons, we got them to start. I was surprised that we could fold the mower up and fit it in the trunk of the Civic without having to use bungee cords. Iris and I then cruised down the mountain roads and highway back to Denver for the Vegetarian Meetup. By this point I was pretty late and at best could only make it to the event for 30 minutes or so. As expected, I arrived at Wolfe’s BBQ at 3pm. The restaurant opened up during a time it is usually closed to host an all vegetarian BBQ buffet. There was smoked BBQ tofu, coleslaw, baked beans, cornbread, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Overall, I was very happy with the food and the vegetarian meetup bunch was very friendly. Hopefully next time I’ll arrive earlier and have more time to chat with people. There were 13 or so people total, a couple of which reside in the Denver area. Most of them are from Boulder or the surrounding suburbs. I’m not sure about Wolfe’s… The food was good, but on regular business days they serve meat also. The owner assured us that he has one grill that has been used for tofu only over the past 20 years. I’m happy to know he uses separate cooking equipment, but the smell of BBQ beef and pork might make me feel ill. I’ll give it a try sometime and see how bad it is.

After the meetup, I mowed our jungle lawn. The front was not so bad and I even mowed the neighbors lawn because it was looking pretty gross. The house north of us is owned by the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) and is under renovation. Since they are working so diligently on the house, they seem not to be concerned with keeping up the landscaping. The front lawn is small and it only took me an extra 10 minutes or so to trim it down. Our rear lawn was a major problem. Thankfully the mower Susan lent me is quite strong and it was able to power through the high grass. I may go over the lawn again later in the week to pickup the small clumps of grass that were left behind. Rather than attempt to mulch all the high grass, I bagged instead since I thought mulching might choke the underlying grass. In total, I had about 9 bags of grass. While mowing, I drank down two bottles of Red Hook India Pale Ale. I’m quite fond of the IPA brew as of late and I’ve been trying all the different varieties available at the local liquor store. At the rate I drink beer, I’ll be able to try a different brew every other weekend for the next two years!

Today is operation MSCT670 paper. I need to complete a 4-6 page paper regarding organization information security policies. I have a few research articles already but nothing written. On that note, I will get started….