Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

A consequence of cucumbers

No Justins, No Peace

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

People are complicated. Love is not.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Denver Meetup: Fun, Food and a Few Surprises

Denver Meetup: Fun, Food and a Few Surprises

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Despite a bit of a mix-up on where we would have dinner (our first choice was closed), we rallied and ended up just down the road. Green balloons and all.

Eleven of us attended, with several more who could not make it. But I think we had such a good time, I’m am positive we will do it again. Maybe even a potluck at my house (oh, don’t hold me to that…)

I’ll let everyone identify themselves as they will. Three of us are missing – me, Czanne and a friend of mine who tagged along. She had enough fun she’s already thinking up her Balloon-Juice handle, but was camera shy.

This was more fun than I can detail here – good conversation, good food and terrific people – each and everyone of them. And these folks are very, very intelligent and I could have listened to their stories for several more hours.

Surprises?  Two of us are (unbeknownst before dinner) literally next door neighbors, one of us speaks Mandarin, one of us has met DougJ,  lots of military service (Go Navy!) and I’m actually a 75 year old dude named Kevin. [[One of these is not true.]]

Thanks to Scamp Dog for handling all the details!!

Consider this your evening open thread.  What’s going on tonight, anything fun?

P.S. Someone at that table owes me a bread recipe and I owe someone a whole wheat biscuit recipe. ;-)  email me and we’ll exchange those details.  whats4dinnersolutions at live dot com

Reader Interactions

134Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    She had enough fun she’s already thinking up her Balloon-Juice handle

    Does she understand we are jackals online?

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    I am in a super craptastic mood this evening. Not sure why. I need to go home and put on my comfy pajamas.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    My sister lives in Aurora, and I am way overdue paying her a visit. Hope the Denver-area jackals will be up for another gathering when I come to town. Would so love to meet you all in person.

  16. 16.

    CaseyL

    Good looking group!- and the name tags are a great idea; maybe we’ll do that at the next Seattle meetup.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @NotMax: I believe supply follows demand, so we need to increase demand for green balloons.

    ETA: I’m a Green Balloon Keynesian.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    Somebody owes you a bread recipe? How about this:

    (I use organic all-purpose flour and purified water)

    Sourdough starter:
    Take 5oz of old starter. Add 2 oz flour and 3oz water. Stir to combine. Rest covered at room temperature for 4 hours. Add 4oz flour and 6oz water. Stir to combine. Rest covered at room temperature. Use after 10-16 hours.

    Sourdough:
    12oz sourdough starter
    2lbs 2oz flour
    1lb 2oz water
    3/4oz (approx 1 tbsp) sea salt

    Stir together, then knead until it’s completely homogeneous. Alternatively, mix in a stand mixer using the dough hook until it cleans the side of the bowl. In either method, place in an oiled bowl, cover, and allow it to rise at room temperature until doubled, approximately 4-6 hours. ETA: reserve 5oz starter for the next batch. You can store it refrigerated for several weeks without problems.

    Knead the dough gently to deflate it, then divide into two loaves. Place the loaves in baskets lined with well floured cloths. Allow to proof for 1 hour at room temperature, then retard for 8-16 hours in the refrigerator.

    Place a baking stone, baking steel, or (if pressed) a large cookie sheet in the oven on a rack placed just below the center. Put a large disposable pie tin full of water on a lower rack. Preheat to 450°F for 1 hour. Turn the loaves individually onto a well floured baking peel, slash the tops, and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and cool before slicing.

  21. 21.

    Davebo

    Had a fab long weekend in Denver this July. Amazing how it’s growing. Found some great eateries too. El Five was our favorite with such great views and the bar next door with the motor home on the roof (BarV) was a cute touch.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TaMara (HFG):

    You mean DUCKS!!

    Joyce has a menagerie of her own, so there may be mutually exchanged invitations!! Will keep you informed — I also seem to be committed to making a visit to Toronto, Ottawa, and the Georgia Bay of Ontario next spring, so will have to see what works for other road trips. But I would love to come to Colorado and spend a bit of time.

  26. 26.

    schrodingers_cat

    I am traveling India, vicariously by watching the title song of Aamir’s Khan’s old talk show. He traveled the length and breadth of India
    Satyameva jayate (Truth Alone Triumphs), which is India’s motto, one of Gandhi’s favorite slogans from the pre Independence era. Something I want to do myself. There is so much I haven’t seen yet.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Should anyone be curious, there was a pic from the NYC meet-up below the fold in last Thursday’s “On the Road” post.

    In true Cole fashion, a fuzzy photo.   :)

    (No denigration of the photographer intended.)

  28. 28.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Funny story I don’t think I shared with you when it happened – one of those people came up to Bixby and me while we were walking around our favorite ponds (just before Bailey joined us – so a year or so ago) and asked me if that was indeed Bixby – and identified herself as a BJ member . I later told Bixby he was famous. LOL

  30. 30.

    orchid moon

    I want to second TaMara’s post, we had a great time! The Chinese restaurant was amazing, thanks to Norm, and the group was interesting, smart, and fun. We really look forward to coming to the next meet up.

  33. 33.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Thanks! Aamir Khan is one of three Khans (Salman and Shahrukh are the other two) that have dominated the Hindi film industry for the last 30 or so years. I was a fan since his first movie, I had a massive crush on the young Aamir, when I was growing up.

  34. 34.

    jl

    Just got an unsolicited, but exciting, business opportunity email from Supreme Executive Logistics Board presenting me with an outstanding logistics opportunity to supply mass quantities of materiel for Trump’s expanded Iraq and Afghanistan military operations.

    The salutation was ‘Hello Dear,’, so I think they like me. My ship is coming in! After I get rich off this thing, I’m buying all the BJ commenters a big dinner.

    Now I have to go dig up some info they want to process my bid, which they say I can more or less make up, they will fill in the details. I can’t talk any more about it, ‘utmost discretion’ is advised.

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    @Roger Moore: Speaking of which, we will be down in SoCal by this Friday. Staying at the cabin in Blue Jay (next to Lake Arrowhead) but willing to travel a bit for another meet up if that’s in the cards. Will be there for a couple of weeks. Don’t have to be back home until Nov. 15.

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    Had to sample the potato-onion bread that has finished cooling.

    Actually onion-potato bread. Went a little wild with the amount of onion. Good stuff.

  44. 44.

    Major Major Major Major

    @TaMara (HFG):

    We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there – on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

    […] To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

  46. 46.

    thruppence

    Would have loved to have been there but I had to work that night. Next local event might be the International Observe the Moon Night, but the DU Chamberlin Observatory is all booked up. Other local events?

  47. 47.

    Ohio Mom

    @satby: It’s blurry but I see five people seated around a table in a restaurant. All late middle-aged.

    The mysteries of the internet, why one of us can see the image and the other can’t.

  48. 48.

    satby

    @Baud: yeah, going back to the Thursday thread, what I see in my Kindle is a super magnified corner of that mirror and the back of the booth in the picture above.

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    @satby: I don’t get to read every thread, missed that one.

    And if that isn’t my brother in the corner, I hope whomever it is is honest — I don’t want my brother picked up by the cops, thinking he’s that other guy.

  61. 61.

    Mike in Pasadena

    The Denver meetup sounds like the motto of my favorite restaurant in Amsterdam: foodski, brewski, funski.

  69. 69.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: where was that meet up? How come I’m never invited?! I travel all over this country and no one ever meets up with me!

    I’ll just sob quietly at my table for one and pretend these green balloons are friends…

  71. 71.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    Feeling jelly as I sit in my hotel room in Philadelphia, instead of being home in Denver for the meet-up. Y’all look nice. See you next time.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    Cool! What was the occasion?

    (Now I will be incredibly annoying and braggo and note that John Lewis has hugged me, twice. Once in his district office in Atlanta, and once when I was staffing a Canadian cultural booth at his international festival.)

    He is an incredible man. Anyone who has the privilege of being in his presence leaves the encounter as a better person. JL just has that transformative effect on people. I am thrilled for you that you met him.

  75. 75.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    That looks like so much fun! We had great fun at the SW Ohio one also, too.

  77. 77.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @Elizabelle:

    My wife’s parents go to a Presbyterian church where a congressman from Michigan named Fred Upton goes. They have a thing a few times a year with random & variegated bigwigs who come and talk about how their faith influences their work. Upton and Lewis came into Congress together in 1986, and they’re good friends, so they were on the hot seats this evening. After it was over, I went up and shook his hand and thanked him for, well, everything he’s ever done, pretty much.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    Thread

    https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/921914377690845186

    Renato Mariotti‏Verified account @renato_mariotti

    2/ Illinois @GovRauner is trying to get Congress to pass a law that would take away the Illinois Constitutional right to keep your pension.

    3/ Due to the supremacy clause of the constitution, Congress and Trump
    could try to undo a state constitutional right without an amendment.

    4/ Can you imagine working your whole life for a pension you thought was guaranteed and then have it reduced after retirement?

    5/ That shouldn’t be lawful. If we don’t stop this, what rights could they take away next? /end

  91. 91.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Gin & Tonic: d’oh! I should never have mentioned the whole lawyer thing. Or let any aspect of my personality show in my posts. Lessons learned!

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Two of us are (unbeknownst before dinner) literally next door neighbors,

    That’s hilarious.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    Getting home and eating dinner helped a little. I was commenting today about how much ADHD sucks because it means that stupid things that everyone else finds to be simple are really fucking hard all of the goddamned time and I think that made my mood go south. Ugh.

    Plus my sprained knee hurts, and I’m pissed at myself for spraining it in the first place, and I misplaced my asthma medication and only just found it, so I think I’m slightly oxygen-deprived. Gah. At least I have some Halloween candy to eat.

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    anybody know wine? I got a fancy French white for Xmas that I’ve been saving for an occasion, and today I noticed the cork is coming out under the foil. IT’s been lying on its side for ten months in a cool basement, which is how I thought you were supposed to store wine. I’m assuming it’s gone bad somehow

  104. 104.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    I dealt with some bizarre stuff at work today and I’m really sleep deprived. My stupid boss came to work with a terrible cold last week and got us all sick. We’ve asked him to please stay home but he doesn’t believe we catch our colds from him. I wanted to punch him today when he rolled his eyes at one of our coworkers staying home from work because she had a fever and couldn’t stop coughing.

    Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow.

  106. 106.

    seaboogie

    @Baud: I had a Bernie-Sistah in my shop today trolling for conversation as many do after our fires here, and it devolved into an anti-Hillary rant on her end with all manner of conspiracy theories. I finally said “I’m uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation and I lack the ability to leave.” She looked at me with a stunned expression for a moment, and then said “then I’ll leave”, and she did.

    I’m learning to simply and clearly state a situation and my desired outcome without extraneous detail or emotion*, and boy, howdy – is that ever effective!

    *Obviously I don’t always practice that discipline here…?

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Okay, you have a good chardonnay. It shouldn’t be pushing out the cork. I suspect that there may have been some further fermentation – maybe a bad cork – that is releasing gases. Pop the cork and smell it. Give the wine itself at smell and a little taste. If it is okay, it will smell and taste like wine. If not, it will smell off – you don’t to be an expert to notice off.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I hate that kind of boss. My retired boss would come to work with a cold and insist it was allergies. Allergies aren’t contagious, lady! ?

    My current boss usually stays home when she’s sick, and we all appreciate her doing it.

    @seaboogie:

    I finally said “I’m uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation and I lack the ability to leave.”

    I’m going to tell G to use that line at the library where he works. He ends up dealing with a lot of people who are, shall we say, differently wired.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @seaboogie:

    “I’m uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation and I lack the ability to leave.”

    Wonderful. Well done, you. And decent on the Bernie-Sistah.

  112. 112.

    Steve in the ATL

    @seaboogie:

    I’m uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation and I lack the ability to leave.

    I’m going to try that next time I’m at the court of appeals and those mean justices are attacking me for my legally and factually specious argument

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    wow, military-worshipper Brian Williams and Peter Baker (whom I’ve read is himself a conservative) agreeing Kelly has tarnished his reputation

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: O’Donnell had Khzir Khan on his show tonight. Mr Khan heard the same thing I did from Kelly’s reference to “the convention last summer”, an implication that the Khans somehow sullied their status as gold star parent, and he elegantly told Kelly to go fuck himself and the Rough Beast he rode in on.

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: Sorry I didn’t read all 27 options in your third link. Why, yes, from now on I will keep corked bottles in case I have a stain. No one does that.

  123. 123.

    seaboogie

    @Steve in the ATL: You should! It would lead to an interesting moment, I’ll bet. OTOH, I wasn’t the one stating Hillary’s determination to go to war with Russia and bringing up Greenwald and Snowden.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: Don’t ask humans to to live by your weird ass rules. Many of us are willing to use the reply button rather than typing the code out. If you choose to go another way, fine. But don’t try to mock me about posting style.

  125. 125.

    seaboogie

    @Major Major Major Major: I am normally kind of emo and tend to want to give so much context that I get lost in my own story, so I find directness and clarity quite effective and powerful when I remember to go that route.

  131. 131.

    satby

    @Kathleen: from Tamara’s post up top:

    Three of us are missing – me, Czanne and a friend of mine who tagged along. She had enough fun she’s already thinking up her Balloon-Juice handle, but was camera shy.

  132. 132.

    Miss Bianca

    Count me one of those sorry to have missed out on the festivities! Please to have another CO BJ meet-up in the not-too-distant future!

  134. 134.

    John F

    It was definitely time well spent on Sunday to meet ya’ll. Hopefully we’ll have another one soon.

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