Boulder is cooler than Telluride

By a lot. While it was 8 degrees fahrenheit here in Boulder, it was in the 30's over in Telluride.
Took my final class on thursday and biked home to pick up the super shuttle to the airport for my 8:30 PM flight. The flight was full, and delayed 30 minutes- so I called Chase to let him know what was up. The flight was a little over an hour long. When I arrived in Denver, Chase told me about how to get to Boulder, as the bus to the airpot had just completely drove by him without stopping. It was pretty simple, as I've traveled all around europe how to figure out what bus to take. The bus ride was over an hour long out to Boulder. I arrived at the stop with all the snow on the ground around 12:30 AM where Chase was waiting. Short walk to his house from there.

He lives in an amazing house, with hardwood floors, a wooden porch, a gas jet fireplace which is started by a switch on the wall. The huge basement is outfitted with a DLP projector they picked up on ebay for $500, and so they use an entire wall as a12' long screen for watching tv and movies. Unfortuantely, they didnt have any furnature down there, as the fourth roomate had just moved out and taken her stuff for unknown reasons. I was able to sleep in her old room on a matress, so no cold sofas for me. The kitchen is large and decked out with current brushed stainless steel dishwasher, microwave, electric stove, etc. Marble countertops. The rooms are all on the second floor. Chase has the biggest room, with an en-suite bath. He keeps everything in the house immaculately clean and organized. It is the antithesis of my lamentable housekeeping style.

The two other guys he lives with are partners in his company, and they actually have an office downstairs. He's making real progress with the business, working with an accountant, an intern web developer, 25 adventure sports companies, and having the account cards made in India. He's getting pretty close to lauching the whole thing- all he needs is a coder for setting up the database and money transactions.

Anyway, yesterday we did Boulder, touring campus, and downtown Boulder. Boulder is pushed right up against the rockies, with an amazing mountain ridge called the Flatirons just at the foothills of the Rockies. The campus is all done in this Tuscan style-y with concrete columns and red flagstone cladding. All the buildings are done this way. It feels much more like a sterotypical eastern university than ASU. But as an architecture major, I am glad we have the variety of styles, eras, and materials on our campus. There's a lot more green space at CU Boulder too. Under all the snow, it was very picturesque.

I'm freezing over here. Chase warned me that it was the coldest its ever been in Boulder, but I still forgot to bring my hiking boots and long underwear. I did bring a sweater and my Moscow down parka, which has kept me pretty warm.

CU reminds me bit of ASU, except the student union reminds me of a ski lodge. After we left the school, we walked around pearl street, which is a combination of Mill Avenue and Scottsdale Fashion Square. Some interesting, upscale shops. Stopped in and had a bite of sushi for snack at a place called Hapa, a playful sushi restaurant. The menu features a transformer on the cover, and the special rolls are given sexually suggestive names. Chase and I split the Multiple Orgasm roll, and the Shiso Honi roll ( I didnt get it until I said it out loud). It was really pretty cheap for sushi and absolutely delicious. They really push the envelope in terms of new forms and preparations of sushi.

We grabbed some tea over at a local tea store and Chase met up with up with a potential coder for his programming needs. The guy seemed pretty on the level and had done the kind of thing Chase wanted before. It still strikes me funny that Chase and Co. now have an intern and will soon have a coder a few years older than they are working for them.

After a bit more walking around, we got too cold and went back home where we made a vauge stir fry from everything in the freezer and watched the simpsons downstairs on the big screen wall. The only problem with the projector is that the bulb is going, and to buy a new bulb would cost as much as they originally bought the whole unit.

More on the today's trip to Denver later.