It's the little things

Those of you who know me know that I am absolutely fascinated by things that are smaller than their normal size, mini things, if you will. (I am also absolutely fascinated by that giant can of tuna that you can buy at Sam's Club. I mean, it's just so big.)

Therefore, I was gleefully delighted by the sampler tray yesterday at Golden's second biggest brewery, the Golden City Brewery. (I'll give you three chances to guess the biggest brewery in Golden.)



Golden City Brewery is basically a house (and a small house) that's been turned into a brewery. There are about three or four tables in what used to be the living room and what was once a yard is full of picnic tables and plastic chairs on which patrons lounge while sipping the brew.

The Brewery was the last stop of a long day spent with my new pal, Thomas (the one for whom KA and I hosted the Wisconsin BBQ/B-day party a few weeks ago). Earlier in the week, he talked me into running a 5K with him on Saturday morning in a little town called Conifer. Neither one of us had ever been to Conifer and Thomas thought it was about the same elevation as Boulder so I thought the 5K would be no big deal. Turns out, the town is a wee bit higher (like between 8000 and 9000 ft) and the race was half up-hill trail running. Good thing I'm not a high maintenance girl (not that there was enough oxygen up there for me to throw a hissy fit).

I toughed it out and crossed the finish line, gasping for breath, around 29 minutes. Thomas was waiting for me at the end with a bottle of water and an apology. Stupid elevation.

But the race wasn't all bad. Thomas came in second place in his age group and before the awards ceremony, we hung out in the "beer garden" with about ten other runners. We had one beer, at high altitude, on empty stomachs, at 10:30 in the morning and so he an I were both inappropriately giddy during the awards ceremony.

To sober up, we split a jelly donut and then headed to Golden where we played vintage video games (Q-bert, Ms. PacMan, and Donkey Kong), stopped at the Puma outlet, and hit the brewery where we sat in the early autumn sun and played Scrabble.

I ended the day but hanging out with KA, Thomas, Jake (from my kickball team) and Jessica (my upstairs neighbor and Abby's official baby sitter). We ate Chinese food and watched Anchorman which was just as funny the second time around. I was in bed and sleeping soundly before midnight with that incredibly content feeling that comes from those moments when you can see how good life is.