Thursday, October 30, 2008

Cable Center wedding pictures | Bobby & Marie in Denver, Colorado

Getting married this year at the Cable Center? Email Chris to see if I'm available to photograph your wedding! The Cable Center is a pretty amazing place of photos.



It was a fine ceremony at the superbly renovated St. Thomas More Church in Littleton::


Everybody, I want you to meet my beautiful mother and handsome father, Annette and Valente::


He's been playing the violin like a master for decades, and it showed at the rehearsal dinner::



Details of a perfect day (I think that duck is an inside-joke)::


Family family everywhere::


Whatchyoulookinat? I used to hit these on my birthdays when I was a kid::


Byeeeeeee::


Thank you Robert and Marie for a wonderful day. Sorry if I hit that piƱata before you had a chance to (I know it was your special day, but I couldn't help it ;).

What a day for a daydream



Love those Rocky Mountains!

Monday, October 27, 2008

One weekend, two presidential candidates

Last weekend I went to a John McCain rally and a Barack Obama rally in Denver. Colorado is an official 'battleground' state so they want our votes! Here's Friday at the Western Stock Arena, the McCain rally attendance 4,000 strong (sorry, no Palin)::




Former Broncos quarterback John Elway introduced the Senator, as did John Lynch, a really popular Bronco who left last year and is considering another team, I hear.


48 hours later, Barack Obama made history by speaking to over 100,000 Coloradoans at Civic Center Park. A sea of people flooded the Park and stretched all the way to the steps of the Capitol building. In front of me::



See Barack? He's right there, at the podium!

And behind me (click for the larger version)::


It was amazing. I've never seen this before in Denver. I was one of 84,000 people at the Senator's DNC acceptance speech in August at Invesco Field, but this was different. No tickets required, first-come first-serve, early morning on a cold Sunday. People of all ages, hues, ethnicities, heights, temperaments, political affiliations attended this speech. It's a testament to Barack's overall message.



For comparison, last week's Obama crowd under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis reached about 100,000. Obama's excellent adventure throughout Europe this summer peaked in Berlin, where he spoke to a crowd topping 200,000. I counted the crowd while Barack spoke and my final tally was 114,293 people. Denver represent! We'll see if this Denver crowd translates into votes.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Dow-n Jones and My Predictions for Election Day

Yeah, they might as well as add an 'n' to the Dow.

Down, Jones. Down!

It's down 40% from this time last year. NASDAQ down 38%. S&P 500 down 41%. My 401(k) is now a 201(k). No worries, though. I didn't have that much in there to begin with, ha. Good strategy after all, Chris!

Ironically, so many of these stocks look really enticing right now. Still too risky to buy anything, though. But after the New Year (read: after the election), I'm going shopping for some discounted growth-stock mutual funds.

Speaking of the election, I'm going to call it. It's time. Here's how Barack will win the smattering of lean- and swing-states. My home-brewed electoral map, courtesy of MSNBC:



Obama-Biden will take all the swing states, except Missouri and North Carolina. Results will be close in Ohio, and even closer in Colorado. I think CO will go blue with less than a 50,000-vote margin.

The only way McCain-Palin have a shadow of a chance of turning around Obama's 11-point lead in the national polls is:

a) if there's a SERIOUS geopolitical event within the next three weeks (i.e., terrorist attack on the US or Western ally, or Israel attacks Iranian interests, etc.), or

b) Osama Bin Laden walks over to McCain's Sedona ranch and surrenders, or

c) McCain manages to come up with an actually clear, consistent and focused campaign strategy that's agreed upon by the following parties: John McCain, Cindy McCain, Sarah Palin, their campaign strategists, their economic advisers, and their surrogates. So far he's confusing the heck out of his base.

I'm going to be an election judge on Nov. 4th, and I'm wearing a purple tie and purple Converses in celebration of Colorado becoming a purple state. Awww. I promise I'll take pictures. Should be a lot of fun.