Sixteen Things To Do In Denver (While Dog And House Sitting For Ten Days)

1. Go to dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy.

2. Attend your sister's wedding at Sanctuary Golf Course.

3. Go to dinner at Rock Bottom.

4. On the way to the airport to drop your sister and her husband off for their honeymoon flight, stop at Borders Bookstore so they can pick up some beach reading. While there pick up a copy of The Tao Of Chess for yourself.

5. Attend your niece's junior varsity softball game.
(Note: they won.)

6. Every morning drive your niece to school and stop at Starbucks on your way home for a hot chocolate (nothing better than hot chocolate made with steamed milk). Marvel at the fact that although Starbucks calls itself a coffee shop it only serves three real coffee drinks; the rest of its menu consist of fu-fu drinks with coffee in them.

7. Visit the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on South Colorado and pick up a copy of Denver's Elitch Gardens. Read it while waiting for your niece's softball team to finish with their team photos.

8. Every morning take the dogs for their run at Cherry Creek State Park and every evening take them to one of the city dog parks.

9. Peruse the metaphysical bookstores on East Colfax Ave., Spiritways, Isis Books, and Herbs & Arts. Buy a copy of Astrology for Beginners to see if you can use it to figure out the Astrology chart you had done two years ago.

10. Go out to dinner again with a family friend. Eat at Papa D's.
(Note: Papa D's used to be called Angie's- same restaurant, different name.)

11. Take niece to a 11:30PM showing of Team America at the Denver Film Festival. Prepare to be amused.

12. Spend the morning walking around the Cherry Creek area and the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Be amazed by the fact you walk out of Tattered without buying one book.

13. Rent two DVD's, Saved and Super Size Me. Prepare to be amused.

14. Take niece to the Unique Thrift Store (per her request) to search for a skirt to finish her Homecoming Dance outfit. While browsing the store find a new paperback edition of The Stars by H. A. Rey and a hardback edition of House Of Spirits by Isabel Allende, each only 80 cents. Buy both because you can't pass up a deal like that.

15. Go to dinner at a friend's house and eat a wonderfully prepared grilled salmon.

16. Pick-up sister and brother-in-law from airport and later be taken to Outback Steakhouse as a "thank you for all you help" gesture.
(Note: Waiter, talking to my brother-in-law, said earlier in the week he had a couple come in who said they had been to a wedding at the Sanctuary Golf Course the weekend before. My sister tells him that was their wedding and asked if he remembered who the couple were, "Uhh...table thirteen?")