What's been going on in a nutshell

With the advent of Facebook, who ever spends time on a personal blog any more? In any case, I'll try to sum it up here. A lot has happened over the last several years, good and bad. My mother passed away in December, 2013, we all miss her a lot. Alejandro is now 18 and is well on his way. Andre will be a junior next year and works nearly everyday as a life guard at the YMCA.

I have spent the last several years preparing a musical project called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). It has been a lot of fun and hard work to bring this piece to fruition, but I admit is has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life.

I haven't played much tennis in the last year or two. I think my body needed the break. I'm hoping to start playing more this Summer and who knows maybe make another run in 2015. Viewmark is doing well, we continue to work with several long term clients and have several new project in the pipeline.

Colorado Christmas with Mom

Someone once said that Christmas is a time of year when you get homesick - even when you're home. Well, this year my mother came out to Colorado and helped us celebrate the season's yuletide cheer. She spent a little over a week with us and I was able to secure my favorite childhood recipes (fried chicken, beef stoganoff, pork and ham roasts). These were more than meals, they were feasts...as Alice might say.

The Saturday before Christmas, I performed at the Black Crown Piano Lounge while mom nursed a Manhattan. It was nostalgic to reminisce Christmas stories of the past with everyone and I think at one point we broke into the chorus "Almost Heaven...West Virginia". Oriana and Justin came over Christmas Day and we shared presents and got caught up on each others life's.

Strangers on Thanksgiving?

For some people Thanksgiving signifies the start of the shopping season, but for me I'm always reminded to break out the Holiday tunes and get ready for the Christmas festivities. This year I ended up down at my favorite Denver piano bar playing all sorts of fun songs. It's funny, I know it only comes once a year, but by the end of December I'm always ready to put the music away again.

Mike went home to visit mom and they had a traditional West Virginia Thanksgiving. I really missed sitting down with Mom and everyone from our family, but they'll be in Colorado for Christmas this year so I'm sure we'll all get caught up then. Being with strangers on Thanksgiving was a new experience for me, but somehow the seasonal music and all the voices made it really special too.

Dad celebrates his 90th birthday

This year my brothers and I flew into WV to celebrate Dad's 90th birthday. I think we surprised him, I called early in the day from Colorado to wish him happy birthday so he wouldn't have a hint of the surprise. It's funny, how a few hours later we were having dinner together.



I always look forward to spending time with my immediate family. Although we were perhaps a little too competitive early on in our lives; today, we celebrate our unique opinions. Dad was quick to get the spirited conversations going and then sit back and watch us battle it out. I love you dad!

Looking back at 2010: 525,600 minutes

I always enjoy looking over our family pictures during the Holidays. I like reminiscing the fun times I had with family and friends. This year we took several trips to the mountains and went to Lake Powell early in the year. During the Summer we went to West Virginia to see my parents and I visited with them again over Thanksgiving.



Every year we make a video on New Year's Day. Typically, its a skateboard video and I take the boys to a variety of skate parks around Denver, but it was just too cold this year so we decided to make a 2010 year-in-review video instead. It was so much fun that I think we'll plan to do it every year.

A West Virginia Thanksgiving

I headed back East to West Virginia for a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving this year to spend some time with my folks. I can remember so many great times with family and friends during this Holiday and this year was no exception. The weather was a bit of a mixed bag, but it was mostly mild and I took walks nearly every day down the railroad tracks and across the golf course.



Early on, I was able to visit with Craig Clinton and we reminisced the old days. I saw a couple performances of RENT at the Parkersburg Actors Guild since I've always enjoyed the music. It was just the three of us for Thanksgiving. Mom and I dressed the turkey in the afternoon after a visit from Mike McAllister. Later, she made all the fixings and after a short prayer we sat down for an intimate memorable dinner.

Keeping your nose to the grindstone

I always get excited when the weekend includes a skateboard competition for my kids to enter. Nearly, every town in the Denver metro has one during the Summer and if we are willing to travel a little way, so do the other front range and mountain towns. We've been doing these sorts of things for many years now.



I'm generally optimistic and tell my boys if they let the skateboard do the talking, eventually their time will come. My mom always said "just keep your nose to the grindstone and good things will happen". I guess the lesson here is that there really aren't any short cuts and anything worth having takes time.

It sure is sweet when everything comes together though!

A September drive just outside Denver Colorado

Taking a drive down the Platte River near Deckers has been an Alsup family tradition for many years. This Summer we stopped at the Castle Rock Skatepark and had lunch at Chipotle before heading into the mountains. The drive is pretty simple and only takes a few hours.



For some reason this year, I had to bribe the boys with the lunch at Chipotle and a quick stop at an area convenience store to stock up on sunflower seeds and sodas. I'm not sure I can explain it, but once we got to the river everything just seemed to make sense.

Summer road trips to West Virginia

Every year our family heads back to West Virginia to see my folks. They are getting older and we all cherish every second with them. There are so many ups and downs in life; on one hand, I was able to attend my 35th high school reunion this year and reminisce memories with old friends, on the other hand, mom had just had surgery and was planning to start chemotherapy.



I suppose the more things go around the more they come around. You see, a lot of my childhood was spent in the back of a Delta 88 headed to Kansas and now I find myself looking forward to taking that road trip to West Virginia from Colorado. This year seemed so bittersweet, watching my boys shred the new area skate park I couldn't help remembering Dad taking me to the tennis courts in Arkansas City while visiting his parents 40 years ago.

Lake Powell, an American adventure

I met Patrick Burgun in Paris nearly 25 years ago and we have been best of friends ever since. Over the years, we've made it a point keep in touch and see each other once or twice a year. He and his wife Marlene have taken me to so many interesting places in Europe and I have watched their two daughters grow up.



We've been to many places in Colorado, so this year I tried to come up with someplace that would be really unique. I've always enjoyed the landscape in Southern Utah and Lake Powell is truly a gem. It's sort of a long drive and the boys got a bit cranky, but after a couple of verses of Kumbayah everything was fine.

Our family @ the Millennium

It's funny how quickly we forget the specifics of the photographs we take. Thank goodness digital cameras save the date and time of pictures now. I'm still in the process of scanning old pictures from days gone by and I admit that instead of trying to track down the date and time of each one I've grouped the pictures below under a single heading "Millennium" since I know they were all taken around that time.



Carolina and I moved from Washington Park to Englewood on Halloween 1996. We were married the following year and these pictures were all taken around that time. Oriana was in the forth grade, Alejandro was an infant and Andre was still a glimmer in my eye. Looking through these photos reminded me that the early years of raising a family are truly magical for everyone involved.

1420 South Lafayette Street

I've been doing doing some Spring cleaning lately and during the process I've come across a lot of photos from past years. Well, I've been organizing the pictures by the address in which I lived at the time. For the record, I moved to Denver from California in 1989 and in 1991, I purchased a home at 1420 South Lafayette Street and lived there until 1997. Here are some scanned images from that time.



Dassault Systemes, a French software company, moved me to the area to manage their Catia (engineering software) clients in the surrounding area, mostly in Colorado and Kansas. I quickly became disenchanted with working remote and in May 1992 I decided to start my own company, in April 1995 Viewmark was born.

In the interim, I taught piano from the house known as the Washington Park Piano Studio and during the time I met Carolina Paez. We fell in love, became a couple and gave birth to Alejandro in 1996. She had a daughter Oriana, who is truly the rose of my heart, and our family moved to Greenwood Village in 1997. More to come!