If you’re still undecided ahead of tomorrow’s primary elections, you can view my personal endorsements at pols.CO.  As a Republican, I’ve only offered endorsements on the right side of the aisle.  Of course, if you’re looking for information on the Democrat primary, you probably wouldn’t really value my opinion anyway!

Here are quick links if you’re interested in a particular race:

McInnis vs. Maes – Governor

Buck vs. Norton – U.S. Senator

Ament vs. Stapleton – State Treasurer

Maketa vs. Shirk – El Paso County Sheriff

Anyone interested in free tickets to the 2010 Parade of Homes?  Tickets are $10/adult and available at local Safeway stores, OR you can get them here for free! We’re giving away 5 sets of tickets.  All you have to do is leave a comment here and/or become a fan on Facebook.  You can even enter both ways if you really want to win.  Easy enough?

Here the two ways to win:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me you want the tickets.  2 comments will be chosen at random on Saturday morning (Aug. 7th) at 10 am.  You will be contacted via the email address you entered when leaving a comment.  Your tickets will be mailed ASAP once we receive your address.

2. Become a Facebook “fan” by liking the The Circa Group’s Facebook Page.  3 fans will be chosen at random from the fans we have at 10 am Saturday.  No comment or update on Facebook is required except that you “like” (become a fan) of our page.

You can get more information about the 2010 Parade of Homes from the Home Builders Association.  The 2010 Parade of Homes runs from August 6 through August 22.

Good luck!

Still over a year from completion, it’s starting to look like quantifiable progress at the Academy and Woodmen Interchange construction site:

They’ve completed the first phase of the girder placement, as shown in these pictures.  The next set will be done later this summer.

This week the left turn lane from southbound Academy to Brookwood Drive and the northbound left turn lane into the Woodmen Valley Shopping Center will be closed.  You’ll be able to access Brookwood and Woodmen Valley Shopping Center from York Road and the new Earl Drive.  (Source: WoodmenRoad.com)

In other infrastructure news, the Colorado Springs Business Journal is reporting that the state Department of Transportation has presented a plan for Powers Blvd, the main north-south thoroughfare on the east site of town.  Here’s more information on the proposed project.  Traffic on Powers Blvd is expected to increase 88% over the next 25 years!

One of the iconic events every year in Colorado Springs is the Thunderbirds air show during the Air Force Academy graduation. This year we watched the show from a location near the TCA campus on Voyager.  We had a great view, but without as much traffic as there typically is down near Interquest.

If you live somewhere other than the Springs, you might want to check out the 2010 Thunderbirds Schedule to see if they’ll be somewhere near you this year.

And now the real reason for this post… here are some pictures!

Have you ever had a contractor perform work on your home?  We can all remember a time we’ve had someone do maintenance or repairs on our home.  Could have been a plumber, electrician, painter, or just a local handyman… But here’s a question you may not know the answer to – was that contractor licensed and insured?

Electrician by dolocalsearch on Flickr

Oh sure, they said they were.  That’s a start, but that doesn’t really guarantee anything.  Particularly today with a sluggish economy, many contractors have allowed their insurance to lapse.

The best thing to do when hiring a contractor is to check for yourself.  Here in the Colorado Springs area you can get information on any contractor directly from the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.  You can even see that contractors insurance and license information online – it takes 30 seconds and could save you thousands of dollars if something goes wrong with that “simple repair”!  The link below will take you directly to the license search page:

Search Contractors in the Pikes Peak Region

Are you looking for a contractor and don’t know where to start?  Give me a call – I may have a recommendation for you.

Thinking of doing some gardening this weekend?  Might have to wait for the snow to melt first… Colorado Springs got hit with a nice spring snow storm today, closing many school districts.

We’ve gotten several inches so far and it keeps on coming down…  At least it means you can delay watering the lawn for another week!

And to think there were tornados in the area last night!

This past Saturday, April 10, was the El Paso County Republican Assembly and the corresponding Democrat Assembly. This was the first real glimpse into who will be on the primary ballot later this year. You can see the full results at the links below.

El Paso County Republican Assembly Results

El Paso County Democrat Assembly Results

For those of you interested in local politics, the November ballot is almost set already when it comes to county races. There could still be some changes (such as candidates who lose at the assembly petitioning back onto the primary ballot), but with the exception of the Sheriff’s race, this is how the El Paso County portion of your November ballot may look based on information available to me:

* Sheriff Candidate TBD via Primary between Terry Maketa and Jacob (Jake) Shirk

This was my first opportunity to serve as a delegate to the county assembly and the experience was fun (if politics is your thing) and certainly educational. I’m looking forward to serving as a delegate to the Republican State Assembly next month as well, when we go through a similar process for beginning the process of selecting candidates for statewide offices.

This Saturday is the 27th annual Colorado Springs St. Patrick’s Day Parade! It starts at noon and runs south down Tejon, from St. Vrain to the Pioneers Museum.  Plan to park a few blocks away – many of the streets are blocked off for parade setup.

Let’s hoping the weather this year is as great as it was last year. We thoroughly enjoyed the parade last year – though, a tip: if you sit at the end of the parade route, the parade “starts” 20 minutes later and by the end, most of the performers have fizzled and the candy is all gone.

Check out our pics and video from last year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade!

Here’s the official lineup of parade entries for 2010.

What are the odds that rocks actually fall on you when you’re driving through the Colorado mountains and see dozens of “watch for falling rock” signs? Probably pretty slim; however, after the major rockslide on Interstate 70 this morning (near Glenwood Canyon), it will probably be awhile before you scoff at those warnings again:

Photo credit: Colorado DOT. More rockslide pics via TwitPic

Thanks to local tweeter QualityFrog for the link to the pics.