My Life II

Done

2011-12-23T15:34:00.001-06:00

Well I am officially a college graduate. While it is only a two year degree it is a degree none the less and I am proud of myself for finishing. It took me a long time, sadly there were a lot things that came up a long the way that caused me to put classes on hold for a year at a time thus making it seem to take forever. But after a long haul I am done. I finished with an Associate of Science and a 3.63 GPA. I worked very hard and I am glad I stuck with it. Now on to the next adventure.

Musings

2011-11-30T09:35:00.001-06:00

My life has been crazy the last few weeks. I am finally coming toward the end of my college career, well at least for now. What a long a strange road it has been. It has taken a long time but the experience has been very rewarding and eye opening. I never thought I would love learning again as much as I have the past few years. Even though this process is going to leave me with only a two year degree I am very happy with the fact that I have stuck it out and stayed with it through some very trying times in my life. My next decision will be if I will continue on and work toward my 4 year. I am unsure what will do, but for now I am going to enjoy the feeling of accomplishing a goal that I set for myself strictly for self-improvement and self-knowledge. I am happy with that.

I have been doing some serious record shopping lately, I have bought a few things here and there, but last week I had a great score. I found a mint condition copy of The Wall. It was like the thing was never played. It was pretty sweet. I have a feeling I am going to ware that pile out. I love The Wall; it is my favorite Floyd album. I have almost managed to score a couple more friends’ collections. Good stuff. It is funny because people mostly just want to get rid of their records. I will take them. If you have any old records and are looking to get rid of them I will take them. I got my first Beatles record the other day, I was never a huge Beatles fan, but I am glad to have their greatest hits album, good stuff on there.

I wish it would snow. Right now there is nothing and it doesn’t really even seem like winter outside. Sure it is chilly but there are really no signs at all of winter and that to me is a bummer. I am looking forward to skiing again this year and maybe spending a bit more time trying to learn how to snowboard. If we head west this year I would like to try snowboarding out there. I think it would be a blast.

I am looking forward to Christmas. I love Christmas, I can’t wait to get our tree and decorate it. I really want to bake and decorate cookies. I am hoping that Santa Claus swings by the house this year. I like Santa.

The next big thing will be what we decide for out winter trip. We are kicking around some ideas. I am not sure what we are going to do, but I am guessing it will be awesome.

New Phone

2011-10-29T14:45:00.001-05:00

So I got my new phone, I think so far it is ok. I ended up getting the new iPhone 4s. I like it so far, it is really not that much different than my Android phone. I do like some things on the droid much better, but the iPhone is going to be fine. I do really like the Siri function a lot. It is pretty dang cool. I have used it a little bit and so far so good, I had heard people were having some trouble with it but so far so good. More later.

Back for now.

2011-10-25T08:47:00.001-05:00

So let’s face it basically I suck at keeping up with my blog. It is not that I don’t have anything to say because I do have a lot to say and it is mostly important stuff as well, at least it is in my own mind. Anyway, life is good. I have 6 weeks left of school and let me be honest it cannot end soon enough. I am just so ready to be done with classes. I want to read my own books and not have to bring a laptop on vacation in order to log into classes. I have been at this a long time, too long in fact. But it is still something that I am very proud of even though with how long it has taken, I could have went to medical school, finished a surgical residency and gotten at least one but maybe two PHDs. But none the less it was a goal of mine and it will come true on December 14th when I graduate. Awesome, I can’t wait.

It has been a busy past few months. Melissa and I have done a lot of traveling this year; we just got back from our second trip to DC which turned out to be a whole lot of fun. We saw some things we didn’t see on our first trip out there in May so it was great to do that and we saw something’s again that we both really loved. I made a little memorial to my dad that had a couple of photos of him on it and some information about his service during WWII, I printed it out in color and laminated it and placed it on the Minnesota pillar in the Atlantic theater half of the World War II Memorial. It made me feel great inside to do that. After I place the page on the granite I stepped back and remembered him and watched as a few people walked by and bent over to read the page about him. I was glad to see people do that, they got to learn a little bit about a great man that was very proud of the service that he gave to his country. It was a neat experience. I was happy to have been able to do that for him.

Baseball season is over and it was a crappy year for the Twins. They lost 99 games and really had a bad year. It was really a bummer. Even though we had a great time at the ball yard it is always hard to watch the team that you really like do so poorly. Oh well, we are hoping for better things from them next season.

I bought a record player about a month ago. Yes records! Vinyl records, you know those things that kids born before 1980 listened to music on. Sad to think some kids have never heard the pops and hisses from a record. I have always wanted to get back into vinyl and the opportunity came when a co-worker of mine asked where she could sell a bunch of old records. I told her about Cheapo over in St Paul, but asked if I could have a look at them first and see if there was anything I might be interested in. She brought her collection in a few days later and I had a look and took all of them. Great old stuff, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and other great stuff. It was awesome, just like that I was back and had the start to a very nice vinyl collection. Since then I have been trolling the bins at Half Price Books and at Cheapo Records in St Paul and am putting together some great music. I have always been a huge music buff so this has almost been a religious experience for me. I bought a middle of the road turntable after shopping around. I didn’t want to drop a grand right off the bat for one until I knew that everything was going to be ok and that I was going to enjoy it. Anyway I seriously looked around a found one that was in a good price range and got excellent reviews and made the jump. It is awesome, the sound is pure and amazing and I am trying to figure out how I am going to swing an upgrade in a year or so. It is amazing to me that the market for vinyl is as big as it is. I am glad to know there are others out there that want the pure sound vinyl gives.

Back soon.

Catch Up Sort Of

2011-08-10T09:15:00.001-05:00

So I have been away for a while. Not really sure why because I do have things to say. I guess I just haven’t had the desire to say them. A lot has been going on since we last chatted. I have done a lot of fly fishing, been to Colorado, been laid off due to a government shutdown, booked another couple trips and watched a lot of baseball.

I have been doing a lot of fly fishing this year, and it has been great. I have always enjoyed fishing of all kinds whether on spinning gear or on spinning gear, but this year it has been all flies. I have fished locally on the Rush and the Kinni, the Poplar River in Lutsen and in a couple spots in Cordillera Colorado. All have produced fish in some fashion and all have been really fun times.
In early July Melissa and I went out to Cordillera Colorado and stayed at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, let me just say that when we arrived home, within 24 hours I had flights booked and reservations for a return trip later in the summer. Everything about that place was perfect and we are looking forward to the return trip here in 17 days.

I had 19 days off due to a government shutdown in early July as well. Even though it sucked not having a job for the time, it was pretty fricking awesome to not have a job and not have to work for 19 days. I felt like a kid on summer vacation again. It was a nice chance to unwind, relax and do work on my summer classes. I now have officially two classes left, they start August 22nd and I graduate on December 16th I can’t wait to be done. I have worked LONG and hard to get this done, so I am excited to have finally accomplished this school thing. I am proud of myself for sticking with it over a few trying years.

The Minnesota Twins are having a terrible season, they are horrible. It is a bummer because they “should” be better than this. Oh Well, maybe next year they will be better. At least I hope. Melissa and I are still enjoying going to the games, but of course it is better when the team is winning.

I have started playing racquetball with my friend Scott at LA Fitness and we are having a blast. I love racquetball, I played a bit when I was younger and am enjoying get back into it now. Scott and I play at least twice a week for about 2 hours or so at a time. I am also going to join the racquetball league at LA Fitness which starts in early September. I am really looking forward to it. It is great exercise, but it is also have which exercise sometimes isn’t, so win-win I guess.

Summer is disappearing quickly, which is bittersweet. It has been mostly a crappy summer, it has either been a million degrees and super humid or it has been raining. We haven’t had very many nice days. So that is bummer I guess, but I am looking forward to fall and winter. I am planning on learning to be better on my snowboard this year. Melissa and I have season passes to Welch Village again this year. So I am hoping for good weather and lots of snow.

There are so many thoughts going around in my head today. So many that I really don’t know what to type. More random thoughts as usual.

Melissa and I are also returning to Washington DC at the end of September. We loved it there and I can’t wait to get back. I am planning on bringing a photo of my dad to the World War II memorial. I think that he would be proud of that monument, so I think it is important for me to do that. I was thinking I would make up a little thing with a photo and a little information about him. So others can know he was proud to have served his country. I am also looking forward to another trip to Arlington, I loved that place. It was amazing. I could have easily spent all day there; I look forward to going back.

Life is good, lots going on.

Washington DC

2011-06-06T10:05:00.003-05:00

Melissa and I returned from Washington DC last Monday evening and here is a short recap of our trip. DC was amazing in every way. We were incredibly impressed with the city we were both pleasantly surprised.

Our flight out of here was good, no major delays or anything; we arrived at Reagan International at about 11pm, hopped in a cab and were at our hotel about 15 minutes later, it was very easy. We got a good night sleep and woke up the next morning ready for some sightseeing. We headed down to the Metro and bought our passes and headed down to the Holocaust Museum. The DC subway was very clean and easy to use. We got in line for our tickets to the Museum and headed in, The Holocaust Museum was amazing, it was beautiful and sad, probably not the best way to start a vacation. But it was a must see and we were both glad that we went. The thing that sticks out the most for me was the room of shoes. If I think about it I can still smell that old leather smell that was heavy in that room it was very sad and made the whole thing seem more real, pictures are one thing being seeing all of the shoes that were left behind from Majdanek was something else.

After that we headed to Arlington National Cemetery. I loved Arlington it was amazing. The grounds are incredibly beautiful and I found it peaceful. We walked up to JFK’s grave site. It was very impressive seeing the black stone with his name on it and the eternal flame burning was a sight that I will remember. After JFK we headed to the Tomb of the Unknowns. This was by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Watching the Tomb guard do his walk of 21 steps turn, wait and repeat was incredible. We saw the changing of the guard. I luckily got down to the front row and had a great view, Melissa stayed back a few feet so she could stay in the shade. It was hot outside. Anyway the changing of the guard was easily one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. Everything was perfect, I wish I had an ounce of the discipline these soldiers have. I loved watching the changing of the guard. Looking back on our trip, it was easily my favorite thing I saw while in DC. After watching the changing we continued looking around Arlington, we saw Audie Murphy’s grave, the War Nurses memorial, and the memorials for both shuttle disasters. Arlington was amazing, I could have easily spent all day walking around there.

After Arlington walked across the Memorial Bridge and went to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial, the Wall was stunning. To gaze upon those 58,000 names was a sight to behold. It was sad there. Quite a few veterans were there and many of them were sad. It was hard to be there, but incredible to see. After the Wall we headed back to our room to relax and rest. We headed out for a nice dinner and back to our room to hit the rack. It was a long hot day of walking and we were both beat.

Sunday we got up and headed out on the subway, we went down to the White House to check that out, very neat to see it in person, it is quite the spot. The grounds were beautiful and I kept thinking how fun it would be to get a game of baseball going on that lawn. We were lucky enough to see Marine-1 leave the White House with President Obama aboard. That was quite the sight. After the white house we headed over to the World War II Memorial. As we walked up on the World War II Memorial I was instantly struck by sadness and a feeling of great loss. I felt my father’s presence there and it made me both sad and very proud. My dad was a WWII vet and it was great to see the Memorial built for his service. Walking into the oval, I had a hard time. I was incredibly overwhelmed with loss and I tried to hide my watery eyes. I felt close to my father there and didn’t want to leave. We sat down by the oval pool and I just remembered. It was a very emotional experience for me. When we return to DC I plan on bringing a photo of my dad to the WWII Memorial and placing it at the Minnesota pillar in his memory. After that we headed up to Hard Rock Café for lunch. Once again it was really hot outside and we both wanted some where cool we could sit, eat and relax. The FBI building was right across the street from Hard Rock so that was pretty cool for us. Melissa more than I is a huge X-Files fan, so I think it was pretty neat for her to see the FBI building. I got a picture of her standing in front of the building. It was fun. We looked for Scully and Mulder but didn’t see them. After lunch we headed to the National Archives and looked at the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. It was neat to see them and to think that everything his country stands for is written on those pieces of paper. We both enjoyed the National Archives. After the archives we headed to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. One of the things that I really want to see was Mr. Rogers’s sweater, Kermit the Frog and Archie Bunkers chair in the Smithsonian. I got to see 2 of the 3, sadly Mr. Rogers sweater was not on display that day, but Kermit and Archie’s chair were there so that was really cool. After a bit more walking around and taking in the experience of DC we headed back to our hotel and had a nice dinner at a little Chinese place that we found. Another awesome day. Monday we woke to another hot and humid day. We had a short day since our flight out was in the late afternoon. We headed down to the Marine Memorial that was really cool to see. It was way bigger than I thought it was be, the statues of the men raising the American Flag are huge. It was a cool memorial and I am glad we saw it. After that we headed back to the National Mall area, went to the Air and Space Museum and had a nice lunch. After lunch we walked around a bit more and then it was time to head for the airport for our flight home, which went off without a hitch. We got home at 8pm, and had time to unwind and relax before bed, and work the next day.

DC was amazing. We both loved it there. In fact we liked it so much we have plans to go back at the end of September. I can’t wait. There are a few more things that we both want to see and I really want to go back to the WWII Memorial and Arlington.
If you haven’t been I highly recommend DC it was very impressive.

Death, The Dalai Lama and Fly Fishing

2011-05-14T09:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the anniversary of my mother’s death. I cannot believe that she has been gone for 11 years. Man time flies. I was thinking about her yesterday and how much I miss her. She was a great lady and I had so much fun hanging out with her. I miss our times together, but I have great memories of her and I am glad for that. I wish with all of my heart that Melissa would have gotten to meet her, they would have really hit it off. Bummer.

Lots of stuff has been going on. Melissa and I went to hear His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak last weekend at the U of M. It was amazing. It was an incredible feeling for me to be in the same room with him, even if that room was a hockey arena. It still was a special time for me. He has a great sense of humor and it was just so thrilling to hear him speak and hear his laugh. You can tell that he is just a gifted speaker and such an intelligent person. It was truly an honor for me to be there and it is
something that I will never forget.

Classes are done for spring! I am so happy. My two classes were tough this semester. Lots of papers to write. Over the 8 weeks I wrote 9 papers. Ugh, by the end I was ready for a serious break. I have 4 classes left and then I will be done. At that point I will need to decide if I want to continue on or hang it up for a while. I am not sure what I am going to do. I would like to go on but it might be nice to just take
a break from school for a while and concentrate on some other things.

Melissa and I are going to Washington DC over the Memorial Day weekend. I am really excited about it and I think she is too. Neither of us have ever been there and I know for me it is somewhere that I have always wanted to go. I think it will be amazing to see all of the monuments and the history that goes along with all of that. We are only going to be there for 3 full days so it is going to be a whirl wind tour of DC. I am hoping that we get a good taste of the city and get to see some of the important things. I am hoping that if we both like it well enough that we will return another time to spend more time looking around. But either way it will be a nice chance to get out of town for a while and be together.

I finally got out fly fishing the other day with my buddy Bill. I met him over at a spot on the Kinnikinnick River in the River Falls area. It was a perfect day. We got to the spot and the trout were rising all around us. We both found spots in the river and went to work. I was fishing a little foam ant along the bank. Four casts in I had my first fish. The way he hit the ant I thought for sure it was going to be about a 15lb fish, but alias it turned out to be about a 4 inch Brown trout. Either way he was fun to catch and my first fish of the year so it was a great start. I moved around a bit on the river, sadly missed about 4 or 5 strikes before I had #2 fish on. I had made the switch to a small Elk Hair Caddis and caught the #2 fish almost right away. Again he was about the same size as the first fish, but again so much fun, man for a
little fish they can sure fight. After moving around some more I found what looked like the perfect spot. I got my caddis fly into what I hope would be the perfect sport and boom, nice huge strike! I knew I had a bigger fish on. When I finally got a look at him he was indeed a bigger fish. I got him in and he was pretty, about a 13” Brown with some spunk, he put up a great little fight. He was not interested at all in being landed. But I assured him that I would simply get a photo and set him free. I finally got him in and took my photo and set him free. It was exciting! Fished for 3 hours, caught 3 really fun fish, missed about 9 strikes and had a blast. I can’t wait to get back out there and try again.

Out of Retirement and Quickly Back into Retirement

2011-04-12T08:59:00.002-05:00

I think we all know that I am not an athlete. I enjoy sports but I am not very good at anything sports wise. I did a brief stint a few years ago in the running world and did a few races. The pinnacle of my running career was the completion of the Afton 25k trail race. After I ran that race I ran maybe 4-5 more times, but never in the form of a race and never more than a few miles. Last Saturday I came out of retirement to run the Goldy’s 5k at the U of M. It was for a good cause, most of the money went to the Amplatz Children’s Hospital and the entry fee was pretty inexpensive so I thought what the hell, I will give it a try. The one cool thing about the race was the finish was the 50 yard line at TCF Bank Stadium, basically you ran down the same tunnel that the Gopher football team does and run out on to the field. It was really a next way to finish. They even had a live feed running on the huge scoreboard screen so you could see yourself finish. I really enjoyed the race and was really glad I signed up. The course was great, nice and flat. It meandered through the U’s campus and finally worked its way back to the stadium for the big finish. I was really happy with my time. I finished in 34:10 which was great considering that I basically had forgotten about the race until a few days before so I really didn’t get out a run much at all. (read none) I am definitely going to try and do this race every year.

Baseball season is here once again. The Twins are starting out a bit slow and I am starting to get worried but it is a long season and I think they will come around. Melissa and I went to the home opener last Friday which of course was a blast, and the Twins had a nice come from behind victory and those are always fun. I also saw and old friend at the game which was pretty cool. In fact she was sitting right behind Melissa and I so we got a chance to chat a bit during the game. We have tickets to tonight’s game and I am looking forward to being back in our season ticket seats. I am interested to see if the same people will be in the seats ahead of us. Either way I am looking forward to a nice season of baseball at Target Field.

I am a little over half way done with my spring semester classes. I am taking two 8 week classes. They are going well. I really like one class, I am a little disappointed with the other, but it will be fine. I will be glad to be done with spring classes and have a few weeks off before summer classes start. I have 2 more classes set up for summer. Right now I am signed up for microbiology and pathophysiology. I am not sure if I am going to stick with both or change. I keep going back and forth on the pathophysiology class. It sounds really interesting but it might be a little much for summer. We’ll see what I end up with.

I am looking forward to starting up the fly fishing season. I was hoping to go this Thursday but it looks like the weather is not going to hold. Oh well soon!

Spring has Sprung

2011-03-29T09:01:00.001-05:00

Classes are well underway and so far so good. I am going to be busy with classes this semester, after reading the syllabi for my 2 classes they are going to be jammed packed with work. But it just brings me closer to being done. I have to take a review class this summer to prep for some math classes but after the prep class I will have 3 classes left. I am looking forward to being done. After that I have another decision to make, whether or not I want to continue on or if that will be good enough. I am guessing that after a short break I will continue on but as of today I am not sure. I love “college” and am bummed I waited so long to go back. I would have done things very differently if I could do it all over again, but that is OK. I am glad that I discovered a love of learning in this late in the game. The educational march continues on!

Baseball season starts on Friday. I am looking forward to another fun year. Melissa and I have home opener tickets again this year and we are both looking forward to the Twins first game at home, which is April 8th. Our first season ticket game is April 12th. Once again we have a 20 game package in the same seats we were in last year. I love our seats and we plan on keeping them for the foreseeable future. Hopefully the weather will be decent this year and the Twins will have a great year!
I started tying flies last week. I have wanted to give it a try for a long while. I bought a few books and watched a few “how to “videos on the internet and decided to give it a try. I bought some basic tools and supplies and started with a couple “easy” flies. After a small learning curve mostly with technique and working with something so small, I actually figured it out and tied a few simple nymphs. It is super fun and incredibly relaxing. I also learned how to tie a Brassie and a Wolly Worm. Both turned out well and I am very happy with the outcomes. I am so excited to learn more about the hobby and actually catch some fish with my flies. I am making some plans to possibly fish with a buddy a little this year; I am hoping that it works out!

I saw my first robin this morning and although this pains me to say, I am ready for spring and summer. It has been an awesome winter, but I am ready for some warmer temps. *sigh* my favorite resorts out west are just getting crushed with snow. So that makes it hard, because I would really like to be there skiing powder and enjoying the mountains. But it is all good. I smile when I think of all of the skiers and riders having fun in all of that fresh snow. Ride on fellow snow riders, ride on!

Mud Season is here

2011-03-21T10:02:00.001-05:00

So it appears as though winter is just going to go without a fight. It is surprising how fast the snow has disappeared. Grass is showing everywhere and the weather is getting warmer by the day. I am hoping that winter will give us one more blast before retreating to memory for yet another year. Our local ski resort closed yesterday. I was bummed. I feel like I didn’t ski every much this year. I had some awesome ski days this year, it just seems like there wasn’t enough of them. But I would probably feel that no matter how many days on the slopes I had. I guess now we have moved on to what we call mud season. Hopefully it will go fast; I have a few things that I am looking forward to getting going. I think I might be the only person that is sad to see winter go. I love the snow and have enjoyed this winter. I am hoping next year will be as good snow wise as this one has been.

I won a scholarship. That is kind of the big news. I applied for a few scholarships through my school and actually won one of them. It is exciting to me. It isn’t a huge amount of money but it will pay for a class and that is perfectly fine with me. I was really excited to read the email announcing the win. It really made me feel good. It is nice to be recognized for something that you have worked hard on. I am looking forward to using the money when I register for classes next time.

Speaking of school, my classes have once again started. So far so good. I think that I am going to enjoy both of them. They are short, only 8 weeks which means that a lot of reading and paper writing is going to be crammed into them, which is both bad and good. Good that they will be over quicker and bad that there is a lot of worked packed into those 8 weeks. Oh well, I am getting close to being done, I have a few classes left so it is going to be good!

I have begun looking at fly tying as way to enjoy my fly fishing a little more. The idea of catching a fish on something you made is pretty darn cool. Besides that the hobby fascinates me. I have been watching “how-to” videos online and it looks seriously fun. I am looking forward to looking into that a little more.

Life is good as always.

Bucket List

2011-03-11T11:40:00.001-06:00

So lately I have become a little more into my “bucket list”, I have a list of 72 things that I would like to do before I die. A few of them I know that I will never do, like walk on the moon, own my own planet or meet an outer space alien, but there are a lot of them that are in reach and even a fair number of them that are done. I created this list 5 years ago officially, but I have been creating it in my head for decades. Anyway I wrote the list down in my secret Moleskine notebook while drinking tea with Melissa at the Tea Garden on Grand Ave in St Paul. I look at the list at least once or twice every few months and see if there is anything on it that I could achieve. I think everyone should have a bucket list. Sadly with the ski conditions at Big Sky this year I was unable to cross two things off the list, they were skiing both Marx and Lenin Bowls on the south face of Lone Mountain. I was pretty bummed that I was not able to cross those 2 goals of the list. Looking forward this year however I have a few things that are going to be taking off the list; at least as off right now it is looking that way.

The first thing is, Melissa and I are going to hear His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speak at the U of M in May. I am really excited about this. I admire him a lot and am really looking forward to hearing him speak, which could very well be the last time he comes to Minnesota. It promises to be an amazing time. For my practice of Buddhism this is a very big deal for me and I am sure it will be something I will never forget.

I am taking an Orvis fly fishing class in July this summer. This is something that I have always wanted to do and it is finally going to happen. I have been fly fishing on and off for 20 years and I love it, I wish I could (read should) do it more. Whether or not I catch anything it is always relaxing for me to be out on the water trying. The class is going to take place in Edwards Colorado over 2 full days. I am hoping to learn a lot and apply what I learn to our summer trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, which brings me to a couple other things in my bucket list and they are to catch a fish in the following rivers, The Madison, Henry’s Fork and the Snake River. All of which I am going to have the chance to fish this summer while we are on vacation. I am hoping to be successful in each of these rivers.
I also have a couple other things in the hopper for next summer already; there will be more on that later. I am not going to jinx my ideas for huge plans.

Classes start up on Monday, I dropped a class and am back down to doing 2 classes. The thought of 3 eight week classes was starting to get a little daunting. I want to do well in the classes I have left and just thought that might be too much packed into that short amount of time. It will be ok though, I am still on schedule. I might have to do an extra semester but that is OK with me. Like I said I want to do well.

I hate to say it but I think winter is over. Looks like the temperatures are starting to get warmer, and there is no prediction of snow over at least the next 10 days. That means that the snow we do have is going to get really crappy and that sucks for skiing. I might be down for the year. *sigh* Oh well bring on next winter!

Happened for a reason

2011-03-07T09:07:00.001-06:00

So I know they say that everything happens for a reason, I still have a lot of problems with that statement. I am still trying to figure out the reason that I was parent-less at the age of 29, but I digress. This weekend, the statement everything happens for a reason came into play and made me a little more of a believer. Since a whole chain of events happened for a reason.

Saturday started like most Saturday’s do at my house, lazily getting out of bed and starting to roam around the house deciding what the day is going to bring. This Saturday was going to be a fun day, Melissa and I were going to run a couple errands and then meet a friend down at the Metrodome for some rollerblading. We were also going to ask that friend to join us at Stella’s afterword for a beer and appetizers. But once again I digress, Melissa and I went out on our errands and during the beginning of our errands I got an email from our friend in which she canceled rollerblading with us because she was not feeling well, Melissa and I were bummed because we like this person and were sad that we weren’t going to see her and we like to rollerblade, but hence this started the things happen for a reason. After we got that email we changed our plan for the day and decided that we were not going to go rollerblading either and that we were going to go and have lunch and then go grocery shopping which we were not going to do before. After grocery shopping we came home and started to unpack the groceries and I made my trip down to the freezer in the basement to put the frozen foods away. I opened the door to the utility area and discovered that something was leaking and leaking badly, there was a lot of water on the cement floor. I panicked and yelled for Melissa to run down and help me move somethings that were sitting in water. After moving some stuff quickly out of the puddles and attempting to figure out what was leaking, was it the sump pump? The water softener? The Aprilaire thing? No of course not it was our 6 year old 50gal water heater. It was leaking slow but steady. Melissa called the number on the side of the water heater and 3 hours and $1100 later we had a new 50gal water heater… Melissa and I cleaned up the mess which luckily wasn’t too bad. We only had to throw a few things out that were water damaged. After we got the area cleaned up and a couple fans set up to dry the concrete we talked about how lucky we were that this didn’t happen a few weeks ago while we were on vacation. 50 gallons of water leaking for 11 days, it would have been A LOT worse!

I bring this story up because of the chain of events that lead us to find the leaking water. If our friend would not have canceled with us, I have no idea when we would have found the leaking water. It may not have been till Sunday and things would have been much worse. I find this chain of events very interesting and it brings into thought the bigger picture of life. Do things really happen for a reason? I wonder, sometimes it certainly seems like that is a big fat YES, but other times it seems like the answer would be a NO. I brought up in the beginning of this blog post about my parents. Both of my parents are deceased, my dad in 1994 and my mom in 2000. I was very close with both my parents and losing them was very hard for me. When my mother died I asked a lot of questions to men that were supposed to have the answers and all I have heard was, everything happens for a reason. What was the reason that my mother lost her life? Well, God has a plan. I claimed bullshit and that their answer was an easy way out of an answer that they could not give me in reality. I lost all faith and began what has become my personal quest for answers to my own beliefs and spirituality. I am still on the quest and all the while I have moved from one belief system to another, I still long for the reason that both my parents are gone. Sorry this post is a little heavy but sometimes I think, I try to link and then I think some more. I wonder about death and what happens, and truthfully I am scared of the thought of dying. I am not ready nor do I think that I ever will be. I am worried about it and it is always in the back of my mind. Morbid? Yes I know it is, but it is very important to me. I don’t claim to be an intelligent philosopher, or have the inside scoop to anything. I have a longing for knowledge about how things work and why things happen. This weekend, made me believe a little more that things do happen for a reason and sometimes it is a good reason.

More thoughts...

2011-02-24T09:28:00.002-06:00

One thing that we tried to do this trip that we haven’t done in the past is eat our meals at different places. In Bozeman we eat at our favorite places which I was more than ok with. Bozeman has some great little places and whenever we have gone we have stuck with the places that we know and love. In Bozeman we ate at the Pita Pit which is my favorite place in the whole world was on the top of the list, We ended up eating there 3 times total for the trip. I love that place, the pita sandwiches are just awesome and the place itself is a ton of fun. We also ate at the Montana Ale Works and MacKenzie River Pizza place. We discovered MacKenzie River 4 years ago when we were in Whitefish Montana. It is a great place and we enjoy going there.
While we were in Big Sky we decided that we weren’t going to eat our main meals at places we normally eat at. So we started asking the locals for places to eat and as usual the locals were on the money. Here is the list of places that we ate at. Both Melissa and I enjoyed the food at each place.

The Lotus Pad – Fusion Thai Food, really good.

Choppers Pub and Grub – A cool place down in the meadow area. We had a nice lunch there.

Cinnamon Lodge – Awesome spot outside of Big Sky on the way to West Yellowstone, gourmet Mexican food. We ate here on Valentine’s Day and had a great meal.

Bullwinkle’s West – A little bar in West Yellowstone with great burgers.

Wild West Pizza – West Yellowstone – Awesome pizza, a little pricey but well worth the money.

Bucks T4 – This is the place we stayed but the restaurant there is actually one of the best in Montana. We had a very nice light dinner there.

Lone Peak Brewing Company – An awesome little brew pub that is all locals. We had a blast there. They had great food and good beer.

Once again this trip was a little different than others we have had to Montana, since we could not ski a couple days we found other things to do and really had fun doing them. I will say I did miss skiing every day, but we filled our time wisely and did some really cool stuff and had some other great adventures. One thing that I really enjoyed was using the beacon parks in both Bozeman and at Big Sky / Moonlight Basin. Melissa and I bought and wore avalanche transceivers for this trip, we were planning on skiing a lot in the trees and also on the south face of Lone Mountain. We did a lot of tree skiing but didn’t make it to the south face sadly. But any way the beacon parks are a place you can practice your search and probing skills in a controlled environment. In both beacon parks they had a number of beacons buried and a control box to turn them on or off. Melissa and I took turns, turning a couple beacons on and then using our beacons in search mode to find the buried ones. Once we got close using our beacons we would probe for the beacon under the snow. The idea is to simulate searching for a buried victim. We both had a blast practicing searching and probing at the beacon parks. While we are in no way ready for backcountry skiing we learned a lot about searching with beacons and how that all works. We agreed that we it was a good skill to have and that it was fun to learn.

It is hard to be back. It is nice to see my friends at work but during the day my mind seems to drift to the quietness of the snow covered nooks and crannies of Lone Mountain. I miss being there.

Back - Recap...

2011-02-22T15:41:00.005-06:00

I am back... Need I say more? I guess maybe. Our trip was awesome. I fell in love once again with the mountains of Montana and the peace, quiet and fun they bring to my life once a year. Wow that is hard for me to say, "Once a year" There isn't anyone on earth that loves a place more than I love the Bozeman/Big Sky area of Montana. I seriously love everything about it, the people, the smells, the towns, the views and just the vibe in that part of the country is just so much different than here. No one is in a real big hurry and you can tell that people in general just seem happier. No traffic, no pollution to speak of and mountains to look at in every direction. It is truly a peaceful place. And as I go out there more and more I begin to question more and more why we do not just move out there. This is a question that I go over in my head daily while we are on vacation out there and still question further on days when I sit in traffic for an hour and a half to go 18 miles. I guess fear of the unknown is at the top of the reasons. That and the fact that Melissa and I are very comfortable here. We both have good jobs and lead a pretty easy life. And also maybe it makes going there so much more special to us. For now Bozeman and Big Sky will just have to be a place that I enjoy once a year.

Now for the trip recap. We made it to Bozeman with no problems at all. We arrived a little after 1230 on Friday Feb 11th which is my birthday. It was great to spend my birthday in Bozeman eating at the Pita Pit and bumming around the town going into all of our favorite little shops. The weather was warm when we arrived, in the mid 40’s they hadn’t had any snow in a few days and the temps were pretty warm. So I was a little worried that the snow was going to take a bit of a beating. We talked to a few locals and they told us the conditions at Bridger were getting pretty bad and that unless we got some fresh snow that they would just skip skiing there and just ski in Big Sky because the temps haven’t been as warm to ruin the snow. Sadly we did not get any fresh snow while we were in Bozeman so we did not ski at Bridger. I was a little bummed because I wanted to ski there again but after going up there and just checking it out we heard a lot of skiers talking about the icy conditions. So we were glad that we made the decision not to ski. Instead we had a blast in Bozeman and actually went down to Big Sky for the day on Saturday to watch the annual Dummy Jump. That turned out to be just a ton of fun and we were so glad that we did that. People built these dummies to send off a big jump to watch them fly through the air and then get destroyed when they landed. It was a hoot.

Sunday morning, we left Bozeman for our week in Big Sky; we checked into our hotel and headed down to Moonlight Basin to ski for the day. When we arrived we discovered that none of the lifts were running due to extremely high winds. I guess they measured a 97mph gust on the top of Lone Mountain! We ended up hanging around in the café area of the resort talking to people and enjoying the setting. After an hour or so we discovered that they were not going to open for the day because of the winds. BUMMER! What would have been our first ski day was cancelled due to wind. Oh well, nothing you can do about the weather. But during our time at the resort Melissa got talking to a lady that work at the Moonlight Spa and discovered that she was a massage therapist. So I offered to buy Melissa a massage with the lady for her Valentine’s Day present. She thought that was a great gift so we left the ski area and headed to the Spa to book her massage. The lady Melissa met had an opening that evening at 4pm so we booked it and planned for that. Now we had to find something to fill our time since skiing was out. We spoke with a couple of locals and they recommended a place to go for a hike. So we planned on that. We had lunch and then went to Ousel Falls. It was about a mile hike back to some really cool frozen falls. There were a bunch of ice climbers in the canyon by the falls so it was fun to watch them and just be outside in the really nice weather, it was sunny and the area was protected from the wind so it was nice. Even though we didn’t ski the day turned out to be a lot of fun. Melissa enjoyed her massage so that was good.

Monday we woke to windy conditions again, but I checked in with Big Sky and they were open, so skiing was on. We got ready and headed up to Big Sky and headed right to Swift Current lift with a plan on heading to the bowl, which we did. We made our first turns in the bowl at Big Sky. The snow was packed powder with a nice layer of windblown fluff on top so the turns were nice and soft and fairly easy. We learned that most of the snow had blown off the summit and that the run off the tram were very hard packed and icy. We decided not to venture up the tram and just stayed on our favorite runs. We were able to find good snow all over the mountain. It was so nice to be back at Big Sky, where the runs are long and the lift lines are short. We skied almost all day, we had a great Valentine’s Day skiing together and enjoying the awesome views from all over the mountain.

Tuesday we headed back to Big Sky and discovered that the conditions had gotten worse overnight, the wind had really taken a toll on the remaining snow on the runs. The few that we skied were hard and icy and frankly the conditions were horrid. We were bummed. We talked to a mountain host and he help us get a “Wind Check” with the high winds they were closing lifts and reopening them when the wind would seem to die down, it honestly wasn’t any fun skiing. So the “wind check” provided us with a free lift ticket for another day. Snow was in the forecast for Wednesday night so we were hopeful that things were going to change for the better. So we packed it in after just a couple hours skiing and decided to go down to West Yellowstone for the rest of the day and have lunch and bum around down there. It turned out to be the right decision. We had a very scenic drive from Big Sky down to W. Yell; I haven’t been down in that area since I was a little kid so it brought back a lot of memories when we arrived. The town was pretty quiet except for a few stores being open and a few snowmobiles running around. We went into Bud Lilly’s Fly shop while we were there and looked around at all of the cool fly fishing gear. I like to fly fish a lot. I am not very good at it but I have a lot of fun trying. I had a great time talking to the guy working at Bud’s and even asked for a recommendation for a place to have lunch. We made a call for us and sent us down to a little hole in the wall bar down the block that had great burgers. Melissa and I thought it was so cool he called! That would never happen here in the cities. I told him that we were thinking of coming back out in the summer and he told me to stop in and they would set me up with a few hot flies, a proper license and send me in the right direction to catch a fish. I got excited and am now counting the days till we go back this summer to Yellowstone. I told the guy that I just wanted to catch a fish, didn’t have to be a big fish, but just a fish. He said that would not be a problem. I bought a hat at the store and we headed to the little place he recommended for lunch. It was a cool little spot filled with a few local snowmobilers. We had fun sitting at the bar eating our lunch and listening to the other conversations. Even though the day started shaky with crappy skiing it turned out to be an awesome day spent at West Yellowstone.

Wednesday we woke to high winds again and Melissa and I decided not to bother with skiing which was a total bummer. We decided to head back down to West Yellowstone and spend some time doing a few things that were recommended to us. We got down there and went to the Grizzly and Wolf Center, it was cool, they had a couple huge Grizzly bears to watch in a habitat area and 2 separate areas for 2 small packs of wolves. I have never seen a grizzly that close or wolves for that matter so it was really a cool experience. We spent a couple hours watching the animals and looking at the other exhibits they had at the center. All in all worth the time there. We got a recommendation for a good pizza place in West Yellowstone to try so we found that and went there for lunch. And the best part, while we were there it started to snow! I could see outside from our table in the pizza place and it was snowing hard! Let’s hope that the snow had found its way 40 miles north to Big Sky. The pizza did turn out to be pretty dang good so we were glad that we went there. After lunch we bummed around a few open shops and then started back to our hotel. It snowed almost the whole way back to our hotel but about 5 miles from our hotel it stopped… NOOOO! When we got back to our hotel I could look out of our room window to the south and see the snow in the hills, it was a huge tease and not a good one either… Oh well, all of the weather forecasts were calling for some significant snow fall Wednesday night into Thursday so we were hopeful.

We woke up Thursday morning to 8-10 inches of fresh powder on the mountain! Finally fresh snow to play in. We got up, had a nice quick breakfast and headed up to Big Sky, today we had the Biggest Skiing in America ticket which meant that we could ski both Moonlight Basin and Big Sky on one ticket and what a day it turned out to be. All of that fresh powder and hardly any people. Melissa and I skied fresh tracks all day. We were the 10th chair of people up to the bowl so we skied a fresh line all the way down the bowl for the first time ever. It was so cool. It took us a few turns to get the powder rhythm going but once we did the turns were deep and effortless. The goal of a powder skier is to get snow deep enough that while you are going down the run you are getting hit in the face with snow. It is called a face-shot. Even though we were not getting face-shots, we were getting thigh shots, which was good enough for me. Feeling that soft snow hit me in the thighs was so amazing. We skied a few awesome runs at Big Sky and then made our way over to Moonlight Basin to do a few runs over there. We skied a few of our favorite runs at Moonlight, Powder River, Single Jack and Elk Horn. We also skied a few of the long green cruisers like Cinnabar and Lazy Jack. Moonlight was even less crowded then Big Sky so we had fresh tracks everywhere. It was awesome. After taking a break at Moonlight we decided to head back to Big Sky and have lunch and check out a tram lap, and do Liberty Bowl. We headed up the tram and discovered at the top the wind was blowing hard from the northwest. The mountain was protecting most of the resort from the wind so in most areas the wind was nice and clam. It was a very different story on the top. We decided to go for it, which turned out to be kind of a mistake. Liberty Bowl is the coolest run and it is the closest I come to feeling like a big mountain skier every time I have skied it, but this time I was a little nervous on it. There were a lot of bare spots and hard pack icy spots which makes for some interesting and scary skiing. Liberty Bowl is steep, huge and intimidating and the lack of snow in spots amplifies that by a lot. Even though we made it down, it took us a little longer then we wanted and we both agreed that was the scariest thing we had ever done. I was so bummed. I loved Liberty Bowl and I love to ski it. I have skied it 4 times before in other trips. It is huge, 3666 vertical feet worth of skiing and 6.5 miles back to the base area! But this trip the mountain just wasn’t showing us it’s good side. My goals of skiing a Marx or Lenin were shattered and it wasn’t going to happen on this trip… I was a little bummed and sort of felt disappointed. But I kept thinking about the amazing skiing that we had done and was excited for our last ski day on Friday.

Friday we packed the car since we were going to ski for about 5 hours and then start the long drive home. We arrived at the Big Sky parking lots at 930 and it started to snow basically right when we parked the car, it was kind of cool. It was like Big Sky was giving Melissa and me a good bye present. We used our “Wind Check” for our lift ticket and headed up. The snow was perfect. It was snowing steady and the flakes were nice and big. We skied a few of our favorite green runs on Andesite Mountain and they were all skiing well. Nice and soft. We moved quickly around the mountains getting in our favorite runs before packing it in and starting home. We skied a few new runs and headed over to the Shedhorn Lift which turned out to be a lot of fun over there. It was snowing steady the whole entire time we skied on Friday and our last run of vacation was down the 3 mile long green run Mr. K, it turned out to be one of the funniest runs of the trip. There was about 2 inches of soft snow on top of nice soft corduroy; the turns were amazing, so soft and effortless. I had a smile on my face the whole way down, as did Melissa, we got to the bottom and I looked at her and we both almost said at the same time how completely awesome that was. 3 miles of effortless skiing was worth all of the interesting things that we ran into on the trip so far. We were both very sad to leave and the walk back to the car was a long one. The drive home was fine, no issues at all. We talked and laughed the whole way home. We reflected on the trip and how much we both love it there.

While we ran into a few problems caused by the weather, the trip was awesome! We were bummed that a few of our plans didn’t happen due to conditions. We were a little bummed that we didn’t ski at Bridger Bowl and Red Lodge like we had planned, but were really glad that we stayed and skied Big Sky in the falling snow on Friday. Even with the problems we found some other fun things to do that we hadn’t done in past trips. I love Big Sky and I mean love it. Besides the few places here in Minnesota that I enjoying skiing, I don’t think I have any interest in skiing anywhere else but Montana. I just love it there; I love the people, and the vibe. It has everything that I want in a ski resort, no lift lines, good snow, fun runs, good places to eat and beautiful views. Home might be where the heart is, but my soul is on Lone Mountain…

Love it

2011-02-09T14:51:00.001-06:00

There is a quiet group in every mountain town. They move through life under the cover of snow, rock, forest and river. They know all of the best ski lines, climbing spots, trail runs and what the special beer is on tap each week at the local brew pub. They explore the backcountry under a veil of secrecy, keeping the private stashes private and sharing hard won experience only amongst themselves.

Back and ready to go

2011-02-09T10:39:00.000-06:00

I am back, well pretty much. I have been under the weather since last Wednesday and have miss 4 total days of work taking care of myself and trying to get better before leaving for our vacation. Today is the first day in a week that I am starting to feel better. Finally! It sucks when you are sick and you have a vacation coming that you are so looking forward to. I think it prolongs the illness because all I thought about was getting better and I was worried that I would not be better in time. Hopefully I am on the mend.

My birthday is now 2 days away, wow 40! I am having a hard time with that one. It is hard to sit down and think where did all of that time go? For me I really don’t know. I have so many awesome memories from the past 40 years. It is really scary the things I can remember from when I was really little. I think some of earliest memories are from I am about 4 years old. I remember a lot of stuff from my childhood which I think is really good. Some old memories I have of my childhood are vivid. I like to sit back and remember those times when I was little and didn’t have a care in the world. Man, sometimes I really miss that. Life was so much easier then. So much easier. Now days, everything is fast and computerized. I am an IT guy and even I get sick of how everything is so digital and cold now. Sometimes it makes me sad. I miss my toys, my Legos, my little green army men, my Tonka trucks and my Star Wars action figures. Man I had a lot of fun with that stuff when I was little. I had some pretty epic battles with the little green army men on my living room floor growing up. Life was easy. Now it is about work, bills, making money. Life was better when it was about little green army men and riding bikes, or going outside to play baseball or ride your skateboard all day long. Sometimes I wish those days were still here. But they aren’t and life is still grand, it is just so much more complicated now.

Although I will say I am so excited to celebrate my birthday with my best friend in the whole world in my favorite place in the whole world. Melissa and I are going to have a great day on Friday. We are going to be hanging around Bozeman Montana. We love to browse all of the cool little shops in downtown Bozeman. I can’t wait to get out there. I love the little town of Bozeman it is such a cool place. I am can’t wait to have my birthday dinner at the Pita Pit! I might have my birthday lunch there as well. Love the Pita Pit! We are leaving Thursday at about 1230 or so, and hope to make it to Billings, it will be a long drive, but it will make Friday’s drive so much easier, and I really don’t want to spend the whole day driving on my birthday if I don’t have to.

Life is good, vacation is almost here. Plans are set; it is going to be good!

Confessions of a Jacket Junkie

2011-02-01T10:14:00.001-06:00

I am a gear junkie. There I said it. But if you know me, you already knew that. But sadly it is true. I am also a steep and cheap junkie. Check it out here: www.steepandcheap.com it is both the greatest and the worse website all rolled up into one. It is the greatest for obvious reasons, item after item after item of things that I probably need and the worse because it is item after item after item of things that I truly don’t need, but hey at least I can admit my issue. So anyway I am writing this confessional because yesterday I received my 11th winter jacket in the mail. Yes, I have 11 winter coats. I have them because they all rule and I love them. I bought a Cloudveil (which I love) primaloft puffy coat and so far it is the best, well it is number 2 in my top 11 winter jacket ratings. I love Cloudveil gear and I mean love it! I love what the company stands for and I love the way their products are made. I know me and my new Cloudveil are going to have a lot of fun together. My favorite piece of winter outerwear is my Arc’Teryx gore-tex shell, I don’t think I could love a human baby as much I as I love that jacket. Seriously, every time I put that thing on I have tears of happiness in my eyes. It is a beautiful piece of gear. It is unbelievably bomb proof; it has a Recco reflector on it, good venting, a good amount of pockets, and just loves you back unconditionally by keeping me dry and confortable. Let me say that Gore-Tex is seriously the best invention since the all you can eat pizza buffet and the powder ski, now those two items are in no order because I could most likely write a dissertation about why each one of those things could be the best invention ever. But anyway I love winter clothes, especially jackets, they are my favorite. This is why I long for the endless winter. Now that I have that off my chest I feel a lot better. I sort of promised Melissa no more jackets… *sigh* I am starting to sweat and I think I am having heart palpations.

After much conversion between Melissa and I, and also after getting the opinions of sales people at REI and at Backcountry we bought avalanche beacons yesterday. Melissa and I are starting to ride steeper lines; lines that are in the low 30 degree range and also some slackcountry stuff. After a few inbound slides this year and a few deaths of skiers caused by tree wells, I brought it up and we thought it was worth money for the extra piece of safety gear. I have been researching avy beacons for a while trying to learn everything I could about them and after much thought I decided on the Backcountry Access Tracker DTS. I bought 2 of them yesterday, they will be here by Thursday, so just in time for us to practice with them out in the back yard to get familiar with how they work and also with our early arrival into Bozeman will give us time to practice at the new beacon park in Bozeman and again at the BCA beacon park at Moonlight Basin on Sunday. So we should have a few hours of practice under our belts before we ski the steeper lines at Big Sky and the Dakota Territory zone. Maybe it is silly since we are not going to be doing any hardcore backcountry skiing, but hey safety is a good idea and people have died inbounds due to avalanches and tree wells.

I am hitting the gym pretty hard and I am really enjoying it. I have a pretty good weight lifting routine that I have been doing. I think it is working. I went up 10-15lbs in all of my exercises yesterday. Today is my rest day, I am think I might go and do some cardio stuff, but I have to get my oil changed after work and then home to make dinner so I might just relax tonight.

Plans and more plans

2011-01-28T11:48:00.001-06:00

So today is another day. I am great today. The vacation is coming up quickly; I have some really fun plans for the weekend. Work is going good and classes are still over a month away. My birthday is also coming up rather quickly as well. I have touched in a previous blog post that I am not looking forward to turning 40. Ugh, it just seems so old. Even though I know it is not, I just remember being a kid and thinking holy crap your 40! Man, your old, not that is going to be me. I am just not ready for that. Melissa and I will be in Bozeman Montana for my birthday. I am so excited. I love Bozeman. We are going to walk on main street, visit our favorite shops, and the highlight will be my much coveted birthday dinner at The Pita Pit. Sweet! The vacation plans have taken shape and I am now more excited than ever.

Here is the itinerary as of today:

Feb 10th Leave, plan to make it to Billings MT

Feb 11th Head to Bozeman MT for the my birthday.

Feb 12th Spend the day in Bozeman and surrounding area.

Feb 13th Head to Big Sky area and ski Moonlight Basin

Feb 14th Ski Big Sky, special Valentines dinner at Moonlight Basin

Feb 15th Ski Big Sky

Feb 16th Depending on the weather and snow conditions, back to Bozeman area for the day to ski Bridger Bowl

Feb 17th Ski Big Sky and Moonlight Basin with the combo lift ticket

Feb 18th Leave and head to Red Lodge MT and depending on weather and snow conditions ski at Red Lodge

Feb 19th Again depending on weather and snow, another day at Red Lodge or we start home.

We are hoping for good fresh snow daily. I just want to ski powder and hoping we get dumped on. But without a doubt this is going to be a great trip. I love Montana, the south west corner of Montana makes me smile even just thinking about it. I wish we could live out there, but I just don’t think we can pick up and move. Melissa and I both have really good jobs and it would be hard to leave that. But it is just so fun for me to dream about that somehow that makes up for it, even if just a little bit. I am bringing my little Flip camera and plan on making some little movies while I am there. Hopefully I will be able to share some of them with you. I have a few plans on movie locations; I am hoping it works out.

The weekend is looking like it is going to be a lot of fun, tomorrow Melissa and I are meeting a friend of hers at Louis Vuitton in the Galleria in Edina, Melissa’s friend is going to buy her first piece of Louis Vuitton and she wants to share her happiness with us. It is a long story, but it is going to be a fun day.
Sunday Melissa and I are heading to the Metrodome to rollerblade in the afternoon. It sounds like me might have a friend or two joining us which will be awesome. I love rollerblading there so I am looking forward to it.

In other news, I think I have decided where I am going to build my little Buddha shrine, besides the likeness of the Buddha and I am going to add a Ganesha as well. Even though Ganesha is found mainly in the Hindu philosophy, I enjoy the association with Ganesha as The Lord of Obstacles.Ganesha is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. I wear a Ganesha pendant around my neck whenever I am facing a difficult task. Now I just have to find the perfect Ganesha for my little shrine. More news on that later.

Classes are coming up fairly quick, I start my next 2 classes on March 14th, I am taking a Math classes and a history of the Vietnam War class, I am looking forward to both. But right now it is so nice to not have to do any school stuff.
I hope you have a great weekend.

Just because...

2011-01-27T15:12:00.001-06:00

The movement of enlightment...

NO FORK FOR YOU!!!

2011-01-26T11:08:00.003-06:00

A work story:

Here is why working at the state can be so fucking stupid. Bear with me as I set this up.

On every floor in my building there are 2 kitchen areas with tables and chairs to eat lunch or have a quick meeting. In these areas besides the tables there are a couple of microwaves, vending machines and supplies, forks, spoons, napkins things like that. These areas are called community areas. The other day I went to heat up my lunch in the kitchen area that is closest to my cube. When I arrived I found both microwaves free and 2 people in there talking. One is an IT gal and the other a receptionist gal. I proceeded to throw my meal in the wave and get it cooking. I walked over to the cabinet to grab a plastic fork out of the box of 5000 forks in the cabinet and this conversion ensued:

Receptionist Gal: Eric you can’t have a fork.

Eric: I’m sorry what?

Receptionist Gal: Those forks or for ITS only.

Eric: I’m in ITS

Receptionist Gal: No you are in SSIS ITS and those supplies come out of a different budget then yours.

Eric: Are you serious I can't have one? And we have a budget for forks?!?

(at this point the other IT gal, looked down in utter embarrassment )

Receptionist Gal: Yes, those kitchen supplies come out of our budget. But you can have one this time, but just remember for next time.

(at this point I was in such shock that I wasn’t even sure what to say and kept waiting for a Sheldon “Bazinga!”, but sadly no such luck)

Eric: No that’s ok; I will just eat my stir fry with my hands.

Receptionist Gal: (silence)

I put the fork back in the box and wandered back to the microwave and finished heated my meal which had a few more minutes left on it. The 2 ladies continued to talk for another minute and then walked out of the kitchen area. 20 seconds later the IT gal came back, went in the cabinet, grabbed something and walked over to me. She held up a fork and gave it to me. And said, “Here this is my gift to you since I work in ITS.” Rolled her eyes, laughed and walked back to her desk. I said thanks, smiled and went back to my desk to eat.

This just shows how stupid and ridiculous some of the “rules” here at the state are. The budget thing here is so stupid that they make sure apparently that only certain people are allowed to use kitchen supplies in certain areas of the floor. I walked over to the other kitchen and discovered that apparently I am supposed to use supplies from that side. *sigh*

Awesome!

Lutsen, she loves me, she loves me not...

2011-01-24T09:16:00.002-06:00

I have a love hate relationship with Lutsen, and I am beginning to think Lutsen is figuring it all out. First, I have been going to Lutsen since I was about 6 years old. My parents and I would go up there during the summer and we would stay at Lutsen Resort. It was a great time with lots of awesome memories. As a kid I would spend my day down on the beach throwing as many rocks as I could into Lake Superior. I would do this all day long. In fact when it was time to go home, my dad would say, “You threw so many rocks in the lake I think you caused it to raise a few inches.” Looking back it was pretty funny, because I believed I did raise the lake level… So the next time we were up in Lutsen for a family trip I would just throw more rocks. But more recently Lutsen was the place that I learned to ski. I took my first ski lesson there and I truly fell in love with the sport there. I spent many days perfecting my turns on Big Bunny and Ullr. I learned how to ski steeper lines on Split Rock, Chris’s Couloir, Cliff Run, and Raven. I learned how to ski the trees on Red Fox, Cedar Ridge, Red Rider and Moose Maze. Heck, me and a buddy even made our own run there once and named it, sadly Lutsen would not let me pay for a sign and have it become an official run, true story I asked. To me Lutsen is like my jealous mistress, it knows that it will never be first, it will never be my favorite, and it knows that some of its short comings frustrate me beyond belief… It know this because every single time I go there the weather is terrible, the conditions are bad, or a combination of the 2. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some excellent days up there, but I have had more disappointments then I care to count. While this weekend was not a disappointment it was cold, I don’t mind the cold, I have lots and lots of warm clothes but I hate the wind. That just ruins the day for me.

Let’s recap, Friday the drive up was excellent, We got into so little fluffy snow at about Hinckley and it continued snowing all the way up to Lutsen, there was maybe a very fluffy inch of snow on the ground when we checked into our hotel, but besides the nice fluffy snow, the temps were dropping it was -8 when we got our stuff unloaded and into our room, the one saving grace at the time was there was no wind, below zero is ok until the wind picks up, then it is just unbearable. We got a good night sleep and got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast and made our way up to the hill to ski. The temp was about-2 when we got to the parking area and got ready to go. We clicked into our skis and started across to the 10th Mountain chair we got right on and headed up to the runs on the north face of Eagle Mountain, these are my favorite runs, they are single and double black diamonds and they are a lot of fun. On the way up I was noticing there was some good snow around, untracked powder from the snow fall last night and from a larger one the area had, had a few nights before. We did our warm up run on KooKoo which is a really fun single black, we took that back to the same chair and went back up, over the next hour or so we skied Chris’s Couloir, Cliff Run, Raven and made pretty dang awesome powder turns on our secret run. I gave Melissa first tracks on our run, she cut some very nice powder turns, I followed and discovered nice soft snow. It was great. After that we headed to the gondola and took it over to Moose Mountain, we sat in the Chalet for a bit to warm up because of course the wind started to pick up and it was getting colder outside as the wind chills were dropping. We sat in the Chalet for about 30 minutes and warmed up and then head back out. We found powder on Grizzly which we skied twice and I found good snow on the tree run Bear’s Den. We had a great time on the long cruisers on Moose Mountain. We skied over there for about 2 hours, we decided then that we were hungry so we headed back on the tram to the main area and decided to have a sit down lunch at Papa Charlie’s. We had a nice lunch, discussed the day so far and warmed up for the rest of the afternoon. We headed back out after lunch and noticed that the winds had indeed picked up more and that it was getting colder. We decided to check out the runs on the beginner mountain Ullr. We could the Ullr lift up and Melissa skied Molly’s Folly and I skied Tony’s Tango. Melissa said Mollys was really fun and I had a great time on Tony’s, but we decided to hit the runs on Eagle again. We skied Expert’s Cutoff which turned out to be excellent and went back to a few that we had skied that morning. The wind was blowing out of the north and it was blowing pretty hard. The snow was blowing off the north facing runs so they were getting icy. We decided to call it a day about 3pm and hit the little shops that we like in the area. It overall a good day, but by the end of the day I was frozen and was ready to be done. We got in the car and headed back to the hotel and I said to Melissa, “Why can’t we just have a normal day here?” She thought the same thing, but we laughed it off and continued on with our weekend away. We had dinner at the Crooked Spoon in Grand Marais, it was pretty good. I think we were both glad we tried it but after I think we both would have wished we would have gone to the Gunflint Tavern which besides Sven and Oles pizza is our favorite place in Grand Marais to eat. We got back to the hotel, watched some TV, read and went to bed.
Sunday met us with -11 below temps and light snow. The forecast was for warming temps and winds to pick up in the late afternoon, which was perfect because we knew we would be on the road about 2-230 to make the drive home. We packed up, had breakfast and made our way up to the hill, we got ready and jumped on Bridge Run. The snow had picked up a bit and it was looking like it was going to be a great day, we headed up to Eagle and did Kookoo, Cliff, Raven and our secret run, all skied well. We then decided to hit Moose and do a few runs over there. When we exited the gondola the snow let up a bit but it was still snowing. We decided to go into the Chalet and warm up for a few minutes. While in there the snow had picked up again, we headed back out and skied the top half of Grizzly and cut into the tress for the bottom half. We did a few more runs and the winds hit. Wait what, it is not late afternoon? It is barely noon. The wind started blow so hard that it instantly got cold and I mean really cold. We decided to head back to the main area and see if we could get out of the wind. Nope no luck, like I said Lutsen knows that I love/hate it and therefore gets me back by making the wind follow me whichever way I was going. On a couple runs the wind was blowing so hard that we were literally slowing down. Yeah, no fun. I looked at Melissa and said, “I’m done…” She agreed and we packed up and head for home. Booooo! I was disappointed. There was a nice light snow and gale force winds. Sucked. Oh well, we enjoyed our drive home and talked about the fun that we had. We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner in Duluth. We arrived home safely had a nice evening together relaxing and watching a movie.

Lutsen taunts me because she is not number 1 and I know this because I watch the weather. Last weekend it snowed a foot up there and the weather was nice. 15-20 degrees and light winds, this week I get there and it is the coldest weekend so far this winter. I left yesterday afternoon, today it is supposed to snow and the temperature is going to warm up to the low 20’s. Lutsen is a beautiful place, it is a great ski resort, the views from the mountains of the Lake Superior and of the north woods are nothing short of incredible. And I certainly cannot blame them for the weather. But I can blame them for the extremely high lift ticket prices and the, while very quaint and old school lifts, it is time to upgrade them. It is sad to me that I will be less money to ski at 3 resorts in Montana next month then I pay at Lutsen.

Will I stop going to Lutsen to ski, no way. I love and hate my relationship to much with her to do that.

Emails make me smile

2011-01-19T11:05:00.001-06:00

I got a really nice email from a friend of mine yesterday about my blog, mostly I was glad to have gotten the email. But at the same time it was nice to hear that someone could relate to some of my ramblings. And that is what they are, ramblings. When I write a blog posting I sit down and write it. I don’t check spelling usually or even reread the post to check grammar. I feel that way I will not change anything, the post might read weird, but that is how my brain works. Weird and doesn’t make sense. So for the possible reader out there that thought, “Holy crap Eric is a really bad speller or his grammar sucks.” Now you know why, but at the same time please feel free to think that anyway.

Last night running at the Metrodome started up again, Melissa and I went down it was a great time. I went 8 laps which is 3.18 miles and Melissa went 6 which is 2.25 miles. I really enjoy running there and am so glad that it is back. After running we stopped at Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. We have one right down the street from our house and like to go there once and a while for their salad bar. We are planning on going running again on Thursday.

I am going to take a break from working out tonight. I over did it the other day with weight lifting and now I can barely lift my arms. I also have decided that I don’t want to start my new leg routine tonight because I will fry my legs and with Lutsen this weekend I don’t want to screw that up but having my legs so sore I can’t even ski and that would suck.

I love travel guides. I have a few of them, I like the Lonely Planet guides the best. I even have a couple for places that I will probably never go, but it is fun to read them. I say that only because I got my New York City guide in the mail yesterday. I think I am finally going to break down and plan a trip for Melissa and I to NYC. I have never had much of a desire to go there, but I have a few friends that love it and have told me that I should check it out. I love Chicago and always thought that was about my limit for city size. Chicago is a big city, but to me it doesn’t feel big. When we were in London, I thought yup this is my limit on city size. So if you can see the progression here, I am guessing I will go to NYC and say, “Yup, this is my limit on city size.” Even though I would kill to live in the mountains I like living in the city, but I don’t like a big busy loud city… yeah, that doesn’t make any sense at all. But I think that is why I have such a hesitation to go to New York, because it just seems, huge, loud and dirty… But it looks like we are going to go. I looked a bit online and New York is like a little country so hence the guide book, I have no idea where to go or where to stay. But we will see what happens. I would like to go this summer and try to see a Yankees game while we are there; I think that would be fun. So plans are slowly being formed in my brain.

Melissa is becoming an expert at making fruit smoothies in the Vitamix. She made one yesterday before we went running that was seriously good. I love that thing. Seriously it is an awesome machine. If you don’t have one, go buy one right now. We made spinach pesto the other night in it and it was so damn good and really healthy. Tonight we are making Daal soup. I am interested to try it. The recipe sounds really good and I like soup so it is a win win… At least I hope it will be.

I love the show Whale Wars. We are watching season 3 right now and it is really amazing. I am very tempted to put in an application to volunteer on one of their ships. Melissa thinks I should. I am chicken but I think it would be great. I believe in their cause and even agree with their tactics. I think it would be the adventure of a life time and also a great way to see Antarctica. We are about half way through season 3 and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

That’s all for now.

Simple Wisdom

2011-01-18T15:54:00.000-06:00

It is said that once on a place called Vulture’s Peak, the Buddha surround by his followers sat quietly and all at once held up a golden Lotus flower. All of the monks looked at each other confused as they tried to discern the meaning of this gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled. He smiled because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower. The meaning is quite simple, when someone holds up a flower and shows it to you; he wants you to see it. If you keep thinking, you miss the flower. The person who was not thinking, who was just himself, was able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled. If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.

Goals

2011-01-18T15:29:00.001-06:00

I would really like to go winter camping. But I am lacking a couple things in the gear department, first is a four season tent and the other is a beefier sleeping bag. I have a nice sleeping bag but it is only rated to 20 degrees. I would like something that is rated down to at least 0 degrees, I guess I could rent the stuff but I like the idea of using my own gear. So for now that continues to be a pipe dream.

We are headed up to Lutsen this weekend as a last minute deal. Lutsen has been getting a lot of snow this past week so in theory the conditions should be really good for skiing. I am guessing we are only going to make one trip up there this year. I think we are going to try to get over to the upper peninsula of Michigan as well; they have been getting a lot of snow in the UP so it could be good and people say that the skiing is great up there, so I would like to give it a try. I love Lutsen but sometimes I really get disappointed there, they certainly cannot control the weather so it is more operational things that bug me.

I am in the throes of my new workout routine. I have been going to gym at least 4 times a week and I am really enjoying it. I am still working out a routine but I think I now have one that will work for me. I think once I get everything straight, I will be doing 3 – 4 times at the gym doing weight lifting and working out with the heavy bag which I am really enjoying. There is something very satisfying about punching something with all of your might. It is good. But the best news is that running at the Metrodome has started again. The dome collapsed a few weeks ago after a heavy snowfall and they still do not have it fixed, but they are starting up running and rollerblading again so that is great news. I will be going tonight for the first time in a few weeks so I am looking forward to that. I am planning on 3 – 5 miles tonight. Should be good.

I am really looking forward to our trip to Big Sky this year. Every time we have gone to Big Sky I give myself a goal of a couple runs to ski. The first time it was The Bowl, the second year it was Wardance and Liberty Bowl, last year it was to ski off the Challenger Lift, all of which I have completed, and let me tell you they all felt great, it is kind of fun for me to go out there with a goal, I enjoy the challenge that skiing out west presents me every time. I am guessing that to the average west skier those goals are pretty lame, but to me they are major. This year I have decided that if the conditions are good, I am going to ski the runs Marx and or Lenin. These are the big south face bowls coming down off the summit of Lone Peak, there are huge runs, steep and they look awesome. I have attached a photo of the runs from a distance so you can see the whole run from top to bottom. Marx is on the right and Lenin is on the left. Awesome!

You access them both off the tram via the yeti Traverse. I am hoping that everything works out for these two monster runs. I also have a few other smaller goals but this is my biggie. Plans are also starting to come together for other special things that we are going to do while out there; right now at the top of the list is Valentine’s Day dinner. I think we are going to eat at the very nice restaurant at Moonlight Basin so I am looking forward to the thought of that.
Good Times!

Re-cap

2011-01-14T15:25:00.001-06:00

Another week down and just a few more till we leave for our ski vacation to Big Sky Montana. I am really excited and can’t wait to get out there. That area of the rockies is really getting some nice snow so I am hoping that will continue so we can ski in that perfect Montana powder. I have already started packing in my mind which I guess happens every year but this year I think I am looking forward to getting out there more. I have some skiing goals this year so I am hoping to cross a few of those off.

Melissa starts her day shifts next week which will be awesome, no more working till 930 or 1130. Sweet! Even though she didn’t work those shifts real often, it will be nice for her not to have to work them at all. It will also be nice for baseball season. She will not have to miss anymore Twins games. Last season she couldn’t go to a few due to her schedule at work, it will be nice not to have to worry about that anymore.

Last weekend we bought a Vitamix Blender. So far the thing is awesome, we made soup in it the other day and it turned out really good. It cooks right in the blender. The blades spin so fast that it heats up the soup; it is really easy, healthy and good. It is pretty fun too. We are looking forward to using our Vitamix a lot in the near future. I have also used it to make vegetable juice drinks and fruit smoothies. We even made ice cream in it. It is a really cool machine. Even though it was a little pricey I can see the health benefits from the things it makes, so I think in the long run it will be worth the price.

I registered this week for what will be my fifth session of Mini-Medical School. Once again I am really looking forward to going. Sadly I am going to miss the first week due to being in Montana, but I will not miss any of the other sessions so it will be good. This session is on regenerative medicine. The schedule looks very interesting and I am looking forward to it starting up.

My birthday is right around the corner. I cannot believe I am going to be 40 this year. I think I am having a harder time with it than I thought I would. I was thinking the other day about times past and everything just seems so long ago. I miss so many things that I used to do when I was younger, things that unfortunately I am too old to do now. But I have a whole new set of things that I enjoy now so I guess it is sort of just a wash… Give up some things to gain others. I guess that is the way I need to start thinking. All in all I think it is just hard to admit you are old and can’t do some of the things that you could when you were younger, and I think I am one of those people. It is scary to think that 40 is the middle of one’s life and usually means that you are now on the decline, which to me is really scary. I have a lot more to do… The one thing about my birthday this year is once again I will be able to spend it in Montana. If everything goes as planned at least with the drive, I will be having my birthday dinner in Bozeman at the Pita Pit. I love the Pita Pit so I am looking forward to that…

It is nice to have a few months away from school; I have 2 classes that will start in March, a math class and a history of the Vietnam War class. I am looking forward to both. After they are done, I will have the end in sight.

I am looking forward to the weekend, I am hoping for a nice relaxing weekend. I hope you have a great weekend as well…

The Power of the Peak

2011-01-10T08:16:00.000-06:00

This is just a great post from the Big Sky blog. I know the power of this mountain and to read her story is really fun. I have been on the top of Lone Peak multiple times and know the beauty, the awe, the immense feeling of a connection to something bigger than you from the top of this beautiful mountain.

The second time I skied from the summit of Lone Peak down a run called Liberty Bowl, I stopped a 1/4 way down to admire the view. I ended up sitting down in the snow for about 15 minutes and looked around taking everything in, this amazing ski run I was on, this beautiful place I was in and then it hit me. I realized while sitting on the side of this gigantic piece of rock truly how small I truly am in the universe. It was the weirdest and most amazing felling I have ever had. In fact it had such an effect on me that I can remember it like it was yesterday, when actually it was 3 years ago. I think the thing that makes Lone Peak so unique is that it is kind of on it's own. (hence the name) It is an 11,166' mountain in it's own space. Sure there are other mountains around but none are really close, so it is just really neat how this mountain sits by itself away from the others...

click on line below to enjoy the Big Sky blog post:

The Power of the Peak: Love on Lone Mountain

Silence of the Lambs...

2011-01-06T15:12:00.000-06:00

So I bought we bought a cast iron dutch oven the night. Like I said in my last blog post I have a bunch of recipes to try and a couple of them called for a dutch oven. I did a little research online and discovered that Le Creuset was the king of the hill when it comes to cast iron dutch oven’s, but I had a really hard time spending $250 on a pot I wasn’t sure that I would get a lot use out of. We have really nice cookware at home and I know that it pays to spend some money on cooking stuff, but I continued to do some research and found another option. Fontignac cast iron is also made in France and gets really good reviews and is half the price, so we went that route. It seems like a nice pot, I am looking forward to giving it a try. The thing weighs like 50 pounds, it is crazy. Anyway, I think the first thing I am going to try in it is a Moroccan-style Lamb Stew. I am not sure I like lamb, but the recipe really sounds good and the reviews that people have written include a lot of “I never liked lamb till I had this recipe” stuff like that, so I am going to give it a go. I think Sunday.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 (1-pound) boneless leg of lamb roast, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, lower-sodium beef broth

Preparation

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle lamb evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add lamb to pan; sauté 4 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove from pan.

Add onion; sauté for 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, cumin, and next 3 ingredients (through garlic); sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in honey and tomato paste; cook 30 seconds, stirring frequently.

Return lamb to pan. Add apricots and broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until lamb is tender, stirring occasionally.

I don’t know, it sounds pretty good I think. Nervous about the lamb part...

In other news I went out snowshoeing yesterday. I was OK, the rain basically ruined the snow on the trail which was a total bummer. Now I am hoping for more snow to make the snowshoeing trails soft and nice again instead of hard and crappy. Oh Well…

Tonight Melissa and I are headed to Everest on Grand for dinner. I am really looking forward to going. I love that place. It is Nepali food and they have really good chow. Melissa loves the Yak Momos as do I. That’s right Yak… A Momo is a little steamed dumpling. They are really damn good. I am not sure what else we are going to get but their food is really good so whatever we have will be awesome.

I am heading out on my snowboard tomorrow after work, I think. I need to get out there and give it another go. I am thinking about buying a 3 pack of lessons from Welch to see if I can learn to ride before we head west. I think it would be really fun to ride in Montana a bit.

Changes in 2011

2011-01-05T11:40:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!

So I have decided to make some fairly major life changes this year. I know everyone say that, but I am not one for the resolutions thing. But this year something told me to make some changes. I think as I am getting older I am really starting to change my ideals, way of thinking, and thoughts. I am hoping that the year of 2011 brings me happiness, adventure, good health and a quiet mind.

Basically I have decided to rebuild myself. Not that I really think there is a lot wrong with me, I am very happy with the person that I am but there are a few things that I would like to change and make better. I think everyone can easily say that if they look at themselves there are things they would like to improve. I am certainly one of those people.

First I would like to improve my fitness level and lose some weight. My favorite jeans are a little tight and that makes me sad. I hate buying clothes because my clothes don’t fit. 2 years ago I started training for a 25k trail race and lost about 40lbs in a very short time. I changed everything, the way I ate, my exercise level and what I did for exercise. My goal for the race was to finish and not be last, (I know lofty goals) but I did finish and I wasn’t last and it felt great. I also skied like a mad person that next winter in Montana. My legs were so strong that I was able to ski what worked out to be in the neighborhood of 100,000 vertical feet in 6 days of skiing. So long story short, I am going to get back in the swing of healthy eating and a lot more exercise. It stinks because I was really enjoying the running at the dome this year until the stupid roof collapsed and they stopped the running there. I was running 5 miles twice a week, I loved it. I can’t run at all on a treadmill so that is out and I can’t run outside when it is so cold out so I am going to do snowshoeing, weight training and other cardio options at the gym I belong too. I think in the long run it will work out great! I have also been trying to change my eating habits, especially at work. Drinking a ton of water and trying not to graze in co-workers candy dished throughout the day. So far that part of the plan is going really good! I have been drinking about 64oz of water a day at work and having a sensible lunch, I have also been trying to eat breakfast every morning which I normally did not do, also working out well. For dinners I am going to try to make healthier better dinners at home. Melissa and I eat well, don’t get me wrong, we are not big fast food people by any means but we do enjoy going out for dinner. I have been working hard to come up with some fun recipes for things to try. A friend of mine gave me 8 old issues of Cooking Light magazine and I found about 20 or so recipes in there that we are going to try. It is going to interesting.

Second, I would like to get more into my Buddhism practice. I have read a lot of the Dhammapada and love the way it is written. It makes sense to me and overall Buddhism works for me. I want to build a shrine in a quiet room in our home and do more meditation, I think it will help quiet my mind and help me in other things. I truly long for a spiritual connection to something and I think my way to that is going to be through the teachings of the Buddha. This is really important to me, but I really don’t know how to get there. I am working on this.

Third, I will finish school this year. I can see the end. It has been a LONG and very slow road but it has been an excellent experience. I will always regret not taking my education more serious in high school and then moving on to college then like I should have. But for now I am incredibly happy with my cheesy 2 year degree that will have taken me almost (gasp) 8 years to get. But boy how my life has changed in those 8 years… I guess looking back on it I wouldn’t have changed anything about my life experiences to this point. But sadly I realized 15 years to late what I think my true calling is, and I am OK with that but it will always bug me a little bit. But overall I am proud of myself for at least trying to finish something I started on a dare 8 years ago all the while, working full time, going through what turned out to be a disaster of a first marriage, selling my dream house that I once owned, meeting and falling in love again and remarrying, and getting that relationship off the ground. So basically I have had to start and stop my education a number of times which is why this has seriously taken me so long to do this. Also take one or two classes a year doesn’t help. But that has changed and I will finish this year! I have it pretty much all planned out and it is going to be good.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy with my life and the cards that I have been dealt. Of course I have regrets. And often wonder what would have happened if I would have turned left instead of right a couple times but because of those right hand turns I am the person that I am. Life is good and gets better every day…

Christmas re-cap...

2010-12-29T11:18:00.000-06:00

Well another Christmas is over. Melissa and I had a wonderful holiday. Christmas eve we hit the slopes at Welch for what turned out to be one of the best days of Minnesota skiing ever. We had gotten about 5” the night before so I figured the conditions would be good, but we had no idea how good it would be. The snow was deep in areas and was so nice and soft, it was amazing. Melissa and I had a blast! It was so nice to have real snow to ski on, instead of manmade stuff and ice…
For Christmas Eve dinner I made a shrimp and pasta dish that I found the recipe for in a Cooking Light magazine. It was really good. But I was a little sad to say that for the first time in 39 years I didn’t have Lasagna for dinner. That was a tradition my mom started and I carried on after she died. I decided it was time to start a new tradition so Melissa and I decided that we are going to make a new fancy dinner from a recipe every Christmas Eve. I think that will be really fun. The Shrimp Pasta turned out to be excellent and will go into our rotation for dinners. It was a pretty simple dinner and it can easily be altered into a few different variations. We are going to try making it next using chicken instead of shrimp. I am thinking it will be really good.

Christmas day we got up and opened presents, luckily Santa Claus stopped by the house so there were a few things under the tree. I think Melissa really liked her gifts. I got her a few small things that I knew she would like; her “big” gift was a necklace from Tiffany’s. It was a great surprise and she really liked it so I was happy. I got some fun stuff as well. I got a Flip video camera, which I really wanted, a couple Moleskine journals, some cologne and a calendar for desk at work. After presents we went snowshoeing over at Lebanon Hills park, that was a blast. We hiked about 1.5 miles, the snow was perfect and it was great back in the woods. It was awesome, I can’t wait till we go again. Christmas night we had some friends over for a very casual dinner. It turned out to be a really fun night.

Sunday Melissa and I went to the Wild game; we had to leave early sadly because Melissa had a gallbladder attack that turned out to be really bad. She went to the doctor on Monday and then had an ultrasound Tuesday to see if it needs to come out. We are waiting for the results. So this week might turn out to be interesting.
Overall the weekend was great, we had a great time doing stuff that we love, we had some good food and a lot of laughs. Life is good.

Christmas always makes me sad, I miss my parents a lot during this time of year. It is always hard since Melissa and I don’t really have anyone except each other which is great but I miss the “family” stuff. But it always makes me remember all of the good times we had when I was little which is good…

Snow

2010-12-21T08:13:00.000-06:00

Although we are finally having a true Minnesota winter it is numbers like these that make me sad inside

Last 48 Hours:

Alta 47"
Snowbird 37"
Mammoth 102"

I can't even imagine what skiing in that kind of snow would be like. I wonder if I could even do it... Well, at least we are finally getting some snow around here. Last night we got another 5" or so and it looks like we are getting some more later this week, which will be cool, Melissa and I are planning on skiing Friday and maybe Saturday mornings. I am looking forward to getting out there again. Melissa and I went skiing at Welch for a bit on Sunday and sadly it sucked. It was so icy and crappy that it was just no fun. I hate to admit but I might becoming a snow snob, which is really going to suck if that is the case. *sigh*

I am really looking forward to Christmas. I love Christmas and all of the stuff that comes along with it. Melissa and I spend Christmas together which is so awesome, we usually make a couple fun dinners and just relax. This year on Christmas I am going to open a bottle of 1998 Dom Perignon, I am really looking forward to it, we will have a champagne brunch with Eggs Benedict, Melissa and I try to do that once a year, it is always really nice and we have a lot of fun.

I am glad my classes are done, I am now waiting for grades so that should be interesting. I am hoping for the best but my A&P class was the hardest class I have ever taken. Hopefully it won't kill my GPA to badly.

Think more snow!

Snowmaggedon!!!

2010-12-13T09:50:00.001-06:00

So I basically did the most awesome and the dumbest thing ever this weekend. Melissa and I ventured down to Welch to go skiing right in the middle of the biggest and dangerous snowstorm Minnesota has seen in almost 20 years. The storm ending up bringing just a little over 20” of snow to most of the Twin Cities area, besides the heavy snow the wind was blowing about 20 miles an hour so basically the entire drive from our house to Welch was done with about 10 feet of visibility. Awesome, it was a little scary. The roads were in fairly decent shape, mostly because the wind was blowing the snow off them, but you could see the drifts forming on the sides of the road. It took as only an hour to get from our house to the Welch parking lot. We got there and I was surprised to see we weren’t the only people that decided to take advantage of what turned out to be the biggest snowfall Minnesota has seen in 20 years. We found a great parking spot and got dressed and headed up the lifts. I have never seen it snow so hard, you could maybe see 3 chairs ahead. It was crazy. We got off the chair and started down, Wild Finale. The snow was deep and it was pretty soft which was pretty dang nice. Melissa and I both brought our powder skis. She was trying out her new Volkl KiKu’s and I had my Volkl Mantra’s. It was amazing to be skiing that kind of powder here in Minnesota. We found the best snow on Dan’s Dive and Bakkelyka they were a little protected from the wind so the snow was just piling up, we lapped those runs a few times and had fresh tracks every time it was snowing so hard. In fact I experienced snow blindness for the first time ever it was weird. We skied hard for about 2 hours and watched the weather get worse and worse, we decided to head out. I am glad we did. The drive home was so crazy. The drifts on 50 were about 2-3’ high and when I would hit them they would go over my car. Visibility was about 5-10’ the road was closed just outside of Mielsville so we had to take a detour through Hasting which turned out to be better, 61 was in good shape as was Hastings. The drive from Hastings down 55 to 42 turned out to be a breeze. So that was really nice. We got home and found 4’ drifts in our drive way, so we had to shovel a path so I could get my car in the garage. I have never seen so much snow in my life; I think it was because of the wind more than anything. The snowstorm in 91 brought way more snow but didn’t have the winds so the drifts weren’t as big. We got in the garage and started to laugh about how stupid it was to actually head out skiing in that weather. We were so glad that we did go though, it was epic! I was glad Melissa got to try here new skis in some real snow before heading west with them. She was a little nervous about skiing them because they are so fat and a little longer than her old powder skis.

The rest of the weekend seemed uneventful after Saturday’s adventure. We ended up running a couple errands and I wrote a paper for one of my classes, which I am happy to say will be done this week. It will be nice to take a break from school for a bit. My next 2 classes start up again in March so I have a couple months off. I am hoping to get a lot of skiing in. Life is good. 60 days till Big Sky.

Random Thoughts...

2010-12-01T08:16:00.000-06:00

My co-worker left for a month vacation in Vietnam yesterday. I like him will miss him while he is gone. His wife is from Vietnam so they return every few years to visit her family and travel around the country. It is fun to listen to him talk about his past adventures over there. Sounds like a very interesting place. I have asked him to bring me back a small carved Buddha. I am hoping that he will find something interesting for me.

My other co-worker left the day after Thanksgiving for a year of service in Afghanistan. He is in the Army and this will be his second time over there. I was sad to see him leave as well. I sent some small plastic toy dinosaurs along with him. I gave him instructions to send me pictures of the toys in different places during his tour. I appreicate his humor, so it will be interesting to see what kind of photos I get back from him. I have also instructed him to return the toys to me when he returns to work in 13 months...

I will miss my friends while they are gone, I wish them both safe travels.

Long weekends rule!

2010-11-30T13:58:00.000-06:00

So what a weekend. Thanksgiving turned out to be really fun. My dinner was mostly good, but for the first time ever my Turkey didn’t turn out. I was bummed. It was tough and frankly kind of gross. I am not sure what I did wrong. I have always had good luck with turkeys in the past, but this one honestly sucked. Boooo. But the rest of the meal was really good. My stuffing was awesome, I make a really good stuffing. Anyway Melissa and I had a wonderful day together. We basically relaxed all day and hung out. We played a game of Monopoly which was really fun and then watched a movie. It was a great day. Friday we went to the Wild game which was also fun, it was a 1pm start so it fun having an afternoon game to go to. After the game which the Wild won by the way we met friends at a Chinese place in Bloomington for dinner. My buddy Scott and his wife go there often and said it was good. So 6 of us met there and had dinner. After diner we went to the Happy Gnome for a drink and all hung out. It turned out to be a really fun night. Saturday was a homework day and most of Sunday was as well. But Sunday night we met friends at the Roller-dome for some roller blading and then went out for dinner the 4 of us. We went to a place called Brasa, it was over in Northeast and was pretty good, but a little on the expensive side. Oh well.

I am really into single malt scotches right now so I have been trying them whenever I can. Might need a new hobby though single malts are really expensive.

I finished one of my classes on Saturday. My medical terminology class is now complete which I am happy about. This class load is killing me and I am looking forward to it being done so I can start skiing. I have a little over 2 weeks left in my classes so hopefully by then all of the runs at the area ski hills will be open and ready. At least that is my hope.

Today is Melissa’s birthday, I am bummed she has to work until midnight tonight so we will not be able to do much for her birthday on her birthday. But I gave her, her present last night so that was good.

I am really looking forward to Christmas. I love Christmas. I am hoping for lots and lots of snow for Christmas.

Only 73 days till our ski trip!

Trip Booked

2010-11-15T09:37:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I booked our ski trip on Friday. SWEET! We are heading out Feb 10th. The goal is to be in Bozeman Montana on Friday the 11th for my birthday. I want to have my birthday dinner at the Pita Pit. I love the Pita Pit and it would be a great place for me to have my dinner. After a couple days in Bozeman we will head down to Big Sky and start skiing Feb 13th. The goal is to ski Moonlight Basin on Sunday, Big Sky Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we have an open day. We are either going to rest or head back to Bozeman and ski at Bridger Bowl, or depending on the snow we might just stay and ski Big Sky. Thursday as part of our hotel package we have a Biggest Skiing and America pass so that means we can ski Moonlight and Big Sky on one ticket. So we will go out with a bang on Thursday. Then Friday we are going to start back and depending on weather and snow conditions we are hoping to stop and ski at Red Lodge and spend a night or 2. I have been to Red Lodge during the summer but never the winter so I am hoping it works out. On Sunday then we will drive the rest of the way home. Monday will be a rest day. I am hoping for 6 skis. It is going to be awesome. I have begun the countdown. 88 days. Word!

So it snowed this weekend. It was crappy heavy wet gross snow. But it was snow and it was nice to see it back. Not sure if you know this but I love snow. Winter is the best season and I say the more snow the better. I do not like it when it is 20 below zero, that completely sucks but huge snow storms and temps in the teens or 20’s is ok with me. So I say bring on the dumpage. The more the better I think. I want to ski powder this year, whether here or there it does not matter. We are going to give the up of Michigan a go this winter. We have talked to a few people that said to give Indianhead and Big Powderhorn a try. So I think we are going to give it a go. It will be fun to try somewhere new. It looks like it is about the same distance from our house to that area of Michigan so it should be good.

I have 4 weeks of classes left. This semester has been both a total pain in the ass and incredibly rewarding. I did discover however that human anatomy and physiology is not something to take online. It is incredibly difficult. And trying to do it on your own is really tough. I think I am doing ok in it though so that is good.
Thanksgiving is next week and I am looking forward to a nice long weekend. Melissa and I are going to hang out and cook a nice dinner and relax. Friday we have a Wild game which should be fun. Life is good.

Think Snow!

Stuff

2010-11-08T10:37:00.000-06:00

So I bought a snowboard. I didn’t get a really expensive one; I just got an inexpensive beginner one. It is a good brand though so I think it will work nicely. I really want to give snowboarding a try, and figured that with my Welch season pass it would be cheaper to buy a board instead of renting one every time I wanted to give it a try. I am really looking forward to giving it a go. I still skateboard a little bit and used to skateboard a ton when I was in high school. So I have the basic movements down and I understand that they carry over fairly well from skating to snowboarding. Hopefully I will be able to pick it up fairly quickly; it would be super fun to give it a go out west this winter. Melissa got a new pair of skis this weekend as well. She got a pair of Volkl Kiku powder boards. They are nice and fat and should be awesome in Montana powder. I also have a pair of Volkl powder skis, mine are Volkl Mantras but I love them. They are just an awesome ski, I have skied them all over Lone Mountain and Bridger Bowl and they were perfect. Snow fields, trees, and some of the steeper terrain I have done. I am guessing Melissa’s skis are going to behave the same way. I am excited for her to give them a try. I can’t wait for the snow to fly. I am getting so excited to get going.

Melissa and I have decided to return to Big Sky once again this year. I love it there; it is hard to go anywhere else. I know that is silly because there are a lot of great ski resorts in the US, but it is hard to beat Montana. Snow is perfect and there are no people. And there are a couple more runs that I want to do at Big Sky before moving somewhere new. This year, I want to ski either Lenin or Marx bowls on the south face of Lone Mountain, they are a step up from Liberty Bowl, they are huge snow fields that come down from the summit. I also would love to ski in the Dakota Territory which is below Liberty Bowl on the south west face. The Dakota Territory is all tree and steeper terrain way on the other side of the mountain. I think I have to talk Melissa into that one, but hopefully she will make her way over with me. I also want to ski the left side of Wardance, which is named Mine Shaft. I have been studying that line for a while now and I think it is for sure going to be on the list.

Melissa and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past weekend in Duluth. We had a nice room at the South Pier Inn. I love that hotel it is right on the Duluth Canal, so you can sit in your room and watch the ships go by. It is pretty dang cool. We both took Friday off last week and headed up early, made it to Duluth at about 1130. Went to Fitger’s right away for lunch and to have our beer growlers filled. Lunch was good, I really like that place for lunch. After lunch we went back and checked into our room. After that we took off and walked across the lift bridge and went and looked at all of the little shops that we like. We had a nice dinner. Saturday we got up and headed up to Gooseberry Falls and went for a nice hike. It was a beautiful weekend up north. We had a great time.

We are in the beginning stages of putting together a Christmas open house party. We have always talked about throwing a party. I think we are going to do it this year. We basically planned it on the drive up to Duluth on Friday. I am hoping we actually do it, because I think it would be a blast. More on that later.

Classes are killing me, so fricking busy. I just registered for spring semester 2 classes. After that I will have 3 classes left. SWEET! It will be so nice to be done. It has been a long road, but I am proud of myself for doing it.

We are not going to Chicago this year over Thanksgiving like we normally do. I am a little bummed but I think it will be ok. I am going to make a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Then we have a Wild game on Friday so I think the weekend will be fun. But I am guessing Chicago might creep in, it usually does.

Life is good.

Re-cap

2010-10-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile I know and a lot has gone on since I last posted. Let’s recap shall we. The Twins are done playing baseball, booooo. School is going fairly well, I took three classes this semester and 3 is turning out to be to many, but in the long run it is turning out to be a good thing. Yeah that didn’t make any sense at all, but after this semester is done I will have 5 or so classes left which will be so nice. I love school but… My best friend got married this past weekend, so Melissa and I were busy doing wedding stuff. I was in the wedding so that was pretty fun. I have never been in a wedding besides my own so it was good to be up there and see the event from the front row. The wedding turned out to be a blast. I had so much fun. Lots of laughs with Chris and his brother Scott. I have known these guys for 34 years so it was good times. It is funny how time flies, seems like just yesterday we were little kids running around the neighborhood with little in the way of cares. But I am happy for him; he has found someone to spend his life with.

Melissa and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on Oct 21st. Our anniversary got a little screwed up with all wedding stuff going on, so we are headed out of town in early November to celebrate officially, I am really looking forward to that as well.

In other news the 2010/2011 Rockies ski season officially started yesterday, Loveland ski resort in Colorado opened with 1000 vertical feet of skiing. YES! But they were not the first to open this year, Sunday River resort in Maine opened on Friday Oct. 22nd. Awesome! My snowstorm watching begins now. Melissa and I are starting to think about a place to go this year and once again all signs are pointed to a Montana week of skiing. We are thinking about Whitefish again, but I have a few more goals for Big Sky, so I am guessing we are going to end up there. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have a love affair with Montana. I love skiing there, the place is beautiful, the people are friendly and the snow is amazing and perfect. All signs right now are predicting a good winter for snow so I am hoping we can luck out and score lots and lots of fresh powder to play in.

This year if we do go back to Big Sky, I am going to ski the south face of Lone Mountain, whether it is the run Castro or Lenin it will not matter, but I am going to do one of them, I have been eyeing them for about 2 years and now is the time to make the jump. I have to start training now. They are steep and will be filled with powder so they will be leg killers, sadly I can’t build up the quads skiing around here as I would like, but every little bit will help. I am actually going to start running again. Yikes. There is a running group here in the Twin Cities that opens the dome up to running 2 nights a week starting in Late November and I figure if I run to nights a week, and try to get back to 8-10 miles I will be ready for Montana. I want to be ready in case we get pounded with snow while we are out there.
In other skiing related news, I am about 99% sure I am going to buy a snowboard this year. I really want to give it a try. I would like to be able to do it a bit and have another option for around here. Melissa and I have season passes for Welch Village this year so I am hoping to get a lot of skiing in. The beauty of the season pass is we can head down in the morning, ski for a few hours and then leave when it starts to get busy and not be out much at all.

Life is good, busy but good. Halloween is just around the corner and with that comes the Great Pumpkin. I am with Linus and wait every year for the Great Pumpkin. I am hoping he show this year. We always watch The Shining and have a pizza for Halloween, so that is really fun. I am looking forward to another fun night.

Weekend

2010-09-17T10:28:00.001-05:00

So it is almost the weekend, thank god. It has been a long really crappy week. I am ready for some R&R. Hmmm do people even still say that? Anyway, this should be a good weekend, besides a Cultural Anthropology exam that I have to take tonight, the rest of the weekend should be pretty low key. Melissa and I are hitting the Twins game Saturday and then running a few errands in preparation for my Notre Dame football watching party I am hosting, Melissa is the only person I invited but it should be a fun party. I am going to have lots of snacks and beverages. Go Irish! Then I plan on doing absolutely nothing on Sunday. Awesome!

The week has been busy, work is crazy. I am doing a huge server upgrade and it has just been a ton of work, luckily there have been very few problems, so that is good. But the stress level is high and Eric is crabby. So I will be glad to be done with work at 4pm today.

The weather has really turned, man it is chilly outside. Typical Minnesota went from hot too cold without much warning. But the good thing is, snow is right around the corner. I am looking forward to skiing this year. It always makes me happy. Bring on the powder.

My classes are going well, they are busy. Lots of reading, lots of reading! Luckily I have no papers to write this semester so over all it should be a good semester. I am taking 3 on-line classes which I think I have mentioned 5 or six times. (sorry) It is the most on-line classes I have taken at once. I love online classes a lot; they keep my organizational skills keen. I have a lot of planning and calendaring to do daily so it keeps me on my toes. The cool thing about all of this is I am starting to see the goal ahead of me. At least I think I do, I am 80% sure I know what I am going to do with all of this, but it is the 20% uncertainty that keeps throwing me off.

The really exciting news is the fall session of Mini-Medical School is 3 weeks away!!! Sweet! I am so excited. I can’t wait for it to start up for this session. I love Mini-Med School and can’t wait to get back at it. I signed up right away after getting my registration information and then count down began.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I wonder if anyone exactly reads my blog…

Ramblings

2010-09-13T13:55:00.001-05:00

I have a feeling this is going to be a busy week. Things at work are really picking up. I am doing a lot of cool stuff and the days are going really fast which is nice. The past weekend was good, mostly a quiet weekend, but nice none the less. Saturday Melissa had to work so I stayed home and relaxed, did some homework, took an exam and watched a little college football. So overall it was a nice relaxing day. Sunday I got up and did a few things around the house, and then it was off to the Wayzata Yacht Club for a little sailing action out on Lake Minnetonka. It was a perfect day, nice and windy. I got to the dock just a bit after noon and helped Steve set up the boat. After the whole crew was there we set off and headed for the race area. The race went pretty good, we had a few problems but it was a fun day out on the lake. Sailing season is nearing the end, and even though it will be nice to take a break, I know that I will miss it once it is gone.

I have become a bit of a voracious reader in the past few years; I have been reading a lot of stuff. Novels, magazines and blogs. I have discovered a couple of great blogs that I read fairly religiously, some are just for fun others pertain to my job. Currently I am reading a book called Med School Confidential (http://tinyurl.com/35xpkj6) It is a great read so far and I am really enjoying it. It is meant as a guide to walk you through the process of preparing, applying and what to except during your time in Medical School. I am a little more than half way through it and I am finding it very interesting. It is fun for me to wonder if I really could have done it. The information that I am reading make me wonder if I would have been smart enough to even attempt Medical School. Wow, what a process. If you have any interest in such things I highly recommend this book. I bought the digital version for my Barnes and Noble Nook book reader so I can’t loan it out but for $13 at Amazon it is an interesting read. I love my Nook by the way. It is a little different to get use to but once you do it is a great device.

It is amazing how fast time is going, September is basically half over and I noticed yesterday there is a little fall chill in the air. It is getting close to that time when I start to dream of snow and also start to think about planning our winter ski trip. I think we are planning on taking one, we are just not sure to where. Right now the leader of the pack is Utah. So we would have a week skiing, Deer Valley, Alta and Snowbird. I have been reading early weather predictions and it is look favorable for big snows in the west. I know some areas have already gotten snow this year. Jackson Hole, Whistler and even some spots in Utah. I think I am mostly ready for snow. Summer was good, but the weather wasn’t the best so, it went fast and I just don’t feel like I did much. Any thoughts on where we should go?

Self Pity

2010-09-13T09:25:00.001-05:00

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

-D. H. Lawrence

Another Week

2010-09-10T08:02:00.000-05:00

Another week has pasted. Things are good; I have had time to reflect on the Dakota 50. While I made it only 22 miles and had to quit the race, I am proud of myself for trying. While I was out there busting my ass other people were at home sitting on a couch watching TV. So from that stand point I am happy that I at least gave it a try. Still a little disappointed with myself for not training better and finishing but live and learn I guess. Next time maybe.

You how they say that things in your life happen for a reason? I am wondering how that could possibly be true. I have been reflecting a lot on my past lately and wondering why certain things happened. Like why did both my parents die? What possible good came of that? Nothing… Why did I go away once instead of going back to what I knew was the right choice? I wonder what good came of that decision. Life sure is funny.

Some memories that I have seem so vivid. But yet some seem like they never truly happened and the ones that I want to remember and hold on to seem to be slipping away. I am in a strange funk right now. Things are really good with me, but things keep popping up that are reminding me of other times, other happiness and sadness. I am confused. I will always try to remember.

My classes are going great, I really like my medical terminology class and my cultural anthropology class is really interesting so far so that is good. I am ordering my lab pack for my human anatomy and physiology class either today or tomorrow so I can get that here. My A&P class starts in 2 weeks so I will be at 3 classes. The most I have taking at one time. I am doing everything online so it is really interesting. I really have to keep up with stuff and make sure that I am managing my time well. So far so good. That will get easier as the fall moves on and it starts to get colder and darker outside. I am already starting to think about classes for spring. Right now I am planning on a math class and possibly a history class of some kind to wipe that requirement out. There is a history of the Vietnam war that I really want to take and sometimes it is not offered in the spring, so I am hoping to get lucky and it will be. Otherwise I have a few backup ideas.

It should be a quiet weekend; at least I hope it will be. I know Saturday Melissa has to work, so I am going to do school stuff for a good portion of the day. Then Sunday I think I am sailing. I guess the weather is supposed to be really nice on Sunday so it will be a nice day out on the lake. Sailing has been a blast this year, but it will be nice to take a break from it.

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz

2010-09-09T14:36:00.001-05:00

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I do not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

DNF

2010-09-07T13:27:00.000-05:00

Those are the letters that no person in a “race” or time event of any kind wants to see after their name. DNF – Did Not Finish… I was humbled in South Dakota this weekend. I went in there thinking that this ride was going to be tough but that I would be able to finish. I knew I wouldn’t be able to compete, but I really wanted to finish the ride. The Dakota 50 is in its 10th year of existence and is a very popular ride in the western Black Hills, in the Spearfish area. Melissa and I signed up to give it a try after we talked to a few friends of ours that do it and said that it was just a great event, tough but great. We went into the event feeling great. I normally get really nervous before events and that is why I do not do them anymore, my stupid nervous stomach makes them no fun for me. But this event was different I had a great night sleep, I got up Sunday morning at about 5:20AM, got my things ready to go and got to the event site, excited, feeling great and ready to ride. Melissa was the same, she was ready to go. She doesn’t have the same nervous issues I do so that stuff is easier for her. Anyway the race/ride started at 730am and Melissa and I started in back because our plan was just to ride the event and not race, therefore we didn’t want to be in anyone’s way, we headed out of town and made our way through the streets of Spearfish to the first climb which was a dirt road leading up to the start of the single track trail that we would be on for the next 45 miles or so. UGH, first climb to the single track was a bear and I started to question my abilities. And the sad thing was, we were only about 2 miles in. Holy Crap, 48 miles left. Was it going to be like this the whole time was it going to get any easier? I knew that we made the wrong decision to ride our single speeds for the ride instantly and should have brought our full suspension bikes, the outcome may not have been different but it might have been a bit easier. We made it into the single track and it was a tough, lots of sand and loose rock. I was a little ahead of Melissa and slowed down every once and a while to wait for her. We finally met up at mile 6, when I heard, “Crap, my pedal fell off!” I went over and looked at her bike and it wasn’t just her pedal, but she broke her non-drive side crank arm off. What now?!?! I looked at her and could tell she was bummed. This was a show stopper and something I could not fix on the trail. I brought some tools and things, but never thought in a million years I would have to fix a crank arm. We talked for a few minutes and she told me to keep going and to finish. I felt really guilty because I didn’t want to leave her alone and I had no idea how long it was going to take me to finish. But after a little back and forth I pressed on. The next 4 miles were tough for me, I felt bad about her day ending so quickly and that we weren’t going to be able to do this together.

I made it to the first rest stop at 10 miles and refilled my water and Gatorade drink, had a little rest and pressed on. The next stop was 12 miles away. The first 2 miles after the 10 mile stop gave me a little more energy, a little better trail to ride on and a little more downhill to rest my legs. I made good time for the next 2 miles. I got to mile 13 and the climbing started again. My legs were already shot. I kept thinking, why am I trying this on my single speed for the first time. Why didn’t I bring my Yeti and ride my good bike. This is a bear. I am not cut out for this kind of climbing; I am not a real biker. Thoughts like that kept going through my head over and over. My legs were cramping up at about mile 16 and I knew I was doomed. There was no way I was going to make it the whole way. I was starting to have to walk up almost all of the hills and was riding all of the flat portions and downhills, which were few and far between. I thought to myself, make it to rest stop #2 and call it a day. Go back and spend the rest of the day with your beautiful wife and enjoy that beautiful country out there. At mile 21.75 I called it a race for me and headed back. I was picked up by another rider and his support person that gave up at the same point. I was so disappointed, so bummed and so humbled. I have no ego about things like this but it sucks when you realize you can’t do something that you really want to do. I just wasn’t in good enough shape and have never ridden those kinds of climbs, they were very brutal… Now the thought about next year goes into my brain… Should I try again next year? Should I figure out a way to train for this ride and give it a go? I think Melissa is out no matter what, but would I like to give it a try again, or am I just not cut out to ride that kind of ride? I did make it 21.75 miles of the hardest terrain that I have ever ridden and I did it on a fully rigid single speed 29’er, so looking back I am pretty happy with that. Well sort of. *sigh*

Besides the race our trip was amazing. We had so much fun out there. I love the Black Hills area of SD. And I think Melissa loves it as well, I spent a lot of time out there as a kid and I have tried to show Melissa everything that I love about the hills in the two times we have been out there. This time we did a few other things that we hadn’t done the first time, the highlights were Devils Tower and Bear Butte. I have this life list of things I dream of doing before I die, some are silly things and some are cool things, well at least to me they are. I was able to cross 2 more things off my list on this little trip of ours. 1 was doing a watercolor of Devils Tower while at Devils Tower, I did that, I screwed it up but I did it none the less. I give it another try from the photos I took of the tower soon. The other thing was summiting Bear Butte. Melissa and I did that on Friday, it was amazing. Bear Butte is a “mountain” right outside of Sturgis that is considered a holy area to the Native American’s. It is big hill that rises 1,434’ above the prairie floor and is out in the middle of nowhere so it just looks cool when you drive up to it. There is a great and very challenging hike to the summit. It is short 3.5 miles round trip, but it travels up some steep and narrow slopes, across huge fields of scree and up some very sketchy terrain. The hike was amazing; there are Indian prayer bundles and prayer flags hanging everywhere, they were just beautiful and so cool to see, it is what I picture the Buddhist prayer flags looking like in the Himalayas. We made it to the top and really enjoyed the views. I was so happy to share my hike with Melissa and be able to say that I did another thing on my life list with her. Other than that it was a beautiful long week in the Black Hills the weather was perfect. We were able to enjoy our time together out there, reflect on our year, make a few plans for upcoming adventures and think about life in a quiet beautiful place…

Short Week

2010-08-30T12:33:00.001-05:00

I have a nice short week of work this week. Then Melissa and I are heading out to Spearfish South Dakota for a few days of fun and the Dakota 50 mountain bike race/tour. We are looking forward to the ride. It is techincally a race but we are just going to ride it and enjoy the scenery, I love that area of South Dakota so am I looking forward to going. I think the ride will be challenging but I think it will be a great ride. The ride is Sunday the 5th and we will be out the Thursday so we have a few extra days to hang out, which will be nice. I am hoping to go out to Devils Tower in Wyoming for the day to do some hiking. I love Devils Tower it is so cool. But right now all of the extra day plans are still be worked out. I know for sure that it will be fun. So much to do before we go. The next few days will be busy.

Finally Not Last

2010-08-27T09:19:00.000-05:00

So last night was another Thursday night race at good old Wayzata Yacht Club. The only difference was a shortened course with the move of the race into Wayzata Bay from the main lake. The wind was blowing well and the crew was ready. It was looking to be a great night. We had a great start and sailed a pretty good first leg. It is crazy when you get 100+ boats into a relatively small area, when the wind is blowing it turns out to be pretty exciting. Last night provide to be that. We rounded the turn and made our way downwind with a good spinnaker set. We sailed excellent legs for the entire race, truly making only one mistake, which sadly cost the 8th place finish in our class. It is the little victories that matter. Last night was the first time we haven’t finished last; it was a big deal to us. We truly worked as a team last night which was really fun. There are a couple people on the boat that are newer to sailing and as the summer has gone on we have been getting better and better. Last night really seemed to be a turning point. Everyone did their jobs and it was great. It is really fun when the team flows. It was fun last night. Next race is Saturday and that is going to be a fun one as well; it is a mixed club race. Wazata Yacht Club will be racing with the Minnetonka Yacht Club which could be interesting because the MYC is mostly scows, and scows are really fast. It will be fun to watch the sail. It is supposed to be windy on Saturday so it is going to be interesting.

First week of class is done and so far so good. I wrote 2 short papers already and have done a little reading. My Human A&P class starts in a few weeks. So I am looking forward to that.

We are trying to decide if we are going to go to the fair this weekend. Sunday is the only day that we can go. Melissa and I are headed out of town next weekend so Sunday will be our only option for the fair. I doubt we will go, but you never know. Melissa hates the fair and I mostly still like it so it is always a little bit of a struggle. I want to go she doesn’t really care about it. So we will see…

Back

2010-08-25T08:07:00.000-05:00

So my class(es) have started once again. I am taking 2 classes this semester; they are cultural anthropology and human anatomy and physiology. My Anthropology class started on Monday and my Human A&P classes starts in a few weeks. I am a little bummed that the Anatomy class is shorten, but it sounds like it is a going to be a great class and extremely interesting.

As I am getting older I am really regretting not doing better in high school and finding my love for learning earlier in my life. In fact you have no idea how much I am regretting it. While I am truly enjoying "college" now it is certainly not the same as it would have been 20 years ago. Holy shit that was hard to say... 20 years is gone since high school. Ugh! Where did all of that time go? I am guessing I am not the only person that askes that question. In fact I know I am not but, seriously where does the time go. I think I am starting to think about growing old and the change of life that will bring. Sorry for the downer thoughts there, anyway: While I really enjoy my job I could have and should have done so much more with my life. I really should have been a physician. I would have made a great doc. I love science and the mysteries of the human body and what makes it tick, so I am really reeling from not doing all of this much sooner in life. I really am not trying to come off as, "woe is me" Believe me I am a happy person and mostly happy with my decisions, but I know that I could have been so much more in life and as I am getting older I am realizing it. And unfortunately that kind of makes me sad and wish for other things.

I am almost to that point of a decision to be made, do I just finish the 2 year degree which I am very close to, or do I transfer it all and go for the 4 year? I am leaning toward the 4 year. I have been excepted at Metro State which I know is a pretty lame school, but it seems to work well with my schedule and seems to cater more or less to the adult learner. They have lots of evening and weekend classes and a good many of them available on-line. I have done all of my credits thus far on-line through Lake Superior College in Duluth and it is working out well for me. I have enjoyed all of my classes and I like the fact that LSC is a MNSCU (Minnesota state colleges and universities) school so all of my credits will transfer to any other MNSCU school and I will not lose any, and that is a good thing. I just don’t have a lot of patience to make up credits that do not transfer.

Right now my thoughts are to transfer to Metro State and try for a biology major. I really like biology and I was looking at the curriculum for the biology major at Metro and it looks like a pretty decision set of classes.

But overall, I am happy to just be able to take some classes and have the experience of learning. One thing I will say is that I appreciate it all a lot more now than I may have back then. Part of me is glad that I waited, but I wish I would not have waited so long.

In other news Melissa and I are leaving for Spearfish South Dakota next Wednesday night for 5 nights in the Black Hills. We are riding the Dakota 50 on Sunday September 5th. The Dakota 50 is a 50 mile mountain bike race/ride through Spearfish canyon and up into the hills. I am really looking forward to it. I love that area and have spent a lot of time out there so I think it will be good. Tough but good. Lots of giant hills to ride up, but at the same time when you go up a giant hill you have to be able to come down that giant hill and I am thinking that is going to be a lot of fun. Melissa and I are hoping to just have a lot of fun. We are hoping for great weather. We are riding our single speeds so it is going to be interesting…

Summer Life

2010-08-17T12:47:00.001-05:00

Melissa and I just got back from our first summer vacation. We went out to Seattle for a few days to see the city and visit friends. It was great. Seattle is a pretty cool city, not my favorite but a nice place to visit. I was shocked how expensive it was there. Everything seemed really pricey, parking, food, drinks everything. Oh well. After a few days in Seattle we headed up to Whistler for a few days of hiking, and mountain biking. In my "life to do list" I had biking at Whistler on my list. I can now cross that off my list. Holy crap riding there was amazing. It was incredible in everyway, so much fun. I love the lift served riding, so easy and so fun. The trails were amazing and a lot of fun to ride. Whistler it's self was incredible, wow what a beautiful place. Surrounded by mountains, lots of snow left in the high country and I was happy the whole time. I can't wait to maybe head back there some day. I would love to ski there someday, but I really what to ride there again...

Life is good.

To Long

2010-07-20T12:52:00.003-05:00

I am sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I have been really busy, I am just not sure what I have been up too. Well I guess that isn't completely true. I have been going to a lot of Twins games and I have been doing a lot of sailing with my buddy Steve. That has been a great time and a lot of fun. I am having a great summer. We are getting ready to head out on our summer vacation. I am really looking forward to it. We are headed out to Seattle for a week and also headed to Whistler for a few days to hike and mountain bike. I can't wait, biking at Whistler it is on my life to do list. I am finishing my summer class this week, and life is really good. I miss blogging so hopefully I will be better.

Target Field

2010-04-14T08:43:00.000-05:00

Melissa and I went to the Twins home opener on Monday. Holy Crap! What a fun time. I love baseball, always have and always will, but now that the Twins are playing in their new stadium the season is going to be better then ever. The new stadium is amazing. It is beautiful and is a great place to watch a game. Our seats are incredible and I am very happy with them. Anyway, the home opener was incredible, besides the Twins winning the game we got to see the first home run at the park. Luckily it was a Twin that hit it so that was great. Jason Kubel took a 2-2 pitch over the right field fence. It was a great moment in team history and it was fun to be a part of it.

This is going to be a really fun season of baseball. We have a 20 game package which will turn into about 23 games this season. I bought an couple extra games and Melissa and I were invited to a game with our financial advisor. We can't wait for that. Whats better then a baseball game? A free baseball game.

Like I said the stadium is amazing and the Twins did it right. Everything really is top notch. It is fun to be kind of the center of the baseball universe for now. Everyone is talking about the Twins and that is pretty cool. I can't remember a time when there has been this much buzz around Minnesota baseball.

In other news I signed up to play on my companies golf league. I am really looking forward to getting out there again. I haven't played much golf in the past year or so and I am really looking forward to playing a bit this summer. I started playing golf when I was about 9 with my dad and played a lot growing up. I sort of quit playing about 4 years ago when other things came up, but I have decided that I really miss it and like I said I am looking forward to getting back out there...

Life is good, I am looking forward to summer. I have been out biking a few times already and it is fun again. Last year I didn't have much fun biking so I didn't do it much which I think was smart for me. It made me miss biking and want to get back on my bike and ride this year. Life is good...

NCAA Hockey

2010-03-26T16:09:00.001-05:00

I am at the western division 1 hockey finals at the Xcel Energy Center. I bought these tickets a long time ago. There are 2 games tonight, and I am hoping they are good. I really don't care who wins. I am just interested in watching some good college hockey. First game is St. Cloud State vs. Northern Michigan. The second game is Vermont vs. Wisconsin. I guess they should both be pretty good. I am guessing.

Baseball season is now a week away and I am really excited. Melissa and I went on a tour of Target Field last weekend and let me say the place is perfect, they did an excellent job on it. We sat in our seats and we have a great view and I am really happy with my choice. I can't wait for the season to start... I am hoping for a good Twins season, at least I hope they do good. It would be nice if they would make a run for the World Series. Time will tell I guess on that.

Spring is here, I am looking forward to getting out my bike, so I am hoping the trails dry fast.

Mini-Medical School

2010-03-22T17:26:00.001-05:00

I am happy, mini-medical school starts in about 40 minutes. I am here at Coffman Union at the U and I am patiently waiting for "class" to start. Mini-med school is a 6 week lecture coarse put on by the University of Minnesota Medical School. It is put on twice a year fall and spring. This is my 3rd time and I love it, it is really interesting and very well done. The topic of this series of lecture is Healthy Kids, Healthy Communties, it should be interesting.

Snow is gone.... Boooooo. Oh well bring on biking I guess.

snow is gone

2010-03-15T12:24:00.001-05:00

The snow disappeared in record time. Wow it is gone. I am mourning the death of Minnesota ski season, a few of the hills are still open but there is no way that the remaining snow is any good at all...

I am a little bummed. Oh well I am actually looking forward to biking this spring and summer so that will be fun when that gets rolling.

But for now, I already miss the snow.

Still Raining

2010-03-12T12:28:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it, but it has been raining here pretty steadily for 6 days. Ugh... The snow is pretty gone which is a huge bummer. Ski season ended in a huge hurry which really sucks. Seems like I hardly got out this year.

In other news Twins season is right around the corner. Sweet! Our season tickets came in the mail the other day. So we are ready to go. I am really looking forward to the new season in the new park. We got tickets for the open house next Sunday so that will be awesome. We are looking forward to baseball season to get going.

Wow what a blah day...

Melting

2010-03-09T12:24:00.001-06:00

Sadly thr Minnesota ski season is quickly fading. The snow is melting really fast due to some unseasonly warm weather and rain. Bummer, is all I have to say. I guess skiing just wasn't to be this season. I got out a lot but, not as much as I wanted. My trip was awesome so I am glad to have those memories to carry me into the spring and summer...

Not much else going on, I am thinking it is going to be a quiet uneventful spring.

We are starting to think about our summer trip, which is beginning to look like it will be awesome. More on that later.

Last Days

2010-03-03T08:37:00.000-06:00

Well, the last few days in Big Sky were awesome. Wednesday was a short day of skiing. Due to my broken windshield we had to make it back to Bozeman to have it fixed. We skied at Moonlight Basin for about 3 hours. We did a few of our favorite runs and just took it easy and enjoyed just being there. It was really nice. After that we left and headed to Bozeman for my appointment at the windshield place. We got the car there at about 230 and they got it right in, told us it would take about 2.5 hours to complete. We walked down main street while my car was being repaired and looked in the shops and had a pizza at McKenzie River. Even though it sucked to have a broken windshield it was nice to take a break from skiing and get back to Bozeman for the day. We headed back to the shop and found that my car was done, everything looked great and we headed back to our hotel in Big Sky. We got back got to our room had some snacks and that is when it started to snow. We spent the rest of the evening watching the large fluffy flakes coming down and thinking that our last ski was going to be awesome.

Thursday we got up to about 4 inches of new snow at the base, which meant much more higher on the mountain. We headed to the lifts and headed straight to the bowl. Yup, it was perfect, finally Montana powder in all of its glory. So nice and soft. It was awesome, craving turns in that perfect snow always brings a smile to my face. We lapped the bowl a couple times. It was heavenly. I really wanted to head up the tram, but the line was the longest I have ever seen and I over heard someone say that the line was about an hour wait. Melissa and I decided that we did not want to piss away that much skiing time so we passed and continued on skiing untracked powder the rest of the morning. We skied fresh lines on Gun Mount which is a new run for us this year. Lots of fun. When it got to be about lunch time, I told Melissa before lunch I wanted to ski the Country Club off of Challenger Lift, so said OK and she said that she was going to pass, she wasn't feeling it for Challenger, I was bummed but better to pass on something if you don't feel comfortable with it. So I headed up alone. The ride up was amazing, so beautiful, you get a whole another vantage point of Big Sky and Moonlight Basin. It was awesome. During my ride up I was studying the run back down and picking my line. It was great, I had the whole line in my head as I got off the lift and started down. I made the traverse over to the starting area of Country Club, it was awesome and huge black diamond snow field. Lots of powder. It was such a fun run. I was so glad that I did it. It was steep but so fun. After I got down Country Club I made the entry into Freeway and made my way through what seemed like Volkswagen sized moguls! They were huge and deep with lots of good snow around them. It was so fun. The entire time I was making my way down these two runs, I kept thinking how much I loved to ski, how besides scuba diving it has got to be the most beautiful sport of all time. Being in the mountains is always just so perfect and so much fun. Anyway I exited Freeway and headed back to the base to meet Melissa, I radioed her first after getting to the bottom to tell her I made it and also to find out where she was. We met back up for lunch and talked about our day so far and enjoyed each others company.

After lunch we decided to go up to Andesite and ski Elk Park Meadows, which is a huge glade that usually holds some great snow and is mostly over looked by the skiers skiing the groomed run of Elk Park Ridge which goes right along side the glade. Anyway the glade was awesome, lots of good snow made for lots of really fun turns. We got back in the lift line and I noticed a patroller making his way back from the exit of Wardance, which is a run I was hoping to ski, but there was a sign up at the entrance that said that the coverage was a little thin, so to that point we had skipped it. We ended up riding up with the patroller and I asked him if he had skied Wardance, he said yes and told us the snow was good and soft in there. I skied Wardance last year for the first time and Melissa I think wanted to give it a try. When we got off the lift I asked her if she wanted to do it and she said yes. I was stoked. Awesome! We made our way to the entrance on headed through the gate and on to the run. the patroller was right, good snow, it was deep in spots and so far Wardance was awesome. Melissa was doing great as well. Wardance is a narrow glade that funnels into a very steep even narrower glade. Melissa is a great skier, but lately her confidence has been down a little bit on the steeper terrain, so I was glad to see her give Wardance a try. I was a little bit ahead of her and would stop every so often and make sure that she was doing OK. And try to help her down, since I could see the lines really good being a bit below her. She did awesome, she made it down and I think she had fun on the run. Wardance is probably the most technically difficult run we did all week and she slayed it. I was happy for her. After Wardance we headed back to the base and had a rest. We did a few more crusiers and finished our final ski day. Our trip was awesome. Another great week in Montana. We skied some new terrian, a new moutain and had some new experiences with the yurt dinner.

Thursday night we had a great dinner at Whiskey Jacks and reflected on our vacation and thought about the up coming drive home. We started to talk about next years ski trip and I think we decided that we would try somewhere new. Even though we love Big Sky and I mean love it, we are going to give another resort a try and right now Utah is at the top of the list.

We left bright and early Friday morning, the weather was perfect! Not a cloud in the sky. We made the 16 hour drive home. 1055 miles. It was a long but very nice drive home. No problems. We arrive safely home, we had safe skiing. The only problem we had was the broken windshield and even that turned out to be a nice destraction. I am already starting to look forward to next years ski trip, for the time we get back to the mountians, as I already miss them...

Thanks again Big Sky see you soon...

Home

2010-02-27T12:18:00.001-06:00

After 1055 miles and 16 hours in the car we made it home at exactly midnight last night. It was a long but good drive home. I was sad to see the miles tick away as we got further and further away from Big Sky. But most importantly we had a safe vacation skiing and a safe drive home. I will recap our last ski day soon. I have a lot of stuff to put away...

Thanks Big Sky for being so fricking awesome! Once again you provided us with a great vacation, many smiles, and lots of laughs...

Big Sky Day 2

2010-02-24T09:05:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday started with 4 warm up runs on our favorite green runs on Andesite. They turned out to be smooth and fast. It was another blue bird day here, not a cloud in the sky. The views were amazing to say the least. After our 4 warm up runs, Melissa want to take a break and have some coffee so we headed back to the base for a coffee break. Our legs are getting a little more tried then usual due to the hard conditions. We really need some snow to soften everything up... After our break we decided to give the bowl a try in hopes of finding some soft snow, especially after Monday when the wind was blowing the snow around in there all day and it was closed due to high avalanche danger. So anyway we headed up Swift Current and then up the Lone Peak triple. I was watching the a few people coming down in the bowl and it was looking good. Lots of powder flying off their turns. Finally we were at the top and made our way across Turkey Traverse and dropped in. Yup! Soft snow, awesome Montana snow, our turns were soft and creamy and it was heaven. We both had smiles on our faces the whole way down and we were finally giving our powder skis a workout. We got to the bottom and headed back up for another lap. Awesome. After that lap we headed back to the village for lunch at Whiskey Jacks. They have a great food and we had a nice lunch together. Once lunch was done we headed back up to the bowl for another go. After that run we decided to head back over to Andesite and do one last run over there for the day. We had a great day skiing, we finished the day sitting in the base area watching the last of the skiers and enjoying the really warm sunshine. It was heavenly.

Last night was our backcountry yurt dinner. We met over at the Summit hotel, checked in and boarded the snowcats for the 20 minute trip up to the yurt. You could either ride inside the cat or up on the roof. We decided not to ride in the warm comfort of the inside and climbed the ladder to the top of the cat where there were cushions and blankets waiting for us, yeah that was the right decision. Oh my god what a fricking blast. We made our way up the cat trail to the yurt. It was a perfect night, chilly but not to cold and a clear sky to see the stars. Once we arrived we went into the yurt where there was a nice hot bowl of french onion soup waiting for all of us, I think I counted about 30 people. Once inside the yurt we got our seating assignments and sat down, met our table mates and enjoyed the soup. We were sitting with some great people from Texas, a doctor and his wife, they were awesome. A lot of fun. We finished our soup and headed out and went sledding, they had a lantern lit sledding hill, Melissa and I did three runs on the sleds. It was great, we laughed the whole way down, it was so fun. And before we knew it the dinner bell rang and we returned to our table for, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies and the best beef tenderloin I seriously have ever had. Melissa went for the salmon, but I shared my steak with her and I think she was a little bummed she didn't go for the steak. Seriously you did not need a knife to cut this meat, it was tender and awesome! After dinner we enjoyed the company of our table mates, had chocolate fondue for dessert. Then sadly it was time to return. We talked our new friends from Texas to join us on the roof of the cat for the return trip, we laughed the whole way back. What an amazing experience. My god it was so fun. The dinner was awesome and it was just a cool experience. I highly recommend it if you ever come this way.

We finished the evening with a little TV and hit the rack... Another awesome day in Montana.

Big Sky

2010-02-22T22:19:00.000-06:00

Well today was a fun day, we got a fairly early start. We got up had a nice breakfast and headed across the street to the lifts. We got tickets and heard a nice loud explosion! Avy work? hmmmm... What is going on, it was snowing but not very hard, the peak was in the clouds. Was it dumping up there? Interesting. We made our way over to Swift Current lift and headed up with a goal of heading straight to the Tram and making our way down Liberty Bowl to start the day. We got about half way up and heard another explosion, ski patrol is trying to get something to slide. I wonder where they are working? We unloaded and headed down toward the Lone Peak triple lift... It was closed, we also learned that Shedhorn, Dakota and Challenger lifts were also closed. The wind had really picked up it was blowing out of the north and the visibility in the bowl was zero. While we stood there we heard another explosion. Wow... I really wish I could see what was happening. But no luck and we had skiing to do. We made our way down Crazy Horse, the wind had taken it's toll on that run, it was hard and had very little powder left on it so it was a challenge to say the least.

We decided to head up Ramcharger lift and check out the runs on Andesite. Good choice, we skied: Deep South which is my favorite green run at Big Sky, it runs right along the Yellowstone Club and it is really fun to look in and see the beautiful homes in there. After Deep South we head to Big Horn which is a huge blue and turned out to be great. We also did Silver Knife which was also a fun run. We took a break and then headed back up Swift Current to see if the Tram was open. It was! So we headed up the Lone Peak triple and made our way to the Tram. We asked a ski patroller how Liberty Bowl was skiing with all of the wind and he said it was good, a lot of snow had blown over there and had started to fill back in the dumps, so he said there would be so areas of good powder. We got to the Tram and there was no line so we got on the first Tram and made our way to the summit. Holy crap it was windy up there, a little spooky with the gusty winds and the snow blowing, it was hard to see. But we got started down Liberty Bowl and the patroller was right on the money I found good pockets of ankle deep powder and it was nice and soft. Liberty Bowl was skiing awesome! We made our way down slowly but at a good pace. It was a blast. That run is so amazing! It is huge, steep and the views are incredible in every direction. We exited the bowl and enter the run Screaming Left and made our way to Middle Road. About 1 hour later we had skied 6.5 miles and about 4000' vertical feet. My legs were burning and I had to sit down for a bit, so we took a break had a little something to eat and reflected on our run for the summit. So awesome!

We did discover what was going on with the avy work, the big bowl was closed because the snow in the gullies above the bowl was very unstable and we saw evidence of at least 3 slides into the bowl which was pretty freaky to see that. Not sure if they were ski patrol induced or natural but they were slides none the less.

We finished with a few more runs on the front side of the mountain. What a great day.

We went down to the village and went through our favorite stores. I found a cool beanie and then we went to Bucks T4 for dinner. We both had Buffalo burgers which were excellent. Now we are sitting in our hotel room talking about the day and planning another ski day at Big Sky for tomorrow...

I am thinking we are going to sleep well tonight.

Moonlight Basin

2010-02-21T21:42:00.001-06:00

Wow, what a day... We made the short drive from Bozeman down to Big Sky, it is 39 miles and it is an amazing drive, really pretty. We arrived at the Moonlight Basin base area at about 930, we got a great parking spot and got ready to roll. We headed right straight up Six Shooter lift, it was a perfect blue bird day, not a damn cloud in the sky! When we got to the top we decided to take our favorite green cruiser from the top for a nice warm up run. It was incredible, the views were amazing and so beautiful. I love this area of Montana, I love the mountains here they are awesome in everyway. Anyway, after our warm up run we headed back up Six Shooter, we had decided that we were going to head up to the upper portion of the mountain and check out our favorite tree run. After getting off Six Shooter we headed into Stillwater Bowl Traverse and down to Lone Tree lift. We took that up to Horseshoe Bowl and made our way to Lookout Ridge with the idea of heading into Single Jack, which is our favorite tree run. We were hoping to find some soft snow to ski in. They have not had any new snow in a few days so things are pretty firm. We dropped into Single jack and found some good snow along the whole run, it was pretty fun. It is so fun skiing the tree out here, they all seem to be perfectly spaced. We exited Single Jack and finished off on Lookout Ridge before heading back to the Six Shooter lift. We headed back up and took another nice long green cruiser back to the base area to have lunch and rest. It was pretty chilly here today and we need a break to rest and warm up a bit.

After a 30-45 minute rest we headed back up and went over to the South side of the resort where Big Sky and Moonlight come together, it was really cool, I poached a few turns on the Big Sky side and then came back to Moonlight Basin, in all of times that we have been here we have never seen that area of the resort so that was really neat. As always we had a great time cruising and making our way around the mountain. It is an amazing place. The skiing is always good and the people are so friendly, I think that is what makes it fun.

We finished our day with the longest run here at Moonlight, a run called Horseshoe which is 3 miles long so awesome.

We packed up for the day and headed over to our hotel to check in. We have a great room with a nice view of the mountains. It is going to be a great week.

Tomorrow we will be skiing at Big Sky... Finally!

Moonlight Basin bound

2010-02-21T09:25:00.001-06:00

Just a short blog this morning, we are packing up the car in prep for our 39 mile drive down to Big Sky... We are going to spend the day skiing at Moonlight Basin which is on the north side of Lone Peak. I can't wait to get down there. More later.

Bridger Bowl

2010-02-20T20:40:00.000-06:00

What a great day. We got up after a pretty good night sleep and went and had breakfast. The hotel that we are staying at here has a nice breakfast included with the room. We fulled up and got ready to had out. Bridger Bowl is about 15 miles from our hotel. We had a nice drive down to the resort and found a place to park. The parking lot was already pretty full when we got there at about 915. We got our list tickets studied the trail map for a few minutes and head up. We decided that we were going to do a quick warm up run before heading up to the upper mountain. We went up Virginia City lift and came down a nice green cruiser The snow was soft and it had begun to snow. It was already looking like a great day. After our warm up run we headed back up but this time we went up Powder Park lift and then went up yet another lift called Alpine Lift to the upper part of the mountain, my god it was so beautiful up there. There was a free ride competition going on today so on our ride up Alpine lift we were able to watch a little of the competition. It was really awesome to see the competitors coming down from the ridge line. From Alpine lift we skied down Three Bears bowl which was steep and holding so great snow. We were able to find so untracked lines so we had out first powder run of the day going. Once we exited the bowl we took a nice green cruiser back to the base area. We decided that since the lifts on the right side of the resort were pretty busy that we would go up on the left side and try to get away from the crowds. We headed back up Virginia City lift and then made our way to Pierre's Knob lift. We stayed over on the left side of resort for the rest of the day. It was awesome over there we skied some great lines. Off Pierre's Knob we skied South Bowl to Thunder Road which was a great run. The Best snow we found was on Southbound which was a nice steep black that ran right along side Slushman's Ravine which is an uncontrolled avalanche area that requires you to have a transceiver, probe and shovel, we peaked and it looked pretty intense in that zone. But we were very happy with our runs off Pierre's Knob lift, we found some excellent untracked snow on every run over there so it was just awesome. I love skiing here. It is always just so amazing and so much fun. The people here are so friendly and are so chatty and glad to share a conversion about skiing.

We called it a day about 2pm because we wanted to hit the shops in downtown Bozeman and have an early dinner. We had a great time browsing around and having dinner at Montana Ale Works. Awesome place, we enjoyed a couple beers and I had a Kobe Beef Burger and Melissa had Fish Taco's which she said were really good. My burger was amazing. We were happy with our dinner choice.

We did have a minor issue, when we got back in the car after skiing I noticed a 6-7 inch crack in my windshield! Bummer. So we went and found an auto glass place to ask their opinion on whether or not I should get it fixed ASAP. They looked at it and said yes. So Wednesday I am going to drive back to Bozeman from Big Sky and have my windshield replaced. I made a 4pm appointment so we will still get a full day of skiing in. Oh well, I am not going to let it put a damper on the vacation.

Tomorrow we are leaving here at about 830 and making the 39 mile drive down to Big Sky. We are skiing at Moonlight Basin tomorrow and I can't wait. It is going to be awesome. Moonlight is amazing and so beautiful...

I love it here.

Skiing today

2010-02-20T08:44:00.001-06:00

We are getting ready to go have some breakfast and then make the 15 mile drive up to Bridger Bowl. It sounds like they got 5 inches of snow over night so the conditions should be excellent. I am really looking forward to hitting the slopes. Also as a bonus they are having a free ride competition at Bridger today so it will be fun to check that out as well.

What a day...

2010-02-19T22:13:00.001-06:00

We just got back from dinner at MacKenzie River Pizza, man was it good. We had a really fun server so we had a lot of laughs with her. Good food and a lot of laughs.

The blue light is flashing in downtown Bozeman which means that Bridger has gotten at least 2 inches today. I can't wait to get there tomorrow.

Bozeman

2010-02-19T18:31:00.000-06:00

Got up early and hit the road... We made it to Bozeman in good time and got a hotel room. We went through a lot of snow showers on the way here. Nice big flakes. After checking in we went downtown Bozeman and had lunch at the Pita Pit which has the best pita's on earth and then hit the shops. We had a great time downtown. I love this town, it is just such an awesome place. The vibe here is just so excellent. People are so friendly and every where you look off in the distance you see the mountains. It just makes me happy.

Tonight we are going to MacKenzie River Pizza which is a Montana pizza place, there are about 5 of them all around Montana, we found it in Whitefish when we were there 2 years ago and the food is awesome. I am really looking forward to going tonight.

Saturday we are hitting Bridger Bowl for our first day of skiing, I am so excited. To get on the snow here... More later...

Feb 19, 2010 1:44:27 PM

2010-02-19T14:44:00.000-06:00

111°0'17"W
45°40'58"N
WhereBlogger!

At the Pita Pit for lunch, Bozeman MT.

Feb 19, 2010 1:06:15 PM

2010-02-19T14:06:00.000-06:00

111°1'14"W
45°41'28"N
WhereBlogger!

Morning

2010-02-19T07:35:00.001-06:00

Melissa is cracking me up this morning. She got up at 6am and has been jumping around and acting silly for about 32 minutes.... I think she is looking forward to getting on the road and heading for Bozeman which I think secretly is her favorite city on Earth. She loves it there, all of the fun little shops and cool places to eat. I am also looking forward to getting there. I looked outside and the cars are covered in a dusting of Montana powder. It is starting out perfect...

Phase 1 of Vacation

2010-02-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Well it all started 133 days ago when I started the countdown which would lead to today...

I had a hlaf day at work today which was nice, I was busy so the 4 hours I was there went very fast which was nice. I left there at about 11 and was home at 1125, we loaded up the car and were on the road by noon. I had a goal of making it to Dickinson North Dakota, which would have been a great day 554 miles from home over half way. We made it to Fargo in exactly 4 hours. We got gas and had something to eat and hit the room. We got to Bismarck in what seemed like no time at all, the roads were perfect which was so nice. I knew we were going to make it to Dickinson with no problems at all. I asked Melissa when we were done getting gas in Bismarck if she was tired and she said no. I asked if she wanted to go a little further since everything was going so smoothly, road conditions and all. She said yes. Well we made it to Glendive Montana in exactly 10 hours... I couldn't be more pleased. It will make our day tomorrow so easy. We have an easy day of 364 miles to Bozeman tomorrow so I am very happy. We will get there early and have the whole day to bum around...

So far all is well...

Andriod blogging app..

2010-02-17T08:30:00.001-06:00

I am just testing an app for my Driod. My goal is to blog daily while I am on vacation. I just want to see if this one is working...

Powder Day in Minnesota

2010-02-12T09:44:00.000-06:00

Well the snow arrived this week and it arrived with vigor... We got about 10-12" between Sunday and Tuesday. I went out on Tuesday just as the storm had ended and left behind a fresh playground for me. I ditched out of work 30 minutes early and headed to Welch Village. My god it turned out to be amazing. the place was pretty much dead and there were fresh lines all over the hill. The entire hill was skiing great. I only found one spot that was icy. It was on the run Chicken which is the steepest run there and gets skied out pretty quickly. But otherwise there was fresh powder everywhere. There was awesome snow on Dan's Dive and Wild Finale, I was getting knee shots on Dan's which is unheard of for here in Minnesota. The snow was soft and a joy to ski in. I skied till just before close and then headed home thinking about how much I love to ski powder, even Minnesota powder.

Skiing on Tuesday night really just amped my excitement for Big Sky which is now under a week away. I cannot wait to get out there. I am really looking forward to it and have been watching the weather forecast more closely now for about 2 weeks trying to see patterns and estimate how our week out there is going to play out. I am hoping for dumpage all six days we are skiing. I am hoping the weather cooperates for our 2 days drive and then it can snow all it wants. We are hoping to get a ski day in at Bridger Bowl as well. So if everything goes as planned this will be the ski schedule:

Saturday - Bridger Bowl
Sunday - Moonlight Basin
Monday - Big Sky
Tuesday - Big Sky
Wednesday - Moonlight Basin
Thursday - Big Sky

Then we will start home on Friday... Booooooo

I just have a few things left to do and then I am ready to roll.

I think I am going to get one more run down to Welch in before we leave. I have Monday off so I think I am going to go down in the morning and ski the fabled Welch Back Bowl till it is ski out and then head home and finish packing for Montana...

I am going to try to blog dialy while I am out there so check back if you are interested.

Getting Ready

2010-02-04T08:06:00.000-06:00

Well once again it is that time of year when I start to think, "Head west young man" I am now 14 days away from leaving for my ski vacation. So much to do so little time. I have to put a nice fresh coat of wax on our powder skis. Decide which out of my 10 skis jackets I want to bring. Clean my goggles. Pack up my ski pack with the essentials, Tibetan prayer flags, my picture of his holiness the Dalai Lama, my avy shovel and probe, lifesavers candies, Advil, bandaids and Cliff bars. Busy busy... But mostly my mind is starting to drift to the powder stashes on Lone Mountain and the awesome vibe that ones gets skiing in Montana. This needless to say is my favorite time of year. I have goals once again for this year as I do every year I head west, This year I want to ski Marx bowl and ski in the Dakota Territory. Those will be 2 new areas for me. I can't wait to get out there. Big Sky is getting snow and a lot of it. I am hoping Ullr will be kind to us once again this year.

Life is quiet, which I think is good. My head is always thinking of new things to do and new things to try. Work has been busy these last few days, so my brain is focused on the soft Montana powder and getting there. The time is going fast, I started my vacation countdown at 142 days and now I am down to 14... I know I am a dork, but that is how I roll.

Even though I am not religious this is pretty damn awesome:

Upon our skis, Lord, You bless us.
When we ponder the splendor of the mountains
and the glaciers sparkling with snow,
Upon our skis, Lord, You bless us.
When we ski, filled with joy,
in brilliantly white powder,
Upon our skis, Lord, You bless us.
When, through the cold blueness of dawn,
we track the snow-covered slopes,
Upon our skis, Lord, You bless us.
Lord, protect your friends the skiers and guide them
across the pistes and fields of snow
until the summit of our love resounds,
in praise and adoration.

Lutsen recap

2010-01-27T08:03:00.000-06:00

Lutsen turned out to be bittersweet. We got up there at about 230 on Friday which was nice. We stopped in Duluth at Fitgers Brewhouse and had a nice lunch and picked up a couple growlers of beer. Then we finished the drive up to Lutsen and went straight to the hill to buy our lift tickets. We noticed right away that they had made some changes to the parking areas, which was nice and also and most importantly the new lift is FINALLY open and running! After buying tickets and checking into our hotel we relaxed and got ready for dinner. We had a nice meal at Moguls up at Caribou Highlands, we like that place. They have good food.

Saturday we woke to cloudy and warmer conditions it was about 30 when we got to the mountain and started skiing. The snow turned out to be very snow and it was actually in really nice shape. We took bridge chair up and came down KooKoo for our first run of the day. The snow was perfect on the north face of Eagle Mountain. Sweet. We headed right for the new chair. The new chair is great, it takes you right up to the upper chutes of the expert runs on eagle which is very nice, you no longer have to skate ski up hill to get there. Melissa and I did laps on the new chair for most of the morning. We lapped Cliff, Georges and Chris's Couloir most of the morning before heading over to Moose mountain. The wind was blowing from the East so Moose was very windy, infact to windy. We did a few of our favorite runs on Moose and headed back to the chalet before taking the tram back over to Eagle and Ullr mountains.

The weather was starting to turn about 2pm. A low level fog bank moved in and turned the visibilty to zero. It was to hard to ski so we called it a day. We had a fun day and got some good skiing in so that was all that mattered.

Saturday evening after a nice dinner at the Gunflint tavern in Grand Marais it started to rain! WTF weather. It rained all night and we awoke the next morning to a "wintry" mix that was mostly rain. We were bummed. We just can't check a break with the weather at Lutsen, I just don't understand why it just can't snow when we are there. Someone doesn't want us to ski fresh snow in Lutsen... Oh Well. We headed home. It was a bummer... But at least we had one great ski day.

On a positive note. I am down to one run left at Lutsen to ski and then I have skied every run there. the Plunge is the only one left. I am heading to do it this year, but with the lack of snow it is hard to say if it will even open this year. Ugh... Big Sky in 23 days!

Skiing and Re-do's

2010-01-21T08:43:00.000-06:00

So I finally made it out skiing. Yes! And I still liked and was able to do it! I always get a little worried when I go to ski for the first time of the season that I will forget how or something stupid like that. But alas I did not and it was fun. We went down to Welch Village and everything was in good shape and the snow was pretty good, so it was pretty fun. Just made me want to get out to Big Sky right then and there but I have to wait 29 more days. I think I can make it.

Melissa and I are going to try for Lutsen again this weekend. We are going to leave tomorrow and head up. We plan on skiing all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday before heading back. We are staying at our favorite little hotel up there, the Cliff Dweller and we are both really looking forward to getting away for the weekend.

I have been in a real blah mood lately and I am not real sure why. It is kind of frustrating though. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that I haven't been out skiing much yet and that winter is almost over and it doesn't seem like I really have done anything. Christmas came and went and was kind of a non-event this year which made me kind of sad. I like Christmas a lot and this year didn't seem very Christmas-ie at all... I am hoping my funk will leave soon.

I am hoping for a week of fresh powder in Montana, I hear that clears all sorts of said funks. I am hoping so, but if nothing else the Tram ride to Liberty Bowl will be a good diversion...

Skiing finally

2009-12-31T08:31:00.000-06:00

Well the first ski trip is on the radar. We are headed to Lutsen next weekend. I can't wait. This winter has been odd so far. But it looks like the conditions are finally good and it is time to go. I have been waiting for Lutsen to be 100% open at least on their primary runs which they now are and it looks like they have great coverage so we are going to go it a go.

The holidays are pretty much over. We don't do anything exciting for New Years so that doesn't really count for us except for the not having to work part which rules. I think tonight we are going to get a pizza and watch the Wild game. Melissa has discovered a new found love for hockey, which is awesome. She likes to watch on TV and go to the games in person so Win - Win...

I am kind of bummed that Christmas is over though. I like Christmas a lot. And it always makes me sad when it is over. *sigh*

50 days till our ski trip to Big Sky!!! Sweet!

Not Much

2009-12-18T08:35:00.000-06:00

well we finally have some snow on the ground. Not much but at least it is going to be a white Christmas. I haven't been out skiing yet which is hard to believe but like I said there isn't any snow! I keep waiting and hoping that we will get some real stuff here in the next few days, but there is nothing in the forecast so I wait.

Meanwhile the west is finally starting to get some snow and it is piling up out there nicely. Big Sky is now 63 days away and they are getting snow almost daily. So as long as they have lots for us when we get there I will be happy.

Christmas is almost here. I am excited. I love Christmas time. We have a nice tree up in our house and some lights around the house outside. It looks really nice and festive. My shopping is pretty much done. I just need to pick up a few small things and everything will be done. It is hard to believe that another Christmas is just a few days away. Even though I still love Christmas it is a bummer to be old and not have quite the same excitement as I did when I was little waiting for Santa Claus to come. Even though he does still swing by our house. Which is pretty cool of him. We don't really have much in the way of plans hooked up for Christmas. I think we are going to have a couple of nice days off, relax and enjoy each others company.

My classes are done and that is exciting. I think they both went pretty well and I was happy with how I did. I am waiting to get my grades, but I think I am in the 90% range for both classes. So that is good.

Melissa and I went to a Minnesota Wild hockey game the other night and just had a blast. Those games are so much fun. I love hockey, I wish I could go to more games but they are pretty expensive. So it was fun to go, hopefully we can get to another game before the season is over.

Think snow...

Snow Please

2009-11-20T09:27:00.000-06:00

So this is the time of the year when I start to get antsy for some snow. it is also the time of year when I start to watch the snow at the western resorts pile up and question why I live here. But anyway, all the same it is almost Thanksgiving and the weather is unfortunately really nice and warm. Bummer! No snow in sight well at least for the next week or so. It is even far to warm for the area hills to be making snow so there are really no opening to report. Ugh!

In other news life is good. Melissa and I went to our first Vikings game last weekend. It was pretty fun. The tickets were a little to pricey for me but it was a fun time none the less. The crowd was interesting. A little to redneckie for me but hey who am I to judge. It was loud in the dome and there was a ton of energy and the Vikings won so all in all it was a good day.

Melissa and I are headed out of town next weekend and I think we are both really looking forward to it a lot. It will be nice to get away and spend some time just the two of us. So I am really looking forward to that.

My classes are almost done and they are going pretty well. I will say that I am glad they are almost over because neither one has been my favorite class by any means. I am enrolled in a history of the Vietnam War class for spring and am looking forward to that.

Life is good. Work is pretty good and I guess that is all... Just wish we could get some snow. I am starting to get the itch.

Busy

2009-10-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

So things are going good. Mini Medical school is rocking and rolling again at the U of M. Last night was the 2nd week of 5 and it was good. I love Mini-Medical school it is such a fun learning experience. It is also fun to spend a night at the U and see what is going on there.

Wednesday is Melissa and my 4th anniversary. She has to work late on Wednesday so we are planning on doing something together on Thursday instead. Plans are still up in the air but it will be fun. Also this weekend the bluegrass band The High 48's are playing at Dulano's Pizza in Minneapolis so we are going to go and see them. They are a great little band and it turns out that I know the banjo player. Tony and I were friends in high school so it was cool to see him the last time we saw them play at Dulano's.

Work is busy, but seriously who cares about that. I sure don't

In other news I have been going to the gym a lot lately and really enjoying it. I have started swimming and I love the workout that I am getting from swimming laps. I am planning on swimming at least 2 days before work. At least I am going to try. I am not sure that I am going to be able to get up that early to make it for an hour of swimming and them get to work on time but we will see. At least right now at least I am thinking about it. I am mostly working out to make up for the fact that I didn't do any running and hardly any biking this year. I had a hard time getting into it, which I guess was a bummer. But I am enjoying the gym.

Melissa and I bought tickets to an upcoming Vikings game so that will be interesting. I have never been to a Vikings game and neither has she so we are both looking forward to that. We are going to the game on November 15th vs the Detroit Lions. We picked that one because the Vikings should be able to beat them and if I am going to pay all of that money to see them play I would like to see them win at least.

We have had a tease of winter here in Minnesota all ready, we have seen snow on the ground twice. The snow didn't stick around for very long but it was nice to see. I am hoping for lots of snow this winter. I really want to ski in some good conditions. Big Sky is only 122 days away...

Updated Life Adventure List

2009-10-14T14:16:00.001-05:00

1. Heli-ski
2. Learn how to Surf ---- DONE
3. Drink a Guinness in Dublin
4. Ski Liberty Bowl,Big Sky Montana ---- DONE
5. Ski Wardance,Big Sky Montana ---- DONE
6. Backpack in Glacier National Park
7. Canoe trip in the BWCA ---- DONE
8. Hike the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu Peru
9. Camp on the beach in Maine
10. See the Sistine Chapel, Rome
11. Eurorail Trip
12. Ski Marx Bowl, Big Sky Montana
13. Bordeaux tasting trip in Bordeaux France
14. Ski Castro Bowl, Big Sky Montana
15. Go to The Burning Man Festival
16. Camp in Yosemite National Park
17. Climb the stairs at Half Dome at Yosemite National Park
18. Paint at Devils Tower
19. Road trip to Memphis to see Graceland
20. Road trip to Louisville to the Baseball bat factory
21. Take the Amtrak to Seattle
22. Camp in Alaska
23. Ski Big Couloir, Big Sky Montana
24. Hot Spring Bath in Iceland
25. Trek in Greenland
26. Antarctic Cruise
27. Ski in the Southern Hemisphere
28. Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef
29. Have Tea in Nepal
30. Trek to the Everest Base Camp
31. Camp at Zion National Park
32. Go look for Area 51
33. Take a road trip with no plans
34. Climb Bear Butte in South Dakota
35. Camp beneath The Grand Teton
36. Ski Jackson Hole
37. Have Lobster in Maine
38. Go Bone Fishing in the Caribbean
39. Catch a Green Cutthroat Trout in Colorado ---- DONE
40. Mountain bike at Whistler Bike Park
41. Road bike tour of Napa Valley wine country
42. Ski the North snow field, Moonlight Basin Montana
43. Camp at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
44. Boogie Board in Hawaii ---- DONE
45. See an active Volcano
46. Go storm chasing for tornados
47. See the Last Supper painting
48. See the Leaning Tower of Piza
49. Ski Rendezvous Bowl, Jackson Hole
50. Backcountry Ski in Jackson Hole
51. Winter Camp
52. Take an Avalanche Safety course
53. Live out of my car for a week on a vacation.
54. Sleep under the stars with no tent.
55. Go bouldering in Joshua Tree
56. Eat at Cliff Bar above 11,000 feet ---- DONE
57. Stand at the gate of Auschwitz, Poland
58. Camp at Arches National Park Utah
59. Circle tour of Lake Superior
60. Go Bass fishing in Florida'
61. Ride a century
62. See the Giant Redwoods in Sequoia Park
63. Walk on the Great Wall of China
64. Play Golf at Pebble Beach
65. Visit in Banff
66. Watch Soccer live in England
67. See the Normandy Beaches, France
68. Ride Slickrock Trail, Moab Utah

BWCA re-cap...

2009-10-06T08:50:00.001-05:00

So everything went really well for the first 12 hours or so of our BWCA trip. We got our canoe at about 9am and got loaded and were on the water at 930am. We headed due north up Sawbill Lake. The goal was to make it to Cherokee Lake about 10 miles away. We made it to our first portage and that was fine, in fact we made it to Cherokee found a nice campsite and got everything set up with no problems. Our tent site was awesome, up on a rock out cropping 3/4 surrounded by trees. We went back out in the canoe and got water for drinking and cooking and headed back in. We were tired and were hungry so we decided to have an early dinner. I fired up the stove and got some dinner cooked. Melissa and I sat down by the lake and enjoyed our dinner and enjoyed each others company. We then gathered wood for a campfire. We finally got a small fire going, we had a tough time finding dry wood but finally gathered enough to get something going. The fire turned out to be great. All of this time we noticed that the wind was picking up little by little. By the time we called it a night and hit the tent which was around 8pm the wind was blowing hard. I would guess 30mph for sure. We sat in the tent and played cards and talked and listened to the wind. The next day when we woke, it was blowing even harder, raining, there were white caps on the lake and it was cold... Ugh. We decided to just lay around and see what happened and hoped it would clear. Nope 5 hours later, same thing, 10 hours later same thing, 15 hours later same thing. At some point in the morning I ran over and got our food bag out of the tree because it looked like it was going to be a long day in the tent and we had to eat. And at that point I did not care about bears or anything, it couldn't get much worse. We ended up sitting in our Mountain Hardware tent for a total of 37 hours. It was horrid. I became an expert at cooking in the vestibule of the tent which was good. The weather was so bad and the wind was blowing so hard that I was actually a little nervous about the tent a couple times. I restaked it, early in the morning on day 2 to tighten everything up which helped a lot. After that she weathered the wind perfectly. That was a rock star tent. Melissa was a great sport through the whole day and in fact the whole trip. We sat around, played cards, read, talked and joked about being trapped. Finally Friday night I looked at her and said, "if the weather breaks at all tomorrow we are outta here." Well Saturday morning we got up, it was gray, drizzling and a little less windy. The bonus was the wind changed direction and was now blowing out of the north and we had to travel south, so the wind would be at our back if we left. I looked at her and said, "what do you want to do." She looked at the sky and said, "lets get outta here while we can." I laughed and like a well oiled machine we packed up camp perfectly and systematically. Got everything into our packs and loaded the canoe and shoved off. We had the wind to our backs and the paddles were flying. We paddled the first mile in about 20 minutes, knocked off 3 portages another 4 miles of paddling in 2 hours, did an 80 rod portage in 5 minutes and made it back to the landing were we left Thursday morning 4 hours and 15 minutes later. We checked our canoe back in, spoke with the girl about our weather trouble, and slammed two Isle of Pines Root Beers. We found out that most of the area was with out power due to the storm. Melissa and I were bummed. It was our first trip in the BWCA and the weather sucked. We couldn't do anything. The lake we were on had tons of islands that we wanted to check out, but couldn't because of the dangerous winds and the waves. So the trip just turned out to be a dud... We did decide to spend our final night in Duluth. So we stopped at our favorite place to eat on the way back to Duluth, we had a great lunch and more laughs. We got a nice hotel room in Canal Park, had nice hot showers, and went out and about down by the little shops that we like to look in. We had a great dinner, a good night sleep and got up Sunday and headed home. The weekend turned out to be great. The camping part was what it was and it was a bummer that the weather couldn't help us out but all in all it was fun. We are going to try again next year, same time, same place. We are going to go a different direction but it should be interesting to say the least...

2009-10-05T13:33:00.001-05:00

Holy Shit is all I have to say... 36 hours tent bound in the BWCA. I am friggin' ready to wait out a storm on K2... I really didn't think I could sit in the same place for a day and a half. Nope I can. When I can sort out our weekend in the boundary waters, I will post more. Right now I am trying to put all of the pieces in place.

God, winter can't get here fast enough.

2009-09-30T13:29:00.000-05:00

We are all set for the BWCA. I am looking forward to our trip. I am just hoping that the weather holds. It doesn't have to be perfectly sunny, but I really just do not want any rain and crap. I would like our first trip up there to be nice. Hopefully we don't get eating by a rogue grizzly bear.

or Big Sky trip is set. 3rd full week in February. We are staying up on the mountain, I found a new secret spot to stay that is cheap and full of awesomeness. I can't wait. 142 days till I am shredding pow.

Send good weather karma my way please.

It's about friggin time.

2009-09-22T08:03:00.001-05:00

Like I try to do every year. I post a blog story about the first snowfall of the year. Well it happen yesterday. The Colorado high country saw the first snow of the season. The picture above was taken at Copper on Monday September 21st. I have been waiting for this day since the last snowfall of the season last year. Here is the story:

The snowbirds are already shivering in their shoes, but skiers and snowboarders are cheering the arrival of the season's first snow in Colorado's high country. Above is a photo taken at Copper Mountain yesterday morning (Monday, September 21). CBS's Denver affiliate, KCNC Channel 4's 10:00 p.m. news last night (and presumably other stations' news too) reported that snow-hungry locals in nearly Breckenridge were seen around town in their ski duds, carrying their boards, and Loveland fired up its snow guns yesterday as well. And this morning's newspapers printed first-snow-of-the-season pictures too. It's a perpetual early-opening ski area -- historically often the first in the nation, in fact.

2009-09-18T07:48:00.000-05:00

Well. We are making plans. I just booked our hotel room for our ski trip this winter. We are headed back to Big Sky once again. I have been getting a lot of grief from a couple of my friends about not "trying" somewhere else. While this might be true why change something that we both love? Big Sky has just an amazing vibe, the people are great the skiing is unbelievable, it is quiet, and it is amazing beautiful. We best of all it makes for a really fun road trip. So we are headed back. Lets just say that I am already looking forward to that trip.

In other news, we are 90% set for our BWCA trip. The last thing we have to work out is our food plans. We are still working on a menu. Hopefully we will have that all nailed down by the this weekend. I am looking forward to heading up there. I am really hoping for nice weather. We have a couple of great routes planned so we can changed things up if we have too...

Tonight is our last Twins game for the year. We did have tickets to the Oct 2nd game but had to sell them due to our BWCA trip. I was a little bummed about that, but we have seen some great baseball this year. I am looking forward to next year and to check out the new stadium. I am hoping the seats I picked out are good. I think they will be but you never know.

I am also watching football this year. Which is different for me. I have never been much of a football fan, but I watched the Vikings vs Cleveland game last Sunday and it was a fun time. Melissa and I had a football "party" I think we are going to do another party this Sunday.

School is going pretty good so far. I think I like both of my classes. I am learning some stuff so I guess that is really all that matter right?

Hmmmmm

2009-09-02T10:32:00.000-05:00

So I think my mountaineering goals are unfortunately starting to dim. I have been researching and looking into different options. I have found a couple and they seem good. A couple in Washington that do their training in and around Mount Baker or Mount Rainier, and one up in Alaska, all have excellent programs but the problem is gear. I have a lot of stuff but of course the things that I do not have are the most expensive things. Boots, a 4 season tent, a expedition grade down sleeping bag, a down parka and other odds and ends. All totaled the gear is in the neighborhood of $2500 or so dollars. Plus $2100 for the class and $400 for the airline ticket. I can swing it but I just don't think I should. It is not fair for me to spend our money so foolishly. So I am headed back to the drawing board a little bit and see if I can come up with anything.

In other news Melissa and I are headed to Lutsen for the long weekend. I am really looking forward to it. We haven't been up there since ski season so I am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.

I am also going to join the gym where Melissa works out some time this late fall. I am going to start training for the mountains for both skiing and just in case climbing. So that should be fun. I have a found a great training schedule for Denali so that is what I think I am going to stick to at the gym.

Life is good. Just wish I had more free time.

Ideas that cost money.

2009-08-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

I am toying with the idea of taking a mountaineering course next spring/summer in Washington with a long term goal of climbing Denali and Cho Oyu with in 5-10 years. I am almost 95% I am going to take the course next year but beyond that things are a little hazy. Mountaineering is very expensive. A sponsor would be cool. Frank I am looking your way, I promise to wear your patches and fly your flag from the top of either Denali or Cho Oyu. Normally Everest is a goal for the aspiring mountaineer, but there are a few reasons that isn't even in my sights. It would cost me about 50 - 75k which I do not have. The success rate is far to low and for the price you have to pay it is not worth it. And it is much much to dangerous. So after some research I found that Cho Oyu is an 8000m peak and is much better to attempt. The success rate is much higher. It isn't "as" dangerous as Everest, but yet you get the experience of what it is like to work at that altitude. It is the 6th highest peak in the world and that seems to suit me fine. I am kind of a 6th kind of guy.

This all started last winter. I had this strange revelation when I was skiing at Big Sky and I stopped to rest while skiing Liberty Bowl, which is a run that starts from the top of Lone Peak at 11,166'. Anyway, I stopped to rest like I said, I sat down in the snow and started looking around at the beautiful scenery. And then it hit me, holy shit I was sitting on the side of this giant piece of rock. I looked around, I was the only person there, it was silent except for the wind blowing lightly. I swear to god that I could hear the snow hitting the ground. I felt so small in the world. It was the weirdest and most incredible feeling I have ever had. I sat there for about 10 minutes and just thought about how when I am gone this mountain will still be here and that maybe some other lucky person will stop in this spot and have the same feeling. Then I started thinking, this mountain is 11,166' high. I have skied probably about 1000 or so vertical feet so I am still above 10,000 but there are places on earth that are twice and almost three times this high. Denali 20,000, Cho Oyu is 26,000, and of course Everest at 29,0029. I started thinking what would it be like to sit in the snow on the side of one of those and look off into the distance. What would that be like? Well, I think I want to find out.

The class is an 8 day mountaineering training session on Mount Rainier in Washington. I think I have found the place that I am going to do the class through so now I just need to make the decision, and start collecting some gear that I will need. Luckily I have the most supportive wife in the whole world, she knows of the revelation that I had on Lone Peak and understands my whims better then anyone. She has a beautiful and VERY understanding heart. I told her of the costs and she said that was fine we will figure things out. So I guess I really don't have any excuse not to do it. Hmmm what to do, what to do...

2009-08-19T07:47:00.000-05:00

So anyway. It is a cloudy rainy day here in the beautiful twin cities area of Minnesota. Even though I am not a football fan what so ever, I guess I have to mention that the Vikings signed Brett Favre to the team yesterday. I was listening to the radio on the way into work this morning and now all anyone is talking about is how the Vikings are going to win the superbowl. I think that is so funny. I remember a few years back after signing some player, I have no idea which one they were going to win the superbowl as well and I think didn't even make it to the play offs. I guess I hope they would make it and win, I guess that would be cool, although it would not make a bit of difference at all in my quest to retire early...

I have begun to look at my new text books for my up coming classes and I have to say that they both look really interesting and I am really looking forward for my classes to start. My Psychology book really looks good so I am hoping that the instructor is good and that the class is interesting and fun. I am also taking personal wellness, and that class looks interesting as well.

Melissa and I have a couple of long weekends planned and I can't wait for them. It will be nice to get away again. One of them is up to Lutsen which will be fun, we both love it up there and it will be great to head up, and just hang out. We don't really have anything special planned while we are going to be there, so we will just go with it and see what happens.

We are also planning a BWCA trip for early October. I am nervously excited about that trip. I am hoping that everything comes off without a hitch and that we are able to go. Melissa is still waiting to hear on her vacation time.

It is Wednesday and I am feeling lazy again today. The weather perfect lazy day weather...

Lazy Days

2009-08-17T09:42:00.000-05:00

Lately I have just really been feeling lazy. I think I have ridden my bikes a total of about 200 miles this year. I just have had no desire at all. It just hasn't been that fun to me for some reason. Oh well. I think it might be the crappy summer weather we are having either it is cold or it is hotter then hell and humid. Anyway. I am taking two classes this fall, they start next Monday and I am looking forward to them as I inch ever closer to my degree. I really enjoy taking classes, it is a great distraction from every day life and I love to learn. I really think I am enjoying college much more now as an adult then I would have straight out of high school. Although I am now to old to do what I really think I should have.

Melissa and I are planning a trip to the BWCA for the first weekend in October. It looks like I am finally going to get up there. I have been talking about it forever and was to chicken to pull the trigger. Looks like this is going to be the year. We have a tenative route picked out and have our entry point. I even have a outfitter chosen for our canoe rental. We are starting to plan for gear and get things together. Luckily we have a ton of stuff so really the only thing we will have to rent is canoes and paddles. I am excited about the prospect of finally getting a trip in up there. The weather hopefully will be good. It will be nice and cool and hopefully there will not be any bugs and hopefully no bears.

I have really no had much desire to work lately either which isn't a huge shock to anyone but coming back from Hawaii and then going back to work was really hard. I wish I knew what I wanted to do when I grow up. I am just not sure that being an IT guy is it.

My 20 year High School reunion is this weekend. I am really looking forward to that. it should be great. I can't wait to see other people that I have not seen since high school. Should be an interesting night.

So

2009-08-06T08:05:00.000-05:00

Much to talk about. I am sorry I have been away for so long. I was really trying to be better at updating but apparently I suck. Anyway. Wow, Melissa and I just got back from our vacation to Maui. We were going to go camping in Yellowstone and in Jackson Hole but I found an unbelievable deal to the Ritz Carlton at Kapalua in Maui and it was incredible in every way. We left on Friday July 24th, had a nice flight to Phoenix and then changed planes and flew then on to Maui. We upgraded to first class for the flight and it was awesome. Nice comfy seats and good food and drinks. We landed in Maui at about 230 in the afternoon, got our convertible and headed to the hotel. The drive to the hotel was beautiful right along the ocean. We found our hotel checked in and were incredibly happy with our room. It was an awesome room, with views of the ocean and the golf course. We were both so happy. The environment was so beautiful. We hadn't even been there 3 hours and we were both so happy. We settled in and then headed down to the beach. I really wanted to get into the ocean. Our beach was perfect, long white sand beach, the water was warm and the sun was out. It was great. After the beach we headed back and changed for dinner. We had a club level room so there were 5 included food times during the day which turned out to be really excellent. And we took advantage of all of them. There was a breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, appetisers, and a deesert. Even though they were billed as "light" there was a lot of food and more then enough to make a meal out of. They were all really nice. First day in the books was a complete success.

The rest of the week, went pretty much like this. Get up at about 715ish, go have breakfast, go to the beach, or into town shopping or site seeing, come back to the hotel have lunch, head back out to the pool or more beach time or more site seeing and shopping, maybe have the tea time if around the hotel, or be back by 6 to have the "dinner" then relax maybe go down for a dessert, or just hang out in the room and watch a little TV and then hit the rack by a little after 10. We got up early every day and went to bed pretty early everynight. Hanging out in the sun made us both sleepy, but we got good sleep every night, so we were ready to go each day. I have never stayed in a hotel that was so quiet at night and where I slept so good. It was heavenly.

Some fun extra things we did: We went out on a catamaran and went sailing and snorkeling. Which was great, the boat was awesome as was the snorkeling site. They took us to Honolua Bay which was great. Lots of fish, saw 3 huge sea turtles, and lots of great coral. The reefs there were a little different then the stuff I have seen in the Caribbean. So it was neat to see a different reef system. We ended up going back there for snorkeling again on our own. We also went surfing which was really fun. Both Melissa and I did pretty well. We both got a couple of great rides in, it was great. I can't wait to go again and give it another try. We also did a lot of shopping and looking around at other beaches. Lots and lots of fun.

Hawaii is a great place and we were so gald that we went. It is very expensive. But it is amazing. Life is good there, Maui is so laid back and awesome. Everyone has a surfboard on their car and there aren't really any big cities so everything is pretty local and fun.

Now is back to reality and life is back to the ho-hum pace... I am already starting to think about the next trip. I am hoping Melissa and I can get to Chicago here before fall and also we are thinking about our big ski trip. I think we are headed back to Big Sky in most likely the end of February. I am looking forward to skiing already.

My 20 year high school reunion is a few weeks away. I am looking forward to going to that and seeing everyone. Should be interesting.

It's back

2009-06-22T08:10:00.001-05:00

Well this weekend turned out to be a good one. Melissa was gone all weekend at a "girls weekend" so that sucked, I missed her, but she had fun and I had fun so it was all good. Friday night I watched a couple movies and just hung out, it was really nice and relaxing. So that was cool. Saturday I met a couple friends at the Twins game. That was a lot of fun. It was cowboy hat night which was interesting, everyone was wearing their cowboy hats and watching the game. The Twins ended up losing but it was a fun game. So all in all it was a good night. Sunday I slept in which was heavenly and anxiously awaited the arrival of our Thomas Everhart. The framer was headed over with it to hang it for us. He got there early and it was amazing. I could not take my eyes off it. It was just beautiful in every way. Even though the framing was ridiculously expensive it was incredible, just a perfect job. I had it hung above our sofa in the living room and it really looks perfect. I called Melissa whom was on her way home and told her how awesome it looked and told her I could not for her to see it. She said she was 30 minutes from home. And exactly 30 minutes later she walked and she also just loved the work. We looked at it all day long and every time I view it, it brought a big smile to my face.

Pillow Talk - Thomas Everhart

Another Fun Weekend

2009-06-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

This turned out to be a really fun weekend. Saturday I went to the Murphy ride and BBQ and saw a bunch of friends there. It is funny because last summer I stated the ride and BBQ's at Murphy via invite only, now they are huge events with a tent for shade and lots of people. I guess they are fun but they have sort of lost there exclusivity. I sort of feel like my ride has been exploited. But oh well. I am glad to see that I created something that people liked enough to carry on and to bring to everyone. So anyway the ride was fun. I am not a huge fan of that trail, but it was a nice day. After doing the 10 mile loop everyone met back in the lot and got the grills going. There was a ton of food and that ride has become quite the production. I sort of did my own thing and sat by my car and grilled and listened to the Twins game on the radio. It was a fun afternoon. Melissa didn't make it she is fighting a bad cold. I was bummed that she wasn't there. I am hoping she makes the next one.

Saturday night we made a trip to REI. Melissa needed a few things and she found everything she needed, she that turned out to be a successful trip.

Sunday I helped my friend Steve run the committee boat for the Medicine Lake Sailing Club. I have crewed for Steve on his boat which was a blast. But this time I was out with him while he ran the race. It was fun to see that side of it. It was a perfect day out on the water. My head is really sun burnt but it is all good.

Hoping for a good week. We have a Twins game on Wednesday which I am looking forward to. Other then that it should be a nice quiet week..

Trail work and other things.

2009-06-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

Last night was MORC trail work at Lebanon Hills. It was also the MORC monthly board meeting which means that I got to run trail work last night. Although we had a small crew we got a ton of stuff done which was really fun. Sometimes trail work can be a little frustrating, but last night was great. I am really looking forward to getting out there and trying out the things that we did. Lebanon has really been riding great this year and has been a lot of fun.

In other news, it appears as though I am going to be taking the lead dirt boss roll at the Terrace Oaks mountain bike trail in Burnsville. It is a smaller MORC trail, but a fun ride. It will be fun to do my own thing and hopefully get a good crew to come and help me. That is the only problem with Terrace Oaks, it is not one of the more popular trails and is sort of forgotten about so it doesn't get much love. Hopefully I will be able to change that.

I am taking a summer class right now to work more toward my degree. So I am currently taking an Digital Photography class, so far it is great. I am having a lot of fun. I used to love photography and it is fun to be getting back into it. I am thinking about a digital SLR camera. But I am not sure.

Hawaii is coming up very fast. We are looking at tours and things, and I am trying to figure out the best way to see Pearl Harbor. We will be in Maui the whole time, so I am pricing flights, tours and trying to figure out the best and cheapest way to do that. I guess it would be stupid to be there and very close to Pearl and not go and see it, which I really want to do. We have a Luau booked and I am really looking forward to that, cheesy tourist thing I know, but you gotta do it right? it will be fun.

The weather here is just terrible, I am really hoping that it clears up and actually warms up... Ugh!

Re-Cap

2009-06-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

So Vegas turned out to be really dang fun. I haven't been there in ages and could not believe how much has changed. They are still building hotels like crazy and I mean big hotels. They is one that is gigantic and I have no idea what the name of it is. Oh well that just means we will have to get back out there and see it when it is done. They flight out was really nice, I am not a real good flyer but it was quick and very smooth. We left on time and arrived on time, we got our luggage and rental car quickly and made for our hotel. We stayed at Mandalay Bay and it was great. The hotel is beautiful and it smells really good on the inside. We heard they fragrance the air the there. The trip turned out to be all about the relaxing and eating. We hung out at the pool everyday for about 3-4 hours which was really nice. There is a wave pool and a sand beach which was a blast. Melissa and I got some good body surfing in and it just made me want to leave for Hawaii ASAP... I am not sure I am going to make it until July to go... Anyway, after the pool we would head out to In-n-Out burger and have lunch and then hit the strip and shop or just look around. This was Melissa first time eating at In-n-Out and here first lunch looked like this.

She took her first bite, stopped looked at me and said Holy Shit this is really a good burger. I smiled, and we continued to eat in In-n-Out bliss. We ended up eating there 3 more times. It was heavenly.

Vegas is a great spot, there is no where else like it on earth, a city built around, sex, crime and money. Everything is seedy, but so over the top. It is so fun to visit. I don't think I could live there, but man it is a fun place to go.

We did some shopping that was really fun we bought a piece of art which I am so excited about. It is a Thomas Everhart. We love it and can't wait till it show up.

It is beautiful in person and it will look great above our bed. It is 50x20 so it will be just awesome. I am hoping that it arrives this week so we can get it in for framing. Besides the art Melissa bought a couple scarves at Hermes'. Shopping in Vegas is so much fun.

We also went to a Vegas 51's AAA baseball game. The game was pretty good. Vegas pulled it off in the 9th with a great come from behind win. After the game there was a great fireworks display. We sat 6 rows behind home plate, the seats were great and they were cheap, $14 a piece. That is one reason that I love minor league baseball. Nice and cheap and a fun time.

The flight home was a nightmare, it was delayed almost 10 hours... UGH! But once we got in the air it was great, we got home safe and now it is back to reality...

I am hoping we can sneak out of town once more before we head to Hawaii... I would really like to do something I am just not sure what.

2009-05-21T09:31:00.000-05:00

Nothing more to say...

Taking Chance

2009-05-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

I saw the movie Taking Chance on Saturday and it was excellent. It is the story of a Marine Officer that gets escort duty for a fallen Marine. Pretty basic. The movie follows their journey home. If you get a chance see this movie. While I am not a military person I have the most respect for the men and women that serve this amazing country. I found this movie so uplifting. It was a made for HBO movie and is now on DVD. It the was made from the following "Trip Report" Enjoy:

"Taking Chance"
A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. Thankfully, I hadn't been called on to be an escort since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. The first few weeks of April, however, had been tough ones for the Marines. On the Monday after Easter, I was reviewing Department of Defense press releases when I saw that a Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed in action outside of Baghdad. The press release listed his hometown as Clifton, Colorado — which is near where I’m from. I notified our battalion adjutant and told him that, should the duty to escort PFC Phelps fall to our battalion, I would take him.

I didn't hear back the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday until 1800. The battalion duty NCO called my cell phone and said I needed to be ready to leave for Dover Air Force Base at 1900 in order to escort the remains of PFC Phelps. I called the major who had the task of informing Phelps’ parents of his death. The major said that the funeral was going to be in Dubois, Wyoming. (It turned out that PFC Phelps only lived near my hometown during his senior year of high school.) I had never been to Wyoming and had never heard of Dubois.

With two other escorts from Quantico, I got to Dover AFB at 2330 on Tuesday night. First thing on Wednesday we reported to the mortuary at the base. In the escort lounge there were about half a dozen Army soldiers and about an equal number of Marines waiting to meet up with "their" remains for departure. PFC Phelps was not ready, however, and I was told to come back on Thursday. Now at Dover with nothing to do and a solemn mission ahead, I began to get depressed.

I didn't know anything about Chance Phelps; not even what he looked like. I wondered about his family and what it would be like to meet them. I did push-ups in my room until I couldn't do any more. On Thursday morning I reported back to the mortuary. This time there was a new group of Army escorts and a couple of the Marines who had been there Wednesday. There was also an Air Force captain there to escort his brother home to San Diego.

We received a brief covering our duties and the proper handling of the remains, and we were shown pictures of the shipping container and told that each one contained, in addition to the casket, a flag. I was given an extra flag since PFC Phelps’ parents were divorced.

It turned out that I was the last escort to leave on Thursday. This meant that I repeatedly got to participate in the small ceremonies that mark all departures from the Dover AFB mortuary.

Most of the remains are taken from Dover AFB by hearse to the airport in Philadelphia for air transport to their final destination. When the remains of a service member are loaded onto a hearse and ready to leave the Dover mortuary, there is an announcement made over the building's intercom system. With the announcement, all service members working at the mortuary, regardless of branch, stop work and form up along the driveway to render a slow ceremonial salute as the hearse departs. On this day, there were also some civilian workers doing construction on the mortuary grounds. As each hearse passed, they would stop working and place their hard hats over their hearts. This was my first sign that my mission with PFC Phelps was larger than the Marine Corps and that his family and friends were not grieving alone.

Eventually I was the last escort remaining in the lounge. The master gunnery sergeant in charge of the Marine liaison there came to see me. He had a pouch with Chance Phelps’ personal effects. He removed each item: a large watch, a wooden cross with a lanyard, two loose dog tags, two dog tags on a chain, and the Saint Christopher medal, which was on a silver chain. Although we had been briefed that we might be carrying some personal effects of the deceased, I was taken aback. Holding his personal effects, I was starting to get to know Chance Phelps.

Finally we were ready. I grabbed my bags and went outside. I was somewhat startled when I saw the shipping container, loaded three quarters of the way into the back of a black Chevy Suburban that had been modified to carry such cargo. This was the first time I saw my "cargo," and I was surprised at how large the shipping container was. The master gunnery sergeant and I verified that the name on the container was Phelps', and then they pushed him the rest of the way in and we left. Now it was PFC Chance Phelps’ turn to receive the military — and construction workers' — honors. He was finally moving towards home.

As I chatted with the driver on the hour-long trip to Philadelphia, it became clear that he considered it an honor to contribute to getting Chance home. He offered his sympathy to the family. I was glad finally to be moving, yet I was apprehensive about what things would be like at the airport. I didn't want this container to be treated like ordinary cargo, but I knew that the simple logistics of moving around something this large would be difficult.

When we got to the Northwest Airlines cargo terminal at the Philadelphia airport, the cargo handler and hearse driver pulled the shipping container onto a loading bay while I stood to the side and executed a slow salute. Once Chance was safely in the cargo area, and I was satisfied that he would be treated with due care and respect, the hearse driver drove me over to the passenger terminal and dropped me off.

As I walked up to the ticketing counter in my uniform, a Northwest employee started to ask me if I knew how to use the automated boarding-pass dispenser. Before she could finish, another ticketing agent interrupted her. He told me to go straight to the counter, then explained to the woman that I was a military escort. She seemed embarrassed. The woman behind the counter already had tears in her eyes as I was pulling out my government travel voucher. She struggled to find words but managed to express her sympathy for the family and thanked me for my service. She upgraded my ticket to first class.

After clearing security, I was met by another Northwest Airlines employee at the gate. She told me a representative from cargo would be arriving to take me down to the tarmac to observe the movement and loading of PFC Phelps. I hadn't really told any of them what my mission was, but they all knew. When the man from the cargo crew met me, he, too, struggled for words. On the tarmac, he told me stories of his childhood as a military brat and repeatedly said that he was sorry for my loss. Even here in Philadelphia, far away from Chance's hometown, people were mourning with his family.

On the tarmac, the cargo crew was silent except for when they gave occasional instructions to each other. I stood to the side and saluted as the conveyor moved Chance to the aircraft. I was relieved when he was finally settled into place. The rest of the bags were loaded and I watched them shut the cargo-bay door before heading back up to board the aircraft. One of the pilots had taken my carry-on bag himself and had it stored next to the cockpit door so he could watch it while I was on the tarmac. As I boarded the plane, I could tell immediately that the flight attendants had already been informed of my mission. They seemed a little choked up as they led me to my seat.

About forty-five minutes into our flight, I still hadn't spoken to anyone except to tell the first-class flight attendant that I would prefer water. I was surprised when the flight attendant from the back of the plane suddenly appeared and leaned down to grab my hands. She said, "I want you to have this," as she pushed a small gold cruciﬁx, with a relief of Jesus, into my hand. It was her lapel pin and it looked somewhat worn. I suspected it had been hers for quite some time. That was the only thing she said to me the entire flight.

When we landed in Minneapolis, I was the first one off the plane. The pilot himself escorted me straight down the side stairs of the exit tunnel to the tarmac. The cargo crew there already knew what was on this plane. They were unloading some of the luggage when an Army sergeant, a fellow escort who had left Dover earlier that day, appeared next to me. His "cargo" was going to be loaded onto my plane for its continuing leg. We stood side by side in the dark and executed a slow salute as Chance was removed from the plane. I then waited with the soldier and we saluted together as his fallen comrade was loaded onto the plane.

My trip with Chance was going to be somewhat unusual in that I had an overnight stopover. We had a late start out of Dover and there was just too much traveling ahead of us to continue on that day. (We still had a flight from Minneapolis to Billings, Montana, then a five-hour drive to the funeral home. That was to be followed by a 90-minute drive to Chance's hometown.)

I was concerned about leaving him overnight in the Minneapolis cargo area. My 10-minute ride from the tarmac to the cargo holding area eased my apprehension; just as in Philadelphia, the cargo guys in Minneapolis were extremely respectful and seemed honored to do their part. While talking with them, I learned that the cargo supervisor for Northwest Airlines at the airport is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. They called him for me and let me talk to him.

Once I was satisfied that all would be okay for the night, I asked one of the cargo crew if he would take me back to the terminal so that I could catch my hotel's shuttle. Instead, he drove me straight to the hotel himself. At the hotel, the lieutenant colonel called me and said he would personally pick me up in the morning and bring me back to the cargo area. Before leaving the airport, I had told the cargo crew that I wanted to come back to the cargo area in the morning rather than go straight to the passenger terminal. I felt bad for leaving Chance and wanted to see the shipping container where I had left it for the night.

The next morning, the lieutenant colonel drove me to the airport, and I was met again by a man from the cargo crew and escorted down to the tarmac. The pilot of the plane joined me as I waited for them to bring Chance from the cargo area. The pilot and I talked about his service in the Air Force and how he missed it.

I saluted as Chance was moved up the conveyor and onto the plane. It would be a while before the luggage was loaded, so the pilot took me up to board the plane where I could watch the tarmac from a window. With no other passengers yet on board, I talked with the flight attendants and one of the cargo guys. He had been in the Navy and one of the attendants had been in the Air Force. Everywhere I went, people were telling me about their relationship to the military. After all the baggage was aboard, I went back down to the tarmac, inspected the cargo bay, and watched them secure the door.

When we arrived at Billings, I was again the first off the plane. The funeral director had driven five hours up from Riverton, Wyoming, to meet us. He shook my hand as if I had personally lost a brother.

We moved Chance to a secluded cargo area, and it was now time for me to remove the shipping container and drape the flag over the casket. I had predicted that this would choke me up, but I found I was more concerned with proper flag etiquette than the solemnity of the moment. Once the flag was in place, I stood by and saluted as Chance was loaded onto the van from the funeral home. I picked up my rental car and followed Chance for five hours until we reached Riverton. During the long trip I imagined how my meeting with Chance's parents would go. I was very nervous about that.

When we finally arrived at the funeral home, I had my first face-to-face meeting with the casualty assistance call officer (CACO). It had been his duty to inform the family of Chance's death, and I knew he had been through a difficult week.

Inside I gave the funeral director some of the paperwork from Dover and discussed the plan for the next day. The service was to be at 1400 in the high school gymnasium up in Dubois, population about 900, some 90 miles away. Eventually, we had covered everything. The CACO had some items that the family wanted inserted into the casket, and I felt I needed to inspect Chance's uniform to ensure everything was proper. Although it was going to be a closed-casket funeral, I still wanted to make certain his uniform was squared away.

Earlier in the day I wasn't sure how I'd handle this moment. Suddenly, the casket was open and I got my first look at Chance Phelps. His uniform was immaculate — a tribute to the professionalism of the Marines at Dover. I noticed that he wore six ribbons over his marksmanship badge; the senior one was his Purple Heart. I had been in the Corps for more than 17 years, including a combat tour, and was wearing eight ribbons. This private first class, with less than a year in the Corps, had already earned six.

The next morning, I wore my dress blues and followed the hearse for the trip up to Dubois. This was the most difficult leg of our trip for me. I was bracing for the moment when I would meet his parents and hoping I would find the right words as I presented them with Chance's personal effects. We got to the high school gym about four hours before the service was to begin. The gym floor was covered with folding chairs neatly lined in rows.

There were a few townspeople making final preparations when I stood next to the hearse and saluted as Chance was moved out of the hearse and into the gym. A Marine sergeant, the command representative from Chance's battalion, met me inside. His eyes were watery as he relieved me of watching Chance so that I could go eat lunch and find my hotel.

At the restaurant, the table had a flyer announcing Chance's service. Dubois High School gym, two o'clock. It also said that the family would be accepting donations so that they could buy flak vests to send to troops in Iraq.

I drove back to the gym at a quarter after one. I could have walked; you could walk to just about anywhere in Dubois in 10 minutes. I wanted to find a quiet room where I could take Chance's things out of their pouch and untangle the chain of the Saint Christopher medal from the dog-tag chains and arrange everything before his parents came in. I had twice before removed the items from the pouch to ensure they were all there — even though there was no possibility anything could have fallen out. Each time, the two chains had been quite intertwined. I didn't want to be fumbling around trying to separate them in front of his parents. Our meeting, however, didn’t go as expected.

I practically bumped into Chance's stepmom accidentally and our introductions began in the noisy hallway outside the gym. In short order I met Chance's stepmom and father, followed by his stepdad and, at last, his mom. I didn't know how to express to these people my sympathy for their loss and my gratitude for their sacrifice. Now, however, they were repeatedly thanking me for bringing their son home and for my service. I was humbled beyond words.

I told them that I had some of Chance's things and asked if we could try to find a quiet place. The five of us ended up in what appeared to be a computer lab — not what I had envisioned for this occasion. After we had arranged five chairs around a small table, I told them about our trip. I told them how, at every step, Chance was treated with respect, dignity, and honor. I told them about the staff at Dover and all the folks at Northwest Airlines. I tried to convey how the entire nation, from Dover to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis, to Billings and Riverton expressed grief and sympathy over their loss.

Finally, it was time to open the pouch. The first item I happened to pull out was Chance's large watch. It was still set to Baghdad time. Next were the lanyard and the wooden cross. Then the dog tags and the Saint Christopher medal. This time the chains were not tangled. Once all of his items were laid out on the table, I told his mom that I had one other item to give them. I retrieved the flight attendant’s crucifix from my pocket and told its story. I set that on the table and excused myself. When I next saw Chance's mom, she was wearing the crucifix on her lapel.

By 1400 most of the seats on the gym floor were filled and people were finding seats in the fixed bleachers high above the gym floor. There were a surprising number of people in military uniform. Many Marines had come up from Salt Lake City. Men from various VFW posts and the Marine Corps League occupied multiple rows of folding chairs. It turned out that Chance's sister, a petty officer in the Navy, worked for a rear admiral — the chief of naval intelligence — at the Pentagon. The admiral had brought many of the sailors on his staff with him to Dubois to pay respects to Chance and to support his sister. After a few songs and some words from a Navy chaplain, the admiral took the microphone and told us how Chance had died.

Chance was an artillery cannoneer and his unit was acting as provisional military police outside of Baghdad. Chance had volunteered to man a .50caliber machine gun in the turret of the leading vehicle in a convoy. The convoy came under intense fie but Chance stayed true to his post and returned fie with the big gun, covering the rest of the convoy, until he was fatally wounded.

After the admiral spoke, the commander of the local VFW post read some of the letters Chance had written home. In letters to his mom, he talked of the mosquitoes and the heat. In letters to his stepfather, he told of the dangers of convoy operations and of receiving fire.

The service was a fitting tribute to this hero. When it was over, we stood as the casket was wheeled out with the family following. The casket was placed onto a horse-drawn carriage for the mile-long trip from the gym, down the main street, then up the steep hill to the cemetery. I stood alone and saluted as the carriage departed the high school. I found my car and joined Chance's convoy.

All along the route, people had lined the street and were waving small American flags. The flags that were otherwise posted were all at half-staff. For the last quarter-mile up the hill, local Boy Scouts, spaced about 20 feet apart, all in uniform, held large flags. At the foot of the hill, I could look up and back and see how enormous the procession was. I wondered how many people would be at this funeral if it were in, say, Detroit or Los Angeles — probably not as many as were here in little Dubois, Wyoming.

The carriage stopped about 15 yards from the grave, and the military pallbearers and the family waited until the men of the VFW and Marine Corps league were formed up and the school buses had arrived, carrying many of the people from the procession route. Once the entire crowd was in place, the pallbearers came to attention and began to remove the casket from the caisson. As I had done all week, I came to attention and executed a slow ceremonial salute as Chance was being transferred from one mode of transport to another.

From Dover to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Billings, Billings to Riverton, and Riverton to Dubois, we had been together. Now, as I watched them carry him the final 15 yards, I was choking up. I felt that, as long as he was still moving, he was somehow still alive. Then they placed him at his grave. He had stopped moving.
Although my mission had been officially complete once I turned him over to the funeral director at the Billings airport, it was his placement at his grave that really concluded the mission in my mind. Now he was home to stay and I suddenly felt at once sad, relieved, and useless.

The chaplain said some words that I couldn't hear and two Marines removed the flag from the casket and slowly folded it for presentation to his mother. When the ceremony was over, Chance's father placed a ribbon from his service in Vietnam on Chance's casket. His mother removed something from her blouse and put it on the casket. I later saw that it was the flight attendant's crucifix. Eventually friends of Chance's moved closer to the grave. A young man put a can of Copenhagen on the casket and many others left flowers.

Finally, we all went back to the gym for a reception. There was enough food to feed the entire population for a few days. In one corner of the gym there was a table set up with lots of pictures of Chance and some of his sports awards. People were continually approaching me and the other Marines to thank us for our service. Almost all of them had some story to tell about their connection to the military. About an hour into the reception, I had the impression that every man in Wyoming had, at one time or another, been in the service.

It seemed like every time I saw Chance's mom, she was hugging a different well-wisher. After a few hours at the gym, I went back to the hotel to change out of my dress blues. The local VFW post had invited everyone over to "celebrate Chance's life." The post was on the other end of town from my hotel, and the drive took less than two minutes. The crowd was somewhat smaller than earlier at the gym but the place was packed.

The largest room in the post was a banquet/dining/dancing area and it was now being renamed "The Chance Phelps Room." Above the entry were two items: a large portrait of Chance in his dress blues and a wooden carving of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the Marine Corps emblem. In one corner of the room there was another memorial to Chance. There were candles burning around another picture of him in his blues. On the table surrounding his photo were his Purple Heart citation and his Purple Heart medal. Above it all was a television that was playing a photomontage of Chance's life from small boy to proud Marine.

As had been happening all day, indeed all week, people were thanking me for bringing Chance home. I talked with the men who had handled the horses and horse-drawn carriage and learned that they had worked through the night to groom and prepare the horses for Chance's last ride. They were all very grateful that they were able to contribute.

After a while we all gathered in the Chance Phelps Room for the formal dedication. The post commander told us of how Chance had been so looking forward to becoming a life member of the VFW. Now, in the Chance Phelps Room of the Dubois, Wyoming, post, he would be an eternal member. We all raised our beers and the room was christened.

Later, a staff sergeant from the reserve unit in Salt Lake grabbed me and said, "Sir, you gotta hear this." There were two other Marines with him and he told the younger one, a lance corporal, to tell me his story. The staff sergeant said the lance corporal was normally too shy to tell it, but now he'd had enough beer to overcome his usual modesty. As the lance corporal started to talk, an older man joined our circle. He wore a baseball cap that indicated that he had been with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. Earlier in the evening, he had told me about one of his former commanding officers, a Colonel Puller.

So, there I was, standing in a circle with three Marines recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq and one not-so-recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. I, who had fought with the 1st Marine Division in Kuwait, was about to gain a new insight into our Corps. At that moment, in this circle of current and former Marines, the differences in our ages and ranks dissipated — we were all simply Marines. The young lance corporal began to tell us his story.

His squad had been on a patrol through a city street. They had taken small-arms fire and had literally dodged a rocket-propelled grenade that sailed between two Marines. At one point they received fire from behind a wall and had neutralized the sniper with a SMAW (shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon) round. The back blast of the SMAW, however, kicked up a substantial rock that hammered the lance corporal in the thigh, missing his groin only because he had reflexively turned his body sideways at the shot.

Their squad had suffered some wounded and was receiving more sniper fire when suddenly he was hit in the head by an AK-47 round. I was stunned as he told us how he felt like a baseball bat had been slammed into his head.

He had spun around and fallen unconscious. When he came to, he had a severe scalp wound but his Kevlar helmet had saved his life. He continued with his unit for a few days before realizing he was suffering the effects of a severe concussion.

The staff sergeant finished the story. He told how this lance corporal had begged and pleaded with the battalion surgeon to let him stay with his unit. In the end, the doctor said there was just no way; he had suffered a severe and traumatic head wound and would have to be medevac'd.

The Marine Corps is a special fraternity. There are moments when we are reminded of this. Interestingly, those moments don't always happen at awards ceremonies or in dress blues at Birthday Balls. I have found, rather, that they occur at unexpected times and places — next to a loaded moving van at Camp Lejeune's base housing, in a dirty tent in northern Saudi Arabia, and in a smoky VFW post in western Wyoming.

After the story was done, the lance corporal stepped over to the old man, put his arm over the man's shoulder, and told him that he, the Korean War vet, was his hero. The two of them stood there with their arms over each other's shoulders, and we were all silent for a moment. When they let go, I told the lance corporal that there were recruits down on the yellow footprints tonight who would soon be learning his story.

I was finished drinking beer and telling stories. I found Chance's father and shook his hand one more time. Chance's mom had already left, and I deeply regretted not being able to tell her goodbye.

I left Dubois in the morning before sunrise for my long drive back to Billings. It had been my honor to take Chance Phelps to his final post. Now he is on the high ground overlooking his town.

I miss him.

So

2009-05-18T08:41:00.001-05:00

The weekend was really fun. Saturday I helped a friend move which is the nightmare of being a friend, helping a friend move. But it turned out to be the easiest move in the history of moving. He had packed all of his stuff into a pod and had the pod shipped to his new house, so basically we unloaded the pod. There were 5 people total and I think it took, 40 minutes tops. It was sweet. It was also great because I got to see my friends brother whom I haven't seen for a while, so Scott and I had some great laughs while working. After the quick move I went home and sat in the garage and listened to the Twins game on the radio and had lunch. I have this strange new obsession with sitting in my garage and listening to baseball games on the radio. It is a little odd. But it was a fun time.

Saturday night Melissa and I tired a new restaurant that is right down the street from us. Ramy's, it is a pizzeria/Mediterranean food place and it is awesome in every way. The food is fantastic. I had a gyro, and Melissa and Chicken kabobs, rice and a Greek salad. We took home a piece of Tiramisu which was a huge piece for $2.50 and it was just awesome. The guys whom own the place are super cool and it was really dang good. We went back last night to try their pizza. Had a Margherita Pizza which was also just excellent... I highly recommend this place.

Sunday we did our first ride and BBQ of the season at Murphy. The ride was fun. Melissa and I were both riding our single speeds, so we just puttered a long and enjoyed being outside on the trail. After we all gathered around and grilled lunch and hung out and enjoyed the sun. It was a great day.

I am hoping this week goes by fast, Melissa and I are leaving for Las Vegas this weekend and I can't wait. I haven't been there in so long, I am excited to go... In-N-Out burger. Yummy.

2009-05-08T07:47:00.001-05:00

Not to horribly much going on. But let me re-cap. I have been out riding more and my riding chi is coming back. Last night I rode Lebanon which was just a blast. I was on my single speed 29'er which I have a new found love for and it was just a great ride. I ended up riding by myself which was fine. I went at my own pace and did my own thing. Lebanon is in awesome shape. The new obstacles are really fun, I was able to ride the new log ride last night, it was great, so much fun. I am going to ride again on Sunday I think, sounds like the weather is going to be a little shaky the next couple of days. So yeah biking chi is back...

Also Melissa and I are going to Maui. We have a vacation planned for July to the Ritz-Carlton at Kapalua. I can't wait. We were originally going to do Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, but I found a killer deal for Maui so we decided to go while we had the time and the extra cash laying around. We are planning on relaxing on the beach for 8 days. I am going to go surfing, snorkeling, mountain biking, kayaking and I think we are going to get a dive in as well. Should be a blast. I think I might be able to cross at least one or two things off the life to do list as well. Sweet!

No plans for the weekend really, besides maybe riding. I slept terrible last night so I am really tired today. I was going to go to the Twins game tonight but I think I am just going to go home and fire up the grill and listen to it on the radio.

Also I was just thinking Vegas is right around the corner as well. I can't wait to get back there. That is going to be a fun weekend of relaxing, shopping and eating In n Out burger.

Double double please...

Sorry

2009-04-27T08:20:00.000-05:00

So I am sorry I have been away for a while. Not much is going on really. I have been out riding a few times. Nothing really exciting there at all. Rode over at Lebanon Hills twice. Once with my friend Jodi and a couple other people and once by myself. They were both fine rides, but I am just not in the spirit of riding at all this year, so it really wasn't a very exciting ride. Hopefully that will pass and I will get more in the mood but as of right now I have no desire. I have more desire to go and ride my skateboard which is a little scary but at least it is fun to me. I have been out skating a lot, both around my house and at the local skate parks. It is slowly coming back to me so it is getting fun again. Sure there are going to be a ton of tricks that I could do in my teens that I can't do now but I guess that is to be expected. It is still fun to get out there and give it a go again.

In other news, Melissa and I are going to Las Vegas, I am really excited. We are going for Memorial Day weekend. We are going for 4 nights and are staying at Mandalay Bay. I can't wait to get out there. It has been a long time since I was in Vegas and it is going to be great. We have a few things planned, In N Out burger daily, swimming in the awesome pool that Mandalay has and relaxing. We are also going to go to a Vegas 51's baseball game. We have great flights both there and back so it will rule. YEAH!!!

The Twins are playing pretty good baseball so far this season. I have been to a few games and they have all been really fun. I have been to 3 games they won 2 and lost 1. But both games I have seen them won have been awesome. Come from behind wins late in the game. Those are always the best. People leave early and miss the best baseball. I always laugh to myself.

Big Winners

2009-04-14T07:48:00.000-05:00

So last night at the Twins game Melissa and I were sitting in our seats and I was getting my scorecard ready just like I do at every game and a guy in a Metrodome outfit came up to us and said "Do you guys like these seats?" We said, "Yes they were our season ticket seats." He said, "would you like to move to seats behind home plate?" We both said, "yes." and he said, "congratulations, that we were the Majestic Fans of the game." It was pretty cool, besides the upgraded seats, we both got a Twins t-shirt and they showed us on the score board. We went from our seats in 227 row 9 which is just to the third base side of home plate in the upper deck to section 125 row 29 which was right behind home plate on the lower deck. It was pretty cool. I love our seats a lot but it was fun to sit behind the dish. The best thing about sitting down there was you could really hear the crack of the bat. You can of course hear it where we sit, but it sounds so much better from down there. So that was really cool. The game was good, the Twins lost but there were some great plays and lots of hits so it was a fun game to score. It was fun to sit in those seats, I would never pay that kind of dough but it was fun. I am a firm believer that the real fans sit up in the upper decks on the 1st or 3rd base lines because you can see the play develop better up there. But that is just my opinion. My next game is this coming Friday. Should be a fun one as well.

In other news I got my skateboard out a few times this past weekend. It was fun to ride it again. I was happy to see that I could still ride it, the trick part will hopefully come back since I don't quite have my balance back, but at least I can still ride. I am planning on getting out maybe tonight for a bit after work. I have to get a part for my board and am thinking about do that right after work.

Melissa and I are trying to plan a Memorial Day weekend get away. We are thinking of heading to Las Vegas, but I am not sure. I love Vegas so we will see what happens. The idea of 3 days of In-N-Out Burger might be to much to pass up.

Baseball is here...

2009-04-06T08:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Baseball Opener. Tis a great day indeed. Another baseball season is here. I am looking forward to the season this year. Melissa and I once again have our 20 game season ticket package for the Twins and it looks like they might be a pretty ok team again. I am a little worried about the pitching staff but other then that it should be a fun year. Tonight is the opener for them, our first game is tomorrow. Should be a fun night.

In other news, this is my least favorite time of year. I call it mud season. The ground is wet, snow is melting, lots of rain, lots of mud. In fact we had some snow this past weekend so we had to start the melting process all over again. I would say we saw about an inch and half of very heavy wet snow at our house. The flakes were huge and it was fun to watch it snow, but at the same time it was very bittersweet, thinking to myself this would probably be the last snow for the season around my house. (sigh)

Also this is the time that I watch the resorts out west start to close down for the year. March proved to be an epic month for the resorts I pay attention to, 12-14 feet of snow at almost all of the ones that I care about. Looks like it was another excellent year snow wise for my favorite places. The first one to close for the year ended it season yesterday, Jackson Hole closed after received a little over 11' of snow in March and closed being 100% open, hmmm I wonder how that sits with the hard cores at JH...

I still have no interest in riding my bikes. Melissa is really looking forward to getting on her new road bike and it looks like it is going to be really nice by the end of the week, so it looks like there might be a ride in my future. To be honest at this time I could care a less...

So Painful

2009-03-26T10:02:00.001-05:00

See this is why I really need to move west, I get powder alerts from all over the country. At 930 this morning I got hit with them, this is snowfall in the past 24 hours:

Snowbird, Utah - 18" 100% open
Alta, Utah - 21" 100% open
Jackson Hole, Wyoming - 21" 100% open
Grand Targhee, Wyoming - 14" 100% open
Bridger Bowl, Montana - 13" 100% open

Compared to:

Lutsen,Minnesota - 0" - barely hanging on...
Welch Village, Minnesota - Closed for the season
Afton Alps, Minnesota - Closed for the season
Buck Hill, Minnesota - Closed for the season

Not Much Going On

2009-03-26T08:02:00.001-05:00

Not to much has been going on lately. Things are quiet. I hate this time of year, snow is gone here so skiing is over and the trails are still to wet to bike on. I believe in Montana they call this mud season. Here in Minnesota I call it boring season. I think the thing that is hardest for me is the fact that the ski resorts out west are just getting hammered with snow still. I am just not ready for skiing to be done. Yes call it a sick obsession. Oh well at least I know what I like. I still have no interest in riding my bikes. I am not sure how much riding I am even going to do this year. Melissa got a really nice road bike, we picked it up yesterday, so I am guessing she is going to want to do a ton of road riding. I like to ride with her so looks like I might be logging some time on my road bike as well versus my mountain bikes. But as of right now I have no interest in riding either.

I am however looking forward to getting out and doing some camping this spring and summer. Melissa and I have a couple of ideas for camping trips so hopefully that will come off. Our main trip this summer is hopefully going to be a trip to Yellowstone and to Jackson Hole, I haven't been to Yellowstone in about 25 years so I am really looking forward to getting back there. I am hoping to get some hiking, and fly fishing in while we are out there. I will have more details on that trip as it gets closer.