Christmas re-cap...

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

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!!!

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...

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!

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

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

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.