Seasons Greetings from Boulder

Yesterday was a good day... today was a good day... and tomorrow looks to be another good day.

Yesterday I couldn't help myself and had to take one extra day off work for this long Christmas weekend. You see the mountains had got dumped on Monday night and when I checked the snow report at work I was extremely frustrated I was sitting in an office. Therefore I figured I could still catch some of the good snow the next day and indeed I did. I headed up to Breckenridge and got up into the high cirque on some of the steep stuff where the snow was untouched in some spots mostly because the crazy wind had blown it all over. Anyway it was all good and I only took one double whipper rag doll style as some of the wind blown snow got a bit of a crust on it and grabbed the front of my board... game over. It was a soft landing though and I was right back at it.

Today Christmas day I woke up watched a movie and exchanged texts with good friends wishing each other a Merry Christmas. Then it was off for an afternoon mountain bike ride. I was greeted by high winds heading out to the trail which had me leaning the bike into the wind at pretty much a 45 degree angle. I was feeling worked before I got to the trail but I knew it would be a tail wind heading back home so it was all good. The ride turned out to be muddy which is always fun! Then I cooked a good dinner (thanks for the Amish noodles Mom they were DELICIOUS! and the jerky is already about half gone).

Muddy Shoes


Muddy Bike... MUDDY CHRISTMAS!


Changing lenses in anticipation of a cloudy day with new snow fingers crossed! with the most delicious beer Alaskan Amber


So tomorrow I head up to Vail to meet Jaimie Niblock aka Jamie Rowe a long time family friend. Her and her husband are down here from Spokane for the Holiday and it should be good fun. Jamie went to CU and her husband graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I haven't seen Jaime in a long time and it should be good times!

That's Cold

I have decided it's time to sit down and blog about the last month. I procrastinated long enough. Where to begin....

Well first off I went home for Thanksgiving as the whole family was going to be back in Michiana. I linked it up with a trip to Boston for training and all went swell though it was a long time to be away from the mountains with the snow starting to fall. I got in on Wednesday night and my sisters soon to be husband Ryan picked me up at Midway Airport in Chicago. We made the two hour ride home to surprise the parents only to find out that my Mom had already figured it out not only because of myself pretty much slipping but Lester (my sister) slipping as well. No biggy her and my Dad were still happy to see me.

We had a delicious family Thanksgiving dinner and hung out with old friends such as Graham and Bobby who most of you who read this know but the others you may not so I'll spare the writing. Just plain good ol friends in general and of course the family time. I also saw a few of my cousins who I hadn't seen in quite a long time and my Grandma Miller and Great Grandma Slabach.

Sunday I headed back to Chicago with Les and Ryan. We went out saw a movie and then went out to Tommy's Ryan's cousins bar and proceeded to "have a good time." Ryan and I stayed out late with his brother and Lester headed home since she had to be up at 5 for work.

The next day Ryan took be out to this killer burger place called "Kumas" I do believe. They specialize in unique burgers and they were quite tasty! After that it was off to O'Hare to sit and work for a while and then fly to Boston. The trip to Boston was way better than the last trip and I learned a lot more. Probably both because our instructor was an American who lives in France vs. a native French citizen and because I have become more familiar with the software vs. not knowing anything about it before. Anyway it was productive but I was ready to get back to the mountains either way.

My last night we stayed in downtown Boston. I was on the 23rd floor of the Radisson in the Theater District and here are a few shots from my balcony.

Beacon hill and Boston Commons... awesome old school area





By the white triangle bridge with the green lights is Boston Garden




Once back in Boulder I made it home just in time for the snow storm that was rolling through and I was stoked! Finally got to drive the Outback in the snow and I don't know how I ever got around without it. The Jetta was good to me but it is nice to be able to hit the gas at an uphill stoplight in the snow and actually go vs spinning out and holding up traffic.

Tim and I headed up to Breckenridge that weekend and got in some good turns on good snow even though not of lot of runs were open. Then this past weekend it got SUPER COLD! and the snow flew. Rob and I headed up to the slopes on Sunday and good times were had in the 6-12 inches of snow. However, I think my chin might fall off. The weather was prolly -3 temp and with the wind chill plus riding speed plus snow in the face made for possible frost bite with a feel like temp of about -20 degrees. I don't think I got it that bad I just think I got really bad wind burn which is taking a layer of skin off my chin. Oh well I will survive and the snow was worth it!

On a somber note. A week ago yesterday one of my bikes was stolen. Tim had been riding my old mountain bike because his is a little rugged and I had no problem with him riding mine. Tim came home one night with no bike and I just pointed and thought maybe he left it at his friends since it had been snowing hard that day. He looked at me and I was like it got jacked didn't it? Yup sure enough someone stole it off campus. Must have cut through the lock. I had a lot of good times with that bike. I took it well though and said shit happens. Good thing I have another one or it may have been a bit different story.