Saturday morning involved Kristen and my 4 mile time trial. Every spring, summer and fall our running group does a timed 4 mile run to judge our fitness level. The weather was beautiful for the run. Kristen managed to beat every one of her numbers from all previous years. Conversely, I did worse than every other attempt except the spring run in 2006. If we both keep these trends up, Kristen will be whooping me by the end of the year.

Around 11:00 my friends Nate and Matt showed up, and we headed up to Eldora for some free snowboarding. It's been three years since the three of us snowboarded together, which is amazing because we used to snowboard together 10+ times a year. We stopped in Nederland on the way back to Boulder, having a beer or two.


Later in the day, Kristen and I returned from the hot tub to find some impressive Zack art. It's been a while since he's created any art, and this was some of his finest work. To create his art, he takes a ball of yarn, and carries it through out the house, wrapping it around chair legs, coffee tables, etc. This particular art was impressive due to his somehow keeping the yarn a few feet off the floor. We've never actually caught him in the act, it would be interesting to watch.


Sunday was a lot more laid back. Lot's of sleeping, a bit of shopping in preparation for the Indiana trip, and a few other errands. Kristen got some homework done, I didn't do much of anything.

Last week was our first week of running sessions of the season. Our training program for the Bolder Boulder started up, so we dug out the shoes and socks and spent some time outside. Even though we start slow every year, it's always a shock to realize how much momentum you've lost during the winter.


Friday was a Wabtec Holiday, so I got to take the day easy. It was pretty nice. I got a few things done around the house, but mostly I relaxed.


Saturday was our first group run, which went pretty well. There were a lot of familiar faces, and the weather cooperated. It did end up snowing Saturday evening, but was nice and clear for our morning run. We also took a look at the garden plot, we haven't heard yet whether we get to keep the full plot or have to split it this year.


Sunday I took off to Birmingham for a business trip. It seemed to go well, and I drank more sweet tea than I have in years. I'm glad I don't have to do trips often, I don't know how Becky copes.

One thing I did get done this weekend was to fix up the links on the old picture page:

http://www.blastriot.com/personal/main.html

That page has a lot of older pictures from the 2000 through 2004 time period. Various Christmases, puppy pictures, farm pictures, etc.

I also edited together the following video from low-quality stuff we shot during the ski trip. The music is intentionally over the top.

We had a very laid back weekend. Katie was going to show up on Friday, but I-70 east bound closures forced her to turn around near Frisco. Her four hour drive unfortunately turned into a 9 hour ordeal.

Kristen and I managed to catch up on our sleep. I did a little hobby-programming, Kristen did some schoolwork.

By Sunday afternoon the weather changed, and we got 3 or 4 inches of snow for the Monday commute. Luckily the roads were in good shape, so the drive in wasn't bad.

I shaved off the Fu-Manchu 'stache. It was good for a few laughs around the office, but going out in public with it was a bit unnerving.

The carpet guys showed up on Tuesday, so we finally got some carpet to cover the concrete. It was almost worth suffering through having no real furniture and walking on dusty concrete, since it made having carpet seem so luxurious.

Friday I went into the urgent care center, as my elbow injury from the previous weekend started to really hurt, and turn red. It appears I may have chipped my elbow. They put me in a splint, and gave me a 5 day dose of antibiotics. I'm now measuring my life in 6 hour increments, each time I have to take another pill. The swelling is down, the pain is gone, so I think I'll be able to keep the arm.

Kristen took off on Friday to the mountains in order to do her 5k snowshoeing trek with some girlfriends. Even though the snow is melting fast, there was still plenty to snowshoe on. Frisco was nearly empty, the skiers appear to be calling it a year.


The rest of our furniture showed up on Saturday. It makes our living room seem even smaller, since it's fairly sizable stuff. The couch weighs just under 500 pounds. I'm not sure how we're going to get it out of the condo when we move.


It looks like the weather will continue to warm up next week. We have a few corporate bosses showing up on Thursday for what promises to be an exciting day or two.

A long week of snowboarding and general merriment is over. And what a week it was.

Monday and Tuesday saw nearly a foot of snow fall on the mountain. The crowds were non-existant early in the week, so we got a lot of first tracks on our favorite runs.


On Tuesday Mike, Tracy and I hiked to Vasquez Cirque. It's the most advanced terrain at Winter Park, and it takes about a mile and a half hike at 12,000+ feet to get there.


The clouds cleared right before our descent. There were only a few tracks down the face of the cirque, so we got to enjoy some ski-movie quality moments on the way down. I can honestly say it was one of the highlights of my snowboarding career.


On Wednesday we decided to head to Steamboat, since we had a few passes to burn up there. They'd had some interesting weather the day before, so everything was coated in a strange layer of snow. Being on an unfamiliar mountain was an interesting change of pace, and I only really got lost in the forest once. We clocked in almost 45 miles worth of snowboarding and lift riding there, which ended up being the record for the trip. We descended over 30,000 feet, according to Mike's GPS unit.

Wednesday night saw three more people show up to the condo. The legs were feeling pretty burnt, so we decided to take a short day the next day. After about a half day of snowboarding, we hit the bar. This resulted in most of us dancing our way out of the resort at the end of the day.


We had another short day of snowboarding on Friday. Kristen showed up that afternoon. I was glad to see her.


Saturday we gave up snowboarding for snowshoeing. Kristen has a 5k snowshoeing walk/race next weekend, so we did about a 3 mile hike. The snow was really melting quickly, we probably didn't really need the snowshoes.


We went wine-tasting in the afternoon in the towns of Fraser and Winter Park. We did pass the "Worst Western Hotel", which seemed picture worthy.


We awoke on Sunday to 4 inches of snow. Kristen and I were eager to get home, so we got the condo cleaned up quickly, and headed back. The drive was really nasty, and I managed so slip on the ice on the way out, and really busted my elbow open pretty well. I'm hoping I'll get a cool scar out of the deal.

We arrived home to two needy cats. It appears that one of them had some excitement while we were gone, by finally taking the bait on the exploding outhouse.


The new carpet should show up on Tuesday, and the furniture on Saturday. Hopefully by this time next week we'll have a more normal living area.