Christmas vacation

We continued our tradition of visiting Park City, UT, for Christmas. What can one do there? Lots!

Here we are sporting our Christmas gifts to each other. Wool shirts. We had probably the quietest Christmas ever. It was just the two of us, as my parents didn't arrive until the day after.

It was really cold, so we played indoor mini golf, using a bottle cap as the hole. Watch out for hazards!


We made some Christmas cookies. We had forgotten to buy eggs, so Jill substituted yogurt. Yummy!

And there was lots of snow. Here's Jill enjoying a cozy soft seat on the powder.

There were a couple really big storms just before we arrived. During our stay, we had a one 6" storm and then a 2' storm. Lots of white!

Did I mention that there was lots of snow. At the top of the hill, the snow went to the bottom of my grip. DEEP! Our snowshoeing arrangement was for me to break trail and Jill to follow in my steps. With each step, the snow was squished about 1 1/2 to 2'. Despite the 'greatest snow on earth', this was still very hard work for me. Really fun for Jill!We really enjoyed our time with mom and dad. Lots of yummy food, playing games, and watching football in HD.

Mom, dad, and I went skiing one day 'together'. Well, mom and dad skied together for part of the day. I was skiing stuff that was too hard for me over and over again. Now that I only ski once or twice a year, it's a lot harder to ski the steep chutes. It took about 4 runs to get back any sense of what I was doing. I felt pretty good for maybe 2 runs, and then my legs just got completely worn out.

On my last run of the day, I mistakenly ended up skiing the chute where an avalanche had killed a skier just before Christmas. It was a very eery feeling, as I don't think anyone else had skied it since. The 4' wall of snow where the avalanche had broken was clearly visible, and the debris field was scattered along the run.

Thanks to the kindness of my parents, this was a very inexpensive vacation. No charge for lodging, about $200 in gas, about $250 for food (thanks again, mom and dad), $79 for skiing (for one ticket -- really -- ouch), free snowshoeing, $50 in Park City mementos. Pretty good for a week and a half vacation. Anyone wanna' join us this summer for a week?

rack on rack

We got a message from our landlord saying that porches aren't for 'storing stuff'. I don't know about you, but I don't consider bike parking to be 'storing stuff'. But we don't want to cause any trouble, so we have come up with this new solution. Let's hope it goes over well.

We picked up this handy rack from our favorite bike shop (Cycle Cave on Menaul). I had first used only zip ties wrapped once around the rack and my rack, but after two bumps, 4 of the 6 broke. Plan b was using velcro straps. Excellent!

Here's what we had before. The old grill is used as rack. Note that my gray bike is not locked to it yet because it is holding the new rack.

Here's 4 bikes locked to the new rack. Since the photo was taken, we moved it about a foot to the right. Much better I think.

If you're interested in a well-used grill, it's now in the dumpster outside our apt complex. We had left it outside our old house for someone to take. Someone did take the propane tank but left the grill. I guess it's not worth much. Anyway, the garbage truck comes Monday.

Family, Friends, Fish

Lots of good times this past week. Matt and Lupita and Ricky visited, and we got to hang out with the 'Beek kids for the weekend.

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas. We had enough snow one morning for a miniature snowman.

A trip to the aquarium and botanic gardens was a hit with kids and adults alike.

Abigail was off building her gingerbread house, so she didn't get in any pictures. Sorry, Abigail! To make up for it, here's a picture of your hat -- I finished it today.

Ricky wasn't sure about tio Chad at first (tio Chad does have some scary facial hair right now), but soon they were fist-bumping like old pals. We found it amusing that Ricky's fist-bump could be interpreted as an insult:

Merry Christmas to all!

Stripes

I've been into stripes lately.

In the living room:

In the dining room:

On Chad's face:

Streaky bleached stripes in my hair:

with blue stripes underneath:

Well, we were going for blue, but it turned out a sort of blueish-green. And I only got to enjoy my mod fairy-princess look for a few days before it faded to a barely noticeable greenish blonde. Pink next time?

Merry Baking

We had a merry bakefest last weekend. 3 kitchens, 7 bakers, 6 kinds of Christmas cookies, and hot cocoa with marshmallows! Thanks so much to Susie, Katie and Kristin for opening their kitchens.


That was Saturday. It's Wednesday now, and Chad and I have already eaten all our cookies!

ufo sighting

I saw a ufo above ABQ tonight at 5:45 pm (Dec 4). It was a pretty bright light that flew northwards very fast (if a plane travels at 1 velocity unit, it was probably 10 velocity units). Before it reached the horizon, the light vanished. I heard no sounds associated with it, and it seemed to be flying at about the same height as airplanes do in the area. At the time a large helicopter was hovering near the Sandia mountains. At 8:20 pm, a helicopter was flying in the area again.

Three other people have confirmed what I saw.

Sorry, no pictures as I was on my commute home.

That is all.

enjoying cyclocross racing

Did my second cyclocross race yesterday. It was much more successful than my first of one week ago. Last week's race was at night in the cold on the snow. Here's a photo from my buddy Moscaline. See his blog from Nov 25th for a nice report and pictures from his race.
I'm running on the wrong side of the bike, but at least I'm staying warm enough.

Yesterday, Jill had errands to run, so she wasn't there to photograph me. I stayed for the first lap of the A race. Here's how it's supposed to be done.

On the first short hill of my first race, my chain got jammed on my frame. It took a minute or two to get it fixed, at which time my fellow racers were nowhere to be seen. I had hoped to learn a few tricks from them by watching them go first, but didn't get this chance until after a few laps.

In the second race, I had no bike troubles and slightly better skills. Also there was daylight and warmth. As a result, I did much better. Results are found here: http://www.nmcross.com/nmcs7.htm