Catch up

Wow, it's been a really long time since I wrote on this blog. Don't get me wrong, things have been happening, but it's not really the stuff a guy thinks to write about. At work / not at work. Go to the gym / skip the gym. Asleep / awake. It's been the same repetitive thing that usually happens this time of year. Not to mention that many people have cabin fever and are battling that themselves...translating into a confused mess of irritated people, at a place they don't want to be, doing something they really don't want to do, but without any other options. Throw illness and family matters in that and you have a GREAT working environment. Makes a person thankful for a schedule he or she can hold to (rather CLING to) and just keep pushing on.

So on that note, maybe now you realize that I have nothing BIG to report. But time keeps ticking away and I felt the need to write some of this down. Before I wrote that Tate had to have a collar on because of her ear. I managed to take that off of her, but there's still a small wound that she keeps opening up. Possibly because I've been a bad dad and thought she could come off her medicine. HOWEVER, when Sarah went on a cruise with her buddies and I was a pseudo-owner of a dog for awhile, I thought this would be funny.


Lucca and Tate with their e-collars on. Nothing wrong with Lucca, but come on now...it's kinda humorous.

We had some nice days and some crappy days as far as weather is concerned. It had been about two months of just grey days...and of course, now it started spitting snow again. We are all ready for a change of pace and some spring-weather...the new snow is welcome, but it feels like it's time to leave us now. I did go out on the deck one night and played with the camera and tripod for a bit.


A chair from about 15 feet! Not bad.


Same chair, fading light.

The sun that evening.

I stood out there that night and tried to take a progression of the sun setting...ie) a photo every 30 seconds. Turns out the clouds I was counting on didn't move in and make the big show I was hoping for, but by God I have a lot of sunset photos now!

Then came Valentine's Day. After many unsuccessful attempts at last-minute reservations to hot springs, trips out of town, days off / then cancelled days off...I settled on the truly simple. A hike in a park during the day, appetizers and $7.50 drinks for lunch (the cost of those huckleberry infusions was a surprise to both of us!), then dinner and a live band at O'Shays! The very best part about this all is that Sarah was into it and loved it. (I hope she loved it as much as I did.) O'Shays was the location of our first "date" ever. We sat around pints of Guinness that night and just talked...followed by a walk around Tubbs hill in the absolute-pitch-black night. It was a very neat first date!

SO, for our first V-Day it was good to go back. Walking in, the waitress said, "I haven't seen you two in forever! Ok, you will have a Guinness and you will have a black and tan." YES! Perfect! It's nice to be a local sometimes with people you know around town. We drank beer and talked in this quaint little Irish pub, ordered a two-person dinner of crab and steak, then listened to a local Irish band for the next couple of hours. There were other people with kids there, and the kids got to dancing and checking out the band. This little-itty-bitty boy came and made himself at home...at a chair...at our table. Didn't give us a second glance (if we even got one) and contented himself with watching the band play. Then he was under the table. Then dancing. Then on the chair. Then under the table. It was cool. His dad would come around to find him and we'd simply point under the table. It got to the point where he would just look at me from his table and I'd point to where the kid was and give him a thumbs-up. Getting the same in return we both smiled. It simply felt like a small town, with a bunch of friends enjoying the same thing at the same time. All I can say is that it was perfect. (I found out a couple weeks later that the boy and dad that we were dealing with was the OWNER and his son. FUN!) ILYSK!

The family at Qu'emlin (sp?) park.

My two loves loving on each other


Lucca tried to help out with a photo!

A nice 2009 Valentine's Day photo

So, other than that...work, gym, sleep....repeat until the weekend...then punctuate by a couple hours of shooting trap on Sunday and/or skiing on every other Friday. That's about it.

We had a super-snow day at Lookout the other week. 28 inches of snow! It was crowded and Silver Mtn. was closed (which bummed Matt B. and I out) because Lookout really doesn't have the vertical necessary for good 2+ feet days. It took awhile, but the snow got chewed up enough we could actually get some speed and make some decent turns. As it is, pretty good for this late in the season.

Shooting is going better. Like every year, I shoot better after a couple weeks of practice...go figure. Moved from the teens into the twenties...with my trusty old Remington to boot! There really is something to being really comfortable with the weapon you are wielding.

I'm sorry. I'm kinda tired of writing now. I hope something big happens in the next couple of weeks that is worth writing about....and I hope it's a good thing not a tragedy of any sort. Just look at what I did about this time last year! The canoe trip that coulda killed me? Shoot, live/learn and move on! It can ALWAYS be worse!