New Orleans 2011

A short retrospective on the New Orleans trip; we've been traveling a lot lately and I'm behind on travelogues.  GO!

We got to New Orleans late on a Tuesday.  Bright and early on Wednesday we went to our Habitat for Humanity site in midtown.  With all my experience in renovations, I was pretty confident I could do whatever came along.  I've done painting, plumbing, electrical, tiling, and flooring.  So of course the order of the day was drywalling.  I didn't get any pictures, but there was a lot of dust, and I learned that I am a truly terrible drywaller.  Our leader, Erin, is doing the work as part of Americorps, and she was very patient with us.   



preparing for the running of the bull



We went out to the Jazz Fest Thursday and Friday.  Arcade Fire was really good but I'm afraid I really get more excited about the food out there than the music (hello, cochon du lait poboys!).  One evening I went to the Bourbon House with Erin Jeff and Kent.  We had our oysters and spinach salads, along with some other seafood, and finished up with little bourbon milkshakes, which in retrospect may not have been the best idea. 

There was a mishap with the camp chair on Friday.  Kent had packed it back into its bag, but there are pieces of PVC that hang out the top of the bag.  Kent made a sudden turn at one point and I put my hand up to protect my head, and got a cut on the base of my thumb.  Grrrrrr.  I was a little worried about it, since there was racetrack schmutz in the cut, but let me tell you, CVS makes a medicated waterproof  bandage that works like a magic trick.  I didn't get them till the day after, and the cut was completely closed after only 2 days and didn't have any trouble.



pate!



We attended a crawfish boil at the hotel on Friday night.  Joe from LA met us there and he and I were fortunate enough to get the last two boxes of crawfish.  The people behind us in line were none too pleased about this and chased us away from a couple of tables (sore losers), but we had our crawfish and were happy.  The crawfish were delicious, although spicy crawfish water is not good in a cut, please make a note for waterproof bandages BEFORE eating crawfish if this should happen to you.  After the crawfish, we had too many drinkies.  As a result, we had a slow day on Saturday.  I went out with the girls for brunch and a wander and a tarot reading (I didn't get one, I think the bandaid would have interfered with the palm reading anyway).  After that we met others at Felix, where they were serving up big fat glistening oysters.

On Mother's day, Kent and I had a late breakfast.  It was more difficult than we'd expected to find a place to eat; with the holiday, it took us 5 tries before we settled in a bar/restaurant by Jackson Square.  After breakfast, Kent went to the Fest and I wandered around the city.  I saw a "Before, During and After Katrina" exhibit, then realized I missed the chance for a river tour, so sat on the banks of the Mississippi for a while and watched the people and river traffic.  I came across the Smoke Time Jazz Club outside the Circuit Court building, and listened for a while.  It's very fine New Orleans style music, but the only video I got was only part of a song and very grainy.  One of these days I'll remember to bring my tripod so viewers won't have motion sickness while trying to watch the clips.  Click on the link above to see more of them and keep your ears open for them if you're wandering around the French Quarter.



a little hair of the dog



On Monday, I went to the airport with Jess and Kent at 5:15 am, and surrendered to the shop that sold fresh hot beignets.  I got my rental car and drove to Lafayette for work. I got to Lafayette, ate at Blue Dog Cafe twice (who knew so many places were closed on Mondays?), found the plant for work the next day, and watched a turtle marching along at the road side.  I worked on Tuesday, drove back to NOLA, and got the 7 am flight out on Wednesday.

dude was trucking along in the gutter

We were home for a couple of weeks before our next trip, taking the Mazda Protege to Denver.

May minutiae

Lots of things are going on now, and I'm tempted to make a vulgar joke about lots of balls in the air.  But I won't.  Aren't I a model of restraint?  (stifling... restraint... jokes....)

Work continues to be its charming self.  I didn't think it was possible, but the team is getting even more fractured as the end approaches.  Since the Troublemaker goes on vacation in a week, I'm going to do my best to take the reins at our meeting tomorrow, and get everything on track for what we need for next week's big presentation.  This is in my best interest since I suspect I'm the one that's going to be presenting everything.  Can't wait!  (/sarcasm)

Shhhh- I've got a secret to tell you after the jump...

Sweet, sweet sleep.

Short update, I am still alive! Also still married. So far, so good.

Right after the wedding weekend was over, Kent left on a business trip, and I spent every evening getting the house back in order.  I think every towel in the house got washed, along with every sheet and pillowcase.  Speaking of which, one of our upstairs hand towels has mysteriously become darker and bluer than the other one.  Anyone have a story to share??  Perhaps one involving new jeans that needed a wash?

I can't remember what we did the next weekend, but the weekend after that we took a trip up to Mendocino, about 3 hours north of SF.  There is a vineyard up there we are big fans of (Navarro), and I remembered seeing the coast while going by previously.  It was a very nice, laid-back weekend.  We were the only two on a tour at Navarro.  We had a very good dinner at a restaurant that lost our reservation.  Kent was mad, since the hostess was not apologizing.  We ended up getting seated in the entryway (possible since the restaurant had only two seatings, and we were the later one - there was no in/out traffic), on a buffet table 12" wide.  That was disappointing, but the food was great, and we eventually got an apology and they comped our wine, which was nice.

We had a view of the ocean, rocky beaches, riptides, and all, from the hotel.  We would build a fire and hear the waves coming in, which was very cozy, especially when it was raining.  All in all a nice weekend.  When I get a chance I'll post pictures.

Work is picking up steam again, and this weekend I had to devote a chunk of time to doing taxes.  Fortunately, with my house sale, I was already under the exemption amount, so I didn't have to dig out and add up all my capital improvements.  To which I can only say WHEW, although I should still do that sometime so my records will be complete.  My records from 2009 are not that great with all the upheaval; I have not filed papers in maybe a year, and didn't pay all donations from my checking account which is easier to track.  So, I think I am missing some donations, although at this point I think it would be less painful not to take the deduction than to spend time looking for the proof.  I'll do better this year - especially considering that we are going to take a big tax hit for being married.  Tsk, tsk - should have kept living in sin, I guess.

I've also been doing housework this weekend.  The guest rooms are FINALLY back in order.  At some point I'll have to get to some of the larger projects that have been looming since the move: organizing my closet, going through boxes in the downstairs guest room, filing papers (ahem), organizing the office.  In the mean time, it's raining, and we've been sleeping and cooking and watching TV.  Last night was a roasted chicken with rosemary and on the side, basmati rice; tonight it's macaroni and cheese, and Breaking Bad and the last of season 2 of Mad Men.  Ahhhhh.

Oh, and in Mom news, she had her first (of three) consolidation rounds last week!  She only has to be in the hospital for a week for each of those, rather than a month like for her induction round.  She had very few side effects this time, aside from the taste buds going off by the end of the week.  The anti-nausea drugs worked well, she was able to eat and sleep and get around all week, and her energy levels and moods have been good.  Great work Mom!!!  Her next round will be in early May.  She may be tired this week but so far she's been doing great.  We're all proud of her!

Waxing and Waning

Everyone - I am alive! I've been off work for more than a week and have been keeping busy.

I spent a week at my parents' house in Colorado. The first day was sunny and in the 50s, just like San Francisco had been. The next day - cold and snowy! I went to get Tish from work one night and drove one of the cars in the packed snow (first snow driving in 3 years or so). The cold stuck around the rest of the week.

Everyone was at home, so in some ways it was like old times. Dad complained of additional drama and "estrogen overload" (he was usually the only man in the house), but I think everyone had a good time. Christmas was fun; we did presents, and I slept for a good chunk of the afternoon, before the turkey dinner. It tickled me watching Heather open her present - she's had a thing for Bon Jovi for years, and I got her two tickets to see him in the spring. Her reaction was worth it! Tish and Jeff got a lot of kitchen wares, and Kent and I got a few things related to wine (I think our cover has been blown).

Kent was out for a few days of the visit, hangin' with the future in-laws. I had an idea that we could go snow walking, but we didn't manage to get it together for that, although we both had access to Sorels. Too bad. We met Sheri and Joe for sushi, and I met up with Julie earlier in the week. I need to have more time for visits - it's hard to get schedules together, but I miss my friends and would love to see them for more than an hour or so.

Although I wasn't working, I didn't get as much sleep as I'd like - I was trying to get as much wedding-related stuff done as I could over the phone and internet, and I seemed to stay up late every night. I didn't get that far in some cases - the caterer is closed until Jan 4 - but did manage to set up two cake tastings, a hairstyle audition appointment (new year's), and look at enough invitations to make my eyes cross (and still have not found one I really like). I'm trying to catch up on some in-person stuff this week. I still seem to be swinging between fevered activity and disgusting sloth.

Today, the goals were to get foundation garments and shoes to go with my dress. I would not call it a success. Part of the problem seemed to be that I was wearing Macy's repellent. I started in their lingerie department; walking through there usually requires some kind of stick to fend off overly helpful staff. Today? I wandered that department for 15 minutes, making eye contact with every clerk I could, to no effect. Fine, I will go elsewhere! I went to shoes and it was even worse there. Discarded shoes lay everywhere, and I couldn't find a clerk to help me. I finally waved one down, saying I needed help and named the color I needed, and he waved me vaguely towards the other end of the department. He walked off before I asked if I could have my size in the shoes I'd been carrying around. I looked around a bit more, but none of the clerks would make eye contact. Very well, Macy's. You don't want my money. I get it.

Nordstrom's was better, although their shoe selection had nothing interesting. The foundation garment search was a bit better, I had a clerk helping, but let me tell you, there is nothing less sexy than a foundation garment, especially when the edges start rolling into sausages. As it turns out, the way my dress is cut, I am limited in what I can use - for instance, the corset that would really help me, I can't wear, since it would show. So there's my motivation - I have less than three months to get myself into decent shape! This was the idea anyway, but having no option to cheat is going to be a big driver.

Tomorrow: I will take my chances at the stationery store. I'm scared.

I also plan to sleep a really indecent amount this week. Good stuff.

Valet girl, she's a valet girl (like Oh. Mah. Gawd!)

Another busy week on the West Coast! I'm starting to mix up my weeks - I was asking a co-worker about our presentation on Wednesday and scared him, because it's next Wednesday, not tomorrow. Oops. And WHEW, because now I don't have to cram for that on top of my other work this week.

The last contingency was removed on my house sale yesterday (everything with inspections and financing went swimmingly), so now I have to make arrangements to move the rest of my stuff. I guess I'll be spending at least a day this weekend over there, packing up what's left in the pantry and the garage, and priming the wall patch by the breaker panel. I'll have to see when the mover is available but this move will be a lot smaller than the last one. It will be a bed, two dressers, a dining set, a console table, a floor mirror and a sofa. Shoot, I bet that can all fit in a van rather than a 32-foot truck!

Kent and I went to Spokane last weekend for his nephew's wedding. It was relatively quiet - we were not in the maelstrom of the activities, but left to our own devices in downtown Spokane most of the time.

The wedding was fun - I had to behave as the preacher was going through the long list of wifely and husbandly duties - but it shows that we have a lot of planning still to do. At least I now know the trick, if there is a back room where there is beer, have a two-way radio to alert people in there they need to come out for pictures.

The future in laws were all very interested in my ring, and in hearing how our wedding planning is going. We have booked a site now and have a date (March 19!), but that's as far as it goes. I still tell anyone who asks that our colors are chartreuse and fuchsia (they're not really, I haven't sorted that detail out yet, but it gets a good reaction). We'll also be dispensing with several of the traditional parts of the ceremony, but we'll work out which ones as we go forward.

Our hotel in Spokane was the Davenport Towers. It was a nice hotel, although the decor reminded me a lot of a natural history museum in the 1970s, plus gilding. Interesting... The hotel also had a town car service which was usually very nice. We got a ride out to the wedding, but getting back from the wedding was a different story. I called first:

me: Hi, I'm at the Lincoln Center, and wanted to book a car.
Valet girl: please hold
(10-minute hold)
Valet girl: I don't have any drivers, but can call you a cab if you need a ride.
me: OK, let me check around here to see if anyone else is going. I'll call back if we need a cab. Thanks.

No one else is going, so Kent calls the valet.

Kent: Hi, we need a cab from the Lincoln Center to the hotel.
Valet girl: Please hold
(5-minute hold)
line is disconnected.

I call next, but no one is picking up at the valet desk.

I call again a few minutes later and the phone is answered.

me: Hi, I'd like to get a cab from Lincoln Center to the hotel.
Valet girl: I'm sorry, we don't have any drivers. I can get you a cab if you need a ride.
(pause)
me: Uh - yes, that's why I'm calling, I need a cab.
Valet girl: please hold
(5-minute hold, then we hear that Bryant is leaving and we can ride with him. We hang up)

Bryant is not leaving. The bride is worried about their town car, since it's 10 minutes past the time it was expected. She has a friend call the valet desk with predictable results. Five minutes later, a town car from our hotel shows up for the bride and groom, who invite us to share the ride back to the hotel. When we're out and tipping the driver, we hear there's a new girl working the valet desk that night. She's definitely having a rough night, but hopefully will get the hang of the job soon.

The plan for the week

1. pack for Houston
2. fly to Houston first thing tomorrow morning. Work on plane.
3. prep for Tuesday meeting
4. try to sleep at a decent Houston time
5. run meeting using new system. try not to freak out if there is not enough time.
6. return to San Francisco Tuesday night. Work on plane.
7. prep for Wednesday meeting
8. run meeting using new system. try not to freak out if there is not enough time.
9. go to gym
10. come home and collapse.

Sounds fun, right? And that's only through Wednesday! Fortunately it is a government-mandated short week.

The weekend was, as usual, jam packed. I had my cracked window pane repaired on Friday, taped off glass and my floor before painting the trim, and Kent and I met Lani for lunch, then went looking at rings. FYI, the SF Diamond Exchange really is a deal. We saw a setting like the one we liked at Tiffany, and were told by the friends that had referred us that the price would be about half. It was more like a third. (!!!) I have it narrowed down to two options now, and will let you know when I figure it out! Hmmm, this is similar to choosing tile.

I spent 12 hours at my house yesterday, painting the trim, and doing touch-up with a little art brush. I had hoped getting the windows done early would help them not to stick when they were closed 9 hours after the last coat was applied, but alas, it didn't quite work out as planned. I went back to the house today to try and reassemble the living room, but only got so far since my heavy lifter didn't show up. I did some other small things - changing out some outlets, putting wall art and the curtain rods back up, consolidating my painting gear, but gave up around 7. I should do laundry now so I can at least check off item 1.

By the way, Rich, I got your package, thanks! I never expected such a cheerful-looking voodoo doll! We're debating putting it in one of the windows facing the Crazy House. :)

Sedona

It's one of those days. I woke up with a headache this morning, one of the low-grade ones that seems to go on all day, which is really tiring. I'm trying to finish up edits to a template that my team will be using to collect information on research projects, and what people want is STILL CHANGING, which is annoying since I'm supposed to be essentially finished today.

I am eating a cafeteria salad at my desk, but I'm really more sleepy than hungry.

Sigh.

Last weekend was much more acceptable. We all flew into Phoenix on Thursday, and drove directly up to Sedona, which is about two hours away. We got there at about sunset, which made the red sandstone formations look spectacular. We had a nice dinner at our hotel (amara, nice place, check it out if you're thinking of going and not camping) and went to sleep relatively early.

Next morning, we were up and finished breakfast just in time for the daylong tour we were taking around Sedona. Our driver, "Crazy Carl", was a talkative guy, but I would secretly giggle whenever he was talking because he sounded just like Dale Gribble from King of the Hill:


He had a lot of interesting information about the area, including the geology, history, and little tidbits of local color. Unfortunately I was distracted for most of the day since Kent and I got emails about the counteroffer that day, and whenever we were up a canyon, I didn't have a signal and I was constantly checking for the new developments. I also kept drifting off to sleep in the big, comfy "pilot's chair" while the tires were humming and Carl was talking.

We tried out a Mexican place that night that Carl had recommended. I didn't think it was that good, but it was OK. The funny part is that we closed the place down. We finished at about 9:15, and the only people left were employees clustering by the door. I wondered why we had been getting the "hurry up" treatment when we ordered dessert. The streets of Sedona really do roll up at 9. The next night at dinner we asked the waiter how long the bar would be open that night, and he said that they keep it open late so people can hang out. You know, until 10. Yeah, the big city, it ain't.

Saturday was my favorite day. We got up, had breakfast, and were just in time for our appointments at the spa. We all had massages, and three of us also had facials. I love spa treatments. I often enter a semiconscious state during the treatment, and have visions that are somewhere between dreams and thoughts that just corkscrew off in weird directions. extremely relaxing. We spent the rest of the day wandering around town, and wrapped up with a birthday dinner for Sheri, and watched "Waitress" in the room. We'd promised ourselves we would have some wine, but fell asleep first.

I was sleeping as much as the others were (who all have small kids at home), but meals were the funniest, since they weren't used to not fighting with the kids while also trying to eat. Sometimes the ingrained stuff came out unprovoked anyway ("don't touch that fork!" "get out from under the table!" "THAT IS NOT A TOY!").

Pictures of the weekend are here: http://derende.shutterfly.com/707?size=All&startIndex=0

All in all, I highly recommend it as a quiet place that is great for relaxing.

Slightly disappointed, mostly relieved

Well, we didn't get the house. I am not disappointed, although it seemed like we had a good shot at it, but I'm also relieved. We have more time now to finish work on our houses (ha ha ha ha), and the Uranus jokes shouldn't be going on much longer. Hopefully. (get it out of your systems!)

Both Kent and I were out of town when we got the note that there was another offer on the place - I guess the other people who got the disclosure packet were immediately notified by the seller's agent, and they did an offer too. We got the counteroffer on Friday.

Now, this was new to me, so it had to be explained that with a multiple-offer counter-offer, all original offers were off the table and the seller was trying to get the best of both offers plus an extra wad of cash. The new price they were asking was $35,000 over what they were asking on Monday - not much as a percentage, I guess, but I do not have that growing on a tree in my yard. We did like the place, but not that much, so we pretty much left things as they were, and we were outbid. Not surprising. The only surprising thing was the apparent effort to start a bidding war in the current market. That, and a weird, heavy-handed reminder from an acquaintance that there are starving people in the world, so getting outbid is not a big deal. True, dude, but seriously? This advice would have more weight if you didn't own a house in the Oakland Hills and weren't planning a new kitchen.

So, we'll keep looking. We'll also see in 30 days what the other bidders actually bid for the house! Maybe I'll be done painting the living room by then.

In more recent news, Sheri turned 40 this weekend (woo hoo!), and we did a girl's weekend in Sonoma. Nice place, pretty rocks, very relaxing! We were short on cabana boys but everything else about the weekend was a smashing success. Pics and a more detailed report coming soon!

Proof of recent events!

Pictures, videos, I got the works.

• Aly's Graduation
• The 2009 Bay to Breakers
• Caryn's Birthday
• More painting and house projects!

All at my shutterfly site and YouTube site.

Enjoy and comment!

NV/AZ weekend snapshots

Kent and I got back from Vegas today. We'd gone on Wednesday, and spent Thursday through Saturday in Laughlin, for my niece's graduation. Lots of activity and pictures (to be posted soon), but here are some short vignettes on things that happened this weekend (not necessarily in order). Enjoy, and, in some cases, be warned!
*******

Vegas, Wednesday. Kent's flight came in late so I wandered around, only to discover that slot machines no longer take coins. WTF? What was I going to do with the ten quarters or so that I was carrying around? The new version is that the machines will take bills or tickets, but not coins. From a logistics standpoint I can see the benefits (the heaviness of coins, easy to use blanks, needing to distribute handi-wipes to clean up after handling a bunch of coins), but there was something satisfying in dropping in a coin and pulling the handle to tempt fate. Oh yeah, you can't really pull the handle any more either.
*******

Laughlin, casino restaurant, with Mom, Dad, and Kent. We ordered a plate of nachos for the table, and they were a long time coming, with an apology from the waitress that they were a little short handed. When the nachos finally arrived, there was something odd about them - there was what I first thought was chili on them, instead of beans and raw tomatoes. But it didn't have beans, We were checking it out when mom suddenly said, "Is this spaghetti sauce?" And sure enough, we had been served nachos with spaghetti sauce. It wasn't bad, really (although Kent thinks they were the worst nachos he'd ever had), but it definitely wasn't right.
*******

Bullhead City. The graduation ceremony was held in a field house which also hosts rodeos (there was something like landscaping fabric covering the main floor). We were up a bit but pretty far back from the stage. It was a nice graduation, and my sister was up on stage when her daughter came across, which was cool. There were, as promised, people who honked compressed air horns when their kids were called, but I heard that several of them were escorted out (new tougher rules!). Surprisingly, there were no parties held the night of graduation - at least, none that the adults heard about.
*******

Laughlin, casino. On everyone's last night in Laughlin, we went to the casino and were playing the penny slots (I know, we are not whales). I was losing pretty slowly but we'd found some entertaining games ("Village People Party" was especially silly), and Kent and Heather were winning pretty big. I cashed out on one machine and went over to some that sounded cool, and on my third pull (sorry, my third SPIN, you can't pull any more!), I maxed out the bet and in one spin turned $5 into $27. Yay! That covered my losses on the other machines including the Elvis progressive (Elvis would talk to you!), and provided about a $5 profit. Sweet! Heather won a progressive, but it was only $5. Too bad, it would have been awesome if it had been the $1600 progressive! Next time!
*******

Las Vegas. We had reservations at the Social House, a tasty sushi/fusion restaurant at Treasure Island. On the walk we saw many, many dumbass visitors walk against the lights and in front of oncoming traffic. It's a miracle that no one was hit - and a warning, if you come to Vegas do not drive on the Strip! On one corner, there were two girls in bikinis. They didn't cross when the light changed, and were still there when we got to that corner. We'll call them Blonde and Brunette. They were drunk, I think (if not more), and Brunette's bikini was starting to fall off. They were talking to guys waiting on the corner, and they had one guy take a picture of them. He didn't want to talk to them, but took the picture, and said, "There you go - that one is full of class." Admittedly, I thought it was pretty funny but didn't say anything, but one guy behind us - maybe jokingly - said "Hey, that's classist!" The girls turned to the new guy and Blonde put her arm around the glassy-eyed Brunette, pulled her forward, and said, "Have you met my vagina?" Class FOR THE WIN! (if we'd been a few blocks further down it would have been for the Wynn. I had to say it)
*******

We saw the Cirque du Soleil show "Zumanity" and it was very entertaining. I was told there would be nekkid performers, but there were only topless ones and some naughty jokes and a drag queen MC. That's OK. I would not mind looking like a tight acrobat, though. Wow.
******

Kent and I stopped by the Tiffany at Bellagio to actually look at some rings, since I don't really know what kinds of settings I like. I did not try on the 3.88 carat solitaire (not that that is interesting - it looks more like a crystal doorknob than something to wear), but I did try on a three-stone ring with something like 2 carats total weight ($27,000+). And - no. I had seen some rings online which looked interesting (see a longer post coming soon when I figure out how to copy out some of these pictures) which looked terrible on the hand. One looked really nice, but we'll continue to look around. When we asked to see some men's rings, Kent asked to see platinum, then was shown a 6 mm band and a 4.5 mm band. He liked the 4.5mm. any embellishments? No, plain. How about the straight side? Nope, the plain rounded with the satin finish. Done. The whole thing may have taken 30 seconds if we count walking over to the counter with the men's rings. Grrrrr. How can he do this so quickly??

Bruises and a little whiplash. Spring skiing sucks.

Kent and I spent Saturday on a skiing day trip. We left home around 6 am, got to the resort around 9, and got set up. In the spirit of experimentation (what works for me in a ski? what doesn't?) I ponied up an extra $10 to rent demo skis for the day. Demo skis are the up-to-date models in different stiffnesses, lengths, brands, etc, and you can try as many as you want during the day. I started out with some 1630 mm mid-stiff skis, and we started out.

The first run was hard. The snow was a bit icy, and I was having a hard time controlling the skis. I went back and got the "softer" skis. Unfortunately they didn't have the length that worked so well for me last week (1560mm), but I was told that there may be a learning curve.

Well, if a learning curve means falling every 50-100 feet and being unable to keep my feet directly under me, then I had a learning curve. I could do short periods of good control but then it would get shot all to hell when I would catch an edge and fall. I did a few runs before lunch, then got the shorter version (1490mm) and those were trouble too. No matter what I was trying, I could not control the skis well. I should have gotten the plain vanilla rentals, those were working a lot better for me last week.

By the early afternoon, the snow was in full spring mode. Big puddles of slush in the sun, ice in the shade of trees. In case you should wonder, these randomly placed, wildly swinging friction coefficients didn't help my control problems.

By 2:30 I was really frustrated and exhausted. Kent wanted to go up once more and get a movie of some ski moves. I ignored my own advice not to do it since I was already tired. So we went up, I took forever getting down a steep section (and falling 3 times), took the movie, then when I started down again I somehow caught an edge, spun all the way around, and ended up bouncing the back of my head off the snowpack.

If I was mad before, it was nothing compared to after that fall. I was totally wound up, and between that, being so tired, and being afraid of falling more, I was this close to sitting down and crying on the slope. Unfortunately the best way down a mountain is just to point the ski tips and go, so I did that instead. I fell asleep as soon as I was in the car and have several bruises and a bit of whiplash as souvenirs of the trip.

Fortunately, no hematomas. I think I would still have bounced my head and strained my neck muscles even if I had a helmet (which, BTW, are very hard to find right now).

Yesterday was spent catching up on sleep, painting doors, and refilling my yard waste bin. And eating too much sugar. I managed to get several boxes of Peeps for use as art supplies later in the year. Stay tuned on that. All I need is time.

By popular demand...

I've cleaned up my shutterfly site and posted some new pictures. Unfortunately, there are none of me with the chain saw, but there are some of the yard work and some of the latest painting jobs.

I've made some new tabs for categorizing pics, but will try to keep new ones on the main page.

Enjoy!

Well, shut my mouth.

This may sound odd coming from someone who's been skiing three times in the last 10 years: I am kind of a ski snob.

Admittedly, I grew up in Colorado, but didn't take to skiing until late. I tried once in middle school - probably a Scout troop day trip - and it did not go well. I could only turn in one direction, and I would keep turning until my back was facing downhill. Then I'd start going downhill backwards. Later in the day I got going fast on the bunny slope (shut up, it's possible) and at the bottom of the hill ran over a guy's skis and knocked both of us down. 60 pounds of kid can pack quite a punch when it's going fast enough. After that, I never wanted to go skiing.

In senior year of high school, I started going cross country skiing with my dad and one of his friends. Over the next few years I ended up doing quite a bit of cross country skiing, about every other week on average. There were a lot of places even within an hour of Denver.

In college, XC skiing was fantastic. Cross country is typically much cheaper than downhill (good for students), and the massive workout was excellent for stress relief. It didn't hurt that I ended up getting in really good shape - couldn't pinch an inch, and since I was working out at 11,000 ft, my blood was so thick with red blood cells that I could do whatever I wanted at the paltry mile-high altitude of Denver.

In junior year of college, I tried downhill skiing again. And you know what? It was easy! Cross country definitely gives muscles in the right places, and downhill skis are shorter, fatter, and attached at the heel - all of which make for vastly improved ski control.

After I moved to California, I went to Tahoe with co-workers a couple of times, and thought it was pretty appalling. The snow was terrible, you had to drive 3+ hours to get there, and the people out there did not know what they were doing. It didn't seem worth the hassle and expense, so I didn't go for a long time.

Last year, a friend from LA invited Kent and I along on a trip to Park City, Utah. We did 3 days of downhill and 1 day of cross country, and it was great, if extremely painful. We did Park City again this year, and again - very painful. It was frustrating not being able to do what I wanted, since I didn't have the leg strength. I also re-developed my fears of falling, and high speed (leading to hard falling and potentially taking other skiers out). It was getting better by the last day, though; just in time to turn around and go home.

Some of Kent's friends arranged a cabin at Tahoe this weekend, so we decided to get away from the houses and work and go. I wasn't at all sure there would still be snow this time of year (if Tahoe has spring conditions in February, what could there possibly be except for wet cement in April?? (<-- CO snow snob talk)). We did a few km of XC on Friday afternoon and it was super-slushy. Temperatures were in the high 40s. It was novel being comfortable while out in the snow, but I was still worried about conditions on the slopes.

I needn't have! We went to Alpine Meadows, close to Tahoe City. I was expecting sheets of ice, leading to alternating ice and slush in the afternoon. However, the snow was groomed and delightfully soft. It was nice all day, even in the sun, only getting slushy at the base. And finally, finally, I am getting the hang of carving turns and using the poles. Best of all, my legs still work today!

We are debating doing a day trip next week (will have to consider whether Easter will be big on the slopes), we'll see...

Dang it - sometimes the internets have TMI

So, I was having a nice time in Park City last weekend, and went to try and take some pictures. The pictures, however, did not look good - in fact, the camera is taking pictures that are all-black now. (insert joke here, "Park City under a new moon in a blackout") In retrospect I got one of these while taking in-progress pictures of my house last week, but thought it was a problem with the battery. Looks like it's with the light sensors.

I guess I've had the camera for about 6 years, so it's had a good run. If this is fixable do let me know, but if it's sensors I have a feeling it would be cheaper to replace than repair. And you can get a lot more megapixels for the buck these days.

Anyway... I'm looking around for recommendations for a replacement. I've liked the Canon Elph, so I'm keeping my search to those. There are SO MANY MODELS though! I've been looking at cnet.com, which has good electronics reviews, but there is just too much information there to make an easy choice. So hmmmm. I'm almost tempted to go with the SD1200, new this year, 12 megapixels, since it's $10 more than a well-reviewed predecessor (SD1000, 10 megapixels... or was it 8?). Maybe I should go to Best Buy and play with them and see which one looks and feels best.

Any recommendations on the new generations of Elphs? I may get a bigger camera later when and if I have time to do hobbies (a girl can dream), but am looking for a good point-and-shoot in the mean time.

Short review of Park City: very nice, good snow, frustrating skiing (I lack ski skills, leg strength in the right places, and nerve to go fast, skiing with fast skiers who then had to wait for me), fun company, nice hot tub, good food. We stayed 2 blocks away from the ski lift in town, which was great! One day we were skiing in the snow and I was snorfing snowflakes while breathing, which was weird. Oh, and the stop at the spa was fantastic. Walking around in calm, thick snowfall after a massage is the best!

Gearing up to return to CA

I've been in Denver for almost a week now, and it's gone very quickly. Despite the tranquilizing effect of cable, I pulled it together and did a lot this week that I'd wanted to do. I did quite a bit of cooking, helped dad with a house project (can never get entirely away), visited a HS friend, hung out with the family, and took some walks down at Cherry Creek Reservoir. It was cold.

The only crimp in the week was being here when dad had a blood sugar problem and the paramedics had to be called in. Everything went quickly and ended well, and we did everything we were supposed to do, but it was still upsetting (I've been repressing my response to it, since it will just get people wound up if I talk about it here). I am hoping there are still some changes that can be made so that this happens less often - it's frightening.

Aside from that it has been a drama-free week. Heather and her family are up from Arizona, and it's been good to see them. In fact, it's been rather odd to have the whole family together twice within a year, since it often doesn't happen for years at a time. Tish is still here at the house, but she's been working full-time this week and is pretty antisocial at home (watching TV downstairs by herself every evening). From all I hear she's doing well, though.

After a few days of doing not so much, I'm starting to get itchy to do something. This is good, since I have a list of things I'll be working on at my house next week (hopefully finishing the bathroom plus some other projects), along with another wine bus trip, and New Year's Eve. On the other hand, getting itchy to do something is bad, since I'm tempted to start helping with things around my parents' place, and they get bristly at all my suggestions (going through the pantry, organizing the linen closet, painting something). Oh well, I'll keep suggesting. I go back tomorrow evening and am hoping to have a boring, on-time flight this time. Kent is on notice that we are going out for sushi on Monday.

Before I go, I'm going to see if I can convince everyone to play "Apples to Apples" tonight. I've been reading the rules and it sounds hilarious. And I have a "getting to know you" list of questions I'd like to run by the family.

I know I should also do one of those interviews I blogged about recently, while I have the opportunity. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time asking anyone if they will do one. I'm getting annoyed with myself there.

I sense my resolution for 2009 is going to be going back to the issue of confronting repression and/or fear (often connected). Stay tuned on that.

Inertia: I has it.

Well, I made it to Denver! All three of my flights in the last week have been fraught with drama. Unannounced cancellations. Weather delays while whole carriers cancelled around us. A possible mechanical problem discovered during a takeoff (aborted takeoff, returned to gate, part replaced, on the way about 2-3 hours behind schedule). I really hope the flight back to SF next week is boring and on time!

I finally finished my Christmas shopping (I just typed "stopping", interesting Freudian slip) today. Everything is wrapped and under the tree, and now I have no set plans for the rest of the week. I do have some school friends I'm trying to arrange visits with, some of whom aren't back yet due to their own flights being cancelled, and I've got some things I want to cook for the family, and some house projects to help with, and some cold winter walks to take.

The problem? Whenever I visit home, my activation energy seems to go WAY up. It takes a lot of effort to make calls, to look up recipes, to put my shoes on and get out of the house. I partially blame cable TV, which is like a high-dose tranquilizer (I recommend turning your cable off to anyone, although my replacement activity was reading when I was without any TV).

So, I've got to make an effort. I bought key ingredients for making Bengali red dal (lentils) today, and now will have to make it sometime this week. I want to make slow cooker minestrone, and need to see which state Sheri is in now. And help dad secure the bathroom light fixture.

All I need to do is tear myself away from the TV. As soon as "Chocolat" is over. As long as there's nothing good on right afterwards.

Uh oh - hope I can get out of Seattle tomorrow.

A winter storm warning is in effect from 4 pm today through 10 am tomorrow - 4-8 inches of snow are expected. http://weather.yahoo.com/storm/USWA0395.html

While this would be a minor nuisance in a lot of places, they're not used to snow here (much less 2 storms in a week). I'm nervous now. We're leaving Lynden early tomorrow morning and I'm hoping that the airport keeps running. If my flight is cancelled, I'll miss my flight to Denver on Monday. If I miss that flight, I'm hosed.

A couple of years ago, my flight to Denver was cancelled outright due to storms and DEN closing for a whole day. Since it's the holidays, the higher number of flights is already overbooked, and it's very difficult to get on another flight. My option that year was to fly on Christmas Eve, SFO-LAX-Palm Springs-DEN. If I have to do that again I will be most displeased. I got my tickets in March, using miles, and that doesn't help for priority in rebooking (although my 1K may be good for one more miracle if it's needed).

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me! If things get squirrelly I may try to fly directly to Denver from here.

Holiday travel drama!

The holiday travel season has officially begun. Most of the people from work are now off for the rest of the year (if you don't use vacation, you lose it), and I've been hearing on the radio that the 19th (today!) is expected to be the heaviest travel day.

I was scheduled to fly out of SFO at 8 pm yesterday to come to Seattle, so I made sure to catch the train by 5. I was at the airport by 6:30, and started killing time, waiting for the boarding to start. The flight was listed with a 20-minute delay once I got through security, and by the time I was at the gate, it had been moved to another gate, and there were announcements that our crew was missing.

That's not good news.

Apparently, there was weather going on all over the country, and somehow our crew's flight was diverted to Sacramento. Why, I don't know, since for once we were not having weather problems in SFO. Maybe mechanical problems? Anyway, we needed the crew at SFO, and we were waiting for them to show up, with the caveat if they couldn't make it in time, we'd have to get a backup crew. Their plane to SFO made it out of the gate by 9, but didn't take off till 10:15. There was another flight going to Seattle, so I was trying to find out how full it was, and couldn't get anyone at the desk to actually talk to me (or any of the people in line, for that matter).

By 10, people were starting to get mad. By 10:30, the screens by our gate went out, but there was no one manning the gate to answer questions. Then, those of us with phone updates got calls that our flight was cancelled. WTF?? No announcements, nothing? My name had been called so I was trying to track down the guy who called me. I was in line when he hand-carried a couple to the other gate - and didn't return.

When I got the cancellation call I went to the other gate looking for him, and kept trying to get his attention to ask why I was called. When it was finally my turn, I was ready to ask, and a guy in line behind me jumped around to the side and started yelling at the gate guy. AHEM, there is a line! This guy was mad, I was giving him a big stink eye for jumping the line, the United guy was threatening to call the cops, and then the guy's wife lost her shit and stared hauling at the guy's shirtfront while screaming "Stop it! Stop it! Stop embarrassing me! And ON MY BIRTHDAY!" before bursting into tears and running off.

Wow.

Thanks to my massive work travel last year (130,000 miles), I had a 1K status (which is still good for another week or so!), and by some miracle was able to finagle a middle seat way in the back of the one plane going to Seattle last night.

I got to Seattle by 1:30 am, and Kent had been waiting at SEA since around 9:30. Then we drove to Lynden, usually a 2 hour drive, but there was a lot of ice around, and didn't get to his mom's place till 4 am.

Naturally we are moving slowly today, and will need a nap. We're making blackberry pies this afternoon and I am slated to take a tour of the house and town. Tomorrow is the CLB (church ladies' brunch). It's cold and sunny and I'm hoping that the trips back to SFO and then to Denver are less trouble. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Must... sleep...

Just back from the UK this evening and it's time to stop fighting the tired (I have been awake for 23 of the last 24 hours). The trip was OK, it was lots of work, work on the plane, a couple of pubs, lunch with Jon (excellent), and me being a dork (missed a picture of a marina full of boats stranded at low tide, all because my camera was in the car. I completely forgot that my blackberry takes pictures. DUH).

My birthday was Tuesday but I was very good and didn't make a big announcement about it. It didn't seem right at a business dinner with a lot of refinery management.

More after I collect myself.

Oh, short story, Kent says that Crazy was raking up a storm in her yard last week but didn't go over the property line or give him the stink eye even once. We're cautiously optimistic.

Back and coughing

Hi all, I survived another Burning Man. I was out for a couple of hours in the big dust storm on Saturday, and although I had a surgical mask on, I still got dosed with lots of alkali dust (the respirator really would have been better, but that is so bulky to carry around!). I'm still coughing, though, and am beginning to suspect I'm actually sick instead of just having a case of playa lung. Hopefully more sleep and less dust this week will improve the situation, I'll keep you posted. I say "less" rather than "no" dust this week since cleaning the gear will inevitably lead to me getting re-coated.

I'll write a full report on Burning Man later, but the short short short summary is this:

• We got there on Monday during white-out dust storm #1 and waited at the gate for 3-1/2 hours while they stopped traffic (had to set up at night... again)
• Playa conditions were the worst for bikes that I've seen in my 9 years. Soft, drifty soils. Yuck.
• There was some nice art out there but nothing really mind blowing. Some was quite entertaining, though (note to self: Zsu-Zsu)
• Oacious was kind of loud (near the big sound camps at 2:00 but the art car in the camp next door was worse), but small (15 people), low drama (within camp and also did not have to chase off squatters), and fun.
• I did not learn my lesson about drinking alcohol on the playa (how a little goes a long way) and was bombs away on Wednesday. Why this is surprising after a party at Inebriati camp, I can't explain.
• I was almost hit by a falling firework
• We were hit by a big, all-afternoon dust storm on Saturday. Got lost AT THE MAN (this is practically impossible to do but visibility was that low)
• left on Sunday when we heard the wait was 90 minutes to get out at the gate. BMIR (Burning Man radio) lies!!! it took 3-1/2 hours. We could have been hanging out in camp during this time.

More soon, including pictures....