February 4
Hard to believe, but February is already here. In fact, it was so hard to believe, it's already 4 days in, and this is the first time I've written. On February 2nd, Ellen's Battle of the Books team had their first battle. (They call themselves the Dream Readers which, I, of course, serenaded her with the slightly altered version of Dream Weavers) They won their match handily from what I hear. It was such a win that the other team was accusing Ellen and her team of cheating because several of her team's parents were watching or involved in the competition in some way through volunteering. Unfortunately, at 4th grade, Ellen's already learning that there are lots of people out there who confuse studying hard and being organized with cheating. All those kids read the books several times, wrote up reports about each one for quick review before battles, and organized them so that they all had a part in providing answers. Ellen was selected to be the spokesperson for this match. They have several more matches. Hopefully I can find one to go see.
Thursday was Chinese New Year, so Jada and her whole classroom flew to China...sort of. They stage a flight in the multi-purpose room where they pretend to go through the airport (no high resolution screening on this flight, luckily) and fly to China for two weeks (with a return home for the kids at the end of every day.) On Friday, Ellen got to go to the art studio for an art class where they painted small clay jewelry holders. I rode my bike to work in dry weather both Wednesday and Friday. We're having oddly dry and warmish weather compared to other places that are having unseasonably cold and snowy conditions. I heard someone else today make the crack about there not being global warming. That was the biggest misnomer ever made public when obviously we're having major climate change of which warming is a part.
February 6
Yesterday was a busy day. Phoebe and I had our guitar lesson in the morning since today is the super bowl, and our teacher had a party to go to. Once we were home from that, we had to immediately head out for a meeting with the folks at Sylvan Learning Center about Ellen's test results. She's not too far behind in math, so that's good. She's a lot like I was in grade school. I knew just enough to get by, but I was easily flustered with story problems which were never my favorite until high school. To her credit, she's excited about the opportunity to work on it. She'll be with 2 other kids during her times and 1 teacher. They estimate a year's worth of progress in 36 hours, if I understood their information correctly. What was funny was the woman we talked to went on about the poem Ellen had written on the back of one of her papers while she waited on the testing day. I'll need to start collecting these to post here (maybe under some sort of creative commons license or something to protect her work). Ellen was asked by one of the other 4th grade teachers for permission to share a personal narrative Ellen had written about something on our summer vacation. Jada found her teacher after school that day so she could read the narrative. I haven't read it yet, but I hope I get to at some point. Ellen said that she embellished the events a little bit to make it interesting. We told her that was ok for poetic license. (Just don't call it a memoir;) Jada went to visit her mom while the girls finished their piano.
Later in the afternoon, we drove to Oregon City for the Junior Bach festival (Bach! by popular demand)(ok, that's not really the tagline, but I think it should be). There were only 5 girls in Ellen's group, 3 of which were from the studio we go to. Ellen did a nice job with her Baroque piece as did the others. The adjudicator gave a quick lesson on how most Baroque music, which is roughly 300 years old, didn't come with the composer indicating dynamics in the music. It was up to the performer to add their own interpretation of how the music should be. Through the use of staccato, crescendo, and diminuendo the performer can create a more dance like flow to the music. So he had each of the girls attempt it on the first line of their pieces. It was interesting. Phoebe got some free advice there since she'll need to do Junior Bach next year. We stopped off at Red Robin on the way home for dinner, and then we played a game of Settlers of Catan before bed. Jada won, but if Phoebe had been paying attention on her turn, she had enough points to win first. Ellen and I were both tied way behind them. In the evening, Phoebe's teacher came over to pick up Jada's old chest of drawers and mirror, and our glider rocker chair. So I can pull the car into the garage again...I couldn't last night because I had bikes and a work stand setup over there. I'll put it all away today. I also put their cleats on their new cycling shoes. Unfortunately, the rain came in this weekend, so we can't enjoy the 50 degree days we've been getting in our early spring.
As an aside, last month one of our Oregon Senators proposed a law that would ban people from riding with children younger than 6 years old on a bike (in a trailer, trailer bike, or bike seat). This caused quite an uproar in the community both for and against. I actually wrote to the Senator asking why this would be made a criminal offense when the data he sited didn't support the requirement of the law, and in an age where children should be getting more exercise, not less, why is this needed. He responded that it was just a way to get the conversation started. In the end he changed to wording to be a study on the dangers of cycling with children. As I read all the people in the opinion section rail against cyclists and how dangerous it is to ride with children and why would we do such a thing, the main theme came through time and time again. We shouldn't ride our bikes because people in cars don't pay attention. That's it. That's the whole argument. Person after person, without irony, made excuses for their poor driving habits but turned it to be a problem for pedestrians and cyclists instead of something that maybe they should fix. In essence, blaming the victim, not the perpetrator. This is the same argument I hear all over the country whenever a cyclist gets hit. Almost as popular as the "I didn't see him" excuse is the "He shouldn't have been there." Of all the cycling injuries and fatalities that have occurred in Oregon, the only ones that have been published have not been a cyclist running a red light or stop sign or being careless in traffic. They have been riding in a bike lane or shoulder, and someone has drifted across the white line or made a turn into them. As a cyclist, and a motorist, that doesn't sound like the problem is cyclists being careless. I sounds like our biggest problem is being car-less. Contrary to popular belief, I do pay taxes, I do own (2) cars, and a house. I choose to save money and our environment and my piece of mind by riding my bicycle to work. It has made me a better driver. I look out for things that people who use only a single mode of transportation don't look for. I'm not saying that all cyclists are perfect. I see them breaking laws every day just like I watch cars break laws every day (failing to signal turns, failing to stop at stop signs being the biggest common incident), I'm just saying share the road...every one. Excuse me, I have step back down off my soap box.
Sunday morning we had our usual breakfast followed by a visit to Gramma. The girls both played piano for her. I made pizza for lunch since our friend Pete came to visit. It's always nice to see him. In the afternoon, both Jada and I fell asleep on the couch. I guess it was a rough week. In the end, I went to get my massage. We didn't watch any of the Super Bowl, and I don't really care who won.
February 9
Much has happened since we last talked. Monday night, I went and picked Ellen up from her math tutoring after work. As I was making a turn, I ran into a car crossing my path. I don't even remember seeing her coming. I was at the stop sign, a truck on my right was parked, or so I thought. As I was starting to pull into the street, the truck moved on my right which distracted me. As I was making sure I didn't hit the truck, I ran into the other car coming from my left. It was low speed. No airbags deployed. If there hadn't been a noise, I don't think Ellen would have even noticed. We pulled out of the intersection and got each other's information. I took some pictures of the damage on both cars. The Tribeca (yes, my brand new Tribeca) wasn't too badly damaged. Just a badly dented front driver's side bumper. The other car had a big dent in the door and some scraping down the side. The first thing Ellen said after I got back into the car was, "I'm hungry." So much for my spotless driving record. I'm looking forward to my new premiums. I went home and called the insurance agent and got a claim started. Then I had to run off to my Intel League basketball game. At least this one was early. We won pretty handily, which was nice. This was also the night that the Bulls were in town to play the Blazers, and I had completely forgotten to get tickets.
Tuesday I rode my bike to work, and after work, I met Jada and the girls at the Nike campus for the annual Cycle Oregon route presentation. The theme this year is "Going Coastal". The route met almost all of my requirements: a loop, places I've never been before, good climbs. The only thing it is missing is a good century day. This is down in the Bandon area along the Southern Oregon Coast. We'll get to go by the Dunes and Cottage Grove, OR too. The movie Animal House was filmed in Cottage Grove. This is the year that Ellen is going to do the week long ride with me, and she was pretty excited about the route too. The Weekend Ride is going to be taking off from the State Capital in Salem, so that looks like a good one too. I've already registered for the week long because with this route, I think it'll sell out fast.
Wednesday, I rode my bike to work again. It was a beautiful, clear morning, but the temperature was right at freezing. There was a little bit of frost on the road, but nothing too bad. Ellen had her math tutoring again today. Jada managed to get home without getting into any fender benders at least. When I got home, Jada had to rush off again to meet her mom at the ER. Jeannie has had her eyes swelling shut over the last couple days, and the doctor at the facility didn't know what the problem was. I stayed home to put the girls to bed. As I type this, Phoebe is doing her guitar practice, and she's working on a song called Pennies for Peace. It's very cute, and not bad. Jada finally came back home around 11pm with no further knowledge about what was going on with her mom, but they gave some ideas of what it wasn't. It was a frustrating visit all around.
February 10
I stayed home today. Jada wasn't feeling well after getting home so late from the ER, so I took the girls to school, and then went over to get the estimate done on the Tribeca. I was home in time for my morning meetings which are thankfully all available via phone bridge. Jada slept most of the time. I checked the Cycle Oregon web site, and the ride is already at it's capacity of 2000 riders and has the overflow list at around 500 after just 2 days! I'm glad I registered as soon as I got home from the event. That's just incredible. Over lunch, I took Jada over to school so she could drop some things off for her class, and we watched Ellen's Battle of the Books team. They had another strong showing, winning the match handily. Ellen was spokesperson again wearing her lucky dress with the red flower in her hair. I came back home to attend a few more meetings.
February 12
Friday was a group piano lesson for Ellen and Phoebe. They did their Scale Olympics, and they brought home some gold...colored plastic. They enjoyed it. I got to pick up my bike from the bike shop after work. It's basically a whole new bike after they replaced worn rotors and brake pads, bottom bracket, tires, cables, and bar tape.
Saturday morning, after the girls got their piano done, I took Ellen to her new Saturday Academy writing class in downtown Portland on the Portland State University campus. After I dropped her off, I drove over to RackAttack to talk about options for mounting the quad on the roof of the Tribeca. They recommended a few interesting items, explaining the advantages/disadvantages of each, and I decided to go with a track system that runs along the inside of the factory racks. This will give me the required bar spacing for a quad carrier. I scheduled an appointment for next weekend during Ellen's class to get the work done. Now I just need to let the guy at ATOC know. I got back to the PSU campus about 90 minutes before the end of class. There just weren't any more errands that I had for downtown today. I sat in a chair outside the classroom and read the Bill Bryson book At Home. While we were downtown, Jada and Phoebe went to visit Gramma. Phoebe played piano while she was there for about 30 minutes. Ellen really enjoyed her first class, and already can't wait until next week. She made a couple new friends, of course. It was home for a quick touch down for me since I had to run out to get some kitty litter and bread (not from the same store) before Phoebe and I went to our guitar lesson. We had pulled the lesson into Saturday based on reports earlier this week indicating that it would be snowing like gangbusters come Friday on the mountain. That didn't materialize. It was 40 degrees at the base of Meadows at 6am this morning. Phoebe wowed our instructor again with her ability to pick up strumming rhythms very quickly. Now she's working on scales this week. At home, Ellen was learning how to type from a BBC web page called Dance Mat Typing. Jada said she took to it rather quickly and was already typing without looking at her hands after the first level. We got home, and then took off again immediately for downtown. Through their piano teacher, we received free tickets to a concert by a local recording artist named Michael Allen Harrison. He's a piano player which is why we were offered the tickets. It was at the Old Church right on Clay in Portland. We had the quickest food ever at a McMenamin's (The Market Street Pub) around the corner from the Old Church before heading in. The concert was ok. He's quite a good piano player, but he's more Yanni than Harry Connick Jr. He also had his stepson playing with him who is only 18, but quite an accomplished classical guitar player. He was fun to listen to, and Phoebe really enjoyed watching him. We were able to meet both of them at the intermission. Phoebe talked to Travis Johnson, the guitarist. Both the girls talked to Michael Allen Harrison. Jada bought a CD of the guitarist, and I got it signed by him. The girls really had a good time, but they were a bit antsy so we ducked out before they started up again. It was pouring rain when we came out. We tried to find a table back at the Market Street Pub, but dinner hour was swinging. So we drove back out to Beaverton for dinner at the Fresh Grill. I had their new Philly Cheese steak. It was good. We got the girls to bed quickly.
February 15
Sunday was a pretty typical weekend day. We had hoped to go skiing, but there wasn't much good snow up there yet. That came in starting Monday. I spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage and fixing bikes. I got my commuter all setup and ready to ride this week after getting it back from the shop. It looked so nice and shiny. Too bad I had to ride it in the rain. I fixed a flat on the quad, but I couldn't fix a problem with the rear brake. I spent a bit of time researching the issue on the web and sent an email to Santana for help. I eventually did find some information on the web about it, but unfortunately, it sounds like I'll need to replace the brake cable to fix it properly. We finished the day playing Settlers of Catan. Jada had to leave for her massage appointment before anyone could get to 10 points, but I was in the lead with 9 before the last play when the girls were just giving Jada their cards allowing her to pull even. I didn't count that.
Monday morning, I dropped the Tribeca off to get the repairs done from the accident. They'll have it 3 days. I rode my bike in from there in the pouring rain. Ellen sounded horrible. She has a nasty, deep cough, just in time for her birthday week. We let her go to school for Valentine's Day since it didn't seem like she had a fever, though Jada got 9 different readings from the thermometer. None of them were over 100. I got home after the girls went to bed due to a meeting that was scheduled for 5pm. It sounded like Ellen had another good class for tutoring. She was awake late coughing, and I heard her up early in the morning on Tuesday. We went ahead and kept her home from school, but she was not at all happy about it.
February 16: Ellen's Birthday
Ellen got snow on her birthday. It began snowing after I started off on my bike ride to work (I couldn't pick the Tribeca up until later in the afternoon). By the time I reached work, it was big, puffy flakes. It wasn't cold enough to make the roads slick, and the snow wasn't sticking at all. It just made me really wet. It started to stick finally just before it stopped. It didn't come back the rest of the day. Jada brought Ellen Chipotle for lunch and her special rice pudding desert. Jada and Phoebe dropped Ellen off at her tutoring class after school, and they met me over at Kadel's Autobody where we swapped cars so I could put my now filthy bike on the Outback, and Jada could go home and finish making Ellen her favorite dinner of Chicken Marsala with asparagus. Plus she got another rice pudding after dinner with a candle in it. Ellen's been sick the last few days, so she couldn't get the candle blown out on the first try, but she got it on the second. She opened presents after dinner, and she liked everything. Then we put her to bed.
February 17
This morning, Jada noticed a small puddle of water on the floor under the sink. Upon further inspection, we found quite a larger puddle of water in the cabinet under the sink. We cleaned up, and decided to deal with it after work. At work today was a big bustle of activity. The President of the United States (Barack Obama) will be visiting our campus on Friday. It's going to be extremely inconvenient for everyone, but it'll sure be exciting. I don't think I'll be able to see him arrive since I'll be in meetings all morning, and I wasn't one of the few selected to see him talk live, but they'll be doing a live streaming broadcast that we can watch. Ellen had another Battle of the Books contest in which her team won again. The top two teams are very evenly matched so far, so the big tussle between them will be something to see. In the evening, I checked the sink again, but I could find no leak when I ran the water. Everything remained dry.
February 19
On Friday, I dropped the Outback off at the shop for it's oil change, and I rode my bike to work. No snow, but it was a chilly rain. The campus was abuzz with the excitement preceding President Obama's visit to our campus. The cafeteria was full of press, Intel security, and secret service. We went about our usual morning operations meetings, and I was on the phone when word quickly spread that he was on his way to the campus. We could see the Coast Guard helicopters flying around between my campus and the Hillsboro Airport. That airfield is way too small for Air Force 1, so they landed that at PDX and flew Marine 1 (the helicopter) out to the Hillsboro airport. It was a typical Oregon winter day with temperatures in the low 40's with light rain falling. The Presidential motorcade pulled up behind our office building right outside our windows, but there were tents setup so they could pull in and let everyone out without being seen. It was interested to see how they handled the security details with re-arranging the limo's after dropping everyone off and have the dogs continue to check them. The doors on those things are really thick. The Prez took a tour of the facility and then gave a speech. I wasn't one of the ones selected from the campus to attend. However, we could watch the streaming video from our desks or one of the auditoriums. I chose to watch it from my desk. After the speech, I was able to catch a very brief glimpse as he passed through a gap between the back door and the tent heading back to his car. Between 10:30 and 12:45, no work got done in our building. Everyone was hanging out by the windows hoping for a glimpse or watching security. The rest of the day was pretty quiet. A lot of people were working from home so they didn't have to deal with the hassle of all the extra security. It wasn't too bad though. Jada went out on an errand after I got home, and she said it had started to snow up by us. It didn't last long though
By Saturday morning, the clouds cleared out, and it is cold and sunny. It was a little icy when we headed downtown for Ellen's writing class. Instead of running errands around Portland this week, I just sat in one of the break areas in the building Ellen's class was in and read. Jada and Phoebe went grocery shopping and visited Gramma. I got Ellen back home in time for her to leave again for a birthday party (not hers). I went on errands. I dropped the Rx inserts for my new cycling glasses off at my optometrist to get filled. Then I met up with Jada to pick up Phoebe to take with me on the rest of errands which included Home Depot and the Bike Gallery. I went to the Home Depot looking for parts for my science demonstration for Ellen's class. Phoebe bought a bolt. She just wanted one for her tool box. At Bike Gallery, we picked out her birthday bike. I didn't know when I'd get another nice day to have her test ride, so she got her gift early. I stopped at Performance to pick up some things to get the Quad ready for the year (new brake cables, tire liners to resist punctures, and a couple chains to create a new timing chain. Finally, I went to Radio Shack to get some electrical cable for the science demonstration. I finally got home around 4 just before we had to take off again to have taco night with our friends. We finished off the evening with them playing some dance party game on the Wii. It was funny. Ellen is a lot like me when she dances. She move her arms a little bit, but nothing too ostentatious. Just enough to give the illusion that she's sort of dancing. Phoebe is a lot like Jada in that she can dance. We got them to bed late, and Jada started on lunch for tomorrow's birthday party (Ellen's this time) at the Dream Ridge Stables.
February 20
We were all up early this morning to make our big breakfast before heading out to Oregon City for Ellen's party. We picked up 2 of the girls on the way. It was a bit of a drive out to Dream Ridge Stables, but it wasn't horrible. We got setup in the party room, and took the girls down to meet the horses. They had Ellen's horse from the summer, Beau, done up in ribbons as well as her friend Josie's horse, Skip, since her birthday was today. All the girls were introduced to the horses they'd be riding that morning, and they got to feed them out of bowls. Ellen and Josie got to brush their horses too. After a safety and instructional talk on how to deal with the horses, we all went over to the arena to pick up helmets and mount up. Josie and Ellen got to ride their horses the whole time. I have to say, I was amazed at how confidently Ellen handled her horse. She was trotting and doing a slalom with Beau. Phoebe got to go out first too. She was grinning ear to ear the whole time. Aside from Beau and Skip, we had 4 horse that the other girls shared. They each got 2 spins on the horses during a 90 minute ride time. Some of them were nervous, but they didn't stay that way. The stable staff were there to lead the girls around and help with the control of the horses until the girls were comfortable enough to try to direct the horses themselves. It was cold in there, and the parents spent some time in the warm heating hut along with the girls waiting their turns. I spent the whole time taking pictures. It was a little dark in the arena, so hopefully they turned out. At the end, they did a brief ride outside to see some of the other horses. We just missed a hail shower that passed through while we were up in the party room having the wonderful chili and soup Jada made for lunch to warm our bones. After a quick goodbye to the horses, we headed home. We had some quiet time at the house. Since I was a bit under the weather, I canceled our guitar lesson for today and took a nap. Jada took my massage appointment since it's not good to get a massage when you're sick. You end up more sick than you would have been otherwise.
February 21
President's day was a busy day too. It was cold again in the morning and sunny. Ellen had another test over at the tutoring center at 8:30am, so Phoebe and I went over to Jones Farm to pick up my giveaways for this week's National Engineers and Technicians Month presentations. When we were all back, I had a little lie down on the couch for a bit until it was time to visit Gramma. We didn't get to see her there though. She had just gone into her shower. However, the accordion player had just finished up, so there was an audience of folks waiting to be taken to their various lunch areas giving the girls an opportunity to play piano for a bit as interim entertainment. Phoebe went first, and Ellen played second. They did a nice job and got many compliments. We went ahead and left after that since it was going to be a while longer before Gramma was out of the shower. We had to get the girls over to our friends' house for the afternoon while Jada and I went in for our tax appointment. We didn't have much in the way of changes to our numbers, so the appointment was pretty quick. It's always nice to chat with our tax guy while we go over the numbers. Jada and I stopped off at the Fresh Grill for a little snack before picking the girls up again. After another brief time at home, then it was time to get Ellen to her tutoring appointment. I took her over there and ran an errand while she was in class. Jada started feeling ill as did Phoebe in the evening. I finished making DVD's from Ellen's birthday party to give to her attendees, and tomorrow I should get some pictures from one of the other parents who brought a camera. Hopefully hers turned out better than mine.
February 22
Phoebe and I stayed home today. I slept all morning while Phoebe read on the couch. Jada stayed home for most of the morning as well before she went off to see her mom and then go to school. Phoebe and I played a couple games after lunch, but mostly we read and rested.
February 23
I went to school to volunteer for Passport day, and then I went to work. It was exhausting. I drank 2 16oz cups of tea and another cup of just water. The weather reports have all been going on and on about a massive snow storm we're supposed to get today, but it snowed for about 20 minutes around lunch, and then it stopped. The sun was out most of the afternoon instead. It was quite windy though. I picked Ellen up from her tutoring on the way home.
February 24: Snow Day
It snowed overnight, so the town shutdown. School was called at 5:15am. It really wasn't very much, but I can see the argument for closing school. The side streets were all pretty icy. I drove to work anyway, and I didn't have a lot of trouble. I saw lots of places where people had spun out, but no cars in ditches or anything. I saw a few bicyclists making their way to work, and I felt sad that I wasn't one of them. There weren't a lot of people who drove in to work either. Most who did come in, waited until lunch time. If it's icy like that tomorrow, I may do the same. The snow didn't last long. It was sunny almost all afternoon which pretty much cleared the streets. It flurried a bit when I was leaving work, but I drove out of it within a mile. The streets were clear on the way home even up and over the hill. The forecast is calling for snow tonight, but not much. Mostly, they're saying it'll be cold tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll have icy roads in the morning.
February 25
It was cold and sunny today, but no further snow fell. Everyone was back at school, but the Battle of the Books was moved to next week instead of today, so I could have come in for the National Engineers and Technicians Month presentation. Unfortunately, I had already set up meetings for Friday afternoon. Hopefully they can get me in next week. Ellen lost a molar while she took her shower tonight. Seemed like an odd place to lose a tooth when I heard about it. She said she left a note for the Tooth Fairy. I guess we'll see if she responds tomorrow. (She did! She also apparently had time to "ride" Ellen's horses around the playroom and left them out of their stables.)
February 28
I didn't have time to write all weekend. Saturday morning, Ellen had her writing class. It was 18 degrees when we woke up, but it was dry. I dropped her off at her class on the PSU campus and went over to the Portland Rack Attack location to drop the Tribeca off for the installation of a Thule track system so I'll have enough distance to support a quad mount. Luckily it is right across the street from a MAX stop, not so luckily, it was still only about 24 degrees and windy downtown as I waited for the train. I took that down to a Trolley stop, which I just missed, of course. It was only a 15 minute wait, but did I mention it was 24 degrees out? That's darn cold for Portland. The trolley drops off right at PSU, so I was back at the building where Ellen's class was by 11am with plenty of time to just sit inside and warm up. I picked up Ellen after her class, and we walked over a couple blocks to a Chipotle for lunch. Then we decided to go hang out in Powell's for the hour until the car was supposed to be done since it's right on the Trolley line. While we were out, Jada and Phoebe went grocery shopping, went to get Jada's hairs cut, and visited Gramma. Phoebe played a bit of piano. I brought Ellen home in time for her to get to a birthday party she was invited to, and Phoebe and I had to run off to our guitar lesson. We met Jada out for dinner afterwards. I picked Ellen up from her party around 6:30pm, and then tried to get the girls to bed at a reasonable hour, since we had to leave super early for skiing on Sunday.
Sunday morning we were up at 5:20am for breakfast, and we were on the road by 6am to Mt. Hood Meadows ski area. I threw the snowshoes in just in case the weather was horrible, or we couldn't get into the parking lot due to crowds. Though the weather reports were calling for a lot of wind and snow that day, which may have scared some people off. We started driving on snow covered roads just after Sandy which was earlier than normal. We arrived at the parking lot by 8am. Jada and I changed into our ski boots for the hike from the car. Jada got some new ones on sale Saturday, then on Sunday she went on and on about how comfortable they were. I was surprised at the lack of lines at the sign in for the girls' ski school. We were both surprised when they said we could drop them off at 8:30am when their class didn't start until 10am. They had a little activity room in the back. If we had known, we would have let the girls bring some books. Next time. Jada and I went as fast as we could in our ski boots over to the rental office which, again, had very little line. Since we were only renting skis, we got to move right through. I got some 160cm Solomon X-Wings (StarWars tie in. Can't beat that), and Jada got the women's version. We were on the lifts a little after 9am. No lines again! The wind was blowing as we ascended Buttercup for our first test run of the day. We skied down quickly, and decided it was over too fast. We went up Buttercup again, and then over to Easy Rider (formerly known as Red). Vista Express wasn't running due to high winds higher up on the mountain. It was whipping pretty good where we were too. We made a few runs on Mitchell Creek green run, but it was too easy too, so we went over to Daisy where we descended Daisy Bowl which is a blue run. We did really well. The wind and snow were blowing there, so every time we came up, we had fresh tracks (Fresh Tracks!). The powder (or, "Pow", as the lift monitor referred to it) was, indeed, "choice" that day. The skiing was so easy. We made several runs on steep hills without any issue. I was able to really put what I learned in my lesson at Bachelor to use in this much lighter powder. We saw Ellen several times from the lift, and we got to see her on Buttercup when we'd come across to get back to the Daisy chair lift. I only saw Phoebe once. They claimed they had a good time, but they were tired when we picked them up. The original plan had been to ski a bit after lunch with the girls, but because the wind was getting harder, we decided to pack it in and hit the Huckleberry Inn for lunch instead. We continued our surprise streak when the Inn was not busy at all. We had our traditional big breakfast there before heading home to get back to our Sunday chores.
Monday, I rode my bike to work in the pouring rain. I'm so glad the city spreads so much gravel on the roads when it might be icy. The cars really reap the benefit for the day it stays on the road, and then I have the joy of riding through the mounds of sketchy gravel in the bike lane for the next few weeks. (in case you were wondering, yes, that was sarcasm) I had a late (9:45pm start time) basketball game tonight. At least we won. My lung capacity is greatly reduced after last week's illness though. Hopefully I can have a stronger March.
Journal entry: February 28, 2011