Mmmm.... Tea

I've recently gotten into Tea, and like all things that I get into I've become obsessed (Remember Harry Potter?)

Anyway, It all started with an Episode of Diggnation. They Normally drink beer during the show but in one episode Kevin was sick so they drank tea. The talked about it a little bit and they convinced me to check out Adagio Teas. I think I am hooked. On a normal day at work it is not uncommon for me to have 3 cans of soda, I don't think it is too bad but it definitely is not too good. I really like a bit of caffeine to get me going and keep me alert throughout the day, but I really think the amount of sugar was getting to me. I do not like coffee so I decided to order a sample pack of this tea. So far it has been great, there are a few that I've tried that are not so good (Genmai Cha) but also there are some that are really good (Earl Grey Bravo.) I find that I like the Black teas a lot better than the Green (so far the Greens I've tried taste too much like spinach for my taste.) Currently at the office I have 10 Different Flavors to chose from and I am experimenting all the time with them.

If you are looking for an alternative to too much Soda, I definitely recommend you check out tea.

Where have you been?

Nifty little map from Kate, Cool way to show where youve been, As you can see, I dont go east much...




Illinois and Gorgia I was just in the airport so Im not really sure they count...

Make yours at World66

Friday Random 10, iPod Edition...

In honor of Kates new iPod, I figured I would have an All iPod edition of Random 10. (although i dont hink it will be any different from any of the others) I Celebration of my new iPod Nano I am going to list 2 sets, one from the nano and one from my other one.

Nano 4Gb:
1) Not the Same: Ben Folds
2) Pig: Dave Matthews Band
3) Jah Work: Ben Harper
4) Bartender: Dave Matthews Band
5) Bring Me to Life: Evanescence
6) Halloween: Dabe Matthews Band
7) Joga: Bjork
8) December: Weezer
9) Falling For You: Weezer
10) The Will to Live: Ben Harper

Bonus)Toy Store: O.A.R.

4G 20Gb:
1) Since Ive Been Loving You: Led Zepplin
2) Tomorrow: Me First and the Gimmie Gimmie's
3) Rafters: Moby
4) All the Small things: Blink 182
5) Devils Haircut: Beck
6) Winter: Ghosts of a Future lost: The Kronos Quartet (Requiem for a Dream Soundtrack)
7) Sunrise: Nora Jones
8) Could You be Loved: Bob Marley
9) Shiver: Maroon 5
10) Once you had Gold: Enya

Bonus) HP Audiobooks: J.K. Rowling (because there are so many tracks on the iPod I could not get 10 songs in a row, I skipped at least 15 of these for the list)

Another year..

One Quarter Century to the minute..

Happy Birthday to me!

Sacrifice to Uller

Friday the 13th, Full Moon. What better time for a sacrifice to the Norse Ski-God, Uller.

Deciding that we have had enough of this very weak winter, my friends and I decided that a sacrifice was in order. So Friday night everyone came over to my back yard, we lit a fire in the back yard and made our sacrifice to Uller by throwing skiis into the blaze.

Sorry its blurry...




Also during the evening we further appeased him by taking shots from the "ShotSki"


Whats Left:


Our plan must have worked because this was Sunday Morning...


Too bad I had to go to work on Sunday... I had planned on going to Telluride Sunday morning and staying overnight and Skiing more on Monday. That didn't work out, I ended up having my boss walk into my office around 4:30 on Friday evening hinting that I should work Monday (it was supposed to be a holiday.) I decided to compromise and work Sunday so that I could ski all day Monday. That all worked out well because Monday, Mike, his friend Tim and I had an 23,300 Vert day. There was 4-6" of fresh new snow. Uller must be happy.

Office Space...

It is Sunday morning, and I am supposed to be in Telluride Skiing. Instead I am in the office, not skiing. It is snowing right now even..

So much to tell, so little time. Part II

OK, well this probably wasnt worth waiting for.. but here is the rest of the story.

So the next day after the drive, I got up and purposly didnt return any phone calls of my friends that heard I was going to be home. I know its mean, but if I didnt, I would not get any time with the family. We all wen skiing that day and had a great time. That night I had Chrismas #1 with my Dad, Stepmom and Brother. Xmas morning I got up for my traditional drive to the airport to fly to Reno and spend a few days with my mother and Grandparents (Next year everyone is coming to Durango...) When I arrived we immedately wen home and had Christmas #2 with Mom, Granama, Grandpa, Uncle Jay, and Vern (Moms better half, (sorry mom, bad joke (hey!! Triple perenthesis usage!))) I expected to spent the afternoon waiting for all thier flights out at the casino (we play alot of cards,) but instead we played cards at the house. That is always a good time.

That night after everyone left I did get to go gamble with my mom for a bit. I started off around 8:30 with $100 on the blackjack table, 9:30 I had $0. so I met mom and we sat at the Pia Gow Poker table with another $100. Somewhere after about... hmm I dont know how many beers, but alot... anyway it was 4:00Am when we decided to get some food and call it a night (or morning.) I do enjoy doing that, even though I lost $200 it was still a good time playing and drinking with my mom untill 4. How many times have you done that with your mom?

So a few more day in Reno go by (luckely without any trips back to the casino) and I head back to Park City. For a few days before the trip I had a plan to ski with almost everyone I knew that was in town. I got up that morning and one by one, for this reason or that, I failed to meet any of them. its OK, I got to spend the day trying to make my brother tired (he claims I succeded but I think he could keep up all day if not longer than I could.) We had 8" of new Utah powder, now I know what I am missing... here in Colorado we get lots of snow and we have lots of terrain. But the snow sucks compared to Utah. 8" of good Utah snow will beat out 16" of good Colorado snow anyday.

The next day I headed for Moab with my friend Cody, when we got there we set out on a killer hike. Courhouse Wash its called, and we did some exploring to punch up the mileage to about 10 miles. Oh and a cool thing... I got a new GPS for Xmas and I plotted the hike on Google earth!

Courthouse wash:


We camped there for the night and did some more hiking/exploring for awhile in the morning.

That afternoon I drove back to Durango for New Years! I went up to Durango mountain resort for fireworks and the parade of lights (a bunch of drunk ski schoolers with torches skiing down the run.) After that we headed for the Barly Exchange (Lady Falconburgs if you dont live here) and had a grand ol time till midnight rolled around.

The next day I dont really remember much of.. I think I slept. Anyway that monday Mike, Sadie and I got up early for a trip to Telluride. They had 14" of new snow from a few days ago (remember the comment on utah snow? Yea it still applies) and we knew where to find the few patches left. basically an awesome day and we plan on many many more. Oh and guess what! I had my GPS on me that day too! so here are some random geeky stats.

Total Decent 19,300Ft
Moving time: 4h 22m
Stopped time: 1h 45m (including lunch)
Max Speed: 62.3Mph
Total Runs: 15
Max elevation in one run: 3500Ft
Total Miles: 41.8

Tellurade Day:


As you can see we spent most of out time on the Prospect Bowl lift:


Well thats it for now... sorry for making you wait. Im about 87.342% caught up with my life, so pretty soon I should start to have a bit more time for this.

So much to tell, So little time, Part I

OK here we go, I am going to split this up in parts to make it easier to write..

Its Friday the 23rd, I have just finagled my way out of the last few hours of work so that I could arrive in Park City at a reasonable hour. I set out with my driving companion, Harry Potter, and settled in for my 6 1/2 hour drive. HP is awesome, I have done nothing but listen to those audio books for about a month and a half now. As of yesterday, I finally finished the 28 hours of Order of the Phoenix and began the most recent book, HP and the Half-Blood Prince. They may be written for kids but man they are entertaining.

The drive want relatively smoothly until around 9:15 PM, 45 minutes left in the journey. I was in Provo canyon, a windy road through the mountains and the last real challenge to the drive. In the middle of the canyon, the road narrows to two skinny lanes, and concrete barriers instead of medians. All this is due to the nearly perpetual construction of this road because of the mountains and unstable land they built it on. Suddenly I realize I am driving on a near solid sheet of ice. Just as soon as I realize this I notice some headlights coming toward me at a slightly peculiar angle. CRASH!! The headlights had just slammed into the barrier in my lane and bounced out just in time to slam into the Blazer in front of me head on. I had absolutely no time to think, there is no chance I am going to be able to stop before slamming myself into the back of the Blazer. With an instinctual light-handed use of the steering wheel and the wonderful invention of ABS I managed to slip through in the opposite lane in the gap that was about 6" wider than my truck between the concrete barrier and the still spinning Blazer. I come to a stop just afterward and watched as the car that was behind me barely stopped before hitting the Blazer himself. I pulled off the road a few yards away where the barrier ends, grabbed the flashlights from my car and ran back to the accident. Someone had already called 911 and people were gathering from all directions. There was nothing I could do except stand by and hold the flashlight as the crowd of people tried to help everyone out. The people in the Blazer were OK, one girl had a broken leg, and the others were just quite shaken up. The guys in the silver Saturn that initially spun were not in as good of shape, the driver managed to get out of the gar but he had quite a bit of blood on him. The passenger on the other hand was trapped in the car and his head was very bloody. The people helping here were yelling to get a doctor here because he was coming in and out of consciousness. One of the girls in the Blazer was on the phone with 911 but was unable to speak clearly because of the shock so I took the phone and talked with the operator describing our location until the Police and ambulances arrived. About 3 minutes passed and finally we can hear the sirens coming. I told to operator this and she said, "Ok, I am going to hang up now." Seemed like a sudden end to the only means of communication we had with the real world. Once the police arrived I could do nothing but stand aside and watch, they told me to hang around so that I could make a statement and describe what I saw. After about an hour and 5 ambulances later, the people involved were all safely on there way to the hospital and I was filling out forms and talking to the police. Afterward I was told I could return to my car but still wait just in case. Another 20 minutes passed, and an officer walks up to my car opens the door (no knock I might add) and proceeds to tell me I can leave. The problem I have with this, is the fact that he never once acknowledged me, or even looked at me, he spent the whole time looking through all my stuff in the back seat with a suspicious look on he face. No politeness, no “thanks for the help,” no nothing. OK, I understand a little, but in this situation where I had just witnessed an accident and was as helpful and cooperative as I possibly could be, I had referred to the officers as sir the whole time and never once got in the way, they STILL are suspicion and are looking for something illegal to bust me with. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

About 45 minutes later, I finally arrived home and had a beer with my dad, and another, and another, then went to bed. There is no relaxing after a thing like that. It still amazes me that I made it out unscathed.

Happy new year!

only a little late anyway...

Just wanted to get something up so that those that are conserned know that I survived the time off.

I had a wonderful, but busy break and have loads to write about, but also loads of work to do.

I hope everyone else had a good time!