A Bit Behind..

I don't have the time to put together a full run down of our trip to the Virgin Islands, but I wanted to get some photos up (finally). Click below for the album of ~60 photos. I took around 300 total but as I looked through them, they all seem to be of the blue-green water. :) We had a great time (understatement).

Virgin Islands Xmas 08

Happy New Year

Kel and I enjoyed a very low key New Year's eve and we're sticking with what works for New Year's Day as well. We'll be making our way to Marley and Me in a little bit before dinner at Sauce with Case and Steph.

Case and I rode Green Mountain earlier this morning in calm 50 degree weather. It seems nice to start the year in the saddle... ;)

New Years 09

Island Xmas

We're leaving tonight for St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.  8 days of beach, sun, and much warmer weather.  We plan to take a lot of pics so we'll post when we return.  

By the way, we caught Slumdog Millionaire last night.  Outstanding movie.  If you get a chance, give it a shot.  It's one of my favorite movies of the year.  

Eldora!

Kel and I made it up to Eldora over the weekend for the first time this year. We had a great time. The sun was out and the snow was pretty good for early season after a couple of feet dumped over Thanksgiving. It felt good to get back on the board again. Eldora is a pretty cool little mountain. This was our first time there, but we had already bought season passes for the year because we could get them for $130 with our student IDs. It's a lot smaller than most of CO ski areas but it's got a cool, locals vibe and is a shorter drive from our house (plus it's easy to stop in Boulder on the way home and grab some good food rather than fighting I-70 traffic). We got more snow this week so it should be another good weekend...

Eldora 12/06/2008

More Congrats!!

Jay and I got even more exciting news this morning-Our dear friend Staci got engaged over the weekend to Marc!  We have all know that this was going to happen, it was just a matter of when.  We are so excited for them because they are two of the sweetest, kindest people and they were just made for each other!  Jay and I are already looking forward to traveling to Bozeman to celebrate with them!

Also - forgot to congrats T-bird and Lori on their engagement!  They're big day is August 1st...4 weddings next summer/fall...

Great Stuff on Food and Food Policy

If you missed the Farmer in Chief letter in the New York Times, take a peek.  It's good stuff and was written to the President-Elect.  Great insights to the connections between food, public health, the environment, and national security.  It was written by Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

I stumbled across a discussion with Pollan today on PBS's website.  Bill Moyers discusses these topics in detail with Pollan.  If you've got 40 minutes to burn, you can find it here.  There is a particularly good segment on a community garden in East Brooklyn at the beginning of the second part.

Winter Commuting and Pie

I got an email from Mom today.  She just bought some Nokian studded tires for her bike and some lights.  She's prepping for commuting on the bike a couple of times a week in the Alaskan winter. Good stuff.  Today was one of our first days of real winter commuting.  I rode to work in our first snow a couple of weeks ago, but it was relatively warm.  Today, we hovered in the low 20's as I headed to work and once again when I came home.  

As I was working my way home, I was thinking about why I like to commute in the winter.  I came up with a couple of reasons.

• Great light in the winter.  I love riding to work in the crisp mornings as the sun is rising behind me.
• It's quiet out there.  Even riding in the city, riding along is pretty quiet especially if the wind is at your back.  
• The coyotes I run into on the trail as well as a the occasional red fox.  I see the coyote every other week or so.  Yesterday, I scared him off the trail right in front of me.
• Watching snow flakes stream through the beam of my headlight.  
• Winter commuting is a little slice of adventure every day.  As the whether gets worse, the slice of the adventure pie gets a little bit bigger.  And everyone likes big slices of pie...right?

Of course, I came up with these and others as I sliced through the 25 degree darkness and did anything I could to take my mind off my two big toes which were gradually going numb since I misjudged my sock choice this morning.  (Teko Merino Wool only if the temp is above 35 - otherwise, SmartWool Ultra Thick)

We might get some snow tomorrow but I've got to make the trek to Boulder for class so I won't be on the bike unfortunately.  The mountains have been getting pounded so hopefully a little boardin' this weekend...