Ever seen a walking birthday cake?

Little Abigail Breslin was the sentimental favorite but didn't win - her co-star oldie Alan Arkin did, though

What happens on the dance floor...

...stays on the dance floor. The scene from Saturday night's BSF Winter Semi-Formal:


I busted a few moves, yes. Shattered them, actually. Disclaimer: This wasn't an "official" BSF social event, just a yearly tradition we organize among ourselves.

Me on a snowmobile!

I finally got hold of my dad's pictures from the snowmobile tour we took on our fourth day of our Colorado vacation. This was the most enjoyable part of the vacation for me! Here's me solo, and me with my mom riding backseat.

An Invisible Man Married An Invisible Woman...

Their kids were nothing to look at.

Pictures...

I finally posted some vacation pictures at Flickr....check them out!

Bald Britney...

[WE TEMPORARILY LOWER THE IQ OF THIS BLOG IN ORDER TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING POST ABOUT BRITNEY SPEARS. I PROMISE IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN.]

OK, so Miss Spears does one night in a Caribbean drug rehab, overnights it back to Hollywood where she promptly shaves her own noggin clean and adds to her body art collection.

She's over the edge, folks. Look down into the deep end and you'll find her swimming around it in it. I think the star-making celebrity machine has officially chewed her up and spit her out.

Here's hoping someone intervenes and saves her before it's too late.

Or maybe it is too late.

Me On Skis, The End...

In retrospect, I'm really glad I was able to go on this vacation to Colorado. The long drives to and from and the air mattress I had to sleep on were really minor inconveniences. My ski school experience went just about as I thought it would. This year was all about learning and if I ever come back I imagine I'll have more fun. : ) The most satisfying parts of the trip were the many photo opportunities I had and the snowmobile tour at the end of the week.

Would I go again? Absolutely. Who wouldn't? It was a good vacation and a good way to get away from the daily routine. Did the skiing push me way out of my comfort zone? You bet. I should get out of there more often.

This trip worked largely because of the company I was with. My parents talked up this trip relentlessly and encouraged me during the ski school. They couldn't wait for me to see the mountains. The other couple on the trip were easy to travel and live with. They'd done this vacation for several years prior and they had the daily routine planned out so all I had to do was go with the flow.

They say I need to come back in the summer time for hiking and biking...I hope it's sooner rather than later!

Homeward (Snow) Bound...

Our traveling party left our condo in the pre-dawn darkness of Friday for the trip home. It was snowing moderately as we entered I-70 eastbound. Traveling through the mountains on a snowy interstate is no one's idea of a good time, obviously! : ) Most eerie was that the interstate was closed at the Eisenhower Tunnel so a line of trucks carrying hazardous materials could go through first. The snow continued as the sky became lighter and lighter. Not until Denver did it let up. We headed into Kansas after a breakfast stop in Limon, Colorado.

The drive was uneventful until the sky turned ominously gray about a half hour west of Topeka. Sure enough, we drove into an ice/snow squall that slowed traffic considerably. My dad was driving and grimly noted "we'll have to adjust our ETA." Spun-out cars and semi-trucks began appearing randomly on the road. Traffic finally came to a dead halt for about 30 minutes while a bad accident was cleared. Eventually we started moving and the ice/snow tapered off as we drove throuth Topeka.

The rest of the trip was a white-knuckle navigation down I-70 into Kansas City and throughout Missouri. The highway was alternately ice and snow packed and snow was blowing fiercely, which slowed our speed down to 35-45 mph. Thus a 3.5 hour trip from KC to St. Louis became more like 6 hours. It was nerve-wracking but we made it.

Me on a Snowmobile...

On Thursday we took a two-hour snowmobile tour of some of the beautiful wilderness of Colorado. We caught our ride in a nearby town and headed up into the back country. The van dropped us off at a base camp where we put on helmets and boots and got the required safety briefing. My dad reserved four snowmobiles for our group, which meant my mom rode piggyback on my snowmobile. The tour was guided so we wouldn't get lost on the trails. I had a blast navigating through some of the most beautiful wilderness I'd ever experienced. This feeling was mutual among the other members of our group. Unfortunately, my driving kept me from taking pictures but my dad did manage to get some, which are still on his camera. I will post some when I get copies.

We didn't get to do any snowshoeing because of the way the snowmobiling was timed. I did get in a nice afternoon hike on the bike trail that borders Lake Dillon. That evening we had a nice meal out at a local restaurant then packed up for the trip home.

The picture of above was taken from the snowmobile base camp after our tour ended. I also snapped a couple of pictures of Cooper the camp dog. He'll be in my Flickr set of pictures.

Me On Skis, Part Three...

[Now I'm back to creating posts in retrospect. I didn't have time to pre-compose any further postings]

Wednesday concluded my ski school experience. I got the same instructor that I had on Tuesday, luckily. He said we would warm up on the hill we had skied on previously and would graduate to the big chair lift if we appeared ready to ski a bigger hill. In my heart I knew I wasn't ready and was already planning to stay on the smaller hill if given the choice. As fate would have it, (or maybe God planned it? : ) ) the platter lift on the smaller hill was broken so we had no choice but to graduate. I rolled off the big chair lift and fell to the ground but the operator pulled me out of the way before I got hit by the chair behind me : ) Finally skiing a real downhill slope was a huge challenge for me, mentally. The instructor knew it would be for the whole group so we did it in little bits at a time! The hill wasn't any steeper than what we had practiced on, just longer and dotted with pine trees. I did it, slowly, but I did it! I fell a few times but again, didn't hurt myself.

After lunch, I did one more run down the smaller hill I knew well then packed it in for the day. I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the village around the lodge and taking pictures. It snowed periodically throughout the three days we skied and made for some nice pictures.

Me On Skis, PartTwo...

[The following post was composed on Tuesday, February 13]

I started out the day in a Level Two class and caught another great instructor. My group today numbered about 7 students They came from places like Miami, Baltimore, Houston, and Great Britain. All female and all married, darn the luck! One of the students was in my class from yesterday and did the remedial course with me. She was from Miami and vacationing with her husband and young son, who was seeing snow up close for the first time.

I learned a lot and made good progress from yesterday. The instructor was mega-patient and very helpful to all of us. I didn’t make it onto the chair lift today, unfortunately. I stayed on the same hill as yesterday and I think I will stay there tomorrow as well. I’m just beginning to get good at making turns with the skis and am not confident enough to move forward. The instructor said that was the right way to go.

The snow was much, much better today. It had been groomed overnight and everyone had a great time on the slopes.

We got smart about lunch today and took most of our own food to eat. All I had to buy was a $7.00 hot dog. That’s right, $7.00 .

The sky at daybreak today was breathtakingly gorgeous. There was just the right mix of clouds and sun. The mountains were majestic as the woke to greet the day. I took lots of pictures and they will be on my Flickr site sometime after I get back in town.

We’ll have one more day of skiing tomorrow then do a snowmobile tour on Thursday. We might have time to snowshoe in the afternoon. Then, it’s a long day of driving home on Friday.

The picture above was taken at daybreak from the balcony of our condo. Our condo is located on the banks of Lake Dillon in the town of Dillon, Colorado. In the winter, the lake is frozen over, which you see as the white space in the foreground.

Me On Skis (The Reality), Part One...

[The following post was composed on Tuesday, February 13. I was too tired to compose it on the 11th. A bit of reading help: "we all" or "we" will refer to all of us on the ski vacation; my mom, me, and the pastor and his wife]

My mom warned me that the first day of ski school would likely be traumatic. She was right. After bundling up, we headed to Breckenridge, about 20 minutes from our condo. Once there, I got fitted for boots and skis then headed out to the ski school area. I had about 10 people in my group from all over the country. Our instructor was a guy from Michigan. (The instructors are dispersed by their supervisors depending on enrollment and skill levels.] Unfortunately, his teaching style didn't click with my learning style and I didn't advance to the afternoon session with my class.

I met my parents for lunch at the ski lodge. To my shock, I saw that food prices were, shall we say INFLATED, to say the least. I paid, GET THIS, $14.00 for a cheeseburger, basket of fries, and a medium-size soda. $14.00!!!! WHAT THE %^@@@%*#????!!! I didn’t know the big oil companies were in the food-court business. It wasn’t just that; all the food was priced at least double what it would be anywhere else. I could only shake my head in amazement! There was really nowhere else to eat nearby, so I guess they have a monopoly. Everyone coming off the slopes is wearing ski boots, which are a pain in the rear to walk around in. Their restaurant is convenient and the only real option so let the gouging begin. : )

As I mentioned earlier, my afternoon ski school was the polar opposite of the morning school. There were three others besides me who needed further help. We were assigned a really great instructor. He took things much slower and explained things so I could understand them, as Forrest Gump would say. Since there were only four of us in the group, he could analyze us individually. Part of my problem was that my ski boots were a bit too loose and he whipped out a tool to tighten them up. This made all the difference in the world! By the end of the day I was feeling much better about my prospects of being a competent skier.

Oh, and encase you’re wondering, I did fall, several times. In inconvenient places, several times. Thankfully, I didn’t get hurt at all. Skiing involves moving most of the muscles in your legs so it helps to have them well conditioned. I had worked out pretty hard but I still ended up with lots of sore muscles. It turns out that the day didn’t go so well for the other skiers in my company. The slopes weren’t in great shape after the weekend and persistent snow showers during the day made for tough skiing. A hot shower soothed my aching muscles while the others soaked in a hot tub downstairs. A hot meal and a game of Scrabble made up the rest of the night.

Interesting aside: what I didn’t expect was the number of foreigners employed by the ski resort. I encountered workers from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Argentina, just to name a few.

My dad snapped the picture of me above. Ignore my bad form; I was still learning! The apparatus in the background is a "platter lift." It's a pole with a mini-frisbee attached to the bottom. They are attached to a moving clothesline that goes up the hill. The idea is to grab onto the pole, let the mini-frisbee grab you between the legs, and it pulls you back up the hill. You have to get off at the proper time and start moving forward or you could start sliding back down the hill, as I did a few times until that mental block got unblocked!

Head For the Mountains...

[The following post was composed on Sunday, February 11]

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The other couple on this ski vacation with my parents and me is the pastor of their church and his wife. Instead of going to church somewhere, we had a short devotional time at the hotel this morning. This pastor is beloved to his flock, which included me before I moved away. It was neat to hear him work through a couple of scripture verses.

We fueled up at a nearby IHOP then headed into the Rocky Mountains. The temperature was in the 40s as we started out but fell quickly into the low 30s as we climbed. “America The Beautiful” contains a familiar passage about “purple mountain majesty” and I am experiencing that firsthand. The beauty of the snow-capped peaks is truly awe-inspiring.

Our condo has a great view of a frozen-over lake with the majestic mountains in the distance. The condo is really nice. It’s 2 bedrooms and 2 baths with a living room and kitchen. The living room has a gas fireplace and an outside deck. By the way, neither of the 2 bedrooms are mine; I get a Coleman air mattress to sleep on! : ) The area is lacking in fresh snow. There’s lots of dirty, leftover snow from the blizzards of last December. Fresh snow is forecast for tomorrow, however. After unloading and unpacking, we stocked up with groceries for the week. We will be cooking most of our evening meals in lieu of eating out.

The last order of business was to check out the ski resorts. We stopped at Breckenridge first. I got checked in at their ski school and bought my lessons, equipment rental and ski lift tickets. My dad found a great deal online: 3 days of lessons, ski lift ticket, and equipment rental for $235, a HUGE savings over buying them separately. The slopes were populated with mostly locals that I’m told will be gone during the week. We stopped briefly at Keystone, where my parents went to ski school.. I took my first pictures of the mountains there.

Now I wait in anticipation for what is to come. I’m not sure what to think about learning to ski. My parents’ experience with skiing has been positive thus far so I’m optimistic about my learning experience. With a good night’s rest and breakfast tomorrow I should be ready to tackle ski school head-on.

Home Again...

I'm home again, after a white-knuckle drive through Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Snow followed us through the entire return trip. It was snowing as we left our condo at 5:46 a.m. MST and we either drove through a snowstorm or through snowy landscapes the remainder of the trip. I was dropped off at my house at 12:35 a.m. CST Saturday morning (or late Friday night). That's right, we did 18 hours on the road Friday. More on that in another post.

I had no daily wi-fi connection, so I wrote posts for each day as they happened, not in retrospect. My dad and I drove to a coffeehouse and internet-ed for a half-hour on Wednesday before they closed.

Things To Do In Denver...

not much tonight....blogging tonight from a Radisson hotel room in Denver, CO. We rolled out of my place at 6:16 central time this morning and pulled in here at around 6 p.m. mountain time tonight. We'll get up tomorrow and drive another hour west to a condo in Dillon, CO.

The drive through Kansas wasn't so bad. It was lots of rolling hills and farm fields. I did wave as we passed the exit to Ogden! We saw lots of snow along the way. Really odd was the several herds of antelope that were grazing within sight of the interstate near the KS/CO border. Evidently they're not supposed to be so close to civilization. This excited my dad, who was a biology teacher many moons ago.

Irony: the air temperature was 14 degrees at dawn in MO and it's in the 40s here... My traveling companions are really hypeing the scenery to come.

Odd Kansas fact....there is some town (I forget which one; they blurred together after a while) where you can see the world's biggest prairie dog and a six-legged steer. I regret we didn't have time to stop.

Posts will be sporadic this week (so what else is new?) as I encounter wi-fi access.

The vacation adventure begins tomorrow...

bright and early. I'll board a rented minivan with my parents and another couple and set out for Colorado. The proper clothing has been purchased, a new camera is packed and my iPod is charged up. My last load of laundry is drying as I write this. I made one last run to the Y tonight to, well, run! I hope I have prepared my body sufficiently. We'll be skiing, snowmobiling, and possibly snowshoeing during our trip. My dad is bringing his laptop so with any luck and a wi-fi connection I'll post pictures here while we're there.

That's all I really have to say for now. I could talk about the deep freeze that St. Louis has been enveloped in for the last few weeks. I could talk about the tragic end to Anna Nicole Smith's tragic life, but enough of my friends in the mass media are talking about it that I shall refrain....really, what could I possibly add to the conversation? : ) Just that, OK, everyone, Miss Smith was NOT this generation's Marilyn Monroe!

But I prefer to be giddy with anticipation of crossing the great state of Kansas tomorrow... : ) If we pass near Cooks In Kansas territory, I'll wave!

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On a side note, I'm glad to see the St. Louis Blues are playing such great hockey. The coaching change did the trick, pulling them out of their first-half funk. They shut out the big, bad Detroit Red Wings last night, the first time they've been shut out by anyone since 2004. The playoffs are still a long shot for the Bluenote, but their current third-place standing is a long way from where they were.

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Now, off to finish packing!