more fun at the ranch. this is a pretty sweet way to tour around. there are seats on the front bumper and you sit there and pray that the bumper doesn't fall off... it is exhilarating. and yes that is a camo truck.

jon shooting clay birds with his grandfather's 12 gauge.

we went fishing at dusk tonight and griffin reeled in this big mouth bass by himself. it is as big as his torso.

a teeny tiny dip of the toe.

jon and i went out to these side by side tripod deer stands tonight. it was pretty cool, but kinda hard to get into the things. we saw a ton of deer. more pics later. i am working off of a verizon phone card for the internet and it is slower than old skool dial up to load pictures.

we are having a good time, it's been pretty cool down here in south texas and very windy. i am real glad i'm not in boulder. i even got to take out my old ibis cross bike out on all the roads. there are tons of cactus and spiky plants to put a hole in my tire, but i made it for 1.5 hours without one. wish me luck tomorrow.

i went to see the pursuit of happiness with my mom and her best friend joan. the movie was a series of what i like to call "debbie downers" and then finally at the end something good happens to him. it is a true story, and pretty amazing story at that. it gets 3 out of 5 stars, but 5 out of 5 for acting by the fresh prince of bel air.

a story i heard last night: joan, the one with a bright orb coming out of her head, is my high school math tutor (my worst subject by far, and possibly one of her worst tutees). she is also one of the smartest people i know. however, she rented the movie "american pie" thinking it was about the song by don mclean. she was shocked, but i do think she watched the whole movie before returning it.

after the movie we went to sweet tomatoes. it is all you can eat with a huge selection of salad, pasta, pizza, soups, baked goods and ice cream. i did a quick survey around the room during my visit and noticed that thin people do not eat here nor do people with gastric bypass surgery (since they have a stomach the size of an almond or whatever). these are two of the many topics discussed over dinner with my mom and joan. we had a good time.

next up is a trip to south texas for four days. jon is down there already, he went yesterday with my dad. mom and i go down today. i will try to blog from the "ends of the earth", but internet is hard to come by. we do have a little verizon card that may work, we'll see.

christmas morning was fun with the kids at todd and jill's house.

there was a lot of family time.

a lot of jumping with tigger.

alot of group drum circles between the boys.

santa left gracen a vitamin cottage colored bike with tassels.

there was griffin wearing every pair of underwear he got from santa over his sweatpants.

all around there was just a lot of hanging out in underwear and diapers.

some cold rides in the old MG with popi.

some rocking and rolling in ryan's new personalized chair.

and some sleeping at the end of the day since it was exhausting!

jon and i got garmins for xmas so we always know where we are at all times. jon's is a sweet forerunner 305, and i got a gsmaps 60cs hand-me-down from my dad's hunting trip in alaska. santa also brought me an 80g video ipod and i am so excited since before i had a 1st generation one that was barely hanging on and i ran out of gigs a long time ago.

more pics later, chasing my brother's 3 kids around is making me super tired, time to hit the hay.

merry christmas everyone

we got to the denver airport 3 hours early and watched the will farrell movie, elf, to get us in the christmas spirit. it worked.

and, three lucky things that happened to us yesterday: 1. the bus we got on went straight from the boulder station to the airport without stopping. (it felt like a limo ride with a bunch of random people in it) 2. checking in online and carrying on luggage saved us from a line that wrapped around the mcdonalds and across the walkway (about 1/2 a mile long) 3. security wait line on the A concourse was very short.

today i saw a kid with a rat tail waiting in the chair at the barbershop by ideal market. i was super bummed i didn't have my camera.


xmas is almost here and jon and i can't wait to get out of this snow.

i don't want to wait in this line. cross your fingers that the 4000 people stuck at dia will be gone by xmas eve.

i forgot i had to go to the other house an shovel. i couldn't bear doing the whole driveway, so i just made a path for potential buyers to walk up.

for $1,200 this all in one 3 lb pocket knife can be yours. this gets my vote for the dumbest overpriced gift of the year: the giant swiss army knife (they couldn't even think of a creative name for it).

woke up this morning, and did more of this... boulder had a total of 32" which is one of the top 5 snows of all time.

jon did more of this...

then we decided to pick up our friend and neighbor cathy, and skate down the middle of the street to north boulder park.

cathy and i met up with jen, megan, meeeeeegan and skate skied around the park. it was real pretty (as you can see the snow covered flatirons in the background).

jen (far right) shoots some snot out of her nose. mountain bikers are real good at that, she must teach me her technique since i always end up with it on my sleeve.

note to my dad who told us to load up on milk. looks like the stores have plenty of milk. everyone drinks soy in boulder.

yesterday morning

2 p. m.

this morning

some crazy person riding by my window. he fell twice while going down our street.

more pictures coming because jon and i are going to explore the hood by foot, cross bike and skis.

i woke up the morning to the news blowing this storm way out of proportion. then i went out in it and saw that they weren't, this "blizzard of '06" as they have deemed it is pretty gnarly.

i walked with jon to work just to get out of the house today. then i went to the post office, grocery store, (which was crazy with people loading up on all sorts of essentials for fighting out the storm). all this took an hour and i was walking in a foot of unshoveled sidewalks by the end of my trip.


i got a little yerba mate tea to keep me happy and full of holiday joy.

then i came home and shoveled the driveway (pic is of my neighbor). by the time i finished shoveling it was time to shovel again. i am really missing the mobile home by the sea right now.



time to ride the bike rollers inside. i never do this, but today i kinda hafta, and it kinda suckza.

here are a four great gift ideas for those people that have everything.

stop getting up and walking to the light to turn it off. that's way too demanding. just clap on, clap off, the clapper.

grow the cutest furry grass sheep in town. cha cha cha chia.

blue jean acid washed cycling shorts, a must for the cycling enthusiast.

and for the people that hate walking and always need to have that drink. a cooler mounted on top of a motorized scooter.

some skate skiing pictures from the weekend. jon and sara at the vail nordic center.

the vail nordic center is the best, it is flat, which i like, and it is only $5 for some good skate skiing.

i now know why i don't wear the detachable hood on this jacket much.

the results from our white elephant xmas exchange...

we had one winner with the lotto tickets. a whole $3.

jon and some zoo poop for gardening.

my new electric guitar. (yes the sunglasses do light up with the beat of the guitar)

sorry about the pictures, but i am using jon's camera phone because i forgot my camera download thingy. we get home tomorrow and i will update with some skate skiing photos.