Went to
It was the kind of skiing where you wake up whenever, make coffee and a nice breakfast, take time to change and adjust the gear properly, take funny photographs along the way, and quit as soon as wings at the brewery start to enter your mind. Had it dumped a foot of snow the night before and warmed up, we might have felt a little differently about it. Sunday was a longer ski day in the sunshine.
This weekend we’re off to
THEN it’s spring.
Another yurt-terrific adventure weekend! Thanks to all who organized the event and provided scrumptious food and entertainment!
Bromley didn't make it... he had a tough time in last year's snow with his arthritic hip, so we had to make the responsible decision of leaving him home (and by home I mean with my parents, not alone in the house with a 40-pound bag o' dog food and a pee mat).
The weather was decent enough for some hiking and sledding - or "sliding" as some parts of the country seem to want to call it ;-) The full sun even came out long enough for us to catch some rays in this photo! ...And Shakedown Street turned out to be the weekend's theme song.
We saw a bumper sticker on the way home that gave me a good chuckle, so I ordered a few of them today: "At least the war on the environment is going well."
Two ski weekends ahead before what looks to be an April R&R period! Gary's on PetFinder.com daily now that the days are longer...
While out with friends a couple of weeks ago, the subject of vacations came up. It seems to be coming up a ton these days - everyone making big plans and eventually coming around to "hey, what are you guys doing for a vacation?" I never have an answer.
That particular night, my friend BG immediately pointed out that Gary and I seem to treat every weekend as a vacation... and you know what? It's kinda true! I've been thinking about it a lot ever since she said that.
It's not that Gary and I don't go anywhere. In our four years of relationship-parte-dos we've circled the country by car, honeymooned in Costa Rica, skied the Lake Tahoe region with friends, jaunted down to Amelia Island and Jacksonville FL, and visited great friends in the DC/VA area for a week. But on the weekends we've hiked, camped, yurted, skied, explored, constructed, photographed, fished, bike-toured, toasted, road-raced, and laughed with almost every one of our dear friends and family.
Whenever I tell someone we're "just chillin" this weekend, it usually means a combo of three of the above and only crossing one State border. And I'm okay with that (should I ask G?). Never seems odd to me until someone suggests we slow down. Huh? And do what?
To answer that question -
Next flights: Chicago, Arizona
Next international: St. Kitts
Next conventional "vacation": Costa Rica 2010
Dream vacation: Greek Islands
Happy 1st Birthday to Jake!
I just came across a witty blog today called "Whole Foods for a Whole Year." A woman my age in Maine is documenting her attempt to completely overhaul and eat no refined, processed, hormone-boosted, chemically enhanced, genetically altered, etc., foods in 2008. A great real-life example and a fun way to learn about what "whole" really means.
I spent a good three years eating as "clean" as possible, and I was actually darn successful at it when living between Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in Newton, MA. I went all the way, cutting out most coffee and booze too. I drank obscene amounts of water, and my energy levels were through the roof.
(What changed? I fell in love, and with love came wine and ice cream...)
Well, I didn't actually stray that far over the last few years of marriage - many of you know how I can be sometimes, particularly about the Purdue brand and grocery-store baked goods. But it's not always easy to find meat free of growth hormones or to have to toss milk and bread that last less than a week because it doesn't have preservatives.
2008 has marked a gradual upgrade in our kitchen cabinets, however. I'm walking the extra distance to pick up the right groceries during work days in Boston and commute home with them. We're trying new food options (thanks to Mom Hedman for the quinoa tip!), and always making everything we can from scratch.
I encourage everyone to go whatever tiny distance you can. A great resource is: http://www.whfoods.com/
According to Wikipedia, "a leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected."
An extra day. 24 more hours. What are you gonna do with it? And why is it not a day off from work...?
My ideal extra day would include a soy latte, the ocean, Bromley, exercise, my camera, sushi and wine.
What I'm really wondering is how many people will use the extra 24 hours to watch the Sarah Silverman/Jimmy Kimmel videos over and over and over again.
What a weekend! Our nieces on skis for the first time, ice skating, sledding and snowball fights!
Are you having a better time watching American Idol than you did watching the Superbowl? I think I am.
It's interesting to see what a couple of weeks will do. I've spent two whole weekends not working, the weather has gone from 50s to 10 and back to 50s again, my parents returned from three months away, the Valentine's decorations are out, and everyone seems to feel that winter is over.
The end of a beautiful Saturday - no work, just straight R&R. That sure felt good.
We drove out to Wellfleet today to check out the shipwreck that washed ashore in last week's storm. "50 feet of keel and oaken ribs" they call it. A very cool sight to see, and it turns out that on a 50-degree and sunny Saturday in February, hundreds of other people (and dogs) want to see it too!
We then swapped sides and walked along the bay side as the sun went down. I loved this shot, but we also saw some cool trash-art out there as well (more in my Flickr photos).
In other news, I'm very relieved to have another month of reports done at work and looking forward to some personal reading, some exercise... even girly trash like the movie 27 Dresses I saw tonight with my friend Carrie :-) Gary's pretty swamped at work too, but we're both really enjoying it at the same time.
