WTF!

This picture was in an article in "Landscape Architect and Specifier News". I just don't even know what to say about this...

spring skiing

It was a beautiful and warm day here in SOOR. I studied for several hours this am and then headed up to Mt. A with Otto to get some turns in. I didn't really have that much fun though - it was nice to be out there but I just wasn't into it. I think I wore myself out mountain biking yesterday because my hips were killin me today. Maybe I'm just being whiney - either way, I was suffering. The snow is melting really fast! Last week we were skiing fresh powder and this week it was dirt and shrubs!

4 Corners x 2

No pictures from today's adventure, but I went mtn biking with the other Heather and one of her friends. It was great to finally ride with her - she kicked my ass too so it totally motivated me to get a few miles on the legs. Next Sat. is the Spring Thaw but there is too much snow on the course so it's been modified. We rode the course today and it was really hard! It was a roadie course but it is def. a climbers course now. I was thinking about sucking it up and doing the race, but not after pre-riding it today. It felt really good to get out on the mtn bike for several hours and suffering a bit. The rest of the day was all about studying - not as fun.

Boones Farm

We went out to Boones Farm last night to listen to some bluegrass. It was so cool! Boones Farm is a goat farm way out near the Applegate, hence the reason I just had to go. There were a lot of hungry baby goats that went straight for our fingers. They bite pretty hard! glad I'm not a mama goat. The music was good and the atmosphere was great. It felt more like an autumn night because it was cold, there was a bon fire and the stage was lit with white Christmas lights. Best part is - I passed Pete's van driving test. We all hopped in one of the Momentum vans and took it out there since it's a good 40 min. drive from town and I was the DD. The van has no dash board lights, the head lights are a joke and the roads are windy and somehow I didn't scare Pete. We had to make a Jack in the Box stop on the way home - NASTY!!! - but I passed the drive through window test and then I only had to do a 2 pt. turn to get into his driveway - yeah! Now I get to be a driver on the trips this summer when Pete gets in a bind. oh yeah- cause that means I'll get to go on some river trips too. what a deal!

420

The final day of the Mt. Ahsland ski season was yesterday. For the few of us that got up there early there was about 8" of light, fluffy powder. It was a great last day that I milked to the very end. A group of us finished up the season with a south side run, a reflective break at 420 with a view of the valley and a few rays of sun before calling it a day. Looking forward to some spring skiing up there now that the chairs have stopped running.

freeze warning

It was a nice evening so I went out for a road ride after work. The pears are in full blossom and it was a sea of white. It was really pretty. I was in a hurry to get out of the house so I forgot my caerma...and my key. I guess I should hide a key outside because it's bound to happen again. There is yet another freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow evenings. Snow predicted about 15oo feet so we should have a powder day for the last weekend of skiing at Mt. Ashland. It's a good weekend for the ski industry, but it's going to a long, stressful weekend for the farmer's.

SecC

design that is. I spent the weekend down in Golden Gate SP at a review course for section C of the LARE. It was a perfect weather weekend and I had a great view of the road so I got to see 100 or so bikers ride by while I sat on my ass and stressed about this damn test. It was a good class though and I think it will be helpful over the next 2 months as I study. I've scheduled approx. 80 hours of study time between now and the big day. Luckily I came home to sucky sucky weather so I won't be tempted to play outside this week. It's snowing - AGAIN!

I was able to run in the evenings and walk before class. The location was amazing! If you go there though, I would not recommend staying at the YMCA. I have no idea what prison is like but I imagine it to be much like our quarters this weekend. CMU walls covered with mold, mice, cold showers, rubber encased springs for "mattresses". fun fun.

Real Man Saddles

Brian is back and is spreading the laughs. Are you man enough to ride the Real Man Saddle ?

Mt. Thielsen

Today Otto and I went up to Mt. Thielson for some "spring" skiing. (to back up, I met Otto last week when I was up at Mt. Ashland. Come to find out, he's on the Hardy Engineering "ski team". We are teamed up with Hardy's civil side on several projects.) I haven't explored much of the back country areas so I was excited to get out of the bubble and see something new. Mt. Thielson is near Diamond Lake, which is only about 2 hrs from Ashland. When we got there I was suprised to find an empty parking lot. We had the entire place to ourselves! It snowed about 4 inches last night and it was cold today so the snow was perfect. As you can see from the pictures, it was a bit foggy (pea soup like) and snowy so the visibility was poor. I wasn't sure how fast I was going or is I was headed up or down, but at least when I fell it was a soft landing. We got one 2 minute bubble of sun which revealed a glimpse of the top, but I wasn't fast enough on getting the camera out to actually get a good picture of it. next time...

The rest of the weekend was fun. It was 1st Friday so Leah and I went out and socialized then a big group of us met out at Tabu and boogied until the wee hours of the night. Yesterday I went on a short ride and did domestic chores in preparation for the big review class in San Fran next weekend. Must pass section C!

the list

ok- so I was having a conversation with one of my friends who got divorced about the same time I did. He had this interesting analogy about how he was dating "the devil". Not that this woman is evil or anything, but he knows that she's just alright for now, but a lot of fun. The conversation made me laugh because I knew exactly what he was talking about. It got me thinking about my devil vs. angel debate. The devil is so much fun, easy, low maintnance, but ultimately, very dangerous. The angel, on the other shoulder, well its pretty obvious what that's about.