Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I spend the holidays with the family this year. It was really nice to get back to CO and see everyone. Holly and Dave came to CO this year so we spent Christmas with Mom and Dad. It was really fun. We played a lot of board games and drank a few martinis. Then they headed to WY to snow mobile and I headed to the lodge to cross country ski for the week. I hadn't seen cousin Matt in 3 years so it was great to catch up with him. He's in Seattle now so I hope to see hime more than once a year.

There wasn't a lot of snow up there, but the skiing was still pretty good. We had quite a few wild life sightings. I saw a bull moose on my way back to the lodge one evening. I also saw a porcupine climbing a tree on an afternoon outing. Peter, Matt and I were lucky to see several elk and a moose with 2 calves on our telemark hill hill day. For the most part, we had sunny skies and warm weather. It was great to catch some rays and be warm!

pet projects

We have a pet spider. Her name is Beatrice because we think that name suits a female black widow. Yes, I know you must be thinking - why does Heather have a pet black widow? It's a question that I have been asking myself too. It's because I got to rearrange and decorate the entire house while the boys sat quiet so when Derek wanted to cage one of the many black widows in the house, I went along. At least we can keep tabs on her and she's not roaming the house. A random beattle showed up in the house yesterday so we decided to feed it to Beatrice. It was amazing how fast she wound it up and ate it.

It finally dumped last night. It's a winter wonderland around Ashland. I'm glad I don't have to drive today because there are some serious yahoos on the road. I saw a guy in an F250 going down Vista sideways, that is until he turned all the way around and was sliding backwards. Luckily he used the curb to get himself stopped before smashing into any parked cars.

Winter Storm Warning...hmmm

There was a winter storm warning in effect until 10 pm last night. Apparently, it was the weather service screwing with us because we hardly got snow. It was cold though so we went for a hike up to Lamb Mine. It's a nice jaunt from the house. It was beautiful up there.

Derek wasn't impressed with my choice of trail to get there. This is what he had to say to the 2+ miles of straight up hill.

Christmas tree time

We cut a Christmas tree today. It's a pretty good deal. For $5. you can get a permit from the forest service to cut a tree. We found one that was perfect. We thought it was a bit taller than we wanted but it was skinny. Come to find out, it was a LOT taller than what we wanted. It's a perfect 7' tree now though :)

Lat night we all went to Jay's black tie party. Of course, I forgot to take pics of us all dressed up. I think it was because it was so cold in the house - I immediatly put my slippers on and wrapped myself in a blanket while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. Here's Derek scoping out the tree cutting areas. I wanted to cut a Christmas tree this year and he was a trooper and went on the adventure with me.

I spent a few hours this afternoon decorating so now it's festive in here for our Thanksgiving dinner. The house smells sooooo gooood.

Panama surf adventure

We are back from our Panamanian surf advenuture. It was a fun week loaded with good surf. We spent 6 days in Morro Negro at surf camp. We all had a great week in the water and were catching lots of waves by the end of the week. I was excited to catch my 1st real wave on the second day of the trip. I am excited about surfing now and may even brave the cold waters off the Oregon coast. We shall see...

At the end of the trip we spend a day in Panama City checking out this and that. We had lunch at the locks and watched a few large ships pass. It was very interesting and the museum there is quite informative.

We had a rather non-traditional Thanksgiving. Instead of the turkey dinner, football thing we had a pasties , moustache, sharpy tatoo party. Gabe had the English guy there convinced that all Americans do this on Thanksgiving. He's going to be disappointed if he ever makes it the states for the real deal. Most of the pictures from that night probably shouldn't be posted, but this one of Pete kind of sums it up.

We had a few nice susets. It usually rained in the afternoons and evenings but this particular day was beautiful and sunny. I am almost as pale as when I left but maybe it's better that way.

We all liked this low tide spot. It had nice, small, consistant waves. We didn't really have to work to get them either. Bonus! The morning spots were big and SCAREY. I didn't get any pics of those because we took the boats out to that area.

Panama

Off to Panama for 7 days of surf camp adventure :) woohoo!!!

Happy Turkey Day everyone.

opportunity

I've been hunkering down in my cave lately so no blog postings, etc. Sorry! I would like to report that I am finally a registered Landscape Architect :)! I had my oral interview on Friday. As it turned out, it was nothing more than a technicality. Good thing because I only spent about 2 hrs preparing for it. It's nice to have that over with and I am enjoying the accomplishment.

There have been some other work changes resulting from the ecomony, or should I say what remains of it. I am happy to report that I am still employed, even though it is at a reduced hours work week. I haven't actually worked a short week yet because as soon as I found out that my slackin, vacation lovin life style was going to be financially crimped, I threw out the word that I was looking for other opportunities to make some cash. This town in amazing! In a matter of 2 days I had a side job lined up as a photographers assistant - random!, but fun, and since then other random filler jobs have been trickling in. I have to take this opportunity to thank my parents for instilling in me, good ol' fashion work ethic! It's saving my ass right now :)