Typical Aspen Day Off...

I went skiing today. I had the day off. This is what the Sundeck looked like at lunch time. I love dramatic Icicles. I had a little bite to eat and saw the clouds rolling in over the Highlands you can see from the top of Ajax.
So nice to be able to ski on a day off. Lot's of stuff to keep track of however. I just now realized I left my helmet at the ticket office... I can't believe I did that! There is almost no crime here, so I am guessing it is still in the office and I can pick it up tomorrow.
I had to quite around 2:30 because the clouds did roll in and we had no visibility. Sometimes it makes me ski better if I have limited view, but this time was just annoying. Good news is we are getting a bunch more snow right now!
With the snow comes other hazards though. I Had a fall down our stairs the other night and smacked my right back hip real good. I have a bruise that is now a strange shade of purple green. I also had my car plowed in. We always hear about this happening, but this time it was my Jeep. We had a real sloppy, wet storm and the plow ran by and wedged a drift of snow under and around my entire car. I tried to dig it out a couple of days ago, but the wheels kept spinning, and I have a 4 wheel drive Jeep! I finally tried again today and, with the kindness of a fellow Aspen resident waiting for his child's school bus, we finally freed my car. It was sitting on top of a block of ice. It took us digging, putting it in low gear, and him pushing at the same time. It was sort of unreal and I couldn't imagine what that would be like if I had a sedan. Unfortunately I have no photos. too busy digging.
I leave you guys with this shot of Wyatt. He is kind of HUGE now. His favorite is to get his belly scratched. I fear he is just spoiled rotten. He has a tendency to break into the guys apartment upstairs. They love him too, so it's not all that bad. At the moment he is curled up in a blanket, sleeping on the couch. A rare quiet moment! He's a freak, but we love him!

Deep Thoughts... in the snow drifts

If anyone has been following the weather lately you would know that we just got hit by a huge snow storm this week. Not enough to shut much down, besides the schools. It is truly fascinating to me, being fron SoCal. The snow makes the dead looking trees and shrubs alive again, the dirt of the mountains look like a gingerbread house, with a frosting of snow. The trees are naturally flocked. I never got the flocked Christmas tree as a kid, but now I finally get it. And then there's the icicles. All the tress have been flocked and decorated with icicles! So bitching!
I have been in awe of the snow. The Hollywood looking glittery snow. Today at work we watched giant snowflakes the size of dimes and quarters falling, continuously, all day! It is still warm in town, so it turns to slush when it hits the streets. It is like a little city made at the 7 Eleven, coconut favor, with a little root beer. (Doesn't smell like coconut though. Smells like the mountains and snow.)
I have had exasperating moments, looking at a trash can like this (ours) and having a dog poop in a bag to throw out. The lid is heavy to begin with, but that's about 20 lbs. of snow on top. So suck! I guess we can be thankful that the bear locks are no longer mandatory. Most of them are hibernating now. I did hear of a "relocated" bear family that were making their way back up valley to Aspen and they were foregoing hibernation. Can't believe everything you hear though.
Wyatt got to play with this amazing looking 4 month old puppy mix today, along with 2 chocolate labs, a German Shepard and a Jack Russell mix. They had a great time diving into the drifts of fresh powder in Wagner park. Wyatt is the hit in the dog community around here, that's for sure. He is the line-backer of Jack Russells.
This was my walk home tonight. The Holidays are here and they will stay until like March. (They leaves the lights up forever here. Looks too cool to take down.) If this doesn't make everyone want to come and visit... I just don't know what to do. Then there's something wrong with you, period.

Winter Wonderland... again

So I haven't posted in a while. I have been busy with things like school, figuring out how a small dog is going to go poo in 25 inches of snow, trying not to slip on ice and, finally, skiing. Yes, the snow has returned and it is so beautiful.
The first day I got out on the mountain was not great. I wasn't feeling all that well and the snow was a little icy for my taste. There was not much of a base and it got really hard pack in the afternoon. So today was my second day back on skis and the different was extreme. We were hit by a snow, or a couple of storms, that dumped all day Saturday and into Sunday morning. In town we got 20 inches of snow and on the hill they estimated 30 inches. The weather has been warm so it was a big slop pot when the first storm hit, the entire town was reduced to the consistency of a 7Eleven slurpy. Not so easy to walk in. The second storm hit and it just kept dumping.
The snow today was like corn starch and even made that noise that corn starch makes when you are baking. The more obscure runs that are open right now had powder well into the day. Powder can be so fun, but it is completely different kind of skiing. I kept popping skis on the powder runs. It is a lot more sloppy skiing in powder, or at least it is fun me. I love watching the little kids go head on into a powder drift and almost disappear. They can't stop giggling. Or, the teenagers going twice as fast as you are and woooing all the way down.
We had a holiday since I last posted. This is a picture from Matt and Lisa's house. Nice view. Thanksgiving has always been such a great pig out session in our family's house. I missed the traditional dinner my Mom makes in Lancaster, California. Jonathan works almost every holiday if there's snow on the ground, so we stayed here in Aspen. Jonathan prepared an amazing dinner at Matt and Lisa's house. We didn't have turkey because the store had none that were not frozen, so we made lamb. It was delightful and I always love it when he cooks and I think Matt and Lisa appreciated the effort after working all day and chasing their little girls around all day.
Earlier in the day, Jonathan and I took the gondola up to the top of Aspen Mountain and met Matt and his girl's for lunch. This is a shot of Emma and her dad (Matt). She informed me before dinner that she had crocodiles in her tummy. I keep using that one this week. I also felt like I had crocodiles in my tummy on Wednesday. Bad Chinese perhaps? Still not sure.


That's about it. I forgot my camera skiing today, but I will try to remember tomorrow.
Come and visit, everyone! Ciao!