life moves along at an impressive clip

hey folks. not much to update on. frak and snookum were here last weekend for what turned out to be a really great day of skiing on sunday. we started around noon in a light snow, and as the day went on it progressed into a steady dump. by 3 we were hitting 6 to 8 inch powder stashes on morningside and hooting and hollering on the way down. fun stuff.

upcoming:

*jeebus, formerly big pants, has a gig on saturday here at the college for the ncaa rocky mountain regional ski championships. there will be 19 schools from 7 different states, a total of 190 people counting competitors and coaches. if even half that number show up to the banquet we're playing, it'll be the biggest crowd i've ever been in front of. i'm excited.

*uncle john and his fam will be skiing with us early in march. he couldn't have picked a better season to hit steamboat. best since 1996.

*pdiddy and his cool new lady will be with us starting march 10th. pdiddy is a port-drinkin', guitar-pickin', dr. evil impersonatin' wild man.

*the rackles will be with us starting march 15th. jenn grew up with jill, and it's funny hearing stories of jenn's misspent teenage years from jill.

*jenn's cousin nick and his posse of college homeboys will be joining us later in march.

when you live in a ski town, lots of folks visit. we like to think they're coming primarily to see us, but i'm sure the skiing/fishing/hiking might have a little to do with it.

link o' the day:

save love monkey, the best 1 hour drama about the music industry ever.

new song

predicting the future in puget sound

we were easy peasy
feeling a little sleazy
you were halfway there
and i was feeling it too
and in the early morning light
i forgot about last night
i wished we didn't have to leave
so soon

the fog rolled in from the sound
in a city built on coffee grounds
the sheets twisted
around your skinny legs
awake we walked the street
and took a tattered seat
in a diner
where we ordered bacon and eggs

and i'm swimming
i'm skimming
the morning paper
i'm stirring
sugar
into my tea
and i'm grinning
i'm beginning
to see you
i'm hoping
that you
see me

the streets were grimy
and we were stymied
we were lost
looking for record stores
flipping through used CD bins
iron and wine and the shins
i spilled cafe au lait
on the floor

-solo-

and i'm swimming
i'm skimming
the morning paper
i'm stirring
sugar
into my tea
and i'm grinning
i'm beginning
to see you
i'm hoping
that you
see me

our rental car on the beach
the sunset overwhelms speech
we'll fly home
on the red eye tonight
you'll look out into the black
and i'll reach into my pack
as denver
rounds the corner into sight

and i'm swimming
i'm skimming
the morning paper
i'm stirring
sugar
into my tea
and i'm grinning
i'm beginning
to see you
i'm hoping
that you
see me

link o' the day:

if you served in NCCC, or AmeriCorps, or if you just don't think NCCC should go away for good, visit this site.

a hypothetical meeting...

between FDR and dubya:

dubya: well gosh, mr. president, it sure is an honor.

Roosevelt: f*#k you.

in case you hadn't heard, dubya's new budget has some serious cuts in it. some programs are being shut down entirely, one of which is the national civilian community corps (NCCC), a direct descendant of roosevelt's new deal baby - the civilian conservation corps (CCC). NCCC is the organization j worked for while we were in denver.

it is now gone. kaput. current NCCC employees will lose their jobs at the end of the year.

all of our closest friends in denver are jenn's former coworkers (or friends of jenn's former coworkers). they are reeling.

a program that did wonders for communities across the nation, that was often the first on-the-ground federal response for national disasters... is no more. and it only warranted a bullet point in corporation for national and community service ceo david eisner's letter to his colleagues.

i'll leave the political discourse out of my blog, other than to say that this is so disappointing, and seems misguided.

link o' the day:

for a case study in delusion and narcissism in the wilds of alaska, watch this movie. timothy treadwell was one crazy SOB.

recap

while you may be expecting a dour mood from me in response to the illini's ridiculous loss at home to penn state (penn f*#king state!), i have decided not to concern myself with it. with a 21-3 overall record, and 6-3 in a very tough big ten this year, i'm going to allow myself some satisfaction.

so, moving on, here's a recap from thursday onward:

thursday: jenn asked me to tend bar (wine pouring and beer bottle opening) for the annual arts council report to the board meeting. met some cool folks and had some incredible food from the caterers, in spite of their questionable practices.

friday: came in early for an hour of work, then took the rest of the day off to fish with my good friend double b - along with my dad, the man most responsible for my fly fishing obsession (and just as obsessed as i am, i might add). we went over to the brown's park area on the c section of the green river. i caught a 17 inch rainbow/cutthroat hybrid called a cuttbow, and an 18 inch brown trout. bruce also caught a nice sized brown. the weather was brutal - 30 mph wind gusts, 40 degree temps, and snow spitting every now and then. we caught fish in very difficult conditions (on flies that i tied!), and i thought that was pretty cool.

saturday/sunday: jenn and i drove down to grand junction for a couple days out of the cold and snow. we shopped, tasted wines, and went for a sunny red rock hike in the colorado national monument.

now: jenn and i have to finish our flat stanley project, to send back to olivia (the daughter of our friends alex and debby reynolds).

link o' the day:

if i can swing the time off, i might be going here at the end of march.

and dumping

in case you're unfamiliar with the highly technical levels that gauge how hard it's snowing, here they are (in ascending order of severity):

dumping (smallish flakes, i can see 3 miles down valley from my office)
puking (flake size is irrelevant, volume is picking up, can't see 4 blocks)
nuking (we've achieved light speed in the millenium falcon)

folks, it's somewhere between puking and nuking right now. heavy snow warning in effect until 6 am friday morning. here's our forecast:

tonight - widespread snow, accumulation 2 to 4 inches.
thursday - snow, accumulation 4 to 7 inches.
thursday night - snow, accumulation 2 to 4 inches.

but really, if storms hit like they're supposed to, it can be a whole lot more. some folks are saying two feet.

i love this stuff, but i need a break. jenn and i are headed down to grand junction this weekend for a 15 degree increase in temperature, and a 300 inch decrease in snow.

link o' the day:

if you ain't heard of mike the headless chicken, then you must live under a rock.