Silent Blog, Skiing Blog

Sorry about that.

Usually when I go out of town I pre-post some blogs, but I didn't have any blogs ready to go. *sad face*

On Frenchman run

Of course, on the drive HOME I thought I should have posted the work we had done on our house since I forgot to post it after they were finished. I posted on Facebook, but not the blog.

Oh, well. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, right?

Last week was spring break for the kidlet and we went skiing in Keystone, CO. It was a good drive--no snow only strong winds--and Kansas had raised their speed limit to 75 mph, which made the drive only 12 hours long, instead of the normal 13-14 hours.

My only problem was altitude sickness--I had a headache the entire time in Colorado, along with insomnia, and a bloody nose (TMI??). Oh, and the shortness of breath was killer. As an asthmatic, it added to my stress level just a touch. If you forgot to breath, then you had to gasp like a fish out of water to oxygenate your blood!

It wasn't your typical spring skiing, when you can shuck your neck gator, hat, gloves and ski with an open coat and actually get a suntan, though we did see one couple skiing one run in their skivvies on day four. . .

Day one, it was cold and windy. Day two, it was snowy and windy. Days three and four were wonderful--I skied with sunglasses instead of goggles!

And I have windburn on a narrow portion of my face that was even allowed out in the cold, namely my nose and a narrow strip of skin on my cheekbones and forehead. You be the judge. . .

Kidlet and me after a hot cocoa break

As I might have mentioned before, I'm not a fan of moguls--those bumps on a ski run, for those of you who haven't skied before. I don't willingly go down any runs that have them, BUT I do like steeps--steep, groomed slopes. 

So we convinced the kidlet to ski down a long groomed black diamond run called Diamondback. That was the her last run on day three. :-) Well, except for the runs that got us to the front of the mountain and down to the bottom. She complained her feet hurt, and I mentioned it was because she had her toes clenched down the entire slope. 

Yeah, been there, done that before. 

On days three and four she pooped out early and the hubs and I skied about another hour before calling it quits for the day. 

On the gondola

And remember . . . Trees hurt, slow down. 

Top of  Dercum mountain

 Later, Peeps!

Where in the World was Margaret?

Years ago there was a show called Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?

I don't remember if Carmen was a spy or thief, good or bad, but she would leave clues for these junior sleuths to follow to track her down. She usually escaped with the goodies, so I gues she was technically a thief. She wore a red overcoat and hat, never showing her face.

This last week was Spring Break.

I wasn't here blogging my little heart out. Sorry.

Here's clue #1:

Clue #2:

Clue #3:

Okay, I will confess that these pictures are from two years ago, because today I'm experiencing the joy of returning through clue #1.

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- nope got nothing

This is spring break week. Since we don't have any money to go anywhere, we are being very sloth-like and hanging around the house. Even swim practice has been cancelled for the week.

Shoot--my kidlet slept in, eventually took a shower and put on a pair of fresh jammies!

It helps that it's dark, gloomy, and rainy. Lots and lots of rain. So far six inches of rain in two days.

One day, I managed to get my walk in before the downpour started, but not yesterday. I'll get a walk in today. I really need to walk today . . . it has a WHOLE LOT TO DO WITH THOSE DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES THAT I MADE!

Keep doing what you're doing: walking, drinking lots of water, tracking food, and eating lots of fruit and veg!

I'll be back next week with a regularly scheduled blog . . . now, if I can just think of something to say!

Freebie Frenzy continues this week:
THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS will be a free download through March 22
A MAZE OF MONSTER MIX-UPS will be free March 22 and March 23
SUGAR PLUM DISASTER will be free March 24 and March 25

Enjoy! Spread the word and the link!

Love/Hate: Skiing

Pet Peeve Friday has been postponed for Love/Hate this week. We went skiing over spring break. It was a blast as always, but there is always something good to go with the bad and vice versa.

HATE the long drive (we drive from Tulsa to Keystone, roughly 12-13 hours. . . thru Kansas. . . 'nuff said) True, it isn't as bad as driving to Crested Butte (16 hours) or Steamboat Springs (16 hours)
LOVE arriving at condo, ready to kick it the next day

HATE having to put the kidlet in ski school, but this time she requested one day
LOVE bombing down the slopes without having to worry if the kidlet can keep up . . . since she's in ski school

HATE beginners who try to ski slopes that are beyond their capabilities (got side-swiped by one on a steep blue, totally took me out and I didn't see it coming. First time I fell in 5 or 6 years. Uh, I wasn't happy)
LOVE that my kidlet managed to get down a seriously icy blue slope while other skiers were falling all around her. On our last day skiing and the resort hadn't had any fresh snow, but the temps were warm enough to melt the snow the day before, resulting in serious ice.
LOVE explaining how to use poles to my kidlet and then tripping over my own poles . . . at a standstill--since my record of no falling was already broken
LOVE laughing like a total goofball.

HATE that I ate like there was no tomorrow
LOVE that I lost five pounds when I got home
HATE that I gained it back in less then twenty-four hours

HATE the sounds of skis over ice and the splits one does when one doesn't expect it.
LOVE the sound of my skis gliding over courderoy and being the first one to mark a slope (skiers know what I'm talking about)

HATE the serious lack of oxygen
LOVE the fresh air and clear nights, where it looks like there are a gazillion stars in the sky
HATE that when I walk up a flight of stairs in ski boots I might need the AED used on me--conviently placed at the top of the aforementioned flight of stairs.

LOVE that they have Fat Tire on tap
HATE that they put the bathrooms DOWN stairs

LOVE night skiing. It really forces you to ski by feel.
HATE that they shut it down at 8PM, especially when Daylight Savings happened and it didn't even get dark until 7:15.
LOVE seeing the North Star and a cresent moon bathed in red

HATE drinking coffee to stay alert since it makes me investigate every rest area and McDonalds along the way
LOVE the 5 hour energy drinks
HATE how they kept me alert even after we got home at 4:30 AM and I was ready to sleep

All in all, we had a fun and successful spring break. How was yours?
And are you ready to . . .
Write On!

Swooshing down the slopes

I’m back from skiing. Actually, we got back late Friday night, but I've had laundry to do, email to read, etc, PLUS we finally got our furniture that we've been waiting on for about six months! That story is also blog worthy, so when I find I'm dry of ideas to yatter on about I'll jot it down to fill up one of my days.

Back to Spring Break:
We had four wonderful days of swooshing down the slopes of Keystone, Breckenridge and Vail. Keystone is still my fave since I think it is the most challenging of the three. The intermediate slopes (blue) are as steep as many expert (black) runs. Many of the slopes are half groomed/half moguls, so it adds to the challenge. Vail is a close second for simply the sheer size of the place. I think it has 7 or 8 mountains/bowls to ski off—I’d verify it on the trail map, but hubster put it somewhere. And they have the most groomed black runs I’ve ever seen, though some of Keystone’s blue runs were along the difficulty and steepness factor as Vail’s black runs. Breckenridge is a really nice town, but the slopes are flat and freakin’ crowded, really freakin' crowded. Lift lines took anywhere from 10-30 minutes of waiting. And dodging a bunch of newbie skiers is low on my list of fun things to do. Ugh!

But the spring skiing was awesome. No, I was NOT the chick wearing shorts snowboarding! It was nice not to have to wear all the turtle fur to keep warm—and I have the sunburn/tan to prove it! And yes, I DID slather on sunscreen and still got toasted. Oh, BTW, Burt’s bees lip balm DOES NOT have any SPF factor at all and my lips look like a lizard shedding its skin. Purty, huh?

The kiddo did great after a weak start in the car. The night before we left she started complaining of a headache and ear ache. She's been fighting the cough that seems to be going around and coughing up lung puppies in the process. So, of course, the poor thang was puking in the car most of the way to the mountains—12.5 hours of it. Thank God, I always bring a small trash bag double lined with Wal-Mart bags! And the kiddo hit the bag every time! What a little trooper!

Rachel skied with us every day and kept up with only a couple of wipeouts and one face plant—there’s a reason kiddo’s wear helmets. The face plant happened on the first day when we were on Keystone's North Peak, skiing down Last Alamo. It's a fairly steep run, basically groomed icesince they hadn't gotten any fresh snow in awhile and the daily temps were in the 40's. She did a turn, but an edge caught, and down she went. Normally, on a beginner (green) run she would have stopped right there, but a steep blue--NOPE. She slid for about thirty feet before hubster got her stopped. Of course, she wanted to quit, but SORRY, not happening. We were in the middle of the run with no way out except down. After we got down it was time for a break and she wanted to quit. Surprise! We went to the front side of the mountain after that. But the next day at Breckenridge she got her confidence back.

We’ve discovered she likes skiing bumps (moguls). Too bad, neither hubster nor I can tolerate the bumps any more. The knees just can’t take it, so we tend to ski groomed stuff, unless we venture down a mogul blue by accident.

By the last day of skiing, the kiddo was going full tilt. Her cough seemed to have disappeared--until I looked at her eyes. Yep, conjunctivitis. Once we got home on Friday, I had some eye drops left from a couple of years ago and we doctored her up. Luckily there were enough drops to do the trick.

That's it for now. I'll talk about the books I read on Wednesday. I read one FANTASTIC book that I highly recommend.
Hope you all had a great Spring Break!
Write on! ---yeah, I need to get back into the saddle with that again!