We did it again this year. The weather was much better, and as a result, we had a much better time. We went snowboarding in the dark by headlamp. We had good food. We didn't die. And, we had a good time the next day in the beautiful sunny weather. All in all, we mostly stayed warm, though one cave did collapse during the construction phase, and father and son (age 8) had to sleep in a tent, which they reported as cold. The lowest temperature in my cave that I noted was 29 degrees Fahrenheit, so I don't know if their tent could have been much colder.
I made a few colossal blunders that were easily avoidable: (1) I forgot my fleece jacket, so I only had long underwear, a sweater, and a shell; (2) I forgot my ski socks, so I only had the dress socks that I'd worn to work earlier that day. Despite my shoddy preparation, planning, and packing, I still stayed passably warm through the night, and I was very warm at all other times.
The entrance to my cave.
Inside my cave.
The sunrise next morning outside my cave.
One of the sledders airing it out nicely.
Proving that I can still get into the air despite the lack of any real riding for 5 years.
One of the other leaders getting crazy on his skis.
And one of the boys showing how to ride a board with no legs and still get plenty of air! (Oh wait, those are just camouflage pants!)
I am passionate about the good Kiva.org can do. The embedded video below explains how the website works, and how the loans from people like you and me are handled. Enjoy!
P.s. I've been paid back, or am in the process of being paid back, every cent I've loaned.
So I've been watching TV, if at all, via the internet on my laptop computer since August 2006. To do this, I've been going to the websites of NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS. It turns out, I've been living in the dark ages. Thank you to my brother-in-law for opening my eyes to the possibilities that are out there. Above is a sample of one of the clips that are available along with several hundred (thousand?) others. All the shows, all the networks, all the time. This is the wave of the future. Now I just need to figure out how to get a wireless connection on my projector.
I just remembered something that amused me over the Christmas holidays. We were sitting around talking at my Dad's house and pretty much most of us were in earshot of my Dad when he turned to my wife and said something to the effect of, "You know, I think you [meaning my wife] have a unique brand of humor. I don't know anyone else that would use FishHead as a pet name for her husband." It took me a while to grasp what he was saying, but when I finally got my head around it, I laughed pretty hard on the inside, of course not so much as cracking a smile on the outside. He thought that because she refers to me as "FishHead" on our blogs that she also calls me FishHead in our everday bantering. Somehow, he must have missed the fact that I'm obsessively paranoid about maintaining my anonymity. Can you imagine? "Hi, FishHead! How was your day?" and so forth. Dad, I hope your not too sensitive to this post, but you have to admit, it was funny.
