Friday, February 29, 2008

Hot & Sour Soup Anyone?

As many people know I love hot & sour soup. I would consider it one of my top favorite soups.

Tonight we decided to out to dinner and opted for Chinese. While I was eating my hot & sour soup I thought that Penelope might like to try some. I got a little broth on the spoon and gave it to her to test and she loved it! She kept wanting more and more. I gave her little bites of all the stuff in the soup and she ate it all.

We also tried out sweet & sour chicken on her along with tiny spicy chicken. Yup, she liked those too and kept eating them. I thought the tiny spicy might be too spicy for her but she kept chowing it.

The fact that she likes Chinese food, especially hot & sour soup, makes me happy.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

New Vacuum

Who'd ever thought that getting a new vacuum would be exciting? Well I certainly never did.

Last Monday we went to Costco to pick up a new vacuum. Our old vacuum sucked (well I say it didn't suck). When we'd turn it on it sounded like and F-16 was landing in our living room. We'd run it around for about a minute and it's smell like the F-16 had caught on fire. Then we'd finish vacuuming and the floor would still be dirty. I guess we could say "what'd we expect from a free hand-me-down vacuum?". We finally said enough is enough and forked out the bills a new vacuum.

It is awesome. We were seriously excited to put it together and vacuum the house. The new vacuum works wonderfully! The carpets looked completely different when we were done. Also it was gross to see the amount of stuff that came up out of the carpet. It really showed how much the old vacuum didn't work.

Maybe it's a sign that we are boring that a new vacuum is so exciting.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Getting Crafty

I don't get crafty very often but when I do I usually have a pretty good time. The last time I got crafty I made a couple of Velcro straps to keep my pants from getting caught in my bike chain while riding. The time before that Jessica and I made some canvas grocery bags.

Tonight I made Jessica a lunch tote out of used plastic bags from various stores.

It was a good time and it turned out great. I read an article about how to make these and thought I'd give it a whirl. It isn't too big but would work great to hold a couple pieces a fruit and some small snacks.

Once we get some bags I think I'll make myself one. Here are a couple other pictures of the tote:

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Temporary New Look

For some reason last night I looked at my blog and was extremely annoyed by its appearance. I have been wanting to do something new but wasn't ever motivated so just now I picked a new template and am going with it for the short term. I want to create my own template but don't really have the time right now.

I think the new template looks really funny. There may be a chance that it will change looks over the next couple of weeks.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

What I Did With My Saturday Morning

I had previously written about how I thought skiing at ski resorts was overrated. This point was solidified once again yesterday morning.

I went touring with my buddy Matt. This time our destination was the Kessler Peak trees up Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a beautiful bluebird day and the snow was going to be phenomenal. Last week the Wasatch Mountains were pounded with several feet of new snow.

As we began our tour we came across a small side slope that had some sparsely spaced trees. It looked nice enough that we decided to take a small detour and give it a run. What started as a small detour turned into a large detour as we pushed onto the longer slopes above.

It was probably the most grueling skinning I've done. Whoever broke trail decided to break a steep one instead of mellower switchbacks. My skins had a hard time getting purchase on the track and I'd often find myself sliding backwards after working so hard to get up. As Matt said "we are definitely earning a lot of vert today".

The skin track took us to the shoulder just below the summit of Kessler Peak, just to the side of "God's Lawnmower". Instead of skiing the more mellow swath of God's Lawnmower (it honestly looks like someone too a gigantic lawnmower straight down through the trees) we opted for the steeper slope on the south-east side of the shoulder through the pines. It was money.



Hands down the best turns of the year. Knee to thigh deep blower. Face shots abounded and there were many whoops of enjoyment. It was the kind of snow that makes you bear the powder grin from ear to ear.



It wasn't without incident though. Partway down Matt and I each pulled out small sluffs of new snow. After Matt pulled his he stopped and was hit by it and there was enough snow that ran that is came up to his waist. As I was skiing I saw that he had pulled one, noticed that I pulled one and skied out of the way. (In the image the one Matt pulled is to the right of the ski tracks and mine is to the left). We both were fine and didn't face any real danger from them, but it was definitely one of those moments that reminds you that you have to careful and on top of things 100% of the time in the backcountry. We did have a short discussion of what happened and how to avoid it again in the future. We then skied big open slopes back to the main skin track.

After a couple minutes of rest we headed back up to ski the small slope that we had first set out to ski. Even on the smaller slope, the skiing was still amazing. Hands down it was the best tour of the season so far.