Breckenridge - Snowboarding Season II, Day 5

My goal for this season on my snowboard was to get down a green slope without falling. I accomplished that today. I also got down a blue slope. Actually, I only fell once and it was not a bad one onto my knees. I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of this. It was also my first time at the Breckenridge mountain. So far those slopes are my favorite. Their blue slopes are more like other mountain's greens. They are also very wide and it wasn't crowded. I was very excited at the end of the day.

I had driven up with my co-worker, Leigh, her husband Dan, their friend Patrick and Ben. Patrick and I were the only 2 on snowboards, but he was a beginner also so it worked out well. I think we both were able to improve as the day went on.

The Nutcracker

I've been thinking about going to see the Nutcracker for a couple of years now and just had not gotten around to going. I think I had caught bits and pieces of it on television around the holidays, but I never really knew the story. It was an excellent ballet; the most entertaining I've seen yet.

Prior to the show I also had a quick dinner at Nine 75. The lobster tacos were excellent.

NoRTH restaurant with Megan

Megan's suggested blog entry: "Megan and I went to a restaurant in the Cherry Creek area called North that is so cool, they spell their name like this: NoRTH. However, Megan and I were not apparently not cool since we got carded and then ended up ordering the same entree. However, it was still a blast!"

Copper Mtn - Snowboarding Season II, Day 3

I went snowboarding at Copper Mountain on Sunday with Ben, Travis and their friend Jen. It was a bit chilly. Actually it was freezing, perhaps below zero? The mountains had gotten tons of snow. It doesn't hurt to fall when there is half a foot of fresh powder to fall into. When I wasn't falling, the feeling of snowboarding over fresh powder is awesome; it's almost like you're floating.

I was able to make some progress and improve quite a bit. I still had quite a few falls. Actually Jen spent most of the day with me and when describing my falls she said I looked like a "ragdoll". That's also a good description of how I felt. The upper half of my body went one way while the lower went the other. My volleyball knee pads are working well - no more bruises! I swear I'll be an expert by the end of the season. Of course, I'd settle for making it down one run without falling. If you haven't guessed already, that's not a picture of me snowboarding - just some inspiration.

Parade of Lights

I went to Denver's Parade of Lights. It was cool to be at a parade held at night. They had local highschool marching bands; the bandmembers had lights on their uniforms and had decorated their instruments (i.e. the trumpets all put their instruments in decorated boxes and cutout holes for their hands). It actually made me miss that time in my life a little - to miss marching band? I never would have thought it. It's like the Rose Bowl Parade except instead of flowers, lights. I've said it before, this town is really into lights. They also had giant balloons. If it's a giant balloon dog - the spectators chant "spin the dog" and you can get the volunteers holding it to spin the balloon. You don't see that in the Macy's Day parade.

For dinner I went to Potager. They only use whatever vegetable are in season and organic foods. We had a squash soup, spinach salad and vegetable lasagna. It was excellent.

Christmas Decorations

I was going to wait until after the holiday season to buy some Christmas decorations on sale. Michael's was having a good sale now 40% off, so I bought a few to get in the holiday spirit. I decorated my fireplace (click on the picture to see it larger).

Random Link:
I get monthly email newsletters from GT. I found this article about the future of the world's economy interesting. http://mgt.gatech.edu/news_room/news/2005/friedmantalk/index.html