Thanksgiving 2011

I'm in Colorado with my lovely/senile family and it is delightful! We are feasting like queens and kings and doing a whole bunch of relaxing and exercising.

Yesterday, I rock-climbed and chased dragons (on a stationary bicycle) with my senile father.

Today, we (Gill, Uncle Paul, and senile father) had a failed attempt at Mt. Sherman due to brain damage, and it was pretty chilly (20F not including the 25mph+ windchill, but there's no such thing as windchill if you ask my senile father).

Tonight, we're having a single leg of lamb and some other delicious fixings on the side. Last night, Gill and I composed a masterpiece of salmon soup and cabbage/white bean salad. What appears to be an endless supply of pistachios has been present in the kitchen. I try to eat them all but more keep reappearing each day.

Tonight, we're watching My Fair Lady (because nobody has Gone with the Wind). Tomorrow, we're cross-country skiing and shopping (there's a ski and snowboard swap in town! and multiple yarn places!). 'Tis the season.

Here are a few photos of the day.


The Arkansas River! (or where it begins):


In the world-famous Mining Museum in Leadville!:


The morning start:

Inspiration

How incredible would it be... Inspiration

Oklahoma

You can rock-climb here!



Note: I should be wearing a helmet.

Happy February!

This blog needed a change. What do you think?

Time has flown by and 2010 is already over. This year was the first successful year out of the last three that I didn't get food poisoning in January. I've broken the curse! Or maybe I confused the curse since I celebrated New Year's a day early, being on the 'other' side of the dateline and all.

If I celebrated New Year's a day early (relative to the normal time), and celebrate it normally (a day late, relative to the early), does that mean I'm on the verge of time-traveling?

Some of the things I plan to do this year:

- Pass the toughest classes I'll ever take.
- Learn to knit.
- Eat more vegetables and fruit.
- Work hard and play hard.
- Get more exercise.
- Get more sunshine.
- Learn yoga.
- Learn pilates.
- Read more fiction.
- Allow more distractions into my life.

I have life updates too. I went to New Zealand and got harassed by storms, keas, cows, and sandflies during my camping attempts. And to think I used to say how relaxing camping in NZ must be since there aren't any bears to be worried about...

I've received an incredible opportunity to cruise in the Healy again. This time to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas with oodles (most definitely more than 24 hours worth) of fieldwork on the sea ice. I've been instructed to purchase hip waders for wading through melt ponds. I'm still not convinced I'm actually going, because wading in melt ponds seems too good to be true! Of equal excitement, I'll be doing some really neat data collection with some really smart people. This is an understatement; I've read their names millions of times in papers... now I get to spend some quality time with them on a ship. Poor them! Woo-hoo for me!

And now my next missions are to:
- Find a place to live (as my lease is up while I'm on the cruise).
- Find a masters (something about me needing to get a degree? Hm?).

That's it for now since sleep prevails. Here's what New Zealand looks like after a sleepless night of keas harassing you: