Playing with my new camera

Ches and I ventured out to A-Basin on Friday. We could not have asked for a prettier day. It was sunny and in the 30s. I finally got the memory card for my new camera, so I brought it along to experiment. I'm pleased.

Oh, why did we go skiing on a Friday, you ask? To celebrate my last days of freedom, as I am now officially employed! I start work Wednesday. Ches and I are going to try and make it up to Vail Tuesday to get in one more day of skiing.

Tings

Birthday weekend was great. Jake and I went to Parallel 17, a Vietnamese bistro and enjoyed tons of food. Their pork buns are amazing! The weekend was spent skiing at a variety of locations. Keystone had no snow. A Basin was surprisingly fun. Vail's back bowls were not crowded and we got in some good runs. I did a black run at Vail, twice! Then I got tired and let the others continue on the blacks while I stuck to some blues. Jake and I decided to wait out the traffic back to Denver and saw Avatar in Frisco. I enjoyed the movie, but was struck by similarities to Fern Gully.

Back in town, my computer decided it was full of viruses and needed to have a complete melt-down. I managed to get my documents off of it, but am now waiting for Dell to send my an OS disc that will hopefully make lappy run again. I do not want to buy a new laptop right now.

I got to hang out with Lizzie and Ches at a wedding band showcase. As I described this to other people, they all thought I meant wedding band as in ring, not as in musical band. The musical bands were very entertaining. Any of the three will be great entertainment come Lizzie's nuptials.

flowers!

My brother is officially a grown-up. Look what he got me for my birthday:

A pink bouquet with red roses and a pink vase. He got Mom flowers for her birthday, too. I fully support his new streak.

In which there is lots of skiing

Thanks for the responses about non-profit work in Denver. I'm waiting to hear back from Colorado Legal Services. They are "intrigued" by my situation. I think that's a good sign, right?

I drove up to Boulder Wednesday night to do dinner and a movie with my cousins, Ches and Lizzie. We ate at a pub and saw Nine. I enjoyed Nine, but didn't think it was the greatest movie ever made. I was super-impressed by Fergie and Kate Hudson's singing voice (girl can sing). Ches and I decided we should take advantage of our "funemployment" and go skiing on Friday. So we went up to Keystone and had a lovely, easy ski day. Bright blue skies and uncrowded trails. Since Ches is even newer to skiing than I am, we did mostly stuck with the easier blues, though we did venture in some harder territory. It was low-key and soothing. I felt like I knew what I was doing.

Today was a totally different experience. I went skiing with Jake and some of his friends. The friends are very good snowboarders. When I ski with them, I always feel that I am stretching my ability. This is both a good and bad thing. We did a few blues that I felt very good on, then did a blue/black with a ton of moguls on a steep wall. Snowboarders have an easier time on moguls; they can sort of just scoot their way down if necessary. I had to actually maneuver, which made me very slow. We then did an "off the map" trail. It was narrow, steep and had bumps. I was a disaster. I fell, twice. And cursed, a lot. I pitched a bit of a fit, but eventually made it down. I think I need another lesson, either with an instructor or with Lizzie (who once trained for the Olympic mogul team). Hopefully, that will make me more comfortable on those sorts of trails.

Query

Anybody know of a public interest group in Denver looking for a full-time attorney volunteer? ND says they'll pay me for a few months if I can find this type of work... So far, I'm having trouble getting people to respond to my phone calls. I'm hoping this is just due to a backlog from holiday vacations. Dream volunteer position would be with Colorado Legal Services' seniors division.

New Year

Happy New Year! I just got back to Denver after being home and then skiing in Pagosa. Skiing was great. There was a ton of powder at Wolf Creek our first day (16 inches) and the second day was lovely groomed trails and powder amongst the trees. I'm feeling more and more comfortable skiing.

New Year's Resolution: find a job
New Year's Eve was pretty low key. We had to get up early the next day to ski, but we all managed to make it to midnight. :)