Sunday, November 16, 2008

Saturday Night fun


















Saturday night was a good night. We definitely had a lot of fun. Justin, Jordan, and I went to the MLS Western Conference Finals Game: New York Red Bull vs. Real Salt Lake. And yes, you are probably also wondering how a team from New York is in the Western Conference. I really don't know and my only reasoning is that the MLS is pretty small. Unfortunately Real lost 1-0. They had 3 good scoring opportunities in the last 10 minutes and couldn't capitalize.


















After the very chilly game finished, we ran across the street to Joe's Crab Shack before the masses arrived to replenish and warm our famished, frozen bodies. To tell you the truth, I wasn't cold. Many freezing cold belays ice climbing have given me more than enough experience to dress accordingly when the temperature drops.

After our feast we hopped back on TRAX, headed back to the city, and went out to a sports bar-dance club. We had a bunch of fun on a guys' night out. We ran into a girls' night out group of early 30 year olds and had a fun time dancing and joking with them. It was a good night: fun was had, laughs were frequent, and good memories made.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Ski Season: Officially Started

Yes it is finally official: ski season is started and man my pass is good looking, well everything but my picture.















So if you are the least bit observant, you've probably noticed that it says "Unlimited College" on my pass. Being in college definitely has its benefits. Hehe.

I decided that regardless of the conditions, I would be skiing this day and that I would get my pass. I am on my way to skiing 800,000 vertical feet: I am now at 8,460 feet. Okay you might not think that's a lot for one day and it isn't. I only skied three runs. Yeah that's 2820 vertical feet per run. The conditions were less than suitable even for early season conditions. The first 1500 feet of the run had decent snow. The last bit of the run was quite icy. I didn't care to beat myself up too much on my first day and my ski buddy for the day had to get back to do some studying.

All in all, it was a good start to a new season.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

It's About Time........ Time to Set Those Most Important Goals

Yeah, yeah, yeah...... I know: It has definitely been a long time since my last post. With this post I am going to outline the goals which mean the most to me: Winter Time Fun. After I detail the dreams, desires, goals, and "have-to's" that keep me going through the day, I'll brief you with a status update on what has happened since my last post.

Goals for the 2008-2009 Winter Season: (Not in any particular order, just as they pop in my mind, but important non-the-less)
  1. Ski at least 45 days; includes both front country and backcountry
  2. Ski at least 800,000 vertical feet (yes I have a watch that tracks this; last year about 600,000 feet)
  3. Ski the the south face/couloir of Ben Lomond from the peak w/Christian
  4. Ski Little Superior on a good powder day w/Christian: Round 2 = my terms
  5. Get Avalanche Level 1 Certification
  6. Get Avalanche Level 2 Certification
  7. Huck a certain cliff on Banana Dayz in Big Cottonwood Canyon
  8. Huck a certain cliff on Honeycomb Cliffs in Big Cottonwood Canyon
  9. Drop Corbet's Couloir at Jackson Hole
  10. Learn a backflip
  11. Ski Silverton Mountain
  12. Ski Monte Cristo in Little Cottonwood Canyon
  13. Film one or two short ski mountaineering films w/Christian
  14. Call in sick to work at least once for a weekday storm dump of 15 inches or more
  15. Ascend all 3 pitches of Malan's Waterfall
  16. Solo Willard Peak ice drainage at least 3 times
  17. Take an ice climbing trip to Ouray, CO
  18. Find a super hot Backcountry Babe to date (that's to satisfy your wishes Mother)
Ice Climbing in Cody, WY February 2007
So this is all I have for now, but trust you me, this list will be growing. It's getting late and my brain is ready to shut down, but before I turn in for the night, I need to give you that status update.

I have been quite busy, not just with playing, but work has picked up. Our new fiscal year started October 1 and so ended our period of performance for our last contract. Now onto 2 new contracts with a lot more taskings. These new contracts allowed for the UID team to grow from 9 individuals in Latyon, UT/Hill Air Force Base, to a team of 32 at Hill AFB, Peterson AFB (Fort Collins, CO), Tinker AFB (Oklahoma City, OK), Robins AFB (Warner Robins, GA), and Tobyhanna Army Depot (Scranton, PA). With all of this growth my responsibility has also grown. Because I did the initial ground work for 2 of the new tasks prior to the new hirings, I have been put as the Junior Project Lead for 2 teams. It's fun to finally have work and short suspense deadlines. Really my work load has gone up about 500%. I have already put in 41 hours this week, and I have decided to work tomorrow on my Regular Day Off (RDO) to finish some work.

But honestly, I'm finally having fun. I have no problem putting in the time now because the winter is coming and everyone knows that I will be travelling and having "sick days" frequently.

I have joined a Senior Hockey League and have played 3 games. Right now we're #1 with 3 wins and 35 goals for. I have 1 goal and 5 assists. Yes it is quite apparent that my team is stacked. I will admit that I played absolutely horrible last game. It is actually really hard to breath when your head is up your .......... well you get the idea.

I also started my last indoor soccer season tonight. We played really bad. We only had 2 subs and we had 2 new guys on the team. We did manage to win 11-0, even though I got beat bad 3 times on defense. I should have had 3 goals tonight but I did get 3 assists. That's not bad for the sweeper.