end of the border war?

Today could be the last Missouri-Kansas football game for quite some time.  It is the second most played rivalry in college football (I believe Minnesota-Wisconsin have played one more time), for my money it is best, and it doesn't need to end.  Regardless of what anyone may think about Mizzou leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, and I have mixed feelings so I understand the anti-Mizzou arguments, it makes no sense to stop playing the game.

The schools need one another. Kansas fans can claim that K-State or someone else will become their biggest rival, but their reaction to Mizzou leaving the Big 12 helps prove that that isn't true.  As a Mizzou fan, I don't care about anyone in the SEC (beyond my lovely wife's alma matter, but I don't see that developing into much outside of the Bigelow household).  Our fanbase needs something to collectively dislike.  I even want the teams to continue to play basketball once a year, which certainly isn't going to help my team's win-loss record in the long run, but some things are more important than avoiding a team to schedule another likely win.

Beyond keeping the rivalry alive, both programs would be helped by continuing the game.  Who else is either school going to schedule, a D-II patsy in a game that won't generate much money for anyone other than Fort Hays State or whoever fills the hole in the schedule?  It isn't as though either team has a 100,000 seat stadium that is filled ever Saturday afternoon no matter the opponent.  Continuing to play the game is better for both teams' bottom lines and in program development.  It gives both schools, neither of which are football powerhouses, something to look forward to.  If KU wins today (they better not), it will be the best thing that has happened to their team all year.  Throughout the history of the series, this game is an outlier compared to how the teams play the rest of the year.  Overall the series is very close.

And the argument that leaving the conference dooms the rivalry is ridiculous.  A lot of schools play interconference rivalry games every year.  Today alone there is Florida-FSU, South Carolina-Clemson, and Georgia-Georgia Tech.  It isn't uncommon.  That is one thing if the game needs to be put on hold for a year to work out scheduling difficulties, but it needs to resume.

I'm certainly biased, but it would be pretty pathetic if one side were to back out of the Border War.

thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving we have spent in DC in five years.  In 2007 we were in Brazil for the honeymoon, in 2008 we went to Uncle Perry's in New Jersey, in the 2009 we were at Maya and Tyson's wedding in Cabo, and last year we were with my family in Zihuantanejo.  I enjoy going elsewhere, but it was nice to be at home for Thanksgiving this year.

It was just the two of us, so Lelaine only made about ten pounds of food.  Instead of a full turkey she went and bought a turkey tenderloin and rolled/stuffed it with...stuffing.  It was really good.  Good enough that for now on I'm fine if we forgo the entire bird and just do the tenderloin.  She also made mashed potatoes, more stuffing, gravy, cranberries, asparagus, and pumpkin chiffon pie for dessert.

Everything was great, and I had nothing to do with it, other than to clean up afterwards.  The best part about it only being the two of us is that we have a lot of leftovers.

cruise 2011

This afternoon we returned from a week long trip to the Caribbean with my parents and brother.  This was our second consecutive November beach vacation, and I like the trend.

The first night and day (a day at sea) were a little rough.  We left from New Orleans and once we got out of the Mississippi and into the gulf, the water was pretty choppy.  Amazingly Lelaine was able to sleep through most of the night and wasn't too sick.  I thought that was a pretty big accomplishment considering that they handed out barf bags and I even had trouble sleeping, although some of my sleeping woes were due to the fact that I dislocated my knee playing soccer a couple weeks ago and am in a giant knee brace and must keep my right leg fully extended for six weeks.  A steady intake of Advil, Dos Equis (Dos Equis is to me what Robatusin is to Chris Rock), and stronger pain killers help, but sleeping is difficult.

it was a good day

Saturday afternoon doesn't get much better than watching Mizzou come from behind to beat a top 25 team on the road while eating grilled cheese and chicken soup as it snows outside (pretty amazing it is snowing in October).  I'm about to head to the gym and tonight we are having dinner at a place Lelaine has wanted to go to for a while and then meet up with some Mizzou folks.  It was a good day.

this week

Lelaine has been traveling a lot recently.  This last week she worked in LA Sunday through Wednesday, got back into DC on Thursday, and then went to Miami for a bachelorette party this weekend.

I spent most of the week knocking out seasons four and five of The Wire (I had seen them before, but season four is the best season any TV show has ever had) and watching season five of Friday Night Lights.  Both were good investments of my time.

Thursday was our anniversary.  The last four years have gone by amazingly fast.  It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we were in Pensacola for the wedding.  This week also marked the fifth year we have lived in our little apartment.  It definitely doesn't seem like we left the purple house that long ago, and I never would have imagined that we would have been able to live in our little 650 square foot place for this long.

To celebrate our anniversary that night we went to Corduroy.  We had been once before and loved it.  This time we sat upstairs at the bar, where you can do a three course meal for $30.  It is probably the best deal in DC.  It is a limited menu, but all the choices are on the regular menu and if you sat downstairs and ate the same thing it would probably cost twice as much.  We had a very nice time.

The weather has been gorgeous outside, so I spent Saturday morning and all afternoon...inside brewing beer and watching Mizzou get smashed by Okie State.  Lelaine gave me a beer making kit for Christmas and I decided to try to make it again.  The first time was not successful - probably due to sanitation issues (everything I used was clean, but I wasn't using the best type of sanitizer to sterilize everything).  So far so good, as it appears to actually be fermenting as it sits in the bedroom closet, so at the very least the yeast is doing its job.  We will find out how successful this attempt (American IPA with Kent Goldings and Fuggle hops) will be in about six weeks when it is ready to drink.

I got up early this morning to watch the Manchester United vs. Manchester City game.  City is winning 5-1, and since I dislike the Yankees of the EPL, I am enjoying myself.  The quality of play will surely be similar to that in my game in Rockville this evening.  I hope that the Chiefs fare as well today against Oakland.

Who Needs a Man to Travel

For those of you in the DC area, you might have heard the Bigelows trading shots at each other about places to go on vacation. Some of you may have heard stories of possible trips to Maine, Asheville or Providence. Well, after many years of waiting, I decided, why do I need my husband to travel?

So last weekend, I took a page from the book to the left and set out on my own to Providence and to Newport. I drove very early Saturday morning to avoid traffic and got to Providence just in time for Saturday brunch at Nick's on Broadway. It was a great choice because they had one of my favorite foods cassoulet--except for breakfast. I drove around the city, saw Brown and walked around the downtown area.

I happened to be in town for the "Waterfire" art installation that night. It's a big deal in Providence, but in general it is fire pits in the water that they light up. It's pretty and they play Enya music. But the real highlight was my dinner at the bar at the Capital Grille. I am told that this was the first of the chain. Unlike the DC spot, this Capital Grille was a real local hangout. The bartenders knew most of the crowd. People came and ate there once or twice a week. My bar companion gave me some great history of the Kennedys, Providence and Newport.

The next day I traveled to Newport to see the mansions. I took the cliff walk for a bit and walked around Bellevue Avenue. I now wish my last name was Vanderbilt. I think I could live that life. I had the best meal at the Mooring where I had a half order of the bag of doughnuts which is lobster, shrimp and crab fritter and the best oysters. I also took a drive on Ocean Drive and saw even more mansions. I never thought I would need an extra large house (especially since we live in 650 feet) but I guess I could learn to like it. (that was sarcasm).

Check out our twitter feed for pics of the food. Flickr has the pics of my trip.

the great minnesota get together

For the past several years we have heard friends from Minnesota talk about how wonderful the Minnesota State Fair is.  Being a connoisseur of fried food, Lelaine has been dying to go.  That is why we were pretty pleased when the stars aligned - our good Minnesota friends moved back to Minnesota and our friends Kevin and Meagan decided to get married in the upper Midwest the weekend of the fair.

Allen, Heather, Doug, Lelaine, and I flew out Thursday night and stayed with our Minnesotan college friends, Ryan and Kari (who we visited in San Francisco a few years ago, and have since added a little one named Evan), and Maile and Rob, who flew in from KC.  Friday morning we woke up with one goal in mind - eat everything in sight.  We accomplished that goal.

Over the course of the day I had a mere 22 different food items.  We were well prepared - in addition to the wisdom imparted on us by our knowledgable hosts, two work friends, native Minnesotans, and fair aficionados Lisette and Emily gave us a list of the must haves.  Lisette even has her own bench, with her and her husband's name on it, at the fair.

Here is the list in chronological order (I only had a bite or two of two-thirds of these) and judged on a scale of 1-5:

second trip of the year to colorado

We spent last week in Colorado. The family used to go to Vail every year, and we hadn't been since 2005, so it was great to be back. We had a terrific week, spending a lot of time with my mom, dad, brother, Glo, Justin, Tiffany, Kylee, pork chop...errr Taylor, Jared, Aunt Glo, Shannon, Lee, Daniel, Kai, and even friends Jeremy and Emily, and most days we had a big activity, including a couple hikes, mountain biking (after both of us fell, including me flipping over the handle bars, we realized single track isn't for us), trail running, and of course, shopping. Lelaine ended up with the best souvenir, a snowboard.

Saturday the family headed back to the midwest and we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. After a quick stop in Estes Park we went into the park, hiking to Dream Lake (amazing) and driving part of Trail Ridge Road up mountains, above the tree line into tundra. That night we went to Boulder and flew home Sunday afternoon. Here are pics.

Chronic Cooking

I had the pleasure of discovering earlier this week that I most likely have chronic sinusitis. After a CT scan, the doctor says "Oh...yeah...you see how there is all this black space in your sinus here on the left, well, on the right it is nearly all gray. That's not good. " An hour later, I find myself with nearly 60 pills to take over the next 21 days. I will say I am happy to at least know what it is and hopefully there are ways to prevent it from happening more often.So, in short, I had a few sick days ahead of me and I decided to try Marshall Field's recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. It was delicious! I may be on the hunt for this old cookbook.

First of all, what I thoroughly enjoyed about the whole experience was I could nearly use up all the ingredients on my list. It is so irritating to buy a bag of carrots for a one-two carrot recipe. I would love to say I never waste food, but with our schedules, it's hard to plan dinner.

In order to make the meal a bit more nutritious, I added diced zucchini and to make Chris a bit happier he was eating veggies

some small diced potatoes. Since I don't have oven proof bowls (hint hint husband) and our pie dishes are a bit shallow, I decided to use our cast iron pot. It was a pretty good idea since you didn't have transfer the filling anywhere after cooking.

I added two more tablespoons of butter to account for the extra veggies and a pinch more flour. I found that I didn't need all of the chicken stock and milk, so add slowly until the right consistency.

But the best of the best was to come, the crust! It was everything a half of cup of butter should taste like. What also surprised me is there is a definite hint of sweetness when eating, but I didn't add any sugar.

I bought a 4 lb bird, so I had a little chicken left over for chicken salad, which was also tasty. Some dijon mustard, mayo, garlic powder, fox point seasoning (Penzey's), red grapes and walnuts and it was perfect on a bed of lettuce today.

It's been awhile since I had a chance to be this busy in the kitchen, so maybe I might like this chronic sinus thing afterall.

Step past the feet and into the bathroom!

I just realized we never finished the decorating saga from last year. And I am sure that many of you are tired of looking at Chris's gross feet.

The first update was the bathroom. The inspiration came from the light plate you see that I bought at Old Luckett's Market. The towel on the side is from Anthropologie. From that point, it was a very long hunt for the right shower curtain. Navy blue is not a widely available color for shower curtains. Light blue, turquoise-- very common, but not navy blue.

After some searching I finally found the curtain to match at a place I wouldn't image to have cool decor: Wal- Mart. Can you believe these class pieces are from there?

Our next project was to paint the bathroom. We chose Behr paint and the color Prelude. We also found out who has a better knack for painting between the two of us. It was me of course.

However, my favorite part besides the light plate is the bit of artwork. I found it on etsy. It's the perfect color and so unique.

It is nice to see a project you've had in your head complete. It is also nice to show of our place and not have every room painted the same color. Yes, we have a personality!

soccer

I started playing indoor soccer. Prior to this stint, the last time I tried to do such a thing it resulted in a trip to the emergency room and a dislocated knee. I am pretty bad, but have scored a couple good goals, including a header (which was a first for me) and then tonight nailing a running volley (it was kind of like this but I was running/slowly ambling about...only mine happened in a co-ed non-competitive league at the end of the game when most people were too tired to move).

This guy has nothing on me:

wear sunscreen

Over Memorial Day weekend we made a day trip with Doug to one of the beaches in Delaware. Normally I am fairly good about wearing sunscreen, and when we left early Sunday morning I packed it in my bag. Once we got to the beach I put it on but for whatever reason I forgot the tops of my feet. Big mistake.

When we left the beach I noticed my feet were a little red but nothing too bad. About two hours into the trip home my feet started feeling bad. By the time we got home they felt like they were on fire. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the immediate aftermath, but it was pretty bad. Bad as in they were swollen for a couple days and I couldn't wear shoes or socks, even at work. I applied a lot of burn cream and they were bad enough that from Monday to Thursday, I was in a lot of pain just standing still if there was any weight on my feet.

Luckily they started to feel better on Friday and a week later they are now peeling. It is pretty gross - I have never had an entire body part peel. The picture is from today - it was worse yesterday.

Moral of the story: wear sunscreen and make sure you don't miss anything.

matt

Matt made his annual visit to DC this past weekend. Like last year he came for Savor, which is a big beer festival. Unlike last year he brought a friend, Jamison.

They got into town late Thursday night and we went to Ben's Chili Bowl for a late dinner. Friday during the day, while Lelaine and I were at work, they rented bikes and did some sightseeing. Jamison had never been to DC, so they did a lot. Over the course of the trip they biked around the Washington Monument, Capitol (Lelaine gave them a tour), White House, World War II Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. That night we went to Savor with Doug, Allen, Jenny, Megan, Jeff, and Tom and had a lot of food and drinks. My favorite was Short's Imperial Spruce Pilsner from Michigan. When it ended at 11pm I was ready to hit the sack, but everyone else wanted to go out so we went to a place in Chinatown.

Saturday morning Lelaine made a big breakfast and we spent the rest of the day walking around the neighborhood and then biked to Georgetown. For dinner we went to Zaytinya, where we had a lot of Turkish food and huge lamb shoulder that cooked over a spit. Pretty tasty. Being a senior citizen and out late the night before I was ready for bed, but we went out to a couple bars. It was the first time in a long time that I have been out for closing time two nights in a row.

On Sunday we had brunch then went to Ikea, at Matt's request, before heading to the airport. 'Twas a good trip.

ethiopia

I spent last week in Ethiopia for work, traveling with three other congressional staffers and an NGO that raises awareness of global poverty. To be honest, I can't say that Ethiopia was on my short list of destinations prior to going, but it ended up being an amazing trip.

Won't bore you with the day-by-day play-by-play, but the general focus was to see the implementation of health and education programs, with activities ranging from meetings with the US embassy and Ethiopian government officials to site visits at hospitals, health outposts, and schools. We spent most of the week in Addis Ababa, the capital, but also made it to Awassa and surrounding rural areas for a couple of days. Here are some random thoughts:

Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar - it is now 2003.

Arrived on Easter Sunday, and on the short drive from the airport to the hotel we drove past 50+ goat and lamb carcasses on the street, which were consumed earlier in the day to end the fast for lent.

Their coffee is terrific, which makes sense since they discovered it. Their beer is not so terrific.

The vast majority of people were extremely friendly and pretty much everyone we met with praised the US government for providing assistance. They certainly have a long way to go, but it was great to see the strides they are making fighting HIV, TB, and malaria.

There is no Ethiopian equivalent of HIPAA. A doctor didn't understand why we didn't want to be in a room with/bother a woman in labor and they had no qualms talking about health issues of various patients right in front of them.

The kids we visited in the rural village of Ramada were extremely cute and loved to follow you around and get their pictures taken.

80 Armenians live in Addis. We met 40 of them at a restaurant one night that had entertainment provided by five Armenian musicians. We nicknamed the dancer in this video "the ambassador."

You can't walk or drive through Addis for five minutes without seeing something related to Manchester United or Arsenal.

In one clinic there were a ton of kids in a crowded building who were sick or waiting to get vaccinated. Someone in our group noticed that several toddlers and little kids were pointing and staring at me. We figured they thought I was a white giant.

Ethiopian food in DC is pretty much the same as in Ethiopia, except in Ethiopia every restaurant also serves pizza and pasta.

I saw the remains of Lucy, the 3.2 million year old australopithecus named after the Beatles song.

Overall we saw some amazing things. Not all of it was fun. It is pretty heartbreaking to visit an orphanage or watch severely malnourished kids line up to receive Plumpy'nut, particularly when you know that at the end of the day you will leave for a hotel room and they will sleep on a dirt floor. But I am very glad I went.

Here are pictures.

Happy Easter

Today is Easter Sunday and I was looking through some old pictures of blog posts that never came to fruition, I thought I could use this one because it looked like a great set of Easter cakes.

A few Sundays ago, we hosted some friends after the cherry blossom 10 mile run and I thought this would be a great reward. I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs, The Kitchn.

Both cakes are raspberry cakes, one has raspberry frosting and the other has vanilla bean frosting. I thought the vanilla one would go first because it was too much raspberry, but while both were a hit, the double raspberry went first.

Hope everyone has a nice Easter with family and friends.

playoff beard

The NHL playoffs have started. The Caps are playing well. To get into the playoff spirit, I was hoping to grow a playoff beard along with the players. In fact, doing so would have helped a charity. But someone - I will give you a hint, her name rhymes with Elaine - told me in no uncertain terms that a beard isn't acceptable. There was also some rumbling about a family picture (hopefully the Caps are still winning in early May). I think this is ridiculous.

packing light

It has been a while since the last post - work has been busy and other than a visit from Jen, we haven't done anything terribly too exciting.

That changes (for me at least) next week when I go to Ethiopia for work. We are going to look at TB and HIV programs in Addis and in a rural area. To prepare for the trip I had to go shopping at REI to get special bug spray that had a certain level of deet (in addition to six vaccines and malaria pills). While there I decided to pick up a couple pairs of quick dry, and odor resistant undies. I'm trying to pack light, so the plan is to only take two pairs and wash one every night. Think I can do it?

breck pics

More good stuff like this can be found here.

Thanks again to Aunt Glo and Shannon for the place to stay. The town home is fantastic and we had an amazing time.

breckenridge days 3-4

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast at the Blue Moose for the second straight day, Lelaine rented her snowboard, and all of us attacked the mountain. Emily is the best skier in the group and went with Jeremy and me up the gondola to Peak 7. Lelaine took advantage of the fact that we were staying right on a run so she honed her snowboarding skills on Four O'Clock. It provided a good way for her to practice without having a lot of people to avoid on some of the green slopes, not to mention that she could walk right into the condo to take a break anytime she wanted.

After a couple of runs down Peak 7 Emily and I went up the t-bar near the top of the Peak 8 summit (at nearly 13,000 feet, the lift that services the top is the highest in North America) for my first foray into a bowl and big powder on what I had heard were a few manageable blacks. For me, this was a BFD. Another advantage of going so high is that the views are supposedly amazing. I say supposedly because we were in the middle of a cloud that was producing a lot of snow, so visibility was virtually non-existant. It was erie being above the tree line with the white sky blending into the mountain. A big drop off of the ridge to start out the run kind of psyched me out, but it went well. Pika is very wide, and I have never been in such deep, ungroomed powder. By the time I got to the bottom, I was mentally thrilled, but my legs were screaming.

Jeremy's and my legs were turning into jelly, but both of us thought that we needed to get as many runs and possible in before calling it a day. After a much needed rest, the three of us went down blues and a couple blacks on Peak 8 for another couple hours. My favorite in that group, and I think Jeremy and Emily's as well, was Spruce. I also really enjoyed Claimjumper. Because Jeremy and Emily had to drive back to Denver Sunday night, we ended up saying our farewell on a run - they headed back to the condo to pick up their car and I tried to get a few more runs in.

Breck is massive. We spent almost two full days skiing and had only been on two of the four peaks. I headed over to Peak 9 and got a couple runs in. Although I hoped to also venture to Peak 10, my legs weren't cooperating and it was nearing closing time, so I had to call it quits and ski back to the condo.

Unfortunately Lelaine had fallen and hurt her knee earlier in the day making walking difficult, but she was still able to snowboard. I watched her go down the run to see all the progress she made while focusing on Four O'Clock run.

We were both tired and sore, so we had a quiet and relaxing night just hanging out in the condo. Monday morning we woke up, packed, stopped for breakfast in Dillon, and then drove to Denver.

There have been a handful of vacations in which the day after returning all I do is think of how much I want to go back to where I was. This was definitely one of those trips. We need to make a ski trip out west a regular occurrence.

breckenridge day 2

Saturday morning we woke up early, rented skis, and Jeremy and I headed up the mountain. The altitude wasn't treating Lelaine well, so she decided to take it easy reading by the fireplace, walking through town, and getting a massage.

have skied more this year than any other year, and it is definitely paying off. We took the gondola from town to Peak 8 and started with a nice green. After the warm up we stayed on blues all day, hitting nearly every blue on Peaks 7 and 8.

I was pretty much on cloud nine all day, but a couple runs were particularly stellar. In the early afternoon we started going through the trees and deep powder near Wirepatch, then headed left for Monte Cristo, which is at the very end of the resort. I thought something was wrong and the run was closed, because Monte Cristo had been very recently groomed and there was no one else around. We rode down the whole way and didn't see a single soul - it was like we were on our own private mountain. As soon as we got down we went back up the lift and repeated the run. This time, Jeremy took a pretty bad fall...and by fall I mean he flipped while in the trees and nearly hit a rock. I missed it, but managed to take many pictures of him while he was getting up. The pic on the right is Jeremy picking himself up. Notice that there is no one else within sight.

After lunch at the base of Peak 7 we skied for another hour or so and then headed back to Aunt Glo's place. One of the best parts about it is that it is ski-in from the 3.5 mile long Four O'Clock trail. I have never stayed in a ski-in condo, and it will be hard to stay anywhere else now that I have been able to go directly from slope to couch or hot tub.

Jeremy's girlfriend Emily drove in from Denver and we went out to dinner. Jeremy and I were sore from skiing and Lelaine still hadn't completely adjusted to the altitude, so instead of going out after dinner we stayed in and watched TV.

breckenridge day 1

Work has been pretty hectic recently, which explains the lack of fun things to write about, but a ski trip to Colorado made it well worth it. We stayed at my Aunt Gloria's place in Breckenridge, which was awesome.

It was Lelaine's first trip to Colorado and seeing the Rockies. We arrived in Denver late Friday morning, rented a car, stopped downtown for lunch at Steubens (another Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives find), and headed west for the mountains.

My friend Jeremy was spending the weekend with us but wasn't scheduled to arrive until 9pm. We hadn't seen Jeremy in two years until last month when he was in DC for a weekend visit, so it was nice to get together again so soon.

So after unpacking and settling into the condo in Breckenridge, we drove over to Vail and I showed Lelaine where the family used to go every summer. I haven't been since 2005, but a lot has changed. Lionshead and Crossroads now look like Beaver Creek. We even heard a few people on the bus talking about Fritz having to relocate Swiss Dog to Avon because rent in the redeveloped Lionshead is now way too high.

Once back in Breckenridge we met Jeremy at Swiss Haven for fondue. They claimed to be the first fondue restaurant in the US, and although that seemed dubious, it was pretty good. It helped that they have bottles of Rochefort 8 to wash it down.

auto show

We went to the Auto Show with Allen and Steve Saturday night. While Team Purple House isn't in the market for a new car right now - the Alero is doing just fine - it sometime takes us over an hour to decide what to eat for dinner, so we should probably start vehicle negotiations early.

Going into the evening both of us had a few cars in mind. For Lelaine that would be an Audi Q5, Prius, or Volvo C30 (something about a kid's car seat). I am more into a Chevy Malibu, Ford Edge, or Jeep Patriot. Unfortunately, even after looking at over 100 cars I don't think we are any closer to agreeing on anything.

I must admit, the Q5 is really nice, and surprisingly costs less than a A4. The only problem is the small sticking point of still costing a lot. I really like the Jeep Patriot - it reminds me of my old Cherokee. However, Lelaine doesn't like its boxy design.

We couldn't even agree what cars we would get if we won the lottery, as she would take a Mini Cooper over a Range Rovers or a Jag XK. Pretty much the only thing we mutually agreed to eliminate was the Ford Edge.

Granted it is a few years down the road, but I see either a Prius or CRV in our future.

After agreeing to disagree about cars, we met Sam, Alison, Hudson, Heather, and Shelby at Carmine's for an Italian feast consisting of fried zucchini, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, veal parmesan, penne alla vodka, and chicken scaloppine. When we left, I was more stuffed than the cannoli I had for dessert (we went skiing on Sunday, so we make up the excuse that we needed to eat a lot to be ready for a day on the slopes).

continental divide(s)

On the way to Wisp, you pass a sign claiming you are passing the "Eastern Continental Divide." While a harmless sign to most, it spurred quite the debate in the car. And by debate, I mean I ranted about it while the others shook their heads and Lelaine called me a moron.

I do not believe the eastern continental divide exists. Our continent is bordered by two oceans. That means that the true continental divide is the one in which water on one side flows to the Pacific and the other side the Atlantic. The "eastern continental divide" apparently exists because water to the east flows to the Atlantic and to the west the Mississippi River. But where does the Mississippi go? Into the Gulf of Mexico, which then feeds into the Atlantic. So water on both sides of the "eastern continental divide" ends up in the same place. In other words, it isn't a continental divide.

Aren't you as outraged by this as I am? I will assume the lack of comments means that you are so worked up you cannot type a response.

wisp weekend

MLK weekend a group of eight of us gathered in two cars and drove three hours to Wisp for a ski weekend in far western Maryland. Allen, Heather, Steve, and Shelby arrived around 11:30pm on Friday and used Steve's Jeep to partially clear the snow-covered driveway of the big house we rented. The second car with Justin, Kelly, Lelaine, and me arrived a short while later. We (Steve) started a fire, had a couple beers, and then went to sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up and got to see our place in the daylight. It was great, right on a frozen lake, covered by icicles that were as big as me, and blanketed by at least a foot of snow. We headed to the hill and spent all day skiing. Kelly, Steve, Shelby, and I stayed together for most of the day hitting some greens and blues. Justin, Allen, and Heather (the last two being never evers) took lessons and were near Lelaine on the bunny slope. After a late lunch next to the fire in the lodge we went back out. I don't know if it was because the temperature was dropping or the fact that the Ravens and Steelers (two somewhat local teams for western Maryland) were playing, but the mountain emptied out. Kelly and I had a great hour or two on a handful of blues with no one in sight and zero lift lines. Pretty glorious.

We had big plans for what to do at night, but the combination of being dog tired, me forgetting all the cords to plug in the Wii, a warm fire, and the fact that we had an outdoor hot tub overlooking the lake make for a pretty low key evening.

We woke up Sunday and made the five minute drive back to Wisp. It was crowded, but we all got in a handful of good runs. I convinced Kelly to go down a black with me, which she managed to do without falling. Can't say the same for me, as I took a pretty sad fall while snowplowing on the flatest part of the run. Kind of sad.

Speaking of falling, there were three outstanding spills. The first came on Saturday when a few of us were on a blue. I was about half way down when I looked up and saw no one coming down, and then a couple seconds later Shelby started making a couple big S's down the hill. I kept on about my business until a few seconds later when I heard a noise rush by me similar to the sound of a semi dispersing air as it passes someone on the highway. It was Picaboo Street...I mean Shelby...who evidently grew tired of slowly making her way down. After she was a couple hundred feet below me and disappearing behind a bend I saw a huge cloud of snow fly up in the air as she wiped out. I was worried she might be hurt - she was flying - but she laughed it off.

The second big fall came from Justin. He was on a reen and had a little bit of a problem with a brief steep section. He managed to end up with a decent yard sale, complete with him face down on the snow, poles above him on the hill and his skis below getting further and further away as they continued to slide. In his defense it probably was the steepest thing he has gone down.

But Allen saved the best for last. As a first timer, he spent all of his time on the bunny slope but wanted to go down a regular green before heading home. He started off really well, which surprised us all, not because he was good, but because for a beginner he was skiing pretty fast. Definitely not the typical super-slow turns that most first times make. But we soon realized there was a reason for it. While Allen appeared to have mastered keeping his skis parallel to gain speed, he couldn't turn or slow down. After ensuring a kid didn't experience a pain free day on the hill (the kid walked away just fine), he did something really impressive. At the end of the run, the trail we were on comes down the hill horizontally and merges with a steep trial that comes down the hill vertically. At the point of convergence, there is a fairly sizeable bump. For most it isn't a big deal because you are either 1-not going fast since it is the end of the run or 2-aware of the bump and and have fun with it. Well Allen didn't know about the bump, couldn't slow down, and didn't know what to do. He ended up hitting the bump as though it was a ramp in the terrain park. Both skiis had a lot of air under them. I've never seen a beginner do anything like it. It was awesome.

When we left all were sore, but all had a good time and are hoping to do something similar again.

good and bad weekend

The good: Saturday we woke up and drove to Whitetail to meet Rich for our second ski/snowboard day with Rich in as many weeks. It had snowed the night before, so while the drive was slow, the conditions on the hill were great. After a day of skiing (I skied and Lelaine boarded) we drove to Allen and Heather's for dinner. All and all a pretty good day.

The bad: the Chiefs game on Sunday. All week I had been looking forward to the Chiefs first playoff game at home since 2003. Things started well - the Chiefs had a big goaline stand early and then took the lead on a long touchdown run. But after failing to convert a fourth and one in the third quarter, the game took a turn for the worse and the Chiefs were clobbered the rest of the way. Sunday was not a good day.

misadventures in snowboarding

This weekend we drove to Liberty, a ski hill near Gettysburg, PA. Normally, Lelaine snowboards and I ski. But this time I felt like changing things up. We were meeting Rich, a friend from Mizzou who starting boarding last year, and I figured I would join them on a snowboard.

This is despite the fact that the one time I previously attempted to snowboard turned out to be one of the most frustrating days of my life. Back in January 2002, several friends were in Keystone, CO, and we had the bright idea to ride a gondola and another lift to the top and assumed we would just learn how to snowboard a couple thousand feet above the base. That was a mistake. The others picked it up relatively well, but I couldn't keep my click-in boots in the bindings and it took three or four hours to get down, broken up by falling on my face every three minutes.

Well, not much has changed since that day in Keystone. Even with a lesson, I am terrible. I have probably gone skiing twenty times in my life. And in those twenty times I have fallen half has many times as I did in three hours of trying to snowboard this weekend. None of the falls were bad...except for one that involved my elbow going into my ribs and making it hurt to breath deeply, laugh, and sleep.

After making it down the bunny slope only twice (in three hours!) I traded the board for skis. I don't understand why anyone snowboards. It isn't like I am the best skier, but it isn't that difficult to at least snowplow your way down a hill. But just standing up on a board for more than two seconds, let alone things like turning to avoid crushing into groups of people or figuring out how to stop (I finally managed to stop without falling...once) are nearly impossible. Somehow Lelaine likes it, and that is nice and all, but I will never be able to do it.

I'm glad I tried it again, but I will stick to skiing when we go to Wisp with a big group MLK weekend.