broomball

i feel really really jipped right now. how come i've never heard of this sport?? broomball: like hockey only you have brooms instead of sticks, you're hitting a small soccer ball type thing and you wear shoes instead of skates.... i'm sure the equipment gets more progressive once you reach the big broomball leagues, but hello - how fabulous is this??

of course, i could never play it because of my deathly allergy to walking on ice (i really do think it's an illness of mine. it used to take me an extra 20 minutes - yes 20 minutes to walk to school on an icy day because my legs stiffen right up. quite a curse), but why oh why don't any of my friends play broomball so i can at least go and watch? i promise i make a good cheerleader!*

i can only imagine the entertainment value of watching this sport in person.

*unless i bring a really good book and am the only person in the stands... sorry about any and all times you've made a really good hockey play while i'm there, the boy, and my nose is stuck in a book...

snow day

one of my favorite things about having a little dog manifests itself when there's 31 inches billion (and still falling!) of snow on the ground.
it's a cruel world for dogs when their toilets are covered by more snow than they can even stand in.

he'd jump into a pile of snow, disappear for a second, try digging an area where he could at least squat, give up and jump back out. Half a dozen attempts left him doing what every dog despises doing - peeing on the patio

and when he comes back inside, he's got a nice little set of nature-made UGGs on (please ignore my lovely face).

...one of my favorite things about snow days is that it gives you the uninterrupted time to plow through your entire inbox, organize all your files, practice the guitar, read a little bit and still have time to do things like take pictures of your dog peeing outside and then blog about it.

sometimes snow just doesn't belong

ask me how excited i am that it’s april 9 and there’s a forecast for seven freakin’ inches of snow tomorrow. seven freakin’ inches. seven. no amount of therapy can make me less depressed about this. but this helps a little bit

i decided to finally give in to winter though (after it was already technically spring) and go skiing for the first time this season. (let’s be honest – if it wasn’t for my skiing freak boyfriend, i would still be standing strong against winter.) two weekends in a row even! we went up to beaver creek one weekend and steamboat the next weekend. and i didn’t even fall off the chairlift like bill suspected (and, for the sake of the story, secretly hoped) i would.

both weekends were great – full of things like skiing (for those readers who just tuned in), snowshoeing, sledding down hills with showshoes on, slaughtering everyone at (and quickly becoming obsessed with) guitar hero, riding up mountains on sleighs, eating dinner on mountains, riding down mountains on sleighs, buying $30 worth of candy from the local confectionary (or candery as i like to call them)… you know, stuff like that.

i'm not sure why these pictures turned out like this, but they look kind-of blair witch-esque, don't you think?

my two bits of advice:

1. just because a swiss sandwich shop sounds like a good idea, you probably still shouldn’t eat there. you might end up with ¾ of dry uneaten zopf and a stomach full of candy from the candery as a substitute lunch.

2. if you’re ever driving in the colorado mountains, be sure to stop at kremmling. i always figured i liked kremmling because it kind-of sounds like gremlin and who didn’t like that movie? but kremmling, colorado quickly became my favorite place because of this little gem of a billboard.

ding ding dong ding

300 tubas. what better way to bring in christmas? i was impressed with how silently they played silent night. they probably only had 5 tubas playing silent night and all the other ones were just pretending. joke’s on us. thanks for risking your ears and windows, denver, by letting 300 tubas congregate in a confined area to play us christmas carols. it just wouldn’t have been the same if it was oboes.

to top it all off, mr zachman was a guest conductor! mr zachman was our music teacher in junior high. he was cross-eyed. i have nothing against cross-eyeds, but it does make it rather hard to follow instructions when your conductor points at you with his baton but looks right at your neighbor. also, he was huge on lecturing on how to take good care of your instrument – keeping it clean and tightening the screws when needed and such. that’s why it was funny when he got really upset in class one time and threw his clarinet against the wall. shattered to pieces. way to take care of your instrument mr. zachman. oh…you weren’t talking to me?

christmas rocks!

so if you’ve never taken the opportunity (or even worse – you’ve never even thought about taking the opportunity…shame on you) to see the transiberian orchestra in all their concert glory, you haven’t truly experienced all that christmas music has to offer. also, it’s a great blast to the 80’s, and who doesn’t want that to be part of their holiday festivities?? i’m having a hard time limiting my highlights of the show. let’s just say there were lots of lasers and fire and strobe lights and probably about a thousand band members and a narrator telling a really cheesy christmas story. and a couple of singers with good gravely voices. and everyone had really long hair. and the girls all had blue eyeshadow like barbie and the rockers. and there were a handful of guitar duels and a piano duel and those triangle shaped guitars. and it started snowing inside the pepsi center.

i’m serious – it had every ingredient necessary to make a perfect flashback rock concert. it was awesome. plus, all their music is so fun – what better way to get in the christmas spirit than with a jam session of oh come all ye faithful? i think the absolute highlight for us was the main violinist, anna phoebe, though. she was incredible. she had this custom made bright pink electric violin that she would just wail on – she must have gone through at least a dozen bows. aside from that, i’ve never seen someone with so much energy. 3 hours of running back and forth, doing backbends, running up into the crowd…wow…i’m in love.

meghan and i also learned some things about each other we hadn’t realized before during this concert. another christmas miracle. we both have the exact same pitched “wooo!!” like after a song is over and you’re resisting the urge to throw the beast, so you scream “whoo!!” instead? yeah – identical. and we’d start and stop at the exact same time too. it would’ve been funny to put some poor unassuming person in between us – surround-sound whoo-ing!

first snow!!

after being away from good ol’ mountain winters for the past few years, i’ve been a little hesitant to face the snow again. and then the snow decided to face me. we had our first snowfall yesterday – at least 3 feet probably. blizzard conditions. couldn’t leave the house. this is all a lie. we seriously did get about 6 inches though – not too shabby for a pre-halloween storm.

and even though i survived my first true snow in a few years (dc and seattle snow doesn’t count), hats off to milo who not only experienced his first snow ever, but decided he loves playing in it (to the regret of his owner). it was deep enough (or maybe he’s just small enough), he’d step and his entire body would sink. it looked like a little toupee resting on the snow. then he’d fly out in one foul leap and sink in an inch further. he’s like a little kid – 3am rolls around and he’s waking me up with a “i really want to go play in the snow right now” lick. so, in honor of his first snow, i got him some snow gear. it was only appropriate. he thinks he’s all that in his little suit. he works it with the lady dogs