Missing in Action

I have been terribly sick. L had the flu, M has a nasty virus and pink eye. And I wonder why we can't coordinate our illnesses. I have been out of work off and on for three weeks now. When at the doctor's office today I asked if this is a problem every year here, being new to the area and all. I honestly don't remember having wave after wave of illness like this in MA. I was informed that the rest of CO has had the flu for months now, and it is in fact, late in coming to our town. The disturbing news was that the doctor expects to see these germs around for another month! If we're sick for another month, I will do myself in.

Anyway, I'm finally feeling better and will get my act together and upload my Mardi Gras photos. Thankfully I didn't get sick until after that event!

Alternative Training

Just another day at work. While helping a co-worker find a training video in the training room (obviously named), we came upon a black DVD case. Inside there were 3 discs, one hand labeled "69", the other "Buttfuck Bitches" and another, "3Pete". I was going to throw them out (don't recall them receiving any Oscars). I even placed them in my trash can...but I kept thinking what a waste of porn! Someone paid good money for those...Is the hand labeled one a home video? I didn't feel like I could just pop it in my work computer to find out. I couldn't bring myself to place trash upon them, just in case... By the end of the day, I was feeling so bad about trashing them, that I laid this impassioned plea upon a male co-worker to take the porn. After initially declining, he finally capitulated. My conscience can rest now. No porn has gone to waste.

Car bombs, Margaritas and the "Man P"

Bus driver: What's in the glass son?
Drunk guy: Robitussin

That would be when the bus driver threw the contents of the glass out the bus door and returned it to the drunk guy.

This was last Friday night, when the coworkers and I went out for drinks. Montgomery Gentry was playing a concert, and it was the week of the Cowboy Downhill. http://www.exploresteamboat.com/news/2008/jan/23/tabernash_bull_rider_wins_annual_cowboy_downhill/I missed the cowboys (my office doesn't have a window to the outside world, and I frankly forgot it was going on). Anyway we had a good time getting drunk.

My young coworker, having come from work, carried his "man p" with him. This was the first time I had heard this phrase. Gone is the messenger bag of old. KR is a Birkenstock wearing, man p carrying, metrosexual type. Nicest guy you'll ever meet. He followed me out of the bar and made sure I was ok waiting for the bus on my own (can you get a merit badge for helping drunk elders?). And as I found out later, as he walked back to the hotel, he came across a crying girl, and escorted her home. There are truly not enough of those kind of guys around!

Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

Sure it's something we say to our children, before we strap them into bed and hope they stay there all night. But imagine my surprise to find out they're real. Our student workers who are living in rather cramped apartments showed up to work with rows of red welts on their arms. One girl had a rather serious allergic reaction. My co-worker had mentioned bedbugs with a laugh and I thought she was joking until the next day everyone was packing their things in plastic bags and sending them to the cleaners. We moved everyone to the hotel while the apartments were treated for the bed bug infestation.

I looked the little bugs up, since now I'm concerned that they might hitchhike to my home. They look like ticks and live in the crevices around the bed and mattress. They hide in the light, like a cockroach. Yuck. Come to think of it, I know a few guy like that...Hmmm....

Powderific!

The family is skiing today (all but me). It's the last day of ski school and there is two feet of fresh powder on the mountain. I heard there is a bumps competition, but it was too far up the mountain to see from the base. I'm sure I'll hear about it later.

The sun has decided to come out after several days of snow. But I think it's a brief viewing since the weather forecast has snow flakes across all of next week. The new camera phone has arrived and I've been sending picts to Mom. She said she's never seen so much snow, except a few storms a million years ago in PA. But this is different than East Coast snow. Champagne Powder is what it's called here. And in the paper I saw it referred to as simply "'der", as if the "pow" is uncool. Like the bumps I referred to above. In the old days we called them moguls.

So the next session of kids lessons is full. Except for the really expensive ones, they quoted $117 a day. The locals classes are half of that. M. has gotten good enough to ski with her dad, but L. has just started the pommel lift. M's friends go to the smaller local ski hill, so that might work out as well. The other hill also has night skiing which might be fun for everyone.

Today my activities included getting my hair cut, lunch at Wendy's, and some shopping. I have no other agenda today except for making a Killer Lasagna for dinner. Recipe follows:

cook 8 oz lasagna noodles
to make tomato sauce: in blender place 2 cans diced tomatoes (drained),1/2 cup tomato paste,2 scallions, 1 tbsp soy sauce,2 cloves garlic,2 tsp basil,1 tsp oregano,1/2 tsp marjoram
to make cheese layer: 3 cups low-fat cottage cheese,2 eggs (beaten),1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

To layer: in bottom of 9 x 13" baking dish, coat with nonstick spray, then 1/2 cup tomato sauce in bottom. Place a third oft he noodles across the bottom overlapping as necessary. Spread half the cheese mixture over the noodles. Top with another third of the noodles. Then layer the remaining cheese and noodles and pour the rest of the sauce over the noodles. Arrange 4 oz thinly sliced mozzarella on top. Bake at 375 for 35 to 40 min. Let stand about 10 min before serving.

Sometimes I add cooked ground beef to the sauce, and sometimes I add a layer of spinach in the middle. Really good stuff!

Shorts Optional

Excitement at the hotel today. Security responded when a report of a bottomless person was spotted in the coffee shop. As it turned out it was teenage girl in a bikini with jacket and boots. She was apparently intending to go skiing and get a tan.

Now it was 3 degrees F. out today and as one coworker put it, if she were to get on a chair lift she would have stuck (in a bad way).

Today they also snowblowed the pool deck. Up until now you had to follow the narrow shoveled path to the pool. Not any more! I actually haven't seen any people in the outdoor heated pool to date. But it looks really cool at night when it's all lit up and steaming.

My new camera phone is supposed to arrive next week. I already have a mental list of all the things I'd like photos of. The beauty of it, is that I can pretend to talk on the phone, all the while snapping photos of hunky pro skiers/snowboarders who've lost their sponsors. "I'm sorry, I have to take this call." CLICK!

Snowflake Safari

New Years Day we drove up onto Buffalo Pass, as far as the truck would go. They close it down at the campground for skiers and snowmobiles. There were many trucks with trailers parked up there. It was very cold, around zero, but the sky was clear for the first time in several days, and instead of going home, we went back around through the Elk River valley to Clark and up toward Slovonia, where we hiked in the fall. Once again the road was closed for winter use, but we went pretty far up and the snow was just beautiful.

Trees with cottonball-like snow.

Our one wildlife sighting, except for cows and horses, was a fat porcupine waddling across the top of a fence buried in snow. There was a car behind us so we couldn't slam on the brakes, so I missed that photo op.