I was going through some boxes the other day, and ran across this item ticket from a few years ago. It was from one of the office supply chains, I think. In any case, I suspect the item was marked up to a higher-than-normal price, just so they could claim that it was on sale.
So, Marion and I went up to Frisco yesterday to do some X-C skiing. It was beautiful up there, even if the weather wasn’t the best. Most of the time, it was snowing, quite heavily at times. A couple of times, I stopped on the trail, just to watch the snow come down. The temperature was right at freezing, and all the snow was powder. Unfortunately.
Powder is great if you’ve got enough speed going. I have neither the knees nor the money for downhill skiing anymore. The problem was that the snow would clump under our skis and stick to them and the trail beneath them, which meant that we didn’t get much “glide” as we went along. Often, we’d push a ski and have it jolt our leg to a stop, which started to cause me problems later on.
The roughly 7km “Frisco Bay” trail normally takes us a little over an hour. Yesterday, it took just over two. We haven’t gone on the “RJ’s Vista” trail for the past few years, so I can’t say how long I would have expected it to take. I can say that it took us an hour. Well, it took me an hour. My skis were letting me do a bit better than Marion’s let her do; I suspect it’s the fact that I weigh almost twice what she does that let me strip the snow from the bottoms of my skis more easily.
That, and the fact that she missed the turnoff for the lodge and ended up on a black trail.
In any case, we normally try to leave by about 2:30pm to try and miss the Sunday evening traffic going back to Denver. Yesterday, we left around 4pm, so we hit the traffic. Big time.
I think it’s about 8 miles from Silverthorne to the Johnson Tunnel (the westbound tunnel is the Eisenhower, the eastbound is the Johnson). Yesterday, it took us about an hour and a quarter to cover that distance. Once we got to the tunnel, traffic sped up … until we got to Silver Plume. By the time we got to Georgetown, we figured it was best to get off the highway for awhile, so we went looking for a restaurant for dinner. We found the Euro Cafe before we got to the main drag, and decided to give it a try.
It was a good choice. We both had the Hungarian Goulash, and it was wonderful, as was the sweet-and-sour red cabbage. I tried the apple strudel for dessert (I’d just done 3 hours of cardio, remember?), and it was tasty enough, but I don’t think I’d have it again. I’d definitely go back for the goulash, though. Maybe try some of their other dishes. They also had a nice touch in the restrooms that I haven’t seen before… disposable cups and a bottle of Scope. I like that.
After spending almost an hour at dinner, we got back onto the highway. Traffic was moving about 20 mph. We finally got home at 8:30pm, for a trip that normally takes between about 90 and 150 minutes. Bleah. We’ll remember that next time, I’m sure.
While on the Galapagos portion of the trip, we came across dolphins twice. The first time, they were near the shore as we were leaving Floreana Island. Several of the tour members tried to swim with them, but they were largely unsuccessful at getting close to them.
The second time was somewhat later, as we were between Floreana and Isabella. Tim, our tour guide, estimated that there were about 400 dolphins in the pod. I took a number of photos and movies, and I’ll include the best ones. This first photo shows Tim on the bow, with the pod in the distance as we approached them. As always, click on the photo for the full-sized image. I’ve uploaded these at what should be the full 6MP resolution.
We spent about 10-15 minutes following the pod. It may have been more; it may have been less. I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying attention to my watch. Also visible in this first photo are the back of Marion’s head, Pat on the bow, and Natalie in the near foreground at the right.
The people visible in this shot are, from left to right, Evette, Tim, Pat, and Erika.
The people visible in this shot are Pat, Erika, and Rosemarie.
I’ve seen dolphins at sea before, when I was in the Navy, but I’d never seen so many at once. Nor had I seen them leaping – they’d been surfing the bow wave. It was wonderful. Here’s the best movie I took. If you watch closely towards the end (about the 1:10 and 1:24 marks), you can see dolphins swimming past the boat just under the surface.
Some time ago, I mentioned that I’d eaten guinea pig while in Ecuador. Here’s the photo I mentioned. Note that you can not only see the paws, but, if you look closely at the piece on the left, you can make out the ears.
Basically, it was sectioned and deep-fried. The meat was tasty enough (what there was of it), but the skin caused problems – it was thicker than I expected, and tough. Some days later, one of our tour guides said that grilled guinea pig was much better than fried. Ah, well.
There are several things that seemed to normally accompany meals. Popcorn is tossed into soup the way crackers would be here. The roasted corn was quite good to snack on, as were the fried banana chips. They weren’t as sweet as the ones I get here, but they were still good. Probably a different kind of banana – we saw several types being sold in the markets.
That´s Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador, by the way. I´m mostly through with a trip to the Galapagos, with a bit longer in Ecuador when I´m done. Internet has been available everywhere so far, but connectivity hasn´t. We get back to Quito the day after tomorrow, and back home a few days later. The weather has been great, the trip has been pretty damn good so far, and I´ll be looking for work when I get back.
Maybe I´ll post a photo of my guinea pig dinner when I get where I can upload photos. Don´t tell anyone squeamish, but you can see the ears. More when I get back.
According to Typealyzer, this blog is a Meyers-Briggs INTP.
I wonder if that changes over time. I’d presume so.
Woke up this morning to the first snow of the season, here in town, anyway. There’s already been snow in the mountains and north of here. Just a light dusting, but it’s still snow.
It improved my mood … last night, I was trying to install a new range hood. I replaced the stove when I moved in, and pulled the extant range hood because it had been damaged by a grease fire the previous occupant had suffered. Sanded the burnt paint off the cabinets, had the paint matched, repainted the sanded areas, and then last night tried to install the new range hood.
Had to go back to Lowe’s to get pieces that weren’t included in the box (wiring, lamps, etc.), and got everything ready. Then, trying to put it in place, I found out that the mounting holes weren’t in the same place as the prior range hood – I can’t mount it without modifying the cabinets or using bolts, rather than the mounting screws. Where the screws are supposed to be is a void space, because the holes are too far inward to allow the screws to go into the wood at the bottom of the cabinet sides.
Ah, well. One more thing to deal with later.
