Merry Christmas

To help save in the number of trees that must get cut down just for Christmas Cards, this will be my version of a christmas card.

Jen and I enjoyed the past year in a number of ways. We rung in the year in style back in Tahoe during a huge storm cycle, and with a few hours of sleep, rose to several feet of more powder skiing at Squaw Valley. Our winter continued to be good with a trip to Colorado for me to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I enjoyed a hut trip outside of Aspen with many great friends while I was out there. For Jen's birthday, we traveled up to the great town of Nelson, British Columbia and the ski area of Whitewater. A great little area with tons of backcountry terrain. We spoiled ourselves here our first ever day of snowcat skiing. A recommended adventure for everyone! As I got laid off from work in the Spring, I pushed the kitchen remodel into full swing with anticipations of starting law school in the fall. Check out www.2814eastolive.blogspot.com for more details on this ongoing project. As Jen finished her second year, she didn't get too much of a break as she had to study all summer her board exams. This included study sesssions on the weekends. This allowed me to do a good deal of kayaking on the weekends with all my friends. Several trips to BC and a trip to Wyoming made it another memorable season of boating. See below for a more detailed account of some of these trips. As fall approached I learned that I would not gain acceptance to law school. While disappointing at first, it has seemingly been a blessing in disguise. Allowing me more time to work on the house (finish the kitchen), find work for myself doing small carpentery projects, and continue kayaking and skiing on my own schedule....can't really ask for much more. The fall was memorable for some friends coming out for a week long kayak, birthday celebration and then a trip back to Colorado for my brothers wedding. Currently, the NW is suffering through a drought for snow, but we are anxiously waiting to get back on the boards, and building a desk until then. Hope the holidays treat you all well. Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year, 2004

Grandma and Grandpa. Happy Birthday Grandma!

McNamara Hut outside of Aspen. February, 2004

A tour of our christmas tree by Graham 

Check it Out!

I just heard a great conversation on the radio with David Suzuki. His Foundation and website can be viewed here: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

That radio program can be heard here: http://www.kuow.org/m3u/wk1_20041202.m3u

check it out!

Blaahhhh!

This is the time of year when Seattle becomes a little challenging. Sun basically comes up about 8 am and then you have 8 hours of gray before it sets again at 4 pm. Its cold, but not cold enough to snow. Luckily I don't work in an office, and the sun does usually pop out for a couple hours, so I am lucky enough to be one of those people who notices. And if we can just make it to Dec. 21st, then our daylight will start to grow again. And finally, it its supposed to dump in the mountains this weekend, so I'll soon be schushing down the mountains. I don't know how non-skiers/boarders survive the NW. So I guess its not all that bad.

Oh yeah, we Seattlites also, love our coffee this time of the year. Jen and I add Cupcakes to that love at our local coffee shop/cupcake bakery: http://veritecoffee.com/