Weekend Update

The telescope nearly killed me on Friday... It was clear out, so I couldn't resist, and I tried to pop outside for a little bit to take a peek. The problem was, it was WAY too cold out. I had to hurry and be quick, because within about 10 minutes I was freezing to death. Ten minutes was of course, barely enough time to start to figure things out. Plus, it's hard to peak through the eyepiece when you are shivering. Oh well, got a good first peek at least. I'm anxious for the moon to start coming back towards full. It was almost scary though, peaking through that thing, and suddenly seeing a zillion more stars than you could with the naked eye. Crazy. I can't wait to get back out again... though it might be awhile with snow falling again tonight.

Saturday the weather gods were feeling generous, and they gave us a nice enough day to squeeze in an outdoor ride. Not a moment too soon either, because I thought I was going to crack if I didn't get outside soon! It took a second when I first jumped on the bike, to remember how to balance and ride the thing... riding the trainer definitely harms your skills! I met up with Derek and Randy and we hit up the Carter Lake ride in town. Not a huge group, but a perfect little group that pretty much all knew one another, and we all went out to face the elements together. And sure, it was cloudy, it was insanely windy, and it was raining when we got back to Boulder, but it was a solid 4-hours of being out on the bike!

One of these is not like the other! I tried to pass the vodka "gel pack" to Randy during the ride, but he was paying to much attention, rather than just eating what I gave him. Though I think he wanted it back after we stopped in Hygeine and he filled up the bottles with SOBE - would have made a nice cocktail.



Sunday was pretty good. I had met up the night before with Jeff, Craig and Jesse for some dinner, beer, and general social hour. And Craig surprised me with a super cool classic Dunkin Donuts coffee mug he had picked up when he was in Jersey a few weeks ago! Awesome! I had my eye on one of these, but didn't see any in the stores when we were out there. Great job Craig! So I started the morning off by sleeping in, having pancakes, and then drinking some fine Peet's House Blend from my perfectly understated mug;



I try to avoid making stupid mistakes, and most of the time I do pretty well. But was starting to worry on Sunday that I had made a stupid mistake;



It was cold out, not as nice as the weather was on Saturday. But it was nicer than they had forecast, with only the off and on snow showers up here. Pretty cold though, hovering right around freezing. I didn't want to snowshoe, wanted to get a tough ride in, but didn't want to face the trainer and didn't have much time to do a ride. So I figured I'd leave (roughly) from the house and do some quick hills. Well, quickly I saw that going down Magnolia was going to be a bit tricky. It was snow covered on the top half, as you can see above. So the going was slow, and very cold. I was really glad when I got to the canyon knowing that pretty much all the descending was done. I'd never been so happy knowing that I was going to have to ride uphill to get home! So I got a couple rides up the hill to Betasso, nice, 10-minute climbs. It felt really good to be out climbing! And that part of the climb was in the sun, and had good weather. Then it was time to head back up Magnolia. It was covered in gravel, and wet, but definitely manageable, and it was so nice to be out climbing.



As expected, the top half had a good bit of snow and ice on the road, and it was even starting to snow again as I worked my way up. I like climbing in the snow, or with big drifts on the side of the road... it just makes you feel tough. And like I keep saying, at least I was outside. You know it's cold when you pile on the clothes for the descent, but don't end up taking anything off for the climb! It was good to make it back to the house, and the legs felt good after a short but tough workout.

Neo and I had just enough time for a super quick doggie nap;



Then we were off to dinner and a movie with Jessica's mom, and the gang. It was her birthday, so it was time to party! Good food, then caught "The Golden Compass". Pretty good movie, though I felt (believe it or not) that it was moving too fast. It was like they were only reading every third line of the book, and moving along super quickly. There could have been lots more detail to the story. Then of course they spent the last 15 minutes, no lie, of the movie, beating you over the head with the knowledge that there would be a follow-up episode. I'm pretty sure that by the end, even the people in the theater next door picked up on the fact that there would be a sequel.

And of course... Monday meant it was time to get back to work. A full 5-day week no less!