another day on the mountain

Well, we had a storm blow through here this week and left some cold dry powder on the mountain!  Had to go take advantage of it on Thursday.

It is quite unusual for us to get the dry stuff because most of the time it isn't quite cold enough.  Today's saturday and it's sunny out so I'm staying away from the crowds at the mountain, but the forecast calls for more snow Sunday and Monday so I'm thinking my day off for the week will probably be tuesday.

One day a week off for the month of Feb... well worth it!

Shorter unedited less quality video's just to get them up on the web quickly.  (also I submitted them to the Mt. Hood Meadows site for them to use, we'll see if they like em)....
http://www.youtube.com/user/xtracurricular2011

Here is a funny looking clip on Vimeo I shot also...
http://vimeo.com/20359202

Federal holiday

My morning routine, typically goes like this.  Wake up to the alarm clock (intentionally at least a 1/2 hour early).  Typically my first thought is how many "snoozes" can I go through.  Sometimes I get right up (days I don't go to work), but often I go through at least 2-3 snooze sessions.  Once up, let the dogs out, start the coffee, hit the showers, get dressed, coffee, quick bite, dogs in, and out the door.   Without rushing this takes me about 20 mins.  

Well this morning was like no other, except as I grabbed my blackberry before I walked out the door, I had a fleeting thought of the Mt. Hood conditions page saying something about "join us this holiday weekend".  I didn't have a holiday on my work calendar... but I looked it up on google and sure enough, Presidents day!

I can't keep the federal holiday's straight so I called my secretary, no answer, but didn't want to miss my standard monday morning meeting.  So since my office is close, I jumped in the car to find an empty parking lot when I got there.   

Shoot!! If I would have known I might have "joined' them today, instead I guess I'll continue working on the yard, which isn't so bad. 

Video is up

Allright,
My video is back up.  playing with special effects like slowmotion, transitions, sound etc.
Here's the link Powder day

Pulled my video

I upgraded to Mac's Snow Leopard OS so I could take advantage of some more video editing tools available in iMovie11.  I had the 08 version and it didn't allow for much compared to the 2011 version.

I pulled my video off of Vimeo after I re-edited it.  so... I am in the process of uploading a new one.  (takes some time given the file size).   I'll post once it's up.

Powder day!

What a day wed.  second week in a row I used some leave at work to go up to mt. hood meadows.  We finally had a storm blow in leaving Mt. Hood with a couple of feet of fresh snow.  I tried to pick my day in the hopes that it would be the first day they opened the top of the mountain.  It remained closed for the day but there was plenty of fun fresh snow!!

I'm trying another website for my videos so we'll see how it works.  Should be better picture quality (and my editing skills are improving).  Here's the link.  Powder Day

Funny thing happened on my way back home.  I stopped at Sparky's pizza (awsome pizza!!) which is beginning to become a tradition after a day on the mountain.  As I was sitting there with the place to my self, and this guy walked in that looked a lot like the Todd Hoffman from a show I started watching on discovery channel, Gold Rush Alaska.

He noticed I was eyeing him, and when he ordered I knew it was him.  Kind of funny, didn't want him to feel uncomfortable so I contemplated letting him know that I recognized him.  Had to do it though, I went to refill my soda, and simply said, "Hey, I like your show".  And after small talk about his family and his interest in moving up there but his wife wasn't keen on the long winter thing he left.

His show had brought back some good memories.  Growing up in the big city of Anchorage my parents bought an a frame cabin in a small mining town Hope Alaska.  And by small I mean population 100 :-).  Used to joke with my Mom about the city dump being a single dumpster in a gravel pit.  Now this is a cabin, not a lower 48 house that you go to in the woods, a cabin.  For most of my child hood it didn't have electricity, no running water, wood stove, propane tank oven.  A real cabin.  What great memories!  thank Mom and Dad!

Anyway it was kind of cool to bump into the guy in a very normal, down to earth place.  People are just people.

Sunday ride

I had intended on running Saturday but skipped it with the justification that I would be joining L on one of her training rides.

I borrowed my brother's bike and headed down to milk farm country.  It was a bit cold but we avoided the rain.  25 miles, took us about 2 hours, with some stops to check the route map, and correct course (only once).

Although the Cows are cool to look at, there were some downwind portions of the ride that helped us pick up the pace to get past.  

It was a lot of fun, and a great way to get some exercise in.  

Quick post today. It's snowing on the mountain so planing on taking another wed off to catch some powder.

Sunny day at Meadows

Ok, quick post this morning before off to work.

What an awesome day on the mountain.  Sunny with a little bit of fresh white!  Lindsey and I had a blast.
I'll write more/edit this post later but wanted to publish a little better movie before I headed out for the day.

I haven't found a way to load a quality video yet.  I've had to create a youtube account and post it there because this blog won't accept the file size.

The full version of this is over 300MB, the you tube video is configured as a mobile video and is close to 90MB.  Its a bit grainy so I'm looking to find a website that will host large videos that I could link to. (this looks really great in HD!!)  If anyone has any idea's let me know.

Here's the movie...  skiing in the sun!