Winter Weekend Inside

Posted on by Jordan

We had the kind of grey, hard, cold, cloudy, weekends that makes you want to stay inside forever. Fortunately, Heather had invited a friend over for the weekend, so we still had something to brighten the day.

Given the options, Heather and Elise decided to work up some new head-shots that Elise would use to help promote her vocal music aspirations. After a fair amount of re-arranging furniture and trying different  approaches, they managed to pull together a studio of sorts.

We are really lacking when it comes to indoor lighting for photography, but even on a grey day, the south-facing windows pick up enough to let Heather get something done. While we don’t have lighting, we have sheets and a fan…apparently all vital equipment.

As funny as the makeshift studio looked, it’s hard to argue with the results:

And what was I doing throughout all this you ask?

Well, a week or so back I broke down and ordered a desktop computer from the Dell factory outlet. It was really rough on my pride to buy a pre-built machine, but I just couldn’t match the price they were offering. So, I spent most of the day setting up the new machine and fussing with it.

I think everyone had a good day 🙂

 

-Jordan

Skating And Cookies

Posted on by Jordan

It looks like I am just going to have to accept that winter is here.

This past weekend was full of winter activities, starting here:

Look at all those people lined up! You would almost think we started going to trendy places in town or something…

Well, no actually those are all middle school students and you just can’t see the line of min-vans dropping them off. The question remains, what could everyone be lined up to do?

Ice skate:

The rink wasn’t overly large, but it was outside, and downtown making for a fairly cool atmosphere. An atmosphere lessened by the surprisingly young clientele combined with the unrelenting inappropriate “dance” songs being played by the helpful live DJ.  (Then again maybe I am just getting old /sigh )

Heather and I went out to the skate rink with a few of her friends from work. Our little group had a great time, despite the unexpected atmosphere.

Note that we captured the entire city skyline in that picture 🙂

The next morning, we pulled together some cookie recipes and got the ingredients just in time for a friend of Heather’s to come over and bake with her. Six hours later, they had enough cookies to pass out to our entire building, and then some:

That night, we went out for dinner and wrapped up the night driving around some of the Des Moines hot spots for Christmas lights. I worry that we may be peaking early, but I am starting to feel ready for Christmas.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights all included knocking on doors here at our building to hand out plates of cookies. We tried a similar thing a few years ago, and didn’t meet with much success. I am happy to report that this year nearly everyone we tried was home, and we met some great neighbors!

-Jordan

Snow… /sigh

Posted on by Jordan

I had been toying with the idea of having a commemorative blog post just for the fact that we finally have our garage organized to the point both cars can park in it.

That didn’t end up happening, but this morning we woke up to find a reason to be really happy both cars were inside:

This snow is slushy enough I don’t think there is much risk it will be with us until March, but it still means the effective start of winter and it’s hard to be excited about that prospect right now.

Alright, that’s probably enough whining… 🙂

-Jordan

Colorado 2011 Part Three

Posted on by Jordan

Our last day at Copper Mountain began much like every other day we had spent there; Heather got up far too early and headed to another meeting. Unlike prior days though, instead of skiing, I packed the car and did some reading.

We were on the road heading west by mid morning, and hoping we wouldn’t have any weather surprises as we climbed the remaining miles to the top of the pass. I know the natives get used to it, but I don’t think the steep up and down while going 70 MPH will ever seem normal to me.

After a few more hours of uneventful drive, we made it to Grand Junction, home of our friends DJ and Vanessa. It was getting hard to remember what day it was at this point, so for my reference and yours, it was Saturday. We spent the remaining day on a little hike, and then went to Saturday evening church.

Before I go much farther, I should mention one of the many highlights of our trip: Ingrid! DJ and Vanessa, are parents now! We enjoyed getting to see our friends exploring parenthood, and seeing that they were really enjoying it.

I sort of wish I had pictures from Sunday, as we had a really great time hanging out that afternoon around the house with a few people from church. Given that all we did was talk and play boardgames maybe the pictures wouldn’t be that interesting… all the same it was a great time. For the record, both “Settlers of Catan” and “Ticket to Ride” are great games. If you have the opportunity to play with someone who can help you learn the rules, you should!

Monday was a special treat of sorts, as DJ and Vanessa were both able to be off work, and were willing to spend a day of vacation with us! As appears to be the custom in Colorado, we used our free time to head into the Mountains again!

What you can’t quite see in the snow around their feet, are the snowshoes they are wearing. There was well over five feet of snow on the ground where that picture was taken, and without the snow shoes it would have been an entirely different picture. As you may recall Heather and I had the chance to play with some snow shoes back in Iowa a few months ago, but there were only an inch of snow. The experience is entirely different with meaningful amounts of snow.

Our plan was to hike straight out into the fresh snow, eventually crossing the trail to a lookout, allowing us to really experience the serenity of the fresh snow in the woods. It was beautiful, it was peaceful, it was also a LOT of work. Even with the snow shoes, the lead person in our group had a big job breaking a trail for us. We rotated the job around quite a bit, and were making pretty good time. Ingrid however, thought it was time for a break.

After a short break, we found a blazed trail. Walking on it felt a little like cheating, but I was ready to have an easier time walking. I should mention that Heather was doing great! Snow shoes may be more her speed, and hikes through the mountains seem to be more interesting to her than flying down the mountain on some fiberglass slats. On the road, we took a more leisurely pace than our guides:

Heather and I were mostly content to just enjoy the atmosphere, although I have to admit we did disagree somewhat as to the proper pace when walking on the road. Ingrid again asserted herself, announcing that the hike needed to end. We reverted back to traveling cross country, although it only ended up being a few hundred yards over to the main road, and from there we were practically in the parking lot where we began the trip.

We stopped through a small coffee shop on the way back to Junction, getting some coffee and enjoying the views. It really is amazing how much more pleasant winter can seem when you drape it over a giant pile of rocks!

After that, home, bed, getting up waaay too early, driving half-way across the state, a plane ride to KC, driving half-way across two other states, and we were back in Des Moines refreshed and ready for a new day at work! 🙂

-Jordan

Colorado 2011, Part One

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I seem to be on a trend of going cold places in winter.

I don’t quite know how that happened, except to say that we aren’t rally devoted to the idea… it just happens.

Our trip to Colorado at the end of February was initiated by a work conference Heather had been asked to attend.

So, let me back up for a second… You remember the speeds we each used when cross-country skiing? I know it’s a single data point, but it stands as a clue that Heather might not be as interested in high-speed winter sports as I am. That being said, when there was a trip to a ski resort in the middle of winter, I was kind of excited. Heather thought it would be fun… in her defense though, she had to work part of the time, so I had a lot of reasons to be more excited than she was.

Anyway, exceptions aside, we were both ready for a few days away from work.

Heather actually managed a few more days away than I did, heading down to KC two days early to visit some friends and then spend an entire day babysitting our one and most favorite nephew ! By all accounts it was fun, but more work than she expected! Who knew an 11-month-old could be so much work?

We boarded a plane from KC to Denver bright and early Wednesday morning. Thanks to the time-zone weirdness, we landed almost the same time we took off. Then off to the rental place. Apparently rental cars are in high demand leaving from the Denver airport on a Wednesday, not a problem though, we have a reservation! Only, the lady at the desk told us our reservation didn’t exist.

This is the point where you would expect the customer service person, the closest thing to a rental car expert we can find in the moment, to spring into action, providing us options and ultimately a car.

We got a blank stare. With some prompting we were assured that there “aren’t any cars left… at any of the companies here” when asked “you mean there isn’t a single car left to rent in Denver?” she said yes. The next question was just “so… what do we do now?” She pointed us to the shuttle-bus stop, and said that we could get back to the airport on the next bus, “maybe one of the other companies has a car I don’t know about”

Back at the airport, we power-walked our way to the only rental-car booth with a huge “cars available” sign sill showing. (it really felt like we should run… but one doesn’t want to stand out in the airport, who knows what they might mistake you for.) Let me tell you about the booth, unlike the other booths, this one lacked a few key items: name we had ever heard of before, a computer, a phone, any furnishings beyond the counter and a chair for the solitary staff member working the booth. The guy assured us “don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of ‘us’ ether, before I got this job… but I guess ‘we’ are big out west” He then assured us they had cars left, talked from memory about the price and options we would have, then wrote our desired car on a scrap of paper. Scrap of paper in hand, we headed out to yet another bus stop. After watching every other rental-car bus pass about three times, our bus finally arrived. The ride was normal, until we got to the ‘T’ intersection leading where you would turn to go into the rental car row. Our bus turned left instead of right. About a mile in the wrong direction and we were in the parking lot for a mostly vacant industrial strip. There were rental cars though! Dirty rental cars, but rental cars. Inside we learned that they were having problems with the car wash, but not to worry the car would be fine. A few sheets of paperwork later, and we had some keys! The instructions were to: “just wander around pushing the panic button on the remote, you will find it eventually”

Low and behold, that tactic worked perfectly, despite it’s lack of professionalism. Once in our car, we found that it had less than 300 miles on it, and was wonderfully clean– on the inside. After that, we stopped for a quick and uneventful lunch and headed up to check into the place we were staying.

hmm sorry I didn’t make it to a part where we have a picture, but the wall-of-text is sufficient to make me think I should close part 1.

-Jordan

Winter Camping

Posted on by Jordan

The past weekend saw Heather and I apart for a large amount of the time.

I went camping with the Boy Scouts, and Heather had a movie night with some girls from church.

In the days leading up to the weekend, Heather was making phone calls and sending e-mails to entice people to come over. I meanwhile, was rapidly eating through my Christmas gift money buying cold weather camping gear. The premiere purchase:

A sleeping bag rated down to ZERO degrees! The picture isn’t from the camping trip, but Heather thought she should record my testing the bag for proper fit.

By all accounts, Heather’s movie night went really well… and the camping was kind of cold 🙂

Actually, it wasn’t so bad. We had access to cabins, so weren’t out in the cold the entire time, nor did I really need the ultra cold weather bag when we were sleeping inside. I am prepared now though!

It was my first trip camping with the troop as an adult leader. The trip back in November was a training event and I didn’t camp with the troop.  I had fun, but it was challenging to know exactly how much guidance I should be giving.  Doubly hard when many of my meals were being cooked by 14 year-old boys. In the end though, I think the boys had fun, and hopefully learned a few things.

I had fun, and learned a lot, even if the boys didn’t! I don’t know if I can quantify it as easily as saying “I learned square-lashing” but I am sure I will be better at working with the troop next time we go out.

-Jordan

A Few Numbers

Posted on by Jordan

Today is December 16th. The current outside temperature is 19 degrees F. I say that because we turned our heat on yesterday!

To be fair, we often ran the fireplace for a few more hours while we were hanging out in the living room in the evenings, but still… This little apartment has amazing insulation we have discovered!

The other significant number is kind of sad… but well I will post it anyway. The new expansion to World of Warcraft came out a few weeks ago. It sold 3 million copies on the first day, and has approximately 12 million players worldwide. That isn’t the sad part though, I also bought the game. Not on day one, but I bought it. One of the many features the game provides is a report of how long you have spent playing. Not calendar days your account has been active, but actual time you have been playing. I am just over 100 days played! It’s kind of a horrifying number. I try to justify it with the fact that I basically quit watching TV about 4 years ago. I don’t know if that quite covers it though.

and…. I really thought I had a 3rd item to talk about here, but somehow it has slipped my mind. I guess that will be another post for another time… when it comes to me!

-Jordan