greatest snow on earth

Now, the slogan of the state may be a lofty statement, and as we have seen this season, the snow hasn't been up to snuff, but this week was absolutely pristine.

Forecast for the previous week....

Monday: Snow

Tuesday: Snow

Wednesday: Chance of snowy showers

Thursday: Snow

Friday: Snow

Saturday: HUGE snow storm.

Yeah, you heard me. It was amazing.

Friday, 2.0 and I drove up to Brighton for night skiing (boarding). On friday, chains or 4x4 was required, but we were in luck. We loaded our gear into the trooper (nameless as of yet), switched into 4x4 and started the trek. I had a group

of friends that were going to meet us up there about an hour after we were planning on arriving, so she and I drove up the snow-covered roads to the

top of the canyon.

It was the most amazing snow I have ever boarded on in my life, and any misgivings I have had about Utah snow were thrown out of a high window. Imagine taking a path and loosing sight of the gear strapped to your feet because there was just too much fluffy powder.

Any Google search you do with the words, "Utah" and "Snow" will bring up pictures like this one:

or this one:

But I promise you, THIS is what it looked like on Friday and Saturday. We didn't take pictures because one, we are dumb, and two, I didn't have my camera and my phone is too hard to use with gloves on. But still.

Well, because of the snow on the roads, like I said earlier, 4x4 or chains were required which kept the crowds on Friday down to a bare minimum. There were lines, but no wait was longer than a minute.

But sadly, this did mean that Mojo's friends who were coming up later couldn't make it. Little to my knowledge, they didn't have a car with 4x4 and so they called it quits. It's too bad. I would have sacrificed a half hour at the bottom of the canyon to wait for them (in all my trooper goodness), but alas, they didn't even text me until I was down for the night wondering why they hadn't called me when they got there. Sad.

Saturday (not the 2-for-1 deal so no one else wanted to pay full price -- I have a pass so I don't need to plan around that) was the same. The only downfall was that my goggles (new this season) were awful. I'm going to take them back. They would fog up inside the lens (not just the inside of the google. Fog in the part you can't wipe) and I just couldn't see. I tried the whole not wearing them thing, but with the blizzard, it did make it hard to see with snow smacking my eyeballs.

Next time (this Friday after I return my my goggles) we'll get some great pics.

After snowboarding on Saturday, we rushed down, got changed and went to a Golden Globe Birthday, where we came up with the shows that we were being nominated for, and then won our own prizes. Imagine Mojo in his tux from high school accepting this award for best actor in a TV series Second Degree Burn Notice:

visa card, be gentle

Well, Mojo will be poor for the next little while. 2.0 and I bought season passes to night skiing at Brighton. I know. How could I resist a night skiing pass for $200? Well, actually it would have been very easy.

2.0 called me the other day with the idea of buying passes. Now, Mojo's not rolling in the dough, but he's not too poor either. The only problem that I was faced with was that the sale of tickets ended only a few hours after I found out about it. The entire night was spent pondering and debating about the tickets. $200 is nothing to shake a fist at.

Lyndsi, a mutual friend without a cool nickname yet... YET... went up enough times last winter to necessitate a season pass. But not everyone was on board for the $200 investment in pure adrenaline fun. So time pondering was spent and a reasonable compromise was found. 2 for 1.

The resort does a 2 for 1 deal each Monday, Wednesday, Friday (although you have to stand in line for a while) for $16 bucks a person. That's a steal. Better than going for $32. We made a Facebook group so we can contact people about going to the 2 for 1 deal. I know. Sweet.

So here's the deal: It's going to be a little different from what I'm used to... see below


Regular Skiing vs Night Skiing

Warm... Cold (New warmer gear) $$
Bright (Sunglasses)... Dark (New SEEING glasses) $$
Preperation... Able to go on short notice

Plus, the boots I'm wearing above are slightly too small so I can't wear thick socks... yikes. I'll have to see if I can find some sales online.

emergency power outage 101

Things to do while the power is out:

Take a nap
Wear warm closes
Make a fire
Watch a fire (from the power lines and transformer)
Play on the computer
Surf the web
Watch TV

Yes, all of those things were available today at the RFC while the power was out. Now, I know the first ones made sense to you, my lovely readers, but you might get lost with the last three (or four?).

I started the day with shoveling snow. It was deep. It was wet. It was heavy. My gift to my father this Christmas was shoveling all season long. He's old and deserves the rest to he honest. Later, I got ready for my presentation that I had in my class today. (The power was still on, so no problem with that) I got ready, scraped my car of ice, and headed off to school. I was planning on working at school after class, but by the time I got there, I realized that ALL my school books were still at home. Guess I'd go home to do homework.

Once home, I realized there was no power. Guess I wouldn't work on school. Ate lunch and took a nap. By the time I was going to work, the power was still out, but the RFC-EGG (RFC Emergency Gas[-powered] Generator) was carried out and set up. Yay! Although the power was out for the entire street (on the south side only... odd) the RFC was lit and warm. Now the fire department DID try to put out the electrical fire with a fire hose (Picture 2)... doesn't sound safe in the slightest...

Now the best part about having power? Modem and wireless router. Oh yeah! I didn't get much work done though because I was at work for the majority of the power-filled evening.

For those readers still following at this point out of bordom or a weird masochistic need to read the ramblings of Mojo, don't you worry. After 10 hours of the "power-outage," the RFC is back up and running at full-strength.

Yay for the Scout Moto: Be Prepared. Also for the Computer Science Moto: Make sure to have backups for wireless internet access because without internet, what good is a computer?

warren miller

Eat your heart out.





Dillon pretending to me miserable.


Picking up a lucky penny, as to avoid any problems on the slopes


A gorgeous day. Here's the story: Dillon (green coat, on board) said that his friend invited him to go snowboarding with him, but when they found out it might be snowing, they uninvited him along. Math tutor to the rescue!

I told Dillon that I would take him. Alex (holding the penny, on skis) came with us. It's a good thing too. I'm a good snowboarder, but I'm not a good teacher of snowboarding.

We did make some awesome videos...

Warren Miller's got nothing on us.

We all had a good time. How lucky am I to be so close to resorts.

couch potato

Okay, this time I have pictures of our shenanigans... although sadly, I forgot my camera, so it's all cell phone pictures:






Yes, after the snow storm, we got a snow blower, many shovels and got to work building a snow-ten-person-holding couch. We then proceeded to watch Cool Runnings all huddled together under (and over) blankets (and tarps).

We were closer up the canyons, so the temperatures were maybe a little different, but it's showing 23 degrees F (-5 C) right now where I live. Yeah. I was cold.

But what can I say, [suave voice] snuggled up with some cute lady friends, [speaking deeper and sexier] keeping each other warm. [eyebrows raised] All right.

Seriously though. What an awesome idea (Dennis, you take credit now). The snow couch was HUGE. We could all sit with only our feet dangling off. There were arm rests, and even a tall back so that most of us could still rest our heads. It's just nice to be in a warm bed now.

planning spontaneity

Okay, tonight was a blast. On Sunday, I was talking with Sarah and she decided that we were going to be spontaneous, but that we would have to plan a night and a time for it. Well, that night was tonight!

Let me just say:

Unwrapping Hershey's Kisses and rewrapping them as Hershey's Hugs (check)
Unsuspecting victim getting white chocolate (check)
Rock Band (check)
All instruments playing (check)
Anyone not playing being groupies (check)
Groupies on their knees screaming in front of the TV screen (check)
Tom, as a groupie, flashing the players (check, and double check)
Fake tattoo on Tom's chest saying "I heart Jaimie" (check)

I have some cool friends.

So to continue our spontaneity, after seeing some snow, we made a Rock Band Spontaneous Memorial Tribute Snowman (RBSMTS).

8 or 9 feet tall (check)
Holding a shovel as a guitar (check)
Arms playing the guitar (check)
Another shovel in front for a mic (check)
Ten people making a human pyramid next to giant snowman (check)

I asked for the photos, and I hope to get them soon. I'll post them when I get them... and I might go over again tonight to get the photos myself...

cold

Okay, I wasn't too happy that I had to work all day Friday (with only a 15-minute break for lunch) and Saturday, but I guess it was okay. I mean, with a view like this behind me all day, how can anyone complain.

It's been a good break. Although I'm not looking forward to getting back to real life... Oh well. I'm just thankful for the time I've had to relax... without relaxing of course, but that's a whole other topic...


I have a very comfortable life.

hittin' the slopes

Thank you Warren Miller! I spent the day up at The Canyons resort
today on pristine powder, and the only thing between it and I was a
snowboard. The slopes were phenomenal. Jessica and I headed up to the
resort at about 8 this morning, and arrived around 8:50. It was
snowing the entire time we were up there, and honestly, it was the
best snow I have ever seen.

As we rode the chairlifts up the mountain, Jess and I took the chance
to talk to the people that were on the lift with us. One man came
from Chicago, two others came from Illinois, and the last two, who
looked about 19, were from around Salt Lake, the exact city escapes
me. It was so interesting to see people coming from everywhere to
come enjoy the snow here in Park City.

How lucky am I to have such a close proximity to theses mountains.
I'm grateful to also have the opportunity to enjoy nature and it's
beauty. We live in such an amazing place. I think that I forget that
sometimes. You know that whole inversion thing from the valley, and
even the cold. But still, it truly is an amazing place.

Jessica's goggles broke just after we got up the mountain. We hadn't even gotten into our bindings before they popped off her head. She tried one run, but there was too much snow falling. She bought some new ones.

uneventful day

Yeah, well, I know. A shocker. I have such awesome, amazing life that it may come to shock you that I do have uneventful days. I mean, no cars on fire, no red-nosed-reindeer quotes, nothing.

Q:What's the best part about an uneventful and a slow day at work?




A: The view from inside work is breathe-taking.

A gorgeous blizzard comes into town and last until afternoon. Oh white pillowy beauty. I love the snow. I think that's why I like Utah. Although the snow only lasts a short while, I truly it beautiful.

no thanks, i don't drink

I had a *delightful day at work today. *There was a sarcastic emphasis on the word delightful...

There are only three of us on the line on Saturdays because normally they tend to be a little slow. Today was no exception. It's Saturday, and it was snowing like crazy (and customers don't come in when it snows... my guess, abominable snow-monster. See below:

I wouldn't come in either.)

So here is the story of my day (Mojo, that's me, and two girls on the teller line)...

"F!" ~Roy Corsi (former math teacher at my high school who would say that when you asked a question):
Girl one finds out she might fail a class because she didn't do well on the final. Let's just say that tears were flowing and sobs could be heard, even after she went into a private area. Girl two, having been best friends with girl one for many-a-year consoles her for about 10 minutes. A gesture of love and consideration that I'm not angry about, but it does leave one person to take care of everyone.

"Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?" ~Better of Dead:
Since the snow started to blizzard AFTER we opened, the plowing people didn't come that morning. After we had been open about 3 hours, customers who travailed the gruesome trail and evaded the bumble (see above -- oh come on! I have to quote Rudolf. It's Christmas) told us that our walks were ridiculously slippery. Well, it's not really my job, but I went out and shoveled anyway. It was fun. I didn't have a coat, but it felt nice. I like the cold.

I wasn't really mad about that, but it was a pain. We didn't have any salt (we have a company that comes and does this for us regularly) so I got the little I had in my car for emergencies and spread it out. Though still, not my job.

{
Rex Banner: (Grabbing Ned Flanders) Are you the Beer Baron?
Ned Flanders: Well, if you're talking about root beer, then I'm guilt-diddily-ilty as char-diddily-arged.
Rex Banner: (to other cops) He's not the Beer Baron, but he sounds drunk; take him in
}:
The night prior, girl two did some drinking... and by some, I mean a lot. She said that she nearly blacked out... yeah... *awesome. (again, sarcasm) Well today at work, as we were all standing next to each other, she stops, starts to look pale, and proceeds to "hork her beans." (Number 131 on a list of 339 synonyms for throwing up) After taking a small break to clean herself up, work went on as usual. Although when she fainted in the vault, we thought that maybe this hang over was little too much for her.

I carried her down into the basement and put her on the couch, got her some water and gave her my cell and told her to call upstairs if she needed anything. Girl one consoles... Mojo left alone on the line again.

So all in all, a great day. I was the only one there today who was not a drinker or at one point in their lives was a drinker. The only perspective on alcohol that I have is from my time in Russia (you'll have to ask me about it. Guys passed out in their own vomit, urine and blood from falling down cement stairs. *So cool -- are you getting a better grasp on my sarcasm?)

It just makes me so glad that I have a structure in my life that gives me standards that keep me from having such problems. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't go on killing rampages (except zombies)... I'm just glad that because I made that choice a long time ago, I don't have to worry about it. It feels good.

frozen bliss

Yay for snow.
It is great.
It has been snowing
as of late.

It's cold and white.
Shoveling the walks.
I think I'll need
some warmer socks.

But don't you fear,
it just won't stay
but then again,
perhaps it may.

December comes
and isn't the same
this poem sucks,
...totally lame...


I'm just excited to see some snow. I really love to see it fall. I know that sounds so cliche, but winter and Chirstmas just aren't the same without a little snow. So today, I've decided to be thankful for snow and celebrating the different seasons.