Snow Report

It's been dumping here.

Snow days

This past week we've gotten a lot of snow.  School was out all week and there are piles of snow in our yard higher than my waist (and my waist is pretty high).  We've had to dig out our cars and maintain little parking areas carved out of the snow banks in front of our house.  While there have been incessant updates on road conditions on the local new, I think it has been quite fun.  I have always liked snow, but over the past few years as I have started skiing again, I've developed a real obsession with it.  So last Saturday morning, when the snow started to dump, I was very excited.  I bounced around the house Saturday afternoon watching it start to pile up.  It kept snowing all afternoon and evening.  When I came home from work at 11:30 pm (I was working the evening shift all week) it was still coming down.  When I got up early Sunday morning it was still snowing hard.  I'd look out the window, then look at the all weather station doppler radar to see if it was going to stop soon.  But it didn't.  It just kept snowing.  By mid morning it was clear that there was a lot of snow on the ground.  Church was cancelled and it was officially time to go outside.  After doing a good 45 minutes of shoveling, the front walk and sidewalk were cleared.  We got the kids suited up and strapped the snow shoes on for a walk to the park.  Sal rode in the sled as we made our way through an ocean of deep snow.  A few stretches of sidewalk were clear from conscientious home owners, but the snow was quickly filling in again.  We swam around in the snow at the park, the kids rode down a few hills on the sled, and we headed home. 

Then came Monday.  The stars were aligned and karma was smiling down on me.  I had the day off.  There were over two feet of new snow at the local resort.  There was blue sky and sunshine.  It was a Monday and the local ski hill was empty.  I had just gotten my skis tuned and waxed.

So I got up early and drove up to Mt. Spokane to ski.  Do you remember that feeling you would get right after the final bell on the last day of school?  That electric feeling of liberation?  The smile you didn't realize was plastered to your face as you ran home to get started on your summer vacation, even though you had no idea what you were going to do with the rest of your day?  That was how I felt for a solid three hours as I made first tracks again and again and again.  It was one of those experiences where the essence of the moment was strong enough to soak in for hours.

Luckily I had my little cell phone camera with my.
Uncharacteristically I snapped a few pictures.  Here is my first ride
up.  What you probably can't appreciate is the untouched powder, smooth
and deep, on the hill below.

The next photo is at the top of a glade on my third or fourth run.
What the camera phone doesn't show are the tracks below that I made
before.

The third photo is from the bottom of my first run.  Again, I don't
think you can make out my tracks, but that is what I was trying to
capture.

And the last photo, well, probably doesn't need much explanation. 

So all in all it was a great morning,

Then tragedy.  Well, not really tragedy, but the day ended sooner
than I wanted when I missed a turn, went over head first, landed on my
upper back, and folded like a taco.  Somehow I hit my lower left rib
cage against my abdomen or spine or something, and either broke the
cartilaginous part of my ribs, or severely bruised them. 

 

Regardless, I
was in pain and couldn't ski anymore.  So, tail between my legs, I
limped home.  The good new is the x-rays didn't show any broken bones
and I healed quickly (so quick that 4 days later Veep and I got a
sitter and did some night skiing in about another new foot of snow).
And of course here's the proof.

 

In case you were wondering, the little bb marker on the second x-ray is where it hurt.

House Update

For those of you who find it irritating when people talk about the house they're building, you may not want to read this post.  However, I will make this update mostly photos so that it doesn't get obnoxious. 

They are doing the finishes now--floors, cabinets, trim.  This first photo was taken from the back of the great room looking at the "bridge" on the second floor.  Sal and I are present for scale (I didn't shower that day if you can't tell)

This is taken from the front entryway, looking up at the great room timbers and the "bridge" from the other side.

Here is a photo of the kitchen with the cabinets in place taken from the hallway from the garage, looking toward the great room.  The island is looking quite big.

Here is another look at the timbers in the great room.

This is the master bedroom.  The wood floors have been laid and sanded, but not stained or sealed (for some reason the picture uploaded sideways).  The deck has been put on, but no railing yet.

The laundry room.

Sal's room and bathroom tile.

Schmoopie's room.

The view from Boofis' bedroom.

Sal demonstrating the little pocket door between Schmoopie's and Boofis' closets.

The big garage and my office.

Looking down from the bridge to the entry and stairway.

Doors into the family room/TV room/library from the entry.

Second floor looking from the top of the stairs (the end where Sal's bedroom and my office are) towards the  "bridge" and the end where Schmoopie's and Boofis' bedrooms are.

Another shot of the kitchen, this time from the great room.

So there you have it.  We're supposed to move in March 1st and look to be well within the schedule for this to happen.  We're getting kind of tired and cramped in the house
we're living in now.  It is clear that the room the girls are sharing is just too small.  And Schmoopie is getting to the age where she really needs more privacy.   It will be nice to once again have a master bathroom, and though I didn't show them, Veep and I both have our own closets.  It is all very exciting and I must say we all feel very lucky to have the opportunity to live in such a nice house. 

Our Christmas and New Year

We had a very busy Christmas break this year, so busy that to me it didn't feel much like a break.  Two days before Christmas Veep returned from Utah after a stressful long distance winter drive.  I worked Christmas eve day.  Then Christmas morning we rushed and opened presents, cleaned up a bit, put the garbage out, packed the car, and drove to Seattle where I worked the day after Christmas and the rest of the week.  Our drive took extra long as we hit one of the many snow storms that hit Snoqualmie pass, about 50 miles east of the city on interstate 90.  Even with all wheel drive, we stopped to put on chains.  Then inched down the pass with all the lucky skiers who got to really enjoy the snow earlier in the day.  It was nice snow and a pleasant enough drive.  Veep didn't like it as she was scarred from her earlier long distance drive.  Maybe she won't be so quick to leave town in the winter next year.

Anyway, Veep and the kids found plenty to do during the day while I worked.  They went to the aquarium and the science center and got to play with their second cousins who drove up from Olympia (they even got to spend the night with them one night).  Plus we met up with a classmate of mine from med school who is in town doing a fellowship, and his wife who was good friends with Veep.  It was fun getting reacquainted and realizing how quickly time has passed.  They now have three kids, as do we.  We stayed over in Seattle for new year's and saw the fireworks at the space needle from a less crowded, more convenient spot downtown near our hotel. 

On the weekend we drove back up to Snoqualmie for some skiing of our own.  It was a day for the kids to take lessons and, surprisingly, we got Schmoopie to take a beginner lesson!  She has resisted skiing more than a little in the past, but was a good sport and didn't complain.  She did a good job in her class learning the basics of stopping in a snow plow wedge and didn't even get cold despite the continuous snow and wind.  Sal didn't stick it out so well, ending his lesson 15 minutes in.  Veep and I didn't ski, but policed the kids a bit.  Boofis went off with her class on the lift as she already knows how to stop, turn, and ride the lift.  The snow was impressive.  It actually snowed more days in December here than it has in the past 39 years.  At Snoqualmie they were reporting over 14 feet of snow for the month.  Wow.

We drove back to Spokane on New Year's Day, arriving home in the late afternoon, giving us the evening to unpack and clean up.  Then I got to go to work again the next day.  We've sort of started a tradition of going places over Christmas.  Two years ago we actually celebrated Christmas away from home in British Columbia (skiing at Red Mountain) and last year we spent the week before Christmas at Mt. Bachelor (as is detailed in this blog--wow, a whole year since then and only about four entries).

So now that we're home we've got to figure out the New Year's resolutions.  Mine is to get in better shape as I'm getting soft in the middle.  I thought I'd have more time to exercise with my "real" job, but seem to  be busier than ever.  I've got some ideas of how to get on a regular exercise schedule and lose some fat though. 

Of course, what blog entry is complete without a little house construction update?  Work continues on the inside of the house, doing the flooring and trim.  The cabinets were almost finished last week but will have to wait as the hard wood floors are being completed and finished the next few days.  Most of the tile is done and the walls have all been textured and painted.  The stone on the fireplace is done as well.  Some of the recessed light fixtures are in so we can actually see at night now.  The stairs are also coming together with work being done on the railing.  We've still got to figure out the shelving for the closets, order a shower door for the master bath, and find a good soft water filter. 

When we were in Seattle we went to a store where I found a DVD collection of the best of The Electric Company.  We bought it to enjoy with the kids while remembering our own childhoods.  I've watched it a little with Sal the last two nights while putting him to bed.  It's amazing to see Morgan Freeman as "Easy Reader" and Bill Cosby as one of the players and to be reminded of Fargo North Decoder.  I forgot so much about it.  "Stanley" the TV screen where words appear, the silhouette profiles rhythmically sounding out words then speaking them together, the little circus band.  I don't feel like I'm that old, but it is amazing to think how much things have changed since that time--in the world, with technology, with people.  But the kids still seem captivated with the same simple things, and learning to read hasn't changed too much.  Oh I'm sure there are lots of new theories about how language and reading should be taught, but  the simple idea of entertaining and teaching at the same time  is still with us.  Anyway, just thought I'd share my memories of The Electric Company.

Confessions

So I'm not a good blogger, I admit it.  Fortunately, Veep has finally decided to start her own blog and, like many new bloggers, is excited and ready to post away.  So click on the link to your right to see what she (and the rest of us) is/are up to. 

So, now that Veep has a blog going about her exploits, and the family, maybe I'll feel free to blog about more random things (including radiology?).  We'll see.

What's up?

So here's what's up.  Our house is almost finished being framed and we're starting to make lots of decisions about this and that and the other.  It's kind of getting crazy.  Anyway, the big decision we made was to go with a geothermal heating and cooling system.  It sounds really crazy but it is actually pretty simple.  Basically it is a heat pump, but instead of an air to air heat pump, it actually works with hundreds of feet of pipe buried below the frost line.  The basic idea is that the temperature of the ground deeper than about 5 feet is pretty much constant throughout the year.  Fluid in the pipe is heated by the ground in the winter, cooled in the summer.  the fluid then runs through a compressor and heat exchanger where air is heated and pumped throughout the house.  It is a good bit more expensive to install, but the savings over time are extraordinary.  It is touted to have a 300 to 400% efficiency, meaning that for every one unit of energy that is put in, 4-5 units are produced.  Amazing.  It's basically a giant refrigerator that heats and cools your house.  Plus it is super clean, there's no burning of anything, no natural gas or anything else.  Anyway, obviously I'm excited enough about this to actually blog about it, so I guess it's a big deal to me.  But alas, probably not very interesting to anyone else.

So between house decisions and work, things have been pretty busy lately.  Tonight I am watching "Night at the Museum" with the girls.  Schmoopie is feeling a little sick so it's a good night to take it easy.  The girls have gotten used to very late nights now that it is summer, so we'll have to get them back on track soon.  Sal is doing well too.  Last weekend we took the kids down to the big city park and let them play in the big new fountain they have for kids, ate shaved ice, and picked a bowl full of blackberries from a bush along the river side (enough to make a few quarts of jam).  Picking blackberries is a strange sort of pain.  While you are constantly geting poked by the prickers and thorns, you can't stop picking.  Your hands turn purple from the over ripe berries that squish, but you still don't stop.  For me it's the thought of more jam, for Schmoopie it's the thought of a pie.  For Veep it's just eating more fresh berries.  We definitely need to plant blackberries and raspberries at our new house. 

So I was supposed to work in Seattle next week at a new women's imaging center, but there were some delays with the opening so now I'm not.  We had planned to go to Victoria and then the San Juans for the following week.  We're still going to go to the San Juans, and may still go to Victoria, but it may be too much for one trip.  I'm not trying to brag, but there is something really magical about summer in the northwest.  85 degrees, sunny, trees, islands.  It should be a good trip.  I'm planning on bringing my road bike.  Apparently there are pleinty of nice rides on the island.

The girls are still constantly playing with their friend who lives across the street, so we seldom see them apart.  Sal gets really frustrated when they go to her house because he wants to go too but can't.  His latest thing is rolling his matchbox cars down a ramp on the back steps made each morning with a scrap of plastic corrugated roofing from the side yard.  He has spent literally hours rolling car after car.

Well, Boofis is telling me it is time for bed.  Wow, not even 10pm and she's asking to go to bed.  Well, that's what's up for now.

Time to blog again.  Since I last visited my blog a lot has happened, however nothing too unexpected.  I finished my job in Portland, finally graduating from school/training.  To my surprise, when I got home from work Veep and the kids had made on of those fun signs where you use candy as different words is a message (a secret talent I have seen her unsheath in the past).  Sal had a hard time leaving the box of Nerds alone.  Anyway, it was one of those "last day of school" feelings which is still lingering even though I've already started my first real job.  I actually started a week ago and have actually been impressed with how much less stressful my day is.  People in academics think they have a great deal with "academic time" and a supposed lighter workload.  They portray private practice as a money grubbing sweat shop doing second rate work.  While I have definitely seen that there is a bottom line in private practice (after all it's my money now, not the hospital's) the workday isn't quite as stressful and is much more under my control.  I guess working so hard this past year has prepared me well for the real world.  Anyway, so I am happy with my job so far but have a little stress re-learning mammography since I've been busy studying orthopedics for the past year (my time is split between the two in my new job, they're short handed in mammography).  But learning is always good, and I'm still used to studying and reading.  I do enjoy learning and researching questions and am glad my job will require it for the rest of my life.
    In other news, I've included an updated picture of our house.  The framing has been progressing nicely and is still on time.  Sorry about the photo quality, it's a cell phone picture as Veep is out of town and took the good camera with her.
    Speaking of which, Veep and the kids are in Utah visiting their cousins and aunts while I get to sit home, work, ride my bike, and watch three hours of the Tour de France every night.  I can't decide if I want Rasmussen to stay on top or the youngster Contador to win.  I tend to root for the good climbers, the real men, and not for the glamorous sprinters (except Robie MacEwen).
    So Sal had to get his second front tooth pulled a week ago.  He chipped one of his teeth when he was 18 months old, which got infected and had to be pulled.  A chronic, low level infection spread to the second tooth which became devitalized and occasionally drained pus.  So both front teeth are gone.  The dentist assured us it won't become a huge orthodontic problem.
    The girls have been keeping busy with their friend across the street.  They've had plenty of sleepovers and have been an inseparable trio since we got into town.  We're renting a house literally around the corner from our old house.  So the girls will be back in their old school, amongst their old friends.
    Well, I think that's a pretty good update for now.  I'm sure there is more to tell but can't remember anything else.  I suppose I will just have to post more frequently.