Elison Holiday Party

Since I was in town only til before Christmas Donna was kind enough to move up her holiday party so I could be included. The was the annual white elephant event which is always a fun time with here friends.

Tree and house work with Kyle

I wasn't feeling great as I had caught what was going around so Anja headed out to get a Christmas tree with the her family.

After getting the tree she headed over to Kyle's to help him with a house project.  No one was willing to go out on the roof and get something finished; including Kyle until he got in a harness and roped up with Anja belaying him from the other side of the house so he couldn't fall off the roof.

Kyle's house addition

We headed out to Kyle's for dinner and to checkout the addition to the house they have been working on. It was pretty cool to see what we had been watching the pictures on facebook.

The addition; it has all the wall but no garage door yet and missing some other doors and insulation.

Warren Miller Winternation

Anja’s mom got us and Kyle and Alexa ticket’s to the Warren Miller Wintervention at the Flynn theater.  The film had some great parts in it of some really cool ski mountaineering but over all we didn’t really connect with the film.  Are we getting too old?  Or was it just too much of a commercial for heli-skiing and certain ski resort.  While we didn't really connect with the film they did have some great shots like skiing in Antarctica. 

Chad Hollister at T-Bones

One Vermont holiday tradition for us has become going to see Chad Hollister play guitar on Wednesday nights at T-Bones bar in Cochester VT.  Chad is a really nice guy and plays guitar and sings well.  He seems very influenced by Dave Mathews especially the acoustic albums.  Check him out on facebook and maybe you can catch him on tour during summers.

http://www.chadmusic.com/index.cfm

Grandma Baach Thanksgiving

So the big purpose of our trip to Baltimore/Pennsylvania was to see Grandma Baach.  She doesn’t really leave Lebonon, PA so on Thanksgiving we headed up there to have a big meal with all her kids, grand kids and one great grand kid.  It was a big event with 20+ in the group.  It was a nice meal and great to meet all the family there.

Anja even played the piano while grandma Baach was unwrapping presents.

Hand guns and the Holidays

So we were still in Hanover, PA well about 3 miles outside of town on about 10 acres.  Hanging out at Aunt Denise's house.

Since it had become too cold for tennis the activity choices at the house had become riding quads, board games, Wii, or shooting guns.  Shooting guns was the winner of the afternoon and James started by shooting a 22 caliber rifle.  I’d shot these in the scouts and was interested but Uncle Steve brought out the hand gun I was curious.  I think it was a 357 six shooter.  We tried firing from about 50 yard but were hitting very little.  I think I shot from 20 yards, wow was that thing loud and with some kick.  I shot 6 rounds and still couldn’t hit the 4’ x 6’ board let alone the targets attached too it.

Note in the photo the Pennsylvania State flag.  “Don’t Tread On Me”

 Father and daughter shooting together.  Is their any better bonding?

Gym, planter, and early T-day

While in Boulder we did a number of things. A few I got pictures of where climbing at the Boulder Rock Club with Cathrine.

I did a house project with Keith making a new planter behind the mailbox

Also before we left town my parents insisted we have a Thanksgiving meal.

Training Hike in Boulder

So for Christmas my family is taking a hut trip.  It will be a 2.7 mile hike or ski in to the hut and we'll spend 2 nights at the hut so we needed to get my mom and dad some conditioning so we took them to Chautauqua Park.

We started at the chautaqua trailhead and made our way up Gregory Canyon to the parking lot at the end of Gregory Canyon. Once we got to the parking lot Keith ran back down the trail to get the car and drive back up to pick us up.

A untold story from the Cayman Islands

So in the Cayman Islands Anja and I saved our friends Laura and Ian a couple thousand dollars but we couldn't share the story until now.  Anja, Laura, and Ian had gone out shopping in the Cayman's and I had stayed out the condo having just been out shopping recently.  When they got back I was told the following story.  It started with Laura and Ian had gone engagement ring shopping.  We had discussed the topic of marriage with them.  After all we are still newly weds so the topic always gets brought up so the topic was not shocking.  What was shocking was that they began talking about a ring they had almost bought!  Apparently, if Anja had not been there to drag them out of the store they probably would have bought it.  They had been at a "discount" diamond store on the coast just up Harbour Dr. near this mall.

Well I was excited for them as they still kind of wanted to get the ring but Anja had said they should think about it and come talk to me.

Sidebar in the story: I have to give Kay Jewelers in the Montebello Mall credit here.  When I was looking for what ring to get Anja I had gone in and talked to a nice sellswoman there about the 4C's of diamonds.  She had very kindly given me a quick education on carat, clarity, color, and cut and the 5th C; certification.

With the knowledge from Kay's I asked how big is it?  I was given an answer but under questioning they were not clear if that was the stone weight or the total weight with the baggettes.  They had answers for clarity and color but knew nothing of cut.  When asked about certification, they said it was certified but had not seen the certification and did not know what lab had done the certification but no one had looked at it under a jewelery scope..  The price sounded pretty good for what they were saying and Laura did know it look shinny and pretty on her finger.

So down to the diamond store I went with Laura and Ian.  I got there and we asked to see the ring and they went to get it but not right away.  BAD SIGN.  There even seemed to be a little pow wow across the store from up.  I had the feeling that they thought the big gun had been brought in to checkout this deal.

Once they got the ring everything began to unravel under my questioning.  How many carats? and how many is just the solitary?  (Smaller than they had thought) What clarity and color? No not the baguettes the solitary?  (again less than they had thought)  Can I see the laboratory certification?  I don't understand what do you mean it is certified but doesn't have a report?  Ok, so you had someone come in and grade it but it is not certified.  At this point I looked at it under the a jeweler scope and it looked good from the top but looked heavily included from the sides.  At this point I could confidently tell Ian if he wanted an uncertified diamond ring like this he could easily get it in the US for less than this price so we moved on.  We checked out a few more shops and got Ian and Laura a better diamond education for when they really did this.

Dinner with Laura and Ian

In August we had gone to the Grand Cayman Island with Laura and Ian who live in Denver area so while we were in Boulder we headed down and met them in Golden for dinner.  While we were away in California and Nevada they had gotten engaged.  We got dinner at the El Dorado Mexican Restaurant, 720 Arapahoe Street Golden, CO 80401-1031 (303) 278-4644.  The food was great and we got to catchup with Laura and Ian and checkout Laura's new big rock.

Laura had of course already asked Anja to be a bridesmaid but they funny thing they have also asked me to officiate their wedding for them.  This will make number five, this is really starting to be a regular thing.  It always kind of amazes me that so many of my friends trust me enough to stand up in front of all their family and friends and do this.  Here is hoping for all of us we have a calm ceremony in September.

After dinner we wondered over to Woody's Woodfired Pizza & Watering Hole to get a drink.
1305 Washington Avenue Golden, CO 80401-1915
(303) 277-0443 woodysgolden.com

Boulder Rock Club (BRC)

Of course being back in Boulder we had to hit up a stop at BRC and see how strong we were there.  It felt good, unlike when we had stepped in this July.  We didn't have any elevation problems and only felt out of breath when the climbing actually got hard.  The real test for the BRC is the roof.  It is long and gets the steepest at the top.  We love it.  I grabbed this shot off the web of someone near the end anchors on the roof.

Image credit to: http://www.pitchengine.com/lasportivanorthamerica/la-sportiva-set-to-support-the-boulder-climbing-series-bcs/28186/

Hit the Road to Boulder

We hit the road and headed to Boulder from Las Vegas to see our families for the holidays.  We left Vegas late the night before and made it to the sleep spot we had used outside St George it was again a really nice spot and we slept well.  In the morning we hit the road hard wanting to make it to Boulder that night.

On route on I-70 we passed again over the San Rafeil Swell.  I really love this area.  Note the picture is not crooked.  The street since is straight up and down that is just how much uplight the ground has gone through in the Swell area.

We pushed on from there and stopped in Grand Junction before the big trip over the Rookies.  Their were still no chain requirements in effect so we went for it.  We got over the top pass at about 8 pm and it was snowing and a little slippery on the road but it didn't get bad until we got to Silverthorne and the traffic picked up then with slow trucks and too cars going too fast and accidents being cleaned up from the too fast cars I imagine, the driving got a little on the edge.  No problem though we kept our speed way down and just rolled with the flashers on and rolled into Boulder around 11 pm with no problems.

Geode, G1 Hacking, and no childern in the van

That weekend Richard's family was in town. Twice Monica's aunt asked if we were going to collect more rocks until finally Anja asked if she wanted one of the geode we collected. She got so excited and then she offered a geode to her husband and he kept saying "For my desk" and smiling.  They were really cute.

Anja also hacked her G1 cell phone to upgrade her phone from Android 1.6 to Android 2.0.

When we were packing up the van, Richard's little boy kept saying he wanted to come with us.  He even packed up a bucket of his stuff in and was ready to go but we had to tell him no children are allowed in the van.

Sand Stone Quary - Red Rocks

We talked Ram back out to Red Rocks and headed over to the Sand Stone Quarry.  We headed to the Hidden Corridor.  We started on a 5.10b which was way too hard and slabby.

We headed down canyon and got on a 5.10d.

Anja headed up it and made it to the second last clip and it was a real rough spot and she lowered off.

We sent Ram up to finish it.  He got to the clip where Anja lowered off and hung for a real long rest before he got on it.

Opps he fell off of the crux move.

But then he got back on it and finished it.

We headed over to The Pier.  Anja headed up a great climb called Under the Boardwalk.

I toproped it but struggled and hung at the last moves just like Anja did on led.