Skiing, Part 3

Well, I skied my third and fourth days. (And by "days," I should mention that I've only put in about 10 hours so far. What can I say, I'm low energy.)

I resolved to just practice easy runs until they got boring. To the exasperation of my companions, there is still no part of Winter Park that is too boring for me. But my strategy worked, and I'm coming along. Sunday, I even had a few moments of exhilaration.

I'm sorry to tell you that there aren't too many pictures on the Winter Park website of the view down easy green runs. But these shots look pretty familiar.

Swim Lessons

Goofing Off

Hello New Camera

Common wisdom says that great photography is created by the person behind the camera, not the gear itself, so don't worry too much about what you've got.

I think the people who say this must not have a Nikon D7000.

I'm on page 8 of the manual, and so far I'm pretty blown away. Most importantly, I bought the camera to handle very low light situations (like a wedding reception I crazily agreed to document next month). So far it's exceptional in that regard. My D80 was very grainy and pixellated on higher ISOs, and the D7000 doesn't bat an eye.

The other feature I'm loving is the rapid fire shutter release. I've experimented taking a burst of photos, and you know what? The first one is not always the best one. Go figure! Of course I can't just go around taking five pictures instead of one with a 16 megapixel camera, but at least I'll get the good shots when it counts.

So excited!

Dad and Atticus

I love you LuluLemon!

Santa brought me this delicious sweatshirt, and it's all I can wear! It's my new uniform.

Sugared Almonds

My friend Lily gave me these for Christmas, and they are unbelievable. I've been savoring them for three weeks, and they are just as awesome now! You must make them.

• 1/3 c. water, plus 2 TBSP
• 1 1/3 c. brown sugar, divided
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 c. almonds
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Add water, 1c. sugar and cinnamon to a saucepan and stir. Bring to boil on medium heat.
2. Add almonds, raise to high temp, and stir until water is boiled off.
3. Reduce heat to medium low. Add remaining sugar and vanilla.
4. When lumps are starting to form on the almonds, transfer to a surface (parchment paper, foil, etc.)
5. Break apart as they cool down.

Naptime Ballerina

Ada and Logan have been watching Barbie - Swan Lake, an odd little animated movie set to Tchaikovsky's beautiful score. It has some actual ballet in it, and now I have actual ballet in my home. Ada is fixated on being a ballerina, which I think is fantastic. This is an early video, with a messy house and barely any sound, since Logan is actually sleeping. More videos to come with increasingly advanced moves! And probably still a messy house.

Skiing, Part 2

So after 14 happy years of living in Colorado, I finally tried skiing.

In some ways I really had the red carpet rolled out for me, so I'd be an idiot not to give it a shot. On the other hand, there seemed to be annoyance, discomfort, pain and fear in abundance, and the responses I got were always a shrug, "That's skiing. You just get used to it."

Nobody says that kind of stuff about reading books.

I went to Winter Park for two days, which is a very kid friendly place, and seeing all these tiny tots made me feel so excited for Ada and Logan, and how fortunate they are to grow up with this in their backyard. So I gave it the old college try.

Saturday I took an all day group lesson. The first half was no problem, I was relatively comfortable. The second half of the day we got on some chair lifts (an obstacle in itself for me), and suddenly I was on top of the world. It was sunny and beautiful, with snowy mountain tops all around me, I felt lucky and privileged more than I can say.


But then you have to get down again. And it turns out there is a giant leap in skill between the bunny hill and a green ski run. I was pretty terrorized all afternoon, and practically crawled back to the car, resolving not to come back. I seriously HATED it.

Sunday I found my backbone again, and resolved to have a day finding the easiest runs that would give me some pleasant practice and a better attitude. This strategy worked wonders, I got better, more confident, a little faster, I felt pretty pleased with myself.

Until the last 10 minutes or so. I found myself at the top of an amazingly steep hill, the last hill to get to the bottom. I'm telling you friends, I nearly burst into tears. I probably took five or ten of the longest minutes of my life crawling down this hill, while most shooshed down in 60 seconds. It's okay, I have nothing to prove, but it was a painful reminder of how much further I have to go.

But have faith, reader! I went to the office and asked them to tell me which greens are "easy." I got some good advice. At least they sounded like they knew what they were talking about. I have two weeks before my next backbone check, pray for me.

These pics were taken with my phone, but if you click on them they do enlarge enough to be worthwhile.

Skiing, Part 1

I got this email years ago, and always thought it was funny... I can't decide if it becomes more or less funny when you actually try to learn!


Preparation for Skiing

This is sent to remind skiers how to prepare for the ski season and to remind non-skiers why they do not ski.

10. Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-in freezer for half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50 dollar bills to warm up.

9. Go to the nearest hockey rink and walk across the ice 20 times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car.

8. For ski boot simulation at home, put a pebble in your street shoes and tighten a C-clamp around your toes.

7. Buy a pair of gloves and immediately throw one away.

6. Go to McDonald's and insist on paying $6.50 for a hamburger. Be sure to wait in the longest line.

5. Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket and ride a motorcycle fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.

4. Drive slowly for five hours - anywhere - as long as it's in a snowstorm and you're following an 18 wheeler.

3. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. You'd almost believe you're skiing in front of a snowmaker!

2. Dress up in as many clothes as you can and then proceed to take them off because you have to go to the bathroom.

1. Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday.

Pinterest

If you are female, you need to check out this site. It's a never ending "pinboard" list of great photography, craft ideas, recipes, outfits, wedding decorations, jokes, books... It's the most addictive place to surf, it reminds me of the good old days when the internet was new. If you want to see what I'm posting, my user name is Jenny Bundles.

someecards.com

Toddler Rules.

Sound familiar?!

Click to enlarge.

Panang Curry!

For the last couple years I've been getting hooked on Thai food, and haven't made it much past Panang Curry because it's so good. I think I've finally figured out how to cook it! The trick about curry seems to be that it's impossible to gauge how much curry paste to put into the recipe until you've experimented a little. So the first batch - just do your best with the instructions and err on the low side. This last time I made it, I about melted my face off!

Also, if you want to use authentic ingredients you'll have to head to an actual Asian market. In Denver, try Pacific Ocean, it's an adventure. I would recommend doing this the first time, so you can make the real deal, and stock up on the authentic curry paste, versus the boring stuff at regular grocery stores. I'm not sure they sell Panang curry paste anyway. Then you can substitute whatever you want later.

I started with the recipe here, but I'm going to write it out for you with some suggestions. I've listed alternatives for anything that you can't get in a regular store.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Panang curry paste. Like I said, you have to experiment with this.
• Splash of cooking oil.
• 4 c. coconut milk.
• 2/3 c. chicken breast, cut into bites. I substituted salmon. Also consider tofu, etc. Adjust amount to taste - I probably put in 1-2 cups.
  
• 2 tbsp. palm sugar. Can substitute brown sugar.
• 2 tbsp. fish sauce.
  
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, torn. Based on some of the user comments, people are substituting lime juice or zest.
• 2 fresh red chile peppers, sliced. (I omitted, since I used too much paste to start, and as previously mentioned, almost spontaneously combusted.)
• 1/4 c. fresh Thai basil leaves. Can substitute regular fresh basil.
• Rice. As much as you want. I did brown rice, most restaurants serve jasmine.
• Alternate ideas for ingredients to add: pineapple, mandarin oranges, mushrooms, red bell pepper, sugar snap peas, broccoli, cashews, onion, carrot slices, garbanzo beans, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, edamame, go nuts!
  

Fry the curry paste in the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Stir the coconut milk into the curry paste and bring to a boil. Add the meat; cook and stir until nearly cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir the sugar, fish sauce, and lime leaves into the mixture; simmer together for 5 minutes. Garnish with sliced red chile peppers and basil leaves to serve.

Christmas Pics

Some pictures from Christmastime with Ada and Logan. My trip back to the NICU to deliver stockings. Man it's got to be tough to be there over the holidays, it breaks my heart a little how this tiny gesture means so much. Below that, a trip to the hair salon, Logan still looking a bit shaggy. A blurry picture from Cherry Creek Mall, that I love because they are having such a great time. A new book with markers for xmas, and 'helping' me bake leftover pie crust pinwheels (with butter, sugar and cinnamon, yum!).

Little Monkey Biz and Children's Museum

We spent 3 1/2 hours at Little Monkey Bizness, playing and climbing, doing arts and crafts, having a pizza snack, and starting over again. I love how Logan is sucking in his cheeks concentrating on his painting.

We went to the Children's Museum for New Year's "Eve." It was insane! After playing for an hour and a half, and grabbing some lunch, we attended the outdoor ball drop at 1pm, complete with an awesome local rap group and yards of bubble wrap to jump on. As illustrated below, Ada and Logan were a bit confounded by it all. But Ada loved posing with the polar bear.

Thanksgiving Epilogue