The long-delayed trip recap...

Excuse the delay, graduate school has been less than fun this week. Let me inform you that our trip to Utah was a blast. The snow was great and the my birthday was celebrated in style. I learned, upon returning from Puerto Vallarta, that it was illegal to carry more than one liter of alcohol per person in Arizona. What kind of stupid rule is that? What say should the state have if I choose to walk around double-fisting bottles of Jaeger? Despite having a almost a full liquor cabinet locked away in our suitcase, no one was hassled upon our return to the state, so I'm suspecting they are lenient on this law.

I was told by my friend TJ that the resorts we visited on our trip were not the best Utah had to offer, but we didn't notice. Our first couple of days were spent at Powder Mountain. The trails we empty most of the time, and the lift lines were almost nonexistant. I've seen bigger crowds on Mt. Hood on a Tueday afternoon. All this made for a great time exploring.

Recent snow had left everything nice and soft, which assisted me in convincing Kochanie to hit the Black Diamonds with me. It also probably made Juli's first couple days of There's also a section of the mountain that is only accessable through a short, 200-yard hike which I managed to check out once. Juli's boyfriend risked AMS to join me, and for that I thank him.

It snowed heavily Sunday night, and we woke up to a nice layer of 18-inches of fresh snow. So, after packing up all our gear, we headed down to Park City to check out The Canyons. Located right across the street from Olympic Village, this resort is nice. We traded short lines for slow 2-seaters at Powder Mountain for clusterf**ks at the high-speed quads and gondolas. But the snow was great, and the runs were a lot more exciting.

Juli seemed to get the hang of snowboarding, and we even allowed her to join us for a ride down. Not to say we didn't have to wait 5 minutes for every minute of riding for her. At least she didn't run into a tree. Her boyfriend did though, and let's all hope all his ligaments are okay... although the prognosis is not good. At least he managed to pull it off on his last run of the trip. Although, I suppose any time you injure yourself, it's the last run of the trip.

Enjoy the pictures...

I'm going to Sundance!

Well, not really. That's a bit of a stretch. I'm going snowboarding in Utah the same weekend as the Sundance Film Festival. As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend is my birthday weekend, so ostensibly that is the occasion for the trip. The whole Sundance thing is a bonus.

We're staying quite a bit outside of the SLC/Ogden/Park City area, so I doubt we'll be experiencing the true excitement of the festival. Nevertheless, I'd like to check it out, if only briefly. Since there is only really one participating theater (albeit, a very cool one) nearby, in Ogden, our film selection is limited. One possibility is this little gem, directed by Tom Hanks and starring his son, Colin, and John Malkovich. Could be worth seeing.

Since this is the "premiere" of the movie, we might even run into some celebs, right? Meeting Tom Hanks would be pretty cool, especially if he's got any good secrets to tell me. Maybe if I bring my oversized piano along, we could roll it out and do a duet!

Either way, if I don't run into any celebs at the movie, I suppose if I got booze-up enough and went off on a tirade about "One more year of Bush!", I'd say there's a good chance Sean Penn will show up to add his own incoherent rant.

Yeah, that would be sweet.

Hellooooo 2008!

Let me wax politic here for a bit...

Like many people (read: democrats) I was very emotionally vested in the 2004 elections. I was tired of watching the current administration make every single effort that it could to pass laws contradictory to my opinions. I was tired of hearing about every coverup, every scandal, every violation of constitutional rights. I imagine I'm not the only one that gets the tight throat and barely-concealed scowl every time I see or hear our president on TV or radio. I could be sitting in a quiet coffee shop, listening to some soothing music in the background, but if Bush's (or Cheney's, Ashcroft's, Rumsfeld, etc. etc.) face showed up on a muted TV, I'd be ready to stand up and shout, or walk out, as offended and disgusted as if they had decided to play beastiality porn instead. Obviously, the feeling was very visceral.

Well, election day rolled around. I was excited. I walked over to my local polling place, two blocks away, to cast my vote at 7:30 in the morning. I then proceeded to go to work and stare at electoral-vote.com all day long. Arriving home that night I was starting to get worried. As Ike and I watched the results pour in on the 65-inch jumbotron, dissapointment set in. Four more years of the same crap: Torture, War, Wiretapping, Anti-scientific rhetoric, Polluting, etc. ad nauseum. It was devestating.

While I should blame it on "youthful indiscretion" and booze, I blame the
birthday debacle of 2005 on G.W. Bush instead.

Slowly, I came to terms with the state of the country. My interest in politics waned and I moved across the country, away from D.C. It was a relief. For a while I felt like I could relax and ignore the news as the country headed down whatever path it liked.

Things have changed since then. The country has gotten tired of the same old bullshit and started to move on. People are are fed up with Bush and the Rupublicans. Democrats control both houses, and it seems like it's going to stay that way, at least for the forseeable future.

I'd be pissed if I was a republican right now. Their presidential "hopefuls" are laughable. Huckabee is an ignorant fool, Romney is a fawning sycophant, Thompson is old and lazy, Giuliani is an immoral bully. McCain is the only one with a chance, and his own people are trying to tank him for stepping out of line a couple times... and being too old. Good luck with that.

This coming Sunday is a very important milestone for America. That day, January 20th, 2008, will mark the beginning of George Bush's last year in office. After those 12 months, there will be no more bungling speeches, no more stupid nicknames... Never again will we ever have to hear that dumb snickering laugh when he jokes about the "haves" and "have-nots". It makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

I don't know what your Sunday plans are this weekend, but if you've got the time for it, celebrate. Go out for a drink, toast with your like-minded friends. If you're feeling brave, hit up the closest nascar/redneck/cowboy joint, saddle on up to the bar, and order yourself a nice, liberal-pinko-hippie drink. House red? Cosmopolitan? Mojito? Then offer a toast to the worst president this country has ever seen... May he spend the next 366 (wohoo, leap year!) enjoying his lame duck-ness until he moseys on down into the sunset, never to leave Crawford, TX again.

Did I mention Sunday is also my (and Ike's) birthday(s)?!? Double fun!

Mission Accomplished

Okay, okay, I know you are all worried.

Yes, I did run the half marathon, and yes, I did finish it. Despite the burning sun and bouts of stomach sickness, I avoided quitting and achieved the halfway respectable time of 2:16:29, which works out to be about a 10.5 minute mile. I was aiming for 10, but I'll take what I can get.

Kochanie pulled it off in 2:42. While that may not be as fast as my time, I think she deserves more credit than I do. She ran for almost 30 min. longer than I did, and ended up with three blisters on her right foot, each approximately the size of a small dog.

Props also to Leah, not only for being the only out-of-town friend to NOT bitch out, but also for breaking the 2 hour barrier. She barely looked winded when I met her at the finish line.

Once the race was finished, beer, chips and hot tubbing provided much needed relief. All three agreed that a good time was had by all, and getting together for some healthy fun can be just about as exciting as the unhealthy fun. Plans are already forming for the next event.

Anyone up for a trip to Nashville?

Just don't tell me to "break a leg"...

Well, it's finally here: The weekend of the half marathon. Unfortunately, most of my friends have tried to sobotage the fun of the weekend by bitching out at the very last moment, but I won't let that be a setback. It's not my fault they are teh ghey.

Training for this run has been pretty rigorous when we stuck to it, but lackluster at times as well (ahem, honeymoon). I think we are ready, though. After running almost 10 miles last weekend, I don't see why I couldn't push it another 3 miles or so. God, "another 3 miles or so", that still blows my mind. When my wife and I first started running three months ago, we were heavily winded after a 1.5 mile run. The whole effort seemed hopeless then.

I'm proud of what we have accomplished, but of course I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, so I'll leave it at that. Sunday morning will be the moment of truth. If things go well, maybe Nashville is next... I'd like to get me some nice participation medals.

On another note: The new Norfbysw flickr pro account is here. Kochanie uploaded a approximately one metric shit ton of photos last week, so go and enjoy.

More posts are forthcoming as well. This has been taking up a lot of my time recently.

My thoughts exactly...

marriedtothesea.com

So this is the New Year...

…and I don’t feel any different. The Mrs. and I didn’t quite know what to do for NYE, since all our friends were still out of town, so we followed Tim’s golden rule of drinking: When you don’t know where to go, go to the Irish Pub. I’ll spare you the details of NYE, mostly because I don’t remember much past 12:01, but a good time was had by all.

Before the New Year, we came back from the honeymoon. We had a great time down in Puerto Vallarta, and despite the partly cloudy weather, I managed to turn my usually pale white skin that nice shade of pink/orange I like so much. We went horseback riding through the forests to a waterfall, hiked the jungle to a secluded beach, and drank plenty of tequila related drinks, of course. All in all, it was a much more relaxing trip than our first honeymoon (two weddings means two honeymoons), and the people down there were just great. Hooray for the all-inclusive! As an added bonus, I found out upon arriving back in the U.S. that I might be making another trip down South to Guadalajara in a month or so to conduct some business... cross your fingers!

Now that I'm back to reality, it's time to face up what I've accomplished in 2007 and decide what I'd like to accomplish in the new year. This year was a particularly busy and hectic year for both me and my wife. Our travels spanned seven countries and multiple states, and included visits to both of our families as well as numerous friends. We recieved visits from siblings and friends. We had serious plumbing problems at the house we bought, which we then fixed, while at the same time continuing to remodel it as well. We then turned around and put the house back on the market, a market that has turned out to be one of the worst in years, so that we could move. Phoenix became our new home and we both got new jobs, with which we both are very satisfied. I started grad school. We began training for a 1/2 marathon. We somehow managed to fit in some hiking, biking, snowboarding and camping, as well. Most importantly, we got married... twice!

So, how do you follow a year like that? Kochanie and I both agree that we would like to calm down... just a little bit. Not the travelling or outdoor activities, but essentially we would like to simplify our day-to-day lives. That means more relaxing and less worrying about money, jobs, living - essentially staying in one place for more than a year. So, just for the hell of it, I present to you:

Norf's (hopefully not too ambitious) 2008 resolutions:

- Take the GREs and apply formally to ASU
- Continue successfully in graduate school (4.0 GPA)
- Complete the Rock'n'Roll 1/2 marathon without walking... or pooping myself
- Become a professionally licensed engineer in both Arizona and California
- Travel to Canada, Mexico, Italy and Honduras
- Maintain better correspondence with old friends
- Make new friends
- Drop a pant size

Okay, so that's the list. Talk to me in a year, and I'll let you know how I've done.