So I called FedEx and asked them to not attempt delivery again, and that I would pick them up after the weekend as I would be out of town. Of course the local FedEx depot isn’t open on Mondays. And, the days it is open, it’s not open past 3pm. doh! So I scheduled to pick them up during the day on Tuesday(today), requiring me to leave work.

I get back from Colorado Sunday evening, and of course there is another delivery notice. They had attempted to deliver again Saturday, despite my wishes that they just hold the package. So I called the main FedEx number again Monday morning and asked them to ensure that another delivery attempt would NOT be made on Tuesday – I planned to go pick up the package and didn’t want it mistakenly out on a truck. The nice lady sent another note to the local depot and suggested I call again Tuesday before I leave work to pick up the package to ensure it wasn’t on a truck.

So Tuesday morning I call again to ensure it doesn’t go out on a truck and I can pick it up. The lady at the main FedEx # is nice enough to transfer me to dispatch at the local depot. The local depot girl is also very nice – after I explain my situation, she goes out and stops the idiot driver that had once again loaded my package, and she pulled it from the truck and held it for me.

Anyhow, I’m now the proud new owner of fatty powder skis. Also got my new (used) binders from VolantAddict over at www.epicski.com. Now I just need to get up to Taos to The BootDoctors and get ‘em mounted and waxed. Hopefully be able to do that this coming weekend, before I leave for Ohio.

Why oh Why am I going to Ohio right at the beginning of ski season? Half the resorts in Colorado are opening this coming weekend, and I’ll be in flatland. Ohwell. Should come back to the hills to a couple of nice freshly tuned pairs of skis ready to make turns.

Went out with Hanna and her friend Vanessa. Hanna and I were a corpse groom and bride, and Vanessa was a crazy freaky looking dead clown of some sort. She looked pretty creepy.

I managed to get away with trick-or-treating with the girls, without anyone questioning my age at all! Managed to build a nice little stash of candy that’ll probably last ’til next year.

One lady asked if Hanna and I were a real bride and groom…When I replied “uhhh….no”, she then asked if we were boyfriend and girlfriend! We both walked away giggling, but didn’t give away either of our ages as she had just given me a handful of candy. Don’t think I’ll be able to get away with that much longer, but it was a lot of fun.

Couple Halloween pics here

Drove up to Colorado Friday after work. Long drive for skiing, but it’s October, and there be snow up there. Go up to Loveland pass about 11:30 and night and found a nice little pull off to sleep at. I found that my winter sleeping bag is actually quite cozy, and certainly warm enough for winter in the car.

Loveland was really great on Saturday. 2 runs open, and blowing snow on more. Wasn’t too crowded – never waited for a chair. And, it was snowing in the morning. Was gorgeous. I did get to realize exactly how out of shape I am. I also realized just how fucked up the edges on my Heads are – couldn’t hold an edge to save my life!

After leaving Loveland in the afternoon I drove by ABasin on my way to Silverthorne, and there was a huge line at the base for the single running lift – I heard from some snowboards whom I gave a ride up the pass that people were waiting 30-40 minutes in line. Yikes!

Decided to give ABasin a go for Sunday morning, because I knew I wouldn’t be skiing al day and didn’t want to plunk down for another day at Loveland (I’ve got a pass for ABasin). Turned out to be a great decision. Got there right at 8:30 and was in the first batch up the lift. They had just opened their second run and had been blowing snow on it for a couple days, so there was a nice 3-4 inches of man-made fresh, nice and soft. Was snowing again in the morning, another beautiful day.

Left the basin when lines started forming around 10:30, figured I didn’t feel like waiting and I’d get home in time to do laundry and eat a decent meal. Ended up making it home in 6.5 hours! That stretch between Raton and Santa Fe is great for really flying!

Having a bitch of a time with Fed Ex and getting my new skis delivered. The guy I bought them from decided to ship them requiring an in-person signature. So, they won’t take a signature release, and I was out of town over the weekend so couldn’t accept delivery. Of course the depot is not open Monday so I have to wait until Tuesday to pick them up, but they’re only open til’ 3pm! On top of that, the depot doesn’t seem to have received the message to hold them, so they may very well end up on a truck Tuesday morning which would prevent me from picking them up – and of course no-one will be at the house to accept delivery and sigh. ugh!

I did however get my nice, low end, non-spendy marker binders w/ the wide brake in the mail over the weekend. They’re not much to look at, but they were the right price, and they’ll hold the skis to my feet which is what really matters.

Didn’t go to picture crazy this trip, but the few shots I got are up in the gallery HERE

How very dry. It’s good information, and I think it can benefit our organization tremendously, but going through the training is pretty painful.

It’s ironic that most of the framework and best practices are things that Chris and I pushed for vehemently at IMG – we just didn’t have a name for it.

I suppose if we had attached some acronym or buzzword to it, maybe it would have caught on.

I also suppose that if I’m going to let my skills stagnate and be bored out of my head at this job, I might as well come away with something out of it, like extra letters behind my name on my business cards. I actually saw a job posting about a month ago, was an engineering/tech type position, but actually specifically mentioned ITIL certification as a desired attribute.

Joy. Fun. drool

I was in some house I can’t place and don’t recognize…There was a lady with me, some sort of realtor or appraiser or something of the sort… We were looking around examining the house and the yard. I remember a large bricked archway with stain glass near it…

fast forward to what I believe was the garage in my dads house. I was with a girl I went to highschool with, her name was stephanie. Coinicdentally, sheila had mentioned this girl a month or two ago… Anyhow, we were doing something with my car, I think it involved the windows. I remember at one point her holding up a large black piece of plastic that was shaped exactly like one of the side windows – as if it were completely opaque tint, like the windows were being blacked out.

For some reason I had the impression she was coming on to me, so I went inside the house to freshen up a bit, change my clothes, etc… It seemed I was gone for maybe 10 minutes, maybe a little less. I returned to the garage and we continued doing whatever it was we were doing with the car.

After a few minutes I heard some sort of noise from inside the house, so I went inside. Standing in the kitchen was the realtor/appraisor lady from earlier, she had let herself in. She saw me, but didn’t say a word. She had a horrified look on her face and turned towards the microwave.

I followed her line of sight and saw that the light was on in the microwave, and it was running. My cat Cassidy was inside, looking very distressed. I ran to the microwave and shut it off by opening the door.

The cat looked fine at first glance and I felt relieved for a second. Then he very slowly turned his head towads me and I saw his tounge hanging longly and limply from his mouth, and he started to look strange. I went to pull him from the microwave, and when I touched him he felt…really mushy – not wet, but his insides felt all gooey, like there were no bones. his fur felt wierd. He started letting out this gutteral distorted horrific sound – I think it was the most horrifying noise I can remember hearing.

In the meantime, stephanie had walked into the house very non-chalant like.. I turned to her with a panicked, freaked out look and she said “What? You were gone so long, and patches was being a brat”.

Then I woke up feeling very disturbed. I kept hearing that noise the cat made in my head all day, which certainly made ITIL training interesting.

So then came the conundrum of bindings, especially considering my attempt to stay thrifty and save enough of my hidden, hard-earned, ski gear cache (pun) for a fresh pair of expert mid-fat all mountain boards. The thrifty attempt seemed to be more difficult as le Chubbs require a wide brake since they’re 94 at the waist – and vendors want $50 for a set of brakes!

As luck, karma, coincidence, etc, would have it, a friendly user over at www.epicski.com was selling a pair of barely used Marker M41′s – with wide brakes no less. More coincidentally, they had just been pulled off a pair of Chubbs! =)

Not the most snazzy nor most exciting binding in the world, but perfectly non-spendy and more than adequate for my girlish figure (din3-10) and wide enough for the new boards. And quite the steal at $35!

So, binders should be in by end of the week, and not sure on the boards yet – they’ll be coming fedex, but I believe they’ll be on the slow boat – I guess that’s what you get for $1 shipping.

I’ll be waiting for these new toys to arrive to get my current Head C160′s fixed up. I talked to the kind folks up at Taos’ Boot Doctors yesterday, and it seems they just got a new grinding/machine that isn’t quite up and running yet, and won’t be for another week or two. Once I know they’re up and running, it’ll be time for a trip up to Taos to get everything done at once; Mount/Prep the new Chubbs, clean up the base and edges on the Heads, and potentially (have to query mr. pocketbook first) a full-on boot fitting/canting from the experts.

So begins another week. New gear on the way, no place to use it (yet). Should be a freaking boring week. ITIL training wed-fri, which means I won’t be leaving early on Friday and won’t get a head-start on my drive up to Loveland. I guess that’s not a huge deal, I’ll just park and sleep when I get up there around midnight.

A-Basin opened yesterday (sunday). Check it out:

]]> http://tophernet.org/wp/10/feed 0 http://tophernet.org/wp/9 http://tophernet.org/wp/9#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2005 04:49:30 +0000 storerc http://new.tophernet.org/wp/?p=9 So, Arapahoe Basin didn’t open friday as they were supposed to. Apparently this weeks weather hasn’t been great for making snow, so they delayed. The are now going to open tomorrow, sunday, with one run. Loveland still has only the single run as well.

My hope is that both get good cold weather and hopefully some more natural snow this week and are able to open another run or two. I will be headed up next weekend, as I am boneheadedly determined to make turns before the end of October!

Not happy with the Dakine heli-pro pack that I picked up – it has nice features, but is just too big and I am unable to find the smaller version anywhere, except in pink. It also is awkward as you have to undo some straps to open it at all, which is a bit of a pain, and it has a bunch of extraneous straps hanging out all over the back which will be a bitch on lifts.

I came across the BCA Stash pack online, looks perfect. No frills, better suited to my girlish figure, and is purposefully void of straps, etc on the back so it is chair friendly.

Not much else going on. Went to wax and tune my boards this past week in hopes of skiing this weekend, and found that something is wrong… Base seems high, and side/base bevels seem out of whack. The last time the edges were touched were at Buckeye sports in Ohio (bad idea), and that was along with a base grind. I think they fucked ‘em up. Found a reputable shop to get them fixed up, but unfortunately it’s up in Taos which is a bit of a ride. But, unless I can find a good shop locally (I’ve heard no good recommendations), I’ll be schlepping my gear up to The Bootdoctors in taos.

I did get my cargo box though, and got my front windows tinted finally. Will post a pic when I have chance.

Need to install my own copy of AWStats on the webhost, current install from powweb won’t do reverse resolution, so I have no idea who any of the connecting hosts are. No fun.

]]> http://tophernet.org/wp/9/feed 0 http://tophernet.org/wp/7 http://tophernet.org/wp/7#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2005 07:08:08 +0000 storerc http://new.tophernet.org/wp/?p=7 Welcome to TopherNet.org.

You know you have something better to be doing right now.

So you’ve found my little shithole on the net. This is my little space for journaling, taking notes, and generally stroking my ego with the notion that somebody out there cares.

If you do happen to come across this blog for whateve reason, please use this sticky entry as a guestbook and leave a comment. I’d appreciate it.

You can also check out my in-progress photo album here.

And, for anyone who cares, this blog made possible by the color blue, the number 3, and these wonderful packages:

• PowWeb Web Hosting
• Gallery2 Image Gallery
• Serendipity Weblog

Cheers!

-Chris

Balloon fiesta just finished up. Of the 4 days I crewed we flew 2, shitty weather. No rain or wind for weeks, and then… Was a very good time though, and I got to fly during one of the mass ascentions, which was a first. Checkout pictures here

Ski season is right around there corner. Not here in NM, but at least up in CO… Ski Loveland is opening this friday the 14th, and A-Basin opens next weekend. Considering making the trek up this Saturday to get in some early early season turns.

Loveland Cam’s : here
Loveland Snowmaking Stats and pics here

I got to build a squid proxy running on linux for work. Slowly but surely introducing(forcing) OSS! Testing this week, and if all goes well should go into production next week.

The new Battlefield 2 patch 1.03 came out last week with some much needed improvements and a new map. Pretty cool.

Yes, I spend way too much time playing video games. But not for long. Gotta get my boards all waxed up and ready to turn.

Ohwell. Enough for now.