Wednesday, October 14, 2009

First snow in Boulder! Whaaaat?!

It is my day off today so I thought I would catch up on some blogging. This last weekend we had some crazy weather here in Boulder. I woke up on Saturday morning and was greeted with this view from my balcony:

Winter wonderland!

Quite the snowy site! This much snow in early October? What is the world coming to? I was expecting snow from the weather report, but not quite so much! I have been riding my bike to work as I live extremely close, but today with all the snow I decided to walk. Here are some shots of the walk across Scott Carpenter Park that morning:

Bike path through Scott Carpenter behind the sledding hill. There were a few kids out sledding! :)

More snowy bike path!

It is now sunny and crisp out, with some high clouds. This weekend we will be hitting the low 70's! Quite the switch. Colorado has some serious weather! You know what they say, "If you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait 5 minutes!"

Well, I'm off to contact my landlord to get the heat fixed. We just can't manage to keep the pilot light lit, and if this crazy weather keeps up, we will definitely need the heat. Especially since Erik is recover from a very sudden but brief onset of pneumonia. He is doing much better now and is on antibiotics, but he was really sick for a couple days. His midterms and this crazy weather must have lowered his immune system. I'm glad he is better though. So stay warm and stay healthy everyone!

Bye!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

New layout! Huzzah!

I decided to change the layout of my blog. The other one was just not jiving with my vibe. This one is much better in my opinion. In other news, Erik had a lovely dinner waiting for me when I got home from work. He made some fabulous apple chicken sausage in Jalfrezi sauce with white rice and garlic naan. It was totally delicious! What an amazing boyfriend I have!

We popped open a bottle of 2007 Muir Wood Pinot Noir to enjoy with the meal. I highly recommend this wine! It has a strong fruity nose, and tastes of ripe berries and oak. Very smooth, mellow tannins. Really nice finish. Erik is now studying at the kitchen table and I am in my PJ's and down booties, ready to settle in and watch Fringe on Hulu. I am working a lot this week, which is good because it will make up for some of the days I missed going to grandad's 89th birthday! The trip was a big success. It was so nice to see everyone, and hang out in San Francisco and San Carlos. My little cousins are still as adorable as ever, and the weather in SF was perfect! I can't wait for my parents to come and visit me here.

Boulder is definitely experiencing fall in full force. The air has been crisp and very autumnal. The leaves are changing just brilliantly. Every day I walk along the creek to work, under the shade of yellow and red maple, aspen, and cottonwood trees. It is a lovely little walking commute, though today it rained and snowed! It was cool though, because I got to wear my Marmot down puffy that I have so missed. That is the warmest most fluffy jacket ever. I am so glad to be working so close to home, and able to stroll across the park right to the front door. I hope the leaves have not all fallen by the time my parents visit! And if they do, there is nothing quite like seeing the flat irons dusted with fresh winter snow.

Next post I promise some more pictures.... Probably. ;)

Boulder Gear Swapmeet! We need one!

Between the two of us, Erik and I have a bunch of gear we want to unload. Our condo isn't huge, and all the extra stuff just creates clutter. We have enough stuff (and good quality) to have a very nice garage sale, but here's the rub: we don't have a garage, yard, or driveway! So how do we unload this stuff?

The stuff we want to get rid of:
-vintage road bike (needs some love to be ridable)
-road bike helmet
-women's snowboard with bindings (good condition)
-a couple of mens snowboards (good condition)
-some extra bindings
-a variety of alpine and cross country skis
-miscillaneous outdoor clothing, snowboard jackets, goggles, etc.

I know I could sell it all on craigslist, but that would mean writing many a CL post, and having to be home and available for a lot of people to stop by. I just don't want to deal with all the back and forth. I would rather sell the stuff for less money if it meant less hassel. So I came up with an idea. I want to have an informal Boulder gear sale/swap! The seasons are changing and many people need to suit up for winter, or might want to unload some summer excess. A gear swap would be the perfect solution!

It would go like this, I would talk to all my friends about it, post it on facebook, craigslist, a bunch of forums etc. and name a date, time and location. Then everyone interested would bring all the gear they don't want to this location at the specified time and date, and sell or trade it to all interested parties who show up. I think it would be an excellent solution! The only problem is I don't really have a place to do it. I was thinking the park by my place would be a good spot (Scott Carpenter park, with the skate park). I'm not sure what the rules are in Boulder about having this kind of thing at a city park or something. I tried to look up holding an event at Scott Carpenter but came up empty handed. Maybe there is a warehouse or events center somewhere? The other issue would be weather. Now that it is getting cold and with rain and snow on the menu for the rest of this week, it makes an outdoor event like this a little tough. I would like to have it on a nice sunny day where people would be inclined to browse, etc. The weather here is pretty unpredictable, so my guess is there will be more warm weather coming up before winter really settles in.

I think an event like this would also help build community. People could come and hang out, talk gear, and help each other out. I don't know if I will get it together to organize something like this, but it would be cool....

Maybe I will just sell it all on craigslist.