The high today is supposed to be 55*? Hmm, that’s interesting since it’s been raining or rain/snowing or snowing off and on all day. The snow is not sticking, but it’s definitely not 55* outside either. One’s gotta love the fact that weathermen are never right. 🙂
In other news – the tree in our front yard is not dead! Yea for restorative hibernation!
Christmas 2007 – 3″ of snow
Valentine’s Day 2008 – 2″ of snow
Saint Patrick’s Day 2008…
Five years ago today I am told there was a blizzard along the Colorado Front Range. Of course, I cannot verify this fact as I lived in Sunny California at the time and was busy attending UCSB. Interestingly enough, March 17th, 2003 was also a Monday, but I digress. This blizzard dumped some 3-feet (or nearly…again, cannot verify) on the Denver Metro Area.
Now, back to present day March 17th, 2008 we have had a Winter Storm Warning and a Heavy Snow Warning, both of which have been cancelled early with all the hype of our 6-10″ falling off the trees like the melting snow. I think we have received about 3″ so far. Props to Fox News for calling the 2-3″ accurately while everyone else kept upping the ante. Due to all the hype I decided that I did not want to drive in 6″+ of snow or on ice, so I dragged myself out of bed at dark:thirty to ride into town with Noah. Oh well, at least I got some quality reading in during the hour I sat in my cube prior to my workday commencing.
And for all those who were enjoying the spring like weather…HA!
One reason why I know Spring is NOT right around the corner:
Colorado is known for many things including it’s pristine ski slopes/gorgeous mountains, fresh spring water and beer. But did you also know that Colorado, Boulder County’s very own Nederland, is also known for it’s own little bit of Colorado – a cryogenically frozen Norwegian immigrant.
Every year Nederland puts on a 3-day festival (going on this weekend) celebrating the fact that there is a frozen dead guy in a shed. Literally on ice. The festival known as Frozen Dead Guy Days (seriously) started when someone complained that a family was keeping a frozen dead guy. Colorado then wasted no time in creating a law that stated that frozen dead people are not to be kept on property. However, since new laws cannot effect prior existing conditions, the dead guy was grandfathered in.
Noah and I heard about this festival last year but didn’t make it up the canyon to check it out, nor were we sure we wanted to. This year we seriously considered going but the thought of sleeping in and avoiding drunken crowds won over our plans. So, maybe next year we’ll head up the hill to check out a frozen dead guy kept in a shed.
For more information on the festival and some additional background information on why there is a frozen dead guy and who he is exactly. Check out the Nederland Chamber of Commerce’s website.
That’s it.
This weekend we experienced weather extremes. Saturday was a taste of Spring early with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s! I spent some time in the sun completing some yard work out front (that I never finished in the fall) while Noah stayed inside installing our new kitchen sink faucet. It was time to replace the old faucet (which came with the house) with something they only gave water out of the spout instead of the handle. Noah had grown tired of repeated fixes and it’s nice to continue to our slow kitchen remodel.
Now, back to the weather report…so, yesterday I saw a high of 73* with lots of sunshine. Today, it snowed and the high was in the low 30s. The forecast called for 3″-6″, but we only received 2″. However, historically March is the snowiest month in Colorado and today is only the 2nd!
I can now say February is winding down. This has been a very busy month for us with visitors, snow excursions and sporting events on top of our already pretty busy schedule. This weekend Noah’s eldest brother’s wife, Erika, stayed with us as she flew in from California to attend a teaching job fair in Aurora yesterday. It was a quick trip, in Friday night and out this morning. But just because Erika was here didn’t mean we sat around idly waiting for to get back from the career expo. I went to my friend Alison’s baby shower in the morning and Noah went golfing in the afternoon with the husband’s of all the wives that were at the shower. When Erika did make it back to the house, she and I headed into Boulder in an unsuccessful attempt to make it to Celestial Seasonings before they closed. So, instead of buying good tea she can’t get in California, we drove around the city as I showed her points of interest (Noah’s office, my office, our church). Okay, so they may not make the tourist map, but it helped put the area together for Erika.
With each step forward they carefully avoided each of the large holes. The absence of vegetation exaggerated the barrenness of the field. As the sun set lower in the distance and the wind blew dark clouds towards their location, they knew they had scarce time to safely pass through the land. Warning cries went off in the distance. First one, than another. Time was short. The leader increased her pace, not willing to slow down, but not wanting to leave the other two behind. The trees ahead were a shield of sorts, despite their sickly branches and lack of leaves. Although the other side of the grove did not mean certain safety, they did offer a sense of refuge. Another alarm sounded as another faded. Their progress through the field was being signaled, there was no way to avoid it. Without cover, the group was at the mercy of the land around them. One misstep and devastation would be upon them.
Okay, so maybe devistation is a bit unreallistic, after all the above description is of Noah and I walking Lava through Rotham Open Space (another open space that our neighborhood backs up to…but not the one behind our house) this afternoon. We had never actually walked through this open space, but decided to today. As soon as we made it through the tall grass we entered a barren “wasteland” and was soon greeted by prairie dog warning barks. One would pop up out of its hole, sound the alarm and then jump down into hiding before we got to close. But, then another one would pop up a little further down the path and continue the warning. This continued until we left the open space and they felt the threat was eliminated. Lava, the terror that she is, didn’t blink an eye. However, a thought I had as we walked through the barren hole filled land was that it looked as if we were walking through a mine field. Only if I had to walk through a mine field, I would choose one with holes that bark and were not caused by large explosions.
Tonight was the Colorado Mammoth game. And wow is arena lacrosse a lot of fun to watch! There were more Mammoth fans in the stadium than there were Avs fans last week! It was crazy! Lot’s and lots of cowbell too! Having never been to or watched a lacrosse game, I never knew just how violent that sport is! Little padding (excluding the goalies of course), projectile balls, and sticks to beat one another with. The players would actually just whack each other while running by. Smacks against the back, legs, head, you name it. There were more fights than a hockey game. Only in lacrosse, it’s apparently somewhat acceptable to beat an opponent senseless while they are on the ground until the ref comes to break up the fight. I recall one incident where there was so much swinging of sticks one could have mistaken the game for deforestation. Surprisingly, the refs do not wear helmets.
Mammoth fans are nothing else if not eccentric! I have not been to such a loud and intense game in a long time! Tonight the Mammoth played the Philadelphia Wings, both teams going into tonights game undefeated. Unfortunately for Colorado, that streak ended today in the 4th period, when the Wings took the lead. The final score was 15-13, a much higher scoring game than last week’s hockey game.
Since we had an extra ticket to tonight’s game, Noah brought along his boss’ 10 year old son, Logan. Great kid that had such a fun time at the game! He had been to one Mammoth game before, but didn’t remember much about it. But it didn’t take him long at all to get into the game and jump up with the thousands of other fans each time the home team scored (which by the way looked very challenging since the goalie took up just about the entire goal). The only thing Logan wished he had though was a cowbell of his own. As much fun as a cowbell would have been, I think it would have been more annoying than anything else. However, I think it’s just about safe to say that the Colorado Mammoth gained two new fans tonight.
One of my favorite restaurants of all time is Claim Jumper. The nearest one to us in California was about 30 minutes away. Worth the drive every time. Last month I randomly looked up the restaurant’s website and lo and behold there is ONE in the entire state of Colorado! It was only about 40 miles from our house (45 minute drive) in Lone Tree, which is south of Denver. So what did I do as soon as I learned of its location? Called and made a reservation for Valentine’s Day Dinner, of course!
Knowing how long the drive can take with traffic and inclement weather, I made the reservation for 8:00 (last year we received 2″ of snow and drove to dinner in Genesee, barely making our 8:00 reservation. This year we received 2″ of snow and drove to Lone Tree). We arrived at 7:30, waited for about 5 minutes before we were seated, ahead of about 20 other people. It was great! The food of course, was marvelous! I’m so excited that great food like this is only a short drive a way
As a follow up to my previous blog 3 Down, 3 to Go, apparently Colorado/Denver has two Lacrosse teams. The Mammoth are what would be considered an Arena Lacrosse Team as they play at the Pepsi Center (the same place the Avs play), whereas the Outlaws play at Invesco Field (the same place the Broncos play). After some brief research, and the fact a friend is coming to visit from California this weekend, we learned that the Mammoth are playing now and the Outlaws will play this summer. Not to mention the Mammoth tickets are about 1/3 the cost of Outlaw tickets. So, Friday night, Noah and I will once again find ourselves in Denver at the Pepsi Center, this time with our dear friend Sandy in tow.
Yet, with this new revelation on Colorado’s Lacrosse teams, we still have 3 more professional teams to see play before we’ve seen them all…unless there’s some other obscure sport or another arena game we have yet to discover.