As much as I would like it to, life just doesn’t slow down. So, I am going to attempt to cheat time by giving a quick rundown of what’s been happening with me in the last month or two.
Snowboarding in Utah was an absolute blast. Utah truly has some of the best snow I’ve ever skied on. As expected on the first day, our skiing was crazy and reckless, and I might have suffered a light concussion from the many falls before getting acclimated to the snowboard. But other than that I managed to survive most of the black diamonds rather gracefully. Ale and I managed to hit several resorts, including Solitude, Brighton, and Snowbird. Hard to say which one was the best for all of them have some really great runs. But the best part is that there are so many lifts and the terrain is so huge that one never has to wait in line to jump on a lift. One word of advice: when offered insurance on rental equipment, take it. My buddy Ale was unfortunate as to break one of his skis the very first day, which resulted in a major unexpected expense. In between the slope action, we managed to get a few tasty pints in Park City, visited Salt Lake City downtown area which would have been very impressive, except for the fact that the downtown was absolutely desolate - other than the church sisters who tried to recruit by-standards to join their church. We also managed to visit the actual Salt Lake which had some great scenery to offer.
In other news, I managed to turn the big 3-0. I expected it to be a routine thing - as in I usually don’t really celebrate my birthdays, but instead Tina arranged a very nice birthday dinner with some wonderful gifts. She also managed to totally catch me off guard by arranging a surprise party at a local restaurant with my parents and my sister who all snuck into town without me knowing, and several close local friends. I must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights! It was absolutely great, and it was so well pulled off for I had not a clue in the world. For all those fretting the big 3-0, it’s really not that bad, at least for now. Anyhow, having family in town is always fun and especially useful when you have a house that needs a lot of work!
Another big event was the SXSW music festival that comes to town every year. My friend Victor came down and stayed with us for a couple days, and Martin was also in town. We RSVP’d for many more events than we managed to attend, but as always it was a great time and we were able to hear some great bands. During SXSW, downtown Austin is completely transformed, but not in a bad way, it simply is fun seeing the atmosphere change with all of the tourists and visiting artists. Of course we had to make it down to Salt Lick for some true Texas BBQ so that Martin could have his gigantic steak – actually he had two of them this time! I’m slowly beginning to believe that guy would be able to eat an entire cow all by himself.
In between traveling and visitors, we squeezed in a short two day trip to Houston to drop Ale off at the airport since he was heading back to Italy after his internship. We stopped by the museum of natural sciences, which was very enlightening and ate some tasty crepes, which you can’t get in Austin for some unknown reason.
My Dad flew in for a few days the week after to help with several more things in the house (such as fixing the front door and replacing most of the AC ducts in the attic). On an embarrassing note, while I was working in the attic, I failed to keep my feet on the wooden beams and learned the hard way that sheetrock alone won’t support an elephant the likes of me. I found myself one floor lower in a hurry – ahhh, one more thing to fix. Next up though, doing the much dreaded taxes, since they are due in little more than five days – nothing like the thrill of an impeding deadline with the IRS. The past couple of months have been almost a blur, they went by so quickly, but all in all, I can say that I’m enjoying life and all of the exciting things I’ve experienced.
Snowboarding in Utah was an absolute blast. Utah truly has some of the best snow I’ve ever skied on. As expected on the first day, our skiing was crazy and reckless, and I might have suffered a light concussion from the many falls before getting acclimated to the snowboard. But other than that I managed to survive most of the black diamonds rather gracefully. Ale and I managed to hit several resorts, including Solitude, Brighton, and Snowbird. Hard to say which one was the best for all of them have some really great runs. But the best part is that there are so many lifts and the terrain is so huge that one never has to wait in line to jump on a lift. One word of advice: when offered insurance on rental equipment, take it. My buddy Ale was unfortunate as to break one of his skis the very first day, which resulted in a major unexpected expense. In between the slope action, we managed to get a few tasty pints in Park City, visited Salt Lake City downtown area which would have been very impressive, except for the fact that the downtown was absolutely desolate - other than the church sisters who tried to recruit by-standards to join their church. We also managed to visit the actual Salt Lake which had some great scenery to offer.
In other news, I managed to turn the big 3-0. I expected it to be a routine thing - as in I usually don’t really celebrate my birthdays, but instead Tina arranged a very nice birthday dinner with some wonderful gifts. She also managed to totally catch me off guard by arranging a surprise party at a local restaurant with my parents and my sister who all snuck into town without me knowing, and several close local friends. I must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights! It was absolutely great, and it was so well pulled off for I had not a clue in the world. For all those fretting the big 3-0, it’s really not that bad, at least for now. Anyhow, having family in town is always fun and especially useful when you have a house that needs a lot of work!
Another big event was the SXSW music festival that comes to town every year. My friend Victor came down and stayed with us for a couple days, and Martin was also in town. We RSVP’d for many more events than we managed to attend, but as always it was a great time and we were able to hear some great bands. During SXSW, downtown Austin is completely transformed, but not in a bad way, it simply is fun seeing the atmosphere change with all of the tourists and visiting artists. Of course we had to make it down to Salt Lick for some true Texas BBQ so that Martin could have his gigantic steak – actually he had two of them this time! I’m slowly beginning to believe that guy would be able to eat an entire cow all by himself.
In between traveling and visitors, we squeezed in a short two day trip to Houston to drop Ale off at the airport since he was heading back to Italy after his internship. We stopped by the museum of natural sciences, which was very enlightening and ate some tasty crepes, which you can’t get in Austin for some unknown reason.
My Dad flew in for a few days the week after to help with several more things in the house (such as fixing the front door and replacing most of the AC ducts in the attic). On an embarrassing note, while I was working in the attic, I failed to keep my feet on the wooden beams and learned the hard way that sheetrock alone won’t support an elephant the likes of me. I found myself one floor lower in a hurry – ahhh, one more thing to fix. Next up though, doing the much dreaded taxes, since they are due in little more than five days – nothing like the thrill of an impeding deadline with the IRS. The past couple of months have been almost a blur, they went by so quickly, but all in all, I can say that I’m enjoying life and all of the exciting things I’ve experienced.
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