Hit the Slopes #38

Made it to Mountain High this weekend to attempt snow sports. I have to admit, I was a complete failure on the snowboard (all 10 minutes I was attached to it - mostly laying down beside it.) However, I LOVED skiing. It was both terrifying and exciting. This was my first time attempting downhill skiing since my 6th grade church ski trip, so I was expecting the worst. My friend did not allow me to even attempt the bunny hill and instead we jumped right on the ski lift (terrifying) and headed up to the top of a beginning level run. Made it down that w/o falling and the next thing I knew we were at the top of the mountain. See picture on right. To the right and left were both black diamond runs and the one in the middle was an intermediate level. We made it about 50 yards down the intermediate run and my friend re-injured her ACL. She had torn it almost exactly 1 year prior and had hoped that her knee brace would save it this time. Not so much. So after waiting about an hour for ski patrol to take her off the mountain I was now stuck at the top with nowhere to go but down. Fortunately, a ski instructor had stopped to help us so he volunteered to guide me down to the bottom. Free lesson! WOOHOO! I had one major wipeout but otherwise made it down without incident and learned a ton from my one-on-one lesson.

I leave for Breckenridge, CO this Wednesday to meet up with my brother and 30 of his closest friends. This will be the real test. Wish me luck!

I'm baaacccck

So my merit badge quest needed to be put on hold while I worked. Last semester I worked as a media specialist during the day and taught four classes for CLU at night. This semester I'm back to a little better schedule and only teaching two classes at night. (And since everyone who knows me understands that my media specialist job ends at 4:00 everyday....well you get how I may have fallen a little behind.

So I'm back!

• this morning I planted my garden - thanks to badge #17,
  
• last night I learned how to make curry chicken and egg rolls thanks to some friends - #28
  
• this week I bought a new SLR camera so I'm hoping to actually get some of my HDR photos ready to share - #15

So....what's next?

• progress on my tomatoes, and peppers
• progress on learning how to cook
• progress on editing HDR photographs
• AND - Hit the Slopes #38 - I'm heading to Colorado in a couple of weeks and hopefully I will learn how to ski and not die. - Fingers crossed.
  

Archery

Ok so archery may not be one of the original Merit Badges, I do feel like it continues the theme. My friend Ashley and I may be a little obsessed with the new movie version of Robin Hood - and not just for the merry men, although they are pretty fantastic. We are in love with Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian. She is fantastic in her role and her comedic timing is impeccable. Anyway, enough with the platitudes and on to archery. We found the Woodley Park Archers less than 10 miles from my apartment where they offer free classes on Saturdays and Wednesdays. We went last weekend and will continue our training tonight. It's a really nice group of people and while I wouldn't say that we are naturals, we didn't hurt anyone either. Wonder what goal we will need to set in order to earn this badge?

Badge 17 - Dig This

With help from Aunt Roxy and some tools from Aunt Susan, I was able to complete the gardening badge! Since I live in an apartment, gardening needed to take place in containers. Since it was not the right season for the suggestions in the book I instead grew marigolds, sunflowers and a beautiful tomato plant! (Time for BLTs) Now I can't wait to grow pumpkins in the fall. :-)

Updates - 2009

Ok, so here is the update on the past badges and the plan for the future badges:

Badge 1 - Dream it - Lost my online job - budget cuts in CA - loved the experience and will look for future opportunities. - A step in the right direction!

Badge 19 - Bead it - There is nothing better than seeing your friends wear their own creations. I made tons of beaded Christmas presents and am planning to spend some of my upcoming vacation creating again.

Badge 31 - Exercise your Options - Probably my biggest Badge failure to date. My roommate Jessi and I are walking - sometimes, but that's about it. Time to start pushing on this one again!

Badge 15 - Go World Wide - I consolidated a lot of my stuff to my hamres.com account and dropped my techiesteaching.com domain. Much more to be done, but at least there is a front cover now!

Badge 56 - Connect with Your Tribe - This fortunately is an ongoing badge. My parents were just out here for a week and we traveled to Joshua Tree NP and Death Valley NP. The photo at the top is from Joshua Tree.

Future Badges - I think I'll start working on the Photography Badge and the Reading Badge - both seem to lend themselves well to my spring break plans.

Badge 56 - Connect with Your Tribe

This is a fantastic badge about making traditions with the people who mean the most to you. I have a plethora of examples as I am one who loves tradition. My examples ranged from TGIF gatherings with my friends to more traditional holiday family activities. The one I decided to focus on is a family tradition: making Kørv. It's a family recipe from my maternal grandparents (Swedish side - see Grandma Lu in the photo to the right).

We used to make Kørv every Thanksgiving and then we'd eat it through the Christmas holiday season. It's a potato sausage with little more than beef, pork, onion, potato and a little salt and pepper. This tradition has included my maternal grandparents, occasionally my paternal grandparents, my parents, brother, sister-in-law and myself. We even have matching aprons. We've had to skip a couple of years due to conflicting schedules now that we don't all live in the same house, but this year we were able to get together as a group and make it. It turned out great and with a little mug of Glüg to help wash it down we were all very happy campers. :-)

What are your family traditions?

Updates on Badges 31 and 16

Well the exercise badge took a little time off during the holidays, but I'm back on schedule starting today January 4. Look for more updates as I progress.

I updated my website and included links to my "other" sites under my Biography. It's a start. I wouldn't say I've competed this one quite yet, but it's moving in the right direction. There are just so many great online tools out there and every time I start to consolidate I get sucked into something else like Glogster. Check it out if you have time. :-)