Does Alpha stand for Arsehole????

We went skiing on Friday, as usual but what wasn't usual was the amount of people around. The resort is called Solitude, well, not today. Now let's get this straight, I am English and as such if there is a sign telling me to do something (within reason!) I'll be a good little brit and obey - for example - keep right. This means on the groomed tracks keep to the right hand side going up and then coming back simple right? Well not for the pair of salesmen who were in the middle coming towards me and for good measure had completely missed the sign that said no entry!

Let's go back to the reason I came unglued in the first place - H had a skate-skiing lesson so I was on my own and for starters decided to do the Silver Lake loop for a warm up - the trail - if you can call it that was really rutted up and it didn't help that the Alpha's (salesmen - oohh there's a shocker!) in the title of this entry were completely trashing the tracks and what grooming there had been previous to their arrival. They were skiing down out of the trees where the Nordic Centre staff couldn't see them which I think is a more than a little arrogant seeing as there was is a perfectly good ski resort (Brighton) just up above them. For the first time in a long time and it turns out the first of many times that day I fell over, and got up, got a few more feet them fell over again and again and again. By now I was getting really frustrated with myself - I haven't skied for a week and suddenly I'm a complete idiot who can't even stand up on the damned things!!

So I finally make it to the top of the hill and try to snowplough down. Ha! no such luck! again I fall over and over and over and eventually get my left ski wedged under the snow and have to take both off and walk down.

Back on the groomed bit again I bit the bullet and went for the loop we usually do before skiing down to Solitude Village ........and had no trouble at all so I did it again and a third time - easy peasy (except for the salesmen!). Feeling considerably better about my abilities I headed back to the touring centre. Only to find myself involved in a scene from Oprah - the two women behind me were talking what I can only say was the usual emotional twaddle that only women of a certain age can. To say it was embarrasing would be an understatement, never mind wearing your heart on your sleeve this was more like heart on a yo-yo, spread the message to the furthest corner of the room. Why do they do that? It beats me!(so says the up-tight English girl!)

After a calming cup of tea and some yummy orange biscuits I headed home. Then off to the Grizzlies game, we ended up with seats in the nosebleeds as it was a "sold out" game, sold out in this case means that the coporate blocks are empty so actually it was more of a half-full game plus the fact they sold our tickets twice, fortunately we had the good sense to hang on to them and the people just sat a row behind us. The Griz weren't doing very well in fact the Manitoba Moose had already scored when B decided it was time for food and left his seat, not a minute later the Grizzlies scored. It ended up as a draw, we had a shootout (five players - how many you can get past the goalie) which ended 1-1 so then we had sudden death (first of the aforemention five players to score wins for his team) Blow me the Grizzlies scored first - so we've actually seen them win now!

That blur is actually a dutch speedskater! 

Speed Skating

We went to the International Speed Skating Championships at the Olympic Oval in Kearns this weekend - well Sunday actually. Got loads of good piccies and I will post a couple after this entry. H & T came too and we cheered on those skaters who weren't American. They give you these little noise-makers that you blow up and bang together. Well I guess I was squeezing mine too hard - I managed to deflate 3!!

The US won the womens but the mens was a 1 - 3 shutout for the Dutch with a Canadian in 2nd place, and he did not look at all happy on the podium.

Of course the Dutch supporters were there in full force complete with a brass band and I have the feeling that the party was only getting started at the stadium - and would be going on somewhere else later.

C wore his orange shirt but had forgotten the words to the Dutch national anthem, tut, tut!

Skiing and Codes

Yesterday I skied all the way down from Solitude Nordic Centre to Solitude Village - it was a blue run, just over 1 kilometre long, moderately difficult and I didn't fall over once!!!!!!!!

My snow plough is now easy to get into and come out of aaaaannd when I completed a turn and found H waiting for me she commented that it looked "like you've been doing that all your life" Now H doesn't give out compliments lightly so I was pretty chuffed. We got the shuttle back up to the Nordic Centre and did about another 30 mins on the easy runs, then back to the house for a hot cup of tea.

Codes - When we lived in England I used to read the Daily Mail but mostly I did the puzzles in the coffee break section. When I was back in November I completed them each day and then I discovered on coming back here that the whole paper is available online so I signed up. It's great!! For the last week I've been doing my codeword and the new codenumber each day, it's really good to be able to keep my hand in and tweak my brain.

Snow

The snow forecast for Mon/Tues arrived today - the clouds have swallowed up the mountains. At the moment you wouldn't know we had mountains!

I've taken a piccie from the back door it should appear after this post (actually it's below even though I published this first!!?).

Am a little tired this morning as we had to try and keep Dory in last night - it wasn't easy. C was asleep until about 4 this morning with her on his feet. When she started to move around and try and burrow into the bed and walked up and down my back (that explains the japanese massage dream I was having) both of us were awake. In the end we set the cat-door to out only and but she couldn't go out 'cos the ginger peril from next door was sticking his ugly mug up against the door.

Have learned a new technique with him - it's called scruffing - what you do is grab the offending cat by the loose skin at the back of the neck - this is what a mother cat does to her kittens to calm them. Then you gently push them down, hissing at the same time to reinforce bad behaviour and it must be done right after they've done the bad thing or they'll get confused as to what they've done wrong. To say I was a bit sceptical would be putting it mildly but, you know what? He came in yesterday and I scruffed him, he went very submissive and posted himself back through the cat-door so I guess it works!?

Had coffee with J this morning at our favourite coffee place we spent an hour chatting about what we got up to over the Christmas holiday. I've decided I'm taking the day off today - no UNPS work at all.

View from our snow-covered deck 

Dory 

Back to normal - well what passes for normal around here!

So C went back to work yesterday. Having had him at home the whole week before the house did seem a little empty for a while - but I'm back in the swing of things now. I've learned I can't use the hoover while Dory is inside, it freaks her out, so as soon as she went out this morning, I rushed around hoovering everything in sight.

During our weekly phonecall this morning I told Mum all about her and she came and sat on my lap while we were talking and meowed - Mum heard her down the phone and it brought back memories of how Patch would sit on her lap and meow down the phone at me.

My week is shaping up pretty well - have done some computer work today, early coffee with J tomorrow morning - that will force me to have a walk back up to the house. Have phoned S but not sure if she's even in the country at the moment and hopefully skiing with H on Friday.

I'll post a quick pic of Dory after this entry.

Slot Canyon Photos 

Well that's Xmas packed away again

Happy New Year!!

We went to a English New Year's Eve party last night and had a lot of fun - only one American stayed until the champagne at midnight (M and L are now going to get her an "honourary brit" T-shirt.

Fun driving back though 'cos it really did snow last night, even down in the valley so we had a slow journey back.

We arrived home to find two little eyes staring at us from indoors - in her basket - bless her. We let her come onto the bed again but this time she settled immediately. Don't think the snow is over - Dory has the wind under her tail again today so I reckon we could get about another couple of inches.

This afternoon we packed away the deccies and took down the tree - the place looks bare now. We have put up the photos that P and S took in the summer down in the slot canyons. They look fantastic!

As I now have a decent camera (digital) I'm going to try and take one picture a day and make this more of a picture blog - if I can figure out the software.