That’s right – no worky for me! There is a big storm that is just kind of dumping on us right now in traditional Buffalo fashion. Here is a look out our front door – I am now drinking a Powder Hound Winter Ale from Big Sky Brewing out of Missoula Montana and loving it!

Two weekends ago, Boo! and I braved the cold, wind, and snow and hiked up Dadd Gulch for the first time. Dadd Gulch is located up the Poudre Canyon; the trailhead is an hour away by car. Click on the image below for a link to more images from this hike:

The hike was great and we were alone the entire time. There was one other set of human tracks, but these turned around after the first mile. Shortly after that we came upon Mountain Lion tracks (larger than Boo!’s) – I had thought they were fairly old, but on the way back, all traces of it (as well as our tracks) had been windswept and were barely there – kind of freaky since that means the tracks weren’t all that old – an hour or so. Luckily Boo! wasn’t ever acting overly concerned with anything I couldn’t see so I am pretty sure all my heavy breathing and yelling like PJ scared it off. Overall it was a great hike with some cool rock formations. The snow was never that bad and I was a good temperature most of the time.

Not much else to report at this time – we had another Great Pyrenees fun day this past weekend – there is also a gallery of that event. Next weekend we are going to ski for the first time this year – Loveland looks like the probable destination. I hope everyone is well!

That’s right, back to work for the remainder of the semester. After almost a week and a half of family visits, drinking and relaxation – the Fall 2006 semester is in its final stretch. It all began with a 5 day visit from my Mom where we drank Rio Margs, Hiked, visited Estes Park, and went to a bunch of local microbreweries. We all had a great time and it was really great to see my Mom and spend some time now that I am farther away from Buffalo. You can visit the gallery album of the event by clicking the image below of Kelley, my Mom, and me at Fort Collins Brewery.

After my Mom visited we had a couple of days to ourselves and went to work as usual, except that since CSU gives its students all week off – campus was a ghost town, we Loved It!

On Thanksgiving we drove to the airport in Denver and picked up Kelley’s sister, Heather. We then all traveled to west Denver (Lakewood) to Kelley’s Mother’s home to meet with the rest of her family that had traveled to visit for the Holiday. Kelley’s brother, Michael and his wife, Courtney were in from Houston, and Kelley’s Uncle and Aunt, Tom and Clarita, were in from Florida. We had a great day and an amazing feast. This was followed by a trip to the nicest bowling alley you could ever imagine where I sucked ass (I bowled poorly). The next day, Kelley, Heather and I drove back north to Fort Collins and visited a bunch of Breweries once again – and on Saturday we were able to celebrate Heather’s birthday with a hike up the Poudre river (Gray Rock), Rio Margs, and a great night out with Heather’s long time friends, Zen and Nick (from Crested Butte, CO). We have a gallery album of these events which you can visit by clicking on the image below of Kelley and me at Coopersmiths.

Overall the past week and a half has been amazing, and only 4 more weeks until we get some more vacation down in Durango, CO for Christmas. I hope everyone else had a great break and I can’t wait to see you all soon!

“Rumour has it that the squirrel king sat under this very tree over one thousand years ago and indulged on the forbidden nut – an acorn the size of his head! However, the pleasure he was about to experience was all a ruse and the nut was poison, transforming him into stone for eternity.” – at least this is what the salesman told me.