BoCaNO Ski Movie

Last night I pulled together a few movie clips and put them into some software, edited the videos, added an audio track and cut it as a 3 minute movie. So here is the link to my first officially rleased film, Ski Movie

I hope you enjoy it, I also have a higher resolution copy, but it was too big to upload to the internet. I can't wait to get started on my next film, oh yeah and this weekend I will be bringing my video camera up to Sunday River.

Great weekend, but where is Spring?!?!

Jennifer and I had a fantastic weekend, despite the chilly temps. On Friday night we went to the Paradise Lounge to check out a live show of Jeff Tuohy (the DJ for our wedding) and Percy Hill. We did the long T ride over there and had an okay dinner at the lounge and a couple hours later the show started. Right before the show started, Pants and Britt showed up and stayed for quite a while before jetting to another happening club. We finally got back to Somerville around one in the morning and went right to sleep.

The next morning we woke up too early, which left me tired for most of the day. Most of the day was spent indoors since it was cloudy and cold outside. Eventually we did venture out and walked to Whole Foods, I couldn't believe how cold it was so late in March. Saturday night was a lot more low key than Friday night.

Yesterday we were up relatively early and the sun was actually shining on Somerville. We strolled down to the cafe and ate our typical Sunday morning breakfast. Upon returning home we set out on a mission to clean up the house and let me just say "Mission Accomplished". It was intense cleaning, I moved furniture around, removed things from shelves and polished every wood surface. We did a little furniture movement and put the dining room table into the entry way in anticipation of buying a new table later in the day. Unfortunately when we got to the store the table was a little to big to fit in my car and now we have a dining room with four chairs, but no table. So now I have to figure out how to get a 7ft by 3 1/2 foot, 150 pound table from Everett to Somerville.

Now the week is beginning and I have a big project I need to work on, can't wait to get started.

Photos

Hello all. I have two photo albums for you to enjoy.
Rockport Photos
Sunday River Photos

Enjoy and Happy Spring!! Despite the 20 degree temperatures.

All For One Pass Time Again

I received my annual mailing from the American Skiing Company telling me all about why I need to buy a season pass for NEXT winter. That's right I have until May 2nd to buy a season pass for the winter of 2006/2007. Last year was the first year they moved the deadline up from the standard August to May and this year they pushed it ahead another week. The other new things this year are that they are going to make even less passes available in order to "improve the experience of passholders" and the price will go up even more than it did last year after the deadline. So I have decided once again to hold out and not buy the pass until October again and if they run out of passes I guess I won't ski next year. I could understand the earlier deadline last year because the conditions were good and there had been an okay amount of snow, but this year the conditions are just, IMHO, horrible. I mean seriously they are just opening trails for the sake of opening them and not because they are worth opening. 90% of the trails are covered with thick ice sheets, that aren't exactly fun to ski on. The other recent development is the state of the bathroom's up there, I was in the White Cap bathroom and every stall was a mess, I won't go in to detail. Maybe they should take all of this extra capital and do something new with the mountain or keep things clean. Ahhhhh I am so annoyed.

Another Open Mike Night

This evening I took a walk down to my local pub and took in another open mike night. To my surprise I didn't see anybody peform from last week, so it was fresh and new. The first guy to perform was right of the boat from Japan. He barely spoke a word of english, but could play the guitar really well. He sang two songs in japanese and the other was in english. The round of applause this guy got was amazing and I am hoping he will return again in the future. Another change this week was that a woman got up and played a set. She was really good and had a great sense of humor, which really made for a great set. I might not be good enough to play at the open mike, but I sure do enjoy going to watch it.

Ski Weekend

A last minute change of plans sent me packing the car on Saturday morning and driving northbound towards Bethel. I have worked out a really good system that lets me spend time with Jennifer on Friday night and Saturday morning as well as get in some skiing on Saturday and a full day on Sunday. I used my tele skis on Saturday and had a nice afternoon, on Sunday I switched back to my alpines so I could keep up with the group. I have to say I have a lot more fun on the alpine skis then I do on the tele. The tele skis would be great if I went up more often and my body had a chance to strenghten the correct muscles, but this skiing once every doesn't allow for a very enjoyable tele experience. I am still on the fence for what I will use the rest of the season, but I am leaning towards the alpines especially if I want to compete in the Bust 'n' Burn competition. I did hit the bumps a little bit today and it felt good, although my legs aren't strong enough to complete an entire course.

Thanks again to Kate, Kelly and Mark for letting me crash at their house. I can't seem to get enough of sleeping on the couch in my sleeping bag. It might not be the couch though, and may actually just be the sleeping bag. You see my sleeping bag and I go way back, I somehow inherited it about 15 years ago when I lived in my mom's little ranch on Woodlawn street in Amesbury. You see back in those day I used to sleep on the pull out couch in the maroon sleeping bag. I used it a few times camping along the way. A couple years ago I brought it on a hike up Mt. Madison with Mark and Kate, at the time I wasn't too happy with it because it made the hike extremely difficult. You see I never had one of those carrying bags that really compresses the sleeping bag to a nice hiking friendly size so I had it attached to my backpack in an awkward uncomfortable way. Just picture me climbing up a trail with my head tilted over at a 45 degree angle with a giant marshmallow shape on my shoulder. Talk about a sore neck!!! Anyway I recently took the sleeping bag out of storage and have been keeping it in my trunk (I read that you are supposed to do that in case you get trapped in your car). Oh maroon sleeping bag I want to thank you for keeping me so warm and cozy over the last fifteen years, without you I would have frozen on one of these cold New England nights.

Keeg

I Hate The Networks

As you all know I am a huge television fan and lately I have realized I hate the networks. They are so concerned about having good programming on during sweeps weeks that they make us suffer through countless reruns at all other times of the year. Seriously I haven't seen a new CSI in at least three weeks, all of this and they can't understand why there shows are turning over faster than ever. I realize our culture has the attention span of a 3rd grader with ADD, but there are still some of us out here who appreciate consistency in our programming. When was the last time you were actually hooked in to a tv show and couldn't wait to see the next episode. In my case it would have to be last spring, when I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next on Lost. This year they have had about eight new episodes of Lost, sometimes with up to six weeks between new episodes. If its not one thing its another, we can't run new shows against the MLB playoffs, or between Thanksgiving and New Years (the longest six years ever) or during the Olympics. The best part is now that they are finally running new episodes they have moved them all over the schedule. AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! I am still on the fence about the new practice of only doing a show for a half season, but doing it non-stop, a-la Alias or 24. I like seeing them all in a row, but the six months of waiting between seasons is unbearable. Finally have you noticed that the number of commercials continues to creep up. I downloaded an episode of the office that was barely over 20 minutes, that translates to 10 minutes of commercials in a half hour, are you kidding me?