Kite Skiing - Liz's early Bday present to me.

Our first dinner as an engaged couple was spent in the lovely company of Michael and Vindya - who had prepared an elegant Indian meal for us. Couldn't have asked for a better evening - they are both such kindred souls.

We awoke Saturday morning for an early Birthday surprise that Liz had planned for me. We left the house early fearing Spring Break traffic on I-70 - only to be met with empty roads and clear sailing. We arrived early to Summit County - Liz even threw me off with a detour to Silverthorne. Finally, we pulled into the little town of Frisco and came to a stop in front of a small storefront: http://www.coloradokiteforce.com/ - WOOOEEE we're going Kite Skiing.

Liz and I have had a long-running dream of learning to Kite Ski and use our skills to zoom up into the mountains in the backcountry and ski down. This was our first step towards realizing that dream....

She had gotten us both 5 hour lessons on Lake Dillon. It was incredible - my love for stunt kites as a kid helped me get the hang of handling what is basically a two-line stunt kite on steroids... or some would compare it to a parachute without the plane to jump out of...

After an hour or so of learning to control the kites we quickly latched into our skis and off we went. I got to the point where I could go off a small jump and just sail for 10-15 feet below the kite. It was unlike anything I've done before. We're hooked.

Here's a quick video I made of the day.
RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS:
http://www.3wing.net/video/KiteSkiingSmall.wma

The large version can be found here:
RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS:
http://www.3wing.net/video/KiteSkiingLarger.wma


Here's a video of the pros:
http://www.flyozone.com/video/videoplay.asp?vidname=frenzy05


What an incredible birthday gift from an incredible woman. Ah to be lucky, alive, and in love.

The Engagement

After a long stressful night Thursday (losing our softball game 19-0 didn't help) in which much was discussed - finances - life - dreams - passion - walking away from a corporate world and a corporate resume - needless to say, nothing was really resolved. We went to bed only after assuring eachother we were not mad at the other... never go to bed mad - seems to be a good mantra.

Liz awoke early for her 6am-2pm shift at Balfour's memory care facility (she's a care partner for an alzheimer's home) - I was up to my alarm at 7:15 to see the sun shining on the flatirons outside of our window while the birds chirped their welcome to the first spring-like weather we've seen in over 3 weeks. (This day has been a long time coming :) I thought to myself "today is the day!"

I reserved an airplane for a 2:30pm flight and called and asked Liz if she wanted to come on an Aerial Photography flight with me. The premise was that The City of Boulder had called and wanted some last minute shots of the flatirons. Seemed feasible to me - I've often had clients call the same day that they're looking for shots - Liz fell for it hook line and sinker. (or so she says:)

I then proceeded to find a rickety ladder that had been discarded by the next door neighbors with which Colby and I ascended onto the roof to survey my "canvas". I started right in with two rolls of white paper that I had from a former life of running an art gallery. After finishing the downstroke of the second R in Marry I ran out of paper. Leaving a nice big white - WILL U MAR on the roof.

Off to find more paper... 2 hours later, after a visit to the local Blueprint Supply, store I was back in business. Meanwhile, Liz had received a phone call from Steamboat Ski Patrol - inviting her to join them for a 2 day intensive ski patrol training and try out session on April 1st and 2nd. I then received the same invitation as well. The excitement for getting these invitations was a perfect precursor to what was to come.

With around 20 minutes to spare - I left for the office to meet Liz (she thought I'd been hard at work all day). We then drove to the airport and loaded up into Cessna 5224K and promptly taxied to the end of runway 11L where we waited... and waited... and waited. Never in all of my flying experiences have I waited as long as we did on Friday - ExecuJets, helicopters, Dakotas, Seminoles, DiamondStars - everyone and their boss's mom was out flying Friday afternoon... well at least they were landing. As we waited to takeoff, me attentively listening to the tower waiting for our call sign - Liz sat happily fiddling with her headset - interupting Air Traffic Control to see if her headset was working properly... ah the love of my life can stress me out sometimes!! :) Finally, we were given clearance and off we went into the wild blue yonder!!

I had told Liz that she was to be the photographer for the flight - so we had prepared her window so that it could swing up flush against the wing while in flight (this way she could hang out of the window and take the best pictures of those flatirons as possible!)




After two low and slow passes right next to the flatirons I asked if she wouldn't mind taking a quick picture of our house for longevity (which on hindsight was probably not the most inconspicuous adjective). Seemed like a reasonable request to me... I do have aerial shots of every other place in Boulder that both she and I have lived in - so why not add our current home?? So we swooped down and left and slowly our street came into view - and then our house - and then the screams of excitement were all I could hear over the cockpit intercom... as the shouts of "Oh my God" paused for a few seconds I slipped in the official question: "Liz, will you marry me?" - without even a slight hesitation she shouted "YES, YES, OF COURSE!!"

It was at that point that I just wanted to be on the ground - as it's quite hard to hug and kiss and truly celebrate while flying a small airplane 500 feet over the house.... so after a few "laps around the block" to get some good shots of the house - we flew back towards JeffCo Airport. As a newly engaged couple - we came in for a soft squeeky clean landing at JeffCo - taxied to parking... shut down, jumped out and ran to give my new fiance a hug and kiss.... Woooeee we're engaged!!


The photos of the days events can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.6hc12c6a&x=0&h=1&y=-x8j26d

Giving notice...

I came in to work on Thursday for our early morning staff meeting only to find the calendar on the whiteboard. We were to all be sure to add all of our vacation days to the calendar to make sure there were no conflicts as well as to see how the staffing would look once Laverne leaves in early July for her baby. It came to be my turn to draw my days off on the calendar - to which I remained in my chair... swiveling... finally saying to Eric that we should probably chat in person prior to making an official announcement. Truth of the matter was that June 1st (or slightly earlier) would be my last day of work at IPS. It's been a long haul with some ups and downs - but mostly ups. Eric has been exceedingly generous to me and has been like a second-father out here in Colorado. I started 4 years ago as his first employee doing contract web design and the like - we have since grown to a seven person firm and I've gone from a few hours per month to full time... I can't thank Eric enough for the experiences that he has provided me. My stint at Integrated People Solutions has been a great one.... and I'll miss it - not gonna lie though - it's gonna be tough to miss much of anything while finally taking the time to live our dreams in the mountains of Colorado.

And so begins the changes....

Crested Butte - The Movie

The Crested Butte movie is finally complete - I would not recommend Windows Movie Maker to anyone. This was my first time editing a movie and I'll tell you - WMM BLOWS. However, I think it turned out well - only took a few hours of editing - hopefully you enjoy our first experiment with the Helmet Cam!

The file is large (to the tune of 40MB) - and it's 15 minutes long. So RIGHT CLICK and SAVE TARGET AS:
Crested Butte - The Movie

Drop me an email if you'd like a lower quality version... it won't be nearly as good though!

Latest news: It's looking like we're leaning towards leaving Boulder June 1 to head off to Crested Butte where we'll be certified for EMT and WEMT and then hopefully find a job working on the mountain while we wait for the Peace Corps applications to go through and be accepted. We're hoping for a Spring of 07 departure to wherever in the world they have an opportunity for us both! We're excited - and anxious to leave Corporate America behind for a bit (if not for good).

By the way the Flobots ROCK - www.flobots.com

No new snow...blthhh

4 days at Crested Butte later - we found some great terrain - but some horrible snow. Guess I really can't complain.

You can find a link to a bit of video from Liz's point and shoot here:
RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE TARGET AS
http://www.3wing.net/video/CB1.MOV
http://www.3wing.net/video/CB2.MOV
http://www.3wing.net/video/CB3.MOV

I'm currently working on editing the helmet cam footage - it proves to be a long and arduous process - especially since I have 4.5 hours of tape to edit out.

Still waiting for the weather to cooperate to pop the question.

Getting more and more excited about the Peace Corps.

Thinking that we may leave Boulder in June and move to Crested Butte for our EMT certifications. Then perhaps we'll be Ski Patrol for a season prior to our departure to wherever they send us... oh to remove myself from the corporate teat. It should be a breath of fresh air - in more ways than one.