Liz and CB on Good Morning America

Here's the link to the Good Morning America show that was filmed here the other weekend. Liz is the big white bear dressed in red!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4044750&affil=wjla

We're off to Michigan for Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

More snow

Meant to post these awhile back... over 7 feet in 7 days... it's been good - finally a real Colorado snow year. We've been up to in no particular order:
Ski Patrolling
Skiing Powder
Working
Down to the front range for the IPS holiday party - which included a Murder Mystery, a nice dinner, some horrible white elephant gifts (which are always the best). We got antlers and a red nose to dress up the Blazer like Rudolph... sweet.
Hanging with Liz's brother Phil for this entire week.
Eating MacDaddy Pizza from the Stash... yum.
Shoveling
Skiing more powder
playing with the dog
Liz was Betty Bear for the Christmas parade - which will be featured on Good Morning America this Sunday the 23rd! Check your local listings for times and channels!! She's famous!

On tap for this week:
Holiday sweater party at our house - come if you can!
Murder Mystery tomorrow at the guy's house.
Ski Patrolling
More shoveling (we're supposed to get another few feet by Saturday)

here are some pics:

Blizzard of 07

Here are the pictures from this weekend's storm. It was snowy! 29 inches!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.4pz26a6i&x=0&y=q08p6t

Hope everyone is doing well!

Thanksgiving

Turkey day was great - great food - great times with the family and a blast at the high school reunion. We planted a new willow tree for mom for Christmas - since the last one we gave her mother's day years and years ago fell down...

It was great to have a few days to spend with Claire and Madeline (my nieces) and Greg and Annemarie.

Some things from the reunion:
Dan is quitting law and moving on to be a DJ in Europe - www.wax-house.com
Andrew Hughes is still blowing glass: www.andrewohughes.com
Becky and everyone else seem to be doing very well which is great to hear and see!

The Turkey Bowl was fun - we had a huge turnout this year - which made for 10 wide receivers per team and not much contact with the ball...

The best attended Turkey Bowl yet!

Madeline and Poppy

Holding Claire tight

The "well-attended" 10-year reunion

The new willow tree.

First Day of Skiing

Last weekend we went skiing for the first day of the season here in Crested Butte - it was a glorious white ribbon of joy for us to ski down in our costumes. Liz and I both dressed up as "gapers" as they're called. Here's the Urban Dictionary definition for a Gaper:

A gaper is a skiier or snowboarder who is completely clueless. Usually distiungished by their bright colored clothes and a gaper gap, the gap between goggles and a helment/hat. Gapers also do the "Gaper Tuck" which is an attempt at being a ski racer by tucking, however, it is done incorrectly with the poles sticking straight up like thunderbolts and lighting, very very frightning! Gapers also sit at the bottom of jumps and try and go big off table tops in the park.

As you can tell by the pictures... there's no snow in Colorado - YAY for Global Warming. It will most likely be in our lifetime that there is little to NO natural snow in Colorado. Sweet - go drive your SUVs and celebrate.

A Thanksgiving post will follow as soon as I download some pics from the camera.

The Glorious View from the Lift of our "White Ribbon of Joy"

Mark in his gaper tuck while wearing a woman's one piece ski suit and some killer glasses.

Liz styling it out in the dirt with her matching Browns Starter Jacket and jeans...

The Family Picture

The family all dressed up for my Cousin Jane's wedding.
Annemarie and my new niece Claire!The extended Ewing family after the wedding. It was great to see my Dad's side of the family - it's been TOO long! (as in almost 6 years!)

Charley and Those Guys

"Those Guys" - HEY! Look at those guys!! They're having sooo much fun! Indeed we did - and we even won best costume!


Here's our ballerina puppy... more pics from Halloween as soon as I can get them from our friend's camera.

Pumpkins and things

We had a pumpkin carving party the other night - unfortunately Liz was on ambulance duty and got called away in the middle of the fun. But here are some pics:Proud of our pumpkins!Charley dog!
Devil Teletubby

Cam's Fly fishing mountain master piece... he would've won the award for best pumpkin - had it been a contest!

Wedding plans are coming along... our address list is almost finalized so be ready for those save the dates. We also bought our domain www.lizandmarkgethitched.com so watch for that too... there's nothing there yet - but SOON!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Croquet Video

Eric put together this little video of highlights from our croquet season. The music is all original - lyrics may be offensive and explicit... enjoy!

Liz's 25th

So we had a great time for Liz's Bday! We went out on the town Friday night. Saturday morning we got up and went for a hike... our hike turned into a summit climb! We climbed Mt. Owen - which is the largest peak facing lake Irwin. The climb up was beautiful with a faint trace of snow falling as we climbed the ancient mining road to the saddle between Ruby Peak and Mt. Owen. We then faced the hard part of the climb straight up the ridge - along the skinny band of rock with incredible views on both sides. There were areas that were only a few feet wide with 100s of feet straight down on either side... mom would've loved it. Charley loved it. She climbed up ahead with me and would look over the edge from time to time - which made me feel like mom... "get away from that edge!!" - guess I am her poppa - so it's natural. The view from up top was gorgeous. Just over 13000 feet. Faced with a snow storm closing down on this from the West we decided not to linger too long and made the trek back down. It was fun to get out and bring the dog on top of the world! She was a happy tired doggy!

Saturday night we had cake and cocktails for the Birthday girl - the house was packed (too bad we didn't take any pictures except of the cake... which I made with Grand Marinier instead of water - which was soooo good. After the cake was gone and the game went to extra innings we took the party to the local extreme sports bar and sang Karaoke. Neither of us had done it before - and it was a blast to get up and sing/scream into the microphone. The evening began with a pirate rendition of Puff the Magic Dragon - a duet with Liz and another friend on some Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow - ending with some Guns n Roses... all in all it was a grand time.Liz's new bday helmet from her parents!

Sunday we lounged around the house (after waking up to 3 inches of snow) - then had a great Breakfast with Jamie, Leslie, Courtney, and Tim - then took the dog for a walk - then went to some Birthday Sushi just the two of us...

It was a great weekend.

All of the pics from the hike can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.3n0j57ya&x=0&y=ml6olu

Shawn's wedding and the Viral Meningitis

The Guys styling it out...

Liz and Mark looking good at the wedding

I'm editing out the Burning Man pictures for a PG audience - so I'll post those soon.

Shawn and Meghan's wedding was incredible - the ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a blast. I can't tell you how much fun it was to have all of my best friends from college together in one spot for such a joyous occasion - all of us as groomsmen too! What a hoot! Steve and Jesse even found a bridesmaid... fun fun fun.

The pictures from the wedding can be found here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.7ym36tqy&x=0&y=d9b3fv

We're now in recovery mode - especially Liz - who ended up catching Viral Meningitis over the weekend. It's been horrendous.

Hope all is well.

More B-man Art

These two were also very impressive:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/08/big-rig-jig.html
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/09/burning-man---h.html

We're Back from the Burn

We'll be posting our pics soon - it was another amazing experience. Our horizons have been broadened and our view of the world and the creativity within it expanded...

Closer videos of the same explosion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9d5JWEUEHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_mWRIY45Yk


The video above is from "Crude Awakening" which is explained below:

The brains behind the tallest structure ever built at Burning Man plan to produce the tallest fire ever seen at the event as well -- a 1,000-foot column of flame, primed by 900 gallons of jet fuel and fed by 2,000 gallons of liquid propane. Its creators hope this massive flame will send a powerful message about the oil economy.

The piece is called Crude Awakening. It's the brainchild of Bay Area artists Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito. Its collaborative execution brings together eight different artists who have previously received art grants from Burning Man, and involved the help of 180 different people.

The centerpiece is a 99-foot-tall wooden oil derrick that was receiving final touch-ups Wednesday afternoon, including the completion of the steps inside that allow attendees to climb to the top.

To the left of the derrick stand eight metal sculptured human figures, most of whose surfaces are made of connected metal rings, each designed with their own different participant-activated fire effects via propane tubing. The statues are 540 percent of the size of a normal human. Some are standing, hands waved in supplication; many prostrate in various ways. All of them, Das Mann says, emulate the prayer posture of some religious tradition.

The piece is meant to dramatize the worshipful relationship and dependence modern man has toward oil. The idea occurred to the married couple during their honeymoon in India two years ago, and fit in with this Burning Man's environmentally minded theme of "Green Man."

The piece's fruition comes in a performance Friday evening, to be aired live on Current TV beginning at 10 p.m. PST. At its climax, four different containers at each corner of the tower will shoot a total of 900 gallons of jet fuel (given away by NASA as unusable for its purposes, Das Mann says) to engulf the top of the structure in a huge fireball.

Seconds later up the center of the derrick, 2,000 gallons of liquid propane in a pipeline stretching out to the derrick's right will shoot out at once through a remote-control 5-inch pneumatic ball valve. The piece's creators figure this should create a 1,000-foot-high column of flame.

The detonation of the piece will create 2.4 gigawatts of energy, which Das Mann and Cusolito say is enough to "power the entire Bay Area for one minute."

The artists realize that it might seem indulgent to burn so much fuel for art meant to dramatize our warped relationship with fuel. They understand those concerns. But they stress the personal conservation efforts about environmental and carbon impact that working on the piece created in all the 180 people involved, which they expect to continue.

The fuel the piece consumes only amounts to an ounce or so of fuel per attendee at the event, they note. Cusolito, who says she is thought of by her friends as somewhat of an "environmental Nazi," says she thinks of Crude Awakening as if "all the energy I have not consumed by living the way I do, it's almost as if I get credits" to use the fuel to "make the biggest environmental statement I could make in my lifetime." The pair hopes the message will reach far beyond the 45,000 or so who might see the finale at Burning Man.

Das Mann and Cusolito stress the massively collaborative nature of the project, including fire work from Donya Parkinson and Joe Bard of Pyro Kinetics, and Mark Perez's carpentry work on the derrick, among many others.

Pics posted

So I forgot to add at the end of my last post:

All the pictures from Teo can be found here - as well as a few others:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=14rdrxsi.43jdrj6a&x=0&y=hxod08

You don't have to log in - just click View Slideshow.

Puppy... Full time - Mt Teocalli - softball - flying - burn x 2

Here is Liz with the new dog - we've renamed her Charley... she's cute and well-behaved except for the random uncontrollable peeing when she meets another dog that is Alpha to her... which is pretty much every dog since she is just a puppy... hopefully she'll grow out of that...

Here is the water fall at the end of the Lower Loop trail just out our front door where we take the doggy for walks.

So I officially went full time again a week or two ago... yuck - but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes (oh the rough life I lead). Work has been going fairly well - placed some Execs at Wrigley Chewing gum - Liz wants free gum for the rest of her life... I'll work on that. Now I'm working on a Fleet position with Waste Management in Oakland, CA... where the cost of living is a bazillion million times more expensive than pretty much anywhere - which has made the position quite challenging to fill. I'm also trying to place a GM for 1 and 1 Internet out of Chesterbrook, PA - which has proven to be fun so far - in that I know the area quite well and the industry is also something I'm somewhat familiar with...

With all this full-time work I don't get out as much which is a bit of a bummer - but Cam Scott and I had an epic adventure on Sunday where we rode our bikes out to Teocalli Ridge (which is one of the top ranked single tracks in the word by the way) - once we rode our bikes to the top of the ridge (about 7 miles UP) we got off at the saddle and continued on foot to the top of Teocalli Mountain which was about a 1 hour scramble straight up the side of this mountain to one of the best views in Crested Butte! At just shy of 14000 feet we made it to the top and hung out for a bit - then scrambled back down - hopped back on our bikes and rode the raucous single track back down into town - just before we came out of the Aspen grove into the wide open flower field switchbacks it started to dump rain... we hung out for a bit, let the lightning pass, and continued on our way - I've never been so muddy in my life. We washed ourselves and our mud-caked bikes off in the river crossing and pedaled on home... it was a great day - and fun to get out.

Starting the grueling single track up... we had already climbed 5 miles of double track at this point...

The View from up top...
Cam Scott was super mountain climber that day... beat me to the top by a lot!
The ridge...The mud...

The KBUT (local radio station) softball team that we played on all season lost its 3rd game in the playoffs - knocking us out of the running... but alas it was KBUT's best season ever! If only Liz hadn't broken her ankle! In our 2nd to last game Liz played catcher and hit too (much to my chagrin) but the team we were playing couldn't get her out despite the fact that she would WALK to first base after hitting the ball - it was hilarious. We won that game 39 to 3...

Liz's ankle is coming along - she's still in a brace and will be for quite some time... but her PT has started and that is going well.

Went flying on Saturday down to Grand Junction to shoot two properties - it was a gorgeous flight - as they always are. Maybe I should work more on my advertising and get more business - that's so much more fun than talking with execs all day inside in front of my computer...We're off to Burning Man again this year... we're in the process of preparing for the craziness.

Mark's Finger

Mark Selto had his finger removed the other day - here's one last picture of it during our flip off the finger party...

Here's Liz on our back porch - it's been monsoon season here - rains almost every afternoon - which makes for a pretty rainbow every now and again...

Haven't been so good at updating...

Liz is doing better - she's got a smaller brace on and the doc says things are healing up nicely.

We're getting a dog... Liz's brother's ex-girlfriend gave him a dog without asking... their family can't handle another dog right now - so it was either the Humane Society or the Mark and Liz society... we chose the latter - we'll see how that goes. Right now it's name is Marley - which we're changing. So if you all have suggestions for a Golden Retriever Female puppy... let me know...

Chewie would be good other than we have a friend with a dog named that already.

I was thinking Steve would be a good name for it.

Professor Shedsalot was another suggestion.

I bought a dirtbike... ever since living in CO I've wanted to relive my boyhood days of ripping around on the trails... so I finally found one. It's fun - there are so many old mining roads and cool places to explore.

Telluride

We just got back from a trip to Telluride to see Bob Dylan and My Morning Jacket. The show was great - we got to sit in the front row (the handicapped section) and we had a great view of Bob and his band. The music was great - he played a lot of classics - the opener of My Morning Jacket was an odd combination - but I guess it worked. I like them both so it was great for me.

Telluride is a great little ski town - probably twice the size of Crested Butte. Liz's friend and soon to be bridesmaid - Maria and her boyfriend Tim live there. Tim is a pilot so we had endless conversation about that whilst the girls had girl talk.

We drove to the top of Bridal Veil falls - which were gorgeous. We then rode the Gondola which is free and runs all day and most of the night as public transportation - which means you can ride up with your bike for free... sick. The skiing looks like a lot of fun - bigger resort than Crested Butte. On the Gondola ride we saw a deer and a black bear... which was fun.

They had Segway tours which would've been fun - instead we just tried them out. It was a blast. Here's an animated gif of Liz on the segway. I want to buy one...

Instead we bought Liz a little Mini-Martin left handed guitar that fits her a bit better than her current one - which will give her something else to do while she sits around for another 4 weeks... the Dr's report on Friday was good - but she has to keep the boot for another 2 weeks. Everything appears to be healing well and the doc thinks she'll be back riding horses towards the middle of August.

I'll upload photos from the trip here soon - it was a fun weekend get away. I'm off to Alpenglow.

Flight of the Gimp

To get Liz out and moving through space - I took her flying yesterday morning as a surprise to keep her spirits up and get her outside. It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous flight.We flew around town and looked up the Slate River valley - we're thinking of getting married by the lake in the lower left corner of this photo.

We flew around Lake Irwin and saw the cabin where the Rancourt's stayed last month. It's so pretty up there. The mountains just north of the lake are a snowmobile playground - this is where Steve and I went snowmobiling - it's where we ate it on the sled... the video can be seen here if you haven't seen it before: http://www.mark-ewing.com/video/The%20Visit%20of%20Steve.wmv

We flew by the Red Lady (Mt Emmons) and looked at where the new mine may go in - it's crazy to think about... it would be unfortunate.

We flew by the Castles - just West of Town in the West Elks wilderness. Fantasy Ranch was leading a 3 day pack trip on their horses and we were trying to find their camp and wave... we weren't successful - but it's still impressive from the air!

This is the Dyke formation - and the scene of the Dyke Trail which was the mountain bike ride that Liz and I took the Rancourt's on early in their vacation... I'll remind you - they hated the uphill... and as you can see here - there was a lot of it...

It was great to get out and fly around purely for fun - most of the flying I do is for client's - so this was a welcome relief and a great time.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Swollen and bruised

Here's an updated picture of Liz's ankle... swollen and painful. She at least started to receive workman's comp - which has made things a bit less stressful for her - they're quite generous for Colorado Medical Volunteers.

She's still in a good bit of pain - we go to the Dr's again on Friday to see if she can start putting weight on the air cast - as of now she's still forced to use the crutches.

I've been doing my best to take good care of her and get her out and about when she feels up to it.

Wish us luck and fast healing!

Broken Liz

Liz and I were on ambulance duty for the 4th of July. We got a call around midnight to respond to a local residence for a woman that had fallen and couldn't get up (she fell from a porch onto her hip - and ended up breaking the head of her femur). Liz, one other EMT, and I jumped out of the ambulance to assist this lady. She was obviously in a lot of pain so we sent Liz back to the ambulance to grab the med kit for pain killers. On her way back out of the ambulance she stepped down between the ambulance and the curb and broke her ankle.

Needless to say it was a stressful night - I had a patient that was screaming on the ground and a fiance that was screaming on the ground... quite the dilemma. We ended up loading them both in the ambulance - the broken femur lady in a vacuum mattress and Liz into the jump seat....

Off to ER to get the report that Liz has a broken distal fibula. She is in an air cast boot and will have to remain non-weight bearing for at least 2-3 weeks at which time she'll see the doc again and may be able to walk on the boot. It'll be a total of around 6 weeks that she's out of commission for... we'll see what the doc says about getting on a horse...

Needless to say we're bummed.

Here's Liz in front of the get well soon flower box from The Ewings and the Thank You hanging basket from the Rancourt's visit...