This one is not so interesting, but figured I'd write it anyway.  My first day back on the job...

I went in today knowing full well that things weren't going to go smoothly.  I get in to find that I needed to fill out a ton of paperwork on top of the fact that my manager and co-worker didn't fill out the porper stuff to prepare for my arrival, so I'm going to have to wait to get issued a laptop and have access to the corporate network... Grrrr...

Needlesstosay I didn't have much I could do so I took a half day and went home.  There were some issues with dates and everything so I hope that it all gets straightened out and tomorrow can be a normal day!

Well vacation began on the 30th of March, and will continue for a few more weeks.  I spent the first couple days moving to my new house in Puyallup, WA.  I moved all my stuff into the house, and then went to spend the next couple nights with Tyler since he was nice enough to drive me to the airport.  Left the house at about 6:30 so we could be there early enough so I wouldn't have to worry about anything.  Turns out that there was some weather issues in the midwest (thunderstorms or something) and the flight was at first delayed 2 hours, then it got cancelled.
I didn't really worry too much, I didn't have any pending deadlines or meetings.  I was on vacation, so I nonchalantly went to the service desk and got put on the next flight to Chicago.  Got in about 6:00 or so and Hayato came and got me.  We went to Portillos and it was excellent!  Spent the night with him up in Wheeling (North of Chicago), then the next day went to hang out with Emily.  We just chilled, she hurt her back so we just kind of laid around most of the day, relaxing.  Then on Thursday went into the city and met up with Marta for some coffee and she was nice enough to drive me to meet up with Martha who was heading up to Michigan.
We all grabbed a bite and then Martha and I road tripped it to St. Joe where I am now.  It's crazy how things have changed here over just a year.  New places are here, old places are gone.  There is a huge parking structure at the hospital now, new restaurants.  Met Amber for lunch at a new place that was awesome - Tony's.  Having a cup of joe at the ol' Tosi's Cafe, and it's really good to be back here.  Well off to nap a bit then head out with Brad, Joel, and Emily :)  More to come...

Pictures are now available, please check them out on my Flickr site.  One was even asked to be submitted to a group from Summit County.  :)  Sweet!!

I bought a new phone, to replace the one I lost on the mountain, so please call me so I have your numbers, cause some I have at home, others I don't.  I am here in Colorado for a couple more days, I leave Thursday to head back to Washington.  Hopefully the head cold is better, flying while feeling crappy is not fun.

Well I feel I have really a achieved something this weekend!  For those of you who don't know, I am in Breckenridge, Colorado for some vacation before I meet with a company for work next week.  I have some bad news and some great news.

Bad news - somewhere on the mountain today I lost my cell phone.  SUCK!!

Great news - thanks to nagging from Joel, we took the trek to the summit of Peak 8 at Breckenridge (13,000 ft).  This required a ride on the highest lift in North America - Imperial Chair Lift followed by a trek up to the summit (about another 200 feet up ~ 45 degree inline or more)  Soon to come will be pictures and video to prove it!

Day 1 of our trip was not great, it was awesome snow, it snowed about 6-10 inches during the day.  The visibility left something to be desired, and we were out from about 10 am until about 4 pm.

Day 2 was the best riding I have ever had by far!  We worked our best to catch first lift.  We took the Gondola ride up to the bottom of peak 8 and then wandered to Peak 7 and hit some Blue runs that had not been touched!  4-6 inches of fresh powder.  I couldn't beleive how different it really is when you board in powder.  Also a great addition to this trip was the movement to Double Black Diamonds!  That's right!!  We went up the Lift 6 and hit a few black runs up there, ran into the mogals and got turned off a bit, but else than the mogals those black runs were powdery goodness!  (Sorry to rub it in Luke, I wish you could have joined us)

Thus ends the last boarding day for Ben this season.  What a way to go out!!  Can't wait till next year!

Went snowboarding for the first time in Washington, and fairly disappointed with the weather (big surprise...it rained.)  Minus the crappy weather it was a blast.  Went with a friend from my hometown, Kiah and two of her friends from the band Lady Elaine.  Eric from the band dressed up in a cow outfit.  Utters and all.  Todd had the bee wings.  It was fun listening to the comments people made, and the looks that Eric got.

I also was doing better with jumps.  Not to say I didn't have my fair share of falls as well.  Managed to get some decent air for a beginning jumper.  And bit it pretty bad on my last fall of the last run.  Still a little stiff from that

Well just thought I'd also share some pictures.  So feel free to go to my Snoqualmie Album on my Flickr page.

So it's approaching that time.  My internship is winding down and I will have the Month of April to travel and visit people.  I want to get a feeling for who out there will have time and want to hang out over the month of April.  I am going to be in the Michigan/Illinois/Indiana/Ohio area for the majority of the trip, but I am thinking of flying out East.  I can get a reasonable flight to Newark for under $200 from Chicago, so might be up for that.  Need some feedback from the peanut gallery though.  I think the international travel has gone by the wayside.  There really isn't any time or $$ to do that.  As much as I would love to head to the UK and Europe, I just don't see it happening this April.  I am needing to save some money for a trip to Australia later this year.  Hopefully hit Hawaii and New Zealand on that same trip.

One more month!!!

Official Video of the Boarders



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This is some video of me, that Scott was able to post!! There is also a video on my page of my 180 :)

So it's wednesday and I leave for colorado in less than 24 hours.  I'm super excited to get back out on the Mountain, I haven't been to Breck in about 4 years.  Definitely time to get there again and get my ass kicked on the slopes.  Hopefully there are no weather delays in getting there.  We'll see how things go, it's looking like some fresh powder tonight.  I'm so excited I don't think I'll sleep tonight, I have to be up so early there probably is no point in sleeping.  Anyway, I'll have some pictures to post upon my return so you can all feel like you were there with me.  And for those of you who will be there with me, it's going to rock!!  Anyone in CO that wants to come hit the slopes  call the cell.  If you don't know it call someone that does, I'm not going to post it on this public place.

Rock On