On Saturday, Kelly and I returned to Rocky Mountain National Park to once again try our hand at snowshoeing. Our first time, we took a ranger guided snowshoe tour. This time we ventured out on our own, attempting to move slightly faster than the "speed of nature" to which the ranger kept referring. (So you know, the "speed of nature" is about as fast as a 75 year old woman on oxygen).


Our goal was to hike to Emerald Lake, which would have been a 3.6 mile roundtrip hike. I say "would have been" because we didn't make it. It seems we zigged when we should have zagged at Nymph Lake. I was pretty sure we were still on the right trail, but slowly the footprints became less and less. We ended up on an overlook over Bear Lake, where we had the lunch we had packed. The view was actually pretty great, and we took one picture before the batteries died. But have no fear, we brought spares right? Well, yes, but it seems that their charge was lost while sitting in the charger on the counter for a few weeks. So one picture only. We'll put it up soon.


After the picture, we aimed to make it back to the trail and to Emerald Lake. We ended up trailblazers and back at Bear Lake, which is about 10 steps from where we started. The good news is that we still had a lot of fun. There were several hills that Kelly's shoes couldn't handle, so we both planted our butts to the earth and slid down. Weeeeeeeeee!!! We had just bought snow pants and they worked out quite well (we got two pairs for $100, on sale from $200!).


This weekend we are going to see Rilo Kiley lead singer Jenny Lewis, who's touring in support of her new album Rabbit Fur Coat. In two weeks we are going skiing courtesy of my uncle, which will be a first for both of us. Good thing we have some practice sliding on our posteriors! We'll take pictures of that, and you will weep with amazement.


Bye.


- Lucas -

I've been doing some web design work with a new company called AstonishMe! I'm working with a couple of very bright programmers/designers who are active in the b2evolution forums.

Last week I completed my first custom page design for the company. I created a new skin for Software and Tools, which is a site that reviews and discusses software. There are eight b2evolution-powered blogs on the site and each has its own header graphic and complimenting color scheme. I had to learn a lot about design and have nearly constant hand-holding from Scott, but I think it turned out very nicely. The customer is happy and I've got a pretty little addition to my portfolio and the company's.

There's a more detailed write-up of the design on the AstonishMe Portfolio page.

NDS Meteos

NDS Super Princess Peach

I told Phil V the other day that the only Oscar I actually cared about this year was the best animated film category. I actually watched two of the three movies nominated (Corpse Bride and Curse of the Were Rabbit). I was sure Howl's Moving Castle was good, but Miyazaki has his Oscar and I told Phil I would be pissed if Wallace and Grommit didn't win. So I'm happy now. Also, how awesome is it that the none of the three movies nominated are CG films. Yeah, they use some CG (heck, Beauty and the Beast used some CG) but you know what I mean. Maybe this will be a wake up call to Disney that they are morons for dumping their 2D studio. Yeah, some of their recent 2D outings have been horrible, but that doesn't mean they should throw in the towel. Anyway, if you haven't seen Curse of the Were Rabbit yet, go do it now. It's one of my favorite films of 2005 and probably would still be near the top of my list even if I saw every movie nominated for Best Picture.

So it has been one of those weeks. You know where everything feels like it has gone completely your way. Yep, things feel so good right now. I feel great and I am awesome.

Plus a girl invited me for Nachos sometime. I hope she meant it.