Skisuit?

Amy (Team Strong Heart '08 captain) hosted a get together at Elm Creek tonight to celebrate the end of the Elm Creek Relays season and to help Team Strong Heart '09.

TSH team members in attendance
• 3 of the 4 2009 4-man team (Andy, Steve, Joe)
• all 4 f the '08 4-person mixed team
• Neil from the '07 inaugural 4-man team

Here's a couple group shots:





Also pictured above is an unknown kid in pink who walked up to us and started eating all of our candy.

We "raced" a two-lap 2-person relay where we had to guess our finishing time. The closest to their time won. I think Melinda has skied at Elm Creek before because she predicted our time to within 30 seconds. Thanks the the TSH '09 guys for helping out.

Goofing Around

Holly went to spin at the shop so Lilly and I goofed around. We played "teacher" where I get to teach her and 10 imaginary friends math and reading. Here's a picture of the lemon "animal" she made. You put a lemon underneath the tissue and it runs around the table:



Here's the prince and princess before the ball:



Ran with JVD at lunch today. It wasn't easy. He wanted to know if I wanted to run for the Lundgren Ford team. I asked what the benefits were. He said, "Nothing." :)

Lilly's 1st Downhill Ski

Holly and Lilly went skiing yesterday at Wild Mountain. Lilly had lessons for a few hours and then skied with Holly and Carol for another hour. She learned quickly and was even able to go up the chair lift with them:



She followed Carol and did 20 turns going down one run:



Zoom!:



She also met her twin:

Ski the Birkie

I can't believe I didn't want to do this until 3 weeks ago. What a great time. I skied really well but I think I can go faster next year. I ended up 244th (men) with a time of 2:43:52. That put me roughly 4 and a half minutes away from an elite wave start next year (top 200 men). I was 2:30 back from Todd who finished 213th (his best finish placing) and 2 minutes ahead of Eric. Larry hit his goal time dead on and we're pretty sure that qualifies him for 2nd wave again.

We stayed at Eric's parents' cabin in Winter, WI. His mom made us a great spaghetti feed Friday evening.

As I came off the lake I heard a familiar voice telling me to, "Ski like an ass!" I looked up and saw Neil and Jay on top of a snow bank yelling like crazy. What a great surprise. I guess my look was the definition of double take. Neil and Jay were nice enough to drive us back to Telemark and we had a couple beers in the lodge.

Amy invited Larry, Eric and I to a fundraiser dinner at Telemark for CXC featuring Bjørn Dæhlie. What a great time - thanks Amy! Great food, open bar and the "Greatest Nordic skier of all time." We even got a race report from the guy who drove the lead snowmobile pacing the elite skaters. Sitting at our table was Kristina Owen who despite "having a poor showing" skied a 2:37:40 - good enough for 15th placed woman.

I Saw My Shadow

Actually I just ordered the stuff I need to change the oil in our boat. Which means we'll have 6 more months weeks of winter.

Holly went to spin at the shop tonight while I took Lilly to gymnastics. Lilly and I hit Jimmy John's afterward. Mmmmmm.

Time to wax the skis. I'm going for 4 layers of this stuff:

Wax

Holly went to spin class last night while Lilly and I went to Target and to Pioneer Midwest's progressive sale (currently 30% off). I wanted some nice gloves (recommended by Dave "You look like you could use some water" Hoglund). You know those gloves gotta be fast. It was time to replace the mittens I've had since high school.

I also needed wax. And seeing as the race is this weekend I thought I'd try some higher-dollar stuff instead of the $10 "economy" wax I normally use. I was a little disappointed they were sold out of the stuff I was going to buy - that is until I figured out it would have been $50! For half the amount I get for $10. Wow. I have visions of putting $75 worth of wax on my skis only to wear it off skiing from the porta-potty to start line.

I ran with the guys at lunch. This was Todd's 10th run of the year.

Mom's Home!

Lilly and I picked Holly up at the airport today. What a great feeling it is to go pick someone up who you're anxious to see. Same story every time my sister comes to town.

Holly hadn't eaten since breakfast so we stopped at Maverick's on the way home. It's good to be a family again.

A Full and Fun Sunday

Lilly and I went to church this morning and sat with some good friends. It's funny but it seems like that's a first for us. I'm not sure if that's a commentary on church or our ability to make friends but it seems a little odd. When we first sat down I felt a little weird. Almost as if we weren't supposed to sit together. I mean it could be fun. At church.

After church we met Neil, Belinda, Rose and Owen at Noodles for lunch. I couldn't help but leave with a smile.

After reading a few chapters of The Wizard of Oz (the 4th time in 2 months) we took a nap in the sun. Sundays are good for that.

Holly had arranged a visit to Diane's house for Lilly this afternoon so I could get out and do some skiing. After skiing I went back over to Dave and Diane's for dinner. While I was gone Lilly helped with dinner, played memory and colored with Diane and helped Dave with the daily deer feeding. Apparently she named a few of the previously unnamed deer and also fell out of a tree. Good times. Dinner was great - thanks Diane! Lilly always loves her time there.

We watched the final miles of stage 1 of the Tour of California. All the big names are there. Wow.

Skiing was good. The only skiing around is the man-made loop at Elm Creek. After 1,000 skiers today the snow was as loose as skiing through ankle deep sand. It was still great to be outside and there were a couple times I exchanged ear-to-ear grins with another skier. I even felt well enough to push it a little a couple of times. Maybe the Birkie won't be too bad after all. I saw Tom Cowan skiing and we talked a little about the economy, work and what to do to unwind (he plays guitar).

It's hard to complain looking back at weekends like this one.

Valentines Day Without My Valentine

Well, one of them anyway. Lilly and I had a nice day today. Before lunch we laid low, did laundry, read, did her new puzzle (thanks mom!) and played "leapfrog" with the couch cushions.

After lunch was "Ice is Nice":



Pictured above is the class right before the coach looses it and makes them reenact the "Lines" scene from Miracle. In actuality, the coaches are great at this thing. Half the kids out there are possibles for future "Mr. Hockey" awards, the other half fall while using a chair. They spend time with all of them. And they're happy. Very cool.

Lilly and I then did some shopping. Here's her drivin' the bus:



Then it was on to Q-Fanatic for our "sweetheart" dinner. If I didn't explain that this next pic would have you think we hit a coffee house for a game of domino and a latte.



A couple years ago I laughed at every mobile phone commercial which mentioned a camera as a feature on their phones. "It's a phone for crying out loud! Who needs a stinking camera?" I do. I can't believe how many pictures I've taken with my phone. They stink. Every one of them. But they're great for memories.

Mom in NYC / Start of Dad and Lilly weekend

I dropped Holly off at the airport yesterday. She's off to NYC with some of her family to do some sightseeing, see a show and do some shopping. It's a Dad and Lilly weekend at home.

I decided to take the day off so after dropping Holly off I headed to Elm Creek to ski for a while. Just take it easy and try things out. I cruised for 2 easy hours. It was down to the man-made loop and there were bus loads of school kids there skiing for the first time. "Good Birkie practice," is what a friend once told me.

Lilly had a follow-up appointment today and everything looks good. Another blood draw so she had to be brave again. Poor thing.

I ran with Joe over lunch. We were both sick with the same stuff (his whole family has it as well) so we took it pretty easy. I was breathing pretty hard given the almost jog of a pace we were setting.

Joe slipped on a patch of ice hidden under a little bit of snow and was on the ground before he knew what happened. Luckily he was just a little bruised.

Lilly stacking the cups:



Pancakes for dinner??? If Perkins can do it, why not us?

Perspective on Loosing the Snow

Interesting quote from Mark Lahtinen on SkinnySki:

Looks like the natural snow ski season came to an abrupt interruption/halt at about 66 days (about average). I thought we might get 2 100 day seasons in a row.

I guess just over 2 months of natural snow cover is average. Makes me really appreciate what we had last year. What'd skiers do before Elm Creek?

Swim Class

A pic from swim class tonight:



I sat out swimming tonight. Man, I'm not feeling good. Neither is Holly. And she flies to New York tomorrow.

This is as sick as I've been in as long as I can remember. Ugh.

Where'd the Snow Go?

45 degrees has been great to run in the past couple days but murder on what's left of the snow. I'm almost scared to check out the trail condition reports.

I finished reading A Dog in a Hat. I really enjoyed it. I just noticed I got a signed copy:

"Neil Eerdmans - I want this back!"

Uh-oh.

Time to help Lilly play Backyardigans.

Update: Lilly's line of the night: "How about I be Sleeping Beauty, you be the prince, and we pretend to be spies and collect all the pennies." Good thing I've played that one before.

Back to School

Lilly had a great day going back to school. Holly and I are feeling better now too.

I'm getting a little excited (Hoglund would say nervous) for the Birkie.

Boo killed a bald eagle.

The air was sucked out of our building today when a mandatory, all-employee meeting was called at the last minute, late in the afternoon. Turns out our VP is taking a different job inside the company and we're getting a new VP. Jeez. Can't you just send an email?

Did you catch that line about Boo killing an eagle?

A Sick Day

Holly and I are sick now. A little raspy breathing, coughing and aches. Ugh. Lilly is doing great and will be back at school. Kids bounce back so quickly from being down and out.

The weather was nice enough to get Lilly out of the house for a little while so we took Boo to the dog park. He met another dog named Boo. Funny.

I had planned today as a pretty hard day skiing. I had the goal of doing 5 laps (50k) at Elk River in 3 hours. After the first three laps I was on target (around 35:00 / lap). Unfortunately being sick caught up with me halfway through the third lap and I knew I'd be lucky to finish the 4th. 40k today was a hard ski - not quite what I had in mind.

Ice Is Nice

Lilly was feeling up to "Ice Is Nice" today. It was nice for her to get out of the house and get moving for a little while. This time the Huspeks (neighbors) let us borrow pads and a jersey too!





It was just Lilly and I today as Holly went downhill skiing with Carol at Wild Mountain. Should be a nice day for that. I went for an early ski at Elm Creek. The snow was soft but groomed to perfection so the ski was great.

Speaking of nice days, the weather has been warm enough that the ice has let go on the river. That's the longest it's been frozen since we moved here 5 years ago.

Pneumonia

Holly took Lilly in to the doctor today as her fever has been persistent the past few days. After a chest x-ray we found out she has pneumonia. Same drill as last winter, antibiotics, inhaled steroids, nebulizer, fluids and yogurt. The good news is as long as the fever is down she's in great spirits (albeit a little jittery from being cooped up), she's eating well and drinking okay.

I blame Holly for telling someone, "This winter has been great for Lilly. We've had no problems," on the Tuesday just before we took her to the ER. :)

Inside the Rotach Datacenter

Here's a shot of our office. Holly has one computer. Lilly has one computer. I have three (one for work, one to host SSH connections, one web server).



Pictured is Lilly playing PBS Kids.


This may have you thinking...

Moonlight Ski

I went to Elm Creek after work with the intention to ski long (2+ hours). I got there with just enough daylight to get in two outer loops before the sun went down. As I was finishing the 2nd loop I ran into Brian C from work and he mentioned Todd and Eric were on their way as well. As we started the first lap they suggested we do the multi-use trail, something I'd have never considered after dark. I'm glad I met up with them. What a great ski. There was just enough moonlight reflected off the snow to see well enough to ski as fast as we wanted. Very fun.

A couple "stay at home" days

Holly stayed home with Lilly yesterday. She seemed to be better but definitely had episodes of being a little under the weather. Her fever would come back and she'd crash for a while. She's been eating and drinking, "ok". Not her normal appetites but still taking some in.

She's home again today and Holly and I are trading 1/2 days. She's been great this morning so far with puzzles, stories, coloring and princesses.

Update:
The fever came back pretty quick around lunchtime. It went right back down with Motrin. Looks like she won't be going to daycare tomorrow either.

A visit to the ER

After dinner I thought, "What are we going to do tonight?" Holly had left for spin class and Lilly and I had an hour and a half before bedtime. Lilly had been coughing a little bit and has had a runny nose for a few days and she suggested doing "a penguin" (an albuterol nebulizer treatment) that usually opens her up and makes her feel much better. I was surprised she suggested to do it. I think partially she wanted to sit and read a couple chapters of Matilda.

After the treatment we sat down on the floor to do a few puzzles. Lilly seemed to be nodding off as we did puzzles (usually she's jittery and wound-up post-nebulizer) and then she started breathing really rapidly and hard, especially for just laying on the floor. After a couple minutes of, "What should I do?" I decided to toss her in the car and head to urgent care or the ER. I think in the back of my mind I was thinking we'd get halfway there and she'd be fine. If anything it had gotten worse in the 5 minute drive to Mercy.

We checked in and were seen a few minutes later. As we waited to be seen Lilly started breathing more and more normally with smaller, intermittent spells of rapid breaths. She had a fever and has a history of respiratory illnesses so they wanted us to stick around for a few hours to monitor her oxygen saturation and heart rate. Holly showed up after getting the, "Everything is OK, but....." call and we spent a couple hours together waiting for the Tylenol and Motrin to kick in.

All-in-all the evening was a few minutes of worry followed by a few hours of, "We probably could have waited this out at home." I guess you never really want to chance it.

Here's a picture of Lilly being a little trooper:

We Ski

Holly went skiing with Carol at Elm Creek Sunday after lunch. She said it was a good ski but the snow was a little hard after Saturday's thaw.

Lilly and I went skiing at Eastman Nature Center while mom was skiing the other side of the park. She did a lot better when she had a track to align her skis. Unfourtunately the combination of the tracks being icy and her skis being too stiff for her made it a slip-slidy time.

After Lilly and I's ski, I dropped her off at home and went out for an hour myself. Holly was right: the snow is in pretty good shape but there were plenty of spots that were really hard and slick.

The superbowl was a great game. The first football game I've watched beginning to end in 5 years.