the return of river dog and finale of the festival

Bernadette, Roz, Lynn and Kit

This morning I got up super early and headed to town to listen to four "adventure divas". These ladies are not the typical "diva" they each rock in their own right and between them have accomplished a lot, a solo row across the atlantic, visiting the poles, free climbing el capitan in less then 24 hours and skiing all seven highest summits.

I've read Lynn's book Climbing Free and had been hoping to see her at the book signing yesterday. It didn't happen so today after the presentation I lingered like a dork with my book in my pack. She was very gracious and chatted for a moment and signed. I walked away pretty psyched to have a book that I loved signed by the author... I've read it a few times.
This afternoon Dave hit the skate park in town park and I took Chaos to play in the river. At home Chaos loves to play ball in the living room but outside he's easily distracted so we let him become river dog again. On our way home from the park we stopped at the market in town. We were walking in and I spotted Lynn again- not wanting to be a stalker I walked on into the market. While wandering looking for honey I ran into her. She remembered my name and we had a small conversation about the location of pesto and the fact that her four year old son loves pesto! Silly I know- but she remembered my name and was super nice.

our first telluride festival...

So it's finally here- after eight months of living in Telluride we've been to our first festival. Mountainfilm kicks off the four month long festival season every Memorial Day Weekend. The festival is in it's 29th year and I can see why it's such a long running festival. We've attended films, lectures and even an ice cream social plus enjoyed the new ambiance around town. Pray flags adorn the town and people scamper around with festival programs making their way to one of the four venues to see the next event. Sometimes the lines are enormous and sometimes you walk right in. The programs are intense and range from notables like Kit Delauriers who was the first person (and a girl to boot!) to ski the Seven Summits which are the highest points on each continent to David Breashears who filmed the IMAX film on Everest during the notable(and deadliest) 1996 season. I met John Harlin III who climbed Eiger 40 years after it killed his father. We had gone to the presentation and I bought the book and had it signed. Last night we enjoyed some free Fat Tire and watched the 1974 Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood. I think this may turn out to be my favorite Telluride Festival. I like the people this one brings in. It's pretty cool to be surrounded by folks who have some very impressive resumes.

Mu-nee in our herb jungle and Chaos cruising in the truck...

Summer Update...

For those of you who may not know we are planning a trip East in July. We've managed to secure some time off from work and will be packing into the tacoma for 2,600 miles of fun.
Before you ask...

why not fly home?

Well we have 3 homes to visit and a wedding to attend and as the saying goes "you can't get there from here". By the time we bought 2 plane tickets and rented a car for 10 days we would spend a lot more money on the trip. Plus Chaos really wants to come see his East Coast friends.

how can you drive cross country again?

We're a bit odd and enjoy long distance road trips. There's a lot more freedom having a car and going where you want versus being stuck at an airport waiting. Plus we love the simple pleasures along the way like driving through Kansas or Nebraska! Ok there really are fun things... tune back in July for the details! It also gives us something to put in the blog.

will you come visit me too?

Sorry, due to the high demand for Chaos appearences we are limiting our trip to 3 main locations. Contact us as we would love to see everyone and we can let you know the best location to see us in. We do wish we were able to visit everyone at their homes but vacation time is hard to come by. You can always come visit us in Telluride too!

aren't you worried about gas prices?

Isn't everyone? I like to label this as things I can't control so I can't worry about too much.

more snow?

Seriously we are ready for summer but mother nature has other plans... we awoke this morning to about 6 inches of fresh white stuff. It makes it hard to know what to expect around here. We went to Hannah's dance recital in Summit County this weekend and packed everything from shorts to long johns. It was another good trip to see everyone but we were very bad at our photo taking this weekend... whoops. Jon even took us out on his sailboat in Lake Dillon and we didn't pull the camera... I guess that means we were having too much fun. Of the seven of us on the boat 5 of us had attended UMF and went to the Ski Industries Program... kinda cool. (By the way- sailboats require canned beverages and Patrick will be appalled to know I was made fun of for choosing Shiner cans over PBR cans!)

This weekend we're going to attend our first Telluride Festival. The gondola reopens on Thursday in time for the Mountain Film Festival. Dave and I are pretty psyched and planning on checking out a bunch of films from Eiger to Everest. To learn more about the great events and festivals we're going to check out this summer Visit Telluride lets you order a summer visitor guide to check it all out.

Also Chaos would love to say Happy Birthday to his Granny Drabik today and to his great Grammy Rideout tomorrow....

puppies and the valley floor....

Chaos & I watched another golden this week, a cute fellow called Jager. Jager had a sweet temperament like the monster and it was fun watching the boys play. They also both went to work and would lay near my desk or play toys waiting for the next trip outside.

Two big dogs may seem like a lot but the boys got along well and it was easier in many ways as Chaos had a friend to play with. Walking up to two 80+lbs dogs breathing on me was a wonderful experience and I was motivated to get moving and let the boys play before work. Chaos also enjoyed Jager's front yard and we spent lots of time outside. At our house we have to grab a leash whenever we do anything but here the world was wide open for the pups. Jager lives near the Valley Floor in Telluride which if you happen to read any of the Telluride papers (Daily Planet or the Watch) you may know that the VF is a hot topic here in town. I'll take a break from the puppy tails and share some news about Telluride's drama.

Basically it's the big open space of land, 570 acres as you enter the box canyon that it the historic town of Telluride. The short version is the town has used eminent domain to take this land from the developer which has been process years in the making. There were votes, a trial and a verdict in this tale which has dominated the papers since our arrival. The trial determined that the town would have to pay $50 million for the land. That's a bit of money to say the least. This town of 2,200 people managed to do that in a mater of months. How... well Telluride has some pretty famous ties and folks that are very passionate about this land. It was a mix of bonds from the town, a lot of normal people digging deep and some people with deep pockets. But the $50 million doesn't guarantee a happy ending to this story... the land owners are appealing in the Colorado supreme court.

So there is much more going on in Telluride then Chaos's adventures... but that's why we have a blog as Chaos has not yet made the papers here and someone needs to share Chaos's Tails of Telluride with the world (or the few people who read this blog...).

seis de mayo...

So Chaos is ok... I worried for nothing. He had a great day today and went hiking and skiing with Team Dave, Emory and Tahoe. Emory used to ski at Sugarloaf too and we met him this year in Telluride.

I stayed home with the dog I was watching and made whoopie pies... which I learned that many people don't know about. They are very much a New England thing. My first attempt the other day tasted good but lacked the classic signs of a whoopie pie... the nice round shape. Today I added more flour as we are baking at 9,444 feet to help the rise and they came out great.

Anyhow...the boys were all excited for the whoopie pies as they had a big day hiking... since I wasn't there as that would require a lot of uphill I made this collage for everyone to enjoy....By the way these are from May sixth. The weather has changed a lot in the last week! Warm weather and sunshine to this.... over a foot of snow on the mountain. Thankfully the stuff around our house melts quickly...

The worst part about Sundays is that we have to end playtime and go back to work on Mondays... this week should be fun as we're dog sitting for another golden later this week.

always on a weekend...

Why is it that animals only have medial issues on weekends?
It's not that bad but he's breathing funny and I worry. He gobbled his dinner tonight, drank lots and played hard. Of course I fear bloat and can't sleep as a result. He's resting now with only a few funny noises every now and again. I've checked the internet for possible issues and resolutions but nothing substantial.
At least when he ate De-con his Uncle Rescue was around to save him... emt's are great.
We're at the point at almost 2 and 1/2 years old we know how to fix most issues. We keep the med kit and vet wrap on hand and have been known to use it. Chaos cut his paw this winter on my skis... he had a much worse injury a year and a half ago so we knew to not panic... clean it up, a bit disinfectant and some vet wrap (in blue of course...) and it was all good. When he ate chocolate we consulted the book and found he hadn't had enough to cause any harm.
This one's hard as he looks at me and wants me to fix it and vet wrap won't do...

A-Basin

So I don't like spring skiing. I like it when I can trust the snow and sink an edge into pack powder and rip some fast turns down a smooth trail like Narrow Gauge or Comp Hill on a race day. This said I went skiing on Saturday. The day was more about hanging out and A-Basin seems to encourage tailgating. The Tacoma went early and we followed. We had packed in the small grill, burgers, dogs and all the nessasary items to have a good afternoon in the warm (6o degrees at least!) Colorado sunshine.
The dogs hung out in the back of the truck for the morning while we headed up on the mountain. Chaos was happy as he had his good friend, Kaya, from Maine with him. S, M, J, Dave & I proceeded to ride lifts and make turns.

two members of GLH being super cool

a truck full of trouble

chaos's cousins ready to walk him

sunburn and heading home (yes I do use spf...)

the end... not quite~halfway home

denver

ah the big city.... thought you all might like to know some fun facts (and observations) about the mile high city....

Denver....

....80 different beers are brewed here

....has 300 days of sunshine

...10th largest downtown in the US

...Colfax Ave is over 30 miles long and home to a marathon

...2.4 million people live in the Denver metro area (maine has 1.2 million in the whole state)

Things I like best about going to Denver...

...seeing the real world denver house

...relearning downtown after 7 years

...finding some things are the same and still there

...navigation- the mts are west the big empty is Kansas and the streets are numbered in order

...California Pizza Kitchen, Yia Yias & PF Changs (all less expensive then eating in Telluride)

...finding parking spots so I don't have to parallel park

...having an 8 screen theatre 5 miles from my hotel

...malls- not that I love them but fun to remember why I don't

...watching cheesey chick flicks on a monster screen (I haven't seen many new movies but enjoyed the land of women with meg ryan)