Snow!

It is the 18th of May, and it is simply pouring snow outside.  And it's not a nice gentle snow where everything melts when it lands.  It's cold, it's accumulating, it's heavy and wet, and I have already been outside (twice) to try to knock the snow from tree branches and my garden net.

I moved some of my pumpkin plants outside over the weekend.  I didn't move them all--I figured on the off-chance it got cold, I didn't want to risk them.  I had no idea we'd get three or four inches of snow, and a potential for a bad freeze tonight.  It's the second part of May.  Farmer's says the last freeze (50% probability) is 4 May.  A good rule of thumb has been 15 May.  But this much snow?  Now?  My poor garden...

Bode's final game of the season was last weekend.  The team played awesome together, passing and really doing a lot of the things we talked about.  Technically, the teams tied 2-2, but we declared victory because Bode (yes, our little dude) had a shot of goal that was clearly a goal, but the ref did not rule it as such.  Oh well--the boys had a great time, and finished with some post-game pizza.

I don't know what I'll do the rest of today--certainly not yard work.  Perhaps I'll go to the gym or clean the house (nah).  Pleasant day.

Early Mother's Day

Even though Mother's Day is next weekend, we decided to celebrate a week early.  The reason we did this is because we wanted to go to the Broadmoor for brunch.  The place was booked solid for Mother's Day, so we opted to skip the crowds and go this past Sunday.  There were two mothers (Ashley and my Mom) and two sons (me and Bode).  Bode had a make-up soccer game before the meal, so by the time we got to the table, the kid was starving.

We feasted like kings (and queens) on crab claws, shrimp, bison, meats, cheeses, fruits, and who knows what else.  All told, Bode had seven (seven!) plates of food and three cups of ice cream.  We definitely got our money's worth.

Afterwards, we managed to get outside and hang out for some pictures by the lake.

Needless to say, we didn't have much for supper :-)

Today marked a big event.  My car--a 2004 BMW 325--was starting to show some signs of wear.  The Christmas tree-like dash board (numerous indicator lights illuminated) was probably the most urgent sign for me to realize it was time for a replacement.  After some careful searching and hard negotiating, it was time to say good bye to the silver steed...

and say hello to Baby Blue.

It almost the same car--a 2014 BMW 328.  It's an automatic vice a stick-shift (bah!), but otherwise, it's a very nice little piece of machinery.  I'd go into the technical specs, but I don't want to bore you (embarrass me) with my car knowledge :-)  Happy driving.

Spitz. Phelps. McGuirk?

Bode had a swim meet last weekend, and he put in a performance for the ages.  Sort of.  The meet, admittingly, was not a large one.  "A great meet for early swimmers" is how it was described.  Still, there were other kids swimming in Bode's age group in all the events.  To spoil the ending, Bode earned three first-places, and likely would have had a fourth one had he not been DQed :-)  The first event of the day was the 25-yard butterfly.  Here's Bode getting ready to swim.

Note the boy next to him--slightly taller and older.  The heats were not done by age, but rather qualifying time.  Bode was near the top in all his events, so he was swimming against the older boys.  I tell you this because in the video, it's obvious he doesn't win the heat, but the boy in the lane next to him was 10.  Thus, Bode had the best time for a 9-year old.

Next up was the 50-yard backstroke.  Here's Bode's start

I thought he might have been DQed on his turn, but I think the judge was feeling generous (being a small meet and all).  I was scared when I went to see the results, but was thrilled when I saw Bode's name at the top of the list.

Bode also swam the 100-yard freestyle.  Here he is executing one of his turns.

Bode managed another first in this race as well.

The final event was the 50-yard butterfly.  Bode would have won this one (he was the only 9-year old in the event), but he was DQed due to a bad kick.  When he gets tired, his legs start to come apart which cannot happen.  The other three first-places softened the blow of the DQ :-)  All winners got a first-place trophy, but they only gave one trophy per swimmer, so Bode only got one trophy even though he won three events.  I was outraged and had to be dragged from the pool--do the Olympics do this?  I think not :-)  Here's Bode with his trophy

School is almost out; soon he'll be a 4th grader.  Pleasant day.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

As you know, I have a garden.  I planted some things in mid-March.  Watering is a bit of a pain, because I didn't want to turn on the outside spigot until it was warm enough.  I decided to do this in mid-April, but as I was doing so, I reminded myself to turn the water off in case a freeze was forecast.  Fast forward to last night, when temperatures got down to 21 degrees.  Sadly, I forgot to drain the pipe to the spigot.  Around 11 this morning, Ashley hears water running, and sees a volcano-like eruption of water from beneath our back deck.  She was able to shut the water off, but sure enough, one of the pipes burst.  Sheesh.

We received some snow, but nothing too terrible.  It was cold, and I am worried about my trees--they had budded up so nicely and were starting to bloom.  I hope the hard freeze didn't do any irreparable damage.  I will check on them tomorrow.  I'm hopeful the carrots, lettuce, and peas that were coming in survived--they are fairly hardy, so I'm not too worried.  I have some raspberry plants that have been around for a couple of seasons, and I think I'll get a lot of fruit from them this season as long as they weren't too damaged.  Here's hoping.

My indoor plants continue to thrive.  Pumpkins can grow and grow and grow.  We could have our own pumpkin farm here this fall.

The corn is going great, and I hope to transplant it to the garden in two weeks.  Perhaps this year we'll get edible cobs and have a nice meal.  The corn from the last two seasons just wasn't ripe enough when we had to pick it.

I also have some honeydew melons...

and some peppers.

I'm very excited about the honeydew.  I had two or three on the vine last year; one got to the size of an apple, but then the weather started getting too cold at night.  I didn't plant the honeydew inside last year, so I'm hoping to get some good-sized melons.

I spent yesterday building a robotic arm.

I'm teaching an introductory robotics class this fall.  My department bought eight of these arms, and it's up to me to put them together and figure out what to do with them :-)  Actually, I already have most of the syllabus and lectures done, but learning the hardware will take some time.  I guess it'll give me something to do this summer because in two short weeks, I'm technically unemployed (at least til August :-)  Pleasant week to all.

USAFA Swimming

The coach of the Air Force Academy's men's swim team, Rob Clayton, has some children that swim on the same club team as Bode.  For the past two years, Coach Rob has held a clinic with the Rapids and some members of the USAFA swim team (who, for the past two years, have won the Mountain West Conference Championships, so these guys are pretty good swimmers).  Friday night was this year's clinic, so we went and had some fun.  Here's a picture of Bode at the first station learning how to improve his streamline on turns.

Next is a movie of Bode practicing what he learned.

There was also a quick session on starts.  Bode's start is a bit tentative--I think he could explode a little better of the block, but I guess he is only nine... :-)

And of course the accompanying movie...

They also swam some fun relays, but I didn't get any real good shots of those.  At the end, the team posted for a group picture.  Bode is on the far left, second row.

We had a snow storm yesterday--we didn't get much accumulation, but it was cold, and I'm worried about the trees that were budding out so nicely.  It's forecast to warm up today, so I'm hopeful everything survived.  Pleasant day.

Eli

One of Bode's best friends is a wild little dude named Eli.  Eli has spent the night at our house a few times, and every time he does, the boys have a great time.  Eli came over Saturday after Bode's soccer games (team played twice--great effort from the boys, but they were whipped, so we won't dwell on the outcome).  Bode and Eli currently sit near each other in school, which I don't think is a good thing for their academic progress :-)

We colored some Easter eggs Saturday night.  The boys did an even two dozen.

The big bunny came and hid them during the night, in addition to two more dozen plastic eggs.  The boys sent off on the mighty hunt at the crack of dawn (well, 8:30).

Amazingly, we found all the eggs...except one.  We think a bird or a squirrel made off with it (or the bunny just hid it so well that none of us could remember...err, find it :-)

We didn't do a whole lot after Eli went home.  The boys stayed up well past midnight, so I think Bode is a little worn out.  There are a little less than five weeks of school left for Bode, and three more weeks of classes for me.  We can both smell summer :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Spring Break

We spent the past four days up in Breckenridge.  We didn't do much other than ski and watch TV/movies and read.  Not something you'd make a movie out of, but definitely some good relaxing time as a family.  We skied on Monday, and it was almost too hot.  The high was probably in the low 40's, but it was sunny and not crowded.  Here are some pictures.  First up are Ashley and Bode, with Ashley taking a picture of me while I take a picture of them.

Next is a shot of Bode as we head over to the Peak 8 mid-way connect.  This is one of my favorite places to take a picture due to the lack of people and the rather scenic background.

Bode had never been on the Imperial Lift, which takes you up about as high as you can go at Breckenridge (other than hiking to some place).  Here's Bode and Ashley riding the lift.

Next is a shot of the terrain below the lift.  No trees and an intimidating sky...not for the faint of heart.

I don't know why the sky looks such a dark purple...it really was quite blue.  I then took a picture of Ashley and Bode from "the top of the world"...well, our little part of the world.  Bode did great on the way down--he said it was scary but fun.

We skied until lunch time, and then went home for food.  We watched The Flash and Supergirl and Mockingjay parts 1 and 2 (not all at once, but over the course of the week).  Ashley took Joey on some long walks, and we even read some books.  Tuesday was a bit snowy, which was good because we could use the powder, but not so good for skiing (we are quite the weather snobs).  We went to the gym and swam and goofed off in the hot-tub.  Wednesday was a great day--a little cloudy, but the mountain received about eight inches of fresh snow, which made for some good conditions...at least for Ashley and me.  Bode has yet to become a powder hound, but he'll learn to love it as he gets older.  I took a couple of movies on Wednesday.  First is one of Bode and Ashley skiing over some bumps--nothing fancy, but for some reason, the little fellas likes them bumps.

Next is a normal movie of me skiing behind Ashley and Bode.

We also headed over to Peak 8, and I took more shots of my favorite location.  You can see the new snow on the ground, and the clouds were clearing for a beautiful blue sky.

Finally, I took a shot of some of the runs near E-chair--note the snow on the trees.  A very pretty day.

Ashley skied this morning--Bode and I wanted to sleep in, as we are lazy.  Ashley and I are both above the 100,000 vertical foot mark, and Bode is around 80,000.  We'll have one more weekend in mid-April, and Ashley said she might be "sick" sometime in the next week or so.  We did get a nice family photo on Wednesday...Ashley isn't thrilled about how her hair looks, but who really cares about things like that :-)

We are back home now...I'll do some work in the garden and we'll all try to get some rest after some great skiing.  Pleasant weekend to all.