Perpetuating the myth?

I sent a letter to the editor of the Aspen Daily News today:

In her article published Sunday, 11/6/11, titled A multimillion dollar season, Carolyn Sackariason refers to the Merry Go Round restaurant on Aspen Highlands as "the old grocery store that was hauled up by the late Whip Jones, the former owner of Highlands." In an article titled Aspen Highlands restaurant ready for an extreme makeover published on 2/17/11 in The Aspen Times, Jeff Hanle says this is a myth; "The building was constructed from a kit that was apparently popular with grocery stores, according to Hanle. It is a myth that the building served as a grocery store elsewhere and was moved in sections to its perch at mid-mountain at Highlands." Which is it? 

Details, details.

Orientation

Wow.  I'm exhausted.  I don't remember college orientation being so exhausting.  14.5 hours of virtually non-stop activity.  

I am so jealous of Rachel.  She'll be living right on State Street in the South Loop, 3 blocks from Grant Park and the lakefront.  What a tremendous experience. 

She got her class schedule today, met some of her classmates, explored some more of the campus and learned more about what to expect and what will be expected.

But we still don't know how we're paying for it all . . .

Energy snacks

It has been my experience that energy snacks suck.  In their attempts to be healthy, they have failed miserably to be tasty. And don't even talk to me about the consistency.  Energy bars, energy gel, yuck.  Give me a Snickers bar (although they don't do heat too well, do they?).

Well, I'm happy to report that the energy snack people may actually be figuring taste and consistency out.  This past weekend, we stumbled upon several winners.

First, there's Clif Shot Bloks.  They're rather like square gummy bears.  I recommend Strawberry, Mountain Berry and Black Cherry in that order.

Next, Clif Luna Sport Moon Energy Chews.  These are crescent moon shaped energy chews (again, think gummy bears but bigger).  I liked the blueberry.

But my favorite by far are the PowerBar Raspberry Gel Blast Energy Chews.  Chewier than the Shot Bloks or Moon Chews with a sweet/tart raspberry burst, these little guys rock.  Yum.  

They all make energy snacking during physical activity a much more pleasant experience.  

And, no, I didn't get any sort of remuneration for touting these products.  Not even free samples, although I guess you can get free samples of my favorite directly from PowerBar.  I haven't tried it so I don't know the details.

Omens

Sometimes omens portend bad things.  Sometimes omens are meaningless.  Happily, last weekend was the latter.

Even before we left Aspen for Moab on Friday, we experienced a discouraging setback involving a carport and bikes on a roof rack.  I won't be saying anything more about that episode other to say that we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off and soldiered on.

Given that we were leaving Aspen in search of spring, we experienced a second discouraging omen as we traveled west into weather much like that we had just left.  

Refusing to bow to negativity, we continued on to our hotel in Moab whereupon we were handed keys for Rm 313.  Really?

But I'm pleased to report that all of these omens, these signs, were completely innocuous.  Two warm (but not too warm), sunny (with episodically pleasing shade clouds) days, one bike ride and one hike later, we headed home having had a very nice visit with spring.

Blogging

It appears that a large number of people only blog on weekdays.  I struggle for inspiration and time on the weekdays.  They must be blogging from work, about work or instead of work.  Me, I've got too much work to be able to do that.

Likewise, I get the feeling that weekends for a lot of people are computer free zones.  For me, the weekend is a great opportunity to catch up on all the 'net stuff that I've had to ignore during the week.

We've been focusing on the positive here so in that vein, I'll share with you a recent internet find, one of those guys who only posts on the weekdays, 1000 Awesome Things.  He's got some fun insights and since he's only on #521, it'll keep you occupied going backward and forward.

Effect

As I get older, I come across random examples of the lasting impact people can have on each other, often with regards to the most seemingly insignificant things.  We all, often unintentionally, leave our marks, sometimes in the most unexpected ways.  I realize that, for many, this is hardly news but I've been ruminating on it lately.

Yesterday morning, when reminded to brush her teeth, Rachel made a special trip upstairs to my bathroom because she likes my toothpaste better.  This is a relatively new development.  For years, I've had to buy her her own toothpaste because she didn't want to use mine.  My toothpaste?  I started using it 20 years ago, having been introduced to it by her father when he and I were dating.  Do you think he had any clue at that point that twenty years later, his own daughter would be using the same brand having arrived at it in this roundabout way?

It goes both ways too.  One of my mother's mainstay dishes when I was growing up was ground beef and gravy.  Imagine spaghetti but with macaroni instead of spaghetti and mushroom gravy instead of tomato sauce.  Easy and yummy.  It's now one of Rachel's favorite meals.  I introduced Rachel's dad to my childhood meal some twenty years ago and now Rachel reports that it's part of her step-mother's repetoire.  Did my mom ever imagine?

Growing up, every Thanksgiving, we made Pumpkin Spice Cake.  I then introduced my co-workers here in Colorado to it.  One of my co-workers, who has since moved out of the area, particularly liked the recipe and adopted it as one of her staples. Who knows where it's going from there.

Rachel likes Popeye's biscuits because of one of my college boyfriends who she's never met.

Steve knows who Kate Bush is because of Jessica, the girl who lived next door to me in college in Leonard Hall at American University.

Not only do we leave lasting marks on those whose lives we pass through but often they pass those effects on to others.  Makes me wonder what other unintended effects I'm carrying around with me.  What other things that are fully integrated into my day to day life are the result of people who have passed through my life and the people who have passed through theirs?

Freaky, man.

My new car - Not

I had been playing with the idea of replacing my 12 year old car . . .

until I got Rachel's financial aid award letter from Columbia College Chicago which informed me that I've been awarded the opportunity to purchase the equivalent of a new car every year for the next 4 years.

But, hey, at least the interest rate on the college loans is fixed at the low rate of 7.9%.

For a new car, I'd only have to pay, what, 0% interest?

What is that?

I'm about to expose, yet again, my lack of cred.

Unavoidable really, as I've basically never been cool.  Too nerdy to be cool.

Twice in the last 12 hours, I've seen a guy on TV lick the first two fingers of his hand and then smooth his eyebrows.  Last night, it was Finn on Glee and this morning, Jon Stewart whilst interviewing John O'Hara on Tuesday night's Daily Show.

Twice in 12 hours?  Now, I'm intrigued.  Is this some cultural reference to which I'm completely oblivious?  So I google it.

And, best that I can find, after admittedly superficial research, is that it dates back at least to Ian Ziering on 90210:

lelio

2006-06-01 01:28:04 AM

The proper way to lick one's eyebrows was shown by Steve on 90210. To do it you
* make the "hook-em" sign with your right hand
* touch the insides of those fingers to your tongue
* put your fingers up to your eyebrows closest to your nose
* push your hand to your face, splaying out your fingers and spreading the saliva

/ the more you know

I did also discover that, according to at least one source, licking your pinky and brushing it across your eyebrow in Lebanon indicates that you're a homosexual.

I'm still thinking that I'm missing something . . .

I would have replaced it.

I'm thankful for bags with tags.

A week ago when Rachel left for her Experiential Education trip, someone told her to put a name tag on her carry on bag. A bit of overkill, I thought but given Rachel's distractability, probably a good idea. Hah! Little did I know. In this case, it wasn't Rachel's distractability we had to worry about.

When we met Rachel at the train on Saturday, it was a rather chaotic scene. She jumped off the train, came and gave us all hugs, handed me her bag (yes, I said, handed me her bag) and dove into the chaos of unloading all the bikes and duffel bags from the luggage car of the train. In the process of unboxing her bike, I set her bag down, right there, right where I couldn't miss it, right where I wouldn't forget it.

We ran an errand in Glenwood, drove the 45 miles back to Aspen, unloaded the car and Rachel asked me for her bag. The one with her book and her pretzels and . . . her iPod. The one I had left sitting on the train platform 45 miles away.

"Mom! How could you?! I made it the whole trip without losing anything! Someone's going to steal it!"

Well, nothing we could do about it at that point, except wait until school on Monday and hope that one of the teachers noticed it, picked it up and rescued it.

Which, thanks to the name tag, is exactly what happened. Phew!

But, I would have replaced her iPod, the one she bought with her own money. If I had had to. I'm sure glad I didn't have to.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Boomerang

In the late 70s, just before a ski trip to Aspen, my Rossignol skis were stolen out of our garage in Illinois.  My parents replaced the stolen skis for me with a pair of Dynastar 195 cm Dynasofts.  I skied those skis for almost 20 years.

When I moved to Aspen in 1999, I immediately replaced my outdated skis with a pair of the newfangled "parabolic" skis.  The Dynastars languished in the gear shed for a while, finally making their way to the dumpster 7 or 8 years ago.

Fast forward to this past Sunday.  I'm hanging out at the Aspen Highlands Closing Day Party taking in the crazy scene.  All sorts of people in costumes and crazy get ups.  I keep seeing one girl with a shot ski wandering around.

A shot ski?  That's a ski with a number of shot glasses attached to it.  The idea is that you line people up and they all simultaneously do shots by tipping the ski.  

About the fourth or fifth time I see the girl with the shot ski, I take a good look at the ski.  I casually mention to my friend that I used to ski a ski just like that one.  Mine was about that long but it had my name on it (that's what we did in Illinois when we bought skis.  I got the stolen Rossignols back because of just that little detail).  So I wander closer to the girl with the shot ski and . . .

It's got my name on it.  I say to the girl, "That's my old ski."  And after carding me (no lie), calling all her friends over, taking pictures and figuring out where the ski has been for the past many years (in the Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club gear room), she generously gave it to me. (Not at all what I expected.)

Mom & Dad, aren't you thrilled to see what's become of the ski you bought me?

Leaving town

Leaving town during on season is always tough. There's no way to do it without missing something fun.
Rachel and I are going to California for spring break and it's going to be great. But while we're gone, I'll be missing Blitzenbanger, the Core Party, Vampire Weekend, Barrage, the Hollywood Stones and most of Stacey and Jeremy's visit, just to name a few.
It's a nice dilemma to have, though. Yep, living here doesn't suck.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Have I ever mentioned

that I'm a freak?

It's simply silly how excited I am that I got my census form today.

Rachel started telling me about some celebrity who did a PSA for completing the census.  I don't need any PSA.  

I want to be counted.

I completed the census in approximately 45 seconds and then wondered where my sticker is.  I think there should be a sticker for completing the census like there is for voting. 

Rachel says there might be some website online where I can register for a census sticker.  I'm going to go check.  Right now.

Feelin' nostalgic

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I were listening to Sirius 70s on 7 on our way up to ski at Snowmass when they played The Partridge Family's I Think I Love You.  I then had a little parking lot moment (think NPR's Driveway Moments) in which I remembered every word of a song that I haven't heard in something like 30+ years.

This past Saturday, I was working with my iPod on shuffle when Neil Diamond's version of He Ain't Heavy ...He's My Brother shuffled on through and made me miss the Osmonds' version.

In a somebody stop me compulsion due to a complete lack of willpower,  iTunes' ease of purchase and its Genius recommendations, I am now the somewhat sheepish owner of the following music:

Come On Get Happy - The Partridge Family

I Think I Love You - The Partridge Family

Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque - The Partridge Family

I Can Feel Your Heartbeat - The Partridge Family

One Bad Apple - The Osmonds

He Ain't Heavy ... He's My Brother - The Osmonds

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves - Cher

Indian Reservation - Paul Revere and the Raiders

and Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits (including such mainstays as I Am Woman, I Don't Know How to Love Him, Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress), Delta Dawn and Angie Baby).

I have now made not one but two Genius playlists, one based on I Think I Love You and one based on I Am Woman . . .

1000th post

and I almost missed it.

Logged on to see if I was going to flesh out one of my draft posts waiting in the wings or if some new inspiration was going to strike me when I just happened to notice that my post count is 999.

Then the dilemma became whether I was going to write a substantive post and simply mention that it was the 1000th post or whether I was going to write a fluff post solely about how this was the 1000th post.

Guess I opted for the latter . . .

Oh yeah!

So psyched that daylight savings time starts tomorrow.  As someone who gets off work at 6 pm each day, I very much enjoy the extra hour of daylight in the evening.  Well worth the trade-off of darker early mornings.

It makes me happy just thinking about it.

Scary stuff - new credit card statements

Is any one else freaked out by the new credit card statements?  I mean, did I really need to see in stark black and white that it'll take approximately  twenty two lifetimes to pay off my credit card debt if I only make the minimum payment each month? 

I'm kinda a fan of the ostrich approach myself.

What I don't know can't hurt me.

I'm a bad person

I got a disabled guy fired from a volunteer job.  Well, sorta.  He helped.

I feel badly.  Really, I do.

I've been attending a series of events at a local theater and have been very dismayed at the noise level coming from the seats behind me.  At multiple events . . .

At one event, someone was sitting back there clipping his fingernails.

Yes, clipping his fingernails.  And judging by the number of clicks, he must have an outrageous number of fingers.

At another event, there was a nearly constant crinkling and rustling of some sort of candy or chip wrapper coming from the same location.  It was never ending and completely distracting.

My companion and I were besides ourselves.  We just couldn't attend another event like this.  So we decided that we had to ask the management to speak to the culprit.

I made it very clear to management that we weren't complaining, just requesting that someone let him know how noisy he was being and ask him to stop. 

Not quite how it worked out . . .

To my chagrin, our request turned out to be the last straw.  As a manager, I completely understand reaching the end of your rope with an employee, etc.  There are only so many times you can go to someone asking for improvement.  After a while, you understand that it's a losing proposition.

I just had no intention, in this situation, of being the one who added that final straw to the camel's back . . .

Fifteen years later

Listening to NPR's All Things Considered this evening, specifically the story about the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and remembering my letter to the editor which appeared in Time Magazine 15 years ago on September 4, 1995:

ACKNOWLEDGING BLACK STRENGTH LANCE MORROW PROPOSES AN EXCELLENT idea: a national museum memorializing slavery, freedom and black energies [ESSAY, Aug. 14]. If we can have the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which, at least in part, celebrates the Jews' ability to persevere, why not a museum that acknowledges the strength and perseverance of blacks in the face of slavery? Interestingly, writer Walt Harrington notes in his book Crossings that Colonial Williamsburg until 1979 ignored the place of slavery. He states that in Williamsburg the decision to include slaves and slavery in the depiction of colonial life has had just that beneficial, healing effect to which Morrow refers. BRIDGET BIELINSKI Arlington Heights, Illinois

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983397-3,00.html#ixzz0hS11mNTA

Food Carts

Aspen is woefully lacking in the late night dining department.

Don't think that you can go to a 7 pm  play and grab a bite afterwards.  Virtually no one will still be serving.  And even if technically they are, the staff will make you feel very guilty for daring to come in so late.

There are a couple of options like New York Pizza which stay open until the wee hours and do a brisk business.  But, pizza does get old. (I know, heresy!)

The historic Popcorn Wagon, which filled a late night niche, was closed for renovation, destroyed, re-opened for a short time with limited hours and now lies dark.

Recently, the Aspen City Council has been considering whether to allow for food carts on the pedestrian malls, part of the effort to revitalize the downtown core.  I think it's an awesome idea.  The restauranteurs? Not so much.

They have a point.  They pay outrageous rents.  They have high overhead.

But I guess I'm just not very sympathetic.  And it appears that I'm not alone.  The Aspen Times is conducting a poll and as of yesterday afternoon, a whopping 66% of respondents were in favor of the food carts. 

EatAspen is also conducting a similar poll on its Facebook page through a Facebook application, PollDaddy, but since I'm Facebook application averse, I didn't vote in that one.

15 TV Shows

This one comes courtesy of Susie. As always, tag yourself (and me) and I'll read yours!

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen TV shows you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in what shows my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note -- upper right hand side.)"

My list, past and present, and very random:

1.  Speed Racer
2.  Starsky & Hutch
3.  ER
4.  Early Edition
5.  Touched by an Angel
6.  West Wing
7.  Studio 60
8.  Sports Night
9.  Heroes
10.  The Dick Van Dyke Show
11.  How the West Was Won
12.  The Pretender
13.  L.A. Law
14.  Glee
15.  General Hospital