in-commucado

Many apologies for the lack of postings, this lame posting will fill you in on my recent adventures, I didnt post this but a friend from work named Rom did, and heres the link to where i was for the last 5 days.

http://www.newschoolers.com/web/content/news/news_id/1761/

killing time

So i've got about 45mins before dinner, I just took a walk through the park so now its time to unwind with some local tv, heres whats showing at 4:15pm on a saturday afternoon in Guangzhou China

Before PETA gets after me about that picture to the left, that creepy crawly crawled into the glass during the night, long after I was asleep, a drunk little cocroach in the morning we woke up to. He was having a nice little friday night and into saturday


Channel
1-6 Red static - I assume its a patriotic thing
7 China pink shirt vs china in blue shirt ping pong, both have short shorts on
8 news, no idea whats going on, some guy moving propane tanks with his bicycle
10 anime cartoons, i'll come back to this later
11 cell phone commercial
12 cell phone commercial, i think its the same one
13 soap opera, 2 cute girls talking about something dramatic, and now their in the doctors office
14 horse racing, yellow helmet is leading at the 1200 mark
17 kite flying by what i imagine samuri's wore in the day, this one deserves a picture, it'll be posted later.
19 british version of blues clues or the wiggles, IN ENGLISH!
24 circue de solei? local version i think
27 old karate movie, mustache wearing hulk hogan haired guy with huge upward pointing eyebrows
29 asian man pattern baldness commercial, hosted by totally bald man
31 scooping of beans, pistachios, and other round objects i dont recognize, now guy in wrangler t-shirt bragging about whats in his bag
33 CMTV, e's in the background as decor
36 ultimate tree house, soap opera occuring in this amazing swiss family robinson looking creation
37 credits of a karate fight movie
44 chinese version of what looks like saved by the bell, but more dramatic
45 looks like the spanish channel sunday programming
47 phil mickelson teeing off in golf tournament IN ENGLISH!
54 walker china ranger, i think, lots of guns, suit wearing guys vs actual army. note to self, bamboo is aparently bulletproof
55 collegiate vollyball
57 monkey dressed guy, seems to be a series show of planet of the apes, riding pony's, and wearing crowns.
64 "cover queen" the local version of proactiv
68 Ernie from burt and ernie puppets on a mans shoulders, giving him advice in song, looks like that e station again. Ends with one of the ernies dressed up in SF Giants baseball jersey.
69 school girls in catholic schoolgirl dress, and guys in male equivalent. leaving school
76 looks like local version of desperate housewives, and guys in sweater vests
77 cirque de soleil is back!
78 karate punch to the adams apple, intro to soap opera
79 Miss Chinese cosmos pageant, this girls talent is gutting a fish with a huge knife, and dancing now... i think i'm going to stop changing channels

82 SpongeBob SquarePants IN ENGLISH! ok now i'm watching this about 15mins after watching and not understanding any of Miss Chinese Cosmos

Now you get the idea of what there is here on TV, its pretty amazing.

Heres some pictures for you visual people















that dragon is about 12' tall, standing i'd be up to about his flames nearest his mouth

Southeast Asia take 3, part I

Well my third and possibly final trip of the year to Asia is underway. A nice little 4hr layover in Narita Japan has left me full of new sushi tastes I’ve not experienced stateside, I guess this is the product of ordering the Deluxe Chef’s Special, it only cost me 3,500 Yen, I’m still not sure how many dollars that is, I’m hoping somewhere around 30$. Uneventful flight seattle to narita, except that I sat next to a doctor who was coughing the whole trip and had bad breath, 10hrs of that was about enough. I still hold my record of going (or rather not going) to the bathroom on a flight only one time in the last 2 years, and that was on a 15hr flight to HongKong. Something about in flight bathrooms make me uncomfortable. I thought I was lost in narita airport for a while, no other humans existed for a good 20mins of my walk, I felt like I was in the movie iRobot, just with how clean and sterile this place is. But alas I’ve joined with my fellow brethren and now sit in a mustard colored leather seat awaiting my ANA flight to HongKong. And let me tell you quick about ANA airlines, they have a camera in the nose of the plane and let you watch takeoff as if you were laying down in the nose of the jet, its on for landing too, a pretty incredible feature.

Its 2am for my body, 6pm for where I am, and soon to be 1030pm when I land in HK. Not sure which one of these timezones I’m in, but I’m approaching the tired one. Japan sure is green, I’d like to make it back in the future to explore it a bit more, they have some really awesome “samurai” tshirts in the duty free shops here but I cant bring myself to spending 20$ per shirt, I’ll haggle a deal in china for something way better.

I feel united with the other gringos I see in the airport. We have a certain unspoken connection, we look at eachother and its like “hey, we could understand eachother if we decided to talk, then again maybe your French so we couldnt” then I continue surrounded by the 90% of other Japanese people who could also understand me, but I don’t feel that same connection.

OK, time to board my plane, nap time for a few mins, then watching some flight of the conchords, then a nice little evening in HongKong. Not sure when I’ll have internet again, somewhere between weds afternoon for me, so Tuesday midday for most of you, this will get posted. Many pictures to follow, I’m going to look like that crazy camera carrying guy this trip.

RedBull soapbox, wow

I'm exhausted, 3weeks in china working 14hr days then a week in seattle working at least the same on this car, i'm ready to crawl into a hole and sleep for a while. Our performance yesterday was great, MattyO drove the car with perfection and was even complimented by Travis Pastrana, one of our celebrity judges. the redbull staff was alerted to "stand by and ready for cleanup" as our car took to the course, aparently a 17' ski wasnt supposed to make it through the turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DynbFru9VUY
a special thanks to whomever filmed this for us and posted it, kristen?

The race went well and lots of good times had by all

After the race Joe and I headed to Matchstick's premier, joes the one talking to the announcer at the redbull start, i'm right next to him. Still wearing our ski apparel we fit in well at this video. After the video we headed back to Nectar for a redbull post party with dj cut chemist, it was a dance party if i've ever been to one.

Today its rainy and textbook seattle weather. I'm going to catch up on my sleep now, i'll post pictures of this even shortly

quick note, redbull saturday

Part of my busy time has been filled this past month building a soapbox car for work. We are team Skivalanche in the upcomming RedBull SoapBox Derby in seattle. Tonight we check in, and sat we race down Fremont Ave, should be a kickin' good time. The link to our video is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkP0wVLRW6c

We'll post another video after the race, and let you all know how we fared. Also, on Sat please text on your mobile phone "Team 18" to RBULL.

This weekends gonna be sweet

Deoderant-less, day one

A special thanks goes out to United airlines for loosing my toiletry bag. When my bag reached me in HongKong a pocket was wide open, and that pocket formerly housed my toiletries. Rolling with the punches I shaved my 4 day untouched face with a single blade available at the hotel in HK. I searched every cosmetic/beauty shop at the train station for deoderant, but it seems the chinese dont buy it. Thinking it was a train station thing i continued on my way and after a search of a few grocery-style stores in Guangzhou I still have no deoderant. I made the motion for "wheres the deoderant" to someone at the grocery store, sort of a shrugged shoulders and one and motioning like its applying deoderant under the other pit with a confused look on my face. Besides a little laugh she said "no here," i asked where and she didnt know how to respond. Another grocery store where I was followed around by women and children and i'm back at my room, deoderantless. Really i should be making a post about my weekend in LA but this is whats on my mind. Jet lagged and all, i'm off to bed, and tomorrow I ask my translator about the prohibition the chinese have on deoderant. Heres a picture of hong kong from my hotel window, adios

Seriously... Fritos?

C'mon frontier airlines, I dont wanna eat doritos or fritos on your flights but more than that I dont wanna smell the people around me eating either of these. Who had the genius idea to strike up a contract with this snack company, was it the guy who smells funny and sits by himself in marketing? Really, Its clear on an airplane of all places smell should be a consideration in snack choices, theres a reason chimichanga's and refried beans are not served on any airline. I look to you frontier to change the foods people eat while they travel. Denver's a healthy city, your based out of there, take charge and be the first airline to serve "ants on a log." This conversation is especially embarassing considering i'm the guy who eats hostess cupcakes and energy drinks in the morning occasionally to wake up, my standards are pretty low but you've knocked the bar to the ground. Maybe next time i'll sit in my seat and play "simon" until my neighbors cannot take the sounds any longer, then I'll be served doritos and "simon" wont seem so bad.



sorry, i had an aggravating flight home from boulder, boulder recap to follow shortly

Film the Idea

Well i just finished a private showing in my apartment of the film "Idea" and i think i crapped my pants. I'm sure most of you have no interest in the ski video i'm talking about but to those of you who do, watch the trailer at http://poorboyz.com/node/101 and check out the website at http://filmtheidea.com/ and then go watch the movie when it premiers in your area, then buy it online. I dont get a shout-out in the credits like other guys I work with, Eben, Francois and J, but if i did then what would i have to look forward to in next years film. Anyways I'm not sleeping tonight because i'm so pumped for winter, but surfing next week will help a bit, and frisbee golf this weekend in Boulder will help too. I'll put some sweet pictures and whitty thoughts in here tomorrow.

Oh, also i had a really good buffalo burrito at lunch today, thriftway burritos may take a backseat to Tatanka burritos for the remainder of my days on the island. I recommend bison burritos if you can find them

Im not a bum, i promise

Jordy really is my inspiration here. Replace his hookah with a view of seattle, (i'll put the picture below) and listen to the string cheese show he got to witness at red rocks and we're pretty similar dudes living 2000miles apart. I have no jungle adventures to report on, but i do have whales eating seals to talk about.

My parents were in town last weekend and we did everything, seriously everything. I'll list them below with quick notes so you all feel like you were here. If you do come, i'll probably do a similar abridged route with you as it went so smoothly.

-Breakfast with Catherine and Parents on cap hill
delightful restaurant opening half hour after arrival, great food good people but sad goodbyes as catherine departed for Steamboat and Boulder after eating. She made it home safely and without trouble, she's now back in MN till school starts

-Pike place market
Crazy tourist destination where you can buy fresh fish/vegetables/flowers and souviniers, I better get good at cooking fish cause this is the place to buy it cheap and fresh.

-Seattle Aquarium
Preschool and elementary school is still not in session, wouldnt recommend until fall when their back in school, but lots of fun fish to see and touch,(yup you can touch some of them)

-Downtown Overlook
Midway up Queen Anne sits a park overlooking the Space Needle and Downtown, a good place to stand for a few minutes and look at seattle. Also a fun place to stand in the background of awkward wedding photographs occuring in the foreground.

-My Apt
A quick stop by to show them my new pad, My patio overlooks lake union and downtown, no space needle though, see picture below


-Ballard Locks
Here ships move between Lake Union(freshwater) and Puget Sound(salty) by going up or down about 10' in elevation. Salmon also make this trek through the fish ladder. Neverbefore have I seen a live salmon, or a fish 3'long and 30lbs. Pretty cool place to watch salmon climb a fish ladder.

-RedDoor Brewery
It feels like new belgium inside, but its just a bar in Fremont that loves New Belgium beer more than its own. A little patio lunch and we were on our way, again

- Nap?
I think this is when we took a little rest

-Space Needle
Youve seen it on the Supersonics jerseys and in the background of Frasiers apt, we went up all 540' of it and viewed the city. Mt. Baker and Rainier in the distances, Puget Sound and Lake Union at foot, and the city to say the least. Pretty cool way to see seattle once again

-IKEA?
I needed a dresser, so this made the best use of our time before eating. We found a great dresser that only took me 4 hours to assemble

-Dinner at Salty's
Sitting at water level across an inlet of puget sound from downtown we watched the sunset reflect off the buildings and then watched seattle light up. Heres pictures from my patio of Seattle at night.



-Whale Watching
Off to the SanJuan islands we took a 6hour cruise on a yacht to where whales live. We made it out to Vancouver Island Canada to find some. We were the 2nd boat of the day to find whales, and it took us plenty long to find them. A brisk day on the ship I was bundled in my recently purchased Whale hat and a jacket, we braved the cold weather for some orcas. The whales had made a seal kill in the water and were eating/playing while moving around. The male had a 6' dorsal fin, and then 2 young orcas were near as well. Never having seen a whale in person this was very cool, and I'd like to see more of them

Large Male Orca

Little Orcas

-Sunday see where Andy works day
-Vashon Island
A little ride on a ferry followed by a factory tour of a building all but shutdown, I showed my parents where our equipment used to be, and what used to happen in each of the rooms. They got a good view of where I spend my days, and what it is I do at work.

-K2 Seattle
Here we toured what is to come, where K2 is moving. Am impressive facility in seattle, I showed them the equipment formerly missing on vashon, showed them a little about how skis are made and they got to see where I will be working in the coming 2 weeks. I'm sad to leave vashon, but excited to get back 3hours of my day currently eaten by my commute. Heres a picture I took leaving work a few weeks ago

Vashon ferry dock

-This about covers our weekend, A final dinner at Ivars Salmon House where we enjoyed a huge piece of salmon that capped off the weekend. I miss colorado and want to go back and visit often, If i didnt have this job here I would leave my orca friends behind and come home.

In store for next time....
Mt Hood again this weekend to visit mr. Paul Rozsypal (ski coach for CU) and the aspen ski team
Following weekend is Catherines 21st bday, back to boulder for a few adult beverages with some great friends
Following that is 4 days in LosAngeles visiting more great friends and hopefully a sister.
Leaving LA i head straight to HongKong China for 2 weeks, Working in the peoples republic. After that hopefully some downtime in Seattle. I apologize for the ginormous size of this blog, expect more shorter ones to follow.

My new favorite whale hat

Surf, Ski, kayak, Ski, Ski, Surf

This section written 8.7.07-- The subject of my blog... thats been my schedule for the past few weekends, Today I'm off to Mt Hood again for a follow up ski test. The goal of this test is to beat up a pair or prototype 08 skis. So with 3 pairs of them in hands I will proceed to hood and do my best to hit jumps rails and groomers with all I got, with the intent of breaking them or at least realizing what some of the public will be doing to them. It feels like tryouts for soccer or something, I have to perform at a high level to test these accurately, Im up to the task. My parents are coming the following weekend and we're going to tour Seattle like i've never toured it before. I have to come up with interesting things to do for us, stressful. I have no time in my life, between moving to my new place, work, and catherine and I hanging out there is little time to write in this blog, so i'm stopping for the day/week. As soon as I get some freetime i'll fill in my happenings, til then, Andresito

Surfing with the goonies

Maybe more like drinking goonies water, Last weekend I headed down to Canon Beach with some co-workers and Catherine for a weekend of surfing.

Oregon Coast Facts
-Goonies was filmed here, sweet
-It rains in Oregon more than seattle, sweeter
-The water is really freakin cold
-Cloudy rainy surfing is still fun

So we rented surfboards/wet suits and battled the oregon coast, surfing sure is tiring. That being said I should be ready to join the pro-surf circuit soon, i'm pretty good (note sarcasm in voice). I've been workin like crazy all week getting ready for this ski test this weekend at hood, we'll ski Sat and Sun to test some new skis. Not a bad way to work if you have to on the weekend. So next week i'll fill you in on the other haps. I better eat my chicken caesar salad i got for lunch today, I'm attempting a more nutritious lunch than burritos every day, so mark this as day 1 where I will not be eating mexican food, for lunch.

where we were link....

exhaustion

Well our busiest time of the year is upon me, and in addition to my traveling to weddings, bachelor parties, the beach and camping, I have managed to work about 60hrs a week. While this really is awesome, sleeping in the factory twice this week has been less than sweet. I've still got busy written all over for the coming weeks though. Ski test next week, move out of apt and into new one by end of july, and Im going back to china at the end of Aug for a few weeks. Also our factory is leaving its island location this month so Im involved somehow in that i'm sure. I've got about a million things to do right now, none of them involve writing in this blog, so i'm going now, for a few days not months like last time, i'll update with pictures of fun things i've been doing.

Quick post - Crazy sights of China

I call this first picture "East Meets West", for obvious reasons

And this second one, "Huskies in a Tank", I assume they all live in a big field and only when brought to market for sale are they crammed into a small tank

Shenzhen

On our 1 day off while here Eben and I headed into Shenzhen, a city not far from Hong Kong for some shopping and possible indoor skiing. Well the indoor skiing didnt work out but the shopping was insane. Never in my life have I had to bargain for something and never have I purchased a purse. (Catherine, neglect the last sentence) Anyways we got a driver from the factory to drive us the 1.5hrs to Shenzhen and we brought along our factory assistant Ivyna for translation and guidance. None of us had ever been to Shenzhen but the driver quickly found the walking mall and we began. The retailers are attracting you to their booths with loud noises and promises of a deal, or I assume thats what their saying in mandarin. Once you start looking your in trouble, they wont let you go and they do everything they can to sell you something you dont kneed. My watch for example, bargained from 270 Yuen down to about 70, with 8-1 ratio I paid a little under 10$ for a ripoff of a major brand electronic watch. Not sure if I even should have purchased a watch, In fact i regret it now, but the bargaining was fun. It's also fun to see the styles of another part of the world. While I wasnt able to find any Engrish.com worthy clothing I found styles not seen in America. I walked away with a pretty awesome shirt with wolves on it and another with a pheasant. I told my engrish speaking salesman I like shirts with animals and this is what he found me, I had to purchase after his dedication. Our main item we didnt get is a remote control mini helicopter. A sweet toy these miniature RC toys can fly indoors and cost at most 20$ on the street, eben and I being cheap wouldnt pay this despite their 40$ ebay price and hence have no mini helicpoters. The rain began during our shopping adventure stopping us early but not until a quick lunch at Pizza Hut and more mini-helicpoter bargaining. I'm getting sick of chinese food, I cant wait for a hamburger or steak, even plate of spaghetti sound great. But mostly I miss my burritos, this will be my first stop upon arrival in Seattle this friday.

We finished shopping and had no desire to go indoor skiing on shaved ice. Ivyna will have to go another day. For being our translator/ assistant for k2 she has never seen ski bindings or boots, nor seen how people ski, but she does really well with it all and understanding us.

Today being Memorial day and us being in China, we worked. Last night Eben and I went out to dinner on our own and hit a huge language barrier, I will write more about that in my next blog, until then adios, I dont know how to say goodbye in mandarin.

G to the Z

(picture is in front of our factory, taken from the balcony outside the offices) After a long day of working on Saturday I met up with other co-workers, two from Seattle and 5 from China, and we went to dinner on the companies tab. We chose a hunan restaurant I think partially to watch us funny americans eat with chop sticks and eat really spicy things. Tony (chinese guy from factory) did most the ordering and acted as our tour guide, i'm not sure i'm happy with his choices yet or not. We went out to dinner in downtown Guangzhou and saw a whole part of the city I didnt know existed. First of all GZ is huge, people are everywhere and all of them are crazy. I cant count how many times I have seen cars in oncoming traffic lanes, people standing between lanes on a highway while cars race by, and overloaded bicycles moving slowly through fast traffic. Our dinner started with some type of egg prepared local style that tasted terrible. Kind of like a hard boiled egg mixed with what I would imagine a snakes egg tasting like, leathery slimey and full of life. The rest of our hot and spicy hunan meal was delicious and provided lots of laughs to the locals watching me eat.

On our way home we stopped at a DVD store where I bought my favorite tv show Prison break seasons 1 and 2 on dvd, 3 discs in all for $3.50. Now eben and I are back at the factory ready for some rest before a drive to Shenzhen tomorrow to ski indoors and shop for more good deals, I just may get a suit if the price is right. I will post a few pictures here and take more tomorrow for posting in the future.

Day One at Guangzhou, and why I cant sleep here

My body clock is still all messed up and I'm awake at 3am and 5am here, hopefully I can go back to sleep for a few hours so I can have a productive 13 hour day here. I'm not really sure how these guys do it, 8am to 9pm every day with an hour for lunch and dinner. Factory work is crazy. When I walk around and learn about things I'm usually talking to Amy or Evya our translators/helpers, while they understand us very well I realize that the person doing the factory work has no idea what we are saying. The language barrier is at times impossible to fill.

The factory conditions are really quite nice. Well this is not to say I have ever worked in anything like this place, they all seem relatively relaxed and generally enjoying themselves. Faded jeans, nikes and designer shirts are all the rage and I'm amazed how trendy some workers look. I dont know what I imagined them wearing but some look like they are ready to go clubbing, but instead they are assembling some part of a ski.

The food is incredible. Hopefully in a week I will be writing the same thing, but its really quite delicious. I fill a small bowl with steamed rice and sit down a a large round table covered in food. Here my english speaking counterparts, all 5 of us, and a few cantonese speaking office workers watch chinese soap operas at maximum volume. There are about 8plates of food in front of you to pick off of and consume. none of the food is what I have ordered at Panda express or restaurants but its close, and so far I cant complain. I have a 2" long cockroach lying in the middle of my room right now, i'm hoping he doesnt crawl into my clothing bag, and my bed i suppose too.

After work last night while I was desperate to fall asleep Ken and I walked to the night market for a few beers. 6beers, 4red bull energy drinks, and a pack of some gummy candies ken likes cost us a little under 5dollars. People are outside everywhere at night. I need to go out again later this week and explore more at night but its overwhelming. Also the fact everyone stares at you is great and some kids yell in excitement of seeing a white person. I'm not sure where all the bikes with passenegers on the back are going, or what the guangzhou'ites do at night but I'm hoping to find out.

Eben and I may be off to some indoor skiing this weekend, we've both agreed to snowboard if we go. There is also an outdoor waterpark we are debating, all a few hours from our factory. I will also be off to the DVD store later this week, they just got Shrek3 in and Spiderman3 too, If i get bored I know what i'll be doing. Anyways its 5:20am for me and I better try and sleep a little more. My bed is very firm, pillow undersupportive, but the bug net surrounding the bed is made of expensive lace with ducks designed into it. Priorities

Hong Kong part 1

First off because i'm writing this from China, everything on my page is in chinese, and I dont recognize the characters yet, so this may or may not make it to the internet.

We have arrived in Hong Kong after a short train ride from the airport to our stop at Kowloon. Its just like I have seen pictures of but never really paid attention too. Huge buildings holding thousands of people stacked side by side litter the side of the tracks, it feels surreal. We check in at the Harbor Plaza Metropolis where a doorman takes our bags to our room. My room is small, has 2 of the smallest beds I have ever seen, there is no view out the windows as they are covered in condensation. It was about 87degF at 8pm and humidity was high. Eben and I took a shuttle to Hong Kong from the hotel, I suppose it would be like traveling from Capital Hill in Denver to Denver, not a far ride at all. We walked the streets and were offered suites, jewelry, electronics and massages. Nothing is cheap in Hong Kong, and our venturous taste buds will wait until tomorrow, tonight we ate Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut is not like you know it though. They serve shrimp cocktail, fresh seafood, and of course pizza and pasta. To accompany my pizza I ordered a “Black Cow on Rocky Road.” Basically a coke with a scoop of rocky road ice cream on top. A Hong Kong recipe for indigestion.

Tomorrow we ride the train to Guangzhou to the factory, hopefully they have air conditioning or I’ll have to get lighter weight pants.

Sunburns/iceburns and skiing on a volcano

Well my weekend was good, I relaxed friday night and spent much of saturday doing the same. From resting I loaded up my car with 3 coworkers and drove down to Portland OR for a day of skiing at Mt. Hood. Staying at a coworkers house in Portland we woke up after a half sleepless night on the couch and headed to the mtn. Above the clouds Mt Hood sits with yearround snow and great summer conditions. Skiing in a sweatshirt in sunny weather I had my first day of warm skiing since moving to the northwest. Im ready for our 08 testing season to begin, I will be back at Hood a few more times this summer for work. Hood is a cool place, mostly buried in the winter it has almost too much snow. Getting back into Seattle late I went to bed to work an early monday morning, where I missed my 7:05 ferry. Next week I fly to denver on thursday night, Adams wedding for the weekend then off to Hong Kong for 2 weeks. In hong kong I'll be posting more pictures and blogs than usual, to keep you all informed on which mammals i'm eating.

Hiatus

While not an intentional break in blogging I have just been too busy. In my time sans-blogging I have visited home in Colorado for a weekend and worked a bunch, and went to a work costume party. First off hometrip

The night before going to CO some friends and I bbq'd on the beach, watched sailboats/seals and had a mini bonfire. Its pretty cool looking out over puget sound and seeing the sun set over a mountain range and ocean. Who knew seattle was surrounded by mountains and had the ocean too. My shoes still smell like campfire. Colorado was a blast. I spent friday with catherine throwing a huge frisbee around in a park in Boulder only later to go eat dinner with my parents. Friday night a quick stop in with rob and ashley at her(their) house in superior and the day was pretty much over. Sat was spent with catherine doing random boulder things followed by ski team party for 2 hours, then denver for the night. A little bar-hopping then back to jeff's for a nice sleep on a love seat. Parents house the next morning and flight out sunday night. Quick weekend but really good to see these people who dont live in WA.

Work has been hectic. We are currently prototyping and getting the 08-09 skis modeled and prepared for production this fall and its crazy here. I've got a ski test at hood in the coming weeks to prepare for and Im working 12+hour days. I leave the Mt. Hood test to fly to Denver for Adam Foy's wedding, followed by a 2week trip to Guangzho China to visit our manufacturing facility. I'm excited for hood and the wedding and china, an exciting month ahead of me. I'm going to purchase all kinds of clothes in china so I'm packing light, if theres something you want me to bring back tell me. And sam i'll work on getting you your xbox.

This last weekend was k2 costume party fiesta. We partied for a bit at a house before arriving at the bars in our regalia. I dressed as a "mexican cowboy" outfitted myself in womens size 6 red jeans, plaid shirt, handlebar mustache, cowboy boot looking shoes, and bandana. I tribute this outfit to Spoes who pioneered this costume a few years ago. Spoes won the contest of who looked better in it, his costume was more complete. I looked more like a Cowboy Borat. Other costumes included cookie monster, 80's rocker, lifeguard and a few tom cruise's from Top Gun. I'm writing this at lunch and feel I should get going to do my work, i'll add more later.

Burritoless in Seattle

A staple of my diet is the newest thing here in Seattle. It seems burritos and more importantly Chipotle Burritos are just making wake here in Washington. Not a trip to Chipotle goes by where I do not hear the persons behind me in line explaining to their friend what makes these burritos special. "They seem so plain" i hear and "Chipoltay," it makes me want to cringe. The struggle choosing what type of beans to order, asking for veggies when you didnt order a fajita burrito, and needing clarification that guac costs more have me wishing for colorado-ites. 2 of my 3 trips to Chipotle near the UW campus have let me down. The guac is good but the burritos leave something to be desired. Stale chips and crispy black beans have caused me headaches here. I guess I'll learn a little bit about Washington while they learn a lot about burritos.

Easter egg hunting

Well i regret to say I didnt go egg hunting today, nor did my roommates. Instead we cleaned the garage, mowed the lawn, and went boating. Yes thats right a Colorado boy is now a boating enthusiast. I mowed our 100sq foot lawn in the sun and by the time we got to the water to meet our boat-owning-friends the clouds had rolled in. A nice cloudy/rainy boat ride led to an early docking and dinner at a local restaurant. If today's weather is a hint towards summer then im ready for it. I even took the roof box off my car with the anticipation of ski season winding down.
Its kinda like california here... only the waters much cooler/ rains far more/ and the burrito places are few and far between. Cheers to fish and chips

crazy days

I did some math today and found I have worked 103hours in the last 8 days. And unfortunately all this working really takes away from Andy's relaxing time. But its been worth it, i've learned more at work in the last week than I would in a month and met some really cool people. Yesterday was ski test day where a group of athletes/designer/marketing peeps/ took our prototype skis out. We skid 10pair of skis and judged what we liked, didnt like, wanted to push further and what we wanted to nix from the lineup. This is a very cool process that I will volunteer for anytime. Leading our tests was the guy who started Line skis and for our meetings post-skiing a few big named pros stopped by to give a few words and show some clips from next years videos. I'll elaborate on all this later but I felt the need to describe my last few days as they havnt been documented here. This work will continue at a more relaxed pace for a bit and I am looking forward to catching my breath. I need to sleep now.

still working, and working

Well I must apologize for not writing for 10days, I have been busy to say the least. Catherine came out last week and we had a great time in Canada/Seattle and following her departure I have been living at the factory. I will write later about our Whistler trip. This week I have worked about 16hrs a day making new skis for an upcomming ski test this week. We are designing and building our 08 protos right now and need some working pairs for an on upcoming onsnow test leaving me with no option then to sleep on Vashon Island and work too much. I cant write much now, too busy and need for sleep, but I wanted to check in. I am alive, and will be freeing up time soon to write in this blog again. I hope something really exciting happens so I will have something interesting to say.

Work work work work

That sweet desk is where the magic happens for me at K2. Thats right, thats where I work, eat my snacks, and eat my lunch. I hope I get an upgrade at somepoint, really its embarassing sitting at that little desk staring out at all the bigger desks, but it will do for now. I spend most of my time in the press room where new skis are actually made so this desk really works fine for now. The title of todays blog is not only the reason I have not been blogging as much but also to why I will continue to not blog as much. This week I have been on the 610am ferry to work and coming home on the 530 boat. We are entering the season of prototyping 08 skis and I am terribly busy getting new stuff ready for ski tests. Its good and bad, but mostly good. This week will also be capped by Catherine coming to visit thursday after work and staying until early next week. We are planning a trip to Canada to ski whistler and see the town. I havnt been to Whistler since I was in 10th grade and visited Bev and Luke there with my parents. I only remember thats its a huge mountain, Im looking forward to exploring it with Cat.

In addition to exploring Whistler, Cat and I will tour Seattle a bit. I was able to work it out with my boss for catherine to join me on the island monday and tuesday, she will be sorting and inventorying our skis on hand. It will be a great way for her to see what I do all day, and where I work.

The next post will be from north of the border in Jordys homeland, where maple syrup flows like the salmon of Capistrano and mounties check your passports. Since my desk at work is so terrible, heres a picture of what makes it worth it, although I still havnt ridden in it yet.

Ski Test numero Uno

This past Tuesday at work required a planning meeting, one held at a local ski area. While other planning meetings are often 2 days ours was only one, but it was still better than your average day at work. I started the morning at 630 driving the company pickup truck to get my boss and another engineer before heading up to Snoqualmie. Up at the ski area we met up with 4 others to begin our day of testing. We initially strapped into AT setup skis with skins, and hiked up the mountain. Im not a huge hiker, nor am I in much aerobic shape, but this was actually pretty fun. I was wearing my usual ski boots, everyone else in their more forgiving flexible ski boots. I sported my "borrowed" rental ski poles everyone else with their expensive adjustable light trekking poles. I'm a little bit like a fish out of water when it comes to nordicish skiing, I didnt look much the part nor feel like I was good at it. It had been raining much of the week so the snow was more like solid ice, less ideal but still ok for hiking uphill on. We hiked to the top where the ski lift ends and took a brief break. From here we skied down to the parking lot where round 2 of skis to test was. The skiing was terrible. It reminded me of early morning spring skiing and I was on the worst skis for this type of snow, the K2 Shuksan. At the bottom we dawned our new skis for some serious product testing.

A short 100cm dorky looking hiking ski, supposed to be a sliding snowshoe. The skin on the bottom helps with uphill performance, and full metal edges help with the skiing... well or so they say. I couldnt get these to turn for the life of me. More like standing on 2 saucer sleds and going downhill fast. A wild and scary time but still pretty fun on these little skis. We are working on the new versions of these, we hope to improve on them greatly. After testing several pairs I have been working on in the lab and deciding what parts we like/dont we headed off to lunch and then to meetings. The meetings followed up with a dinner and finally my home afterwards. Not a bad day of work, I look forward to the alpine ski test days where we can ride lift accessible terrain without having to hike up.

Fiddler in the living room?

Well last night one of our neighbors had people over as a meet-your-neighbors occasion. Kinda felt like something my parents would have done but it was good to finally meet the owners of the cars I park next to. Awkward silences were broken with "conversation cards" one of the girls had brought. "What band would you most like to see from the front row," I naturally responded with Def Leppard. Meeting others that had moved here for jobs we found common ground in our lack of knowledge of our surroundings and agreed to go see new places together. About an hour into the gathering one of the neighbor guys brought down his fiddle and played some irish jigs. I've never sat so close to a fiddler, he was very good. Reminded me a little of the time I went and saw Riverdance but without all the dancers and elaborate lighting. While I dont remember all their names now, I will be sure to say hello in the street and possibly explore the city with them.

Seattle's reputation is correct. To tell you the truth when I was moving here I expected the weather to actually be nicer than its reputation. I thought maybe everyone was making up a story to keep the outsiders out, well that isn't the case. Today's weather was mixed drizzle with the occasional downpour and mixed dry spells. Its not bugging me yet, so far I'm used to it but I do miss the days of direct sunlight. About 3 more months of this I hear, then a beautiful summer of a constant 75degree days.

Sorry for the lack of coolness in this blog, I cant always live the exciting life and I felt bad letting another day go by of no-blog-ness.

Ezell's Famous Chicken

Miles called me tonight to see if I wanted to go skiing or grab a bite to eat after work, being my commute is 2 hours each way this week, we opted for dinner. My commute is long because I have changed my route. I now take the passenger only ferry, a 30minute ride from downtown Seattle to Vashon Island. I have seen Sea Lion's every trip now usually sunning themselves on a floating buoy in the water, which is exciting. I get to the ferry via bus. A very eco-friendly commute I must say, plus I save $3.50!

Anyways miles suggests he has heard of this delicious chicken restaurant on capital hill, so naturally i'm in. Miles picks me up at home and we depart for somewhere in Seattle I have never been. Ezell's Famous Chicken is its name, complete with signed pictures of Oprah on the walls. "Thanks for coming to Chicago and bringing your Chicken recipe, Oprah." World famous eh? Miles and I brought it back to my place and sure enough, it was pretty good. For sure beat the colonel's recipe, i'm sure it was really good for me too. After dinner we grabbed a quick beer at a brewery about 100yards from my house. Miles may have some exciting news regarding his career soon, I'll update in my future blogs but he may in fact be leaving the Seattle area headed south, nothings for sure yet though. In fact had I not gotten this K2 job I would probably be with the company in san diego where he is headed. I'm going to keep this post short because its late and I'm tired, but you all need to try Ezell's Famous Chicken if your ever in Seattle, if Oprah in the 80's like it, you know its good and healthy for you.

Discovery Park

I must first apologize for my laziness this weekend, I really didn't do much of anything and it was all I had hoped it could be. But in an effort to create material for you all to read I forced myself to go for a little hike through Discovery Park here in Seattle.

About 5minutes from my house sits a large open space overlooking much of Puget Sound and Seattle to the other side. Parking my car somewhere between the Native American History Center and the US Military Base I began my hike. Equipped with the wrong shoes and jeans for the journey I walked down trails in what felt like a rainforest towards the coast. Lots of people were out walking their dogs/kids while I was out for a nice little walk by myself. Maybe I can rent a dog for future trips to the park to make it more interesting. On my little walk I found some steep cliffs over the sound and even a water treatment plant built on beachfront property. With the beachfront water treatment plant I also found some very nice homes built on very expensive land. The pictures posted are all from my hike, a cloudy view of what the area looks like. I'll be back to explore this park more, hopefully with someone else and on a sunny day.


I chose this to spend this weekend relaxing around my house. Instead of skiing I chose cleaning/eating/sleeping. I was able to unpack my last suitcase full of clothes into my closet and get a few more pictures hanged. I'm still looking for the perfect spot to hang my prized Colorado flag.

Tomorrow I will be riding a different ferry to work, a much speedier boat for passengers only. I will try and post pictures in a quick manner as well as get some pictures from work to show you all where I am all day.

Cupcakes and Rockstar

For a while now I have enjoyed the company of Hostess Cupcakes and Rockstar when Im waking up to go skiing. Some may call it my patented breakfast, i call it the quickest way to diabetes. Nevertheless I have now begun enjoying this delicious treat at work. Some days are slower than others, full of down time where I am learning a new process and not really hands on. My break and work schedule is dictated by my mentors both going on 30+ years with K2, 9am break, 12 lunch, 3:15break, 5pm departure. Its amazing how everything they do lines up with this schedule, its like they've been doing this for 30 years. My 9am break usually involves Rockstar and something else, Im going to try and convert to coffee or tea.

My ferry rides have been fairly social lately. Where before I would sit in my car and sleep now I go upstairs and meet coworkers. Its pretty nice really, when you move somewhere for a job and know nothing about where you live at the moment, theres a lot to talk about. I need to work on my name skills though. Im good at introducing myself but not good at remembering their name. Not 1 minute later could I tell you their name, Im going to work on this as well. Weening myself from cupcakes and rockstar to something healthier, and learning names better. Maybe the healthy diet will que my name remembering part of my brain.

Work will pick up in 2 weeks to a healthy jog. March 13th and 14th will be spent at a local ski area both skiing and in meetings with my department. We will ski till 1pm everyday and spend the afternoons and into the evening in planning meetings. Dinner will follow with a final meeting for the day afterwards, and repeat the next day. This isnt a bad way to have a meeting I've decided. March 19th a famed ski designer will come visit K2 and work with me on developing a new ski. I cant say much about it to anyone, but its a totally new thing and looks to be pretty cool. I've spent a few hours everyday getting ready for his arrival, I've already begun assembling parts, getting supplies ready, and making test skis to give us a head start for when he arrives. It will be quiet the rest of this week as most of the management team left for France for a ski test, rough life really. 10 days in Europe skiing cant be easy, especially when its for work. I'd like to stick around with this company long enough to make this a part of my schedule.

I apologize for the long post about nothing really, but felt I was due to blog my days, I will attach some pictures of my commute for you to enjoy. Goodbye until something eventful happens...

When it rains, it snows

The first thing anyone thinks when I say I'm living in Seattle is rain, and apparently it rains here often. It rains so often that on every sunny day people are outside in shorts enjoying the phenomena that I took for granted in Colorado. With the rain comes rain jackets, coffee, and wet socks (not too sure why my shoes leak but they do.) I'm not the biggest fan of rain but I have learned recently why it is good. Not only is there a rainforest within a few hours drive, but there is deep snow and steep mountains within a similar drive in the opposite direction. This weekend I set out on an adventure to experience Washington's mountains, a very good decision.

The forecast called for 7' (yes feet) of snow last week, I started by skiing alone monday at Mt. Baker, also called little whistler, and I think I found out why. The terrain at Baker is great, steep and deep snow everywhere I went. I spent most of my day meeting locals on chairlifts and sharing a run or two with them before finding another local to latch onto. Visibility was low all day because of the snowstorm but I still feel I experienced some of the good things Baker has to offer. I will be making another drive towards the canadian border to ski here again and explore the closed terrain I missed this trip.

My week passed and saturday began by meeting Miles (cu student, coworker on senior design project, working in seattle as an engineer) at Hayak ski area at Snoqualmie. Hayak has 2 chair lifts, one for the beginner hill, the other to the top. A small ski area more known more for their nordic skiing than anything else, but with amazing tree skiing and hikable terrain. Washington resorts boast open gates to national forest land that colorado resorts strictly forbid. Where in Colorado you would find ropes, fences and signs stating how you will loose your pass and be prosecuted, Washington displays a small "Cliff Area" sign. Miles and I explored terrain and attempted to ski a line that later led us to a 60' cliff forcing us to hike out. Miles and his curious nature slid to the edge of a 20+' cliff only to drop his snowboard and leave himself clinging to a tree. After navigating his tracks back up the hill we again were forced to hike around the cliff to find a small chute exiting the impassible terrain. To add to the excitement of skiing chest deep snow I was on a pair of K2 Hellbent skis, next years big mountain powder skis designed similar to a wakeboard. I called it product testing. Sunday I tested again

Sunday started with a longer drive to Crystal mountain. I headed off with Stewart and my roommate Jason. Stewart is a steamboat local and a K2 employee, he was also a CU student with me and ski teammate. Crystal mountain had been receiving snow all week as well and it was our job to find it, we did. Today I was skiing on a newer version of the K2 Seth with same rocker construction as the Hellbents but a bit narrower. To sum up my day, you should visit Crystal. Being the most un-resort like ski area, crystal boasts good lifts, amazing snow, a little mountain named Rainier next door, and terrain, lots and lots of terrain. The same forces that made Rainier's 14410' of mountain, it also created Crystals jagged cliffs, steep bowls and hikeable chutes. The lines we hiked to ski did not disappoint. Several feet of fresh snow had fallen in the previous days, we even observed a large avalanche running down a face after ski patrol blasted the closed terrain. And then they opened said terrain, epic. The heavy Washington snow sticks to steeps better than it does in CO, this means there's more skiable terrain. We hiked much of the day skiing deeper and deeper snow and finding lines only previously seen in ski movies. This is absolutely a skiers mountain with terrain to keep you progressing in your abilities. We finished the day with a beer and nachos at the Snorting Elk restaurant at the base. If I had to imagine what a chalet in Austria looks like full of locals after a day of skiing this was it. I will visit Crystal again, to ski the lines I didnt get to this time.

Background on work/life and longest post, i promise

To start off I should say why I moved to seattle, I did it for a job. I accepted a position with K2 Sports as a ski design engineering technician. This is my dream job, or at least what currently sparks my interests most. I took a big risk moving out here, I left my family, friends and girlfriend in colorado. I still think about my decision to relocate here but know this kind of opportunity doesnt happen often. Plus its a great adventure for me, something completely new to experience.

My Work - Working for k2 sports has its perks. My desk is surrounded by about 1000 pairs of skis, lots and lots of inline skates, (dont call them rollerblades, learned that lesson) snowboards, helmets, ski poles and skateboards. Its a relaxed environment where half the personnel skateboard to meetings. The dress code is also fairly relaxed, jeans and a tshirt are common where khakis and a collard shirt are rarely sported. Of course K2 has to be different and has chosen to be located on Vashon Island, a rural island in the Puget Sound. With this comes a commute via ferry to and from work. a 25min ferry ride surrouned by 20min drives leads to a long but relaxing commute. The picture above is taken from the ferry leaving Vashon Island some day in Feb, they dont have this in Colorado. I have been given the opportunity to work with some of the biggest names in the ski industry. A recent photo shoot of Eric Pollard was actually shot at my press at work and should be in magazines next year. I'll take some pictures of me doing the same things and we'll compare. I will elaborate on my job in future postings to keep this short.

Where i live - I live in a 3bed townhouse in Fremont Seattle with 2 guys I met on craigslist. They are both realestate brokers and work different schedules than I do. When we're home together they are fun to be around and have introduced me to some of their friends, ones I can even call when I want to be social. Fremont is self proclaimed "Center of the Universe" and features a statue of Russia's Lenin in the center of town. (I got this picture online, I dont know the girl waving in the picture.) All i have experienced in downtown Fremont is getting my haircut, but i'm looking forward to exploring it further. Theres a grocery store a few blocks from home, a gas station, and a brewery as well. I have yet to visit the brewery but will plan on a tour when the weather is nice. I dont know my way around too well yet so I stick to the streets I know , I still consider getting lost as exploring.

Stay tuned to future blogs, they will be recapping my recent epic skiing voyages with lots of pictures.

First post, lots to recap

I've started this blog with the likes of Dave and Jordy also known for their blogging excellence, I would like to use this as a space to share my adventures and life situation up here in the pacific northwest. If you check jordy and daves blogs please check them before mine, I do not want to steal their thunder nor steal their readers, in fact I wouldnt be blogging if I wasnt so inspired by theirs. But if your ever curious about what Andy's doing in Seattle, this will be the place I will be posting it. I hope to attach pictures and diagrams of my adventures to keep you filled in as well, and maybe coerce some of you to join me up here.

I am hesitant already writing because i'm sure some family members (cathy/anne) will be reading and correcting my grammar and spelling. This is a rough draft of my days here, when I write a book I will edit it more thoroughly.

Welcome to my blog, from here on out they will be filled with my daily adventures and rants about my life. Andy Hytjan, representing the Pacific Northwest chapter of Dr. Ross's Japan Job, here we go. (those of you not knowing the japan job, disregard last sentence i'll explain later)