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Not to keep anyone in the dark our adventure concluded with a race to slc airport to drop the rental car and fly the remaining 8hrs. I don't plan on that drive ever again, well till Tuesday when Zach and I drive to Wyoming, when I'll do 14 of those hours again.

Yakima

Yakima, snow is off the hwy in our brand new Saturn handles like a vette, how gangsta is tbat?

1 night blog-a-thon

While the night of the 24th will be full of scripted NORAD tracking Santa news don't miss you night of tracking yours truely this evening as I attempt to drive 19hrs through the most snowy states in a hertz rental car. My goal will be a post every two hours with live tricia about the towns I'm driving through. Expect less trivia while I'm driving and even less when I'm sleeping. Because nobody will be reading this will be an extension of "who will check this first!"

Current location- tacos guyamas in Fremont, tminus 30mins to departure. Filling up on caffeine and tacos before the adventure. I'll check in again when I've hit the open road, snow should clear around mile 1200, somewhere outside Denver.

Begin

Jordy Jeff and Zach, this blog's for you

To the 3 people I assume will check this first, who will win the race none of you know your in? Zach? There will be a reward, maybe a beer or maybe a burrito, it will be good.

Just finished burning the Sh@#$# out of my feet. I cooked my ski boot liners in the oven at 240 for 10mins, they blow up like marshmallow men, then I gotta jam my feet (with socks on) into them then into the ski boots for thermoforming. They are both red and slightly tender, I hope I didnt just give second degree burns to my feet.

Why am I thermoforming at midnight? because Crystal has gotten 10" since 6pm, another 10+ to fall tonight and still falling all day tomorrow.

heres Seattle, I have yet to see a plow... the city may need to invest in 1 or 2 of those, otherwise there will be more of this going on...
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/157531.asp?from=blog_last3

Chicken Machines

Who doesnt like the show "How its made," I think I have nanna and grandpa to thank for my addiction to this show as they gave me a book by the same title when i was about 8. But tonight I've come across an episode that opened my eyes, its not graphic or going to make you stop eating chicken, but its the strangest episode i've ever seen. I wish this hadnt caused me to find lots of other food processing videos on youtube... I wont post those.

Chicken Hatchery

We got snow yes we do

Well I'm back from a quick 2 day trip to Mt. Hood, I've never been this time of the year and it didnt fail to disappoint. We skied under direct sunlight and warm temps the 2 days I was there, no small feat for the PacNW this time of the year. Here are a few pictures from the mountain, this was the first day they ran this upper chairlift and for good reason. You see the trenches they dug, those are to keep the chairlifts from dragging on the snow, there must be a solid 30' of snow below the chairs right now, very impressive. I'll write more of a re-cap later, until then these pictures will have to suffice.

just like riding a bicycle

Well its bike to work month, I thought i'd take this moment to remind you all about your impact on this world and just how much good you can do. It really only takes a little to go a long way... I for one am batting 1000 this month, 1 for 1 biking to work. But this is where it ends, I need you all to do your part because I dont think I have that much biking left in me, my little 5.5mile/way ride through downtown beats me up, I get to work sweaty and feeling like I'm going to vomit. Coming home is no different, maybe better because of the afternoon-tune-up i had at work on my10speed '78? Raleigh Grand Prix (dad please confirm the year of this bike) . Racing busses, other bikers, cars and of course the clock to get to work make it fairly stressful. I have committed to my work group biking 5 days this month, this is no small feat for myself. And so I ask you all to bike to and from work so that I dont have to, I cant keep up this pace of 100%, it will be dropping to 50% tomorrow as I plan on driving.

Engrish part deux

So this is the soap bottle in our factory, working on submitting it to engrish.com soon.
























speechless; this lable needs no caption


i'll update soon, Andy

PingPong in a guard shack

So tonight i am in china, Nigel and myself find ourselves bored after leaving work near 9pm, we proceed through the local town to buy some t-shirts, batteries, electric bug zappers were last night, and a coffee thermos. I picked up a T-Shirt for paul, its posted here, hilarious if you ask me.Nigel and I have discovered out natural love for the game of ping pong, so tonight we found an open table in our GuardShack. The 3 people overseeing the factory let us play for about 2 hours, they sure seemed happy when we showed up and played with them for a bit, but not as inviting when leaving 2hrs later, perhaps they expected a short volley session? Anyways we are both sure in the history of our company no westerners have ever met the guard personell long enough to play some games of pingpong, we will try again tomorrow for some competition in there. Now off to bed, its late and I got an uber busy day tomorrow


olaf

Kamp K2

I dont have a lot of time, i'm packing to head to china tomorrow and need to take care of things around my house tonight. Here's a link with a recap from Dave Amirault at Freeskier Magazine of last weeks events, I'll work on mine on the flight or when i'm jet-lagged and not sleeping in hongkong.


http://community.freeskier.com/articles/article.php?article_id=2273

-note: whenever he mentions skiing deep pow and catching fresh tracks, I was probably demo-ing equip at the bottom and not skiing. This isnt to say I didnt catch any epic turns, but my experience wasnt quite the same as the campers. I also got to clean up their empty beer cups the following morning, which is braggable


andy

Marshall the Poodle

I started writing this explaining how many different skis we skied today, how many we reviewed, and most of all how stressful it was... but i'll just skip to saying how awesome Tahoe is. Seriously beautiful part of the country. I expected a lake but this thing is freakin huge. We spent the day at Squaw, another day there and then Boreal for a day, should be great testing/filming weather. Blue-sky and sunny all day when the forecast was rain, weather was in our favor. I'll upload some pictures when I get a chance, I now see why people live here and others vacation here.

Also, the house we're staying in is named after Marshall, a giant Poodle. To commerate "his highness" theres a large picture of him on the wall, weird.

(me) = M.I.A. (a pretty good album too)

So heres a quick update from the life of Andy:

Past: 3weeks ago Jeff came to visit, we toured seattle, ate really well and had some nice nights out on the town. Jeff was also fortunate enough to "come to work with andy" for an afternoon where he was put to work measuring and analyzing skis, thanks jeff for helpin out. Then 2 weeks ago BRodine came to visit, we had an amazing day skiing sat, went out sat night for some great fun, watched some planet earth sunday (buy this dvd set, yes its 60$ but worth every penny to keep funding like this happening for movies like this.) This past weekend I made the annual pilgramage to las vegas, home of my sisters birthday. Myself, Megan and 5 of her friends from SanDiego enjoyed a weekend of sunning, eating and of course a few clubs. While i'm not the clubbing type I had a great time and want to do it again. I also realize theres nothing wrong with 2 guys going to vegas with 5attractive women, JapanJob i'm looking to you to recruit 20girls for our next trip there.

Present: I'm currently in Lake Tahoe for the first time of my life. We are shooting catalog and testing 09-10 ski ideas. Our days will hopefully have sun-filled skiing, goggle tans and well received ideas. Eben and I have been working 16hr days for about the past month getting ready for this, really since I got home from Cabo its been crazy busy for these 3 days.

Future: On Sunday Eben and I fly back to Seattle for a day of rest/preparation for the coming week where on monday its off to Mt.Baker. KampK2 will be in full swing for a week of similar skiing shenanigans, sleeping in RV's and of course socializing with some new friends. The following monday I fly to china for 2 weeks.

I'll be updating with some pictures tomorrow or thursday, until then stay classey, miss you all.


o
l
a
f

New Animal #1

Well I dont have time to write a real entry, so instead I will introduce you to the Musk Deer:

Thats right, tonight I was watching Planet Earth and surprise to me, a Deer with fangs.


















Hope you find this as amazing as I have found it, good night

Whats the happs on the craps?

To fill you in on my life this week here goes:

Monday: Finally resumed 3hrs of meetings on mondays because other engineers are back in the office, so naturally Monday came and went without too much sweetness to report.

Tuesday: Lots of parts for skis being made at work, I burned a hole in the vacuum table for cutting cores and metal, got shit for this from co-workers and explained its because i'm so much more efficient that I light the machine on fire. No fire extinguisher necessary, just a mini bucket of water. Tuesday night little park session at central, rails are comin along there and i'm still very bad at half-pipe, i'll fill you all in on my progress assuming I make any. If anything else this serves as a log to how i'm not progressing.

Weds: Still making parts, no real cool things going on at work. Skiing afterwards with different posse, this work/skiing schedule is really cool and I think i'll take a night off thursday.

Thurs: Didnt bring ski stuff to work but turns out I like going. Quick trip home around 6pm then off to the mtns for a park session till 10:30, moderate improvement in half pipe, still skiing like a girl.

Fri: scheduled for city race league at alpental, then hopefully i can go to a ride park. This will be my inaugural race with the city league work team this week, hopefully I dont disappoint, I'll be racing on next years Line Blends, a nice little twin tip against all the other GS skis.

Sat: off to Cabo, going to be an amazing trip coming back the following sat, You probably wont get any blog postings, and in fact most the people reading this will be in cabo with me, Jeff/Jordy you'll just have to imagine how crappy it'll be down there, probably not even 90degrees.


A pair of my shoes fell apart yesterday, so now i'm wearing pair number 2, which isnt nearly as exciting as pair #1 now blown apart. Also, I think i've exhausted my chipotle gift card I received for christmas, this has been a true lifesaver up here and i'm sad to see it go. Turns out I've been too spendy with the chips and guac. Anyways its midnight, early drive to the airport for my roommate tomorrow, some working then some skiin, then Mexico for a week, then hopefully more skiing. ok, that is all, time for bed.

Lastly for Jordy, I am not responsible for your cute heart shaped whisk appearance, although I wish I had been involved somehow.

2 month summary

Well its been a while, Jordy this ones for you, as I assume everyone else has given up on my correspondence. Anyways, today will be a pictoral summary of the last 2 months of my life, a brief snapshot into the hectic life i've been living.

December 07-
Christmas was spent at home, seeing most my friends and family as well as skiing a little bit.

-Japan Job











In addition to friends we had some family time, and lots of dogs.




















Christmas was great, family didnt get as many pictures as dogs but thats expected, then back to seattle I came for some snow.
Its been a fairly ridiculous winter, most mountains have a 150"+ base and about a foot falls every day, I've had more powder days here this year than I have in my life, and the snow is terrible so anyone out there should stay skiing elsewhere, keep the crowds down here, but do come visit, just to see what your missing. Rodine, I suspect after a weekend here you'll decide your ready to leave Cali in about 4years, maybe sooner.

Shortly after getting back here it was time for work, so our dept spent 3days skiing at Crystal, some pictures below of our adventures.














This picture is the snow we skied everyday, i've never had such consistently good runs as I did that trip. The picture to the right is Eben eating a squirrel, this in itself is a story that will hopefully follow in a future posting.

After this come NFL postseason, some of my friends have seasontickets and I was lucky enough to be invited to the playoff game.














Thats Me, Kono, Rich, Nick, Casey and Katie, super Seahawks fans and fun people in general.

After football came well some more skiing, and of course work. We've been prototyping, Dale made the first pair of skis out of Seattle.
Dales been at this since high school and it shows. Last week I had the honor to have dinner with he and his wife, Sandy. Sandy knitted me the greatest ski hat in the world, complete with decorative ball atop, with sweaters to follow. Dales knowledge in ski making is vast, seeing every pair of skis prototyped and often produced since well before I was born, its actually an honor to have him teach me.

After work comes, well more skiing. Last week Alpental got about 4' of snow, the roads were closed all week and when it finally opened I was there, in its full glory. Skiing 30" untouched with a soft layer below was the payoff to a delayed start to work that day. Here I am, wearing the hat Sandy Gimblett knitted me




















Theres actually been a lot more than just that in my life, but this all the time i've got to write today. I wont take 2 months to post the next one, jordy keep up the good work on yours, much appreciated.

Just a final picture - these are the lines we skied last weekend, we were at the big rockface on the right, didnt have the clear skies or visibility needed to go higher.