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...