Payne's Prairie Preserve

So the responsible thing to have done this weekend would have been to stay home and do some of the bazillion things that don't get done during the week HOWEVER dashing off on the spur of the moment to bike the Gainesville Hawthorne State Trail (which skirts around the edge of Payne's Prairie Preserve), tromp around Micanopy and have a beer at the Yearling while listening to Willie Green do his blues thing was oh so much more fun.... okay, so maybe between the tromping and the blues-ing Dada and I only covered about half of the 32 mile round trip but in our defense we were somewhat "equipment challenged"... Next time we'll do the other half. Promise.

Peace, Love and Hairspray

The coldest Tampa night in memory (32 degrees!) and I'm at Stageworks Theater's Tie Dye Black Tie event in a minidress... am here to assert that in such conditions dancing becomes a survival technique. The evening was a blast (thank you Jim and Cristina for including me) and huge money was raised towards the new theater!You can only imagine what this looks like this morning.... the ozone may never recover...

Breckenridge with Jason and Dani

L to R: Jack, Dani, Gabi, Nate, Jason, Paige, Chuck

Chuck and I spent New Years in Breckenridge Colorado with some of Chuck's college friends, Jason and Dani. Jason is from Colorado and his grandparents have a house in Breckenridge which is where we stayed. This was my first non-spring time ski trip and it was COLD. Jason and Dani are getting married this summer in Italy so the next time we see them we will be much warmer!

Julie and Jeff at Lake Tahoe

It was a wee bit chilly at the top of the mountain. And, given that I was still recovering from pneumonia and Jeff from Bronchitis....our ski days were a little short. We were happy to make it to lunch time each day. However, we are now officially in Redfield Training Camp - along with Paige - in preparation for our February Montana Ski Trip. Paige and I have promised to be in as good shape as we both were last year for our Deer Valley trip! Challenge On!

Christmas 2009

Lets start out with this little gem:
Oh Laura how I miss you :) I love the new video camera mom got me for Christmas! It is a Vado HD and the reason it is so awesome is that it is pocket sized (like a regular digital camera) so I am more apt to carry it around than something big that will require me bringing a separate carrying case. Since I am still new at this thing you will have to cut me some slack. While editing the following video, it came to my attention that, since I am holding the camera, it picks up my voice much better (read: louder) than everyone else's. Also, since it is so tiny, I apparently have the urge to move it around a lot, resulting in an earthquake type scenario with everything I am trying to film - I'll be working on these two factors but for now you'll just have to suffer through. Ed Note: if you double click on the video it will open up a youtube page where you will be able to watch a larger version (mom).

Thanksgiving 2009

Mom and I flew to NY to stay with Katie and Sheldon at their apartment. My Christmas present from mom was a pocket sized video camera - yea!

Raquetball

Current tally: Chuck 8 games won - Paige 0 games won.
I feel the tide turning slowly but surely in my favor.
Do you feel it?