Juno

Last night we took the girls to see the movie Juno. It is rated PG13 so we were a bit weary of taking Madison but in the end I am glad we did. This movie was the first for the screenplay writer named Diablo Cody and is amazing. Because the movie is about teen pregnancy there is a lot of talk about sex. However, the way it is done is in a teaching or clinical way by using terms such as "sexually active".

The father and step-mother are very calm and supportive of Juno which Shayna did not find to be very realistic. Madison did not understand why the parents were hoping she was expelled from school or on hard drugs rather than being pregnant. I had to explain that some of life's problems are easier to deal with and don't have such lasting ramifications.

I think it was a great film for our girls to see about an important subject. I told Madison after the movie if she ever came home and told me she was pregnant I would kill her. Her response, "no you would not mommie" I suppose she is right.

In all, this was a quirky, fresh, funny, and sweet film about what happens to a 16 year old girl when she decides to have unprotected sex with her best friend.

Here is the official website and you can read other reviews here at Rotten Tomatoes.

Snowshoeing @ Lunch Part IV

This image is about the polar opposite of how I am feeling right about now. I am so OVER winter. Currently, we have too much shitty snow to ride my MTB on but too little to snowshoe. Between a rock and a hard place...

The boys and I headed out again last week to another of our favorite lunchtime MTB trails that we call the Creek Trail because it runs along a Creek. It is a really fun and somewhat technical trail that we really enjoy. It has off camber single track, bridges, logs, all nestled among the trees and accessible from work by bike.

I had the most trouble of the week on this trail mostly because there were no existing tire or snowmobile tracks to follow so we were not even sure we were on the trail. In fact, we weren't - we were walking on top of bushes. When you walk on top of a bush it is like an air pocket and you sink down a ton.

At one point, I somehow sunk to my knees and twisted around the other direction and ended up face first in the snow. I also had a blister from shoeing all week so it was painful to walk anyway.

It was still a blast.

Jon brought his camera along this time. I thought I would close this post with a picture of him taking a picture of me, taking his picture rather than my usual self portrait.

Hoping for snow or a heat wave for next week!

Snowshoeing @ Lunch Part III

Jon, Marcus, and I decided to tackle another of our favorite trails that we call Timberline. We typically ride this one on Fridays because it takes a bit longer. It is a long and steep road climb until the pavement ends and then it is a bit more climbing on a fire road

This trail must be one of the highest in elevation because the amount of snow was incredible. Part of the trail had some snowmobile tracks that we were able to follow which was nice.

Here are Marcus (left) and Jon (right) at the start of our journey. The pictures seem a bit dark it was pretty overcast that day and I am still getting used to the new camera. You can see in the background where we are headed, on the other side of the mountain is Lake Tahoe.

Here I am at the end of our trek. We could actually go much further but we were limited on time. We made great strides in an hour (or so) and made it up into the trees.



Last but not least, the post would not be complete without another self-portrait. These always crack me up because although I am the one taking the picture I can never seem to anticipate the moment it is going to be taken so I always look silly.

Snowshoeing @ Lunch Part II

Yesterday, I had some friends join me for my lunchtime snowshoeing expedition.

Jon did not even have shoes yet and ran to the local sporting goods store to purchase some to join Kathy and I. Evidently a bet he placed on a college football game paid off big.

We decided to do the V&T trail this time, another of our MTB trails that we normally ride at lunch. We met at 11:30, the rain had just turned to snow and it was beautiful.

I don't normally wear a hat unless it is actually snowing so I did not bring one and don't really have one so since it was snowing, I was looking around in my car and spotted Charlie's hat that he had loaned to Madison over the weekend. Thanks Charlie!

Here are Kathy and Bodie the most adorable golden doodle. I tried to get shots of him but he doesn't sit still long enough!

Here is a shot of the city from the trail. The snow was really coming down. Stay tuned for part III of the weeks snowshoeing posts.

Making Snowballs out of Snow

With the recent snow fall my usual lunch time bike ride was not desirable. It might have been possible but it would not exactly be fun. So I decided to make snowballs out of snow so to speak and brought my snow shoes with me to work and scout out our trails.

I drove over to the trail head and up the first hill. The Pilot does great in the snow and I could feel the auto 4WD kick in. I parked at the top near the water tower and got geared up. The weather was perfect the sun was shining, the wind was light if non-existent, and the temperature was near the 40's.

I headed up toward the Deer Run trail head to scope it out for the possibility of MTB riding. Needless to say, chances are slim that MTBing would be any fun in this amount of snow. Sure snow biking is a blast but not in this depth, it would require studded tires which I do not have. It is also a nice change of pace to mix things up and get a different form of exercise.

I got my snowshoes for Christmas in 2006 and have not used them until this week. At first we were waiting for Brent to have some and then it was no longer winter so we have not had the opportunity to try them out. As you can see they are a nice shade of hot pink. This was the sole reason for purchasing them, although they are actually a very nice pair of Atlas Electra 8 women specific shoes.

Here is a view of the city from the trail, it still amazes me that I am so fortunate to have access to nature minutes from the city on my lunch hour!

Finally, the best of all the pictures - me thinking I am turning off the camera when in reality, I am taking yet another self portrait.

Let it Snow

This past weekend we had what they are calling the "storm of the century". We had back to back storms resulting in nearly a foot of snow accumulation in the valley floor and over 5 feet up in Tahoe. Saturday afternoon we threw on the snow shoes and walked to our friends the Moser's house and then proceeded to the local park for some sledding.

Brent made an awesome launch pad for the sleds. All the other kids at the park wanted to try it out and when Madison and Shayna went back the next day they barely got a turn on it because it was so busy.

We took Chili-dog along with us to the park and he had a ball. He chased the kids around, caught snowballs, and ate some snow with Madison. He absolutely loves snow and cries to go outside constantly!

Everyone used Jeff's childhood sled as a snowboard off the jump it was pretty cool to watch.

After a minor injury (Madison hit her shin) we headed home to have some tea, warm up, and watch a movie. It was a great day spent with some great friends enjoying the snow.