ENERGIZED!

We have power! The hot tub is a balmy 101 degrees and it was great to wake up in our own bed! Power had been out for a total of about 84 hours. It's nice to be home.

I got a chance to play some Halo III in its testing stages and all I can say is wow! Here's a trailer.

No juice but lots of POWDER

Saturday morning, 5:15am... text message from Tom: "Wave up its go time. NICE" That could only mean one thing. Go back to sleep for 15 mins.

1 hour later we were on the way to Mt.Baker to go snowboarding. Chad bravely taking the wheel with Tom riding shotgun and Chris and I asleep in the back. It's one of the best openings in years with a 110" base and 2 terrain parks. There was no fresh but 14" a day previous was still easy to come across and visibilty was perfect. Tom brought his dvd recorder and we started filming a bit. I landed a flip, Chris was solid on the boxes and Tom smashed into a tree. He's okay!

It's STILL chilly and dark at the Juanita manor. No power for at least another night. How will we survive? By staying at Gil's! His hospitality has been awesome. We played Gears of War on the XBOX 360 all day. Alas, tomorrow it's back to work as campus is open. Hopefully by night I'll be home to the hottub. But tonight... THE RAM for half price Sundays.

Seattle storm, 1 million without power!

A major storm hit King county yesterday (Friday Dec 14th) bringing winds of up to 80mph. It was an intense storm and we sat at home watching TV waiting for the power to die. And it did, though slightly later than we expected (1am). It's been out since. Here's the news story.

We have natural gas and the BBQ to cook and water is still flowing but only the fireplaces to heat, and their mostly decorative. I'm writing this blog downtown at my friend's. The whole east-side of Seattle seems to be out of power and work was cancelled today as the whole campus was down.

It was an interesting end to my birthday and a weird start to Gil's (15th). HAPPY BDAY GIL!

Well we're making the best of it. Tomorrow looks like a great day for snowboarding and Mt.Baker is probably the destination since snoqualmie will probably be closed.

Wish lists

It's that time of year again. People have been asking me "What should i get you?". This year I want mostly books. They're affordable, easy to bring back to the USA with me, and most of all... educational! If you have any ideas on what books I should ask for let me know. Also, if you have a wish-list then please post it in my comments.

The items on these lists are mutually exclusive (unique) so don't worry about buying something off one and having it bought from the other.

One for the USA


One for Canada


Also, to help start this week out here are two of my Pandora Radio stations. Not everything they play is great but a lot of it is awesome. Check them out!
-> GROOVE STATION <-
-> DANCE STATION <-

Surprise Bday!

It was a sleepy Saturday morning. I was ready to sleep in. I thought Amanda and I had a nice little Saturday planned: Go to home depot, bed-bath and beyond if we had time... WHO KNOWS!?! But it wasn't to be... Amanda, Cam, George and the rest of the crew had other plans.

I awoke at 8am to be greeted by Cam and George who told me "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! GET UP WE'RE GOING BOARDING!". Apparently my birthday celebration got moved up a bit this year (it's actually Dec 14th). They threw the bright pink one-piece at me, piled me into the R32, fed me some booze, and off to snoqualmie we went. Dan, Chad, Cam, George, Tom and I had a great day boarding. It mostly consisted of sitting around drinking beer and hucking off bumps and jumps.

Afterwards we headed to the manor to unwind. But Amanda had another surprise in hand! Balloons everywhere and a great spread of sushi, sandwiches and beer awaited thanks to Kojo and Gil's help.

From there on it was a great night, hot-tubbin, cake, and lots of friends (20+ showed up throughout the night). Thanks to everyone for surprising the hell out of me. I'm not officially 28 but I will be soon. And the party kicked ass.

Lots of photos up to checkout the madness:
-> Cam's photos <-
-> Dan's photos <-

Videos to follow.