Snow tour

I just got home from vacation, which is part of the reason it's been so long since I've posted (that and because I'm just a slacker.) In five days, I went from Denver to Aspen to Vail to Beaver Creek to Denver to Boulder and back to Denver. I've never been one to mess around with vacation time. I always cram in as much as possible.

I was able to see one of best friends, Ben, who lives in Denver and meet his new girlfriend. He took me to Aspen first, which still had some pockets of powder. Then, I was also able to meet up with Felicity, an English girl I met while I studied abroad in Salzburg. She brought a friend, Emma. The three of us stayed in a condo for a few days in East Vail. We got really lucky with the snow and the weather. We made it to Beaver Creek the last day I was there, where "cookie time" made up for the crumbling snow conditions. Every day at 3 p.m., older men in white chef's hats and coats hand out warm chocolate chip cookies for free at the base of the mountain.

Wednesday, I was able to hang out with Ben a bit in Boulder before I had to get on the plane. The last two days I've been trying to recover. Thank God it's the weekend.

Lesson learned: I need to stop booking my flights at 8:30 p.m. on the return.

Easter egg hunting

I love Easter for two reasons. The first one, of course, is that Jesus died and rose again. That's kind of a big deal.

The second is more of a guilty pleasure. It's the only time of the year you can find Cadbury Eggs, which in my mind is lucky for all the other candy makers. They contain two brilliant components: chocolate, and some mysterious sugary filling that I could just drink.

Tonight on the way home from the gym, I had to make a stop at a store and decided to pick up one of those four-packs, since my current stash has been depleted. My blood sugar was a little low, so I wasn't exactly thinking clearly, but I couldn't find them. They had truck loads of caramel ones, and the mini ones were in about three locations. But these two alternatives completely miss the point of the standard-sized, originals' smoothy creamy goodness. That's what it's all about.

To say I was sad doesn't quite capture my feelings at the time. Heartbroken, maybe, is a better word for it. It's been three days since I've had one and I'm having serious withdrawals.

Lesson learned: I only have 11 more days to stock up, which means I better get serious about finding a new supplier.

Outdoing the cookie monster

I just ate four giant, warm gooey chocolate chip cookies. I'm feeling a little sick, but it was worth it.

My recent baking binge was brought on by about four things:
1. I was supposed to bring cookies to a baby shower I attended Saturday, and buying a tub of Nestles cookie dough was cheaper than one-dozen pre-made cookies;
2. Living alone doesn't offer the checks and balances that roommate does against chocolate cravings;
3. The oven takes the chill off my apartment — and is an alternative to propane, which I have gone from regulating to not being able to afford at all;
4. Cookies go well with pre-flood history research, which I'm doing for a top-secret project.

So I had two cookies after a very late lunch, and two for dinner later. Because living alone also doesn't offer much motivation for eating healthy.

Lesson learned: My oven runs about 50 degrees hot.

A little spring

It's days like today that I wonder why anybody lives in the north. It is March 9, and I laid by the pool in my swimsuit. That's right, I did it of my own free will, I wasn't wrapped in a sleeping bag, and I may have even had my skin color slightly change on the way to a tan.

It was 69 degrees today, which is warm enough for me to sunbathe, considering that 69 degrees doesn't come until about July in Montana. In my list of stress relievers, sunbathing is second only to working out, which I did today too. So I am super relaxed right now.

Lesson learned: I am going to have a hard time ever leaving this climate.

Watch out for fake bombs

We received our first bomb threat yesterday, at least that the veterans can remember. A man came into our office and complained about a booking we listed. He told the girls at the front desk he had a bomb strapped to his chest. I'm still not sure what the problems was — whether he was mad his name was listed or whether I spelled it wrong.

In any event, he later told officers our newspaper was part of an "evil empire" controlling our town. Hmm, he has a point

The man was arrested and taken to the mental hospital, so we're safe for now. No, he didn't have a bomb.

I really shouldn't make light of this, because if the guy really had blown up our building, I might not be here to write this. And that would be really annoying, because I have some stuff I want to do still. If we did spell his name wrong, I would be happy to correct it.

Lesson learned: Don't misspell the names of crazy people.

Thoughts from the dentist chair

I wouldn't imagine there are many people who like going to the dentist. But I really hate it. I'm not a big fan of having a drill, jack hammer and some weird looking hair dryer in my mouth all at the same time, which was my state yesterday afternoon. My dentist convinced me I needed to have my silver fillings taken out because they could possibly expand and crack my teeth. Personally, I think that's a little melodramatic. So there I was, lying in the chair, with earphones on, watching TMZ on a TV hanging from the ceiling above me, and all I could think was, "If it's not broke, don't fix it." I let them go through with it anyway. The dentist shot me up with Novocain and went to town.

He kept saying things to me, which I couldn't really hear with the headphones on and the drills buzzing. I couldn't talk either, so I was basically temporarily rendered a deaf mute.

But now I have two new beautiful white fillings, which is a darn good thing, because I'm sure those silver fillings were just an eyesore to people who could catch a glimpse at my top molars.

Lessons learned: The Novocain does not wear off in just two hours.