: elis exposure

t recently donated a piece of her artwork to eli cannons. to our surprise t's painting is now hanging to the immediate right as you walk into the bar...right above the beer taps. a huge thanks to phil @ elis for prime placement of the piece and for his love of art!!! support the most badass beer bar in connecticut, go to eli cannons! also, support new england illustration & design!

t has lots of artwork for sale on her site. (click the link above)

t's abstract person painting

: no work, all play

i made plans earlier in the week to take today off to go skiing. the original plan was to head up to butternut, but things didn't work out :( t ended up spending the day slaving in front of her work computer and i hit the trails of hurd park solo on the cross country skis. i lucked out this morning, another skier hit the trails just as i was pulling in so i had his fresh tracks to ski in. pre-laid tracks mean faster, more efficient skiing and less fumbling around in the powder. today's weather was pretty wild! i was skiing in a full on snow storm and 5" of fresh powder this morning and now it is down pouring out. i'm glad i got out to play early so i could appreciate the fresh snow fall.

today's photos: click here

: all or nothing commute

this winter has really opened my eyes and i'm beginning to realize that my commute to and from work is really a gamble everyday. like thousands of others, i have to cross over the arrigoni bridge twice a day and if one little incident occurs on or around the bridge my commute becomes a nightmare. this winter has been hellish...mainly cause people drive like idiots and follow to closely resulting in crashes like the one pictured below. this totally pisses me off and makes my 20 minute commute and hour long ordeal! one persons complete dumb-assness (yeah, that's a real word!) ruins everybody else' day!

4 car pile-up at 8am!

: comstock hike

sunday i went for a hike with my dad and karli out in the hills behind the comstock covered bridge. the temps were in the teens, but we bundled up and made the best of it. it is always fun to get out in nature and enjoy the fresh winter air...as long as i am walking in front of my dad and his rancid cigar :p karli is a riot! i love how she insists on picking up fallen tress like they are sticks. full on 4" round, 8 feet long trees being dragged up the trails by a 1 year old pup.

sunday's hike photos: click here

: ice daggers

so it hasn't been above freezing in almost a week, yet these icicles on the house keep growing larger and larger. the radiant heat of the sun is melting the snow on the roof and the water is adding inches of iciness off the roof line. pretty insane! soon enough that window is going to look like a cell with bars of ice. i should be responsible and knock the icicles down so they don't fall and stab t or myself in the head, but i can't bring myself to do it, they look way too cool!

: welcome to podunk

only in portland, connecticut would slim jim's be the hot "new item" at the grocery store. i haven't eaten meat in 5 years, but as a child 20 years ago i devoured these death sticks. not sure how the grocery store just got them in stock. sorry guys, you're 81 years late! slim jim's hit the market in 1928.

: sundown

last night was super fun! we packed stock's suburban with 7 people and headed up to ski sundown for the 6-10pm night ski session under the lights. we had a great time bombing all over the mountain on our skis and boards for 2.5 hours. old man winter took his toll and we all called it quits early fearing frostbite! no lie, it took me about and hour to get the feeling back in my left hand. we went out to eat at taco hell after skiing and i couldn't even feel the bean burrito i was holding in my hand. woo hoo, gotta love winter!

: inauguration frustration

so cnn and facebook have been hyping up their live streaming coverage of the inauguration for weeks and when i went to watch this is what i got...


this is a ground breaking moment in history, you think they'd be using state of the art technology to prevent this from happening!

: cora hayden gates

congrats to my best friend ryan and his wife erica, their baby has finally arrived. cora hayden gates was born saturday morning and weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. the best part about this is that i can now call spencer, everyone's favorite pedal power employee, grandpa gates!

: making tracks

so i got in some solid ski time this weekend. with saturday night dumping a fresh 5" the conditions at hurd park were mint yesterday morning. t and i put in 1.5 hours of skiing in the morning and i went back for another 3.5 mile loop right before dusk. to my surprise, we received another 4" last night so we'll be back on the skis after work today. i'm really bummed i have to work today when 90% of society has it off for martin luther king jr. day! corporate america has no love for doctor king, which is bs!

: open wide george!

so amazing! the george bush urinal courtesy of artist clark sorensen and the exhibit: "down the drain" - the legacy of george w. bush. awesome!!!

: that's a negative!

daaaaaaamn!

: homer would be proud

wow, it doesn't get any more cut and dry than "beer"...and it's not even a bottle of duff!

: so korny

t and i are constantly taking photos of our cat korny. she is always doing something amusing or laying around looking super cute. with that said, i encourage you to check out so korny, a photo a day blog dedicated to our cat.

: macho skiing

t and i got in 2 solid sessions of cross country skiing yesterday at machimoodus state park...which i've now dubbed "machomoodus". we were up at 6am and on the skis by 7am headed into the darkness of the lower vista trail, the first people in the park. i guess it takes a little bit of motivation and loose screws to get up that early and venture into 18 degree temps and snow on a sunday morning. we skied for 1.5 hours and when we got back to the car the park was still empty! after some lunch and an afternoon rest we met up with one of t's friends and skied another session till sunset. this week looks to be cold and there is a chance for a fresh 2" on thursday. looks like we'll be skiing most nights this week.

sunday's photos: click here

: cold kills stress!

this morning i hiked what's becoming my typical weekend morning route at hurd park. i really needed to get outside and breathe some fresh air after a stressful week. frustration grows best in artificial light! i've been in need of some serious nature therapy! there was a coyote roaming around hurd this morning which bugged me out a bit. the critter was either late to bed or rabid, but i didn't stick around to find out. i'm back at the house hunkered down for the storm. the plan is to head out and cross country ski machimoodus state park at dawn...we'll see how the weather is?

today's Photos: click here.

: scrabble cat

who needs cat toys when you have a scrabble box!

: hey you guys!

check out shawn hebrank, he looks more like sean astin straight out of the goonies! crawling through tiny holes in floors looking for hidden treasures. in shawn's case, the treasure was frozen water pipes that needed heating and insulating. i'm sure data could invent a gadget to solve that pipe problem! i figured with a house that old there has to be a treasure map hidden somewhere in those walls. damn, no corpse of chester copperpot, bone organ, or treasure of one-eyed willie in minnecrapolis! ...just bitter cold!

: no soup for you!

wow, last night's dinner was awesome! i made some vegetarian noodle soup and served it up in pumpernickel bread bowls. yum! t is still feeling under the weather so i thought the soup might help warm her system up. i could eat this every night!

: vancouver 2010

i picked up a pair of cross country skis, poles, and boots off of craigslist this weekend. the set is in excellent condition and i put them to good use putting in some miles yesterday morning. i haven't skied cross in over 10 years, but i got the hang of it again pretty quick and was cruising along in no time. i'm pretty sure i'm good enough to qualify for the olympics. i'm thinking i can buy a red rider bb gun and give the olympic biathalon a go next year at the winter games in vancouver :p rumor has it we're supposed to have a harsh winter so i hope to get a lot of ski time in. t booked us a 3 day stratton ski vacation in march which should include a ton of alpine and cross country skiing...i'm psyched!

this image is the property of vancouver2010.com

: winter wonderland

my first weekend of 2009 was spent playing in the great outdoors. t has been sick since tuesday so i've been frolicking in the wilderness solo all weekend.

i was up at 6:30 saturday morning and in the trails at hurd park by 7:15. a few minutes into my hike i was greeted by two deer who crossed my path. the deer were spooked for a second, ran, and then proceeded to stare me down for another minute or so as i snapped photos. i ended up seeing these same deer three more times throughout the morning. if a 6'3" monster was coming at me in the middle of the woods i'd run like hell! these deer just chilled out 75 feet away, tails wagging and all! i put in 2 hours of hiking time and wound up going back to hurd in the afternoon for another 1.5 hour hike with my dad & karli. great day in the woods!

this morning i was up at 6:20 and clipped into my cross country skis by 7:00. again, i ended up at hurd park and this morning was eerie. the sun hadn't yet risen and the park was dark! i made my way along on my skis counting down the minutes till sunrise and some radiant warmth...it was bone chilling cold in the darkness of the trees! i put in 1.5 hours on the skis covering some good distance and feeling the burn in 80% of my body. gotta' get ride of the guinness gut, road racing starts in 2 months!

all in all it was a kick a$$ weekend, a great way to start the new year. back to the grind tomorrow...wah wah wah! :(

the weekends photos: click here

: so this is 2009?

t has been ill battling a harsh cold so we rung in the new year on the couch watching red bull's new years no limits and relaxing. 2009 is here, but hell, it doesn't feel any different than 2008? i could really never comprehend all the hype of new year's eve. people dumping mass amounts of money into food, booze, party favors, etc. as far as i'm concerned we should celebrate and cherish each and everyday, not one night of the year.

i headed out this afternoon for a solo hike at hurd park. 17 degrees with 15mph winds made for quite an invigorating adventure, but i wouldn't pass it up for anything! call me crazy, but standing alone, shin deep in snow in the middle of the woods is amazing! the absolute silence is indescribable! people talk about "cleansing themselves" for the new year, turning over a new leaf and starting fresh. for me, nothing is more cleansing and purifying than standing alone in the middle of the wilderness. for those few seconds i'm free, not a care in the world, just man and nature. deep breaths of bitter cold winter air fill me with new life and energy.

photos from today: click here