Big Sky Country

I am just loving spring. It is great to go out for a run in 75 degree sunshine, smell the blooming Bradford Pear trees, see the hibiscus and cherry trees in full bloom, watch my tomatoes, peppers, and basil sprout, and take a nap outside. In addition to the weather, I'm watching the Final Four which is great. I'm pulling for Butler. Right now Duke and West Virginia are playing and I can't think of two teams I would not want to watch more, but for different reasons. I'm sure all you Tech fans out there are having the same mental angst over who to cheer for.

I've been doing a little bit of traveling lately. My friend Andrew got married last weekend in Great Falls, Montana. When I first received the invite, I couldn't justify the flight out there, but I have never been to Montana and have always wanted to go. After a few buddies told me they were going, I thought why not? If I could describe Montana in one word, it would be vast. I never appreciated what "big sky country" meant until I went there. I never understood how the sky could be bigger in one place vs. another. You can see forever. I used to watch western movies and I couldn't understand how when Clint Eastwood would see someone far away and they would be like a 3 day trek from him. Now I get it. The plains extend forever only to be firmly interrupted by steep canyons down into the Missouri river, mesas rising up, or the Rockies towering over the plains. While I was there, I visited a dam (where I caused a rockslide), went on a 4 mile trail run along the Missouri, smelled sage from the wild, and became wide-eyed over the 1923 Model T belonging to the father of the bride.

As for the wedding, it was also great. All you can eat prime rib and salmon. The best part about the meal was the taste. Bride and groom entered the reception to Enter Sandman. Hokie approved. I told you I'd have the mustache picture soon. Enjoy. Assuming you and I are facebook friends, you can see all my Montana pics on there.

spring

There are many things I don't like about Norfolk. One of the most evident is the winter. The winter in Norfolk is so unsure of itself. There is a sense in which winter in other places is either 50+ or cold, snowing and awesome. A usual winter day in Norfolk is a high of 40, a low of 31 and rain. Vomit. On the flip side, springtime is nice. It comes quicker than other places. While other environments have March weather in the 40s/50s, Norfolk has been mostly sunny with days in the 60s. Beautiful. The weather application on my desktop has Norfolk listed at 81 right now. I washed the car yesterday, played tennis this morning, and I think after I get done cleaning my room and rockin out to Van Halen, a run is in order.

Speaking of my room, my roomates and I are in the homestretch of moving down the street. Pictures are going up, closets are being filled and organization is proceeding. Another thing I love about spring: planting. I started pots of Roma tomatoes, bell peppers, basil and rosemary last Sunday. I get excited about growing my own food. My plan this year is to plant early and then plant again in late May so I can have two harvests.

My hockey team is getting better. We had the lead for most of the game on Thursday before giving it away in the third period to lose 3-2. I scored the first goal of the game which got me more excited than a 5 year old at Christmas. You may be thinking that I did some fancy move and gracefully placed the puck top-shelf. False. I stood my large behind in front of the net and after my teammate shot the puck, I started swinging for a rebound. It came up and bounced off my chest and in. NHL here I come.

Back in the Saddle Again

I've got good news. Hockey season is back. I didn't play hockey last fall because I didn't have the time to play and it is expensive. So after a season off, I started the spring season Thursday night. The games are late at night (10 pm-ish) but so much fun. I have lost alot of core strength since last season and I am sore. I am not a great hockey player and that is evidenced by the fact that 2 minutes in I got called for cross checking. I'm not sure how it was a cross check because I hit the dude with a hip check, but whatever. We lost 5-1 but we didn't have our normal goalie. Apparantly he's nasty good. We have a small team so I'm looking forward to lots of playing time combined with a tortuous workout.

Blacksburg last weekend was awesome, I saw a ton of friends old and new and I even went square dancing. I ate steak both nights. Can't complain with that. Once I find my camera cord, I will show you how awesome mustaches are.

In other news, Big Red is now on the world wide web. Enjoy.
http://www.lmpaintings.com/portfolio.html

Winter Olympics

I thoroughly enjoy the winter olympics. I like them better than the summer ones. I know the gravity of that statement. The summer olympics just don't have enough sports that I enjoy watching. Winter has skiing, hockey, luge, skeleton, bobsled, snowboarding, moguls, and biatholon. I'm not hating the summer olympics because I do like those, but winter is nice.

I know you're dying to know what I thought of the US Hockey team. I was amazed at Ryan Miller. His goaltending is what got the US in the final game. I was excited about our first victory over Canada and was fully confident before the gold medal game. We didn't deserve to win that game but I'm glad Parise made it go to OT. That goal with 25 seconds made me pumped. Crosby's goal in OT didn't make me as happy.

In other news, I'm beginning March with a trip to Blacksburg this weekend and I'm rockin the mustache this week as part of "Mustache March." More on that next post.

shred some gnar

I always try to spend government only holidays doing something fun. This past weekend was no different. Since all my friends have significant others and it was valentine's day, I decided to go skiing. The original plan was to go to Snowshoe for multiple days, but instead I took a day trip with a buddy from church and one of his friends to Massenutten. The picture at left is of some goats that were living at the top of the mountain. The large bearded man off camera told me they are probably strays from a nearby farm. Now if you are from Vermont or out west the conditions at Massenutten were atrocious. Only 3 black diamonds, which weren't very challening, and plenty of ice instead of snow are characteristic of Virginia skiing. But when you live in a flat, cool, snowless existance in Hampton Roads, it is heaven. I had a blast just being in the mountains with snow. I enjoyed laughing at folks who fell alot on the bunny slopes as well as at myself when I fell learning how to ski backwards.

Speaking of winter sports, the Winter Olympics rule. What rules more than the Winter Olympics? DVRing the Winter Olympics. There is no better feeling than fast forwarding through figure skating and figure skating-related events, and the endless interviews/Bob Costas talking about nothing. My Olympic viewing is quite efficient.

In other news, I have officially found a name suitable for the new ride. Her name is Gabriella. If that is too many syllables for you, you can just call her Gabby.

Hosed

So every Wednesday a bunch of friends and I go to the same restaurant for wings. So this past Wednesday I'm driving to wings when a friend calls. I'm sitting in the parking lot when a man walks up and motions as if he would like to talk to me. I open the door and ask what he wants. "Money for groceries for his family", he says. I give him all the cash I have, $2.11. He asks for more. I say no. He asks if I could go to an ATM. I lie about how I don't have a nearby bank account. Feeling guilty, I offer to take him to the Hardee's across the street and buy him a bucket of chicken for his family. He says he wants something healthier for his kids. I collect my thoughts and suggest that I go to Farm Fresh (a grocery store) and buy his groceries for him. I thought that surely he would accept. He said that Farm Fresh was too expensive and he wanted to go to a cheaper place for groceries. He still wanted the ATM. Now here is the really sad part. Most people would have walked away from this guy so as not to feed a bad habit. I gave in and got him $20 from the ATM. I got hosed. He asked afterward if we could pray. I said sure. I forgot his name and therefore prayed a really awkward and impersonal prayer. I need to work on how I handle people asking me for money.

Norfolk Froze Over

I feel so fortunate. I absolutely love snow and Norfolk got some! It was amazing to wake up on Saturday morning to my roomates yelling, "Snow"! I got out of bed and looked outside to a gorgeous blanket of 4" outside. To think that 2 months ago I looked out the window to 2 feet of water on the street is just nuts. I've included a few pictures for your enjoyment. Some of the highlights of the snow include: not working Monday, a random snowball fight with some 5th graders, doing donuts in a local parking lot and fishtailing all over town, a 3 mile run today in the snow, laughing at how Norfolk literally has no snow removal system, and wearing snowpants and rolling around in the snow.

In other news, my roomate, Jeremy, bought a house last week. I've been uncertain as to where I would live when my lease ran out in May, but now I'll be moving in March. Don't worry, it's not a big move. I'll still be in the Larchmont neighborhood of Norfolk, only about 1/4 mile away from where I currently live.

Workouts

As I sit here watching the State of the Union Address, I think I should provide an update. I have been kind of busy this week as my chemistry class wrapped up. I took my final on Wednesday and I'm glad it's over. I'm not good at chemistry but I learned some good science. I think I passed my test and now it's time to move on to Fluids and Electical systems.

I decided to change up my normal workouts this week. I usually run between 3 and 4 miles on running days, but Tuesday I decided to run to the tennis courts which is about 3 miles. So, run 3 miles, play tennis, run 3 miles. I played tennis until dark, then began to run home. I had forgotten that to get home, I had to run through a neighborhood that is a little sketchy after dark. I also neglected to realize that I looked a little out of place with my tennis racket sticking out of my backpack. So as I'm running, I see a group of what looked to be middle schoolers. I hear one of them say, "That dude looks intense". I can only assume this was due to the shin splint pain. Then one of them started following me on his bike. All of a sudden he asks, "Are you trying to lose weight?" Humbling. I didn't know what to say so I said yeah.

In other news, I made pizza dough from scratch. Crazy delicious and cheap. Here is the recipe:
3.5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups warm water
1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix flour and sugar. Pile on working surface and make a baseball sized well in the flour. Mix water, yeast, sugar, olive oil in a bowl. Pour into well. Be on guard against making a mess, I did. Slowly work flour into water and mix. Knead until it looks like dough. Drizzle with olive oil and flour before baking. The best part is the taste.

Post-Christmas Adventures

Last time I left you on the edge of your seat, wondering what I did after Christmas. Well, the long-awaited answer is here. Back in the fall, my friend Jake and I decided to go on a hiking trip. Let me give you some background because You're probably thinking, "Scott doesn't hike. He might hurt himself." Well, you're right. But I miss the mountains. They are gorgeous and I don't get to enjoy them very often so I figured a good hike would do me well. Jake and I planned to go 60 miles in 4 days which was more ambitious than I realized. Fortunately it snowed 2 feet and we had to cancel that trip. I decided to do 19 miles in 1.5 days. I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. Turns out I need some better hiking boots. After mile 12 my feet were hurting badly. My friend Todd decided to come with me which was a good idea. It was great for us to share what was happening in each other's lives. We saw some great views including the one above at McAfee's Knob and the icicles in a creek. Other pictures are on facebook. I also got to test out my 15 degree sleeping bag as it got down to 12 degrees overnight. I am happy to report that my Big Agnes bag kept me nice and toasty.

After surviving the wilderness, I spent another day in Blacksburg hanging out with great friends before returning toward Norfolk. I say toward because I stopped to enjoy the Hokies play football and spend New Year's eve with some college buddies. I must say the Hokies played well. Stinespring wasn't a complete idiot, our defense played well, and Tyrod didn't disappoint me. It is always good to see close friends you don't see very often. The party was out in the sticks which is just my style. I got to ride a 4 wheeler, play a little cornhole, and my buddy Michael let me play with his whip. I had a blast. That's all for now.