After arriving back in Denver, I spent a strange week at work with hardly anyone else in the office. The office normally closes the week between Christmas and New Year's, however I did not have enough vacation accumulated to take it off. The quiet was nice at first, but I started slipping into some "Shining" mentality towards the end.
On New Year's Day, my cousins (Todd and Tyler) arrived to do some skiing. It was nice having guests, although one of my cousins clearly doesn't know how to behave away from home. We went to Winter Park on Saturday and had alot of fun.
It snowed most of the day, so the slopes were in excellent condition.
I was shocked the lift lines were so short. The economy must be keeping people at home. That means more skiing for me!
My next guest was my sister, Becca "Smickers" Marshall. I was very excited for her to move out here. Timing became an issue with her move, so she needed a place to stay for a few months. She reveled in my cookie dough.
One of her first nights out, it snowed around 6". We hit the local sledding hills for some night sledding over the sleeping prairie dogs.
Beck was not adjusted to the altitude, but still was a trooper climbing the hills. I was looking pretty BA after a few sick runs down the hill.
Here is a video of Big Bad Beck flying down the hill face first. Listen closely because the first sound you will hear is the painful yelp of a prairie dog being treated as a mogul.
The next weekend I had more flatlanders visit. HL and the Gang from Kdot were in town for the national ASCE conference. We had a ridiculously good time in LoDo with the majority of the proof posted on facebook. Like a true Coloradoan, I awoke the next morning at 6:30am with a bumping head to go skiing.
I met more Kdot friends, Hovey and Frits, at Winter Park for more skiing. Little icy, but still fun.
Since my lease was up at the end of January, I decided to look at buying a house. I had saved quite a bit of money up since I am cheap, so I figured why not. I looked at 6 places in the Lakewood area and settled on this one.
It is a nice neighborhood with lots of parks nearby. The back yard is sizeable with lots of room for a dog. I loved the patio. It has a full basement, so it shouldn't feel too small for quite some time. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I will move in by the 24th of January.
For Christmas, I received a pair of snowshoes. I tried them out a bit near my apartment after we received all the snow we sledded on. I decided to go to Rocky Mountain National Park for a real test of the shoes.
The area was amazing with all the snow. I could not believe how many people were out there though. The parking lot was nearly full. The weather was unusually mild, but there was still plenty of snow near Bear Lake.
I hiked up to Dream Lake, then Emerald Lake. Snowshoeing was actually easier than I thought. The shoes have large claws to grip the snow. One thing that became a problem was I thought wearing gaiters would enough to wear since I would not be tromping through too deep of snow. I wore normal hiking pants under my gaiters. My lack of snow repellant attire became a problem when I discovered snow was flicking up on my backside with every step. Pretty soon the entire back of my pants was soaked. This became a greater problem as I approached Emerald Lake and the temperatures started dropping. Soon my pants were starting to freeze! This was not very comfortable. So the lesson learn is to wear snow pants even on a nice day.
On the way out of the park (while my trousers were unthawing) I was surprised to see a herd of elk along the roadside.
I saw even more elk in the Moraine Park meadow.
More pics
I grabbed several more loads before heading to work for the afternoon. The new place looked great. Here is my new back porch.
Here is the neighbor's awesome evergreen tree.
My sister was a big help during the move. Her and I made many trips back and forth to bring everything over. All in all, it took probably 10 or so trips to complete the move.
After work, my buddy Jason helped me move the couch and the mattresses. It had begun snowing as we were leaving work, so the slick concrete created more of a challenge.
When we arrived at my place, my sister had spent the afternoon making herself a home.
Not everything was quite perfect, of course. My computer desk remained in Kansas City because my old apartment had a built in shelf, so no desk at the new place. Beck made do.
Lots of crap everywhere. For the most part, it has since found a better home.
On Saturday, Beck "Muscles" Marshall helped me move some of the bigger stuff. She was excited to move her plant.
On Saturday, I bought a couple of folding tables to throw the computer on and to use to fold clothes downstairs.
Also on Saturday, I brought home the washer and dryer from Sears. Beck was at work (and probably wouold not have been much help) so I MacGyver'd a way to move the appliances down the steps by myself without fear of death. Thankfully, the garage door was right above the stairway, so I was able to rig up a "washer/dryer rappel" down the steps.
I attached a rope to my car and slowly released the appliances down the stairs.
The washer was not boxed up, so I attached some cardboard sleds to the front with duct tape.
The washer and dryer arrived safely downstairs and were easily hooked up. They seem to be working fine, aka no fires or anything.
The water heater is due to be replaced on Monday. I figured I would let the experts do it since it is natural gas and will need a new valve installed as well. Beck irritatedly informed me of the lack of hot water as she was showering before work. We utilized the hot water at my apartment until the replacement is finished.
