Dinner at the Yurt

Last Saturday, Rich and I headed up to Solitude to have dinner at the Yurt. For those of you who are not familiar, a yurt is a Mongolian structure, historically, in which the Mongolian people lived in as their homes. A few fun facts about the yurts are that the door is always facing south to preserve heat, the tables are typically always in a circle around the center to create community (which is why they try to copy that will long family style tables at our yurt), the doors are always made smaller so that invaders might hit their heads and the Mongolians can defend themselves.

For us... nothing so extreme.. we were treated with utmost care and welcomed warmly. We hiked in about a half mile, an easy hike, we had the option of walking or xcskiing. We chose to walk and just enjoy. When we got to the yurt - all 27 of us!!- we made our way around the tables and sat with our new friends. We had 12 at our table and greatly enjoyed everyone's company. We were about half and half - locals and "out of staters". Our meal was superb: 5 courses. The first was a hearty white bean and beef soup with awesome warm bread. The second was seared scallops with carmalized onion on some type of greens. The next course was a salad: greens, cranberries, walnuts, green apple and goat cheese, the main dish was port tenderloin in some kind of demiglaze with shreaded brussel sprouts and potatoes, and then the dessert was a chocolate torte with rum soaked strawberries.... YUM. Everyone brought their own wine, and that made for a very festive occasion! :-)

Rained out

Well our plans to visit California and see Mitchel and Kamala were foiled due to forecasted torential rain. Didn't really think that going to ride and run, with pouring down rain would be all that fun. So we stayed home. Maybe Lance will ride next year too!! Maybe Paris again? We did get alot done though! Finished the downstairs bathroom finally!! The top is concrete, made in the basement. On a Kraft made cabinet. Basin sink. Gives some modern touch to the downstairs.

We also went to Farmington Bay to see the Eagles. We got a nice surprise with a whole flock of pelicans in the water, close to the shore. We stayed and took a few pics. Then home to train some. Ski day tommorrow, no mater what. Big storm tonight and tomorrow means fresh powder day all day!! See our friends, Andy & Rhonda's page for a good utah powder day!!

Where Have I been?

Man, I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we updated this thing. Talk about losers? Been busy I guess. What have we been doing? Catching up. Skied once or twice, ran alot, swam alot, put on alot of lotion!!!! Chlorine is just killing us this year. Us. you say? Yes Karen has gotten the triathlon bug and has planned to do the BAM tri this June. She has been swimming diligently, learning a new sport and doing well. She can already swim the distance, now we just need to work on speed and CALMNESS in the open water! She will do great.
Got a new color in the corner of the Kitchen...... Granny Smith Green!! and Chalkboard black. No really we put up chalkboard paint in the corner, looks cool. Sorry, you'll have to wait for me ot take pics. Concrete countertop part II is almost done. Need to wax and hope to get in next week.

We leave this friday to go to California for the Tour of California. Just happens to end in Santa Cruz, stage 2, where we will go to stay with Mitchel, Kamala and Cozmo and Ezra. SHould be a blast. Hope to make it over the Sierras Saturday am and hit some warm sun, sea level riding and running. I can't wait. Pics when we return. Lance Pics, Floyd pics, Tyler pics, maybe one of Karen and Tom Boonen?
rk