Colorado and Co. Interview

Sorry, I've been too busy to get this posted. Last week I was interviewed on Colorado and Co. It's a local show here that's filmed and broadcast live every day during the week. They focus on stuff that's going on all over Colorado.



February is National Girls in Sports Month, and I'm coordinating CU Cycling's participation in the Girls In Sports Day event at the Rec Center. As a result, the woman who oversees half of the club sports teams at CU asked me to go with her and her daughter to be interviewed on the show. The day before I had to go, "Coach Stacey" called me up and told me she needed me to come up with a "trick" to do in the studio for about 30 seconds to a minute. As I'm not a circus performer, I was a little bit confused as to what she had in mind! My roommate rides trials and could have come up with something, but he's a boy, so that was out! I racked my brain to try to think of some "trick", and in the end I just decided to go through some of the basic skills necessary to successfully descend a trail on a mountain bike.

My "trick", as Coach Stacey called it. She was intense!

Patty from Club Sports Coach Stacey, and Samantha

Drew, one of the guys who works on the set

All and all, it was a really good experience. I've never been to a news studio before let alone been on tv, live! I was a little embarrassed that the host and Coach Stacey kept referring to me winning Collegiate Nationals as winning the National Championships of the World! hahaha That's pretty funny and so dumb at the same time!

Coach Stacy kept wanting Samantha to pedal my bikes, but her legs could barely reach!

Oh ya, the worst part of the whole show was that there were some people there from the zoo for the segment after ours, and they brought a snake with them!! It was awful. I didn't know it was there until they announced it during the show, and I looked over and not 20 feet away was the dumb snake! Needless to say my heart rate shot up to at least 120 instantly!! It was terrible!!

Better than Oatmeal

I guess those of us who enjoy a few beers "now and then" with our OCD sports training are doing our hearts good!

Oh, the Rodeo!

I haven't been to the rodeo for a long, long time! Boy did I forget just how fun it is! A few of us made our way down to the Western Stock Show last night for the rodeo. It was like I was back in MT or WY with all of the boots, hats, and Wranglers! I forgot my purse so I don't have any real pictures from the night, just this one of my friend Joey in the awesome pink cowboy hat!!

Joey's last name is Pinkerton, so he gets lots of "pink" flack!

Cost: $8-$13
barely more than a movie these days
What you get:
Bronc riding
Bulldogging
Steer wrestling
Barrel racing
Calf Tying
Bull Riding
AND so much more! :)

Good times for sure. If you've never been, you should go. If you haven't been in a long time, you should go, too!

COLD and Snowy Montana

The Best Grandma in the Whole World!

I decided to go to Montana this past weekend to visit my Grandma. She moved out of their 4000 square foot house into a new apartment with some other people her age (young!!). :) She and my Grandfather had built their house nearly 30 years ago, so it was a bit change for her to move into a small apartment, but it's very nice, and I think she'll enjoy having other people she knows in the building for some company.

We had a very nice weekend with some shopping and good meals despite the horrible weather and driving conditions. It was about 5º all day yesterday, and it had snowed about 8"-9" on Saturday night, so driving around probably wasn't the best idea, but we decided to brave it and had a lot of fun!

Now it's back to reality. School is going to be a bit crazy this week with a small presentation, grant proposals, and TAing responsibilities! Fun, fun. :)

Off to a Rough Start

Spring semester started on Monday. Unfortunately for me, a nice strain of the flu decided to show up at the same time! Monday wasn't so bad, just a nasty sore throat, but by Tuesday I wasn't feeling very well at all. Wednesday took the cake, though! From 4:00 to 11:00 a.m., every joint in my body hurt, and the crap that I was coughing up was ridiculous! Today, by comparison, I feel much better! Hopefully, I'm well on my way to feeling better, as I'm heading home for the weekend to visit my Grandma, and I'd sure hate to get her sick, too!

Bluebird and Bubbles

Jenny and me skate skiing at Eldora

Yummy Cab Shiraz wine and our own personal hot tub, haha

My wonderful cousin Jenny rolled into town round 7:30 last after spending several days in exciting Sterling, CO taking a fire fighting class for this summer. She's on the Craig Hot Shot crew. After sub par adventures in Sterling, I knew she'd be up for anything fun! We headed out for some Mexican food and then on to hot tubbing with a bottle of one of my favorite kinds of wine that I got for Christmas! 2 hours later, we were pretty buzzed, dehydrated, and completely pruned! But we were all caught up on the goings ons in our lives and ready for bed!

Nice hot water and a half a bottle of wine is sure to make anyone smile!

This morning we got up early (haha) and headed up to Eldora for a little skate skiing adventure. Jen just started skate skiing not very long ago, but she's already really good (see her "I'm a natural" form below!) Today was one of the nicest days I have ever had at the Eldora Nordic Center. It was warm ~20º, no wind, beautiful blue bird skies, and freshly groomed snow! Perfect. The only problem was my sucky skate ski skills and the fact that I'm getting a COLD! Ugghh! I thought I had won out. So many people I know have been sick recently, and I've been fine...until yesterday. Oh well. Emergen-C and Sour Gummy Flinstone vitamins will come to my rescue, I know they will! :)

Jenny giving a technique lesson :)

Every 2008 Mountain Bike Race Schedule You Could Every Be Interested In, All in One Place!

Pinned MTB Magazine

Thanks Jeremiah!

Home is Sort of Boring

As it turns out, being on holiday is much more fun than being at home! Duhhh! You didn't need me to tell you that, I'm sure!

So the Coil Packs went bad in my car, to the tune of more than a quarter of a thousand dollars! Booo! That's a lot of green stuff on a grad student salary! I did get it all sorted today, so I don't have to drive the fancy Infinity around anymore. It made me sort of nervous to drive. My car's not THAT nice anymore!

James made the call and a few of us headed to fish and chips night at the Mtn. Sun and then on to the Southern Sun for a Happy Hour nightcap. Mmmmm, I really do love good beer with great friends!

Portland Finale

So much fluffy snow!!

Molly has Monday's off of school, and it was my last day in Portland, so we decided to go have a big adventure! Mt. Hood as been getting dumped on with snow recently, and Molly's awesome cousin offered to lend me all of your XC ski gear, so we were off! We took Molly's dog, Casey, and her cousin's dog, Emmie. The roads were pretty crappy getting there, we even had to put chains on, but once we did we were treated to a wonderful day of beautiful snow, and quite a bit of sunshine! Molly was like a kid in the candy store when the sunshine would come out, it was great!! We skied for a couple of house and then went and had some excellent beer at the Altitude brewery.

Casey and Emmie were in Heaven!!

The SUN!! Molly wanted a picture for dreary days in Portland

This pub had some cool fishing pictures, including this back lit trout! :)

After that is was back to town for Molly's spin class and some weight lifting for me. We had a relaxing evening at her house, trading pictures from our cameras, getting Molly up to speed on the facebook, and watching some original Southpark!

We had a last minute shopping spree at Trader Joes, too. I think I spend $20 on dried and freeze dried fruit! I really wish we had a TJ's in Colorado!!

This morning we got up bright and early and deposited me at the airport for my journey home. :( It was sooooo much fun to be in Portland hanging out with Molly!

I was treated to the surprise of "your dumb car is broken" when I got home, too, so I'm REALLY psyched to be home! Not sure what's wrong with it yet, but it starts going into convulsions when I try to drive it and the engine malfunction light is flashing at me. Yea! I'm sure it's only a "minor" fix. hahaha Booo!! I'll know more tomorrow after the car Dr.

P.S.
If you think you want to make a fully committed snow angel (the kind that you stand tall and fall backwards into the snow), make sure it really is as deep and fluffy of powder as you think it is, otherwise you'll hurt your back while knocking the wind out of yourself and get a really bad headache! Just in case you were thinking of it! haha :)

Snoks

So, my sister is bound and determined to make my nephew not be scared of snakes when he grows up since she and I are both horribly afraid of them. She told me that Marshall has two fake snakes but that I didn't need to worry, as they look totally fake! Well, when I came around the corner and saw this, it still scared me and didn't really look so fake in the dim light of their fireplace! Boo. I hate them!!

Portland Rocks, Well, Minus the Rain!

Mmmmmmm, Sushi!!

I love Portland! Well, maybe I just love visiting my friend Molly! No, actually Portland is a really cool city. It's just too damn bad that it has to rain here so much. It would make me crazy.

I got back to Portland yesterday from being at my sister's house in Sweet Home. Molly and I had an awesome evening filled with good beer, some wine, great sushi, sake, and then some more wine. Awesome.

Molly woke me up to take me to her spin class this morning and torture me! After a mid morning after spin class nap, we hit up a great little breakfast place, Jam. They had awesome corned beef hash!! After that, we decided we needed to go hiking with the doggies on Mt. Tabor, the only urban volcano in the US.

Me, Molly, and Casey on Mt. Tabor

For tonight's adventure we went and saw American Gangster at the movie/beer/pizza place. These people are brilliant!!! For the same price as just a movie in Superior or Boulder, we got into the movie and got a slice of pizza and a pitcher of beer for during the movie. Phe-nomenal!!

Tomorrow's fun should hold some XC skiing in the mountains that have been getting dumped on!! I really want a pause button! Before I know it, it will be time to go home, back to the reality that is school and life and everything else!

Oregon Trail

Me, Marshall, My Sis Tori, and Casey

I hopped on a plane to Portland on Wednesday night. My best friend Molly lives there, and my dad and sister live a few hours south of Portland as well. I didn't make it home for Christmas, so I thought I'd come out and visit for a little bit before the semester gets going again!

In true Molly and Neven style, we headed to the pub straightaway from the airport to grab some good beer and catch up. At 2:00, we could tell the bartenders were ready for us to leave, so we headed home and slept for a few hours. Got up and grabbed quick b-fast and a trip to the dog park the next morning before my sister and nephew arrived to pick me up.

Marshall learning to pet Casey "nicely"

Marshall wasn't perfect licking height for Casey!!

I've been down in Sweet Home, OR most of the time that I have been here. It's been nice here, I've just been hanging out with my nephew and with the "fluffy" cat, Suni. Yesterday we took Marshall swimming at this cool pool that has a wave pool and a water slide, too. We made it up to visit my dad at his new house last night. We're all heading up to Portland later today to hang out at OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). Should be fun!

Marshall is so much Fun!!

Excellent Finish and Great Start!

2007 went out in good fashion! I got to see my friend Kate, who I haven't seen in two years, since she graduated from law school and moved back to NY. :( I drove down to Colorado Springs last weekend to spend some time with her and her before she headed back to NY for New Year's.

Minus my terrible skiing adventure on Monday, New Year's Eve was a good day. Had some drinks with some good people and rang in 2008, for better or for worse! Well, if the first day of the rest of the year has anything to do with how the rest of the year will go...I'll be sleeping, watching some football, eating good food, and then a bunch of napping, too! I can't wait!


Watched Texas Tech come back from being pretty far down to win their bowl game on Tuesday. I've recently been reminded that I am a TTU alum, and it's actually pretty fun to watch them play football! :)

Happy 2008 to everyone, I hope it's a good one!!