Top 5 Most Silly Recent Madawaskan Foibles

5. I was asked out by an 8th grader last week.

4. I was recently told by a man who was cooking stew that I would make a good wife for somebody someday because I can cook for myself.

3. Due to cold and snow, several high school ski races were postponed a couple weeks ago. High school ski races are a joke (start/finish lines marked by a coach's ski poles, and kids skiing so slow that they might as well just take off their skis and do sommersaults around the course). Anyway, in order to make up for the postponed races, there were four scheduled for last week. It showed about as much forethought as when Dave asked Aditya to put sunscreen on his back in Costa Rica.

2. After both of the ski club's snowmobiles recently broke down, I was engaged in a total of 2.5hrs of discussion on the pros and cons of snomobile specs I knew absolutely nothing about. I was then obliged to call the ski area in Steamboat to ask if they would sell us a groomer for cheap, as if I could just give the president of the company a ring and ask for a favor. They didn't understand that it would be akin to calling Delta Airlines and asking to speak with the CEO about buying a jet engine at half price. I instead called my dad, and pretended to speak to a ski area exec. They peope here bought it.

1. The only pizza place in town, Jeff's, burned down on Tuesday in a raging fire that was only spotted by people who had snuck out on the roof of the mill to smoke. People began calling shortly after to invite me to watch the blaze, which was fed by more than a ton of heating pellets and a backdraft-esque explosion that occurred when the firemen opened the door to the heating pellet room. Luckily there is a vacant pizza restaurant two blocks away that everone expects Jeff's to move into shortly.

Visits and Ski Races and REALLY COLD WEATHER

Hey Everybody,
Here's an update on life:
Taylor and Sam are really awesome! They drove all the way up to the northernmost part of the County just to visit me for a night. I showed them around a little, we shot some targets at on of the biathlon venues, and I showed them where the werewolves used to hang out. Sam felt right at home in the creepy room due to his huge werewolf beard. Nice work on that puppy, Sam. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought that was really cool of you two. Thanks for visiting.

OK, let's talk about cold. We all experienced some cold days at Colbs. I definitely had some cold moments in the 'Boat. We know what it's like when the mercury drops to the bottom of the thermometer, but nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for last Friday. In fact not even the grizzly old Acadian guys were prepared for the kind of cold that descended upon us. Wanna know how cold it was? I'll tell you but first let me explain some of the funny things (and some not so amusing things) that start to happen when it gets really, really cold.

I'll preface by saying that we were trying to leave for some races on Friday morning. It was so cold that one of the vans wouldn't start, and we had to scramble to get a truck from one of the other coaches. Not so amusing

When it gets cold, keys become maleable. We take a u-haul style trailer to races so we can wax in it, and we keep it locked with pad locks. When I went to open the lock on Friday, it was so cold that my key bent and broke off in the lock. It was amazing how easily it bent. It was like butter. Kind of amusing

After that we used a heat gun to warm up the lock before we tried another key. I learned that when it's really cold, water turns straight to vapor without freezing. The heat gun would melt the ice, and as soon as you moved the heat off of it, it would turn to steam. I was amazed by that. Really cool

So, how cold was it? 55 degrees below zero! -55 is really cold

Eventually we solved our cold issues and made it to the races in Rumford. I saw the Colby team there, which was nice. I was also able to race one day. I got 15th in the skate sprint, which was really good considering how big the field was. Skate sprinting is usually my weakest event, so I was thrilled to do well. I was a little annoyed that I just had my best sprint race and I'm not racing seriously anymore. What was I doing all those other times when I sucked?!?!

It's less cold now, and life is back to normal.

Toast

It's 2009

Heehee, Kabatz...

So the last time I posted, I was pretty tired and pissed about life. After that, travels only got worse. I will spare the grim details, but I thought it was a good lesson. You don't know how many lemons life might give you in a row, and turning sour half-way through is only going to prolong the agony. Anyway, I did make it home for Christmas (barely) and it was nice to be at home.

Since getting back to the County, life has been pretty nice. I finally got all the pieces for my new bed, and put that together. I've been sleeping like a baby since then. It's crazy how much easier life is after a good sleep.

I also got a slew of new spices and cooking tools for Xmas, so I've been fooling around with those. Cooking is fun! If any of you ever make it up here, you'll be in for a treat.

While at home, I skied in the local New Years Relay race, and managed to win my leg despite the altitude. Last weekend, I skied in a little community race up here in Maine. It was pretty fun, and I won without much trouble. My racing ego is pretty big right now. I've also got a lot of street cred with my athletes. I guess, what I'm saying is that I'm a happy camper right now, and I hope you all are too.