Various and Sundry Topics
So it's been sort of a crazy two days. I suppose perhaps they wouldn't have felt so crazy if I didn't feel so tired, but such is the way of life, I think. At any rate, we woke up before the crack of dawn yesterday to pick up our friends and head up to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park for some snowshoeing. We were surprised at the relative lack of snow - we had expected quite a lot, but we ended up hiking the first 7/10 of a mile or so in our boots before we broke out the snowshoes at all, and even then we had to cross patches of dirt here and there where the wind had blown all the snow off.
For anyone who cares, we parked at Bear Lake, hiked up past Nymph and Dream to Emerald Lake and back down. It was colder than we'd expected, and windy as all get out, which of course makes everything colder. I was getting worried about my toes by the time we were headed back to the car, and it was only 1.6 miles up to Emerald Lake. We went straight across Dream Lake on the ice, which was only freaky until Kyle told me that it was only about 2 feet deep in summer, and it was likely frozen at least a foot through already. After that, it was only freaky when the wind almost blew me over out on the ice. I was glad for the snowshoes then, because in regular boots we would have been in some fairly serious trouble.
At any rate, we had fun (even though I froze) and the only noticeably down side was that after about 10 minutes back in the car, the toes on my left foot were swelling in reaction to the cold. It was strange - I've got really long, skinny toes, and it was kind of alarming to have them look like fat little sausages, but they did, and it hurt quite a bit. But eventually they all started feeling better except my big toe, which felt very squished in my shoe.
Everything would have been fine if we hadn't stopped in a store on the way home and I hadn't stubbed my swollen big toe really hard - I almost cried, it hurt so much. Anyway, I apparently jammed my toenail back into my toe to some degree and now there's a fairly substantial bruise right along the base of the nail. It still hurts, but it'll be ok in a few days. As far as I know, that was the only injury of the day, but I'm playing it up for all it's worth, which admittedly isn't much.
At any rate, we stopped on the way home and got a copy of Pirates 2 (which I'm officially not allowed to get until Christmas except that we've already watched it and half the special features) and a copy of Third Day's Christmas Offerings CD, which is FANTASTIC. I love Third Day, and I've been looking forward to getting this album since I heard it was coming out last September. Yay!
In other news, the church annual meeting went pretty well this afternoon, I think. It's not exactly the most riveting way to spend half a Sunday afternoon, but it's necessary and I'm glad we went. I also managed to finish addressing my Christmas cards and make some butter toffee. Unfortunately, we haven't got the chocolate with which to cover it, so I'll have to go shopping in the morning to get some. I also need stamps for the Christmas cards, and I think tomorrow (in addition to being toffee-chocolating-day) might be baklava-making-day.
Also to do this week: clean out my closet and donate old clothes, get Matt's suit cleaned, clean the apartment, pack for 5 weeks away from home, eat all the perishable food in the apartment.
I also need to work on the quilt. *sigh* I'm such a sucker for punishment.
Time to do some writing for DR!
For anyone who cares, we parked at Bear Lake, hiked up past Nymph and Dream to Emerald Lake and back down. It was colder than we'd expected, and windy as all get out, which of course makes everything colder. I was getting worried about my toes by the time we were headed back to the car, and it was only 1.6 miles up to Emerald Lake. We went straight across Dream Lake on the ice, which was only freaky until Kyle told me that it was only about 2 feet deep in summer, and it was likely frozen at least a foot through already. After that, it was only freaky when the wind almost blew me over out on the ice. I was glad for the snowshoes then, because in regular boots we would have been in some fairly serious trouble.
At any rate, we had fun (even though I froze) and the only noticeably down side was that after about 10 minutes back in the car, the toes on my left foot were swelling in reaction to the cold. It was strange - I've got really long, skinny toes, and it was kind of alarming to have them look like fat little sausages, but they did, and it hurt quite a bit. But eventually they all started feeling better except my big toe, which felt very squished in my shoe.
Everything would have been fine if we hadn't stopped in a store on the way home and I hadn't stubbed my swollen big toe really hard - I almost cried, it hurt so much. Anyway, I apparently jammed my toenail back into my toe to some degree and now there's a fairly substantial bruise right along the base of the nail. It still hurts, but it'll be ok in a few days. As far as I know, that was the only injury of the day, but I'm playing it up for all it's worth, which admittedly isn't much.
At any rate, we stopped on the way home and got a copy of Pirates 2 (which I'm officially not allowed to get until Christmas except that we've already watched it and half the special features) and a copy of Third Day's Christmas Offerings CD, which is FANTASTIC. I love Third Day, and I've been looking forward to getting this album since I heard it was coming out last September. Yay!
In other news, the church annual meeting went pretty well this afternoon, I think. It's not exactly the most riveting way to spend half a Sunday afternoon, but it's necessary and I'm glad we went. I also managed to finish addressing my Christmas cards and make some butter toffee. Unfortunately, we haven't got the chocolate with which to cover it, so I'll have to go shopping in the morning to get some. I also need stamps for the Christmas cards, and I think tomorrow (in addition to being toffee-chocolating-day) might be baklava-making-day.
Also to do this week: clean out my closet and donate old clothes, get Matt's suit cleaned, clean the apartment, pack for 5 weeks away from home, eat all the perishable food in the apartment.
I also need to work on the quilt. *sigh* I'm such a sucker for punishment.
Time to do some writing for DR!