The past three weeks, in brief
Week 1: Michigan. Chill out and catch up with the in-laws over Christmas. Exchange many gifts, and even see a little snow (man, 2006's green Christmas was weird). Eat much tasty food, but at least apply a tiny amount of self-restraint this time round, and experiment with father-in-law's Nordic Track, which when I can actually stay on it for two whole minutes gives a very good workout. It only takes a little exercise and a little self-restraint to leave there not feeling like a slug, so all is good.
Week 2: Aspen, CO. Ski with my parents. Good to great snow, great and varied skiing, at times hostile weather. NYE we had some beautiful powder, but it was also so cold and windy that we had to stop at warming huts every run or two. The town of Aspen is quite charming, and the food there is fabulous, but the rich-and-crass clientele and slightly pretentious restaurant scene made me a bit sad. The one other problem with Aspen is that most of the skiing is a bus ride away from town. I do miss French ski resorts, where even on budget trips with college friends we could either ski in and out of our accommodation or have a comfortably short walk.
Week 3: get home and get the death-lurgeee. I can't remember the last time 'flu knocked me out for this long - normally it's just a day or two and then quickly back to normal, but I pretty much lost a week to this one, and I'm still croaking a bit. All the more annoying because this started the day I got back, so the week I lost was when I had hoped to get back in touch with people and get back into applying for jobs, etc.
This weekend: I slept for about 12 hours last night, which seems to have helped me shake off the remnants of the lurgeee. Then I had to go outside to wake up after all that sleep, but fortunately the sun is shining and a walk in the park was glorious, and now I feel like I can catch up with myself.
Week 2: Aspen, CO. Ski with my parents. Good to great snow, great and varied skiing, at times hostile weather. NYE we had some beautiful powder, but it was also so cold and windy that we had to stop at warming huts every run or two. The town of Aspen is quite charming, and the food there is fabulous, but the rich-and-crass clientele and slightly pretentious restaurant scene made me a bit sad. The one other problem with Aspen is that most of the skiing is a bus ride away from town. I do miss French ski resorts, where even on budget trips with college friends we could either ski in and out of our accommodation or have a comfortably short walk.
Week 3: get home and get the death-lurgeee. I can't remember the last time 'flu knocked me out for this long - normally it's just a day or two and then quickly back to normal, but I pretty much lost a week to this one, and I'm still croaking a bit. All the more annoying because this started the day I got back, so the week I lost was when I had hoped to get back in touch with people and get back into applying for jobs, etc.
This weekend: I slept for about 12 hours last night, which seems to have helped me shake off the remnants of the lurgeee. Then I had to go outside to wake up after all that sleep, but fortunately the sun is shining and a walk in the park was glorious, and now I feel like I can catch up with myself.