Pic isn’t the greatest quality. Hard to concentrate on adjusting the camera…

Nusre Shark

Several of my “friends” have emailed me to ask if YOA was cancelled, since I have not posted in awhile.  I really can’t make an excuse for not posting, it’s not like I don’t have the time.  In fact, I have an abundance of time, which I have been using to take a lot of naps.  I really love napping and sleeping in general.  Unfortunately, I seem to be suffering a strange side-effect of napping.  I call it nap cowlick.

"Nap Cowlick" caused by excessive napping on the same side of one's head.

I do not recall ever having a cowlick before I began my routine of excessive napping, nor can I find any references in the literature to this phenomenon.  Interestingly, there is a similarly sized spot on the couch where the fabric is wearing away. Hmmmm….

This is going to be a marathon post, as I have a lot of updating to do:  Let’s start at St. Patty’s day. We have an annual tradition of throwing a morning party on the day of the parade downtown. People arrive around nine and enjoy breakfast food, cookies, Jello shots and various other alcoholic libations.

Maggie really loves our party every year.

Part of the tradition includes awarding the “Kilkenny Cup” to the most outstanding performance of the day.  To win the award, one must be involved in hijinks but also the hijinks must be out of character.

Kilkenny Cup

Past winners. Note: no 2010 entry.

The winner of the cup is decided by a committee, which includes the usual suspects from our crew.  This year, everybody had a great time and there were several honorable mentions.  However, no one’s performance rose to the occasion of cup winner.  Thus, for the first year ever, we are not awarding the cup.  This move has two purposes:

1. The committee felt that awarding the cup to a sub-par performance would sully its name.

2. The committee is also concerned that certain individuals become obsessed with the idea that the cup must be won by someone every year and those individuals try to force it at the end of the day.  No one has ever won the cup trying to win the cup and we like it that way.

Toe surgery part 2.

Recall my first toe surgery post. Well, as with all good toe surgeries, there’s a follow-up.  Once the toe nail completely dies, it must be removed from the toe, so that the patient doesn’t tear any remaining nail attached to the nail bed.  Here’s a couple of pics of the operation:

Most of nail is not attached to nail bed and a errant toe stub would cause the remaining living nail to be torn off the bed.

Cutting "dead" nail away.

Leave only the nail attached to the bed, cut the rest off. Nice result!

Powder Skiing on a Weekday and Aspen Weekend

The only thing better than a powder day is a powder weekday, when there are no lines, in the powder or on the lift.  Hillard and I were lucky enough to get a day at Beaver Creek last Friday, before heading up to Aspen for the weekend.

Hillard - I look this good too, I promise.

More Hillard - He didn't send me the pics of me. I guess it's his YOA.

Lots of Biking

I’m involved in a little contest with Uncle Rick’s crew to see who can ride the most in March. My interpretation of the contest is to see how much time I can spend actually riding (what I enjoy).

Sometimes riding outside requires sacrifice.

The maniacs in Rick’s crew interpret the competition as who can spend the most time on the trainer indoors.  I probably won’t even be close to winning the minutes competition.  I will have about 1,200 for the month.  We are going out of the country (more later) on Saturday, so I don’t have the last week to work on my minutes.  However, no matter how many minutes Rick’s crew post, I consider myself the winner because all but 60 of mine were outside. The YOA crew is dedicated not only to fitness, but to enjoying the sport of cycling. Riding on a trainer is not a sport.

Here’s a pic of Nick Jaouen (Junior) “enjoying” riding outside.  He has 45 minutes on the bike in March, so when his heart hits around zone 5, his vomit reflex kicks in, usually about the same time some hottie comes riding along.  She usually feels sorry for him and is disgusted by my maniacal laughter.

Junior impressing the ladies with his ability to identify the constituents of his half-digested lunch.

Off to Tobago

Saturday, we are leaving for Tobago, of Trinidad and Tobago fame.  On the menu is diving, mountain biking, rainforest hiking and relaxing at our “Villa”.  Mom, Dad, Mindy and Junior are going to be trying their hand at awesome, while we are there.  Hopefully Junior doesn’t choose to let his lunch go in the rainforest on our mountain bike ride.  If the internet is accessible, I’ll post some diving pics/movies.