Good Friends, Good Snow, Good Times

   The other weekend, 5 friends and I went down to Steamboat, Colorado, to spend 2 days snowboarding. This trip was headed up by Brittany, whose birthday was that Friday. So it was kind of a "Happy Birthday Brittany" party! The weather predictions for the weekend was snow and a high of 12 degrees. Perfect weather, right?
   We left Friday afternoon and for once the weather man was correct, as it started snowing on our way down. The first 4 of us that got there put all of our stuff into the motel and then went to see Fish Creek Falls which was just up the road. There was an easy, snow-packed trail to get to the falls.

After a short walk, we got to the bridge from which you can view the falls.

"WOW! What a ride!"

Earlier this week, my friend Brittany gave me this quote:
   "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'WOW! What a ride!'" -Hunter S. Thompson.

    After mulling it over for a few days, I have started thinking that maybe we should all look at life in that context. I'm not saying that you should throw all caution to the wind and do whatever hairbrained idea pops into your head, or eat your way into an early grave. However, it might bode us well to lose some of our super-cautious, strict, penny-pinching ways and actually enjoy life. Such as trying new things, eating different foods, or whatever things you have never done because it would be considered "frivolous," or a "waste of time," or "maybe I'll break a leg." In light of that, I think that over the last week Jason and I have been enjoying life. Here are a few examples of our (or my) lifestyle that might help us to "skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke" into our graves.

Grilled Lobster Tails. Yep, they are going to send us to the grave "thoroughly used up."

My Bountiful Basket

In the $15 basket, I got 1 head each of lettuce, cauliflower, and broccoli, 3 large bunches of asparagus, 6 bananas, 2 grapefruit, 2 mangoes, 4 tangelos, 2 lemons, 6 apples, and 3 onions.

Jason's Jackalope Jump

  Every year Jason's Unit volunteers their time, supplies, and energy to a fundraiser for the Wyoming Special Olympics. The fundraiser is called the "Jackalope Jump." The short version of how this fundraiser works is  that people put together teams to raise money. And the incentive for people to donate money is that these teams then have to jump into a pool of freezing cold water during the winter. Most of the time, the event is held in January or February. This year, it was held in March for some reason. This year was also Jason's first time being involved with the fundraiser. The Jump that they helped with was held in Douglas. (There are multiple Jumps held all over the state.)

My Bountiful Basket

Here is this weeks crop from Bountiful Baskets:

In my regular basket for $15.00 I got 1 head of Butter Lettuce, 1 bunch of asparagus, 1  bag of Redmoro Oranges, 1 hand of bananas, 2 Acorn Squash, 4 gigantic carrots, 2 green peppers, 8 roma tomatoes, 5 Braeburn apples, 5 pears, and 1 bulb of garlic