We supplemented the lack of skiing with a day of snowmobiling and a day of dog sledding. Both were cool, but dog sledding was definitely the trip highlight. It’s something I had wanted to do for awhile. I had even looked into doing it when I visited my brother in Alaska, but at the time was cost prohibitive.

Travel

In order to get to Åre, I had to first fly to Chicago (5 hours), where I had the good fortune of sharing the same flight as J, who lives in Chicago. Then we flew to Stockholm (?? hours), where J and I had a couple hours to kill before we met E, who was flying in from Munich. After a little more waiting, we all caught the train to Åre (8 hours) and met the majority of the remaining members of our crew. I think in total, door-to-door travel time was 25 hours. Definitely a long day of travel. Luckily I got some sleep on the plane to Stockholm. Åre is located 220 miles south of the Arctic Circle, making this the farthest north I’ve been on the planet (Åre: 63.415°N, Anchorage: 61°13′6″N, Helsinki: 60°10′15″N)

The Resort

The Swedish ski resort of Åre has direct access to 93km of downhill skiing, with 98 individual pistes, served by 44 ski lifts.

Snowboarding

The mountain wasn’t as huge compared with some of the other resorts we’ve been to in years past. Our first day on the mountain was ridiculously cold. It should have been a sign that we shouldn’t have been on the mountain because dog sledding had already been cancelled because it was too cold for the dogs. Say what you want, but -15F plus whatever the windchill was is definitely not ideal conditions for snowboarding. I don’t think any of us made the entire day, it was just too damn cold. I remember my face was burning on my last run down the mountain on that first day. I had to stop halfway down the run to

Dog Sledding

We were originally supposed to go dog sledding at the beginning of the week, but it was too cold. The dog sled guy ended up rescheduling us for later in the week. I ended up getting to ride with the owner on the lead sled. This was cool because, not only was the guy funny (he wasn’t Swedish, he was Norwegian), but he also explained a lot of things about dog sledding. Let me just say that it’s a lot harder than it looks. It is in no way just standing on the back while the dogs pull you.

While there, we decided to go to Alyeska, both Saturday and Sunday for some snowboarding (Aaron skied). Saturday the weather was reasonable, although the mountain was pretty crowded. Sunday was a different story. Being that it was the Super Bowl and the fact that it made for a desolate and chilly day. Adria joined us on Sunday, so it was actually a family affair. The temp was right around 0F with windchills around -20F. To give you an idea of what snowboarding in this type of weather is like, imagine this: you have zero desire to stop on the mountain (for any reason), you can’t sit still on the lift because doing so you’d probably freeze solid (why Alyeska doesn’t have covered, a.k.a. bubble,  lifts baffles me), talking or taking pictures is pretty much out of the question (except in the lodge), and any amount of skin exposed is destined to become numb (and red). That was probably the coldest conditions I’ve ever snowboarded in, and I’d think twice about doing it again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad I got a chance to go boarding at Alyeska. According to Forbes, Alyeska is the 4th snowiest resort in the world. The snow was really nice, especially since it had snowed about a foot total in the days prior.

One thing that would make Alyeska infinitely better would be to upgrade their chair lifts. All of them should have a bubble and even better yet would be seat warmers. It’d also be nice if all lifts had the safety bar with foot rests so you can rest your board (or skis) as you ride up. The inside of my left leg was particularly sore from riding the lifts all day and having my board dangle below me. I guess that creates a lot more stress on your leg than you’d imagine.

The drive to Girdwood (where Alyeska is) is quite nice. The mountain is located near an inlet. On your way to Alyeska, you can see the water flowing in to the inlet. With all the snow & ice, doesn’t look like anything all that exciting. On the way home, most of the water has already flown out of the inlet, so you get huge chuunks of snow/ice mixed with mud that kinda l0oks like cracked earth in the desert, but on a much larger scale.

While on the mountain, we had a great view of the inlet and surrounding mountains. Because of terrain, clouds tend to hang low above the inlet around the peaks in the area. So I think technically when we were at Alyeska, we were above the clouds (and almost in the clouds on Sunday).

After getting in quite a bit of physical activity Saturday & Sunday, it was decided that we start playing video games, Onimusha: Warlords. Although it took almost all day, we were able to beat the entire game (with a little help from an online guide). That was a lot of fun, as I haven’t beaten a game from start to finish in quite some time.

I can’t imagine I’ll be going back to AK anytime soon, or ever for that matter. Aaron & Adria are moving back to MN in May, so the motivation to go back is pretty much gone.

Waves Crashing in Hermosa Beach, CA

As I came in to work early today, I got to leave early as well. Often times on my drive home I get to watch the sunset, but rarely have enough time to make it home and hop on my bike to make it down to the beach to snap some shots. I guess I was a little lucky, as today’s sunset was more impressive than normal due to the rainstorm that’s rolling in.

I actually ended up snapping 159 photos of the sunset and 1 of some random building I thought looked cool (though turned out to be not as cool in the picture, which is why there was only one shot taken).

Even though I took a lot of shots, many were just me screwing around. I did a couple different series in continuous shoot mode, one turned out pretty cool. I’ll update this post with that if I can figure out how to animate it (for free) in an easy manner. I also realize the alignment of the upcoming photos are a bit messed up, but I haven’t quite fixed this yet.

This was one of the first photos I took. As I’m sure you can see from the colors, I’m glad I made it down there to snap a few shots.

Hermosa Beach Sunset 2009.01.20

A helicopter was flying by and looked kinda cool in the clouds.

Chopper Repair Man To the Rescue!

Breaker-Breaker-1-9

Where there's waves, there's surfers...

Someone actually got on a wave (a lot of sitting around)

This spot in the sky is the origin of all sunsets (according to me)

Pretty colors

Getting darker

Me & my messy mop

In the past year, I’ve lost most of my self confidence, been consciously depressed, including pissing off most of my friends who attempted to keep in contact with me, losing about 25 lbs, and finding out I’m anorexic. I spent the majority of my time trying to make someone love me the way I wanted, even though I realized a long time ago that that would never happen, and turned out to be a rather expensive endeavor, all for nothing. I kept turning to her out of complete and utter loneliness, only for her to turn a cold shoulder every time I needed her.

So what did I learn from all of this? There’s a reason some divorced women are divorced. A bit harsh, but in this case entirely true. I also learned that even though I think I unhealthily lost weight, I am happy with how my body looks now (I’ve since gained a few pounds back from my lowest weight), and I now eat very healthy in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and nice looking body. Lastly, I learned that true friends really are forever and always outlast relationships. I owe a lot to my friends for not giving up on me. I love you all dearly.

When you hit the bottom, there is only one path left, and that’s up. I’m already on that path, rebuilding my life and making up for all the missed opportunities I’ve had in the past year. I’ve been reconnecting with friends that I’ve blown off, been going to salsa more (and to new places), and I hope to start going out more often (I need a social life in addition to salsa).

Other resolutions for this year are to move back to Munich (LA is not the place for me), find a partner (hopefully as close to opposite as the last as possible), take and share more photos, improve my German to business level (I’m not that far off actually), learn enough Japanese to converse with friends (hoping to finally get past the random words & phrases I currently know), get LASIK/LASEK (sick of wearing contacts & I want 20/40 vision), get rhinoplasty (to breathe better, not for looks), fix my teeth (whiten & refill some old cavities), imrpove my skin (which I think will happen naturally once I move away from the LA smog), and start traveling again. Re-reading those, it sounds like I’m a little vain, but they’re actually all to improve myself (except for my teeth, that’s purely cosmetic).

1. want a high speed train (this sounds good, but i somehow imagine tickets will initially be so expensive that hardly anyone will use it, plus i can also imagine it will take forever for any of this to become a reality)
2. don’t like confining farm animals (i can see the price of veal, pork, and eggs going up once this goes into effect)
3. want to improve children’s hospitals (they’re our future, better make sure they’re healthy)
4. don’t want to force minors to wait to get an abortion until 2 days after the Dr told their parents (the fact a minor is having a kid so young probably means they need more involvement from their parents, but the parents voted and said they don’t care if their kids have kids so young)
5. think nonviolent drug possession criminals already have enough (if it went the other way, there’d be less potheads in state prison)
6. think police & law enforcement don’t need more money (if it went the other way, bad criminals would stay in prison longer)
7. don’t really care about switching over to renewable energy (this just benefited privately owned utilities companies, awesome)
8. don’t want same sex marriages (so much that they’re gonna change the state constitution, which is even more awesome than #7)
9. think victim safety should be consideration for bail or parole (once you’re in CA state prison, it’s gonna be harder to get out)
10. don’t care about alternative fuel vehicles or renewable energy (this is in direct conflict with #1, especially since CA claims 50% of the top 10 smoggiest cities list)
11. think the state needs to be re-districted (yeah, this seems real important, but i guess they do it every 10 years)
12. think Cali veterans should get farm and home aid (will provide state-backed loans for veterans’ farm and home purchases)

I didn’t vote, so I can’t complain. But I did find it interesting on the things people believe in and how some of them are conflicting. What it comes down to is this, Californians care more about farm animals and the private lives of gays & lesbians than they do about underage abortions and forcing businesses to be a part of the energy/pollution crisis (vs deterring the crisis with something that is destined for failure).

CA State Propositions: http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/state/prop/

Me, Mom, Aaron

On this 12th day of Cheshvan marks my mother’s yahrzeit. It’s difficult to fathom that’s it’s been a year since she passed. Sometimes it seems like I was just talking to her on the phone the other day, but most of the time it feels like an eternity. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of her. So many things I would have liked to ask her, from the smallest things, like where to find something obscure and specific in a grocery store (she always knew even better than the staff at the store) to random medical questions (yep, she was that good). I’m quite sure I could write a book filled only with the questions I would have normally asked her over the past year. In addition, I could easily write ten more volumes of new questions I want to know now that she’s gone.

The loss of my mother has really affected me. I’ve lost 25 lbs in the last year and although it’s nice to see my clearly defined 6-pack (vs the 4-pack + a small keg it was before), I know it’s not healthy. I’ve learned to cry again (maybe too much). I think I’ve cried more in the last year than I have in the previous 20 years. I’ve also learned to appreciate the details and express my feelings as such, since I know first hand you can lose anything in the blink of an eye.

I know most people have no idea what I’m feeling, even they think they do, unless they’ve experienced something similar. It’s sad that it took such a great loss to learn and realize everything that I have in the past year.

The last time I saw my mom conscious was September 23, 2007 when I was home for my 10-year high school reunion. The last time I heard my mom’s voice was October 21, 2007, but it was overheard when I was talking with my brother. The last time I actually spoke to her was a few days before that. I didn’t even get a chance to give her her birthday gift, which was a new iPod loaded with all her favorite music so she could listen to it while she was in the hospital. The last time I saw my mom alive was October 24, 2007, and that image is forever burned in my mind. I wish it wasn’t, as having seen her like that absolutely killed me. The last time I saw my mom was on that same day in the evening after she had passed. No words can explain what it’s like to see your mother’s dead body.

It’s very easy to blame the hospital for her loss, as they gave her incorrect medication for a headache that adversly reacted with some of the other medication she was taking causing an annurism in her brain. Leukemia unfortunately inflicted many health problems upon her, resulting in having to take many different medications. At least once before my mom had corrected the Dr about a conflicting medication he prescribed her because she thoroughly researched every medication and treatment she was or was about to receive and often knew more about them than the doctors themselves. It just goes to show that just because a Dr has a framed piece of paper on his/her wall, doesn’t mean shit and that doing your own research can pay off greatly.

Having just re-read what I wrote, I realize my thought process is all over the place, so I’m just gonna stop writing since I know I could keep rambling on about so many things ’til the end of time.

I miss my mom dearly. She was by far the best mom in the world. I’m sure everyone else has their own arguments as to why their mom is the best in the world. But that doesn’t matter, what matters is that you never forget what makes your mom so great. I love you mom. Your time came too soon…

The more your mind matures, the more you take for granted the things around you, things you depend on (both consciously & subconsciously), things you always think will be there. And because of that, you tend to forget to show your appreciation for the things that deserve the most appreciation.

About 2 years ago when my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia, in a blink of an eye I realized how little appreciation I showed her and began expressing myself and my feelings, especially to her but also in other areas in my life. She took care of me, supported me, and most importantly, she loved me completely and accepted me without ever having to think about it. She did that my entire life (more than half of her own life), and I’m forever indebted to her for that. The last year of her life is when she needed me the most. I did my best to support her and show her my love and appreciation. I know it helped her a lot, but I wish I would have given her more.

If I could be with her now, I’d give up everything to do so, just to hug her and tell her I love her one last time.

Miss & love you mom…

For the chicken:
4 chicken legs (or breasts)
1-2 eggs
Flour to cover the chicken

For the western vinegar sauce:
4 Tbsp soy sauce
6 Tbsp sugar
5 Tbsp vinegar
Pepper to taste (for adults)
1 tsp ketchup (for children)

For the tartar sauce:
1-2 hard-boiled eggs (if you like)
1/4 onion (if you like)
1/3 cucumber or pickle (if you like)
5 Tbsp mayonnaise (if you like)
1 Tbsp ketchup (if you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard grains

1. Chicken
   1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces
   2. Salt and pepper to taste
   3. Roll chicken in the flour and dust off
   4. Dip the chicken in a beaten egg(s)
   5. Fry the chicken until cooked
2. Western Vinegar Sauce
   1. put sugar, soy sauce and vinegar into pan and put any piece of ginger, onions and carrots and boil
   2. if you want, you can add red pepper for adults and ketchup for kids
3. Marinade fried chicken in the western vinegar sauce to give it moisture and flavor
4. Make a Tartar Sauce
   1. Chop Boiled eggs and onions and cucumber (if it is good pickles), and add salt and pepper and ketchup and mayonnaise
   2. If you have the chopped parsley and lemon juice, whipped cream and mustard, whisked together and added to the above mixture, that makes it taste much better.
5. Put the tartar sauce over the chicken
6. Eat it

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 2

1 bunch garlic chives
3 eggs
3 Tbsp Chinese soup stock
Salt, pepper, & soy sauce to taste

1. Chop the garlic chives into ˜3-inch pieces
2. Crack the eggs and combine with the garlic chives and Chinese soup stock
3. Transfer all ingredients to a medium-sized frying pan and cook over medium-high heat until finished (like an omelet)
4. Add salt, pepper, & soy sauce to taste

Note: If you prefer, you can add sliced pork belly (looks like bacon). Just cook the pork first, then add it with the rest of the ingredients in step 2 above.

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: ˜15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: serves 3

400 g pumpkin (seeded, peeled, boiled)
250 cc milk
200 cc heavy whipping cream
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Take the seeds out from the pumpkin and cut into large, bite-sized pieces
2. Boil the pumpkin pieces until all the water has evaporated
3. Remove the pumpkin peel (if not already done)
4. Put the pot with the pumpkin pieces back on the stove and cook over medium-high heat (make sure there is no water left in the pot)
5. Put the pumpkin pieces and milk & cream into the food processor and blend until smooth
6. Transfer from the food processor back to the pot and heat until it begins to boil
7. Salt and pepper to taste
8. Gently pour cream a little cream into the bowl for finishing touches