Love and the last couple of weeks summarized

Happy Valentine's Day!

I rolled out of bed this morning, ambled off to the kitchen, fired up the computer, and was met by...

Kristine finished reading a draft of my book last night (Lucy beat her, though, finishing yesterday afternoon) and I'm hoping that her loading this as the desktop background indicates she does not disapprove of the ending. Things were a little tense here the last week or so as they read and reacted to things. But more on that in a moment.

Yes, Valentine's Day. I know some people say Bah Humbug. They might even go to an anti-valentine's party to celebrate singleness (secretly hoping they'll meet that special someone). I for one like it. I love my wife and don't mind letting her know it. I like to get homemade valentines from my kids. So, I will keep Valentine's Day with a roasted duck, dumplings and red cabbage, with a lemon meringue pie (or at least something that contains the same ingredients and rests in a pie tin), and, if luck should smile on me today, with the classic Czech fashion of smooching in the street.

Caleb and I went skiing in Austria with the Chrdlovi family. We made the hour drive across the border where the old check points now lie dark and quiet and, in the case of the Czech one, for sale. After riding the deluxe, six seat lift to the top, we looked down over the gentlest slope. Caleb said, "This is the easiest one?"


We shoved off. Caleb flew down the hill. I thought, "Oh man, he is out of control he might hurt himself." He was thinking the same as the steep initial slope got him going too fast for a simple snowplow approach wasn't enough to maintain speed control.

He survived that first run. Then Aleš, our running, biking, XC skiing, downhill racing, climbing, Branch President, doctor, friend gave him some lessons.

I eventually learned a lesson too. Now I know how the head of a hammer feels. My whole face felt like a fat lip after I planted it into the, thankfully, soft snow.
Couple of interesting observations: people are generally good skiers here (lots of people spend a week as a family in the Alps), most folks, young and old, wear helmets, we saw no one hauled off the slopes by ski-patrol (a several times a day occurrence at Mount Kato). Aleš assured me that during holidays in the Netherlands, when the Dutch come out for a week of skiing, there are a lot of ER visits.

Like I mentioned, I finished the second draft of my book about a week and a half ago. Cost me forty bucks to get it printed - most I ever spent on a book outside the organized crime ring known as college textbooks. Kristine and the kids have been reading it. I've been chewing my nails. I received some threats (if this turns out like that, you better get used to sleeping in the bathtub), some reactions ("How could you?"), and some affirmations ("It's starting to grow on me"). Also, a ton of suggestions for wording improvements that will make it much, much better.

We've gotten more snow. Folks say this is the best winter (lots of snow, yet pleasant temperatures) here in 40 years. Most years they only have snow on the ground for a couple weeks with gray and rain the rest of the winter. Good thing it's been snowy since we're missing a heck of a winter back home.

We've had a couple of orchestra concerts, a little illness (Silas with a cold, me with a high fever for a couple days), more downhill skiing (at a small local hill) and XC skiing. Otherwise, kind of the same things - school, english classes, etc.
Peter