Ski Trip!

Hi guys!
After two long days of travel, we have finally arrived at Kimberly Ski Resort. Yesterday, we left around 2 PM, and drove all the way to Spokane. Just as we began to leave, it started lightly snowing, and by the time we had reached Belleview, the snow was falling hard. It continued to snow until we got to the other side of Snowqualamie Pass. While our trip was fairly uneventful, the squirters for the windshield cleaner froze, so we haven't been able to use them since.
About 6 hours after leaving Seattle, we arrived at our hotel in Spokane, the Double Tree, after having dinner at a Mexican restaurant nearby. The temperature was -12 C, and we had seen temperatures as low as -15 C. After a short but enjoyable stay at our hotel, we got back into the car and drove onward. Just after crossing the Idaho border, we embarked on a 45-minute long search for a Starbucks, which was eventually located. After our stop, we drove on, and our only other stop on the 3 hour drive was at a gas station to get some subway sandwiches. Then we drove on, and to our amazement encountered -21ish C weather (an amazing -5 F) after crossing the Canadian Border. Finally, we arrived at the town of Kimberly. It is a fairly decent sized town, broken into two sections, one at the bottom of the hill, and the other about halfway up. The lower section is about a 5 minute drive from here, the upper section, a 2 minute drive. After wandering around aimlessly for a couple of minutes, we found the office. It was closed, but our room number and keys were located in an envelope. It turned out our room was literally 2 meters (I'm in Canada, so I have to use the metric system) from our door.
Our room is spartan, but large. It is composed of a entry-room, a hall with rooms along it, and then a large room at the end. There are 2 bedrooms, each with a queen-size (maybe king, I'm not exactly an expert at these things ;) bed, and the main one with an attached bathroom, fridge, microwave, and TV with VCR. Down the hall is another bathroom. At the end of the hall there is the kitchen/dining room, with an oven, full size refrigerator, toaster, microwave, etc. Across the room is the living room, with 2 couches that fold out into beds. A TV sits against one wall, a DVD/VCR nearby. The odd thing about the living room is that there is only a tiny table lamp in the corner to light it. Kinda weird. Outside is a large hot-tub, which I was in a little while ago. (We don't really have wireless here, so either I will try to find somewhere close that does, or I will give you a full account of my travels when I get home.
Right now, I am lying in bed, writing this. Hopefully, tomorrow I will post it. We just watched a bit of Oklahoma!, which a theater company whose orchestra I recently joined is going to perform. It was good, but a bit dull.
Anyway, my dad and I are going to go explore the Village around 8 AM tomorrow, and rent some skis and boots for me (my parents have their own.) Can't wait to get on the slopes!
(Looks at watch, and gasps) Well, I should get some sleep. Hope to see ya all tomorrow!
-El
Monday:
Today I woke up at around 8, and my dad and I went into the village to rent skis and boots. After that, we headed back to our room (about a 2 minute walk from the village) After a quick breakfast, we all went back to the Village, and skied our first run off of a “magic carpet” lift, basically a very slowly moving piece of rubber that you stand on as you move up a tiny hill. I nearly died of embarrassment. Then we went on a bigger run, off of a T-bar lift, which consists of 2 ropes on towers, with backward “T” shaped things. What you do is almost sit on one side of the “T” and let it pull you up. Finally, my sister was willing to go on a real lift. The odd thing about Kimberly is that there is only one lift to get onto the hill, and then once on it, there are two other lifts in other areas. Luckily, the lift up was a quad, which is the easiest kind of ski lift to ride on. It holds 4 people. And slows way down for you to get on and off. Finally, we got to the top. The lift was really long, and thus, so was the ski run. However, the wimps also known as my family thought that skiing in weather from 0-10 F was not all that enjoyable, so once we got back down to the village, we went into a coffee shop. We warmed up there and got some food, and then my dad and I went on another run. This one was even longer than our first run, and we went up the quad, skiied down a bit, and then took another lift up even more. That run was really fun. We trudged back to room after that, and my sister and I waited there while my mom and dad went on a ski run. Now I am at the nearby Hilton hotel, cursing the fact that somehow, they don't have wireless Internet. So you might see this post tomorrow-ish, if we can find somewhere with Internet access here or in the Village, or you might see this post as one of an epic blog post when I get home. Either way, I hope you enjoy (or at least tolerate) my record of the events of our ski trip. See ya later!
-El
Ok, The day by day format became too long, so now I will just sum up the rest of the days.
On Wednesday, we skied about the same amount as we did the day before, and then, that night, we went to the pool in the village, which was nice, and then rented a couple movies and had dinner in the village. We ate at a little Chinese restaurant, which was quite good.
On Thursday, we decided to go to the hot springs that were about an hour drive from the resort. We went there, and although it was kind of weird, it was fun. The worst part was running from the changing room, soaked from a shower, in -10 C weather, down to the pools. But we survived. Somehow. After that, we ate in a little panini/gelato cafe 20 minutes from the springs, and there is where I posted on the blog. Unfortunately, they only had a computer hooked to the Internet, not wireless, so I couldn't send the post on my laptop. We drove home, and watched a movie, and went night-skiing. Night-skiing is fun, but you get a very limited pick of runs, and it can occasionally be hard to see. Throw in the fact that there was about 3” of new snow on the ground, and it can be very easy to get out of control, which I did numerous times. Yay!
On Friday, we got up early, and I skied with either my mom or dad almost the entire day. Then finally, I took a group lesson. I usually hate to take group lessons, but I had a great time, and improved a bit too. For dinner, we went to a restaurant on the hill name Kelsey's, and had a great meal. Then my sister and I headed back to the room, and my mom and dad got in two last ski runs. After watching a movie, we all went to bed.
Saturday dawned bright and early, reminding us that our departure was imminent. It also reminded me that I had the record for the least falls: I never fell down once during the entire trip. Nah nah, Lego ;) My dad and I returned the skis, which took 45 minutes. (the problem with Kimberly is that the ski hill can accommodate lots of people, but the facilities are easily overwhelmed, and not well set up. For example, we had to wait in the line of people getting skis to return ours.) We then all piled into the car, and our epic drive began. It took about 9 hours of driving to get us to Seattle, but we stopped many times. First at a Starbucks, then at a gas station, the to eat dinner in Ellensburg at the Ellensburg Pasta Co. Finally, we arrived in Seattle, only to be faced with an intersection filled by a two car accident, and a barely visible train. Unfrotunatly, we missed the next boat, but around 11:20, we finally pulled into our driveway. Our trip was very fun, but I am glad to be home.
Thanks for reading!
-El

Good to be back

Hi all!
I's good to be back in this little community, hope I will be able to stay a while.
School has been going well so far, and pretty soon I am going to be switching classes at the beginning of next semester. Snowstorms and power outages have become almost routine by now, but they are still fun.
I went to Seattle yesterday for a cello lesson, which was fun, and stopped by Salumi, a great Italian place which makes great salami. We also went to just about every other great food place in Seattle.
Today at school, I learned that one of my friend's mom had had a serious heart attack, but she is recovering. Scary. We might visit her on our way out of town.
We are heading out in a few days to Canada to go skiing. We have a week long ski trip
every year, which is always really fun. This time we are going to a place I have never been, but hopefully it will be good. I am not sure if I will be able to post from there, but I will bring my laptop and see what the internet arrangements are.
See ya later!
-El

There and back again

Here I am! Again. I know, I keep resurfacing and disappearing again. But now I am back. For good. Or at least for a couple of days. Anyway, nice to see you are all here. Hi Sam! Nice to meet you.
Anyway, (it isn't my post if there are less than 4 "anyways" ;) thing are good here. I just got back from Portland, Oregan, where I stayed for a week for x-mas. Nice to see all my relatives (on my mom's side) again, and leave just when you start getting really annoyied by them. lol. Anyway, I had a great x-mas, got stuff that I really wanted, and hopefully hade some people happy with my gifts.
A little while before that, I was in California with my relatives on my dad's side for Thanksgiving. We go down to California once a year, and I always really enjoy it. And, my cello didn't get damaged by the airline this time! Yay! Hopefully, I will be able to go back to California by myself in January. I am really looking forward to that.

And then there is skiing. I love skiing, and my family always plans on week-long ski trip a year. This time we are going to a ski resort in Canada called Kimberly. I have never been there, but it looks good. That is in about the middle of January. Another fun thing to look forward to!

For me, school starts on the 2nd, and while I am looking forward to it, I am not looking forward to chainging my entire class scedule. I really like getting to sleep in a bit, but that may not be the case soon. And with the wierd scedule of the homeschool classes, I may not be able to take all of them. *sigh*

From now 'till school starts, I will be kept busy by getting all my assignments ready, cleaning up the house (every other minute my mom "suggests" something I can do to help) and learning Mac OS X. Because, I got a Macbook for x-mas! YYYAAAAYYY! So now I am trying to find out how to actually use it (our family uses Windows computers.) Luckly, I got a book about how to switch from a mac to a PC, so I will be avidly studying it. It could take a little while though, becuase it is huge (514 pages!)

Anyway, glad to be back! Hope I will stay this way for at least a week (but don't count on it ;)
-El

Italy!

Hi guys! I am in Italy! Yay!
Getting here, however, was quite difficult. As you know, my dad is a pilot, so my family can ride on passes, meaning if there are empty seats on a plane, we can take them for free. Basically, we are called "non-revs" which probably means something like non-reserved. Anyway, our plan was to go from Seattle to Atlanta, and then to Milan. We picked these flights becaause they had plenty of open seats (or so we thought.) Anyway, we started driving to Seattle at 3 in the morning, and got there at 5ish. Everything went fine, we parked the car, went through security (a 35 min wait, argh) and waited for the flight. Airlines are authorized to oversell flights, because theyhave an estimated number of people that won't show up. However, we were unlucky, as most everyone showed up. Therefore, we didn't get on :( However, there was another flight an hour and a half later, which we waited for. It looked as if we would miss that flight too, but there was one last seat open. Fortunatly, as a pilot, my dad can ride in a seat in the cockpit called the jumpseat. So I got to sit in the middle of two other people I didn't know in coach. For 5 hours. AAAAAAAAAAAAA! Oh well, it wasn't all that bad. We held for an hour for weather though, so we were very late for our next flight when we landed. We raced to the gate it was departing from, and missed it by littirally 5 mins. We had just missed the last flight to Italy that day. Not good news. Anyway, I should go, but will continue the story later. Can't you wait ;)
2nd installment:
Finally got around to posting. So much to do!
Anyway, we had to stay the night in Atlanta. Luckly, my dad knew of a hotel that wasn't bad, so we stayed there and had mexican food in the hotel resturant. Can't get any mexican food in Italy though :( Well, duh. For breakfast we went to this little place called the Barbecue Kitchen, which is a funny little place. VERY different from where I live. But the food was good, and it was a fun experiance. Then, we headed back to the airport, to hopefully fly to New York, then to Milan. To our relief, we got on the flight, and in first class! Yay! They had just upgraded the TV system too, so you could pick from like 10 movies and 20 TV shows to watch, as well as about 15 games. Yay! I was almost sad when we arrived in New York just an hour and a half later. We strolled around the airport for a while, got a bite to eat, and then went to our gate. First Class again! Yay! Actually, it is "Buisness Elite" when going international. But they had the old TVs where you couuld only pick from a couple movies, and couuld not pause them. Still, it was great! I got to choose what food to get, and it was fairly good too! After just 7 hours, we were in Italy! However, now we had two problems on our hands. First, becuase we had missed some flights and spent the night, finding our luggage was difficult. However, an hour later, we had rounded it all up. The other problem was finding a way to get to our villa, about an hour's drive away. We had Initially planned on taking a bus and then a train to a town just minutes from the villa, but, as we later found out, a strike had taken place, just for that day, and The buses and trains wern't operating! Luckly, we were able to find someone to take us to our villa. We were finally here! We met my mom, sister, nad grandmother there, and I set to exploring the house.
We are staying in a large house/villa, with basically four storys. It sleeps ten, our group consist of 7 (my aunt and uncle came the next day.) The first floor has a kitchen, dining room, and two sitting rooms. The next level has two bedrooms, one of which I am sharing with my sister. The next floor has two bathrooms and two more bedrooms. The 4th floor is up a spiral staircase, with the laundry room, a couch type thing, and two more beds. All in all, it is a pretty great place. Also, behind our villa is a little beach where we can go swimming.
To access the villa, you walk down several switchbacks and staircases, in a jungle-like area. It is very cool. At the top of this path (our villa is at the bottom) you reach a gate, which leads either to the road and our garage (we have a rental car) or down a path to the little town down the road. We go there every day to pick up groceries. Although there is a mini-mart place, we get groceries from the beakery, the butcher, and the fruit and vegatable stand. it is odd to get things at all these different places, but I like it. From the village, you can take a ferry to anywhere on Lake Maggiore, the lake we are staying on. Figuring out the scedule was a pain, but I think we have mostly got it. There are many little ferries, and a hydrofoil ferry that is extremly fast, but doesn't go much. I rode it for the first time today, and it is amazing. It is nearly three times as fast as the other boats.
There are also several great resturants in town. We went our our first night, and also our third. However, the third night, we went to an extremly fancy resturant. The food was good, but their specialy that night was mushrooms, which I hate. Also, as a little appetizer, they served a bit of risotto with a calamari (squid) sauce. And they wanted me to try it. And I hate seafoood besides some fish. I took a little bite, and although the taste wasn't bad, the texture of the ground squid was. um, "bleh"! All the little squid bits were really slimy and scary. YUK! But the food after, the tomato soup and steak, were really good. And so was the dessert. But now the battery on the laptop is low, and this post is really long. Anyway, I will post later, and try to at least induvidually e-mail pics, if not post them. But this is a dail-up connection, so I am not sure how slow it will be. Like, only way to slow, or maybe insanely, bloodcurdleingly slow. Probably the second one. Oh well, at least there is a connection at all.
Anyway, see you guys later!
El

Hi guys! I finally got around to posting! Yay! Even if it was just because this game wants me to download a 800 mb patch. 800 MB! For a patch! And it first said it was going to bhe .76 or something. AAAAA! So apperantly it won't be done for more than an hour. And thats if I don't decide to download something else at the same time. Or play World of Warcraft.
I have decided to divide my post into sections. Above was the "random rants" section (although, as you will find, most of the post is random rants.) Now comes the....
Tech Section!
As we just got a new computer, we decided to donate or sell our older computer. However, to do that, you first have to take everything off the hard drive. The computer came with a disk to do that, so I popped it in. Did what it wanted, told it to do English, it warned me that basically life as we know it would end if I ran the disk, so I did, and it gave me a weird phrase in german. German! After I had specified English! AAA! And then it came to a command propt (basically how old computers work, you have to type in a command that it recognized.) And if I typed in something it didn't recognize, it gave me a phrase in german. Luckly, I had a handy german translator (on the internet) handy. No luck though. It didn't understand an important word. I typed it into google, and finally got an article about how to fix the problems. Apperantly lots of the computers by this manufacteror had this problem. Turns out you first have to go into a different command propt, type in some weird command, restart the computer, and then it would work. How the heck were you supposed to know that??!! So annoying! (end of tech section)
Travel Section!
As you know, I recently went to Ross Lake for a week. It is a great place, but getting there is a pain. About a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Seattle. But you can stop by Cascadian Farm, which is a cool place with good ice cream, and this weird place with lots of rabbits running loose and cabins to stay at. We didn't stay this year though. Anyway, you park your car at a ferry dock (after driving over Diablo Dam, which is cool.) The ferry takes you up Diablo Lake, and runs twice a day. 9ish in the morning, and at like 3:30. And if you miss the late one, you have to wait till the next day. Not good. After the ferry ride, you haul all your stuff (there isn't any food there, so it's a lot) onto a flat-bed truck, which takes you to Ross Lake. Then, you get in a VERY fast boat, and zip across the lake to the resort. We stayed in a modern cabin, which has a full kitchen, two twin beds, and a bunk bed. Only one complaint: the shower was really annoying! It basically had three settings; Too hot, warmish, and cold. The ideal setting would be between "too hot" and "warmish" but it didn't exist. And then, sometimes "warmish" would dissaper. And, it was basically a fine mist. Argh! Oh well... Not a serious problem.
Hmm, pictures don't seem to be working... will try again later, could be because of the download. The lake is 20 miles long, and has many islands to explore. There are also great hikes, like one that takes you to the top of Ross Dam. It is amazing looking off the top down the spillway. Kinda scary. Long long long way down! My aunt came with two of her friends from her company, and we had fun meeting them. On the last day, we drove the boat over (you can rent little power boats; lots of fun!) to a point very close to the resort, brought plenty of food, made a fire at one of the campsites, and cooked breakfast. It is kind of a tradition. It was really good! And now, I am going to Italy soon. I was going to go with my mom and sister, but luckly I can leave a bit later with my dad on Sept. 5th and avoid having to spend a long time in Milan with my mom, grandma, and sister. Not all that fun sounding! And I should be able to occationally post from there. Yay!
Other section:
Anna? I thought you got back on sunday. But you posted on your blog... Are you back?
Weird, for some reason I though Ribbons lived far away. Silly me.
Anyway, thanks for reading, see ya later!
-El

Hello all!
Glad to see that you are back Anna. Any idea where Vanima went? She hasn't posted for a while... Anyway...
Ah, summer is fun. Even if it involves getting hit in the head with a metal rod countless times for three and a half hours a day this week. You could also call this sailing. But it is fun sometimes. finding a way to go upwind can be a pain, but just having fun sailing around is nice.
I just got my new cello a couple days ago, so I have been trying to adjust to that. It is really big! Nice full tone though. Hopefully, my teacher won't be mad that I didn't finish the etude I was working on, cause of the new cello. My lesson is tomarrow. Wish me luck. Lol, he is actually really nice. I am playing this really fun Hindemith piece that sounds weird, but after a while you realize it is really cool.
I'm listening to "I will survive" Not excatly my favorite, except for the fact that Kim Jong Il is singing it. That makes it worth it. For all of you who don't know him, he is the preseident/dictator of North Korea. Very funny.
First I was afraid/I was petrified/I kept thinking I could never live without you beside my side/
Anyway, our renter just brought over 6 York Peppermint Pattys, some chocolate applesauce cake, and printer paper. Yum (except fot the printer paper.) First, an explanation. We bought this property about 6 years ago. Just a little dilapidated house on it. We renovated it, and lived in it as we built our house. So now we rent it out. A couple from Hawaii who just moved here are staying in it. They are pretty nice. I went over cause the woman had gotten a DVD stuck in her DVD player. I couln't do all that much, but showed her how her computer could play DVDs through the TV as well. Anyway, she gave us the food for me doing that, and the printer paper cause she used our fax machine to fax a bunch of stuff. She is really generous. And has a golden retriever that is nice but not really trained.
We are going to Ross Lake for like 4 days on friday/saturday. Should be fun. It is this 20 mile long lake that leads into Canada, and there are some cabins that actually float on top of the lake on massive logs that we stay in. They are next to the shore, but physically over the water. It's really fun, as you can rent a little speed boat and explore all these islands, and go on lots hikes and fun stuff. The problem (besides there not be internet, lol) is that they just have snacks/candy there, so you have to bring all your food in. At least there are refrigerators. It's just like two hours or less from Seattle, but once you get there you have to ride a passenger ferry, then a truck, then a speed boat to the "resort." Quite a trek. They have two large "peak" cabins, and to get one you basically have to kill a family that has it sceduled for some time, but we managed to get one in the fall, so that is later. We are staying in a smaller "modern cabin" this time. Then we get home, and two days later we leave for Italy. For three weeks. Which should be fun, but I will miss the beginning of school, and I won't be able to post much. There should be Internet cafes there though :) So I can tell you guys what I am doing.
When do you guys start school? Anyone excited about it? (with the exception of Anna, who was petting her books, so we know where she stands) I am kinda excited, but most of my friends are now in high school, so I won't see them much. And now all the scary little 6th graders will be 7th graders, so I will have classes with them. :( Not that younger people aren't bad, they can just be annoying.
Anyway, I should get ready f0r sailing. See ya!
-El

Hi guys! I thought that having 20 comments on my latest blog post was a good signal that it was time to post again. So here I am. Today, I lounged around, and then went to the doctor for a yearly check-up. Easy enough, except for the fact that it took a hour and a half and I got two shots, one in each arm, inches away from my shoulder. Now my entire left arm is sore, and I can't do anything with it. :( So I couldn't practice cello.
The trip to Belleview a couple days ago wasn't too bad, and we got to go to the Belleview Mall after. Not a huge amount of fun stuff, just Gamestop and the Apple store. They had 30" moniters in there! For computers! (for those of you wondering what the big deal is and stating the fact that they make way bigger LCD TVs, I say this: TV's, even high definition ones, have WAY less pixels than computer moniters. omewhere around half as many. So if you plugged a computer into a TV, it would look really bad. But these 30" moniters have SOOO many pixels, they look amazing. I really want one!) But they were wasted on those Apple computers, without any games. They would look awesome for games, or watching moves, or stuff. But there is the little problem of a $2400 (don't quote me on that, just a estimate, + or - $400) price tag :( And the fact that I would have to have a $5000 computer for it to really take advantage of the moniter. hat type of computers do you guys use? As for me WINDOWS!
Anyway, enough of the weird computer stuff. How are you guys doing? I have decided to post a questionarre, so when you comment, answer the questions by copying the whole questionarre and pasting it int your comment, then taking out my answers and filling in your own (as well as anything else you want to add.) Just a way to get to know you better (note: this is not an entirely hand made questionarre, most of the stuff is, um, "borrowed" Mostly from my mother's sister's husband's sister's daughter, Morgan. Really.)
Who picked out your name? My parents
What's your nickname? El, Otter...
Single or taken? Single
What color are your eyes? dark brown.
What size are your shoes? not sure.... >
How tall (or short)? 5' 6"
What is your worst quality? Hm, bugging my sister? I daydream alot to, but wouldn't regard it as bad....
Hair color? Really dark brown, people sometimes think it is black. Do you wear contacts? No
~*FAVOURITES*~ Favorite Drink? Spiced apple cider with whipped cream
Favorite Month? January! Oh Yeah!
> Favorite Food? Italian. It is heavenly if made well. And Mexican! Favorite Board Game? Risk...
Favorite band? Don't have one!
Favorite day of the year? Holidays
Favorite Animal? Chihuahuas, Chameleons, and Rats
> ~*YES OR NO*~ > > > You like someone? Yep!
You can keep secrets? Other Peoples? If they really want me to? Oh yeah. Mine? A couple people get to know
You dance in front of the mirror? AHHH! No!>
You've been hurt seriously? Stung by yellowjackets twice, fell on my face on concrete. Ow! Dislocated both arms. What fun!
You're willing to try new things? Some (not much)
> > ~*RIGHT NOW*~ > > > > What are you wearing? A red long sleeve shirt, Jeans, 2 bain-aids
> What are you listening to? My dad and sister talking (he just got home, yay!)
What are you eating? Nothing
How's the weather? Clear and dark. Kinda cold.
> What's on your mouse pad? The touchpad is black (you should be able to have a picture on it)
> What books are you reading? Timeline
~*OTHER QUESTIONS*~ > > > >
Have you ever fallen asleep in school? Not in School, in orchestra though once. Conducter was talking to violins as always ;) someone in the cello section hit me with thier bow on the foor to wake me up, lol
> What movie do you really want to see? Any Mel Brooks movie
> Where would you like to travel? Italy, France, Hawaii
If you were a crayon what color would you be? Blue. Boring old me. Lol
Tell me if you like this!
Lego, ya, it would be great to join TYS, I have been talking to my parents about it. And yes, I do have two pictures of you playing dog. He He He (evilish laugh) I can send them to you if ya want. Also, I completed the (very extensive) form for TYS. Yay! Now I just wait 24 hours and call them... and complain about thier form... lol. Not sure if my parents are sure about doing it though. What orchestra were you in last time? Where do you think you will be this season?
See ya!
-El