Happy New Year!

We woke up to 5" of snow in Boulder on Saturday morning, and the weather map showed precipitation all the way to the Colorado-New Mexico border. We decided to wait a day before heading home, so I had time to write a quick post. I was going to wait until we got back home, but what the heck.

The wife and I took advantage of free babysitting (grandparents) on Friday (Jan 3) to take a nice cross-country ski at one of our favorite parts of the world--Brainard Lake (CO). Despite the wind (too windy to expose much skin!), the skiing was quite good for early January. The ski did motivate me to re-commit to fitness as I have a few sore muscles this morning. I'm thinking of trying for the 1/2 Marathon in the Valles Caldera in June, as a carrot to motivate me to run and hit the gym. Who's with me?

The holidays were fairly low-key for our crowd. At our house, a tradition is sushi on Christmas Eve. This year, we rolled our own, in part because we couldn't get hold of our local sushi establishment to see if they were open Christmas Eve. It was delicious, and fun, obviously.

Christmas Day was spent lounging. My wife worked the day after Christmas so the troopers and I took a little hike at the Tsankawi Ruin near our house. We are going to have to find some longer, harder hikes because the munchkins practically jogged the 2-mile loop and barely stopped to drink water.

I'm looking forward to a busy spring. Music gigs are already lined up:
- 1/11, Blue Window Bistro (Craig Martin Experience)
- 1/19, UNM-LA (Craig Martin Experience)
- 1/25, Pajarito Mountain Ski Area (Craig Martin Experience)
- 2/8, Blue Window Bistro for the K2 Women's Weekend (Craig Martin Experience)
- 3/15, Empty Bowls Fundraiser (Craig Martin Experience)

Outdoor education:
- 3/21-23, I'm leading a ski patrol mountaineering class near Taos. Yes, I'm aware that I posted recently about quitting ski patrol. I still have a few responsibilities and goals, though, with my role as a regional representative for the mountaineering program. This class is the "level 2" version that I've been considering and planning for a few years now, and it's finally coming to fruition.

Piano lessons: 3 students and counting.

Work! It never ends. "Work is the price you pay for money" (Max Mancini).

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!