Got a call from Dave, the owner, today. Apparently the gas company came recently to fill our propane tank (our sole source of heat) but couldn’t locate our tank due to the fact that it was buried under ice and snow. So out the shovels came and Kate and I embarked on the Great Propane Dig of 2008.

I’ll spare you the suspense… I ended up locating the tank about six and a half feet down in the snow (thanks to that snow calving off the roof). We didn’t know where to dig at first, but Kate came up with the brilliant idea of looking through our photos of the place and trying to figure out the location from that. Sure enough in one of our videos you could see the pvc pipe sticking out of the ground showing where the tank was located.

Starting the dig.

As you can see, the snow was at the roof line of the carport (if not a little higher).

We started to dig where I thought the tank was, but quickly decided it wasn’t the right spot.

Here I am in my own pit. Tank found… but had to dig stairs so I could get back out.

Sarah came out to visit us (meaning Kate) last weekend while she left little Josiah at home with her husband Rob. The girls shopped all day on Saturday, but Sunday was reserved for the last day on the slopes for the season.

The girls also got into sewing… er crafting, while I did some star crafting myself with the boys. I think this has finally inspired Kate to get with it and start getting www.ittsybittsy.com up and running where she’ll start to sell custom made onesies with letters on them. I’ll keep you posted as to when the site becomes active so you can send all your baby-having friends there. In the meantime, here’s some of their onesie work:

We can tell that spring is finally coming for us. All winter we’ve watched as our side window slowly became completely covered in snow.

Today I heard the grumblings outside (my desk is right next to the side window) and got up to look out the window this afternoon when… WHOOOSH, the whole roof-full of snow suddenly slide away.

So we’re happy to have our window back… way more light now.

This weekend is closing for Breck, so it’ll be a bittersweet day hitting the slopes for one last ride of the season. Saddly, Brady and Andrea won’t be here. Brady broke his arm yesterday in the terrain park. Heal fast man, we still have some snow on the pass!

One of the blog I regularly read, Dubious Quality, has a weekly feature called “Friday Links”. He’s very consistent in coming up with some amazing stuff strewn about the internet (that’s where the painting elephant came from).

This week is no exception. Here’s a brilliantly told story of the greatest American classical violinist playing in a D.C. subway (the author recently won a Pulitzer Prize for this very article). It’s a long read, but worth it.

In the middle of a blizzard today. You know what they say: April blizzards bring May… lizards?

Just a little update on what’s going on up here.

1) I’ve updated my blog to WordPress 2.5, not that you’ll likely notice (the cool thing is that it now has an integrated photo gallery, we’ll see how that works in the future). Let me know if you run into any bugs or oddities.

2) Our snowblower is broken. Not what you want in a blizzard.

3) We’ve been hanging out with my cousin Andrea and her new hubby Brady as they come up to ski the last few weekends before the mountains close for the season. Aunt Sarah even came up to try her hand at boarding yesterday. So if you want to catch some turns, get here before April 20th! (the main reason I’m still cool with it dumping snow.)

4) We get to leave this eternal snow behind in four weeks as we head to California (work for me, fun for Kate).

5) Speaking of trips, we’re *tentatively* planning our annual road trip for the end of May. We’ll be heading out west to Oregon and Northern Cali (we figure since we’re living here, we better take advantage of the “closeness” to the Pacific coast). We’ll be cramming a lot into 9 days… Mt. Hood, Portland, Northern Oregon coast (including the home of our favorite Tillamook cheese), Crater Lake, Redwood forests of Northern Cali, San Fransisco (we’re coming to pester you Wenzels), and finally Yosemite. I know, we’re crazy, but we’re a fun crazy. We’re also open to any suggestions of places we should see along our route.

6) Oh, and I’ve been playing way too much Starcraft with the boys from Kansas as of late. Post a comment if you want to join in on the mad fun.