30th Birthday Fun

For the actual day of my 30th birthday we got a bunch of friends together to go bowling. You may remember a similar post from Cory's birthday two years ago. It was a bit last-minute, but I decided I needed to do something for this monumental occasion.

Due to a lack of pre-planning, we arrived at West Seattle Bowl right in the middle of league night and had to wait an hour and a half to get a lane. This was a bit detrimental to my Friday morning my friends decided I should celebrate being-old-and-not-being-able-to-recover-from-drinking-as-quickly-as-I-used-to with shots.

I even did a shot at 7:22, my birth minute!

However, the timing worked out. It allowed folks to arrive and grab some dinner. And yes, the night after our major flag football victory we were all wearing our Champs shirts!

Yup, still CHAMPS!

After a couple more drinks we finally made it to our lanes.

Did you know Nick used to bowl in a league as a child? He's pretty good.

I was excited to bowl, but disappointed in my sub-100 point first round. I had to try hard to cheer myself up. Messing with Cory usually does the trick.

At least my future husband seems happy in this situation

Even with my sub-par score, I was happy to have all my friends out, especially Jamie. She's a new Mom and can't pull off late Thursday night gatherings very often.

Apparently motherhood hasn't slowed her down much

I ended the night on a high note. My second game was much-improved from my first. I think that bowling is like darts and pool: when you're sober you're terrible, after a few drinks you really start to hit your stride, then that window quickly closes and you're too drunk to even care. I think, now that I'm 30, I've got it figured out. I was in the perfect state to bowl well my second game and posted one of my best scores ever.

Although, come to think of it, I don't remember what it was... Maybe it was just the birthday fairy smiling down on me and I still have a few more things to learn.

Water Damage Drama

While I was in Colorado (specifically the first night that I arrived), my upstairs neighbor's washing machine malfunctioned. It dumped water into my ceiling for about 30 minutes before anyone noticed. The water triggered my smoke detectors, which in turn alerted the fire department. Since they didn't know what was going on, they decided to force their way in.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice - the whole door frame had to be nail-gunned back in place

Water poured out of this light fixture and left its mark multiple times on the ceiling. The carpet in the entryway had to be pulled up, the ceiling had to be removed, and the wall behind my washer/dryer had to be removed.

Notice the water damage around the light fixture

What a fun way to start a vacation. Luckily my neighbors came down while all this was going on, found Pounce, and called me with the details so I wasn't surprised when I got home.

Beaver Creek, CO

Cory and I went out to Beaver Creek, CO the first weekend in March. There's been hardly any snow in Colorado this year, as I mentioned back in January, but we lucked out. It dumped the week before we arrived, so we were met with new, soft snow and pockets of powder. Although the temperatures quickly jumped back up to about 45 degrees, I wasn't complaining. My Seattle body needed to be in the sun for a few days.

Nothing says, "I'm getting to ski without a jacket" like a Corona on the mountain!

Beaver Creek's motto is "Not exactly roughing it", which we took to heart. We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's cabin near the ski area. We called the shuttle every morning to pick us up at our front door and drop us off at the chair lifts. We enjoyed the free chocolate chip cookies in the village and hot chocolate at the top of the first chair (ok, we missed the hot chocolate this year, but we've had it before). We hot tubbed and relaxed for almost 4 days. It was nice.

My friends from college, Liz Swary and Beaker (aka Elissa), came out for the weekend to partake in the pampering.

Liz Swary on skis for the first time in four years

We discovered that Beaker has a slightly strange affinity for Albert Einstein upon encountering this statue in Vail Village.

The smart men DO get the ladies

Cory's cousin and his family were able to join us as well. They stayed through Monday and had a great time. Their 14-year-old boy, Cody, couldn't make it because he was training to compete in the Junior Olympics in Steamboat, which he did the following weekend.

The whole crew: Heather, Steve, Beaker, me, Olivia, Liz Swary, and Cory

I think Olivia (our flower girl) liked not having her big brother around because she got to be the center of attention. She skis really well and kept up on the mountain all day Saturday. Sunday she was up for a day of firsts: her first time ice skating and her first time snowshoeing.

We're excited to give it a try

After a little help from the rink attendant, we got Olivia off the railing and skating on her own

Olivia had no trouble snowshoeing. She trekked up the hill with me and Cory like a champ while her parents took a nap back at the cabin. She's definitely got more energy than the adults!

Olivia modeling her snowshoes

Cory and I can't wait to get back to Beaver Creek sometime soon! It's the ideal long-weekend vacation and we were excited to share it with family and friends.

Olivia's a pretty good photographer, no?

Flag Football Champs - Finally!

After 5 years of playing flag football and coming oh-so-close to winning the championship an embarrassing number of times, Talk Down Analog (formerly Sign Up Digital) finally claimed a victory!

We are now proud flag football Champs.

See how happy we look?

We were a little worried that our entire team was going to be on a plane to Tahoe for the final playoff game. Luckily, Underdog Sports was understanding and had playoffs all in one night. We played two games, demolishing the first team and playing a tight game for the championship.

A glimpse of the most expensive shirts ever "purchased"

Also, here's the official Underdog write-up:

First Place

Winter Co-ed Flag Football at Nathan Hale HS Wednesdays

In the history of sports, there have been many times where a team changes it's logo and follows up the next season with a strong performance. However, the team formerly known as Sign Up Digital, changed their name instead, and with pleasant results.

Led by quarterback extraordinaire Brandon Maggs, TDA rarely even faced a deficit in a perfect season. In the championship game, faced against a strong Tenacious D outfit, TDA executed a ball control offense, applying pressure the kind of pressure that you normally see from a boa constrictor. In their final drive of the first half, with great respect for Tenacious D's quick strike abilities, Maggs made sure there was no time left in the half following their score to go up 20-14. Following that possession, they opened up the second half with a scoring drive that put them up 28-14 and never looked back.