Verm Day

Brrrrr. Nora, Brian, Spot, Dennis, Caleb and myself braved the cold to go paddling on Nora's Birthday. The verm was only pushing about 55 cfs, but we still had a couple of good surfs and definitely some fun. We even had a bit of an early river clean up, removing a microwave and a traffic cone that the local losers threw off the bridge. It was interesting getting the gear off at the end of the run. With temps in the 20's, everything froze together. The zippers made for an especially challenging task. My paddling camera is currently on vacation in the Bahamas (darn camera's got it better than I do) so I don't have any pics, but Nora's got some great ones. Check out her blog to view them (the link is on the right of this page, under "links" -> "Nora's Blog". Make sure you get a look at the icicles hanging from Spot's helmet.

New Toy

Well, the Midwest Expo got the best of me this year. After several months of wishing for rain that never came, new hobbies were looking pretty good. So, when I saw the Kiting booths set up in the tent, it was pretty tough to resist. I am now the proud owner of an Ozone Samurai2 power kite. My plan is to mostly use it with my skiis this winter, but who knows. Rumor has it that you can use them with just about anything: skiis, boards, skates, rollerblades, you name it. Aside from looking insanely fun, I figure that the variety of uses should finally give me a hobby that's not necessarily precipitation-dependent. Here's a pic of my Kite, as well as a link to some pics you can check out on the local community website. Hopefully soon I'll have some of my own.

http://www.lakawa.com/community/gallery/snowkiting/index.htm