today on the slopes after me & tim had a few pints at lunch:

tim: wierd, i'm feel quite tanked now
me: yeh me too, i think the altitude really makes a difference
tim: we should take it easy on the slopes
me: yeh lets not break anything

one run later:

me: dude i slipped off a rail and smacked my knees on it.
tim: i fell so hard on my chest that it hurts to breathe
me: i think my knee is bleeding
tim: should we stop and check?
me: na lets just go home
tim: good idea

me & tim - just before getting destroyed on the slopes

when i first moved to seattle i was told by many ppl that it rarely snows in seattle (maybe once every 2-3 years) and that when it did snow, it was so minimal that it would pretty much melt not too longer after it hit the ground...

this winter has been a huge exception. its snowed at least 10 days and some days we've had several inches of snow coverage. microsoft has had 3 days where they closed the whole campus down because of the snow.

i've really enjoyed the experience of living in a city where you walk outside your apt, outside the supermarket, outside your office and theres snow at your feet. i have to admit though, i'm starting to get a bit sick of it. i think a big reason for this is because seattle isn't a city that has the infrastructure to support this much snow. in fact, i recently found out that the city refuses to use salt to deice the roads (because of environmental concerns). this means that unlike other cities with high snow coverage, our roads are absolutely horrific when it snows here.

here is a recent traffic cam photo of one of our major freeways. since our roads are so icey, ppl simply can't make it up even the smallest hills and they end up having to abandon their cars. thankfully we invested in an all-wheel-drive car.

traffic cam photo on the I90 freeway

traffic at microsoft campus using my phone camera

spot the difference in the crowds at time square on new years eve.

"start spreading the news, im leaving today.  i want to be part of it, New York New York.  

these vagabond shoes are longing to stray and make a brand new start of it, New York New York."

ok now i dont have a pair of vagabond shoes that are longing to stray but we wanted to be a part of it.  a part of the infamous new york time square new years celebrations.  so we left los angelas and arrive in new york to make a brand new start of two thousand and seven.  

having only a few days in new york we didnt have much time to do all that we wanted on our list, but we did enough.  we met the liberty lady herself, navigated through the subways, creamed ourselves with bagels, braved the street meat vendors, admired the rockefella christmas tree, starred jealously at the people iceskating, treked around central park, reflected at ground zero, and wondered around quaint areas of greenwich and soho. 

new years really set the tone for the craziness of time square.  the streets were littered with millions of people from all over the world wanting to fix their eyes on the ball.  and fix our eyes on the ball we did.  we were one of milliions of people who watched the ball drop as the new year rolled in.  didnt matter that we had to push our way through crowds, stand in the same spot for three hours and the ball was no bigger than a glimmer in our eyes.  we came, we saw and we conquered.

loved the experience of being in time square for new years.  not sure if i would do it again.  but definitely putting new york as a place to revisit becuase it sure is exciting to wake up in the city that never sleeps.