Minnesota is so freakin... I can't think of the word. It's not hick. However, it's similar to hick, with better people. It's so... wilderness or something. See, everytime I go to Chicago I think, "Des Moines is so small town." Then on the drive to Mankato, and up 169 to the cities, I think, "Where do these people shop? eat? go out?" and then I realize that Des Moines is actually a big city compared to a lot. Everywhere I've been in Minnesota is so small town, with smart and friendly people. Then when I get back to Des Moines I appreciate my "big city." Shortly after this roadside pondering I reached rush hour traffic just outside of Minneapolis on 494. Then I saw the skyline off in the distance and went back to thinking Des …

One time back in 2001 I decided to go snowboarding with Jason Reiter. Prior to that, besides backyard snowboarding, I had only been snowboarding on a resort once.

Some extended family of mine own a small ski resort in Illinois (Snow Star). Every year the resort would be closed on Christmas Day, however, they'd invite a bunch of family and close friends out for a Christmas potluck and day of skiing/snowboarding/sledding. So needless to say, I got pretty decent at skiing as a kid. Then I tried snowboarding one year; the resort was pretty empty so I had plenty of room to learn. Regardless, I fell a lot, my butt hurt, my head hurt, etc - That was the only time I had gone prior to the invitation to go with Jason.

So we headed up to …

The snow started last night. I'm so sad and so pumped at the same time. My car sucks like none other when the roads are slick. Probably due to my decision to get performance tires back in College - when my car was garaged for the winter. Now I don't have that luxury and I'm paying for it.

The good part though, is snowboarding. I've completely spoiled Kari. She is totally outfitted in new snowboarding gear this year. She's got a new K2 Skyla 147 deck, Morrow Wildflower bindings, and new boots. My deck and bindings are 5 years old and I have crap boots. Actually if I just got some new boots I'd be happy.

Tonight, I'm gonna snowskate a bit in the yard, maybe snowboard too... I suppose I better shovel the driveway and make a …

This weekend I was at home again... Friday was a little weird because we found out that someone had broken into Kari's apartment garage and put a different padlock on it. After a ton of calling around, yelling, being lied to, calling the cops, finding bolt cutters, etc - it turned out that Sun Prairie rented out her garage without telling her. This is awesome because Kari still has stuff in there - stuff that we needed this weekend. Sun Prairie Apartments in West Des Moines suck so so bad. Kari and I both have had really bad experiences there. Soon I'm going to buy sunprairiesucks.com or something and let everyone know how they do business. Then I will link to it from everywhere, the people will know, and I will win. I've already …

OK, so Christmas was really good this year. It was nice to see everyone. Plus Kari and I gave a lot of good gifts. ...and I got tons of awesome stuff.

Christmas Eve we went to Kari's parents house for food, presents, and games. Then on Christmas day we went to my parents house for more food, presents, and games. I got so many power tools, lots of DVDs, a blingin belt buckle, etc.

Ninja was pretty annoying to take around. He was crazy with Kari's dog. Everytime he'd lay down, chomp would want to play and vice versa. Luckily he slept a lot at my parents house. Today Kate was saying that if you can't put up with a dog, there is no way you can handle a kid. ...omg, I would kill myself if I had a kid. I've wanted to kick this …

Tuesday after work, Kari and I drove to Denver to visit her brother and go snowboarding. The original plans were for her and I to go snowboarding thursday at Winterpark Mountain, but she hurt her knee walking, so her brother and I went instead. We took a lesson in the morning because it was my first time on a mountain (aside from iowa), and it was Victor's first time ever. Toward the end of the lesson, Vic hit his head and wanted to take a break... I ended up snowboarding the rest of the day by myself... but whatever, it was still fun. I covered a good portion of the mountain and got up to the Mary Jane peak (11,200 feet), w00t!

The bad part of the day was when my digital camera broke... I was really mad. On the way back from the …

Snowskates? They're not skiboards like you might think... they're basically skateboards that you take in the snow. I have been talking to Premier lately and they're letting me demo their product. They sent me JP Walker's model, which is pimp. It's 38 inches long and 8 inches wide, a little longer than a skateboard but a lot shorter than a snowboard. Your feet also don't clip into it in any way, which allows you to do kickflips, shove its and all that. They're not really for going down steep slopes at resorts. More for messing around in your backyard (jibbing), which all of us like to do! heh.

I'm kinda mad cause we don't have any snow, but i've played around with it in my room, it ollies a lot better than i thought, and manual's …

My car got put into the garage for the winter :-(. i took my system out and it's setting in my room, not getting used, poor thing. i guess it's better though because it can't get stolen, and i won't risk ruining my car in the snow.

One good thing... I got a new snowboard this weekend and I'm ready for the season! I just bought a 99 salomon 154, it came with some really nice salomon freestyle bindings... but I don't have freestyle boots so I stuck my switch bindings on it for now. I can't wait to bust it out this winter! so, I guess it sucks that I have to put my car away... but at the same time, I get to pull out my board. eh, lose one thing and gain another.

my board n boots