Lets go a' curling

Lynn and I recently decided to try the Olympic sport of curling. Curling basically involves sliding (or "throwing" in Curling lingo) a 40 pound granite rock (or stone, as it is sometimes called) across an ice rink, to try to get it as close as possible to the target at the other end of the rink. One other feature is using a broom to sweep in front of the stone in order to use friction to increase the surface temperature of the ice directly in the stone's path, which makes the stone go farther.

Here, the "skip" directs a shot for the person throwing the stone at the other end of the rink.

Lynn prepares to throw the stone.

Lynn and our instructor get into some heavy duty sweeping.

Lynn does some solo sweeping.

Lynn considers her shot.

And it was a really good shot after all!

Lynn explains the basics of curling.

Here's a picture of me preparing to throw a rock.

Lynn looks at the "house."

Star K Ranch

Today I decided to take a trip to the Stark K Ranch, one of my favorite places in my home town, Aurora Colorado. Not many people know that Aurora has its own wilderness reserve, which is home to a herd of white-tailed deer, coyotes, and many species of birds. It also has extensive wetland areas.

This is what it looks like from the air.

The Ranch actually has a very nice nature center with restrooms and helpful naturalists. The nature center is the small building to the right, in the background.

Below is a panorama of one of the wetlands areas at the Star K Ranch, just about to bloom for the spring.

As I was walking along, I noticed something unusual in one of the trees--something that I had not noticed before on any of my trips to the Ranch. I attempted to take a picture of the tree as I saw it passing by, which I have inserted below. Let's see if you can spot it too.

There is a bird's nest in the center of the picture, and you can just barely make out the form of a great horned owl. I put on my telephoto lens to try to get a better shot, but the angle wasn't all too good. My attempt to capture the creature's image is below:

You can certainly make out the owl's ears, and part of her eyes. I moved over a little bit to try to get a better shot, and then enlarged the image as best I could. The result is a little pixelated, but this was my best attempt at a picture of the great horned owl today (below).

I went and spoke the the naturalist, and learned that this is a female great horned owl, and that she has a bunch of newly hatched chicks in the nest with her. The owl's mate was in another tree nearby. He hunts for the female and the chicks, but the female of the species is much larger than the male, so she protects the nest and the young. In fact, the naturalist told me that the male will sometimes take over sitting in the next so that the female can stretch her wings, but if a hawk comes by the male will call to the female so that she can return to protect their young.

The naturalist also told me that the owl's diet consists almost entirely of voles. Apparently the Stark K Ranch has a lot of voles around. This is what a Vole looks like:

After taking a while to soak in the owl, I spotted a little herd of deer (below).

Nice Rack!

Welcome to Festivus 2007

Welcome to Festivus 2007! Here you will find photographs of the Second Annual Festivus For The Rest Of Us at Stately Orman Manor, held on December 15, 2007 in Aurora, Colorado.

For those of you that might like an introduction into Festivus, what it is, and what it stands for, the YouTube video below might be instructive.

For those who just want to look at the pictures, just scroll below the video.

Festivus Explained

Festivus Party 2007!

Ah, Festivus. For the second year in a row, we hosted a Festivus celebration at Stately Orman Manor. We did it just as Frank Costanza would want, complete with The Metal Pole, the Airing of Grievances, and the Feats Of Strength. Welcome to Festivus 2007!

Festivus, of course, is the ficticious holiday popularlized on the sit-com Seinfeld. Frank Costanza (pictured above) founded Festivus, which had three central features: (1) The Metal Pole; (2) The Airing of Grievances; and (3) The Feats of Strength. We had all three at the second annual Festivus For The Rest Of Us celebration at Stately Orman Manor.

THE NOBLE BEACON

In addition to the main foundations of Festivus, we added a new tradition, the Noble Beacon Of Festivus. This is a flashing light that guides participants to the Festivus Celebration. No Festivus event should be considered complete without one.

The Noble Beacon is deployed in anticipation of Festivus

THE METAL POLE

What Festivus celebration would be complete without the metal pole? People love to pose with the metal pole.

Here I am, with the metal pole in the background

More fun with the pole!

Check out the T-shirts!

The Festivus Meal

Of course, every Festivus celebration needs to have a Festivus meal. We don't really know that the menu was at the original Festivus, but we tried to figure out what Frank would want. We think that we succeeeded.

The Festivus Buffet

Enjoying the traditional Festivus meal.

Good Times

Of course, there is more to Festivus than Feats of Strength, Airing of Grievances, and Metal Poles!

A participant enjoys a refreshing beverage.

Everyone is happy at Festivus!

A participant shows off the prize he won for one of the Feats of Strength (the Little Debbies, not the dog).

Who wouldn't enjoy Festivus!

This participant was obviously peeved about something.

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Of course, one of the primary events of any Festivus celebation are the Feats Of Strength. This year we had four seperate competitions. One involved holding a gallon of water up with a straight arm.

Here five participants engage in a battle of pure strength.

Now they are starting to get tired.

The pain must have been unbearable.

THE AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

Unlike the original Festivus, where Frank told everyone assembled how they had dispppointed him in the previous year, we encouraged guests to fill out grievance forms, which were then submitted to a panel of judges, who selected 12 (or so) grievances to air to the Festivus participants.

Here is an example of a Festivus Grievance Form

Here I am with my little megaphone explaining an upcoming grievance to be aired.

Hal airs a grievance

A guest explains the facts surrounding her grievance

As does another.

The assembled masses listen to a grievance being aired

YET MORE FEATS OF STRENGTH

The evening ended with the final Feat of Strength, the Wresting Of the Pole. Here was one of our first heats. Two participants engage in a battle of strength and wits to wrest the pole (here 3 feet of 2 inch PVC pipe) from the other's grasp. The pole symbolizes the metal Festivus Pole, one of the mains elements of any Festivus celebration.

Notice the look of intense concentration in the face of the particpant to the right

The men's competition was similar, except that it used 4 inch PVC pipe

THUS ENDED FESTIVUS 2007