My Cousin Passed Away Last night

http://m.ksat.com/news/SAFD-Firefighter-found-dead-in-his-home/-/15126192/17939132/-/o82xm9/-/index.html

A wonderful man was lost last night. It is a tough time for my family. Send your thoughts and prayers to his immediate family that is still reeling with the news.

Ingress Invite

Well, after spending the day scouring the web in search of an ingress account activation code all I found was a whole lot of people in the same boat as myself. Hopefully, in the next few days, I will manage to come up with one. In the mean time I am debating on following a few people's advice and trying to come up with a great piece of art to post on the developer's Google+ in an attempt to bribe one out of them.

Welch Village

Welch Village was a great time last weekend. It was a really nice ski slope and had most everything opened. My brother and I did learn that every resort lies when they supply the stats for their base. There is no way that Welch Village had 20 inches. I am sure there is a specific protocol for determining the base but if that was 20 inches I think soon I may see pigs fly past my window. It was a still a great time. Friday was the best day by far and it was some of the best snow we have seen. It rained on Saturday and so we headed into Minneapolis to the Mall of America, REI, Moto Primo, and back to Red Wing for a movie. We really enjoyed the whole trip. Sunday we left about noon because the slope was just a solid hard pack/ice and we had a long drive home. We ended up getting back before 8pm with plenty of time to unpack and get ready for the work week ahead.

It was a good thing that we went north because there is no way that snow creek is going to be open before Christmas. At the rate things are going I am beginning to wonder if they will ever open. 

It appears that there is big news in the works around the Foster household at the moment. A lot of things are changing in the coming weeks and despite being  a little nervous, I think it will be for the best in the end. There is a lot to get done to prepare though. 

Welch Village Adventure

Chris and I got off on Friday and so we are off to Minnesota a day early. That means one more full day of snowboarding! Hopefully the hill will be deserted toiletries and we will get to reacquaint ourselves with snowboarding without witnesses. I figure about an hour of tomorrow will be spent embarrassing ourselves. That's why we have the go pro cameras!

Super 8 Wyndham Hotels Discount Codes

This code that I found online gets 20% off at Wyndham Hotels. Not sure that it will work for everyone but it helped me save just a little bit. Thought that I would share: 1000006356 

I found this through searching Google, it is not some illicit method of getting a discount. 

This code worked for a couple of Super 8 hotels in MN and should work for any Wyndham Hotels. 

Spontaneous...

Well, it looks like the snowboard trip is back on! We are headed to Welch Village in southern Minnesota for a Saturday and Sunday snowboard extravaganza! It is going to be awesome. We hope! It is only seven hours away, cheap lift tickets, and should provide more trails than we have ever seen at a resort. For the distance and the price it looks like a great deal. Plans are still in the works but I think that the trip is a go. Welch Village looks like a really nice place. On their website they even have a webcam you can operate remotely. It gives a pretty good idea of what we are in for.

Considering what we are used to, I think that this is going to be a great experience for all of us! I am not sure I can talk Jessie into coming with us but if she does, it should provide plenty of beginner friendly snow to play in!



The hotel isn't anything special but it is a warm place to wax your snowboard after a great day on the slopes!
Super 8







Unrelated

Moto Video has been released!

This comes highly recommended from one of my riding buddies! I haven't watched it just yet but I plan to in the very near future!

Moto 4 in HD

Snowboarding Season Starts late

Well, it's official. Snow creek is not going to open until a week after they planned because of the unseasonably warm weather in our area. My brother can't wait though. He had it set in his mind he was going to get to snowboard this weekend and that's his plan. To facilitate this we may or may not be driving to Colorado on Friday night to go to Loveland in Colorado! No plans are finalized just yet but the idea is being thrown around.

Later: Well, change of plans. It seems that it is just too early and NO ONE has much snow. We looked at the national snow report and even the big resorts are only partially open at the moment. It makes it hardly worth it to drive all the way out to Colorado so we are saving our tires and our gas money for a weekend when everything may actually be open at one of the closer resorts on the east side of the rocky mountains. It was a good idea but mother nature just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I guess we will have to find something local to keep us busy in the mean time.

Barebones Kit

If you need a hand assembling your brand new pile of shiny computer components, here are some helpful sites. I won't mention which mistake I made but these sites sorted out more than a few problems that someone with less experience may encounter when purchasing/assembling parts.

Remember, if you don't play the game you may never lose but you will never win either. At least, that's what I told myself after discovering a very stupid mistake in my latest build.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Assemble-A-Basic-Desktop-PC/step5/Ground-Yourself/

Graham Jarvis is amazing!

http://youtu.be/dcxkR5y68d4

Finger Lakes State Park

There has been a last minute change of plans. I was headed to Milford State Park tonight and School Creek ORV tomorrow. Instead I am going to run out to Divert Lakes State Park.It should be perfect weather and it will be 12F warmer at night. Not much but better decision making material than a coin flip. I am really excited to get out there on the KDX. Last run was on the drz and it was pretty slow going.I am planning on thoroughly exploring the park except for that mx track.I'm not sure how Jessie's bike would handle the jumps but as it's her bike, I don't plan on finding out. Also, finger lakes is attached to the ORV so I can get everything ready tonight and just get up and ride come morning. It would have been nice to get some friends out there but everyone is busy, working, or injured so I'm hitting the trail solo. Actually that was the other reason I picked Finger Lakes. I carry a whistle but on a Friday there may not be anyone out at school creek to here my distress call in the event that I try something genius. I half considered going even further and hitting up Arkansas but gas prices won out and I chose closer to home. It is going to be a great time!

Posted from my galaxy III, so sorry about the typos :)

Later: It is perfect weather out. This is the best idea I have had in a while. What a beautiful way to spend an evening. Sitting here by the fire, cold beer in hand, stars overhead, and bike ready to go for tomorrow. Perfection!

Great video, Red bull hard Enduro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKnpfK9EO60&list=SL

Thanksgiving 2012, the Rest of the Story...

These are photos from our Thanksgiving this year. It was a wonderful weekend with the family. It was really great to see everyone and catch up after so long. There are videos, but I am waiting on my new computer before I get those posted.

This was the wonderful set up in Llano, Texas on my Aunt & Uncle's ranch! It was very cozy for the whole family and if the conversation got dull you could always let your eyes wonder over to the assortment of toys around us in the barn.

 

 It's finally time for dessert!

 Spending some quality time with the family!

 This is Levi. He has been around a very long time! Every time I am home I wonder if it is the last time I will see him. He has been around longer than any dog we ever had! He doesn't get around as well as he once did but he is a good dog!

How in the world I did not have any flats this trip I will never know!! I ran directly through multiple cactus and other "sharp" plants and yet not one flat tire. Tire slime really works!

 Scout ran through a cactus and had thorns all through his leg. It took a little while but we extracted all the thorns. He was a good sport about the operation. I noticed he tended to stay out of the cactus after this!