Hillbilly Ball and puppy news

Bettie Page

Paul and I at the Hillbilly Ball

The Halloween party at the Rock Inn was fantastic! Here's a few pictures from that, and from visiting Matt at Keystone. Whitewater Ramble played and there were some fantastic costumes - the winner was dressed as Steve Irwin... complete with a sting ray coming out of his chest. Yeah, it's a little twisted but at least we all knew who he was. Needless to say, most people didn't know who Bettie Page was, but those who did said I looked just like her. It was just fun running around with a riding crop and 6" stilettos, ha ha!

My puppy was born on Wednesday, but unfortunately there were no solid blacks. There are some very dark ones and that's fine by me, and it might look like Scout, one of their other dogs:

I'll get to pick one out in about 4 weeks, take it home in 8. Woo hoo!

I was so psyched my friend Matt was in Keystone, and even more pumped for that snow storm we got! Matt had tried to warn me before I drove out there, telling me to be careful in the snow. I just figured there were some flurries or something on Loveland Pass... I showed up at the Inn at Keystone and still had no idea. We sat in the bar next door to the hotel, drank a little bit, shared shots of Jim Beam, and caught up on the last year of our lives. The Avalanche were on tv - LOSING! - and then the Wings came on - WINNING! - and somebody mentioned the huge snowstorm we were supposed to get.

"What snowstorm?"

Matt laughed and said "What, you thought I was just talking about some flurries, that I don't know what a lot of snow is since I'm not from Colorado?! We're getting hammered tonight!"

And we sat in the bar, laughing and drinking and remembering the past and musing over the strange places we seem to cross paths... watching the snow pile up... I tried really hard to convince him to blow off the training he was in town for and hit the slopes at A-Basin instead. All that fresh powder...!! And what goes better with a late night blizzard than hot tubbing?! The front desk guy said that hot tubs are required to close at 10 pm in Colorado (seems strange to me)... I pleaded that well that's just silly, I'm sure there's some way to get some hot tubbing in, and he was cool enough to mention that "Well, the nigh man already made his rounds...I'm the only one here at the front desk... And the locals, well they just jump the walls!"

Cool guy. ;)

We went downstairs and poached the outdoor hot tub, snow piling up outside. I love this time of year!

The next day Matt had to go to training and I was going back up to Estes. Of course, when I tried to leave is when I found out I-70 was closed! Darn, I was forced to snowboard at Arapahoe until it opened. ;)  I went back to Estes that evening; I was going to go back down to Keystone on Friday night, and hoped Matt was coming up to Estes for the Hillbilly Ball, but plans changed and we didn't get to meet up again. It was still great to see him though, and we joked about the next place we're going to hang out... Alaska? Maui? Always an adventure, that's for sure!

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Here's the link to the photos from the party and a few from Keystone/Arapahoe Basin. Shutterfly is being stupid and won't load correctly so I'm back to Trekshare. I have pictures all over the freakin' internet!!