CO for the holidays?

hey everyone -
Happy Holidays! I hope you all are having fun and enjoying things.
I'm back at my folk's place in Denver right now, so if anyone is in CO and wants to go play outside or meet up, let me know. my # is 928-814-3951. I'll be around for a bit, then UT for some skiing, then back to Flagstaff. If anyone will be around those places, let me know, too.
I hope everyone is well.

Luke

Climbing...pretty sweet...

Mike

Hey all, just got back from Red Rocks out in Nevada - as it turns out, climbing's pretty fun... went with addie and flynn and a buddy of his from CA - did some fun sport and got my first taste of leading trad up a few of the pitches of the cat in hat, and some other trad cragging - it was wicked cold though, and snowed on us one of the days, don't worry though, i'm not gonna let this cut into my boating time - but it's something to do when it's too dry...something goofy's going on with this blog thing, so i'm not sure how it's gonna look...anyway, hope you all have a good holiday season

-mike

Nell mentioned that I had some pictures from the WFR class so here's one so you can see our new skills. That's right, we now both have sweet splint making skillz. And I was honored to take part of the apartment christening, it was really a pretty great moment and we wished that all you guys could have been there to join us.

The WFR class was really great as Nell said, learned lots of good stuff and had lots of fun at the same time. Since then I've been all over the place. I drove home the day after the class ended and the following day I flew from Chicago to Denver for my sister's graduation. It was a fun weekend reliving a little of graduation time revelry with my sister and the rest of the family and I even got to see Jorgy for a little brewery sampling and dinner making on Monday night. Though Nate and I talked a lot unfortunately the schedules just didn't really work out so I guess I'm just going to go back out there to go skiing sometime this winter. You are all invited to join me.

Happy holidays everybody

Laura K

What? Heat, electricity, AND wireless included?

Nell

Hello and general Holiday greetings to everybody! As you may or may not know my last few weeks have been full of all sorts of changes. The biggest one is that I am now sitting in an apartment in Hanover NH, just a few minutes north of the organic farm. The sun is shining, I see woods rather than the shiny sign of the Woodsville Cumberland Farms (Cumbies, according to locals), and the greatest suprise of all: Wireless! Oh happy day.

Before the big move, however, Laura K and I (as well as my friend Paige from the environmental school) took a fantastic WFR course. Now, of course, you all will want us on any of your outdoor trips in the future. Evicerate yourself and we know just what to do! I'm hoping that Laura will post some pictures that she took so you all can have a glimpse into the ridiculousness.

Best of all, however, was what followed the course. The day we finished the three of us went to my pre-move apartment to check it out and drink a celebratory 6-pack. Somewhere along the line there was a "I'm driving so who wants to finish my 2nd beer" and then a "Not me, thanks" and then a "well what are we going to do with this remaining beer?" That was when Laura K had a brilliant idea: Let's Christen the Apartment!!

Yes, folks, a new tradition has begun. Laura, Paige, and I tromped outside the front door and stood in front of the door step. First we each said a blessing, which came out as follows:

"May all who cross this line of beer,
be blessed with good fortune and happiness.
May the next 6 months be wonderful and prosperous,
and may we all reunite soon."

Then the key element of the ceremony: we poured the beer reverently around outside of the the front step.

As far as I was concerned, I was moved in! All that was left to do was get the furniture down there.

Laura and I of course decided this is a new tradition that we needed to share. We discussed it and decided that it is open to adaptation according to individual. Mike, for example, should pour Dr. Pepper.

Anyways, that's the news. I've also jumped on the card bandwagon, by the way, but I'm not so on top of it as others. Hopefully you might get them in the next week or so (maybe). Until then!
-nell-

9S in SF

Mike

Hey kids, blogging from the west coast, hangging out in Potter and Nick Baum's place with Dan - got here last night from Philly to find a rocking 4 apartment party going on, drank a bit too much of this crazy glog stuff Baum made, fun night - then today potter and dan and i wandered around SF, checking out the sights and all...seem SF is the new colorado...I'm out here for a confrence, nate's gonna get here for the same confrence on monday i think, then i'm heading to red rocks for a climbing trip, which will be fun, but not kayaking in costa rica, as some of the youngins are doing now...i've been holding down the fort with jamesy in h-town, doing engineering stuff, doing some kayaking, climbing, ect...laurak was hanging out for awhile, though she's going elsewhere apparently...yeah...

-mike

p.s. everyone should put their names on the top of posts, cause otherwise you have to scroll down to see who's writing, which is way too much work

p.s. this is what part of the alphabet would look like without q or r

More news from The Best State in the Union

I've talked to many of you since I got back from Namibia, but for those of you I haven't talked to, here's a rundown of what I've been up to: painting houses. That's pretty much what it boils down to. Painting houses and applying for jobs in the Bay Area. I've also been doing a little climbing, biking, blogging, and guitar-playing (If you're interested in hearing me sing, play tambourine, and strum my guitar, check out http://www.myspace.com/mcsweenfamilygitalong. "The Weight" is really our best effort.). Can't wait to get out of Wilmington. Hey Molly, interested in doing an intra-NC exchange? I'll even grade your papers.

will
603.252.0193

Now I’m new to blogging, so you all are going to have to take it easy on me.

But before we get any further, let’s all take a moment to consider something about this new account. Will announced it yesterday and, given appropriate uptake time, three others (myself included) registered. Then, I email the crew and, with my incredible wit and newfound organizing savvy – learned on the campaign hills of Vermont – I further publicize the blog. Result: FOUR new members sign-up. Clearly, I am the reason we are all here.

In light of this, I nominate myself to be 9S.com Sergeant at Arms (Potter, the pun was, in fact, not intended). Now let’s put it to a vote. All those in favor….

“yay!”

All those opposed….

. . . . . .

The yays have it. I win.

As my first action in my new capacity, I am installing Will as operations administrator of the 9s blog.

Now, I would like to welcome everyone to the blog. Please check back soon, as I might just write a little something…

oh, and so there is no confusion, this is Daniel F. Cross-Call. “DanCC” is just a pseudonym I sometimes use. Alright, now the rest of you cowards can come out from behind your masks. (Thank you Andrew Hoffman for showing some spine.)

yours,
Daniel

if you like fish n grits and all that pimp sh*t

I'll carry on the southern theme since I'm here in NC. I really have no idea what you all are up to. I talked to Nell a little bit online the other week but I was all distracted and not a good communicator. Jules was here for a couple weeks, but it just wasn't the same as having Nell.

It's finally getting cold down here, which means it's 45 degrees when you go kayaking instead of 75. Tragic. I've been mountain biking a lot, pretty awesome I gotta say. Can't get enough, and there are seemingly infinite amounts of trails to explore-- if only I had a couple thousand $$$ to get myself outfitted. For now I borrow my friend's mom's Santa Cruz, which is badass.

I have tests to grade, now...

It begins again...

Random meetings

So I'm going to kick off the new blog with a story of seeing friends in odd places. Before Thanksgiving I was in the Charlotte, NC airport heading down to my grandparents house in Florida and I'm talking to Will on the phone. As we're talking I see a familiar face walk by and turns out that Nell is also between flights as she heads to Georgia. Our gates were basically next to each other so we hung out while we waited. It was a welcome happy moment for me in a day otherwise filled with hanging out in airports and missing connecting flights due to delays. Now I'm in Hanover, did some visiting of people in Vermont this past week and now I'm starting a WFR class tomorrow in Fairlee. Not really sure yet of my post new year's destination, but I will be in CO for a few days in mid-December for Kirstin's graduation.

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving, its been good to see some of the 9S crew lately.

Laura