NYC and Juno

I had to go to NYC for work meetings with our clients.  I had know about the trip for a couple of weeks, so Bill thought of coming with me and working out of his NYC office in Tribeca.  But good thing he didn't.

I saw there was snow in the forecast, but as I landed on Sunday afternoon, I got an alert that the blizzard could be the biggest NYC has ever seen.

I stayed with my friend Julia (we've known each other for 28 years) and her husband Glenn at their new place in Chelsea.  It turns out that my office is only 3 blocks away, so it was very convenient.

We enjoyed dinner out on Sunday night, as the news about the storm continued and folks emptied the store shelves.  We got some food too, and made plans for dinner on Monday night.  My meetings at Google were supposed to wrap up around 5 pm on Monday.  By then, the storm had a name "Juno", my offices were closing at 3 pm, as they announced MTA would stop service at 7 pm, and curfew for all cars except emergency vehicles was to start at 11 pm.   It had snowed all afternoon, but it was just starting to accumulate and stick on the streets, and the wind was picking up, so we each went back to our hotels/"homes" for the night.  

Julia and I made dumpings so we could stay in.  We chatted the night away, but then the snow stopped for a couple of hours.  I even went to the roof to take a picture of the Empire State Building.  We went to bed wondering what we would wake up to in the morning.  It was very strange, as there were no cars, no noise and I had never seen NYC to quiet.

We woke up to maybe 5 or 6 inches of snow, not the 3 feet feared.  Juno had spared NYC.  But now what?  All the stores were still closed, no one could get into the city with no MTA, closed bridges and tunnels.  By 10 am I wanted to work and met 3 of my colleagues who were also from out of town - we were the only ones there. Stores started opening in the afternoon. I called and found restaurants that were open so we could celebrate my coworker's birthday.  The biggest hazard were the large puddles of unknown depth in each corner, but everything was coming back to normal.

My meeting on Wednesday, first cancelled due to the storm, was back on.  My flight on Wednesday afternoon was on time, and I was glad to be back in Colorado that night.  Although the snow was not a big deal, it was cold in NYC and I had missed 3 days of warm weather (high of 62 degrees) at home.

Avs. vs. Bruins

We enjoyed a double date NHL game with our friends Holly and Chris Toomey.  Great club level seats, exciting game (2 goals each, one scored at the end with an empty net, OT and shoot outs), Avs victory, and fight.  A full hockey experience.

Granby Ranch

Our friend the Comellas came from Cincinnati to visit and go skiing.  We got a place at Granby Ranch, 20 minutes from Winter Park.  They went up on Thursday and we followed Saturday afternoon after Mason's hockey games and Audrey's swim class. 

Audrey and Lexi both had ski lessons, but they were separated into different classes.  We didn't coordinate well enough, so Bill out down that Audrey could turn and stop, while Julie said Lexi was a beginner.  They took Audrey up on the lift and surprisingly she did great and moved up to a more advanced class in the afternoon.  She can take the chair by herself and come down independently.  Woo-hoo!

Mason chose not to ski and we went to the YMCA of the Rockies for skating and tubing.  The kids had enough energy to swim at the end of the day - how great is to have a 5/7-year-old's endless energy!

BuBu's birthday

We celebrated my Mom's birthday with dinner at Bonefish Grill, cake and pie back home.  

Happy New Year!!

Retrospective on 2014 -

- Audrey started Kindergarten at Hulstrom (#1 elementary school in the state of CO)

- Audrey has learned to read and she's been identified as GT in Math

- Mason joined beginner Mites hockey through Boulder Hockey Club (Bisons)

- Mason finished the first 2 Harry Potter books and has become a total book worm

- Both kids loves Mindcraft, iPads, computers and Xbox games - if they could, that would be all they would do

- Bill's company has spun off from UBM is again independent as Lightreading (he still works from home and with basically the same team and boss)

- Bill's new toys include the iPhone 6 Plus (ridiculously big) and the X5 50i (ridiculously fast) 

- Bill started to play hockey (all the smelly hockey equipment sits in the garage)

- Cecilia turn the big 4-0

- Cecilia started the year as a contractor to Argus/Verisk Analytics and joined Datalogix in March.  She goes in to work everyday (6 miles away), is managing a team of 3 product managers and loves the company.  Datalogix got acquired by Oracle in December.  

- Cecilia ran over 300 miles in 2014 and finished her first 1/2 marathon (Rock'n'Roll) in 2 hours and 17 minutes.  

- Bill and Cecilia celebrated their 10 year anniversary and went back to Crested Butte with the kids 

- Bill and Cecilia are both doing more yoga 

2014 was a great year and we are so glad to have our family and friends share it with us. Looking forward to a great 2015 ahead.