February is going to be a busy month as I've got a number of trips on my calendar. This weekend, Cheryl and I are heading up to Detroit to see Matchbox Twenty in concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills. This concert should be a good one and I'm glad to finally be able to see them live. I was able to get floor seats, so hopefully we'll have a decent view of the stage. I think the opening act is Alanis Morissette; I won't be disappointed if we miss her. We're planning on stopping at IKEA in Canton, The Somerset Collection in Troy, and the Rochester Mills Beer Company for dinner (hopefully I won't end up 0 for 3 in my quest for new growlers).

The following weekend, dad and I are planning on visiting a ski resort located about 30 minutes west of Cincinnati in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Perfect North Slopes looks to be comparable to Mad River Mountain in terms of size, but I'm always up for something new (and hopefully we'll pick up another shot glass). We'll see how it turns out, but in reality it'll just be a warm up for our last big trip of the season to Snowshoe in West Virginia. Some of you out there may remember that this is where I broke my wrist a couple years ago, but I'm very eager to get back there and enjoy the slopes and fresh snow (it always snows a ton when we are there). I think they've even expanded, so there will be new terrain to explore.

The Granite City Food & Brewery is scheduled to open its Fallen Timbers location on February 12th. I hope to make it out there opening night, or very shortly thereafter. According to Josh, who has been to one in Chicago a few times, the food and brews are excellent and well worth the visit. As always, I hope to have pictures from all of these trips/events posted to my Flickr account as quickly as I can. Finally, I picked up a copy of John Grisham's latest, The Appeal, from Amazon earlier this week. I'm only two chapters into it, but I have high hopes that it'll be yet another good one.

2008 NAIAS - This past weekend, the guys (minus Brian) made our annual trip up to the Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit to take a look at the new cars on display at the North American International Auto Show. As expected, it was packed with people and hot, so we decided to hit up the Atwater Block Brewing Company afterwards for dinner. Of course, they didn't have any growlers in-stock -- making it now two breweries in a row I've left empty handed.


I woke up early this morning and made it down to Bellefontaine shortly after Mad River Mountain opened. The snow was the best it had been all-season, and we ended up staying out there for about three hours before calling it a day. The Winter X-Games Superpipe Finals start in just under an hour; here's to hoping a certain tomato doesn't win the gold.

It's that time of the snowboard season; the 12th annual Winter X-Games began last night in Aspen, Colorado. While the men's snowboard events don't start until tomorrow, there is still plenty of snowboard action going on with the women's events. I found the picture above while looking around on expn.com and thought it was pretty cool... one day I'm going to drive one of those amazing machines. Hometown favorite Louie Vito hits the slopes Saturday night in the Superpipe prelims; hopefully this year goes better than last, where he didn't advance to the finals on Sunday (he was also injured).

Here's a photo from below the gigantic superpipe located near the base of the mountain. It is built at the same location as the superpipe used in the 2002 Winter Olympics. I'll admit, it was probably the biggest pipe I've ever been in, and it was definitely a scary experience. While the sides look big in the photo, it doesn't compare to when you're actually looking down it from the top. The right side (from the top) creates a gigantic shadow down the pipe, and the sides seem to go on forever. I made my way down it once (going up the sides but not to the very top) just to say that I was in there, but stuck to the smaller halfpipe just above this one for the rest of the week.

Here's a picture I took on Wednesday while riding up one of the lifts on my way to the top (I believe it was on either the Motherlode or Thaynes lift, but I'm not 100% sure). I think it turned out pretty well! As always, you can check out my other pictures by visiting my Flickr page.

Here's a picture my dad took of me on the Payday trail at the Park City Mountain Resort. In the background is the Crescent run, a black diamond off of the Bonanza Hi-Speed Six-Pack lift. On Thursday, I ventured down this run and onto Waterfall (another black diamond) to the bottom on my way to meet dad for lunch. Both of these runs were recently groomed and in perfect shape for boarding; I hate when the skiers make things too bumpy. Anyways, I thought it was a pretty good picture -- I hope you enjoy it as well!

Over the next couple days, I think I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Utah to the main page here for everyone to see. The above was taken as we were leaving the Olympic Park where a number of Olympic events were held in 2002 and features the entire bobsled/luge course lit up for night practice runs. This picture was taken using the 'Night Snapshot' mode on my Canon PowerShot SD850IS and slightly cropped/tweaked in iPhoto. Click on the picture to see a larger version that can be downloaded if you like. You can always see more of my photos by visiting my Flickr page.

As for the camera, I was 100% thrilled with its performance over the week. The optical image stabilization is a highly useful feature, especially when taking shots in the cold or with one hand. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to purchase a compact "point-and-shoot" camera.

Well, my time enjoying the powder in Utah has come and gone, but I took a lot of pretty good pictures and have posted them to my Flickr account. Check them out via the links below... there are over 450 pictures in the three sets.

Park City, UT - Pictures that I took while enjoying the mountain resort and the town at its base.






Park City, UT (Dad's Photos) - The pictures that my dad took while we were out in Utah on vacation (there are more of me in here since I wasn't holding the camera).





Utah Olympic Park - On the last full day in Utah, we visited the site of numerous events at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The facility is still used in the training of U.S. athletes for events around the world.