Korey Atterberry’s Idle Chatter

Last weekend, my sister, brother and sister-in-law took a day trip up to Sundown for a day of skiing. We’d had temperatures hovering around zero for a couple of weeks, but for the weekend we got a reprieve. The weather and ski conditions were actually pretty good, but the roads were a little slick and patchy so we spent a fair amount of time in the car. Even so, we had plenty of time to ski.

Since it was a nice day, the hill was pretty crowded. Lift lines were pretty long and tables in the lodge were hard to come by. I hadn’t been skiing for a few years, but I don’t recall people being so inconsiderate last time. It seemed like there were an inordinate amount of people line jumping, getting in the way (i.e. congregating at the dropoff point for the ski lifts or in front of jumps), and generally being rude.

Enough complaining… Overall, the good outweighed the bad. My sister and I stuck to the beginner and intermediate areas while my brother and his wife (i.e. the ones who have actually been skiing on MOUNTAINS) tackled the more advanced areas. We made a number of attempts at capturing a photo of Nathan jumping in the terrain park, some of which you can see on the photos page. Bethany and I tried the small jumps once - I made it, but Bethany had to go after her skis and poles! Nathan managed to take Erin out once after turning around backwards at the bottom of one of the steepest sections. All we could see was powder flying everywhere!

According to my skiing companions, the most entertaining thing of the day was my failed attempt at a small jump. I was up the hill only about 50 vertical feet above the rest of my group, so I yelled down to ask whether there was a jump near the edge of the course. My brother pointed at a spot so I headed down at what little speed I could muster from the short descent. As I approached the jump, a small dip followed by a steep berm about 5 feet high, I prepared for the possibility that I’d end up flat on my back. To my surprise, I found myself flying parallel to the ground for about 10 feet and landing on my belly. Before I even hit the ground, my brother was rolling on the ground laughing. Apparently one of my skis got stuck down in the little dip and came off. I still don’t know how I ended up in that position, but Erin summed it up best when she attributed the humor of the situation to the fact that such a simple obstacle led to such a dramatic outcome

All in all, it was a good day and no one got hurt. I can’t wait until next time to tempt fate again!

I posted a few photos at on the photos page.

In case the photo below isn’t a dead give-away, Dusty and I are expecting baby #2 late this summer. We’re both very excited, and so is Evan. He’ll pat Dusty’s belly and say “baby!”, but he’ll also do the same for his own belly, so I don’t think he entirely gets it yet!

To answer the questions everyone asks:

• Yes, Dusty’s having morning sickness, except it’s 24 hours a day.
• Yes, we’re going to find out if it’s a boy or girl.
• Yes, we’re going to tell you when we find out.
• No, we won’t tell you what names we’re considering.
• No, either a boy or a girl would be fine.

Actually, on that last one, we’re hoping it will be a boy just on the grounds that agreeing on a girl’s name has been VERY difficult! Right now our gut feeling is that it’s a girl (so, there, we have our prediction in writing). We always knew Evan would be a boy, so we’ve been right every time so far

On Sunday, we had a few friends over to watch the Superbowl. Since the NFL seems to like putting the game in TV prime time instead of mid day, traveling out of town to watch the game (thanks for the invite, Brian) wasn’t really an option for us this year. This year’s get-together was a gathering of other folks in the same boat (except my sister!)

Three couples came over to hang out with us, and each has a kid around 2 years old. Evan had a great time sharing all his toys with his buddies, and we were glad to have the company! No major incidents or events to report- just the basic hijinks of a house full of two-year-olds up past their bed time. They were very well-behaved, though. Young Lilly did get a small scratch from our little cat… but she explained to us what happened. She pointed at Ginger and said “eat!” We asked her, “did you try to eat the kitty?” and she nodded and smiled!

I’ve posted the pictures on the photos page.

No, this post has nothing to do with Doug Flutie.

After an aborted attempt a few years ago, we’ve recently made the switch to compact fluorescent (CFL) lightbulbs. The switch was made possible by increases in both electronic ballast quality and spousal tolerance. Over the past few years the quality of the light has improved drastically, to the point where my wife relented for many of the bulbs in the house.

We have a total of 68 lightbulbs around the house and so far we’ve replaced 35 of them. Of the remaining incandescents, 12 of them are rarely used, 3 are on a dimmer, 13 are weird sizes, and 5 just didn’t look good. We didn’t switch the candelabra bulbs and the round globes in the bathrooms since they are pretty expensive, but the general purpose 60 watt equivalents are available locally for 6 for $10.

One interesting thing with the CFL bulbs is the warm-up period. Modern fluorescent lights start up quickly (less than 1 second) but aren’t at full power right away. Indoors I can’t notice the difference, but the outdoors light start dimmer as the temperature drops. Last night I fired up the porch light to take the trash to the curb, but at approximately zero degrees Fahrenheit there wasn’t much light to be had for a few minutes.

I’ll report back in a few weeks to see if I notice a difference in the electric bill, but I’m only out $60, so it shouldn’t take too long to recoup my costs.