Playing catch up

This was taken awhile back but I really wanted to post it. 3 generations of Kollers united for the first time. Pretty special for me.

This one's at Dad and Carol's camp in Bloomingburg. We had a great night around the fire. The next morning Drew woke up w/o his crusty eye for the first time in months. And it has never returned! (and no, we're not on fire....odd what can happen to a photo when you mess w/ the aperture a little.)

Cardinal Ave Family

Well, the book is closing on a long, but very pleasant, chapter of life on Cardinal Ave. After six months of co-inhabitance, Brooke and Vijay will move into their new home this week (just 3.5 miles away). Lots of people wonder how we can share our home with two adults through pregnancy and a newborn's first months. I have to assume that they never had friends like these two.


Oddly enough, life with B and V felt quite conventional. Everyone chipped in and did their part to keep the ship running smoothly which allowed us more time to laugh, relax, and have fun. And to ensure there was always something to watch, Brooke DVRed every show on television (swa!).

As a new parent, you learn that you never have a free hand to do the most basic tasks. You find yourself thinking, "I wish I could turn the channel, the remote is right there, but it may as well be in the attic," or "Hmm, I'm sure a knife would cut this steak a lot easier than the side of my fork." In these cases and a thousand others, Brooke and Vijay would always lend a hand, or two, if need be.

Thanks for the great experience guys, 6 months have never so quickly passed.

I'm sure Sue, Drew, Ashe and I will be experiencing "empty nest syndrome" for awhile. But we're excited to get back into the nuclear family groove. Our neighbor has playfully teased us for "running a hotel over there" and he's not far off. Pretty soon he will see the glow of our "vacancy" light flicker back on.

Decked out!

Anyone who's been to our house knows our old deck was more like a quiant boat dock than a good space to chill. Moving around the table required the 7 other people to move as well and the gaps in the floor boards gobbled up pens, poker chips, loose change, etc.

So a deck expansion project was added to the summer schedule. And like all projects that go well at our house, things get started with the help of Sue's dad.


So we began dismantling the old deck uncovering layer after layer of shoddy construction. Pretty much all of the nails were not fastened to anything which was scary to discover, but also made things go pretty quickly. All you had to do was give a railing an intimidating look and it just fell over.

Seriously, all we needed was a little dingy floating of that skinny deck.

In come the new pressure treated planks and we fastened them nice and tight. Each one abutting its neighbor, comfy and conforming. The joists were all reinforced with an additional support beam running under the middle.

The foreman inspects our work and reminds us we have deadlines to meet.

A little eye candy for the ladies. Vijay, my right hand man and live-in baby whisperer, helps screw down the decking.

The last two pics are where work currently stands. Every floor board is in place except for the pesky last one which needs to be notched out to fit aroung the 4 back posts. I'll get to that tonight and will put up more pics as work continues.

Skimming the surface

Windham Mountain officially closed for the season on April Fool's day. It's too bad we had to close when the sun's out, the weather's warm and the snow's soft.

One of the best things about spring skiing is pond skimming. At Windham this has been a rite of spring for the last seven years. This consists of carving out a large 75' long shallow pond and having people attempt to build enough momentum on their skis or snowboard to skim all the way across.

Last year, still a fairly new employee, I managed to stay under the radar and avoid doing it. This year there was a bit more pressure from my coworkers to give it a try.

So with hundereds of onlookers (including Governor Spitzer) I started my descent toward the pond - building as much speed as possible.

Let's just say I came out of the pond as dry as I went in.

Call me Roy

I've been employed at my prestigous ski resort for a year and a couple of months and really enjoy the work. It was a tough winter regarding agreeable weather and the season got off to a pretty slow start. But everyone really made the best of it and the season came around for a strong second leg.

I was able to wrangle some decent press for the mountain this year.

At our end-of-season party where I was presented with the rookie of the year award.

So again, call me Roy.