DINOSHARK!

It's exciting when you work gets shown. . . if it gets shown. It's even rarer that you get to contribute to the creation of a character as much to feel any sense of authorship. With the last project I did in California before heading off to London, I sculpted, modeled, textured and look-deved the Dinoshark. It was one of the funnest projects I've done in a while. Stressful and Challenging, but also very rewarding. It was a real learning experience, and it forced me to grow as an artist. I think we all need oportunities like that.

Dinoshark has aired in the US. I've been told that the work came out quite good. Most importantly, I've been told I have nothing to be embarrassed about by it. Now, we just need to get it aired here in the UK.

Chocolate Egg Season

Sping is Chocolate Egg Season here in London. Everyone is nuts about these things. There are giant chocolate eggs and there are mini eggs. There are even Caramel Bunny's.









We bought a selection from the classic British brand Cadbury.

Yummy.

St. Patrick's Day in London

As I work with a genuine Irishman named Shane, I was hoping to have a great St. Patrick's Day celebration.

However, it turns out that he doesn't celebrate it as he feels it has been usurped as an excuse for people to wear silly floppy green top hats and drink themselves into oblivion.

Instead, we went to a local pub for lunch and had a great burger with Irish bacon and a Guiness.









It also turns out Shane is more of a Cider person and likes Magner's, which is a classic Irish brand.

Daffodils

Spring is finally here. After a long "hard" winter, the British love when the Daffodils begin to bloom. They are the symbol of spring, and a bright and happy image they are. I've not been a flower person, but they were a very welcome site after all the cold weather.






Bright and yellow, and just bursting up out of the lawns. It seems that they are planted in the grass, and as the grass isn't mowed in the winter and early spring, they are allowed to grow and blossom. Shortly as the temperatures rise, the grass will begin to grow again, and I expect that they will be mowed under until next spring.



Until then the dogs, which love running through the daffodils, and I will enjoy their bright and cheery presence in the many local parks and gardens.

Going Native

We're trying to go a bit more native these days. Last weekend, instead of making Iron Skillet Cornbread (one of my favorites, we decided to make Cream Scones for breakfast. We served them with Double Thick Clotted Cream and Jam.

Delicious!




For dinner, we made a Sunday Roast complete with Root vegatables and Yorkshire puddings. Sadly, my puddings came out flat even though they looked perfect coming out of the oven. Guess going native will take a little more practice.

Spring is starting to spring in London

After a long cold dark winter, spring is finally coming to London. It has been the coldest winter on record in London for 20 years. We've had snow, ice, frost, cold, and lots of rain. As someone put it, "I never knew 45 degrees could feel so warm".





It is exciting to see the sun coming up earlier and setting later. Next weekend, we go to Daylight Savings time.



Flowers are starting to bud and even beginning to bloom. From what I hear, this is about a month behind schedule. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything looks when Spring really blooms. For the moment, it is raining and icky looking outside again. Not spring-like at all.

Skiing the Dolomites - Part 6 - Innsbruck

Our last day in Italy began as a hazy overcast day.

We packed our bags, and carried them down to where the Snowmobiles were waiting to take them down to our car.



Everything at the lodge is brought up and down via the snowmobiles. It was an exciting, albeit, cold way to start the day. I dropped the bags off at the car, and went back up to the lodge to meet Tony for Breakfast. I had my last macchiato with the nice hostess who had made them for us each day. I learned to ask her for the same thing by saying, "Das gleich".

I paid for the hotel expense, and Tony and I rode the Snowmobiles back down the mountain to the car one last time. I was a little sad to leave, but I know that I would love to return here to ski again someday.

As our flight wasn't leaving until 3:55 in the afternoon, we decided to drive into historic Innsbruck and look around.

We visited the main tourist site, the Golden Balcony, and wandered around Friedrichsstrasse. It is a beautiful town and so clean in comparison to London.

One highlight was the Speckeria, a store completely dedicated to Bacon.

I know some people say that the Germans are not as organized or efficient as they would like the world to think, but it certainly looks that way from my perspective.

And service is good here. When we went to refuel the car, a gentleman actually ran the pump for me. I had no idea anyone even did that anymore. I thought we had become a "self-service" world.

As I sit here in the Innsbruck airport reflecting on our trip, I think about what an amazing time we had.

I'm sad that Alan and Wendy were unable to join us, and that as all vacations, it has to end so that my strange work/vacation in London can resume. I need to remember to think of my life as one big vacations filled with amazing sites and experiences wherever I am.

Skiing the Dolomites - Part 5 - The Swiss Alps

Another beautiful day in Italy. Though today we ecided to go across the border into Switzerland. The resort we're at is soooo large, that it encompasses 12 different resort developements that share the Dolomite Superpass that we bought.









One is called the Suise Alps as it is in Switzerland. We skied to the edge of Italy, then hopped onto a shuttle that snuck us across the border. It was a Sound of Music moment (kidding).



There is this stunning massive cracked mountain over there, that looms over the resort. Tony and I took the lifts as far out as we could go, and found this cool "speed trap" run that would clock your speed. I managed to crack 78 kilometers an hour, and Tony got up to 80. Darn him.




We journeyed out to the edge of that resort and found a small lodge on top of another peak. Every peak has its own lodge it seems. There we had a Swiss lunch including Bier, Frankfurters, and Frites (fries). Tony had his favorite Weissbier, and I tried a local brew, Forst.




We played around in Switzerland for much of the afternoon, then wanted to head back to Italy to look around the town in Val Gardena where we were staing called Selva. It is a cute little resort town built around a stream. The Dolomite mountains loom over them and cast shadows down onto the town.




Tony and I had Apres Ski beers in a small pub in town, and bought a bottle of Bombardino to bring back with us.

As the lifts had closed, the only way up to the hotel is via the snowmobiles. This evening however, they had a large passenger Snowcat waiting at the parking lot. It turned out that a large Italian Seniors group was having a dinner party at the downstairs restaurant at the hotel. Tony and I rode up in the snowcat with the loudest group of men and fur clad women. Tony joked that he'd not seen this much mink ever. I don't think I've seen that much either.

That night for our final dinner at the hotel we had another wonderful meal including Beef Goulash, Spaetzle, and the best Apfel Strudel I had on the trip. A good way to end our wonderful ski outing.

Skiing the Dolomites - Part 4 - La Sella Ronda

We woke to a crystal bluebird sky, sun, and a light dusting of fresh snow everywhere. It is the type of day that skiers dream about. AMAZING!






We wandered down to breakfast and today sat at our proper table. We still got stinky looks from the people whose table we'd accidentally used the previous day. Some yogurt with granola and fruit, croissants and nutella, and two espressos later, and we were ready to tackle the mountain.

We'd seen a whole other area on the map that we hadn't touched. It didn't look that big, so I figured we hit it for the morning, then come back to the awesome slopes by the hotel and hang out for the afternoon. Little did I know.

We skied out to a great valley called Colfosco. It was here that a nice German explained that we were off our normal map, and needed to look at the larger Dolomite map we had.

It turns out that the Dolomites are a series of resort towns all gathered around this giant central mountain.

Our Dolomites SuperSki pass is good for all of them, and they are all connected by a series of lifts and runs that makeup a giant loop trail called the Sella Ronda. There were vast runs and resorts that lay far beyond that area of Val Gardena where we are staying.

We decided to take a break for Hot Cioccolates and a piece of Apfel Studel at this cute lodge called the Refugio Edelweiss Hutte (a blending of Italian and German words). The view was to die for. In fact all the views were astounding. I've skied a lot of resorts, and this is the most gigantic amazing beautiful place ever!

We decided that we'd come this far, so we might as well go for the Sella Ronda.

We took numerous chair lifts, gondolas, and trams that carried us untold vertical feet, and gave us one of the greatest skiing days I've ever had.

One of the great things about skiing Italy is, as you would expect, the food. We stopped for lunch in this cute little town called Arabba, where we had Hofbrau House Weissbier. I had a plate of Spaghetti Carbonara, and Tony had a Barley and Smoked Bacon soup. Both were fantastic. It is also fortunate that at the base and top of every lift there is a conveniently placed lodge where one can stop for a snack or an espresso for energy. And the views are enticing enough to make you want to stop just to enjoy them.

We made our way around the mountain, and eventually the welcome site of our hotel came into view. We were both quite spent and had more than earned our apres-ski Bombardino.

Tonight we are looking forward to a dinner including Lasagna al Forno, Chicken with Speck (bacon) and Tiramisu. I love this place!

Skiing the Dolomites - Part 3 - Bombardino

So I have tried many apre-ski drinks over the years, and Hot Chocolate and Beer tend to be my favorites.








I've tasted Tuaca, an italian orange-vanilla liquore, but it really wasn't that great. Mammoth makes a wicked "Mammoth Mocha" with coffee, Bailey's, and Kahlua.







Tony loves a good Martini now and then, but we have a new favorite that we have discovered here in the Dolomites - Bombardino.








It is made with a yellow-orange colored eggnog liquore called Moccia Zabov, served warm from these little crockpots that constantly churn the drink, and topped with a dollop of whipped cream.





I bought a bottle of it to bring home for whenever I want a taste of the Dolomites Apres Ski life.