Jason Lancaster

I was a little spoiled this year by being privileged to not only have Christmas with my family but to have it with Emily’s as well. “Christmas” to me is both a holiday for family and leeway into a new year, meaning I tend to think of Christmas-time as that time between December 23rd and January 2nd (or about).

After an ordeal getting to Shreveport on the 26th, I actually ended up in Shreveport on the 27th, choosing to spend my night in Baltimore instead of the Houston airport. We spent time with Emily’s parents, grandparents, and friends before leaving for Nashville to spend New Years Eve with her sister and fiancé.

Unfortunately, we had to come home which meant traveling on New Years Day — driving the normally 11 hour but instead 13 hour snow, ice, and accident filled drive back to Baltimore. Arriving at about 4:30am, we made it safe but many others weren’t as fortunate.

I really enjoyed the fact that I made a goals list the start of last year. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before. It was a wonderful reference point into my mindset and thinking at the start of last year. Now I can look back and see where I focused my time and energy and how it differed from what I thought it would be. My goals from last year:

1. Purchase house
2. Renovate and move into house *
3. Come up with a new idea for a web application and execute it for Fusion Bay
4. Launch Gift List It a little before Thanksgiving 2007
5. Successfully climb a 5.11 rated climb
6. Begin 5.12 climbing
7. Successfully climb a V7 boulder problem
8. Do some bouldering outdoors (which I have yet to ever do)
9. Go backpacking at least twice **
10. Try snowboarding

* The renovation process was much more extensive than originally planned. I’m nearing the end but this has actually become a 2008 goal
** While I only backpacked once, I had some other great vacations!

Now that I’m back and things are resuming their normal pace. Like many others, I’m expecting a fresh start on things. One that I’m looking most forward to is a new MacBook Pro which I’m set to receive any day now. I’ll finally be able to run iMovie and create some cool videos. My old computer was too slow to run iMovie so it wouldn’t even install! Stay on the lookout for my year 2008 goals list.

Last Thursday night Em and I packed our bags to set off for Shreveport, Louisiana. I’ve come to look forward to the time with her family and the different things I do while I’m there.

My first day was spent setting up and playing on a slackline, where I finally got walking backwards down and can go from start to finish on a line. In addition to that, I ended up working on and mastering a new way of mounting that starts with a hang from the line. I tried mounting by jumping both feet directly on the line but think I need a spotter and some more practice as I was thrown onto my head or side each time.

After slacklining, Emily suggested we go to the Revel, an outdoor festival held in Shreveport each year. I was unimpressed with the beer selection until we eventually found a little stand that sold Abida amber beer. The food was really great and I wish I was a little hungrier as there were all sorts of southern foods to try, including: red beans and rice, jambalaya, deep fried jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp dishes, gyros, and all kinds of other stuff. And yeah, I know gyros aren’t southern! Emily and I settled on a few dishes and shared.

Second day was spent at the lake house. Em’s father and I woke up before others and played a morning game of disc golf. Then, after gathering sticks around the property and chopping up and dragging 2 fallen trees into a bonfire pile, we went water-skiing. This marked my third time water-skiing. I’m really comfortable on two ski’s. Not so much on one. I tried the kick off a ski to slalom method and fell a few times hard. Then I tried to slalom straight out of the water and fell a few times. I’m not sure what I need to get the feeling of slalom skiing but it sure is annoying not being able to figure it out. I hope next time works out better. Then it will be off to barefoot skiing.

Third and fourth days were low-key and relaxing. I have some videos of the water skiing which I’ll post on youtube and this entry soon. That sums up my vacation!

The last couple days of my Shreveport vacation were spent at the lake house with everyone. We went out on the boat a few times and went water skiing. This would mark my second time ever water skiing and this time I felt very comfortable on two skis so I began trying to get on one. That is actually called slalom water skiing. My attempts to get up out of the water ended up with some pretty spectacular crashes, so I opted to go with the method of getting up on two and then kicking one off.

The following set of images is a pretty good example of that process and the end result:

Regardless of the fact that I fell, I had an amazing time trying it. EEE’s father suggested I try barefoot skiing but I think I’ll continue working on the slalom skiing first.

After skiing, I built a huge bonfire for everyone’s enjoyment. I wish we had gotten some pictures of how much wood I cleared from the yard. Makes me realize how badly I need to buy a new camera since my accidental cleanup mistake of throwing the camera in the dumpster and not realizing it.

As with typical outdoor outings, I ended up with poison ivy on my feet and I hurt my thumb pretty bad when I slipped on the boat and bent it backwards. No climbing for me for a couple weeks until I’ve healed. Oh well. That just means more time at the house working on renovations.

Tying knots in the webbing was just something to do to pass the time. I looked up a website on different types of hitches and such and just began playing with them. No reason to it at all.

I ended up getting my beignets yesterday but lucky for me I’m not a beignets virgin. I’ve had true beignets once before (on my last trip) and my mother often cooked what we called “fried dough” on weekends which was quite similar to a beignets. Actually, Mom, you’d appreciate the fact that I think you’re fried dough was much better.

Emily and I cooked this killer 14 spice indian salmon recipe last night, this time on the grill. Previously it had only been baked. Honestly, I didn’t notice much of a difference. Had the grill been charcoal, I think that might have been another story. Supposedly charcoal allows the meat to get juicy or something and keeps the smell in.

I’m sure today will be busy. The EEE family is having a pretty large crawfish boil, upwards of 40 people. I’m looking forward to some crawfish but I think breakfast would be best first. Looking forward to omelets made by EEE’s sister. Now if only she’ll wake up. It probably would help if I left the confinements of my room…