Merry Christmas!

Double click on the photo collage to see it full size.

The Many Voices of Meryl Streep

Megan and I enjoyed watching Julie and Julia on DVD last night.

Meryl Streep's vocal talents are outstanding!

Eat your heart out, Clark Griswold...

OMGoodness.

This is sick.

Click here to see the Holdman Christmas lights set to some of your favorite Christmas songs.

Perspectives Matter.

Perspectives from Peacemaker Ministries on Vimeo.

Silverton Mountain is calling my name.

After hearing reports of great early season snow in the San Juan Mountains, the Obsessive Skier is thinking that Silverton Mountain is calling my name.

Maybe this season...

Happy Chanukah!

Can you think of anyone with a cooler voice than Neil Diamond?

Wow, I agree with a Boulder Councilman!

Yes, bring the ski train closer to Boulder!

Macon Cowles is right to encourage a ski train stop at the bottom of Coal Creek Canyon. (See today's Daily Camera article on the topic.) The reason that I haven't ever taken the Ski Train is that I don't want to be in downtown Denver's Union Station at 6:30am.

If we could drive from our house in Superior to a Park-n-Ride at the bottom of Coal Creek Canyon and then hop aboard the Ski Train, the Obsessive Skier would definitely be hollering "All Aboard!"

If the Ski Train can pull that off, they should also price bundle 4-packs of train tickets to go with a Winter Park 4-pack of lift passes. Seems like a reasonable way to increase Ski Train ridership to me. I'm all for it!

Another one bites the dust.

No more Bitteroot Resort.

Will Melton comments on the financial demise of the Bitteroot Resort in the High Country News.

Get more details at The Missoulian.

Since the runs are already cut in, perhaps we should make an offer?

"Wanna buy a ski resort?"

If you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen my re-tweet (RT) of today's Summit Daily News' scoop on the sale of Copper Mountain by Vancouver-based Intrawest to Utah-based Powdr Corporation.

I'm bummed that I missed out on buying Copper Mountain myself.

Does anybody else remember when Copper Mountain was owned by St. Louis-based Apex Oil Company? (That was back in 1980, the year that the Obsessive Skier first put on a pair of downhill skis.) If a guy like Tony Novelly can own a ski area, why can't the Obsessive Skier?

So I've been doing a little online shopping. Here are some options:

Elk Meadows Ski Resort, Utah - Minimum Bid $1,000,000

Snowy Range Ski Area, Wyoming - Bank Owned & Operated Again This Season.

Big Horn Ski Resort in Wyoming is for sale for $20-35,000,000.

Mount Waterman in Southern California is For Sale for $1,650,000. (But, no snowmaking options.)

Maybe we could form a partnership with the investors who bought Ski Rio (Northern New Mexico) back in 2008. I drive through Costilla, NM a couple of times a year and wonder if things will ever turn around for that town.

The ABC News blog reported earlier this year that the Stowe, Vermont Ski Area was on the market.

Hemlock Valley Resort in British Columbia has been looking for some investors.

And if you can get your hands on a lot of kronor, this Swedish town and ski resort is for sale.

Oops...almost forgot this: Clear Fork Ski Area in Butler, Ohio is on the market too.

Interested parties, please contact the Obsessive Skier as soon as possible, as these prime ski resort investment opportunities are bound to move quickly, especially now that Copper Mountain has changed hands for the umpteenth time in recent years.

When it comes to Ski Areas, it looks like a buyers' market these days.

Did I ever tell you that I used to be a real estate broker?

Let's Pray for the Muslim Nations

I came across this today, thanks to Kairos Journal.

A Prayer for the Muslim World—Samuel Zwemer (1867 – 1952)

The great historian of Christian mission, Kenneth Scott Latourette, once said that no man deserved the title “The Apostle to Islam” more than Samuel Zwemer.¹ The 13th of 15 children born to a Dutch Reformed immigrant family in Michigan, Zwemer gave his life to the evangelization of Muslim peoples. For 40 years he worked in Iraq, Bahrain, and Egypt. In his extensive travels throughout Asia, India, Africa, and North America he presented the needs of Muslims to Christians and the gospel of Christ to Muslims.

A plea for persistent prayer for Muslim peoples and lands was a constant theme in his public speaking and writing.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who hast made of one blood all nations and hast promised that many shall come from the East and sit down with Abraham in thy kingdom: We pray for thy prodigal children in Muslim lands who are still afar off, that they may be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Look upon them in pity, because they are ignorant of thy truth.

Take away pride of intellect and blindness of heart, and reveal to them the surpassing beauty and power of thy Son Jesus Christ. Convince them of their sin in rejecting the atonement of the only Savior. Give moral courage to those who love thee, that they may boldy confess thy name.

Hasten the day of religious freedom in Turkey, Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa. Send forth reapers where the harvest is ripe, and faithful plowmen to break furrows in lands still neglected. May the tribes of Africa and Malaysia not fall prey to Islam but be won for Christ. Bless the ministry of healing in every hospital, and the ministry of love at every church and mission. May all Muslim children in mission schools be led to Christ and accept him as their personal Savior.

Strengthen converts, restore backsliders, and give all those who labor among Muslims the tenderness of Christ, so that bruised reeds may become pillars of his church, and smoking flaxwicks burning and shining lights. Make bare thine arm, O God, and show thy power. All our expectation is from thee.

Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son in the Muslim world, and fulfill through him the prayer of Abraham thy friend, “O, that Ishmael might live before thee.” For Jesus’ sake. Amen.²

Footnotes:

1	In the preface to J. Christy Wilson, Apostle to Islam (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952).
2	Samuel M. Zwemer, Islam and the Cross: Selections from “The Apostle to Islam,” ed. Roger S. Greenway (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2002), 153-154.

The Church can Learn from Sesame Street

By Russell Moore:

Sesame Street turns forty this week. And, if you’re under forty, I’ll bet just seeing those words in type means a theme song is now running through your head. That’s because the children’s educational television show has worked itself through an entire generation of American popular culture. There’s something here I think the church can learn from the Children’s Television Workshop.

Now, as I soon as I mention Sesame Street, I know some of you will balk about its educational value. You’ll point me to studies suggesting that learning the alphabet from singing puppets actually shortens kids’ attention spans. No argument here. But simply learning facts was never the primary goal of the program.

Read the rest of the article here.

Don't Waste Your Life.

You can get this and more good stuff at http://dontwasteyourlife.com/free-stuff/

Little Man Loves the Snow!

Snow days are some of God's best gifts.

But kids are better.

And God himself is even better still.

It's almost Warren Miller time!

Next week, the obsessive skier and his family plan to check out the newest ski flick from Warren Miller. Can't wait!

No Government Funded Abortion, Period.

I'm not sure I trust all the parenting advice people give me.

I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.

I'm sorry?

Looking over this exaggerated, humorous "apology form" is a helpful way to think about how poor our attempts at apologies can be at times.

For a much better example of making a good confession, visit www.peacemaker.net.

What am I doing in my office?

This photo was taken at 9:05 am today.
You gotta love it! This much snow on October 15th is a huge blessing from God. Maybe Sophie will want to ski on her birthday?

Thank you, Lord!

This photo was taken at 5pm today, October 14th, at the top of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Thank you, Lord, for webcams.

Thank you even more for SNOW!

Auf Weidersehen, herr Herminator!

The Obsessive Skier says "Farewell" and "Auf Weidersehen" to the Herminator, aka Hermann Meier.

The great Austrian ski racer announced his retirement today.

Get the whole story here.

Piper v. Wright? I'll take Wallace.

In today's diverse world of Christian theology, one of the most important ongoing debates is over a position called "The New Perspective" on the Apostle Paul's gospel teaching in the New Testament.

This debate concerns the essence of the Christian gospel: Does God satisfy both his infinite justice and loving mercy through His Son Jesus' perfect life and substitutionary sacrificial death? If so, how?

The debate hinges upon our understanding of Paul's teaching on justification in New Testament books like Romans. Christians who follow the historic position of the Protestant Reformation (like me), understand the Bible to teach that a Christian's salvation (particularly his/her justification before God) depends upon God's imputing to them the righteousness of Christ. Thus, justification in Paul's teaching is understood to be primarily legal. In "The New Perspective", justification in Paul's writings is understood to be primarily communal, a result of God's faithfulness to his covenant with the true spiritual Israel.

The debate has played out publicly in the writings of John Piper and N.T. Wright. Lately, I've avoided the debate because I don't have as much time to read theology as I would like. I respect the ministries of both Piper and Wright, but the theologian who has captured my attention on this subject recently is Daniel Wallace.

Wallace writes: "I would view Wright’s synthesis of Romans as a brilliant failure—brilliant because of how coherent it is, but a failure because it sits three feet above the text at all points where it would be inconvenient to wrestle with what the text actually says. In this respect, Wright’s view simply cannot handle the ‘inconvenient truth’ (to borrow a phrase from Al Gore) that Romans is."

You can read the entire article here.

Skiing on Saturday?

Arapahoe Basin is back to making snow. This photo was taken at 5pm on Thursday, October 1, 2009.

With nighttime temperatures forecast to be below 30 degrees for the next two night, I'm thinking that Saturday will be opening day at Arapahoe Basin.

Whether the snow-meisters at A-Basin can keep that one run open throughout October is another question altogether.

...kingbirds have no fear.

Poor Mr. Red-Tail Hawk.

Mr. Kingbird is being a bully!

Get the whole story here at The Denver Post.

Bode does a Brett Favre

Just like Brett Favre can't walk away from the NFL, it seems Bode Miller can't walk away from the US Ski Team.

Earlier today, The Denver Post reported that Bode Miller will return to the US Ski Team this year.

I'm not getting my hopes up for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The memories of Turin 2006 are still too embarrassing.

Surprise! 4 Baby Guinea Pigs.

Our two girl albino guinea pigs surprised us last night with 4 BABY GUINEA PIGS!

Sophie says, "That's why Merlot was getting so fat!"

We are now looking for adoptive families.

...the guns are blowing snow!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The snowmaking guns are blowing snow at Arapahoe Basin!

The obsessive skier is bubbling up with joy!

...if this is fall, what will winter be like?

View toward the Lenawee Mountain Chairlift at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

Monday, September 21st, 5pm.

The first day of autumn.

Awesome.

...The Ski Train is Back!

Starting December 26th, skiers will once again be able to board at Denver's Union Station and get dropped off at Winter Park just a few hours later.

Get the whole story from The Denver Post.

...That's what I like to see!

This is a shot from the Arapahoe Basin webcam looking at the top of the Lenawee Mountain Chairlift. It was taken around 12:50pm today.

Ahhhh, sweet snow. I hope to get my first turns of the 2009-2010 ski season at Arapahoe Basin in about a month.

...Pray for snow.

Summer was great.
And this year's fall season in Colorado also promises to be a good one.
But the obsessive skier says, "Pray for snow!"

It won't be long before they start blowing snow up at Loveland and A-Basin. Get the scoop here from 9news.com.

...forgiveness changes people.

Just like Stephen's last words were used by God to change Saul into Paul (see Acts 7:60), so can our words in response to our enemies be used by God to change them into the people He wants them to be.

Lord, teach me how I need to control my tongue. I need all the power of the Holy Spirit to not respond to hate with hate. Fill me today, Holy Spirit, so that I can be a good witness for Jesus, by your power. Only by your grace is this possible, Lord. Please give me more grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thanks to John McGary for leading me to this one.

...Forever a Cardinals Baseball Fan.

I remember visiting the Old Busch Stadium with my Dad in the mid-70's and watching Al Hrabosky (AKA "The Mad Hungarian") pitch for the Cardinals. But that's not the only reason that I'm still a St. Louis Cardinals fan. Stories like this one involving Albert Pujols are also a big part of why I'll be a fan of the red birds forever.

"He lay on his back in the dirt of the Pittsburgh ballpark. His neck hurt. Striking his face on the crushed rock along the first-base side felt like breaking through glass. He was bloodied. And the foul ball was gone. He had missed it, missed his one chance to grab a game ball for his son on the boy's 21st birthday."

Read the rest of the story here.

Thanks, Tim Challies, for pointing me to this article.

...worship God with us this Sunday!

www.ourchristchurch.org

...read Churchill, learn, and be of good courage!

I visited Yalta's Livadia Palace with Megan and Anna and a group of US College Students in July 2000. But it wasn't until this summer that I read the war speeches of Winston Churchill. Until reading Graham Stewart's collection of Churchill speeches in His Finest Hours, my first-hand knowledge of Churchill's words was mostly of popular quotes like this one:

Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”

In His Finest Hours we read a much more serious Churchill. Stewart provides a survey of Churchill's words over the years as he spoke to Parliament, the British public, The US Congress, and even the commencement address to Westminster College in mid-Missouri (the famous 'Iron Curtain' speech). Don't worry, fair reader, Steward does not give us full manuscripts of each speech. And his wise selections create a 200-page easy read. Even better, the historical summaries before each speech entry help dudes like me whose knowledge of World War II is sketchy.

Here are a few of my favorite Churchill quotes from the book:

"Death and ruin have become small things compared with the shame of defeat or failure of duty."

"I always hate to compare Napoleon with Hitler, as it seems an insult to the great emperor and warrior to connect him in any way with a squalid caucus boss and butcher."

"If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided, all will fail."

"...we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."

"When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their prime minister and his divided Cabinet, 'In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.' Some chicken. Some neck."

What are your favorite Churchill quotes?

The Art Underground is just cool.

Not much blogging from me lately. Lots o' church work. Good stuff. Here's an update from Christchurch. Come worship God with us at The Art Underground, Sundays at 10:30am, starting September 6th, 2009.

...How does the class of 2013 think?

Thanks to Ed Stetzer for pointing out that the folks at Beloit College have released their annual list.

Here is their actual release:

(The Beloit College Mindset Lists for previous years are available at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ . The current list and a webcast interview with the authors will be posted there at 12:01 a.m.on August 18.)

BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES MINDSET LIST FOR THE CLASS OF 2013

Beloit, Wis. -- If the entering college class of 2013 had been more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked "was Iraq worth a war?"

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation. It is widely reprinted and the Mindset List website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ receives more than 300,000 hits annually.

As millions of students head off to college this fall, most will continue to experience the economic anxiety that marked their first two years of life just as it has marked their last two years of high school. Fears of the middle class--including their parents--about retirement and health care have been a part of their lives. Now however, they can turn to technology and text a friend: "Momdad still worried bout stocks. urs 2? PAW PCM".

Members of the class of 2013 won't be surprised when they can charge a latté on their cell phone and curl up in the corner to read a textbook on an electronic screen. The migration of once independent media--radio, TV, videos and CDs--to the computer has never amazed them. They have grown up in a politically correct universe in which multi-culturalism has been a given. It is a world organized around globalization, with McDonald's everywhere on the planet. Carter and Reagan are as distant to them as Truman and Eisenhower were to their parents. Tattoos, once thought "lower class," are, to them, quite chic. Everybody knows the news before the evening news comes on.

Thus the class of 2013 heads off to college as tolerant, global, and technologically hip...and with another new host of The Tonight Show.

###

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.

1. For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.

2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.

3. The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.

4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

5. Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.

6. Salsa has always outsold ketchup.

7. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.

8. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.

9. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.

10. Rap music has always been main stream.

11. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.

12. Someone has always been building something taller than the Willis (née Sears) Tower in Chicago.

13. The KGB has never officially existed.

14. Text has always been hyper.

15. They never saw the "Scud Stud" (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders.)

16. Babies have always had a Social Security Number.

17. They have never had to "shake down" an oral thermometer.

18. Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.

19. They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.

20. American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.

21. Except for the present incumbent, the President has never inhaled.

22. State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.

23. The European Union has always existed.

24. McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.

25. Condoms have always been advertised on television.

26. Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.

27. Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.

28. The American health care system has always been in critical condition.

29. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.

30. Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.

31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.

32. The nation's key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

33. Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.

34. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

35. Women have always outnumbered men in college.

36. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.

37. Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.

38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.

39. It's always been official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.

40. Madonna's perspective on Sex has always been well documented.

41. Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.

42. Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.

43. Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.

44. There have always been flat screen televisions.

45. They have always eaten Berry Berry Kix.

46. Disney's Fantasia has always been available on video, and It's a Wonderful Life has always been on Moscow television.

47. Smokers have never been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.

48. Elite American colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.

49. Nobody has been able to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

50. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.

51. Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.

52. They have never been Saved by the Bell

53. Someone has always been asking: "Was Iraq worth a war?"

54. Most communities have always had a mega-church.

55. Natalie Cole has always been singing with her father.

56. The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.

57. Elizabeth Taylor has always reeked of White Diamonds.

58. There has always been a Planet Hollywood.

59. For one reason or another, California's future has always been in doubt.

60. Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.

61. "Womyn" and "waitperson" have always been in the dictionary.

62. Members of Congress have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the House Bank.

63. There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.

64. CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.

65. Avon has always been "calling" in a catalog.

66. NATO has always been looking for a role.

67. Two Koreas have always been members of the UN.

68. Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.

69. The NBC Today Show has always been seen on weekends.

70. Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.

71. Conflict in Northern Ireland has always been slowly winding down.

72. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.

73. Nobody has ever responded to "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

74. Congress could never give itself a mid-term raise.

75. There has always been blue Jell-O.

Copyright © 2009 Beloit College

that was a good night's sleep!

I fell asleep yesterday about 6pm and woke up today around 7:30am. THAT was a good night's sleep! As Psalm 127:1-2 says:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Thank you, Father, for a good night's sleep!

Girls are cool.

Here are all the female grandchildren on my side of the Kelly family, dressed up for Alex & Regina's wedding.

We're having a great time in Missouri on vacation while Alex and Regina are in Colorado on their honeymoon!

Some people will stop at nothing to get free ice cream.

Obviously, ice cream remains popular even when the temperature is below 60 degrees and it is raining. Thanks to our friends from Missouri for serving and to all our friends from the area who came last night.

"Classy."

The US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Thursday that honored the Los Angeles Lakers for their recent NBA title. But a Colorado congressman voted "no." Get the details from 9news.com.

Campfire

The Kelly family returned yesterday from a great camping trip with friends from our neighborhood. Here is a little taste of what the campfire was like.

Way to go, Woodward!

9news.com does a story on Woodward's summer camp at Copper. Check it out.

Waiting for My Skier Plates

Officials say the new Colorado skier license plate is still being 'tested' and may be ready by next January.

Get the latest from the Summit Daily News.

Let's do this again next summer!

Lafayette, CO is a cool town.

Lafayette’s Overlook Drive will host the 2009 Seismic U.S. Nationals of Slalom Skateboard on Saturday and Sunday, July 11-12.

Cool.

Get all the details at our Colorado Hometown Newspapers.

"Am I over-spiritualizing?"

Double-click on the comic graphic to see a larger version.