Quick Blurb - Photos to follow

Well it has been QUITE exciting during Ben's visit.

I guess the "locals" figure if your going to visit Aspen, you might as well be treated like an Aspenite. This morning around 4:30 am (or that's what time I woke up from the noise) a bear broke into my home. Of course, I couldn't be sure of it and figured that the noise upstairs - which was faint but enough to alert me - was just the house settling as most homes do. I then fell asleep (which I know sounds weird but I had Ben there and no reason to be truly alerted) and forgot all about it.

At 6:00 am this morning, after morning prayers with Ben, I asked if he had locked all the doors in the house last night (thinking, wouldn't it be funny if a bear broke in!). Then when I was leaving, a co-worker standing out side my door (which is on the ground level motioned for me to get back in the house and to not come out - and by the look on his face, I knew it was because a bear was in the house.

Now, you should probably know that the main floor of the house is technically on the 2nd floor and the main porch of the house is on the second floor as well. The bear climbed the front steps and went in a side door on the main floor that was unlocked - though we are now suspecting that the lock was broken to start with and incapable of locking - though further investigation is pending.

So Paddington - that's what we'll call him - entered the house on the main level (I live on the first level/basement level of the house) and proceeded to raid my fridge and freezer.

He then decided that the view of the fridge wasn't enough and took his picnic lunch out onto the deck.

From what I can tell, this bear is going to have one or more of the following:

1. A tummy ache

2. the "runs"

3. A sugar rush

Let me explain:

Paddington ate 3 tubs of ice cream, a bag of sugar, a bag of powdered sugar, 2 bags of shredded cheese, an unopened package of Kraft single cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, wonton wrappers, a tostada, steak, bratwurst, peanut butter, orange juice, diet coke, coffee, oil, peach crisp, corn on the cob, and I'm sure a few things I've forgotten about.

Here's what he didn't' eat and passed over: HONEY. Winnie the Pooh has clearly lied to us all these years. Paddington didn't even touch the honey.

So anyway, by 6:20 or so, the bear 'disappeared' and we've not seen him since. Believe it or not, there was NO damage to the house or the freezer - or us.

Soon we'll post a few pictures of the food trail for your enjoyment.

So far there have been 87 reported bear break ins in the past 20 days here in Aspen. Note, I said REPORTED..not all are reported. Hope your morning was as exciting as mine!