So tonight, while other members of my family stay up past midnight and actually leave the house to celebrate (like my grandmother, f'rinstance), N and I are chilling at home, with a bottle of Moet already cracked open. After a movie (either Grind House or some chick flick if I can get my way), we'll likely crash out well before midnight.
Old fogeys maybe, but we're in training for the impending powder days we're supposed to get here with the upcoming 'storm of the century'. Between shoveling the driveway and driving to the ski resorts we'll need to be in tip-top shape!
Happy New Year to those who plan to stay up for it, and we'll see you in 2008.
Today was our first official GENUINE powder day of the season. We didn't know it as we drove out to Kirkwood, but the cumulative snowfall over the past few days (2 - 5 inches here, 2-5 inches there) had built up to something rather powder snow-like. It started to become apparent as we neared the resort, with substantial snow on both the roads and the mountains. This could be a pretty good day after all!
It was. N and I ended up exploring the Palisades (which had some surprisingly deep snow), despite our concern that we'd be hitting rocks just below the surface. We did, rather, he did, but it was well worth it to ski winter snow again.
After lunch, N discovered that his ski binding was loose in his ski, and decided to end the day then rather than worry about a ski launching down the slope. I took a different run from him, and nearly got creamed by a stupid, typically male skier who was charging down the hill without looking, and was obviously skiing way too fast for his ability. Had I not been the one to stop my traverse, he'd have knocked me down...hard. Since I had the right of way (I was below him on the mountain), I was pissed, and told him so. The a**hole didn't stop, just spewed out a feeble 'sorry' as he continued down the hill, so I did what I always do when I encounter stupidity at a ski resort. I chased the jerk down. And read him the riot act under the chairlift, where he had opted to stop. Another example of his brilliance.
I think I scared the idiot, which is a good thing, as it's reason-challenged, testosterone-fueled losers like him that result in ski resort collisions. Did I mention I was wearing my "You Must Be Blind To Miss Me" ski pants?
After that little adrenaline rush I was ready to explore somewhere with less stupidity. So we headed to Hope Valley for a lovely cross-country ski with the dog (whose stupidity IS accepted). Smooth snow for kick-and-gliding, sunshine, and views of the mountains helped end the day on a much better note.
Since I was feeling low-energy today and couldn't rally to take the dog out for a walk, I baked instead. A lovely caramelized tarte tatin for the pre-new years taking.
I think I'm getting the hang of this baking in a cast iron pan and inverting it thing.
Cold enough to freeze the hot water pipes nearly solid (that's 7 degrees F). While they're dripping out rust right now, we realized that our central heating, which doesn't do a whole lot to keep our poorly insulated home warm, does do a good job of keeping the pipes defrosted. Last night we had a roaring fire, which kept the heat down, thus the pipes under the house got cold quick.
The plumber's coming by this afternoon to help us figure out how to prevent this in the future. Don't know how much he's gonna charge us to squeeze into our minuscule crawl space...in 20 degree weather. It's too bad the dog a) doesn't have opposable thumbs, and b) isn't all that bright, or else we'd be able to send her under the house.
She had a very good day.
What with Mammoth having received a bit more snow than the Tahoe resorts, and what with our new and unused MVP passes taunting us, we packed up the dog and headed down the 395 for a long weekend of skiing on more than the handful of open runs we've seen up here.
It felt fabulous to let the skis just run again. Mammoth's great for absorbing the trillion or so folks that frequent it on the weekends, so even with a full parking lot at Chair 2, we were able to carve out high speed GS turns without being too worried about hitting anyone besides the odd rock.
Plus I received lots of compliments on my Marsha Brady ski pants. A guy on the gondola told me I had to be a good skier to wear them (and in his head he was no doubt thinking 'those obnoxious pants'). How wrong he was....
After two perfect days of skiing, today's 'nu-cu-ler' high winds, which severely slowed down the lifts, and my Christmas Cold (bad Santa just sent it my way...jerk) convinced me to quit after an hour. I had no energy to even cross country ski with the mutt, which meant something was seriously wrong.
Home now with a fire roaring, I'm enjoying resting, and hoping my legs don't fail me tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
After a small taste of snow on Wednesday morning, we woke up to 4 inches of wet snow in the driveway, with more (lighter) stuff falling for the next few hours. It left behind a winter wonderland, though it would have been nice if the municipal plow drivers had cleared our block before 2 pm. At least the dude didn't berm in the driveway this time around.
Since we'd heard high winds and an 'extreme weather event' were impacting Heavenly's lift operations, we broke a lot of trail in the meadow. Only one snowmobile had been through, leaving the surrounding areas pristinely blanketed with snow. Not sure how long that will last, what with the various redneck neighbors gunning their two strokes.
Soleil and I met a friend and her pup at the lake's edge for some playtime. I brought the camera ostensibly to capture the cool sky, but did manage to get some puppy photos.
But first, the Sierra Wave I'd wanted to capture.
And then some mutts.
A winter storm blew through here yesterday, but it didn't quite deliver on the expectations of BIG SNOW. That's because the damn thing split, sending snow to the north and to the south, giving Mammoth snowfall in the double digits. Here? Not so much.
That said, there was an inch or two on the driveway this morning, so I made the most of it and forced the dog out of her warm and lazy slumber for a cross country ski. I'm glad I did, because that snow I skied through at 8 am will be gone later today.
More snow is "supposed" to come tonight, but we're already making plans to go to Mammoth this weekend, as they have more terrain and lifts running than any Lake Tahoe ski resort.
Just returned from a brief trip to Las Vegas for the Nevada Governor's Conference on Tourism. Normally I only attend this event every other year, when it's in nearby Reno, so it was interesting to see how different this conference is when it's hosted in Las Vegas (hint: it's very different). I didn't see much of Vegas per se. In fact, once I entered the vast bowels of Caesars Palace, I did not leave the building until the next day when I left for the airport. The concept is a bit frightening, but Caesars and its environs - conference center, shopping center, restaurants and all the other amenities - are pretty large, and as I didn't have a whole lot of down time, I didn't have the energy to see how Las Vegas has changed in the 6 years since I last visited.
Overall, the conference was fine, with some unusual highlights including watching Celine Dion toss her hair and give breathy and dramatic thanks as she received an entertainer/service award from Governor Jim Gibbons, and getting the 2008 Liberace commemorative calendar as part of the conference shwag. Frankly, the calendar was more exciting to me - who knew there was a Liberace calendar?
And the one thing that struck me during my stay was how much Las Vegas has outgrown its infrastructure. McCarran Airport cannot handle the amount of people it has coming through, and as a result, the security line takes upward of an hour to go through, and depending on the time of day, a 15 minute drive to the strip can be closer to an hour. All this, and the Las Vegas tourism folks were boasting about all the new rooms they're building. I can't imagine what the airport will look like when those hotels are completed.
