This past weekend was the annual Walter-organized Tahoe ski trip. Once again I drove up, and this time my car actually got to flex its AWD and ABS muscles. I’m proud to report that it performed like a champ!

The drive up Friday evening was clear, but Saturday was full-on blizzard weather. It made for low-visibility snowboarding, but I still had a lot of fun. I stuck with Nicole (who, at her peak, could do twelve pull-ups) and Buddy and we had a very laid-back ski/snowboard day, with our runs broken up by long stretches of sitting and chatting, as well as singing “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and “You Are My Sunshine.” It…made sense at the time. I think. We came back to my car in the afternoon to find not only a good 5 inches of snow piled on it, but also a giant crack in my windshield that must have grown because of the cold. Sad.

Edit: Forgot to mention that while snowboarding, we came up with a new nickname for Buddy: Ass Beard. Feel free to share.

That night we had the traditional ski trip turducken feast, expertly prepared by Florence, who also made yummy butternut squash soup. Later that night I violated both my “No Horror Movies” rule by watching the romantic-comedy-with-zombies movie Shaun of the Dead, and my “No Public Water” rule by hanging out in the hot tub. Both were actually quite enjoyable. Go figure.

Sunday, woke up in the late afternoon. Called up Parns just to see how he’s doin’. Hello? What up Parns? Yo Samberg what’s crackin’? Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’? NARNIA! ….Oh wait. Sunday I did sleep in a bit (until 10 or so) and after a healthy breakfast of turducken, a bunch of us went outside to play in the snow and take a walk in the woods. It had stopped snowing the night before and was an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and snow-covered trees. We found a pristine meadow which we immediately defiled by sculpting innapropriate things with the snow. Later that afternoon some of us went ice-skating at a rink down the road, which was fun. For dinner we headed down to Caesar’s to partake in the buffet and the second-hand smoke. Good times.

Monday morning after more turducken, the far-too-short weekend came to a close, and we headed back to the good ol’ Bay Area. Thank you once again to Walter for organizing another fabulous ski trip! Pictures forthcoming…

Edit: Photos are up! [Ski Trip 2006]!

[Edited 1/23/05 with some stuff I forgot.]

This past weekend, a whole mess of us went up to Tahoe for Ski Trip ’05, organized by Walter [cue theme song]. Having not been to Tahoe for a full year, I was really excited about the trip not only to go snowboarding, but also to test out my car’s swanky AWD system. I probably went a little nuts preparing my car for the trip. I got a ski/snowboard roof rack, all-weather floor mats, jumper cables, and I borrowed tire cables from someone at work.

Friday

We left Friday afternoon from EA. I drove up Buddy, Nigel, and Jianbo. Lesson number one was that my car, despite being a wagon, has very little cargo room. We ended up packing the back completely full, and Nigel and Jianbo still had to keep some of their stuff in the back seat. The drive was pretty uneventful until we reached the 80, at which point we reached some pretty Ass traffic. It was stop and go for an hour at least, so we decided to stop off for a healthy Jack in the Box dinner. We continued on after a while, and I got a little anxious as we approached the mountain-y section of the 50. To my disappointment, there was literally zero snow on the ground. While this is Good Thing in the “safety” sense, it was Very Sad Thing in the “Sha Sha wants to try out her awesome new car” sense. C’est la vie. We finally made it to the cabin after about 6 hours. I was tired so I crashed pretty early. But not before Eric and I nearly beat Buddy at Scrabble. We totally would have beat him if he would have let us put “cornbeaks.” Totally a word. Later that night, Cheryl got into bed, and apparently our conversation went something like this:

[Sha Sha wakes up, looks at clock, and sees that it is 4 a.m.]
Sha Sha: What have you been doing?
Cheryl: Talking to people.
Sha Sha: Why? You weren’t talking to me, and I’m the only interesting one here.

Ah, sleepy conversations.

Saturday

Wanting to get a full day’s worth of snowboarding in, I woke Buddy up at around 7:30 a.m. and got dressed. Babs’ high school friends Nicole and Sirena also joined us. After Nicole and Buddy got their rental gear at the lodge, we hopped on the shuttle to Heavenly. It’s a good thing we got our lift tickets and rental gear before hand, because the lines there were insane.

We started out on the bunny slope, and it took a while for me to find my…snow legs. But after a bit, I started to get a feel for snowboarding again. Nicole and Sirena split off from Buddy and me to go on some of the harder slopes, and Buddy and I stuck to the bunny slope for a couple more runs. After a bit, we headed up the lift to another section with a few green runs, and this is where I started to fall a lot. I was attempting to do faster, tighter turns, and although this was occasionally successful, it was also occasionally very, very painful. I had a couple really hard falls on my back, and I’m fairly certain I might have given myself minor whiplash.

After meeting up with Nicole and Sirena around lunchtime, we all headed to the very top of the mountain and took a really nice blue run down the side. Nicole and Sirena split off again, and Buddy and I headed up to the top again to take that same run down. Around this time, the fatigue really started to hit me, and I started to fall even more. Towards the end of the run, I was just sliding down on my heel edge, hoping to make it down in one piece. It was a bit frustrating to fall so much, as I was hoping I would noticeably improve over the last time I went. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it up once more this season and try to work on it some more.

That morning, Walter had put the first of the turduckens in the oven, and the people who didn’t go to the slopes kept an eye on it throughout the day. It was done right around dinnertime, so we all partook in the gloriousness of a chicken < duck < turkey. After dinner it was a brief celebration for Mike's birthday, then Taboo ("um, this is a two part word, and the first part is....pubic lice." [the word was 'crabgrass'.]), video games, and lots and lots of Karaoke Revolution.

Sunday

I had originally been planning on going snowboarding on Sunday as well, but the combination of Xtreme Soreness and a fear of injuring myself kept me away. Instead, I joined everyone for brunch at a diner place next door, then spent the rest of the day just hanging out. Buddy and I beat Feel the Magic on my DS that I bought off a guy at work. I also started The Urbz, and gots me some xizzle beads. Yeah, I don’t know what that means either. I also read a little and chatted with friends. Later we watched Napoleon Dynamite again, and I have to say that it was funnier the second time. Yessssss…. In the afternoon Crystal, Peter, and I made an awesome snowman with the expert assistance of Nicole. We eventually added a pine needle wreath, completing his transformation into Snow Caesar. Unfortunately, Snow Caesar was killed by an unknown assailant a few hours later. Snow Brutus, perhaps? That night, those of us who were still around headed to a local pizza place for dinner. After dinner, we played Trivial Pursuit 90′s Edition, which I thought was way too easy. Fortunately, we still won. I’m actually glad that I didn’t go snowboarding because it was nice to have a chance to just relax for a day.

Monday

We left around 8:30am so we could get back early. The drive back was much nicer and quicker than the drive up, and I even got to try the famous Del Taco. Conclusion: it tastes a lot like Taco Bell, but it’s cheaper. It’s a win-win situation!

We got back to EA at around 1:30pm, dropped off Nigel, then it was back up to Foster City for a leisurely 14-mile run along the Bay Trail.

All in all, I had a great time on the trip. Thanks again to Walter for putting it all together!

Pictures forthcoming…