I, too, am a terribly chicken skier. But I really like it. We've got a trip planned for the school vacation in February, and the kids are psyched -- they're not good, either, but they've been often enough that they can ski some.
You feel fraudulent when you're in California?
It's funny; there are places where I feel like I fit right in or don't fit right in, and it's not quite the same as feeling fraudulent. I don't feel like I fit right in, in rural Texas, but I don't feel fraudulent about being there.
Oh! Maybe this is it: I feel like I fit right in at ski lodges and in California, and yet I didn't grow up associating myself with either of these places. So I feel fraudulent.
I like snowboarding just fine. Unfortunately, I've only gotten around to it maybe three times since graduating from high school. I don't have any friends who snowboard or ski, so I'd have to go alone or it would be just a family thing. As for the former, I like snowboarding just fine, but apparently "just fine" isn't enough to get me out of my comfortable chair on a winter day and get bundled up and drive an hour to a ski area for the privilege of paying $40 or more for just an afternoon. And as for with family, I've only lived in the same town as my parents for three winters of the 10 since graduating from high school. I suppose I need to make some new friends.
Talk your friends into learning? Piling a bunch of twentysomethings who ski badly into an overcrowded condo/motel room for a long weekend is a time-honored tradition.
I've always preferred skiing to snowboarding and, analogously, rollerblading to skateboarding. This, of course, is obligatory (and sort of NSFW-ish).
I want to take snowboarding lessons this winter. I've skied a fair bit but I'm beginning to think this snowboarding business might be around to stay.
8 confuses me. Wouldn't the analog be skateboarding > rollerblading? Oh wait, you mean you prefer to have two things rather than one upon which to slide/roll. I was thinking of which sport came first. No wonder I didn't get into law school.
9: I did this a few years back, when we lived in CO. I'm a reasonably good skier, or was before blowing out my knee while living up at Whistler in the 90s, and used to skateboard when I was a kid (I still longboard occasionally, but only to make heebie feel like a fraud when she visits CA). And yet, I found snowboarding incredibly painful. My ass still hasn't forgiven me.
Since my threshold for "incredibly inconvenient and not worth it" is putting a jacket on over my sweater, I've never enjoyed the snow sports. I am wasting half the potential of the region I live in, but that's how it is going to be.
I would sort of like to try snowboarding, though for some reason the thought of skiing leaves me unmoved.
7
Piling a bunch of twentysomethings who ski badly into an overcrowded condo/motel room for a long weekend
Heh, the only people who I know well enough to even have a chance of persuading to do this are either even worse about getting off their ass than me, or have too much else going on - little kids, working two jobs, not working at all. Thanks for the suggestion, but it sounds like it would be fun only if I had the kind friends with whom it wouldn't be necessary.
I haven't been boarding in a while, and I'm not all that good. But it is fun on easy slopes under ideal conditions. The only problem is that the cat trails I can handle wear me out from being constantly on either my toes or my heels while winding gently around the mountain.
I suppose there's probably a technique for this.
14: You should organize an Unfoggedian meetup on the slopes.
12 -- I'm shocked, Megan, that you're apparently more comfortable relying on reports from other people, rather than going out and investigating the snowpack yourself.
Since my threshold for "incredibly inconvenient and not worth it" is putting a jacket on over my sweater,
I never took you for such a passionless layabout.
Snow shoeing is fantastic. Anything else that involves being strapped to something and going fast down a hill is not for me.
Snow shoeing is fantastic
I am excited for the winter storm they are predicating for Christmas here so I can get out and snowshoe.
If there is no storm, there will be no Christmas.
In my world, the snowpack exists as data in CDEC. On clear days, I can see it from town.
...a passionless layabout
In the summer, or in humane climates, I'm quite excitable and enthusiastic.
A fair-weather friend, then? That's not passion.
That's not even enthusiasm. That's at most motility.
19 gets it exactly right.
Well, I try to always stay within fair weather, so these disappointments don't come up.
22 -- You can see the water content?
the snowpack exists as data in CDEC. On clear days, I can see it from town.
You could see the snowpack beautifully from the Vaca Ridge on Sunday. An ocean of fog in the valley with snow-capped islands.
We're going snowshoeing in Yellowstone next week. Anyone want to come?
Man, I liked sledding as a kid. At least 500% more than any summertime activity. One of those things I feel sorry for Californians not experiencing.
27 - Yes, yes. It is right there in the sixth column.
We're going snowshoeing in Yellowstone next week.
Yes, please.
One of those things I feel sorry for Californians not experiencing.
Um? I went sledding as a kid.
You can see the snowcapped Sierras from Orinda. You can also see San Pablo Bay, but it would be an odd choice for a marine biologist to choose to make her observations from there.
I only went downhill skiing once and hated it, and I have no interest in snowboarding, but I like cross-country skiing and snowshoeing a lot. Not enough to actively go out and do either regularly, of course.
I've recently come to realize that while I could manage to live pretty much anywhere, I would probably have a hard time living in a place where it never snowed. I like snow. We're supposed to be getting a storm tonight that will likely leave enough on the ground for a white Christmas, which is relatively uncommon here. I'll be in Flagstaff, though, where it snows a lot more.
(I don't know if you can see the Sierras from Tilden, or Round Top, not having done so. I suspect that you can in the right weather. Bay Areans?)
35: I've never seem them from Tilden, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.
33: Geez, Charley. I bet Megan knows how to do her job. By analogy, surely you've had occasion to rely on treanscripts rather than personally attending every deposition yourself?
I see that Round Top is about 400 ft higher than Donald Drive in Orinda/Moraga (and about 550 higher than my old house near there) and so even though Round Top is about 3 miles further west, I'd guess you could see over Donald. Clear day, north wind, sun on the Sierras . . .
If there is no storm, there will be no Christmas.
Christ is a storm to us poor sinners!
[Paraphrasing somebody -- John Donne, I think.]
37 -- I doubt Megan is taking me seriously. (She certainly shouldn't be!) But yes, I would attend important depositions, if I could, rather than simply relying on transcripts. One wouldn't expect bloodless appellate types to understand it, but non-verbal communication can tell you a whole lot. About whether the person is telling the truth, about whether an area of questioning should be explored further (or not -- if you're just going to get a bunch of lies that muck up the record) about what you can get the witness to do on the stand at trial.
No worries, Di. I know CCarp well enough for him to tease me.
(Also, he's kinda right. There's a reason the image on my water blog is of reports.)
35: It would have to be exceptionally clear. I've certainly never seen them from Tilden.
The highlight of my undergraduate education (ok, after that class on Don Quixote) was a course I know Megan would have loved, and it might have changed her life. It was called Snow Dynamics and Accumulation. The Lab sections consisted of skiing out into the mountains (Bridger Range, an hour north of Yellowstone) with the prof (then just short of a million years old) and digging a 5 foot deep pit to study the various layers of snow, water content and other properties. Every week we did this. It was awesome.
Truly, that sounds great. Except for the snow and cold part. Although it sounds almost great enough to overcome the snow and cold part.
We also got to fire the avalanche cannon.
29: YES. Yellowstone when the grizzlies are hibernating sounds perfect.
Until you trip over one. I hear they wake up testy.
I've never skied or snowboarded. I'd quite like to, in a vague way - there are things I would do first.
I decided that I am going to have to learn to surf though, seeing as my parents now live 3 miles from a great (British) surfing beach. Have been bodyboarding for several years now. I can empathise with the weird fraudulent feeling - other people look like they *should* be doing this, and I'm never sure if I do.
But last time I was changing out of my wetsuit in a car park - with my kids doing the same; 4 body boards in a big van; dog, wellies, etc in the boot - I looked around and thought that I probably did look perfectly authentic. And wondered whether other people felt the same way.
I like snowboarding a lot. Since I have had kids, I have become too lazy to do it though. It just seems too daunting. I will probably give it a try again when my youngest gets old enough.
I have picked up skateboarding in my forties because they have started building sweet skateparks again. It is a good option when the waves suck and for after work.
I hear they wake up testy.
That's why you bring the cannon.
My dad brought the family Flexible Flyer with him when he came for Xmas. Now we just have to wait for sled-able conditions (the snow we got over the weekend was inadequate for steel-runner sledding, at least in my neighborhood.
No activity that involves my feet being on a board or plank interests me in the least. A combination of certainty that I'd do poorly and that I wouldn't get much out of it. I'm almost surely wrong, but it saves me a lot of time, money, and effort.
Heebie, you should just move to California like the rest of the entities here and thus eliminte any lingering qualms about authenticity. You'd also be that much closer to neb.
Neb puts up such walls to keep us out. Can anybody really be close to Neb?
I chose not to use the construction "Neb erects such walls to keep us out." Because the word erect is funny.
Now we just have to wait for sled-able conditions
Taking the bus in to work this morning, I passed the Air Force Memorial, and sled trails were clearly visible on the hill between it and the road. First of all, it's pretty anemic as sledding hills go, not very big or steep at all, but fine, we're in Arlington, there are no good convenient sledding hills. More importantly, though, am I the only person bothered by the idea of sledding into a busy road? I'm pretty sure there's no barrier between the sledders and the street.
Maybe I'm overly protective of kids (after all, if it's not steep enough to be interesting, then it's probably not steep enough to get out of control on) or maybe I'm just spoiled and take good winter sports conditions for granted, I don't know, but I did a double-take this morning when I saw those trails.
I believe that Neb's erection brings us together.
in the way that laughter makes us all sisters, brothers.
I thought snowboarding people was prohibited by the Geneva Convention? Goddammit, what will you perverts think of next?
max
['No, don't tell me what the ads mean when they says 'snowsports ok'. I don't want to know.']
In my erection there is no east or west.
(My erection is a cylinder whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.)
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as with what erection we are moving.
My erection is an Inverted World-style hyperboloid.
THE SHADOW OF NEB'S HYDDEOUS STRENGTH
SAX MYLE AND MORE IS IT OF LENGTH
I have never before thought to wonder about the relations between rfts' erection, conic sections, and the Shins, but now I am.
People who bought The Inverted World on amazon really like New York Review Books Classics.
Has the Inverted World-style hyperboloid one sheet, or two?
|| Does it get more bad ass than this?|>
75: Well, not being extinct is pretty badass, relatively speaking.
||
That was fun.
Sharing music with the lady, she with her games, me with my blogs "She Brings the Rain" comes up in random rotation. "Who is that? That's really good"
"Uh, that's Can, just a typical ending for a good 1970 psych prog album. Doesn't completely make sense unless you listen to the preceding song." "Okay, let me hear it."
Heh. But she loved it.
And the funny thing, we had been talking about Jane Asher just before.
|>
You can see the Sierras from Rose Peak. And if you go out there after a storm, Murietta Falls will actually have water in it, and be more beautiful than usual. In 1993, I hiked through there after a storm and above 2000 feet everything was covered in snow.
I have not seen the Sierras from Tilden, though. However, assuming we read the map and compass right, I have seen Mt. Diablo from the Sierras (top of Pyramid Peak in Desolation Wilderness). It's been so many years that, sadly, I can't remember anything beyond the immediate view of the peak, not the view from the peak.
Shoe skiing - skiing in normal shoes, usually done on snowdrifts during the summer - is a lot of fun too.
The ski and snowboard helmet manufacturers' association ought to send something really nice to Natasha Richardson's children. There are a whole lot more helmets around than last year. Including on us, although that decision was made after I whacked my head on an icy spot last year.
What are the social connotations of skiing in the US? In the UK it's pretty much as bourgeois as it's possible to get without actually becoming the chairman of the Law Society. This may be why I managed to spend an academic year in Austria without going near a mountain - and I like mountains.
Teraz Kurwa My has repeatedly bemoaned that in the US the social connotations of skiing are pretty much as bourgeois as it's possible to get without actually becoming the chairman of the Law Society. Thus making members of the proletariat from such countries as Poland and Switzerland seem like effete fops just because they liked to go skiing.
Murietta Falls is very pretty, but the land is treacherous.
I don't know if it's bourgeois in the US exactly, just so expensive that it's a middle class activity (if it's a regular activity) where middle class means upper middle class or richer.
Certain ski resorts do have social class connotations that others don't.
A real-life Swiss friend of mine has also repeatedly bemoaned how expensive skiing is in the US relative to in Switzerland. I wonder what's up with that? Are amenities much greater at US resorts? Are profit margins here higher?
Perhaps Swiss ski resorts offer their products on a government-run "exchange", thus increasing competition and driving down prices, and a complex system of subsidies exists to keep skiing affordable for the average Swiss.
85: Yeah, my cousins, decidedly non-rich, all grew up skiing -- but they grew up in Lake Placid, NY. The same is true for any number of non-bourgeois folks who live or grew up in ski areas, like Colorado, or Montana, or Vermont.
The first question mark in my comment should be a period, unless you think I talk like a Valley Girl.
87: Maybe Switzerland's a small, wealthy country full of huge mountains.
Oh sure there are places where movie stars go and the like, but I think people who go one about the social connotations of skiing in the US aren't spending much time doing it. Bartenders and constructions workers are well short of the presidency of the law society. And there are a bunch of them at any place I've ever skiied.
OK, not many genuinely poor people skiing.
Yeah, I'd say the social connotations of skiing in the US are middle-class in the sense of "definitely not poor, but not necessarily rich." This may vary by region, though. In places far from ski resorts, the people who ski are likely to be richer on average just because of travel costs.
87 -- I skiied in Switzerland a couple of days last winter, and it wasn't cheap.
(Andermatt costs $53 for a day ticket; I just got done skiing at Big Mountain, which has more variety, for $61).
Could someone explain "bourgeois" to me? I used to think I knew what it meant, but after years of reading this blog I'm certain only that it designates a class we tend to deprecate.
Deprecating classes is totes bourgeois.
Is worrying about whether you're bourgeois, bourgeois? What about worrying about worrying? O death, take me now.
BOOR-ZHWAH! is the new BOO-YAH!
Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they want to be,
Bourgeoisie.
The bourgeois are those who ski, plain and simple. Everything follows from that one simple fact.
BOOR-ZHWAH! is the new BOO-YAH!
The Boor-zhwah T.R.I.B.E. probably has a really different look.
> You have found an Ancestor of Laboring (+5 to proletariat)
||
A mystery: I have an ISO of a dvd of The Thin Man. If I mount it, mplayer can play it. I just burned it to a DVD-R. If I try to play it from the dvd, mplayer crashes. But if I copy the iso back off the dvd and mount it, mplayer can play it again!
|>
94,95: Yeah, I'll have to press her on this issue a bit. I'm not going to do an exhaustive survey, but looking at the prices for some St. Moritz mountains, I see that Corvatsch and Corviglia are each 71 CHF, and Diavolezza, which has fewer lifts, is 60 CHF. Not cheap.
I imagine it might be like in the US, where you can spend $30/day and go to Soda Springs, or $89/day and go to Squaw.
Though the ISO on the dvd is larger, for some reason. Curious.
I find it especially hard to swallow given that everything else in Switzerland is apparently really freaking expensive--at least, that's the impression I got after spending 5 or so days in Geneva and environs.
CHF 71 for a day pass at Zermatt.
I'm beginning to think there's an organized conspiracy among Swiss expatriates (and Poles who lived in Switzerland for a bit) to delude Americans into thinking that skiing in Switzerland is more of a sport of the people than it really is.
Well, maybe "the people" aren't buying day tickets. I think a pass at Big Mountain, and I know mine at Snowbowl, comes in around $400, if you buy it early. Squaw is a lot more, and has a bunch of blackout dates. But you get to wait in long lines with movie stars!
Today I did much, much better. The problem? My board was ill-adjusted on Monday. From the first moment, my quad would be burning after about 15 seconds of traveling. I just chalked it up to lack of skill, but I've never had that problem before, so I should have taken the board back and asked them to adjust it.
Anyway today was completely fine. I got over a lot of my fears from Monday since I wasn't so exhaustedly fatigued and wiping out every twenty seconds.
Unlike Larry Craig, I had an insufficiently wide stance for the board on Monday.
Tickets at the small place we went today were $36.
Is worrying about whether you're bourgeois, bourgeois?
You have to ask?
Rhetorical questions are bourgeois.
Those who ski in the US seem to fall into one of three groups, at least according to what I have gleaned from movies, tv, and other forms of pop culture. First, those who live in places where it is simply necessary to ski in order to occupy yourself and/or commute through the long winter. (I am thinking here of a friend who grew up cross-country skiing to his job at a dairy (from 13 on) in the upper penninsula of Michigan. Decidedly working class.) Second, those people who are just fantastically good skiers and thus spend all their available time doing it. Ski bums, essentially, who may be independently wealthy or may simply be living from check to check. Usually white, though. (Not all that different than committed surfers, in my experience.) Finally, those wealthy people who say, "Oh, I think I shall go to my ski chalet in Aspen this year" and swan about the place in really expensive clothing and possibly never actually put foot (ski?) on the slope. This seems to almost always be associated with downhill skiing.
Way to strip the word of all meaning.
(OT: since I had little idea what you all were on about with respect to Arians the other day, I find myself tickled to dip into Making Light's most recent open thread, in which I discover on a quick skim references to Avatar, Ross Douthat, Arians, and Unitarians. Huh. And then they link all over the damn place.)
Parenthetical, there are also those mentioned in 92, who do it as a family hobby. The one hobby they allow themselves to spend their finite disposable cash on. Like other people may own season tickets to the Browns, or own a boat and go speeding around on the lake a few times a year. And they don't do it as part of a vacation, they do it at places near where they live.
116: Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear enough. I was thinking of that sort of description under the first category - those for whom it is a necessity to occupy themselves through a long winter. (But it also wasn't really supposed to be a comprehensive list. Just that that seems to be the pop culture perception.)
I wonder if race isn't more important than class when it comes to dividing up who spends times on the slopes. I am, as admitted above, not a skier, so I'm more than happy to be proven wrong.
I board because I'm going somewhere.
I'm testy. Anyone want to fight about health care or something?
I'm against health care. In all its forms.
ok, let's fight.
your mother wears combat boots.
Your mother makes rookie mistakes when she cooks dinner, like letting the noodles get too soggy.
Your mother doesn't own any Goethe.
And when you asked her about it, she pronounced it "Go-thee".
Your mother doesn't know a diaeresis from an umlaut.
Your mother couldn't pass my precalculus class.
Your mother couldn't pass a bar.
Your mother couldn't pass corn kernels.
Your mother couldn't make passes at girls who wear glasses.
Your mothers wish they had corkscrew vaginas.
Your mother couldn't corner Colonel Sanders—and he's dead!
Your mother couldn't pass the dutchie on the left hand side.
131: OK, you just gave me one of those, "I'm the dumbest fucker on the planet" moments ... having read Catch-22 multiple times, I just "got" that one of the characters is Colonel Korn. Holy shit.
Don't feel bad, JP. I didn't get the much more obvious "Recktall Brown" the first time I read The Recognitions.
Here in Mpls I knew relatively few other skiers during my upbringing. I think there were about three other kids in my elementary and junior high school classes who skied on a somewhat regular basis. I would say that parental profession seemed to be a good predictor of who the skiers in the class were. I think three of us were the children of either a doctor or a lawyer, and the other dude was the son of a graphic designer who seemed to have way more money than I would have thought graphic designers make.
That said, I don't remember lift tickets at our local ski area as being extraordinary pricey. Hyland Hills now charges you $29 a pop, but I think back in the day it was more like $12, and a ticket may have even cost less than $10 at night. A whopping 175 ft in vertical drop, though.
Beyond the lift tickets though, you of course need some skis. Even way back in the 80s that was a three figure purchase. You can rent, sure, but would have pushed the cost up to ~$50. So, I didn't know much about the finances of my childhood friends' parents, but it seems not shocking that these prices would have been in the range where they would have been reluctant to make this a regular activity.
An annual class ski day went on through much of grade school, though.
Two parts grocery store eggnog to one part Woodford Reserve: surprisingly drinkable.
Squaw is absurd in a great many ways, but neither movie stars nor lift lines have been in evidence the last couple of days. And today was gorgeous, and I'm sort of remembering how to do this, and I'll cop to being a bit bourgeois.
Married life has thus far improved my eggnog situation tremendously.
Skiing is more proletarian than sailing, but less proletarian than surfing.
Peep Show is funny.
I think I've mentioned here before that I have never skied. Not once!
Usually white, though.
The most mountainous parts of the US also tend to be among the whitest. New Mexico is an exception, as it usually is.
Married life has thus far improved my eggnog situation tremendously
Your eggnog has become my annual tradition...
Skiing is more bourgeois than deer hunting, but less bourgeois than fox hunting.
No movie stars and no lines! What is the world coming to.
I was once at Whitetail (in PA near DC) and a couple busloads of people of Korean extraction (I surmise from their t shirts) arrived. Their group was called Yellow Peril.
One sees Native people skiing from time to time -- our local hill more often, and maybe another that's pretty close to a reservation boundary. Mostly, though, non-local people are from Canada or Minnesota. I didn't see any Sotans today, but they may not have had time to drive out.
Their group was called Yellow Peril.
Peeing in the snow while skiing down the slopes is inadvisable.
Interesting perspectives other people have! I've never thought of Pennsylvania as containing an area "near DC".
But I guess the part right across the border from Hagerstown, Maryland is indeed the most deserving of that honor.
Di, I dont think "annual" is supposed to mean "all year long."
No? Damned Latin, always tripping me up!
149: There's a reason that big battle happened at Gettsyburg, ned. Lee's invasion included all kinds of feints at DC.
The distances in the east are all relatively shorter. Much of the seaboard is "near DC."
"The Unbearable Whiteness of Skiing" - subscription only and I haven't read it, so I can't tell you what's in it.
Annie Coleman is one of my friends! And that's a great article! (It says pretty much what you'd expect it to say.)
Annie's husband wrote this great history of wolf-human interactions. I'm totally geeking out tonight, right?
The sign of a great article is that it contains no surprises.
153: Yeah, Showshoe, WV, is four or five hours from DC, but I'd be unsurprised to learn that DCers take a Friday off* and do a weekend ski trip there. There's other skiing within two hours of DC at Wintergreen and Massanutten (locally, "Mass of Nothing").
*Bit of a luxury to do that, of course.
My mind was blown my Morgantown, WV-raised cow-orker informed me that her hometown was not that far from Pittsburgh.
"The WVU-Pitt game is called the Backyard Brawl? But Morgantown and Pittsburgh aren't that close to each other!"
"Yes they are."
Pfft, just wolf-human interactions in the americas. Whatever.
There's a book on bear-human interactions, right? Bears are the best.
Yes, it's very close. Smuggling liquor across the boarder is my "Plan B" if the recession gets bad.
Actually, the Sierras aren't that far from the Bay Area - only about 3 hours driving. And the Los Angeles area has Big Bear, though I guess Mammoth, which is a much longer drive, is where the serious bourgeois skiers go from there. So those places count as "near"-ish too, by west standards.
155: I thought you'd know that article.
Wait, was that a thing of Emerson's?
165: The bear-human thing? Are you new here?
Pittsburgh to Morgantown = ~70 miles
Pittsburgh to Philadelphia = ~ 300 miles
Fuckin' A. That's wild, man. Just wild.
You don't come here for the skiing, do you?
Washington DC to Mercersburg PA ≅ 90 miles
This guy really isn't much of a fan of wolves, I guess.
167: Unless they try to restrict our ability to buy guns whenever we want, we hardly notice Philadelphia outside of the not sucking at baseball thing.
Pittsburgh and Philly are two of my favorite cities in this great nation of ours. It seems almost unfair that one state gets to cling bitterly to both of them.
Pittsburgh and Philly: separated by a common mountain range and yet united by a common set of goofy blue laws about booze.
The big innovation is that a grocery store can sell a six pack to go if it (the store) has a separate restaurant. It's an experiment, because there is no other way to know what happens if you let people buy beer in a grocery store.
Speaking of California and Pennsylvania, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mr. and Mrs. k-sky earlier this evening. I didn't suggest that they go skiing in Santa Fe, because I'm down with the gente like that.
If they do start beer sales at the grocery store over the bridge from me, I'm going to give the first beer I buy to minors. That way the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board can feel it is still needed.
179: Had I known, I would have asked you to pester Mr. k-sky regarding the recording project. What are the holidays for, if not for pestering people?
181: Sorry, it was kind of a last-minute thing. Now, though, he'll see it if and when he reads this thread.
182: The internet's funny that way.
There's a book on bear-human interactions, right? Bears are the best.
Well, there's this, which makes for amusing reading.
Pittsburgh and Philly: separated by a common mountain range Alabama.
Are there conflict-free internets?
No.
Are we off-topic enough yet? I for one am trying to figure out whether (1) I should purchase a small thank-you gift for the neighbor who helped me dig out a parking space in front of my house today, even after he put all his driveway's snow on my driveway (I'm leaning Yes, it was probably an accident {maybe didn't immediately realize that bunch of snow he was piling up was in fact on my driveway}); and, if so (2) what small gift would be appropes, as the kids will soon be saying.
Married couple. Mid-50s. Bottle of wine?
Are we off-topic enough yet?
Always already.
Yes to the gift. Yes to the wine. And hey, Stanley, a colleague wants to know if the public schools in or around Charlottesville are good. I said I would ask a friend. But you're here, so I thought I'd ask you instead.
Or maybe you're not here after all. Either way, I'm going to bed.
192: ari: wicked burn.
More seriously: Yes. My impression is that we've got some strong public schools here (I'm a snob: I know people from most local city and county schools who went to U.Va.; and those people were waaaay more interesting and well-adjusted than the NoVa brats). If that doesn't assuage the friend, e-mail me, and we can talk specifics.
This is the sort of thing I expect you people to tell me about.
and those people were waaaay more interesting and well-adjusted than the NoVa brats
At some point I knew quite a few people who went to TJHSST. Well-adjusted, many of them were not. But they did tend to be interesting.
195: That's somehow far worse than ducks masturbating.
I would like to note that ari is, by extension, more impatient than a masturbating duck.
195: My sister showed me that yesterday. I think it's awesome.
Liberty is probably the closest skiing to DC -- maybe just an hour from NW. Whitetail lives on the DC market. I never went as far as Snowshoe -- and no one I know did. For that kind of time commitment, you could go north, and have more reliable weather. (My son's school had an overnight to Greek Peak, in NY, for example). Life probably looks pretty different to people who live in Virginia, though.
181: Consider me pestered by Stanley and charmed by Teo, a raconteur par excellence. I know more about the Southwest after one beer than I did after eight years of trips to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Flagstaff.
Mrs. K-sky was especially delighted to meet him. I am getting out of Albuquerque fast.
(Stanley -- I'm on the road for the next weeks and a half, but I'll make an accounting of the recording thus far and I'll fiddle with it upon my return.)
Noted, Stanley! Charmed, Teo!
The missus especially. We're making tracks out of town before she gets any funny ideas.
(This was longer with more detail about meeting Teo and about the prospects of the recording. But it got et.)
I know more about the Southwest after one beer than I did after eight years of trips to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Flagstaff.
What did you learn after the other beers?
What did you learn after the other beers?
Apparently to keep his wife away from teo.
Man it is quite around here. It is like people aren't procrastinating at work or something.
Having met both teo and Mrs k-sky, I think I can say with authority that they'd make a cute couple.
That is a textbook example of the importance of hyphens.
I find myself more amused by the theatrical stylings of my allies: Jane Hamsher making common cause with Grover Norquist. My painful ironies: let me show you them.
207: This is great! I really hope they pull it off and it turns into a real General Strike. Then people will see how fun a General Strike can be!
"National Day of Strike" is a phrase that probably sounds less awkward in the original Bulgarian, but whatever. Bring it on! w00t!
138: That echoes my experience precisely. I think we did 2 class ski trips to Buck Hill in Jr. High, and the church youth group (which included one or two actual skiers) went to Afton Alps 2 or 3 times. But snow-tubing was much more the thing for kids in my class position. (Lost my glasses on one such trip. That was a hassle.) I did go to elementary school with some very well-to-do kids (incl. a Bachmann's heir) and of course there were some rich kids in HS who did Ski Club stuff, but even in my mid-middle class SW Mpls. neighborhood, actual skiers were pretty thin on the ground. Of course, once you got out to Minnetonka and Wayzata, then people had enough money to fly to Vail and whatnot, but I didn't rub shoulders with the quality until much later in life.
207-211: All your private property is target for your enemy!
according to industry magazines read in the lobby of the Blue Mountain Inn in Collingwood, ON, 9 out of 10 people who try skiing or boarding for the first time never try a second time.
