He Knew He Was Right

...because I've been doing a good amount of this... that... and the other thing... Wordier posts to come back soon...

Ok, I've been posting on the Wednesday or Thursday before each of the Giants playoff games, and they've won. I grew hip to this trend before the Championship game, and they squeaked out the win. No way will a Big Blue loss be attributable to my not doing my part now. So, here goes nothing.... That last game really was something else, eh? I was lucky enough to watch it in a great sports bar in Stowe, VT--the Sunset Grille and Tap Room. We spent seven or so hours there, ate two meals, and, well, enjoyed some pints of Switchback Ale. Enjoyed them we did through the AFC battle, and then through about the first half of the NFC game. By then, the nature of the latter game was clear--a tough battle with momentum swinging back and forth. I get nervous watching these games, and this game was no exception. Afraid to watch the TV at some points, I just stared at the mostly consumed dinner that remained on the plate in front of me. Nerves aside, it was a fun atmosphere. Stowe is nicel...

I took my latest trip to Stowe during President's week, meeting up with friend Mike and his family. I love it up there: the mountain, the restaurants, the pubs, the village—all of it. For the last decade, Stowe has been the centerpiece of my Prez week trip, but each year I try to visit at least one surrounding ski area too. This year I opted for Sugarloaf, in Maine, a mere 5 hours to the east on Route 2. Now, I have a certain fondness for the Loaf too, which I chronicled last year. When I was into cross-country skiing in the 90s, I found myself wandering farther and farther north to the better XC areas, and it was at the Sugarloaf XC ski center that I learned how to use skate skis. The impressive sight of that mountain, though, made me want to try alpine skiing again (and some XC struggles going downhill ended up forcing my hand). As a neophyte skier, Mike and I went there in 1999, but I hadn’t been back since. When I learned that a cousin would be living in Maine for a year, I...

I'll post more pictures and tell the full story soon enough, but suffice it to say that it was incredible today here in Stowe. The temperature was one whole degree this morning in the village, was up to about 9 by the time I made it to the Mansfield base 5 minutes later, and warmed up just right on this windless and cloudless day. Armed only with my cell phone and Sony flip camera, I wanted to stop constantly to take pictures. But, uncrowded trails were too inviting to pass up for more than minute or two breaks. Tomorrow should be more of the same. I may bring one of my other cameras along... Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Powered by ShowMeBlogger.com

We're in the second half of April, and I haven’t skied in nearly a month. Still, the Fan pages of some northeast resorts, most notably Sugarloaf, are posting reports of their spring conditions: 8 inches this past weekend?! That got me thinking back to some of my early ski posts here, and some of those first trips I took when I was just trying to get going on skis. In one entry, I alluded to a 1998 lesson at Stowe , and wrote that I would post about it at some point. When my buddy Greg and I went up there, well, it wasn’t pretty. Owing to inclement weather, the trip itself took a good 3-4 hours longer than usual. Roads were slippery, it was tough to see, and I think I even suggested pulling off the road when I suspected that we wouldn't reach our destination until well after midnight. But, we arrived later that evening, and made our way to the Spruce base for our lesson the next morning. The instructor for our group was Paco, who I think was the sheriff of a southern Vermont tow...

I realize I posted this on Facebook last year, but I can’t think of the February 2005 ski trip mentioned in my previous entry without recalling the following shenanigans with my friends. On this particular trip, I got to ski four mountains over four or five days. On one of the days, three of us left the others and went up to Jay Peak (pictured here; the photo was not taken with my Seagull 120, but rather a small digital camera that fit in my pocket...). After a nice day on the slopes, we returned to Stowe that afternoon, and were promptly assaulted by all the kids in the group, who bombarded us with a cooler full of snowballs they had made. That evening we were all cleaned up and waiting for the town shuttle to pick us up and drive us to the restaurant we had chosen for dinner. The group comprised 7 or 8 adults and about 10 kids. Somebody was going to throw the first snowball; however, rather than get into a snowball fight before dinner, someone suggested we take aim at a telephone pol...