Wed dec 17 – made it alive, but late, almost lunch. After getting my
morning crumpet, i got fresh out of oven scone to take up the mt. I
figure i’ll just eat on the run with bars, gel, cyto& scone w/
marmalade. Started light snow nearing slopes. Drive was fine. Snowing
throughout day. Runs pretty nice, not exactly powder, but could find
bunch of soft stuff. Lot of kinda lumpy from previous tracks. No lines
at lifts, cpme up to lift, get on, ride, repeat. End of day snow
really dumping. Drive out a bit more interesting. 5:00 dark already.
Half dozen cars fallen off road into gutter.
Monthly Archive for December, 2008
Page 3 of 4
Wed dec 17 – the adventire begins. Got my crumpet, ready to head out
and tackle the snow!
So there I was looking for something to do after a dinner outing. I rang the usual suspects, but most were already settled and/or sleepy, so I had resigned myself to going straight home. Then I get this random text message, “Are you at Imanas?” No, I say, I am not at Imanas, but I could be. So after flip floppin’ a bit I decide to go there for a beer. Well, Okay not Imanas, my friends were at Kohnotori!
So I order a draft beer, and disgruntledly ask if they have the kawa (skin). The previous 5 times I’ve asked this question had been met with a negative response. But this time the waiter dude says YES. LAST ONE!
I immediately order that last skin.
Words cannot describe how wonderfully tasty and how wonderfully salty this preparation is. It was totally incredible! No wonder it is such a popular item.
Kohnotori Skin, 4/4 grinning monkies
Sun dec 14 – Checking in at hnl a breeze, wish it was always like
this. No traffic until right at airport off where traffic was at a
standstill. One girl in front of me at Alaska Air checkin. If this
were some movie I’ll end up seated next to her. One person in front of
me at security. Now enjoying a Kona Big Wave lager with time to kill.
Well now, it’s 14:05 and I’m still at home. Yes, my flight was orignally slated to depart at 14:20. Calling Alaska Air and checking on line, the time repeatedly has been delayed. Now scheduled as 18:40. Upside is the soggy weather has lifted and the marathon street closures should be almost clear by then. I’ll also have a better timed chance to grab dinner. Downside is I’ll arrive after 02:00 in Seattle, so my plan to catch the bus is out and will end up forking out for taxi. The whole purpose of this trip was for me to go and stand by while the restaurant went through its first days, but it’s a little moot now as they threw a monkey wrench into things by opening early on Friday. My boss was frantically working on programming their menu to the last second. They gave him the bar menu that day. Anyway, I’m being sent up as planned. So by the time I get there, I’d expect a lot of the opening day problems will have already been fixed.
In any case, this should be intersting. Weather outlook for Seattle seems to be fairly mild precipitation wise, but cold, for the upcomming week. Sounds like they had a good weekend on the slopes, lots of freshies from the Friday night storm that tapered into Saturday, then sunshine on Sunday. Hope it’s not all tracked out by the time I get there!
There’s an odd silence when you go from the creaking of compressing snow on your heel edge at the top of the run and point the nose downhill into a ghostly white void of boot-deep powder and dime-flake blizzard sky. Silhouettes of trees pass by, appearing and disappearing in and out of the ether. At speed comes the wind noise, but it is barely audible through the helmet earflaps and headgear. There is the dull thump of your front leg knee punching through deep pockets, and the low rhythm of the board surfing through the turns and rolling over the hidden bottom contours like waves. Turning into the wind brings the chatter of snowflakes against the goggle lens. Continue reading ‘Silence’
Being sent up to Seattle for the opening of Genki Sushi this comming Mon and Tues. The thought of hitting some of the snow there popped up, but then I looked into it and the late winter was delaying all the resorts. Only one area, Mission Ridge, was open with manmade snow. So it was a wait and see deal. When I decided to stay a couple extra days anyway, it was kind of a pain dealing with the travel arrangements. Trying to change the flight was simply not worth it, would have cost something like $700. So ended up forking out for a new one way ticket, not cheap, but not $700! The Washington ski resorts breathed a sigh of relief when a storm system they were eyeing blew in Friday and hapily stayed on a good track and deposited enough snow for Crystal Moutain and Mount Baker to open this weekend, just in time for my trip! Now I’m going to have to frantically pack and tune the board today before my departure on Sunday. It’s going to be a bit of a haul getting to Baker, 3+ hours from Seattle, but it is the resort that first allowed snowboarding, and all their lifts are going to be running so hopefully it’ll be worth it. Stay tuned for reports on how it is!
Arrived in Japan on Sunday and rushed to Immigration in order to pass through quickly and get my bags and get to the kokunai connection in the hour I’d been given. Even though I was the only foreign passport holder on my flight other than the Captain, there was a line at the single open “Foreign Passports” section from a different flight. For some reason, nobody had told these Chinese nationals about customs and immigration forms beforehand, because they hadn’t filled them out, or hadn’t filled them out completely, so the line moved gratingly slowly. When I finally got to the counter, I was in and out swiftly, and off to the baggage carousel in no time. My bags came out reasonably quickly – usually it’s “first in, last out”. Customs was fast and simple. The dude was impressed at my bringing a snowboard for some reason. Continue reading ‘Feet Dry – CTS’
For a while back, the Prius had been giving us sporadic error lights. Usually would go away and run fairly normally after a few restarts. Finally it stopped and was towed to Toyota. After being taken back twice, Toyota finally replaced the main battery pack. A sizeable cost if not under warranty. Since then it seems to have been running ok. Until last weekend when my mom picked me up from airport. I got in to drive it home, when cranking it gave the array of check engine and warning lamp. I tried power of and on cycles three times. Still had warning, and drove it home ok on surface streets. Next day it seemed normal. But my parents were worried of more problems cropping up, so there was talk of replacing it. I suggested they look at the 3 door Yaris. Continue reading ‘Bye Bye Hybrid’