Quick Blurb...
Caught Ocean's 11 last night, I thought it was quite good, 6 M's. Course the fact there were like 23948234 actors and actresses in it that I personally enjoy helped. So did the setting in a casino actually.. :) Your typical bad guys who we treat as good guys stealing from good guys who we see as bad guys type of movie ala Robin Hood... Other than that and the yummy Chic-Fil-A (wonder how that's really spelled) I had prior, a whole lot of nothing going on around here... A lot of sleeping/resting/stretching stacking up for the big day/night on Monday... Possibility of me headed out tonight too, and will probably just spend all day tomorrow watching movies or something...
Really need to get around to burning like 30 cds, anyone have any good ideas as to what can be done during the process to make it more exciting? :/
Friday, December 28, 2001
Rule #1, Don't Fall
So yeah, found myself up at the buttcrack of dawn again yesteray, same song, different verse, a little bit louder, a little bit worse..
Ended up going to bed around 9pm the night before, and getting up at 2:30am or so... Fiddle diddied around with my comp for an hour or two then got all set up and ready to go. Borrowed my sisters van (my parent's old one she inherited, the 93 Voyager not their new one the 2002 Town & Country) and headed off to pick up the six peeps that ended up going with me. That was around 4:20, but we didn't actually get on the road until 5:15 or so, had some "delays" with people forgetting stuff and taking too long and not being awake yet, etc... Made it to Big Bear without much problem, although it was like an hour just from where you get off the freeway onto the mountain road near Riverside... Some awesome views, but pretty nerve racking driving as you putz along on the edge of cliffs and around switchbacks... Had some McD's on the way, although I was a little depressed I couldn't get my Deluxe Big Breakfast while I was driving, had to settle for a #3, Sausage McMuffin with Hash Brown and a Large OJ (I drink a TON of OJ, three meals a day while eating at the DC at school).
The whole parking/buying tickets/renting equipment thing went pretty well... Little did I know my boots were at least a size too small, I would pay for that later... First time off the lift I of course ate shit like everyone always does, although I blame the person next to be generally. ;) Had some serious wobble problems at first, but eventually got the whole center of gravity balance thing down... The one plus about skiing is its easier to just be motionless talking to ppl or resting or whatnot, rather than always having to be "praying to the snow gods" as my father calls it, or sitting on your ass... I did my share of eating it, the worst of which happened on one of the easiest beginner slopes, strangely enough... I actually did the majority of falling there trying to learn how to turn and stop on the two edge as well as the heel, never really got that down, but managed to be facing the hill at one point when my heel edge just dug in and sent me flying backwards over it, eventually landing on my ass, then having my head whiplash into the ice... This was followed by a chorus of "OHHHHHH that one hurt him" from the lift overhead...
Two of my friends started off skiing, but one of them shattered his boot and ended up renting a board to have fun with us, thus there were about four of us boarding who basically sucked ass, which made it fun. :) At one point we ended up on this REALLY flat run to the point you'd get up, not move, and eventually fall again... Finally one of us would get moving, run into someone else, and we'd both go down again... Needless to say my muscles just about all over OTHER than my legs are bein pretty painful today... A couple of the other guys had no problem getting up and made fun of me, until I pointed out that lifting 130 pounds off the ground is a bit different than 200... (oops brought up my weight, yeah twenty pounds by new years isn't actually happening, but that's good, because I needed a new years resolution! ;) harder to exercise at home anyway, no pool, no reccen, no friends/exercise partners readily available :/ )
So yeah, had a great time, spent some time with some fun ppl, had some interesting convo's to/from the place during three hour or so ride... Ended up going to TGIFriday's on the way home, chowed on some pretty good chicken fettucine alfredo, had some more strange conversation about everything, managed to wake me up enough to safely get home the rest of the way.. (driving down the mountain road in pitch black dark was uh, interesting. Actually wasn't that bad, but everyone else was asleep, so I had to pay attention a bit more, and getting hi-beamed every 15 seconds wasn't so cool either...) Managed to drop everyone off and eventually make it home around 10 or 11pm, when I was reminded about the aforementioned dentist appointment...
So the jury is still out on Skiing vs Snowboarding, although both are fun enough, I'll probably end up doing whatever the majority of the people I'm with are doing each time I go. ;) Or should I say the majority of girls. Hm...
Going to be a lot of downtime until Monday when I'm up before dawn again to head to Dland, gettin excited just thinkin about it! :)
So yeah, found myself up at the buttcrack of dawn again yesteray, same song, different verse, a little bit louder, a little bit worse..
Ended up going to bed around 9pm the night before, and getting up at 2:30am or so... Fiddle diddied around with my comp for an hour or two then got all set up and ready to go. Borrowed my sisters van (my parent's old one she inherited, the 93 Voyager not their new one the 2002 Town & Country) and headed off to pick up the six peeps that ended up going with me. That was around 4:20, but we didn't actually get on the road until 5:15 or so, had some "delays" with people forgetting stuff and taking too long and not being awake yet, etc... Made it to Big Bear without much problem, although it was like an hour just from where you get off the freeway onto the mountain road near Riverside... Some awesome views, but pretty nerve racking driving as you putz along on the edge of cliffs and around switchbacks... Had some McD's on the way, although I was a little depressed I couldn't get my Deluxe Big Breakfast while I was driving, had to settle for a #3, Sausage McMuffin with Hash Brown and a Large OJ (I drink a TON of OJ, three meals a day while eating at the DC at school).
The whole parking/buying tickets/renting equipment thing went pretty well... Little did I know my boots were at least a size too small, I would pay for that later... First time off the lift I of course ate shit like everyone always does, although I blame the person next to be generally. ;) Had some serious wobble problems at first, but eventually got the whole center of gravity balance thing down... The one plus about skiing is its easier to just be motionless talking to ppl or resting or whatnot, rather than always having to be "praying to the snow gods" as my father calls it, or sitting on your ass... I did my share of eating it, the worst of which happened on one of the easiest beginner slopes, strangely enough... I actually did the majority of falling there trying to learn how to turn and stop on the two edge as well as the heel, never really got that down, but managed to be facing the hill at one point when my heel edge just dug in and sent me flying backwards over it, eventually landing on my ass, then having my head whiplash into the ice... This was followed by a chorus of "OHHHHHH that one hurt him" from the lift overhead...
Two of my friends started off skiing, but one of them shattered his boot and ended up renting a board to have fun with us, thus there were about four of us boarding who basically sucked ass, which made it fun. :) At one point we ended up on this REALLY flat run to the point you'd get up, not move, and eventually fall again... Finally one of us would get moving, run into someone else, and we'd both go down again... Needless to say my muscles just about all over OTHER than my legs are bein pretty painful today... A couple of the other guys had no problem getting up and made fun of me, until I pointed out that lifting 130 pounds off the ground is a bit different than 200... (oops brought up my weight, yeah twenty pounds by new years isn't actually happening, but that's good, because I needed a new years resolution! ;) harder to exercise at home anyway, no pool, no reccen, no friends/exercise partners readily available :/ )
So yeah, had a great time, spent some time with some fun ppl, had some interesting convo's to/from the place during three hour or so ride... Ended up going to TGIFriday's on the way home, chowed on some pretty good chicken fettucine alfredo, had some more strange conversation about everything, managed to wake me up enough to safely get home the rest of the way.. (driving down the mountain road in pitch black dark was uh, interesting. Actually wasn't that bad, but everyone else was asleep, so I had to pay attention a bit more, and getting hi-beamed every 15 seconds wasn't so cool either...) Managed to drop everyone off and eventually make it home around 10 or 11pm, when I was reminded about the aforementioned dentist appointment...
So the jury is still out on Skiing vs Snowboarding, although both are fun enough, I'll probably end up doing whatever the majority of the people I'm with are doing each time I go. ;) Or should I say the majority of girls. Hm...
Going to be a lot of downtime until Monday when I'm up before dawn again to head to Dland, gettin excited just thinkin about it! :)
Thursday, December 27, 2001
[yawn, snore, growl]
The below post was actually like 8 hours earlier, but Blogger was down, typical...
So anyway, traditional Wilson xmas with the kids... My parents were always trying to devise ways to keep us out of the living room where they'd laid out all the presents from Santa and our stockings full of candy and whatnot, and thus hopefully keep us quiet so they could sleep until a sane hour... (6am was the usual wake-up time) All the bedrooms open up into the same hallway in this house, so if they could find a way to block that they would succeed in their task... The most popular year consisted of lots and lots of newspaper, to the point they had covered they entire space between the walls ceiling with it, and placed all the scissors in the house on the other side... The kids woke up around 2am and spent the next hour or so taking a snip every 10 minutes with an old corrugated pair from my sister's sewing set... Around 3 we finally had a big enough space to crawl through and the living room was ours! Another year they tried the bells on strings approach, with all of them connected via some contraption, so that when we cut one we had to catch them all before they hit...One of their final attempts was talking trash about getting a "motion detector" for about 3 months, to the point my dad even took my brother shopping in that section a couple weeks prior at an electronics store... Turned out they had this elaborate setup with flashing lights and what looked much like a motion detector, but was really an intercom. The whole wake-up scene was always pretty elaborate on our part... A few years we'd have very loud music start playing (Lion King's Circle of Life was always good), me blasting on the trumpet, and my brother screaming or yelling or doing something else obnoxious as we kicked in the door to the parents bedroom...
Anyway, as you can see, Christmas is a quite complicated occasion at the Wilson house, starting at about 6am, ending around 10 or 11 depending on the year once all the presents have been opened, candy been stuffed in, and breakfast caserrole been finished off...
Part of my gifts to the family were candy bars to each of them with a rhyme associated to it... For example my brothers:
"I just wanted you to know I'll always think you're pure chunk;
no matter how many girls call you a:"
Then there was a large BIG HUNK candy bar attached to the paper... My father's was pretty good too:
"You did very well skiing, proving false my hunch;
that you'd go flying off the hill into a tree, and I'd hear you go:"
And of course, a large CRUNCH attached to that one.
Harhar. Me so funny. So anyway. Did pretty well on the recieving end, picked up a swiss army knife I finally clued into needing about the 80th time I was looking for scissors or a kitchen knife to open a package or whatnot this break... Also got the usual wolf shirt, (i'm a big wolf fan, their eyes are almost as cool as mine, and their personality is basically the same ;) ) although this one is the prettiest so far, and various t-shirts with clever or funny sayings that I'm infamous for wearing on a regular basis... Also picked up the latest edition of Creative's sound card, which combined with my speaker system makes mp3's, games, and movies sound pretty amazing...
A grand ol time was had by all! Next up is a description of "The Next Day" (tm) when I ended east for the mountains... Will save that one for tonight.
The below post was actually like 8 hours earlier, but Blogger was down, typical...
So anyway, traditional Wilson xmas with the kids... My parents were always trying to devise ways to keep us out of the living room where they'd laid out all the presents from Santa and our stockings full of candy and whatnot, and thus hopefully keep us quiet so they could sleep until a sane hour... (6am was the usual wake-up time) All the bedrooms open up into the same hallway in this house, so if they could find a way to block that they would succeed in their task... The most popular year consisted of lots and lots of newspaper, to the point they had covered they entire space between the walls ceiling with it, and placed all the scissors in the house on the other side... The kids woke up around 2am and spent the next hour or so taking a snip every 10 minutes with an old corrugated pair from my sister's sewing set... Around 3 we finally had a big enough space to crawl through and the living room was ours! Another year they tried the bells on strings approach, with all of them connected via some contraption, so that when we cut one we had to catch them all before they hit...One of their final attempts was talking trash about getting a "motion detector" for about 3 months, to the point my dad even took my brother shopping in that section a couple weeks prior at an electronics store... Turned out they had this elaborate setup with flashing lights and what looked much like a motion detector, but was really an intercom. The whole wake-up scene was always pretty elaborate on our part... A few years we'd have very loud music start playing (Lion King's Circle of Life was always good), me blasting on the trumpet, and my brother screaming or yelling or doing something else obnoxious as we kicked in the door to the parents bedroom...
Anyway, as you can see, Christmas is a quite complicated occasion at the Wilson house, starting at about 6am, ending around 10 or 11 depending on the year once all the presents have been opened, candy been stuffed in, and breakfast caserrole been finished off...
Part of my gifts to the family were candy bars to each of them with a rhyme associated to it... For example my brothers:
"I just wanted you to know I'll always think you're pure chunk;
no matter how many girls call you a:"
Then there was a large BIG HUNK candy bar attached to the paper... My father's was pretty good too:
"You did very well skiing, proving false my hunch;
that you'd go flying off the hill into a tree, and I'd hear you go:"
And of course, a large CRUNCH attached to that one.
Harhar. Me so funny. So anyway. Did pretty well on the recieving end, picked up a swiss army knife I finally clued into needing about the 80th time I was looking for scissors or a kitchen knife to open a package or whatnot this break... Also got the usual wolf shirt, (i'm a big wolf fan, their eyes are almost as cool as mine, and their personality is basically the same ;) ) although this one is the prettiest so far, and various t-shirts with clever or funny sayings that I'm infamous for wearing on a regular basis... Also picked up the latest edition of Creative's sound card, which combined with my speaker system makes mp3's, games, and movies sound pretty amazing...
A grand ol time was had by all! Next up is a description of "The Next Day" (tm) when I ended east for the mountains... Will save that one for tonight.
Chipmunk Cheeks
Nothing better than 9am dentist appointments to get cavities drilled that you forget about til the last minute. Especially when you're up late after snowboarding all day the day before and thrashing yourself into a berjillion pieces. Really. Its great.
...
So I guess while I sit here waiting for the whole numb thing to screw off so I can eat because I'm starving I can catch up on some storytelling from the last couple of days. Its been quite fun actually.
[ten minutes later]
Okay this sucks. I'll do it later. I'm going to sleep.
Nothing better than 9am dentist appointments to get cavities drilled that you forget about til the last minute. Especially when you're up late after snowboarding all day the day before and thrashing yourself into a berjillion pieces. Really. Its great.
...
So I guess while I sit here waiting for the whole numb thing to screw off so I can eat because I'm starving I can catch up on some storytelling from the last couple of days. Its been quite fun actually.
[ten minutes later]
Okay this sucks. I'll do it later. I'm going to sleep.
Tuesday, December 25, 2001
Not A Creature Was Stirring...
Other than a rather large male, plopped in his usual chair listening to the whirrrrrrrrr of his case fans...
[bends his ring finger back and forth gingerly, realizes it doesn't hurt, and flexes]
Teehee, looks like it won't be a problem for the snowboard trip. Now for the skiing story...
Got up there at the crack of dawn, after downing my usual Deluxe Big Breakfast that I tend to snag at McDonalds before big events that require waking up early... Hooking into all the gear for the first time was quite complicated, and once you have these six foot extensions of your legs on its quite cumbersome at first... I must say I'm proud that for the entire day I managed to never eat shit off the lift, unlike just about everyone else there... Apparently snowboarders have the most difficulty, I had quite a grand old time watching two of them faceplant about four feet off the lift, finally stand up laughing at themselves, and getting their legs taken out from under them by the next pair diving forward... :) The challenge for the skiers was to dodge the pileups at the top of the lifts that kept occurring... Strangely enough it was about a 10 to 1 snowboard to skier ratio, which suggests that the former is the easier sport, especially given some of the people who were managing to make it down the hill...
Spent the first few hours on the usual beginner hill, getting the whole turning stopping etc deal down, then went on to some lower intermediate hills, which were quite a lot of fun. The main problem I faced throughout the day was the worry that I was going to get run over by the high speed snowboarders that were blasting through the lower hills from the advanced ones at any given moment... Many a time I either caused one of them to swerve out and crashed, or did it myself.. My one major mistake was trying to get on the express lift too fast and knocking over the two people in front of me who were waiting for it... Got me a stern talking to from the guy up top, he apparently didn't realize I was a first timer and thought I was "bullying" them... So yeah anyway the view from up top was pretty amazing, was crystal clear out towards Victorville and Vegas, could see for hundreds of miles. Mountain High is only about a 90 min drive from my house, which means larger crowds, but is more convenient for a random weekend excursion.
At any rate, the top crash of the day was when I was on the hardest skill level slope I ended up trying, got going way too fast, caught an edge, skidded out, flew about four feet through the air at about a two foot height, slammed into the slope, and managed for some reason to keep both my skis on, even though they were pointing at opposite diagonals, which did in my groin pretty well... Its unknown which crash ended up spraining my finger, or whether it happened later in the day or something, just started giving me a lot of pain that night. Strangely enough I didn't end up feeling the usual soreness or pain the next day, I was feeling bouncy as ever. I'm sure snowboarding will do in the knees/ass a bit more than skiing did. I'm hoping it'll be easier, less appendages going in different directions... Not to say I suck royally at skiing, I think I did pretty well for a first day. :) My dad performs very well for a man of his age, and managed to show off a couple times going off various jumps and screaming down steep inclines, he enjoys proving he's better than me in anything he can, a rarity given he's getting old, and I'm not quite through my prime just yet... :P I did manage to avoid finding a tree with my name on it, and my dad managed to run over about five times the snowboarders that I did. ;)
Had a "family dinner" tonight for Chistmas Eve, which consists of barbs being thrown in random directions and memories from previous christmas's being brought up and laughed about... The usual high level of terrible jokes was available from the mother and father, while the sister and brother did their best to keep up with me... (head grows to obscene levels and explodes). Anyway, always entertaining when all five Wilson's are at a table together.
I actually managed to get out and snag everyone a gift this year, even though some are of the funny variety... :)
Hm, past 1, I suppose I should be getting to bed so I can be awake for the usual trumpet in the parents ear awakening around 6am... There's been a tradition in this house for ages that the parents try to keep us from getting out to the living room to see what Santa brought, using all manners of techniques of blocking the hallway and/or threats... I'll be sure to detail some of the better ones tomorrow. ;)
Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays. May the spirit of giving help all of those in need.
Other than a rather large male, plopped in his usual chair listening to the whirrrrrrrrr of his case fans...
[bends his ring finger back and forth gingerly, realizes it doesn't hurt, and flexes]
Teehee, looks like it won't be a problem for the snowboard trip. Now for the skiing story...
Got up there at the crack of dawn, after downing my usual Deluxe Big Breakfast that I tend to snag at McDonalds before big events that require waking up early... Hooking into all the gear for the first time was quite complicated, and once you have these six foot extensions of your legs on its quite cumbersome at first... I must say I'm proud that for the entire day I managed to never eat shit off the lift, unlike just about everyone else there... Apparently snowboarders have the most difficulty, I had quite a grand old time watching two of them faceplant about four feet off the lift, finally stand up laughing at themselves, and getting their legs taken out from under them by the next pair diving forward... :) The challenge for the skiers was to dodge the pileups at the top of the lifts that kept occurring... Strangely enough it was about a 10 to 1 snowboard to skier ratio, which suggests that the former is the easier sport, especially given some of the people who were managing to make it down the hill...
Spent the first few hours on the usual beginner hill, getting the whole turning stopping etc deal down, then went on to some lower intermediate hills, which were quite a lot of fun. The main problem I faced throughout the day was the worry that I was going to get run over by the high speed snowboarders that were blasting through the lower hills from the advanced ones at any given moment... Many a time I either caused one of them to swerve out and crashed, or did it myself.. My one major mistake was trying to get on the express lift too fast and knocking over the two people in front of me who were waiting for it... Got me a stern talking to from the guy up top, he apparently didn't realize I was a first timer and thought I was "bullying" them... So yeah anyway the view from up top was pretty amazing, was crystal clear out towards Victorville and Vegas, could see for hundreds of miles. Mountain High is only about a 90 min drive from my house, which means larger crowds, but is more convenient for a random weekend excursion.
At any rate, the top crash of the day was when I was on the hardest skill level slope I ended up trying, got going way too fast, caught an edge, skidded out, flew about four feet through the air at about a two foot height, slammed into the slope, and managed for some reason to keep both my skis on, even though they were pointing at opposite diagonals, which did in my groin pretty well... Its unknown which crash ended up spraining my finger, or whether it happened later in the day or something, just started giving me a lot of pain that night. Strangely enough I didn't end up feeling the usual soreness or pain the next day, I was feeling bouncy as ever. I'm sure snowboarding will do in the knees/ass a bit more than skiing did. I'm hoping it'll be easier, less appendages going in different directions... Not to say I suck royally at skiing, I think I did pretty well for a first day. :) My dad performs very well for a man of his age, and managed to show off a couple times going off various jumps and screaming down steep inclines, he enjoys proving he's better than me in anything he can, a rarity given he's getting old, and I'm not quite through my prime just yet... :P I did manage to avoid finding a tree with my name on it, and my dad managed to run over about five times the snowboarders that I did. ;)
Had a "family dinner" tonight for Chistmas Eve, which consists of barbs being thrown in random directions and memories from previous christmas's being brought up and laughed about... The usual high level of terrible jokes was available from the mother and father, while the sister and brother did their best to keep up with me... (head grows to obscene levels and explodes). Anyway, always entertaining when all five Wilson's are at a table together.
I actually managed to get out and snag everyone a gift this year, even though some are of the funny variety... :)
Hm, past 1, I suppose I should be getting to bed so I can be awake for the usual trumpet in the parents ear awakening around 6am... There's been a tradition in this house for ages that the parents try to keep us from getting out to the living room to see what Santa brought, using all manners of techniques of blocking the hallway and/or threats... I'll be sure to detail some of the better ones tomorrow. ;)
Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays. May the spirit of giving help all of those in need.
Monday, December 24, 2001
Another Unfortunate Excuse...
Actually this is a valid one, managed to jack up my finger at the resort yesterday, causing it to hurt like all living hell when I bend it, etc, so typing is pretty horribly slow at the moment. Plan on a big ol explanation of the injury's occurance and the other fun times I had skiing for the first time on Saturday at Mountain High as soon as the pain has toned down to a tolerable level. :/
Still planning to snowboard at Snow Summit on Wednesday, the swelling should be gone by then, one would think...
Actually this is a valid one, managed to jack up my finger at the resort yesterday, causing it to hurt like all living hell when I bend it, etc, so typing is pretty horribly slow at the moment. Plan on a big ol explanation of the injury's occurance and the other fun times I had skiing for the first time on Saturday at Mountain High as soon as the pain has toned down to a tolerable level. :/
Still planning to snowboard at Snow Summit on Wednesday, the swelling should be gone by then, one would think...
