Snowboarding at Mt. Hood

Yesterday I wrapped up my work-from-home early and caved in to Christa and Tim's suggestion to go snowboarding at Mt. Hood's Skibowl.

Here's the thing: I hadn't been in snow in eight years. I had never been skiing. And I could never wrangle a skateboard for longer than 2 seconds. So, snowboarding sounded like a great opportunity for pain and humiliation.

It was actually fun! Obviously, the temperature at this elevation gets pretty harsh, but this means that I get to wear cool layered gear I last put on when I was twelve years old. It's neat to be looking the elements in the face, mocking their attempt to freeze my ass off under snow pants, thermal underwear, several shirts, a track jacket, and a snow jacket.

How did I do? According to Christa, better than expected. By the end of the 4-hour stay, I was able to confidently glide down the bunny hill (i.e. learning place) and get back up. I fell often, but my hands and lungs didn't really ache for long.

However... my tailbone is very, very sore as I type this. The reason is that I took a fifteen-minute break as I waited for the others to join me (they had gone to the non-wimp hill) - as I saw them approach, I cruised down casually and made a pretty neat descent. However, in those fifteen minutes I had stiffened a little and the hill had iced over a lot, so stopping became harder. I stopped in place, the board hit something slippery and flew out from under me, and my tailbone hit the ground punishingly.

Ouch. It wasn't so bad last night, but I'll be feeling it for the next few days.

P.S. Christa tells me that the proper way to describe my fall is like such:

"Dude, I took a harsh turn and caught an edge, I totally ate it. But the board's fine, so it's cool."

First week in Portland

Ok, this will have to be a brief and disorganized update.

Yes, it's cold here. I know you're all asking that - cold, but not uncomfortably so. Our bedroom on the second floor gets a little freezy (the basement-situated heater can't push hot air that far up quite so quickly). But a sweater and a pair of gloves work.

The house is bigger and nicer than the pictures imply. There's a huge basement, a two-part living room, and a very roomy kitchen. It's a corner house, so there's plenty of parking.

The neighborhood is awesome. I've only taken my car out three times so far, once to go to Seattle (2.5 hours away). There are lots of cool stores, restaurants, and coffee shops around. One of them, K&F, has been my "home office" for a few days now.

We're still waiting on Qwest to flip the switch on our DSL. I hate waiting.

We went to the Seattle IKEA a few days ago and picked up a desk, a dresser, and some random small items. I love IKEA.

Photos here, as always. Adios.

El Paso, TX

Ay chihuahua. We really picked a great time to travel - our drive to New Orleans went just fine, and the second leg of the trip, NOLA > Austin, TX took place during the worst weather Texas has seen in ten years.

We made it to Austin and stayed with Christa's friends, but the following morning brought crappy news - I-10, the only reasonable Southern East-West route was closed due to ice and snow on the road. After considering our options - stay in Austin until the weather clears? Drive up to Dallas and take I-20? - we made a slow, icy journey down to San Antonio, hoping that the interstate would be open by the time we met it there.

No dice. It was as closed as ever, and the TexDOT wouldn't venture a guess as to when it might open. "We advise travelers to stay off the roads entirely." Yes yes, but... No way. We gotta go.

So we took unplowed "hill country" roads up to Johnson City (the birthplace of a president!), Fredericksburg, and, near the end of the day, Junction, TX - right on the highway, but oh so far from it. This moved us a full 140 miles in a DAY - ouch.

Come Thursday morning, things started looking up. I drew back the curtains of our Days Inn room to see a freight truck moving west on I-10 - yay! Our yayness was shortlived, though, when we heard that the 10 was only open up to the very next exit - gah! With few options left, we drove down to the ramp and joined the crowd of semis and cars waiting for an OK from the cops. It was a sunny morning, if chilly at just above freezing. After about an hour, we were motioned to proceed - yay again!

Some nine hours later we're in El Paso, where we nearly get in line to cross the US-Mexico border after a wrong turn (it seems that there are two Mesa Streets in the city - yo, wtf? City planning never played Sim City?) Now we're in yet another Days Inn, online for the first time since Monday. The weather is cold but it doesn't impede driving. Tomorrow, San Diego. Type at you later, amigos.