Yesterday I took the afternoon to do a bit of skiing at my local mountain. I've been skiing quite a bit there this season - in particular at night. I had never actually seen the view from the top, so when I saw that the skies were super sunny, I couldn't resist. I knew the snow would be pretty heavy and sticky, but I just had to see what I had been skiing for months. Was not disappointed in the view at all:





Here's proof I was there. Note the new pink helmet:




Towards the tail end of my afternoon, I ran into this guy who had busted his skis and was walking down. Note the binding - but no ski he's got in one hand and the very bent poles in the other. And yes, he did reek of booze.

Last night I had a "double booking." For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it means that I had two totally unrelated activites back to back planned. This can be tricky, but it came off quite smoothly.

First, I saw "Shine the Light," an Imax film directed by Scorsce about the Rolling Stones. If you are a Stones fan (even from real far back) you really should see this. It is fantastic. I'm amazed that with the rampant drug use, all members of the band are still alive, let alone still have all their hair. I'm convinced that their goal is to have simultaneous heart attacks or strokes on stage to end their days.

Second, I went to a new bar with a bunch of ski pals during which I learned the following:

1. It is possible to cut yourself to the point of drawing blood on the serrated edge of a toilet paper dispenser. WHY this thing needs to be so sharp still eludes me, however.

2. It is possible to bring your dog INTO a bar. Not in a patio - but actually INSIDE. Not all bars, obviously, but this one permits it. Brings a whole new slant to using a puppy as a babe magnet.

3. Seattle is indeed small. I ran into a guy who was in my swing class. He not only recognized me, but remembered my name. I didn't remember his, but I was the one who saw him first - his sideburns were pretty hard to miss.

4. I apparently have a twin in Seattle. She's dating a guy who has really interesting ear piercings. How do I know this? Because he thought I was her. How do I know this? He practically mauled me from behind as I was standing at the bar. When I turned around in total shock (part of me was saying, "please be cute, please be cute!") he looked at me stunned: "Oh, you are SO not my girlfriend." And no, he didn't buy me a drink, but he did apologize.

The following is a exchange between me and MOP:

ME: Oh, dude, I have the funniest picture on my phone you need to see.

(I pull up the desired shot)

MOP: SPAM sushi!! oh my GOD I LOVE that stuff!! SPAM is the best.

ME: (too stunned by my MOP's enthusiasm for processed, fake food to respond)

MOP: With a little ketchup... oh my I could totally use some now.

As far as I'm concerned, this officially allows me to eat ice cream if I want it. That has to be better for me than SPAM.

I know. I KNOW. It has been a very long time since i last posted. It is not my fault, however. I have been uber busy at work and that will continue to be the case for the forseeable future. But here is what i've been up to since I got back from Hawaii. Besides writing user manuals for mutual fund accounting software. Yeah, say THAT three times fast.

1. I went to my first ever Mariners game. For those who are not baseball fans (like me), the Mariners are Seattle's baseball team. They have a beautiful stadium and if you are lucky and get there on a gorgeous day, it is such a treat. They sell hot dogs like you would expect any self respecting ballpark to do, but they also sell sushi. As in Bento boxes. And fish and chips. And Microbrew. It is pretty upper crust if you ask me. I don't remember any of that when i went to Yankee or Shea....


2. I went to the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, WA. This had the potential of being a really incredible experience, but thanks to the weather we've been having here (super cold, even snow, hail) the tulips have been pretty shy. I headed up to this festival with out of town guests and we wound up spending the entire afternoon in the car stuck in traffic. Apparently there was precisely ONE tulip field in bloom and everybody was heading over there. So the lesson here is, never go to this festival on a weekend, no matter how badly you want to go and remember that flowers have a mind of their own too and can choose to be difficult.




3. I spent a long weekend at Whistler. This was a bit of a shock after being in Hawaii, let me tell you. Skiing is COLD. The conditions were variable, as skiers like to say. Which means that there was everything from ice to slush. I have yet to have my spring skiing fix and I really feel that if i don't get it, the season hasn't officially ended for me. I hope it will warm up before the mountains close. I mean seriously. I want my mushy, soft hero moguls already. I'm kind of tired of nearly losing a filling as I bang down the mountain.



4. I'm STILL unable to load up my videos. This is beginning to seriously irritate me. I'm a good videoer and my blog readers need to see these.

So I'm back in Seattle, but I'm going keep trying to post my videos from HI... I did actually take them so that I *could* post them. If anybody has any advice on how to do this on blogger, I'd seriously appreciate it.

In the mean time, here is the photo of me and the three guys who jumped off that rock a couple posts back. CLASSIC.

Greetings from Kauai Island! This is truly what I thought Hawaii was going to be like. Jungle and beach. We have been staying in an area called Hanalei, and if you are familiar with Puff the Magic Dragon, this is where he chose to live. And it is completely obvious why he would do so. This town, as well as the whole island is just stunning. Much of the island can only be seen by air or by sea. We have done both. Yesterday, we even saw humpback whales from the SHORE. Still having issues with loading up videos, so here are just SOME of the photos from the past two days...

I knew that HI would be beautiful. What I didn't realize was that it is just about the easiest place to totally demasculate a guy. See below:

An entry has to be dedicated to the flowers around here. They really are spectacular.

On Saturday, we went to the north shore of Oahu. It was probably my most favorite place on the island. We saw the biggest waves I've ever seen.




I met three surfers who were jumping off some rock into the crashing waves. I convinced them to jump again so i could take video. I wish i could post that here, but for some reason, blogger won't let me right now. So i'll just post more pictures:

Ahloa again. I have more pictures from my first two days on Oahu.

Here is where I've been jogging everyday:



This is the view just outside the condo i'm staying in:



The west coast of the island is very dramatic:



Yesterday, we went swimming in this bay. There were a lot of fishies to look at. We, of course, didn't have masks, so we had to settle for seeing what we could. And yes, our eyes got quite red.



And this is what sunset looked like yesterday from honolulu:

Greetings from Kailua, HI, on the island of Oahu.

I've only been here for about 24 hours and i've already:

Become very intimate with the Honolulu airport. For reasons that are too complicated to explain, i was forced to spend close to 4 hours wondering around the airport area. I found this interesting building in the airport area:


ALOHA everybody!!

I've eaten SPAM sushi. This, i'm sorry to say, was quite a disappointment. Why this surprises me? Apparently SPAM is a local delicacy, so I figured it would be different than what I remembered as a child. NOPE. Same stuff.




Drove through some crazy mountains:



Gone for a jog on the beach. This was officially a first for me. Fabulous way to start your day.

Every night, the last thing I see is the Space Needle in my bedroom window. I like to think of it as my own personal nightlight. And every morning, when I wake up, the first thing I do is look out the window to check for the Needle. I like to think that it just verifies that I'm here, in Seattle. Since I can't always see Rainier, the Needle is a noble second choice.

This morning however, was the first time ever, that I've not seen the Needle. It was totally socked in. See:



I swear, it usually is right there, in the middle of the picture. If I lived even half a mile away, I might not be so freaked out about this. But I live just a few blocks away. It is now 8:40am, and it's still MIA, even though the Sound (totally opposite direction) has clear blue skies. It is a little spooky.

And to answer the questions posed regarding my coffee hut post - yes, they do have krispy kreme out here, but it isn't nearly as popular as Starbucks, as you can imagine. As for why there are no pictures of the hot chicks serving coffee... I actually drove around the hut to see if I could get a peek. I have heard of these places - the baristas actually serve in a bikini top. But as I drove around, I realized I was going to have to order something, and doing that just for the purposes of snapping a picture seemed a little creepy to me. Sorry to disappoint all the male readers of this blog. If you come out and visit me, I'll take you for some chicka coffee.