Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Ski Day!
The big ski day was today. The K.'s kindly got us complimentary passes to the Beaver Valley ski slopes for the day, which allowed us to go skiing as their guests. I was promptly signed up for a 2hr lesson, and Vanessa for a 1hr lesson, both beginning at 1pm.

As the more experienced skier, Erika asked if she should accompany Vanessa on her lesson. She was told in no uncertain terms no -- kids apparently do a lot better if they are not with their parents. And I don't doubt that that is the case with Vanessa, who probably had more fun feeling she didn't have to "perform" for either of us.

In the morning I did a few practice runs down the "kiddy slope", and was pleasantly surprised that I remembered more than I had forgotten about skiing -- I had zero trouble making my way down that hill, doing the wedge thing and easily making my turns and doing the "hockey stop" when I had to -- and this after a full year of no skiing (and only minimal amounts of skiing before that. Essentially, whenever I go skiing, I take lessons. I guess all of those lessons over the years do add up. ;-)

Debbie K. took Vanessa down the kiddy slope a couple of times too, using the harness she once used on her own young daughter Nicole (who is now a skiing speed demon, though she's younger than Vanessa by a couple of months). This involves doing a wedge all of the way down while holding the straps, and coming to a fast stop when the inevitable falls happen. Then she took Vanessa up one of the larger hills (though with a very gentle slope). Debbie was exhausted by noon. ;-)

At 1pm I met with my instructor, a local high school senior named Mike. I did a couple of runs down the kiddy slope before he was convinced to let me try out one of the larger slopes. This was just what I was in the mood for, and on the whole I did pretty well. He saw that I was still a pretty weak skier, so the whole of the lesson centered around mastering stopping techniques. The snow was very slushy -- the temperatures were above zero the whole time, and I wore a t-shirt outside and on the slopes the whole of that day -- but this made stopping harder than is usual. I wiped out a few times -- one time getting an ice burn when I used my back as a snowboard heading in reverse. ;-) I think this may have freaked the instructor out a bit, as he suggested we head back to the kiddy hill after that, but it was par for the course as far as I was concerned and we continued on down the hill without further mishap.

After an hour and forty minutes of the two hour lesson I had had enough, I thanked Mike and headed to the members’ lounge for a drink.

I met up with Erika and Vanessa soon after. Vanessa had a blast during her lesson and clearly wants to do more skiing in the future. Erika is really at home on her skis, and was both tired and exhausted at the end of the day. At the end of the day with the kids already settled in at home base, Erika and I cheerfully sat outside and had a beer and reflected on how lucky we were to be there. We resolved to come back here next winter for a full week’s vacation if we do not decide instead to head somewhere warmer.

The K.’s served up a great dinner that night. Michael K. is a Microsoft-centric systems administrator, so it was interesting to hear his stories, as my experience these days is more on the Linux end of things. One thing he advised me on was to get myself a GVC switch instead of the D-Link router I had been thinking of getting. He showed me remotely how it worked and I was sold on it. I love Sean’s Linux router, but it hasn’t proved to be terribly resilient. Next paycheque I’ll snag the switch for the home network.

I ended up staying up late-ish chatting away with both Michael and Debbie, long after Erika and the girls had gone to bed. It was very funny coming into the bedroom to hear a chorus of snoring: Erika, Vanessa and little Annie. Very cute.

Skiing!
The big ski day was today. The K.'s kindly got us complimentary passes to the Beaver Valley ski slopes for the day, which allowed us to go skiing as their guests. I was promptly signed up for a 2hr lesson, and Vanessa for a 1hr lesson, both beginning at 1pm.

As the more experienced skier, Erika asked if she should accompany Vanessa on her lesson. She was told in no uncertain terms no -- kids apparently do a lot better if they are not with their parents. And I don't doubt that that is the case with Vanessa, who probably had more fun feeling she didn't have to "perform" for either of us.

In the morning I did a few practice runs down the "kiddy slope", and was pleasantly surprised that I remembered more than I had forgotten about skiing -- I had zero trouble making my way down that hill, doing the wedge thing and easily making my turns and doing the "hockey stop" when I had to -- and this after a full year of no skiing (and only minimal amounts of skiing before that. Essentially, whenever I go skiing, I take lessons. I guess all of those lessons over the years do add up. ;-)

Debbie K. took Vanessa down the kiddy slope a couple of times too, using the harness she once used on her own young daughter Nicole (who is now a skiing speed demon, though she's younger than Vanessa by a couple of months). This involves doing a wedge all of the way down while holding the straps, and coming to a fast stop when the inevitable falls happen. Then she took Vanessa up one of the larger hills (though with a very gentle slope). Debbie was exhausted by noon. ;-)

At 1pm I met with my instructor, a local high school senior named Mike. I did a couple of runs down the kiddy slope before he was convinced to let me try out one of the larger slopes. This was just what I was in the mood for, and on the whole I did pretty well. He saw that I was still a pretty weak skier, so the whole of the lesson centered around mastering stopping techniques. The snow was very slushy -- the temperatures were above zero the whole time, and I wore a t-shirt outside and on the slopes the whole of that day -- but this made stopping harder than is usual. I wiped out a few times -- one time getting an ice burn when I used my back as a snowboard heading in reverse. ;-) I think this may have freaked the instructor out a bit, as he suggested we head back to the kiddy hill after that, but it was par for the course as far as I was concerned and we continued on down the hill without further mishap.

After an hour and forty minutes of the two hour lesson I had had enough, I thanked Mike and headed to the members’ lounge for a drink.

I met up with Erika and Vanessa soon after. Vanessa had a blast during her lesson and clearly wants to do more skiing in the future. Erika is really at home on her skis, and was both tired and exhausted at the end of the day. At the end of the day with the kids already settled in at home base, Erika and I cheerfully sat outside and had a beer and reflected on how lucky we were to be there. We resolved to come back here next winter for a full week’s vacation if we do not decide instead to head somewhere warmer.

The K.’s served up a great dinner that night. Michael K. is a Microsoft-centric systems administrator, so it was interesting to hear his stories, as my experience these days is more on the Linux end of things. One thing he advised me on was to get myself a GVC switch instead of the D-Link router I had been thinking of getting. He showed me remotely how it worked and I was sold on it. I love Sean’s Linux router, but it hasn’t proved to be terribly resilient. Next paycheque I’ll snag the switch for the home network.

I ended up staying up late-ish chatting away with both Michael and Debbie, long after Erika and the girls had gone to bed. It was very funny coming into the bedroom to hear a chorus of snoring: Erika, Vanessa and little Annie. Very cute.