Headed to Tahoe for the weekend with Shooey and a bunch of her friends… it’s Mountain Mardi Gras time, and the kids from the Space Cowboys are throwing down at Squaw. And, with the epic snowfall that they’ve been getting these past few weeks, it should be an awesome time. So if you’re gonna be up there too, drop me a line.
Oh yah — don’t forget, there’s a Lunar Eclipse tomorrow. Europe and Africa will get a fantastic look, East Coast folks should get a good look right at sunset, but here on the Left Coast, we might not see it at all. Poop.
I’ve been here in Vegas since Friday, and omg, it’s been one of the most insane Vegas trips ever. I mean, yes, Vegas trips are always crazy and insane, but this one, in particular, has been absolutely insane. I’m here with my cousins Stephanie and Chris, their parents, and their family friends. When we got into town Friday night, it took us 2 hours to get from the airport to our hotel — a trip that should usually only take about 10 minutes. Why? Well.. this weekend is the combination of three huge events: NBA All Star Weekend, Chinese New Year, and President’s Day weekend. The result? Crowds like I’ve never seen before… All weekend, it’s been a chore to get anywhere at all, getting a cab takes a few hours, and once you’re in there, driving on the strip is at a standstill. Walking is only slightly better, with huge crowds clogging the sidewalks..
But, the annoyance of the crowds aside, it’s been a really, really fun weekend. I came in 2nd place in a poker tournament at the Aladdin. Tons of celebrity sightings. Stephanie played blackjack with Zach Braff yesterday. While we played a round of golf at Shadow Creek yesterday, we saw Tiger warming up at the driving range. Michael Jordan was also there, but we only saw his Ferrari and one of his customized golf carts.
Time really doesn’t exist in Vegas. Nor does sleep, apparently.
Saturday night, we were hooked up with a table at Tryst, the club at the Wynn (we didn’t have to wait in any lines.. woohoo! i hate lines).. The club was packed, LeBron was there, and there were dudes just throwing wads of $1 bills onto the dance floor. Yah, a little crazy.
Sunday, we got tickets to the NBA All Star game.. I was really dumb and didn’t bring my dSLR. (dumb, dumb, dumb) I thought for some reason that they wouldn’t let me bring it — but I missed the opportunity to get some great pictures at the game. Then again, I didn’t see anyone with a dSLR at the game, so maybe they didn’t let them in… So, I only had my compact digicam, so that’ll have to do. The game itself was kind of anti-climactic to the weekend. Unlike the MLB All Star game, the NBA All Star doesn’t really play for anything — the players were clearly showboating, so it felt more like an exhibition of dunking and alley-oop skills than anything else. Which made for an entertaining game though. Probably the biggest cheer of the night came when Shaq actually started dribbling the ball and then tried for a jumper, which he missed.
Watching the celebrities interact during the game was amusing too.. Prince and David Chappelle were sitting next to each other, but it was funny cuz they were clearly trying not to sit too close to each other (even though the seats were super tightly packed together). And then, after halftime, Prince left, replaced by Ludacris, which I thought was an interesting swap. Eva Longoria was looking quite lovely, and every time Tony Parker hit a shot, she’d cheer excitedly. Wayne Newton did some of the pregame show. I’ve never seen that dude perform before, but he kind of looks like a Madame Tussad wax museum specimen.
This weekend has been truly a test of Vegas’ ability to handle a huge, unpredictable crowd. In one of the long cab rides home, our cab driver reported to us that he had heard about 22 shootings this weekend and a pedestrian hit-and-run accident.. But, in searching through the local news, I didn’t see anything about the shootings, but the hit-and-run was covered by one of the local outlets.
Anyway — I’m actually still here in Vegas until tomorrow night, maybe the crowds will thin out after today. I’m working from my room here at the Bellagio, so it’s kind of fun ordering room service whilst I do my work. Woo. Vegas, baby.
Happy New Year, everyone.. got back today from my roadtrip to LA with the gang, and it was a blast.. pics & stories, tk.
I did this last year, so I thought it would be fun to do this again… here’s my list of cities that I’ve spent one a night in (*’s indicate multiple visits) in.. in rough chronological order:
New York, NY *
Hoboken, NJ
San Francisco, CA *
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Truckee, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
Chelmsford, MA
Chatham, MA
San Diego, CA
Avon, CO
West Hollywood, CA
Hmm… not as many as I would have hoped.. This year’s travel was severely limited by my broken ankle, which basically meant that I really didn’t leave 94102 for like 5 months.. Perhaps 2007 will have travel in the cards…
So I’m back from my Christmas in Vail trip, and oh what a blast it was.. In the few days right before I get to Vail, it’s just my luck that a HUGE storm blew through Denver, dropping 3 feet of snow on the mile-high city, closing the airport (which is known for its ability to deal with inclement weather).. But, lucky for me, my flight went without a hitch.. SFO-DEN actually landed early, and I caught my connection to Eagle in plenty of time. The drive from Denver to Eagle is only about 3 hours, but when I was looking for plane tix, it wasn’t that much more to just hop the 26 minute flight. And I was upgraded to first class… So, it sounded like a great plan… except that my bag didn’t arrive. Ugh. I arrived at like 10pm, so they said that my bag should arrive by noon the next day, but for that night, I was SOL. Crap. I joined Kathee and her friends at Garfinkel’s for a drink, where luckily, I saw that they sold t-shirts, so I was able to procure myself a Garf’s t-shirt to at least sleep in for the night.. Thank goodness I had my big winter coat cuz it was 1 degree out when I landed.
The next day I tried contacting United (and got their call-center somewhere in India, which is actually my first time dealing with an Indian call center..) — anyway, United had no idea where my bag was, so I was forced to buy some new gear and rent a snowboard in order to ride that first day, which was AWESOME since they got an additional 8 inches of fresh powder that morning… wahoo.. So, I looked a little goofy riding in my big non-snowboardy city coat and rented board.. as Elena explained it, I was a snowboarding contradiction — I looked like a goofy first-timer tourist, but I was able to snowboard.. My slopestyle didn’t match my riding.. I guess that’s a compliment. In any case, I’m hoping that United will recoup at least a portion of the money for gear and rental that I was forced to shell out because of their pooeyness.
So after that day of epic snowboarding, we drove over to the Super Walmart where I was soo excited to buy myself some new underwear and maybe some sort of cheap Walmart clothing.. but, it was Christmas Eve, and they closed early. Ugh. We ran over to the supermarket, which was still open, where I was faced by a dilemma. Hooray, the supermarket had some clothes. But the only thing they had was a Denver Broncos sweatshirt and sweatpants. Ugh. I can’t do that. The Broncos caused so much pain and anguish to this lil’ Cleveland Browns fan, that I actually decided that I’d rather just go snowboarding another day in my jeans and button down than wear the blue and orange.
Luckily for me, at that moment, I got a phone call telling me that my bag had arrived. Phew. Crisis averted.
Anyway… The next two days of snowboarding were equally epic. Vail is a magnificent mountain. The snow was plush, and the trails through the trees were sooooo awesome.. Vail is huge.. Just one of the peaks would be comparable to one of the mountains in Tahoe, and they have like six or seven of them or something. I guess it IS the biggest ski resort in the nation.
One of Kathee’s friends, Amanda, drives a cat for Vail (she’s the crew lead, actually), and… I got to go along with her for a bit. How awesome is that? I hope she didn’t think I was too goofy for being so giddy whilst I tagged along, but it was really, really cool going along with her as she groomed the mountain.
She leads a team of like 7 cats as they drive in formation, grooming as they go.. Since Vail grooms 24 hours a day, and they don’t close the slopes when they do, they have to constantly sound the siren and shoo skiers and boarders away. Anyway, it’s pretty damn cool sitting in the cat as they drive headfirst down a black diamond. Woo.
So yah, that was pretty damn cool. Oh, and to top it all off, I saw some wicked aspens. Aspens are the coolest trees evar.
That is all. Vail. Cool. Yah.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas or Hanukah or Festivus or whatever..
Well.. I’m off to Vail for a few days.. Denver was slammed these past few days with over 2 feet of snow, closing the airport down for awhile, but hopefully I’ll be able to get there without any hassle so that I can enjoy that freshie snow snow.
This is my first visit to Colorado during the winter, so I’m hella excited. Woo. I’m coming back to SF on the 27th, and then I’m headed down to LA for NYE, so if you’re down there, be sure to give me a holler.
Well.. I just got back from San Diego… The drive down there wasn’t that bad, but the drive back was a bitch and a half. I had to navigate around two accidents in the LA area, so it took me like 5 hours to get to the grapevine from San Diego. Double Yuck.
So, the trip down to San Diego was awesome… weather was gorgeous, 85 degrees and sunny all weekend.. There’s apparently a huge number of Browns fans down in Southern California (including someone with this crazy Mustang), and we sat in a block of about 2,000 Browns fans. Of course, the visitors section was waaaaaay up in the nosebleed seats, but still, it was fun to be in a big block of Ohioans.. We even dressed up Doug in some Browns gear, although he spent much of the game pondering how seemingly normal people could get dressed up in various goofy outfits, bark loudly, and hurl epithets at people simply because they were rooting for another team (whose allegiance simply was based upon geographical location).
The Chargers were supposed to be a much, much better team than the Browns, the fact that we were winning at the half was pretty cool. The Browns lost, but they covered the spread (12.5 points) against the Chargers, so I guess that’s something. The offensive line didn’t really seem to protect Charlie that much from the Chargers pass rush, but I probably don’t really know what I’m talking about anyway, so I’ll just stop now — mistake by the lake does a much better writeup of the game, so if you’re so inclined, you should go read their recap (and I like that the Browns are 9-0 in their moral standings)…
After the game, we all went over to Canes for the Regina Spektor show… as expected, she played a marvelous show, although there seemed to be an excruciatingly long time in between the opening act’s set and Regina’s set.. The opening act was just one dude, his guitar and his “band” (an iPod), so it’s not like they had to break down anything, so I don’t know why it took 45 minutes for her to come out and play for us. I must be getting old, cuz my knees ached after that show, and it even a very dancey show.
Anyway, thanks to Doug and Laura for being gracious hosts.. Go Browns!
Well.. I’m leaving in a few minutes, driving down to San Diego in a few minutes. I’m heading down to visit Doug & Laura and to catch the Browns vs. Chargers game on Sunday. And as luck would have it, Regina Spektor is also playing a show there that night — I tried to go see her last weekend at the Fillmore, but her show was sold out and tickets were going for $100 a piece… Doug was able to just wander over to the venue last week and pick us up all some tickets for $12.50. Apparently, shows that do well in San Francisco don’t do so well in San Diego, and vice versa. Hmmmm… that’s a good thing to keep in mind for future shows.
I wonder if there are any other SF people travelling down for the Browns and Regina…
One of my friends is getting married in Cape Cod next weekend, so I figured I’d make it an extended trip of sorts, and hang out in Boston for a week. Woo. So, I’m here in Boston (Chelmsford, actually) for the Labor Day holiday, visiting grandma and just kind of relaxing…
Woo.. what a weekend… I opened the weekend with the Superstars first victory of the season. (ok, it was a forfeit, cuz the other team didn’t have enough guys, but a win’s a win.) But, we still scrimmaged, and I got my first hit of the season, an RBI single. Woo. I was 0/5 before the broken ankle, and now I’m 1/5 after the broken ankle, so statiscally speaking, the broken ankle improved my batting average.. not that I recommend it.
Anyway, Jablow, Kai and Pius share the same birthday (the 13th) and Michelle’s is this week too, so they (minus Pius, cuz his moochie-ass is back in Jersey) had a fabulous birthday celebration at Hog Island Oyster Company, which is like 50 miles north of San Francisco in Marshall, CA… Up there, you can buy sacks of oysters for like $36 bucks or something, and sit there, shuck them, drink beer, bbq and in general have a frolicking, oystery good time. Good stuff. Happy birthday Jablow, Kai, and Michelle (oh, and Pius too).
Dana organized a fabulous trip to Pigeon Point this weekend, which is about 50 miles south of San Francisco right on the California.. The Pigeon Point lighthouse has a hostel there, that we all stayed at (for which Dana has been trying for years to get reservations) — it’s $30 a night, and arguably one of the best locations for a hostel in the world… Perched right on the cliffs of the California coast, right underneath a gorgeous working lighthouse.
It was a fantastically warm, clear, fog-free night… and we even spent a few hours in the hot tub, which was perched right on the cliff’s edge. Sooo nice… True to hostelling style, we cooked a tasty dinner in the communal kitchen (although since we had a big group, we basically filled one of the houses).
Most of the folks had biked down the 1 that morning from San Francisco (about a 50 mile ride), and I decided to ride with them back up to the city on Sunday.. We took a different route back than they had taken on Saturday, so we ended up going past the San Gregorio General Store (super cool market with a bar and bluegrass music).. then up La Honda (um.. it was like a 15 miles of UPHILL riding.. ouch) to Alice’s Restaurant for lunch… Then, up Skyline to Crystal Springs (with some awesome downhill.. I hit a max speed of 39.7 mph.. woohoo).. When we reached Crystal Springs, my legs were dead tired, so instead of continuing the 25 miles back up to SF, I chickened out and dropped off the ride at my parents’ house, who convienently live like a few miles from Crystal Springs. Considering that I only just got back on my feet from my broken ankle a few weeks ago, I was happy with the 47 miles that I did.. That said, congrats to Dana, Davin, Dan, Chris, John and Mike who all did 125 miles this weekend.. that’s awesome…
I made a little wayfaring map of the part of the bike ride that I did this weekend.. granted, it doesn’t show elevation change, but I promise that there’s a HUGE hill in between the coast and the inland bits, so that’s why I’m so tired today…
Woo! It’s good to be in California.
Update: Dana posted her pics from the weekend here.
Woo… yet I embark on yet another trip today.. this time to Chicago. I’m excited, I haven’t been to Chicago since I was there for training with Anderson Consulting (back before it was Accenture) back in 1997. Last time I was in Chicago I was pleasantly surprised, since I thought that it would be more like sleepy Cleveland. But no, it’s actually quite a huge city with a kickin’ nightlife, really great art museums, and tasty food.
I’m meeting up with a bunch of ol’ OHS friends… Brian, Aveh, Jeff and Ryan. We haven’t all been in the same room since like 1993; it’ll be great to see all of them. Hehe.. just surfing around Ryan’s site just now and check out this article about him… nice pose, Ryan.. that’s “blue steel” if I’ve ever seen it.
So yah.. off to Chicago in a few hours… if you have any cool spots that I should hit while I’m there, let me know. Hopefully we’ll catch a Cubs game, and I’ll be able to hit a few more places in my Roadfood book.. Chicago is a Roadfood haven.
I am a little worried about the weather.. it’s supposed to be like 90 degrees out every day.. Am I to wear *gasp* shorts? Eeeek. I don’t think I even own any.
