Very fun weekend

Molly and I had a great time this weekend... lots of stuff to write about.

First, so Molly's school is having the annual "canned food drive" or whatever, and she had told her class that if they would bring in 300 cans, she would give them a week without homework and dye her hair red. The kids loved the idea of the no-homework and their parents loved the idea of the hair-dye... so she ended up not with 300 cans, but 500. So friday night we dyed her hair red.... and it's pretty bright red too... like a medium auburn. Her school paper is going to feature her (and her hairdo) on the front page of the next edition.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early (5:15am) to go skiing. I've never been, but Molly took lessons in college, so she is pretty good. We also went with our friend Lindsey, who is also very decent. We went to Mt. Hood:


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Molly and Lindsey had neither been mountain skiing... where the snow is actual powder, rather than some man-made crap that is shot from a machine. I was going to take the lesson, but we ended up getting to the mountain about 30 minutes too late to catch the early one, and I didn't want to wait around all day to catch the later one, so Mol and Lindz decided to teach me to ski. They were both amazingly helpful, thoughtful and patient teachers. But I wasn't great. They'll both tell you (well maybe not behind my back) that I did really really well for my first time.

We started with the tow-rope and a bunny hill just so I can get used to sliding around on a piece of fiberglass on snow. I fell alot at first, but after about 10 runs I started getting the hang of it, and was able to do lazy turns and stop myself, and even keep from falling down when doing the little hill. So once I had managed not to fall in 3 of 4 turns, we decided it was time for me to try a green hill. (Really?!? ok, whatever... lets do it!)

So we got on the lift which took me up nearly 1800 ft up the mountain. I got off of the lift and started to go down the hill which would take you to the various trails... it was super steep, and of course I feel down. I managed to pick myself up and went on to the green hill... Green is kind of a misnomer for these runs, because it will be "Green" for 200 ft, then hit a light blue, then a harder blue... which runs parallel to a couple of blacks... so you really, really have to know what you're doing and where you're going in order to keep on the right trail. I fell at least 35 times and it took me an hour to do the whole run. I have to admit, I don't really have any problems just shooting the run... (balls to the wall, down the hill, going very fast), and it's very fun to do so. I did this two times during the run, the rest of the time I was either two scared or nervous to do anything but practice turning... which I suck at. By the end of the run I was sooo tired that I decided I needed to calm my nerves a bit... so we decided to stop for lunch. This was kind of a mistake because once my poor feet were off of the skis for a few minutes, they started protesting. An hour and a half later I was pretty much done. I let the ladies go on some runs and have a little fun, and I did the bunny hill another half dozen times or so, to try to get some more practice turning. Eventually my feet hurt so bad that I went back into the lodge and sat down for the duration of the day.

The ladies decided to go up one of the faster lifts to the top to see some of the other green hills that I could maybe do for next time. Well, they ended up on what they call "The Powder Keg" a double black diamond run. Neither Molly nor Lidsey is nearly good enough of a skiier to do something this difficult. They nearly skied right off of a cliff. They managed to get their skis off and slid down part-way on their butts... the powder was waist deep. Eventually, after a very long time and many tears, they managed to get to a point where an expert skiier found them and helped guide them back down the trails, the easiest way possible. They were on the run for over an hour. They came down 35 minutes after the lifts closed at 4pm, wind burned, shaken, ok and reiterating their harrowing tale of near-death skiing. Yikes!

Not to attempt to belittle their story at all... but this entire time I was in the lodge in severe pain (because I didn't know the locker combination to get my shoes out... so I was stuck in my ski boots) and worried sick. They had about 15 minutes before I was going to call the ski personnel to start looking for them. I waited as long as I did, because anybody that knows Molly can completly envision her having 30 seconds before 4, and sweet talking the lift instructor for one final lift to the top to get the last run in of the day. That's partially what I envisioned anyway... then I can see her getting a little bit lost, or losing a ski a couple of times and taking a little extra time to get down. So she had 15 minutes before every plausible explanation broke down except them being in trouble. I was very glad to see them, and very glad to get out of my ski boots. I know have very deep bruises around my ankles. Oh, and for those of you who have never skied before in your life... it is SOOOOOOO fun, but, seriously, every muscle in my body is screaming still two days later.

Saturday night we celebrated Josh Yoder's (Lindsey's husband) birthday. There is a winter ale festival downtown under the Pactific Northwest's largest christmas tree, in downtown portland at pioneer square. We (obviously) got down from Mount Hood about an hour later than we had expected that we would... so Josh was at the beer thing all by himself for about 45 minutes waiting for us. What's worse is that the festival was completly packed on a Saturday night. Josh told us that it took him 30 minutes to get through the line to get a single beer, so when we finally arrived (the gorge on the way back from the mountain was covered in thick snow), it was one person out-one person in for the festival. We just had Josh meet us outside of the festival tent, and we went to Rock Bottom Brewery, just down the street on 3rd and Morrison. It was packed too, but we got a seat at the bar. Managed to catch the tail-end of the Mizzou-Oklahoma game, and a lot of the Washington-Hawaii game. By 10:30 I was exhausted, and was finally in bed by midnight. Had a great time, though.

Sunday, I slept in. Lidsey had said that she wanted to come back to the beer festival when it wasn't so busy, so she I and rode "MAX" downtown to the festival at about noon. I had a few tastes of beer, and there were some really goods ones (some bad ones too). We saw a guy who was so drunk by 12:30 in the afternoon that he must have been drinking since 8AM (which is when the first of the football games starts here on sunday). He had to be escorted out by half a dozen security guards. We had 6-7 tastes total and decided to call it an afternoon. I got home at about 2pm, and Molly and I went and picked up some more hair dye, because we missed a few spots. Molly had gotten a haircut while I was gone. Its about shoulder length now, and very cute. We re-dyed her hair, and caught MAX downtown again for dinner at McCormick and Schmicks. We had a wonderful dinner, and caught the MAX once again for our concert of the evening....

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA!!!!!

Yeah, we are those people. The last 45 minutes of the show was very cool. The second to last song was the one we bought the tickets for. If you haven't seen it yet, turn up your speakers and click on the link:

Trans-siberian christmas lights

All-in-all it wasn't worth the money we paid for it, but it was 2 and a half hours... but SO, SO, SO cheezy. If you ever manage to get free tickets, definately go, but don't pay good money for this shit... just watch the video above, its all you need.

Today, I am still sooooo sore still from my ski trip, but all-in-all a very fun, eventful weekend.