MSP

Great weekend in Minneapolis. Saturday a.m. we stopped by our old neighborhood. Got out of the car a block away and before we got to the corner we recognized three people, including Jeff G. our old neighbor. His son's band just got some airplay on Grey's Anatomy. Go Jordan! 

Seeing the Hess's remodel of our old place was stunning. Same on the outside. Same wood floors and paneling on the inside. Floorplan: totally different. Totally. I'm just saying. Here's what was the first floor bedroom.

Stopped at our other neighbors and saw Jackson and dad Jeff W. Jackson was genuinely excited with the surprise, we've known him his entire life. Missed mom Wendy, but if you're in town, she's got top billing in a concert this weekend. It will be good. Man, what a neighborhood. We miss it.

Glass blowing was a big success. Made about 10 pieces and they all at least kind of worked out. Got a commission check - boom. Still a money loser, but more fun all the time. 

At the WCHA playoffs, missed both Badger games Friday and Saturday afternoon. While Barb was comfortably tucked in section 105 Saturday night I was out talking with scalpers. They can now work openly and charge more than face value. And I love this open market. Saturday, the crowd was driving a hard bargain en masse. Working together. Interrupting deals with better information. And countering the typical scalper misinformation with some of our own misinformation. It was a show in itself and I hit the road satisfied with that performance alone. North Dakota won a bid to the NCAA hockey playoffs with a win-win-win streak to take the WCHA crown.

Battle Abbey 2010

I'm blessed to have an opportunity to get to such a special place from time to time, with such great friends. Attributes of this years Geriatric Telemark Society outing to the wilds outside of Golden, BC.

• No Snow! Well, aside from 3 meters on the ground. We got perhaps 10 centimeters of snow over the week. A pittance compared to normal, when we regularly get 10 cm overnight, with storms mixed in. So no bottomless pow..but
• We skied good places every day. Spring skiing. We hit the sunny slopes before they got baked and sun crusted. Saved some sweeeet northern aspects for later in the week. By the time our group of 14 got done, well just say that the folks that came in after us needed a big storm or lots of liquor and cards. We did leave them some wine.
• Touchy avalanche conditions. Thank goodness for guides. Multiple delicate sliding layers, the first at 30 cm. No aspect was immune. Lots of pits, stay on the gentler slopes (my specialty anyway) and keep your wits about you. We only had one run (with a  very limited runout) that was sliding, sliding, sliding. You could kick off a little slide at will. Kind of fun as long as it only gets a meter deep.
• Lots of comraderie, cribbage, acquire. Great food. Home-spun limericks.