fractalnavel

so much for unique post titles ;-)  no stories here, just a couple notes.

don't ya hate that pushpin ?

stayed at a chalet called "zoo haus".  apparently, it was built in 1965 and made a bit of news up there at the time.  it's a 3 / 6 sided structure with a central  fire pit and cathedral ceiling that extends through the circular three bedroom loft area on the second floor.  a small spiral staircase by the front door leads upstairs.  hard to tell which opening is the staircase once up there on the circular balcony.  not a drunk-friendly place at all ;-)  nor is the metal stairway, with about 18 inch wide treads.

decent stereo system, and we found a radio station playing retro classic rock, not old top 40s, so that was pretty cool.  although the place seemed like the ideal hippie hangout for the era, it was most likely an upper-income pad. 

we dug a trench through the two to three foot snow outside to get to the grill for saturday dinner.

only a short hike from the hill, and very affordable, we will probably stay here again sometime.  the only drawback was that the open floorplan and ceilings caused all sound to carry well, meaning that the snorers and early risers (well, one - me) were a small source of annoyance to the others.

although i prefer colder, drier weather, people were glad that temps stayed near 30F all day saturday.  it was one of my sister's friends' only third time out.  you could see her visibly improve throughout the day.

well, afternoon.  this was not a die-hard skiing group, and some other planning was lacking, so there was no friday night or saturday morning skiing.  eh, what the heck, it was to be a "social skiing" weekend anyway.  i followed the other folks around the green or blue runs most of the time, messing around.  i know how to have a good time whatever's on the menu.

the snow was great, no ice at all.  we found out later that thursday a blizzard blew through, dropping twelve inches or better.  we drove up in the tail end of it on friday.  it snowed all day saturday.  so everything was fresh and soft.

i headed out saturday night as well, and a couple staying with us came with me.  the best, though, is the sunday morning skiing.  always is.  no one on the hill, sunny weather and no company means that i can go out, ski hard and toast my legs in less than two hours.  they have some wonderful looking glades there - i wasn't up to actually skiing trees. but the rest of the area was fine.  the usual complaint is the short black runs, which is unavoidable with the limited vertical available in the midwest.  but damn, it was great anyway ;-)

only a few pics from my sister.  not sure what most people do with a camera.  i always think in terms of telling a story, or perhaps capturing some unique view.  seems everyone else thinks in terms of portraits.  oh well.  but here's one of me, ready for the online dating sites.  just kidding.

i took a six-day "weekend" - !  it's nice just to sit around on each end of the trip.  saw a few movies.  ate at a good japanese restaurant.  and my favorite mexican place.  drank good scotch and beer.  got stuffed a couple times, got hungry a couple others.

and best of all, forgot about work.  what was it we were doing again ?

i don't even care.