General hanging about plus some poker that evening (not bad, but not my thing), and some Nerts, which is fun. There was some chemical amusement in which I did not partake. (Again, not my thing.) The condo (which was pretty swank) also had this heated acupressure massage-bed thing, which I did try, and it was AWESOME.
Friday, Gus & Shawn & I went skiing at Keystone. Or rather, I tried to go skiing, unsuccessfully. I'm out of shape, and was feeling it on the first run, but I could have dealt with it (shorter runs, rest breaks) except that my feet started to hurt pretty quick. Now, I've always had problems with getting skiboots that fit properly, and I bought this pair, jeez, probably more than ten years ago. Well, I guess that sometime in the last decade or so my feet got bigger, because we took one run and I determined that I really needed to ditch them and rent a pair that fit better. By the end of the second run, when I got back down to the base area, my feet hurt so badly I wanted to cry.
So I went to the rental office and took them off, let the circulation come back, and tried on some others, but even though I was there for most of an hour, I couldn't find a pair of boots that didn't make my feet start to hurt and go numb after about 5 minutes. So I decided to just pack it in for the day and spent the afternoon reading a book. I wasn't able to get a refund on my lift ticket, but on the way back from the car, a guy asked me if I wanted to sell it to him for 20 bucks, and I decided that was karma. It was pretty seriously disappointing and frustrating, because the weather was as beautiful as you could ask for, the snow was nice (occasionally icy) packed powder, and there were no crowds. And no skiing for me.
Despite the cloudier weather, Saturday was better; we went to A-Basin for a half day instead. I rented a snowboard for the first time, got a $10 lift ticket for the bunny slope, and spent three and a half hours falling down. I think the furthest I got without falling was all of 20 yards, but by the end of it I felt like I was definitely doing a little better than when I started, like I was beginning to get the first inkling of how it worked. I was totally wrecked at 4 pm, but it was kinda cool and I may do it again one of these days. And my feet didn't hurt! (Well, not any more than the rest of me.)
We played some Munchkin that night, and I got some confirmation of what I have long suspected: the mechanics of the game work better if the players are more competitive and vicious than my usual crowd. (I think I enjoy it better played casually, but it feels more balanced playing cut-throat.) Then more Nerts, and going to sleep WAAAAY too late.
All in all, it was a great weekend. Visiting old friends, plus lots of downtime and gorgeous mountains.
Came home Sunday and was introduced to our new Wii. I suck at Wii Tennis and Baseball, but Bowling is pretty cool, and Warioware is a lot of fun.
I'm sore and I have that cold-air exercise cough I get, but feeling somewhat rejuvenated: after a very busy day at work, I even made dinner tonight!
