Weekend Recap

In Picture Form:

First there was Girlie Wine Night with a lot of this:

Two Buck Chuck (here)

And this:

Fancy Gross Out Cheese (here)

And these:

(here)

Too much of the three previous items and too little sleep and too many:

Rainclouds (here)

Meant no

hiking (here) to Feather Falls.

Instead, we watched

(here)

And snuck in

Delicious, cheesy goodness (here)

There was still too much rain for hiking on Sunday so I watched

This show (here) is like a reunion of the cast of Veronica Mars.

Eventually, I dragged myself off the couch and laced up these:

My Adidas running shoes (here) which I don't exactly like.

And ran up and down a bunch of these

hills that feel much steeper than they look (here).

Lassen thought that I was crazy for running up and down the same hill over and over, but he enjoyed it anyway. It's amazing how sore a mile of hills vs. 4 miles of flat will make you! The stairs at work have been a slight challenge.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Perfect Tahoe Weekend?

If you look up blue bird powder day in the dictionary, there would be a picture of yesterday in Lake Taco.

We got more than two feet of snow in 24 hours, between Thursday night and Friday night, and woke up to perfect blue skies yesterday morning. That meant only one thing, snowboarding lesson #2.

My wonderful friend Katie and I put on all of our snow gear, got coffee and bagels, and headed to the California base of Heavenly, about 3 miles from my house. After a run down a green slope with me, Katie headed off to do some runs with better powder that were a little more challenging. I kept practicing on the easier slope, but after 7 or 8 runs (and one extremely embarrassing fall getting off the lift), I felt ready to move up!

I found Katie, and she took me on some blue runs. I'm really excited about how quickly I'm picking up snowboarding. Though I've been skiing more times, I never got very confident on skis. I never got confident enough for skiing to be fun. With snowboarding, I feel confident in my ability to slow down or stop, so I feel confident enough to go fast. And going fast is fun. Also, how can you not have fun riding somewhere that looks like this?

From here.

I've got riding on my back edge down, now I'm working on using my toe edge. It's a little scary, because at one point in the turn, you're sliding backwards down the hill. It's hard to get used to the feeling and trust that you'll swing around, but I'm getting better. I definitely have fewer bruises, bumps, scrapes, and sore muscles than the last time I went out.

Apres ski (apres snowboard?), Katie and I went to MacDuffs Pub which just opened in Lake Taco in December. There's another one in Connecticut. I hadn't been there yet, but I've been hearing about how good it was, as our intern's boyfriend and some of his friends own it. It's awesome! Great food, good happy hour specials ($3 beer pints! Of good beer!), friendly staff, and, best of all, a tiny rottweiler puppy named Bob.

Full of cheese, garlic, and beer, I took a nap so I could have enough energy for the concert I was going to, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Katie, Carin, and I got to the show late (Like an hour late. Ooops.), and it was sold out. While we stood around and debated what we should do instead, the will call office told everyone waiting around that they would sell the unclaimed will call tickets for half off. Sweet! Half the show, for half the price. The band put on a great show, and there was so many beards and so much plaid. I was in heaven!

All in all, it was a pretty perfect Saturday, but it definitely drained me, and I have yet to work up the energy to do the 5 mile run I'm supposed to do today. I did go grocery shopping at my favorite place (though I did have to go to Safeway also because the Gross Out didn't have spinach. I need spinach!) and broke out my Valentine's Day present for the first time to make a delicious smoothie.

My (strange, but) delicious smoothie ingredients:

- Frozen strawberries

- Chocolate chai rice milk (This was on Gross Out special, so I was a little worried that it was going to be disgusting, but I decided to risk it for 99 cents.)

- Banana

- Spinach

- Peanut butter

I drank my wonderful beverage while catching up with my HLP and staring at Lake Taco.

Later I'm going to make a huge salad, do my taxes, and consolidate my loans, so this weekend is only getting better!