Upper Heavenly

So I went snowboarding up at Ski Liberty last weekend up in Pennsylvania.. had a blast. Didn't get to make as many runs down the mountain as I would have liked, but it was crazy crowded due to a majority of the trails and lifts opening up for the first time this season. They haven't had hardly any snow up there, but they've been making a ton of the man-made stuff. I went with Holden, my sister-in-laws (and their husbands, kids) and some other family. Us guys went snowboarding of course, and the kids went snow tubing.

Nate & Jason are pretty good skiers, but decided to try their hand at snowboarding (how hard could it be, they said). Our first couple of runs were pretty pathetic, we went down a green trail and each of us fell probably 20 times until we reached the bottom. Our next couple of runs got substantially better, I made it down only falling once.. and the other guys I was with were getting tired of running the same trail over and over (as was I).

So we decided to check out the backside of the mountain. We had no idea, but there were a ton of trails on the backside. All of them ranged from Blue (normal/moderately dangerous) to Double Black Diamond (I hope you have your will in order). We started our decent down the blue trail.. Upper Heavenly I believe is what it was called. It was really fairly steep and very bumpy. Nate takes off and makes good time getting pretty much out of sight, while me and Jason try not to kill ourselves right off the bat on this new trail. Jason wipes out pretty hard and I pass him.. I'm taking it easy, making big sweeping carves and just enjoying the quiet (the backside was WAAAYYY less crowded than the front). About 1 minute later Jason comes flying past me.. he's flailing his arms around looking like he's about to crash.. and does. It looks bad.. he doesn't move... I work my way down there to see if he's ok when out of nowhere I hit a big mound of snow and fall very awkwardly (and going rather fast on a steep slope) on my left arm. It twists back behind me and I feel a "pop".. sharp shooting pain down my arm and all the way to my shoulder. I'm laying on my back (still sliding down the hill.. can't stop.. too steep). Some skier stops to ask if I'm ok.. he saw me wipe out and my arm bend back).. he asks me if I'm ok.. and I tell him I'm not sure.

My arm is completely numb.. I can move it but not without pain... I'm guessing that it's dislocated. I sit there for about 2-3 minutes until I can finally get the tingelys back and I feel like I can make it down. I get going and see Jason walking down the mountain holding his board and making a grimacing face.. "I think I broke my arm" he tells me. I felt bad for him, he's vacationing from Florida and they've had a pretty shitty couple of days from the stories he's been telling me.. this is just icing on the cake at this point.

We get down to the bottom and meet up with Nate.. Jason finds a medic and gets driven to the first aid building to get it checked out. Turns out it was a shoulder dislocation.. but really that's worse news than a break. Dislocations take many more months to heal and sometimes require surgery later on down the road.

Otherwise I had a blast.. I wish we lived closer and it was cheaper to go.. I would go every weekend if I could. Funniest moment of the trip was when me and Nate were sitting about halfway down the front side marveling at the little kids that were tearing it up... I mean, some of these kids are like 8 or 9 years old look like pros out there. We see this one "kid" on his way down and I'm like "woah, check out this kid coming down" So we watch him go by... with his goatee and stubble.

I'm sorry if I offended you little person... you were kicking ass out there.

When all else fails... post pictures

All Nimbly Bimbly

Somebody Has A Case Of The Mondays

It Was Dang Cold Out

So the other night Maria comes back home from a trip to Baltimore. She had already made inside the house with Pearl and I ran out to help unload the car and bring Delilah inside. On my way back from the car to the house with my first armfull of stuff I see Maria is on her way from the house to get stuff from the car too. I get up to the front door and it's locked... the kids had managed to lock the deadbolt and Maria and I were stuck on a cold rainy night on our front porch. We started banging on the door and asking Larry or Pearl to unlock the door (since it was probably Larry who did it), but they had no idea what those crazy people outside were up to. We kept banging and yelling for the kids to open the door (we were surprised none of our neighbors heard us and came outside to see what all the ruckus was about).

So at this point we've been outside only about 5-10 minutes.. but we have Delilah with us on the porch and it's really cold. So I run around the side of the house to try and get Holden's attention, he's upstairs in the office playing a game on the computer. So I yell for him as loud as I can to look out the window at me.. and he does, but dosen't see me and goes back behind the curtain to his computer game. I yell for him again (this time jumping around like a fool waving my arms). It's pitch black on this side of the house but he eventually sees me the second time and realizes what I'm saying.

Holden comes down and effortlessly unlocks the deadbolt and lets us in. That little guy comes in handy every now and then ;)

The Tide Has Turned

I no longer want to be a Republican anymore

I Should Have Gone All In

Maria and I were driving around running errands and going shopping when we somehow got into a discussion about Gout. Maria said something like this "Isn't gout what sailors get on their necks? It's a big lump on your neck!"

I start laughing hysterically and tell her it's a foot problem and it hurts really bad, and that my uncle has/had it and told me all about it.

Maria at this point tells me how dumb I am and that I'm totally wrong (negating the fact that I'm usually right when we get into an argument about totally random things (like her thinking that cheese wiz came in the aerosol can.. it's not EZ Cheese, it comes in a glass jar.)

We are both highly competitive (in a friendly wifely/huserbandly type of way) and alway are like "We'll Google it when we get home", or we make monetary bets (sharing the same checking/savings accounts makes that funny) but this Gout issue wouldn't wait. I guess it was my joking about "What's that on your neck? I think it might be Gout!" that made her brake down and call her father. She calls him up and asks him what gout is.. telling him she thinks it's something that happens to your neck. He laughs and says no.. it's mainly feet related.. you're thinking of a goiter. We both bust out laughing and I hold my hands over my head for keeping my streak alive (and almost hitting a curb).

It ends up that she confused Gout for Goiter & Goiter for Scurvy. (do your best pirate.. arrrrrr!) lol

Vote For Delilah

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Go this site above and vote for picture #6. If only because my arm looks spectacular in the picture.. or that my baby girl is very pretty in it.

Vote early and vote often... and tell your friends to tell their freinds to vote as well. Picture NUMBA SIX!!!!!!