Purple Mountains Majesty

I think it may have been a trick of my goggles, but the mountains across the valley were purple today. The lake, of course, was its usual state of shocking deep blue. The views here are unbelievable.

Observations from today:

• I think I'm getting better! Or more likely it's all psychological, and I've been cheered by the compliment I received from a stranger this afternoon.
• Little kids on skis: cute. Little kids on snowboards: even cuter. I could eat them alive.
• Groucho Marx is hot.

I'm being beckoned to the hot tub. Adios.

Tahoe Observations

It's now the end of my second day of mountain bliss in Tahoe, California. It poured snow all day yesterday, but I managed to clamber all over Heavenly in pursuit of my lost ski legs. Found 'em! Today was the storm's brilliant after-math: sunny skies and pure fluff on the slopes. My quads may never recover, but my heart is full to bursting. Oh, and did I mention that my mother, father, aunt, and best friend are here?

Observations from the past couple days:

• For some reason I always figured I was a pretty decent skiier. Turns out I had a generous definition of "decent."
• Tahoe snow plows are HUGE. And scary.
• Genius award goes to the person who thought of popping up windshield whipers on cars. This prevents them from freezing on the windshield.
• You can save yourself from a certain-death backward slide down a hill by yanking the emergency brake and flipping a 180, then gunning it downhill. Between that and an ample supply of dumb luck, you can survive even the most harrowing of winter driving experiences.
• Sunscreen has an expiration date. Huh?? Of course I only realize this AFTER I'm burned into oblivion.
• Heavenly is full of catwalks. Catwalks are hard as f%^$ing hell. In related news, they also suck.

I think I'll curl up with a hot tub and some single malt scotch now. White out.