Our first haircuts!

The kids had their first haircut.

It looks like it was an amicable event, with no outrage.

Playing in the park makes us hungry for dim-sum

Looks like the girls had a nice day at the park and then at the famous dim sum place in Little Saigon

Playing with Justin & Randall

Girls Enjoying time with Gaga

Building towers, seeing friends, and playing in the pool.

Pizza party at nonny's. Dejected dachshund

 

Pig-a-tails

 

When I take the bus to work...

....this person is at my stop every day.  He also dresses the same every day, rain or shine.  I've gotten inured to the weirdness of people on public transport, as after all, nothing compares to the people you see in Manhattan's subways, especially late at night. 

But for sober and sensible Sacramento this one's a character. 

He also carries a couple of police radios, and listens to what is going on the emergency channels.

Fairytaletown!

The kids went to Fairytale Town yesterday and had a blast.  There is a tame rooster that marches around the amusement park, policing the gawking children.

A busy Saturday

Today the kids were at their grandmothers so we did some chores around the neighborhood

• Made a tray of biscuits
• Switched winter wardrobe out and put it back in the attic
• Pet related tasks
• Took bike in for servicing
• Returned books to library
• CVS prescriptions
• Post Office packages

Then we went to pick them up and my mom took us for dinner at a local Thai place, that was surprisingly good.  We had pumpkin curry, various kinds noodles, eggplant saute, and chicken plus mango sticky rice for dessert. The kids needed a bath upon getting home, and that's where they are splashing around now.

More (professional) pictures

If you click on the above you can see the best pictures the mountain photographers took all season.  They are working with Nikon and zoom lens, and seem to have some skill in terms of composition/framing etc, so they are much nicer than my point & shoot or camera phone efforts.  That being said, my Canon S90 is very small, and takes quite good pictures, enough so that if it's important, I'd much rather have that lens/sensor than a smartphone camera.  One can clean up the pictures in post-production -- the key is to have a good lens and get enough light.  Everything else is fixable.

Great day, fresh snow, no crowds!

Despite the parking lots being full, and village condos being scarce, there were not many people actually skiing on Northstar, despite all the fresh snow.  Here are some of the trails off the east ridge.  Even though it's not a popular area to ski, because it does not have its own dedicated fast lift, you can see that's empty.  Even at 2pm in the afternoon you could still see the corduroy tracks laid down by the grooming machines.

The top of the mountain was colder than the base area, and at times of the day, also had some fog covering the area.  Click on the photo below to see a slide show of all the pictures we took of the kids.  

The mountain photographers took great pictures of us as well, which we'll get in a few days.  Since we didn't have a full kitchen, we took the kids out for dinner twice: once to the 50/50 and another time to the classic Truckee Diner.  Both were good and recommended for children, and we were able get in/out quickly without any tantrums or meltdowns.  For the first time, we stayed in Truckee rather than at the mountain, at the Larkspur, which graciously upgraded us to a king suite.  Unfortunately, the girls were getting the sniffles and insisted on clambering up with us on the featherbed and poofy pillows, rather than their more spartan kids camping tents, in the other room.

Snowy morning

We were lucky on the drive up, and didn't have to install chains, having spotted a two hour gap where the weather was a little lighter than the rest of day.  That let us get a little time on the mountain on Friday that we did not expect.  

Last Run

We got two feet of wet spring snow in tahoe so we are making a long weekend of northstars closing weekend. I was lucky that I was able to drive up without chaining up the car.

Day at the museum!

Easter Egg Hunt

After we got home from Easter services, the girls had their promised egg hunt.  With a little help, they found all dozen colored treats, and the (minimal) treats inside.  But they still got to wear their fancy pink bonnets ($1 each at Target!) for the day, which was their favorite part of the celebration.

Supper was mustard & minted leg of lamb, with lemony potatoes and a chevre/pear salad.  The kids helped with that too.



If you click on the photo above, you can see their egg hunt.

We miss you mom

Today marked one year since we lost J's mom.  To mark the day, we went to the small park across the street and released a bouquet of balloons for her.  The girls were amazed that we allowed balloons out of their clutches.  Earlier they had helped me make elderflower stuffed French toast for breakfast for their mom.  Yummy, although sticky...

Afterwards we went to the supermarket, where they sampled a little bit of everything, and then we came home.  Earlier we had taken some pictures of them in their new birthday tu-tu's which they love dancing and prancing around in.  Unfortunately those get glitter all over the house, along with little bits of fluttery toile.  After that they helped me roast a trussed up and brined chicken for supper.  While that popped and spattered away on the rottisserie, we watched a ski movie, during which they howled in glee when the saw all the snowy mountains.

Tomorrow is Easter, and the kids have put out carrots for the Easter bunny, and pink bonnets for themselves.  We will have some pictures of their new outfits as well tomorrow.  If you click the photo, you can see a slide show from today.

Snacking with the monkies

The girls at the zoo, enjoying a snack outside the monkey's compound

One giant step for man...

At FairyTaleTown

Birthday Party!

The girls had their 2nd birthday party at the park today.  They

• Played on the swings and slides with all their friends and family
• Ran around the bubble machine which generates a massive amount of bubbles
• Stuffed their faces with cupcakes, making sure to get lots of frosting all over their new clothes
• Drank their juice with crazy straws

They didn't even realize they had presents to open.  We'll get to those later. Upon coming home, they were so tired from all the excitement that they fell asleep for a couple of hours.  If you click on the photo above, you can see a long slideshow.

Ga Ga Arrives

We picked up the kids from Nonny's this morning and took them to Costco, where they sampled every kind of treat they could grab.  In addition to the usual sundries, we came home with petrale sole, sea bass, and gigantic U-8 shrimp.  

When we got home, granddad arrived and the girls demanded he read them books.  After that they watched the new Muppet movie as I prepped supper.  The sole was pan sauteed with oregano, olive oil, and sea salt -- it was delicious served with fresh squeezed lemons, although next time around I won't try to fillet the fish myself.  

We have been coaxing cooperation out of the kids since their birthday party is tomorrow at the park.  They are more patient when they know they are getting a swing ride tomorrow...and cupcakes.  Sunday will be busy, so it's going to be an early bedtime for all tonight.  We hope it's better weather than today's wind and rain.

The picture is M. curled up on the couch with a blanket, pillow, and an old copy of Sunset magazine -- which she is "reading".  

Playing in the Snow at Heavenly Valley

After J. got home we decided to take the kids up to Tahoe, where they could play in the snow and I could get some skiing in.  We bundled them up in their snow pants, jackets, boots and gloves and rode the gondola up to the Tamarack lodge area -- which is about 8000 feet up.  The wind, snow, and cold are all much more extreme than down at the lake level.  Fortunately the girls had a good window of time to play in -- romping all over the snow, trying to make snowballs, and then going to the lodge for hot cocoa.  Of course, despite having glove clips, one of the kids gloves did manage to escape.  Click on the picture below to see a slideshow of their adventure.



While they did that, I went skiing on the Nevada side of the mountain, where conditions were pretty fast for late March.  There has been a lot of snow recently, and cold temperatures, so Sunday was good and I was surprised by how dry/icy conditions were.  Normally one needs a mid day ski wax to keep going through the slush, but the mountain was free of that right now.

Last night it snowed another 3 inches, so we got up early, had breakfast and went back up to the mountain.  I skiied the Stagecoach and California areas, and conditions were terrific.  It snowed most of the morning and was the best I'd experienced in Tahoe all year -- fresh, light snow, with no crowds so one could ski as fast as they liked without having to worry about traffic.  By 1pm, the kids started getting tired, so I met everyone at the gondola and we all rode down together.  We put them into their pajamas, popped them in their car seats and headed down the valley.  After some (more) hot cocoa they fell asleep and snoozed the whole 100 miles home.

It was a nice mini trip.

Big shoes!

Spring conditions at Northstar

After finishing the second part of my exam yesterday, I was ready for some fun, so we went to Northstar for a day of skiing.  Conditions were spring like -- icy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon -- but there was an hour in the middle with soft corn snow, perfect for carving.  It's hard for snow like this to bump up, so everything was buffed smooth, and you could ride your edges nicely during that part of the day when everything was soft before getting mushy.

I learned a lesson: avoid the "Euro Snack Shack" at the top of the Comstock lift, where it took the two incompetent attendants 20 minutes to assemble a hot dog.  I begrudge the valuable ski time they wasted, and the $8 spent for that privilege.  Normally we take our own lunches, and surreptiously chomp them down in the lavish lodges, but today we forgot to pack them.  So I won't feel guilty the next time I do that either!

The kids had a good day playing at Nonny's and came home tired.  They had their bath, milk, and then fell asleep without any of the usual protests.  If you click on the picture above, you can see how bright it was up in Tahoe.  I took a photo of the marsupial mascot of the Northstar Ski School -- RipperRoo -- scurrying around the Big Springs deck.

Our first pic-i-nic

Taken in land park after a trip to the zoo.  Kids are lucky that Yogi bear has not come along to swoop up their basket.  They love chomping on their (tangy) dried fruit snacks.

A day at the Zoo

The girls went to the zoo today (thanks GaGa for the annual membership!) and saw all their favorite animals.

Click on the photo to see what they did.

The girls help grill a red snapper

We picked up a nice large red snapper for supper today. The kids were helpful, and assisted as I stuffed it with lemons, thyme, and other seasonings. They could not resist poking the fish eye as it reposed on the counter, feeling its strange squishiness on their fingertips. The snapper was fresh and quite delicious, having just been flown in from New Zealand. It's crazy how far seafood is sent in our modern world.

Click on the picture to see the final stages of the fish's path up the food chain.

A few ski pix from February

These were pictures that were taken by the mountain staff, and mapped onto our electronic ID's.

Pretty slick technology. [Click on the photo above for the slide show]

Unfortunately, not as many from Vail, as we did not see as many cameramen there as we have seen in Tahoe.

It appears that Kirkwood has joined the Vail family, so perhaps if there is some snow in the next month, we will make a trip there.

Vail

We had a nice trip to Vail the last few days, thanks to my mom and sister who watched the kids for us. J. has a new powder blue ski shell style jacket which seems to do a good job keeping out wind/cold/snow. I've still got my multi pocketed jacket (14 years plus of hard usage) and it's still going strong, other than maybe some Velcro losing its stickiness. We also got to use our new glove liners, which worked well. These are synthetic and are better than the cotton/Lycra ones of the past, which got threadbare fast.

There are some pictures (and captions!) if you click on the slide above.

Super Bowl Sunday at Heavenly

In the last 20 years, I've probably only watched one Superbowl. It's a great day to ski, since crowds are thin, and usually the mountain will offer some kind of deal to get business on what will be a low traffic day. Today was no exception: cold temperatures which are good for soft snow and nice conditions, clear skies with bright sun, and so little people that we could park right at the top of the California base lodge.

J. got both our RFid tags working so we could track our vertical, and get pictures as well. Click on the pic above to see what we did today.

There were two odd things that happened today at the mountain: a glider crash landed on one of the lower California mountain runs, and they had to clear out the parking lot (where I was waiting) to land a medevac chopper (which I don't think was related).

It was a long day trip, but thanks to my mom for watching the girls today, so we could go for the day.  

Group picture from the top of Lookout

This picture is of our whole group, on the backside of Northstar, in the new area called Lookout Moutain.

 

The terrain in this area is much steeper than the rest of the mountain, and is a good area for advanced skiiers to play in.

Skiing with Pi Lams at Northstar

A nice few days with old college alumni up at Northstar, staying at one of the guy's slopeside house.  Click on the picture above to see a short slideshow.

Conditions were very fast, enhanced by the fact that with this group you had to ski aggressively just to keep up.