Back from Colorado

I returned from Colorado late this afternoon, having enjoyed a wonderful week of skiing with college alumni at Beaver Creek and Vail. We mixed it up between the two resorts, but I think most of us enjoyed Vail more. The snow was fantastic at both areas (4 feet over the week!) but was even better at Vail. I also like the trails there better, and its hard to compare anything to their sunny backside. We spent a whole morning riding the Orient Express up and down, enjoying the wide open expanses. Despite the large amount of visitors they get -- 20,000 a day I'm told -- there is enough mountain space to scatter them out except for a few choke points, like Two Elk at lunch or the bottom of Born Free at days end.

I've visited Colorado off and on over the last dozen plus years, and this was easily the coldest and snowiest I've experienced it. The temperatures were more like frosty Quebec than the sunny Rockies. Above is Eagles Nest viewed from the top of the mountain, at approximately 11,000 feet, and cold and windy. I had to take the battery out of the camera and warm it up by rubbing it on my fleece to get the camera to register the voltage! I have put a few more pictures here.

First Day at Beaver Creek

We had our first ski day at Beaver Creek this morning, after fueling up with breakfast tortillas and baked beans. It was about 40F at the base but after we took the Centennial lift up to the mid mountain area it got cold and snowy quickly. It snowed 4 in or so during the course of the day, and we are forecast to get another 6-12 in tonight. From the the top of Centennial we took Harrier down to the Red Tail area. There was a lot of soft fresh snow, but the trail was a little hairier than we needed for the first run of the week -- still we got down eventually.

From there we took Larkspur up to the big broad trail off the top of that lift. It was choppier than it would be normally after grooming, but we enjoyed it so much that we repeated it. The fog was getting heavy now, so we took the Birds of Prey lift up to the top of the Mountain. We enjoyed all the easy trails at the top for an hour or so, before our legs started getting rubbery, and it was time to start planning a route home. The top runs here are blessed with good snow and gentle pitches, but the Cinch lift does accumulate a lot of skiiers.
We eventually took the Gold Dust trail all the way back down to the base, which was probably something like 3000 vertical feet, so it was a nice long ride. It was challenging in parts, and reminded me of Canyon at Sun Valley or Silver Queen at Aspen, although not as steep. But with the soft fresh snow here it was easy to turn on anything even if was steep, most unlike icy Vermont.

Once we got home we piled into the hot tub and then lit up a roaring fire while we baked a pan of potato au gratin and grilled some skirt and flank steaks, paired with a 91 Anderson Conn Creek and a 90 Grand Mayne. It was a nice way to close a good day.

Bromley MLK 2009

We spent the official Martin Luther King holiday skiing at Bromley, rather than our usual mountain. There had been a half foot of fresh snow the day before and we felt like trying something different. Bromley is south facing, unusual for most ski areas, and does not have as much snowmaking as Okemo, so I like to pick our spots to go there when the weather has been cooperative. A perfect day there is cold, sunny, and has recent snowfall. Because it is south facing, when it's sunny you get the remarkable combination of skiing with the sun shining on your face which is great. You also pick up solar gain which can warm you up as well.

It was subfreezing and snowy although cloudy but these were still fantastic conditions. Every run was open and all lifts were running so we buzzed all over the mountain. J. wanted to start skiing some of the signature runs of this mountain so she went down the main run under the lift line (Twister) a few times. With the perfect snow conditions it was quite manageable for her; when it gets icy / bumpy I am happy to avoid it but the conditions on Monday were perfect. I took a few runs at high speed (for me) without stopping to get ready for next week.

Ending the day exhilarated and exhausted is the perfect last run.

MLK Weekend - 2009

I have been serving jury duty the last few days, and am really hoping that the case is resolved by the time I have to leave next weekend. If it's not, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I started on the 14th and we were told by the clerk that 10 days was enough of a margin of safety to not request a postponement. Given the free time on my hands, I wanted to get it done with anyways.

We were at Okemo yesterday, with the temps ranging from -2F through 12F, although there was no wind but clearly it was severely cold. The cashiers even gave us a few discounts for future lift tickets since it was so bitter. Afterwards we met some of Jenn's co-workers for apres ski, which is one of the few times I've done that at my own home mountain, since I was normally in a hurry to get back so that Lena could get walked etc. It's weird not having to hurry back home now. One kind of interesting thing we saw was that J's cousin Kim and her family are being used for the the Okemo Mountain Photographer's sample family shot in the main lodge. It's an excellent photo of them, but I think it was Photoshopped a little to make the colors more vibrant.

The mountain was totally open with all the lifts running, and although conditions were putatively "packed powder", I would have characterized them as more machine groomed with lots of crunchy man made snow. We buzzed around the main mountain and J. got introduced to many of the more interesting intermediate level trails including the bigger ones like Chief and Boomerang. We got home and made a pot of fondue with the one we had brought home from Gstaad. Today it snowed about 4 inches so we stayed in doing chores and loading the wood stove while we baked brined chicken breasts and potatoes au gratin.

Christmas Decorations on Steroids

This was kind of an unusual weekend, since we stayed in the city during ski season, and we went out to dinner a few times. On Friday night we went to an Alsatian restaurant, Cafe d'Alsace, where we had some traditional dishes of that French region. Jennifer and I shared a bowl of bouillabaisse -- a saffron infused fish stew -- and then had some charcoutrie which is a sauerkraut and sausage casserole. It went well with the winter storm that rolled in. Then last night we met one of my prior coworkers for dinner at Rolf's, which is a traditional German restaurant. The food there tends to be underwhelming, but the decor is festive for the winter season, and the main reason to visit. You can see from the pictures how overboard they go with the holiday decorations.
Today we dropped a few things at my sister's apartment and then went shopping on the Upper West Side afterwards since we had the car out. We stopped at Zabars, Fairway, and Citarella for groceries. After coming back home, Jenn made chicken tortilla soup, good on a cold day. The snow storm was only a few inches, not the half foot or so that seemed likely on Friday. Hopefully the drive up north this weekend will be clear.

Cassique Obligaire !

We just got back from Mont Tremblant where cassique obligaire (helmets mandatory) seems to be the rule of the day on many ski runs. That's probably a good thing.

A Cold Snap in the Windy City

Last week we went to Chicago to visit family before the holiday madness. We saw J's grandmother, parents, aunt/uncle, cousins and nephews. Despite a sharp cold snap, and a decent snowfall, our travel plans went smoothly. We were able to try a new Camry Hybrid, as well as a Chevy Impala, and the Toyota did very well, despite the harsh conditions. Here's Tim, JoAnne, Devin, and Jimmy who have come over to set up Christmas decorations.

While we were there we ate at a range of family favorites including Portillos, White Fence Farm, and Alfies. We also went into the city proper and tried a fancy new gastropub called The Publican, which was quite good and a fine recommendation.


While in Chicago we visited Andersonville, an old school Swedish neighborhood, and stopped in at the Swedish Bakery, where we picked up a few loaves of limpa bread that we had ordered, as well as some traditional pepparkrakrs and coffee cakes. The bakery was extremely busy, and it took 45 min to get everything.

After that we went to Erickson's Swedish Deli which is one of the few places one can find authentic prinzkorv, the tiny sausages served at Christmas smorgasbords. This is inside Erickson's, where I thought their product lineup didn't seem so special/rare compared to what can now be found in any IKEA. To their credit, they did have a wide spectrum of unusual Nordic canned goods, like pickled eel etc.


We also stopped in and saw our old school friend, Logan along with his family. Their three children are happy, healthy ... and rapidly outgrowing their spacious home. So they are moving soon, taking advantage of the disruptions in the housing market. He uncorked a couple of fruity California pinot noirs which we had with the lunch Merilee made; it was refreshing to have something healthy after a number of heavy midwest dinners.

It was nice to see everyone, but it's good to be back home.

The Big Ice Storm

Last weekend we had a severe ice storm in Vermont, which was reputed to be the worst in 60 years. The drive up was sleeting and we were lucky to arrive at the cabin with no drama. The next day I backed the car out of the driveway to put it in the garage, and got stuck on the icy road. Conveniently we had kitty litter and shovels so were able to get it moving, but that was the first time I've ever had that happen on a flat road.

Here you can see a tree that has collapsed, blocking the one lane road to the cabin. It had the triple whammy of knocking out power, blocking passage, and keeping plow/repair crews from getting up valley. This is why we had to use the sled, as you'll see later.

It was quite cold, and with the loss of power, we had to rely on our wood stove. Here the cats are sharing the fire; normally they won't cohabit the cushion pictured but it was so cold they set aside that eternal squabble for a weekend. The rooms were much colder without the ceiling fans circulating the heat.

Here you can see how the ice has glazed every last branch of the mulberry tree in the front yard. As the ice accumulates, the weight on the twigs builds up, eventually snapping off the older and weaker ones, a form of natural pruning. Unfortunately this process causes power lines to go down, and roads to get blocked.

Fortunately we were prepared, with a supply of gallon water jugs in the basement for both consumption and plumbing. We also used some of our stock of emergency flashlights and candles, which were lit extensively, since darkness falls early near the winter solstice time of year. Here we heated some canned food on the woodstove, along with water for tea and hot chocolate. Once we got more organized, we pulled out the Weber and grilled some Korean style ribs, zucchini slices, with baked beans on the side.

Here's another mist frosted bush in the yard. Note how much the branches of the evergreens are drooping, weighed down by snow/ice/sleet. We use fireplace ashes, emptied each weekend into plastic buckets, for times like this when the walks and drives need something to add traction over the ice.

Here's the powerline that was down on our road. This was also on a blind curve, so when we encountered this we were alarmed. We saw car tracks over it, so determined that it couldn't be live, and passed it...but not without a little trepidation.

Because the last part of our road was too icy to safely drive, we loaded our chattels on a sled and glided down the road for the journey home. Fortunately our travel box and bag fit on it perfectly, with one of the cats riding on top. You can see his eyes peering nervously out of his travel bag.

This is a berry bush, coated with ice, sparkling in the clear sun.

Ski deals (from the WSJ)

A Lift for Skiers: Recession Spurs Deals on Slopes

By CANDACE JACKSON
Matt Power

Colorado's Aspen/Snowmass resort is offering free flights for children on Frontier Airlines.
Snow has begun falling on ski slopes -- and so have prices of lift tickets and luxury hotel rooms at many big destination resorts.
As the recession begins taking a toll on the ski industry, resort operators are offering a flurry of discounts they hope will draw more visitors. Colorado's Aspen/Snowmass ski area announced a deal last week that allows children to fly free on Frontier Airlines and get free lift tickets on the mountain if accompanied by a paying adult. The Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, in Wyoming, is extending its early-season promotion -- a fourth night free -- through the end of April. And at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah, which opened unusually early this year thanks to a heavy snowfall last month, is offering a variety of discounts, including free appetizers with entrees at the Steak Pit restaurant and an 11% discount on six-day lift-ticket passes with any lodging reservation.
In general, the steepest discounts can be found at ski areas such as those in the Rocky Mountains that rely largely on visitors flying from distant locations. Resorts frequented mainly by nearby skiers, including some slopes in Vermont and California, remain busy, but they are still rolling out some more modest deals of their own.
Last winter, ski resorts in the Northeast and the West saw some of the best conditions in years, boosting skier visits by almost 10% over the comparatively warm 2006-2007 season, according to the National Ski Areas Association. But this year many experts think even a series of well-timed blizzards won't save ski resorts from the economic downturn. "I think it'll be a bad year no matter how good the snow is," says Will Marks, a managing director with JMP Securities, who tracks the hotel and ski industry.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which still has holiday openings, is offering guests free lift tickets.

Ski-industry executives say the timing of the financial-market slump this fall spooked skiers and snow boarders just as they would normally have been calling to book winter vacations. And with the dollar stronger against the euro, many Rocky Mountain ski resorts say they'll also see a drop this season in European travelers who had taken advantage of the steep exchange-rate discount in years past.
Aspen Skiing Co. says business could drop between 5% and 15% this season compared with last year. Vail Resorts Inc., which owns five ski resorts in Colorado, Nevada and California, reported Tuesday that advance bookings as of the end of October were down 23% from the previous year. The company says it has laid off at least 50 workers and says it won't fill another 92 seasonal positions.
"This year is kind of unprecedented," says David Perry, Aspen's senior vice president, mountain division. "People still want to take their family on the ski vacation, but are looking for the best bargains." Among Aspen's promotions: Customers who purchase discounted seven-day lift tickets in advance will no longer be restricted by blackout dates.
Aida Biller of Ocean Township, N.J., recently booked a ski trip to Utah for her and her fiancé for January. Most years, she takes three ski trips out west. But this year, to cut back on costs, she's taking only two trips. She also shopped around for the best deals. "With the economy these days, it's not a time to just be booking any package," says the 54-year-old investment bank employee.
Ms. Biller settled on a package from the Cliff Lodge & Spa in Snowbird, Utah, that includes meals and lift tickets. In total, she expects the trip will cost about $500 less per person than she spent on a ski trip to Utah last winter.
Holiday Openings
Many ski resorts also are reporting they still have openings for the peak holiday season, unusual for this time of year. During the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, rooms typically book up months in advance. They also command the highest rates of the year and come with lengthy minimum-stay requirements. But a general slowdown in bookings, combined with a spate of last-minute cancellations, have prompted many resorts to lift length-of-stay restrictions. And a few resorts are offering for the first time Christmas-week discounts in hopes of salvaging the season.
Heavily discounted promotion rates are in effect at a number of hotels and condos at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado. The local chamber of commerce recently allotted an extra $250,000 to beef up marketing for the holidays after they noticed that bookings were off to a slow start at local hotels. Though the 150-year-old town of Breckenridge always gets decked out for Christmas, more carolers will take to the streets and an annual ice-sculpture competition will be expanded. "We find ourselves in the unique position... that we have to promote Christmas, which usually takes care of itself," says John McMahon, the chamber's executive director.
At the 57-room Alta Lodge, a luxury hotel situated on the mountain in Alta, Utah, double rooms go for $455 during the holidays and are usually booked up nearly a year in advance. But this fall, the lodge says it has had a spurt of cancellations, opening up a number of rooms. It's a similar story at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler in British Columbia, which is throwing in two free lift tickets for each night booked. Normally, the resort would be fully booked for Christmas by this time of year, but is only about 75% full so far, it says. Fairmont Chateau is adjacent to a ski area that will host the 2010 Olympic Games, and a $50 million gondola to take skiers from one mountain to another was scheduled to open this week.
Procrastinators might also want to try the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek in Colorado, which is offering a fifth night free for people who pay for four nights. The promotion, which runs through March, also includes a room upgrade and free daily breakfast. The resort has about 20 rooms left for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. Usually "it would have been a room here, a room there, an unusual length of stay," if booking this late for the holidays, says Giles Priestland, the director of leisure sales.
Ski areas that cater mainly to visitors from long distances are offering some of the best deals. The 320 Guest Ranch, a hotel about a 20-minute drive from the base of Moonlight Basin in Montana, is running a $77-per-person deal that includes free lift tickets. A comparable package last year cost about 20% more, says general manager John Richardson. He says he's noticed fewer guests from the East Coast and California this year.
Some resorts are offering flight deals to boost long-haul visitors, who tend to stay longer and spend more on extras like ski lessons. In Colorado, Steamboat Mountain Resort is running airfare specials like a $238 round-trip ticket on Delta from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The offer, which also includes other destinations, is good through March, and tickets must be purchased online at least 21 days before flying. Crested Butte, also in Colorado, has a "friends and family fly free" package that includes a free airline ticket with every two purchased.
Busy in Vermont
Not every ski area is expecting fewer crowds. Resorts on the East Coast and some in California that attract skiers and boarders who drive to the mountains for short stays, say they're expecting a busy winter, as travelers stay closer to home and avoid flying. The number of season passes sold this year at Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont is up 17% from last year. Executives at Stratton Mountain Ski Resort, also in Vermont, say they tripled their Thanksgiving weekend traffic projections this year. And at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, a few hours' drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, season pass sales are up by more than 30%. Skiers "are maybe going to forgo that destination trip and drive to Tahoe instead," says Julie Maurer, the resort's vice president of marketing and sales.
Still, some drive-to resorts are rolling out deals. Stratton Mountain recently introduced a "Mondays on Us" deal that it hopes will entice travelers to stay longer. Skiers and boarders who book in a hotel or condo from Friday to Sunday nights can get free lift tickets on Monday.

Thankgiving

For Thanksgiving, we had a small family dinner at the cabin. My mom flew in from California and my sister joined us as well. Both the drive there, and back, were unusually long due to weather and traffic. It's frustrating when a drive that takes 3:45 ends up taking 7:00 with substantial amounts of stress.


In any case we got some quiet time up there and made the usual turkey with trimmings. I used an organic turkey breast from Murray's which was good, but nothing extraordinary. Since I typically brine them before roasting it may not make that much of a difference. (The orange dish you can see in the foreground is rutmuus, a Swedish rutabaga casserole.) The last few weeks have been difficult, but sharing this holiday with loved ones helps.

Later that weekend we baked a platter of vegetarian enchiladas, which you can see on the right. We also went on a mountain bike ride on the other side of the Black river, and came back chilled and mud spattered, but at least we made sure that the new bike is working properly. It's the last ride of the year since it started snowing on our last day there.

In preparation for Christmas, we have lit our paper Swedish star in the front window, as well as the first candle for Advent.

Chimney all clean

We arranged for the fall ritual of having the chimney swept, by a new vendor -- the highly professional Vermont Master Chimney Sweep company. It took a while to get an appointment, as they said their backlog this fall has been 6-8 weeks, perhaps because they only make M-F appts. Clearly, this is something that can't be outsourced to China. We had a slight creosote buildup, but nothing too bad, and were advised to keep cleaning out the stove, while cold, prior to building it up each visit. In the picture below you can see a kind of reverse roto rooter being used to clean the bends in our stovepiping. When wood is a primary source of a heat, you have to do a little planning each season.

Flights reserved

I went prowling around on American Airlines web site today and reserved frequent flyer flights for J and I, into Eagle County. We would be arriving into Eagle on Jan 24 at 10:30am, departing on Jan 31 at 9:55am.

I was surprised that I could still do this so relatively late, and using only the 25k level of miles, and that so many other days and flight options were available. It would appear that bookings are down, at least at that carrier. You can see the geography above, although I know many of you are familiar with this after our various trips to this region over the years.

Also I noticed that some Citi / AA cards are running promos into Denver for 20k miles with a special code during December. I don't know if that will get renewed for January, but again that's also surprising to see low cost ff tix into ski country during the winter.

If you have miles, it's worth checking this out.

Ski Passes

We purchased our season passes for the Vail collection of resorts, and if you were planning on skiing more than one week out west this year, I would suggest you do so too. The passes are only on sale til this weekend. Season pass sales are running about 10% behind last years rate, and hotel bookings are running 20% behind, so clearly the slumping economy is hitting discretionary spending hard, especially luxuries like ski holidays.

At the time the deals were annouced last spring, I thought that this would lead to crowding at their collection of resorts, but it would seem that the whole industry is going to a have a rough time. The 'drive to' resorts in Vermont think they will be a little better off than the destination ones, but I'm not so sure about that.

I'll be dealing with flights later this month, and hope that some of you will start finalizing those, so we can begin the house hunt.

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Lena's ashes came home the other day, and have been lovingly stored in her old treat jar, along with a clay cast of her pawprint, a clinking tag filled collar, and a favorite scarf / drool rag. It's been a sad week, with the apartment eerily quiet when returning home, but things are getting back to normal now. We appreciate all the thoughtful notes people have sent us, and are particularly thankful for the remarkable medical care she recieved from both centers. The bulk of her chattels have now been donated to animal shelters in NYC and Vermont, where we know they will be put to good use.

Lena: 1995 - 2008

Lena passed away this morning at approximately 3:30 am EST. She woke us up to say goodbye and we went for a short walk outside. Upon returning, she collapsed and we carried her to the Animal Medical Center where she went into convulsions. She died as the doctor was preparing her, trying to find a vein to insert a catheter.

She lived 13 years, 7 months which is within the typical lifespan for Basset Hounds of 12-14 years. Lena lived 10 weeks after getting the diagnosis of terminal lymphoma, which beat the averages by a few weeks, although the last few weeks had been a struggle, even with a doubled dose of painkilling opiates.

Her last days were spent in Vermont -- snoozing in front of a warm fire, sniffing around the backyard, chomping on chicken trimmings, and enjoying the autumn sunshine. We had thought that we would end our journey together up there, but in the end we came home, and she relieved us of making that decision. She enjoyed a happy, good life and will be waiting patiently for us.

The house is so quiet without her.

Ski Trip Update - Beaver Creek

I just wanted to put up a quick confirmation of the ski trip. The dates are still the last week of January 2009, Jan 24 - Jan 31. We are going to Beaver Creek, Colorado which is close to Vail and between the two resorts there should be plenty of skiing for the week. As noted before, they share a common lift pass, and one can buy a season pass before Nov 15 for approximately $600. If you were going to go skiing out West more than once this season, it would make sense to get that option, but you would have to act in the next few weeks.


So far the folks who have responded are Yuji, Sean (part of the week), and Rajiv. I am assuming Andy will probably join us as well. Note that spouses/SO's are welcome, and although I am planning on having J. join us, nothing is guaranteed. (I point that out just in case there are SO's who might want to join us but only if other women might be there)

So I guess the summary is

• The trip is on -- for Jan 24 to Jan 31, 2009
  
• We're going to Beaver Creek, Colorado


• Currently Yuji, Sean, Rajiv, me/Jenn?, Andy?

Action steps in the next two weeks would be to

• Line up vacation / time off


• Consider the season pass option, and prospectively purchase


• Determine if you are bringing anyone


• Investigate paid or frequent flyer flights - whether to Denver / Eagle


• Figure out housing (I will advise on this in November)

The economy is clearly slower this year than in the past, so flights/housing/passes are not as urgent as before...but I can't front the house as I have in the past. Sometime in November, once we get a final handle on attendees, and I start the house hunt, please keep some funds on hand for that expense.

Plant

PS: Our dear friend Holly, who we skiied with in Grand Targhee, has some happy and sad news, which you can find on her blog.

The Changing Seasons

As the mornings turn to frost, it's time to finish the last bits of preparation before snow season starts. This weekend I finished removing the air conditioner, replacing the storm windows, and arranged for the septic system to be pumped. If you have municipal water/sewer you probably have never dealt with it, but its part of the rural/mountain life for homes far off from the town service grid. Our prior septic pumping vendor, Bob, had retired to the good life of Florida, so we had to find a new person. Fortunately, a quick scan through our local paper found someone and he came by early Saturday. It tooks only 40 minutes and I felt better about having this squared away for the next few years.



Interestingly, this tradesman also raises deer, big 450 lb red deer, that are sold to the restaurant business. For the most part, game can not be hunted and then sold commercially, so when you see pheasant/deer on a menu somewhere it was raised in a farm like environment. We had some leftover lamb from a roast, so I made some pasties, although the first batch drooled a bit onto the baking sheet. The second attempt came out better since I used a Silpat sheet and cut a few steam holes to stop the crust from bursting. The dog has started spitting up blood so it looks like the growths have metastized into her lungs. But she still ate some beef this weekend and got her nails Dremeled down.

I went for a bike ride down into the village -- the foliage colors were stunning.

A visit from my sister

My sister visited us last night, and we enjoyed a quiet night at home with the pets and some Asian food ordered in. We don't do much take out, but I could see how with services like delivery.com or seamlessweb that people might never want to turn on their stove. A few nights ago I went out for dinner with some friends in my tasting group and they sent me home with tons of leftovers for the dog. Amazingly Lena didn't have much interest at first, but today she got more enthusiastic about the meat, after I had deboned the chop, cubed it, and microwaved it. Our theory is that her sense of smell is so diminished that unless food is hot, she can't smell what it is.

Some out of town friends visited us tonight and we met them at Bar Americain, where we popped open a few older California wines. The ambience and service were good, but the food was average. Maybe I'm getting a cold - nothing has really tasted right for a few days.

The Blessing of the Animals - St Francis Day

Sunday was St. Francis' Day (who was the patron saint of animals) so some churches offer a pre-service blessing for parishioner's' pets. It's not offered everywhere, but we were able to find St. Marks's in Springfield performing this. Given the short time left, it felt important to do this ritual, so early Sunday morning we rounded up the furry threesome to get them appropriately blessed. Lena and Zamfir were resigned to the auspicious event and put up no struggle, but Nikolai chose this time to declare his heresy. J. summoned the Spanish Inquisition and extracted him from behind the sofa, and into his holy cat carrying case. With varying measures of piety, we piled into the car for the pilgrimage. A surprisingly large crowd had showed up, accompanied by a veritable ark of of dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, birds and urns of ashes. It went smoothly except for one cat who rejected God, hissing at the priest. Somewhat unusually, they even allowed the animals inside and made them welcome for the main service. Some dogs even sat on the pews, distracted by each other, like gangly furry teenagers, although our own claimed the floor. This might have been the smallest, and most humble, church we've been in but the warmth was no less than our own Holy Trinity.

It was one of the most beautiful fall weekends I can recall in Vermont -- cool sweater weather days, cold nights somewhat north of freezing, a bright sun shining, and leaves that had begun their annual symphony of colors all under a dry sky. At the latitude and altitude we're at, the foliage tends to peak in the second week of October, convenient for the Columbus Day weekend acoming, but the forest looks brilliant right now. This is the weekend when we start the rituals of the fall: changing the cotton sheets to flannel, arranging for the chimney sweeps, switching the screens for the storm windows, and pulling all the vacuum packed bags of cold weather woolens out to be refilled with shorts, seer suckers and summery garb.

My in-laws are visiting next weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing them. I'm planning on stuffing a chateaubriand for one night, and roasting a mint wrapped leg of lamb another. The hound loves when this happens since there will be all kinds of trimmings from the roasts, as well as kindhearted visitors that she can deploy "Starving Skit #17" on. This meadow to the right is the one we usually take sledders to during the winter; it looks quite different now.

A link from Brigitte

Brigitte sent us this link, about old dogs. It's funny, and sad. We got the fireplace going this weekend for our sidekick, who then proceeded to make slow rotisserie roasted basset out of herself, rotating her body every 20 minutes so that every angle was suitably heated.

Ski Trip 2009

I'd like to organize a PiLam ski trip for 2009, for the last week of January, similar to what we have done in years past.

The dates would be Saturday, Jan 24 to Saturday, Jan 31, 2009.

For a variety of reasons -- some of which you folks know -- I was not able to put together a trip last winter, and I really missed it. Jenn has urged me to put a trip together for next year, no matter what is going on in our lives. So I'm blocking out the time, and moving ahead with the plan.

As I have mentioned a few times in the last months, there is a pretty good deal available from the company that owns Vail : an unlimited season pass for $579. It covers all their resorts as well. It seems like a good enough deal that we should pick a resort(s) covered by that. The only drawback I can see is that those resorts are likely to become even more crowded, and navigating Vail is already like fighting through Grand Central Terminal at rush hour.

I do not know if Jenn will be joining us yet, but she'd like to come. So if your significant other wants to ski with us too, it's fine. I realize that may change the ambience a little.

Anyways, drop me a line if you are interested. Perhaps we can challenge our old nemesis, the TequilaShotSki, again.