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So Saturday was the day Mike and I went snowboarding. It was so much fun. I recomend it to anyone under the age of 23 (sorry all you older readers out there). I spent the night at Mike's house, got up at 7:00, left at 8:00 to go to Alpine Valley. Arrived there around 9:00, paid for lift tickets, learned how to put em on, awed at the Black Diamonds, and found the bunny hill. The bunny hill had a tow rope since it was such a small hill. We spent a while mastering the tow rope, and finally got to the top of the hill without falling. Getting down was the easy part. Stopping took a run or two. At about my third time down I got the stopping thing down (seems so easy on the bunny hill). At 10:00-11:15 we had a lesson. It helped. After that we went down the hill about two more times to work on turning then took a break for lunch. After a quick ten minute lunch break we decided to check out the other runs (bunny hill got a little boring). We checked out the trail map (see above, although it is a little cropped) and found some more easy (green dot) runs and went to try em. On our way to them we found out they were closed. Great, now we had no choice but to do the more difficult (blue dot) runs. But first we had to master the chair lift. Getting on seemed easy, but then you're hoisted forty feet into the air. Sorta made us nervous (hey, the wind was 50 mph, they shut down the lifts at 60). Once you get to the top you have to go down the little ramp (see previous posts), we did it. We only fell once, on our second time up the lift. Not bad. Then there was this little issue about getting down the hill. Oh sure, its cute from on the chair lift. Everyone seems to be going so slow. Looks just a little bit steeper from the top. So we plopped down, strapped in, peed our snowpants, and prayed (so we were freaked out). I let Mike lead the way down (tradition for the day), watched him fall after about a 100 feet and then followed. He was up and I was down. I got up, passed him (who was on the ground again) and in another 100 feet fell again. He passed me, fell. I passed him and got just about to the bottom. Fell. He passed me and fell. I got up, tried to stop, fell. He tried to stop. Fell. Not bad for our first run we thought. After about two more runs of that we would only fall halfway down the run and when trying to stop. A couple more runs of that, then I broke the ice (haha, get it?) and made it down the whole run without falling. A couple of runs later and Mike made it down without falling. The rest of the day we made it down without falling everytime except for stopping. Mike seemed to catch on to that a little better than I. The rest of the days runs were spent trying to turn and stop. I mastered the toeside turn (left), Mike mastered the heelside turn (right). He stops heelside, I stop toeside. He stopped more times than me, I made it down more times without falling. If we combine our powers we would have a pretty good snowboarder. All in all, it was a very fun day, I am very sore now. I blame that mostly on the skiiers. They are too slow, cut you off, and are all around stupid. I'll stop here and not tell you the painful stories involving ourselves and other people we saw, it might scare you away from trying the sport.

Above (hopefully) is a trail map of Alpine Valley. I have arrowed the run (Hog's Back) that we went on the whole day. Trail map says it's a Black Diamond, but when we were there, they said it was a Blue Square. Comment if you think you've experienced more pain than we did Saturday. Might have to involve the non-surgical removal of the fingers.

For those of you who think these posts are long, boring, and just want to read the HP quotes: get a life! Take some time, read the good literature, dwell on the experiences. Cause these posts aren't getting any shorter for a while.

Well done USA Olympians. You didn't let Caleb's remarks get to you, you went out there and got medals (25!) Cept Bode Miller, you should rot eternally, cause you seem to like that, when they give you an hour, don't take 11 minutes. You're just lucky Nike likes you, cause no one else does right now. Apollo Ohno: good job, you beat the Korean. Shani Davis: don't let Chad Hedrick get to you. Others: well done!