My honey joined this club. A men’s club with a “camp” in the woods in Woodside. But we’ll just move on for today. 

He offered to bring lunch for his pals for opening weekend at the Camp later this month. Then enlisted me to help him be more creative than grilled sausages on rolls with beer. 

So today’s experiment: candied jalapeño. This is a natural by product of making him jalapeño syrup, the first step toward Jalapeño Juleps. To accompany Maque Choux.  Really, the Juleps sound like they should be served with pretzel bites. But not truly my project. 

So psyched and proud of Super C.

Tonight was Railjam at Nationals. As with the pipe, she came in completely intimidated by the size of the features. Didn’t even know what to think about the dog house.  The tube with two 90 degree turns?  no way.

Finally got to practice on them for 2 hours this afternoon.  Came out feeling good but didn’t seem super confident.  Couple of hours of homework and a quick dinner before back to the slopes for the comp.

As we’re heading back, she announces she’s going to hit the dog house.  The dog house is a steel A-frame that’s taller than she is.  the drop off the back end is at least 10′ to the landing zone.  But she’d going for it.

So the guys’ heat is first and we’re watching from inside the bar.  Watching many of them crash land from the dog house.

Then the women are up.  She does some nice spins on the boxes.  She hits the waterfall and the down-flat-down.  Then we see her lining up for the dog house.  I think only one other woman in the heat had hit it at this point.  She pushes off.  She’s going a little fast. She launches off the ramp and is sliding along the top rail.  And then she slips.  Falls forward and bashes her hip against the rail then crumples down the other side and lands upside down next to the dog house.  The entire crowd gasps.  I can barely breath.  Bob is gripping my shoulders.

And she jumps up, grabs her loose ski and runs back up for her next pass.

Her next pass she goes for the tube:  “disaster 2” (I learn later- disaster means she skipped the first part of the tube, jumped on to the middle.  then she slid the rail and came off with a spin in the air.)  Her coaches called it the best trick of the heat.  Immediately after Best Crash of the evening.

One of the other moms came over to tell us “your daughter’s a tough one”.

Again, she’s glowing.  Grinning for an hour and talking about what she wants to work on next.

Kaden told her she’s got it, she just needs more core strength to pull in her knees on the big lips.  Jamie and Evan both said they were super happy with how she stepped it up and went for it.  And got up and threw the best trick after her crash.  (Evan said won’t even have gone back up for another go after a fall like that.)

She got 4th.  which almost seems like an after thought right now.  Though she’s stoked about that too.

 

 

Oh- didn’t post yesterday.  She pulled in 5th in the Super Pipe.  She was disappointed.  But described it as “SOOOO much fun”.  I’m impressed- 3 days ago she’d never been in a pipe bigger than 15′.  Most of this season, Northstar’s pipe was 12′.  First time competing at Nationals and she gets 5th.

Super C came off the mountain glowing today.  Which was awesome to see because the last couple of weeks she’s been frustrated and mildly injured and just not that into it.  This morning i had to drag her out and she was quiet and didn’t seem at all excited to be here.  In Colorado, for USASA Nationals (at great effort and expense by her parents).

And the morning started badly.  we were both still tired from getting up so early yesterday.  and she forgot her lift pass, so Jamie sent her to the pass office to get a new one.  which was fine because we’re at a Vail resort so they could look up her pass and print her a new one.  except once she had it, she got on the wrong lift to meet up with her team.  and then a liftie’s directions didn’t get her back to the park, so she had to take another lift.  so for about half an hour neither of the coaches or I knew where she was and her phone battery was dead.  and I was having flash backs to the last time we were at a strange mountain and she ended up out of bounds in an avalanche area and thinking “she’s never going anywhere in a new ski area without me again”

but she called Evan and arranged a meet up and skied back.  and was only mildly freaked out over the same flashbacks.

then after lunch they hit the big jumps and she got her spins back and remembered how much she loves this and how thrilled it makes her and just could not stop smiling all the way down the longest gondola ride around and into the car and through Frisco and the Safeway even

 

Also, I had a great day on the snow.  also started kinda slow.  bopping around going “yeah, so I’m in Colorado.  shouldn’t this be better…” and feeling a little stiff and not skiing that well

then i found my groove and started making some turns.  and found some runs i liked.  and started realizing that the Breck black diamonds weren’t all that challenging.  had some fun fast cruiser runs on Doublejack and Corsair and such.   moved up the mountain and skied some big slushy bumps in the shoots.  figured out how to get to the chair that goes to the top of Peak 8 (really, this mountain is so confusing once you venture away from the mid-mountain area around the top of the gondola.  no wonder they have so many signs.)  and the runs off the summit were fun but really not at all intimidating.  okay, so I didn’t hike over to the cornice between Peak 8 and 9 after ski patrol stopped dynamiting it and opened it up. that was a more intimidating drop)

by the last few runs, it struck me that not only was I having fun, I was skiing the whole mountain well. cutting turns on the bumps.  putting together a nice line from the top.  and getting some good speed on the wide open blacks.  and I thought “I’m back.”

 

a few minutes ago I come upstairs, naively thinking everyone will be asleep.  lights are on in every room.  as I go into L’s room, there’s no one on the sleepover mattress on the floor

me: where is everyone?

[C’s head pops out of the mound of blankets on her bed.  L and Brady both pop up grinning from his bed.]

Brady: the light was really bad down there so I moved in with Lib.

C: Other than going to find shoes tomorrow afternoon, is there anything I have to do tomorrow?

me: [mumbo jumbo about laundry and re-packing for Colorado]

C: [getting to the relevant question]: so I can sleep in tomorrow?

me: yes, you can sleep in.   [to the boys] so when you play in the morning, you have to be quiet so you don’t wake up Clem

L: does that mean we can’t play xbox?

me: you can play xbox as long as your quiet… can you do that?

C: no, they can’t.  but it’s okay.  they can play xbox.

Bob was driving back to SF today so I took the morning off to have coffee w him. Then made an early lunch. Then took a shower. The decided it would be 12:30 or 1:00 before I was on the snow so I’m giving my knees the day off. But I was going to get cabin fever if I stayed in the condo and the sun is out so I walked up to the village for a coffee and to look at skis. 

TrueNorth has nothing interesting left in my size. So I’m window shopping, in street clothes, with my Starbucks latte. I feel like one of the people I pass on my way down to the shuttle after skiing, who are obviously just hanging out while their friends and family ski and I wonder why? Yet here I am, in the village and waiting for my kids, having not skied today. 

It’s Friday. Time to commute to Tahoe.  Since its February Brak, aka Ski Week, we’re here for 10 days. 

And I hate dealing w the Truckee Safeway. So I brought:

Apples 12 (5.5 pounds)

Asian pears 3×5 (3.5# each) plus 6-8 loose

Oranges 2×8# (15-16 per bag)

Pears 12

Bananas 12-14

Blueberries Quart

Blackberries Quart

Plus 2 loaves of ciabatta, 1.5 loaves of sliced bread, bags of lettuce from the yard, 2 bunches of kale… 

Arrived Mill Camp, on the ride C’d already eaten: blueberries, 2 bananas, 2 Asian pears, 3 oranges. To be fair, I think HBG got hold of some of the blueberries. 

You’d clock this as a 4 hour trip. Left SF at 7:05, arrived Mill Camp at 11:00. But that ignores that Lib and left the house at 5:;0, drove to Kezar to get Clem from track practice that ended at 6:00, then drove to Townsend and 4th to get Bob. Who’d left for Public House to get a burger and beer so we sat in car and waited for him for 30 minutes. 

So my commute was more like 5 1/2 hours.

The kiddos and I are watching the x games during dinner last night. It’s the men’s snowboard super pipe and the. The men’s ski big air. 

That was the biggest pile I’ve ever seen. C says Nstar’s pipe is 18′ and that one is 22′. And many time longer. Goes on forever. And they’re throwing these insane tricks that take them 12-14′ above the lip. But it’s boarders, so it doesn’t make me cringe so much. 

Then they cut to the big air comp. it’s this huge single jump with a long steep run in. And the coaches are shoving each skier out the gate for extra speed because it’s snowing like crazy. 

After the first few jumps, I tell C it’s hard to watch thinking she’s aiming there. And she replies “don’t worry. They don’t even have this for women…yet”

Have I mentioned that I got Bob a quarter of a cow (and a standing freezer) for Christmas?  (and then, 2 weeks later, on the way to Tahoe for Christmas break, we hit Longhorn and bought another couple hundred dollars worth of meat.)

So now, I have a dedicated freezer in the storeroom, packed FULL of cow.

(pic of freezer)

Plus, the Tahoe condo freezer is crammed with Longhorn (plus quarts red beans and pasta sauce).  And the freezer for the regular old kitchen fridge is packed out with country ham and Thanksgiving feast left overs (and 3 bags of Sharkie’s cocoa nibs).  Got some cooking to do.  And it will be an adventure.  Turns out that when you order a cow (I split it with 2 other friends), you don’t just get a package of steaks.  You get 15 boxes (about the size of file boxes, totaling 456 pounds) of various cuts, each vacuum packed and frozen, including filet mignon, brisket, stew meat and various things I know what to do with.  You also get an several boxes of fat, bones, the tongue, liver, spleen and heart, ox tail, and cuts I’ve never heard of.  So first you unload the trunk in to the storeroom and attempt to sort it out a bit so everyone gets some steaks and fat, vs one person getting a box of fat and another a box of filets.  Then you ponder what to do with 30 pounds of fat (candles?).  Then you get cooking.

Tonight: Top Sirloin

Turns out that a “top sirloin” is the tender bit of a sirloin steak with the bone and side muscles cut away.  Super lean, no visible fat at all.  So it’s easy to dry out if not cooked properly (according to Olivier’s Butchery website. and if you can’t trust Olivier about beef, why aren’t you a vegan?).  Coincidentally, Bob and HBG were home alone for the weekend and had left half a package of fancy bacon in the fridge.  see where this is going?

Bacon Wrapped Top Sirloin, on a bed of Sautéed Leeks

Dino Kale sautéed in roasted garlic and olive oil

Firebrand baguette

Cote du Rhone (random leftover party bottle)

 

So far, this experiment in direct meat sourcing is pretty tasty.

I find it odd (or random, or depressing, or indicative of my life), that after spending most of my 20s learning to think of the year in seasons instead of the school calendar, I live in a world dictated not only by the school calendar, but by the overlaid sports calendar.

I am lucky to be able to basically take summer & winter vacations with my kids. and if it was just that, it would be one thing.  But last week I made a color coded spreadsheet to figure out C’s comp schedule.  and this is a season with only one kid competing.

Spring and Fall are soccer season, which means 2 games on weekends.  except for the weekends that C’s team has 2 games, or a tournament in Pacifica and Palo Alto.  that’s the easy part.  getting them to practice and home has evolved into a 5 families, 9 kids, 3 fields, 4 drivers endeavor.  But at least that’s settled and fairly predictable.

The freeski comp schedule across two leagues is a whole new ball of wax.  When we signed her up last Spring, her team was competing in the North Tahoe League.  Which is a little tricky to get her to comps and Lib to team, but totally doable.  Then, less than a month before the season started, her head coach decided they should move to the South Tahoe League.  Which means that all but 2, TWO, of her comps will be at the other end of a huge lake, and she needs to be there by 8am, and it’s an hour and a half around the lake if there is no ice or snow or traffic.  So we’re looking at which of the North Tahoe comps she can substitute and still have a reasonable shot at making Nationals.  But there is no way to look at the North and South Tahoe schedules at the same time on the website.  Hence my spreadsheet.  and then she’s competing in 3 different events that lead to 3 separate rankings.  hence the color coding.

I’ve become “one of those mom’s” as this super achiever woman at Mia’s birthday party last month called me when David told her my daughter was ranked 12th in the nation in her sport (for her age group).

when I email our mortgage guy about resuming our refi application and ask which doc’s he needs me to update or resubmit, and he responds with a “needs list” that runs to 10 numbered points and actually calls for 23 different documents, that’s enough of a reason to open a beer, right?