I guess people think I like games or something. I received 4 this Christmas, The World of Warcraft Board Game, Seafarers of Catan, Star Wars DVD Trivia, and Heroscape.
Halo, Tigger and I played a marathon game of the WoW boardgame christmas night. Very fun but needs some streamlining for faster play. Phlome, Demi and I played Heroscape last night. The way you can build your own board is very cool and it plays really fast. Almost too fast, your little guys seem to die too easily.
Thanks Everyone for your Kind Words, Flowers, and Donations. My family is doing very well. Dad had been ill for quite some time so we were all somewhat prepared, but of course you can neer be fully prepared. As Ninsi mentioned you can donate to the American Parkinson's Disease Association in my Father's name if you would like.
In other News, I got a jury summons today. I have to appear in the Dallas County Criminal Courts building on January 10th. The summons is kinda funny. It mentions no less than 3 times that you are not to wear shorts and tank-tops to the courts. It even seems to imply that you might be thrown in jail should you show up in improper attire. This should be interesting. My left leaning libertarian viewpoint is sure to be unacceptable to one side or the other of whatever case they put me on.
You may or may not know that my father has been ill for quite a while. He passed away this morning about 5 am. The Funeral is this Friday in his hometown of Hominy,OK. Email me (link on the right) if you would like more specific information about the funeral arrangements.
This past weekend I went skiing in the Reno/Tahoe area with a group of friends. Friday we went to Sqauw Valley. I started out by taking the "First Time Skier" course. It was very basic, they taught you how to balance on the skis, how to stop and supposedly how to turn, but I felt the instruction was lacking in that department. They also taught us how to get on and off the lift, which I did manage to do with falling the third time. I attempted to ski a few green slopes after the course and managed them okay but stopping and turning were still a problem. I was able to stay balnced and up on the skis even when going fast but stopping was a little difficult. I either had to fall down on purpose or needed a lot of room.
On Saturday, we headed up to the Heavenly resort right on Lake Tahoe. I signed up for the level 2 course, eventhough the "snowboard dude" said I should take the level 3. (Which of course costs more.)
We arrived later than on Friday so we had a few hours before the course started. Heavenly has multiple lodges that you can access the mountain from and unfortunately the one we chose ended in the "intermediate" ski area. One of the guides said that there was one green run in the area however and should be fine for a beginning skier. I went up the lift and managed to get off without falling. The trail was packed with snowboarders however. I waited for a long time so there would be fewer people before I started down. I was doing okay and saw that I would have plenty of room to stop at the bottom. Right then a snowboarder moves right in front of me. I turned but not soon enough and I knew we would collide. I fell to the left on purpose but still collided with them rather spectacularly. Neither of us was hurt but I decided that I would not try the rest of the trail and walked down.
The instructor for the level 2 course was great. He taught us way more than than the instructor on the first day. It was a 3 hour lesson, but by then end of 2 hours I was stopping and turning with no problems. I skied the rest of the day down the training slopes. All in all it was fun but very tiring. I'm pretty sore today.
Dallas got it's first bout of Winter Weather Yesterday. Covered everything in ice for in for the night. It all looks to be melting off now. That's how it goes here, snow and ice don't last very long. Since I can't get enough of winter weather here, I'm flying to Reno later Today to go skiing. I've never been before, so this should be exciting or painful,or both. Probably both. The plan is to take the class for the first half of the day then ski then try and ski the rest of the day. I emphasize try here.
Oh and the X-Men 3 trailer is out. Looks very cool. Beast and Angel both are in it. Check it out.
