Mountain Time: On Hiatus

Hi folks. Didn't want you to think I had forgotten y'all on my little mountain hiatus. I arrived in Denver around midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning and drove up to the mountains with my friend Kris, who has a sweet setup in Frisco, a mere 15 minutes away from Vail and 5 from Copper, Breck, etc. His housemates were gone for the weekend so I, a person who normally lives in a room the size of a European compact car, was awarded the master suite -- complete with a king size bed, fireplace, hot tub on the deck overlooking the mountains, and jacuzzi tub. What's really sad is that all this luxury (a huge two bedroom, three story, three-bath house in the mountains) can be had for around half the monthly rent of my mouse-infested, crumbly old brownstone in Brooklyn. But anyway.

We boarded Copper on Saturday and got some fresh snow, but it was cloudy and, going on three hours of sleep, I got in fewer runs than I probably would have otherwise. That night we ate at the Boathouse (looks bad, tastes great), which I highly recommend if you're staying in Frisco. Sunday, after a long rest, it was time for VAIL (pictured, above), my all-time favorite resort in Colorado. It just can't be beat for views or snow and the back bowls are miles and miles of open terrain with powder everywhere you look. We got a bluebird day and it was in the mid-40s to boot. It was one of my best days boarding ever. Because the snow was so good I rode pretty aggressively and subsequently suffered a few ass-bruising tits-over-teakettle falls, but I'll survive and a few Coronas in the hot tub afterward went a long way to easing the pain.

We drove to Dillon later that night to eat at the Dillon Brewery (which has fantastic buffalo burgers), but they were shut down thanks to a power outage. There was a cute teenage hostess standing outside turning hungry boarders and skiiers away. She said to us: "Sorry, guys. We're closed because of the power outage. But I LOVE your hair, it's so pretty!" Since Kris is bald, she was talking to me, and I gotta say, a compliment from a dewy faced young teenager who found something attractive in me, someone likely 12 years her senior, felt surprisingly nice.

Since Sunday night I've been hanging out with my sister and my new niece in Denver, where it's been 70 and sunny every day. My niece is about 10 weeks old right now and I'm having fun getting to know her and test out my "parenting" skills. Actually, I'm pretty good with this kid. As long as you bounce her around on your knee fairly vigorously, you can keep her from crying, and I've done pretty well getting her to take bottles and pacifiers, and even putting her to sleep. She seems to like me (she let me know by throwing up on me not once, not twice, but FIVE times over the course of two days) and I think we'll get along just fine. Here we are; she's looking for dinner down the wrong shirt. More pics to come, undoubtedly along with more scintillating tales from the suburbs.