Another run at Ski Butternut

Saturday, December 20th 2008:

Off we are again to hit the slopes, but this time we head to a much closer place - Ski Butternut, where we actually have season passes. It's supposed to be only an hour and fifteen minutes to the location, which is in the Berkshires, but it so happens that snow kinda made the driving time much slower.

Aaah, but it made the slopes that much better! Because of the nice fluffy snow, I had less fear of falling on my bum or knees, so it made the runs much more fun. Brian on the other hand had adjusted his stance, and right away, it wasn't working out well, so after making it back down the mountain after the first run, he headed back to the car to make some adjustments. Brian was also still recovering from an unfortunate fall he had last week at Okemo, riding goofy and just hitting the ground hard in a way he wasn't used to, so he certainly took it easy this time so as not to aggravate his bum any more.

We both learned a new way of standing, which helps tremendously but is still somewhat counterintuitive and takes a bit of getting used to - leaning forward as you go down the slope as opposed to leaning back. Just gotta hit the slopes more...hello winter 2009.


(how funny is it that their snow-making machines are on while it's snowing)

Check out my new pants - not quite so puffy and long as my other ones. Turns out I'm girls XL, not women's XS. Length, all about the length. Great thing is that they were on sale and cheaper than what my other pants cost - whoo hoo!

As we started our drive back home, hunger did creep around the corner, so we made an unusual stop at none other than McDonald's. Yes, yes, not the best, but it's been a LONG time since we've had it. Turns out it was an apres-ski place as other boarders "dined" there. One of the guys had really awesome boots - not just plain, boring black ones, but multi-colored, in a good way. Some day...

Across the street I spotted some holiday cheer:

Updated - Concerts Attended since Blog Creation (latest first)

Gogol Bordello
The Killers w/The Red Romance
Sinead O'Connor w/Damien Dempsey
Hot Hot Heat w/Bedouin Soundclash, De Novo Dahl
Stellastarr* w/Pela, Exit Clov
Blaqk Audio w/Ikon X-7
Sum41
Smashing Pumpkins
Rooney w/The Polyphonic Spree
Hellogoodbye w/Boys Like Girls, Rocket Summer
Plain White T's w/Boys Night Out, Lovedrug, Dear and the Headlights
Kaiser Chiefs w/Annuals, The Walkmen
Silversun Pickups
Bloc Party w/Sebastien Granger, Albert Hammond, Jr.
The Cinematics & Mute Math
Barenaked Ladies at the Holiday Pops
OK GO & Scissor Sisters
Death Cab for Cutie w/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
All-American Rejects w/Starting Line
The Killers w/The Red Romance
My Chemical Romance
Pet Shop Boys
The Strokes w/Wolfmother
Snow Patrol w/Aberdeen City
John William's Spectacular - Boston Pops
All-American Rejects - Row-a-palooza
Stellastarr* w/The Information
FNX Best Music Poll Concert 2005:
Robbers on High Street, Louis XIV, Interpol, The Killers
Erasure w/Elkland (now known as Goat Explosion (?!))
All-American Rejects w/Hellogoodbye, Armor For Sleep

Are you kidding?

I just found out about this phenomenal concert that happened this past Sunday, December 14th at the Gibson Amphitheatre -

How in the world did they manage to gather that amount of talent in one place for one day?!!

What a line-up!!!! Five of the eight bands are on my favorites list ( The Cure + The Killers - I mean, talk about a long-time favorite plus my present-day favorite! and DCFC, SP and Vampire Weekend, who have the best album of the year?!!), with Paramore, Franz Ferdinand, and Scott Weiland not being counted due to knowing just a handful of songs from each of them (although Franz Ferdinand ranks pretty high in general just purely on sound of the few songs I do know).

I'm stunned.

I didn't read any reviews or how long each band played, but that must have been beyond amazing.

Those lucky LA'ers...

Oink Oink

Excerpt taken from page 50 of PDN's December 2008 issue:

PDN PRESENTS THE WINNERS OF OUR FIRST FACES CONTEST

It's a straightforward concept that really took off: a contest on portraits of faces. And based on the overwhelming response we received, we stand by the old adage that "Less is more." The winning images that follow are divided into four categories of portraiture: celebrity/editorial, environmental, self-portraits and animals.[...] Surprisingly, the highest volume of entries fell into our animal portraits category. [...] We congratulate the winners of our first PDN Faces contest, and we thank you for sharing and putting your best faces forward.

This contest was judged by the editors at PDN.

I was surprised to hear about being picked as one of the 16 winners in the category as I went about it quite nonchalantly thinking, "I have an animal portrait I really like. I'll give it a try."




As some of you know, I DO have a fondness for pigs
photo by carrie higginbotham
(although this is more creepy than anything else)

First run of the season

Saturday, December 13th 2008:

Okemo, Vermont

Awesome. Our first trip to the slopes this season to break out our gear during proper weather and boarding conditions.





We meet up with some HS'ers, as it's most of their first time.

Natalia & her boyfriend give the slope a try after some morning lessons at another location. Hardest part: getting off the lift. I still have some issues.

Natalia and I somehow managed to almost collide, which resulted in our wiping out. Sorry! Got a little too close for comfort.


Jack and Katherine brave their first try on the slopes (and the lift).


At the bottom...

looking good...although Jack was certainly feeling some pain as an earlier fall made him very weary. I was overall very impressed by everyone's ability to stay up for longer than 10 feet.



Après-ski (or rather -board) at the Sitting Bull in the base lodge, listening to some live music along with 20 or less other patrons.

Nothing like some hot chocolate with Baileys and some New England Clam Chowder after a few hours in the cold on the slopes.


It certainly does clear out fast...it wasn't even 6pm. But it sure looks a lot later.

Looking for more fun on the slopes!

Fun With Jack

A little photoshop on request, and then some...

Vampire Weekend - Take 2

Saturday, December 6th 2008:

After a slightly late start (as usual), we make our way to down to NYC and meet up with the cousins at Jing Fong for some yummy dim sum. Brian and I had to find parking and unfortunately, the spot we found was a 1-hour spot, so we had to keep an eye on the clock as we weren't about to get a parking ticket.

The place is HUGE! so of course it's pretty loud, and my ears kept straining to hear everyone's stories of Brazil and such. Haidee and Michael had quite an announcement as she was also caught off guard by the whole thing. Congratulations!!



Walking back to the car, men were dismantling scaffolding that was right next to our car - yikes! So Brian rushed to get our car safely out of harms way.

Off we go to SoHo where we do some browsing at Lucky and then stop off at MarieBelle for some $9 (!!) hot chocolate. Yowsah! It certainly was the best hot chocolate I've had, but wow, that's pricey.


ahh...wish we were back in Ipanema

Next...
we head uptown and park near Columbus Circle within walking distance of Terminal 5, where the concert will be. We stop off at Time Warner Center for some gift shopping, bad wrapping and missed tipping (think Seinfeld).



We give our wishes to David who heads back downtown as we take a crosstown bus to...cross town, then head to Henri Bendel and Barneys (need we say Elmer & Hoong-San are with us?)

Up in the shoe department, I have a little "fun" with the shoes, fun I say, as afterwards, my feet were a bit achy.

I'd never trade my comfy birks for 4+ inch heels. After I took the blue suede ankle boots (left) off, I looked at the price tag and my jaw dropped. Those boots, which happen to be Christian Louboutin, who I just looked up on the web with google search "red soles shoes" since I know close to nothing on high end materialism, cost $1,215 (!!!!).






Heading back on our third and final trip to the car, as we cross Fifth Avenue, I spot Amy Adams, standing at the corner we're walking towards, about to cross 59th Street. Ooh, I was so tempted to say hi, and just as the opportune moment came, I hesitated and then it was gone. It would have been an ideal approach as there was no one around, so no mob scene. She ended up going to The Plaza.

Sunday, December 7th 2008: