Agi is My Good Luck Charm

We went skiing last weekend with a bunch of friends. Actually, I guess it was more snowboarding than skiing - the rest of the group wanted to learn to snowboard, so I figured I'd join them rather than be the only one on skis. (Andrew spent most of the weekend at the card room.) We rented some snowboards and hit the bunny slopes at Kirkwood. I remembered a lot more about how to snowboard than I thought I would - the board mostly does what I tell it to, I can sort of link turns, and I can get down the easy slopes without falling. It was tons of fun to snowboard again, but I'd forgotton what it was like to fall so much and get snow stuck in my hat. Ben, Amelia, and Kelle had never snowboarded before, so they were too sore the next morning to go back. (I was a little sore too, but mostly in my shoulder from one bad fall.)

So Agi and I were on our own for skiing on Sunday, with everyone else wanting to stay back at the condo. We set out after a leisurely breakfast to get in a half day of skiing (me on my skis this time). At the junction of CA 88 and 89 we saw a hitchhiker. This intersection is maybe 14 miles from civilization in any direction, so it's a little unusual to see people hanging out there. If I were by myself, maybe I wouldn't pick him up, but with two of us in the car it seems pretty safe, and Agi says yeah, pick him up. So we pull over. His name is Justin, and he'd hitchhiked here from Stateline but the first ride he found needed to go the other way at the junction. Anyway, turns out that Justin and I work for the same company, but had never met before, presumably because it's a Big Company now, and he's in sales and I'm in engineering. Small world, I guess.

We got to Kirkwood, and Agi realized she'd forgotten her ticket back at the condo. They'd bought tickets in town in advance because it's only $50 if you buy in advance, but more than $60 if you buy there. But the ticket guy was nice and gave her a discount anyway - the ticket ended up costing less than the original one.

We skied a bunch of different parts of the mountain, although the back side was closed because of high winds. We stopped pretty late for lunch, and Agi convinced the grill guy to give us a beer and two hot dogs for less than ten bucks. Sweet!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and we made great time back in the car (just over 3 hours).