This video clip, sent to me by Tiff, is entitled “When a Baby is Born in Japan”.
June Mountain
Since there were three people in our group that wanted to learn how to snowboard, I thought it would be a good idea to go to June Mountain instead of Mammoth for our first day ($85 v. $150 for the beginner package). I had read that it is a lot less crowded, which was also good for me, since I am still very much a beginner.
We arrived at the slopes nice and early, but to our dismay, they were not selling lift tickets. The night before there were howling winds, and they had persisted into the morning. We waited in the lobby for a couple of hours to see if they would be opening. Thank goodness they did, at 10:00, and we were first in line.
To get to the main area where there are rentals, lessons etc., you have to take a crazy chair lift. It was seriously scary…good thing the winds had died down. It was SO steep, there is one metal bar holding two people up and no safety rail. It is also a very long ride, giving you a lot of time to think about how high up you are.
This picture does not even begin to convey how scary the lift was. On the way up, I did not want to risk fumbling around with my gloves and camera to try to take a picture. This was taken more than halfway down the mountain.
The scenery was beautiful, though.
D took a picture of me on the way down.
It had been quite a while since I had last skied, so I was definitely rusty in the beginning. For some reason, I could not pick myself up after falling–D had to help me. Too bad we had to leave right when I was starting to feel better about the whole thing.
If you are wondering where k was, she was nice and warm in the condo with her grandparents. D can’t wait to take her out for her first ski lesson. Hopefully she will pick it up faster than me!
Mammoth Road Trip
We left early Friday morning for Mammoth. It was kind of refreshing to veer off of the 5 and take a new route (14 to the 395) instead of our usual trip all the way up the 5. D was excited to see Joshua Trees in the desert.
Somewhere in the Palmdale/Lancaster area we stopped off at McD’s for breakfast. We tried the McSkillet burrito–a bit too much flavor going on for breakfast for us. We also had a mocha. At about a dollar less than Starbucks, it was a good deal, but all of the chocolate sank to the bottom. It was a pretty upscale franchise–WiFi, etc. AND it had a Western theme. Fun.
Yes, that is a horse on the balcony.
Our next stop was Bishop. We bought sandwiches at Erik Schat’s Bakery, “Home of the Famous Sheepherder’s Bread”. The roast beef is recommended over the turkey, which was kind of dry. The sandwiches come with a pickle and a cookie. I also picked up some jalapeno cheese bread, mini chocolate covered macaroons, and a loaf of sheepherder’s bread. The weather was so nice that we ate outside.
On our way out of Bishop we also stopped by at Mahogany Smoked Meats. We picked up some beef jerky and bacon, which I had read about. Pricey stuff (the jerky is like $35 a lb.!), but it was good, although maybe not $35 a lb. good. I just bought a little of the teriyaki and western flavors.
We then headed on towards Mammoth. My brother in law hooked us up with a condo and it was big enough to house our party of nine with beds to spare. Since we were the first to arrive, D had to remove a bunch of snow/ice that had piled up near the front door and garage. He got a good start, but my mom spent the rest of the weekend chipping away at the ice. That’s her idea of a good time. Seriously.
After settling in, we took k out for her first time in snow:
She didn’t enjoy it much. In fact, she was quite scared. Since the snow wasn’t packed, we sank in over a foot several times. Considering we weren’t wearing snow boots, this was not too enjoyable. We took turns going down the hill a couple of times before we became winded. 
We’re Back
We spent a long weekend in Mammoth and just returned this afternoon. We’ll give you a full recap, of course. For now, just enjoy the beauty…
Mysterious Mushroom
This mushroom was growing just across the way from our place. I say “was growing” because since I took the picture on Saturday, it has become decapitated. I’m really curious as to what that person did with it. I mean, the purpose wasn’t necessarily to kill it, since the stem is still intact. Mushroom soup anyone? Haha, that’s gross. 
You can’t really tell, but this was a good size mushroom, about half a foot tall. Isn’t funny that when I saw it, one of my first thoughts was, “I have to take a picture of it for our blog!”
Changing the subject…last night I had fun watching the Oscars (with no commercials, thanks to Tivo). As D knows, this is “my night” to park myself in front of the t.v. for a good chunk of time without any guilt. I sent D to get our dinner from Island Grill. D is notorious for messing up our take-out orders, so last night he did a little role playing before he left, acting out exactly how he was going to order:
Cashier: How are you doing?
D: Well, thanks. I’ll take the [insert our order, reading off the take-out menu]
Cashier: What size drink?
D: Small, please.
Cashier: Anything else?
D: Nope, that’s all.
Cashier: OK, that’ll be [insert $ amount]
About five minutes after he left our home for the restaurant, the phone rings. It’s D.
D: Island Grill is the place on [insert cross-streets], right?
L: No! It’s the one on [insert street name]!
D: Oh, well I’m at [insert different Hawaiian take-out place] and the guy already gave me a sample, so can’t we just get food here?
L: No! Go to Island Grill!!
Lesson learned: We must also rehearse exactly how D will get to the restaurant in order to ensure he goes to the right place!
14 Months Old!
This is k again. I am 14 months old! My parents forgot to celebrate this occasion, but that’s OK because I ate a ton tonight. I had the oldie but goodie (rice), some potstickers, garden vegetables and turkey burger patty. I ate longer than my parents again. I couldn’t figure out why my parents were eating the thick noodles and not sharing. But I digress.
I am here to tell you that I have advanced my speaking skills past Ay-Da. I say DaDa and MaMa. It is funny because I say DaDa a lot and I get everybody’s attention all the time, however the guy with the spiky hair always points to himself and repeats the word. Like he is the only DaDa! Anyway, I also say nana when I receive this curved yellow fruit. My parents get a big kick out it. They are easily amused.
Buh-bye.
SCP
Our Saturday outing was at South Coast Plaza. We didn’t buy anything aside from food. For some reason, not very many clothes appeal to me lately, and the few items that do are way too expensive. Anyway, we ate at Boudin SF, which recently opened in the main part of South Coast. We really enjoyed the tomato soup in a bread bowl. The chicken sandwich was just OK. D thought the salad dressing on the organic greens that came with sandwich was “fantastic”. 
Afterward k and I went on the merry-go-round, k’s first time! 
We ended up not being allowed to ride like this (one person per horse!) so I got off and held onto k. She was OK for a little bit, but then became scared of the up and down motion, so I just held her the rest of the time. She had fun looking for and waving at D each time we passed him.
So colorful!
Belated Valentine’s Day
It’s kind of difficult to celebrate Valentine’s Day on a weekday. Instead of going out, I made a “special” dinner of salmon and asparagus on top of soba noodles and tiramisu for dessert. I really liked how the tiramisu turned out.
This would have probably looked better on a smaller plate, but it was delicious if I do say so myself.
I bought this kid-size beach chair for k as a Valentine’s Day present. It matches our beach chair and she loves sitting in it. Notice that she is hugging her Hello Kitty that she received from her Aunt and Uncle for Christmas.
Hello World!
This is k. I would like to tell you about all the cool places I have seen before my 1 year old birthday. Here is my Top 10 List…
#1 South Kohala Coast (Big Island)
#2 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Big island)
#3 Huntington Beach
#4 Berkeley
#5 Napa
#6 Seal Beach
#7 Laguna Beach
#8 Irvine Regional park
#9 El Dorado East Regional Park
#10 Fashion Island Mall
It was a lot of fun visitng all the places; however sitting in the car seat for hours was not.
My parents are cool. However, there are a couple things that bug me about them. For one, they make me brush my teeth and they think that if they say “brush brush” in a excited voice I will want to. Also they make me drink milk and sometimes I am not even thirsty. I am looking forward to year two. I haven’t been anywhere cool since I turned one; however I hear them talking about a place called Mammoth Mountain. Stay tuned!
Can You Blog About Something?
This was the questioned posed to me by D tonight. Well, things have been busy, but not with anything exciting. The mundane activities of life certainly take up a lot of time. The highlight for this weekend was going to Home Depot to buy a new hose for the dryer and a fire extinguisher. Various magazine/newspaper articles put me on a safety kick. D actually had to go back to Home Depot because we bought the wrong kind of hose, which is very typical of us non-do-it-yourselfers. Afterward we ate lunch at Fuji’s Famous Burgers. k slept through the whole lunch, but we saved some for her. The place is small, but there’s plenty of tables and it is nice and clean. We shared a teriyaki-avocado burger and a beef and chicken teriyaki plate and fried zucchini. We were still hungry and also split a spam musubi, which was probably the best part of the meal. If we go again, maybe I’ll try one of their burritos with fried rice–sounds interesting.
Here are some pre-race pictures from last weekend.
Cute mile markers. D is contemplating running a full marathon next year. Yes, I think he’s crazy.
We carbo-loaded alongside D with a spaghetti dinner on Sat. night. k seemed to enjoy it!