Snowboarding

I talked to my boss this morning, and he again affirmed that several people up the chain of command agree to pay the bonus. This actually makes me feel better; I just didn't want this to be the situation where the lady from HR was the only person who thought that, and later find out she had misinterpreted the letter or whatever. Anyway, my boss said he would ask on the Florida side what the hold up is. The deadline is in fact flexible, as is my final move date. Cool!

At this point, I have crossed the mental threshhold of relocation - I will do it.

My boss also reminded me to use my flex holidays, as they may disappear with the upcoming merger. I mentioned some friends wanted to snowboard and he said "have fun". Hey, this is my one hobby that won't move to Florida easily.

I drove out to Stevens Pass where I met two friends, already enjoying the slopes. It has been a dry winter, so the local resorts haven't had much snow. There were bare patches, but overall I thought the conditions were normal for this time of year - on the runs that were open. I certainly had enough fun to make it worthwhile!

Stevens Pass

Elevation: 4061 feet. That would impress Floridians, but probably not Coloradoans. :)

Fellow Ski Bums

Mary and Tom, season pass holders.

Taking a break

Enjoying the view, with my shadow.

Mary is funny - she demonstrated her technique of scooping snow with her skis at the bottom of the lift. Then, she would form snowballs and throw them at snowboarders who crossed under the lift. As a snowboarder, I had to protest such treatment!

She also posed a thought question to Tom and me: in a marriage, who has it more difficult, the man or the woman? We hesitated a bit before answering, and she started teasing us about not wanting to get into trouble. Of course, I am not so easily baited, so near the top of the lift, I responded: clearly the woman has it tougher. That's why a man should be allowed to marry two women, so help spread the workload out fairly. We all laughed at that. I reasoned: recognize the truth, and then proactively suggest a fix! Of course, on the way down I was careful to stay outside the reach of her ski poles. ;)

Later at the gift shop, I bought two Stevens Pass T-shirts. What the heck - I've been here dozens of times over the years, and have had many fun times. So these shirts will remind me of that, plus it'll be fun to wear them in Florida. One shirts says "Extreme Terrain Winter Resort" (well, maybe that isn't so accurate) and the other says "Never Let Fear Become the Boundaries of Your Dreams". What an uplifting message.