Schif

Hey everyone, long time no post. Whats the good word? Its mid september and this weekend I have to choose whether I want to go to Philly for a concert, play golf or go to the beach. All activities will involve shorts and flip flops. What the hell is that all about?

My mug is 2008, then I went back in 2009 and I haven't been to Musikfest since

I am Catholic actually. Kind of forgot about that down there. I think i wrote it in terms of ducking ropes or something when I was 18.

I have to go there next month for a Bar Mitzvah. Never been to one of these shindigs but considering a room was booked it almost seems like a wedding for a 13 year old. Mazel Tov

Howdy Y'all. I've been depressed since he end of the season and haven't been posting much. Well weather wise its nice and warm here. I'm wearing shorts and my pasty white legs can be seen from airplanes. I need to tan a lot. moving to ocean city maryland in a few weeks to take advantage of warm weather.

5-8 inches projected for Boston on Sunday

F Amtrak. I wanted to use it to efficiently get from Harrisburg to Boston tomorrow but 1. Prices are outrageous, 2. It takes 3 hours longer to ride the train than it does to just drive.

count me out. I'm going to Boston for the St. Patrick's Day Parade instead.

I wear contacts 99.2% of the time unless i'm insanely lazy or I feel like looking ultra snazzy in my glasses.

Any idea if there might be a closing day shindig this year? I haven't had a mimosa in about 11 months.

Maybe I'll pop into Blue to see what all the hype is about one day this week or next weekend.

All this Elk hate. I guess you guys never went off trail there and skied up and onto a guy's deck and then meandered through the trees until you found the Quad again.

So who's going to be around tomorrow?

How's the place holding up? If I feel better I might make the drive tomorrow for some Leap Day fun at Blue

Roundtop is about half an hour away, Liberty and Whitetail are 2 hours away as are the Poconos and blue. Roundtop is overpriced and small and my weekends have been really busy. Spring Break is coming up where I have a week off but I have to spend that whole week working.

Nope. This is by far the worst year of my life in terms of getting on the snow.

Seems like a good excuse to cut out for a day and drive the 2 hours to Blue.

Hey JLaw, you might know since you seem to be the expert on everything, what's the deal with Farmer's Cabinet? Half the time I go to philly they are open, the other half they are closed due to some health code problem or liquor license violation. Are they open or closed right now?

Monk's Cafe on 16fth for some brews and mussels, cruise old city on foot. Barcade is a good time. last time I went to philly I wound up afternoon bar hopping through Fishtown and the surroundings. Fun to drink good beer and check out the wildlife (patrons). Kraftwerk, Johnny Brendas, Bottle Bar East, Strangeloves, Eulogy, all good spots. If you couldn't tell, I typically drink when I'm in Philly.

So does Montage. which isn't always necessary when you can park literally (not figuratively) next to the lift that you will be using the most.

The fog down here in Harrisburg was unreal last night and even with all the fog and 24 hours of torrential downpours the snowpack remains. Probably down to about a foot or so across the area and the giant piles are holding very strong.

Eventually it'll run, and eventually I'll ride it and have plenty of time to drink an entire bomber bottle and eat a cheese plate while on the 1000 vert ride. Soon enough grasshoppers.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that too.

Homeowners and guests only, though they do give out lots of guest passes. Just have to know someone who lives there and you get in for free.

So I went on a limb and decided to cruise down 81 a bit and try out a new mountain today. Kind of a lazy day so I got my gear together and got on the road around noon. Picked up my friend Mike and drove to Hazleton. Nothing says nice ride to a mountain like a quick trip through an Industrial park. So I get to Eagle Rock a bit before 1 and breeze through the security gate after the guy made sure I was on the list and he took my drivers license for some reason. It was my first time to Eagle rock so I drove around a bit and followed signs for the base lodge which took me from the top of the mountain down to the bottom. There were no parking spots down there and the Lodge was closed so I figured I was in the wrong spot. Turned around and called my brother who directed me to the top lodge where I parked and booted up. Headed inside to pick up my lift tickets and I was off. The story of the day was the snow. In the Wyoming Valley and at Montage we got a dusting, maybe 3 inches max, I actually cleared my sidewalks with a leafblower. Well that's not going to fly at Eagle Rock. They got 2.5 feet of snow yesterday and they left a ton of it ungroomed. First run was claw run to Screamin' Eagle. Claw run was a simple little warm up green circle and it finishes up at a spot where you can choose to either get on a double lift that will take you back to the top of the mountain or continue on down a really nice steep headwall with a turn to the right at the bottom. The snow on the right half of the trail was ungroomed and was mostly untouched. Lots of great float in there all day long. Next run was a cruise around Baldy to Screamin' Eagle. The theme of the day was to just go back and forth between all the different green circles and finish with a nice dive down Screamin' Eagle. All the other diamonds were closed. I tried to poach one, but there were clearly some ungroomed whales and icy hunks under the soft snow so I decided against it. Eagle Rock, while a decent amount of trails were closed, skis bigger than it looks. I am looking forward to going there a few more times this year. The views from the slopes are pretty nice too There are some pretty snazzy slopeside houses/condos too. So here's where things get a little crazy. I've been one of the few knuckledraggers on this site since the early days.I love snowboarding, it's truly one of the greatest things ever. But for some reason I decided to try something new. Is that what it looks like? I'm not sure what happened. I think I blacked out for a few minutes. That looks like my mitten in the picture but it surely can't be what it seems. Oh my. That is definitely me and I'm apparently carrying two sticks and I have two tiny snowboards attached to my feet. Well long story short I spent 2 hours in this strange and unnatural state. I went about 300 feet saying "Pizza, French Fry" to myself and then decided that was pretty dumb and I felt more comfortable than I expected and I was able to almost immediately start skiing parallel and actually making/linking turns. I'm a little more comfortable turning to the left, but I'm OK to the right too. I can also hockey stop and make nice slow and deliberate turns. I tried to make nice tight side to side turns and the first time I tried that I caught an edge and fell (also I have no idea how to stand up on these things so I had to take them off) but the second time I got the hang of it and I was doing alright. I wasn't comfortable enough for Screamin' Eagle so I did all the green trails and went to the beginner lift for 2 hours but I must say I felt good and I really enjoyed it. I know it's really late in the season for my first TR but I hope to follow this up with a bunch more. Cheers, Schif