The FORTRESS of SOLITUDE

or
How The Entire Thing Turned Around

After both of my accidents, I was severely frazzled. I stopped twittering. Although I knew I would blog about it eventually, I just felt drained of any kind of wit. I did manage, however to have a great weekend considering.
First of all, I have my PS3 which is as badass as everyone says and 100x moreso. I now have Motor Storm, Tiger Woods 2007, Skate and a whole slew of games I downloaded, including my fave - Super Stardust HD. SO FUN. Then on Sunday I had Ian, Trevor and Tyler over for Thanksgiving dinner. I had bought a roasting chicken because even the young turkeys looked a little too large for our purposes. Tyler was making a carrot dish, Trevor was bringing Yorkshire puddings and whipped cream for the pumpkin pie that Ian was bringing. I decided to go overboard, so I made the chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. First off, my kitchen is too small for even two people to be cooking in it. Also, I don't have enough pots to cook that many side dishes. Finally, the chicken was twice as big as the recipe I was making called for, but like the assclown that I occasionally embody, I didn't adjust cooking times. So..in the end, the chicken turned out perfectly, but everything else (save the stuff other people made) was overcooked. :( I was not impressed, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. The Yorkshire puddings, French carrot dish, pumpkin pie and blueberry pie were all incredible. It was a fun night all around. :)
After that, not much happened until the Snow Show on Thursday. I was super paranoid that I would have to pay copious amounts of money to Ms. Swan...

...and thereby be unable to pay for me skiin' shit. Thankfully, it turns out this wasn't the case.
T and I arrived at the Snow Show at about 3:30 and did a big circuit of the entire event. LOADS of stuff there (I'm actually considering heading back to pick up my only missing items - gloves, goggles and a boot bag).
Anyway, we found a great ski kiosk with really helpful people. I explained my whole story - used to ski, was quite good, but haven't done it in 10 years, want to start up again so the learning curve will be short before I get back to where I was (hopefully). So, he pointed out a couple skis that would be good and the second pair he showed me looked badass and were $299 from $700. I'm there. I bought 'em. They're red, black, gray and silver...nice (pics below). We taggged them with our receipt and left them there to shop for boots. I did try on boots at the same place, but they only had low-end ones that were way too tight on my extremely wide (and sexy) feet. He was really good and wrote down a few brands that I should try and find at other kiosks (because they're designed wide).
We headed to find the boots but were pretty unsuccessful until we stumbled upon this one exhibitor. Going towards the back, both T and I immediately noticed the UBERhot babe helping out some other customer with boots. The waiting game began. Both T and I circled like a pair of buzzards waiting for the opportunity to grab his attention. Unfortunately, my patience was wearing thin so I eventually hit up some other, older gentleman to help me. I told him my story and he started rattling off all this information - he was really helpful, too, even moreso than the dude at the other kiosk. He had me try on this one pair of boots that seriously felt like my feet were in a bear trap. As he did this, the UBERhot babe became available and asked T if he needed help. With a frown, he pointed towards me and said, "It's for my buddy...but he's been helped." We were both bummed. :)
T came over and we found a pair of boots on display that were at the top of the list the other dude gave us. Sweet. Now, do they have them in my size? The guy helping us had gone off to find another pair that he thought would suit me. As he rounded the bench he pulled out the exact same pair we were eyeing - Nordica Beast 10's. SCHWEET! He put them on and I swear...it was like putting my feet in heaven - if heaven were a shoe and God was the eater of toe-jam, not souls. It was beautiful.

"I'll take them!"

The boots were regularly in the $500s, but were marked down to $329.99. Excellent. We got to the cash and noticed some ski bags for 50% off. I grabbed a nice one and brought it to the cash. They rang it in - $15. SCORE. Then she rang in the boots...$279.99...


...silence...

...I pulled out my VISA and shut my mouth. DOUBLE-SCORE. We managed to find poles elsewhere and then were off to find an outfit. I went to the Sporting Life area and was looking through their Burton jackets (T is always extolling the virtues of Burton gear - thanks, man.). Sadly, they didn't have an XL in sight. Bummer. But, I did manage to find an XL Burton 686 Jacket. It was grey with baby blue pinstripes running through it. BEAUTIFUL. I tried it on. Perfect. Looked at the tag - $199.99, regularly $399.99. SCHWING! In the meantime, T had been a doll and found skipants for me. I tried those on too and score - perfect fit.
It was really my day. I wanted to find a boot bag, too, but I had had enough of the Snow Show so we left (which is why I may return sometime this weekend).
The entire getup cost under $1300 and I'd set aside $2500...I was stoked and still am. Watch out!

Here it is in all it's sexiful glory.


Categories: Miscellaneous