I taught an afternoon group of 1. After work Celeste and Dylan were having a talcum-powder fight.

No lessons on a Saturday! It rained all day. That night was the learning Center party (crappy food for $8!!) where i won the "Snowboard Rookie of the Year" award, apparently "by a landslide".

The Slush Cup took place today. I taught a morning group of 1 (the only snowboard lesson of the day i think), then took pictures of the Slush Cup. Tyler (above) definitely got the loudest audience applause when he lined up and completely sprayed the judges.

Monday. No lessons.

Last day off. I took the dogs hiking along Bully Brook.

No lessons again, so i rode all day, over jumps and through the half-pipe.

Again no lessons, so a lot of riding, as well as a little jamming in the locker room. John Keough brought his dog in that morning.

Rode all morning, then taught an afternoon group of 1. When i got home i took the dogs over to the Mill River, right next to Route 7. We hiked around a bit, and as i was scrambling over some rocks along the gorge, i wondered if the rattlesnakes were coming out yet. Lo and behold when we started back to the truck, a baby rattler was sunning on the pavement and struck at Teco as he walked by, although Teco didn't even notice.

Taught an 11:30 2-person private, then an afternoon group of 1 kid who was convinced that the way he rode (really bad form) was fine and that he didn't need to learn how to do it any better.

That evening i joined Phil and Maeve and we drove over to Curt's house for a little end-of-season party. Spud and i played horseshoes and lost to Phil and, um.. John? (i forgot). Those guys then lost to Fred and someone else, who Spud and i then soundly beat.

Last day of the season. The kid i'd had the day before came out for an all-day lesson, so we split the lesson up. Tim had him for the morning, then i took over for the afternoon. I rode for a while in the morning, but i'd been riding so much on slushy snow for the past week that i needed to take a break for an hour or so before i rode with the student in the afternoon. He didn't want to learn anything, so we just rode all over the mountain.

So after being one of the first instructors working, i had the last lesson of the year. 122 days of snowboarding for the season. Not bad.

Slept in. Took the dogs over to the White Rocks picnic area and hiked up the Appalachian Trail to the White Rocks overlook.

Took the dogs over to Okemo and visited with Rob for a bit. Rob invited me out to see the Lacrosse team he coaches play a game that evening, so i took the pups (on leashes) up to Rutland to watch the boys varsity team lose to Woodstock in a score-fest 19-13. Rob's wife and kids Ellen and Samantha were there, and each girl took charge of a dog on its leash for a while.

I drove out to Wallingford Pond and hiked with the dogs out to the pond, which was still frozen. Later that afternoon, Phil called and i met up with him at Buttermilk falls where we took my dogs, his dog Belushi, and Maeve's dog Tucker for a walk along the creek.

Walked with the dogs down the railroad track and over to the cemetary. the sun on the doorknob of my back door looked pretty cool.

Hiked north on the AT/LT from White Rocks up to the top of Bear Mountain. I think there's probably 20 Bear Mountains in Vermont.

Drove down to South Wallingford and hiked into the Green Mountain National Forest along Homer Stone Brook.

Dropped off my truck at a repair shop in Clarendon for its 90,000 mile service. Before i dropped it off, i stopped at the supermarket in Rutland and turned in all my collected change, for which i got $110! As i was leaving the garage on my bike, i realized that i left my gloves at the supermarket, d'oh! So i rode home with freezing hands, but made it OK.

Late in the afternoon i biked back to Clarendon (long uphill) and picked up my truck.

Took the dogs north along the Otter Creek in Wallingford.

Drove over to the AT/LT parking lot along Route 103 and hiked along the Mill River for a while. There was a really cool cable suspension bridge there which Seera went over trepidatiously but it took a long time for me to coax Teco over it. It wobbles and sways as you walk over it. He did a little better on the return crossing.

My back was hurting from not enough snowboarding and too much sitting at my computers so that evening i decided to go out and veg in front of a movie. Kung Fu Hustle was pretty hilarious. Worth seeing, just don't take it too seriously.

Took the dogs over to the Mill River again but didn't hike much, just hung out skipping stones.

Hiked up to the Ice Beds at the White Rocks picnic area.

Drove west out of Wallingford, then south down to Danby, back across Route 7 and up into the Green Mountain National Forest. The dogs and i hiked up along the Big Branch Brook, which had huge boulders in it and was crystal clear. I was hopping along the brook from rock to rock and Teco was following along in the trees, but every time i'd hop up to a boulder, i'd look down and there was Seera right next to me on the rock. She's becoming quite a good hopper.

Took my guitar and bass and amps over to Aaron's house in Ludlow and we jammed for a while. I got there at around 4:00, we started playing at around 4:30... at about 9:30 we realized how late it had gotten with no dinner, so we packed it up.