The Start of Something

More than once last year my boss has told me to take a vacation. We get two weeks paid leave each year from our company and coming into the last week of 2005, I had only taken six of those days. I finally gave in and took some time off last week, heading to the Poconos for some snowboarding and some serious chill time.

I hadn't really been snowboarding since my knee surgery two years ago. I went once in '03 and once in '04 but both of those were really trial runs and the conditions weren't great so I couldn't really push myself on the mountain. There were three different slopes near the place where I stayed in Pennsylvania and since I had already been to Camelback (and wasn't really impressed with it), I chose to go to Shawnee Mountain this time around. I had low expectations going in but I was pleasantly surprised with the way the day turned out. It snowed off and on throughout the morning, and although the mountain was entirely open, there wasn't really a big crowd there so it was easy to pick and choose which trails to go down. I got a full day of boarding in and although my knee was a little sore, it held up just fine. Good enough that I will be planning at least two more trips later in the year, one in Vermont and another out West. I am so glad snowboarding season is here.

The rest of my time since Xmas has been spent watching DVD's. I got the motherload for Xmas and am really getting my money's worth. I had forgotten how much I loved Sports Night when it was on the air way back when. Easily one of the best written TV shows ever. I never really started watching the West Wing but seeing Sports Night again has made me rethink my position on that show. I know most of seasons 1 & 2 of Coupling by heart but for some reason never really caught the third season, so most of those episodes are new to me. The first season of Lost is really putting the second one to shame. Something big seemingly happens every episode, something you definitely can't say for season two. It just seems to be spinning it's tires. And I've never seen the first season of 24. I cannot effing wait for the new season to start in two weeks!

I start my new job today! New floor in the building, new cube, new everything, including a new computer so I finally have iTunes at work. God bless streaming radio.