Imagine Joe bombing down the slopes, rocking out to White Stripes

and next he hears this...

I apparently had some technical difficulty while creating his playlist and mixed in some of my ESL preschool songs...

Joe experienced additional technical difficulty when he and the ski techs could not agree on the exact definition of a 90 degree angle. His precise engineer tendencies were in full alignment with his boarder tech skills and the shop guys should have conceded long before they did.

Joe did learn something... a lesson in flask placement: The hands free lift card is super unless you put your flask in the same pocket blocking the card reader from reading the card. The lift attendant was amused. 

I skied 15 years ago and only for a season but I was more competent on skis after 5 days than I am after 5 years on a snowboard. I had some great snowboard instructors. The best was a girl who had three useful tips: First, listen to music while you ride. Second, have a shot before each run (I think she may have said before your first run but we hear what we want to hear) and third, make love in the mountains. (Actually, I am pretty sure she said ‘make love to the mountain’ but...)  I find skiing to be more like trying to keep your imaginary virginity intact.

We LOVE our van...

We added insulation to the upper sleeping space and now we can sleep up top through the winter.  We have a new, fancier porta pottie; lighter weight and more streamlined... perfect for the gearhead who has everything. And, after three years of trial and error we have finally arrived at the perfect camping van winter meals. We have collected jars of meat and vegetable mixtures that we bought in specialty shops and at local markets all over France because they had cool names like Chambord Sauté de Sanglier or Bœuf Normande.  In the end it is stew, wild boar stew, beef stew, deer stew, etc. even jarred choucroute, sauerkraut and sausage from Alsace - perfect!

American football at night in the bar at the campground (the playoff games streamed to the MacBook) made it the perfect vacation!