Holy schmoly does time go by quickly. I even got harangued through my Facebook page for not posting on a regular basis. Well, here goes nothing:

1. The boy started his baseball season. He is a great contact hitter but can't field a lick. Go figure.

2. I got busted skiing out of bounds at Alpine Meadows on a powder day. We had gotten lazy and cut across a closed section to get to some open terrain to cut off some traversing. A ski patrolmen was there and let us have it. Later I learned that my season pass was turned off.

3. Some friends from Minnesota who have a timeshare at Northstar came for a week and we got together for some skiing at Northstar having been banished from my home mountain--Alpine Meadows.

4. Traveled to Davis for some VO2 max and blood lactate testing. I'm now part of a study that will chronicle the increase in both over an 18 month period as a master type athlete gets into shape.

5. For the record, I have a VO2 max that is slightly better than your garden variety couch potato. And for those of you that don't know, VO2 isn't something that is largely trainable. So I'm currently auditioning new hobbies like baseball player heckling (see item six below).

6. Traveled to Arizona where I participated in a baseball fantasy draft, took in some baseball spring training games and joined in on a guy heckling Nomar Garciapara by telling him/Nomar that his wife (Mia Hamm) looks like she smells like salami when she sweats.

7. I had just a little too much to drink for the later part of item six above.

8. I have no field information regarding the natural odor of Mia Hamm.

9. Took the kids up to Tahoe for their final ski team weekend. Maile rode up Summit lift twice on the final day. Jackson got the award for being the best buddy to all the guys on his team. That was a pretty proud moment...twice.

10. Met with the head of ski patrol at Alpine to see if I could get my pass turned back on. We had a great conversation and ultimately I talked my way back into skiing. But I learned a lot and a pretty negative situation turned out okay.

11. Project Johnny Two Point Oh goes solid with good sensations and consistent riding.

12. A college friend came from San Diego with family in tow to ski at Alpine. Had a great time getting the families together.

13. Jackson skied some killer terrain with me one day last week at Alpine. We enjoyed a bit of powder and made some great runs through the trees below Chutes That Seldom Slide, Gentian Gully (more specifically the runs below Broccoli Tree) and finally some open turns down Promised Land. These are some of my most favorite spots and to be skiing them with the boy was out of this world.

14. Rode with Griff on a "kind of hilly" route near Granite Bay. One "kind of hill" saw us climbing in first gear, out of the saddle at a whopping 40rpms.

15. The ride also had us going across a "little stream" that crossed over the road at one point. The "little stream" turned out to be a raging torent that came up to my knee on the down stroke. He dabbed. I didn't.

16. You know it's not a "little stream" when there are two kayakers shoving off from the aforementioned road. They offered to ferry me across. Again, not something I would classify as a "little stream".

17. Found out one of our chickens is a rooster. We got the "chicken" on Halloween and one of the kiddiewinks named her/him Trick. How appropriate.

18. The wifeage found a home for him down in Sunnyvale but the guy didn't want her to drop it off at his house. They met at some random spot and now I suspect that Trick is on some sort of cockfighting death circuit. But then again, it's not cock-a-doodle-doing in our backyard so who cares?

19. I just repurchased some Rudy Project team stuff (helmet that cracked last year in a crash and glasses that were schnibbied from somebody at the last race after I had thrown them down near my stuff during the race). So I must be getting serious if I want to look all team like again.

20. Spent Easter with the family and opened a special B-Mar and Clare bottle of wine and toasted the family.


Tomorrow we will reach into the mail bag and then I'll procrastinate for three weeks on what to write. Hope you are well.

Johnny GoFast