Hi and welcome to the recap I promised myself I'd get up on teendrama before I left for Sweden: 2007/2008 Ski Season Recap! Normally, I'd do this weekend-by -weekend but I was just so lazy / distracted this winter that I didn't get around to it, which is a huge shame since this was such a super sick season all around. Quick overview before we jump into things (and this is a loooong one) - 30 days, two *big* dumps in VT (15" each?) and *three trips of west* - Jackson Hole, Beaver Creek, Snowmass/Aspen - plus of course Sink or Stoopid Skim (sank, sorry for the spoiler, but you already knew that was coming). Anyway, ready? (oh, this pic? Mount Snow, somewhere around mid-season me thinks).



Early season wasn't looking so hot. Not sure when I took this (early January?) but I think we were all pretty sure this would be a classic VT season - snow, then thaw, snow then thaw, snow then thaw. Accumulation ruined by rain.



Januarys are for black out weekends (MLK), so we hit up Stratton for freeeeeeeee courtesy of my pal Sue (she's the one who was so good to us at the Google Ski Trip!). Thanks Sue! (and hope I don't get you in trouble for writing about this! :)



Stratton + holiday weekend + gondola = lines. McD looks less then thrilled, but if I remember correctly this was a pretty sick day. The parks are so super nice at Stratton (Mount Snow, please take note).

Hey! Sorry to take so long to get these pics online, but it literally took me *days* recover from the wedding event of the season: J and Jackie's wedding!!! Just breathe that in a bit... my little brother all married up!! Now, let's rewind just about two weeks ago (Aug 31) and lemme walk you through the three-day event. (ps: Is wedding season almost over??? Four down, two to go!)

(Quick special thanks to Erin + Rob.J + Shoops for letting me steal yer pix!)



So, I wish I had some pics of Thursday's roadtrip up - me and McD picking up ten tuxes, grabbing a sandwich, getting stuck in midtown NYC traffic, realizing we're kind-of running late for the rehearsal dinner, then realizing we're definitely going to be late, then fielding the "this is NOT the type of thing you're late for - CLICK" phone call from my Dad, pushing the Hovepod close to 100mph, getting a $250+ speeding ticket (despite pulling the "I'm the best man and I've got all the tuxes in the back!" line)... and then pulling into ever-so-classy Holiday Inn in Schenectady, NY with exactly five minutes to shower and iron it up.



And when I say ever-so-classy, I mean Duct Tape Holding the Soap Dish In Place classy. Ha!

Me + McD, all spruced up, race to the church (20 mins away). Dad calls me while we're stuck in traffic on the Schenectady backroads and gives me the whole "You know, you're so late don't even bother coming... just meet us at the restaurant" (which makes my heart sink - I'm the best man! I need to practice!") but of course ol' Dig is just joshin' me. By the time we rolled in - 20 mins late - the pastor was just getting her rehearse on.



You ever been to a wedding rehearsal? Usually a fifteen minute job - "You stand here. You walk with her. Then someone's going to sing annnndd we're done!" type of thing. Not this time. This one lasted almost two hours (someone back me up?) - we practiced walking in, walking out, waking in, walking out. Jackie and J practiced their vows (all of them!), the "I Do's", everything. By the end we were starving and exhausted. If I was still five years old, I'd be on the floor kicking and crying.



But that's okay cause the rehearsal dinner (!) had this whole raw bar spread! Crab legs, skrimps, oystahs = delicious. We barely made a dent in the thing (foreshadowing) - I mean, do you really need to stuff yer face with raw seafood on a stomach full of Bud bottles just 12 hours before your brother's wedding?



Open bar, family + friends = good times. Please bathe in this magical scene of one of last photos of me + the unmarried version of my brother that you'll ever see on the teendrama.

It's getting near the end of the summer and know what that means? I'm trying desperatly to keep up with the teendrama so I'm not 800 entries behind for when the fall rolls around. And, more importantly, I'm trying to clear my plate before J's wedding (two days! holy doggy!).

So rewind just a wee two weekends ago to August 18. MLS Soccer isn't something you'll see too often on the teendrama (World Cup is a different story), but when McD + Milberger came through with some freebee tickets to see David Beckham ("Oh my God, David Beckham!!!") and the LA Galaxy take on whatever the local team is the New York Red Bulls, I gladly accepted (Will, consider us half–even for those Yanks luxury box tix I scored earlier this summer, k?). (Hey this is the first time Beckham had played in the East Coast, no?)

Anyway, about 10 of us made the trek out to NJ (Giants Stadium) on Saturday afternoon to lounge in the parking lot, eat some delicious grilled meats, enjoy a beer or fifteen and, oh, watch some soccer.



Fired up the Hoverpod around 4p. She gets confused with all the tunnels and such (here: Holland Tunnel) - who knew it wasn't just a straight-shot across? The route is actually much more windy.



And about an hour's worth of traffic later = parking lot dreams. Not a very exciting shot - moslty dudes wearing different flavored Beckham shirts - but see that yellow highlight? Rumor has it that's slated to be the first indoor skiing facility in the US! What?!? You've never seen indoor skiing before?



We let McD take over the grilling tasks. (Me + J both brought our BabyQ's on a lil' fieldtrip)



Spitting sausages down the middle and then filling them with Miller Lite? Pretty genius.



Splitting them with this "Alaska" pocket knife that Dad gave us back in, what?, 1995??? Legendary. (J, I can't believe you actually have this in your car. Mine's still at home - I opened it once - back in high school - and was never able to figure out how to close it. Huh.)

Man, can I be any more two months behind on the teendrama? Come'on - there's lots going on! So, I owe you all a SXSW recap (um, almost a month ago?), an Easter recap (hey, that's only two days ago! ps: see 2006), some apartment pics (I moved in last week despite on-going construction) and what else, maybe a recap of that $800 karaoke night (ah, let's just skip that one).

Maybe we'll try to do one-per-day this week utill I catch up? (ha! that'll never work). For now, you get pics of Mount Snow's closing weekend, er, a few weeks back (J, shhh!). Me + Matt + Will + Christian made the trek to VT for the first time (for them) in a month and (for me) since February (I haven't been up since Beaver Creek? Huh.)

Anyway, last two days of the season (I thiiiinnnkkkkkk... there's a rumor the mountain may be open again this weekend - we'll see, anyway...) and we had near perfect weather on Saturday.



You know, what a weird season this was. Dry all the way through January (wasn't New Years a bust too?) and then after I booked all these trips out west (BC + Whistler) to make up for the shit snow, it started *dumping* in VT. Late Feb / March storms gave Mt. Snow some pretty solid late season coverage so a lot of the trails were still open (and leaving us wondering why they were closing the mountain so early. The answer: the closing date is closen early in the season so all the foreign kids can get their limited visas, etc).

Oh, regarding the coverage, it was good (for this late in the season) everywhere but this trail (BearTrap - Mt. Snow's signaure mogul run). See those little islands of snow on the upper left? We tried to gap the dirt + grass by jumping from island to island. Almost worked, but then again I also almost slammed into the pole.



Me + McD on the rickity ol' BearTrap double. Remember to wear yer helmets, kids!



The snowboard park was in pretty solid shape too. Lots of rails (er, see below) and some nice soft kickers. I'm soooo 30 years old that it took me three. tries to clear this one. +1 to Christian for the excellent camera work. [video]



Closing weekend marked Will McD's one year anniversary of busting his knee (read: tearing his ACL). What better way to celebrate then by getting SLAYED by the same rail! (was it really *this* rail?) Make sure to watch long enough to see J hit it pretty clean at the end. [video]

Why hello! I'm 100 years behind on teendrama, so let's try to catch up with some G-Unit Ski Trip action. Rewind yourself, um, two weeks for this one (Feb 8-9) and brush up on the recap of last's year ski trip before I blow your mind with the tale of how my employer shuttles every employee east of CA up to Stratton, VT for two days of skiing, all the free meals you can eat and big ol' dance party.

Busses that leave early Thursday morning are for suckers, so we motivated on Wednesday night and crashed at Mount Snow. Special thanks to Mosh for the ride up (I left the Hoverpod in NYC so Will + crew could mke it up for the wkd - foreshadowing!). Around midnight I met up w/ Alex + Karen at Mt. Snow, crashed for a bit and then the three of us made the trek to Stratton around 10am. Waiting for me at the front desk? Two lift tix, keys to our condo, food voucher and a Nastar (ski race) badge.



We met up with a bunch of the G kids over the course of the day - always hard since everyone was 100% bundled up due to the cold. Man, it was freezing (super windy!) and the visibility was extra low that first day. Here's Anna + Peter + Jigglypuff riding the triple.



Rewind to last year again for a second. During the afterparty, Craig.NM got on the mic and announced the winners of the "fastest skiier" contest. I was all up in arms as I didn't even know about the race and hence did not get a chance to claim the Fastest Google Snowboarder title which is rightfully mine. So this year, I made sure to sign up as soon as I got there (and even going as far as "guaranteeing victory" - which worked great for me when I "guaranteed victory" at last year sink or skim @ Mt. Snow).

So I'm making this race out to be a big deal when it's really just 15 ski gates in a race that prob 20 people entered. But me + Craig + Mosh + Sean braved the course (er, a few times) until we felt as if we appropriately slayed it.



Okay, with the race of out of the way, we went to grab lunch. Actually, we went to grab lunch *before* the race until Jamie reminded us that we needed to get our times in before 2p (!!). So in then out, then two runs up and then lunchtime. I was anxious to make more runs so I ate some discarded buffalo burger I found laying around. Harry.H on the right, Jamie mid-soup in the bg.



After lunch everyone got kind of sleeeeeepy, but I dragged myself out for a few more runs. Good thing, as right after 2p the winds died down, the sun came out and the afternoon offered up some of the better runs I've taken all season (Stratton had tons of little pockets of untracked snow). I made a bunch of runs w/ this crew (from the left): um, don't remember your name, um, don't remember your name either, Scott.T (superstar skier) and Jenny from Denver.

I think we skied right till 4p (or maybe a little earlier - I think they closed the gondola due to wind).

Hello! And welcome to another action-packed edition of "What I Did Last Weekend!" Oh, I went skiing. With Matt and Christian. This winter has been more than pretty crappy and this was actually our first road trip to VT in 2007 (ugh). Two memorable moments from the ride up:

+ I got another f'ing speeding ticket right outside Springfield, MA. 70 in a 45 = $150. 45?!? It's a highway! I saw the lights in my rear view mirror and pulled over to the middle lane thinking the cop would pass, but alas, I flat out got pulled over.

Cop: You know why I pulled you over?
Me: Um, I really have no idea.
Cop: Know how fast were you going?
Me: Um, 70.
Cop: And what's the speed limit?
Me: 65?
Cop: Nope... 45. (long pause) Where you guys going?
Me: Vermont.
Cop: What you going to do in Vermont?
Me: Going skiing.
Cop: Then where are all your skis?
Me: Um, we leave them up there.
Cop: Yeah.

... so, the cop was a dick and this was totally a speed trap. 65 -> 45 in like 2 miles? Come'on. (reasoning: windy road + lots of exits). This is about 1 mile from where I got my last speeding ticket (Thanks.g 06), just on the other side of the highway. Sucks.

Oh, second thing...

+ A few miles onto Rt 100 and we realized that the temperature was -8 degrees. Worst weekend ever?



Saturday morning. Cold, but the wind was pretty still so the skiing was tolerable. Conditions were actually pretty good - especially since our expectations were super low thanks to the the -8 reading. At end of the day we hit Cuzzins for "just one drink"...



... three tallboy Fosters later we were playing asshole with a bunch of Strong Island kids and posing for pics with cougars decked out in Bruce Jacques Fan Club attire.



For real? These girls told us they make a trek up to see Bruce once a year. This is their 7th year doing it - their 2nd with t-shirts. Sweet mother.

ps: note tallboy #3. It's like a throwback to the DPS + Lt. Moore days of Mt. Snow in 2000!



Saturday night brought a little snow - just enough for us to set our Sunday morning alarm to 7am. A little over an inch fell overnight so we made an effort to catch First Chair @ 8am.

7:43am = the earliest we've *ever* gotten to the hill (beating our previous record of 7:47am)



Here's what an East Coast Powder Day looks like. I took this from the Challenger lift (North Face) - this spot on the right had to been about 8 inches deep (some natural / some man-made?) There were 3-4 spots on the mountain where you could get pretty clean first tracks like these if you looked hard enough.



Expecting pretty good conditions, I took my brand new Michi board out. She's a 161 (compared to my Rush which was a 155) so she's super quick but a little slow in the bumps. Took me a full day to get used to riding it (and I'm still a little shaky going switch). Even though the board is only 6 cm longer, the way I have the bindings mounted I must have picked up about 4cm on the tail.

ps: the ghost glows in the dark!

Hello Christmas 2006 recap! Man, I was gone for a good, what, two weeks? And just look at all the action packed excitement you missed! Let's start this off with Christmas Eve (we'll just fast-forward through those three days worth of last minute trips to the mall).

Now, if you remember from last year, Christmas Eve's main event is the Yankee Swap. 20 people + 20 gifts + everyone draws a number. Lowest number picks first, and after you pick (and open) your gift, you have the option of swapping for someone else's (already opened) gift. That person's gift (the one that just got taken) is then allowed to make *another* swap from all the opened gifts (though they can't take back what was just taken from them). Got it? Oh, and since whoever draws the #1 spot doesn't have anyone to swap with, that person gets their choice of *all* the opened gifts at the very end. So, #1 = the best number to draw. #2 = the worst number to get.

Now, let's hand out some numbers!



Poor Gam got stuck with #2(, sucker!)...



... though she chose wisely and got blessed with this this year's Must Have Yankee Swap gift, the garden gnome.



Meanwhile, Rob with #11 traded away whatever crap gift he got (scented candle?), quickly trading up for the gnome. I think the gnome traded hands two or three more times before Rob skillfully ended up with it after the final trade.



Anne drew the Golden Ticket which awarded her my gift - a mini reindeer made from recycled Christmas tree pieces (and yes!, purchased from the same dude that sold Mike + I the reindeer we dragged to Clay's holiday party).



Meanwhile.... Michelle, a dartboard? Other amazing gifts included scratch tickets, bottles of whiskey, some African vase, scented candles, Dunkin Donuts cards and a toy Coast Guard helicopter. What else? (Sorry, no half-eaten hamburgers this year)



Late night (and post Yankee Swap) one of our departing guests found this Yukon Cornelious doll on their car. A crpytic note from the anonymous gift giver was attached. Me + Dig tried comparing the handwriting to the 100 or so Christmas cards my parents had hanging on the walls, but we couldn't find a match. (It's like CSI: Suburbia up in here!)



And then a few hours later, I got an email from Yukon! I tried dorking out with the email headers, but no luck. The gift-giver remained a mystery for another 24 hours until she revealed herself to me over some good'ol townie-bar karaoke.



Okay, Christmas morning. For the non-VIPs who haven't done Christmas with the Crowley's, it goes down like this:

Round 1: Stockings (from Santa)
Round 2: Presents from Santa
Round 3: Family presents
Round 4: Go to Auntie Jeans and eat melted fruit cocktail.

Happy post Thanksgiving... and I'm 10 days behind again. Before I left town to drown myself in Zelda, I survived Kevin K's bday throwdown at Lorley Saturday night. Me + Alex + Kevin dj'ed.



Remeber a few weeks ago - that bender of an evening @ Marshall Stack - when Katie's bf Matt spilled a glass of wine all over Kevin? Katie swore she had the technology to fix it (hough we all said it was impossible). Come Saturday though she wrapped up KK's most favoritist shirt and brought it along. Clean as a whistle!



Best. Birthday. Present. Ever? He had to hold it up to Loreley's Playmobile terrarium to double check. Well done, Shoops!



Oh, and besides the slamming hip hop dance party, the other big news of the evening was that Jonathan and Jackie got engaged (!!!). Word spread quickly via the magic of text messaging. Not to be outdone, I reinacted the scene with a face-blacked-out-to-protect-the-innocent Caroline...



... and sub'ed in this awesome lava-rock thing.



Oh, hello there Jill and Steve. Jill was whispering sweet nothings in my ear - sweet nothings along the lines of "nobody wants to hear Def Lepard! Play more Michael Jackson!" (SHUT UP!)

I'm behind on teendrama so, loyal reader, you get stuck 12 days worth of teendrama told via 15 pics...



Mon 11/6 - Continuing the "How I Became a Master Chef" thread, JJ and I cooked up some double-breaded fried chicken the other night. That's right, double-dip, double-breaded and then fried up in two inchs of vegetable oil. I think we overdid the double-dip (I felt kind of dirty for like 2 days), but still....



Tues 11/7 - LVHRD (CLL) PHN LCKN (read: Cell Phone Lock-In) @ MOMA. Check your cell phone at the door (they put it in these little ziplock bags) and listen to this really loud band in a really big space with really bad acoustics. Come'on Happy Corp, I'm just busting you - I love you guys! Oh, free beers = good beers.



Btw, every confiscated phone was hung on this 60 ft long wall. Apparently at the end of the night they had some magic internet machine that made all the cellphones ring and light up and the same time. Didn't anyone YouTube that shit? Come'on!



While waiting for the elevator on my way out, I ran into four ninjas (and a Doug.J in a spacesuit). Btw, more pics on Flickr

Wed 11/8 - Jill's Happy Birthday dinner @ Mercadito in the E.Village. Sorry, no photos sucka.



Thur 11/9 - Milberger's #27 bday @ Lolita. Tequila shots = actually not so bad this time. Cool art on the wall made from found refrigerator doors (mrjaymillar, $650 - $1200).

Oh, Halloween on a Tuesday, you're so tricky. See, last year Halloween fell on a Monday, meaning that since Monday touches the weekend, people are more apt to dress up *all weekend long* (hence last year's Four Days of Halloween).

But this year, Halloween fell on a Tuesday, which makes it easier to stand-by the "Halloween is only one night a year. I'm only dressing up one night a year" rule. Most of us avoided Carney's collection of 50 Brooklyn-based Halloween parties over the weekend (sorry Mandy. Hey, I even skipped Battjer + Farb's + Scott.F's throwdowns... so, sorry about that too), instead opting to save it up for Tuesday night's Flavorpill party.

About 800 of us met up at Dusk Lounge beforehand, including such teendrama regulars as (let's try to do this left to right):Lindsey (gymnist?), Kevin.K (Marty McFly!), Alison (er, zombie? what?), Becca (Audrey Hepburn), Courtney (someone from Life Aquatic?), Dianne (Robert Palmer guitar girl?), Anne (slutty BoPeep), Jen (crazy spider legs), Grellan (Crocodile Dundee Tom Selleck Burt Reynolds) and me (Slutty R2D2).



Slutty R2D2 = old Amazon box + $33 worth of Filene's basement lingerie (two 36C bras, three pairs of XL panties). I sent this cameraphone pic to my Mom.



I guess she disapproved.



Wait, these pics are out of order. I forgot that we met at the Magician first and *then* took the subway to Dusk. But whatever.



Wise ol' Will McD says: "Even though I was really happy with my costume, I have to say that Kevin was the best by far… Any time you can pull of a Michael J. Fox costume you are IT."

We journeyed over to Flavorpill around 11p, cued up in the huge line outside, battled the evil doorgirl (who strangely didn't have any of our names on the list - sweet!) and then made our way through the, what?, six different rooms o' dance parties.

So, I spent most of the weekend running around the city testing out some of the Big Games that were featured as part of the Come Out and Play festival.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, read this:

A few years ago I was involved in this thing called PacManhattan which was basically a giant game of Pac Man played around Washington Square Park. The idea was to take the concepts behind traditional game design and blow them out - huge gameboards, hundreds of players, games that last for days. The stuff we were working on, combined with a handful of other people thinking and experimenting with large-scale, real-world games fueled some of popularity behind a this genre of "Big Urban Games" (which, more often than not, are amazingly fun and totally change your perception of familiar urban spaces). Anyway, this past weekend, some of the PacManhattan alumn and other ITP superstars put on a Big Urban Games festival called "Come Out and Play" - three days worth of people running around in the streets playing games.