To try and capture the day, I took a quick video of Kolina snowboarding with my Nexus One. My hand almost froze off as I took the video and I later realized that you can operate the phone while wearing a glove! Audioswap isn’t working right now so you’ll have to just watch the video without sound (unless you like wind).

I’m pretty pleased with the video quality -unfortunately the uneven slopes make the video a bit bumpy. Well, another short clip to add to the millions of YouTube videos.

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Half day at Northstar

After a ton of traveling in December, I closed out 2009 and brought in 2010 with 22 friends in a cabin in Tahoe. 5 days with 4 of them out snowboarding was not what I’d call a relaxing vacation, but hanging around our cabin and not having Internet allowed me to take a much needed mental break from work. Trip planning was a bit stressful with 22 people, but we had enough food (thanks to Kolina), people amused themselves with bananagrams, and nobody got too peeved while being in tight quarters for a few days. I’m glad I booked the cabin months in advance, since I had nearly 0 time while I was in India to think about the trip until I got back. If I would do it again, I would remember two things – less muffin, more toilet paper.

Here’s a slideshow of my pictures:

Another awesome part of the trip was getting a chance to use my now-announced Nexus One. The pictures are really clear and sharp – it’s like I don’t need to take my point and shoot camera around anymore:

From Tahoe New Years

It’s Wednesday, 3 days after getting back and I’m already itching to get back to the slopes. Northstar, anyone?

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Tahoe for 2010

Drove up with my Thule snowboard rack. I’m not gonna sugar-coat this. This thing killed my gas mileage, due to wind resistance from the boards. I got ~25mpg on the way up, compared to my usual 43mpg. 25mpg is good for most cars, but since I have such a small tank, this was frustrating. I took it off on the way home and was back to my normal mileage. I think I’ll have to sell this guy:

From Northstar 2009

Anyway, time for pictures! If you’re curious about the rest of the pictures, you can check out my multi-day Northstar album and specifically look at the pictures starting here.

To get to Lookout Mountain, you have to take one of these silly pole lifts. For snowboarders, it’s harder than it looks, and almost all of us fell a few times on the way up. I got dragged for a bit both times =p

From Northstar 2009

Lookout Mountain is filled with some steep and fast runs. Martis in particular was a lot of fun.

From Northstar 2009

Going down moguls on Boca. By going down I mean, heeling and falling down a whole bunch. I suck at moguls…should only go on them with my skis.

From Northstar 2009

Barely any snow at the end of the run:

From Northstar 2009

And really, anywhere except the mountain:

From Northstar 2009

Of course, a snowboarding trip could not be complete without throwing snow at each other:

From Northstar 2009

Nelson with Lake Tahoe in the background:

From Northstar 2009

This time, I decided to take some videos of our group snowboarding. Since I’m not so great myself, it was a bit shaky as I had to also balance myself while I recorded. Anyway, three videos below for your viewing pleasure. I used YouTube’s Audioswap to quickly add some music over the otherwise windy recording. The music makes us look so much more hardcore than we really are.

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Northstar, one last time

Started Friday with an incredible meal at Range and grabbing some ice cream at Mitchell’s. I highly recommend the coffee rubbed pork shoulder and 2003 Piocho Red blend wine. 

Woke up for another 4:30AM trip to Northstar via bus. It was well worth it, since it had snowed some 70 inches over the past week. I feel a lot more comfortable carving down steep slopes, but still have trouble turning quickly when going through the trees. Having the wonderful powder was an excellent cushion, but it made it really hard to stand up after you fall. If this was the last trip of the season, I’d be happy, but I hope I can go in two weeks.

From Northstar 2009

From Northstar 2009

From Northstar 2009

From Northstar 2009

From Northstar 2009

The bus played I Am Legend (zzz) and Glory Road (half-zzz) on the way back. I had seen both movies so I drifted in and out of consciousness. We all made a quick hop over to Hot Pot City Restaurant for dinner. The next day, I found I had gained 3 lbs from the gorging =(

From Northstar 2009

Also on Sunday, I had my success getting an Arby’s Roastburger. $1.94 only with purchase of a small drink. I saw a lot of people in Arby’s with the coupon:

From Android Pictures

I also went to Pinkbery for the first time. Their yogurt is definitely high quality, but more pricey than Yogurtland. Since I live really close to the latter, I think I’m happy just going there whenever I get a craving. With that said, Pinkberry’s pomegranate yogurt is quite delicious. I like having a smart-phone to quickly take pictures to document my adventures:

From Android Pictures

And as you may know, it was daylight savings time. I’m definitely looking forward to all the outdoorsy stuff I want to do this summer.

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Fooding and Snowboarding

January 18-31: Well, for the sake of starting off with the beginning of the year, I’ll mention that I did SF’s Dine About Town, going to Sutro’s, Fish and Farm, Ruth Chris’s Steakhouse, and ChouChou. If you’ve never heard of Dine about Town, check it out – great deals on 3 course tasting menus at some top-notch restaurants.

February 1: Snowboarding at Northstar

February 7-9: Las Vegas

February 22: Snowboarding at Northstar

March 7: Snowboarding at Northstar. Going if there’s enough interest.

March 12-16: New York City to visit my sister and her fiance. Still haven’t finalized where I’m eating and what places to visit.

March 18: My birthday, which will consist of going to work, leaving perhaps 15 minutes early as a reward to myself, and eating at Taco Bell & Jack in the Box. It will be glorius!

March 20/21: Wicked at the Orpheum?

March 26-29: Yosemite with my parents. My Dad, who loves Ansel Adams’ works, is going to finally see Yosemite. I’ve told them to get on the treadmill in order to be able to do some light hiking – we’ll see how that goes.

April 7: Travis @ Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley

April 19: Killer’s @ San Jose Event Center

April/May: Peru and camping at least twice in Yosemite. I’m hoping to go to Young Lakes and up Half Dome. Definitely not Rancheria Falls.

June 26-28: Boston for my sister’s wedding

July 4th: Something awesome with college buddies. Maybe renting a cabin in Lake Tahoe again, and/or rafting?

July 13: Coldplay @ Shoreline Ampitheater

August 29: Dave Matthews Band is slated to perform somewhere in SF. I am so going, even if it means I’m going by myself =p

Update: After I posted this my Dad calls. “We are thinking about spending two weeks in the Galapagos Islands next February. Interested?” Yes!!

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Upcoming Events

Friday:

- Saw Devotchka at the Fillmore. The acoustics weren’t great, but the band put on quite a show. I always give bands major props for being able to perform live instead of relying heavily on studio mixing and dubbing to sound good. In this picture, an amazingly strong and limber female acrobat spun around a suspended hoop (you can see it on the right side).

Devotchka at the Fillmore

 - Hung out a bit at Zeigeist in the Mission. A pretty fun dive-bar. Home at 3AM.

Saturday:

- Went up to Berkeley. Ended up checking out Michel-Schlumberger Wines in Healdsburg. They had a great deal on their 2002 Merlot – $17 for a bottle. I got 2.

- Snacked on some food from Tacubaya and Cheeseboard.

- Ate dinner at Ruth Chris’s Steakhouse in San Francisco. It was my fourth Dine About Town meal for January and probably the best. The 12 oz ribeye was incredible. I brought along the 2002 Michel-Schlumberger Merlot as an excellent complement. Home at midnight.

Sunday:

- Up at 4AM to spend the day snowboarding at Northstar. It was my first time using my recently purchased snowboard gear and wow, it was amazing! It was my second time snowboarding and I’m already pretty good at carving. 

My snowboard is to the right of the green one in the center"

The weather was also gorgeous

 Whew, tiring weekend.

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This past weekend