Wow Whistler Gondola Collapsed

Wow this is crazy I was on this Gondola 3 days ago. As much as I complained about my trip it could have been a lot worse. If you look at the pics it looks like the tower snapped perfectly clean.

Twelve people were injured in the accident, said Ryan Proctor with Whistler Blackcomb public relations, but all had been released from the local clinic by Tuesday evening.

The accident occurred at 2:30 p.m. on the Excalibur Gondola, which carries skiers to the top of Blackcomb Mountain from Whistler Village, which is co-hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics with Vancouver.

First big storm of 08

3 feet in the last 48 hours. More snow Thursday. Maybe another 3 footer by the beginning of next week with storms lined up for post-Christmas too. It's about time we got a storm. It's a great time to get up to Tahoe and enjoy the snow. This is a view from the office with Northstar in the background. I love the snow.

Whistler Trip

Last week I went on trip to Whistler Canada with Ride Snowboards. I hadn't never been to Whistler and was excited. It took a long time to get there, first was a two hour flight to Seattle, then a thirty five minute flight to Vancouver, then a three hour bus ride to Whistler, it doesn't sound like much but with all the layovers and delays it ended up taking about eleven hours total.

It's always fun going on these trips, I see friends from other shops all over the country that I only see a few times a year. The purpose of the trip was to see the 2010 Snowboards and to give input on making the 2011 line. They have a few cool boards coming out in 2010. We were able to ride in the morning, then go to meetings in the evenings. I was really cold with sub zero temps and high winds and fog the whole trip. It was less then ideal conditions. I didn't due much riding due to the temps, so I ended up walking the village and checking out all Whistler had to offer. It is a really fun town with world class restaurants and fun bars and night clubs. I wish Squaw would have built there village more like Whistler. Even with the weather and lack of snow I would still love to come back to Whistler when there is more snow.

Thanks to Ride for putting me up in the Chateau Fairmont and making this a great trip.

Porters Indoor Soccer Season Is Done

Well the season has come to an end for the Porters indoor soccer team. The final record was 2-7, not impressive by any means but we improved a lot throughout the season. We started of by getting are buts whooped and by the end we were holding are own and only losing by a few goals, not bad for most of the team not playing in 10 years. I'm already looking forward to next season.

Thanksgiving Dive Trip

From August 07 Peace Trip

From August 07 Peace Trip

From August 07 Peace Trip

From August 07 Peace Trip

This trip was a nice relaxing time away from work. With the lack of snow we have, it has been making my job a little stressful. I decided to leave the camera at home so some of you might recognize these pics from a year ago. I wasn't planing on doing much hunting but my dive buddy Vic wanted some help so I couldn't resist. I ended up catching at least a dozen Lobster but most of them were short, but we got a few keepers and 14 scallops it will make Vic a nice dinner.

Sorry for the lack of post, not much has been going on just a lot of work. Off to Whistler Canada for a work trip next week. Keep you updated. Lets hope we all get some snow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I wish I was snowboarding but we still don't have any snow :( Sorry for the lack of posts, I haven't been doing much but working. I am off to Ventura tomorrow to go diving for two days on the Peace Boat Yea.

Enjoy your Turkey and football and don't eat to many desserts. Thanks to Daniele, Diane, Ginger and Janet for cooking an amazing dinner tonight, It smells good I can't wait to eat.

Donating Blood

Last night I donated blood. I donate every 2 months. I have 0- which they love since it can be given to all blood types and I am also CMV- which they told me is very rare and is the only blood that can be donated to baby's. I like donating blood it gives me a sense of helping others in need. I recommenced if you have never donated go try it, it only takes about 45 minutes and at the end you get some cookies. Contact your local United Blood Service or Red Cross.

Danielle also donates on a regular schedule and last night she donated Platelets, it was the first time she had. She has an extremely hi platelet and is a perfect candidate, it's a long process it took about 2 hours but they gave here a movie to watch. Not sure about all the technical stuff but what they do is spin your blood as it comes out and they give back the red blood cells and keep the platelets. Your body will replenish your platelets in 24 hrs.

Most patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or organ transplant need platelets in order to survive. In fact, doctors are finding that platelets play a vital role in more and more new therapies.

With just a five-day storage life, platelet donations are delivered quickly to the patients who need them. Platelet donors have the satisfaction of knowing that their donation will be saving a life within just a few days.

My brother John is in town doing some work for Porters, so I talked him into going and donating blood with us. He had donated in High school but not since. He did donated and must have been excited because he filled the bag really fast. Thanks John for donating keep it up.

Even Animals get drunk know and then

Drunk Animals - video powered by Metacafe

Mr. Fix-it

Danielle had class on Saturday, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to straighten up the garage and get the Christmas stuff out. The next three weekends are booked up, so I put the lights up on the house. All of the neighbors said I was making them look bad. We won't turn them on until Thanksgiving weekend, but I am glad that is out of the way. Today, I decided to tackle the task of replacing a tile (that the cats mysteriously broke) and cracked grout in the kitchen. I have never fixed tile or grout before - it was an interesting challenge. The main problem was trying to match our current grout with the colors at Home Depot. So far, so good!

Scuba and Soccer

From Jason's Life

From Jason's Life

This week has been really busy. I was teaching Scuba Diving at the lake all weekend so there went my days off. And by the way I started getting a cold, I was really congested making equalizing my ears fun. The weather didn't cooperate which made for some ocean like conditions in Tahoe, it's good for the kids to learn. All 7 of my students got through the class which made it all worth the effort.

Monday was back to work at Porters.

Tuesday was Veterans day which Danielle had off so I took the day off to chill at home, I needed the rest it helped with my cold.

Wednesday back to work just another day at the office.

Thursday was Porters indoor soccer game in Incline We ended up loosing the game, I actually played my best game of the season but Kevin started in goal and when I took over it was 5-0. I played my heart out and stopped what seemed like 100 shots, they slipped one by 1 on 1 from about 5ft nothing I could do about that, the final score was 2-6. Better luck next week.

Porter's Takes Two in a Row in Indoor Soccer

Porter's Indoor Soccer Team is now 2-3 after last night's win. Next week we will attempt to hit the .500 mark. Danielle somehow managed to not foul at all. Amazing. I played goalie during the second half and only let three goals threw. The final score was 14-9. Indoor is very fast paced and physical - a good time for sure. Hopefully I will have good news to report next week!

Get out and Vote.

Don't let this be you get out there and vote. You still have time. NOW you have 6 hours left.

Setting Up San Francisco Ski Fest

Alex and Alica Getting it done


It's starting to come together.

Danielle and Alica looking cute.

Alcatraz

The crew worn out after a long day.


Today the Porters crew loaded up three huge trucks and headed down to San Francisco for the huge SF Ski Fest. We all met at the warehouse at 5am, the trucks were already loaded and ready to roll. The drive was slow it rained off and on, it took us about 4 hours to get to Fort Mason with one stop.

Upon arrival the eight of us were in full set up mode. We do four tent sales a year, so this sale was a cake to set up. Within the first 4 hours it was looking like a legit sale, we ended up staying till five pimping it out with signs and organizing.

Were now all checked into our hotels and getting showered up to go out. It's always fun to be in SF the city is always going 24/7. This is going great weekend lets hope the sale is a huge success.

Come out to the sale this weekend and say hi. By the way there is a ton of Beer and Wine vendors, it could be fun.

What 3 cats will get you

Nothing good...that's for sure! We went to a nice dinner with Danielle's Grandma and Uncle Jim, who is visiting from Spain, and come home to a broken counter top. It seems that the dish that was sitting on top of the fridge was knocked off and landed onto the kitchen counter. It broke the tile clean off! Damn cats...