Damn Sailor Jerry!

So Ziggy and I kicked up our heals a bit last night, celebrating the Bears' overtime win against the Saints, finding a place to live and possibly (hopefully) finding jobs as ski school instructors. How crazy is that? I spend the summer season writing about my passion and the winter season teaching another. I think I died and went to Heavenly!

We watched the game in Tahoe City at a bar called Pete and Peters. We're calling it Toons West since the first thing we saw was a cardboard behind the bar with squares for the Bears-Saints game. There were two guys Ziggy insisted were Barry and Ed in another dimension, and another guy wearing a vest (no sleeves) that we figured was the winter version of Bob Morand. We each bought two squares (Zig refrained from his usual "Floyd's Balls" entry). He would've won if the damn Bears didn't kick a field goal, and the game ended in a 24-24 tie. But we'll take the win. Fun crowd who seemed to get a kick out of getting to know the Chicago boyz. Where we went wrong was stopping in Truckee for two nightcaps and then opening our handle of Sailor Jerry while watching "Dumb and Dumber." (Thanks for the suggestion, Jeremy. We think it aptly fictionalizes our adventure!)

So yesterday we went back to South Lake Tahoe. Terry thinks he's found the place to stay for the season. It's not a ski out place but looks like we can ski right to our door at the end of the day. Now all we need is some snow. Even New Orleans has it for crissakes! Oh, and there's a community hot tub walking distance in your flip flops and towel (or in the buff for you exhibitionists). Then we visited human resources at the mountain. Our timing couldn't have been better, as they were pretty much closing up their hiring for the season. We ended up interviewing for jobs and it looks like we might both get hired teaching ski school--me full time and Zig part time with the handicapped. Orientation is Monday and training is next week. Of course, we still need confirmation that we do have jobs.

After Tuesday's movie night (code for we were lame and stayed in), we did two one-mile hikes Wednesday. One took us down into picturesque Emerald Bay (pictured above), where we saw a woodpecker and trees that are 500 years old! To put that in perspective, we offer that those were mere saplings around the time Columbus discovered America. Ziggy fell in love and gave one of them a hug (photo above). Then we hiked to frozen Eagle Lake. How anything could be frozen out here is beyond me since it's sunny all the time and hasn't been below 40 degrees. The scenery was just unbelievable. During the hike, Ziggy regaled how these type of activities would get out bodies working on high octane, and we'd soon be leaving large floating "hindenturds" in the bowl. Apparently they explode right before you flush. OHHHH THE HUMANITY!!!! We also came up with a code name for me, since Zig is hellbent on me staying for the season. I am his "kept wingman," or KW for short. Oh, and Zig came up with a name for the silver Toyota SUV that got us out here. It's "High-Ho-Silver."

It's sunny--again! We are thinking of going up to do a hike near Donner Pass. If one of us doesn't make it back, know the other one had a good meal!