Cross-Town Signals

So, my friend Tony dropped by the other day. He brought by a collection of his new comic book series "Jack of Fables", which I read in one sitting. Great stuff, I highly reccomend it. Toto (from the wizard of Oz) gets mauled by a tiger in one of the funnier scenes.

So anyway, the real point is that Tony lives in view of our condo from his building. We spent a few minutes while he was over trying to figure out exactly which window belonged to whom.

Tonight, after an exchange of phone calls, we agreed to send a signal at exactly 10:15. I'd flash our living room lights on and off slowly three times, and wait for the counter signal. There's something wierdly compelling about the experience of sending out a secret signal. My wife and I turned out all our lights at the appointed time and flashed the living room track lighting thrice. Behold, a single blinking lamp in the upper right corner of an apartment building across the way. Signal received. Counter signal sent and received. If only we had bothered to think of "sinister phase 2".

We've decided we need to get some Aldus lamps and confuse the hell out of our neighboors. I note that very few of the nearby buildings (if any) are in a position to see *both* the signal and counter signals.

Back from Ski Trip

So, I learned to ski last week which was a big step . I didn't break anything either, which was another big step. (or both were big slides rather depending on how you look at it) Never having gone before, but having heard numerous horror stories about ski injuries, I had it in my mind that ski slopes must have gigantic animatronic trees that pop out directly in front of you or something - but no. There is merely the fear of hurtling head long down a mountain side and that’s about it.

After four days of practice I even made it down a blue at my wife’s urging. I only spent a small amount of that attempt face-first in the snow. There were even pictures to prove it. The only pictures of last year's snowboarding attempts are of me sitting down on the board in the snow, which was pretty representative of the entire experience. I had a hard time understanding the purpose of the snow board: it seemed to be a transportation device that was only capable of moving you about a foot and a half in a random direction and then dumping you off.

I also had a chance to go snowshoeing which was also a blast. The fun part is that your feet randomly sink about two feet into the snow whenever you step "just so". Though no moose were encountered directly, the promise of moose sighting kept us poised and alert.

We got stuck in the Salt Lake City airport for about 12 hours on the tail end, which was the only downside. Somone in a nearby airport lounge chair was playing some sort of electronic phone game that went "Bee---oop---oop" every ten seconds or so. I couldn't see who it was directly though because there were about 10 people stooped over their phones, and it would have looked wierd to wander around attempting to triangulate the sound. I suppose that in some version of Hell, everyone else is given a little beeping electronic toy except for you. "Bee---oop---oop".