Xmas with the Battens.

The Xmas ham was awesome. Eggs with ham this morning even more awesome.
The kids tearing through their presents.

Cooper, in food coma, "I got loaded at the Xmas party, and all I got was this sweater!" hahaha

Eryka and Cooper

Well, we officially have a plan, we're meeting Exxcess and Lycktonite at the Mt. Rose ski resort bar at 1pm. Snowboarding and I'll bring the snowshoes just in case they're too beat from shoveling snow up in Tahoe.

If nothing else, the fall back plan is to drink at the bar. :D

Will be back with more. Hope everyone had a great Xmas and is spending it with family.

Stopped on IH-80. Actually, don't think I waited for more than 30 min. Just chatted on the phone.

Road dissapearing under the snow and ice. Cool thing is, that with chains, I could pass people on the right or wherever there was snow and ice, while they're doing 10 - 20mph.

My functioning cables. hahahaha actually, they were both working well here. But I like this photo. "Stay in his tracks son, stay in his tracks" :D

After the food coma set in for all of us, Cooper sleeping at my feet guarding his new Xmas gift "My toy!"

Then the kids went out to play. We started at the Bighorn bar, drank with a bunch of the locals, who were having snowball fights inside the bar. It helped that the bar owner was in on it, and flipping snowballs with the rest of them. hahaha fun shit. Then we hit the casinos.

(oops, need to edit the settings so the text is before the photos :D) Got on the road for another out of town trip for some fun. Headed out pretty early and drove up to Reno. With heavy predictions of snow, I can't wait to hit the slopes and some trails. :D

On top of all that, my mom will be in town, so we'll get a chance to catch up.

It was pretty miserable in San Francisco, raining very hard, which can only mean one thing...snow at elevation. Flippin' Awesome!!!

The drive was uneventful, got some hail in Sacramento...but just small stuff. A few miles up, in Colfax, the road signs were saying that IH-80 was closed due to zero visibility over the pass. WTF!? well, that sucks. Anyway, I just ignored the signs and kept driving. They update every hour, and sometimes, you just have to wait on the hwy till they reopen it.

At the chain control, they were exiting everyone...great!!! But as my luck is changing for the best...all around...as I got near the exit, they reopened the hwy. HELL YEAH!!! Cause man, I would have hated being the people who had to exit, as it was grid lock.

Made my way up the mtn, and it slowed as snow and ice were on the ground. Managed to go quite a ways without needing the cables on the tires. Finally near the top, I pulled over and threw the cables on, which was easier than I had imagined (haven't used them in over a year) and got going. Cruising along at 40mph was nice, passing all the other Californians who have no clue. haha

Took some photos on the way....

Near the end, somewhere near Verdi, I blew out one of my cables. So pulled over and removed it and just limped down off the ice till I hit Reno. Nothing major. Arrived around 2pm for an amazing Xmas meal of a slow cooked Honey Ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatos, and some sides and of course family to share it with.

Clean up

Sorry my friends. It's supposed to be a fresh start, and I'm not being good about it. So some clean up is done, and on on ! :)

Tomorrow, Xmas with the fam, then some boarding and see what's up.

Chillaxin'

Man, I must have been tired last night. The cheeseburgers were awesome home grilled. Some casserole to go with it, and Brandon brought over some brown shugga! I just love me the brown shugga. hahaha...as well as a nice 12 y/o scotch.

Actually a nice heavy beer from "Lagunitas" Brewery here in the bay area. They also sponsor the local Gypsies H3 group.

Had that while I sipped on a bit of 12 y/0 scotch, neat, and then we started watching a movie. I have to say, I didn't last long. Got some good snoozing in soon after. Slept like a baby nestled in the bossoms of a large breasted mother. Hahaha.

It's pretty cloudy today, so I think I'll head back up to SF and get some things done. Might work tonight, not sure. On call on Xmas eve = mucho mula!

hahaha, damn, dude...you hit the nail on the head!

Funny, sometimes you just have to give props to those that need props, and right now, my brother deserves props. For figuring out exactly why that shit happened. Thanks little bro, sometimes, you are smarter than me. And I'm old enough now to say it. ;) haha (mathematics, not my strong point)

but you're still a fattyhead! :P

My friends are going to be cooking in a bit, and I can't wait, I am hungry. Then we're watching some cool motorcycle documentary movies and races. Nothing like a lazy Tuesday before the holidays.

Time to move on. For the best. Whatever happens from here on out, I take with a grain of salt. I feel liberated, but still a bit sad about the enormity of it.

On a happier note, I'm off to a friends house for some afternoon fun and relaxation, and then will move in the rest of my stuff to the new place. :) Gonna throw in a 5 mile run today too, and maybe a few problems at the bouldering section of my climbing gym.

2 days and it's snowboarding time. I think my buddy Alan can get me into Squaw Valley ski resort. :D That will be cool, and I'll be sure to take loads of pictures.

welcome

Soooo, where did I leave off. Oh yea, it's been a tumultuous few months, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel. Oh well, this past Friday, I felt like I needed to get out of SF for a bit, to clear my head, so I drove up to Reno to visit my sister and her husband, Chris. I left in the morning, and did fairly good time, even though there was snow and ice on the road. Some slow going over the pass, but didn't have to put the chains on the truck. hahaha good thing as it was flipping cold.

Turns out it was perfect timing, as my sister and my brother in law are moving into a new house. I'll post photos later on. It's a cool two story, 3 bed, 3 bath, huge garage, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, Chris is on light duty, after an emergency appendectomy this past Wed. which he thought was food poisoning. Everything turned out good, and a lot of their friends showed up in trucks, and I think between 4 trucks and one trailer, we moved the entire house in two runs.

organized as best as possible, and then just enjoyed the company of my family.

It was great hanging out with my sister as it has been far to long.























Also got a chance to run into an old hashing friend, McTaco who was up for the weekend at his home in Reno. We bullshitted over some beers.

The next day, took some photos from the deck in my sisters main room. Pretty cool to see the sky red with clouds, figured though, that storm was coming.






So I bugged out earlier than expected and skipped the hot springs. Will do those next weekend as there is quite a bit planned for the holidays. :) I made it over Donner Pass pretty easily, and not too much snow, although it was coming down hard by the time I got up there. Enjoyed a nice peaceful evening in SF last night, after being invited over to the chinese neighbors house for some free home cooked food. flippin' awesome. Their little girl is super cute, and always run to the window, when I start my motorcycle and she hears it, just so she can wave hello. too funny.

At first she seemed scared of the big bad Mexican...hahaha, but it didn't take long for her to be friendly, and then bring me everything in the kitchen for me to eat. :D






















Well, so much to do today, and finally going to get some work done tonight. Headed off for the Holidays in a few days, and planning on getting some snowboarding in, and some snowshoeing, as well as a much deserved trip to Grover Hot Springs.