MRM v4 w/Glenn

It was the first day of my 2010 Xmas vacation, and no big surprise, I was up sometime just after 7a. Mindy woke as I slipped out of the room. I told her that I'd return with coffee soon. She seemed good with that. I felt OK, but could definitely feel last night's beers. Thankfully, though, that faded fast, especially after whipping out 55 sit-ups and 55 push-ups. I left Frankie's pen open the night before. In fact, she was sleeping on the sofa when i headed for bed. This morning, however, she was curled up on her bed in her pen. She joined me at my PC, where I spent the next 10-15 minutes ahead of delivering Mindy's coffee. Frankie and I headed outside a few minutes later. It took some doing but she finally did both. I had nearly resorted to begging. :) I didn't intend on taking Frankie upstairs, but she was so excited when I poured Mindy's coffee, I didn't want to disappoint. Mindy was happy to see me & Frankie, and probably even more happy to have coffee delivered bedside. Frankie was in one of those crazy dog modes. Mindy coaxed me back into bed for some snuggling. However, weighing on n my mind was my daily run. Frankie was in bed with us but was a terror. Mindy got angry and took her back downstairs. Of course she cried from the bottom of the stairs for half an hour. Back downstairs near 9a, I immediately dressed for a run then completed my daily stretch. I thinking I hit the door running at 920a. It was cloudy and 28 degrees with a few scattered snow flakes. I ran the full 4.1 miles and made it back home by 10a. Mindy was in the shower preparing for her day with Gloria & Bella at the Nutcracker. Without stopping, I went from running to preparing the Trooper for a possible drive to MRM. It's funny how I don't trust it for longer trips anymore. For one, I topped off the oil. Thinking it was early October when I changed the oil last. And knowing that it burns oil, I figured it had to be low. It was, but only by a quart. I topped off the windshield washer fluid too. Glenn was up around 1020a. Not long after he was up we discussed the logistics of skiing. I wanted to have a clear, realistic plan. One, we knew we needed to be home by 530p in order to make it to brother Bobby's by 630p. We also knew it would be after 11a when we left the house. Add an hour of travel to and from, and we'd have about 4 hours of ski time. Glenn was OK with that, so we agreed to go. I quickly dressed for skiing, skipping a full blown shower. Instead, I did a 'Tippler'. I was dressed for skiing by 1045a. I took care of loading all of our ski gear into the Trooper while Glenn readied. While we were readying for our ski trip, Mindy left to pick-up Bella from Jimaken's place. They were back just before Glenn and I left. I talked with Pat S., who was just out on his daily walk while loading the Trooper. Among other things, talked about the girl that hit my tree. Glenn and I left for MRM around 1130a. We stopped at Thornton's where I topped off the gas tank - 13 gallons at $2.99 per. It was a fast drive up Rt 33. Talked about my daughters mostly. Like always, it felt about 5 degrees cooler up there. We geared up from the car then walked up to the ticket window to get our lift tickets. We were on the slopes 5 minutes later. To warm the legs we took a quick blue run then took numerous runs down the various black runs, however, not fully engaged until run number 4 or 5. Somewhere in there we did some shots of Gold Schlager. That warmed us quick. Glenn was eager for more. I handed over the cough syrup bottle while I ran in to pee. He was enjoying the hump-de-hump hill, and trying to catch air. We probably did 7 or 8 runs, maybe more, before declaring it beer 30. The lodge was packed, the most crowded yet this season. We were lucky, however, and got a recently vacated table right by the bar. I fetched a pitcher of Sam Adams. Some time during our hour long break, I spotted Zach sitting at the same table we corralled last Saturday. Appeared to be by himself. Waived him over. We chatted briefly. His father, Scott, was in the bathroom. Said they had been up Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now today (Thursday). Confirmed what I suspected, this being the busiest day yet. Glenn and I chatted with some folks tabling beside us who were sporting old HV lift tickets on their jackets. I shared our plans to be there December 26th. They gushed about it the park to Glenn, who hasn't been there before. Never hear anyone give it poor reviews. Make no mistake, though, it can't compare with true mountain skiing but it is very fun, very nice. After break, we skied more balls to the wall (of course). We took the original double chair lift numerous times descending the hill via the gladed trail that is riddled with bumps and jumps. Glenn really liked that run. We must've skied it five times in the last half hour we were there. We headed to our car at 435p. While stowing our gear my cell phone rang but I couldn't answer at that very moment. I waited until we were ready to pull out of the lot. It was Mindy. She shared that she was stuck in the Ohio Theatre parking garage, and had been for the last 20 minutes. Only moved down one level. Meanwhile, Gloria was waiting in the lobby with Bella, Dena, and Willow. Mindy had lots of driving to do - dropping Gloria, running Bella back to Jim's, etc. We agreed that making it to Bobby's by 630p might be too aggressive. I called Bobby to advise that we'd be late. He appreciated the heads up call. We made decent time heading home. We made a brief pits stop at the Hilliard Cemetery Kroger where I picked up a few ingredients for our Xmas Eve Taco bar and then a bottle of Gold Schlager for our HV trip. Glenn bought some Rumple Minze and a gift card for the white elephant gift exchange at Bobby's. Talked with Mindy again from the Kroger lot. She was at home contemplating the chauffeur logistics - take Bella home first, leave her with me, take Gloria home. She took her mom home first then took Bella back to Jim's. Said we'd be later than we originally thought getting to Bob's. We arrived home around 6p. Neighbor Trena walked over bearing gifts just as we were carrying in our gear. She came with beer and a gift basket. Very nice! I introduced her to Glenn and even left them alone while I carried in more of my gear. She hung out for about 15 minutes sharing a little bit about herself. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. She soon left and Glenn headed up for a shower. As soon as I heard Glenn was out of the shower, I headed up for one of my own. And boy did it feel good having not had one since the morning prior. It was 640p. Glenn and I wrapped our white elephant gifts while waiting on Mindy to get home. Mindy called again this time advising that she had been rerouted off Rt 33 along the river to the back streets of Arlington to get around an accident. I called Bob yet again to advise that we were running even later. He appreciated the update. Mindy got home just after 7p. I had everything ready to go so we could leave as soon as Mindy felt ready. Mindy wasn't home for 5 minutes when we turned around and left for Bobby's. Must've arrived at Bob's close to 730p. As expected, it was a small gathering, Bob & April, their family (younger kids), dad, Mindy & I. Bob wasn't there right off, however - off picking up pizzas. We had a nice time talking, eating pizza, drinking a few beers. We didn't do our gift exchange until late. We've referred to it as a white elephant but it's really not. Rather, just a $25 limit and an unknown recipient. We picked numbers and I got to go first. Mindy and I were one entity. The more I thought about it, buying gift cards for such events takes the fun out of it since the rules allow for stealing, or trading. Mindy & I picked first and opened an oscillating tool (think Dremel). Nice! No one stole or traded. The others were gift cards, and the last, a jar with $20 worth of lottery tickets. Fun. We hung out with Bob and family until almost midnight. Tired when we left. I drove home. All three of us were sleepy. I think I had another beer but headed for bed before 1a.