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Today I was at Rosa’s Pizza (as usual) and when I walked up to the counter to order my lunch, I noticed this.

After some head-scratching, I figured out my friend Kricket (with help from Pepper) had pulled this little prank. Well done, ladies, well done.

It’s been a while since Dirk (aka Nooch) and I have been together. We met up with the rest of the high-school gang last July, and we often chat via phone or video call, but hanging out together is always better. On a whim, he grabbed some airline tickets using his points, and we spent four days partying in the party house.

Of course there were a lot of board games. I taught him Utu, and after getting trounced in his first game, he figured out the strategy and did much better in subsequent games. Here he ponders a particularly epic map layout:

I also taught him Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, which he absolutely loved. Again, I trounced him in his first game, but he’s a quick learner and in the final two of our four games, he absolutely thrashed me.

We played a bunch of pool (he tended to win), ping pong (he almost always won), and a few other “filler” games. And between it all we chatted, watched movies, went to Rosa’s twice, and generally had a grand time reminiscing about the Good Old Days (of high school) and all the years in between. We’d break into song, or quote a movie, or scream “Acting!” in the spirit of Jon Lovitz’s classic SNL skit from sometime in the 80’s. Pepper wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but afterward she told me she can see why we’re still friends after almost forty years. We’re peas in a pod.

It was a great few days hanging out with my oldest and bestest friend. Here’s hoping it’s not too long before we do it again.

The weather was gorgeous today. Temperatures were in the upper 40s, but the sun was brilliant and since we’re coming out of the winter months, the 40s felt like 60s. Pepper and I had some pizza at Rosa’s and were heading to a friend’s house for a visit, but she was running late so we had about half an hour to waste in town. Without any shopping to do, we decided to go to the park near Bigfork Bay. We walked around a bit, just enjoying the sunshine and the quiet calm.

We visited our friend, enjoyed some time with her, and wondered what to do with the rest of our day. Given the weather, we felt like it would be a shame to just go back home. So we drove north. We went to the Park with a Capital P, also known as Glacier. Normally it’s pretty much deserted in the off-season, but there was actually a line at the entrance station! I guess the combination of nice weather and a weekend contributed to the crowd. The famous Going-to-the-Sun Road is only open to the north end of Lake McDonald, but the views along the lake shore were fantastic.

The lake was as still as glass, and the clear glacier water let all the wondrous rocks really show off their colors.

Yes, they really are that colorful! They’re far prettier underwater, so I took a shot looking straight down into the lake. It’s incredible how clear the water is; you can’t even tell it’s there.

After several stops along the lake, we opted for a hike up to Sperry Chalet. The round-trip hike is fourteen miles, which was a bit ambitious since it was already late afternoon, but we went a few miles down the trail. Despite the glorious weather, there were patches of snow. The trail was pretty much covered in ice.

Nothing a nice pair of crampons can’t handle! We slipped ours on and headed across the ice. Since the air was warm, the ice was melting so it was not only smooth but covered in a thin layer of water. That’s crazy slippery unless you’re wearing half-inch steel spikes on your feet. With the crampons, the hike was awesome.

After our hike we wandered down to the boat dock near Lake McDonald Lodge and admired the view to the north. Suddenly we heard a low rumble, like thunder. The sky definitely didn’t show signs of a storm, but then I noticed an avalanche rolling down the mountain. In the photo below, the area of the avalanche is right in the center, just above the trees.

I’ve never seen an avalanche in person! Unfortunately my camera was in my pack, so I didn’t have time to pull it out and take a shot while the snow was roaring down the mountain. We just watched in awe.

On the way back we enjoyed dinner at the Gunsight Saloon, and returned home right around sunset. A relaxing soak in the hot tub, while the orange and pink colors reflected on Flathead Lake, was a perfect ending to our day in the parks.

Today the temperature was in the mid-50s. For the past week it’s been sunny almost every day. The weather forecast calls for continued warmth in the 50s and maybe even the 60s over the next week.

Is it spring? Maybe not officially, but it sure feels like it. And the sunset tonight made us think about when we can get back on the water.

My latest creative challenge for myself is to design a board game that uses only cards. (Yes, even a card game can be called a “board game”.) For one reason or another, all of my previous games end up with hex tiles, bags full of pieces, or even dice. This time I wanted to keep it really simple, while still providing interesting and strategic play.

During our recent trip to Costa Maya and the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben, I had the stirrings of an idea for a Mayan-themed game. I decided to call it Itzan, the name of an ancient Mayan city in the jungles of Guatemala. I worked on the rules and mechanics on the airplane trip home, and finally sat down to design the cards. With the help of my trusty AI art software, even the first prototype can look pretty good when it rolls out of the laser printer on my desk!

Now that I have all the cards ready, and the rules bouncing around my head, it’s time to sit down and play a game against myself.

This is always an interesting moment… it’ll determine whether this idea has potential, or if it’s destined for the trash. Wish me luck…

A few weeks ago I went skiing with Zack in Utah, and had a great time with him. Today I rounded up a few friends and headed up to Blacktail Mountain. I love Blacktail for several reasons: it’s crazy cheap (even with this year’s price increase), it’s less than an hour from my house, and it’s rarely crowded.

The forecast called for clear, sunny skies and temperatures in the high 20’s, which is pretty much ideal for skiing. I love a lot of sunlight, and I don’t love warm temperatures turning the snow to ice late in the day. Well, the forecast was true to form and it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day.

Here’s a shot from the lift with my friend Tom. He’s in his mid-70’s and still an excellent skiier.

And here’s Brandon, who was thrilled to have a new snowboard for the runs.

My friend Linda also joined us, although I didn’t get a picture with her. She’s about to turn 80 but in her younger days she practically lived on the mountain. She was in the ski patrol, and all her kids were really into skiing– several of them were competive slalom racers. Despite her age, she has flawless form and makes skiing look so easy.

Perhaps the best part of the day was how empty the resort was. I don’t think there were more than a hundred people in total, scattered across all the acres of the mountain. That meant we nearly always had the runs to ourselves. Here’s an example: Tom and Brandon are following me down the hill, and we didn’t meet another person the whole way down. Awesome.

Pepper spent the day shredding the slopes on her snowboard. Afterward we all enjoyed a big dinner at Tamarack Brewing, one of our favorite restaurants in the area. Today is one of the best days I’ve ever spent skiing…

After our cruise, we decided to head south to Utah to visit our kids. Because we’re planning to serve a church mission very soon (but not sure when), we figured we should get in some quality family time before leaving them for a year. We expect to go down once more, so I suppose this is our penultimate trip.

As always, we had a grand time. We celebrated my birthday by hanging out with Tara and her family, including a gaggle of grand-nieces who are (roughly) the same ages as our kids. They’ve all grown up together– hanging out from time to time– so everyone has a good time together. We played a few big games of Catch Phrase but the real party was when we played Secret Hitler. Accusations flew in a myriad of directions, and no one knew who was what. It was hilarious and exciting. Ollie, who isn’t really into strategy games just yet, just enjoyed some time with Tara’s dog Cody.

Later, at the Villa, I introduced Alex to Dicee, which Zack and I had invented during the kids’ Christmas visit (but after Alex had left). He said he liked it, and we had fun playing a few rounds.

Speaking of Alex, one morning we noticed we had matching shirts. It was totally an accident, and it was even better when Alex said “hold on” and pulled out one of Ollie’s shirts… that matched as well. We sat down for a photo, but Ollie refused to smile for the picture and instead insisted on biting his shirt sleeve. When in Rome…

Speaking of Ollie, he’s much more into books these days. He laughs and reads along and points out things on the pages. It’s a blast– I love reading books with little kids.

Alex is enjoying his job as a process engineer for the Purple mattress company. One of the perks they offer is for employees to receive a free mattress. He and Kaitlyn haven’t chosen theirs yet, so we decided to head over to the mattress store and pick one. Ollie saw a wonderful opportunity to “test” the mattresses by jumping on each of them.

Although we’re not really in the mattress market right now, we’ve heard a lot of good things about Purple, so we tested a few ourselves.

Alex and Kaitlyn worked through a few before deciding this one was the best. I have no idea what model it is, but they know and that’s what matters. They’re planning to order it soon, and also pick up a “power base” that adjusts the bed via remote control (Alex can buy one of those units at a steep discount from the factory).

Since we were in Utah, where church temples are almost as common as billboards for accident lawyers, we visited the Draper Temple and enjoyed some family time there.

The next day, Pepper and Kyra went to the newly-opened Orem Temple, which is less than ten minutes from the Villa. Imagine that! The temples we visit from Montana are all over three hours away: Cardston Alberta, Spokane Washington, and Helena Montana. It’s nice to be in Utah and have so many nearby options.

While the two of them were being spiritual and holy, Zack and I hit the slopes. We went up to Sundance ski area, where I strapped on my skis for the first time this season, and Zack pulled out his trusty Dewalt snowboard.

He told me every time he goes boarding (at least weekly), someone comments on his board. At one point during the day I was waiting at the bottom of a run as he made his way down. Dewalt’s colors are yellow and black, so his board is easy to spot. Sure enough, a guy standing near me shouted to his friend, “Check out that guy– he’s got a Dewalt board!”

The weather was… interesting. At the start of the day it was raining, which then turned to enormous snowflakes. The clouds rolled in over the mountains, and visibility at the top was terrible. It was hard to see the terrain, and the mix of wet snow and fresh powder was unlike anything I’d been on before. Later, the skies cleared above us and the sun came out, and the conditions were amazing. Here’s a shot where you can see the cloud bank rolling over the tops of the mountains, about to engulf us once again in fog and snow.

After the mountain, Zack and I had some pizza. They messed up my order not once but twice, and as a result we got two free pizzas and an apology coupon for another free one later. Zack was thrilled because it meant he didn’t have to cook meals for a few more days. Then we headed over to the pinball arcade and had a blast playing pinball and a few ridiculously cheesy video games.

As always, the visit was a ton of fun and seemed to end too soon. We finished with a night at Tonyburger, where we said our goodbyes.

We’ll miss these yahoos, but we’re excited to see them once more before our mission. Now we just need to know when and where our mission will be…

I was riding with Zack on the interstate today, and some guy zoomed past and cut us off. I made some comment about how that guy must really be in a hurry… I wonder why. Zack replied that whenever that sort of thing happens, he invents a reason for the other person’s behavior.

His grandma just won the lottery, and he’s rushing to her house to help her claim the prize.

His cat just had kittens, and he wants to see them right away.

He’s running late for an interview for his dream job.

And so on. It was kind of cool to stop for a moment and think that maybe, just maybe, that rude driver had a legitimate reason to be rude. After all, there have been times in my life when I’ve been rude, and naturally it was always for a good reason.

Perhaps I need to adopt this Zacklosophy in my life, and it’ll keep me from judging others quite so much.

Well this is just cool.

I think it’s been 35 years in a row that Carolyn has sent me a birthday card. Once again, she came through!

Here’s to another trip around the sun. Pretty soon I’ll hit my halfway mark…