I go skiing

Because I'm cheap, this year was the first since moving to Colorado that I didn't buy a season lift ticket to Eldora, the little local ski area that's actually somehow big enough for a whole season of skiing. Today Matt happened to get ahold of a spare ski pass, so I bundled myself up, dug out some embarrassingly dusty skis, and headed up. The snow was wonderful, but I was immediately reminded of just what happens the first time up in a season, when you suddenly discover all those muscles that don't get used at the gym. It was a short day, both because those ski-stabilizing muscles were quickly tired in the thick powder, and because it was still snowing. Eldora unfortunately faces northeast and usually gets rapidly colder, foggier, and less fun as morning ends. Maybe I shouldn't be so cheap.

I am in love with Susanna Clarke's writing

I just started reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories in the same universe as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which was absolutely wonderful, and, only one story in, I'm already in love with the collection. So far, my favorite part is the way the narrator apparently takes for granted that ladies could never be interested in magic, only in famous magicians (the same way that a lady might safely take an interest in daring young mountain climbers, but never in mountain climbing), continuing to naively report events that fly directly in the face of that assumption. It sets up a wonderful humorous tension.

I am hating Delta

I knew there was a good reason why I usually avoid Delta, but Denver to Pittsburgh is not exactly a high traffic route and I'm really cheap, so I bought the ticket through Atlanta. Unfortunately my cheapness meant I had a three hour layover, but they have great Southern food in the Atlanta airport — no joke, terminal A is where it's at. Anyways, I'm kinda confused when I arrive, because they show two flights to Pittsburgh at the same time, slightly odd, and mine is delayed. No worries because mine is in terminal A. Good lunch, then maybe a drink, some reading, should be a breeze. Well, no drink, since with DST it's still technically Sunday morning in Atlanta, but no big loss. I start to head off to my gate for the short wait for boarding, only there's no one there, and it says the next flight is to Austin. Double check the boards, and yes, my flight number is supposed to be there. The confusing thing is that both Pittsburgh flights are shared by Delta and Northwest, but they are shown with the same Northwest flight number. Well, apparently a delay with their plane getting in forced them to use another, which according to the Delta agent "forces them" to create a new flight number, thus the two listed flights. As in, keeping a reasonable on time record requires them to create a new flight that will magically get marked as leaving on time no matter the real delay. So, their plan was for everyone to go to the gate for their flight number in terminal A, then have a rather annoyed agent try to explain that they were secretly supposed to be on this other flight in terminal E.

Not a big deal since I had enough time, just a "what the hell is going on with these people?" moment. Flash forward to Pittsburgh baggage claim. Me and about twenty other people are waiting waiting waiting for our bags to come out. Everyone else on our flight has gotten theirs, but somehow there's still dozens of bags coming out, none of them claimed. Not to worry, we are reassured, because they just had too few luggage carts for the number of bags today and had to drive the empties back to the plane for another load. Fifteen minutes later, a dozen more bags come out, only one of them belonging to any of us. They had a whole three hours to get my bag on the right plane and somehow still didn't make it.