On Friday, I went to bed around 10:30 pm, but couldn’t sleep. Around 12:30 am, I decided to just go. I hit the road at 1:00 am in the morning. Around 1:30 am, the tire-warning light lit up. I panicked a little. Then the light went off. Then went on again as I drove further away from home.

I stopped at a service area and checked the pressure on all four tires. They were at 37 PSI, which meant the tires weren’t punctured. I kept on driving until I was too tire and needed a nap. I took 3 naps at 3 different stop areas. The estimated time from my house to Stowe was around 9 hours. I took 12.

I arrived at Stowe Mountains at 1 pm. I took out my snowboard and hopped on the lift. I wanted to try out the carving technique I had been learning in my basement for many months. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as smoothly as I had thought.

I did 2 runs and I was exhausted. Lacking of sleep and driving 12 hours got me beat. At 3:00 pm I decided to check into the motel to relax and recharge. Let’s try skiing tomorrow.

The temperature is dropping. It’s time to store away our rollerblades and scooters and bring out our skis and snowboards.

This Friday will be my last day at the law school for 2024, but then my other job will start on December 20 if Whitetail can manage to open. I can’t wait that long to hit the terrains; therefore, I will be driving 10 hours to Stowe this Saturday. Since the kids still have school, I will spend time alone to relax and de-stress.

My wife and I hadn’t planned our “me time” trip, but it just fell into place. I always encouraged her to take some time for herself to recharge. I am sure the kids and I drive her to the wall everyday. I was glad that she traveled to Paris a few months ago with her aunt, cousins, and sister. It would be nice to go on a ski trip with the fellows, but none of my friends would be interested in the winter sports.

Then again, I am completely comfortable traveling alone. I would spend all day on the mountains anyway. After a long day of skiing and snowboarding, I would find a nice place to eat and check out the area or see a movie in a theater. Of course, I can just kick back reading a book or writing a blog post.

As for spending time on the mountains, I am looking forward to applying the carving techniques I have been learning all summer. Using my rollerblades, I emulated ski carving with proper stance and driving with my outside foot. I practiced my snowboard stance on my actual snowboard. I hope these off-the-snow techniques will transfer on the snow.

Carving is my only goal for personal development this season. I am looking forward to helping others learn snowboarding. I can’t wait to spend time with my family on the mountains this winter.

1. Connection: Introduction & check equipments (5 minutes)
2. Flat Ground Exercises: Demo “Homebase” position (athletic stance) (5 minutes)
3. Strap in Both Feet to Board: Revisit “Homebase” position with both feet strapped into board. (5 minutes)
4. Skate: Demonstrate skating both directions (10-15 minutes).
5. Magic Carpet: Explain loading/unloading carpet safety. Instructor’s last (30 minutes into lesson).
6. Sideslip: Demo toe edge and heel edge sideslip (10-15 minutes).
7. Falling Leaf: Demo toe edge and heel edge (15-20 minutes).
8. Chair Lift: Explain safety, safety bar, and how to load and unload (1 hour into lesson).
9. J-Turn: Demo J-Turn to left or right (25-30 minutes).
10. S-Turn: Demo Linking Turns (25-30 minutes).
11. Wrap Up: Thank guests for coming (5 minutes).

I attended the indoor training for new instructors this morning. It was quite a large group. There were more ski than snowboard instructors; therefore, I went with snowboard.

We introduced ourselves. Most skiers had 15 to 30 years of experience. I had four. Most snowboarders had 8 to 12 years of experience. I had two. I will probably be one of the oldest snowboard instructors.

After the brief introductions, we split up into two camps. I went with the snowboard camp. We did some activities together, including teaching a subject drawn from a helmet. I got “Red light, green light.” I zipped through it. In retrospect, I should have asked for participants to play the game.

Then we went to the outside learning center and two instructors walked us through the very beginner lesson. It didn’t look too bad.

Everyone on the snow school team were friendly and cool. I am looking forward to the season.

I am getting hit with another gout attack even though I have been on my best behavior. I haven’t drank much. I haven’t consumed beef. I have been take Allopurinol for 12 days straight.

I consult Dr. Google and he tells me that Allopurinol is the culprit. It is working; therefore, I am getting a flare up before my uric acid level balances out. I hope this is the case.

I am out of commission again. No more rollerblading for a few days.

Last week, I took my YF YouFu 110mm Three-Wheel Inline Skates to practice carving for skiing. My goal is to get my posture correct and to roll my knees and ankles to imitate carving on skis. The big wheels on the rollerblade allowed me to bend my knees and ankles and to follow through the C shape. I can’t wait to carve on my skis this winter. This is what I am aiming for.

I am still practicing my snowboard carving in the basement. I am using my son’s rental board and boots to practice my posi-posi stance and to tip the board on its edge for both toe and heel turns. I still couldn’t go as low as where hands can touch the ground, but I could dig the edge into the ground. My goal is to leave a thin line in the snow when I carve on snowboard this coming season.

Yes, my goal is to carve, carve, and carve. That’s all I wanted to accomplish this winter. I already put in my winter holiday break. I will take a month off during Christmas and New Year. I can’t wait. Please Mother Nature, give us lots of snow this year.

We now have a ping pong table in our basement. It took me a minute to clear up the space. I simply moved everything to another room. My wife’s sister gave us a MD Sports Table Tennis Conversion Top. I used a 6-ft and two 4-ft folding tables from Costco to hold up the table. The full-size ping pong table turned out great.

Đán started to get into ping pong and asked for a table. He is getting pretty good at it. I hope he will stick with it for a long time, or at least until he can beat me. Xuân is also into it. He is already showing some improvements. I hope Đạo and Vương will join us as well.

Playing ping pong brings back my childhood memories at the refugee camp in the Philippines. There was a ping pong table at an open space near where we stayed for six months before we could come to America. The table had no net; therefore, a couple of kids my age and I stacked two bricks and placed a stick on top. We made paddles out of hardboards. All we needed was a ping pong ball. That all it was needed for us to pass the time and to hone our skills.

Now that I cleared one room for the ping pong table and another room for my ski-tuning station, we need to go through all the stuff we accumulated over the years. My wife wouldn’t let me sort them out because I would donate or trash whatever we don’t need. I am getting impatient waiting for her. It drives me crazy that our space isn’t as optimal as it could be. I had seen worse, but our space could have been tidier. I feel guilty that I couldn’t provide a clutter-free space for our kids. It stuck on my mind all the time. I wish I could just ignore it, but I couldn’t.

After almost two months, my gout had finally gone. I haven’t touched beef. I also cut down alcohol tremendously. I went back on Aleve last Monday and my big toe was no longer feeling the pain by Wednesday. Aleve worked for me, but I didn’t want to abuse it. I only took it when I absolutely needed to.

I went back to the skatepark yesterday with Xuân for the first time in two months. He had been busy swimming and I had to deal with my gout. Our skills were a bit rusty, but we were getting them back. He was a bit hesitant, but we both dropped from an 8-foot ramp.

With my gout and extremely hot weather in the last couple of weeks, I have been doing my own snowboard training in my basement. I have been working on my posi-posi stance and turns. Lexi Bullis’s carving tip is what I am trying to accomplish in the next season.

After yesterday’s disappointment at Big Snow, I was debating whether to come back for another two hours or not. I asked Đạo and he was cool if I wanted to go back. Since I already paid for the time slot, why not? It would have been the last time we were there.

Our time was 1:00 pm and we arrived at noon. We saw a senior gentleman already waited in line. He told me if I come back, the line would have been long. We set down our skis in line and waited. I had my book with me and it was a perfect way to kill time. He was right. By 12:30 pm, the line was long. I didn’t know if it was worth the waiting or we should just head home.

Since I snowboarded yesterday, I switched to skiing today. I tried to get my carving back, but then I decided to try the terrain park. To my surprise, I enjoyed skiing on the boxes and jumping on the hills. After an hour or so, Đạo got bored and went into the cafe waiting for me. I kept on going until my two hours were up.

The experience was not as bad as yesterday. The terrain park offered plenty of things for me to do instead of skiing down the hill in 30 seconds. The two-hour session was good enough. The four-hour was too much. I might take the kids back here if Big Snow offered 50% off again. $30 for two hours were reasonable. $60 would be a bit too pricey.

I can’t wait until Virginia builds an indoor ski resort in Lorton. It seems like nothing is moving toward that goal.

I heard about the American Dream mall and Big Snow, America’s first and only indoor ski resort, and always wanted to check them out. Since our camping trip was canceled and the admission price for Big Snow dropped from $60 to $30 for two hours, I decided to go at the very last minute.

Xuân couldn’t join me because he will have a swimming competition coming up. Vương wouldn’t go anywhere without his mother and he wanted to stay with Xuân. Đán would rather spend time with his PC than his dad. It’s so disheartening, but his choice. Only Đạo wanted to join me.

It turned out to be great because I hadn’t spent time alone with our first born in a long time. When we traveled in a big group, the bickering, arguing, and screaming were nonstop between the brothers and the parents. We are a chaotic family.

With just me and Đạo, it was so quiet and relaxing. We arrived at the American Dream quite early and our schedule for Big Snow was at 2 p.m. As a result, we wandered around the big mall. There was a train that took kids around the mall. It reminded us of when Đạo was a baby. When Ðạo got kicked out of the daycare for having a bit of a high fever, I would take him to the mall to ride the train. During the afternoon weekdays, the two of us were the only ones riding the train. The driver drove us an extra lap sometimes.

I took Đạo to the high-end section of the mall just to let him know how ridiculous the prices were. The Ferrari store had no price tag. We had to ask the sales associates. A kid about 10 to 12 years old asked about a leather wallet in a glass display case and the price was $520. The boy thanked the sales associate and walked out with his mom. Đạo dropped his jaw when he saw the $2,000 price tag on a Gucci handbag.

We walked around the Nickelodeon Universe theme park, but Đạo is too old for these rides. At 1:30 pm, we checked into Big Snow and changed into our skiing clothes. Đạo was skiing and I was snowboarding. As we entered the skiing area, there was a small tubing and learning center. The main hill was divided into a green/blue slope and freestyle terrain. That was it. We took the lift up and then skied down for probably about 30 seconds. I was working on my carving so I didn’t mind as much, but Đạo got bored quick. Nevertheless, he stuck with me for about 3 hours. We only stayed an hour for our second session. I got bored and tired as well.

I also booked another session at noon for the next day. I am not sure if we will come back or not. Since the booking is not refundable, we just have to use it or lose it. That says a lot about the resort. Big Snow, big disappointment.

Then again, I was so glad to spend some quality time with Đạo. He is such a sweet, caring son. I am sure even after he goes away for college or work, he will come back and spend time on the slopes with me. I hope I won’t be too old to ski or snowboard.