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WTF.

This is the first year I've bought a season's pass for skiing (at Crystal Mountain), and I'm slowly seeing the pass devalue with each weekend without snowfall in the mountains.

The Seattle P-I wrote about the grim outlook on an early ski season ("Slopes still awaiting snow"). In the story, Seattle meteorologist Larry Schick, who specializes in forecasts for skiers (WHAT?!), says area ski resorts typically need two or three modest or big storms to open -- that translates to a total of 36 to 60 inches of snow, which typically settles to 12 to 36 inches.

(Schick did not comment about how sweet or lucrative his ski forecast job is in the story.)

Crystal Mountain has 0 inches of snow at its base right now. Grr.

OK, so only a good ski season starts Thanksgiving weekend, but I was hoping to get at least once before I head out to Indiana for the holidays. Realistically, the soonest I'll be able to get up to Crystal Mountain probably isn't until New Years.

Here's a picture of me all happy and skiing last year. Pray for snow!

Thanksgiving takes practice

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Perhaps the only thing more disappointing than a Thanksgiving holiday hangover is the realization that, after of all that anticipation to eat a huge Thanksgiving dinner, your stomach becomes full just as fast as it normally does.

Considering Thanksgiving may be your sole break from economic vegetarianism, the issue of food capacity is critical. In order to make the most of this, you must prepare your stomach with as much dedication and vigor that you put into preparing the food, if not more.

How can you expand your appetite to achieve Thanksgiving nirvana? Look no further than emulating the Bruce Lee of eating, Takeru Kobayashi.

Holding several eating records, Kobayashi is ranked third in the world for competitive eating according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating. To prepare for competitions, Kobayashi expands his stomach by eating larger and larger amounts of food, and then exercising to ensure that fat will not impede expansion of his stomach during a competition. Kobayashi trains so intensely that he actually injured his jaw during a practice meal in 2007.

To prepare for tomorrow, I've been exercising in the mornings and carbo-loading on pasta in the evenings. In between, I'm eating nearly every baked good Amanda cranks out (and she is a prolific baker, God bless her). I crammed tonight by loading up on teriyaki.

But tomorrow's the big show and I intend to go the distance. That is, I'll go for the second round of mashed potatoes.