14 kids is ridiculous

Pardon me if I'm not jumping for joy at the "miracle" of the octuplets. A 33-year old woman who lives with her parents who have a history of finacial problems, and already has 6 children ages 2-7, gets fertility treatment and has 8 more children. Fourteen kids who are bound to end up on public support. And who paid for her fertility treatment? This is not a miracle of science to celebrate. This is insane.

The Holidome

Ah, the Holidome experience. I remember as a kid thinking that the Holiday Inn Holidome was probably as good as it gets. They have a pool, hot tub, video games and plenty of room to run around, all in a cavernous building right outside your hotel room door. Who cares where your parents are dragging you in the avodado green Gran Torino station wagon? It could be Swamp Flats, Arkansas, for all I cared. As long as we stayed at the Holidome, I was happy.

Oh how things have changed. I had the, uh, opportunity, to relive those childhood memories this weekend. Amy cashed in some credit card points to earn us a free Saturday night stay at the Holiday Inn in Frisco, so we could get 2 days of skiing with the kids without an extra round trip in I-70 traffic. Between my grown-up standards and the 20-some years of wear and tear the Holidome has suffered, the Holidome magic is gone for me. Forever, I'm afraid. Sob. Considering the abundance of tattooed, Budweiser-swilling hot tub soakers and folks lounging in the game area, I think it would be fair to call it the "Hooligan Dome" these days. Thank goodness we didn't get one of the room adjoining the Hooligan Dome, where we would have had to listen to the racket til 11 pm. Unfortunately, though, all the non-smoking rooms were booked, so we got stuck in a room permeated with the foul odor of stale cigarette smoke.

Nevertheless, the kids had a great time in the pool and playing air hockey the next morning while the hooligans slept off their hangovers. I'm sure from now on they'll ask if we can stay at the hotel with the pool when we go skiing.

Andrew's first black ski run

We went skiing over the weekend and Andrew bagged his first ever blue and black runs on the same day. On Friday at Vail, he skied the blue run Avanti, and just before lunch at mid-Vail, the whole family went down Look Ma - a black run! I held Elizabeth with her ski harness, and that fearless girl loved the bumps. Amy helped Andrew down part of the run, but then he insisted on skiing the bottom half by himself, slowly snowplowing between the bumps. Now "Look ma" isn't a tough black run, but it's a black run nevertheless.