Six a.m. in the airport

Here I am in the airport at six a.m., sharing a table with some weirdo who just threw away his whole breakfast.   I flew up to Vancouver to spend the weekend with Phil, but now my weekends are Thursday through Sunday.  This means I'm hopping the seven a.m. flight back home, in order to be at my desk, clocking in, by noon.  

To avoid any sort of Valentine's Day crowd/rush situation, we found the perfect solution! We ate at a sushi restaurant that does not take reservations.  The wait was probably no worse than any other Saturday night in Vancouver, and the food was increeeeedible.  After our first plate of seven different slabs of fresh fish, and two tuna rolls, we ordered more fish, barbequed eggplant, and squid with garlic and lemon. But then I was still feel nibbley, as usual, so then we ordered another bottle of sake, and some tempura. Incredibly fresh fish, and the best part of the meal - the biggest motivating factor for Phil taking me - was the real, fresh wasabi. If you're not aware already, the wasabi you get in restaurants, and with your to-go sushi at Safeway is really horseradish, Chinese mustard, and a lot of green food coloring.  A fun part about eating the real wasabi, is surprising way they sneak it in on you.  It has to be served between the fish and the rice, so as not to become oxidized, which would cause it to lose flavor.  Between the fish and rice means you don't see it, don't know how much of it is there until you're chewing, and then BAM. Wasabi heaven. 

Phil and I also went skiing while I was in town.  It hadn't snowed in three days, so we opted to go night skiing, figuring the snow wouldn't be any better paying for full day tickets. I brought my boots, but left the skis at home in order to fly carryon, and this meant demoing some fun, shaply skis from Cypress Mountain. Even though we got to the mountain around seven p.m., we had an excellent time, and got some good turns in.