jPod is the kind of book that makes me feel very ambivalent: lots of promise, but a lot of annoyance going along with it. In this, it reminds me of {moscontentlink:Eggers}: an ambitious novel, some excellent writing, but a lot of stuff that is completely unrelated to the main thread. In other words: it could have been a great book, but its shortcomings make it just enjoyable.
The story line follows a bunch of game developers whose last names start with the letter J – they are all placed in neighboring cubicles in a forced cohabitation from which they cannot escape. The jPodders are very different from each other, and their families play active roles in the novel.
Month: January 2007
More Mice, One Man
After having to deal with the mice in my San Francisco house (a thing of the past, as you know now), I got to the house in Hawaii only to find that mice had bitten their way through all available screens. I mean, they could have just bitten their way through one screen and used that to get into the house. No, since they are not the brightest, they bit a little mouse-size hole into each screen that was available to them. Mental note: stupidity causes lots of damage.
No surprise, then, when this morning I saw the familiar squiggle of a mouse tail scurrying around on the floor, this time in plain view. Mice are a little stupider here than on the mainland, you must know.
Of Mice and Men
A while back, I started thinking I was becoming crazy. I mean really crazy, seeing things that don't exist flitting around. Black things, to be precise. And then I got really surprised when it turned out I wasn't crazy. I had a mouse in the house.
This little home is a haven for mice: the construction is a bit shoddy, and there are lots of crevices and hole through which a mouse can get into the foundation and from there easily to the main floor. I tend to be somewhat liberal with anal retentiveness (read: I am a slob 
) and this probably made for a perfect match. I had a mouse.
Whistler vs. Northstar
{moszoomimglink:Whistler mountain from Glacier hut}Amazing how much difference there is this year! British Columbia has seen record snowfall this season (almost 30 feet), while Tahoe is stuck in a pattern of rain and warming. Too bad for those that have to stay here! I will be in Whister again in February, and can't wait!
Back from Whistler
{moszoomimglink:Whistler mountain}If Heavenly thinks it's heavenly, it really should never visit Whistler. I stayed all of one week, with the best snow I could imagine, the best mountain(s), the best lifts, the best lodges, and frankly the best people.
Let's start with the snow: the snowfall total is rapidly approaching 30 feet, and you saw it everywhere. The snow is deep, fluffy, amazing. We had a snowstorm on Christmas day (which is when we flew in) and we spent the first day (Boxing Day in Canada) driving our boards mad in the fresh powder. There was one bowl in particular where we loved zipping down, afraid we would catch something and be forced to walk for an hour, only to realize it was almost impossible to fall.