It doesn't have to hold water. In fact, it MUST NOT (in the RFC2119 sense) hold water. I've got to go find some bricks so I can raise it a couple of inches off the ground, just to give the water an easy way out.

But mostly this is just a cheap excuse to use the word "bunghole" in the canonical fashion instead of its more common double meaning.

He cut the bottom off and then made the open side the top, I think?

Yes, I did, and zooer knows it; he's just being a DORK. :P

Sigh. This year's shared ski-haus is going to be trying.

My girlfriend and myself havbe been in various shared houses for about 10 out of the last 11 years. All have had their issues, but I'm becoming nostalgic for the last one already. Unfortunately the owner passed away.

For this year's, we became new members of a long-established house; most other members are in their 50s and 60s by the look of things. That's fine, but unfortunately a "couple" (I put that in scare quotes because they're not in a relationship, but they drive up to Killington together and made sure to become members of the same house) from the last years' house is now a member of this house. They were known, behind their back, as The Bickersons, and for good reason.

And a longstanding member of this new house is clearly a severe alcoholic at this point in his life. He seems somewhat socially clueless, dresses badly in political slogan t-shirts and other t-shirts, drinks to the point of sloppily spilling things, is thin-skinned, old and unattractive, and unable to admit that he has a drinking problem. ("I don't need that crap!", he said, about somebody who lectured him about the drinking.) Ugly bloodshot eyes at the dinner table last night. The one glimmer of self-awareness I detected in him was a faint one, he mentioned that this might be his last year in a ski-share because he doesn't like the long drive any more. (He complains a lot.) The rest of us should be so lucky. At least he hasn't come across as violent, yet; only petulant.

Skiing was nice on Saturday, however, and we were able to get a good view of the World Cup giant slalom from a ski trail across the bowl.

Hey LS - I'm glad you still get the bonuses of the experience. Keep focusing on the good things.

Went camping out in Lincoln National Forest for Thanksgiving. It was a might bit cold for this Texan, but I already want to go back when the weather is nicer. Though in addition to being cold, I've never been at elevation before, and setting up and breaking down camp at 9,300 feet was hard on my lungs.

I seem to recall hearing that altitude sickness sets in at around 8,000 feet unless you get acclimated to it slowly (such as traveling by land instead of air).

well, I did drive up, but any major excertion was really hard on me.

I'm going to Denver in a couple of weeks. So I will get to experience the altitude thing and see how it goes.

If you don't exert yourself you won't even notice.

I'd never notice.

I'm not going there to exercise. I'm going there to attend business/technical meetings and to go high-speed kart racing.

(The kart racing is an evening social thing that the vendor put together.
If I had my way, it would be Mario Kart cosplay, but perhaps that's not the right group to do that with.)

Just bring along turtle shells, banana peels and a Honey I Shrunk the Kids attachment for your Kart. You'll be good to go.

Oh... "a(l)titude"... this wasn't some peculiar dig at folks from Denver that didn't match my expectations.

It was fun. These karts were particularly fast, compared to some others I've tried. And I did have trouble breathing inside the racing helmet.

Should we assume that there were no car fires?

My wife told me that the next time I get injured during a business trip she isn't coming to get me again. So I had to avoid the car fire.