by Brian Saunders

If you don't plan to party, you better not go to the Lodge on St Patrick's Day weekend. As advertised by its hosts, Erin Barnett and Marielle Mathews, this was one of the biggest party weekends of the year at the Lodge. The addition of the Fun & Sun crowd made sure to that. While the Friday night food and beverages had more of a Mexican flavor (tacos, nachos, and margaritas), the Lodge was well decorated in Irish green. And the wearin' of the green was in full force, from Richard Beatch's huge hat to Erin's rugby shirt. Add some tunes and Liars Dice until 2 am and you've got a rockin' evening. Was that Jerry Miller I heard say "damn, I tossed my dice into the tequila cup"? Too bad, you still have to drink it!

And then there was the snow. Oh yeah, that's right, this was supposed to be a ski weekend! Friday night it dumped 8-10 inches of snow. It was thick, heavy stuff, making it harder to plow through, but still a very welcome sight. There were pretty high winds forecast for Squaw and Alpine, so the majority went to Northstar. The weather did improve though, and it sounded like the skiing was good everywhere. I know there was some great tree skiing on the back side at Northstar!

Saturday night our hosts treated us to a tasty Irish meal featuring corned beef, potatoes, and carrots, and of course a keg of green beer! Big thanks to the cooks and the hosts for a great dinner. Since the Liars Dice went over so well the night before, it was decided to go for it again, and see how many people we could get. We hit a new Lodge record, 14 people playing. Needless to say it was a long game, with 70 dice at the start. In the end, Don Breedlove was the big winner, beating out Russ Mannas by correctly surmising that there was a perfect three 6's of the three remaining dice and calling it. Good guessing Don! When things started to wind down at the Lodge, some of the crowd shifted to the Tradewinds, where one of our new favorite bands was playing, Lavish Green. The best description of them would be a heavy metal trumpet band. Not your classic Irish music, but definitely some hard crankin' tunes. There’s nothing quite like being greeted at the doorway to a trumpet player playing from on top of the bar. This was followed by lyrics such as "don't distract me while I'm thinking", or was it "don't arrest me while I'm naked", it's so hard to tell.

Sunday quite a few people actually bailed and went home without skiing that day. Losers! It was actually a really good ski day. The snow conditions were great and the weather was better than Saturday. At Sugarbowl we saw the Cal band playing marching tunes while skiing. And just when you think you've seen it all, a ski patrol guy goes flying by with a rescue dog on his shoulders. Hope everyone else had as much fun as I did! Sign me up for next year!

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