Teacup Lake and Black Butte Porter but the sober version

One other good thing about going to the condo this weekend was that the pizza place had non-alcoholic Black Butte porter. Black Butte used to be one of my favorite beers, long before it became one of my favorite mountain hikes, and I think I saw the n/a version once before but didn't grab it out of fear of disappointment. It did not! It is so tasty! I bought two more from the bar to take home! I am drinking one now! Yay! I can get more at a local store where I've seen it on the shelves. I am very happy about this development.

I am also very happy because I did make it to Teacup Lake for some solo x-country skiing today. It dumped on me all day and the snow was slushy mashed potatoes and I feel twice and my wrist hurts from the first fall but idc, I had so much fun anyway. It was wonderful. Winter wonderland. So beautiful. So quiet. So solitary. On the back trails I saw absolutely no one. I had Spruce, Hemlock, Elkhorn, and Raven's Run all to myself, and my first pass up and down Screamer were solitary also. On my 2nd pass I saw a guy in jazzy leggings who gave me a cheerful hello! through the heavy snowfall, so pleasant.

Got two orders done this morning and now ready for a week of buckling down to try to finish taxes before we leave Saturday for Joshua Tree. I am working all day Thursday in the sparkle studio but otherwise I will try to just focus on this and see how far I can get.

Maybe non-alcoholic Black Butte Porter will help me. I used to make beer floats out of this stuff in the summer, with the coffee coconut bliss ice cream flavor. Hmmmmm :)

Avalanche greeted me excitedly and is trying to get me to go play with her. She's been so clingy lately. I don't mind.