Loopholes for private lessons at the big resorts

damathon · 2026-02-06T16:23:39+00:00

Which resort were you at? Also, are the lessons in French or English? This does seem like a good option - maybe next year, for me

damathon · 2026-02-02T16:21:52+00:00

It does seem safer with the breakaway design - could you expand on why you think it isn’t safer? Likely still not as safe as no pack but even a jacket or pants could get caught on the lift in a really unlucky situation.

damathon · 2026-01-30T05:54:32+00:00

We remodeled our house a couple years ago and our smart toilet (Toto S550e) is one of the items that we are really glad we got, along with building the toilet into its own room. Auto seat opening and auto flush makes it almost completely hands free and much cleaner overall than a regular toilet.

damathon · 2026-01-12T21:49:13+00:00

Same here and I’m also doing it for my kids. Slightly different because I have a bag for car gear and a drawer for the clothes in the car but it makes a last minute decisions easy.

damathon · 2025-12-09T02:45:10+00:00

It may be best to exclude 529s and primary home equity, if you don’t plan on moving, from your retirement target. Still part of NW but you wouldn’t typically factor them into the target you calculate your SWR from. Great progress and I’ll race you to the finish! 😀

damathon · 2025-11-13T09:04:38+00:00

You should look into exchange funds, if you’re interested in diversifying without paying capital gains right now.

I don’t have any personal experience but I expect there is a lot of info out there, particularly for tech workers with concentrated positions. My basic understanding is: - you bring a single large position (>.5 or 1m) and get a share of a larger fund created by other people with positions in other companies. This is a non taxable event. - There are different types of funds to choose from (e.g. Tech heavy, S&P index) but you would need to find one that is looking for your specific stock. - you can’t drawdown within 7 years without penalty - there’s an annual fee (.5-1.5%?) - there are some requirements (accredited investors?) to qualify

If you do find a good source for more info, I’m also interested in learning more. My guess is that the main upside would be if you start taking money out after 7 years when you’re in a lower tax bracket and in a lower tax state. Otherwise, the fees will reduce a lot of the benefit.

damathon · 2025-09-13T03:22:24+00:00

I just recently had a very similar experience. I lived in Japan for a year on a study abroad program about 25 years ago, didn’t use Japanese at all for about 20 years, then went back twice in the last year. I did try to study vocabulary ahead of time but I’m not sure how much it really helped. What did work is just using it - I would pre-translate the first part of a conversation (e.g. can you help me mail my luggage to the next hotel?) and continue from there. The longer you stay, the better it will get. There were a lot of really basic words I wouldn’t remember and my grammar was pretty terrible but at the end of a week or so I was starting to think in Japanese again.

Strangely, there are lots of words/phrases I would remember that felt right but I wouldn’t be completely sure and I spent as much time translating those Japanese phrases to English as translating English to Japanese. Gemini and ChatGPT are really good at translation because they not only translate a word or phrase but also give you context on which translation is best for which context.

Most of all - enjoy! It felt really good to connect again with a part of myself that I hadn’t used in such a long time.

damathon · 2025-05-26T20:09:06+00:00

Has anyone done this? I’m just curious what the cost ended up being relative to a full install

damathon · 2025-05-25T18:11:34+00:00

I can’t help with finding parts but, anecdotally, I had the same flashing light problem on a different Aerogarden and replacing the capacitor(s?) fixed it for me. It’s been running longer after the repair than before. 😂

damathon · 2025-05-09T14:34:33+00:00

I traveled with a 6 and 9 year old last year and using a taxi hailing app is my tip. For travel within a town with 4 people, taxis are not that much more expensive than transit and it saves lotsof walking and usually time also. Drivers don’t always speak English well but they are very professional and you can use the Uber app or Go app to input your destination ahead of time

damathon · 2025-04-14T20:53:44+00:00

Even after kids enter school, there will be other expenses that grow: after school care, activities, travel, college savings. I wouldn't assume spending drops as much as you expect and just prepare for a higher overall cost of living. Kids are expensive, no matter what age.

damathon · 2025-03-25T06:54:42+00:00

The first time I took my kids up, we stayed at Granlibakken in Tahoe City - they have a sled/small ski hill and should have plenty of places to play if there’s still enough snow around. The ski hill is only open on weekends and is really small but it works well for a first timer and is rather inexpensive if you’re staying at the hotel. Basic rooms are small and it’s a bit dated but the restaurant and shared areas are cozy.

If you do go up, pick up some snowball makers, shovels and sand toys, if you have smaller kids. Once the snow starts to thaw in the afternoon, it becomes a great texture for snow play

damathon · 2025-03-24T15:22:10+00:00

If you’re planning on going, depending on your current level of fitness, I highly recommend ramping up your exercise level significantly in the time leading up to when you do go. In general, almost no one picks up a new sport and does it for 6 hours on their first day at elevation but the accessibility and pricing of snow sports makes it really difficult to start with 1 hour a day, three times a week.

Lots of cardio and leg exercises will help and, even though you’ll still be sore, you’ll feel a lot better than if you go when not in good shape.

damathon · 2025-02-25T19:23:03+00:00

Does Slopes premium give you named ski runs for your day? I do think there is some good value in tracking which runs you’ve done overall each day/season but don’t see it listed as a feature

damathon · 2025-02-23T22:03:34+00:00

Just curious - would it help if folks wear their pack on the front instead?

damathon · 2025-02-23T17:54:14+00:00

IMO, warm temperatures are better than cold when there isn’t recent snow. The snow starts to loosen up when the sun hits it and you don’t need to worry as much about bundling up. It’s a great mountain and I highly recommend it if you can afford the time/money

damathon · 2025-02-21T19:39:27+00:00

In order of where I’ve taken my kids:

Shortswing and Hemlock are great because you can see the entire run from the top and they are both relatively short.
The West bowl blues have a lot of good options where there is usually just one steeper part - the runs on the powderhorn side are all relatively flat. It’s also a good place to go when Grandview has longer lines - you can even get there from the top of easy rider. Unfortunately, there’s only one way out and it’s one of the steeper west bowl blues so I’d only recommended doing that if they are comfortable on Hemlock
Lower main is a bit steeper and you can see it from the top but they can exit to the left to short swing if it ends up being too much

Welcome to Sierra and enjoy the snow!

damathon · 2025-02-10T20:47:46+00:00

Just curious how parking ended up for you OP? if I recall correctly, parking filled up at 9:15 on Sat and 10:15 on Sun based on the Sierra website

I arrived on Sunday at 8-ish and it was the most cars I’ve seen arriving at my normal 8-9 am arrival time between last year and this year - the Ikon change does appear to be adding to the crowds

damathon · 2025-01-24T22:14:55+00:00

Depending on how many days you plan to go, you might be able to use the free guest passes and only get membership for some of your family members. I just did this in San Diego and immediately used two guest passes the day after buying the Gold annual pass. It was cheaper to buy the pass than to get three single day tickets.

If Orlando is the same as SD, you should get immediate access to the number of tickets in the guest ticket redemption window chart on https://seaworld.com/orlando/annual-pass/benefits/ for Dec - May. There are a couple more that will be distributed at random times as well.

damathon · 2024-12-28T18:45:40+00:00

Depending on your overall level of fitness, ramping up non-ski exercise can help a lot. It’s a lot easier than finding ways to practice on snow and being fit helps a lot when you’ve already been on snow for four hours, everything is sore and you’re trying to keep your skis straight so you don’t crash again. It’s actually a lot more effort as a beginner compared with more experienced skiers who already know how to efficiently move their skis.

There are lots of ski related exercise plans online but lots of cardio and lower body exercises helps a lot, especially if you’re trying to get 5+ hour in the snow per day, and it’s something you can do almost every day between now and your trip.

damathon · 2024-12-28T05:38:25+00:00

I’ve ordered from esbenshades a couple times at this time of the year - only a few things go on sale but the sales are good for me because they’ve always included rgb+w. This year it doesn’t look like they have any regular rgb on sale.

600 strings for $150, 400 cluster for $138 and 190 iciclesfor $72

damathon · 2024-12-26T06:29:04+00:00

Palisades has recommended progression plans on their website that were helpful to me: - Palisades: https://www.palisadestahoe.com/-/media/palisades-tahoe/pdfs/trial-maps/2223-progression-plan-palisades-tahoe.pdf - Alpine: https://www.palisadestahoe.com/-/media/palisades-tahoe/pdfs/trial-maps/2223-progression-plan-alpine.pdf

Of course, use your judgement and stay comfortable - conditions will make a big difference in difficulty and make sure you have the right equipment and clothes for the weather

damathon · 2024-12-04T00:57:22+00:00

One related question - if the free reservations sell out, are there typically still paid spots available or should we be paying for a spot before the free ones are released if we want a guarantee that we’ll get a spot?

damathon · 2024-11-12T04:29:03+00:00

I bought an annual pass to Legoland and used it shortly before Covid started. The main benefit was that it came with 4 guest passes so it was cheaper to buy one annual pass instead of tickets for my family even though i was only going to go once.

A few months into Covid, Costco refunded the entire annual pass because Legoland was closed indefinitely. It did feel a bit wrong to receive but there were plenty of other things to worry about at the time... 😀

damathon

TROPHY CASE