This morning I finally got around to jumping through the necessary hoops to acquire my Washington state driver’s license. The necessary hoops being hanging out at the DMV for forty-five minutes and having my picture taken. While I was leaning against the wall waiting for my number to get called I eavesdropped on the cell phone conversation of a guy sitting about five feet away with a Commercial Driver’s License manual in his lap. Grime-stained jeans shredded at the cuffs, grime-stained baseball cap, grime-stained sweatshirt. The guy was trying to coordinate a backcountry snowboarding trip with a few of his friends for this weekend. I briefly drifted off into my own thought bubble, picturing how my life would be different if I were working construction by day and palling around on the backcountry slopes on the weekends. Trying to figure out what skills and equipment and how much experience one would need to snowboard off the beaten path in the mountains around here

I came snapping back to my eavesdropping though when the guy began talking about a planned photoshoot with Transworld Snowboarding the following weekend (something about a $10 grand bonus if he made the cover, but that they were at least guaranteed four pages) and then continued on about coordinating with Shaun White and Ross Powers for an upcoming freestyle competition in Utah. Lodging and airfare paid for by Burton and Dragon. And it wasn’t braggadocio or anything, just the matter-of-factness that comes with an every day occurrence (in the manner of, hey I’ll pick up some beer on the way out if you want to bring the steaks). So, I guess that answers my “how much experience” question.

Day two. More kitchen destruction. I scrapped the peeling of the linoleum and yanked out the subfloor underneath instead. With a circular saw I sliced up sections of the floor about a quarter inch deep then pried up the stapled down wood. Only to discover a patchwork of wood squares underneath. Nothing too classy, so I’m going to stick with the planned ceramic tile. As the floor currently stands I’ve still got about an inch and three quarters of wood in the kitchen which should be plenty sturdy for our light use. My options now are to lay the ceramic tile down over the wood squares (undulates a bit in places and has staples sticking up everywhere) or to remove the wood squares and lay tile over the next layer of subfloor (more work and a waste of a lot of decent wood). I’m leaning toward the second option but will make that decision tomorrow.