Tuesday Mardi Gras Ski

Tuesday was our annual costume ski with a Putin comes to Mardi Gras theme.  Best costumes ever!  Each year people ramp it up a bit more with the costumes and they get better and better.  For one more year we were spared the eye-searing pain of a return of Robert Faltus in his Russian weight lifting uniform.  Really, cold weather has its uses!  Vladimir Putin did put in an appearance too.  The big news (drum roll) was that the perennial favorites, the McNatt duo of Sue and Terry, dressed in their Olympic ice dancing pair finery, were unseated by, as is appropriate, another ice dancing pair, Anne and Bob Burnham.  The McNatts just couldn't score high enough even with the glitter and gold streamers.  It is always difficult to remain on top and this year perhaps the McNatts, comfortable in their virtual lock on the top podium step in the past, got just a little bit lazy and couldn't stick the big one.  The Burnhams, upstarts that they are, were hungry and went completely over the top landing every move with assurance.  Their costumes were so good I didn't even know who it was at first! The obvious difference in styles was that while the McNatts could actually ski in their costumes, the Burnhams barely could and skiied at the back sans poles so they could soar like the champions they are. So, have we seen the demise of the McNatts and the ascendancy of the Burnhams in the annual costume competition?  Or will the McNatts train hard all summer, consult with their chief costume designer, daughter Lucy, and come back with a vengence to spit in the eye of their usurpers?  Stay tuned next March, it should be Wild in Weston! 

Oh yeah, we did race too.  Results are always a little off because some of those costumes are a bit difficult to skate around in.  There were bits of tinsel and probably a few Mardi Gras beads left behind on the course.  Its always a bummer for me when I can't catch people skiing in outlandish costumes when all I had were Mardi Gras beads.  Oh well.....

MC Andy Milne

Wes Denering

The McNatts, taking their silver in stride

The Burnhams claim the gold medal!