Photo-A-Day #317 02/19/06

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Today Allison and I went for a two mile walk. I had to start breaking in my new boots and new Superfeet for hiking. Allison broke in her new cute hat and thermal underwear. We made another trip to EMS today and this time I got a pair of boots from North Face, they are very warm and comfortable and waterproof. Allison got some thermal underwear top and bottoms and a new hat. We are looking forward to our snowshoe hike with Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne in March. Let’s hope that some snow falls up in NH before that. So this is Allison’s cute new hat, and she looks adorable in her cute new hat and the long hair hanging outside the hat.

Here is a bonus picture. While we were on our walk we saw this X-Box controller hanging from a branch in a tree. Someone either lost pretty bad and got angry or some parent had enough of their kid playing too much X-Box.

Busy Long Weekend…

This weekend has been packed with events and get together and lots of people time. On Friday night Allison had her book club over for the monthly gathering, this past month they read A Million Little Pieces. (The book was chosen before all the controversy surrounding the book came to light.) Allison really disliked the writing style. The guy uses no structured punctuation. So on Friday night I was going to go out and watch Eight Below but decided that I was going to see it on a matinee instead, no full price movies for me unless it is X-Men or Transformers or something huge like that.

I ended up at the mall where I stopped into Eastern Mountain Sports. I’d been checking EMS for the past few weeks because the price of snowshoes had been falling. Well, it fell to well over 1/2 off and I was able to pick up some Tubbs Altitude 30’s for less than $100.00. I was very excited. I then debated about getting Allison a pair, but there is one thing I have learned about outdoor sports and my wife, you’ve got to make sure she likes it first. Allison took to kayaking like a natural but not biking. Guess which item of sports equipment I bought for her back when I was living the charmed life at Saint A’s? Yep, a bike, but that is okay because now I ride it all the time (It is a men’s bike, I’m not losing another man card.)

Speaking of Man cards (The concept was termed in the TV show Scrubs by Dr. Cox) apparently I lost a couple last night because I knew some answers to trivia questions while we were playing guys vs. the girls in Trivial Pursuit the Pop Culture DVD Edition. I knew a teen book series about twin girls. Sweet Valley High. I have sisters what can I say. And I don’t think this one qualifies for a man card loss, but according to Neil, Friends is a girl show so apparently knowing that Ross and Rachel were on a break was grounds for parting with a man card, despite my contributions to our win and all.

Yesterday was also sad because we attended the funeral of my sister Shelby’s best friend’s mother. She was an outstanding woman, dedicated teacher and athlete, a three time marathoner with a love for teaching science. Our hearts go out to Kaitlyn and her family.

Yesterday afternoon also gave us some downtime and when I got some downtime I played my new favorite game ever, The Bard’s Tale. This irreverent send up to traditional role playing games is fantastic. It is also very funny. I’ve played many role playing games over the years (many before I was married and before I began maintaining a blog. I love you hon! 🙂 ) But God bless Allison she bought me The Bard’s Tale for Valentine’s Day, knowing that I would become addicted to playing the game. Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride, is the voice of The Bard, a snarky, lusty character in search of coin and cleavage. He’s only doing something if he gets paid or gets … an attractive barmaid. The Bard has no use for being a hero and going on many silly side trips like killing rats in a basement and flipping levers like you see in traditional role playing adventures. But he ends up doing them never the less. However the outcome is so funny. When killing rats in the basement he figures that he is all done and walks away he gets torched by a giant fire breathing Rat. The characters sing some great songs, like an Ode to Charlie Mops, The Man Who Invented Beer and It’s Bad Luck to Be You, in the vein of the oompa loompa songs from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So this is my latest addiction. Hence some lack of update recently.

Tonight Allison is going to a Pocketbook party and I am going along to hang out with the husband of the woman hosting the party. Also a transformers and movie geek like myself. Should be fun.