Recycle Bin Igloos

Do you remember the feeling of a first snow when you were a kid?  I was a geeker for that kind of stuff.  As a child, I can remember rushing to all of the different windows in the house to see who got the best visit from Jack Frost...which did little more than only point toward the mere possibility that the environment could sustain snow.  There was more than one winter where I used the recycle bin to make bricks for an igloo!  Granted, I never completed a recycle-bin-brick-igloo...but the effort was there!

There was a corner near the carport at Needle Drive that used to collect snow at a much faster rate than any other part of the yard.  If we were lucky, the snow would pile high enough that we could tunnel into a few feet.  I swear there's a picture floating around of me as a tyke in front of that snow drift...

For the first time this season, it feels like winter has come to Boston.  I think that dogs love the snow just as much as me.  Snow delivers the additional blessing of covering the goose poo (yep) from our young lad's scent detection device.  Which means, he can go off leash during the daylight!

Warmer weather and rain is in the 10-day forecast. It sounds like the snow will be gone just as quickly as it arrived.  Until then, it's game on!

Captain Beard’s Log, Startdate 65505.1

Yes, that is today’s real stardate.  Don’t believe me?

I was combing through the featured articles on Yahoo! today and recognized two of the homes in a real estate article.  They're in my neighborhood!

Here’s a link to the original, Urban Mansions Rich with History.  Both of these homes are along the morning dog walk.  The Ames-Webster Mansion is on Dartmouth St.  As you’ll see in my picture, the shades in the windows have been drawn for months.

The O’Connor Residence is eerily close to home.  I can’t believe they’re asking $12.75M for the property.  Unreal.  This house is equally unoccupied on a frequent basis.

It must be nice to have a mansion on the market and feel no pressure to close a deal!

Bretton Woods II - Return of the Moose

It’s tough to know whether winter is going to happen this year (or not).  We headed for the North Country this weekend and didn’t see snow cover until we hit Franconia Notch (70 miles south of Canadia)!  Even then, there’s only 2-4 inches at the base of the mountains.  Onward!

By the time we got to the Mount Washington Hotel, the snow situation wasn’t much better.  The temperatures were low but there’s hardly any precipitation.  I love this hotel.  It’s one of my all-time favorites.  Snow or no snow, there’s tons to do.  On Friday night, we went out to the fire pit for s’mores.  I’m happy to have prepared Ali’s first EVER s’more.  She’s a fast learner and was dishing ‘em out as quickly as I could scarf them down.

On Saturday morning, I was off to fulfill my latest fascination: skiing.  Here’s the view from the top of the run that skied for most of the day.  Wifey and I have been here once before…this is the same Quad that we rode to get to the beginning of the zip-line course a year ago.  Our hotel is toward the lower left and Mount Washington is toward the upper right.

Since this is my third ever attempt to ski down a mountain, I feel conspicuously out of place at all times.  Stopping to snap pictures conceals that though, right?  …at least I didn’t fall this weekend!  My ski strategy is to find the path least traveled and then ski it over and over and over.  I highlighted “my” trails with yellow.  Even at this point in the season, they’re only operating ~30% of the trails because of the lack of snow.  All of the trails that were open were thanks to the maintenance, groomers, and snow making crews.

This was my first experience skiing by myself.  A bit nerve wracking to be honest; I was worrying about what would happen if I careened of the trail and into a tree.  I went early to avoid the crowds…would I ever be discovered??  Oh well, if I let the anxiety get ahold of me, I’ll never get off of the couch.  Fortunately, it all worked out in my favor.  I’m starting to wonder whether or not skiing will evolve into a more permanent fixture in my life.  I despise forking over $60-$70 to rent equipment each time I ski (3 times in the past 2 weeks - ugh).  But at the same time, I’d be even more upset if I bought skis…only to let them collect dust in the back of the storage unit.

I do, however, feel like a pro in the rentals room.  I cruise through there like a champion.  Once the crowds started to show up, it was time for me to hit the road.  Until tomorrow, Bretton Woods, until tomorrow.

We filled the rest of Saturday with mostly outdoor activities.  We contemplated cross country skiing until we agreed that it required too much effort.  We opted for snow tubing instead.  Here’s a pic of Ali cruisin’ down the hill.

There’s quite a bit of predictable chaos that occurs on a snow tube course.  For example, I towed Ali up to the top of the hill as she sit comfortable in her tube.  At which point, I took the liberty of propelling her down the hill against her will.  The only unpredictable element of our tomfoolery was the grandfather/grandson duo who had jumped onto the course at the midway point.  Sorry for the scare, guys!

I've uploaded some extra pictures from the trip here.