Paper Targets Beware

In these here parts of the country (Massachusetts), firearms are a bit taboo.  In Boston, we're famous for enormous anti-gun signs outside of Fenway Park.  Imagine my surprise when Ali came home with a "Learn to Shoot" voucher from Gilt City!  I'm such a proud husband.

Thus, we spent our Saturday morning at the Massachusetts Firearms School.  We sat through a short firearms safety presentation and, before we knew it, we were in the indoor range preparing to fire the first of four guns; the Smith & Wesson Model 617 revolver.  This was the heaviest gun we shot and packed the biggest punch.  After that one, we shot a Ruger Mark III automatic pistol, Ruger LCR revolver, and finally an AR-15 rifle (a close relative of the M16).  Um, yeah.

The shot of the day was made by Frau Ali.  Note the horizontal and vertical centrality of this shot. The instructor turned to her and exclaimed, "you got him in his dome-piece!"

She must've felt bad for the paper target (or something).  She's so kind hearted that even her bullet holes are shaped like hearts.

Here are my shots.  They're arranged from left to right in the same order that the guns are mentioned above.

We had a blast.  Although, we were the only two in our class of nine that didn't immediately sign-up to take the MA certification course.  What will she think of next!?

Playoff Season

Ali and I rushed home last night from the Sox - O's game at Fenway so that we could catch the end of the Celtics - Heat game.  Boston split the games last night (Sox won, Celtics lost) but the excitement in the city during this time of year is special.  This city loves our pro sports teams and for good reason: each one of the majors have won a championship since I moved here in January '05.  Six months can't go by without one of the teams making a playoff run.  May & June are the peak of the insanity; as spring turns to summer, both the NBA and NHL are in playoff mode while the MLB season is hitting full stride.  Nothing stirs the pride like a Bruins jersey on George Washington or Celtic jerseys on the 'Make Way for the Ducklings' statues in the Public Garden.

Attending a home game is really a lot of fun.  Some of my favorite memories are singing along to Sweet Caroline at Fenway and the loads of Bobby Orr jerseys that surface at a Bruins game.  Speaking of which, why don't I have one of those yet?

We're not without our hiccups though.  Just yesterday, for example, Mayor Menino referred to Kevin Garnett as "KJ" and Rajon Rondo as "Hondo".  Ooof.  I was hoping that the incident could somehow be blamed on his heavy Bah-ston accent (which it couldn't).  ESPN had a field day with that audio clip...

Bad iPhone, Bad

I saw an ad for the 4S that read something to the effect of, "the only camera you'll ever need."  And until this past 2 weeks, I was starting to think that Apple might have done it.  I forgot my Nikon Coolpix S9100 in Boston last week.  In a nutshell, I accidentally forced myself to test the 4S hype at, among other things, a baptism and a week of vacation.

I had loads of photo ops but soon found myself skipping the photo op because I knew the picture would be crap.

Wanna zoom-in on the ferry with Brant Point Lighthouse in the background?  Forget it; it's only a digital zoom.

Wanna snap that action shot?  Forget it; shutter speeds are slower than the Slowsky's.

Wanna save that low light Workbench?  Forget it; the flash doesn't know when to fire.

The 4S just isn't very flexible. It's sweet spot is pretty narrow.  By the end of my journey, I had found the sweet spot and was taking some pretty great pictures.

Now for the kicker: as we were waiting to board our ferry back to the mainland, I noticed a mysterious bump in my book bag. It was my beloved Nikon megazoom!  Son of a....

Yuuuuup!

Ali and I attended a charity auction to benefit the Farr Academy this week.  Since wifey is an e-Bay FANATIC, this live event was sure to test her grit.  It's easy to keep a cool appearance when you're competing against faceless binaries, but in live competition, the rules change.  The competitors are always observing the big dog.  Watching.  Testing.  Waiting for you to tip your hand.

This would be much more akin to Storage Wars than anything even she has ever done.  I knew I was out of my league.  Wifey would have to bare the burden of the paddle today.  We Positioned our chairs so that I could tap Ali on the back anytime I wanted to bid.  Armed with that information, Ali would decide whether or not Paddle #1 would make an official bid.

The good news is that my sports memorabilia collection has continued to grow!  Before the auction, I had a Paul Pierce basketball (a gift from Ali), Ted Williams baseball (a gift from Ali's father), and two Dave Mills Youth League trophies (!!).  Following the auction I was the proud new owner of a Kevin Youkilis baseball, Adrian Gonzalez baseball, and a Milan Lucic puck.

I also won a round for four at TPC Boston.  This is a private course where The Deutsche Bank Championship is played.  Woohoo!  We also won some other stuff...but that's far less exciting.

Lake Placid Vacation Domination

This just in: Nantucket no longer #1 destination for Ali and David!  That's right, Lake Placid Lodge has replaced Nantucket atop our list of favorite vacation destinations.  It's been a hard fought battle, but we've fallen for the vistas and variety of LPL.

This year's b-day gift to Wifey was a surprise four days and three nights at LPL with the pup(!).  It's our second trip here.  When we visited during the summer, we stayed in the suites. This time around, we rented a cabin because those are the only rooms where dogs are allowed.  We were fortunate enough to get upgraded to Owl's Head, the most private of the lake front cabins.

We both took a vacation day on Friday.  After a delicious husband made b-day breakfast, I delivered the news.  After a brief freakout, our bags got packed and we were on our way west (and north).  Four and a half hours later, we were checking in. We spent some time kibitzing with the welcome committee who were kind enough to give Jake water and a few treats.  We didn't get any snow accumulation while we were there but there was more than enough for us to enjoy it with Jake. He loves playing in the snow so this was a perfect trip for him.

It was very difficult for us to leave on Monday. And even more difficult for me to go into the office on Tuesday. We're already planning our return visit. Next time we plan to stay in the lodge so that we will have experienced each type of room.  Stay tuned for some more posts about the weekend details!

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.