Concrete slides FTW

On a recent company trip to Mt. Washington, I had a chance to ride an alpine slide at the Attitash Ski Resort. My family used to do ride one of these at Alpine Ridge (a now-defunct small ski area in Gilford, N.H., down the road from my grandparents' summer house) at least a few times each summer from 1980-1987. As I told Lori after I finished the ride, nothing I've ever done has opened such a floodgate of childhood memories as riding that slide did.


The Alpine Ridge chairlift (as seen in the winter, but used for the slide in the summer)

The process for riding the slide has apparently not changed in 20 years. Neither have the slides themselves, which seem way way smaller than they used to be (believe it or not, back in 1985 I was actually shorter than I am now). They still get the slides up the hill via empty gondola chairs, they still run the slides down a conveyor belt of sorts, and you still have to pick them up yourself and lug them to the start of the track. The instructions/rules sign was the same one they used in Gilford. And they still lined people up by twos into the side-by-side tracks, with two sleepy teenagers releasing folks down the slide in pairs.

I probably didn't go nearly as fast as I did when I was a kid. Back then I was pretty much made of cartilage, so falling off wasn't a big deal. In fact, there's a great video kicking around of my dad filming me going down the slide (circa 1983), turning around to wave at him, and flinging my slide and my flailing self off the tracks and down a steep, wooded embankment. I lived, but just barely.

I would NOT let that happen again, not at age 30 when I'm all bone and worn-out rotator joints. Even though I had a conservative run, I felt like I was going a million miles an hour. I still sped up as fast as I could go entering the final turn, and then braked as hard as I could at the end of the last straightaway, stopping JUST in time to avoid crashing into the "safety tire" located at the end of the track.


You can't tell, but I'm going like Mach-7 here

When the slide came to a complete stop, I half-expected my grandfather would be there to take me to get a Slush Puppy at the nearby snack shed ... but I quickly snapped back to reality. Instead, I was greeted by a really nice pregnant lady who was nice enough to hold all my stuff while I went on the ride. Funny how times change!

Kevin & Tracy McMahon!

Our good friends Tracy and Kevin got married this past Saturday. The rehearsal dinner was at the legendary Stockyard restaurant in Brighton, and the ceremony and reception were at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline. Everyone had an amazing time, Tim McMahon gave an awesome toast to the new couple, and the crowd partied late into the night!

All venues were incredible, everything went off without a hitch, and the happy couple are now enjoying a much-deserved break from the madness (aka honeymoon) in Bermuda.

More pictures can be found here.

Also - this picture is courtesy of Jason & Leah's blog ... thought it was a nice shot (thanks to Leah Moens Enterprises®)

Congrats again to Kev and Tracy!

Blue Ginger & Bioshock ... Together At Last

Blue Ginger
This place is great. Noisier and busier than we've ever seen it, but not much has changed here in the last 5 years. They still have Alaskan Butterfish (which one of us orders every time we go, this time it was Lori), and they had Sapporo beer. Sapporo, along with Kirin, is one of those beers that I will never in a million years think to get at the liquor store, but I love getting it at restaurants. Go figure.

Anyway, I got the Korean Hanger steak and piece of bittersweet chocolate cake for dessert, and Lori got the aforementioned butterfish and ... ummm ... some sort of dessert. I forgot what. But I DO know it came with a side of sorbet. Awesome dinner all around.

The highlight of the dinner was probably the company at the table next to us. We have no idea who it was, but it was four gentlemen (two from a small company, two from a large company) having a business meeting. The best part was the incredibly loud french guy who was the head of the larger company, telling the guy from the smaller one that to him, their company "... was small change. The revenue from any dealings with you will be insignificant. It is the market we care about, we don't even care a little bit about the money. This is NOTHING to us." I caught myself staring at Little Fish's blank expression a few times, as this french guy kept putting kicking him down a few pegs. This went on for about 45 minutes. Quality entertainment. We almost tipped them, it was so good.

Bioshock
This game is a must-have for anyone with an Xbox 360 or a PC. It's incredibly fun, and much more cerebral than most 1st person shooters. The idea is you've been taking to this underwater Utopian city (which, as with most Utopias, has crumbled). The scientists in the city have basically ignored morals and, for lack of a better description, come up with ways for people to have force-like powers (shooting fire, lightning, ice, telekinetics from their hands).

So not only do you have an array of 1950s-era weapons, you are also sorta like Darth Vader. Pretty cool.

You can hack into the computer systems of the city, turning security cameras/gun turrets/vending machines from enemies to friends, you can invent new weapons by combining pieces of multiple weapons ... and you can murder little demon girls.

Seriously.



I'm only about 1/20th of the way through the game, but so far it's delivering on the hype. Highly recommended.

Our Anniversary

Three years certainly goes by faster than I would have imagined!

We're having dinner at our favorite dinner spot this evening (Blue Ginger, where we went for our first anniversary as a couple back in 2002).

After dinner, I'm giving Lori a promise ring and my varsity jacket. Happy anniversary, hon!

My First Pre-Order™

Went to GameStop yesterday to trade-in Gears of War while it still had some value, and ended up on the pre-order list for BioShock (which releases on August 21).

If you have not heard of BioShock, check out the video below.

I've never seen a game get such high reviews; the lowest one I've seen so far is a 94 out of 100. If you have a 360, either get the demo today or just wait until tomorrow to get the full version. If you've already played the demo, you already know that purchasing it won't be a bad decision!

If I'm not mistaken, the PC-version of the demo also releases today ...

"Now, let me explain something before you get mad ... "

Lori is adorable.

She decided the shade of yellow we'd painted in the nursery wasn't *quite* what she was looking for. It was a little too "highlighter-y". So, she cautiously approached me and said that after lots of careful consideration and secret consultation with a Mother-In-Law-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless, she wanted to switch the color.

Now, this wasn't too big of a deal because:

• The wall still needed another coat of paint
• The wall still needed another coat AFTER that other coat
• Shade of Yellow #1 is a great base/primer for Shade of Yellow #2

After it was determined I was not going to put her in a burlap sack and throw her in the river, we went down to Sherwin-Williams and got a new color. The results?

And an added bonus ... a Lori/Cody/"baby belly" exclusive, relaxing in the newly painted nursery!

On another topic, does anyone need an unused gallon of "Highlighter Yellow"?

It's not easy being green

Or getting rid of it, for that matter.

The room we're converting into the nursery was a lime-greenish color when we bought the house. Over the past weekend, I put two coats of primer on the walls and trim ... which sorta turned the walls into a light blue. Ok, that's a start.

Last night with the help of Kim and Mike (of Nickelodeon's "Hey, It's Kim & Mike!" fame), we painted the first coat of yellow on the walls. And while it is very yellow, it's still sorta ... greenish? We're hoping the second coat takes care of that, but I'm thinking the walls (not trim) may need three coats. Inconceivable!

Round two is slated for this Saturday, but I'm thinking I may try and do a roller coat prior to that just to get a more solid base down.

Bored yet? : )

Weekend Update

Tanks for the Memories
We came home on Friday to find that our 6 year-old water heater had "passed on".


Of course, whoever invented hot water heaters decided that the best way for them to die is to spill their guts all over your basement. Thankfully, it didn't let out too much before we found it and emptied it ourselves. Hopefully it will be replaced on Monday morning. Big thanks to the Regan family for letting us use their shower this weekend!

Saturday Night

Saturday night was spent at our Jon and Amy's place for their annual BBQ. They always put on a great party ... and it doesn't hurt that Jon works for Harpoon. The food was great, the late-night flip cup tourney was equally great, and hopefully Jon has both his flip-flops back by now.

The Nursery, Round One

Sunday was spent priming the walls of nursery. Painting with primer is a pain (alliteration?) and always looks like you haven't painted it thoroughly enough. I hate that. Anyway, I put two coats on. Exciting stuff. Some pics below:

By the way, Cody is a vicious dog. He just wanted you to know.

The Finished Front Deck

This projct was the bane of my existance for a couple months. I thought it would take a couple weekends, I was off by a little bit. Here are the fruits of the labor:

UPDATE: Where's Cody?

IGNORE EVERYTHING BELOW! THEY FOUND CODY ON SATURDAY MORNING!!

Thankfully, it's not OUR Cody ... but there is a local dog named Cody who's been missing for a whole week now. If you drive around Wayland/Framingham, there are posters all over the place. Maybe it's because the dog's name is Cody, but this dog being missing is really bumming me out (I can't imagine how the family feels!).

Her owners have made a website which has all of Cody's information, including an interactive Google Map of her recent sightings. The great news is that people have been spotting her, but the bad news is that once they see her no one's been able to actually catch her. If I was the owners, I'd have a hard time looking at that map knowing she was out there, just out of reach!

Anyway, let's hope for a happy ending to this story. More to come ...

It's What's For Dinner ®

If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?

The MathWorks Takes Mt. Washington

The MathWorks had their annual Mt. Washington company retreat a few weeks ago. This being my first one, I was not sure what to expect. Here are somethings I didn't know going in:
1. The company takes over the entire Mt. Washington hotel. The WHOLE thing. Whoa.
2. The company also takes over a couple other area hotels. Double whoa.
3. There is no team building exercises, speeches, financial results shared, etc ... nothing. Just two big company-wide dinners and cocktail hours(5 hours each, to be exact), and the rest of the time from Friday night to Sunday night is allllllll yours.


We had a really good time up there. It ended up being a nice mini-vacation for us, and we got to breathe some of that fresh New Hampshire air for a few days. I had the chance to ride the Alpine Slide, since the hotel we ended up at was right across the street from Attitash Mountain. I had not been on one of those slides since I was 10 years old, when there was another alpine slide located at Gunstock Mountain in Laconia, NH. Lots o' memories!

More pics can be found here.

I fail at camera

So maybe I was a little lazy and neglected to take any pictures of Scout and Cody romping around the house. SUE ME!

Some highlights of Scout's visit include:
1. Chasing Cody around the yard
2. Being infatuated with Cody's ears
3. Enjoying the taste of Dirt ®!
4. Sleepin'
5. Going for walks around Framingham (and pooping as foretold)
6. Sleepin'

When Lori and I weren't playing with the puppies, we were putting the finishing touches on the front deck ... which is finally complete! Pictures to come (I swear), but it is nice to have that project out of the way. On to the nursery! For serious this time!!

We also took our first ever trip to the Framingham recycling center (aka "The Dump"). I don't know what they put in the coffee there, but the employees are ridiculously friendly. Maybe I'm just used to surly New Hampshire dump folk, but these guys seemed genuinely happy to be there. Anyway, we were getting rid of about 7 sections of vinyl fence from the recent backyard expansion. The guy at the gate tells me "Ummmmmmm ... I think we take that? Check with the guy at the dumpster."

So I drive to the dumpster, and ask the guy running the compactor. "I have no idea if we take that, you'll need to ask the manager over there." Now, at this point I'm getting nervous that I'll need to unload all this stuff into the garage again and possibly have to cut it all down into little bite-size pieces for the regular trash. That would be a pain. The manager tells me that sure they'll take it, and he walks towards the office. So I start unloading that stuff as fast as I can into the dumpster, and when he comes back out I have one piece left to unload.

Him: "Ummm ... I just found out we actually don't take vinyl fence."
(guy running the compactor, who is not listening to us, crushes my fence into an unrecoverable mound of twisted vinyl)
Me: "Oh ... ok. I guess I'm glad I work fast then."
Him: "LOL."

Wow. That story was much more exciting in my mind.

Aside from all of that: Lori trimmed up all the shrubbery in the front, I aerated the whole yard because the heat is killing all the grass, and Lori cleaned up the workbenches in the garage and basement. And we cleaned the garage. And we put some of the usable fence sections up in the attic.

We are very much looking forward to this coming weekend, where there is not too much housework planned AND we get to visit Jon and Amy for their annual summer BBQ. Harpoon-tastic!

The Final Countdown

Well ... sort of. The plan is to finish the elusive front deck project this weekend with a couple coats of stain to the decking. Considering my original estimate for this project was a whopping two weekends ... yeah. More like two months. Stupid weather/life/etc. getting in the way.

In other news, we have Scout coming to visit us this weekend! Scout and Cody enjoy such activities as running around, stealing each other's stuff, hiking, and biting each other constantly for hours on end. Should be an incredibly busy weekend for those two. Stay tuned for some adorable dog playtime pictures sometime next week. One of these days I'll post the pictures from our Mt. Washington weekend too. Stupid weather/life/etc. getting in the way.