A Very Furry Christmas

Jenine and I had a wonderful Xmus eve, complete with seasonal lighting, shinily (should be a word) wrapped presents, and two (that's correct, two) furry companions.

That's right, we're rabbit-sitting! For the next few weeks, we've been entrusted with an adorable, oh-so-cute lion head rabbit. Think 'wild 80's rocker hair' and you'll get the picture.

Speaking of pictures...

Ice Sledding

Last weekend, Jenine and I bought some sleds, donned our hats and mittens, and went sledding. On ice.

We hiked over to the Arboretum and climbed the hill which looks out on downtown Boston. The previous weekend it had been busy with kids sledding merrily, but this weekend it was dead quiet, and for good reason. Ice sledding is quite different than the normal variant, which occurs on newly fallen snow. Having enough speed is never a problem when ice sledding. Instead, the emphasis is on stopping and not breaking anything.

So after one foolish start at the top of the hill, which ended in me bailing out at high speeds about halfway down the slope, we opted for a slightly less perilous height which would allow us to come to some sort of stop before we ate pavement.

All injuries told, my first run bruised my tailbone, and my last one send shockwaves up my spine as I used my boots and locked knees to brake myself. Jenine saved her spine by preferring the roll-out method, but subsequently picked up several bruises on her legs. But in the end nothing was broken and a good time was had by all.

Later that day we also saw Narnia (which was good but not as fun as sledding) and went to Legal Sea Foods, where I had the best Fish and Chips I've yet to taste. The bread and butter was fabulous as well. Even the water at Legal Sea Foods tasted delicious, although that may have to do with the fact that our own tap water fills our glasses as a murky soup.

Boston Duck Tours

I just realized that I never reported on our (Jenine was in town for Thanksgiving) adventure in Boston. We took the T into the city and got off at the Museum of Science. We didn't have time to actually go to the museum, although we were inside for a bit amidst the throng of holiday family traffic. What we did do was go on a duck tour! You ride through the city in an old WW2 ambphibious vehicle, which actually drives out into Boston harbor. Jenine and I sat in the back, in the open air, and had the pleasure of watching a light snowfall. Afterwards we hopped back on the rail and went to Haymarket, which actually had no hay but lots of pubs.

Today it snowed hard for the first time. I just went for a nice walk to the arboretum and then downtown, which was exciting. Having to drive through the slush tomorrow on my way to work will be slightly less exciting.

Holiday Party

Go-carts! I got to race in one of those cool, fast little go-carts where you get all suited up and have to obey tons of rules and stuff. The helmet that you wear tends to fog up on the visor, which wouldn't have been so bad except that my glasses also fogged up, and much worse, so I had a hard time with tighter turns. After the race I took my glasses off and there were pools of condensation on the lenses. I kept getting the "warning" flag (I really don't know what for) with a stripe on it and once they told me to go to the "sin bin" (penalty box) but the thought of stopping went against every grain of my being at the time. I got 1st in my race (8 drivers) and 4th place overall (about 9 races with 8 drivers each)!



The party was pretty cool though, all things considered. Free go-cart racing, good food, texas-hold 'em (which handed my ass to me on a platter) and Mr. Gin and his faithful sidekick, Tonic boy.

After that they gave away about a bajillion prizes and that was it. Twas fun, and I didn't even get lost trying to find the place.