Ramblin' Saturday

As usual, my Saturday (4/30/11) was filled with lots of activies, including:

• Richard's roller hockey game.
• Lunch w/Richard at Boston Market.
• Pet store - bought comb and brush for cats (shedding season)
• Shop for hiking shoes (I bought a pair but we're still looking for some for Richard).
• A 2-hour walk.

Richard's roller hockey team had an exciting game this week. They beat the first place team 7-6 and qualified for the playoffs.

We also worked a bit on Richard's US History class project. He has to do a paper or PowerPoint presentation on Senator Joseph McCarthy. They are currently studying the Cold War.



West Hartford Boston Market.

Lunch was something of a challenge this week due to Richard's new braces (see separate post).  We decided to try a favorite place, Boston Market. This is a favorite of ours due to the delicious food and reasonable prices. In addition, the West Hartford location is one of the cleanest I have found.  The mashed potatoes & gravy was today's draw. He tried corn but it was too hard to chew. Mac and cheese worked well. The corn bread was good except for the crispy edges (I ate those). I had meatloaf but Richard ate most of it - cut into tiny pieces. We also shared some sweet potatoes (I had the melted marshmallow topping).


Pet Store in West Hartford.


We stopped at the local pet store because I wanted to get a special comb for cat hair since it is shedding season.  After carefully considering the expensive model, we opted for a less expensive comb and brush. You should have seen all the hair we got when we tried it out (I didn't take a picture) on the cats (and they seemed to enjoy it).

Last week I tried some tea when we picked up our Chinese food. The manager, Sonny, told us it was organic (loose) green tea from Whole Foods. So we stopped at the local store up the street where we found several expensive options. We are now awaiting the exact details from Sonny before purchasing. I read that green tea was rich in antioxidants and good for you. I am considering green tea as replacement for my daily cup of coffee. Any tips or suggestions?

This year, one of my goals is to do more hiking. I would like to do some of the Blue trails. So one of the day's activities was to shop for hiking shoes. Richard tried on a few but didn't find anything comfortable. He did seem to like the most expensive ones. I opted for an inexpensive pair on sale. I figure after actually I put in few miles I can better determine what my needs are for hiking footwear. Any suggestions for Richard would be appreciated. We went to Bob's clothing and Dick's Sporting Goods.

When we got back to Lynn's place, the weather had turned to good to be inside. So we (Lynn, Richard, and me) went for a walk. It turned out to be a 2-hour walk! I got a chance to break in my new hiking shoes. My legs were pretty sore by the end of the walk (but they are much better today). One of the highlights of the walk was that we found some stone markers that Lynn had told us about a few months ago. Turns out they are 13 markers for the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." We found about 4 markers; someday we will have to do the entire walk.

By the time I finally arrived home, I had put on ~140 miles of driving and I was pretty exhausted. Another satisfying Saturday.