Nearly a week later . . .

I feel as though I have been paddling like crazy with LJ over the last couple of days, but not making any forward progress.

I had three days worth of entries to read and comment on and comment upon the comments on, and now I am playing Meme Games.

But I want to at least get a few words about about "How Mr. T. Spent His Summer Vacation."

Working backwards, today ladytat and I are going to see the New Hampshire Fisher Cats play baseball. There is also a stop planned for Milly's Brewpub. (You will sense a theme).

Wednesday: Brought evilnicola to new_man's so she could continue to work on her armor. Wait until you see her battle skirt. She was one of three people there working on armor. new_man is doing a very nice job getting the barony armored up. I went to the John F. Kennedy Museum, which was great, then drove out to Pleasure Beach in South Boston -- it was in the 80s -- but just drove through. Went bopping around Cambridge, visiting stores, etc. Found "Ticket To Ride -- Europe" in Games People Play, but I have not played the original game enough yet to justify spending $43 on the new one. Picked up some "Paper City Hop Monster" and proceeded to drink beer, play on the computer and watch the Red Sox. (Get the theme yet?)

More to come . . .

Tuesday and Monday . . .

Tuesday: Woke up in Burlington and started working my way back to Peabody, finally getting home around 1 p.m. or so and proceeding to unpack and clean up around the house in preparation for meeting evilnicola at Fenway. She and I had bleacher seats, and though we lost 4-3, I was amazing proud of her for starting a "Yankees Suck!" chant after the Yankees-Tampa Bay score (3-1, Devil Rays), popped up on the Jumbotron. She spent a lot of time looking at Bronson Arroyo's ass with the binoculars from the nice lady sitting next to her. (You will notice the beer missing from the theme because it's $6.75 for a 12-ounce Sam Adams). Yay for Daddy-Daughter bonding.

Monday morning: (It was a long day) Another great Daddy-Daughter bonding experience. One of the best ever. theresat took me to Burlington's finest crunchy-granola-tree-hugger restaurant for breakfast, we stopped at the Teddy Bear Factory, then got a bit of a self-tour at Magic Hat Brewery. (It was a touch early for much sampling, and we were on the road anyway). We then made our way to the magic Route 100 and headed for Stowe and beyond. Found a roadside place that featured Cabot Cheeses, Lake Champlain Chocolates, a wine-tasting booth (not part of the theme) and a Teddy Bear outlet we never made it to. Toured Ben & Jerry's and were turned on to Fossil Fuel, which features chocolate dinosaurs. We then drove to Rock Art Brewing, a tiny craft brewery north of Stowe, where we met the brewer and his boys, took some pictures and got flirted with (at least T. did).

Monday afternoon: We headed south for a so-so lunch at The Shed, a big apres-ski place on the Mountain Road. Note, that to this point we had been to breweries but were not drinking. We split their "Ski of Beer," a neat way of serving six four-ounce samples (notice, that totals a beer each). It's an old ski fitted with metal rings that the sample glasses fit in. Beers were OK. The Moutain Ale was the best. We then headed farther south to The Alchemist, a really funky brew pub in Waterbury. One of the classiest place I have ever been in, and the beer was as great as the place. T. had the conclusion of her lunch (I said The Shed was so-so), and we drabk lightly, hung for a while and headed to Burlington.

Monday evening: We watched baseball with one of her roomates (the theme again), then I checked the Beer Advocate site and found out that Chocolate Thunder Stout was being served at 3 Needs Brewing across town, one of the places we did not get to Sunday night. We walked over and met one of T.'s friends along the way. He took us to 3 Needs and introduced us to the bartender whom the beer was named after (use your imagination). It was great. We walked back and headed off to bed.