Dibs

We went to a LOT of weddings last fall.  A lot for me, anyway.  We did talk to one person who had seven in one year, and we only went to four, but that was in the course of two months, spread from Cleveland to Colorado.  The Girl and I were fairly evenly matched; two weddings were "my" friends (they both prefer her now) and the other two were her friends (no air-quotes necessary).  However, she wasn't in either wedding, while I, for the first time ever, donned a tux and stood by a friend on the day he put on the One Ring (it binds him).

For me, that was a bit of an adventure in itself.  Given the scope of the planning that went into this wedding, I think it might have qualified as an adventure for anyone who attended, and several people who might have just wandered past the festivities.  That's why I'm breaking my usual post schedule to put this up on the first anniversary of one of my best friends.  I wish you could have gone hiking with me, wanker, but I understand that there are extenuating factors to consider now.

I wish you both the best, C and M.  Happy anniversary, and many thanks for everything you do!

slide

Shortly after Christmas, The Girl and I met up with a couple of her high school friends (now married to each other, and my Long After College friends) to go sledding.  Unfortunately, one of them, who shall remain nameless but has a side project called the Death Cart, shared intersecting down-slope trajectories with a couple of local pre-adolescents (entirely unharmed by his presence), and his wife decided she was done sledding for the day.  Something about how she "didn't want to run over any kids."  Go figure.  She hadn't hit anybody.

We compromised with a hike through the nearby woods, wandering aimlessly for about an hour in the hopes that the slope's population would thin itself out a little in the interim.  When we returned, she remained a conscientious objector while I took a few more downhill dives (missing every child available) until it was time to find dinner at--no joke--Rick's Cafe.  Somehow, nobody else got the reference until we arrived and saw the movie posters.  If you're interested, they have a stunning array of novel burgers, and are located in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, along with a tasteful riverside holiday light display.  (in contrast to our other holiday light display excursion, a rampant, egregious excess so outlandish that any attempted photos would have been overexposed--sadly, I can not prove this with pictures, but it did Happen.)