It had been a really busy week for me and a killer for Sue (who had photography work in as far away places as Colebrook, NH and Woodford Hollow, VT), so Friday night after work we just enjoyed a bottle of wine with delivered pizza while we played 3 sets of backgammon, and then just collapsed into bed.
Saturday 10/07 I was up early programming until the Ross Furniture delivery guys came with our new mattress. We had lunch, went out to Wagon Hill Farm and hiked around for about an hour, and then did a Fall Explore around the Durham and Barrington areas before coming back to the house and getting ready for my disciple 2nd Degree Black Belt Rick Downs to pick us up. We drove down to Hampton, NH, had an early dinner at Mama Leone's and then went to the Hampton Beach Casino and Ballroom for the George Thorogood concert that Rick and I have been going to for years. It was nice to have some responsible adult female supervision for once.
Tough getting up Sunday morning, but forced my way out of bed at 8:30 to make coffee and get the shopping list written up. Sue and I headed out on a Fall Foliage Adventure at 10:45 and didn't get back until 3:00pm. We drove up Rt. 9 all the way to Barrington to Rt 202 where we headed South.
We stopped for about an hour or so at Stonehouse Pond. That was a pretty energetic hike through the woods, up hills and over fallen logs and all sorts of stuff. But the view was spectacular. I, unfortunately, didn't want to push it to the top of the rock cliffs so we just made it about three fourths around the bottom of the lake to them before turning back. Beautiful day.
When we came out of Stonehouse Pond, we headed south on 202 for about a half mile and then turned north up the dirt road, Jo Al County Road. That turned into Webber Road and though you can't tell from the maps, it's nothing more than a deeply rutted logging road. The Honda Accord is a great off the road vehicle.... What a ride! We came out in Barnstead at the falls, stopping there so Sue could get some pictures. We went through Center Barnstead and turned south on 126. What a sepctacular drive 126 is, even without the full vibrant color. We may have to go back up along there in a week or so: it's that good.
About 40 minutes later we came out on Rt. 125, went south, and stopped for a late lunch at the Frank Jones Restaurant and Pub in Barrington, NH. After a great hamburger and Sam Adams Octoberfest, we came back to Dover, and went to Hannaford's for our food shopping.
I had decided to fix a different kind of chicken piccata so did most of the food prep really quickly before Sue and I went out on the deck to play some backgammon over a glass of wine. I ended up throwing both glasses of it over the deck railing; it was awful - a Natura Chardonay that I will never try anything else from them again. It was that bad. Regardless, the first game come out throw we doubled, so the cube goes to 2. We doubled again, so the cube goes to 4. Guess what? We doubled twice more so we start the series at 16 on the cube, I get caught dancing on the bar and start off a 16 point dog. We played 3 full sets and I was still down 14, having been as far down as 19. I felt like a rug I had been beat so badly.... The saving grace for the evening was that dinner came out great and we watched one of my favorite movies: Jeremiah Johnson.
Monday, Columbus Day, I had wanted to get up early and get to some programming. But my body was sore from all that hiking and stuff from the day before, so I didn't climb out of bed until 8:30. Around 1:30pm, Sue and I headed out to do some shopping and then took up with the backgammon again when we got back around 3:00pm, with a little Pinot Noir to soothe my ego from still being down 14. Through brute force and lots of trash talk I was able to get back to only 3 down. I have until Thursday, when scoring starts all over again, to get ahead. There will be no mercy....
