I go back to work tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed this time off. We’ve done a bunch of stuff as a family, and I’ve had one-on-one time with both BW and NatureBoy. We’ve spent time outdoors, enjoying the fleetingly short but beautiful Vermont summer. I’ve gotten in a respectable amount of gaming. And I’ve spent time with friends. Can’t ask for much more than that. 🙂

Yesterday morning, NB and I played another round of Settlers of Catan. We learned a few more things and had a good time (NB won). In the evening, we had a barbecue with a gaming friend and his wife. When he was visiting a couple weeks ago, he had expressed appreciation for the boffer swords that NB and I had made. I offered for him to come over and participate in a little swordtag sparring and for us to get a chance to meet his spouse.

We had a great time! My friend, whom I now dub TheaterGeek (TG) sparred with me and NatureBoy. We adults had a nice post-dinner chat while NB spent some quality time with his GameCube. Then TG and I did a little grup boffer sword sparring. It was great fun — and a good work-out. The GeekWive’s were making noises about kitting together; this can only be good. We’ll have to have have them over again, soon.

Today, we played a game of Settlers of Catan as a family. I finally won a game 😎 and, more importantly, BW said she really enjoyed the game. We ran a couple errands after lunch, and BW and I watched a few more Battlestar Galactica episodes — the Pegasus episodes were very harsh.

Now, as we prep for the week, I realize that I’m looking forward to going back to work. But I’m really greatful for the wonderful time off I’ve had with family and friends. Now, we are going to go roast some marshmallows on the night of the Full Moon.

Blessed Be.

I’m well into my summer vacation. My sister-in-law is visiting from Maine, too, and on Friday, we took a trip to the Great Escape. DW, Goddess of planning and logistics, had acquired discounted tickets via AAA, and packed lunch, water, and enough snacks for an arctic expedition (No, no! I’m not complaining!). It took about 2:50 to get there, but we really wanted to have fun in the water park and enjoy a few rides.

A couple colleagues had mentioned that the park had been advertising a new ride, called the Tornado, which was very cool. NatureBoy, though, decided that he wasn’t interested in any “scary rides,” which ended-up including pretty-much everything the we grown-ups wanted to try. So we ended-up taking turns supervising him at the long floaty river, the wave pool and the Paul Bunyan Bucket Brigade.

I got to go on the Tornado twice, once with SiL and once with DW. With SiL, I went down the first drop backwards, but I got to see how steep it is when I went with DW. It was a lot of fun, but pretty short. At least the line moved really quickly. I went with SiL to a couple of the tube rides (skip the black cobra; yawn), and then went with NatureBoy to the wave pool. DW and her sister took the opportunity to go try the the Comet. After a while, the wave pool closed for a break, and NB headed to the Bucket Brigade. He stood on the structure during the first bucket dump, and we stood under the cascade for the next one. 🙂

DW and SiL came back from their ride beaming, and DW asked me to go on it with her. It started raining while I was changing, but it was a brief shower. We took the ride, and I have to admit that I really don’t care for the old-fashioned roller coasters. The drops and rises were fun, but we were heaved and bumped and banged around so much that I too worried about keeping from getting hurt to enjoy the ride. Now, I did enjoy the Dueling Dragons at Universal’s Islands of Adventure that I went on during Microsoft Tech*Ed 2007 with a friend from BSAD.

We were hoping that we’d get a chance to go on the Alpine Bobsled, but it was closed because of the rain. NB wanted to ride the gondola, so I went with him. Then we headed home, exhausted.

All-in-all, I think I prefer the Whale’s Tale Water Park in Lincoln, NH. It’s just a water park (i.e., no roller coasters), but we got to do the rides many more times, there weren’t lines waiting for tubes, and the place was just friendlier and at a more reasonable scale.