weekend update

We had a blissful weekend, which started at the Farmer's Market and ended, well, I'm not sure yet how it will end, but I think vegan coffee cake will be involved.

Saturday morning we woke up late. Sean was up early but Maple and I slept in until 10:30! I love that Maple is growing up and realizing the awesomeness of sleeping in on Saturday mornings. We walked Phoenix in her usual spot, the Natick Common, where the Natick Farmer's Market has started up again. We bought some local organic kale, sage, and arugula. Our CSA hasn't started yet, so we are enjoying the freedom of farmer's market purchases, before we are inundated with unchosen produce. Since there weren't too many vendors on the common this week, we drove over to the Natick Community Organic Farm (where I volunteered last week as part of my company's 8-hours-a-year-of-volunteer-time benefit) and got some greens and asparagus. We spent the rest of Saturday eating our bounty and relaxing.

Yesterday, we woke up and drove out to western Mass for the first hike of the year. Maple and Sean "crewed" for me, dropping me off at US 20 near Lee and picking me up on Pittsfield Road, outside of Becket, MA. I walked 9.4 miles of the Trail, putting me 37 miles from the VT border. After my hike we went to an Indian restaurant in Northampton and had great vegan potatoes, corn coconut curry, samosas and pakoras. And then we went home and watched TV.

In bed last night I was complaining (I've been doing that a lot lately) about my hiking boots. Last year I lost a toenail because of the stupid Keens, and yesterday the same toenail (the new one) really hurt after the hike. Sean asked me, "Why don't you take them back?" I thought he was kidding, but he was serious. Even though I bought them almost 10 months ago, I had to admit they sucked, and I either had to get new boots, or try to trade the Keens in for new boots. I hate taking things back, even if they are unworn, let alone 10 months old and well used (I walked to work in them all winter long, in addition to the 25 trail miles I did in them last year). But I did hate them, they did kill my toenail (which now grows straight out of my foot), and I always felt bad because they weren't vegan. (I used to call them "the cow boots"). And then Sean offered to take them back for me! He knows I hate that kind of stuff and he's really good at it.

So this morning he put together some receipts (we couldn't find the receipt for the boots but we found some other receipts to show we spend a decent amount of money at that store) and threw the shoes into the bag. And then we drove to EMS and Sean talked them into taking them back, and I got a pair of Garmont Vegan boots (the same ones I hiked most of the AT in back in 2001) on sale! The Vegans ended up being $22 less than the amount they gave us for the old Keen toekillers. I'm so grateful to Sean for foisting those old, dirty boots on them, and now I have vegan boots for my next hike!

Now Sean is making curry with roasted asparagus and potatoes, which smells amazing, and I'm planning for my next hike. I might finish MA next weekend! I have the best crew.