I got all of my exam grading out of the way yesterday so I was able to spend this morning with Colleen. We had a pretty big weekend last week and we’re going to have another big one this coming week so I decided to play it low key and not force the issue on going out adventuring. Instead, I suggested that we wander down to REI for some “window shopping.” (For our East Coast friends, think Eastern Mountain Sports but in the Western U.S. and in the form of a co-op.) This might have been well and dandy had it not been for one pesky fact: Colleen and I are terrible window shoppers. Now, I’m sure there are multiple ways to be a terrible window shopper, but in our case it is because we always end up buying stuff. So, what was it today? It might be better off to ask what wasn’t it today?

It started off innocently enough with us picking up some hiking socks (the ones with the breathable/moisture wicking technogobble). Then, we reached the shoe isle and Colleen found a pair of sandals that she thought were too comfortable to pass up. Fair enough. Then we hit the backpack isle and kinda went crazy. I’ve been trying to upgrade from the bargain-basement JanSport purple backpack that Colleen had from her college days. Colleen was feeling a bit bad that she didn’t really get me a big gift on my birthday so she thought she would  make up for it by buying me a backpack today. We ended up with the REI Stoke 19 Pack which is very comfortable and has just about all the features we were looking for. I almost ended up picking up a hydration pack to go along with the pack but Colleen was already feeling bad about spending so much money already—I didn’t even mention the visor for Colleen and adjustable bottle holder for my bike—that I didn’t push the issue. We ended  up playing around with the eTrex Vista HCx GPSr, which we are thinking about buying as a replacement to our eTrex Legend. The Legend is working out nicely for us but we were thinking about giving it to my Mom as a Christmas gift and figured it would give us a convenient excuse to bump up to the next level of GPSr (one with a color screen, USB connectivity, and microSD support). Yes, we have a shopping problem.

This upcoming weekend is shaping up like it will be a good one. The Rooney ‘rents are flying into LA tonight and will be in Newport Beach for a conference this week. We are scheduled to meet up with them on Thursday and Friday so they can bask in the glory of our presence. I’m going to see if I can convince them to take a boat trip around Catalina Island. I would ask for it as a birthday gift but they were already so gracious as to send me a box (see pic on the side) full of yummy vegan cookies (from Sun Flour Baking). After parting ways with them, we are going to head up to Ventura County to see my sister and (hopefully) take a cruise to the Channel Islands.  I have been dying to see the CI since I read an piece in the LA Times about them being the “American Galapagos.” Depending on how much money we feel like spending, we can take a 3 hour cruise around the islands or we can actually land and spend a couple hours there. The latter would totally be awesome but I am not going to be pushy about it.

Well, I guess that about wraps up this little post. I figured I needed to make a real post since Colleen posted that chain blog post the other day

- Sat