In which, we git a larptorp and I learn a cardgame, among other things

Newsflash from Brad and Claire's apartment: We are now the proud owners of a laptop! Hurray! After months ( years?on Brad's part probably) of indecision, research, saving/hoarding, and thinking we could get by without one ( that would be me, not Brad), we have succumbed to the inevitable march of technology. It's pretty nifty looking- in the layman's terms. Actually, in REAL and more specific layman's terms, it sort of resembles a cross between a squashed microwave oven and a black hole. It's a widescreen version and I've never seen anything like it. I have decided I like it and so I think we will be keeping it. ( Brad was worried I wouldn't cotton to its strange looks.)

In other news: I think I may be chewing on my tongue when I sleep. My tongue is inexplicably sore on one side. Aren't you glad you're reading this? TMI, perhaps. Okay...

Another headline: Brad is the best.

And yet another headline: The Youth Weekend came and went...and from my limited vantage point, it seemed to be a success. At least, the part I had in it was fun. I played a small role in the Great Amazing Video Scavenger Hunt-Race. My part consisted of sitting with Diane while she organized the whole thing and putting in my two cents' worth occasionally. And then Bethany and I packed the lunch and sat in the gazebo in Marlborough ( next to Jitterbeans) waiting for the seven teams to come by and eat lunch. As we waited, Bethany taught me how to play Rummy with Derrick's anime cards...and I was confused enough without all the pictures of bizarre, angular, mechanized creatures and odd, robotic looking people because I don't really know any card games...and I get easily confused between spades and clubs and all that...I forgot their names actually. I was like, " What is the clover thing and what is the heart thing that's not a heart?" Poor Bethany. I wonder if she would have tackled this endeavor if she had known what a dense game-learner I am...and just how drastically IGNORANT I am of all things card. She was extremely patient and kind to me ( chuckling benevolently at my feeble missteps) in spite of the fact that it took me about a gazillion times of making the same mistake to learn that I have to immediately use the last card that I pick up from the discard pile! I was glad for the shelter because it was drizzly ( we had initially planned to take the food to Ashuelot Park but changed plans when I heard of the impending precipitation)...and the chill finally got to us and we fled to the warmth of my internal combustion engine. It was really fun to watch everybody's videos when we got back to Fairwood. The teams had to go around Keene ( and the outlying provinces) and take video clips of their team - or other people- doing certain things on a list...a few of which included: a team member in a shopping cart, the team singing "Old MacDonald" to Sue Lyman, interviewing people at Fairwood, getting a picture of the team under an arch, a Chinese fire drill ( in a safe parking lot), someone in the group reading a book in a store to the rest of the group - all chose children's books, luckily. I can't imagine if someone had started reading "The Count of Monte Cristo"... they'd still be there, I suppose. Some of the funniest parts were when they had to ask a store clerk to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

And last but not least: Happy May-Day +1. We are officially out of the woods with the whole winter thing, I think. We are now entitled to nothing but brilliant, gorgeous weather for about one hundred twenty days before plunging headlong back into that slough of grossness known as winter. Soak it up!