High school was a loooooonnnngggg time ago. But this weekend it all came back as my class celebrated our 20th high school reunion. I wasn't really sure what to expect, other than realizing that I probably wouldn't be able to recognize very many people; I'm terrible at that even when it hasn't been 20 years. So I walked in and the first thing I noticed was that nobody was wearing a nametag. I had hoped to be saved from any awkward encounters by the grace of stickers stuck to shirts and dresses, but it was not to be. Fortunately for me, my buddy Jf is even worse at it so I didn't feel too bad. And though not many of my classmates made it to the reunion (35 from a class of over 100) it was actually quite nice to see those that did. There was a lot of laughter and reminiscing, and someone had brought along a yearbook, which was scary. Fortunately, none of the girls was sporting 80s-style big hair these days. If the girls in this photo had their high school hair, you probably wouldn't be able to see much of me. Seriously though, everyone looked great and it was fun. Game 6 of the ALCS was happening (the guy getting the scores on his Blackberry was very popular with Red Sox fans), and I was still glad that I went.

While I had a fun outdoorsy weekend, Jazzy wasn't so lucky as my adventures weren't pup-friendly. Since she was cooped up more than usual on Saturday and Sunday, I promised her a mid-week dogventure. So off to the beach we went today, where we played fetch until my arm felt like falling off. Jaz was getting quite tired but never stopped wanting to play (though she took short breaks to lay down in the ocean). Eventually we stopped and took this picture. The lighting on us isn't great, and I caught Jazzy licking her chops, but it captured the incredible sky, courtesy of the very early sunsets we're getting these days.

Saying it's been a beautiful October is quite the understatement. In fact, the best beach days of the year were on the first few days of this month - five foot waves and 80 degree weather at Misquamicut, with water still warm enough to spend an hour bodysurfing. It's cooled off a bit since then, but the sun has been shining and it's been great to be outdoors. Yesterday I enjoyed the day by going kayaking for the first time. It was a four-hour historical tour of the Mystic River on rented kayaks, down to Six Penny Island and then back, a distance of six miles or so, with stops here and there to learn about the significant colonial-era events. I find history fascinating, so this was a great combination of exercising the mind and the body. Kayaking was a lot of fun, especially once the water became choppy at the mouth of the river. It wasn't completely foreign to me, as I've done a bit of river canoeing with my best friend Jf, including one time when we brilliantly misjudged the amount of daylight we had and ended up finding our was back in the pitch black. We did manage to find our boat launch that time, after a few heavy impacts with some rocks we couldn't see. The canoe (since named "The Noreen" after his wife) held up pretty well, considering.
P.S. Here's a pic of me actually on the kayak, courtesy of the Conn. Coastal Kayaking folks.

Basketball has always been my favorite sport, and when I was a kid Dr. J (Julius Erving) was my favorite player. Well, at the peak of his popularity, he made a movie (think Michael Jordan in Spacejam) in which he plays a character that, surprise, is a professional basketball player. Sounds normal, right? Well, not exactly. The movie, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, was made in 1979, and some genius thought to mix astrology (What's your sign?) and hoops and wrote one hell of a script. Okay, I admit it... it's a horrible, nonsensical movie. But I still like it, and one of the main reasons is because the music is awesome! So recently I did some searching online and found someone selling the soundtrack on ebay. Yeah, the lyrics contain a lot of references to the zodiac and dunking, but the grooves are great in that disco R&B style. I've included some MP3s below so you can get a taste...

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh

(Do It, Do It) No One Does It Better

Moses' Theme

Chance Of A Lifetime

As promised, here is a video of the four bros tennis match we had a few weeks ago. Steve spliced together some highlights (including a Barkley-style"winner" he hit off a serve of mine) and lowlights (thanks so much for the clip of me bunting an easy forehand into the net). Kudos to Kelly for her excellent camerawork, and congrats to Steve and Adam for taking the doubles title. We had a lot of fun at the windy new courts in Plainfield (much less flawed than the old ones), and hopefully we'll get out there one more time before the year is out. After that, I suggest we pick up a Nintendo Wii and get some exercise indoors. My neighbor invited me over to play on their Wii, and it is awesome. It's so much more fun than sitting on the couch with one of those controllers that has more buttons than I can count. The Wii is very simple and intuitive to play - it's truly a revolution in gaming, and it deserves its spot atop the game systems sales chart (take that, Sony - don't ask me why, but I can't stand Sony).