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Get this. Cub Scouts now offers a set Video Games awards.

Where was this when I was in cub scouts? I'm estimating here, but I would imagine that had this award been available in my day, roughly 110% of boys would have obtained both of them. Twice.

And then probably killed everyone in their schools, because video games are evil.

Oh well. At least Dylan will have it available if he decides to join Cub Scouts. I can just see it now… "When I was your age, not only was there no video game merit badge (ed note: I know, it's not a merit badge! But adults always get stuff like that wrong, so I'm just planning ahead!) grown ups thought video games were evil and caused kids to do dumb stuff."

This year I bought myself an early birthday present.

I've needed a new snowboard for a few years now. I bought my last one when I was still in high school, right around the same time I bought a pair of sunglasses that lasted almost as long. Sigh, how I miss them — but that will have to wait for another post.

The last board served me well, but I had it for over 10 years and it was starting to show its age, with chunks missing from where I had hit rocks or scraped it on the ski lift, rusty rails, etc. Not to mention that in the last decade the technology has changed a lot. My new board is a good bit lighter, and a better fit for how my riding style has changed, since it's also a little shorter.

I bought a Ride Crush, in blue.

Not only do I like the design printed on top, but it was actually designed by the kids in a middle school art class:

How cool is that?

And to top it all off, the majority of the designs are almost invisible when the board is room temperature (and the rest of the board looks like a sheet of notebook paper), but when it gets cold — like it will when in use — the designs get darker.

I got to take it out toward the end of February, and it rides like a dream. I couldn't be happier.

Have I mentioned that I cook now? A while back, Megan and I started making deals. I work full time, and she works part time and cleans the house and pays bills. I cut the grass, weed-whack, and edge; she poop-scoops and rakes. I take the trash out, she does my laundry. She vacuums, I lift my feet as she vacuums under them.

Another one of those deals is that, except in the event of extenuating circumstances, I do the cooking, and she does the dishes. This deal came about because we used to try to alternate who would do which, so that neither of us would have to do both on the same night. I never have liked doing dishes, and apparently Megan doesn't enjoy cooking much (baking may be another story), so this eventually evolved into me cooking full time and her doing dishes full time. And on top of that, it's up to me to plan dinners for at least a few weeks in advance so that we have everything we need (she does the shopping), and so that we remember to thaw frozen things in time and can eat less boxed food because everything is still frozen.

Megan openly admits that she doesn't feel very adventurous when it comes to cooking. She sticks to what she knows she likes. On the other hand, I tend to let my nose lead the way. That's not to say that I don't follow any recipes or stick to familiar things. On the contrary, I use them all the time. I just am a bit more adventurous when it comes to flavoring. I like to open the cupboard, grab random spices, pop the lids, and sniff. If I think a few things smell good together and will go well on the dish I'm working on, we try it.

I have also found a culinary mentor in Alton Brown. I watch a lot of Good Eats, which is sort of what you might get if you crossed Julia Child with Mr. Wizard. I've yet to find an episode that I didn't find interesting and quite watchable, even if the topic was a food I'm not at all interested in, like celery. A funny thing he does occasionally on his show is to bring up a tangent, explore it just a little bit, and then cut it off and say something along the lines of, "but that will have to wait for its own show." With any luck, I can do the same here. At least I seem to have managed to pull it off so far. We'll see how long it holds up.

I like to think that my cooking goes hand in hand with my new willingness to try new foods. I've tried tomatoes in the past, and didn't like them much; but we went to a new burger joint in Philly over the weekend and I forgot to order my burger without lettuce and tomato. When it arrived, I decided to just bite the bullet — or the tomato, as it were — and leave it on, instead of picking it off like I normally would have. Again, I didn't vomit, but again, I was not impressed. And honestly, if even Iron Chef Bobby Flay can't make a tomato that I like, I'm not sure anyone ever will.