So, my parents have had a ski house in NH for, I want to say, about 15-20 years now. With Jay and I living in NYC, it doesn't get much use these days, so they've decided to sell it and get a place in Vermont instead. This past weekend, me, my brother and my Dad made a three-day, three mountain tour of VT, looking at 12 different houses, and (possibly) narrowing it down between one at Mount Snow and one at Killington.

Our homebase for the weekend was up at Okemo - a little more than an hour north of Mount Snow and about 30 minutes south of Killington. We stayed at the Clarion @ Canendish (free wifi!, and coincidentially, is right next to where Ken and Rudy got married in 2000), just a few minutes out of town.

Anyway, one night as we're driving through town, my Dad gets a call from his friend Joey who's back in Boston. Turns out one of Joey's friends owns a restaurant in the Okemo area and Joey has called ahead and made us a reservation. So, Saturday night - after returning from a tour of Okemo and Killingon - we saddle up to the bar and get a few drinks, killing the hour or so wait before our table is ready.


A few minutes later, this guy Rich comes by and introduces himself. Sure enough, he's Joey's friend, the owner of the restaurant, and after six or seven beers, we find out he used to be an amateur boxer. (And this point, we skipped dinner and ate at the bar.)

Jonathan, of course, starts giving him a hard time... you know, the "oh, I'd take you in the ring right now!", sort of shit. Well, cowboy up, Little Brother, cause it turns out that our friend Rich, not only owns the restaurant, but ownes the buidling. "And you know what's upstairs," says Rich. "A boxing ring."

Now, of course the three of us don't believe him so we place a marker at the bar, leave our drinks to wait and head upstairs with Rich to check it out.


Well, sure enough, this guy doesn't just have a ring, he's got a whole gym upstairs.


Complete w/ driving range.


Picture perfect form. I mean come'on.


Anyway, five minutes later, Jay's in the ring, Rich showing him to throw punches and work the punching bag.


Which didn't work out too well for Jonathan.
[Watch Quicktime video]


At which point Jonathan decides he'd be better off sparring with Rich instead of the sandbag.


Which I didn't think was a very smart idea.


And which looked at little like this at first.


See, I told you so.


Again, reminding me of a little something like this.


"Well, lemme tell you a little something, Rich. No one treats my little brother that way."

So, I stepped up to the challenge...


... and got my ass knocked out of the ring.
[Watch Quicktime video]

Note: Listen to my dad killing himself laughing in the background.


After that Rich gave us a tour of his apartment. Jonathan grabbed Dan Marino's helmet (no joke) and started running around.


And then we ended the night with a round of headlocks.

Good times.