Match Point. Shoes. Kapow.

Having no meetings this afternoon, I left [[Yankee]] a little early and headed into Nashua, NH for some eating and shopping and movie-going.

My wonderful Born shoes have been gradually falling apart this winter, and over the last week they’ve started to leak, so my immediate priority was to find shoes (I tried to feel Proud in my Shoes From Proude’s last week, but they’re all outta Borns and seemed generally disinterested in my business).

I stopped at the L.L. Bean outlet, but they had nothing but preppy beach shoes and hunting boots. Down in the heart of the mall district I found a plaza full of shoe stores along with an Eastern Mountain Sports. While the shoe stores were full of heavy Vans and shiny dress shoes, at EMS I found a couple of perky, vital sales people willing to spend a lot of time with me selling the virtues of the Keen Bronx Canvas shoe. I spent about 30 minutes vacillating between the size 11-1/2 and the size 12, and finally settled on a nice greeny-brown (offically Oak Mold/Green) pair. The buying experience was so pleasant I halfway considered buy a kayak or yurt at the same time.

I’d decided before setting off to try to visit the Wilton Town Hall Theatre to see Woody Allen’s Match Point. Readers with good memories will recall, however, that I’d already seen this movie, in Geneva in February, something I’d completely forgotten; by the time I realized the error of my memory it was too late, and I was left without movie options.

Undeterred, I stopped in at Chiang Mai, the excellent Thai restaurant on Rte. 101 on the outskirts of Nashua. I ordered up the Gai Kapow (spicy chili-basil infused chicken) and some rice along with a “Thai iced tea” and left the table very satisfied.

The drive down to Nashua and back gave me the opportunity to experience podcasts like Big City People do: in the car. I listened to an episode of Daily Source Code on the way down and on the way back half an episode of TWIT and a good episode of the Lonely Planet Travelcast on Las Vegas.

I’m getting used to driving the Toyota Prius and it’s become really quite comfortable to drive now that I’m used to the gasoline engine shutting off at intersections and at other times when it’s got nothing to do. Mileage on the way to Nashua, which is mostly downhill, was 50 miles per gallon; on the way back up the hill to Peterborough it was a still-impressive 42.2 MPG.