Friday Fun: Things to Do When It’s Cold Outside

If the weather outside is frightful and a temperature above 10 would be delightful, you’re probably looking for a weekend activity that’s a little on the warmer side. In fact, if you’re anywhere in the continental United States north of Albuquerque right now, you’re probably trying to figure out the best way to spend your weekend without losing your fingers or other body parts to exposure or frostbite. Fortunately, there are a number of activities that you can take part in without freezing your various body parts off, and here’s a quick list.

First, if you don’t want to leave your house this weekend or it’s simply too cold for you to do so, you may want to check out my blog post from a couple weeks ago entitled “Things to Do When You’re Sick.” This post had a list of suggestions for things that you could do when you’re too sick to leave your house, and these suggestions work pretty well when you’re trying to avoid the cold weather. In fact, playing games online and watching movies are only a couple examples of the myriad of ways that you could entertain yourself from your own home. Some of the ways that you can entertain yourself without leaving your house also include:

1. Catching up on sleep
2. Cooking something new
3. Listening to music
4. Playing board games
5. Playing card games
6. Reading books
7. Spending some time with your significant other
8. Throwing a party
9. Working on a project for your favorite hobby
and/or
10. Working out at home

However, if you really want to get out of the house and you’re looking for someplace warm to go, you may want to check out your local:

1. Aquarium
2. Bowling alley
3. Comedy club
4. Library
5. Movie theater
6. Museum
7. Opera house or theater
8. Roller skating or ice skating rink
9. Recreation center
and/or
10. Your favorite restaurant

Friday Fun: How to Enjoy Your Three Day Weekend

Another week has passed, and another weekend is rapidly approaching. However, this weekend is a little more interesting than your typical weekend because Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As a result, if you’re one of those lucky souls that works a typical 9 to 5 shift Monday through Friday, you may have just landed yourself a three-day weekend. The only problem now is that you need to actually figure out how you’re going to spend your extra day off.

Well, if you’re looking for something to do this weekend and you’re having trouble coming up with any ideas, here are a couple of ways that you can spend your extra free time. First, if you’re a car lover living in or visiting the New England Area, you may want to check out the New England International Car Show. The New England International Car Show is the largest automobile exhibition in the Northeastern United States, and it features exotic, green, specialty, and soon-to-be-released vehicles from over 30 different manufacturers. In fact, the show not only features some of the newest and most impressive vehicles commercially available but also features guest appearances by a number of local stars, including Aaron Hernandez, Alfonzo Dennard, JoJo White, and several others. Some of the manufacturers at the New England International Car Show will even let you test drive their vehicles for free, so the show can be a lot of fun for a list of reasons. To find out more about the New England International Car Show, check out their website here.

Secondly, if cars really aren’t your forte, you may want to check out some of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day events that are taking place in your local area. In most cases, your local newspaper or your favorite local news website will have a list of art exhibitions, community breakfasts, lectures, parades, and a number of other similar free or inexpensive events honoring Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the weekend.

Friday Fun: Things to Do When You’re Sick

Here’s a scenario for you: You’ve managed to survive yet another work week, but all of the hours you’ve put in have taken their toll. You may have pulled too many double shifts, come in early or left late one too many times, or you may have just had to deal with more stress than one man or woman should ever be required to handle. However, regardless of the cause, one thing is certain. You just don’t feel like going out this weekend, and you’re looking for something to do. Well, if you’re exhausted, sick, or you simply don’t want to leave the comforting light of your computer screen, here are a couple ways that you can entertain yourself without leaving your home.

First, if you like computer games, you may want to check out some of the free online games that are available on sites like ArmorGames.com, Kongregate.com, and Newgrounds.com.  Armor Games and Kongregate both offer thousands of free games spread across a variety of different genres, including action, adventure, puzzle, RPG, shooter, strategy, and sports games. Newgrounds, on the other hand, not only offers thousands of games, but also offers a wide range of art, music, and flash movies for you to enjoy. As a result, these sites can be a great way to waste some time if you’re looking for something to do, but it is important to remember that most of the content on these sites is user-submitted. This means that the quality and content of some of the games that you will find may be on the questionable side, and it may take you a little while to find something that is truly entertaining.

Secondly, if you’re looking for something to watch, you may want to check out Crackle.com. Crackle is a movie website that will allow you to watch hundreds of movies and TV shows on your desktop, laptop, PS3, tablet computer, or another similar device for free. The only thing to remember is that Crackle’s selection is limited, so if you’re looking for a specific movie or a specific show, you may want to consider a pay site like Amazon.com, Hulu.com, or Netflix.com because these sites have a much larger selection at a reasonable price.

Friday Fun: Downtown Salem in January

It’s Friday, there’s ten minutes left until the end of your shift, and you’ve somehow managed to get the whole weekend off.  All of your work is already done, or at least you’ve done enough that you can pretend it’s done,  and there’s nothing to do except sit and watch the seconds tick off the clock.  The only question now is what are you going to do once you make your  workplace escape?  Well, if you’re looking for something to do, you’ve come to the right place.  Every Friday, I’m going to talk about an activity, a board game, an event, a movie, or some other form of entertainment that you can check out to make your weekend a little more interesting.

With that being said, if you’re looking for something to do this weekend, you may want to check out downtown Salem, Ma.  Now, if you’ve visited Salem, MA in the past, the very idea of visiting Salem in January may seem downright insane.  This is because Salem is primarily known for its Halloween celebration and for the witch trials in which 20 innocent people were convicted and executed for witchcraft in 1692.

However, there’s more to Salem than witches and Halloween. In fact, most of the shops, many of the museums, and a few of the attractions that are overrun by tourists during the month of October are actually open year round, but they’re all pretty empty after November 1st.  This means that if you want to check out these things, and you don’t mind losing some fingers to frostbite, January may be the time to do it.  To further sweeten the deal, if you head to Salem this Friday or on the First Friday of any month, you’ll find that most of the shops have extended hours, so you can go downtown, eat, and check out all of the little shops right after work.