<p>Backhand, when I read the title of the thread you started, all I could think of was…you had to ask all of us on CC, what our HOBBY is? ;-)</p>
<p>I bake-- and play lots of tennis (righty, doubles primarily) to work off my gooey desserts. I love to travel too. Reading goes without saying. CC is a giant interactive magazine.</p>
<p>Here are mine:</p>
<p>16th-19th century French and British literature.</p>
<p>Movies (all genres and nationalities)</p>
<p>Universities (I have been studying universities for over a decade now).</p>
<p>Fine dining</p>
<p>Travel</p>
<p>Kids sports - I coach or somehow help my kids in their basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and baseball pursuits. Hopefully my kids and the other kids on their teams all play a lot, learn a lot, and have a lot of fun. A couple of my kids seem to have my love of sports but (fortunately) are WAY more talented than I was.</p>
<p>Sports collecting - I have a study full of sports related stuff … old baseball/football/basketball/hockey cards, NASCAR die cast cars, mini football helmets, old sports yearbooks and media guides (where I learned mathe as a kid)</p>
<p>Birding, gardening, kayaking, walking my dogs. (Now you can see why I’m on CC so much in the winter! 
)</p>
<p>Reading, reading, always reading! Love history, biography, spy thrillers. Also really like true crime & police books…sometimes it’s hard to take the stories & hearing about the victims, but I really like following how law enforcement tries to solve the crime.</p>
<p>Another tennis player. Played on and off for a while - started playing when I was pregnant with my second child - odd time to start playing tennis. </p>
<p>We’ve recently joined the tennis club here, and my goal this year is to improve a lot. The club has wonderful clinics and has lots of tournament. I wish I could quit the job and play tennis every day. </p>
<p>I am not good - my feets are slow, and I am a natural athlete - but it is fun. </p>
<p>Do any of you play mixed doubles with your H’s? N</p>
<p>HObbies are CC, antiquing, current events, real estate, reading…not in that order, necessarily!</p>
<p>I collect stamps, coins, etc… does anyone else?</p>
<p>Lizzy; I used to play singles exclusively with my husband for years. Always a challange, always had a blast, nothing better than playing competitively with him. Then I started to wear out. You know the signs, getting grumpy and mad if I’m losing, falling down,(but always hystrical laughing) starting to hurt when you are still on the court, and worst of all, not being able to get out of bed the next day. We still play together but not as much. He ALWAYS has to return my serve- otherwise, I can’t play with him. We have so much fun together playing tennis. He also likes to play mixed doubles but I don’t like it- so he plays doubles with the guys. I never played any tournaments, I am/was a 4.0. But when I got the torn rotators cuff, I could not play for months so I am rusty.That is a terrible sports injury, you just CANNOT reach, hurts like the dickins.People have surgery for it. But incredibly it got better after 6 months. And plantar fascitis-all of a sudden this excruciating foot pain along the arch of the foot. And do you have the back pain? The opposite side low back of you strongest arm. I love the winters so much because when I lay down at night the back DOES NOT hurt. And then there are the sprined ankles. Once I broke my little finger playing tennis.I have no idea how that happened.Now I have a crooked finger. Once I hit myself in the forehead with the racket so hard I got a black eye. Maybe I should give up tennis!</p>
<p>TEAL; A relative of mine collects stamps. He is SO into it. He has a very nice, extensive collection. If I were to start how would a person do it? Just seems there are SO many - how do you start something like that?</p>
<p>1) Motorcycles. Fast ones. Slow ones. Big ones. Small ones. 2) The Ranch-taking care of the hoofstock,fishing in one of the ponds, but mostly just watching the animals-deer,turkey, any number of small mammals. 3) Uhhh, let’s call it predator control, although this time of year it is more of a full-time job than a hobby-the Babies are coming!!! (four kids so far). And not to forget the most important (and fun) of all, 4) making D’s life “A Living Hell Without End”.</p>
<p>BTW Dig, we’re busy planning our annual spring pilgrimage to the Colorado/Utah twisties. We always try to schedule it so we ride directly into the teeth of the last major ice/snow/sleet storm of the season. That is of course what distinguishes it from our annual August trip to the Colorado/Utah twisties where we ride directly into the teeth of the smoke from the last forest fires and dust storms of the season. We “suffer” for our art but we do love those Serpentine canyon roads.</p>
<p>Wow, Curmudgeon!</p>
<p>Here are the Rules to Hiking in the Outback.(followup to dig’s, mine and curmudgeon’s post) </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Always tell people where you are going and about when you will be back.</p></li>
<li><p>Always take a map and compass. (at least the map)</p></li>
<li><p>Always bring water, sunblock, a hat, appropriate clothing and shoes.</p></li>
<li><p>Always stay on the marked trail.</p></li>
<li><p>Be aware of your surroundings- like a flooding area in a flash storm, avalanche prone area, rockslides</p></li>
<li><p>And have fun!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Curmudgeon; In my book your handle is now, WildOneWhyDon’tYouSettleDown!</p>
<p>Here are mine (some of which only when time is available):</p>
<p>Working out/walking
Gardening
Reading (mostly mysteries)
Sewing, needlepoint, embroidery
Collecting refrigerator magnets from travels
Traveling
Visiting museums and unusual sights</p>
<p>Actually my hobby is our Marriott time shares and trying to get the most for the two off-weeks we own and how best to use our Marriott points. So far so good. Two winter weeks in Hilton Head have tranlated into three summer weeks in Hilton Head, a December week in Maui, a fall week in Palm Desert (scheuled around parents weekend at USC), and an upcoming August visit to Aruba. With points we have gone to London twice, NYC, Paris, and Amsterdam. Airfare to Europe and Marriott hotels paid for by the points.</p>
<p>It’s great fun, but with time shares you must pay attention and learn the process.</p>
<p>I am probably 3.0 - 3.5 the most. I play doubles a lot, and likes to play singles occasionally but not with my H. He is much better player than I. I played with mixed doubles with my H, but it is not a good idea, since he naggs me a lot during play. It is with good intention but can be incredibly annoying after some point.</p>
<p>I really want to be good this year. There’re lots of 4.0 - 4.5 players at my club. It is funny to see how all these people are so competitive on playing tennis - they do not get paid or not going to be counted as EC on the college admission.</p>
<p>Tennis (I am saving golf for after I turn 50!)-never with my H any more, he doesn’t nag, he just pouts(at himself)
Walking
Reading for my goofy book group and otherwise
Planning great vacations and sometimes taking them
Collecting-Indonesian textiles, mostly- ikats, batiks, etc…also other artifacts
Bridge</p>
<p>My newest time sink is Japanese cartooning. This is my daughter’s passion at the moment and I attend her class since the teacher speaks mostly Japanese, and wee bits of Indonesian and English- so I “interpret” for my daughter (who, like me, speaks no Japanese and passable Indonesian). In any case, I now find myself doodling doe- eyed Japanese superheroines as well. I had wanted to learn Mandarin with my daughter, but it will have to be either Japanese or Korean as the Chinese cartoons are not very interesting to her!!</p>
<p>robyrm, my H pouts at himself too. Also theatrical sighs of disgust.</p>
<p>My new interest is mah jong. Does anyone here play mah jong? I love it.</p>
<p>backhandgrip, I recommend collecting stamps in certain categories that you would be interested in. Some of my categories are flowers, flags, birds, holidays, U.S. presidents. There are so many categories; I personally love them all and added any new stamp that I came across to my album. You could also exclusively collect stamps from certain countries. I started by collecting stamps that came from the mail. (my holiday stamp category is the largest with all those letters from relatives and friends) Then, I went to swap meets and bought a bunch to expand my collection. I bought a whole bag of them once for less than 5 dollars, and still have not finished organizing them. I just love sorting them out and seeing all the different stamps from all the different countries. With your love of history, collecting stamps might just be the way to go!</p>