Month: April 2023

Rainy Last Sunday of April / Momma Bunny Appears

Posted on by Markman

We actually made it past midnight and got our names into the Lowes freebie which we’ll be able to pick up later in May. They did something like this a couple years back where there was a different free gardening thing every week but you had to register at midnight and the site would always be blocked up with traffic so it would be hard to get access, but this time I was able to get in no problem.

Today was spent cleaning out some of the kitchen cabinets in anticipation of the new work going to be done soon. Basically making three piles, stuff we keep, stuff to give away, and stuff to trash. We need to go get some newspaper though to store some of the glass items in for protection. Might go out and do that later today. While we were in the process of doing that, LD noticed that a mother rabbit was creating a new nest for babies over on the side deck. Not the greatest place to put one since we come in and out of that door all the time, but momma is going to do what momma wants!

We’ve taken to naming this mother bunny Katherine. I’m not sure why but LD came up with it and we’re going with it. Hopefully she’ll go along with this nest and maybe we’ll be able to see some bunny babies again soon. They are so cute!

Momma bunny in action!

Yesterday we got some pizza from Bertucci’s because we noticed we had some pretty good coupon deals that we needed to use since it was expiring today. I’m definitely loaded up on carbs this weekend, getting two large eggplant topping pizzas!

Currently Watching: Pretty Baby on Hulu, the Brooke Shields story.

There Goes the Sun This Weekend

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Osprey nest!
Sunset
Bunny eating phlox!
The “Map Chest!”

Not too much sun this weekend, there it goes down below the horizon. I’ve had this shot just laying around for a while, figured I might as well put it up. Also decided to put up this shot again that I took of an Osprey nest, just because it’s pretty cool.

Yesterday was a nice day though, took a trip out to Franklin to pick up a surprise. LD got me a solid wooden chest that is surrounded with an old map of the Earth motif, because of my map making heritage years. Now I just need to decide where to place it in the home and what to actually store in it. It’s not really a chest, although it looks like one, more like a cabinet on stands, rather interesting piece actually. Guess the folks who were getting rid of it are moving to Texas so the less stuff they have to bring with them, the more economically feasible. Their loss, our gain.

Before that though we took a quick trip to the kitchen cabinet place. Pretty cool how you can see a three dimensional rendering of what the update will look like. Looks like this is going to happen!

This morning we couldn’t help noticing one of the bunnies eating some of the phlox we have growing in a pot on the patio. Cute, but destructive little creatures.

Did you ever hear of your former coworkers passing away? Seems to be I’m starting to hear this a little more and more lately. Within in the three years now I’ve heard of two. Sad. They were great people too.

I need to stay up till after midnight tonight to get in on some Lowe’s deal and get my name in there for some free swag. Wish me luck.

Musings on the Last Thursday of April

Posted on by Markman

Did you miss me? It’s been a little while since my last update, but nothing to worry about—there hasn’t been anything noteworthy that happened in the interim. Here is a throwback Thursday photo of me, on my birthday, visiting what is perhaps my all-time favorite lighthouse (although Minots Ledge Light is a close second). Pemaquid Point in Bristol Maine, not too far from Booth Bay. What’s really cool about this light is the surrounding topography, huge rocky ledges all around that you can explore but need to be super careful. On this particular day the clouds were rolling in which is what I think makes the photo even better.

Meanwhile back on the home front, the wild bunnies are starting to appear in the backyard now, running, playing, and yes, even eating, as bunnies do. They are super cute though. There appears to be three that seem to visit rather often. I wonder if any of them were the ones that were born here?

Additionally, every time I start to feel like my thumb is getting better from not using it, I unintentionally extend it again, which hurts, and feel like I have to restart the resting process. You know what I mean? It’s so annoying!

Currently Reading: All right! Another one of the books I had reserved on Libby finally came through. My next read is called The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. In it the author “eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health?” I felt the premise was interesting so I figured I’ll give it a shot. Sort of builds a little bit on that Body Keeps the Score stuff but also with a physical as well as psychological bent.

Snuggling with Baby Goats at Sunset

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Drove out to Salem Connecticut to visit this place that had an opportunity to hang with some baby goats, play and snuggles with them as sunset approached, and as the evening drew out, to put them to bed in their barn. Also live streamed over the Internet so there’s video of us performing these tasks over the wires.

Funny yhing is, although we didn;t know it at the time, the place is actually down the street from an Airbnb we stayed in a couple years back! The barn house that was connected to an alpaca farm. We were astonished at how close it was, not knowing!

Today we thought about checking out another event that we checked out exactly this time last year, but we are just tired and hurting from last night so we’ll be laying low I think! It’s also record Store Day and although we have a real jukebox, there doesn’t really seem to be any new vinyl I’m interested in at the moment. Plus the contractor is supposed to visit today to discuss kitchen stuff.

Let Your Joy Burst Forth, Like Flowers in the Spring

Posted on by Markman
I’m always looking to find the beauty in everyday locations

Yard work today but instead lazy loaf in the sun. I did move a bunch of stuff out from the cellar to the shed so it wasn’t just a day of nothing, but I did end up spending a bunch of time in a chair just sitting soaking up some sun and even doing a couple of crossword puzzles. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll head down to the home improvement store and get going on some things I want to accomplish. In the meantime, enjoy this picture I took of a bench just around the Wellesley Town Hall building, which was also the former home of the doctor who first used ether to lessen pain during procedures!

I put my name into that class action lawsuit that’s going around regarding facebook. Probably will only amount to a couple of dollars when all is said and done, and the lawyers will make out huge, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.

I made some shallot fritters tonight, basically just slice the shallots thin and break them up, cover them up in a concoction of tempura mix and water, and then just fry them up in a pan with a lot of canola oil. Maybe not the healthiest, but pretty tasty.

Sunset Baby Goat Snuggles tomorrow! Stay tuned for updates!

Finally Met the Next Door Neighbor

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Spending some time over at Earth-1 today and I finally got a chance to meet the new next door neighbors – the niece of one of LD’s best friends and her boyfriend who recently moved into the new condo next door. Looks like they were getting some sort of appliance delivered. Nice to finally meet them! Crazy small world, like what are the odds that a niece of LD’s best friends just happens to buy a condo right next door to the house where I grew up? Will probably see them in about another month at some graduation afterparty for her cousin, if I don’t see them again any sooner.

Spring Things with a Little Bun Bun

Posted on by Markman
This bunny was born in one of the pots you see in this photo on the back deck.

Been getting a bunch of spring things done this week. Got my ride’s oil change done yesterday – it was a little overdue, so it was good to get that done. I’ve been slowly moving things out from basement storage over to the shed for the summer and fall to make room for some stuff going on down there. I also need to get ready to replant the yearly tubers this week. Speakimng of that, I think we have to take a ride down to a nursery soon to get some plants that are on order.

I think I want to do a firepit over the next few days or so too, just to get it going for myself right now. Also, I can see that it seems like a switch was pulled this week and now the grass is growing by leaps and bounds all of a sudden. Amazing how that happens after being pretty dormant all winter.

Jonesing for a Roast Beef

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We took a quick jaunt out to Revere Beach yesterday afternoon for some roast beef sandwiches. It was a bit cool and breezy as the temperatures went back to what it should be normally for this time of year. I must admit having hit the 90s the other day was a bit too early and too hot. Getting there took a little bit of extra time though as Boston was super busy with the Celtics in a playoff game, the red Sox playing at Fenway, and everybody in town for the Marathon.

Other than that highlight, it was a pretty non descript day.

Oh, in plant news, I somehow kept the orchids we got last September alive throughout the winter, and now one of them is even starting to bud again. Major victory for my amateurish green thumb I would say.

Hyperextended Thumb

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Probably wasn’t the best idea to spend a good part of yesterday doing a bunch of yard work with a hyperextended thumb, but I really wanted to trim back some dead vegetation from the prairie area, along with a bit of the rose bushes out front, and an old butterfly bush I planted a couple years back that pretty much started taking over everything.

I was also super busy yesterday performing a ton of errands, like bank runs, office mail pickups, getting gas, dealing with some bills, etc. By the end of the day I felt pretty physically tired. I still need to buy some birdseed for the feeder out back and some more yard waste bags.

I still did find time by the end of the night though to cook up some souvlaki Greek-style chicken with a garlic-cucumber crema and lemon feta potatoes, which actually came out pretty good.

When the Swans Come You Know Spring is Here

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It’s that time of year again! The Boston Swan Boats season starts up on Saturday. I remember when I took LD on the swan boats some years back, her first time, and I can still remember the look of joy and happiness on her face. It was her first time even though she had been here for a number of years and literally worked just across the street from the park. As for me, I can remember my mom taking my sister and I a bunch of times when we were little,. It’s funny, it seemed so much bigger back then, maybe because I was smaller? Anyways, it’s iconic and fun and I need to get us down there sometime to experience it again.

So late in the afternoon today after all my work stuff was done I decided to pull out the grill and bring out the patio umbrella as the temps here hit the 80 degree mark for the first time this year, and much earlier than usual, so we have to soak it up, right? I also want to get my sister and mom out here to have a BBQ soon and enjoy the firepit and whatnot. So I’m preparing for that eventuality.

As for my hyperextended thumb, I keep stupidly absentmindedly keep stretching it by reaching for things and whatnot. So annoying. And of course every time I do it, it sort of reinjured it again and I have to start over.

Easter Love in the Catskill Mountains of New York

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Back from a lovely Easter weekend in the Catskills of New York. We got to stay in a pretty cool Airbnb , pretty much a log cabin, with a wood stove fireplace and that is attached to an actual goat sanctuary across the way and they had baby goats, which of course we snuggled! We also got to “paint with goats!” Actually we got to do a lot of things there but one of the highlights was probably LD with a sweet baby goat that fell asleep in her arms for two hours. Pretty amazing to experience. Her name is Alora by the way and she is the cutest. Probably my favorite. Click on the pics for full length versions.

Afterwards we took a little drive over to the old Catskill Game Farm, where LD went to visit as a little kid. It’s abandoned now but we visited anyway. We also passed by the largest garden gnome statue in the world (at least up until 2007) on the way.

I might add more to this post later because there really is a lot more. One cool thing about the place that I forgot to mention earlier is that it was fully stacked but also had this somewhat amazing gameroom in the basement, with Poker, darts, air hockey, basketball, foosball, and even a full length ping pong table. I also spent some time in one of the various hammocks around the property. The place was pretty cool, I would definitely go back, and the drive is not bad at all.

Oh, there wasn’t even supposed to be baby goats there. we lucked out on that one. They got some goats in previously and apparently one male somehow slipped through the process and basically ended up impregnating a bunch of the ladies one night. That goat was super busy. But it worked out because baby goats are the best and it ended up being a great surprise and made the experience even better in my opinion.

Currently Reading: Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths and The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World.

Happy Anniversary News!

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Happy

Anniversary

to Us!

People say that with age and experience comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes enlightenment. Well, I don’t know how much of it is the truth, but I have grown up and grown with you to realize what love means and what it really means to love someone. Love goes beyond time, age, or even the person, and I have experienced love in its purest form; I feel nothing but gratefulness today. All these years strong with you and more to go, I stand here a happy man thanks to you, and I love you with all my heart.

Our relationship might not be perfect, and certainly has its ups and downs, but our love for each other is still strong and is wonderful all the same, and that’s all anyone could ever ask or hope for. I am truly blessed to have found you. I just want you to know, that when I picture myself happy, it is with you.

In a world where so many things can be uncertain, you are the one thing that I will always be sure of.

Better than I was, more than I am.

I’m so glad to be able to spend this day with you, and all the days with you. The good things in life are better with you. Seriously, you’re amazing! This lowly kid from Somerville hit it big when he met this Jersey Girl!

Happy Anniversary Ladydoc!!

There’s Spring in My Steps

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Saw all the birds outside this morning. Besides the usual robins and mourning doves, I also saw grackles for the first time this year. Mostly because I heard a crash at the front door. After looking out it appeared to be that one of them might have smashed into the door, but appeared to be alright and took off.

Had a good day today making the rounds, Today was a great day to be outside. Even got to talk with our Big Boss who happened to be out and about! He asked me how things were going, etc. Good dude. He said all the business owners were very pleased with our progress and to be honest, even I can see a big change since when we started. And so far it’s only been five weeks! Oh, and I also found a five dollar bill on the ground, so how often do you get a score like that?

In other news. I reconnected my Google Analytics to the site, so my counts and what not will be starting over – seeing what pages are the most popular, engagement, stuff like that – not that there’s a ton of it. I’ve been meaning to do it for months but I finally got around do it now. So there’s that.

Oh, and in today’s injury report which seems to a be a daily occurrence lately, I seem to have somewhat hyperextended my thumb. Like, wtf?

Currently reading: Have I Told You This Already? by Lauren Graham. Ah yes, one of my celeb crushes. It’s true.

Monday and Old Memories of a Past Long Ago

Posted on by Markman

I updated the iPad to iPad OS 16.4, I must say I’m rather pleased how this site looks on an iPad tablet, it’s probably the best look of the bunch – my photos especially come out quite nice. Better than mobile and computer, although on the computer you can see the column of stuff over on the right, whereas on mobile it places it at the bottom of the page (unless you run in desktop mode).

Headed over to Earth-1 today and got a lot of stuff done in the limited amount of time I had there. Although I haven’t yet met them, I also saw that the niece of LD’s friend and her boyfriend have finally moved in next door. What are the odds that they would move right next door to the family home? I mean, how likely is that? It’s a small world but is it really that small!? I guess it may be.

Looks like a bunch of contractors are also starting to demolish the old industrial laundry building around the corner and that abuts the back of our property. Memories. That was the place where I had my first job, a jack of all trades. I would load up the trucks, help deliver in the summer, chat up the girls running the dry cleaning counter across the street and even clean the machines at night. That was the most intense because the irons were hot from running all day and they all needed to be vacuumed to get rid of all the lint buildup to cut down on the chance of a fire. They had a couple of close calls there over the years that I can remember. There was a time there toward the end where I would work the entire day, from 5 am to around 7 or 8 at night. Five nights a week and a half day on Saturday. The job did teach me about hard work though so it was a good experience. It made me appreciate the better things to come later.

Cooking, Kitchens, and Sore Shoulders

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I’m not sure what I did to my shoulder, but last night I noticed it beginning to hurt a little. As I woke up this morning, it was difficult for me to get comfortable in the bed because it kept slightly bothering me. I’m hoping that moving around today will help it return to some degree of normality, but I believe that what it truly needs is a really good rub. However, my massage therapist is already booked for the near future, so I guess I’ll just have to put up with it. I was able to complete some yard work yesterday before it got cool and cloudy, mostly bagging up leaves from the patio areas. Could this be the reason why I hurt my shoulder a little bit? Maybe so.

Moreover, work has begun on the kitchen’s renovation. The process is proceeding quickly in that direction. We went out in the rain to a local place that deals with kitchen cabinets and things of that nature to get a feel for what we’ll be looking at, getting the concepts organized and choosing specific items, such as new cabinets, etc. To be honest, we think it truly needs an update and that it will look fantastic once it is finished. More to come as that gets going.

Speaking of kitchen things and all I had been keeping my eye on a new non-stick oven safe pan, so we simply got one. Some of the recipes I prepare state that I would benefit greatly from a pan that is also oven safe. The nonstick cookware we now have is fantastic, but it’s not intended to be used in the oven, so I’m forced to use a cast iron skillet, which is typically OK but is not nonstick, making cleanup a bit of a pain. Cast iron skillets are also a little weird to me, even with the correct maintenance. This Ninja design, in my opinion, will be effective. Plus it’s a little smaller than what I’m currently using so I imagine it will be a bit lighter to handle. The one I use now is a little on the heavy side.