Oh you know I’m getting one of these Deadpool & Wolverinepopcorn buckets (YouTube link) when the movie hits this theatres this summer!
I like how without warning the town just decides to repave all the streets in our surrounding neighborhood and close them all off, with no communication about it, Just show up out of the blue and screw it all up. Getting in and out of here is a nightmare right now. Although I suppose once it’s done it’ll be nice. Just a little heads up once in a while would be greatly appreciated. I went to Somerville and hung out with these two guys yesterday.
Laurel and Hardy (Laurel is the one with the dreamy eyes).
I’m somehow down to the FINAL level(!) having finally solved all of the other ones of Cargo Lines, the game I mentioned an entry or two before. Pulling my hair out trying to solve this last one. This game is great! Oh, and my left knee appears to be bugging me again, think I’ll need to start wearing the brace again.
Currently Reading:The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels. (NYT Review here).
Over the weekend, We dedicated a significant amount of time to taking care of various tasks and activities. We both started by tending to the garden, spending hours working on planting and mulching to ensure the plants thrived. LD was in particular beast mode today removing a bunch of weeds. We then made a trip to the Depot to pick up new string for the trimmers, the darn thing ran out on me as I was whacking away. Saturday evening, I prepared the grill for some steak tips and zucchini, providing a flavorful and satisfying dinner ( or so I hoped). The following day, we opted for a classic choice of turkey burgers something simple plus we had some on hand. With that we added some shucked corn on the cob, which we find comes out pretty nice on the grill. With leftover chicken on hand, we decided to make the now famous lemon orzo soup to avoid any waste and have something else to nosh on during the week ahead. We also brought some of the soup to LD’s previous landlady, who had recently been hospitalized, offering both nourishment and support during a challenging time. She should be coming home today so that’s good news. Amidst the planting and mulching and even a little bit of napping, I managed to make progress on reading some books that I had been meaning to finish, finding a moment of relaxation and fulfillment in the midst of a busy weekend. The only real bummer is having to attend a wake later this afternoon for a woman who was kind to us and helped us with our burgeoning green thumbs.
Currently Watching:The Shield, not your everyday cop show from the early aughts.
I mowed both the front and back lawns, (that back one is such a large area!), but kept the buttercup area in the middle of the lawn since it appears that a bunny has placed a nest right smack dab in the center of it. I don’t mow those down anyway until they’ve finished blooming. Looks sort of comical having a neat lawn and this outcrop of buttercups right smack dab in the middle of it.
On a sad note, the garden lady that helped us with many questions and gifted a bunch of her lilies over the years from her garden suddenly passed away this week, so we’ll go to the wake on Monday and LD will probably also attend the funeral on Tuesday. She was a wonderful woman to all who knew her and will be sorely missed. We were going to visit some pals down in Fairhaven that day, but decided to take a rain check to attend these services instead. We’ll also do some more garden cleanup around her lilies that are here to honor her and keep the memory alive.
I was going to fire up the grill tonight for the first time this season and do up some steak tips and zucchini but instead we decided on pizza and takeout. I’ll grill those things up tomorrow afternoon.
June is looking to be an extremely busy month with a lot of activities I’m really looking forward to. They’ll be some rather unusual new animal encounters, a couple of friendly visits from some folks we love, a new pool party invite, an island excursion, and a lot more. Can’t wait to experience them and share!
Game Time: Cargo Lines. This game is actually pretty fun, I like using my brain to try and solve the puzzles. I’m on the red crated levels now and the difficulty has really ramped up!
Kind of a weird day today, thunderstorms, then sun, then rain, then hot sun. At least the good news is that I didn’t get too wet outside today.
These Iris beauties just popped up this afternoon I noticed. It’s also interesting because they are in a different place. The natural gas guys moved them when they changed the gas lines around.
We went today to go check out the 8th Annual Revere Beach Kite Festival. It looked like it rained a little bit, but mostly it was just overcast, and though it first it sounded like it might not have been the right decision to go, that changed as time went on, and it was actually a really fun time! And of course afterwards I had to gobble down a Kelly’s Roast Beef. I even got a gift for LD’s friend who’s coming to visit next month.
A video from last night’s Trixter show that we almost attended: YouTube link. Also some of the bikes at the ride yesterday looked pretty rad to me, including this Urban Arrow Bike, which costs an amazing 8,000 dollars. Personally, for me, I think I’d rather buy a car for that money.
Currently Reading: Another coming through my Libby app, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. (review here) I really got to get cranking on finishing these books before I have to return them!
We were supposed to go to New Jersey this weekend, Teaneck to be precise, to see the band Trixter play at a place called the Debonair Music Hall, (we had the tickets and lodging all squared away beforehand) but with LD’s concussion healing and due to the lateness, stimuli and whatnot, decided to bag that for now and maybe go again at a later date. The time just didn’t seem right for right now.
Passing by this statue I had to photograph – I thought it looked really cool! (Sanctuary Theatre)
So instead, I went on the Cambridge City Spring bike ride! This particular ride’s theme was passing by all the locations and neighborhoods of the Cambridge African American History trail, stopping at two places, one being the boarding house that Harriet Jacobs ran for a while. While there I learned of her book written in 1861 and decided to add it to my reading list next.
Currently Reading: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861).
Nice to see that at least one of the baby bunnies from a few weeks ago is still hanging around and seems to be doing fine. It was definitely going to town eating some grass.
Baby bunny sighting in the yard being dwarfed by the leaves of the tiger lily plants.(Pic courtesy of LD).
Yes, I know I probably need to cut the grass again already due to all the moisture we’ve had over the last couple of days,
On another pleasing note, tonight is my work group dinner at a local restaurant, where we all hang annually and just enjoy each others camaraderie and maybe swap some war stories from our time in the field. We’ll see if I have anything interesting to share afterwards.
Currently Reading: The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. I had just finished the last book I read about Michael Lauder and this read should be lighter.
Yesterday we finally got the flowers in the beds and pots. I pulled out the grill and swapped out the tanks between the heater and the grill. Saturday was Porchfest over at Earth-1 and I didn’t go because I knew it would be crazy. In fact, the band Guster really made an impact. I don’t know who they are but I guess they’re pretty well known. This was literally on my street. Drives my mom crazy. Actually a lot of the residential homeowners hate the event because a lot of people aren’t respectful of their property.
The mama robin next door has been busy feeding her babies. It’s really amazing to watch.
I went ahead and removed the glass panes from the storm doors and installed the screens. A yearly tradition but Carson likes to be able to smell the smells outside when he sits on his perch by the front door.
We went over to the town’s annual garden club putting and picked up a bunch of plants for the gardening ahead. It was in Walpole this time, just over the city line, at a conservation land that I’d never been to. It actually was a pretty good place to have this event. They usually have it at one of the town pool areas but that location is being redone over the summer so they had to have the event at a different place. We got a couple of beautiful hanging plants and a bunch of smaller little plants that we’ll be putting into pots and adorning the decks with.
We then grabbed a quick breakfast at a place not too far away called Blue Moon Café, which I had been to once last year. Got a bunch of things there but unfortunately while LD asked for an ice coffee it arrived as hot. Ended up drinking it anyway.
Here is a photo I took in April. The osprey nest in the window’s reflection was something I had not noticed until someone pointed it out to me! We ate here a few years ago when it was previously owned by what I assumed at the time to be a local family. It has since been purchased by new owners, who intend to reopen it this summer – it has been closed for a couple of years now but things seem to be looking up.
Speaking of the coming summer, June is looking to be a very busy month for us – the calendar is getting crazy filled up with stuff – very exciting times! I’ll give more details into each of the events as they appear.
Mowed the front lawn this afternoon. It’s amazing how fast the grass is growing now after pretty much being dormant for months. No sooner do I mow it then it seems it needs mowing again!
Earlier in the day my phone beeped me a notification that a book on my Libby download queue was ready to be grabbed. It had been a while since a book I had wanted to read was ready.
Yesterday was a busy day for me. In started off with me doing my weekly rounds around the town and having to deal with people. You need a somewhat tough skin for the job but also to keep being nice as the public face. I think I’ve found a pretty good balance of that.
Since it was so nice yesterday but supposed to rain the rest of the week I decided to tackle mowing the back yard, first time this year. The grass was starting to get a bit long back there. I ran out of gas for the mower halfway through so I had to take a quick jaunt to the station to refill up the can but after that I finished it up nicely.. As in years prior I did not mow this patch of wild buttercups that grow in the middle of the lawn as part of helping out the back yard ecology. I do mow that down after they’re finished blooming.
As evening neared, I prepared dinner: beef bolognaise with zucchini slices. I felt it turned out fairly well. We ended the evening by finishing all of the NYPD Blue episodes available on streaming, which totaled over 200. Admittedly, I did fall asleep during some of them throughout the course of the weeks we were viewing.
Carson has been “camping” in the sun room, refusing to go to bed. The last time he did this, baby bunnies were born in the flowerpot on the terrace. The fact that he’s starting to do this again has me wondering if Mommy Bunny is returning for another round. I went out there this morning to check the pot and see if anything had changed. I did observe that the hole was covered in thatch, and when I pushed it up, I noticed what appeared to be new fur lining, but it was otherwise empty, so I believe another round will be arriving soon.
Speaking of babies, a robin has been resting in the nest above the neighbor’s garage next door, where the morning doves had all of their offspring last year. I suppose she chose to use what they had previously constructed for her eggs. Smart little lady!
My mom is having her second cataract operation this morning, this time in her other eye. The first op was quite the success so after this one her eyesight should be pretty good. I’m going over there later this afternoon.
Yesterday was quite a hectic day for us. We met with a friend at LD’s office first since we needed to assemble a new office chair, which we did quickly, as well as bring back items that I’d need to take care of, such as repairing the dollhouses’ grandfather clock and getting rid of some old stuff. It was then out to the wilds of Northborough for lunch with alpacas. Now, the lunch consisted of little sandwiches and salad, but that wasn’t the point. It was actually lunchtime with alpacas.
So you eat, and then they bring down the alpacas, who you can feed, touch, hang out with, and photograph. That was really great, but then the proprietors decided to let the baby goats out to run wild, and you could feed and cuddle them as well. It was mayhem, but it was a lot of fun! Would recommend ten times out of ten! We must have taken hundreds of photos between the three of us, but I’ll leave this brief sampling for now.
Like I said, it was a pretty busy weekend all in all, but surely a fun one.
When we finally got home we arrived to see that LD’s old landlady left more containers and ingredients for us to make more lemon orzo chicken soup! It’s getting a little ridiculous that this lady likes the soup so much and wants nobody other then us to make it for her. Anyways, as tired as we were we decided to bang out two huge pots of the stuff. Amazingly we were able to get in all done under and hour and a half. We even added some kale this time, mostly because we had to use up the bag. I’ll be dropping off the various containers filled with this soup to her later today. Where does she put it all?
The wrought iron railing guy is supposed to show up this afternoon to go over some options to finish off the front stairs that was completed last month. Apparently there’s a separate guy from the mason that does that work (at least the folks that we know).
Oh! And we finally got back the workout template of all the exercises we did last Saturday. We’re supposed to these I think 2 or 3 times a week. I’m posting it here if you want to play along with us.
We started out the day actually going to a trainer space out in Weston to do a free weight strength training exercises with a trainer for a hour to help get a little bit in shape. We did squats, and dead lifts, curls, and all kinds of stretches. Not the worst way to spend a free hour in the morning. Then it was off to what I wanted to check out, this fine dandy of place, right in my hometown. It’s only open to the public once a year. It’s run by a couple who have transformed their house into this place. It’s quite a sight. The crown jewel of the house is surely its Grand Hall at the top of the staircases. Every inch of the walls and vaulted ceiling in the auditorium is intricately painted with bright colors featuring the artists’ interpretation of creation stories from different cultures. There are 57 murals of about 5,200 square feet in total.
(The last pic above is actually from Weston next to the town green where we worked out.)
After that we decided to try a place in the Ville that I had always heard great things about and since it was in the area we went to try it. A little place called Three Little Figs. It was good. Then we came home and bought some flowers to be planted soon as part of our gardening tasks.
Under the hood here the website has been moved over to a new server so things should be a little peppier, you might not notice anything different but as long as it works is pretty much all I care about.
I finally got around to planting the tubers that we stored over the winter. Every year I dig them out in late fall and replant them in the springtime so hopefully they’ll start sprouting soon as always in time for the summer blooms. I placed them in one of the raised beds which I tilled and got ready for planting last week. I also need to plant some seeds of sunflowers and asters that we got gifted to us a few months back. Might end up just putting the asters in a pot at least for now. Think I’ll put the sunflowers in one of the raised beds. One thing we’ve decided to do is not go too crazy this year with the pots on the deck. This year we are thinking in being a bit more minimal. Went a bit overboard last year.
Walking around the neighborhood this afternoon I was struck by how pretty this tree looked so I snapped a quick pic:
I play Wordle and a couple of other games on the New York Times site and this particular game that I play called Spelling Bee usually bumps me out after guessing a few words but for whatever reason this one just would not end. I play the game without using any hints. It took a while but today I was able to complete the board, a first for me! So I’m a little proud of myself at the moment. Have you played any of the NYT games, do you have a favorite? How do you do at them?
