Category: Everyday Life

Mr. History Entry #2: Spin Me Right Round baby!

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Mr. History post #2! I promise these posts aren’t all going to be about houses. It was just that I happened to be in the area. Anyways… This is the Robinson Round House located in Somerville Massachusetts. It was built in 1856 by hardware manufacturer Enoch Robinson and is considered an offshoot of the octagon house-style popularized by phrenologist Orson Fowler because who needs corners anyway!

Mr. History post #1 here , the oldest still standing house in America, if you missed it… stay tuned for more!

Bonus!

A pic of me exploring the colossal colon circa 2003. I was just passing through! Bringing awareness to colon cancer.

Having a Fun Time for Charity

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Went to the local gym yesterday to partake in a charity event. Our pal Em came with which is always a fun hangout. (Like my shirt? I got it from a bagel place in East Cambridge), They even had raffles there where participants could win prizes. I didn’t win anything, but Em did, which was cool. There’s even s video from the event. It’s all for a good cause and it was a lot of fun. Plus anytime you can hang out with Ginni Burton is great!

Things to Pass the Time Lately

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Ended up watching that Karen Read documentary on ID over the last couple of days. I’d have to say, it did a pretty good job describing everything that’s been going on. I would recommend it, especially if you have any interest in this crazy case.

Currently Reading: Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. This is going to be a good one as Facebook tried to squash this getting out. Seems like it’s more about the geopolitical stuff.

Mr. History: Entry #1 The Oldest House in America!

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Starting a little something new here on the blog, although maybe not really because I’ve posted stuff similar to this before. Ladydoc is always calling me Mr. History because I get intrigued about certain things and how they came about. I’m always reading plaques around the states and stuff to learn about the local history. So I figured I’d start with something really close to us to get this new venture off. The oldest house in America. that’s still standing! Anyways that’s kind of cool. So much history right in our back yard!

Love Letter to the Green Machine

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I came across an image of a big wheel that I had as a kid and it brought back so many good memories for me. It was called The Green Machine. Naturally it was green but what set this thing apart was it’s steering mechanism. Pull shifting the two level back and forth you could rotate the rear wheels to make turns. I remember riding this thing into the ground! The tires were all plastic and eventually the big wheel in the front would wear away do to all the skidding and turning on the pavement. It got such that eventually there would be a “hole” in one part of the tire, the plastic completely worn down, and so every time that part of the tire hit the ground it would produced a thud. I think I drove my grandparents crazy by having that sound just go off over and over and over. I think you can actually see what I am talking about in the picture with me and the kick ass pants. Look to the bottom of the front wheel and you can sort of make out it’s flatness. Fun times! Also around this time for some odd reason my grandmother wanted the back yard to have a checkerboard type pattern which you can also see in the photo.

Nice pants

Whoop! Summer Games

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Decided to finally pop on some WNBA game tickets down in Connecticut over the summer to see LD’s trainers kid play. She will be playing for the opposing team but that’s ok – haha!

Speaking of games here’s a couple of fun Gametime suggestions for you that I enjoyed solving: Bullet Teleporter and Silky Path.

I found a cute little Dedham Pottery pin depicting a view from the back of a bunny with it’s arm around another bunny looking at the stars. I knew LD would want this so I’m going to take a little jaunt out to Bedford tomorrow to go pick it up! Just a little small thing.

A Happy Little Cape Getaway Weekend

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We had a nice little weekend getaway down the Cape to help celebrate LD’s birthday month. Here’s some of my highlights. I will say it was an awfully windy weekend down there but it was beautiful. Some fun stuff we got to do were some Chocolate Sparrow trips, dinner at a great place we like called Island Blue Crab (where our favorite Bulgarian waitress works), hanging out in such a cute little Airbnb right next to the water, grabbing another Dedham Pottery item to the collection, checking out the sunsets and just overall chilling out. Even set up a future trip in the area for August already! More pics from the trip over on the Instagram account.

Celebrating the Ladydoc Last Night

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Last night we went out to celebrate LD’s birthday at a place called Black and Blue Steak and Crab. Since the establishment was participating in restaurant week we decided to go there, plus I like to try new places. Although the food was very good, it’s not really our vibe, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. When we got home I presented LD with some gifts that I got my little swimmer. A book by Katie Ledecky and some really cool looking smart AR goggles which have a heads up display in the eyepiece so you can see all kinds of stats as you are swimming – pretty futuristic looking, hopefully they’ll work well for her.

Happy Birthday LadyDoc!

Posted on by Markman

Today, I celebrate you with all my heart… my friend, my love, my one-and-only. The smile that
brightens my day, the hand that feels so right in mine. We just fit together. You’ve brought so
much happiness and love to this life we share, and you’re with me everywhere I go… always on my mind, always in my heart.

That’s why I want to make your birthday as incredibly happy as all those days you’ve made
for me. So let me put my arms around you. Let me celebrate you with all my heart.. my friend, my love, my one-and-only.

It may be your birthday, but somehow, I lucked out with the best gift of all (you!)

Finding Colorful Turkeys in Town

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Went into Brookline today to go check out some of the turkey sculptures! After finding some of them we went to Legal Seafoods and I bought LD lunch as part of this thing I’m doing for her birthday month which is everyday I do a little something, could be big, could be small, like yesterday’s corn muffin. Sort of like an Advent Calendar of the Ladydoc! Haha! We made use of the restaurant participating in Boston Restaurant Week so that was cool. After that we got some vegan ice cream and a place next door called Van Leeuwen. I ended up getting a hot chocolate while LD got some delicious vegan ice cream flavored treats.

Seeing John Cusack Live and In Person!

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As one of my xmas gifts, LD got us tickets to see John Cusack down at the Emerson Colonial in Boston. Never actually been inside that theater before although I must of passed it tons of times. There was a showing of his movie High Fidelity and he was going to talk about it after the screening. Of course my all time favorite Cusack movies are Serendipity, Say Anything, and my All-time favorite, Better Off Dead.

Was thinking it might be cool to try this beginner’s pottery wheel (one time) workshop, either with just us or maybe another one of our couples friends. Anyone out there game? Speaking of games….

Gametime: Dungeons of Deadrock (demo). Pretty cool little game. Also Part 2!

Hanging Out for An Afternoon with Mollie

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I got to hang out with my old friend Mollie yesterday afternoon for lunch with our buds up north, Hard to believe she’s a bit over one year old already! She needs to have an operation on both her hind legs – they have a tendency to come out at the joint somewhere at times and has to be “put” back in. She’s getting the first one done in a couple of weeks and then the second one sometime after that. She’ll need to take it easy and do rehab and all that stuff. Poor thing, she’s very sweet. Good luck Molllie!

Currently Reading: Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery by Theodore H. Schwartz

Historic Papermill Playhouse and Drumming

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Finally got to check out the historic Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ and saw a great show there called “Mystic Pizza” which as you probably guessed is based on the movie/book. I could easily see this show eventually ending up on Broadway. And we can say that we saw it first, haha! I also got to play some electronic drums which I was surprised at how good the kit actually is. Kind of amazing. I also want to explore Millburn more when the weather gets better, it looks like such a cute little town.

We’ve actually been to that pizza establishment a couple of times. Might do another outing to check it with some friends sometime in the future.

Eighty Six Years Young and Puppies

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Saturday we got invited to participate in LD’s former landlady’s birthday. A glorious 86 years! Amazing! Yesterday we kind of hunkered down dealing with the snow (which thankfully wasn’t a big deal) and baked a bunch of things while running the Jukebox. Tasty treats like banana bread and muffins, chickpea muffins which are surprisingly good and of course, the signature lemon orzo soup! We also watched the Puppy Bowl which has become a yearly tradition. No interest in the actual Super bowl.

Currently Reading: Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross.

Love Bunnies Hopping Over a Cookie Plate

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Bunnies hopping over the plate

Took a jaunt over to Andover early this afternoon to pick up our latest addition to the collection – this pottery cookie plate. We don’t see this one very often, if at all, so had to grab it, and at a good price too. It’s also heavy as hell! Also dropped by a little library in the area and found a cute little book about the Velveteen Rabbit for LD. When I saw that, I knew I had to grab it for her. We’ve also been filling the libraries up with a book purge around here.

Gametime: Bash. Finished all the levels but it took me quite a but to solve the Bonus one. Felt very satisfied once I got it.

Currently Reading: The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne by Kate Winkler Dawson. I’m liking this one, such a unique concept. The author comparing and telling the story alongside another author who wrote about the incident over 100 years ago.

So Meta, An Artful House Begets an Artful House begets…

Posted on by Markman
A crazy house and then a model of the crazy house, which has a model of the crazy house….

I don’t remember where I first heard about this location but I’ve driven by it at least once a week for years. More info on the actual house here https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/93191. It seems like during open studios you can actually go inside and take a peek at everything inside. I think I want to do that come May!

The house is home to a unique display of creative splendor, lovingly rendered in glass and found objects . Anyway a while back they added this little Friend Smithsonian Museum to house different art projects. At this particular time one creative artist decided to replicate the actual house including all it’s various artworks in miniature form. It’s really quite amazing. If you look in the bottom right corner, there’s a copy of the museum with a model of the house again ad infinitum!

Here’s a better picture actually that I didn’t take with the covering taken off: https://www.cambridgeday.com/2025/01/26/miniature-masterpiece-detailed-replica-brings-martha-friends-house-to-life/

Going Down Memory Lane

Posted on by Markman

One from the archives! Found this down in storage, a map of Lake Cochituate, specifically the wildlife habitat and geographic characteristics of the lake. Although I did this kind of work for close to 30 years (these are the sort of maps that I made for various projects although this is one I created for myself to learn the software, we were transitioning from AutoCAD which I loved, to a program called ArcGIS). I love the fish profiles I added to the bottom right. This piece was created circa 2003 but I consider the best years of that part of my life to be the mid to late 1990s. It was a very special time with amazing colleagues and projects.

Let me know if anyone is interested in seeing more stuff like this from my past. I have some great stuff and stories in that storage.

Gametime: Just a Series of Coin Flips. Fun little Puzzlescript game that kept me entertained for a few.

January Snow Shoveling

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Woke up to some powdery snowfall to deal with, our first real snowfall of the season, although all told it wasn’t all the bad plus it’s nice that it fell over the holiday so everyone could get a handle on it all early. The worst part of it all, shoveling, uncovering the car, salting the walk, etc. etc. Had to do it fast before this all flash freezes and becomes hard as a rock over the next couple of days!

At least it was pretty quiet as it all fell overnight while I was fast asleep.

Happy MLK day!