Me and the Bunny outside Woody’s Liquors Store in Somerville a couple of years ago. Such an “Old Somerville” thing to do!
Something to keep the kids busy while the parent(s) stocked up.
We’re on the hunt for some old vintage board games, so if you have any, let me know!
My knees have been acting up again, joy of joys.
Currently reading: Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up. I find myself not agreeing with this author in the book at all for the most part, but was curious to see another perspective.
So every now and then, this 5th grade teacher comes and talks to me about what’s going on, and you wouldn’t believe the stories she tells about what the students are up to these days. Actually, the parents are far worse. For example, this story was said to me a few days ago when we were chatting. A father came into the school to talk about his child or something and had to wait in the secretary’s office. I missed this section of the narrative but somehow the secretary (a woman) was not in her office at the time.
This father got the nerve to go into her office, and get on the intercom. He says over the intercom, “School sucks, Celtics rule!” Now, the staff at the school are wondering what the hell was that – they don’t have a male secretary at the office and certainly should not be on the intercom, so they’re understandable freaking out. Plus such a nice message to give out to the students, right? Eventually they catch up to this guy and he says “he couldn’t help himself..” Really? After that incident he got a disinvite from the school so he cannot go in there anymore. Then he gets on social media and says how bad the security is in the school.
She also mentioned that her girlfriend, who used to work at this school but is now in Stoughton, relates the tale of one of her students, a second grader, who literally defaecated on her desk. A second grader!
No respect these days. I don’t know how these teachers do it.
I’m ready for those warmer weather beach outings now! This picture I took a little while back makes me yearn for those days right now, but I know they’re coming. Just have to be a bit more patient.
Today’s brief adventure was checking out a dollhouse in Wellesley that I found for LD (it’s amazing what you can find on Facebook Marketplace, I do like to look over the listings) to perhaps buy for her new office location. This thing was quite large yet nice and not flashy, and it came with the prettiest furnishings. She fell in love with it right away, and it’s now part of the family! Then we took a little side trip to see something macabre, which I’ll tell more about later.
Later on in the afternoon I ran a couple of errands, put in a Powerball ticket (had to try, right?) ate some more lemon orzo soup that we made again last night and updated this page with this latest entry.
One of LD’s Birthday gifts from yesterday. A 100 piece jigsaw puzzle of us!
Currently Reading: The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology. Getting all science-y with this read!
Before we went on today’s adventure I wanted to see if what I saw when I dropped the food off the other day was indeed true. I saw a sign out in front of the church that said “Drive By Palms on Sunday.” So we drove over to the church and there really was a lady handing out palms. So I pulled up and asked for some and the woman was gracious enough to ask how many I wanted. I said three, mostly getting these for my mom. So we ended up getting four and I’ll be giving them to my mom when I see her again later in the week.
The main adventure today though was taking a trip up north to see our friends and their dog Mollie again for a hang out. So we spent a wonderful afternoon getting lunch, talking, telling stories, learning some new things, and laughing. Mollie’s now about twice the size I saw her last but still full of super energy.
Yesterday we attended a celebration ceremony for LD’s former landlady’s husband who recently passed away.
The service was held at a charming little church in town, and afterwards we were all welcomed to a local restaurant for lunch and to chat with the family, etc.
It was a good time, albeit a little hectic. After that, we pretty much slept all day on the couch. As I previously stated, the weather was quite wet and cold.
I ended up taking several naps, something I rarely, if ever do. It was that type of day.
I went ahead this morning to a church that’s located in town and delivered some food that we had around over to the local food pantry. Hopefully it’ll will go to some people in need. I haven’t been able to update much this week because my stomach was upset, mostly due to what I think must have been something I ate. It wasn’t too bad, just one of those things that has to work it’s way through the system. I appear to be pretty good now though, so that’s a relief.
Chimney fix day! The guy came to fix the chimney this morning, which we found out he wanted to come last night so it was pretty sudden, but it would be good to get that out of the way. It’s the same little old Italian man that was used to do all the kitchen backsplash last year during the remodel. He’s very good. We get kind of nervous that this older guy is going to climb the ladder and do the work, but he did it with aplomb and has lots of experience. It’s pays to know good people!
He came with another old guy this time so they could work in tandem. They basically had to take down a bit from the top down to the roof line essentially and then recement the brickwork and build it back up. The final part was putting a cap on the top. Strangely it never seemed to have a cap or if it did it disappeared before we got here.
The whole impetus for getting this done in the first place is to stop the possibility of birds getting trapped in there and ending up getting trapped in the fireplace. It’s happened twice over the years, the last one being quite terrible and sad. Hopefully this will fix all of that and the bonus being we could actually start using the fireplace again, although someday might do an insert instead.
This morning I got up super early and headed down to the local famous bagel place in town because LD wanted some shamrock (green colored) bagels. I had to get there early because this place is also packed and the lines are crazy. Well, getting there at 7 am is the time to get there because even though there were people in there getting stuff, it wasn’t too crazy. Go around 10 am and you’ll be waiting in line for a good while.
At noon, we picked up a boiled dinner (a St. Patrick’s day tradition) from another local place that we used to frequent quite often. And we ended up eating it with the old land lady as a nice gesture, which she appreciated.
Hanging out with these baby goats this afternoon at a place in Northborough, Massachusetts was simply, “Baaaaaaa-mazing!” The goat from the video below we were told was only 4 days old! He has quite a set of lungs on him! Another goat also got to biting my ear, which while kind of funny, also hurt a teeny bit! And then a third goat fell asleep in my arms- she was a sweetheart.
A 4 day old baby goat that had a lot to say!
In the morning I headed out to Cambridge for a bike ride the city was running. Got to travel thru the city, mostly through Kendell Square, and down by Lechmere and M.I.T. As you can see from my stats it wasn’t a strenuous ride in the least, but it being my first ride of the season, my legs and back were a tiny bit sore after. There was no particular theme to this ride and the route had stretches that seemed a bit odd to me, like very narrow passageways which made all the bikes bunch up and the bottle necks. I did get to pass by where M.I.T. was showing off the the S.T.E.M. women orange statues which was something I had wanted to check out in the past. I might need to go down there at a later time to get a better look.
Yesterday, when sorting through some old stuff, I stumbled upon this Polaroid, which seems like it was taken a lifetime ago. This is from the early Aughts, I think. This picture has quite the backstory, but I’ll let the readers try to piece it together as an exercise. I’m going to have to make some time to look over my other photos from this chapter of my life. There must be a couple more just like this one.
Some things that I want to do coming up in Spring is maybe a mini-golf outing and also a glass blowing class with another couple friends of ours. If they bag though maybe we can go with any other of our friends that may be interested. I also still want to try that axe throwing thing, that’s been on my bucket list for a while now.
This afternoon while I was walking around the flower gardens today, I noticed the daffodils starting to blossom and the tulip leaves starting to emerge. I also observed a snowdrop that I planted a few years ago is now in bloom, a lone soldier braving the cold to reach the sun. I’ll need to do some spring cleaning, get rid of some leaves, and so on, but not yet. I was thinking tonight might be a nice night to light the firepit, but I’ll wait on that as well. It’s nice to know that I won’t have to wait too long to do these things, and maybe even get the grill out a bit early.
Today also happens to be Pi Day (you know, as in 3.14159…) Normally I would celebrate by eating a pizza pie but I’ll probably save that for tomorrow as today I plan on trying my hand at making a mushroom ravioli dish.
Had a dental appointment this morning so I went and got that out of the way. The typical 6-month checkup and I don’t have to go back until 6 months later so that’s all well and good. He did tell me to get some stuff for my gums which I guess have been inflamed lately so they called it in and I picked it up at the pharmacy a little while later. I’m pretty sure I’ve had this stuff before so it’s no big deal. Oh, I also discovered that the city of Cambridge is doing a bike ride this weekend so I might go ahead and do that, ahead of the usual May ride, depending on the weather and if I’m feeling it the day of. We’ll see.
Went to Earth-1 to run some errands, visited my grandparent’s grave in Malden, had a treat at Kelly’s Roast Beef, visited LD’s old landlady who recently lost her husband who was a very nice man, celebrated LD’s birthday, and yeah, that’s about it.
We made a quick visit to the beach today since it was kind of nice out. When we arrived we were amazed at how active the waves were and the water itself was quite close to the entry points. We had never seen the water travel up that high before.
Today we plan on making the lemon soup again.
Currently reading: Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers and Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself by Hef’s last wife.
Through thick and thin, you’ve been my rock, my confidante, and the greatest adventure partner anyone could ask for.
You inspire me every single day with your compassion, empathy, and wit. Your laughter always melts my heart, and I wouldn’t trade our watching-tv-while-on-heating-pads-night talks and silly inside jokes for anything.
This year, I wish you the best and all you could want. I can’t wait to celebrate with you and make more unforgettable memories together.
Here’s to many more years of laughter, love, and growing stronger together.
Got to hang out with my friend Sparkle at the Sanctuary today. We went there after visiting LD’s old landlady whose husband recently passed away, so we were providing some support. I made some killer salmon and we brought bagels too and had a nice brunch visit.
I realize I haven’t updated in a while but that’s mostly because there’s nothing really to update with over the last week. It’s just been business as usual, but don’t worry, that’ll be changing soon.
Gametime: Space Expedition. This was really fun! Very well done! And also for the puzzle minded, Fixban. That game is not easy!
Wavy this weekendWe’ve arrivedGotta find this by usWinnings!
Day 3: Coffee and Meetups
Fun couple of days away. Got to see some family, hang out at a house by the beach, partake in the local activities, take a side jaunt through New York State to catch up with a friend (shout out to The El Dorado Diner in Elmsford!) and grateful for the good times. Didn’t get back from travelling until late last night, hence the sparse update- have to recuperate!
Currently Reading: Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes
Today is National Love Your Pet Day — time to bust out the treats and prepare to give extra head scratches. To celebrate today, we asked readers to tell us all about their pets and share their favorite photo of them. Thirteen readers responded with paw-fect pictures and adorable anecdotes.
We spent yesterday hanging out with some goats at the Sanctuary. I hadn’t been there in a while, and we dropped off some food for the animals. After all of that and returning home for some relaxation, we cooked up a storm, preparing a variety of recipes, some for later in the week. I finally had some time today to travel to Earth-1 and get my brakes done; it had been long overdue, and I’m delighted to be able to mark that off my list.
Currently Reading:Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night by Lisa Belkin.
I picked up this special card 8.5×11 card a little while ago and wrote things in the circles from Carson and I and then covered them up with scratch off stickers, so that when the circle is scratched the saying I wrote will be seen. Pretty neat, huh?
I also have a special unique thing planned for LD, but it isn’t quite ready yet, which is a shame, but I’m hoping it’ll come relatively soon and turns out extremely well.
The new couch got delivered this afternoon! Yay!! Great Laz-E-Boy store pickup. Just hope that Carson doesn’t take clawing to it. We’ll have to watch that.
So much for a snow day! They really messed up on this one, a real blockbuster ended up being pretty much of a dud! Don’t get me wrong, I prefer to have little top no snow, and I appreciate the day off (I have to move my regular duties to this Friday) but it’s like I said before. The better the technology gets in weather predicting, the worse the forecasts are. Actually I don’t think it’s the tech, it’s the analysis of the models. Plus the media likes to hype stuff up ridiculous. I actually don’t really pay attention to them anymore to be honest. Rather just use my phone and see the day before what the day after will bring.
So what exactly is Galentine’s Day? The iconic celebration is an unofficial holiday that takes place on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. Its entire premise is that women forget about any significant others for the day — and solely focus on celebrating the female friends in their lives. Contrary to the popular criticism that Galentine’s Day patronizes single women, the celebration is meant to be a day of empowerment, and a reminder for women to support and uplift one another. It’s about “ladies celebrating ladies,” as Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, would put it.
This afternoon we made a lemon orzo chicken soup, and it came out really good. Today was the perfect afternoon to make a soup, in my opinion. I’ve already eaten three bowls of it and plan on having more of it tonight, that’s how much I liked how this one came out!
We got to partake in an amazing experience yesterday. getting to cuddle and play with a pair of capybaras! I love them! Their fur feels like straw. I never thought in a million years I’d ever be able to play with a capybara, let alone two. I remember seeing this animal in a zoo a few years ago and only learned about their existence a few scant years ago. To me, they seem to be the next up and coming “big thing.” We also go to see a wallaby which had a baby popping it’s head out of her pouch every now and again, which was cool to see, and a special cat, some yaks, alpacas and, of course, some goats, but the capybaras were the stars of the show for me! We were lucky to even get into this experience as it is currently very limited but I hit it just right and was able to get us access. The location of all this wonder was down in Mattapoisett, a town down on the southern coast. It was a bit chilly.
Planning on checking out the Puppy Bowl later today. It’s an animal filled weekend!
I completed a number of tasks today to take advantage of the warmer weather this weekend. That makes sense, with temperatures in the 60s tomorrow and snowfall on Tuesday. Today I even got to talk to a woman who told me she was from Afghanistan and comes by me every now and again so we struck up a short conversation. Anyway, after my shift, I went ahead and decided to attack the insane rose bushes out front. I wanted to drastically reduce the size of those babies. Meanwhile, LD went to urgent care to see about a sore throat she’d been getting. And last night Carson gave us a little scare as a string was coming out of his butt and wouldn’t dislodge but I eventually got it out. Thankfully he’s fine now. That boy needs to stop eating strings! Also, since it’s National Pizza Day, I had to get some tonight. But back to the rose bushes.
I trimmed them way back and also had access to some invasive plants there that I wanted to get rid of for a long time but it was just too difficult to get to. But not today! A couple of hours of hacking and they were gone! Come to find out there was a patch of daffodils under there just trying to breathe. They can get the full sun now! Of course the only negative thing is that where the thorns clipped my fingers every now and then through my gloves, they itch. But that will go away.
Tuesday is my busiest day of the week usually. This time on my rounds I changed it up a bit and went around some different ways which ended up being quite fruitful. Some folks think they have the schedule down which is why we like to change it up a bit every now and then. All you have to do is follow the signs and you’ll never have a problem!
In the late afternoon I dropped off some supplies for donation that LD heard about for some migrant families living in town and what they needed. So I went and took the stuff down to the home to be dropped off. It helps out these folks and we were able to get rid of some stuff that was just lying around so it was good to get it moved. Win-win situation.
Gametime; A cute little puzzlescript game called A Rat in Cheesetown. Don’t worry, I didn’t find it difficult but a fun diversion for a few.
It ended up being a real “cat” kind of day. In the morning I went to a pharmacy store to get a baby card for someone who just had a baby and while I was there I noticed this really cute planter in the shape of a cat with a cactus in it so I got it. Sort of an impulse buy but I thought it was pretty cute, especially since I lost on on the ones Trader Joe’s supposedly had last summer but I could never find. We took a trip out to Tiverton, RI this afternoon to check out a cat café! We didn’t know what to expect but come to find out, the place was actually very cute.
Many of the cats were sleeping when we initially came (actually, we had beverages and I had a breakfast sandwich), but by the time we were finished, a lot of them had woken up and started playing with us. A black and white cat was still nursing her kids, which were very large by this point, but she permitted it, so there was that. They had installations along the walls that allowed the cats to move about the space and perches from which they could look into the café area if they so desired. They had a ton of toys and a very cool what appeared to be handcrafted kind of a cat tree with branches in the corner. Eventually all the cats here will be up for adoption. It was fun way to spend a part of our afternoon. Afterwards we checked out a beach in the area but didn’t stay long and then headed back.
Of course, as cute as they all were none can compete with our Carson. Here he is in a shot I took that kind of reminds me of those Playboy Playmate shots in the magazines from the early 70s!
