Reading – Page 6 – Hatchetation

Looking Ahead

Posted on December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by Markman

2019 wasn’t the worst year ever, but certainly wasn’t the best for me either. I think 2020 is probably going to be a bit of a test as well, especially at the beginning, but hopefully over time things will improve.

Anyways let’s look at the bright spots. Here are some of the highlights that I can remember from 2019, in no particular order:

Losing Oreo but gaining Carson.

Visiting Blue in Newburyport in a snowstorm.

Seeing Damone perform live again. Kris Kristofferson too with/for my mom.

Baby Robins! It was a thrill every day to see how they would progress, from eggs, too little alien looking things, to growing feather, and finally saying goodbye. Their mother was amazing in her care of them.

Exciting to watch baby robins form, grow, and leave.

Scoring free tickets to see Jack Nicholson in the Shining at the Somerville Theatre.

Mother’s Day Cruise aboard the Beauport Liner in Gloucester.

Remodeling the bedroom, scoring a free bike on one of the Buy Nothing Facebook groups.

Large Condo apartments being built on either side of Earth-1 property, squeezing a rose between two thorns. Ridiculous!

Michelle coming to visit and doing Alpaca Yoga with her.

Gardening game going strong, and growing “Sean”, our first pumpkin.

Going away to the Cape for a week, getting some good photos, but having to be in a different unit than usual next to the “murderers.” Not really – they were just really quiet and not sure where the rest of their party disappeared to.

Having a short stay on the Jersey shore, in an historic BnB but narrowly avoiding what could have been a massive storm!

Trying another bout of baby goat yoga at a place in Georgetown. Will definitely visit again but also will probably hit our go to place in NH as it seems their babies are really small and cute.

Waquesset Inn overnight stay.

New website design after the old system could no longer be supported.

Boston views as always:

Finally some books I read thus far in 2019:

Books I read in 2019. Bad Blood, Maybe you should talk to Someone, and Still Alice being favorites.

Sunday Status

Posted on December 22, 2019 by Markman

Holiday scene on some property in Waltham. We dug the spinning carousel.

Transplanted my little ‘Ellwoodii’ European Tree into a bigger pot. It’s amazing how fast it dries out so I have to keep making sure the soil is moist. Also just bought an amaryllis that is almost ready to bloom. I also checked up on the bird feeder out back and noticed the usual collection of cardinals, blue jays, wrens, sparrows, woodpeckers, chickadees, finches and juncos all grabbing a snack or two.

Looked over a few little libraries in the afternoon in Waltham, since we happened to be in the area doing other stuff. Picked up a book called Status Update from inside one of them. Might be a good read although probably a little dated by this point. Also cooked up some homemade chicken soup and chili using the Instant Pot. That thing really is a wonder.

In the downtime I ended up binge watching the last few episodes of Watchmen and I’ve since changed my mind on it – it was pretty mind blowing.

Barbells, Sean Jr., and Books

Posted on October 6, 2019 by Markman

Some friends of ours are opening a gym, so to celebrate them we created these “barbell” appetizers where the weights consist of different fruits for last night’s get together. We also ended up playing some games, including Scattergories (which is fun but hard, although I did learn from tricks from LD’s friend who visited a while back) and something they brought over called Mexican Train which uses dominoes (and I didn’t care for).

Sean Connery Jr. – getting bigger every day!

Our pumpkin, loving called Sean Connery Jr. because the seeds we planted were from a pumpkin I got the seeds from last year (obtained from same friends mentioned above) and they had named Sean Connery. (The reason why it was named that is a long story that goes back to a previous party outing with them).

We dropped off a bunch of books we had lying around from little libraries and deposited them at a bunch of different little libraries. While there I picked up two new books to read: The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun (which I know a lot about already as I’m a big ancient Egypt buff – but I do find this book a great introduction to the Boy King) and Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America. Looks interesting so I’ll give it a read and it seems topical to what’s been going on in the news recently.

Rainy Saturday

Posted on September 14, 2019September 14, 2019 by Markman

Swung by Earth-1 this morning to take care of some stuff. While I was paying a bill, I headed into the bookstore next store and picked up a copy of a new book, The Known, The Secret, the Forgotten: A Memoir by Joan Wheelis. It’s even an autographed copy. I had this one on my Goodreads for a while, it sounded pretty good so I decided to give it a shot – so that’s my current reading assignment.

It is ridiculously difficult to get around Somerville with all the construction going on . I literally could not get to where I wanted to due to Beacon Street being closed, so I had to go to Porter Square instead (by way of Harvard Sq.) – which is how I ended up at the bookstore.

Friday

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Markman

Well, it’s been a productive Fri-yay so far (see what I did there?) I finally got myself down to the barber shop and got my hair cut. And speaking of cutting, when I came back I decided to take on the front and back lawns and cut those down too – including edging and some weeding. I think it looks pretty good.

I’ve started to read a new book: Dawn of the Code War: America’s Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat. Pretty scary stuff. Recommended reading by me.

Some More Varied Wildlife Shots

Posted on July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by Markman

These were all taken on July 14, 2019. Today was a “rest day” so far. A little shopping, a nice breakfast at the Hole In One, a place we like, and just being chill for the most part. Today we hit some little libraries in Orleans – I found a novel called The Last Days of Dogtown that I might read since it takes place in old Gloucester. Historical fiction type stuff I think. LD is reading a book I found as well by Jennie Garth of 90210 fame. Oh Gawd. I’m almost done with Future Crimes – it’s pretty good but a little dense. Basically anything is hackable including all technologies moving forward.

So far, we’ve really scored with the weather this week with everyday basically being sunny and clear, although a bit hot at times -normal for mid-July though!

Not sure what we’re doing tonight yet – probably a dinner somewhere and more sunset locations.

Downtown

Posted on July 10, 2019July 10, 2019 by Markman

I really like how this pic turned out – a classic view of Downtown Boston looking toward the theater district.

Currently Reading: Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It – another pick from a Little Library. If you’re looking for a good one, I found this book, and also one on New England Inns (although not updated since 1985) in the one located at Kidder Avenue – I noticed a lot of good stuff in there but could only carry these two on my bike home. On a totally unrelated note, I want to catch the latest HBO documentary on Michelle Carter, the chick who kept texting her boyfriend to commit suicide.

Fire Lily Poppa

Posted on June 30, 2019June 30, 2019 by Markman

I noticed this morning that the first “fire lily” finally opened, after budding for about a week. We planted these, oh it must have been, about 3 or more years ago. I don’t think when we first planted them what they would exactly turn out to be, but to say we are pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Surrounded by the pale blue hydrangeas as a background also provides a nice touch, although to be honest, that was purely coincidence. Now I’m just waiting for the Star Gazer lilies to bloom out back.

We are finding out that redecorating is a lot of freaking work. I’m leaving most of that to the Ladydoc. Figuring out the rug and placement (it was a sight watching me carry a 10′ rolled up rug throughout the Home Depot I am sure, like a fireman carrying a hose to the fire), and figuring out what artworks and photos to hang. It’s currently sitting rolled up in the sitting room until we can get the rug pad (who knew we needed that?) I’m learning that there’s actually I don’t know about basic home decorating. I suppose it’s just a topic that I never really explored before, or maybe even cared about.

Just finished mowing the lawn (front and back) in between bouts of rainfall (it’s the kind of day that really annoys me, either rain or stay sunny, not this off and on bullcrap). Also dug out the edger and went to town with that too. Now I’m a sweaty mess so I’ll be headed for the shower soon. Just sitting here I can feel the beads of sweat trickle down my head and sides. I was hoping to maybe fire up the grill this afternoon but the skies are getting darker now so I may need to put that on hold until another day. In the meantime I finished Invisible Man (to be honest, I found it to be bit outside my understanding) but am looking forward to starting my next read, The Collected Schizophrenias. We actually know a woman who’s son appears to have this condition so it might be educational for me to learn about it a bit more.

Today’s also the 2nd year anniversary of Angel’s passing (a cat that was really special to us). I’ve written about her before but with the redesign of the site and starting over I’ll have to dig it up and repost and update it at another time. I want to mention that she and her brother are always and will always be in our hearts.

What is this little guy doing in the Raised Box!?

Later in the afternoon, after discovering this little guy in one of the raised boxes, we set about to make dinner for tonight. Earlier I had done up a tofu with pepper, zucchini and spinach dish for LDs lunches, but for tonight’s dinner it was some scallops and salmon done over with some Romano cheese, so as to be slightly cassarole-ish, and then with a side of sauteed broccoli. Not bad.

Uhmmm…what?

Posted on June 15, 2019June 15, 2019 by Markman

Well back from the bike ride! Some observations though, who put this ride together? I realized that there didn’t seem to be any theme to this ride. And also, who picked the route? It happened to go up to the highest hill in town – so steep I had to walk my bike up. Now I remember why I like the Cambridge ones better. Speaking of the bike, it performed great, so I’m very happy with that. Well anyway, there were photos taken – maybe I’ll be in one looking all haggard. We’ll see.

Currently on the reading docket: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed. I’ve heard some good things about this book – hoping it’ll be an interesting read.

Also, not a weekend goes by that we don’t take a visit to Home Depot of Lowes for something. In the meantime if you’re looking for a good game try Blackened. It’s sort of like Sokoban but different. It took me a while to solve all the levels but I found them enjoyable.