Really enjoyed our time down here. Some of today’s highlights .. getting massages early in the morning to start off the day and they were good. Then off to Capt. Baker’s Donuts – amazing unique concoctions! Went to Nauset Beach and did some shopping too for a few, and then jumped in the pool for a bit before they told us to get out because it was going to rain. It rained but only for like 10 minutes after which time we grilled some burgers on the charcoal. Then we noticed the skies actually clearing up as sunset approached (!) so I suggested we hit Skaket and it was a good call as it was a spectacular sunset tonight – we didn’t want to leave! Even after it went down you could still see so much cotton candy colors in the sky and clouds. Finished it up with a trip to the Sparrow again! I’ll have to flesh this entry out better later but you get the gist!
Bass RiverBass RiverBass RiverBass RiverBest DonutsCheck out the descriptions!I got the PB&J Doughnut! Yums!Hanging out at Nauset BeachFound time to grill!Spectacular sunset tonightSuch a large vista of beauty
It turned out to be a pretty good sunset over at the Creek after the day being mostly cloudy and overcast. We had dinner just before at a place called the Blue Island Crab and it was delicious! I think it may now be my favorite place to eat down here, the food was extraordinary! Great drinks too, one which actually got me pretty buzzed, which is not something I usually do.
Anyways, in the photo above you can see people way out in the distance. During low tide, you can walk out there for about two miles, which is crazy. When the tide does come in it can rise to a height between 9 and 11 feet in certain areas!
So, this has been a great time over at Earth-3 so far. Let’s see if I can quickly recap some things so I can remember all these times later on. So far, there’s been Rock Harbor sunset, two trips to the Chocolate Sparrow (as of yet), had a quick dinner over in Sandwich harbor, Checked out the General Store, checked out a famous crafter in Dennis, Eat Cake 4 Breakfast for some great pastries, swimming in the pool, some clams over at Mac’s in Chatham, Hole in One doughnuts a couple of times as of yet, Snowy Owl for coffee, Joe Mama’s for the best breakfast sandwich that I love, The Knack for burgers, Chatham beach a couple of times, went down to the dock to see seals, traipsed around Chatham’s downtown for the shops and the whale art, did the Eddy Trail, stopped over in Wellfleet for a bit, checked out Ptown’s Commercial Street and the library. Whew! What else? I know I’m missing stuff!
Entrance to the creekRocks, marsh and sunThe sun peeps outThis cocktail got me buzzed!The sun sinks below the horizon
We took a drive this morning out to Provincetown, to drop off our guest at the ferry and while there I decided to do some quick recon and grab some shots of this very flamboyant place. First thing to check out is the famous alley. The alley takes up the exterior wall of Shop Therapy, stretching nearly three shop lengths. It isn’t terribly wide, but it is big enough for a couple of people to walk down the alley at the same time. Wooden books depicting illustrations of Alice in Wonderland are found on one side, along with wire bugs and metal flowers coming out of the ground. The other side features pictures on pieces of wood. This artwork ended up a bit controversial, and probably not what you would call family-friendly. The edgy paintings range from Greek mythology to scenes from the Bible and Alice in Wonderland. Some of the artwork is a bit provocative and is made to capture your attention.
However what I really wanted to check out was this schooner that’s actually inside the public library. I had never heard of this before and just recently found out about it so I had to see it. The library itself is actually pretty cool as the building started life as a church in 1856 and the church origins are still very apparent. Go up a flight of stairs and there she is. That’s where a 55 foot replica of the schooner Rose Dorothea dominates the area. There is even a hole cut in the ceiling to accommodate the mast!
Hey sailor…The backside of the alleySome of the alley’s artworkAnother alley shotThe entrance to the alleyI’m Portuguese, these are my peopleThe old Lobster PotThe Squealing Pig
Then it was off for an afternoon back at Harding’s beach in Chatham. It’s sort of become our favorite beach because it’s warm and quite wavy. Today was a little rough but still a great time was had.
Checking out some sunset locations and finally deciding on hanging out at Skaket Beach tonight with great friends and then grabbing some burgers at The Knack (place we never tried, two thumb up!) and getting ice cream at the Ice Cream Café. What could be better?
Revere last night was spectacular. We had so much fun with some friends for a meet up that we all ended up staying past 9 p.m.! We got off to a pretty late start due partly to all the construction going on in the basement, partly for other reasons, but by late afternoon everything looked better and so we decided to go to the meet up!
LD actually ended up spending more than an hour in the water! I guess it wasn’t really cold at all. I still have yet to go into the water, but I think that’ll definitely be changing by the end of the week!
I tried to get a viewing of the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile today but it just didn’t work out – maybe next time it swings by.
A very rare collector’s edition with a print run of only….one issue? Just being silly. Anyways, onto today’s stuff. Also, I’ve been playing around with the fonts on the site, have you noticed? They may be changing again so just a head’s up.
I learned of some new places today that I might want to check out over the next few months. A bunch of them are over at Earth-1 in that Bow Market place, which unfortunately I find it very hard to park anywhere around there, but there’s a roast beef place and some pinball place there that I’d like to check out someday. Also over in Ball Square is some new Neapolitan pizza joint that looks pretty cool. Speaking of pizza there’s also a pizza cupcake place over at Legacy Place which I’ve been meaning to check out, to see what weirdness that is all about.
I’ve done baby goat yoga, alpaca yoga, piglet yoga, and now I heard there’s puppy yoga where the puppies are shelter pups which you could also adopt later. Might need to explore that one. I’ve also been meaning to do the free yoga class outside down at Assembly on Saturday mornings but never get around to it. Not that I’m really into yoga, just something to check out. Some other things that I’d like to do is check out the Elephant Migration statues down in Newport, RI, maybe some axe throwing over in Foxborough, Minigolf in Dedham with some pals. I looked into taking a glass blowing class here at Earth-2 which I thought would be fun to do with others as they show you have to make your own blown glass ornament, but it is a bit on the pricey side. There’s also an old style arcade in the area which might be fun to check out.
Capybaras Rule and I learned today that it was Capybara Appreciation Day I had to make a post about it. I adore capybaras! My very first encounter with seeing these creatures was actually many years ago when we visited the Cape May Zoo in New Jersey, which is an awesome zoo and free to the public. Then years later I saw one on display in NYC when we were visiting the Natural History Museum. I recall seeing the bones and such and a write up of it’s jaws and a short history. Little did I know, that years later I would be enamored with these guys!
Today I went to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon, but I didn’t go into the water. LD, on the other hand, went swimming. We didn’t feel like cooking last night, so we ordered this giant pizza from a local place we love. We only discovered this jumbo-sized pizza last month when LD’s friend from the south was here. It’s so big and impressive, I had to take a picture of it, but it really doesn’t do it justice; you have to see it in person to get the full effect.
Yesterday we also finally got around to looking at those Hoka sneakers at Dick’s. I liked how they felt, but they didn’t have my size in the color I wanted. So, we took a picture of the tag and ordered them online. They should arrive by Tuesday. LD didn’t like the feel of them, but I do. You’ll probably be seeing me in those later in the week.
Later on tonight, we’re going to see Inside Out 2 at Chestnut Hill. It’s a movie LD has been wanting to see for a while now, and today’s as good a day as any. When we get back, I’m going to grill some salmon and cod and maybe some zucchini with sliced cucumbers on the side.
We had a wonderful time at my LD’s friend’s beach cottage in Fairhaven. We celebrated the summer and the Fourth of July with a cookout and a nice hangout. The wind was blowing hard, but it felt great blowing around me. We relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. One of the most memorable parts of the evening was the fireworks. The town of New Bedford and the surrounding communities and private homeowners light off fireworks in the bay, and we had a great vantage point from the back deck of the cottage that faces the waters of Buzzard’s Bay. It was beautiful to watch the fireworks light up the bay and reflect on the water. As the night went on, the wind died down, and we continued to enjoy the beautiful night.
Hammock Swinging in the BreezeSparkler City
Hanging at the Airbus
I went to pick up a piece of pottery this morning, and I’m thrilled with it! Yesterday, I noticed someone selling another Dedham pottery piece that I had never seen before, a napkin holder in the shape of a bunny. So naturally, I had to get it and add it to our growing collection of Dedham pottery. I drove over and picked it up this morning, and I’m really pleased with its size and quality.
Currently Reading:Mass Murders: Bloodstained Crime Scenes Haunting the Bay State. This book has a slight bent about the paranormal which I don’t really care for, but I thought some of the crime stories might be good.
So much fun! I was surprised at how fun it actually was! Then it was an afternoon by the pool, a night of grilling and doing a fire pit. Beautiful day!
Group Shot! (I’m holding the bunny!)
Gametime: Tongue Tied. Help the frog reach the stars! Pretty cool game.
Currently Watching: Brats. A doc about the Brat Pack of the 80s headed by one of them.
Just got back from a weekend in New Jersey. It was LD’s college reunion so we attended. She got to get together with some old freinds, some she hadn’t seen in quite some time.
It was a fun outing. The weather was nice. Before the actual dinner they had a mass at the connected chapel to the college. What a beautiful chapel, I had never actually been inside before. Picture doesn’t really do it justice. You have to be in there and admire the high ceilings and stained glass and sculptures. Excellent attention to detail. We then took a little tour of the campus and the girls reminisced of their times there. It was cool to hear the stories.
The actual event itself wasn’t run too well, too many little things for listing now, but one funny story is this woman who joined our table and I guess was part of their class except she was like not a regular student, more like a weekend college kind of thing. She kept getting in all the pictures and interrupting but I suppose just wanted to be a part of the festivities. She said she was some sort of couples counselor but when you pressed her on certain things, it just sounded weird and off. There’s a lot more, like the time I handed her a photo prop that had the word Princess on it and she looked at me like I had three heads. (she had said her name was Princess, like I said, a bit strange). Anyways there’s way more to be said about these various encounters but better to tell it in person.
We had pizza at a local place by a train station and got to hang out with another friend who decided to come down and meet us, which was nice. We stayed at The Madison, a place we used to stay at often before the pandemic (since the pandemic we never use hotel rooms anymore, mostly Airbnb’s now) but for this particular trip is was convenient. Except the place is kind of going downhill, which is sad. I mean, it always had it’s foibles but now with it being sold to some company and not run by a family anymore, you can tell the difference. The food’s not the same, the service is definitely not the same, they even removed the pool to build another space for weddings (since that’s it’s main gig these days) and having a pool was one of the main reasons for choosing that place – for us. We didn’t check the reviews beforehand because we thought it would be like it always was. Won’t be making that mistake again!
The next day he hit the town center and met up with two other friends from LD’s graduating class at a diner called The Nautilus. Another place that I probably hadn’t been to in over 10 years if not more. That was pretty much the same. Again, fun meeting them and listening to the stories. Then it was off to grab some Jersey Boy bagels for the road and head on back.
The Verizon guy finally came this morning and upgraded everything, including a new set top box, which is what started this whole rigmarole. But now we are blasting with giganet speeds so access quality should be really good now.
Currently Reading: Staying with the computer future for the moment: Quantum Supremacy (review).
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!
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.
We took a short jaunt into town yesterday afternoon to wish a dear colleague of LD’s well off on her leaving higher ed. It was an intimate little gathering with mostly her staff and a few invited guests (including us, I was so humbly honored!) She will definitely be missed there. I guess originally it was supposed to be a much bigger thing but with all the stuff that’s been going on there lately it didn’t seem like the right time for something like that. (I have been rather fascinated reading about everything that’s been going down there lately – crazy times). Actually I prefer the smaller gathering personally.
Some other observations that I had was that we got to park right next door (brings back memories) and then I realized it’s probably the very last time we’ll ever visit here. I’ll probably never set foot in that particular building ever again. I did get to visit the 5th floor for the first time ever though. The digs up there are pretty nice. After a lot of the stories were told and the party started to end, the guest of honor was nice enough to bequeath us a couple of her plants. The hat I’m wearing in the picture isn’t mine. It’s LD’s old landlady’s who we took to Revere last weekend and forgot to take it back. My hands were full with other stuff so I put it on my head to bring it in the house. I’ll drop it off later today back to her. It does make for a funny picture however!
As the shindig wound down we both had to use the restroom. They have gender-neutral bathrooms there so we both able to use the same one at the same time, which I will say is really weird and we probably won’t ever do that again. Just seems strange to us. Also there was what appeared to be this mini shower like thing in there that no one seemed to know what it was for. Too small to be an actual shower and I don’t think anyone would actually wash their feet with it like at the beach so what the hell is it’s meaning? Someone said a pipe drains into there to which I though, well why don’t they just get a plumber and fix the pipe? No one really knew what the heck it was for and they all work there so beat’s me! Also it was pretty dirty. I have no idea what this contraption would be used for, but it does intrigue and perplex me so!
Anyways, Congratulations and good luck on the next chapter!
We started out the day cleaning off the back deck from all the pollen that had accumulated over the last year. We didn’t plan on doing it, but once we got going we couldn’t stop and I have to say it came out looking really good. Then we had decided since it was so nice out to take a ride over to Revere Beach to check out this purple sand that we had heard about being there. It basically got all swept in by the winter storms back in February, We had to check it out and as a bonus we decided to take LD’s old landlady with us to spend the afternoon and hang, so that was nice.
The colored sand!
LD also collected a bunch of the sand to bring back and possible put into a jar. Naturally we had to have some Kelly’s while we were there. The lady was so nice to treat us! We all ended up going with the roast beef sandwiches and a side of fries and onion rings. Have to say, it was pretty delish and the weather was great. Then after all that we headed back, I mowed the lawn out front, we did some gardening chores (more of which we need to do tomorrow) and then we had our first firepit of the season. Finally!
Currently Watching: The Bon Jovi documentary on Hulu.
Well, yesterday was quite a day. It started off pretty good, having to take a trip out to Weymouth to pick up something and then since it was nice out, we decided to go by the Hingham Shipyards to get some fresh air. Ended up getting a lunch at Wahlburgers. It’s been literally years and years since we’ve been there. I think we might have went when they first opened. Guess it was a good time to go because the whole area was pretty quiet. We ended up getting chicken sandwiches. Came home, took a nap, and watched some television.
Toward late afternoon/early evening we did the cooking thing. Three meals all at once, which I don’t really like to do because I can get overwhelmed with too many things going on at once. We did the lemon chicken-orzo soup we love so much, along with another chicken dish and some blueberry/strawberry oatmeal for LD. Unfortunely while all this was going on, LD happened to bang her head on one of the open cabinet doors and since she’s on certain meds we felt it best to get checked out at the hospital, so off we went to the ER. Long story short, after all-told about four hours of mostly waiting (first in the ER lobby, and then mostly for the results of the scans to come back), her CT scans looked good, but still going to watch to make sure everything is alright. Coming back around 11 pm we had some soup and then went to bed. I guess I crashed our pretty fast since hospitals and worrying and everything that goes along with that makes me really anxious.
Never a dull moment! Although in the grand scheme of things,, everything went particularly well. However, I am instituting a new rule that no more than two meals will be made by us at a time and to maybe slow things down and not rush so much. We’ll try.
Today, the mason, the small elderly Italian guy who built the chimney cap a few weeks ago, arrived and began removing the ancient concrete and brick stairs leading to the front entry of the house. It had all started to deteriorate a while ago, so it was time to have it redone. So, that’s what’s occurring this week. Also, the prior setup was not fully to code standards, so this new one will have better measurements, such as a landing that is the proper size rather than being too little, as it is now. The new brick and limestone landings should help improve visual appeal as well. This will be going on pretty much all week I would imagine.
Earlier today I went ahead and created that solar eclipse viewer out of a shoebox. Didn’t have the time or inclination to get the glasses. To be honest, I could sort of care less about the whole thing, but everyone else is into it, so I guessed that I would try to be as well. I personally felt pretty apathetic about it, to be honest. Maybe I’m weird. But then I got invited to see it with some friends who actually had some glasses so I, at first begrudgingly, went over there and watched it, and I do have to admit, that it was kind of cool, and then my mood changed. Plus being with good friends that make you laugh, really made it enjoyable. The box sucked, it was so much better with the glasses.
I also went ahead today and finally purchased some more storage space from Google. For the longest time I held out at the free 15 gigabytes but I got tired of having to erase stuff from the cloud to backup what I really wanted to backup so now 100 gigabits should hopefully last me for quite some time. Plus it comes with some other editing perks so I suppose it was worth it.
We had a “free” couple of days to stay at the Cape which we obtained last summer so we finally decided to use it up this weekend. So back down to Earth-3 we went. (Earth-3 being the place down the Cape that we regularly stay at – a time share that we have). So we arrived Friday night and we ended up using a gift certificate to a local restaurant that we’ve gone to a bunch of times and got rid of that. (The gift certificate was also a “freebie” since they messed up our later last time and this was the way amends were made). So that all worked out quite well.
Some other fun things we got to do on this mini-vacation was, as usual, our multiple visits to the Chocolate Sparrow, a place we love to get our treats from. We grabbed a brunch from a place called Grumpies and they weren’t grumpy at all. In fact, I’d say the food was actually really good. I would go back there. We got much needed massages from a lady we know down there who is amazing, and those felt really good. Late Saturday night LD got me a surprise experience, my first, being in a meditative salt cave. So that was pretty cool. The weather wasn’t all that great, a bit rainy at times and quite windy which made the air very cold, but nature is nature! We used the down time to catch up on some of our reading. Speaking of which, my next read is called A Murder in Wellesley: The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor’s Double Life, His Slain Wife, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation mostly because we now know a person who was directly involved. And I mean, you can’t get any closer than this person was! More details to emerge as we delve into this case much deeper over the next few days.
In the beautiful journey of life that we’ve traveled together, every day with you feels like a cherished chapter of a fairy tale. As we celebrate another year of love and partnership, I am reminded of the countless moments that have made this adventure extraordinary. Our love has been the greatest gift, filling our days with joy, laughter, and an unwavering bond that grows stronger with each passing year. Happy anniversary, Ladydoc. Here’s to the countless tomorrows we’ll continue to write together, creating a story of enduring love that is more beautiful with every page turned.
