Happy Halloween!

Halloween Greetings, visitors to 83 Durant. I'm writing this post while sitting by the door waiting for the trick-or-treaters to show up. Jake has taken Lucy up to Ruthie's house where the kids (Lucy, Ruth, Woodrow, & Aiden) will trick-or-treat together (probably just to a few houses). Carter is here with me, being protective. He tried to pounce on the first three-year-old witch who showed up at our door. Thankfully, I restrained him, and now I have him in the front room, with a baby gate in the doorway between the front room and the hallway so that he can see what's going on but not be a danger to visitors (or himself for that matter).



Lucy is dressed up as Madeline. There's one shot up there, but there will soon be more once I get the camera unloaded.



We had a lovely Halloween today, with Jake competing at Orchard Cross, a cyclo-cross event at a New Hampshire Orchard (Applecrest Farm). It was a great day, with kids and families in costumes. Lucy's friends Emma and Jonah even raced in the kids event. There were cider donuts, lots of dogs, and good New England fall fun.



I'm blogging while I wait for the doorbell, so as long as I'm writing a silly (and soon-to-be-interrupted) post, I'll give you some mini updates on our lives.



My book: I currently have in my hands the proof for my book. I even know what the cover will look like. I'm making the index, which is a difficult thing to do. It's supposed to be out in January, which is pretty exciting. And by the way, if you're reading this and want to read my book (seriously, people, it's an academic book) don't pay the full price on Amazon. Seriously. That price point is really meant for libraries buying the book. But if you seriously want a copy, let me know, as I get a considerable author discount and I can hook you up.



Upcoming Holidays:

1) Lucy's Birthday: Boy, she's a bit excited about this. She's very into telling us what is going to happen on her Birthday. One of the things she claims is that she will use the potty then. Potty training has not really been happening, as every time we suggest we try, she responds "I will use the potty on my Birthday!" Jake's sister Jess informed him recently that Josh did something similar, so we are hopeful that she really is into this and we will be diaper-free by Thanksgiving. That would be something to be thankful for indeed.



2) Thanksgiving: Are you coming to our house? Because a lot of people are. If you are coming, you might want to BYOC, by which I mean, Bring Your Own Chair. I am quite sure we will have plenty of food, but chairs may be in short supply. Our official Thanksgiving dinner will be on Friday (so we can get the marked-down, day-after-Thanksgiving turkeys on sale, of course).



3) Christmas: We have no idea what we're doing yet. We're thinking we might just be sticking around here because of



4) Los Angeles: Bridget's going to LA for her business's convention in January. Do you have any recommendations for things she should do there, besides enjoy the chance to sleep through the night with no interruptions from Lucy?



Sadly, Lucy has been night-waking a lot lately. Mostly I mean that she's been waking up in the middle of the night demanding a drink and a diaper change. But also, for a couple days now, she's been waking up super-early and insisting that it's time to wake up. This makes me grumpy. I think I'm going to take it out of her future allowance. Or possibly her trick-or-treat candy.



Also, somewhere out there, there are photos of me in a Madeline costume. It was sometime in grad school, at a Phillips Place Halloween party several years ago. After a quick combing of photo albums, I have not been able to find any pictures. I suspect that they only existed electronically in some older online photo gallery thing that I have no longer have access to. If you have a picture of me as Madeline, could you send it to me?

Kitchen Upgrade: Recycling Bins

Just a quick update: we replaced our large Ikea recycling bins in the kitchen with slightly smaller, more svelte recycling bins. Check out the new trash/recycling center in the kitchen:


Those are 2 units of Ikea's Retur line (large size). We like them quite a lot.

They are screwed into the wall, and they open to accept containers (top) and paper (bottom). Then the whole drawer thing actually comes out entirely for easy emptying. I think this is a nice upgrade. They're smaller in terms of footprint, but still hold a fair amount of recycling. We've moved the big bins out to the back porch for the occasional big recycling times.

An Open Letter to the Creature

This is an Open Letter to the Creature who was stockpiling rice in a box in the basement:

Dear Creature,

I suspect you are a mouse, or perhaps small group of mice. I salute your industry. It appears that you have been very busy and/or well-organized. You have brought what I guess to be at least an entire cup of rice to your sneaky hiding place. I would never have found it had I not been looking for a box to pack some things in that I need to ship. I never would have guessed that you would hide in the bottom of a cardboard box once used to hold paper.

I do have a few questions for you. First of all, how long have you been going about this project of rice relocation? How much rice are you capable of carrying in your tiny, tiny arms? Also, where are you now? Are you still hiding somewhere in our home, perhaps in another box, or have you moved on to rice-ier pastures?

Also, were you planning to eat all of this rice yourself? It seems like a lot for one mouse. Perhaps you have an eating disorder? The fact that the rice in the box was mixed with nearly equal parts of -- uh, how to say this delicately? -- your excrement (which looks alarmingly like black rice) makes me suspect you have some issues. Seriously, dude, that is totally gross. The image of you sitting in a dark cardboard box, surrounded by rice and your own poo is not a pretty picture.

Finally, one last question, Creature: where did you get the rice? We have not yet determined the source from which you created your stash. Did you gnaw a hole in a bag somewhere that we have not yet found? Was it in the upstairs pantry, or the basement storage pantry? If you want to just leave us a note, that would help. Thanks.

Well, Mr. or Ms Mouse, I have taken your rice (and poo) and thrown it in the trash. If you want it, you can find it outside in the dumpster. Please, please stop with the hoarding....at least inside our house. And if you see an odd looking contraption made of wood and wire that seems to be inviting you to eat some delicious peanut butter, run. Run like the wind, little friend.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Love,
83 Durant Street

P.S. Photographic evidence of your infraction:

Centralville Update

You may remember a post from back in February, when we mentioned that a nearby landmark on Bridge street had been destroyed by a fire. This past Friday night, another terrible fire demolished another 4-story building just one block away. This fire, unlike the previous one, took two lives, and left a third man in critical condition. It was very, very bad, and we were very sad to hear this news. It was a building we pass every day.

The first floor of the building was a business called Guaranteed Aluminum, which made replacement windows, screens, and the like. It was a business that we had frequented on occasion, for instance, when our storm window shattered and we needed a replacement, and when we needed a screen for our front storm door. The picture below is from their website; I had never had a chance to take a photo of the place:

We walked down to Bridge street on our extended walk this afternoon and saw this:


That's the same corner as in the photo above.

Here's the Varnum Building that went down in February:


And here's what it looks like now:

These two buildings (and now empty lots) are just one block away from each other. Our friend Matt told me that there was actually a third 4-story building in the lot between the two of them that was condemned years ago and torn down by the city. I wish I could find some good historic photos of Bridge Street for comparison; the whole skyline -- not to mention street-level -- has changed so much just this year.

Building & Improving

Today Lucy and I did some building! It was great fun. Here she is, assembling her Ikea Trofast:

And here's the completed project:
And here's the new nook we've created:

Lucy really enjoyed being a part of the assembly process. She was very good at handing me tools and appropriate hardware.

And although this isn't really building, I finally put the new duvet cover on the bed/futon in the guest room:

The color of the walls doesn't come out very well here (wow, our lens is dirty!) but the new cover looks very nice with our green walls.

Those are the improvements for the weekend. Hope you're enjoying some lovely fall weather wherever you are!

Fairness

On Friday, we went to the Topsfield Fair, the oldest agricultural fair in the U.S. A good time was had by all. Here's Lucy about to feed some chickens or geese:


And here she is, enjoying a little snack of ice cream:

While on Jake's head. Yes, there's some ice cream in his hair.

We went to the fair last year and really enjoyed it. Lucy was more directive this time, telling us which things she wanted to see and do. Jake and I enjoyed Italian sausage sandwiches this year, and we all had ice cream. There was a frightening array of food options, particularly of the fried variety.

Lucy's favorite things about the fair (she is now dictating the blog entry):
--the bunnies
--the piggies
--the giraffes......LUCY! There were no giraffes!
--the cows
--the birdies
--eating the bagel
--eating the creamsies (the whipped cream on top of the ice cream).

So there you go. Fair, unbiased reporting of the fair.