Artwork by Lucy

At school yesterday, Lucy drew this picture. I double checked with her teacher to confirm that yes, she did this all by herself. She did. This is a picture of our family. Notice bellybuttons.



**Special thanks to 83 Durant Guest Kanga who provided technical assistance on working with this image.

Snowy

So the blizzard came, and we're all OK. There isn't a full foot of snow out there, but it is blowing like crazy all over the place. This morning we did some shoveling and Lucy went out to test her new snowboots and snowpants. All is in order, and there's a promise to go sledding later today.

Given the weather (and the virtual closure of every means of transport into or out of the area), we're quite glad that we weren't traveling over Christmas. We do have some plans ahead for a west coast visit (I'm going to MLA in Los Angeles) but we're glad to just be able to stay here and not worry about travel right now.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated at the home of friends, and joined in their traditional Polish Christmas Eve festivities. The food was delicious -- perogies (filled with cheese, potatoes, and cabbage), and barszcz (white soup) with uszka (pasta shells filled with mushrooms). My favorite part was the pre-dinner tradition of breaking Opłatki, or unleavened bread. Each person had a piece of the bread (or "cracker" as Lucy liked to call it) and walked around to speak with everyone individually. As you wished each person a good year of good health, joy, and prosperity, you broke off a piece of their bread and gave it to the other person to eat; then as they wished you the same, they break off a piece of their bread and give it to you to eat. It was a lovely tradition.

Christmas was very nice here at 83 Durant. Lucy was most excited about the jellybeans. Really, none of the other presents mattered. We give her like four beans at a time, and it's like we've just given her beans filled with joy and rainbows. She's easy to please (and also easy to anger -- look out for the rage when you tell her "that's enough jellybeans for now").

We had brunch with Matt & Mary on Christmas day, gorging ourselves on Jake's home-made pop-tarts (amazing!) and Mary's eggs benedict and home-made bagels. And then Christmas cookies (and also jellybeans for those who were so inclined). It was lovely.

Santa also brought us some lovely Christmas presents including some great graphic novels that I wanted to read, and also, something that I didn't even know I wanted: Resident Evil 4 for the Wii. Jake thought it was the sort of thing I would enjoy playing. He knows me well. If you don't hear from me for a while, it is because I am playing (saving the world from zombies). We've actually be playing it together (he uses the nun-chuck to walk us around, and I shoot things); it's an intense game. Perfect for a snowy day when you're trapped inside!

Update: Re: Sledding:

Visiting Salem

On the Tuesday before Christmas, Jake and I took a day off together (with Lucy at school) and went to Salem for two things we've been wanting to do there for a while (no, we did not have any witches in need of hanging).

1. First we visited J & A King Bakery, an absolutely amazing bakery. We had breakfast and lunch there, and also brought home plenty of bread to have with our soup for dinner. They make amazing stuff. Here is a list of the things that we had and can fully endorse:

• ham & cheese croissant
• sticky bun
• apricot danish
• French ham & cheese sandwich (on baguette)
• roast beef sandwich (their own roast beef, also on baguette)
• ciabatta bread
• some other kinds of bread, can't remember what kind but it's all amazing
• peacan shortbread cookies
• peanut butter cookies

If you are in Salem, or anywhere in striking distance, go there. Eat there. You will be joyful.

2. We have long been wanting to visit the Peabody Essex Museum, specifically their exhibit, Treasures from the Forbidden City, which is only there until January 9th, so if you can swing it, you really should go! Now! What are you waiting for?

The exhibit features an 18th-century royal compound that is on its only visit outside of the Forbidden City. Ever. They're restoring the whole area of the gardens, and making some awesome discoveries (like beautiful panels hidden behind other beautiful panels), and really, it's just cool stuff. The specific stuff in the exhibit is from the Quianlong Garden, also known as the "Tranquility and Longevity Palace Garden," which was a private retreat for the emperor within the Forbidden City. So it was on like super-secret probation.

I was particularly taken with the names of the rooms and buildings found in the Forbidden City and the Palace. The signage in the exhibit indicated that certain objects came from "The Palace of Earthly Tranquility," "The Hall of Mental Cultivation," "the Belvedere of Well-nourished Harmony," "the Hall of Wish Fulfillment," "the Pavilion of Expecting Good Omen," and perhaps my favorite, "the Studio of Exhaustion from Diligent Service." I am thinking that we need to re-name the various rooms of 83 Durant more appropriately. I'll start with "the Chamber of Procrastinative Internetting."

Our other favorite exhibit (one that we didn't know about before we arrived) was an installation by Charles Sandison. He used a space in the museum (East India Marine Hall) that has been there for a long time and is filled with various marine-related art and archives, and installed I don't know how many projectors in it. He went through 18th-century logs from ship captains and then projected the text of the logs all over the walls, in their original handwriting. The effect is very cool, because added to it is the fact that the texts move all over the place, tracing a trail that corresponds with their sailing of trade routes. It's difficult to describe, but if you follow the link above, take a look at the video, which will give you a better sense of how awesome this installation is. Better yet, go to the Peabody Essex Museum and see it -- it's really terrific!

It's Here!

I got an early Christmas present today, brought by my friendly UPS delivery man:
I can't quite believe it. It's done. It's here. It can be there: link to Amazon for the purchase



Cheers!

He's a STAR!

I realize that this blog is now in danger of being the all-Carter-all-the-time blog with nothing about our house. But the truth is, our dog is famous. Much more famous than any of us or our house will ever be, so we need to talk about our dog.

Tonight, we got a babysitter and went to see The Fighter here in Lowell. For those of you who do not live in Lowell, New York, or LA, you cannot see The Fighter yet. But here in Lowell, we're special.

The movie was pretty great. The boxing scenes were hard (for me) to watch. It was very fun to see all the local sites and know where every scene was happening, including the fact that Charlene's house, which another character claims is on Stevens Street is actually in our neighborhood, far from Stevens Street. When you come to visit us, we can take you on a tour of The Fighter's Lowell. And, of course, you can meet its major -- in fact only -- canine star, Carter.

Carter's scenes were great. There are two of them, and in one of them, Christian Bale yells "Is that a cocker spaniel?!" at him. Christian Bale has talked about my dog.

Carter is kind of a big deal.

When we returned home, giddy and pleased, we asked the babysitter how things had gone. She got a worried look and said "everything was OK, but there was one thing.....Carter got up on the table and got the banana bread."

Well, who are we to deny a major star his banana bread when we went off to the movie -- his movie -- without him.

Further updates when the dog press junket begins.

Update: I just googled "The Fighter" Wahlberg spaniel to see if there were any mentions of Carter in the reviews of the movie so far.

O.M.G.

Here's one: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/12/10/the-fighter-review/ where you will find this:

It's also funny in very random moments, like when Dicky turns to a passerby who's gawking at his argument with Charlene and says, "Hey, what kind of dog is that? Is that a cocker spaniel?"

And then there are multiple sites that include quotes from the movie, and this is what they say in the little blurbs under discussion of The Fighter:

Related Quotes

1. Hey, what kind of dog is that? Is that a cocker spaniel?
   SOURCE: Cinematical 2 days ago

I'm telling you, just keep checking in on "Is that a cocker spaniel?" in the next few weeks....it's going to be the "whaaazup" of 2010.

Update: Jake just asked me "didn't they ask you what kind of dog he was?" -- I did -- and he followed: "so you co-wrote that scene." YES! Also, Jake totally co-directed with Russell, as Carter needed some coaxing to do that thing he does.

Lesson Learned: Pop Culture Trumps Parenting

I've been (foolishly) proud of Lucy's musical ear. She's very good at picking out tunes and recognizing her favorites. I'm always (again foolishly) proud when she yells out "that's Wilco!" or "I want Jonathan Richman!" from the backseat. We fell like virtuous hipster parents when this happens. We beam with delight as she sings along to Magnetic Fields songs we sing to her as lullabies.

So I was rather shocked by today's conversation with Lucy:

While driving home from school, we were listening (naturally) to NPR, which had a story on "The Making of a Hit Song," featuring samples. Suddenly, from the backseat, I hear:

"That's Justin Beiber! Mom! That's Justin Beiber!"

And she proceeded to sing along to lyrics that mostly seemed to feature the word "baby" in various inflections.

I am not lying when I say that I don't know a Justin Beiber song. I am vaguely aware of his existence, and the fact that he's some sort of pop music phenom (perhaps from American Idol? I don't actually know). It's not that I dislike him, I'm just not hooked up to that particular line of contemporary popular music culture. I had no idea that she knew that such a thing as "Justin Beiber" existed, let alone that she could recognize one of his songs. Apparently, they have learned about Justin Beiber -- where else? -- at school. They regularly have dance parties (of which I totally approve) and apparently, one of her teachers is a fan.

Pop culture, you have won. We surrender.

Also, Plumbing: Shower mystery

Oh, and lately we've been neglectful about documenting various home projects/problems. Mostly this is because we've been too busy. But this morning, we were shocked to find that our upstairs shower doesn't work. At least, it doesn't spray any water, which, to me, is really the essence of what a shower needs to do. We don't know what the cause is, so further investigations will be necessary.

Jake promised to tackle the problem tomorrow. If you're a regular reader, you'll recall that previously, such a project ended with calling a professional. I just realized after looking through past posts that I don't think I ever documented this one. Let's just say it involved the shearing off of a pipe. Fun. Let's hope this adventure is less, uh, adventurous. We'll start by not waiting until after 5pm to start the project.

Updates soon. Until then, we'll try not to smell too much.

Update: Friday, 12/10: The shower is fine. After Jake collected his tools to prepare for the plumbing battle, Lucy wanted to know all about what he was doing. So he brought her into the shower to show her what was wrong and how the shower is supposed to work. While doing so, he noticed a tiny lever on the shower head itself that we had never noticed before. Turns out, the shower head had an on/off switch, and it had fallen into "off." So he put it back to "on," and it's fixed. Hooray! Best plumbing story ever.

As promised, pictures with Santa

I mentioned the other day that Carter got his photo taken with Santa. Since he's famous now, I'll bet this photo will sell like hotcakes!
Happy Holidays!

NEWS FLASH! Carter is IN THE MOVIE!

I just got word that yes, indeed, it is true, OUR DOG, CARTER STEPHEN BRIDGE, APPEARS IN THE MOVIE THE FIGHTER AND CHRISTIAN BALE TALKS ABOUT HIM!!!

The scene made it in!!! Carter is famous!!!

We have not yet seen the film but our friend who has a movie reviewer friend has confirmed it.

More updates once we actually see it, but we had to let you know.

HOORAY!

Local Family Fun

I'm feeling good about this weekend because we did some great local family fun stuff. First, we spent part of the day on Saturday at Western Avenue Studios here in Lowell, an enormous artists' studio space where they were having Open Studios all weekend (and will do so again this weekend, so you should go too!). We saw lots of great stuff and Lucy had a blast collecting candy from the various studios. We also stopped at a terrific free activity, Anne Ruthman's Photobooth, where she took a bunch of photos of us, shown here:







This was a very quick, on-the-fly session, but we are so impressed with her. We will be going back for a real session at some point, but wanted to sing her praises here. If you're looking for a photographer, Anne is a gem! You too can join the photobooth fun next weekend! In the meantime, check out Anne's blog here, or her Facebook here.



Then today we went to Wignall's Animal Hospital, Carter's vet, where they were having their annual Santa Sunday. If you have the chance to go to Santa Sunday in the future, you should go. We only went for the very last part (because Lucy was taking her first decent nap in probably a month!), but we had a great time. Carter and Lucy had their picture taken with Santa. We hope to have a file to upload very soon. There was also a raffle with cool prizes, and all the proceeds went to take care of animals, so we're feeling good about the whole thing.

You can judge how busy I've been by the utter lack of complete sentences that will have to serve as a limited update on the current status of life here:

Lucy: She's 3! Look! New Big-Girl Bed!



Grandparents!


Food/Cooking:

Pie:


More coming soon when my eyes recover from too many hours of reading too many things.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!
Happy (soon-to-be-upon-us) Holidays!