Winners!

So there was this little contest called "Lowell Stories" put on by the City of Lowell folks, so I submitted a story about our brush with fame getting Carter into the Fighter. I just found out today that we were one of three runner ups in the contest -- winning a $50 gift certificate to the Lowell restaurant of our choice! Carter's fame continues to yield dividends. He's going to be mad when he finds out it's a people restaurant, not a dog restaurant. Oops.

Anyway, our story and photo will appear sometime soon on the Lowell 175th Anniversary Celebration website. I'll post a link when the story is up!

The media empire continues to expand!

Garden Edition!

We spent a bit of time this weekend on outdoor improvements. We're in the process of fixing the fence, which has a few broken pickets. We found some replacement ones, which we cut to size, and if it ever dries out, I'll be painting them this week and Jake will install them. I'll get some pictures up when I get some (it's raining right now and has been for the afternoon).

We're also waiting for things to dry out so that we can stain our new railing, which makes our steps down to the garden a bit more safe.



In garden news, the rhubarb is looking great!

Jake even made some rhubarb compote for me for Mother's Day. It's exciting to see this plant really thriving. The strawberries are flowering, which is a great sign, too. The sage plant is out of control, and some other herbs (chives, and parsley, I think) have returned again this year.

This weekend we planted some new herbs (pictures forthcoming soon), including thai basil, thyme, lemon geranium, basil, and.....shoot, I've forgotten. I'll update later. We got starts for three tomato plants, kale, and a hot pepper plant. We're going small this year, as we'll be away quite a bit this summer. Still, we do love fresh tomatoes from the garden. We also got a little lime tree.

We did our garden shopping at a great local place, Mahoney's Garden center (the Chelmsford one). We're hoping to go back in a couple weeks to get tomatillos, and perhaps some raspberry plants, too.

We spent part of our day today at the reservoir with Ruth & Woody & Matt & Mary. The photo evidence is on Flickr. The girls are hilarious together. We also spent a bit of time at Carter's old school, All Breeds, where they had a big open house festival thing. Carter got lots of loving from his old friends (and lots of treats for good behavior).

In which idle conversation turns to thoughts of mortality

Today I have for you a disturbing edition of Conversations with Lucy (TM). While we were eating dinner, we had this conversation, which came out of a pretty ordinary and normal dinner-time conversation.

Lucy: Mom, you have lines on your face.
Me: Where?
Lucy: Above your eyes. When you go like that.
Me: You mean like this [making an angry face where there are deep furrows between my eyes]?
Lucy: Yes, but there are lines there. Why are there lines?
Me: Because I'm getting old.
Lucy: Are you going to die?
Me: [turning pale, fumbling] No! I mean, not for a long long time. That's not something you need to worry about.
Lucy: But if you die, we'll have to get a new Mommy.
Me: Oh, but Lucy, I'm not going to die until I'm much, much older, and when you're much, much older -- like when you're a mom of your own kids, or even a grandma. So you don't need to worry about it.
Lucy: But Mom, can we just have this conversation?
Me: [Stunned silence, in complete and utter shock that she has made this suggestion/demand.]
Lucy: If you die, we'll have to get a new Mommy.
Me: OK, but I don't think that's something you need to worry about.

From there, the conversation returned to normalcy, including discussion of what she dreamed about during nap time, whether Grandma likes mice, and whether or not her cousins like chocolate. I'm still recovering. And wondering when I can use the "can we just have this conversation?" ploy on her.

In other news, today was my last day of classes for the semester (hooray!). It was also my first day in my brand new office. Yes, the timing makes me laugh, too, since now that I don't have to meet with students for three months, I finally have a space where I can meet with students. Of course, after two entire semesters without an office, surely I have learned to live without such a luxury, and so have proven such things unnecessary. Well, maybe. But I'm happy to have a space to call my own. Now I just have to unpack all those boxes....once the bookshelves arrive.

There's a Lot to Like about Lowell

Seriously, there's so much to like about Lowell! We're in the middle of a weekend full of awesome Lowell-ness.



Yesterday, we spent some time at the Pollard Library. While we were there, Jake took our knives to be sharpened at Hank & Son's Locksmiths and Knife Sharpeners, where a maybe 60-ish year old man said he'd have his Dad sharpen the knives. Awesome. Then we got Lucy a haircut at Angela Salon.



Today, we went to Open Studios at Western Ave Studios, where they were having their Spring Art Thing.



Then, we went to Larry's Comics, our local (really local) neighborhood comic store, for Free Comic Book Day! We always mean to go there more often, as they are totally awesome.



Tomorrow, we're going to Carter's old school, All Breeds, for a celebration of doggie-ness.