Product Reviews

Jake (half jokingly) suggested that I should offer up some reviews of my most favorite products. This came up because we were using one of my most favorite items -- my TAPE GUN (more specifically 3M Scotch Gray Box Sealing Tape Dispenser)-- to re-box the air conditioner.

"It's summer!" you're saying -- "why would they be boxing up an air conditioner?" Well, here's the thing: we ordered the air conditioner online, and it arrived with a big ole dent in it. So we had to box the whole thing back up to return it. Blargh. But slightly less blargh because I had my tape gun. It rules. Between packages for presents, the occasional E-Bay sale, and various crafty things with Lucy, I get a lot of use out of the thing, and I highly recommend it.

So while I'm at it, here's one of my favorite kid products: the snack trap. It is genius. The specific one we have is the Munchkin Snack Catchers



Lucy's been using them for a long time, and the continue to be very helpful on car trips. You may also remember that it was a bit of a challenge for even Carter to get snacks out of the trap.

Return to 83 Durant

We're back from our trip to Vinalhaven, Maine. We had a lovely time (see the Flickr pix for more specifics). Lucy had a grand time being the focus of lots of adult attention.

Here is the house where we stayed:
It was amazingly awesome, with lots of rooms and nooks and crannies and tons of books,

and lots of nooks where the reading of books took place:
The house was HUGE, with 9 or so bedrooms (we lost count) and a HUGE fireplace:
Here's the large kitchen:
There was a music room:
(we had to provide our own musicians, though the piano was provided).

[Edit: We only had to provide a violinist. The man on the piano is the owner of the house, Mr. Terry, whose family built the house in 1917.]

There was also a cocktail room.
This photo doesn't do it justice, but it was upstairs, with full-length windows to the outside, and these windows (in the picture) to the inside. I wish we had a better shot of it, but it was perfect. We're thinking of adding a cocktail room to our house!


On the way there, we had terrific lobster rolls at Red's in Wiscasset, Maine.
And here's the famous lobster rolls:
YUM!

We went to the beach for a bit one afternoon; it's not quite Rehoboth, Delaware (where we usually spend our beach vacation).

Despite the muddy, muddy sand, and the cold, cold water, Lucy insisting on going out into the ocean. Jake was a good sport and walked her out through the sink-into-mud-sand, and Lucy got into the water up to her neck. Seriously.

Next time, we'll bring a swimming suit. And boots.


On the way home, there was a bit of drama when the tandem bike fell off the roof of the car while we were on route 95, crossing a bridge between Maine and New Hampshire. Thankfully (and amazingly) no one was hurt. We were in the middle lane when it went over (on the passenger side) and it ended up in the right lane. Jake did some great driving and managed to get us pulled over quite quickly. It was in the middle of the lane with heavy traffic, so it wasn't safe to go grab it. He called 911, and within 10 minutes or so, a state trooper came and retrieved it safely. Meanwhile, we had pulled off the bridge to await what we thought would be 1) the drastically damaged remains of our bike 2) a lecture and ticket from a trooper or 3) both of the above. Instead, the trooper left the bike by the side of the road on the bridge, called our cell and told Jake he could go retrieve it. WOW! We were very relieved. It turns out that the frame wasn't damaged (as far as we can tell). The handlebars and one saddle sustained some damage, but really, it doesn't seem that bad. Jake will be doing a full maintenance check (we had already broken the chain while we were on a ride, so the bike was out of commission pending a mechanic anyway).

So that's the update for now. We had no internet access while we were in the house, and our cell phones didn't work either. It was nice to be (mostly) disconnected for a bit. And you should think nothing of the fact that while we were on "vacation" and you weren't able to contact us, fugitive Boston mobster Whitey Bulger was captured. Nope, nothing at all unusual there. We were on vacation.

(Cook) Book Review

Today I have a quick note about our favorite cook book for the past couple months, Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen by Heidi Swanson. Jake has been cooking up a storm out of it ever since we got it.

Last night we had the quinoa patties again, though accessorized with cheddar and jalepeno (a variation on the original, which is also amazingly delicious). There is a super-yum baked oatmeal creation that we've made for ourselves and for guests to rave reviews. The green lentil soup was outstanding. None of the stuff has been too difficulty (easy for me to say, since Jake has done most of the cooking from it) and all of it is delicious. We have a lot of cookbooks, and we just keep turning to this one lately.

In other news, Lucy got a haircut today. It is basically my haircut, with bangs. It looks awesome. The lady told her "when people ask you how you got such a good haircut, you tell them 'Because I sat really still!!!!'" And she did. Even while she took quite a while to blowdry it with a round brush.

Cheers!

Book Reviews

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of posts featuring book reviews. This one is going to be about our favorite books for Lucy, by which I mean, books that Lucy loves that we also love. I should stress that that particular distinction is indeed important, as there are some books that Lucy loves that we don't enjoy reading, or that we actively despise. Seriously. We hide them. And then we feel bad. But really, I just cringe every time she drags over Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? (which she did, just a few hours ago before she went down for her nap). It's a lovely book with lovely pictures, but reading it is a trial.

[Before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure, the book images and links below take you to Amazon, in case you would like to purchase a book. I recently signed up for the Amazon Associates program, which means we get a commission when people buy stuff after following our links. Monetizing the blog. Oh yes. We are.]

One of my own favorite stories when I was a kid was by James Marshall (no relation) and featured two hippos named George and Martha. Martha made split pea soup for George, but George hated split pea soup. But George also wanted to avoid telling Martha that he didn't like her soup, so he poured his soup into his galoshes. I loved this story. What's not to love? It had hippos, dreaded split pea soup (I hated it too!) and galoshes (which I thought were really really cool because my Dad had some that went on over his dress shoes and I really really wanted a pair).

Anyway, not too long ago, we discovered a treasury of George and Martha stories:



It is awesome. There are 35 George and Martha stories, along with some background and discussions with other children's authors. Buy it for a child you love (but not Lucy, as we already have it). Actually, just get anything by James Marshall. He has a whole series of fairy tales (Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs) and we've borrowed them from the library and found them to be delightful. They're pretty straight-ahead in their rendition of the classics, but with nice illustrations, and just enough understated James-Marshall-ish gestures. You can't go wrong with his stuff.

Another related favorite is Miss Nelson Is Missing!, which is illustrated by James Marshall (still no relation) but written by Harry Allard. It features a very nasty elementary school teacher. I loved this book, and Lucy seems to enjoy it.

I see that there are now some sequels to it, but I don't know how they are. We've been burned by sequels before. For instance, I am a big big fan of the original Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett

I liked this book a lot when I was a kid, and my brother liked it even more. Apparently (I don't remember this) my brother brought this home from the library EVERY week. It drove my mother crazy. But it's a fun book. A while ago, I was at a bookstore and saw that there was a sequel called Pickles to Pittsburgh. I bought it in a very nice double-issue with both the original Meatballs and this together. I'm not even going to include an image and link here because it's just awful. We gave it away to the library book sale. It was that bad.

If you really enjoy the giant food of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, you should instead check out The Giant Jam Sandwichby John Vernon Lord. I love the illustrations in this one, and the rhyming story is very cute. It features a lovely community of Itching Down, which is plagued by wasps. They come up with an ingenious way to rid themselves of the pest (hint: the title). I love it, and so does Lucy:

This is actually one that we got as a used library book -- I think it's one that Aunt Maggie and Aunt Judy actually shipped to the beach from their library's discard sale.

If you're looking for stories that feature mice (and wow, there are SO many kids' books that do!) and bikes and cheese and France, look no further than the wonderful Anatoleby Eve Titus. We discovered this at a little bookstore in New Hampshire (I think) and as soon as we saw the mice bicycling through France, we knew we had to have it (in fact, Lucy wasn't even born yet when we bought it!).

We also have the sequel, Anatole and the Catwhich is also lovely.

Apparently, there are more in the series, though we haven't yet had a chance to check them out. But so far, the series is terrific.

Lucy also loves another book about Paris, called This is Parisby Miroslav Sasek. It was a present from Tamara (no surprise) and it's a charming portrait of the city. It was first published in 1959, so this is a re-issue, with some slightly updated bits, but mostly true to the original.


The images are amazing, and there's all kinds of amusing details. Lucy *really* wants to go to Paris!

That's all for now; Lucy is awake and it's time to go read something!

Projects, Garden Update

You may recall from a previous post that we had a few bad pickets in the gate, which we've replaced with new ones finally:

The new neighbors across the street also had a bigger project done: they cut down a big tree. We're sad about this, as it was a lovely lovely lovely old tree. But apparently its roots was growing into their house and had collapsed one of their foundation walls. Yikes!
In (much) smaller projects, I did a bit of sewing this week, too. Last weekend, when we went to the artist studios, I was itching to do some crafting, so I took a bit of time to make this little bag:


The pocket there I made from a wool felt kit that Rose gave me (thanks, Rose!). The fabric is actually a (clean) canvas drop cloth (from the hardware store) that I had bought for some other long-ago and forgotten project. There's lots more of the canvas, so I might need to make some more bags.

Things in the garden get better every day. We've gone from this:

To this:
Lucy will have to go pick the ripe ones today.

The blueberries should be ready soon, too:
Last year's blueberries were a big hit with Lucy, so it's exciting to see the bountiful crop forming already. We're also hoping to get some raspberry bushes to plant in the backyard.

That's all for today. We're hoping to go to Lowell Riverfest for a bit tomorrow, if the weather holds out.

Jake has headed out for the weekend to do the Green Mountain Double Century. Here's the blurb the race organizer has put out:

205 miles, 80% dirt, 25,000 feet of climbing.

Yup. He's crazy.

Lowell Stories

Hey, here's the link to our winning entry for Lowell Stories!

I think it's funny that half of the four stories involve dogs. But only one movie star dog.

On trying to write more

So for the past few days, I have been using a new writing site called 750words.com, which, true to its name, tries to get you to write 750 words each day. I'm liking it so far, and have met my 750 requirement each day (which means I get a cute badge!). One of the things I like about it is that it takes what you write, puts it through some magical super-secret processes, and gives you data. Lots of data. About what you write each day (or over any period of time) and then compares it to all the other users on the site. And then it generates fun graphics like this:



YOUR OVERALL MINDSET:


THE WORLD'S MINDSET:


This is funny. Also, it gives you "badges" as incentives when you pass certain thresholds. For instance, a 3-day long streak gets you this nice-looking turkey.



Adorable. Anyway, you don't get to read what I write there, because it's a place for drafting (not for publicly sharing with the world). But I am hopeful that this will help me be more productive, and thought I'd share it with those of you out there who are also trying to make yourself write more. It's a pretty awesome interface, and I'm really enjoying it so far.