Weekend Events

This coming weekend is jam-packed with October-y Goodness (TM). Here's where you will likely find us -- if you're in the area, please join us!:

This Saturday, October 1st:

UMass Lowell's Fall Festival Family Day 10:30 - 2 on the Tsongas Back Lawn (rain location: Rec Center). All the student clubs will be there to provide activities and food. The marching band and other music groups will perform. It's sure to be fun.
http://www.uml.edu/fallfestival/Family_Day.html

Pollard Memorial Library's Fall Festival, 10 - 2, food, an art raffle, and general bookish goodness, all in that gorgeous library. If you haven't been in already, GO! It's beautiful. More info here:
http://pollardmlibrary.blogspot.com/2011/09/2011-pml-fall-festival-save-date.html

Lowell Open Studios 11am - 5 pm. (Both Saturday AND Sunday!) Over 140 artists in various studios in downtown Lowell, including fiber artists, painters, multi-media artists, sculptors, potters, jewelers, filmmakers, photographers, and more. It's amazing. I'm particularly a fan of the Western Ave Studios; it's amazing to see so many artists in those old buildings.
http://www.lowellopenstudios.org/



Sunday October 2nd:

Lowell Humane Society's Steps For Pets Fund Raiser and Festival: Noon-3 @ the UMass Field beside the Humane Society (South Campus). Bring your dog, or just stalk other people's dogs. Various pet-related vendors and raffles will be there. Dog costume contests and that sort of thing; what's not to love?
http://www.lowellhumanesociety.org/index.php/2011/09/29/steps-for-pets-this-sunday/

Lowell Open Studios 11am - 5 pm. (Both Saturday AND Sunday!) Over 140 artists in various studios in downtown Lowell, including fiber artists, painters, multi-media artists, sculptors, potters, jewelers, filmmakers, photographers, and more. It's amazing. I'm particularly a fan of the Western Ave Studios; it's amazing to see so many artists in those old buildings.
http://www.lowellopenstudios.org/



Actually, on Sunday, we will likely be in Gloucester for the Gran Prix of Gloucester, a great big giant cyclocross event that Jake's racing in. It promises to be awesome.

Miss Malaprop

Quick post for today to note some of our favorite charming malapropisms from Miss Lucy this weekend:

"Mom, can I have some more instruction paper to cut into shapes?"

translation: she means CONSTRUCTION paper

"Dad, I want some more of those mustachios."

translation: pistachios. The kid loves 'em.

Free Fun!

Today we went to Lucy's dentist. Now when I was a child, I didn't think that going to the dentist was fun. In fact, if you could take a look at my dental records, you'd be pretty terrified. For instance, I had four of my permanent teeth pulled *by accident*. The dentist was supposed to be taking out four baby teeth. But took four permanent ones instead. I was completely awake and being lifted out of the chair, with this huge guy yanking on my molars. Not a good memory. Nope.

But at Lucy's dentist (Collins Dentistry for Children), they had a big kids safety festival, where they had a fire truck and a police cruiser that the kids could get into for pictures, as well as a race car and a tow truck. Here's Lucy:
Good times.

There was a funny guy doing magic tricks and making balloon animals. But they weren't just the usual balloon animals, they were pretty ornate. Lucy was first in line, and she got an Ariel:
Quite impressive!

And then, the greatest thing a kid can see: A bouncy house:
Lucy had a grand time. Thankfully, the place wasn't too busy while we were there, so she was able to hang out inside for quite a while.

Lucy had a grand time, and it was all free fun. Delightful! And guess who can't wait to go to the dentist? I'm not sure how exactly they conduct the exam or do fluoride treatments while in the bouncy house, but I guess it must work.

I'm an Expert at Learning

The other day, Lucy was letting us know what letter every word started with. She was very good at it, and I stopped to ask her how she had figured out all the letters. She told me:

"I'm an expert at learning."

I like this a lot.

I write today to announce that I have physically hauled all 14 of my tenure binders, plus my evidence box, over to my office. They will officially be turned in tomorrow. I am done. Look how happy I am:

And yes, it really did require a handtruck to bring the things in. The whole family came (even Carter, though we left him in the car while we schlepped the stuff up to my office). In fact, here's Lucy, eating an apple in my office:
Yup, it's a nice office. I just have to finish unpacking.

It has been a crazy time, getting ready for this whole thing. You may remember this previous post, or even this one from a long time ago. Here's a shot from late last week, when I was in the process of assembling things:


And yes, reader, this shot, just casually shows the note that Margaret Atwood sent me about an article I published. Yup. I'm kind of a big deal. Not convinced? Here's a shot of the EVIDENCE BOX:

In theory, I should have a bit more time to post now that I'm not obsessively writing about myself and printing out e-mails. But the semester is starting to get serious, so I can't promise much in the posting arena. I do owe a post about our backyard progress (yeah!) and a few other things; I hope to have an update by next weekend.

Live-blogging the walnut challenge

Lucy is at the allergist RIGHT NOW and she is doing her WALNUT CHALLENGE.

First update: 10:02 am:
From Lucy:
Mommy, everything's going fine. I just ate a walnut. Iwant more of the walnuts.

Second update: 12:05 pm:
Challenge passed!
Jake & Lucy are at Friendly's, celebrating.

More tonight, I hope. But this is good news!

Neighborhood Signs

So I really need a chance right now to write about something other than myself, which is a really icky thing to be doing for too long (which is what I've been doing a lot of for my current tenure packet and a grant proposal). There's not much to write about the house at the moment, so I thought I'd finally try to sit down an write up a post I've long been mulling.

I love signs of all sorts, and I love what they tell us about our neighborhoods. Back when we lived in Northampton, there was a rice pudding shop that sold different varieties of rice pudding. [Please, someone remind me what the name of the place was.] You could track the (well-foreseen by everyone except the owners perhaps) demise of the business by the addition of more and more signs outside indicating new offerings. When they started to advertise that they were selling "all beef hot dogs" as the perfect complement to their rice pudding, the end was very near. Keep in mind that Northampton is the kind of town where you could probably open a restaurant that served 23 different kinds of kale. I'm not exaggerating. Much.

Anyway, I'm intrigued by curious signage. One that has really bothered me is this place down on Bridge Street:


Can you read it? Here's a closer view:
Total Power International? Are you serious? This is where it all comes from? Right here, mere blocks from my house? What do they do there? Should I even be writing about these people? If this blog post disappears, you'll know who's responsible.

I'm also rather fond of this sign from the liquor store in our neighborhood (also on Bridge Street):
Indeed! There are a few other nice liquor store signs in town, so I'll have to get on with taking some photos for another post.

Another local sign we love is this one:
Yup, that's Arthur's Paradise Diner, home of the Boott Mill sandwich. Note that it is "delicious," but only in quotation marks. Perhaps it's an ironic deliciousness? Or *some* people say it's delicious? Well, I can tell you that I think it's more than "delicious:" it's delicious. In case you're wondering what makes a Boott Mill sandwich, it's a bulkie roll with egg, your choice of meats and cheese, and then the genius part: the home fries are shoved right on in there. Delicious.

Actually, in the background of that photo you can also see another popular Lowell sign, up on top of the building that was formerly the home to the Lowell Sun. When the Sun moved last year, they left the sign up top --- I do wonder if they're going to take that down.

I hope to have more signs for you soon. Hope you're enjoying your Labor Day weekend.