Halloween (postponed)

So it's our favorite day of the year, but things have been crazy, crazy, crazy.  The storm that blew through has caused a lot of damage.  We are fine, and in fact never lost power, but our friends have not fared so well.  Just one block up the hill from us, all our wonderful friends have been without power since Saturday night, and may continue so til Wednesday or Thursday...we just don't know.  Lowell has postponed Trick or Treat, as have most of the towns in the area.  The numbers are bad (as per the Lowell Sun):


National Grid was reporting an estimated 500,000 electrical customers across the state were still without power as of noon Monday. Just in Middlesex County, more than 88,000 National Grid customers were without power.
Dunstable police report that the town is mostly in the dark and could be without power for four days.
Billerica police report that 70 percent of the town is without power and could be for another two or more days.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_19232424?source=rss_viewed#ixzz1cPGgQRAv

We're very happy to be safe and warm and fully electrified. More updates when we have them.  Hope you're all safe and warm!

Another curious thing (she said)

Lucy really loves listening to audiobooks. Although Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and now, Science Friday are still big hits here, she generally prefers to listen to the stories we've checked out from the library or downloaded. The first hits were Roald Dahl's The BFG and The Witches. These, though, have the side effect of raising her anxieties about giants and witches (and clearly that's already an issue in this house without these books). So Jake picked up a Beverly Cleary audiobook -- Henry Huggins -- and our house has been nearly constantly filled with the sound of Stockard Channing's voice (she does a fabulous job with these). We've also acquired Ramona the Pest and Beezus and Ramona. They're terrific. I can't believe I didn't read these when I was a kid. But to get to my point here. Ahem.

Lately, we've noticed that when she's talking to us, or even just to herself (which she sometimes does), Lucy has been providing a narrator's voice. For instance:

Lucy: I want some more milk. she said.
Lucy: Mom, where are my stickers? she exclaimed.
Lucy: Move over, Pa! she said pushing him.

To be clear, she is speaking aloud (though in a different, slightly quieter voice) the stuff in italics. It is really, really weird. And if you ask her about it, she ignores you. So basically, she's her own narrator.

A side note more specific to the books: I just looked up Henry Huggins and discovered to my shock that it was published in 1950. Beverly Cleary is 95, and she's awesome. We've long wanted to visit Portland, Oregon, but now there's yet another reason (a Beverly Cleary pilgrimage).

Anyway, readers, given recent goth-parenting posts and the onset of this new narration situation, anyone want to suggest how much money we should be socking away for Lucy's future therapy bill?

Goth Parenting, Take 2

So this afternoon we were in the car on a long drive around various farms. I had a few secrets in my purse to entertain Lucy. One of them was a blue squishy stress-ball-thingie in the shape of a brain (they gave them out at work). I gave it to Lucy and she was delighted. Until she remembered the zombies.

Lucy: It's a brain! the zombies will want to eat it!
Me: Well, when the zombies come, you can throw it, and they will go after that fake brain, and then you can escape!
Lucy: But I don't want them to have this brain! I like this brain!
Me: Oh. Sorry. Well, zombies are just pretend anyway! You don't have to worry about them.
Lucy: Mom, why do zombies eat brains?
Me: ....... uh, Jake, help me out here?
Jake:.......
Lucy: Why Do Zombies Eat Brains?
Me: Well, we don't really know, Lucy. Maybe we can ask the internet later.
Lucy: Well, if zombies eat brains, why don't they eat their own brains?
Me: How would they eat their own brains?
Lucy: [sticking out her jaw and making a motion with her hand] Like that.
Me: Oh, awesome. So when you're a zombie, you can eat your own brain.
Lucy: Yes! I'll be a friendly zombie. I won't eat other people's brains. Only my own.

We're going to make millions on this idea. There will be Zombies. Friendly Zombies. Even if they have to eat their own brains.

Also, this tidbit, heard literally moments ago at the dinner table:

Lucy: Mummies are mean, aren't they? MUMMIES -- Not MOMMIES. (she very clearly enuciated each).

Visitor

Last night, I went to see David Sedaris. He was awesome. While walking home with Mary, we heard a cat crying and crying. We turned around to find it was following us. Mary went her way, and I carried on towards 83 Durant: so did the cat. She's very cute. But we're not a cat household. Little kitty was VERY eager to come inside, and Jake even went out to check on her. We shoo'ed her on her way (with a little help from Carter -- she clearly doesn't like dogs). And we thought we were done.

Oops.

This evening, we heard a plaintive meowing out back. Kitty had made her way around to our back porch (perhaps she spent the night there?) and was eager to join our family. Lucy was DELIGHTED to see her, and the two of them did seem to get on quite well. The poor cat is clearly a housecat -- very affectionate, and totally wants to jump into your arms. But she has no collar.

We fed her. I know we shouldn't have, but we did. She was clearly famished. We're planning to take her to the Lowell Humane Society on Monday if she's still around. She's very sweet, but we just aren't a cat house.
While we were downstairs entertaining this little creature, our actual pet, Carter, was upstairs. Alone. With a table of cheese. Yup. It seems he got himself a nice hunk of smoked gouda for his patience. Carter: smoked gouda; Cat: canned tuna; Humans: we are suckers.

Goth Parenting

So there are all kinds of parenting guides out there for all sorts of parenting challenges. Like nice, normal, parenting challenges like potty training and temper tantrums, and all that. But there are not a lot of parenting guides that cover the kinds of issues that seem to come up around our house, particularly (though certainly not exclusively) around the Halloween-spooky-story time of year. For example, this evening, Lucy and Carter and I were having a grand time wrestling in the front room. Lucy and I were doing our usual routine of "what does the ___ say," which goes something like this:

Me: What does the vampire say?
Lucy: Muawahaha!
Me: What does the witch say?
Lucy: Heheehehehehe [also: I'll get you my pretty, but she doesn't yet have that one down]
Me: What does the zombie say?
Lucy: BRAINS!!!!!

It's perfect. This evening, she told me quite matter-of-factly, that vampires put people in jail. This came as a shock to me, and this detail does not show up in any of the known (to me) traditional vampire lores (we're strict Stoker-ists 'round here, none of your Stephanie Meyer and her glitter vamps, OK?). But she seemed pretty sure of herself. This leaves me wondering who *else* is giving her this information about vampires and the like. Or perhaps she's just generating her own back stories.

So as our conversation continued, she seemed to grow concerned, indicating that she was worried about witches because "they eat children!" She seemed to be half-serious (at least half) so I was quick to remind her that these were just imaginary creatures, and that she didn't need to be scared. She switched tacks quickly (typical) and asked, with genuine curiousity, "Why do zombies say 'BRAINS'?"

[side note -- are other parents having this conversation with their children?]

So I gave her an honest answer, as I believe all parents should when their children ask difficult questions about zombies:

Zombies say "BRAINS!" because they eat brains.

I said it. Out loud. To 3-year-old Lucy. Her face changed from open interest and curiosity to terror. She was upset. And I felt horrible.

Sigh. Is 3 too early to tell your child about zombies? I dunno.

As she was drifting off to sleep tonight, she asked me (literally while I was in the middle of her lullaby which does NOT include any mention of zombies/witches/vampires): "Mommy, can you hear when you're dead?"

I answered no. She did not have a follow-up question; in fact, she seemed satisfied with the answer.

I foresee some more interesting conversations. I'll try to post again soon.

D'oh!

There's a crack in the tank of the new toilet. This is lame. It's a hairline crack that you can't see, but it's slowly accumulating droplets of water....which is not good.

Curses! Triumph cancelled. At least until we can get through to customer service and make them fix this.

Blargh!

Plumbing Triumph! New Toilet!

I've just had the pleasure of using our brand-new toilet! Woo hoo! Jake installed it himself today, and it only required two trips to the hardware store. The second one wasn't even his fault (the bolts that were supposed to be in the box with the wax seal weren't there)! We're delighted, and this should soon have an impact on our water usage here.

Meanwhile down in the basement, the dryer had (we're not sure when) become separated from the vent to the outside. Blargh. Jake also re-fastened that connection. Jake is now having a duly earned beer after conquering major house fix-ups!

There's lots more to say, particularly about our trip to PA last weekend, but we're a bit crazy around here with stuff to do, so I'll try to get to it soon.

Debate De-Briefing

So we usually try to steer clear of the politics here, but I just attended the Democratic Primary Debate for Massachusetts Senate (for the decision of who will go up against Scott Brown). I'm now trapped (exaggeration) in my office while I wait for the traffic to subside so I can go home, and figured there was no better time than now to put down my immediate reactions to the debate.

The debate was moderated by UML Chancellor Marty Meehan, who simply has to stop walking around all over the stage while he's listening (or more likely, not listening at all) to what the candidates are saying. Seriously. It's totally this tic that he has where he walks around the room where he's talking. I've seen it in other venues, and it's totally distracting. Maybe that's intended, but it looks ridiculous. Like maybe he has to go to the bathroom or something. I realize that typing this here may qualify as biting the hand that feeds me given my current position. But it's intended as constructive criticism. Really. You're distracting the audience from the main point of the debate: the candidates.

And while I'm making perhaps unkind comments about people I generally like, I have to pause here to say this:
Dear four students who were in the rare, pretty awesome position of getting to sit on stage and ask the candidates questions: did you really have to ask about legalizing pot? Really? Also, English major, did it have to be *you* who asked that question? Sigh. Also, the question about "which super hero would you be?" was only made even more lame when the candidates seemed to indicate no real knowledge of said superheroes. Elizabeth Warren, I'm looking at you: the most awesome thing about Wonder Woman is NOT her cool outfit. They were bad answers, but it was not a good question.

So here are my quick candidate reviews:

Marisa DeFranco: You rule. Seriously, you kicked some butt up there. I was very impressed with how she took on the questions, and was forceful and passionate in her answers. She's an immigration lawyer and she fights for foster kids. (My only concern here is that I want her to keep doing THAT job, because my god, someone has to, and please can it be her?) I had never heard of her before the debate, but she really rocked this one. She was the one who unequivocally supports the Wall Street protests, too. OK, so she reminds me *just slightly* of Amy Poehler's character on Parks & Rec, in particular in some of her enunciation and delivery of her lines. She made a great point about how we should pay those who serve in the military at the same rate we pay military contractors.

Elizabeth Warren: OK, she is the reason I went to the debate; she's the recent, high-profile addition to the race. I think she's great and has good ideas. She's wicked smart and speaks truth to power. She did well in the debate, and clearly had a lot of crowd support. She said some surprising things about changing and trimming (her word) regulation for small businesses, which I think is something people wouldn't expect from her. She also had the best line in response to the (again bad) question about "what would you do if you were caught in a mistake": she said "If I had a whole lot of microphones in my face and was being asked to explain something, I wouldn't ask anyone in my family to stand there with me." I thought this was good. But again, not a good question.

Alan Khazei: Has done a ton of great work for City Year and other public/community-service organizations. I believe his heart and head are in the right place. He had a great moment where, in response to a question (I think the one about Wall Street) he suggested that he would appoint Elizabeth Warren to a position to deal with it. Nice. He strikes me as serious and teacher-ly. Like he can explain things in a very clear and explicit way.

Bob Massie: For about the first three quarters of the debate, I had little to no impression of him. He wasn't all that exciting in his answers, until (and I'm forgetting which question he was supposed to be answering) he said "I'm going to take this in a different direction" and then busted out with "we need to reverse the Citizens United decision," then went on to challenge the other candidates (esp. Warren) to refuse PAC money. The crowd went pretty wild, and that seemed to change his tone for the rest; he was stronger in his answers. He also had an impressive answer on the question about women's health and healthcare issues (he has a long backstory of illness & recovery), which made him that much more interesting. I thought his final statement was a bit weak, though, with this kind of weird "we're America and we're great" motif that was a bit off.

Tom Conroy: This guy reminds me of a guy I went to high school with named "Chip." He looks like he could be named "Chip." I should pause here in my cattiness to say that I know I shouldn't judge him based on this, but he just looks too pretty. I would totally smack someone for saying this if he were a female candidate, but that's where it is. He's the rep for Lincoln/Sudbury/Wayland. He's done this big campaign thing he's called the "Town to Town Walk" where he went 650 miles around to talk to people all over the state. I suppose this is a good thing, but the way he markets it (or the way his campaign markets it) it seems oddly resonant of Sarah Palin driving her bus covered with the constitution and her signature all over the country. It's like this weird "of the people" move that ultimately (to me) serves to point out that someone's NOT of the people. He referred a couple times to "on my walk," and this whole manufactured narrative/photo op just doesn't quite sit right.

Herbert William Robinson: Herbert is this race's Jimmy McMillan of the "Rent is Too Damn High Party." Upon looking at the pictures in the program (before the candidates arrived on stage), my friend sitting next to me said, "wow, that guy looks like a real Maine mountain man." He was pretty right-on. Here is an excerpt from what his bio in the debate program says:
"While earning his bachelor's in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Robinson worked as a musician and belonged to Local 132 of the American Federation of Musicians. In partnership with Margo Granfors under the name Towering Pretzels, he recorded a CD."
Herbert leaned heavily on the response "I was an engineer for 30 years and..." He did have the charming habit of having the shortest answers of any of the candidates, but that was because they were often "yes, what the last candidate said, too." He seemed to get a lot of crowd support. One of the (particularly awful) questions was "Have you ever driven under the influence of alcohol?" and every candidate said "no"; Herbert said: "not according to the legal definition." Awesome.

That's all for tonight -- looks like the parking lot has cleared out. Further updates as events warrant. FYI, you can check out coverage (including a video interview w/ one of my colleagues!) at the Boston Herald.

Project Plans

Check out the new delivery in our dining room:

Yup, that's a new toilet. Not, it's not going to stay in the dining room. It will replace the one in the downstairs bathroom that was damaged in our mini-tornado (also, it wasn't very water-usage-efficient, so it seems a good thing to replace in any case). Jake ordered it online, and we hope to install it soon. Or at the very least before, say, we host a large dinner party in the dining room. You may recall some of our previous plumbing adventures (just click on the "plumbing" tag for the blog and all the lovely stories will appear); we're hopeful that we can accomplish this one in-house. Perhaps with the assistance of Master Plumber John? Or Local Expert on All House Things, Matt?

Other than that, we're in the middle of the seasonal transition period. Jake has taken out the downstairs air conditioners (upstairs ones, too, soon!). The grass in the back yard has started to sprout, too!

In other news totally not related to plumbing or our house at all, tonight I'm going to my first debate! Exciting. It's the Democratic Primary debate for our U.S. Senate seat (the one currently held by Scott Brown). We're particularly excited about Elizabeth Warren. I'll try to post after the debate with some reflections.

Festival Fun

We've had a wonderful day of festival-ing, despite the rainy weather. First stop this morning was UML's Family day, which was relocated to the Rec Center. All the student clubs set up booths around the "Wild West" theme. The marching band played (they were great!) and there were crafts and activities and games. Lucy's favorite type of games are the ones where she wins. Luckily, they had a lot of those. She "won" a lot of things, including silly inflatable things, some various UML-themed items, a Biology Club T-shirt featuring a platypus (awesome! Jake got one, too!), a bandana that she decorated (at the Lit Society table) and an incredible amount of candy. We knew it was going to be a crazy day when, at 10:40 am (after just a couple minutes inside) Lucy was offered "fresh" ice cream. This was created by the geniuses at the Chemistry Club table, who mixed liquid nitrogen into their sugary-creamy-awesomeness to make instant ice cream. It was AMAZING. So basically, she was walking around eating ice cream in the morning, which, as she informed us, is totally breaking the rules. She loves it when we break the rules.

Here she is with Rowdy the Riverhawk mascot:


Oh, and one of the "activities" was a decorate-a-cookie table, where she was given icing and sprinkles to put on a cookie. Wow. What's not to love? She had an amazing time.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Open Studios at Western Ave Studios, one of our favorite places. I managed to get Lucy to pose here:

For comparison, you might want to look at this older post, from the same spot back in May.


She really liked these decorated brooms and actually asked to have her picture taken with one:
(She also has a tasty treat from one of the artists in her hand here.)

We purchased a few lovely things, and Lucy ate a lot of candy and cookies. Oh, and a bit of fruit. We met a lot of dogs that we enjoyed petting, and Lucy saw at least one of her classmates from school. And we ran into tons of people we know, which is extra nice. Open Studios continues tomorrow, all over Lowell. Go! It's awesome.

All this art had Lucy wanting to do some of her own (not unusual):

Someone kindly left paper and colored pencils out a table in one of the hallways. She was delighted to show her art to the artists in their studios.

Tomorrow she and I will likely tackle some art projects. It's supposed to be rainy and cold, so thought we'd love to watch Jake race, it doesn't seem like it would be too pleasant. Sigh. So we'll hang here while Jake's off racing 'round the Grand Prix.