Jake was off at D2R2 this weekend (as he has done in previous years), so Lucy and I had some serious making to do. In the realm of kitchen-making, I made hummus (some for a gathering of crafters, some in individual portions for work this week!) and a house-favorite pear cake. But there was a much more important mission. That mission: JET PACK!
Lucy proposed that what she really needs for back-to-school is a jet pack. This seemed perfectly reasonable to me, so we got into it.
Here's the thing: we have a lot of crafting supplies. A lot of rather random crafting supplies. Plus, some pretty good imaginations, and a pretty good stock of recyclables like cardboard boxes and such. So here is the jet pack that we put together:
Items included a "naturebox" delivery box (nice!), red solo cups (this is America), rick-rack trim that my mother salvaged years ago, straws, Q-tips, felt circles that I got online (from a company that makes felt and used to sell boxes of their random scraps), random foam from the recycling box, paint samples from the hardware store, glitter glue, tissue paper, and....well I think that's most of it. The straps were from some canvas ribbon that was once on a present.
As we dug through the box of scraps and supplies, I found an old umbrella -- well, the fabric from an old umbrella -- and Lucy thought it would make a great parachute. So then the quest was to make a parachute to go with the jet pack, since our family is all about safety, and clearly if you're going to have a jetpack, you ought to have a parachute in case of an emergency.
This is what Lucy came up with:
As you can see, she felt that making a parachute dress was the best way to go. I agree. She put that all together herself by cutting and taping. Later on, I cam back and did some sewing for her, but the design is all hers. Below is the final version, with all sewing and glue-gunning done by me, but all design, direction, and vision provided by Lucy:
As you can see, she also created a remote control (popsicle stick, cardboard, stickers) and we made an emergency on/off button cuff (felt, elastic, glue gun). Overall, a very successful maker day.
Also, we did some beading (fixed a necklace, made a couple bracelets) and some paper craft (a few cards out of an old biology textbook) with our crafter lady friends in the evening.
And Jake's bike ride was a success, too. Hooray!
Also, Alice seems OK with her jet-packed sister.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Some thoughts on worldly matters
Warning: this post does not feature any discussion or images of the house, the child, or the dog (with one exception of a passing mention of Lucy). If you are looking for those things, you might just want to skip this post.
The news has been hitting a bit close to home lately. Jim Foley, the journalist who was working to tell the world about Syria (and whose murder is now the news story), was in the MFA program at UMass Amherst at the same time that I was in the PhD program. I can't say that I knew him, but he was friends with my friends, and we were in the same orbit so to speak. I can't even process what's happened to him, a man my age, who lost his life doing work for the world, work for humanity and justice. I keep having to turn off the radio, especially when Lucy is around.
I'm also feeling a bit reluctant to engage in any news or social media right now, because it seems that the ice bucket challenge is everywhere. If you've been deprived of the Facebooks, Twitter, or all major news networks, you perhaps don't know that a lot of people are dumping buckets of ice water over their heads in order to raise money for ALS. I know I should be glad about it. But I have a really hard time watching this meme take over the internets, even when my friends are doing it, and I know that they mean well.
If you're reading this, you probably know me, and if you know me, you probably know that my father died as a result of ALS. In fact, it was ten years ago this past July that he died. My awareness of ALS could not possibly be made more aware. And I just don't know what to do with all the giddy, gleeful ice-dumping that's happening right now. I *know* that it's something that was started by someone who is personally dealing with ALS, and I can definitely imagine that among his family and friends, this activity was a way to have fun, a way to seek out and make some kind of meaning in a disease that robs a person and their family of everything. Lord knows there's a lot less fun-having happening when you're dealing with ALS.
But there's something about all the videos (and now the various incarnations including people who have stupid accidents while attempting the ice bucket, and all sorts of celebrities getting in on the game) that makes me really uncomfortable. While my Dad was sick, we were involved with the ALS Association, and they do indeed do a lot to promote research and advocate for people with ALS. It is good that they are getting more money to do this work. I am grateful to those who donate and those who are working on research and support for people with this disease. When my Dad was alive, a member of my parents' group of friends organized a team for the local version of the "Walk to Defeat ALS" in Harrisburg. I came home for that walk, and we all wore team T-shirts and walked as a group, and I suppose that was a good thing. But what I really remember about that day was that my Dad was miserable. It was a warm day, he was uncomfortable in his chair, and had to ride in the rather uncomfortable van we had acquired (at considerable cost and continual frustration) in order to provide occasional transportation for him at a point when he was pretty much constantly house-bound. Out in the world, especially at an event like this, he felt like a spectacle, like everyone was looking at him with either pity or something else he didn't want. That day at the walk, he did not want to be doing this thing that was being done for/with him. And I was torn between feeling that we had to be the dutiful family and thank everyone for putting us through this, and agreeing with my Dad that this whole thing was pretty shitty: the fact that he had this disease, the fact that this disease was definitely going to kill him, and the fact that we apparently needed to raise money to (hopefully someday) stop this disease. Surely, this was too much.
I guess what really bothers me is that we have to resort to this kind of thing -- walk-a-thons, ice buckets, whatever -- to raise money for research that will save someone's life someday. I am reminded of the fact that a few years after my Dad died, I was visiting at home with my Mom and we went to the local CVS to pick up some things she needed. At the checkout, the cashier asked, "would you like to make a donation to ALS?" We were both sort of flabbergasted, as we were not used to hearing anyone talk about ALS in public, and we certainly weren't expecting a solicitation at the moment when we were paying for a prescription. My knee jerk (cranky) reaction was to say "no thanks, we already gave at home" because it certainly felt like we gave enough to that damn disease. Also, the whole wording of "donate to ALS" makes me a bit crazy. Lord knows ALS doesn't need any help doing what it does. Again, I don't want to quibble with CVS's plan to donate money to an organization that does good work. But what struck me then, and strikes me again right now is that CVS, a corporation that makes its money by selling health care supplies to people who have health care needs, was asking that we donate to deal with insufficient funding of health care. We were being asked to donate to help fund ALS research at the checkout in the very drugstore where we had regularly (and recently) purchased supplies (quite expensive supplies!) for my father's ALS: prescriptions for drugs that would not cure him, devices that were intended to help feed, bathe, or otherwise care for him, pads and tools and liquids and sundry unmentionables that become the everyday reality of life with ALS. CVS, in fact, had actually profited from my father's illness. In the moment, I tried to imagine how others would respond to this request. What if you didn't know what ALS was -- would you ask the clerk at the CVS? Would he or she explain it? What would he/she say? Why is this conversation even happening at the checkout of the CVS at all? Why can't I just buy my [insert embarrassing personal care product here] anonymously and leave? Please?
Once something like the ice bucket challenge has virtually taken over social media, it's hard to push back on it without seeming like a killjoy or just someone who's trying to be contrarian. We do get news -- good and bad -- from our social media network, and it *is* helpful (or at the very least, interesting) to see what friends (and friends of friends) are saying about the day's news. But it seems like with things like the ice bucket challenge, there's not a lot of real responding to the problem. People are "challenging" their friends to do the challenge (and their friends are then doing the challenge) but there seems to be a real disconnect about what the challenge is. For one thing, I am baffled by the fact that you are supposed to *either* dump the bucket on your head *or* make a donation to ALS research. Why set it up that way at all? I realize a lot of people are doing both, but it just doesn't make sense: if you want to raise money, why would you give people the option to do the silly/fun thing to get OUT of making the donation? I also don't see how the ice bucket raises awareness of anything other than the ice bucket. Is there some metaphorical meaning in here that I am missing? Perhaps having the bucket of ice dumped on your head gives you that jolt of being awake and somehow you.....what? Understand what is to have ALS? Because I'm pretty sure it doesn't do that. At all.
I was actually spurred to write something about my own relation to ALS and feelings about the bucket challenge after I read an article that came to me through Twitter (yes, thank you social media). I got to M. J. Dinius's article, "On the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and Ferguson" through a tweet from Alison. You should read it: http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2014/08/21/on-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge-and-ferguson/
It's far more eloquent than I can be, and makes many more connections than I'm capable of developing right now. I think you should read it. In fact, if I were going to re-make the ice bucket challenge, I would challenge my network to read that article. And if I were going even further, I'd challenge them to do something after reading it. That something might be to donate to ALS research, or it might be to donate to students and librarians in Ferguson. Or maybe you want to help journalists like Jim Foley do their work. Or maybe you want to go read a bit more about how disability, or race, or class affects people -- real people -- in the real world and start thinking about (and working towards) fixing the inequalities in our world. ALS is only one of the problems. Scientists (with a lot of money) might actually be able to fix that one someday. But there's a lot of other kinds of thinking and working that needs to be done to fix the other problems.
I don't know how dumping a bucket of ice on anyone's head is a way of raising awareness about anything. If you are aware of a disease, it is likely because someone you know has or had it. Maybe that someone you know is someone you really know, like your parent or your child. Maybe that someone you know is just someone everyone "knows" like Michael J. Fox. But I wish that the fact that you know or "know" someone with a disease didn't have to be the reason you wanted there to be a cure for it. I would like to think that if there was someone in front of you who needed help, you wouldn't stop to ask if you knew that person. Maybe you could just help. And then maybe you could get to know that person.
It is clear that the ice bucket challenge is successfully raising a lot of money, but the giddiness, the gleeful videos, they just leave me, well, cold.
The news has been hitting a bit close to home lately. Jim Foley, the journalist who was working to tell the world about Syria (and whose murder is now the news story), was in the MFA program at UMass Amherst at the same time that I was in the PhD program. I can't say that I knew him, but he was friends with my friends, and we were in the same orbit so to speak. I can't even process what's happened to him, a man my age, who lost his life doing work for the world, work for humanity and justice. I keep having to turn off the radio, especially when Lucy is around.
I'm also feeling a bit reluctant to engage in any news or social media right now, because it seems that the ice bucket challenge is everywhere. If you've been deprived of the Facebooks, Twitter, or all major news networks, you perhaps don't know that a lot of people are dumping buckets of ice water over their heads in order to raise money for ALS. I know I should be glad about it. But I have a really hard time watching this meme take over the internets, even when my friends are doing it, and I know that they mean well.
If you're reading this, you probably know me, and if you know me, you probably know that my father died as a result of ALS. In fact, it was ten years ago this past July that he died. My awareness of ALS could not possibly be made more aware. And I just don't know what to do with all the giddy, gleeful ice-dumping that's happening right now. I *know* that it's something that was started by someone who is personally dealing with ALS, and I can definitely imagine that among his family and friends, this activity was a way to have fun, a way to seek out and make some kind of meaning in a disease that robs a person and their family of everything. Lord knows there's a lot less fun-having happening when you're dealing with ALS.
But there's something about all the videos (and now the various incarnations including people who have stupid accidents while attempting the ice bucket, and all sorts of celebrities getting in on the game) that makes me really uncomfortable. While my Dad was sick, we were involved with the ALS Association, and they do indeed do a lot to promote research and advocate for people with ALS. It is good that they are getting more money to do this work. I am grateful to those who donate and those who are working on research and support for people with this disease. When my Dad was alive, a member of my parents' group of friends organized a team for the local version of the "Walk to Defeat ALS" in Harrisburg. I came home for that walk, and we all wore team T-shirts and walked as a group, and I suppose that was a good thing. But what I really remember about that day was that my Dad was miserable. It was a warm day, he was uncomfortable in his chair, and had to ride in the rather uncomfortable van we had acquired (at considerable cost and continual frustration) in order to provide occasional transportation for him at a point when he was pretty much constantly house-bound. Out in the world, especially at an event like this, he felt like a spectacle, like everyone was looking at him with either pity or something else he didn't want. That day at the walk, he did not want to be doing this thing that was being done for/with him. And I was torn between feeling that we had to be the dutiful family and thank everyone for putting us through this, and agreeing with my Dad that this whole thing was pretty shitty: the fact that he had this disease, the fact that this disease was definitely going to kill him, and the fact that we apparently needed to raise money to (hopefully someday) stop this disease. Surely, this was too much.
I guess what really bothers me is that we have to resort to this kind of thing -- walk-a-thons, ice buckets, whatever -- to raise money for research that will save someone's life someday. I am reminded of the fact that a few years after my Dad died, I was visiting at home with my Mom and we went to the local CVS to pick up some things she needed. At the checkout, the cashier asked, "would you like to make a donation to ALS?" We were both sort of flabbergasted, as we were not used to hearing anyone talk about ALS in public, and we certainly weren't expecting a solicitation at the moment when we were paying for a prescription. My knee jerk (cranky) reaction was to say "no thanks, we already gave at home" because it certainly felt like we gave enough to that damn disease. Also, the whole wording of "donate to ALS" makes me a bit crazy. Lord knows ALS doesn't need any help doing what it does. Again, I don't want to quibble with CVS's plan to donate money to an organization that does good work. But what struck me then, and strikes me again right now is that CVS, a corporation that makes its money by selling health care supplies to people who have health care needs, was asking that we donate to deal with insufficient funding of health care. We were being asked to donate to help fund ALS research at the checkout in the very drugstore where we had regularly (and recently) purchased supplies (quite expensive supplies!) for my father's ALS: prescriptions for drugs that would not cure him, devices that were intended to help feed, bathe, or otherwise care for him, pads and tools and liquids and sundry unmentionables that become the everyday reality of life with ALS. CVS, in fact, had actually profited from my father's illness. In the moment, I tried to imagine how others would respond to this request. What if you didn't know what ALS was -- would you ask the clerk at the CVS? Would he or she explain it? What would he/she say? Why is this conversation even happening at the checkout of the CVS at all? Why can't I just buy my [insert embarrassing personal care product here] anonymously and leave? Please?
Once something like the ice bucket challenge has virtually taken over social media, it's hard to push back on it without seeming like a killjoy or just someone who's trying to be contrarian. We do get news -- good and bad -- from our social media network, and it *is* helpful (or at the very least, interesting) to see what friends (and friends of friends) are saying about the day's news. But it seems like with things like the ice bucket challenge, there's not a lot of real responding to the problem. People are "challenging" their friends to do the challenge (and their friends are then doing the challenge) but there seems to be a real disconnect about what the challenge is. For one thing, I am baffled by the fact that you are supposed to *either* dump the bucket on your head *or* make a donation to ALS research. Why set it up that way at all? I realize a lot of people are doing both, but it just doesn't make sense: if you want to raise money, why would you give people the option to do the silly/fun thing to get OUT of making the donation? I also don't see how the ice bucket raises awareness of anything other than the ice bucket. Is there some metaphorical meaning in here that I am missing? Perhaps having the bucket of ice dumped on your head gives you that jolt of being awake and somehow you.....what? Understand what is to have ALS? Because I'm pretty sure it doesn't do that. At all.
I was actually spurred to write something about my own relation to ALS and feelings about the bucket challenge after I read an article that came to me through Twitter (yes, thank you social media). I got to M. J. Dinius's article, "On the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and Ferguson" through a tweet from Alison. You should read it: http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2014/08/21/on-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge-and-ferguson/
It's far more eloquent than I can be, and makes many more connections than I'm capable of developing right now. I think you should read it. In fact, if I were going to re-make the ice bucket challenge, I would challenge my network to read that article. And if I were going even further, I'd challenge them to do something after reading it. That something might be to donate to ALS research, or it might be to donate to students and librarians in Ferguson. Or maybe you want to help journalists like Jim Foley do their work. Or maybe you want to go read a bit more about how disability, or race, or class affects people -- real people -- in the real world and start thinking about (and working towards) fixing the inequalities in our world. ALS is only one of the problems. Scientists (with a lot of money) might actually be able to fix that one someday. But there's a lot of other kinds of thinking and working that needs to be done to fix the other problems.
I don't know how dumping a bucket of ice on anyone's head is a way of raising awareness about anything. If you are aware of a disease, it is likely because someone you know has or had it. Maybe that someone you know is someone you really know, like your parent or your child. Maybe that someone you know is just someone everyone "knows" like Michael J. Fox. But I wish that the fact that you know or "know" someone with a disease didn't have to be the reason you wanted there to be a cure for it. I would like to think that if there was someone in front of you who needed help, you wouldn't stop to ask if you knew that person. Maybe you could just help. And then maybe you could get to know that person.
It is clear that the ice bucket challenge is successfully raising a lot of money, but the giddiness, the gleeful videos, they just leave me, well, cold.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Go ask Alice
Alice has now been with us for just over a week, and she's fitting right in. We did a hike in Lowell Dracut State Forest today, and a walk on the Vandberg Esplanade, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. And here she is, all tired out:
I know, right? Ridiculously cute. And curled up so tiny!
Some back story for Alice: She came to us through Canine Commitment of New England, a rescue group we found on Petfinder. She was in a shelter in Tupelo Mississippi since she was a puppy, when she was apparently brought in as a stray. The folks in the shelter asked if the rescue group would bring her up before she got much bigger, thinking she had a better chance of getting adopted as a pup. She's about 5 months old. She's likely part lab, as she has webbed feet. But other than that, we don't have much to go on. She's almost 30 pounds. The head vet at our vet office said she wouldn't get much taller but should/would fill out a bit, likely topping out around 36 or 38 pounds. But we've had random strangers tell us she could make it to 75 pounds! Eek! Is she part great dane? Who knows!
So far it's been a bit chaotic adapting to life with a puppy. Thankfully, she is mostly house-trained, and we've had very few accidents. Also, she's been a good sleeper at night (or maybe we're just too tired to hear her). She stays in the downstairs hallway without protest (although with plenty of barriers keeping her from other areas).
She's a bit rambunctious in the morning, which is a bit frustrating when all you want to do is quietly make a caffeinated beverage and quietly check e-mail and quietly wake up. But we're figuring it out. We've been seeing a lot of our neighborhood in the early morning.
This is my first puppy experience. People keep reminding me that she is still a puppy, and I can't expect grown-up dog behavior. There is a lot of chewing. Do not leave shoes lying about. Do not provoke her with shoelaces. Or the swing of a swingy skirt. All will be chewed.
I was weary of her earlier this week, and complained to our friend Paula (keeper of all dogs). I foolishly compared her to our previous dog, when Paula told us that we didn't have a dog before, we had an animated rug. "Animated rug" is an oddly apt way to describe Carter. I know I have to stop comparing the two, but it's hard to avoid it. Here's a shot of Alice with a toy she inherited from Carter:
That's Big Mean Kitty. She was in pristine shape when Carter received her as a present soon after his arrival here. Carter was never much of a chewer. There's a hole in Big Mean Kitty's side from when our guest, Mackie, chewed him, but we sewed it up, and Carter never inflicted any real damage on Big Mean Kitty. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but Big Mean Kitty no longer has ears. And I imagine she will soon lose other appendages, too, to the ravages of Alice.
But she's been very sweet, loves people, and moves quite a lot faster then Mr. Carter did. And we're very glad to have a furry creature among us again.
I know, right? Ridiculously cute. And curled up so tiny!
Some back story for Alice: She came to us through Canine Commitment of New England, a rescue group we found on Petfinder. She was in a shelter in Tupelo Mississippi since she was a puppy, when she was apparently brought in as a stray. The folks in the shelter asked if the rescue group would bring her up before she got much bigger, thinking she had a better chance of getting adopted as a pup. She's about 5 months old. She's likely part lab, as she has webbed feet. But other than that, we don't have much to go on. She's almost 30 pounds. The head vet at our vet office said she wouldn't get much taller but should/would fill out a bit, likely topping out around 36 or 38 pounds. But we've had random strangers tell us she could make it to 75 pounds! Eek! Is she part great dane? Who knows!
So far it's been a bit chaotic adapting to life with a puppy. Thankfully, she is mostly house-trained, and we've had very few accidents. Also, she's been a good sleeper at night (or maybe we're just too tired to hear her). She stays in the downstairs hallway without protest (although with plenty of barriers keeping her from other areas).
She's a bit rambunctious in the morning, which is a bit frustrating when all you want to do is quietly make a caffeinated beverage and quietly check e-mail and quietly wake up. But we're figuring it out. We've been seeing a lot of our neighborhood in the early morning.
This is my first puppy experience. People keep reminding me that she is still a puppy, and I can't expect grown-up dog behavior. There is a lot of chewing. Do not leave shoes lying about. Do not provoke her with shoelaces. Or the swing of a swingy skirt. All will be chewed.
I was weary of her earlier this week, and complained to our friend Paula (keeper of all dogs). I foolishly compared her to our previous dog, when Paula told us that we didn't have a dog before, we had an animated rug. "Animated rug" is an oddly apt way to describe Carter. I know I have to stop comparing the two, but it's hard to avoid it. Here's a shot of Alice with a toy she inherited from Carter:
That's Big Mean Kitty. She was in pristine shape when Carter received her as a present soon after his arrival here. Carter was never much of a chewer. There's a hole in Big Mean Kitty's side from when our guest, Mackie, chewed him, but we sewed it up, and Carter never inflicted any real damage on Big Mean Kitty. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but Big Mean Kitty no longer has ears. And I imagine she will soon lose other appendages, too, to the ravages of Alice.
But she's been very sweet, loves people, and moves quite a lot faster then Mr. Carter did. And we're very glad to have a furry creature among us again.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Dog Days of Summer
It's been many months since I've posted an update here, but not for lack of interesting things happening. My term as an administrator was fairly all-consuming and generally awful, and then it took some time to recover. A few other spring events, and then summer travels kept me from getting back to you.
But I'm back. Here's the February - July 2014 News Roundup for 83 Durant:
February
March
Jake and Lucy made me a cake in honor of Three Mile Island (the disaster that happened on my Birthday), including dry ice smoke and a blinking red light from the cooling tower, which was awesome:
April: This was a month of radical highs and lows:
I should note that in recent history for us, April has been THE WORST. As evidence, see my post from last year here.
April was just pretty much crazy. The cruelest month and all that. We're glad it's over.
May
June
But I'm back. Here's the February - July 2014 News Roundup for 83 Durant:
February
- Meryl Streep was supposed to come hang out. Instead, we got a bad snowstorm (one of several this winter) and a postponed event. This essentially doubled the work for the event. Not a great start to the semester.
- Lucy started taking swimming lessons. Despite her insistence that she knows how to swim, she does not.
- Lucy continued with ice hockey, becoming a better skater than both her parents (not too difficult).
- We went to Lowell's WinterFest and had a great time.
- Lucy lost some teeth! https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakeb/12580076933/
March
- We had an awesome Rock of Ages Reunion with Elizabeth, Ian, Christy, and Eric:
- We skipped our usual large-scale St. Patrick's Day party, much to the sadness of many of our long-time guests. The kids were just fine about it:
- Bridget started going to a chiropractor! (Signifying the general awfulness of her job *and* the impending doom of turning 40).
- Bridget turned 40. The world did not end, despite the depiction of the day by Lucy:
Jake and Lucy made me a cake in honor of Three Mile Island (the disaster that happened on my Birthday), including dry ice smoke and a blinking red light from the cooling tower, which was awesome:
April: This was a month of radical highs and lows:
I should note that in recent history for us, April has been THE WORST. As evidence, see my post from last year here.
- Meryl Streep finally came.
- Oh, and she brought Chris Cooper with her:
- Bridget flew to Harrisburg for a conference and had all kinds of flashbacks from her misspent central Pennsylvania youth. Also, her return flight was cancelled, creating all kinds of additional chaos.
- We went to see The Book of Mormon with Elizabeth, Ian, and Mike. It was awesome!
- We visited the Peabody-Essex Museum and walked around Salem.
- We had a wonderful Easter with Matt & Mary and the rest of the fabulous Christian Hill Cocktail Society gang:
- But the very worst part of April, and indeed the very worst part of our year, was April 21st, when our dear, wonderful dog, Mr. Carter Stephen Bridge passed away. We're all doing a lot better now, but it was a very difficult time for all of us, especially Lucy.
April was just pretty much crazy. The cruelest month and all that. We're glad it's over.
May
- Lucy was Star Student in her class again! She did a lot of writing about dogs at school.
- I attended, organized, and/or spoke at a lot of end-of-semester events.
- Some people went really crazy at the end of the semester and I dealt with it.
- Graduation happened. I photobombed my students a lot.
- I don't think I have any photos from this entire month, which may indicate that it was even worse than April, but I don't have enough evidence (lacking the photos) to prove it.
June
- We went to see The Kids in the Hall live in Boston with Elizabeth and Ian. It was such a great show!
- I went to see Morrissey with Elizabeth. Again, awesome. Also, we felt pretty lucky because he cancelled most of the other shows on that leg of the tour.
- We went to a Spinners game for Father's Day.
- Lucy had her last day of Kindgergarden! Here she is with BFF Ruth:
- We vacationed in Northampton! Yeah! To get all the details, you should just look at the Flickr pictures from then: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakeb/14298508769/ But to sum up, we stayed in an AirBnB apartment around the corner from the apartment where we lived in grad school. We hung out at Look Park, went to the Mutton and Mead Festival (where Lucy tried out archery, made her own jump rope, and we all watched jousting!), and visited the Eric Carle Museum (where we saw a film about and got to see Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth). We continued the literary tourism with a visit to Emily Dickinson's house, which Lucy loved. She even took notes during the tour. She also blew my mind when she corrected the tour guide in his reading of a Dickinson poem: the version we had read was different, and she had correctly remembered one of the variants (Dickinson's editors really butchered her poems). We rode the tandem all over the place, visited the Bridge of Flowers and saw the glacial potholes in Shelburne Falls, and ate very, very well at all our favorite spots in the valley (Hungry Ghost for pizza & bread, Herrell's for ice cream, and a bunch of other places for drinks & snacks). It was a perfect vacation, and we hope to do it again soon.
- The Livingstons came to visit! John & Rose & Jessamy & Megan & Jamie came to hang out with us in Lowell, including a visit to the Western Ave Artists Studios. We did a little trip to Salem, where we visited the Peabody Essex Museum again, and ate at our favorite bakery, A&J King. We also stopped by Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, bought some candy at the Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie (the oldest candy company in the US), and visited the S.S. Friendship, a very cool old ship. It was great!
- We went to Rehoboth, Delaware with all of the family. There was a wedding shower for Abby, a visit to Funland, trips to the Farmer's Market, lots of time in the ocean, and all sorts of other fun. We also acquired a new pet, a hermit cab named Ned (as well as his companion, Ted): It was a great week. All the photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakeb/14677708343/
- We visited at Grandma's house in Carlisle along with the Maryland Marshalls. Check us out in this charmingly terrible family portrait:
- During our visit, we went to Hersheypark. We were there from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, and it was amazing. The kids were great, and we all got to ride a ton of amazing things. Lucy and Luke got on very well and enjoyed a ton of rides. Lucy did her first roller coaster, the Cocoa Cruiser. Luke went from Cocoa Cruiser to the Trailblazer (which he rode repeatedly), so it seems he's on track to follow his dad's roller coaster thrill-seeking. Jake got to ride the SooperDooperLooper for the first time. We did the Chocolate World tour, and got to meet the various chocolate-based characters. It was a great, nostalgic time.
- When we finally returned to Lowell, it was time to get busy with an important task: finding a new family member, in the form of a dog. After many tries, we finally got to meet and then bring home the charming, roughly 5-month-old Alice:
- The fun continued when we got home, with Ruth's 7th Birthday Party!
We even brought Alice for a bit of it:
- We also went to the Folk Festival, which was awesome. We even brought Alice, who did really, really well with meeting a ton of people and other dogs. She was remarkably placid when faced with people eating food, and with all the craziness around her. She's fitting right in.
- For the last week of July, Lucy had day camp at RecKids (at the rec center on campus). She has LOVED it. She swam every day. This afternoon, we get to attend her end-of-camp celebration with her.
- And now it's August. I can hardly believe it. It's been a busy six months. I hope to continue with more regular updates. Is anyone still even reading this?
Labels:
Alice,
birthday,
Carter,
hermit crabs,
long updates,
Meryl Streep,
reunions,
sad news,
the dog,
the house,
too much work
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)