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

• 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.

July

• 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!  

There are a ton of pictures on Flickr if you want all the visuals: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakeb/14588889061/

• 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?

Happy Dog Days of Summer!