Winterfest-ier

Today we were back at Winterfest, and boy was it terrific.  We went the Museum Mitten Madness events at the Lowell High School cafeteria.  It was set up with all kinds of activities for kids.  Lucy got to meet The Cat in the Hat:

 

He was telling riddles.  They were pretty bad riddles, involving food puns she didn't understand, but it was all very funny to her nonetheless.  

The Cat in the Hat was at the Visiting Nurses' Association (VNA) table, where she got to make a paper chain featuring her favorite foods.

We also got to meet LuLu, the sheep mascot of the Textile History Museum.

Lucy went from station to station, making each craft, including a beaded bracelet, a decorated fleece scarf (the pink one she's wearing in the pictures), a feathered and bejeweled mask (shown here):

and a rag doll.  She played bean bag tosses and a hockey game (that she played last summer at the Folk Festival):

She also got some crayons, a coloring book, a fire-fighter hat:

I didn't know they came in hot pink!  She got to visit some real sled dogs:

and there were CUPCAKES (to celebrate Charles Dickens' Birthday!)

There is just SO MUCH to LOVE about LOWELL!!!!

WINTERFEST

It's WINTERFEST here in Lowell!  We love Winterfest.  We went down to partake of the festivities tonight and it was downright balmy out there!

We watched the first round of Human Dogsled Races:

There were also fire-dancers and fire-eaters (sorry, no photos of that, but it was pretty impressive).  Lucy had the best seat in the house (and a glowstick):

And then we had a special treat: the largest marshmallows we've ever seen:

They had a whole toast-your-own thing happening.  Lucy opted to keep hers in their raw state, though she did taste my toasted one (hence the string o' mallow-sticky-goodness on her face there).
We're in for more fun tomorrow, with more sled races, kid-friendly fun (free cupcakes, balloon animals, a magician!), and also a visit from actual sled-dogs (Lucy is particularly excited about this part).  We'll hopefully have more to post after the events.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Workbench!

Jake has been wanting to build a workbench in the basement for all those projects. I mentioned this to our friend Matt who suggested that he actually had a workbench he didn't need anymore. Check out our new basement awesomeness:







Would you like to guess what the top is made of? Take a closer look:





Give up?



It's a bowling alley! The vise on there is from my grandfather's basement workshop.



We had a nice morning hike over at the Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest.



Lucy did really well:

She also saw a snake. Here's what Lucy says:



It was crawling around. It was in the grass and it was tan. I saw it first. I called my Mom and Dad and told them there was a snake. I felt surprised. Carter didn't see it. Daddy didn't see it either. Mommy saw it {but now Mommy thinks that maybe she saw a different snake because the one she saw was black with a white stripe down its back].



Thanks to guest blogger Lucy!



We just did a check on snakes of Massachusetts and found out for sure that we saw a Common Garter Snake. We want to give a recommendation of the UMass Amherst Snakes of Massachusetts site. Awesome! There are 14 kinds of snakes native to Massachusetts.



Oh, yes, and yesterday was our visit to the Southeast Asian Water Festival. It was a VERY hot day, and we rode the tandem over, so we didn't have a lot of stamina. We ate some awesome sausage and sticky rice, and watched the boats race by. It was *very* crowded there. Lots going on. Good local Lowell fun.

There continues to be a lot to like about Lowell

Last night we went to a free concert at the backyard of Lowell's Tsongas Arena. It was wonderful! We saw Melvern Taylor and his Fabulous Meltones. They were fabulous, as billed. Ukelele, upright bass, and songs like "Love Song for Losers" -- what's not to love?



We met up with lots of our favorite local folks and even ran into a few old friends. There were kids roaming about in herds, tearing across the lawn at frightening speeds and erratic trajectories. We spotted a little girl that Lucy had played with at an event last December, and the two were quickly re-acquainted with each other. They proceeded to rush the stage and dance up front (sorry, I didn't get pictures, but wish I had!), and they ran around like crazy people for the next hour. Lucy's still asleep. It's nearly 9 am. Now that's a good time (and a nice sleep in for us, too!).



This weekend promises more fun, with the Southeast Asian Water Festival here in Lowell. We can't wait to head over and watch the races and eat all kinds of deliciousness!

Activities!

Today we had a very fun day of ACTIVITIES! We started out with a morning in Lexington, our fancy-schmancy city-next-door. We went to a very fun fair for kids at the Lexington Community Nursery School. There were games (with PRIZES -- a very exciting feature for Lucy) and a petting zoo and a bouncy house and all those sorts of things. The school is very very nice, but a bit too far away for us to really consider. But Lucy had a grand time winning at games like the bean bag toss, golf, croquet, and also the "wishing well" where kids tell the teen-kids running the wishing well which prize they want, then they get it. Nice.



After the fair (believe me, it was difficult to pull her away!), we went for lunch at Bertucci's. We tried to do a different local pizza place (Upper Crust) but sadly, they had nothing other than pizza, and we have a Very Picky Eater in the family (Lucy). Blargh. So we ended up at Bertucci's, which has pasta in butter. Also, they give the kids not just the regular set of crayons and an activity page: they gave her a piece of pizza dough! Genius! She very much enjoyed that, although not as much as the Hoodsie cup she got for dessert. In case you are not familiar with the concept of "Hoodsie cup," it is likely that you have seen such a thing in your life and called it a "Dixie cup," which is a little plastic thingie filled with ice cream -- in this case, chocolate and vanilla. They're called "hoodsie cups" around here because "Hood" is the major brand of milk, thus their ice cream cups are "hoodsie cups."



We ended up skipping the nap completely, as today was the first Saturday of the month, and as with most first Saturdays, it was Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios, and Lucy LOVES going there. So we spent the afternoon looking at art, talking to artists, meeting a bunch of lovely artist dogs (several of the artists have well-behaved, mellow dogs who hang out with them in their studios), and of course, hunting down candy. This is Lucy's favorite part of going to the studios, much to my chagrin. But we had a nice time and even found ourselves a new babysitter! Woo hoo!



In other news, we've been eating lots of delicious things. Jake picked a bunch of our rhubarb and made some up to go along with the panna cotta he made:





It was delicious! While I was off in Boston for a conference, I went out with some friends to a fabulous fancy restaurant called Menton, which was incredible. I am VERY sorry that Jake didn't join us (I owe him a visit there now!).



We've been slowly working on some small-scale home improvements, particularly in the yard. I finally got around to staining our new railing on the steps to the garden. We had had so much rain for so long that I had to wait a while for things to dry out.





I also stained a climbing ladder for the clematis,





And I painted a few replacement pickets for pieces on the fence that had fallen apart.



The gate kind of looks like it's missing some teeth:



Jake will be installing them tomorrow. Hopefully I can do an update then. I should do a garden update, too. But this is all for now.

There's a Lot to Like about Lowell

Seriously, there's so much to like about Lowell! We're in the middle of a weekend full of awesome Lowell-ness.



Yesterday, we spent some time at the Pollard Library. While we were there, Jake took our knives to be sharpened at Hank & Son's Locksmiths and Knife Sharpeners, where a maybe 60-ish year old man said he'd have his Dad sharpen the knives. Awesome. Then we got Lucy a haircut at Angela Salon.



Today, we went to Open Studios at Western Ave Studios, where they were having their Spring Art Thing.



Then, we went to Larry's Comics, our local (really local) neighborhood comic store, for Free Comic Book Day! We always mean to go there more often, as they are totally awesome.



Tomorrow, we're going to Carter's old school, All Breeds, for a celebration of doggie-ness.

Local Family Fun

I'm feeling good about this weekend because we did some great local family fun stuff. First, we spent part of the day on Saturday at Western Avenue Studios here in Lowell, an enormous artists' studio space where they were having Open Studios all weekend (and will do so again this weekend, so you should go too!). We saw lots of great stuff and Lucy had a blast collecting candy from the various studios. We also stopped at a terrific free activity, Anne Ruthman's Photobooth, where she took a bunch of photos of us, shown here:







This was a very quick, on-the-fly session, but we are so impressed with her. We will be going back for a real session at some point, but wanted to sing her praises here. If you're looking for a photographer, Anne is a gem! You too can join the photobooth fun next weekend! In the meantime, check out Anne's blog here, or her Facebook here.



Then today we went to Wignall's Animal Hospital, Carter's vet, where they were having their annual Santa Sunday. If you have the chance to go to Santa Sunday in the future, you should go. We only went for the very last part (because Lucy was taking her first decent nap in probably a month!), but we had a great time. Carter and Lucy had their picture taken with Santa. We hope to have a file to upload very soon. There was also a raffle with cool prizes, and all the proceeds went to take care of animals, so we're feeling good about the whole thing.