of fish and Frankenstorms and Smurfs

I'm delighted to report that I've just sent off the index for the book, so I am officially celebrating.  I have one more round of looking at proofs, but just of the index itself.  The end is in sight.  Cheers!

In other news, there's a Frankestorm coming.  Lucy's very excited and asked me:"Mom, are you ready for the Frankenstorm?"  Yes, yes I am.

School closed for today; it's unclear whether they will open tomorrow.  This is just fine with me.

In other news, we have a new fish to replace Lulu.  The new fish is Fozzie, and he's a beta.  He's doing well.  Lucy and Jake got him last Friday and it was all very exciting.  Fingers crossed on this one, folks.  If you have beta-care recommendations, do let us know.

That's all for now.  Update as storm events warrant and/or allow.  Stay safe out there!
_____________
[Later]

So it's closing in on midnight (no doubt it's Tuesday by the time this will be posted) and things are OK here.  It's raining and windy, but we still have power.  Not so bad for us.  We're not sure yet if my school will be closed tomorrow (there are power issues all over town), or if Lucy will have school tomorrow.  If her school is closed, it's going to be a major disaster, because it's the day of the "Pumpkin Party" that she has been talking about for weeks and weeks.  We're bringing donuts.  She's very excited.  And she's going to be very upset if it's cancelled.  Also, she told me that we had to bring enough donuts for her whole school (6 classrooms of kids).  I asked the teacher about it *in front of Lucy* and the teacher explained, oh no, you just need to bring them for our class; the other classes are having their own party.  Afterwards, Lucy told me we should bring enough for the whole school anyway.  She's committed to her school community.  And to donuts.

Today Lucy spent a good bit of time up at Matt & Mary's, and she and Woody and Ruth watched a bit of TV.  More specifically, they watched an old Smurfs movie that's available on Netflix called The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.  Lucy had never seen or heard of Smurfs before, and she was pretty excited.  Here is our conversation when she came home:

Lucy: We watched the Smurrghs!
Me: huh?
Lucy: We watched the SmuRRRRgggghhs!
Me: Do you mean Smurfs?
Lucy: NO! It's SmuRRRRgggghhtttttttsssss!
Me: uh, are they little blue guys?  Because I'm pretty sure they're Smurfs.
Lucy: Yeah, they're blue, but Mommy, they're SmuRRRRgggghhtttttttsssss!
Me: uh, no.  They're blue.  They have white pants.  They're Smurfs.  I'm pretty sure.
Lucy [sigh/eye roll]: How do you know?
Me [singing Smurf song]: Laa la la la la la laaa la la la la.
Lucy [in disbelief]: HOW DO YOU KNOW THE SONG?
Me: They're Smurfs.

She's still having trouble saying the word "Smurf," though.  She has some funny accent/speech things, and she also has a cold right now and no doubt isn't hearing things quite right.  So later in the evening, she was talking to Jake:

Lucy:  I like the Smurrrgggghhs.
Jake: Oh, yeah, the Smurfs.
Lucy: They say Smurrrrgggghhs a lot in all their sentences.
Jake: Just a Smurfy bit.

This went over Smurfily.

OK, off to bed.  Goodnight, Frankenstorm.  Hope you don't smurf us all.

RIP, Lulu

Lulu the fish survived exactly one week.  I noticed earlier in the day that she was swimming kinda on her side, and as the day wore on she was more and more listless.  We talked to Lucy after dinner, and she was pretty much heartbroken.  It's been a pretty rough night. We may be making a trip to the pet store tomorrow to see about a new fish or two.

In brighter news, Jake took Lucy to Parlee Farms today, where she had fun in the hay maze:

Lucy got just a few pumpkins:

Yes, she decorated all of them (except the bat, which I did).  She went all Warhol on us and was like a machine churning out the smiley faces.  We suggested some alternatives, but she had a vision.  So, anyway, Happy Halloween!

ROCKTOBER EARTHQUAKE!

So Rocktober really does rock: as in, the earth is rocking!  Ack!  We had an earthquake 'round 7pm.  Admittedly it was nothing compared to what happens elsewhere, but it was the strongest I've felt.  Lucy and I were reading a book with Lulu (the fish) in the dining room, when everything started to shake.  Scary!  It lasted long enough for me to wonder what was going on and begin to think "oh dear, what should we do now?"  Then it stopped.  Lucy asked "was that an earthquake?" and Jake said he thought it was the washing machine out of balance.  To his credit, the washing machine was in fact on, and does sometimes shake a lot.  But not that much.  I put her to bed before we found out that it actually was an earthquake.  She's going to be excited when we tell her tomorrow.

http://origin-earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000d75b#summaryhttp://origin-earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000d75b#summary

ROCKTOBER!

So it's October here at 83 Durant (and, I suppose, in most places using the same calendar as us), and we all just LOVE October.  It's the best month.  I've already fallen behind on documenting the many and sundry things we've done, but here are a few highlights so far:

Family Day/Fall Festival @UML:

Lucy had a grand time today at the Fall Festival, an event we attended last year, too.  Unfortunately, I didn't actually have the camera at the event this year, which I seriously regret, because Lucy RODE A HORSE there.  It was great. They had these three small horses, and anyone could get a ride.  Lucy was a bit scared, but ultimately delighted.  I'm not entirely sure how the pony rides related to the main event, which, thematically, was not (as far as I could tell) at all horse-y.  Last year, they did a "Wild West" theme, and they were supposed to have pony rides, but it rained & hence they were indoors.  Perhaps this was the "rain date" for the pony ride part.  Who knows.  This year, the theme was "Anchors Away," and wouldn't you know it, there were pirates, sailors, and fish everywhere.  A lot of fish.  In fact, we even got to take one home:

Yup, that's a small fish tank.  And it contains Lulu, the newest addition to our household.

Here she is:

Carter hasn't noticed her yet.  Not really surprising.  Maybe if she smelled like bacon he'd care.

Visit to Carlisle (to meet JAMES!)

We had a lovely trip down to stay with my mom over Columbus Day weekend, and Jennifer, Brendan, Luke, and James came to join the fun.  It was lovely.  James, we're delighted to know you!

See the flickr for further documentation of the fun.

While we were there, Jake participated in the Iron Cross, posting a pretty great time & placing 30th in a field of over 100, even WITH being a good samaritan and helping some dude with a flat tire. Good stuff.  We also got to have an awesome lunch at Cafe Bruges just down the street from my mom's house.  It was so delicious!

The Warren/Brown Debate @ the Tsongas Center

Ok, so it was pretty appalling, but it was cool to be there, particularly as a follow-up to my previous (and first) attendance at a political debate.  We do not (yet) have any political signs in our yard, but if we do, it will be for Elizabeth Warren.

There's lots more on the schedule for October (including seeing Jack Kerouac's first, only, never-before-performed play on stage here in Lowell tomorrow), but you'll have to stay tuned.  I hope to have more updates soon.

Cheers!

We just bought our house.  Again.  By which I mean, of course, that we managed to do a refinance (with these crazy low interest rates) and we closed today!  Hurrah!  I cannot believe it.  It's quite a bit different to sit at the lawyer's office and sign your life away without a moving truck sitting outside.  Perhaps you remember how it all started, way back here.

So cheers! 

And while I'm here, a few quick updates:

1) We've been out and about in the canoe a few times lately, with paddles on the Merrimack and the Concord.  Lucy loves it.  We had never taken her out before (in fact, our last trip in the canoe may well have been this one).  We've seen a bunch of turtles and a blue heron, and lots of other birds.  It's been fun.

2) We had an awesome camping trip at Tully Lake this past weekend.  Many thanks to Ian & Elizabeth for bringing us along, and to Matt & Mary for the loan of their cavernous tent.  There are pics here of us with the tent, and here of the crazy orange newts Lucy kept befriending.  Lucy had a grand time.  We even got to experience a thunderstorm (from safely inside our tent); Lucy slept through the whole thing.  Ian & Elizabeth did not.  Here is a portion of their conversation:

Elizabeth (in Elizabeth-panic): Ian!  I think there's someone outside the tent!  Do you have your knife?
Ian (in what can only be described as Ian-like calm): Yes.
Elizabeth: WHY DO YOU HAVE A KNIFE IN THE TENT???!?!?!?!?!

So my next writing project is going to be a buddy-cop TV show, featuring Ian and Elizabeth.  They're married to their jobs....and each other!  It's Mazsa & Mazsa, Crime Scene Investigators.  It's gonna be a huge hit.

That's all for now.  

Fans of Fans

We're delighted with our most recent renovation/addition:  FANS!

Perhaps you are familiar with the hideousness that was our kitchen light/fan situation:

Yes, that IS a bare bulb on the bottom.  Perhaps you would prefer our new addition:

OH yes, much better!

Our electrician neighbor, who did the work for us, informed us that the old fan was held up with exactly ONE screw.  Awesome.  She affixed this one a bit more solidly, which you can tell by the fact that it is totally sturdy and doesn't sway all over the place when it runs.  Nice!

We've also been wanting a fan in our bedroom, as it gets a bit stuffy up there and Jake is a hot sleeper.  So we now have this:

So yes, now that summer is over, we have our fans ready.  Woo hoo.

In other news, we've been canoeing lately, on both the Concord and the Merrimack.  It's been great fun.  This weekend, we're going camping at Tully Lake.  Lucy is beside herself with excitement.

Updates as events warrant.  Hope you're enjoying September!

Quick Post: Conversation with Lucy

Me: Lucy, would like milk on your cereal this morning?
Lucy: Mom, when I have milk on my cereal and I talk too much, my cereal gets soggy.  So I'm not going to have milk on my cereal.

Perfect solution.

She can't stop talking.

[Further update/detail]

A comment (below) from Uncle Kanga reminds me that I should also mention that among the many lies I have told Lucy is the claim that we can't buy Lucky Charms (or any other sugar-laden cereal such as Cap'n Crunch); only Grandma and her school can purchase such things.  She really and truly believes this; when we see said boxes of cereal at the store, she points and talks about how we can't buy them.  Only her school.  And Grandma (who buys them in the whole multi-pack set of mini boxes for her as a treat).  There is a future (long) post to be written at some point about the many, many lies that we have told Lucy, and her predisposition to believe these things.

So the cereal in question above was Cheerios.  She then went to school, where she had a bowl of Lucky Charms.  So no worries, fans of Lucy, she is getting her US Recommended Daily Allowance of kid cereal.