The times, they are a'changin'

We have several important updates for our readers:

1) Lucy is now in Second Grade! 

This is shocking.  Here's what she thinks:

2) Lucy is taking piano lessons!  

Also, we now have a piano!

Here's a visual demonstration of both of those things:

And here is Lucy's illustration of the new situation:

3) Lucy is playing soccer for the Dracut Flash!  

Here she is in her uniform:

This is our first foray into the world of competitive sports.  So far, so good.  We started this past Sunday, and it looks like we're going back for week 2.  Go Flash!

Here's Lucy's story about it from school:

She really likes it.  Even the oranges.
4) The above are all awesome things.  But we also have a Very Bad Thing we have to report.  Our very favorite Beacon Street family has moved.   To Maine.  Which is Far.  Not That Far, but still, not here.  We are very excited for Matt and Mary and Ruth and Woody to start their new adventure in Maine, but we are very sad that they are no longer our neighbors.  They will still retain honorary status as members of the Christian Hill Cocktail Society (CHCS).  We all go way back:

We raise a glass to Matt and Mary and Ruth and Woody, and we will all visit soon!!!!

Another Conversation with "The Truth of Everything"

Today at dinner, I was telling a story about running into a former student of mine who plays on the basketball team. I mentioned that he had torn his ACL. Lucy asked for more information, and I explained that he had hurt his knee. Here's what followed (roughly):

Lucy: He has a boo boo on his knee?
Me: yes.
Lucy: The next time you see him and I'm with you can I see the boo-boo?
Me: Well, Lucy, this is the first time I've seen him in two years, so I'm not sure I'll see him again.
Lucy: Well, if we see him, will he play basketball with me? Because I know how to play basketball. And we can play at the Red Sox.

This conversation is dedicated to Uncle Brendan, who will be horrified that already, my daughter's go-to sports reference is the Red Sox, and, moreover, she believes that they play basketball. But on the up side, she knows how to play basketball. So she's got that going for her. That, and being the Truth of Everything (see previous post).

The Wall, Day 2

Roland and his crew continue to work on our wall. It's exciting to see it come together. This afternoon while we were looking out at the yard from our back deck, we noticed that a little creature had come to observe the work, too:
I know, that's kinda fuzzy. It's a baby groundhog!!! Cute!

Today they finished pulling out the old wall and dug down to lay the gravel. Here are a few shots to show the current status of the project:
Tomorrow they start to build.

By the way, Jake and I are right now, at this very moment, watching the Celtics v Lakers game. Many of you (I'm talking about you, Brendan) will find this hard to believe. Granted, we are both multi-tasking (me blogging, Jake building a bike wheel), but we're watching a professional sporting event on television. Alert appropriate media outlets.

Also, just in case you haven't recently scrolled down to look at an earlier post, you might want to know about this recent media appearance by Lucy:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/06/07/127537913/listener-mailbag-i-want-the-jokes

Go Celtics!

Live Sports coverage: the Colonial Classic

I just came home from the Colonial Classic. It was great. I watched "Beginner" (that's a link to a beginner group performing last year) and "Pre-Juvenile" groups, both of which featured impossibly tiny little girls (and a few boys) skating better than I could ever hope to skate. I didn't bring my camera, but some quick work on flickr yields tons of photos -- look at this or this (pictures from last year's event) to get a sense of the insane cuteness of little kids in costumes dancing together on the ice. Granted, there was a lot of creepy stage makeup, and I heard at least one mother shrieking at her child, but it really seemed like the kids were having a great time.

For those of you who wish you could have been here with me (you know and I know who you are) I will share my favorite moments below. The rest of you can skip this.

The Skating Club of Boston's Beginner's team took the ice in skating outfits that looked like baseball uniforms (if baseball uniforms had skirts and glitter). Predictably, their music was "Centerfield," a song that you no doubt have heard (it starts with clapping, then "put me in coach, I'm ready to play...."). Immediately, a very young girl sitting near me yelled out "NO FAIR!" and a mother with the group sighed and said "this is the THIRD time!" As the girls gesticulated and expressed their sentiments -- "NO FAIR! NO FAIR!" -- it became clear to me that this group, scheduled to perform later in the program, had prepared a routine to the same song. I watched as a young girl with a painted face scowled and listened carefully while watching the competition. Her comment (my favorite of the day): "It even has the EXACT same words!" I imagine she was hoping that the other team had chosen an alternate version of the song, like maybe "Leftfield" or "Rightfield" instead of "Centerfield."

Most of the performances were choreographed to fairly predictable movie-musical songs. Things like songs from The Sound of Music, (that link was to a performance at last year's Colonial Classic), or medleys of songs from Disney movies were quite popular, as were songs from musicals that were inexplicably re-engineered to include pounding dance beats, as if the musicals ("The Phantom of the Opera" and "Wizard of Oz") were happening at a disco. A lot of the music was lame, which makes me sad. But I see that a lot in figure skating. I wish it wasn't that way. I have a fond memory of watching Kristi Yamiguchi skate to Bjork's version of "It's Oh So Quiet." It is my favorite skating routine ever, in part because the music is so very much fun.

But getting back to the Colonial Classic, my favorite performance of all was the one done to "Walk Like an Egyptian." Awesome. I'm hoping someone else will post a video of it, so I can show you how great it was.

Oh, I also remembered one more Sporting Event we've attended since moving to Lowell:
HUMAN DOGSLED RACING. It happens in Lowell every year; last year we took Lucy. If the weather isn't too awful (February in Massachusetts? Doubtful) we'll try again this year.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Sporting Events, Wii and otherwise

Before the Wii entered our lives, we were very pleased with our live sporting event attendance record since our lives moved to Lowell.  Here is a list of some of the more notable sporting events we have attended in Lowell since our move here [note, all of these events pre-date Lucy's arrival here]:

1.  Spinners games.  The Spinners are Lowell's Class A baseball team.  They're a Red Sox affiliate.  They're awesome.  Their mascot, the Canaligator, recently married Allie-Gator, and they are the proud parents of Millie-Gator.  The mascot family runs through the park during the game, and they also host "Spinnertainment" during the inning breaks.  You should follow that link to see some examples of Spinnertainment, as it is not to be missed.  They bring border collies onto the field to do tricks, have kids wrestle in sumo suits, and otherwise amuse the audience.  In fact, I like the Spinnertainment better than the game.  But that tells you a bit about my level of baseball enthusiasm.  If you're visiting Lowell, go to a Spinners game if you can.  If you don't want to go to a Spinners game, you should offer to babysit Lucy and we will go to a Spinners game.  Deal.

2.  Hockey games. We've been to quite a few UML hockey games, and they're great fun.  Also, the players are my students.  For the most part, I don't want to see them get slammed into the boards, but it is fun to see them on the ice, sometimes starting trouble with the other team.  Especially if that other team is UMass Amherst.

3. World Men's Curling Championships:  Curling is a crazy awesome game that involves a sort of shuffleboard on ice.  With brooms.  And special shoes.  Oh, and like 900-pound curling stones*.  It's awesome.  And they had their championships in Lowell a couple years ago.  It was so much fun to watch.

 

4.  New England Golden Gloves.  We went to one night in the series, which happens every year right around now at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.  If you click on that link, you can see that they're fighting RIGHT NOW.  They're also presenting Sesame Street Live, but fortunately not on the same night as the boxing.  The Golden Gloves is also the backdrop for one of Lowell's famous fellows, Mickey Ward, a boxer who's story will be on the big screen sometime this year in The Fighter, featuring Mark Wahlberg (as Mickey) and Brad Pitt (as his brother).  This is the site of one of my most favorite stories of the Lowell accent.  I'm afraid I can't do it justice on the blog, since you really have to HEAR what the guys around us were saying and because I'm afraid the content of what they were saying isn't family-friendly.  And we're a family blog here.  Anyway, you should go see a fight.  It's really, really weird.

But all those very exciting sporting events pale in comparison to what I'm planning to attend this weekend.  I will be going to some portion of the Colonial Classic.  No, this is not a group of re-enactors.  This is a SYNCHRONIZED ICE SKATING COMPETITION.  If you are wondering what this sort of thing looks like, you can look at the websites of some of the competing teams.   Go ahead.  Click those two links.  And realize how much you want to join me at the Tsongas Arena this weekend.

*as you might expect, that was an exaggeration.  According to this source, the stones weigh between "44 and 38 pounds".  

Three days in a row!

I am way better at Wii Sports than I am at any sport.

My Wii age is 36. I was OK with that, until Jake tried, and his Wii age is 28. No fair.

In house news, we fixed a clogged (super-slow draining) kitchen sink drain last night. Several rounds of baking soda & vinegar, plus boiling water, plus a fair amount of plunger-ing finally worked. They should make a Wii Plumber game. We would totally win.