Also, Plumbing: Shower mystery

Oh, and lately we've been neglectful about documenting various home projects/problems. Mostly this is because we've been too busy. But this morning, we were shocked to find that our upstairs shower doesn't work. At least, it doesn't spray any water, which, to me, is really the essence of what a shower needs to do. We don't know what the cause is, so further investigations will be necessary.

Jake promised to tackle the problem tomorrow. If you're a regular reader, you'll recall that previously, such a project ended with calling a professional. I just realized after looking through past posts that I don't think I ever documented this one. Let's just say it involved the shearing off of a pipe. Fun. Let's hope this adventure is less, uh, adventurous. We'll start by not waiting until after 5pm to start the project.

Updates soon. Until then, we'll try not to smell too much.

Update: Friday, 12/10: The shower is fine. After Jake collected his tools to prepare for the plumbing battle, Lucy wanted to know all about what he was doing. So he brought her into the shower to show her what was wrong and how the shower is supposed to work. While doing so, he noticed a tiny lever on the shower head itself that we had never noticed before. Turns out, the shower head had an on/off switch, and it had fallen into "off." So he put it back to "on," and it's fixed. Hooray! Best plumbing story ever.

As promised, pictures with Santa

I mentioned the other day that Carter got his photo taken with Santa. Since he's famous now, I'll bet this photo will sell like hotcakes!
Happy Holidays!

NEWS FLASH! Carter is IN THE MOVIE!

I just got word that yes, indeed, it is true, OUR DOG, CARTER STEPHEN BRIDGE, APPEARS IN THE MOVIE THE FIGHTER AND CHRISTIAN BALE TALKS ABOUT HIM!!!

The scene made it in!!! Carter is famous!!!

We have not yet seen the film but our friend who has a movie reviewer friend has confirmed it.

More updates once we actually see it, but we had to let you know.

HOORAY!

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.

You can judge how busy I've been by the utter lack of complete sentences that will have to serve as a limited update on the current status of life here:

Lucy: She's 3! Look! New Big-Girl Bed!



Grandparents!


Food/Cooking:

Pie:


More coming soon when my eyes recover from too many hours of reading too many things.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!
Happy (soon-to-be-upon-us) Holidays!

My Creation(s)

My book is done. I have just (immediately preceding the posting of this entry) submitted the final final final proof of the book, and it will be in the production line tomorrow. This is cause for celebration, which I will be doing tonight by going to see Sufjan Stevens at the Orpheum in Boston. I'm so excited.

But perhaps more importantly, and certainly more amusingly, I must tell you of my favorite latest Conversation with Lucy (TM). We've been reading a lot of Halloween-themed books to her lately (her choice, though certainly we have quite a stock of options) and a current favorite is one about the Littlest Pumpkin, wherein, on the final page, there is a picture of a giant Jack-o-Lantern surrounded by three kids in Halloween costumes.

When we get to the page (as part of her ever-widening stalling routine) she asks "What are their costumes?" which is now just what we do at the end of the book, every time.

Last night, I dutifully told her "there's a witch, a clown, and a Frankenstein."

Last night, Lucy replied: "No, Mommy, that's a Frankenstein's Monster."

Seriously, I could not be more proud. I go over this ALL THE TIME in my Gothic novel/horror story classes, about how Frankenstein is the name of a person, and he created a monster, so really, the guy with the green head is "Frankenstein's monster," NOT "Frankenstein." I can't believe I even tried to get away with not giving her the correct name this time. I stand corrected. And glowing (green?) with pride.

Update on the Media Empire

I should have included this info in last night's Halloween post, but I ran out of time with all the trick-or-treat tending.

My faithful readers will remember that two summers ago, I was interviewed for a PBS special on haunted places in New England (specifically my research on local witches). It aired last fall locally, but I've recently heard from the producer that the thing now has national distribution and that it was one of the top 5 shows distributed by American Public Television this fall. It even won some awards, including an Aurora Award, a Communicator Award, and a Telly Award. Whoa! It's also apparently a top-selling DVD on PBS's website. I had to laugh, though, because the only user review it currently has is very bad; the reviewer is disturbed by all the paranormal/pseudoscientist stuff. I am proud to lay claim to the title of the "voice of reason & skepticism" on the program.

Anyway, suddenly I'm hearing from a bunch of colleagues and students about how they saw me on TV this weekend. Apparently they're blanketing the airwaves with this stuff, and in fact, it was the show that was on just before the latest Mystery series, which, by the way is AWESOME. It is a new, updated Sherlock Holmes and it rules. Two of the three episodes have aired, but you should totally go watch it.

So I'm enjoying my temporary star turn, knowing full well that I am about to be trumped by my dog. The Fighter drops December 10th. That happens to be my last day of classes here. It would seem there are many reasons to get a babysitter that night!