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.

Somerville Studios Saturday

We spent the day in Somerville with Ian & Elizabeth, enjoying their company and browsing through some of the artists studios for Somerville Open Studios.
We got lunch at Formaggio Kitchen's famous Saturday BBQ. It was awesome.

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 Truth of Everything"

The title of the post refers to Lucy's new title. She informed me, after I picked her up at school today, that she is "the Truth of Everything." I asked her what this meant, and she explained that she is good at finding things, so Simba gave her the name "The Truth of Everything." Mind you, Simba is her teddy bear. So her stuffed animal told her that she is "The Truth of Everything."

I pressed her on the whole concept while we were driving home, and she explained that she did not make it up, and that she hadn't heard anyone else use the phrase. I asked how Teddy had heard the phrase, and she told me that Teddy heard it on a song he was listening to on her purple radio. Again, the purple radio is one of the many imaginary items in Lucy's collection, which include, at last count: a pink computer, a blue computer, a green computer, several televisions, a purple radio, and a yellow suitcase. She sang a few bars of the song, which goes, roughly, "the truth of everything....the truth of everything...." and so on. I asked her who sings this new pop sensation. She informed me "the Ringos." Yup, the Ringos.

I think I might believe her. And that perhaps she is going insane. Or I am. The Truth of Everything, indeed.

School Pictures

Here's Lucy's first picture from school. She's wearing a dress I once wore. I'll have to dig up my version of this one.

As long as I'm posting, I'll share a few "Questions from Lucy" (TM) a new feature we'll be having here, hopefully regularly, or at least as regularly as "Conversations with Lucy" (TM).

• When you were a little kid, did you ever meet the Grand High Witch? (we've been listening to Roald Dahl's The Witches).
• Do sea turtles make sea salt?
• Do monkeys have noses?
• Can you get the recipe for Fig Newtons?

(Some) Faith in (some) humanity restored

This afternoon, the doorbell rang, and it was a woman holding my wallet. As you may recall, my wallet was stolen while I was grocery shopping at Hannaford last Thursday evening. As suspected and suggested, the thief ran off with the wallet, grabbed anything worth grabbing (cash, gift cards) and tossed the rest not far from the Hannaford. The kind stranger who showed up at my door had done her best to reassemble it and had managed to collect all the cards and such out of the dirt, and brought them back to me. She even tried to track me down at my office (I wasn't there) so she drove over to our house.

So I have all my cards back, and even my change and T-token. And obviously, the wallet itself. I've already canceled the cards and ordered a new license and University ID, but still, there were a few random things in there that I had forgotten were in there, so it's nice to have it back. It's also nice to know that no one is out there trying to steal my identity (oh, and you know my identity is so coveted!). I was also very very grateful to the woman who drove across town with a stranger's wallet. It was a great kindness. I feel foolish for never asking her name. Thank you, stranger. You have renewed my faith in human decency, at least for some portion of humanity.

Trouble brewing

This afternoon we'll start growing our first crop of mushrooms with our lovely kit. Lucy is VERY excited about it, and has been glowing about how she can't wait to eat mushrooms. We found this surprising (not the excitement, which is her general state, but the claim that she will EAT them, as she doesn't eat much), but went with it. At some point yesterday, she explained that she remembered that Aunt Kathy gave her mushrooms one time and she loved them. And that's when we realized why she's so excited: the "mushrooms" that Aunt Kathy gave her were meringue mushrooms, as seen here:
They're sugar and chocolate, so OF COURSE she liked them. I'm a little nervous about what happens when she realizes what oyster mushrooms are.

The kit is cute, but we did find the product advertising a bit misleading. As you can see on the image, the box claims "Open. Mist. Harvest." Cool. Sounds super-easy. In fact, in between "open" and "mist, there is a step called "take out the package and submerge the entire thing in a bucket of cold water for 24 hours, using something heavy to make sure the thing stays submerged under water." Now, this isn't really that much work, but it does involve hunting around your house to find these things, not to mention an extra 24 hours before you really set up the growing box. Oh well. I guess they couldn't fit all that on the box.