Yankee Homecoming Fireworks from the Deck

That's right - NOTHING! The fireworks are directly behind a big tree. I had to walk to the corner of Federal and Liberty to watch them in the street like the rest of the rabble. Good finale, though - worth the stroll.

Back to normal

A good night's sleep can really work wonders. Feeling much better and starting the day off with a scone and tea on the deck. I wonder if Bill is bringing that doppleganger home with him. Will we need another deck chair? Will he be handy around the house? Will it mean twice as many cigar butts in the driveway?

When in San Francisco

My doppelganger and me got a haircut at the Happy Hair Studio, owned by Mr. Lee. He didn't charge double.

Blog Postponed Due to Illness

Stomach cramps, nausea, waves of fever...was it the salmon? Early menopause? I think I actually almost fainted tonight but the only reference I have to go by on how that feels was one other time when I thought I almost fainted. But since I didn't actually faint I might not have gotten as close to fainting as I think I did. Did I mention I have a headache? I can't be expected to blog under these conditions.

The Salmon Sisters

How can they call it a "special" when they offer it every day? Wednesday night at Tremonte's in Woburn with Stacey and Di means three orders of salmon and spinach.

Flower Power!

Shelly (aka Poopsie Lewis) took me on a little lunch excursion today....to Small Farm in Stowe to pick our own flowers! Neither of us ever take a lunch break so today we made up for it with an extended lunch hour(s)...Supposedly the back roads were a short cut but Shelly and I took several wrong turns which negated anything short about it. The whole time she kept saying "I can always pull out my GPS"...I'm a littel fuzzy on why we never did. We eventually found a nice policeman to point us towards the flower farm and I realized it was definitely worth the trip.

We ate our salads from the work cafeteria on a picnic table then started pickin' . Poosie is partial to snap dragons while I'm a zinnea girl.
Next thing we know, its 2:15. Hmmm...better start finding our way home. No worries - we can take the highway! Oops...we are 5 exits away and the gas light just went on. Will we make it back in time for out 3:00 meetings??

We did - barely. Hopefully Shelly was able to coast to the Mobil station on fumes to get home tonight. Below is the picture of my bounty. $5.75 for this whole bouquet!!! We need to go out to lunch more often.

I'm in enemy territory

Long flight to San Jose via LA. I'm now in the land of the friggin' Lakers.

Blew out my hamstring in softball last night (third time in four years....the break down of my body is well under way). So sitting for hours on the plane was torture.

But not as torturous as the heavy set Asian kid who farted the whole way from LA to San Jose.

Wish I was home.

Moon Over Merrimack

These are my attempts at getting a picture of the full moon over the Merrimack tonight while being eaten alive by a swarm of mosquitoes.
One with flash, one without.

Plum Island Morning

Breakfast at Mad Martha's followed by a walk on the beach. One of those things that we do randomly that I wonder why we don't do more often. The green heads are gone but the $@^*& plovers continue to take up most of the beach.



















Bill is still looking hot in his beard.










There are often structures on the beach made of drift wood but this might be the most elaborate one ever. Of course the sign just made it ripe for touching. Notice Blue in the background - they appeared to be open but I didn't see anyone other than a cabana boy sweeping sand off the deck.

Sponsored by the Newburyport Bureau of Tourism

Laura had her first farm stand. We ate the best cinnamon roll, got some cupcakes, radishes, lettuce and cukes.

I didn't know cupcakes grew on a vine.

Later we went to the annual Art on the Mall in Newburyport. It's part of the Yankee Homecoming celebration.

Every so often we buy a piece of art during this event. This year we bought the lemon painting Jen is holding. That's the artist next to her.

Tonight we'll eat dinner on the deck and go to see Toy Story 3. We love to vacation in our own home town.

We are all just servants

It's a Petey World.

Oh Brother

Like the Wright's, the Grimm's, the Marx's, the Howard's and the Allman's... the MacKay's dominate their field. The Tigers won their third straight behind the brothers MacKay (please disregard the five losses to start the season... we're on a roll now.)

Quiz: what are the famous brothers listed above famous for?

A Night at the Border with Stefan

Is he 23 or 27? Canadian or comedian? These are just some of the questions that 5 psychology majors (with a "medium" minor) asked at the Border on Wednesday night. Stefan (pronounced STE-fan...as opposed to Ste-FAN) was good natured and knew that the older crowd - which included several cougars and a chicken hawk- would undoubtedly be good tippers. Witnesses to the scene said they heard several troubling and inappropriate remarks such as "I want to go down!" and "He will have a hard time getting his tip out!"


It was a night of lies for Jeff as he struggled to think of what to say to Diane when she arrived at the Border. "How could I tell her the four of us are meeting without her?" he lamented. Little did he know that Sean and Jen were well aware of her anticipated arrival but wanted to surprise Jeff and Evelyn at the small reunion.

Stories of pediphelia flowed as fast as the margaritas as Jeff recounted stories of various gas station attendants and a recent assault on a mascot. "I didn't know there was a person in there" was his defense - making us all wonder what Jeff 's usual escapades are with empty mascot outfits?

Needless to say a good time was had by all - and responsible for no post yesterday and an early morning update!!

What's funner than stupid effects on the Photo Booth app?

No comments about how this last one looks the worst, please...

A night out with Joan

The first time Bill and I went to the Screening Room I was totally charmed by the little theater and the old men who ran it. (One man moonlights on Inn Street playing the recorder in a renaissance outfit. I heard the other was once mayor of Newburyport.) And I swore that we would support this theater by going to the movies "EVERY WEEK!!"

I didn't keep that promise for many years but now I think my track record has really picked up. Tonight was a documentary about Joan Rivers - hysterical and fascinating. My frequent movie date, Laura, gives it a thumbs up. On a side note, the woman with the popcorn asked if I knew Joan Rivers because I was trying to get a picture in front of the movie poster. Do I look like someone who knows Joan Rivers?

We all enjoyed Dave's meat

Best breasts in Tewksbury.

Dave broke in his new smoker tonight.

Mr Owl, how many licks does it take?

We celebrated Malikai's first birthday today. He seemed to be doing his imitation of the old Toosie Pop commercial. A one... a two.... a three - - three.


Our little party pooper. Speaking of pooper - I'll always remember Malikai's birthday because it's also the anniversary of my first colonoscopy. This is how old people remember things - by what medical treatment they were experiencing at that time.

Predicting the future is a nasty business

Mrs. Helen predicted that Jen would make me watch The Housewives of New Jersey tonight.

Damn Mrs. Helen!

Before Jen made me watch The Housewives of New Jersey we were a happy couple.

We were so happy that they made a postage stamp of us (see picture below).

Jen's Guilty Little Secret

I admit it....I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Kardashians!!! This is the one where Kourtney waxes Khloe but ends up burning her. What's not to love???

Celebrity Art Game

I was looking at celebrity art.

Match the art with the celebrity....

Bob Dylan

Billy Dee Williams

Eve Plumb

Pierce Brosnan

Cory Haim

Martin Mull

Poor Cory Haim.... even his art sucked.

War reenactment Wednesday

Joey and Mom brought their game face in this civil war reenactment.

Viva la resistance

Trudi's attempt at sneaking the last piece of pizza is met with resistance.

Another wild night in Newburyport

Bill returned from his week in Colorado last night but it looks like the travel and jet lag is catching up with him tonight. Even email and Abelman's smiling face can't keep him up after 8:30pm. Welcome home, honey!

If Scarface and Deep Throat got together you'd have....Scar Throat?

Our friend Denise has a cancer project. She is assessing risk, getting input from all the stakeholders and managing it in a phased approach while meeting deadlines....all the things good project managers do! Phase one of the "neck dissection" is complete...phase two in a few weeks. Fortunately for us, her project hasn't slowed her down at all - they had just tied off the last stitch when she went out for a run and came over for wine & cheese. Thyroid cancer has met its match.

Get out your ham costume...TKAM is 50!

The girls got together to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird (the book) by watching the movie and eating politically correct cookies - made with both white and dark chocolate chips! The movie absolutely withstood the test of time with several goose bump inducing moments ("Stand up Miss Jean Louise....your fathers passin' ")
Sigh...Atticus...TLA! (true love always)

Which way to the mainstream?

Jen managed to talk Diane and Stacey into attending this year's Readercon - a science fiction book festival in Burlington MA. None of us are avid science fiction readers but we have enjoyed some crossover books like The Sparrow and The Unit (Diane is laughing right now because I wrote "unit").


We soon discovered that Readercon is not for the lightweight, dabbling, scifi wanna be's....We attended two panels - Starmaker My Destination: Telelogical SF and Orphans of the Time Stream. We walked out of both after about 20 minutes. I remember hearing these words:

• wormhole
• trope (as in "what is your favorite trope?")
• Stephen Hawking
• space travel
• speculative psuedo-religious consolation
• Stapledonian

which, when combined with some sort of science geek speak, made absolutely no sense to us whatsoever. We tried 2 different reading sessions which were ill conceived - the first was a ghost short story that was too long for the allotted time so we never heard the ending! The second was a zombie story...but the author read 20 minutes of zombie free material.


There was a variety of....interesting people....that attended this festival. I had the pleasure of sitting behind a main who looked completely ordinary save for the 2 foot braided 'rat tail' hairstyle dangling in front of me. Duel colored hair, faerie tattoos, and a general lack of fashion sense was prevalent. But it got us wondering - are WE the freaks here? Are they mocking our Ann Taylor t-shirts and tasteful coach bags?
We were totally fascinated by the cool plastic name tags though. So maybe there is a little geek in all of us.

Off to a pah-tay....

Vicki Hendrickson (festival co-chair and past blog subject)'s husband just published a book so I'm off to their little book launch party. I decided not to bring the camera because a) I wouldn't know a lot of people there and taking their picture might be weird (what if they are amish and it would steal their soul?) and b) I'm wearing the same dress I wore in Wednesday's post and that would be too too tacky. It would be "Post Dramatic Dress Disorder."