Trick or Treat!

Halloween on Atwood Street isn't very exciting. Most people do Marlborough and Federal Streets and skip the little side streets like ours. In fact, we had to flag down many of the trick or treaters who did come down the street because they didn't see us despite the roaring fire in the yard.
Luckily our friends all came by to get candy, eat chili, and check on the Patriot's score...

Laura wasn't sure she could handle the cold so we put her right up to the fire and Bill bundled her up in a blanket...she's in there somewhere!

Denise and the boys made a special guest appearance as a vampire and Spiderman.

Viv gave up the trick or treats early because her boots weren't made for walkin'.

Alison, Loren and Jolie always make a special stop on Atwood. Jolie has enough candy to keep her on a sugar high until 2011.

Where were all the Snookies? Didn't see one.

Just another Saturday for Jen & Bill

The festival planning is in full swing. Sherri, Vicki and I met today to plot out the literary genius that will grace Newburyport in April 2011. We make it look easy, don't we?

Then we had a great night out with Whitney and Aaron. We went to Post 390 near Copley Square. I was double spoiled with a new book (Keith Richards bio, which has received high marks) and the return of my hat after almost a year being held hostage by Will. Jen wore her "I don't get out much" party dress.

We ended the night with a surprise visit from Bret. Jen made me take their picture together.

Bret is all Blinded by the Light, Jennie is all Girls on Film.

Smokin' hot Jennie finishes her night with a scotch and cigar...

Pictures we didn't post:

* Joey running his final cross country race. We showed up a half hour after he raced because he gave us the wrong time......

* Bret's junk car after we realized it would never be road safe. We were too pissed to take the shitbox's photo.

* Jen's brand new Yaris. It looks just like Bill's old Yaris

Last days of the pep band

Joey's final homegame with the Ipswich High School Pep Band. He dominated again.

He was matched in his domination by Mathias, whose drumming wowed the shivering Ipswich crowd to semi-life.

Bret made his first appearance at an Ipswich High School football game since he played himself. We picked up his new Volvo (1998, new for him). Nice day with Bret, nice night with them both.

Trained Monkeys

I led a training this morning with 19 Lead Development people. We talked about DiSC, a behavioral profiling tool. You know, know yourself, know how to read others, blah blah blah. Actually, I like this training because it gives me a chance to play junior therapist.

I told them about our blog and had someone take a picture of me in action. I'm always looking for little things to keep things light. I find someone to make fun of, I add stupid little dancing Spidermen in my presentation....anything it takes to not bore people for the two and a half hours I'm dancing on stage.

Battle of the Boys

Domination. Joey and I crush Jen and Laura in the battle of the robot dancers.

Sweet Jesus....

Jen and Laura were captured by a hidden camera. Before they went out to catch the weekly movie at the Screening Room they turned on an 80's Hits CD and roboted to I'm Only Human by the Human League.

Definitely UGG

Jennie bought her first pair of UGG's. I wish I invented UGGs. Comfortable boots which when worn by Giselle Bundchen look amazing. Everyone else who wears them looks like they are wearing funny looking slipper boots.

These pictures of Jennie's home office area. I just liked how these pictures came out.

Honey, I'm Home!

I got home around 4:30 this afternoon. A full weekend of books, wine, cheese and nature walks was nothing compared to the joy of being back at home with the hubby. He was happy about it too.

Book Club Weekend Post #2

We started the day more amiably than we finished the night....although we started right up with a Farraday vs Suki debate around The Little Stranger: officially the best bookclub book discussion of our 6 year career.

And then - the hike! What better place to have lunch on a cold windy day than on top of a mini-mountain. We hiked up trail and were reassured to see several teams of EMTs going thru rescue training. Here we are at the top of the rock well fed and happy with our views.
(PS Amy arrived shortly after the hike but not pictured in this post)




Of course below is really my favorite view - the cheese platter that accompanied cocktail hour. Five different selections covering the spectrum of soft to hard (that was for you Diane) of both cow and goat. The best taste sensation may have been the Tomme Crayeuse on the warm baguette with the apricot jam. Dee-Lish!


I should also add our trip to Reny's - a discount dept store in downtown Bridgeton - and Bridgeton Books that we go to every year.

This weekend goes so fast!! How can it already be Saturday night? Tomorrow we hopefully skype in Andrea from Scotland to wrap up the book discussion and we dig into Cindy's chili.

Bookclub Brawl at Brays's

Police responded to a 911 call at approximately 9:30 Friday evening when an overzealous book group gathered for a discussion at the usually quiet establishment. The book club is reportedly a group of liberals from Massachusetts who make an annual pilgrimage to Bridgeton stopping en route at Bray's Brewery and Pub. The manager mentioned that they have had trouble with this group before, forcing other patrons to change seats but that this year, the situation really got out of hand.

"The redhead was raising her voice, shouting out something that sounded like 'Farraday was obsessed with the house!' and waving her hands like a maniac. I was scared for those other ladies' lives."

Before the violence spread to other diners, the authorities arrived. The red haired woman was tasered while the rest were handcuffed and escorted out of the bar.

"We thought if we put them in their own room this year we wouldn't have all this trouble," explained the hostess who was cleaning up the onion rings that had been thrown during the fight. "You'd think that a bunch of intellectuals could control themselves."

The women have declined comment, only saying that they preferred the incident stayed out of the media so that absent book club members wouldn't know that they started the book discussion without them.

Benefits of smoking

Add this to the reason why smoking is good. I like looking into our house at night while having a cigar.

I can stare at my mediocre paintings and they look better from the distance of my driveway. I can admire the deck lights. I watch my crazy neighbor working on his house in the dead of night, running his table saw after 9:00pm, performing micro-cuts where he measures seven times before each cut, watching neighbors walk, bike and drive by our little slice of the world. It gives me uninterrupted time to think about nothing and everything.

The message here; "smoke up, my friends".

Get better Mom

Mom has to have surgery on her back again. Two discs need repair. She's in constant pain.

I hate that....

But she makes it over to our house every Wednesday for dinner. Among other things we talked about the fantastic popcorn she used to make while we watched Bruins games. We all agreed that day old popcorn, congealed in butter, was disgustingly delicious.

Squatting Monkeys

Saw a car that I want to buy, a used Mini Cooper S. So I squatted the monkeys on the hood.

If they are still sitting there in the morning then by rules of law, the car is mine.

I have my fingers crossed.

Fashionistas and FashionNOstas

Jen murders her fabulous fall fashion choice, while Joey is a fashion victim in all white.

Behind the scenes: It's Spirit Week at Ipswich High. Today is White Out day. Joey borrowed a pair of white linen pants from me. Pants that Jen hates because you can see through them. As you can see from the picture, Joey didn't elect to wear them. Too risque' perhaps?

Jen, meanwhile, is wearing a cute skirt that she had re-hemmed. She went to the Asian tailor in town. The same Asian tailor who told me when I asked her to sew up Petey's wounds that she wouldn't do it. "Attachment to objects is bad for the soul!". We've always called her the "angry tailor" and have avoided going back. But Jen really wanted to wear this skirt and the "angry tailor" is the only game in town.

Fire and Rocks

I like my two new cairns. The little one on the right is made of round rocks that I'm sure will tumble over soon. The one on the left has a big flat rock laying on its side as the capper. Both survived yesterday's strong winds. Surprising, for sure.

In honor of my new cairns I built a fire. Great night for it.

Missing Jen. She's visiting Mom and I couldn't take the time off of work. I end up looking for things to do without her, like building stone statues and lighting fires.

Boston Book Festival

I spent the day at the 2nd annual Boston Book Festival. There were only two afternoon events that were on my 'must see' list which meant I got to spend my morning wandering through all the tents of booksellers and lit magazines. My own little book buffet - and yes, I bought a heavy bagful!


The first event for me was From Page to Screen. The first disappointment for me was that AM Holmes (I will forever associated her Music For Torching with my trip to Paris with Bill) was ill and could not attend. In her book, a family sets their own house on fire, the mother has a lesbian affair on her kitchen floor, the father gets a tattoo, and the kid is in a school shooting - now that is a women I want to hear on a panel!!

Dennis Lehane and Tom Perotta (moderated by Ty Burr) did their best to make me forget her. Lehane was casual, funny, and had some great Hollywood anecdotes. I wish someone had whispered in Tom's ear piece that he needed to sit up straight - this picture doesn't really show it but he was physically and conversationally second banana to Dennis throughout the event.

Until my second disappointment of the day when Tom announced that he had another event to attend as part of the festival and needed to leave before this event was over. What?? If the man is in two events couldn't they have scheduled them so they did not overlap?? And to think, some people paid a $25 priority seating option.


I thought I was going to experience my third disappointment of the day when I got in line for Bill Bryson. This was the view behind me (that gray block on the side is a building - poor picture framing on my part)....


And this was the view in front of me. The line wrapped literally around the entire block.


But fate was on my side. I got in. I got the book. I stood in line and he signed it. Unlike Franzen, he clearly had a personality but they rushed us through so fast I didn't get to say anything to him other than 'thank you'. I should add that there was a second author in the panel - Tony Hiss - with Bill Bryson moderated by Robin Young. It was a bit sad because it was clear that everyone was there to see Bryson. Ok, maybe Tony's aunt and a few Boston cousins on his mother's side came to the event. I think they probably wanted to see Bryson more too. The questions were all for Bryson. The signing lines for Bryson required a serpentine queue arrangement to fit everyone in whereas the few interested in Tony could just walk right up. That's Tony's ear in the bottom right side of my picture.


I saw a lot of people buying books today; I saw a lot of people excited about authors and scurrying from one event to the other- and I love that. Even though I didn't got to a lot of the events, I could feel the book loving frenzy in the air and really enjoyed just being there. Makes me want to have my own festival in Newburyport....