Friday, August 25, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Stuff and such
We got some firewood delivered today. Pretty exciting, in more ways than one. I ended up posting an ad on Craiglist - I wanted a half cord of firewood for about $100. Most places were selling half cords for around $130, and I was just lookin' for a deal. Some guy responded saying he could help - I called and we set up delivery for 6:00 tonight. Well, 6:00 came and went, and at around 6:45 I had Jay call the guy ('cuz I'm scared of stuff). He said he lost the address. So he said he'd be here in 45 minutes. He showed up an hour later. We had him drive into the backyard to unload it. His headlights were off as he repeatedly tried to back his truck up into the backyard, coming very, very close quite a few times to hitting the fence. He unloaded the firewood, took his money, and booked it (without his headlights on) around the house and through the fence and onto the street. Yeah, I said through the fence. Granted, it a part of an old fence that was falling apart anyway, but come on, dude! Jay thinks he was high. We had a nice laugh. I guess we have a few more pieces of firewood now...
A while back I had lost everything on my PDA after it decided to freeze up. For a long time the program to hotsynch my PDA with the computer wasn't working, which is why I hadn't backed stuff up in months. So last night I decided I needed to figure it out so I wouldn't lose all the new stuff I had put on there. When I plugged my PDA in and performed a hotsynch operation, it actually worked! I didn't have to do anything! So all the old stuff I thought I lost (minus a year's worth) is now back on my PDA. I have Bee back! Bee is my absolute favorite game! It's the stupidest thing in the world, and I love it!
I was just going through some old pictures (you know, the kind that you had to develop) from college and the few years after. I was looking for some good pics of Cuddy, thinking I might make some sort of collage or something for her going-away party. It's weird to look back at old pics - I was so skinny! And hyper! And I dressed in a ridiculous manner! Maybe I'll go through some old videos Friday...
I know that was a random posting of random things, but it's what I was thinking about.
A while back I had lost everything on my PDA after it decided to freeze up. For a long time the program to hotsynch my PDA with the computer wasn't working, which is why I hadn't backed stuff up in months. So last night I decided I needed to figure it out so I wouldn't lose all the new stuff I had put on there. When I plugged my PDA in and performed a hotsynch operation, it actually worked! I didn't have to do anything! So all the old stuff I thought I lost (minus a year's worth) is now back on my PDA. I have Bee back! Bee is my absolute favorite game! It's the stupidest thing in the world, and I love it!
I was just going through some old pictures (you know, the kind that you had to develop) from college and the few years after. I was looking for some good pics of Cuddy, thinking I might make some sort of collage or something for her going-away party. It's weird to look back at old pics - I was so skinny! And hyper! And I dressed in a ridiculous manner! Maybe I'll go through some old videos Friday...
I know that was a random posting of random things, but it's what I was thinking about.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Gonna do some gardenin'
So I'd been talking about it and thinking about it and mulling it over and all that stuff, but I finally decided to actually take a class. Not a for-credit class or anything, just a basic gardening and landscaping class at Assabet Valley Tech's continuing ed program. It starts at the end of September and goes into November, and I'm pretty darn excited! It'd be nice to actually work on the yard and try to make it look nice and know what I'm doing for a change. We'll see how it goes.
I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going-away party this Saturday! I'm lookin' forward to it.
I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going-away party this Saturday! I'm lookin' forward to it.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Last weekend we finally found Ashland Town Forest, which we initially read about in Ashland, one of those history-of-a-town-type books with lots of photos. There was a (very poor, old) picture of a cave that people escaping from the Salem witch trials would find shelter in, hence called "Witch's Cave," and it said the cave was in Ashland Town Forest. We didn't know there was such a thing, and we didn't know where it was. We assumed it was the state park. But a few weekends ago, Jay was test driving a Rav4 from Bernardi Toyota and we drove past this sign:
Cool sign!, I thought. And we had found the elusive forest! The walk was very nice - there was only one other person we saw (a very nice old woman that told us to keep the place a secret). Actually, Jay figured out that the forest was the place where he fell out of a tree back in college and started getting attacked by bees. He saw the tree and a flood of memories came back... You'll have to ask him to tell you the story. It's a funny story.
And last weekend we visited Matt up in Lowell, and we got to hang out in the Alley for a while. I took this picture that I like 'cuz it reminds me of an owl:
Today we went for a short kayak trip to Hopkinton State Park. We've been to the park before, but never to kayak. It was nice. There were a lot of other people out on the water in sailboats and kayaks and canoes because I think they rent all that kind of stuff out. We took Abe. Abe does pretty good in the kayak. We paddled over to a little island that was pretty much a huge mountain of dirt with trees on it. It was a very, very steep hill. But Abe walked right up it as he created avalances of dirt and rocks, and he disappeared for a while. We then heard rocks and dirt falling from a cliff next to us, and Abe was perched right at the edge wanting to jump off, so we had to pick him up so he didn't break his neck.
Now I'm on the Internet and I'm going to bite the bullet and order firewood. We like to have fires outside, but we end up having to go in the woods right next to our neighbors and snap branches off trees for wood, and that's just not going to cut it. I don't think they like loud, snapping branches right next to their house at 11:00 at night. But maybe they do, who knows?
Cool sign!, I thought. And we had found the elusive forest! The walk was very nice - there was only one other person we saw (a very nice old woman that told us to keep the place a secret). Actually, Jay figured out that the forest was the place where he fell out of a tree back in college and started getting attacked by bees. He saw the tree and a flood of memories came back... You'll have to ask him to tell you the story. It's a funny story.
And last weekend we visited Matt up in Lowell, and we got to hang out in the Alley for a while. I took this picture that I like 'cuz it reminds me of an owl:
Today we went for a short kayak trip to Hopkinton State Park. We've been to the park before, but never to kayak. It was nice. There were a lot of other people out on the water in sailboats and kayaks and canoes because I think they rent all that kind of stuff out. We took Abe. Abe does pretty good in the kayak. We paddled over to a little island that was pretty much a huge mountain of dirt with trees on it. It was a very, very steep hill. But Abe walked right up it as he created avalances of dirt and rocks, and he disappeared for a while. We then heard rocks and dirt falling from a cliff next to us, and Abe was perched right at the edge wanting to jump off, so we had to pick him up so he didn't break his neck.
Now I'm on the Internet and I'm going to bite the bullet and order firewood. We like to have fires outside, but we end up having to go in the woods right next to our neighbors and snap branches off trees for wood, and that's just not going to cut it. I don't think they like loud, snapping branches right next to their house at 11:00 at night. But maybe they do, who knows?
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I've conquered my fear!
Is that how you spell conquered? It doesn't look right...
Anyway, I have been trying to actually accomplish things in the past few days rather than mope about how I always want to do stuff and never do it, so the first step was to actually get out of the house, go to the homebrew store, buy ingredients for a batch of beer, take them home, and make the beer. Well, I shopped for the ingredients on Sunday (which meant getting out of the house and following through with buying them - big step!) and didn't have time to brew the beer. This is usually where the story would end. I would usually buy the ingredients and then leave them to sit for months and months and go stale, only because I usually do things on a whim and my whims never pan out fully.
However, I kept the ingredients closeby, and swore to myself that one of these nights, I would brew the damn batch. Tonight was that night, folks. Oh, sure, I didn't get home until around 7pm, but I was freakin' determined. (This batch of beer is specifically for Cuddy's going away party, so I actually needed to brew it at least 10 days before the party.) So I just dove into it. (Not literally - that would be very sticky.) I just started boiling some water in my brewpot, I put the necessary grains into the necessary muslin bag and steeped them while the water boiled, and by then I was committed. The house filled with the long-ago-familiar smell of brewing beer... and it was good.
I planned ahead and sanitized all the necessary equipment to complete the batch (floating thermometer, strainer, airlock, fermenting bucket), I prepared the dry yeast (let it soak in warm, not hot, water for 15 minutes, then stir right before pitching), I added the necessary ingredients into the batch of boiling wort (more hops, more extracts, some Irish moss and gypsum salt), I put 5 lbs of ice and 2 gallons of cold water into the previously sanitized fermenting bucket, and I completed the task.
I didn't even make that much of a mess, like I usually do. Perhaps many months of not brewing allowed my brain to comprehend and organize the various steps involved in brewing a batch of homebrew to meld together and form a cohesive idea of what I need to do in order to brew. Maybe not. But all that matters is that I now have a bucket of beer in the corner of the kitchen that will be ready to keg come Aug. 25th.
Preparing for this batch has made me excited about brewing more. Who knows? Maybe this will be the only batch I brew for a while... but I like to think that's not so. It's not so tough to do. But I guess when it comes time to actually make the contents of the bucket of beer consumable, I might have a different perspective. To bottle, to keg? Oh, the options...
Anyway, I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going away party so that they can try my (hopefully) tasty batch of pale ale that I've brewed up. Oh, and to say bye to Cuddy. There's always that motivation. (By the way, if you're coming to the party, bring a friend or eight. The more, the merrier!)
Anyway, I have been trying to actually accomplish things in the past few days rather than mope about how I always want to do stuff and never do it, so the first step was to actually get out of the house, go to the homebrew store, buy ingredients for a batch of beer, take them home, and make the beer. Well, I shopped for the ingredients on Sunday (which meant getting out of the house and following through with buying them - big step!) and didn't have time to brew the beer. This is usually where the story would end. I would usually buy the ingredients and then leave them to sit for months and months and go stale, only because I usually do things on a whim and my whims never pan out fully.
However, I kept the ingredients closeby, and swore to myself that one of these nights, I would brew the damn batch. Tonight was that night, folks. Oh, sure, I didn't get home until around 7pm, but I was freakin' determined. (This batch of beer is specifically for Cuddy's going away party, so I actually needed to brew it at least 10 days before the party.) So I just dove into it. (Not literally - that would be very sticky.) I just started boiling some water in my brewpot, I put the necessary grains into the necessary muslin bag and steeped them while the water boiled, and by then I was committed. The house filled with the long-ago-familiar smell of brewing beer... and it was good.
I planned ahead and sanitized all the necessary equipment to complete the batch (floating thermometer, strainer, airlock, fermenting bucket), I prepared the dry yeast (let it soak in warm, not hot, water for 15 minutes, then stir right before pitching), I added the necessary ingredients into the batch of boiling wort (more hops, more extracts, some Irish moss and gypsum salt), I put 5 lbs of ice and 2 gallons of cold water into the previously sanitized fermenting bucket, and I completed the task.
I didn't even make that much of a mess, like I usually do. Perhaps many months of not brewing allowed my brain to comprehend and organize the various steps involved in brewing a batch of homebrew to meld together and form a cohesive idea of what I need to do in order to brew. Maybe not. But all that matters is that I now have a bucket of beer in the corner of the kitchen that will be ready to keg come Aug. 25th.
Preparing for this batch has made me excited about brewing more. Who knows? Maybe this will be the only batch I brew for a while... but I like to think that's not so. It's not so tough to do. But I guess when it comes time to actually make the contents of the bucket of beer consumable, I might have a different perspective. To bottle, to keg? Oh, the options...
Anyway, I hope everyone can make it to Cuddy's going away party so that they can try my (hopefully) tasty batch of pale ale that I've brewed up. Oh, and to say bye to Cuddy. There's always that motivation. (By the way, if you're coming to the party, bring a friend or eight. The more, the merrier!)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
This and that
So life is pretty much back to normal, what with Jay being fully recovered from his Lyme Disease incident. Thank you all for your well-wishes and such! Jay's first day back at work was today, and he seems in good spirits and energetic. (I'm actually here at work with him - I have to help give him his IV antibiotic at 6pm every day.)
So I haven't posted much about much other than, y'know, that Lyme thing. But in the meantime, we did purchase two very exciting things for our house. We bought two Telechron clocks! Telechron was a company that was founded by Henry Warren, who invented the first electric clock, and the company's home was Ashland. So we've been looking on Ebay for some cool-looking electric clocks made by Telechron. We found one that advertised Telechron clocks, which is kind of postmodern, and we figured Telechron clocks that advertise Telechron clocks have to be pretty rare. Plus it looked cool. That model was actually featured in a scene from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? in the background. So we got that... and then soon thereafter, Jay found yet another Telechron that advertised Telechrons! So we got that, too. Our first anniversary is coming up, and it's the clock anniversary, apparently, so hey, we splurged.
Jay's also been thinking about buying a car, either new or used. We go back and forth between wanting a really low-emissions, economical, great-gas-mileage vehicle and wanting a big truck or SUV-type thing that we can lug things around in. We might hold off for a bit until we decide... but we definitely want to get something, as Jay's Mazda 626 blows.
And for all I neglected to email, we're going to have a little get-together to say farewell to Chris Cuddy as she embarks on her journey to Chicago comedy. It shall happen on Sat., August 26th, at our house. Feel free to tell anyone you might know that might be interested. I might even brew beer. (I say that every time and it never happens, so don't get too excited, chump.)
So I haven't posted much about much other than, y'know, that Lyme thing. But in the meantime, we did purchase two very exciting things for our house. We bought two Telechron clocks! Telechron was a company that was founded by Henry Warren, who invented the first electric clock, and the company's home was Ashland. So we've been looking on Ebay for some cool-looking electric clocks made by Telechron. We found one that advertised Telechron clocks, which is kind of postmodern, and we figured Telechron clocks that advertise Telechron clocks have to be pretty rare. Plus it looked cool. That model was actually featured in a scene from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? in the background. So we got that... and then soon thereafter, Jay found yet another Telechron that advertised Telechrons! So we got that, too. Our first anniversary is coming up, and it's the clock anniversary, apparently, so hey, we splurged.
Jay's also been thinking about buying a car, either new or used. We go back and forth between wanting a really low-emissions, economical, great-gas-mileage vehicle and wanting a big truck or SUV-type thing that we can lug things around in. We might hold off for a bit until we decide... but we definitely want to get something, as Jay's Mazda 626 blows.
And for all I neglected to email, we're going to have a little get-together to say farewell to Chris Cuddy as she embarks on her journey to Chicago comedy. It shall happen on Sat., August 26th, at our house. Feel free to tell anyone you might know that might be interested. I might even brew beer. (I say that every time and it never happens, so don't get too excited, chump.)
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Did I forget to tell you?
I guess I forgot to say that Jay's out of the hospital. He got out on Sunday, and he's doing so much better now. Thank you everyone for your thoughts :) Now he has to get antibiotics until Aug. 24th, and hopefully there won't be any complications at all from the Lyme Disease. Okay. Bye!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Adventures of the week
As you know, Jay's been in the hospital with Lyme Disease, waiting for his heart to recover from the infection. It's been quite a week - lots of funny things have happened, lots of crazy things, and save for the fact that my husband's heart wasn't working, the whole ordeal was rather painless. Jay should be out of the hospital either tomorrow or Monday.
They took out the temporary pacemaker for good today, and his heart seems to be going strong. It apparently still has a first-degree block, but that isn't very serious and should clear up on its own, and is not threatening to his health or life or anything. We kept the wire that rested on his heart to send the electrical impulses that kept his heart beating. The doctor thought Jay was weird for asking if he could keep it as a souvenier, but then when I came back into the room, I asked the same exact thing. So either the doctor's weird for not thinking it, or both Jay and I are weird. Take your pick.
Perhaps I will post some pics soon (yes, I am the geek that took some pics in a hospital. You'll be glad I did in 20 years when you look back on it!). Anyway, it's off to bed - this whole thing should soon be over!
They took out the temporary pacemaker for good today, and his heart seems to be going strong. It apparently still has a first-degree block, but that isn't very serious and should clear up on its own, and is not threatening to his health or life or anything. We kept the wire that rested on his heart to send the electrical impulses that kept his heart beating. The doctor thought Jay was weird for asking if he could keep it as a souvenier, but then when I came back into the room, I asked the same exact thing. So either the doctor's weird for not thinking it, or both Jay and I are weird. Take your pick.
Perhaps I will post some pics soon (yes, I am the geek that took some pics in a hospital. You'll be glad I did in 20 years when you look back on it!). Anyway, it's off to bed - this whole thing should soon be over!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Update on my hubby
So the last post was kind of on the meloncholy side, so I'll keep this light. Jay is still in the ICU, and probably will be for the rest of the week, but that's only because they want to monitor his heart for a bit. The Lyme Disease test came back positive, so that's a good thing (even though they pretty much assumed that's what the problem is). He's doing super great -- you wouldn't know anything was wrong with him at all, y'know, except for the pacemaker thing :) And again, he'll make a full recovery with no permanent damage or lasting effects from it.
Sooooo... yeah! I took the last few days off and will take tomorrow off, and his family's been great - his dad does night duty and sleeps during the day, and his mom and I have been staying with him during the day, and Matt's been by a lot, and Bri stopped by, and my parents and my sis & bro-in-law have been by...
I really can't think of a good way to end this post. There's no good closing!
Sooooo... yeah! I took the last few days off and will take tomorrow off, and his family's been great - his dad does night duty and sleeps during the day, and his mom and I have been staying with him during the day, and Matt's been by a lot, and Bri stopped by, and my parents and my sis & bro-in-law have been by...
I really can't think of a good way to end this post. There's no good closing!
News about my hubby
Hello! I just wanted to let everyone know that Jay apparently has Lyme Disease (they think) that manifested itself as some heart irregularities on Sunday. We took him to the ER ('cuz you don't want to mess with your heart!) after he said, "Sweetie, my heart feels funny." His pulse was very, very, very slow and his heart beats sounded very strange and not synched with is pulse. We showed up at the ER and Jay said, "I feel completely fine, but I guess my heart might be acting strange," or something. She took us right in. The initial nurse was confused by his pulse reading. It was about 20 beats per minute! People pass out at that rate! But he was feeling fine. Then the EKG guy showed up and thought the EKG machine was not working. Oh, but it was working - the EKG reading was just really strange. A bunch of cardiologists came in and were looking over his EKG readings. They told him he had a third-degree heart block - I guess that means the top part of his heart wasn't communicating with the bottom part of his heart, and the two parts were just beating on their own without any rhythm. They said, "It's a really good sign that you're still alert and talking to us! We'll just leave it at that!" Which kind of freaked us out.
Long story short, they had to put him on a temporary pacemaker to keep his heart beating normally, which means they put a wire down through a vein in his neck that rests on his heart that shoots out electric signals to tell his heart to beat. So he's still over in the intensive care unit at Framingham Union (or MetroWest Medical Center, whichever you prefer) and will most likely be there for most of the week. He's on antibiotics for the Lyme Disease, and his heart should be getting back to normal within a few days hopefully. There won't be any lasting damage done or anything - it's completely transient.
The Lyme Disease would totally explain why Jay's been feeling so strange for the past month! We attributed it to the strong headache medicine he took a few weeks back which made him feel woozy, then he got a rash, then all his extremities ached in strange ways, and he's been feeling tired and run down lately. But it's great they caught it now and can treat him. I'll keep you posted as to his status in the next few days. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, everyone!
Long story short, they had to put him on a temporary pacemaker to keep his heart beating normally, which means they put a wire down through a vein in his neck that rests on his heart that shoots out electric signals to tell his heart to beat. So he's still over in the intensive care unit at Framingham Union (or MetroWest Medical Center, whichever you prefer) and will most likely be there for most of the week. He's on antibiotics for the Lyme Disease, and his heart should be getting back to normal within a few days hopefully. There won't be any lasting damage done or anything - it's completely transient.
The Lyme Disease would totally explain why Jay's been feeling so strange for the past month! We attributed it to the strong headache medicine he took a few weeks back which made him feel woozy, then he got a rash, then all his extremities ached in strange ways, and he's been feeling tired and run down lately. But it's great they caught it now and can treat him. I'll keep you posted as to his status in the next few days. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, everyone!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
So much stuff to do
It's been over a week, I think, since I've posted, and I would have posted something, but we've just been enjoying the outdoors too much last weekend and this that I haven't had the time to sit and edit pictures and write stuff. So here goes:
Last weekend (fourth of July weekend) was lots of fun - we saw a homemade fireworks show at a lake in Framingham, we swam and kayaked with Abe at the state park, we hung out with friends, we saw Superman Returns, we disc golfed...
So I got a good shot in from around two trees and made it right in the basket. I'm not good at disc golfing, but it is a fun outdoor thing, and I was pretty happy when I heard the chains clinking after I chucked it with wild abandon around trees. I actually bought two discs for myself this past weekend - so exciting!
Jay one-upped me (he likes to play one-uppie, apparently) with a great shot this weekend - it was over a mountain and through trees to a basket hanging from under a tree. He doesn't look nearly as excited as I was, but that's Jay's style. Understated.
And we had Cuddy over and went to the carnival right over a the high school parking lot! It was a lame carnival as carnivals go, but hey, I gotta get any carnival action I can get.
Cuddy made Jay an ice cream pie. Deliciousness, and I don't even like desserts all that much.
I like this picture because everyone in it has a silly face.
And today Jay's parents came over and we kayaked and swam again over at the state park, and then we went over to Prezo in Milford, which, I'm convinced, is the best restaurant ever.
I have to get up for work, so I'm going to bed, otherwise I'd write more.
Last weekend (fourth of July weekend) was lots of fun - we saw a homemade fireworks show at a lake in Framingham, we swam and kayaked with Abe at the state park, we hung out with friends, we saw Superman Returns, we disc golfed...
So I got a good shot in from around two trees and made it right in the basket. I'm not good at disc golfing, but it is a fun outdoor thing, and I was pretty happy when I heard the chains clinking after I chucked it with wild abandon around trees. I actually bought two discs for myself this past weekend - so exciting!
Jay one-upped me (he likes to play one-uppie, apparently) with a great shot this weekend - it was over a mountain and through trees to a basket hanging from under a tree. He doesn't look nearly as excited as I was, but that's Jay's style. Understated.
And we had Cuddy over and went to the carnival right over a the high school parking lot! It was a lame carnival as carnivals go, but hey, I gotta get any carnival action I can get.
Cuddy made Jay an ice cream pie. Deliciousness, and I don't even like desserts all that much.
I like this picture because everyone in it has a silly face.
And today Jay's parents came over and we kayaked and swam again over at the state park, and then we went over to Prezo in Milford, which, I'm convinced, is the best restaurant ever.
I have to get up for work, so I'm going to bed, otherwise I'd write more.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Reviewing old posts
I just spent about 20 minutes revisiting old posts from the infancy of indianspring.blogspot.com. Some made me laugh, some I skipped over, but it's funny because most of the posts in the first two or so months actually had to do with our new house (hence I named it indianspring.blogspot.com). After we stopped doing much work on the house, I started posting about other stuff, which, you know, can be exciting and all. But it was fun to look back on when we moved in and the days before we actually had set a wedding date.
So reading those made me want to post more about what's been going on here at Indian Spring Road. Today Jay did some yard work - he mowed the front lawn and backyard. We were worried about the look of our front lawn because we don't know what we're doing when it comes to having a nice lawn, and the entire springtime consisted of a semi-bare lawn. But recently some new grass started growing. It's a different color green than the rest of the lawn, but hey, it's freakin' grass, so shut your pie-hole, neighbors! (Okay, our neighbors haven't actually said anything about our not-perfect lawn, I'm just paranoid that they've been thinking it.) I tried to use hedge trimmers/clipper/shears things to trim the jungle that's become the shrubs in front of our house. I let them get so out of control that when I trimmed them to what they actually should be trimmed to, there ended up being stumps in the bushes. It'll grow in...
We also took a really nice swim over at the state park. It's definitely the highlight of living here, being so close to Ashland State Park. We just walk on over with our noodles, float around for a while, and walk on home. Some people are scared of swimming in lakes and/or ponds, but man, the water is so refreshing, there's not a lot of people swimming in the places that weren't built as a beach, and it's so closeby!
Tomorrow we're going out to central Mass. to have a BBQ with my fam. My sister and her husband are building a house on the land that they live on now (they've been living in a purple mobile home for a while), so we'll get to see the foundation and beginnings of framing they have so far. And we'll get to see my nephew, who's so adorable. Maybe we'll even get home in time to see some fireworks somewhere!
I hope everyone has a safe fourth!
So reading those made me want to post more about what's been going on here at Indian Spring Road. Today Jay did some yard work - he mowed the front lawn and backyard. We were worried about the look of our front lawn because we don't know what we're doing when it comes to having a nice lawn, and the entire springtime consisted of a semi-bare lawn. But recently some new grass started growing. It's a different color green than the rest of the lawn, but hey, it's freakin' grass, so shut your pie-hole, neighbors! (Okay, our neighbors haven't actually said anything about our not-perfect lawn, I'm just paranoid that they've been thinking it.) I tried to use hedge trimmers/clipper/shears things to trim the jungle that's become the shrubs in front of our house. I let them get so out of control that when I trimmed them to what they actually should be trimmed to, there ended up being stumps in the bushes. It'll grow in...
We also took a really nice swim over at the state park. It's definitely the highlight of living here, being so close to Ashland State Park. We just walk on over with our noodles, float around for a while, and walk on home. Some people are scared of swimming in lakes and/or ponds, but man, the water is so refreshing, there's not a lot of people swimming in the places that weren't built as a beach, and it's so closeby!
Tomorrow we're going out to central Mass. to have a BBQ with my fam. My sister and her husband are building a house on the land that they live on now (they've been living in a purple mobile home for a while), so we'll get to see the foundation and beginnings of framing they have so far. And we'll get to see my nephew, who's so adorable. Maybe we'll even get home in time to see some fireworks somewhere!
I hope everyone has a safe fourth!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
B-ball Hall of Fame
This past weekend we went to the Basketball Hall of Fame. I will possibly post pictures later, I'm too lazy to right now. It was lots of fun! I'm not nearly as huge a basketball fan as Jay is. Heck, I'm not really much of a basketball fan, at that. But it was cool seeing the history of the sport. I really like all the old stuff they have, like really cool old uniforms and old scoreboards and old basketballs that look like footballs. It's a neat place, if you're at all interested in the sport, and I know Jay really enjoys it.
Then we tried to find a place to grab a bite to eat. We came upon places that I would link to, but I don't want to dirtify your computer. There was a place called "Mardi Gras Gentlemen's Club" whose tagline was "the most beautiful women in the world!" and a place called "Sin City." I don't think I need to say anything else. Needless to say, we went back to eat at the Uno's right next to the Hall of Fame. But hey, if anyone needs a destination for a bachelor party, go to Springfield!
Here's some pics!
me with an old-school Celtics jersey - I think it's made of itchy wool... ouch
Jay tossing the ball into the original basket - a peach basket!
My favorite jersey of all time... the rainbow Nuggets jersey
Jay can jump 9 feet plus! What a man!
I snuck under Bird's arm. Smelly.
Jay loves him.
I tried jumping high, too... could only get to 7 feet... sort of... the kid that kept egging us on helped out immensely.
Then we tried to find a place to grab a bite to eat. We came upon places that I would link to, but I don't want to dirtify your computer. There was a place called "Mardi Gras Gentlemen's Club" whose tagline was "the most beautiful women in the world!" and a place called "Sin City." I don't think I need to say anything else. Needless to say, we went back to eat at the Uno's right next to the Hall of Fame. But hey, if anyone needs a destination for a bachelor party, go to Springfield!
Here's some pics!
me with an old-school Celtics jersey - I think it's made of itchy wool... ouch
Jay tossing the ball into the original basket - a peach basket!
My favorite jersey of all time... the rainbow Nuggets jersey
Jay can jump 9 feet plus! What a man!
I snuck under Bird's arm. Smelly.
Jay loves him.
I tried jumping high, too... could only get to 7 feet... sort of... the kid that kept egging us on helped out immensely.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Town of Ashland trash talkin'
Well, we now have to pay a lot of money to get rid of our trash. Last year the town started charging us a fee per year for trash pickup. Okay, property taxes aren't paying for it anymore... we can deal. Now they are rolling in a new "You Throw Away You Pay" campaign where you have to buy official Town of Ashland trash bags, and they'll ONLY pick those up, along with paying the flat yearly fee.
Pretty handsome, eh? Here's the prices of the bags:
- 14-gallon bags: $3.75 for five bags
- 33-gallon bags: $6.50 for five bags.
Bucka-wha?? Are you shitting me?? Seventy-five cents per bag for the small ones or a buck thirty per bag for the 33-gallon bags! Plus whatever we pay for the yearly trash fee, which I don't even pay attention to because it kind of makes me angry. I pay, I just don't pay attention.
What makes it worse is that we just bought a 90-bag box of trash bags.
I think we used about 5 so far. So we have 85 big black trash bags. Anyone interested? They should have a trash-bag buyback program like they do in Boston for guns. For every 100 trash bags you get a $50 gift certificate to Target. But don't use it on trash bags.
When I went to buy the brightly-hued bags yesterday, the kid at CVS was getting all pissed. He's like, "These are so ridiculously overpriced! We don't get anything for even selling these things! And now we can't even sell regular trash bags!" I was like, "Dude, I know!"
So last night as I prepared dinner, I would walk to throw something out, I saw the bright orange glaring at me, and I thought, Crap, if I throw this away, that's like throwing away .04 cents. So I put all the veggie scraps in a plastic bag, started using a dish towel instead of paper towels for drying off veggies and stuff, and started searching random packaging for the recycling symbol. I think I spent 4 minutes searching on an empty bag of burrito tortillas for a recycling symbol. I didn't find one. They'll now pick up recycling once a week instead of biweekly. And man, we were never good at staying on top of recycling, but now we have to really try hard.
You know, it's weird, we spend money pretty liberally when we go grocery shopping or when we go out to eat, so it's weird that I'm so anal about scrimping and saving money on trash pickup! It comes down to very little money in the long run, but I guess it really is working because I can't stop thinking about how to start composting and how we'll keep on top of recycling everything! So good job, Ashland, for making me obsessed! High five!
Pretty handsome, eh? Here's the prices of the bags:
- 14-gallon bags: $3.75 for five bags
- 33-gallon bags: $6.50 for five bags.
Bucka-wha?? Are you shitting me?? Seventy-five cents per bag for the small ones or a buck thirty per bag for the 33-gallon bags! Plus whatever we pay for the yearly trash fee, which I don't even pay attention to because it kind of makes me angry. I pay, I just don't pay attention.
What makes it worse is that we just bought a 90-bag box of trash bags.
I think we used about 5 so far. So we have 85 big black trash bags. Anyone interested? They should have a trash-bag buyback program like they do in Boston for guns. For every 100 trash bags you get a $50 gift certificate to Target. But don't use it on trash bags.
When I went to buy the brightly-hued bags yesterday, the kid at CVS was getting all pissed. He's like, "These are so ridiculously overpriced! We don't get anything for even selling these things! And now we can't even sell regular trash bags!" I was like, "Dude, I know!"
So last night as I prepared dinner, I would walk to throw something out, I saw the bright orange glaring at me, and I thought, Crap, if I throw this away, that's like throwing away .04 cents. So I put all the veggie scraps in a plastic bag, started using a dish towel instead of paper towels for drying off veggies and stuff, and started searching random packaging for the recycling symbol. I think I spent 4 minutes searching on an empty bag of burrito tortillas for a recycling symbol. I didn't find one. They'll now pick up recycling once a week instead of biweekly. And man, we were never good at staying on top of recycling, but now we have to really try hard.
You know, it's weird, we spend money pretty liberally when we go grocery shopping or when we go out to eat, so it's weird that I'm so anal about scrimping and saving money on trash pickup! It comes down to very little money in the long run, but I guess it really is working because I can't stop thinking about how to start composting and how we'll keep on top of recycling everything! So good job, Ashland, for making me obsessed! High five!
Friday, June 23, 2006
Boring post!
Hi. I don't have much to say, but I thought I'd blog a bit and say hi. Went out for drinks last night with Dennis. Good to see you. I had a dream last night about a hot dog in 3D made in Illustrator. Weird. We might be looking into buying a new/used car soon, as Jay's car is a piece of poop and we don't like it and it needs lots of new things and the 'check engine' light will never, ever go off. Ever. I woke up with a bad song in my head. "Ride, Captain ride, upon your mystery ship..." That's the only lyrics I know, but the tune is damn near burned into my brain. I'll try to get the "Reading Rainbow" song in my head. Ah, much better...
UPDATE THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER: Now I have "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" stuck in my head. Don't know why. Oh, Audrey Hepburn/Julie Andrews...
UPDATE THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER: Now I have "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" stuck in my head. Don't know why. Oh, Audrey Hepburn/Julie Andrews...
Saturday, June 17, 2006
It's sure gonna be a hot one!
I think I know the key to successful blogging. I define successful blogging as a blog that your friends and family enjoy visiting every day and that elicits insightful discussion amongst them. I'm sure, you know, those "other" kinds of blogs (like the political ones, ones with commentary on, what, world news and such) have completely different criteria, but I'm just talking about little old blogs like mine or Pat and Kate's or Dennis's.
The key(s) is/are: (1) To post about something not too personal, but something lots of people can relate to, like a movie you've just seen; (2) To stick to that one point and not go off on a tangent; (3) Links help, just 'cause they're fun!
I don't follow these three criteria, and for that, I apologize. I tend to just post about what Jay and I have been up to, and I don't post all that often, so my posts tend to cram a bunch of info in with no theme throughout. But hey, that's the way I work, so deal.
CASE IN POINT: Jay got back from his Bailey Boys Weekend and was sick with the same thing I had. We both spent the rest of the week recovering. We're slowly getting back to 100 percent, but we're still not there yet.
We ALMOST flooded with all the rain that's been coming down, but no water actually came into the basement. The cement covering the sewer pipe just got very damp and wet.
Last night we went to Blockbuster and rented Grizzly Man, a documentary that takes the footage of a psuedo-bear expert who lived with grizzly bears in Alaska for 13 summers and edits it into a documentary about the guy - the guy and his girlfriend were mauled and killed by a bear. That's the kicker. We thought it was a really good movie - it's a fascinating look at a man that's a bit delusional but with good intentions, and you kind of get mad at him for being such an idealist and having such delusions about nature, but he's not such a bad guy - he just really, really loves animals, but still, nature is nature and you can't think wild animals actually have human feelings, because hell, they'll kill you if they're hungry.
And today we're going disc golfing, I think. I'm very proud to say that we planned ahead and bought beer yesterday - ah, planning for the future! The earmark of human evolution! Not sure what's going on for the rest of the weekend, with Father's Day and all... I know we'll be putting in the AC soon, though, since it's going to be super muggy and hot.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Monday, June 12, 2006
Fever all through the night
Dammit, I'm sick! I woke up this morning with a sore throat (thought it was because I left the fan on low even though I hate the fan, but Jay sleeps with it on so now I find the sound comforting), but my sore throat wouldn't go away. Then I got a headache, then body aches, and now I just feel icky. I haven't been sick in a really long time (except for when I got cold sores, but that wasn't really sickness, that was just grossness). I'm not used to it. I bought myself some chicken noodle soup from Friendly's, which is my favorite kind. I know, it's Friendly's, you wouldn't think it's good, but boy, is it ever. Try it next time you're sick. So I'm just going to chill out with the pup tonight on the couch, maybe watch some TV, and hit the sack early.
On a side note, I found my glasses! They were lost in the house for a few weeks. They had fallen into a storage box that Jay put downstairs. I know this is real important stuff, guys.
Another side note: here's a pic of babies. Jackson (my mom's cousin's daughter's son - whew!), Mason (my nephew - he's the cutest!), and Matthew (my mom's cousin's daughter's son [not the same cousin]). Mason's only a month older than Matthew, and he's so much bigger.
On a side note, I found my glasses! They were lost in the house for a few weeks. They had fallen into a storage box that Jay put downstairs. I know this is real important stuff, guys.
Another side note: here's a pic of babies. Jackson (my mom's cousin's daughter's son - whew!), Mason (my nephew - he's the cutest!), and Matthew (my mom's cousin's daughter's son [not the same cousin]). Mason's only a month older than Matthew, and he's so much bigger.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Comedy is funny
So Friday night, me, Jay, Erik, Matt, and Lisa went to see Cuddy in the Lowell Comedy Festival. A troupe that she's a part of, The City That Sleeps, performed upstairs at the Old Court. The first two groups, eh, mildly funny. But The City That Sleeps was hilarious - they did a mix of sketches and films, and it was very, very good stuff. If you go to their website, you can click on "Menino for President" at the bottom of the homepage and you can see a very funny film. They have other films up there, too.
We ended up going to Sangria's afterwards, always a great place for a cheap beer and some townie amusement. I love random mediocre bands that play at bars - I think they know about 14 chords, and you can play a lot of standard rock tunes with those chords. If I could sing, I could be in a mediocre townie band... oh, wait, those guys can't sing anyway, so I guess I COULD be in a mediocre townie band!
Anyway, we decided to trot around Lowell in the rain trying to figure out what to do next. Jay, Erik, and I ended up over at Cobblestones for the afterparty. Jay made friends with a nice townie lady with 4 teeth named Kathy whose husband had fallen asleep so she snuck out to go drinking. My kinda lady. We hung around there for a few beers, and then ended up at the hotel where the performers were staying at. Cuddy was kind enough to let me and Jay crash in her hotel room. We stayed up very late and Cuddy had to get up early to get her hair done in Framingham.
And today Jay left super early this morning to go on his annual Bailey Boys Weekend, a.k.a. Father/Son Weekend (I prefer the former, only because the latter sounds a little like a Hallmark card). We spent last night preparing delicious foods for his trip, packing up a bunch of stuff, and doing laundry. Quality time! He'll be gone until Tuesday. They go up to Warren Island in Maine. They kayak out then sleep in hammocks. Sounds good to me! I guess they have prisoners chop firewood there, so there's tons and tons of free firewood you can use. I smell bonfire.
Today I get to go to my mom's cousin's daughter's baby's christening. (?) I have a very large family, and some of these people I don't really know, and my mom's cousin's daughter is one of those people. I went to the baby shower, so I guess I should go to the christening. Then later on I'm going back to my hometown to visit Laura who's home from Chicago, and she's having a little BBQ at her parents house. Should be a good day.
The weather's beautiful! Everyone should stop reading this post and go outside and do something! I mowed the lawn this morning! Fun shit, man!!
We ended up going to Sangria's afterwards, always a great place for a cheap beer and some townie amusement. I love random mediocre bands that play at bars - I think they know about 14 chords, and you can play a lot of standard rock tunes with those chords. If I could sing, I could be in a mediocre townie band... oh, wait, those guys can't sing anyway, so I guess I COULD be in a mediocre townie band!
Anyway, we decided to trot around Lowell in the rain trying to figure out what to do next. Jay, Erik, and I ended up over at Cobblestones for the afterparty. Jay made friends with a nice townie lady with 4 teeth named Kathy whose husband had fallen asleep so she snuck out to go drinking. My kinda lady. We hung around there for a few beers, and then ended up at the hotel where the performers were staying at. Cuddy was kind enough to let me and Jay crash in her hotel room. We stayed up very late and Cuddy had to get up early to get her hair done in Framingham.
And today Jay left super early this morning to go on his annual Bailey Boys Weekend, a.k.a. Father/Son Weekend (I prefer the former, only because the latter sounds a little like a Hallmark card). We spent last night preparing delicious foods for his trip, packing up a bunch of stuff, and doing laundry. Quality time! He'll be gone until Tuesday. They go up to Warren Island in Maine. They kayak out then sleep in hammocks. Sounds good to me! I guess they have prisoners chop firewood there, so there's tons and tons of free firewood you can use. I smell bonfire.
Today I get to go to my mom's cousin's daughter's baby's christening. (?) I have a very large family, and some of these people I don't really know, and my mom's cousin's daughter is one of those people. I went to the baby shower, so I guess I should go to the christening. Then later on I'm going back to my hometown to visit Laura who's home from Chicago, and she's having a little BBQ at her parents house. Should be a good day.
The weather's beautiful! Everyone should stop reading this post and go outside and do something! I mowed the lawn this morning! Fun shit, man!!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Lowell Comedy Festival
Details are mildly sketchy, but from what I can gather, the specific show that Cuddy's going to be in is actually at 9:30, but she's part of a bigger group of people that begin performing at 8:00. I think we'll probably try to be there for the show starting at 8:00.
Click here for some details. It'll be fun!
Click here for some details. It'll be fun!
Cuddy's funny
Cuddy has a comedy show tomorrow night in Lowell at the Lowell Comedy Festival. Anyone want to go? I'll post more about it tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)