The week was pretty quiet this time around. We made a cake, spent some time organizing the basement storage better, tried to learn about u-pick places in the area, enjoyed the cooler (though wet) weather, and avoided a funeral.
The cake was just because. read more »
It was my birthday this week. Thanks to all of you who sent me wishes, etc. Rebecca had a few nice suprises, but things were mostly quiet. Paela enjoyed tearing the paper off and looking in the packages for me.
I was even able to babysit for some neighbor's kids for the afternoon while I worked on my syllabus. I am trying to compile materials for teaching this class at the CC. They have given me some liberty in how I teach the class, as long as I am able to teach the skill set they want students to learn. read more »
You know we've been busy when we skip a week writing. Last week we went to Austin to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and to go to his baptism. It was a good visit and we're glad we were able to be there. We decided to make it a decent length trip, too, since we aren't expecting to want to travel this year for Christmas.
But before that, we spent time preparing for the trip. Prep time didn't take as much effort as we normally need for a Christmas visit. Packing was faster and more condensed. Plus, we had a direct flight this time (yay!) so we didn't need as many things for Paela to survive the traveling, either. There were a couple of complications to spice things up before the trip though. read more »
Paela doesn't like her nap schedule. A few days she has sat in her bed for the hour and a half during nap time, without saying a word. But other days, she lets us know she isn't sleeping and we try to put her down for a nap at 1. I didn't realize that kids changed their nap times again, but she's re-adjusting.
Camilla seems to have come over one day during the week and Paela and I went there one day. We had a BBQ on Saturday with a failed attempt at getting a waterslide. Eventually we crashed a hotel swimming pool, but it took a bit of inventive thinking to reach that point.
I guess Camilla also babysat for us one evening so we could go watch Harry Potter. The exciting bit of news was receiving a window air conditioner from freecycle. After we got that, we mostly stayed indoors to stay cool. Paela enjoys her story time at the libraries we hop to. And really, it was a slow week.
We spent much of the week planning our weekend trip. We had a good time in NYC, our second time in the city, though we could have used more time. We'll have to go again soon!
We were able to visit with my friend, Holly, before she moves to the other side of the country. She was an excellent source of information of all sorts and introduced us to a fabulous Dominican restaurant just across the street from her apartment. She even humored us by coming along to some of the museums we wanted to see. read more »
They promised us rain. The heat usually brings rain because the humidity escalates to a point where it develops into rain, which materializes in mid-air. Every morning, I would check the weather for when the rain would come, and every day they pushed it back more and more. Boston's weather forecasts change every other hour or so. But the rain never came, until Friday night when we were camping in Cape Cod. read more »
Well, Wayne probably ought to write this email, since he and Paela were the busy bumblebees this week. I just did the work thing during the day and hung out with the two of them in the evenings!
Sunday, Ian Davis and Betsy brought their kids over to play and hang out. We had a good time with them, and they brought a deliciously decadent chocolate pie with them; we saved much of that for Tuesday so we could celebrate chocolate day in style. read more »
Martin was at a conference this week in New Hampshire, so Camilla and I took the quick drive across the border to visit him Tuesday afternoon. It would be nice to have more family live so close. We visited the beach of Lake Winnipesaukee. It was a nice area and perhaps we should visit more often, however Cape Cod is closer.
Paela enjoyed the cool weather, but especially the water she could wade in. Had we not stopped her, she would have surely gone deeper than she should have. read more »
We finished the bean bag couch! Well, I mean, it's not filled with beans, but with small pieces of scrap foam because it's cheaper and more comfy that way. Anyway, we'll take a picture later this week of it so we can post one next week. It is HUGE. I'm not kidding. Huge.
I had a couple of doctor checkups this week and otherwise finally felt like I got some "real" work done at work. I guess I'm feeling more in the groove with the pace and projects I have, so that's good. read more »
Rebecca found some clothes through craigslist, but they were in Salem. Lucky for us, Salem is about a 30-45 minute drive away. While we considered the merits of driving out to Salem for a pile of clothes, we reminded ourselves that the best restaurants and cutest stores are always in touristy towns. Those are the only places with enough active money flow to sustain interesting places which would go out of business in any other town. So we drove out to Salem on Saturday morning, primarily to pick up some clothes but also to visit some witch sites and walk through downtown. We met Camilla and Cameron for some seafood lunch, but then had to go home so I could write a talk for Father's Day. read more »
