Aaaaa-aah-ah-le-lu-oooh-jah.
I always think of Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean in church when we sing that hymn. He only knows the "Hallelujah" part and mutters through the verses where they're singing phrases, just to get to the "Hallelujah" and belt it out with a big confident smile on his face.
12:15pm
Anyway. Happy Easter to those observing. Doug is making spaghetti for lunch, and we're out of our "itchy church pants" as Homer would say. The Easter service today was very nice. Everyone was there, even us lay-a-beds who stay home more often than not. There was good cake and a great Easter egg hunt afterwards.
Now the rest of the day will be filled with lazing about, or possibly a geocache, but for now the kids are watching Harry Potter II and I've got the PC to myself while my husband makes the meal. Life is good y'all.
Last night my friend C came over with shoes from her sister, who is cleaning house and pitching stuff. A lot of the shoes are the right size but a tad too narrow for my British Royal Navy Gunboats. I'm not sure what I can use but Jessica laid claim to a pair. Check our girl out with her Easter Egg Green toes and her phat new kicks:
Great Googly Moogly. The child is 10 years old. She is 5' 4" tall. She's wearing these big ole shoes and now is officially as tall as her dad when she's on her risers. I told her to make sure she ducks when going through doorways so as not to bash her forehead in. My saints.
She was really cute today in her dress and fancy assed shoes. Everyone came up to her and said "Wow! look how tall you are!" Her reply was "I'm cheating," and she'd stick a foot out to the side to show off her feetsies. It was pretty funny. She had everyone convinced that between Christmas of this past year and today she'd grown 11 inches.
Here are some more Easter pictures for your enjoyment...
 |  |
| The bunny made her delivery, and the kids did find the bounty where it was hidden. | Let the wild rumps begin! Geoff is off to the races in this year's hunt. |
 |  |
| Oooooooh, precious candy and gooodies! | Geoff got some cool stickers, tattoos, and a nice wooden cross, which he poses with here. |
 | My kids are so cute. Geoff couldn't be more goofy, and Jessica, well, she looks too damn much like me for me to even deal with it. Creepy. |
Churchy people are sometimes... rather judgmental.
For instance, I suspected that a few of the ladies would raise an eyebrow that my son had on a black button down Polo dress shirt with no tie, olive dress pants, and sneakers.
But I don't give a crap. He stepped in dogshit the other day with his nice Timberland hiking shoes, and I don't have a tie for him. So shut up. He's in church giving thanks and praise. And isn't that the point?
My daughter? Green toes? Shut up. She's happy, she's having a good time, and she's comfortable. Praise God and do let's put the wrinkle out of the side of our nostril, shall we?
There was a woman sitting behind me, and don't get me wrong, I like her. She's really kind and very sweet, but she just makes these little snide comments to her husband all the time. Normally she attends the early service, but this Easter they decided to combine the 8am and 10am services so as to guarantee a full house and have a nice fully rounded Easter egg hunt for the kids. So she's sitting there, talking to the husband, and our good friends who live across the street come in, 10 minutes late.
Mind you, they live across the street, and they are 10 minutes late.
Scandal!
"Oh my," she whispers to hubbie, "Look at that. They live across the street and they STILL can't get here on time! I don't know how they do it..."
Uh, so what.
They're here.
God doesn't care if they're 45 minutes late. They came. They are here. Praise God for the fellowship of friends and believers, and be just as happy as He is that these folks are here, and read the Psalm already.
I almost said something to her... but, I probably won't see her again until Christmas, and why rankle? Right? Why just be a bitch.
And me even mentioning this in here is... pretty much the same thing as her snide comments, isn't it? Hang on, let me remove the plank from my eye before complaining about the speck in someone else's.
There.
5:15 pm
Relinquished the PC for someone to watch a DVD, watched Harry Potter II myself (enjoyed it, hated the spiders, still skeeved out) and took a nap.
Aaron and Michelle spent the night with us on Friday on their way to Connecticut. They'll be coming back here to do some more hanging out and having fun on Wednesday. Aaron's family lives about 2 hours south of here in Connecticut, so we make a good stop on the way. I guess that Aaron's dad is having some major surgery next Friday. He's having a steel rod inserted in his back to hold his spine up. So keep him in your prayers. A offered to come back down and stay for a while after his dad is out of surgery just to help out around the house, but it sounds like his folks are not committing to the idea. It must be scary to have that kind of surgery, it's pretty invasive. And it must be scary to have a friend or family member go through it. Meh!
We had a really fun time hanging out on Friday night, and it was a bummer to see them leave. I look forward to them returning already, and Geoff keeps asking "how many days???" until their return.
Yesterday we went down to see Gammy and my mom on the Cape. It takes about 2 to 2.5 hours to get there. It was nice to see them both, Gammy is in a great deal of pain, and my mom is ready to go home. She leaves Monday to go back... and I believe my aunt Carole is going to replace her in the hanging out and taking care of process.
I took my mom and Geoff out on a walk, Geoff was being a complete pill. Doug took a nap and I felt kind of abandoned. Gammy just wanted to watch TV, the novelty of having guests seemed to have worn off, and Jessica was working on a puzzle that my mom and aunt Bea started. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lovely walk... but just when I felt we were getting into it and started I could tell my mom was too cold and Geoff was not getting worn out enough but sort of jacked up by being out in the world, so we headed back to finish the visit and get going.
On the way down we got to enjoy the new traffic patterns in Boston, both South and North bound. The South bound traffic through the city now crosses over to the North bound side of I-93, so the South bound artery can be removed. The North bound highway has been "suppressed" underground, which is the plan ultimately that the Big Dig is trying to accomplish.
So we got to ride up through the new Liberty Tunnel in Boston, and I have to admit -- it was a let down.
I am not impressed with spending all my time underground.
I missed seeing the buildings, the lights, the sky, the scenery, Boston Harbor, and all the cultural, historical and industrial landmarks therein. I was very sad by the time we came up on the other side, and crossed over the Zakim Bridge. I thought my first time across the Zakim Bridge in Boston was going to be... joyous. I was mad.
I still am.
I think the project was essential. I think that the traffic in the city of Boston is astronomically horrendous, and that something had to be done.
But...
putting all the cars underground with only a couple exits to get out to the local surface roads... what a buzz kill if you are interested in looking at more than bricks and concrete, which, by the way, will all be filthy with exhaust haze in just a few months.
And,
one bad accident in the tunnel or at the foot of the bridge as traffic comes up and out and you know that whole four lanes of traffic is going to grind to a halt, with naught but two or three opportunities for people to bail and get out of the tunnel, which will of course flustercluck everything on the surface roads everywhere.
What they should have done is this --
Build the tunnels under the city for the "express" drivers who don't give a shit about looking at stuff and just want to get north of the city.
Design an equally impressive above ground alternative to replace the central artery for the "local" traffic.
Or, vice versa -- put the express above ground, and the local stuff below. Whatever.
Now we'll have a park named after a Kennedy, and that will be pretty I'm sure but... I'm still not impressed. I'm disappointed.
The only thing I see as a total benefit of this is the fact that the North End and the rest of the city will be reunited geographically. On foot, I'm never interested in crossing over from Fanieul Hall area to the North End or the Aquarium. The highway serves as some sort of mental barrier to me. And not just a mental barrier, it's an unsafe thoroughfare down all through there to try and go anyplace.
Now there will be a park and a safe way to get around. I'm looking forward to that. So there is a silver lining to my whiney cloud.
And Tess, when you come to Boston you can let me know what you think because I'll drive you all through it and show you what the Big Deal about the Big Dig is.
But, the great thing was that we were home in almost exactly 2 hours. Now if traffic on Rte 3 south to the Cape could be somewhat... adjusted..
No comments:
Post a Comment