Where is the summer going???

I have a million and a half pictures from our day yesterday. We left early. We stayed out late. It was fun. We went to Rockport, quite unexpectedly so apologies E.M. that I didn't give you a call or anything. We started the day out down in Beverly at Long Hill, a property belonging to the trustees of reservations. They have nice gardens. And my mother in law LOVES gardens. We didn't intend to go to Rockport... or Gloucester. But we did.

We have a tendency to like to go over to Newburyport or Portsmouth NH more when we have guests. I swear I haven't been to downtown Rockport in 10 years aside from a brief interview to do some bitchy art woman's webpage four years ago. It was winter. No one was there. I didn't even get a ticket when I parked in an expired meter and didn't have a coin to feed it with. I hate going to Rockport or Gloucester in the summer.

As much as I like the actual towns and what they have to offer, I hate the...

a) traffic
b) tourists
c) obscene prices for things I'd like to buy
d) parking situation
e) all of the above

They are nice places, honestly. I love to go to them and see them I just wish I wasn't one of 1,900,000,000 people there at that given second. The more time I spend not living on the north shore, the more I appreciate NOT being on the north shore. While it is nice to visit, I think my blood pressure would be astronomical if I actually had to deal with living in either of those two towns.

But I digress. Totally.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Long Hill, Trustees of the Reservations (follow the links to learn more about the beautiful places in this state you can visit...)

The garden gate - made of twisted branches. I loved this!	Geoff in front of the garden gate, with his far lookers and a map. He's gung ho!
They had three beautiful lotus ponds, four feet deep and still as glass. I love the way the clouds are reflected here, and the flowers were blooming so sweetly	The house has a huge wisteria growing up the back side, and it was just lovely. It is modeles after homes in Charleston SC., from the entries to the porches to the terraced gardens.
lace cap hydrangias. I hate hydrangias, but these were so beautiful. and while I admit to hating hydrangias, yes... i have a ton of them in my garden... don't ask me why.	Interesting bird hanging out in the garden...
Jessica takes advantage of meditation time by the lotus pool	Geoff on the "wobblyboard" bench. The kids could have stayed here all damn day if we didn't drag them off.
Geoff met one of the staff members, John, who is studying botany in college. John was very intriguing to Geoff, and Geoff followed him around asking him questions.	John asked Geoff to help him use a tool to pull up saplings growing up in the garden. Geoff was more than happy to oblige...

Essex, Rockport, Gloucester

The Salt Marsh from Farnham's parkinglot while we discussed where we were going.	Motif 1 in Rockport, with "The Formidable" very small tall ship by its side.
Door florals... very lovely. There was a lot of lovely gardening happening on the Streets of Rockport...	View from the Backside of the Teddy Bear Inn
Too damn cute. I vomited. Thanks. Kidding.	Dude was WAY too into lighthouses, I could tell. He was enthralled by the fishermen pulling the catch of the day up onto trucks...
Beautiful view of the little harbor of Rockport.	This dog cracked my shit right up. He hopped right up on that post and sat there like that while his owners went in and bought fudge. Holy crap I laughed.
	"Once had a love, but it was a gas. Then turned out, had a house of glass..." "Uh, no Blondie, try the lyric HEART of glass there, see if it works better... take nine hundred, thirty two..."
Sunset at St. Peter's Square in Gloucester... and Jessica at the St. Peter's Square Buoy.

---

Today we spent a lot of time hanging out here, and then had to go up to get Geoff's glasses reshaped and relensed, he wrenched them and a lens popped out. While we were at it, we did a geocache in Windham, NH called "Deer Leap."

I'm pictured here with a giant crow's feather in my ponytail. It was in our backyard... and we brought it for the cache, only it was too big to fit in the box, so I carried it with me the rest of the day.

It was fun taking my inlaws, much more fun than I thought it would be ... it was an easy hike, and they love the outdoors but I don't think they get out into it too deeply often enough. It was a very easy geocache, and my mother in law impressed me with her sense of humor, one of the biggest things I love about her. Geoff was in awesome form today, behaved pretty damn well, and showed them the way on the hike... he is such the trooper.

We had a lovely barbecue dinner with fresh corn from a farmstand in New Hampshire. I'm ready for bed, and should go be more sociable. They're watching the Black Adder movie that Doug got me for my birthday. It's the one where he travels through time. My favorite part is when he beats up Shakespeare and yells at him "this is for every high school student ever who had to study your horrible plays," and kicks him saying "this is for Kenneth Brannagh's version of Hamlet." Hugh Laurie is in it of course, and he's genius. I love him.

Rupa got after me the other day saying I should write more about stuff that I think, rather than the day to day activities. She has a point. It being summer, and me being willing to act crazy and run around with feathers sticking out of my head, I have kept things rather light. I'll think of something weighty to write about opinion wise, and post something eventually. I could do a whole tirade on dog crap, hence the picture at the very top of the page today, because I have serious issues about people leaving dogshit on sidewalks... I've talked about it before in the Marblehead memories of my crazy psychologically imbalanced former neighbor. So I'll come up with something Rupa, I promise!

Drywallfest 2002

Haven't had the opportunity to write in the past few days. Sunday was Drywallfest 2002, a holiday that you can mark on your calendars and celebrate each year from henceforth.

I slept in (much to the consternation of my husband, and suffered the resulting taunts of his opinion on the fact...) and we started around noon. Doug had decided that he and Jessica would hold up the drywall to the ceiling, and I would run around and screw in the screws. Sounds easy, eh? No fucking way. The plan was not quite perfect, and I suggested he cut the panels in half, which he did after long and careful consideration. Jessica, while completely willing, was totally unable to hold up her end of the deal. I have to give her mad props and heavy thanks for her willingness, but I concede that she just doesn't have the upper arm strength to hold up a ceiling. Not that I totally expected she would... but she tried

Once he measured and cut, we got the first part of the livingroom done in about 2 hours, with very little swearing on his part. I was very proud of him.

We trucked along until close to 5:30pm when I decided to run to the beer store before they closed (Sundays in Massachusetts mean you go get beer before 6pm).

We stuck one more panel up and called it a day. We're two thirds done with the livingroom/diningroom area, and just have the kitchen to focus on now.

Huzzah! We have a ceiling!!!!!

Monday I worked down at the college with the media group... it was a long full day. I spent a little time with Ben, sorted out some info on FTP account information for both the faculty members I'm working for this summer, and spent about a half hour with my Rupa.

A productive day all told, but I still had a lot of work to do. I took a trip to Wal*Mart on my way home to get new shower curtains and bathmats for both bathrooms in anticipation of my in-law's arrival.

We were anticipating them around 8pm. They got here at 6... I had just mopped, did the floors, the dishes, and put up the shower curtains and other little doo dads. I was in the process of starting to sort through the crap on top of the dining table so we all had a place to sit and feast while they were here... and boom. There they are. Aw crap!!!

So I hurriedly cleared off the dining table, throwing everything in boxes, trash or keeps, it's all in my bedroom waiting for me to sort through it now. And Doug was marinating lamb and starting the grill. They hadn't stopped to eat dinner, the way we thought they were going to, so they were hungry... good thing we had a huge lamb leg and lots of kebab sticks! Doug grilled up a wicked excellent dinner, with zucchini and summer squash from our garden (the cherry tomatoes aren't ready yet, bummer!) and we sat down to a huge candlelight dinner with the kids and grandparents. It was really nice!

Last night I took Kinger out and went to the basement to move laundry around. Kinger got fixated on something up by the road so I went up to see what was there.

There was a little owl sitting IN the road, right in the middle of the lane. It was late, around 11pm almost, so not a soul was driving past... I ran in the house to get Doug and put Kinger back inside. I didn't want him going after the owl if it was sick or injured. Kinger's not that way though. He's usually curious and scared, not a natural hunter or anything. Doug and his parents and Jessica came out to check it out, and I grabbed a flashlight. It sat there staring at us, and when Doug started to approach it, it took off into the trees across the street and I immediately kicked myself for not having the camera. Finally, something wicked cool and interesting happening right in front of my house and all I have are pictures of friggin' drywall to show you. And this picture of Jess and Megan with their puppies. Megan's mom is a golden retriever breeder and shower. So Megan just got a new puppy and will be showing her when she's older and trained. Her name is Star and she's 10 weeks old. Jack sure liked her... they had a great time together, and now both girls can play and walk their puppies together!

Alright. I've got to get back to being social. Entries will be few and far between these next few days as we go out and play and see the region with our visitors. But I'll do my best to say hello once in a while, because Linda is bored at work and needs something to read.

A day with Cateringman

Well, never drink four mai tais the night before you have to work for Cateringman. That's my advice to you. I should have heeded it myself. Doug made two pitchers of scorpion style mai tais and kicked my ass with them. Then the alarm didn't go off... honest. It didn't. I woke up 15 minutes before I was supposed to be to work. Luckily I have a 3 minute commute to Cateringman's secret lair. Five if you count stopping for coffee.

I anticipated working until noon.

One guy showed up but said his back was killing him, he doesn't take any medication or anything for pain (medication is for wimps I guess) so he begged off and left, doubled over. Medication may be for wimps, but slipping out after an hour of work is not. Another kid, Robbie, was supposed to work, but pulled an all night sleep over festival thing with his graduating class at the swim club where he works... so he brought in the leftovers from the breakfast he made the 100 or so kids who were there, and had to leave to go back and work at the swim club cleaning up from the all nighter.

So we were two people short right off the bat, and it wasn't even 8:30. The other guy Chris and I worked as hard as we could, and were still ragingly behind. Cateringman was a tad sharp at times, but handled the situation as it was. The first of the two events of the day was his event... and he should have been there at 2:30 pm. It was 3:15 and we were packing the truck up to go. He asked me if I could come to the job and help unload and do prep.

Seeing as I was into it for 3 1/4 hours more than I'd planned, I called Doug. Doug was none too pleased with me, but told me to do what was needed. Cateringman almost kissed my feet. I went with him to the wedding, and Saints Be Praised the bridal party wasn't there yet... They should have been, but there was a snafu with their limo driver. He didn't pick the bride up. He was lost, couldn't find her, didn't have the right phone... didn't know where the reception was so he couldn't call to inquire as to her number... finally he got there, 30 minutes AFTER the wedding was supposed to start. And the wedding was an additional 30 minutes from her home.

Had I been the bride I'd have driven myself instead of hanging around waiting... but. Hey. That's just me. So our arriving an hour late had no impact. Whew!

I did strawberries dipped in chocolate there at the site, a tedious job but it looks the SHIT and a half when it is done, yo. Damn I'm good! I made about 30 extra... because I had the chocolate. And the whole time Cateringman praised me for helping out.

Feels good to have my ass kissed once in a while. Plus, I made $2 more an hour because I was on the job... that's how he does things. So I got paid $15 an hour to dip strawberries and make friends.

The reception location was Searles Castle in Windham, NH. I'd never been there, and was really impressed with the place. I'm constantly amazed at all the new things I learn about this area. I thought I knew all the good shit.

Searles Castle belongs to the Sisters of Mercy, I guess. And they used to just rent the place out and your caterer had to supply all the trimmings... tent, tables, etc..., and they didn't do weddings because it was a pain in the butt to the Sisters.

One day last year they contacted a guy who was retiring from his own catering business and asked him if he would be interested in running the rental program. They needed the income, but they were burned out. He agreed, but on one condition -- they do weddings. He did a ton of exterior work to the castle, invested in a wicked nice tent, all the plates and silverware, and has done an amazing job updating the facility. He redid both kitchens with all new appliances, and it is so nice. What a treat to go there and work!

So, if you're looking for a wedding reception location, hook yourself up to Searles Castle (and then email me and I'll tell you who Cateringman is... he's awesome!)

The funniest thing about today is that Cateringman's business partner is a BIG Barry Manilow fan (no, he isn't gay, or closeted. He likes Barry, and he likes women... especially if they like Barry). So today he brought in two Barry CDs to listen to, much to Chris' chagrin.

Today is Chris' 23rd birthday... and the last thing he wanted to do is listen to Barry Manilow all day.

Scary thing is, I knew all the words to all the songs he writes to make the young girls cry... I'm ashamed. And I frightened him to death by singing along."I'm closer to their age than YOUR age, Chris!" I told him.

"No you aren't!" Uh, yes I am. They're close to 50, I'm going to be 36. You're 23... So I'm sort of in the middle, but for sure closer to them than you. Dude. Even though I talk a good game and know all the bands he likes, I don't listen to most of them (except Rush. He's a HUGE Rush fan and went to see them last night for his birthday... lucky ass). So now I've got "It's a Miracle" stuck in my head. And I feel like breaking out into a dance and singing it out loud.

Chris also thought "I Made It Through The Rain" was a big gay solidarity, self-esteem anthem. I had never thought of it that way before... but listening to it for the first time in about 15 years I guess it is:

"I made it through the rain, I kept my world protected
I made it through the rain, I kept my point of view
I made it through the rain, And found myself respected
By the others who
Got rained on too
And made it through!"

So we ragged a lot on Barry. And on Cateringman for liking Barry so much.

Funny part of it is, I'm sitting there making tortilini skewers, and "Can't Smile Without You" invariably brings me back to High School, or Junior High I should say, when I became friends with Rob Knoeppel. We would sing that to each other all the time, and laugh and laugh... we were SO close through high school, and that was kind of the song for us (that and "Heartache Tonight" by the Eagles... but that is a whole other story...). When Rob ever gets married, I'm going to his wedding, and I'm dancing with him to THAT song. No one else can.

So I'm missing Rob so much today. I think I'll give him a call.

Well... I have to deal with the kids I guess, and make dinner or something. Doug is napping. We should be hanging sheetrock on the ceiling, but my day was just a tad crazy. I would like to hang a couple sheets tonight, get the centers up, and then figure out what to do with the rest. I need to play with Jack because I missed him today. And Geoff is craving some attention. Jessica's being mean to him (as usual) so he needs some mom time.

Toodles.

Holy Flerkin' Schnit.

Got email today from my buddy Chad, who used to rent our upstairs apartment and we've know him and his wife for just SO long... and they had a pleasant piece of news.

We already knew he and Remi were expecting. They've been married for like 6 years or something, and they've been working wicked hard to get Chad's undergraduate degree finished up. He graduated in May from some Charleston Area College which I won't divulge, and they bought a house a couple years ago there, when they left us (sniff. no one to cheer for the Steelers with here!)

So knowing the details of their life... we've always felt pretty up to date. Chad's good at making sure friends know what is going on. He isn't one of those Christmas card only friends... you all know that type.

Today's email made me drop my teeth.

That isn't a major set of cajones on one baby.
That's the headS of TWO little baby boys.

Wha wha WHAAAAAT?!!!!? As Kyle's mom would probably say. Twins!? Oh boys! Oh boy-oh-boys.

Chad said in his email that her first ultrasound missed one baby. It was in May. I believe they are due in ??? Chad, help me out here... August? I forget (I thought I knew everything). So that's the craziest news I've had in months. Joyous news. After a bunch of loss in my life, this is pretty hot damn super skippy freaking news. And if it were me having these kids, that'd be my quota right there -two kids maximum. One pregnancy. Bang. Done. Woo hooooo!

I wish her the ABSOLUTE best.

And him. Don't forget the daddy. Never forget the daddy.

So Doug and I were trying to come up with funny names for them. Here are some of our choices. Some are from the kids.

Itchy & Scratchy
Sonic and Tails
Lennon & McCartney
Doug and Chris
"Slash" and "The Bus" (I didn't get it when doug suggested it, but true Steelers fans will).
Wolverine and Cyclops
Homer and herb Professor X/Professor Charles Francis Xavier and his evil arch nemesis Magneto/Erik Magnus Lehnsherr
[Sponge] Bob and Patrick
Kang and Kodos

Excellent!

And if you have any good suggestions, send them to me and I'll forward them along!!

Herb. The voice of the National Weather Service Radio Warning System

In my entry the other day recapping the MDI extravaganza, I neglected to tell you something about how incredibly stupid I sometimes am. The National Weather Service announcements on the NPR radio stations would come on periodically when a thunderstorm was approaching, and would say, for example:

"The National Weather Service out of Caribou has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Southern Hancock County and Southern Washington County including cities of Bar Harbor, Machias and Calais. A severe thunderstorm is categorized by frequent lightning, possible hail and and high winds. The storm is moving North East at 9 miles an hour and will be over Ellsworth at 9:29 p.m. Residents are encouraged to seek shelter.

Repeating...

The National Weather Service out of Caribou has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Southern Hancock County and Southern Washington County including cities of Bar Harbor, Machias and Calais. A severe thunderstorm is categorized by frequent lightning, possible hail and and high winds. The storm is moving North East at 9 miles an hour and will be over Ellsworth at 9:29 p.m. Residents are encouraged to seek shelter."

or something along those lines. You get the drift.

The voice sounded to me like an older man, one who took the job of reading these ominous announcements very seriously. His pronunciations of "Caribou" and "Calais" and "Aroostook" were stinted and not comfortable. The way he'd say "Repeating" at the end of the first statement was so official, so strong. His accent was unique. To me, he sounded like a French Canadian Mainer, perhaps... probably lived west of Caribou out on a lake.

I grew to imagine the man behind this voice, see him in my mind, listen to the series of beeps and squaks that came before his official, very serious announcements...

I said something to Doug and Aaron and they just about laughed me out of the campground.

Aaron told me, "That's a computer generated voice!" and laughed hysterically at me. Imagine my sadness, if you will. A computer was saying Calais and Aroostook. It wasn't the voice some old salt from the hills of "The County" who has worked for the NWS since retiring from the Army, has a wife and three kids, and bow hunts in the fall for food rather than schlep to the market all winter long.

Michelle laughed at me. Everyone laughed at me. And rightly so.

I'm so used to thinking that there is a human behind everything. Rampant automation of things such as emergency announcements is something that isn't part of my world view.

He sounded friendly enough though... and over the few days we were, even though I knew he wasn't human, I continued to build a mental picture of "Herb," as I called him. And this is his story.

Herb
Herbert Xavier St. Germaine was born in 1935 in St. John's NB, Canada on a dark and stormy night. Ever since then, weather has been a life long obsession. Herb is pictured here with his father Francois JeanLuc St. Germaine in August of 1935 when he was four months of age.

As a child, he would run through the hills chasing clouds, watching them transform as afternoon thunderstorms began to cook up in the summer heat. In the winter, he was in his glory with all the deep snow, ice and freezing rain the region would receive. He'd forecast how much they were expecting, set up a weather station to monitor wind speeds and temperatures, and would track snowfall in a notebook each year, running annual averages and tracking trends.

Herbert, who prefers to be called "Herb," speaks fluent French because his French Canadian parents relocated to central Maine to work in a paper mill in Mexico Maine when Herb was a very young boy, along with many other French Canadians of that period.

When Herb was a young man, he became the first ever in his family to graduate high school and go to college. In 1953, he went to UMaine Ft. Kent on full scholarship, majored in Meteorology and dreamed of being a Television Weather Reporter, TV being a hot new commodity.

After his graduation in only three years, 1956, with honors I might add, he packed up his car and drove to New York City to seek employment with the CBS-TV. He auditioned, and was brilliant, but the news director could not hire him with as thick of a Maine accent as he had.

A kind hearted receptionist at CBS referred him to a speech therapist who worked with celebrities. It was her cousin, and she put in a call to ask for his help because she thought Herb was cute and had made such an effort. Thankful to the receptionist for all her effort, he made and appointment and ended up staying with the speech therapist in his Brooklyn apartment. He received elocution training and worked for a local newspaper writing weather information articles for a little while to get rid of his thick accent.

After four months, he headed back to re-audition for the job. CBS execs were impressed with his efforts, but whenever he spoke of local Maine towns or counties, the accent would creep right back out. Reluctantly, the news director sent him packing. A crushing blow for Herb.

It was something he never could get over. His dreams of being chief meteorologist for Bangor's Powerhouse TV conglomerate WABI (A CBS Affiliate) or any other TV station in America were dashed. Herb had grown close with the receptionist, her name being Myrna Williams, and when he informed her that he was going on home to Mexico, Maine, she was crestfallen. She'd grown to be madly in love with this sweet northern prince. He couldn't leave without her, and asked for her hand in marriage in 1957. They moved back to Maine together, back to his parents' home. But they didn't stay long.

Herb enlisted in the Army, quickly proving himself not just a fabulous soldier but a great asset for his weather knowledge. He was promoted to the Weather Forecasting Division, and stayed in the army from 1958 to 1976.

His proudest days were when he served in Viet Nam helping the United States Armed Forces know when tropical weather was going to cause problems. He felt he was preparing the troops prepare for the worst by giving them a heads up when a thunderstorm was churning up, or when a nasty cold front was moving down from Central Asia.

Herb was well liked, received many awards and commendations and was shipped all over the world where weather needed tracked and forecasted. Sometimes the kids and Myrna would come with him, and they had many adventures and saw exotic locations! Myrna is pictured here waterskiing off the Baja California coast in 1964, when Herb was on Hurricane Tracking patrol.

Eventually, in the mid-70s, Herb retired from the Army and decided the family should settle back in Maine, his heartland and his home.

Myrna and the kids were happy to do so, and they found a lovely little place west of Caribou. Herb's retirement was restless though. He returned to bow hunting, the way his father had taught him, and greatly enjoyed fishing on Aroostook County's many rivers and lakes. He even joined his oldest son in hiking to the top of Mt. Khatadin one beautiful summer day and fell in love with back packing and hiking. A view of the weather from on high was something that called to his heart, and he returned to mountain tops many times over the next year.

Then, a friend informed him that the local NWS was looking for someone like Herb to do weather announcements when inclement weather was approaching. Herb's attention was piqued. The job was based in Caribou, and would require him monitoring weather movement on Radar and Satellite Technology.

Because of his extensive and decorated Army resume, Herb was more than qualified. He was hired immediately. And ever since then, Herb has been the voice of the NWS out of Caribou, telling North Eastern Maine when to duck and cover, and how hard the wind may blow, and to watch out for dangerous lightning and hail. Herb is now a proud grandfather. He and Myrna have seen their share of hard times, but the kids have grown up good and all live in Maine still, all within a four hour drive.

Thank you, Herb. Thank you for all the work you do. Without your voice, your accent, your experience and history, Down East Maine would be in weather hell. You are a true American Hero. Bless your soul.

(The Army picture is Al Gore and I couldn't resist. Please don't tattle on me. I think it fits nicely. The waterskiier is Ann-Margaret, the famous actress, and the older man at the bottom is philosopher/anthropologist Gregory Bateson. I thought he looked like Herb).

In other news, we've got drywall getting delivered today. The dogs both are going to the vet, Kinger is getting some shots updated and Jack needs a distemper booster. The kids are playing Sonic, the dogs and Doug are napping, and it isn't even noon.

I agreed to work for cateringman tomorrow morning and am rethinking it now that I know we're getting the drywall this afternoon. Shit. What was I thinking??!!! I'm thinking of a way to get rid of both kids at a friend's house or something tomorrow afternoon so Doug and I can both do this work and not have either of them under us. We shall see.

Well. I'm off to fold laundry. Take a shower. Pay bills. Mail mail. Funny how that is both a verb and a noun, eh?

Have a great day.

Quiet, uneventful day...

Doug ordered the drywall for the ceiling today. It'll be here tomorrow. I'm spending the day cleaning the livingroom and prepping the work areas so we can put up the ceiling tomorrow. Yippie!

This week is flying past. Aside from the fact we were away Monday and it felt like a Sunday, which made Tuesday feel like a Monday... I'm confused. I realized that today is Thursday and I need to call some guy in California for the professor project at Salem State. The company whose services we are looking to use for the synchronous video/audio is changing their pricing structure and business plan this month, which could totally ruin the project. If it is going to cost us an arm and a leg, we can't pass the fees on to the students.

This could ruin the project, and all the work and planning she's done over the past several years will go right down the shitter. So I have to call today to see if they decided to let us ride through the fall semester for free, or pre-business plan change fees.

Jack has been a pretty good dog today, one house accident. He's starting to tell us when he needs to go outside, which is so cool. He's got Kinger playing tug of war with him, and seeing Kinger get into puppy mode on a daily basis is cracking my puppy lovin' shit right up. He's such a good dog... that Kinger. Glad to see him being a happy good dog.

Jack is sans collar right now though, due to the fact he ate through his up in Maine on the last night we were there, so another trip to PetCo is in our immediate future. Plus, we are out of doggie biscuits.

This afternoon, hippie farmer boy Geoff got a hair cut. Now he looks like conservative republican army boy Geoff.

Either way, hippie farmer or army boy, he's my baby and he's cute as hell. I love the fact his glasses are crooked in the Post Coif picture because it makes his left eye look smaller than the right, and the right eye looks maniacal. He's too cute for words, that boy. This morning he went out with me and the dogs, and we harvested black raspberries off the vine for pancakes. While we were away, the whole bush went mature, and so we've lost quite a bit of berries, again. Same thing happened last year while we were away in Arizona/Utah. So I want to get as many as I can now, and do stuff with them. Like bake.

We need a trip to the market, but I think I can stretch it out one more day. I'm feeling rather unmotivated to go there. Doug and Jessie are returning all our empty bottles and cans right now, I think I did it last a quarter ago, and it was a ton then. It's a ton now. Doug says "Jeeesh, how much beer do you drink!?" as he schleps the empties up the basement stairs.

Had a little help, honey.

The only other real news is we got back the report from the psychologist at the hospital who tested Geoff a few weeks back. Essentially, she recommends retesting him. I don't want to get too detailed into the report, so as to protect him somewhat from other people's opinions in the world... but the day of the test he was non-compliant so much so that his IQ came back as borderline (75).

She knows by working with him even for just a couple hours that it's a faulty result.

Her report didn't state anything I didn't already know, suspect, guess at, or feel in my gut. But it is helpful to me because it gives us really good guidelines on what to do and what we may want to consider (medication and therapy with a child psychologist).

I really think (and this is NOTHING against her, mind you, she's a very bright and wonderful person from what I can tell...) that she was really wimpy with Geoff. And we all know that being a pushover with this kid opens up the pandoras box of poor behavior. So I think that had a lot to do with his non-compliance on test day.

Someone more like the character of Dr. Emil Skoda on "Law and Order" (if you watch it) would have gotten better results with Geoff. I have no idea why wimpy, soft, mousy women go into child psychology. Geoff gave her little or no respect or regard when he was in there with her, because right off the bat he saw (and I saw) that she was a push over.

Dr. Skoda would have gotten him to comply easily. He's a great character, and I enjoy when he's on L&O.

No.	Yes.
Wimpy Psychological Counseling is bad, m'kay? Right Dr. Skoda?

But no. I get the "now Geoffrey, we need to use our respect voice in this room, okay" kind of doctor... not quite as ridiculous as Mr. Mackey on South Park ("Drugs are bad, kids. M'kay?") but still, not the strong hand he needs.

And the thing is, Geoff's going to run into this kind of soft authority figure in his life outside of this house until he does something really bad I bet. Then, he'll get his ass kicked, and by then, I would bet you a million dollars that he won't give a shit about consequences, repercussions, punishments. He'll end up like some singer of some thrash metal band.

Don't want to go down that route, ya know? So when it comes time to pick a psychologist, I'm looking for a man with a set of balls. No softies. No squishies. All about being understanding and tough with the boy. And I hope that it works. I'm not sure how I feel yet about medication... I think it would help a lot, but I feel as a culture we just throw pills at everything, and that perhaps Geoff's not nearly as bad as we think, he just needs some serious one-on-one teaching and training. Problem is, that isn't the case in daily life. I'd have to home school him and work with him constantly, which would bore him and piss him off. And public schools aren't equipped to deal with kids unless they take their meds.

Anyone out there with any real world experience or advice? Your own experience or that as a parent to a child with ADD with impulsiveness and possible hyperactivity?

Feel free to fire it over.

Anyway. I've got to get some more cleaning and work done before Doug and Jess get back. Have a super day. It sure has been here!

The Full Bar Harbor Recap

Alright. My last entry was rather pimpy (to steal from Shelley) so here is the run down of the events leading up to and during our camping trip.

On Tuesday morning, I woke at 9, and finished the last of the laundry, packed stuff up, Doug ran some errands, and we figured we'd be ready by noon and out on the road.

HA!

Noon rolls around, laundry is still drying, stuff is still getting packed. We make it to 2pm. Ready to go, 90%, and the phone rings. It's Ivy, our friend Clay's sister. And I've been playing phone tag with her for a while. We still have Clay's car in our driveway, and I was hoping she had some news from her lawyer on settling his estate so we know what to DO with the car. So I took the call. An hour later, finishing up with her, Doug drops a great big one gallon glass beer jar filled with coins on the kitchen floor and yells "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" at top volume.

"Uh, Ivy, I gotta go. Doug just broke a great big glass jar and there is glass and money everywhere so I gotta help him... bye!"

Finished that call up abruptly, eh? I hate doing that to people. I'll be on the phone with someone and one of the kids gets hurt or something breaks or whatever, and I end up cutting people off screaming -- "Gottagogeoffgotbitbythedoghe'sbleedingcallyabacklater bye!"

So we cleaned up all the glass, 3pm is here... we tell the kids to use the bathroom and we head out to the car. Doug does another lap through the front of the house and discovers that Geoff had clogged Jessica's bathroom drain up, turned the water on, and flooded the bathroom before turning the water off.

Why does this ONLY happen to us when we're trying to get out the door? Why does hell's little box of catastrophe only get opened when Doug and Chris are on vacation? Why? Someone. Please tell me.

So we made him clean it up (wetting up a million towels in the process, all of which I just threw in her bathtub to sit for a week. At that rate, who the fuck cares, right?) and we got in the car.

We got to ... oh, York, Maine, and I turn to Doug and say "Did you turn off the air conditioner?"

We argued about that for quite a while... I was the last one out of the house, but I didn't check the AC because Doug always does the last run through, lights check, toilet not running, windows locked, appliances off, fish fed thing. So I had presumed he had. He told me he didn't recall turning it off.

Great. So... We're 90 minutes from home, do we back track, go back and turn it off, or do we keep going and maybe call someone to break into the house and turn it off.

We kept going, and I ended up not calling anyone. From now on -- I'm Checklist Woman. It seems that later in life here I'm getting more and more forgetful... and screwing more and more things up. And I'm SO letting the machine get it next time we're on our way out the door. Even if it is someone I'd been hoping to hear from for some time.

Suffice to say, by the time we made it up there, we were beer ready and hungry. Michelle cheffed up some chicken legs on the BBQ, and we feasted old school. Pitched tents, and hit the hay. The cabin is awesome, here's a shot of the interior. And I've already showed you pictures of the shithouse out back! Finally. Let the relaxation begin!

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On Wednesday, both A&M had to work so we went on two geocaches. Stairway to Heaven, and Worth the Walk.

Stairway to heaven was at Schoodic Point, where we spent Memorial Day weekend with A&M on our last visit to Maine, and parts of it were hard and vertical.

Jessica cried and cried because we made her hike up a hill. Seriously. We were all suffering -- it was record high heat, not good air quality. But she wept like an infant.

We brought along the Dog Tags Travel Bug which we found in our very first Geocache, and put it in this one. We added Missy's dog tag from 2000 to the collection.

(By the way, in case you are wondering... a travel bug is a cache item that the owner tracks with an ID code, and this was a string of about 10 dog tags, none of which had left Massachusetts. Now, it's in Maine... goodness knows where it goes next. Missy so would have loved geocaching, so in this way I get to share her with the activity, since I can't share the activity with her).

We found the cache, spent time checking out the view, which was lovely, and climbed down. Got everyone Gatorade and snack, and headed out to an easier one.

The finding of the Worth the Walk geocache was wicked easy, it was right near the parking lot, 10 feet from our car. But the trail went all the way down to the bay, and the area was protected as seal habitat.

Unfortunately, no dogs were allowed on that property, just human walkers, so we didn't get to take the walk.

We went to Echo Lake so the kids could swim, they were begging to go... and they earned it with what we put them through. It was late in the day. The pond was crowded, the dogs weren't welcome, so I spent about 1/2 hour in the pond with them while Doug took them for walkies and sat in the car listening to the radio.

We headed back to the cabin and met A&M who were on their way out to swim... both of them were dead beat tired from working that day in the sweltering heat and desperately needed to swim. He'd told us about an excellent swimming hole on Long Pond, but we couldn't find it when we went down to go swimming. Where we had ended up was posted as a no swimming allowed zone, so that's why we ended up at dog unfriendly Echo lake.

They took us to the swimming hole, and damned if it wasn't the bomb. We had a couple beers in our bag, and dogs willing to swim... and the place was mobbed with kids rock jumping into the 30 foot deep lake. It was wonderful. What a great spot!

The lake depth was pretty drastic immediately, so I spent most of the time on the low rocks feeling panicky about Geoff... Several years ago I almost lost Jessica in 2 feet of water, I couldn't imagine losing Geoff in 30 feet! I'm very anxious with him around water. Aaron played with him and swam him around, but I was still shitting bricks with nervousness about the water's depth... so I was no fun.

But... I loved being there! Aaron had a can of beer out in the pond with him, and this kid who had just jumped off the rocks noted "Woooo! PBR in a can IN the pond! You're hardcore! Drinkin' a PBR IN the water! I thought I was cool drinkin' a Bud on the high rocks!" And we laughed. Aaron IS hardcore.

We did dinner at the cabin, built a huge fire. The day was so hot and humid, thunderstorms had been cooking up all day. Aaron and Michelle keep their radio on NPR and we would get these emergency broadcast announcements periodically stating that a severe thunderstorm warning was in effect for... whatever county it was for at that time.

Lightning raged to our west and north, right behind our heads, but the sky south and east was full of stars. And we sat directly on the bottom edge the storm edge for hours, with the celestial light show going on above us and no rain.

Eventually the storm got close enough to us, and the National Weather Service announcements covered southern Hancock and Washington Counties, with cities including Bar Harbor and Machais, which meant it was time to seek shelter. In about 10 minutes, the storm hit us. Our tent was warm and dry, and that great huge thunderstorm raged on for the longest time... it was amazing.

Thursday dawned, fourth of July. Another amazingly hot day. Aaron had the wonderful idea of spending the day at Pretty Marsh in the only covered picnic site on the island... but it was HOT, and we decided it'd be more fun to do stuff, go places.

Here's Geoff showing you his shirt and his attitude after living on the hippie organic farm for a couple days! Actually, that's what Sonic the Hedgehog does after he gets through a zone... so it isn't really a hippie peace sign thing... yet.

So we did stuff, and went places.

Aaron, Doug and the kids ended up doing a geocache up on Elliot Mountain, which they found with no difficulty. Michelle and I went to the showers over by Blackwoods, and did some shopping. We met up and went swimming again after a quick trip to WalMart to get a swim vest for Geoff. I wanted him to have a PFD in the deep water, so I could enjoy being there. We swam until it started to sound thunderstormy, decided we should get home and do dinner before another storm hit.

We decided to skip the viewing of fireworks, mostly because of the weather and threat of storms. And built yet another good fire. The storm hit right as we expected to, around 8pm, and we all turned in early.

Friday A&M had to work a while for Farmer Matt, so we went out adventuring. We went to Schooner Point, to the cool cave. We climbed all down and in it... it was a good climb, but very dangerous if your sandals or sneakers got wet. Geoff slipped and fell, and then I went to retrieve him and help him up and slipped and hyperextended my knee a bit. Damn that hurt! Doug slipped coming out of the cave and almost took a header. So we walked softly and carefully until our shoe bottoms dried.

Jack the rock climbing boy dog! He did great, and that grey mass right behind his left ear is a HOUSE! A house 15 times the size of our house.	The cave in all it's spooky glory
Climbing up carefully	... mom and girl turn around for a quick picture

Friday afternoon, Michelle needed to do laundry to wash her uniforms, and Aaron had to pick up the keg he'd reserved for his birthday party. Essentially, he had called to order a 1/4 keg, and the woman told him it was one price, when in reality she was WAY off.

He insisted he was paying the original quoted price, and eventually got his way, especially after the jerks didn't even HAVE A TAP for him when he'd reserved it. They ended up giving him ice for free.

All told, by the time he ended up paying for the tap and deposit, the store was paying us to drink their beer. Essentially, each cup of beer was about 11 cents. Happy Birthday To Aaron. Happy Birthday indeed. So the keg was tapped, and Doug and I bought them lobster for their shared birthdays (Michelle is June 29, Aaron July 6) and we also grilled chicken. The other residents of the farm came to the party, bringing their grillables and willingness to drink beer with us. We met some pretty cool people, including Tom here who liked Jack a lot.

Tom bow hunts his own food, and brought venison to grill. He was there with his girlfriend, Nicki. And there was Jacob and Asha, also living on the farm and working for Matt. Jessie and her boyfriend Jay came, and soon the party was in full swing. The kids crashed out, and the older dogs like Kinger, Gonzo and Peanut got to run and chase and play. It was chaos. But it was a total blast. We stayed up until well past 1, and slept the sleep of drunken fools.

Jessica and Farmer Matt's awesome dog Peanut. She could be Kinger's sister!	Cheers! Here's to Aaron!
"Yes indeediedoooo! I believe I will have another beer!"	Aaron and Gonzo mellowing out
Michelle and me being weird	Michelle and me getting ready to insert lobsters into pot for our men.

Saturday we were pretty mellow. Gonzo got into the chickens and killed one... which sucked. Farmer Matt was understanding, and said that Dogs Kill Chickens and that's part of life... so he was pretty understanding. But Geoff got in trouble for taking Gonzo for a walk. It was a kind of a bummer day. Michelle was at work, and Doug ended up taking the kids to town, I took a nap, and Aaron went frisbee golfing. When Aaron got home, we took him out for pizza for his actual real birthday.

Sunday we went to the top of Cadillac Mountain with Aaron and walked. Jackie was a chick/guy/kid/man/woman magnet... we got tons of attention, to the point where walking was an impossibility.

I taught Geoff the fine art of rock balancing.

The view from the top of Cadillac, with my family in the distance

We did another Geocache, this was called Cache with a View. And what a view. Going with Aaron was a lot of fun. This is something I KNEW he would totally love doing... but initially, he was somewhat skeptical about the hobby. He thought it was environmentally irresponsible to put some plastic or metal container out in the woods. And it was irresponsible of people to go hiking off trail, it could be dangerous and could cost a lot of money when people needed rescuing.

The fact that people have a GPS so they KNOW where they are didn't seem to phase him. He had a National Parks Service Uniform in his wardrobe, and had talked to a lot of people IN the parks service who are dead the hell set against this hobby... but we took him to show him how innocuous it is.

When we found this cache, I asked him what he now thought of geocaching. He smiled a big shit eating smile... "Dude, I am SO getting a GPs!" he replied. Excellent! We took another travel bug with us. His name is LARS, and LARS stands for Like A Rolling Stone. He was only in the box for a couple hours, and we are his very first pick up. How cool is that! This is so damn fun.

Gaze upon the face of a girl whose parents FORCE her to go out and walk. "I hate geocaching!!!!!"

Again, Jessica whined and cried. Aaron got pretty irritated with her for being a wuss. We let her whine but don't let her quit... so we're used to the bitching and moaning. Aaron though couldn't believe the amount of whining she was doing.

But, unlike the first cache we did when we got there, the one that kicked all our asses, we weren't sympathetic this time. She finished the 2.2 mile hike in and out (total, not each way) and earned an ice cream, and did have a good time. Aaron said he wouldn't put up with that from his 10 year old. I told him to wait until he HAD a 10 year old... and that I'd said the same thing when she was one year old.

She did the hike, earned her stripes. I'm proud of her. The more we do this, the less whiny she'll be. End of conversation. And here is Team Screamapillar at the site of Cache with a View! Thanks for taking the picture Aaron.

Sunday night we had another great huge fire, roasted weenies on sticks at the fire side. It was lots of fun. Michelle got home from work at 11, and we spent a little time with her before all turning in. Aaron was up and out first thing Monday morning, and we got to say bye to Michelle because she didn't have to be to work until later. We packed it in, hit the road by about 11am. Stopped at the Big Chicken Barn Antique and Bookstore on the way out of Ellsworth, because we've driven by it so many times that we just had to stop... The rest of the ride home was painless.

I was happy to come home to a dry bathroom and no broken glass on the floor. And the Air Conditioner was indeed turned off before we left. It was nice to get home...

Yesterday I worked at the college and had lunch with the guys. We played UNO, the way we always used to do, and all of us singled out McCue and kicked his ass. It was so much fun. And today I worked for catering man, breaded 200 chicken breasts for a dinner, sautéed them too. Got out of having to make scallops in bacon because by 2pm the seafood delivery hadn't arrived so Chris let me go. Now I'm home and have spent the last 3 hours writing this entry, checking email, and working on other stuff. So I'm posting this and will try and write more this week. I have a lot of work stuff to do, so my frivolous time wasting journal hobby thing may have to wait! I'm sure you'll miss me.

Beer, Birthday, Geocaching, Return

I'm about to go out to the car to pack out all the laundry, the pillow cases on the pillows, and anything else that smells like ass, and drag it down to the basement. Before I do I just thought I'd say hi, because some of you have hit the journal 10 times today looking for an update. Damn, you are so cute and loyal! My readership averaged 10 hits a day during my time off, and today it is already up to 48 hits, not including my own two. So thanks for checking in to see if we are back.

In short, it was a great time. Team Screamapillar did four Geocache trips, one of which I skipped to spend time with Michelle doing Girl Things like grocery shopping and showering at the hot showers near the Blackwoods Camp grounds. All four geocaches were successful. One was hard, basically because it was 95 degrees and unhealthy air and uphill the whole way. We earned that one.

Aaron turned 28 on Saturday and we had a 1/4 keg with a great acquisition story behind it, which I will regale you with later (is it regale? is that how to spell that shit?).

We met many wicked cool dogs... Peanut, Sophie and Harvey at the camp, Zeus at the swimmin' hole.

Gonzo, A&M's dog got out and killed one of Farmer Matt's chickens... the blame squarely on all our shoulders for lots of reasons but Geoff bore the punishment for thinking it'd be a good idea and lots of fun to walk Gonz up there to visit the chickens. Never trust the five year old to watch the chicken chasing hound. Many lessons learned.

Farmer Matt was forgiving. Good Karma all around. I still feel sad though. But I digress.

farmer matt raises the foamy fifth cup of beer from the Sam Adams fountain,
the night before the "chicken incident"....

We drank lots of beer, roasted weenies, grilled chicken and sausage, met hippie farm kids who were all really cool, sat in front of a fire which raged wonderfully while a thunderstorm raged behind us about a mile away. It was amazing. Stars on one side of the sky, lightning on the other.

All told -- great trip. Very tired. More later. Glad to be home. I have a meeting tomorrow with the college professor, and am working for catering man on Wednesday. And, we have to get this ceiling project done between now and a week from today. So all told, life should be busy the next couple days. But I'll be sure to fill you in on good details, and show you lots of pictures. In the meantime, here's one for ya. Aaron built an outhouse behind the cabin, way back... worked his literal, metaphorical and proverbial asses ALL off totally to get it done. He finished right before we got there.

Here's Aaron and Michelle raising their PBRs in a can at the ribbon cutting ceremony outside the door to the shithouse. Notice Geoff in the middle there. He is getting ready to drop trou and break the thing in. Waste ye no time Geoff! Get the party started! Great job Aaron. We enjoyed stinking up your poophouse.

Alright. Gotta get to work, feed family. More later.

Girl dog is boy dog??? Whaaaaaa?

Doug is making lunch, the last load of laundry is drying, and it's an important one because it's our swim towels and Doug's shorts. So we have to wait for that to be done before we can leave. It's noon, I need to grab a quick shower. We need to go, but I can't resist a quick goodbye.

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Doug took Jackie to the vet yesterday for the 10 day checkup and followup shots. Surprise surprise, the reason our girl dog didn't have any visible surgery marks on the belly from getting fixed is -- our girl dog is a boy dog.

Yup. Isn't that an ass kicker?

We have a Jack, not a Jackie. Good thing we didn't name the dog Cindy, or Kelly (although that could possibly swing to male. I had a philosophy prof in college, male with the first name Kelly...) or something overtly feminine. And you may think "What the hell is wrong with these people that they can't tell a boy dog from a girl dog. Let me 'splain.

Missy had a little "button" thingie on her underside, and so does Jackie. Jackie squats to pee, the paperwork identified this dog as female. All the while, we wondered why the "button" thingie just like Missy's was further up the belly than hers was, but ... the papers said... the papers identified this dog... well. Hmmm. Confused.

So the vet's office kind of laughed at Doug, he showed them the paperwork and they shook their heads. We have two male dogs now. And that was NOT what I wanted.

But.

We can't send him back. He is the best dog ever. The dog has the best demeanor of a puppy I've ever seen. The kids are bonding. He is bonding to us. You should hear his tail hit the inside of the kennel in the morning when I get up to get him out. There's a love here.

A body part probably can't change that for us. Not at this point.

The vet also told Doug that he looks like a 100% Newfoundland. I sure hope the hell not. He'll end up 180lbs and drooly. I hope that the lab/aussie shep mix is what he is... Or perhaps the shelter fucked that up too. Who knows.

Well, we're off. Gotta pack everyone up. A couple pictures prior to splitting. Spent the afternoon in the pool yesterday with Nancy and her kids. What a treat. I so wish to hell we'd put our pool up. Damn.

Look at that little boy go! An action swimming shot of Geoff. Love the splash action!

Jessie poses with Em's pigpig.

Nicky, Nancy's thre legged dog. The back right leg isn't there... hard to notice at this angle. She's really fast and very funny. Great dog. Ate grapes right out from between my lips... Nancy was stunned that I'd do that with a strange dog, or any dog at all... but she laughed her ass off. I like this dog. She's a riot.

Okay. That's all I have time for. Next time, remind me to write about Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the movie we watched last night. Not bad, not great. Certainly not Kevin Smith's masterpiece... hard following up Dogma though.

Bye. Happy fourth. Remember to throw your firecrackers down wind, or they will fly back in your face. Be safe. Love!