Michael on Wheels, Abby's birthday

Everyone is really upset about the beached whales down on the Cape. Yesterday, about 50 pilot whales beached themselves in Dennis, MA. Volunteers from experts to vacationers came to help keep the whales moist and comfortable until the tide came up enough that they could be pulled back out to sea. Experts were keeping an eye on them, expecting that they may try it again.

Well, they did. And they succeeded.

This time 40 more whales, give or take, managed to beach. Some died on their own, others had to be euthanized. Regardless, a lot of people are incredibly devastated that this happened.

To me, I have mixed feelings.

I think whenever anything happens like this en masse that it is sad to see, but part of me believes they had their reasons. I kind of liken it to cult suicides. No, don't laugh. Seriously. I think that sometimes groups of people, or groups of ... whatever, get the notion that something is so wrong with their world that they commit suicide in bulk.

Or perhaps someone in the group perhaps was sick, the leader or patriarch/matriarch, and they followed to death. Or, perhaps all of them were sick... the first day they all wanted to die but they were stopped by humans who wanted to prevent it. But they were serious, hell bent for sand, so they went to another part of the Cape and succeeded.

Is the notion of suicide alien to species aside from humans and lemmings? I don't think so.

My buddy Chad (the one expecting the twins whom shall be nicknamed "The Bus" and "Slash" during football season much to our glee) is a marine biology guy. I should pose these questions to him.

I guess they've got expert scientists coming from all over to study this one. In December of last year a large group of whales beached down the Cape, but the efforts to rescue were minimal.

Not enough tourists from Ohio who wanted to help, and the water was too damn cold in December.

But it all got me to wondering... if I knew someone or a bunch of someones contemplating suicide would I talk them out of it or try and help, or would I say "Knock yourself out, pun intended," and wish them a speedy and non-messy demise? That's all something to chew on, isn't it?

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Next topic. But sort of related.

A few years back, a friend of mine from college was in an horrific car accident. He's now in a wheelchair, for good. I honestly haven't seen him in 10 years, and of the last decade about 7 of those he's been on wheels.

He came to visit on Sunday, and I was so glad to see him, and to be honest, so blown away by how able and adept he is with that chair. He said that a few years ago he was bedridden almost all day, and now he is up 8-12 hours a day. He drives that chair around with such precision, he's still got his wicked sense of humor.

He seems to have it all together and he's such an amazing person to me. I'm happy he is here.

I'm more than impressed by him, I'm humbled by his abilities. I'm happy to see him around.

Part of me says, if that were me, I'd have wished that I could die. And I probably would try. But he makes me rethink those thoughts... and I see new life and hope where "beaching" would have been the first and only option I would consider. Michael teaches me life lessons just by being, and I give thanks and am joyful just to know him.

One of the professors I'm working with this summer gave me a copy of "Tuesdays With Morrie," the book of Morrie Schwartz' battle with ALS, written by his former student Mitch Albom. I read it in one day and I was devastated and joyful all in the same breath by the time I finished. Lessons in living -- Morrie had time to think, consider, build, work on teaching, and in his life and his death makes "beaching" seem so not the thing to do. What an amazing man.

So, in short -- I think if I were down the Cape yesterday I'd have made an attempt with those midwestern tourists and those New England Aquarium workers. And I'd be sad to see the next day that they managed to accomplish what they set out to do.

But I'd accept.

Lessons in living, after all, sometimes carry lessons in dying, too. Alright, enough sad stuff.

On Saturday we went to Abby's birthday party. Here are a couple pictures.

Jessie and Ian, peas in a pod. Friends since before birth... They are two wackos.	Geoff made friends with some of the kids, here he and Philip share a moment of calm, quiet reflection.
This picture cracks me up. Abby, the birthday princess, looks like she's going to cry, but really I just called her name and she looked up at me... then right after I snapped this she burst into a huge grin. I didn't get that shot.	The neighbor dog, not the family dog, Pilot. He followed us over when we came up the driveway, and just stayed at the party. He was so sweet and well behaved. And you know I'm such the other people's pet whore.
The piñata awaits it's destiny... It was awesome. What a cool dragon.	Karry orchestrates the whacking line. Birthday girl first, then up through the age ranks to Jessie and Ian!
Whacking complete, the kids rush in to pick up their loot	"Look at what I got in my goodie bag, mom!"
Jessie and Brittany bonded pretty tightly (her dad's a big Steelers fan too! WOOOO!) Brittany is SO cute, it's hysterical. I got a really cute picture of her and Abby, cousins in crime, on Karry's camera.	Ian trying to convince us that we didn't have to leave yet, that there were all sorts of good reasons for us to stay, and Jessie can continue to hang out and walk the neighbor's dog with him... he was very sad when we drove away. It broke my heart to see him in my mirror behind us, standing there. Notice Geoff on the rock in the background. He was stuck there for a while. heh heh heh.
And this is Ian with said neighbor dog, Meco (he spelled it for us a bazillion times, saying it was "Me Company, Me Co., Meco. Get it?" He is getting paid to take the dog out, walk her and spend time with her. They seem to be getting along like a house afire. He's doing a super job with her. I wish he lived near us because I'd pay him to take care of Kinger and Jack when we go to Chicago!

Today I had meetings with both professors at the College, had lunch with the boys, stopped in to see my Rupa but she was not at her desk (sorry I missed you my Rupa!) and I got home in time to do dishes and make dinner. My mom is visiting, so I should go be sociable.

On Friday Doug pulled all the muscles in his back and he's almost back to normal. He looked pretty miserable halfway through the party on Saturday and spent most of the day in bed Sunday and yesterday. Today he's walking straight and not crying out loud every time he moves around. So I'm hoping he'll be sound as a pound and we can go do something fun. I have a ton of professor work to do, and a new site to design (woooo! But again, it's for free for someone I love, but it means a lot to build my portfolio and do something good for someone). So there's a lot to do in the next two weeks. Did I mention I'm TEACHING all week next week 8:30am to 4pm at the college! I'm going to be one worn out girl. Today was the closest day to a full work day I've put in since January! Criminy! So wish me luck and strength. I'll need it.

Okay. Off to be sociable.

Geofinished for the day...

Got home about an hour ago from Geocaching. Wiped out but feeling good. I uploaded pictures into each of the cache sites. We did three, intended to do four, but the third one kicked our collective asses. Damn. It was a gorgeous day, we seized it. We enjoyed it greatly.

Each time I go out I am amazed at how I am feeling on the trails. What would have killed me or at least knocked me on my ass six months ago now is cake. The really hard stuff is the bushwhacking off-trail kind of stuff you sometimes have to do to get to the hiding places. The kids and I wore our sport sandals because each of the cache pages said the terrain was 2 on a scale of 1-5. The third one should be changed to a three. I got poked in the toes and the sides of my feet several times by dry, sharp branches. I'm in agony. But, we found the little sucker. It wasn't easy. But we found it.

So today is a two entry day quite by accident. Geoff's in the shower, I'm waiting for him to get out so I can do a tick check and put him to bed. We need to frontline the dogs first thing in the morning out in the pen... I don't really want Kinger sleeping on the couch tonight, but if I frontline them NOW anyone attached to them is going to jump ship anyway so they'll be in the house. We can wait until morning. We were going to do it this morning but I told Doug that I would rather let them swim if we come across water and we sure did. I'm glad we held off. They are so happy when they are in the water.

The first cache of the day was a fire lookout tower in the Milford NH area called Federal Hill. Gorgeous views, and what a lovely day. I could have spent the afternoon up there just drinking water and watching the world. But no. Geoff had me scared shitless more than one time at the top of that damn thing. I was so convinced he was going to fall right out the railings. The dogs tried to join us up there... the steps were narrow and scary, and they made it half way before quitting. Kinger came down carefully, but Jack was reluctant as all hell. Doug had to coax him for quite a while. This cache was a "multi" cache, meaning that you had to find a location with the GPS which would give you the actual cache location. That's why we had to climb the tower. The coordinates were on the stairs on two different levels. We found the cache itself easy and went off to the second one.

Cache two was fairly easy. Not too far away, the trails were well maintained, and I took a picture of the kids in the cornfield pretending to be Submit and Jedidiah types "Children of the Corn," as it were.

We took this picture specifically because we thought Chris Kelly would laugh. I'll be emailing it to him later. We couldn't get the kids to just stand there looking like zombies. They didn't get it. They thought they were supposed to be like MONSTER kids, which is why their hands are up in clawlike ways. We had to tell Jessica the kids in the movie are like the kids on the Simpson's spoof "The Bloodening," and then she understood but by then Geoff was out of the cornfield so I couldn't get a picture of him.

The cache itself was kind of hard to find. I had to climb across some barbed wire in my sandals, I sent the kids around another way and told them to watch where they were going. It wasn't easy. We finally got to it, logged it and split. We figured we had time for two more.

So we headed off to the third one.

It was in the Tucker Brook area, not far from where we already were and Doug said there were two different caches in that same trail area. So we did the first. It too was a multipart cache, with five total coordinates. The coords to get there and park, the first clue, second clue and third clue, and finally the cache. Easy peasey.

Not.

Getting there and parking was easy. The first two clue coordinates were easy. The third was way off trail and it hurt getting to it. I never saw it, I just hooked up with Doug after he found it. Then it was off to the cache. The coordinates had us climb up a motherfuckinghuge hill of granite, to look DOWN on the opposite side of the gulley, to halfway up another wall of granite where the cache was.

We climbed UP there to look DOWN on the thing. Then we had to climb down again, and around and up. Fuckers. The person who built that one should get two in the hat. I wanted to hike back to the car the way we came in, but Doug insisted that the heavy light shining about 800 feet away from us was the clear cut for the power lines, under which we were parked. We disagreed about it for a while and went with his idea to walk to the light, believing it was the clear cut, and then boom -- the car.

And he was, of course, correct. We were .2 miles from the car when we found the cache. It was right by the parking area, only we had to go all the way the hell from here to Cleveland to find the clues to get the stupid thing.

Actually, even thougit was a lot of fun and I'm glad Doug was right and I went willingly but doubtfully with him.

We blew off finding the fourth cache of the day, even though we were probably a half mile total from it. It follows the creek trail from the waterfall, and we were a million miles from there. It's the kind of geocache that looks incredibly easy. Perhaps we'll drag my mother with us on that one, as well as a few other low difficulty ones in southern NH during her visit here next week.

It seemed to take forever to get home. We ordered a pizza because we got back here after 8pm. The dogs are out cold. Doug is horizontal, and I need to put fresh sheets on Geoff's bed so he can go to bed too. So I ought to go. Go visit the links to the cache sites and scroll down to the comments for "Team Screamapillar" to see our pictures. It was a good day.

me peeking through the steps at Jessica at the Federal Hill Geocache

Geoff is sayin' "Move the hell out of my way, stupidassed dog!"
Jackie wouldn't budge. He was scared shitless.

Tomorrow we're off to Rockport (again) for a birthday party for my friend Gregg and Karry's daughter. There's a geocache not far from their house that looks easy as pie...

Zombie

The combined double whammy of Summer and Unemployment ... I've been staying up late, sleeping in, doing next to nothing. And what do I have to show for it? A messy house and droopy eyes. Ever since I got out of bed this morning I felt as if I could crawl right back in and fall straight back to deep sleep.

Not sure what the deal is. Today I am a zombie. Someone put a voodoo hex on me. Which one of you bastards can I make a half hearted loopy attempt to come kill and eat your brains? Eh? Who is responsible for this?

After three cups of coffee, a couple games of Sonic The Hedgehog (Geoffrey holds life hostage for a while so he can play and play. I'm considering making the Sega Genesis "disappear" for a while), I sat down to work on one of the professor sites I'm doing.

God.

What a mess. This site has has been in development since 1999, has gone through four or five iterations, a hundred revisions. There are orphan files, redundant files. It's a train wreck of a site. I spent the whole afternoon tidying it up.

Only to find out that the site dialogue is F'ed up totally, so her directory is pointing to the root directory of the college site. For instance, when one goes to link to the index page for the /courses/ directory off her main site, it is looking for /courses/ under the main COLLEGE site.

I now have to go back through all the week sessions and fix all the links relative to "document" instead of "site root..." the way it SHOULD work. Good God. I hate myself. I did all that work organizing the bleeping thing, and now I have a good 2 hours of cleanup left.

My computer has been held hostage by yours truly for the whole day, and the natives are getting ready to mutiny. I've got dinner on, and the secnd I walk away from this Doug will be all up in its business. I may not get to touch it again until tomorrow.

Luckily, she isn't around to check the site, she's off in NY for the weekend. As long as I iron out the mess by Monday, I'll be happy.

Geoff's appointment went very well yesterday. Same doctor, the one I think is mousy. Doug set me straight last night when I tried to diss her. He told me that she's probably a lot tougher than I give her credit for. I gave that some serious thought and he's probably right. She seems to me kind and sweet, but that's her "parents" kind of persona. I'm sure that if necessary she'd kick some law down someone's throat. After all, her meeting with Geoff was her only meeting thus far.

He was really good yesterday, aside from the total lack of "inside voice." She gave us some really good recommendations, suggested we see a behavioral therapist. She said he has moderate ADD, and with good behavior modification and therapy he could possibly work his way through his problems. He's impulsive, explosive, easily upset and derailed but also easily re-railed when in the middle of a fit. She seemed incredibly optimistic. Made me feel pretty good.

My big fear is that he will end up throwing pudding at a substitute teacher one day, because I see all the same tendencies in him that the pudding-thrower had back in my subbing days. Wish us luck, pray for Geoff, pray for us, and please pray for his kindergarten teacher next year to be the RIGHT kind of teacher for him.

Well, I gotta go check dinner and stir the rice. We're having lazy chicken tandoori... mmmmmm.

Gourd-o-riffic

You know it's summer.

The weather channel is running a constant streamed message about the thunderstorm warning. The dragonflies are all over the place. The hydrangeas are wilting and begging for a daily dose of the good stuff. The creek is smelly. The flowers in the windowbox are agreeing with the hydrangeas and if you don't pay attention on a daily basis they look completely dead in the next 24 hours. But they're easily revived with a kettle full of cool water. The black raspberries are done and are now a memory. The blueberries are almost with them.

Summer is here too when the garden finally shows forth her fruits. Or veggies as the case may be.

Here, it is the zucchini and the summer squash that is coming out first. We actually lost a couple on the vine due to not paying close enough attention. Take your eyes off it for two days and it is either full of over ripe bodies or new bodies that you don't remember seeing. I had to pick two zucchinis and throw them off into the woods because they had gone south.

But every day we're pulling two or three beautiful veggies off their homes. And the cucumbers are almost ready now too. The green peppers look like they'll be next.

And then there are the tomatoes.

We have three different kinds growing this year, and all the plants are covered with gorgeous fat little green bodies waiting to burst into gorgeous ripe redness.

I love our garden. I love watering it, checking on it. I love seeing the changes, the progress. I'm a city girl at heart. I grew up in the projects. My mom always worked hard on flower gardens with the neighbors, and sometimes my sister and I would be out there helping. But I never felt like I belonged at that. It was a hobby for my mom, not something that I should really encroach upon.

And pretty soon it won't be summer anymore. Summer will be over and we'll pull the tomato frames down. We'll pull up the black sheeting which prevented weeds from choking off our plants this year. Pretty soon this will all be a precious memory. All the wonderfully grilled veggies with kabobs. All the bitching my daughter does when we make her eat healthy greens and yellows. I need to get a good zucchini bread recipe from someplace so I can make this all last a little while longer. Keep summer under my roof for an extra month or so, in order to keep that memory through the long New England Winter and bring me to the late spring of next year.

So I can do it all over again.

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We rented "Zoolander" last night. A very funny but very stupid movie.

I enjoy Ben Stiller a lot, and have adored him since his ridiculous TV shows on MTV and FOX back in the day. True to his nature, he's great at creating bizarre characters, and his Derek Zoolander character was simply riotous. Story goes that he invented the character as a spoof for VH1 for one of their fashion programs. And he and Drake Sather developed it into a full movie.

I loved how they spoofed everything about male models. I adored the little biography movies they did for the Fashion Awards, and again, how Steve Kmetko can make fun of himself by being in all these movies. He's so handsome... and yes, I know he's gay. Don't worry. I can still think he's good on the eyes, I doubt he'd be offended.

Stiller plays Derek Zoolander, a really really really really good looking model. Owen Wilson plays Hansel... a young upshot model in the fashion world, and he unseats Zoolander as the male model of the year.

Zoolander is impacted by this loss and begins to wonder what the point is. He tries to go home to Coal Mining Country in Southern New Jersey (I laughed out loud and hard) and reconcile himself to his family. But that doesn't work out... and he goes back to New York to face the fashion music.

Meanwhile, an insidiously wicked plot to kill the prime minister of Malaysia is in the works, the result of his promise to raise minimum wage and end child labor in his country. Which will ruin the fashion industry for good. Mugatu -- wonderfully played by the amazing Will Ferrell -- needs the perfect patsy to do the dirty deed. Zoolander is stupid enough, and easily brainwashed and ready... A Time Magazine reporter figures it all out, and rushes to save the day, enlisting the help of Derek's arch enemy, Hansel.

There are some incredibly funny scenes in this movie -- the gasoline fight and the fun scenes of Zoolander and his buddies frolicking as if in a fashion commercial are a riot. David Duchovny as the "Deep Throat" leading the Time Magazine reporter to the clues was both funny and ironic... The computer scene in Balls' office where Hansel and Zoolander become primal. All told, I laughed at it. Mindless pure entertainment, not at its finest, but certainly ridiculous.

"Zoolander" isn't one of the best movies I've ever seen, nor the worst. I think the plot in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was more developed and thought out, and that's saying a lot.

I like Owen Wilson a lot. He has the craziest nose I've ever seen... and having him be a male model with that totally unique look and his new age fakeness was just hysterical. Owen Wilson was in a really weird movie that we rented this time last year called "The Minus Man," where he plays a very demented serial killer. I highly recommend that one. It is kind of weird and trippy, and worth the watch. Part of you wants to like him and hopes for his well being to be established and fine, and another part of you wants him dead.

Best part of that movie is he killed Sheryl Crow in the first 10 minutes, thank God. I can't stand her. She wasn't Sheryl Crow of course, she was a character that he kills... but if she was going to be in the whole movie I would have thrown up. I haven't seen many of his movies. Hell, I haven't even seen "Bottle Rocket" yet and Scott keeps urging me to. I've seen Minus Man, and Shanghai Noon, which I think was his first big ticket film... didn't see the Tennenbaums yet but I'm going to. What else... Didn't see "Behind Enemy Lines" because it looks too damn predictable.

And I guess that's it. If you've got any Owen Wilson recommendations, send 'em my way. That link up there goes to the Wilson Brothers Fan Site but directly to his specific page. If you're at all interested in design, fan sites... go to the root directory and look at the site. I think it's pretty advanced for a fan site. Most of them are tripod sites and lame at that.

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Right now we're getting pounded by some storms. The weather channel made it sound as if we were going to be killed... but there has been little or no storm activity. Although half our cable channels are blanked out. A clear indication of something more horrible someplace else. We spent a good deal of time hanging drywall before the storms hit. We took down our kitchen and dining area lighting so we could do the drywall and now it is pitch dark in there, so we can't see for shit. We have maybe five more panels to hang. Then we can start the mudding and taping. Damn. This is a hell of a project. I'm so used to simple assed things like painting. Once in a while slapping spackle on a hole. Nothing this serious.

I'd like to gut our bathroom and tile it over. HA! What a crack induced fantasy that is, right?

Anyway. I hope Carrie gets to read this before her conference call. I'm rushing to get it online before the lightning fries my modem. Only for you, Carrie. Only for you...

Detroit Rock City

This morning I'm flicking around the TV stations looking for something to watch. I'd slept later than intended, missed the beginning of church. Geoff and I were the only ones up. Sunday morning TV is horrid. By the time Doug got up I was ready to throw the remote in the blender, and I stumbled across one of my all time favorite "teen" movies.

"Detroit Rock City." Baby!!!

Doug rented it one night a year or so ago. I'd heard bad reviews about it, and was sort of skeptical. But we watched it and I was hooked. Who could go wrong with this formulaic teen comedy, with some added on gross-out humor (Ed Furlong drunk and puking in front of a bar filled with sex starved women waiting patiently for him to finish and then do a striptease. Really unnecessary)?

The story is set in a Detroit suburb in 1978 and tells the tale of Jeremiah (who would rather be called "Jam" cause it's cooler) and his burnout friends, Hawk, Trip and Lex.

Sam Huntington portrays the very misunderstood by his mother Jam with doe-eyed sweetness and makes me think of my husband Doug in late 1988, with his hair long and slightly curly. Ed Furlong, best known for his role in the Terminator movies, is Hawk, ringleader and smart guy. Mom is perfectly cast, she is Lyn Shaye who you'll remember as Magda in "There's Something About Mary."

The boys are in a KISS garage rock tribute band. They want to go see KISS in concert, but Jam's chain-smoking hypocrite mom burns his tickets in a fit of Catholic anti-rock/anti-KISS fueled rage. They're screwed, or are they?

How will these loyal members of the KISS army get to see the band of their longing? It looks hopeless. Jam is sent to a Catholic all boy's school and his band mates devise a cunning plan. They spring him and head to Detroit because Trip thinks he won tickets on the radio in a phone in contest. Along the way, they get into horrible and funny situations and have to get themselves out of them.

Things get completely out of control, the way they do in wacky teen movies, and these four friends have a night they will never forget, filled with romance and raw sex, puking, convenience store robberies and watchdog taming.

It's a ridiculous premise, but like my adoration of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, movies like this always intrigue me. How WILL these seemingly mentally impared people get out of their mess. Why is Jam such a nice guy and friends with these three pothead jerkoffs?

Why does this kid remind me so much of Doug when I met him???

It's freaky.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed burning an hour and watching this movie. If you've never seen it, I'm not surprised. A ton of movies came out in 1999 that overshadowed this one, including 10 Things I Hate About You and American Pie. It is the single most underrated film of that year, even though it had to compete with a guy having sex with a homemade baked good. So even though it is exciting and intelligent, and a glimpse into teenage history as opposed to current teenage life... that's why no one knows about it. No one boofed a pie. So rent it if you haven't seen it. Let me know what you think.

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We went geocaching yesterday. Two in one place, the Ward Reservation in Andover.

The first cache was easy as pie (not American Pie though...). The second one was much harder. We didn't pack any water... I thought the two locations were not in the same place and that we'd pass a store on the way to the second one. Doug misunderstood me in saying that I wanted to stop and buy water. So Jessica was very whiney and complainy. As usual.

The second cache was hidden near Boston Hill clear at the far end of the reservation, almost out of it. It was a bear at times to get the kids to walk up. Even Geoff was wilting. All told it was over four miles of hiking. Thing is, I could have kept going. For the first time in a number of years, I feel great and strong. The view from the top of the hill and the wild blueberries growing low to the ground were intoxicating. The smell of the ferns deep in the damp forest made me swoon with joy. And the fact that I ignored the moans and complaints of my kids and kept myself happy for a change -- that's priceless.

When we were coming to the opening in the field at the top of the hill wild turkey flew across the path. Doug saw both adults, I only saw one. And I saw two chicks to his three total. They were not afraid of us but kept a safe distance.

I'm so proud of both our dogs because they didn't chase them and try to catch them. They were interested and aware, Kinger did his usual "curiousity whine" but he didn't strain on leash or try and give the turkeys the bums rush. Jack was an amazing hiker... he is hardcore. We got home and he passed out on the floor and slept clear through the evening. Both dogs SO need a bath today. We took a short cut trail that went down in a holler and was all mud at the bottom. There were trees and boards laid down across the mud, but it was a mess. Both dogs decided to take leisurely rests on their bellies in the mud... so they are filthy. Kinger cleaned up pretty good, but Jack needs a shampoo. That's on my list of things to do today.

One part of the reservation that we went to is called Holt Hill (another bear to climb when you think you're done going up, after Boston Hill... voof!) and it is the highest point in Essex County, MA at a whopping 441 feet. At the top there are solstice stones in the form of a compass. You can see straight and clear through to Boston, as the vantage to the south and east is unobstructed. It is beautiful. Getting there is easy when you take the direct path up the hill, so we'll be sure to go back again to just see the view from there, and torture the kids with more hiking!

Today we're kind of keeping a low profile. I redid the top layers of the site here. I guess this is the fourth iteration of the look and feel. What do you think? How's it look? Lemme know.

Anyway. Jessie is at a friend's house. Doug and Geoff are playing Sonic, and I need to shower and put together a shopping list. We need a full blown trip to the grocery store today. I'm hoping to get Doug to do it. Perhaps if I fake a nap he'll feel that it needs to get done so he'll do it.

I got interesting email from a friend the other day letting me know that another friend who currently resides in San Francisco will be visiting the area next week. He's in a wheelchair after a car accident while en route to a medieval festival where he was performing/participating a few years back. I'd lost track of him after corresponding with him for a little while in 2000, so I'm greatly looking forward to seeing him again. He was instrumental in my friendship and bonding with Doug and Clayton, and a lot of other people, so I am happy to get to see him and reconnect with that part of life. He was my first and only Dungeon Master when I played D&D in college (nerd alert! I warned you I was a nerd!) and I always had great fun with him. We'll host the visit because it will be relatively easy to get him into the house here as opposed to our other friend's home which is not handicapped accessible.

And we have to finish hanging drywall this week. Oh the joys.

Review of Jay and Silent Bob...

My in-laws have left... visit is over. Now our house is quiet, Doug is resting, the kids are watching "Hey Arnold," and I've finished working on what I can for one of the summer professors without obtaining more material from him. Doug wanted to geocache today, but it looks like at any second the sky will just open up and torrents of rain will fall, so I think we're home based for the day. Good thing. I could use some quiet time.

Anyway, the visit this time was actually lovely. We got to cook for them twice instead of eating out all the time the way we usually end up doing, and Geoff bonded heavily with Grampa, which he hasn't had much of a chance to do. Doug's dad was commenting that it is a treat for them to watch their niece (Doug's sister's baby) on a weekly basis because they can really see how she changes and all, and he was apologetic that he didn't get the same chance with our kids. There was no need for him to be apologetic. We live here, they live there. But I could see that it bothers him because Jessica's his girl, and he loves her deeply, and I think it bums him out. Apologetic isn't the same as regretful. Even though he apologized... there is nothing to apologize for.

I adore my father in law. He likes to talk to me and tell stories. He's got a good heart. He did the dishes here. And I know for a fact he doesn't ever do the dishes at his own house. Not sure what that is saying -- that he wanted to give me a break because for two straight days I cleaned and did dishes and ran around trying to organize life, or if he thinks I'm shit for a housekeeper... hee hee. Regardless, it didn't go unthanked on my part. I kept telling him to stop it. Doug should do the dishes... not you. And he'd wave me off and tell me to go play with the kids. He's a gem, and I enjoy getting to see him greatly.

So they're homeward bound. We may see them again in August at their place as a stop over to Chicago if we are still going to go. I believe we are.

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Not much else to report. I did mention yesterday that I would review "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," so here goes.

We rented "JASBSB" a few weeks ago, before going camping. I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's work, my favorite of his movies being "Clerks." I like his sense of humor, and his storylines for the most part.

[Sidebar note: I say that I like the storylines, but man! I hated the crisis apex in "Chasing Amy" when Holden says that he needs to have sex with Banky to get him to stop feeling upset that his lifelong friendship with Holden has been usurped by a lesbian (temporarily changing teams to be with Holden). I thought that was awful. It was unnecessary. It made no sense. I hated it. It ruined the movie End Sidebar note].

Anyway. He's funny. He's irreverent. I love that HE himself is Silent Bob (the dude in the white cap with the beard, who never, uh, rarely talks). His characters are people that seem familiar to me, almost I know their trash talking foul-mouthed selves. Except of course in "Dogma" because I'm not friends with any archangels or anyone directly related to Jesus.

JASBSB takes all of Smith's previous movies, brings all the characters back, makes fun of them, wraps his career all up. Hollywood pulled out all the stops to be in this movie, as irreverent as it was. There were very few Smith previous characters missing, such as Alan Rickman and Salma Hayek...But Ben Affleck played himself and Holden, and Jason Lee played two of his prior characters from Smith movies, so there were plenty of characters to choose from here. There were dozens of great cameos, from E news daily stars to Dawson who took time away from the Creek... It was fun to play spot the celebrity here.

The premise is that Jay and Silent Bob get wind of the fact a movie is being made based on the comic book about them which Banky and Holden created ("Bluntman and Chronic"). They get in an internet chat room and find out that tons and tons of people are insulting them, ragging on them, and ripping them to shreds and they take it personally instead of just recognizing that these are punkass kids and they're ragging on the comic book. They are especially angry when they read a rumor that they'll be portrayed by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (not so, they come to find out).

So they decide they need to stop the movie from being made. And the adventures begin.

For the most part, this movie was campy, retarded, ridiculous, filled with profanity and more instances of the F word than I've heard in one sitting in YEARS.

But I liked it. It made me laugh, because I have seen all the other Smith movies, and I caught all the nods to the prior works, and I thought Ben Affleck was fabulous at making fun of himself, and Jay and Silent Bob are just so stupid they are amusing.

And that, my friends, is all that matters. You don't have to be an art film. You have to get into stupid situations and make me laugh. End. And they sure as hell did. Right from the opening minutes which set up the existance of Jay and Silent Bob and the genesis of their friendship. Will Farrell stole the show as the nature cop, Chris Rock is hysterical as the director of the movie within the movie (he's all bent out of shape because there are no black actors or black employees on the set and he lets everyone know how he's being abused by the Man). Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher do special cameos, which must have been a thrill for Kevin Smith because he's allegedly a HUGE star wars fan. All his movies have references to Star Wars in them.

All told -- I liked it, and if I were to have a Kevin Smith marathon one day, I'd of course save this one for last. I'd probably show "Dogma" first, because the other three films (Amy, Mallrats, Clerks) all lead up to Jay and Silent Bob... and it's a totally different movie than the others, doesn't fit in the general flow of the illustrious Smith career. And I wonder what he's going to do next... hmmmmmm.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back the kind of movie I could never watch with my inlaws... like I'd never watch "South Park" or "The Man Show" with them. You just don't do that. But I'd watch it with you my friend.

And on that note, I need to get some dishes washed. My father in law isn't here to wash them for me... so I've got to return to my domestic duties.

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.