The First of December...

Just a few minutes ago, I had a memory come to me intact, as if it has passed only hours ago. I love being able to savor them, when I can. This time, "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor came up on my iPod, and I remembered, right down to the quality of the light and the smell of the hallway, that, just like in the song, "The first of December was covered with snow," our freshman year at Middlebury. I woke up feeling it, the particular quiet that snow causes, the filtered light seeping through the edges of our pulled shade. I woke my roommate up, since she was from Virginia, and she'd been anticipating the first real Vermont snow. We'd been listening to James Taylor a lot that fall, courtesy of El across the hall, so the lyrics of the song were fresh in our minds, and it was a little bit magic.

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

The big kids are away again, so, more or less, we are in a period of sanity here in Beacon Hill. Yesterday, O&I went to the library, the playground, and Frog Pond all before lunch, then went for a few little explores around the neighborhood in the afternoon. I have time to get my workouts done here at work again, and without all the garbagey food the big kids talk their parents into buying (little weasles!) in the house, my WW plan is safer than usual.

Ahhhhh....

In iBook news, I'm still waiting on the external hard drive so I can back up the system, but I have the DHL packaging to send it out to California. I'm getting antsy. Photos are backing up in my camera, and this blog has gotten downright boring without the spontenaity of my iBook open and waiting for my inspiration shots.

And I dreamed, very clearly, or espresso last night. And the cast of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was odd. But I woke up in a great mood....

Barbie, Chocolate Rice Cakes, and a Perfect Night's Sleep

Barbie: Miss E has been very into her Barbie doll in the last few days, so, as a treat, I unearthed my long-unused trunk of Barbie and Ken and their fashions of the late eighties. Oh, Lord, the lamee and sparkles, the neon colors! E had a field day - she was most impressed with a strapless formal gown that was gold lamee drop-waisted with gold and electric-melon lace skirt (long hem in the back, short hem in the front), and electric melon trim, with matching stole. ::sigh::

Rice Cakes: I heart chocolate rice cakes! They taste like chocolate, but they don't pad my hips like chocolate!

A Perfect Night's Sleep: last night, I was in bed by 10:15 and slept until 6:30. The windows were open and the fans were running and our room was a dry 68 degrees. I was toasty in bed, and didn't wake up once. Perfect!

Woe

Oh, woe is me!

(Seriously, where do I get away with "woe is me?")

I bought a 60GB external harddrive on eBay last week. Today I get an email (after three attempts at contacting the seller) saying he'll do his best to get it shipped out at the end of next week. Grrr. Does anyone else out there think that's inappropriate?

Meanwhile, DHL is delivering my laptop shipping box from MacService.com sometime in the nest 2 business days. It will, apparently, molder in my house while my seller in Wyoming twiddles his eBay thumbs.

Back to my not so still life with Baby O.

I Don't Like Blogging on The Wrong Machine

I just don't like it.

This weekend was full of all things bridal. Mark & I and his brother, J, went to L&T's wedding shower, which involved an hour's drive to bucolic Ashburnham. We spent our time catching up with some of their friends, then were (not) coerced into returning to Casa T's Parents for swimming in the pool.

Sploosh!

Sunday was Veronique's bridal shower/girl's day out. I hosted the shower (pictures coming once I collect them) at our house, along with the other bridesmaids. We then headed into Brookline/Boston for manis and pedis and dinner at the ever inexpensive Petit Robert.

Yesterday I spent far too much time indoors, due to the thermometer on the back windown that read 100 degrees. Eeeek.

In other news, I'm starting Billy Blanks' Boot Camp Elite program in my never ending quest for a fitness program I can actually enjoy. More on that in the Tales from the Scale blog.

Allons, Enfants de la Patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivee!

Or at least that's how I think you spell it...

Happy Bastille Day, France!

What is it about July and Independence?

Why I Love My Job

So, the monkeys had their last day of tennis camp for the session (Don't panic, people. they're going back next week!) I dropped them off, and O & I headed back to Beacon Hill for a second breakfast (O is on the Winnie the Pooh diet), and some choice laundry folding before heading over to the wading pool on the banks of the River Charles. Blue skies, hot sun, breeze off the water, and babies in a wading pool. ::sigh::

We toddled home for lunch (cold cuts, cheese, and fresh strawberries), then packed up to pick up J&E. We all went to the splash deck/playground on Soldier's Field Road for a while, got wet, had ice cream from the Truck, and played at the playground before coming home for little O's nap.

That has been my work day. My work day. Y'all are so jealous.

A Light Flickers Several Miles Down the iTunnel

Well, if the internet isn't the darnedest place!

In my search for a solution to The Saddest Mac's dilemma, I have actually learned some new new things. Like what some of the anatomy of my iBook is named. I know about cases, bezels, hinges, etc... and I have found a company in Silicon Valley that does free shipping, 24 hour service turnaround, and hard estimates online. I'm waiting for a rep to contact me - to confirm that what I've described is sufficient for the estimate to be accurate. The estimate for a hinge replacement is $195.

Much better than $800. Much.

The Saddest Mac

The Mac Gods decided I needed a lesson in hubris or some shit like that, and on Tuesday my beloved little iBook fell from the table. It was a mixture of my missing the depth perception thing and putting it down too close to the edge and the Fates giving it a nugde, but there you have it. The hinge is cracked and the (... um what was the word Adam at The Apple Store called it?) bezel (sp?) needs replacing...

Apparently this repair would cost me most of the price of a brand new MacBook if I let the central repair depot do it, so that's not an option. I've been on the phone with my insurance company, my credit card company, Apple, and now I'm off to try to get a quote from an authorized repair place in Allston.

That, and having all three monkeys home and going to camps all week, has been the reason for my blogging delinquency.

I want my iBook back!

Busy Weekend!

This weekend we finished a couple small projects around the house/yard, and Mark got a lot of deck work done. Here are a few shots of before and after out in the yard. Enjoy!

This is the house lasts spring when we bought it. (Note the non-enclosed fence to the left of the house.)

This is today. Fence closed in, deck up, and all the concrete pads (which you couldn't see) pulled up and seeded.

This is the back of the house last fall, as it was when we purchased it. I took this just before we started work on the french door.

Here's the same face of the house with the french door.

And today, with the deck railed. Now for stairs and trim!

Note that handsome pug!

I Am Not A White Hat Girl

But I bought this just before graduation. I think I have work it four times since then.


And here I am, wearing it, because it keeps my pesky hair out of my eyes while I'm weeding my yard.

I have let the borders of our driveway go for far too long, and the weeds have allowed my resident Tweedlebug population to go native. I'm quite sure I've heard tiny milk cap drums and seen them carrying small woodland animals off for sacrifices. I caught this one hiding in my hosta:


After an hour and a half of weeding I've gotten up one side of the driveway and across the top. Now I'll do the other side and the front hedgescaping (courtesy of the last owners - love it.....) I've already filled these two trash barrels. Maybe I ought to weed more often?


The upside is that I have The Most Helpful Pug tied up out here to keep me company, and it keeps him out of the house, and a little bit busy. Always a good thing, since his other title is The Naughtiest Pug.



Now back to those weeds, since I've had my little lunch and killed some time. Wait for the painting tomorrow!

"Nobody Puts Baby in A Corner"

Guess what sneaky old Target made me do?

I bought Dirty Dancing. For $7.50. I watched it. I loved it. I have always loved it. I will always love it. I have no shame about this.

Then, to complete my day of movies from my childhood, Back to the Future was on last night, and I stayed up to watch it. After all, maybe there could have been some nuance that I'd missed the first forty seven times I'd seen it. There was not. But I was entertained.

And I slept through the night. Which I've only managed to do a few times in these last weeks since my friend died.

The Worst Movie I've Ever Seen?

"The Wiz!"

Awful... Simply awful... N made it a point of pride to stay up half the night and finish what we'd started when we watched "The Wizard of Oz" at 8 on TCM. I seriously contemplated bashing my skull in on their lovely, newly acquired hearth.

Almost as awful as Tony Orlando covering Neil Diamond's "America." The Today Show has sunk to a new low on this Independence Day. Eeek.

Yesterday, after our day at the Lake, I was showering, when my godson needed the bathroom. He and H came in, and I got to applaud his efforts on the potty, and H told me it was ok to come out if I needed to, because G had "seen naked ladies before." G then giggled in a decidedly sneaky way, as if to say, "oh yeah I have." It was a moment his godfather would have been proud of. I stayed in the shower to keep from laughing too hard....

The Original Pancake Bat (TM)

I'm writing to you from Portland, ME, this fine morning. This is my third weekend out of state in three weekends. There was the trip to VT for Al's wedding, the trip to the White Mountains for our anniversary, and now I'm in ME for July 4th type celebrations and a visit with my godson - who is, as always, just awesome!

Yesterday, while making breakfast, he told me I was a "Pancake Bat." The temptation to create a visual was too much for me to resist:

This is the sort of thing I'll likely regret, when it's plastered all over creation, but I did it for my godson, man. I did it for him!