Images of the East Coast

To match the randomness of the Top Ten post...

Original signs at Faneiul Hall trading center...

Gentleman at the park with his dog, playing music for the passersby and the ducks...

I love the Red Sox foam finger, here!

Waiting for the Green Line...

Doesn't she LOOK like a Menace?!?

Narragansett mailboxes...

At the RI School of Fine Arts....dressmakers forms, lined up and waiting to be draped.

This is Boston....the modern reflecting the past.

Japanese school kids, on tour; they were EVERYWHERE!

Boston Marathon Finish Line!  Yeah...I crossed it.  :)  

Between the Lions at the library!  I wished my nieces, Kamryn and Livvie, had been with me!

Carrie and Heath, saying their vows on the beach.  Beautiful wedding...we didn't stay for the reception, though. (I'm sure we COULD have...but we didn't have a present or money to tip the bartender.)

Top Ten (To The Second Power) Amazing Experiences In Boston

In no particular order...

(There will be more detailed posts to follow.  I just had to start SOMEWHERE!)

1. The raw oyster at Legal Sea Foods (tasted like the ocean, loved it!)
2. My office at Brown University...my HALF of the office, for a week, that is.
3. Gus, Sue's Portuguese Water dog!  
4. The Jewish prayer book that we read from at the Yom Kippur service; it reads back to front, just like I always read magazines.
5. JoJo, our Italian waitress at Al Dente Ristorante. You don't mess with JoJo; she knows her chianti!
6. Sourdough toast and Dave's scrambled eggs on Saturday morning.
7. The vendors at Fenway park, pitching peanuts and hollering, "Doh-awgs! Getcher doh-awgs, he-ah!".
8. Sparkling silver fairy-dust sand of Narragansett.
9. The Resnick house...do you remember the house in the Steve Martin "Father of the Bride" movie?...it looks like that on the outside.  
10. TREES....there were trees EVERYWHERE!  I love trees...
11. Jamie, the hippie gardener in Rhode Island that I unintentionally offended by re-arranging his planting order without getting all the information before doing so.  
12. Everyone in New England walks fast.  Seriously.  Even the grandmas.  
13. The firemen at Boston North End station, Engine 8, Ladder 1...especially the lieutenant who insisted on taking our pictures.  
14. The clam fritters at Aunt Carrie's restaurant...as if clams weren't already wonderful enough on their own, they fried them in dough.  Swoon...
15. Monet's waterlilies, in REAL LIFE!
16. Sue's cousin who shows up early to help set up the break fast, can't hold his rum and thinks he should work on a ranch in Montana for a summer....God help us all.  :)
17. Concord grapes, fresh off the vine...wow!
18. "Sweet Car-o-line...bum, bum, bum....good times never seemed so good..." at Fenway.
19. Seeing the park (and street) from one of my favorite children's books, Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McClosky. 
20. The lions at Boston Public Library...there really and truly IS a "Between the Lions" place! 
21. Lobster roll at Durgin Park, with a cold beer and incredible authentic Boston baked beans which are WAY better than all the cheap Bush impostors.
22. Margaret, who ate a tomato sandwich and told us about the Kennedy family and her encounters with them. 
23. Cannoli, with chocolate custard filling.
24. The voices on the street....accents from across the country and around the world; beautiful.
25. The bicyclist riding with a pigeon on his helmet.  Real or stuffed, we don't know, but either way, it was a remarkable sight!
26. Twin lobsters for $15!  (I don't think they were related, but they were a tasty pair, nontheless...)
27. Lighthouses...make my heart happy, just seeing them in the distance.
28. The General Hooker Entrance....complete with working women.
29. A beer at Cheers (The Bull and Finch).  I channeled my inner Norm...
30. Dustin Pedroia at bat! 
31. The wedding at the beach club that we weren't invited to but attended anyway, in our sandy, rumpled clothes, and at which we cried as though we were dear friends.  Carrie and Heath, we wish you all the best!
32. Clam chowder.  BOSTON CLAM CHOWDER!!!  One of the first things I ate when I got there, the last thing I ate before boarding the plane.
33. Learning the difference between Georgian architecture and Federalist design...something to do with a butter knife on the facade.  (Right, Sue?)
34. The old, old songs at the temple that everyone sang together...in Hebrew(?).
35. Seeing a "mermaid's purse".
36. Sushi! No...really!  It's delicate and soft. both in flavor and texture...yum.
37. Explaining team roping to Brown students who looked as though I was speaking Swahili to them.
38. Obama 2012...everywhere I turned.  He's sort of a big deal in Massachusetts.
39. Fat sea gulls. I'm talking Thanksgiving-turkey fat, here.  They almost grunted when they had to take off in flight.
40. Ocean foam around my legs.
41. Oooo! And the hidden cave in the rocks at the end of the "secret" path to Max's diving rock!
42. The Green Monster.
43. Tea with milk and sugar at Tealuxe, eating an almond pastry and watching the traffic.
44. The redneck on his cell phone in the DFW airport who was better than a Jerry Springer show; we, the waiting and weary travelers, learned things about the south that we didn't know we didn't want to know about the south. 
45. Yarmulkes 
46. John Singer Sargent's painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882) took my breath away!
47. Old North Church (where the lamps for Paul Revere were hung for only a few minutes) was worth our time.  Obviously Paul Revere's HOUSE was not...we skipped it!
48. Fried whole belly clams; they sound revolting, but they're rich and addictive.
49. I found live quahogs on the beach!  They ALSO sound revolting, but they're really sorta cute.
50. Parking garages should start at Level 1, for heaven's sake!!! 20 minutes, two floors on BOTH sides and we finally found the car.  Whew!

To be continued...

First Day of School, 2012

For all the grandmas and grandpas and aunties and far away friends and complete strangers who read this blog:

They did not want to mess around with photos.

I insisted.

Very well, then; we won't give you our best smiles...

Fair enough.

When the photo albums come out, in their teenage years, they'll wish they'd cooperated more enthusiastically...

Maggie spots the bus, coming over the hill!

(As excited as she was for school, you'd think she'd spent the summer mining coal or something...)

And Angus wore his tie.

He talked with me, very seriously, in the car about him getting a computer of his own and maybe an office with a phone.  He didn't even have his first desk at school, yet, for pete's sake! 

She'll be coming 'cross the prairie, when she comes...

YES!

I looked in the bus, to see where they were going to sit and say good morning to Rita.  In each of the first three seats were the most intensely serious children I've ever seen.  They weren't scared, they weren't sad, they weren't excited (that I could tell, although they MAY have been just about to explode like little Pillsbury biscuit cans); they were very, very importantly waiting to get this education business going.

I don't think they like or missed their teacher at ALL...

 Smile and wave, crew....smile and wave...

With Mrs. Carroll, who finally stopped talking, but just momentarily so I had to snap photos like a paparazzi pest...

The sunflowers were gorgeous this morning and I'm grateful. They brightened up the pictures and reflected the mood of the morning!  Here's Maggie, watching her brother watch for the bus:

And Angus, my boy-child:

They rode the bus to school, the mom-parazzi had their photos and filled out paperwork, they sat at their desks, then us moms whisked the kindergarteners out of there (because they don't ACTUALLY start until next week, to their GREAT DISMAY) and came to have coffee and cake at my house.

The kids had a playdate and that lessened the disappointment of not starting today.  

And the cake sort of eased us mothers into the school year, too.

There you go!

Happy First Day of School!

(Going to pick Mags up from the bus in a few minutes; I'll get the report and if there's anything noteworthy, I'll add it to the post.)

Family Vacation

Scarf of wonder, scarf of might; scarf of royal beauty bright...

My friend Elise found a gorgeous, gorgeous piece of fabric that she decided would be a really cool "wild rag" or scarf for someone a little...unconventional.  I have no idea why I entered her mind, but when she showed me the fabric on FB, I was completely thrilled at the thought of it!  So, she sent the fabric to a lady who sews up wild rags and we waited.  
And waited.
And waited.
Bucking Horse Sale came and went...
Independence Day came and went...
Elise contacted the gal who was to be sewing the rag (which it is anything BUT) and got some action!

It finally came and like I told Elise, it's the Swiss Army knife of my wardrobe, now.
First of all, it truly is pretty...I'm not a pink sort of girl, but this scarf may change my mind about the color!  And the print...*happy sigh*...well, you can see for yourself:

I don't know if you can see, but it's hemmed in green...stunning!

But get THIS:

It's a really impressive scarf in other ways.

Or, as Maggie said, admiringly, when she took my pictures, "It can be ANYTHING! A dress, a shirt, a tablecloth, a scarf, a tent...!"

If I had to choose only three things to take to a deserted island, this scarf would be one of the three. Along with a Leatherman multi-tool.  I'm still thinking about the third thing.

Check it out!

(Please excuse the weird tan lines.)

 AND because it's 100% polyester, it doesn't wrinkle!

I could stuff it in my coat pocket, work cows, drive to Jordan and be ready for a dance in 10 minutes.

(No one would dance with me, because I'd smell like cows, but I'd be ready, doggone it!)

I'm still working out all the uses.

As I get pictures, I'll add them here.

If you have ideas (besides the table cloth one), comment and I'll try it!

Honestly, it's one of the coolest things I own.

Now I have to find a great piece of fabric to send one BACK to Elise!

Nothing so mundane as paisley, though...

Perhaps something in Hawkeye gold.

Thank you, Elise!

Crazy Mary

1. What is your favorite re-make song?  
I'm afraid to say this, but my FAVORITE remake (or as they call it in the music industry, "cover") is La Bamba!  Ritchie Valens did the first version, famously, but Los Lobos really MADE that song.  There are a lot of brilliant covers, probably better than this one, but I like this because it retained the authenticity and almost added to it.  That, and I love to sing it out loud when I'm cleaning, much to the dismay of my kids and the dogs who don't know that La Bamba means "The Band"...did you?

2. If you could teach your kids one lesson so they wouldn’t have to learn it the hard way, what would it be?
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check to see that there's toilet paper in the chosen stall of the public bathroom you end up in.  Especially in a truck stop bathroom.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.

3. What is your favorite Elvis song?
This was tough.
I dearly love Elvis and it's often just a "mood" thing with me. 
Keeping that in mind, my favorite Elvis song is either "Suspicious Minds" or "Can't Help Falling In Love".  
I finally figured out that what I adore about Suspicious Minds is the backup singers....yes!....they save that song!  Elvis is Elvis is Elvis, but the background singers ROCK in Suspicious Minds.  And Can't Help Falling in Love is a wonderful, long dancing song whose lyrics talk about how love is unexplainable and undefinable.  That resonates with me, but the tune is a little...schmaltzy. 

4. What was the most memorable disciplining you ever received?
Seriously?!?!  You know my Dad reads this blog, don't you?  
Okay.  Here goes...
I was about 11 years old and my cousin from Milwaukee was visiting the ranch.  Dad told us not to mess around the old house (which is now Grandma's house) and I directly defied him, taking my cousin and our bikes in there, for heaven's sake!  It was the worst spanking I have ever gotten, the last spanking I got and firmly established the absolute respect and obedience that my parents deserved from me. Now that I have kids, it's even more appreciated, although I know my Dad felt bad about it at the time, thinking he'd gone overboard with the punishment.  He didn't, though, and I remember it very vividly.  
On a funny side note, one time my sister, brother and I were talking about our "raising" and Barry and I were discussing the spankings we'd recieved....there were a lot, because we were pretty hard headed, Jen listened to us for a couple minutes and protests, "I don't remember getting that many spankings!"  After a little discussion, we realized that she DIDN'T get that many spankings...not because she was a better kid (let's be clear on THAT point) but because she could be disciplined with a stern voice.  
"Jennifer, I'm so disappointed in you." would reduce her to tears and sincere remorse, while Barry and I were the ones getting spankings, stubbornly thinking "That doesn't hurt...that doesn't hurt".  I know you find this hard to believe, but it's true.   And now on to the last question, lest I reveal too much....


5. If you had to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you put it?

Stumper.  I'm not really a tattoo sort of girl.  Not even rub-on tattoos!  But I've really thought about this, since 1 out of 3 people of my generation HAVE tattoos, you  know?  Here's what I finally came up with:  I'd get a compass rose (see the illustration) and I'd have it done on the ball of my foot.  Those who know me well and know that I can get lost in Walmart will find this funny (which it IS...shut up!) but also it's very symbolic because I'm always looking for my way, always wondering about the direction I'm heading.  And after consideration, I think the bottom of the foot is a very private place...isn't that odd?....but true.  It's pretty bad when all the OTHER places on a body are pretty ho-hum, including places that Victorians wouldn't have even referenced.  I think only those who know me very well would see the bottom of my foot and they would understand why I'd get a tattoo there. 

There you go, TOASTBA; and for what it's worth, I wasn't exactly lolligagging...I was making French toast and beef kabobs and doing dishes and sailing!  

Poppy's Place

It's time to report the sad news....
Buttercup, Johnny-Jump-Up and Thistle-bum have been sold.  They went to the sale barn in Miles City on Tuesday and it's very lonely here, now.  I don't hear, "Ma-a-a-a-h!" when I water the tomatoes and we don't have any bottles to make or crumbles to feed.

Except for Poppy.

Maggie took care of the littlest bum calf, Poppy, all summer long.  I told her that if she was faithful about it and took on that responsibility that she could have the calf and ultimately decide what to do with her in the fall.  She understood that she had the option of selling Poppy for horse-fund money, or keeping her to breed.   I'm so proud of that girl...she worked very hard and was dedicated to taking good care of her calf!  This weekend, she had to make the decision and it was the one she'd stuck to all summer: Poppy STAYS.

Maggie was worried about Poppy being lonesome and indeed she IS lonesome, but she's with another couple gimpy cows and their babies over at PopPop's house, in the lot.  It's a pretty good place, but not the IDEAL place for Maggie's calf.  After visiting and feeding her, yesterday, Maggie came home and designed THE IDEAL PLACE for her beloved calf.  Today, she's taking the plan to her PopPop in hopes of negotiating some sort of deal....

Behold....Poppy's Place!

(Her spelling leaves something to be desired, but her design is flawless in its detail!  I want to live at Poppy's place!  She gets a swimming pool, for heaven's sake!  And you'll note the shade from the tree...that was a nice touch.)

Beached, Part IV and FINAL BIGFORK POST!

Waiting for Cap'n I. to come pick us up for another boat ride, this time on Swan Lake, Saturday afternoon.

Just as beautiful, but smaller, more crowded (on the weekend), beachier, and HOT.

We got rocks in our sandwiches from building sand castles, but who cares?!

Scenes from the yard and other good times, Part III