The following post was meant for July 6th, 2004.  I don’t know how it got posted here today or where it came from. 

Yesteday we went to the beach on Plumb Island just outside of Newburyport, MA. Its up on the border with New Hampshire. We had a really good time. We spent a couple of hours there an nobody got sunburned. The kids we well behaved. In fact, Ben was really great. We didn’t have to correct him even once.

The beach is really quite steep there and the waves had a tendency to sneak up on us. I didn’t mind standing around in the water and we told the kids they couldn’t go in over their waist. The water was about 58 degrees and the air temperature was only about 75.

It felt good though. I mostly hung around in water that was around the middle of my calves. Grace would grab my hand and make me take her in the water to chase the waves. Then when the waves came around again, she would turn around and run away from the waves shrieking. It was fun, but it made me a little dizzy.

Last night we ate some mexican food and watched “Secret Window” with Christian Slater. He was fine, but I thought the story was a little weak. It was ok. It wasn’t bad enough we had to turn it off. We still have another movie called Paycheck — Ben Affleck takes these jobs but gets his memory erased and he has to follow the clues — I think someone is trying to kill him while he’s doing this. It looks like fun.

Also the Bourne Supremacy is coming out soon. I enjoyed The Bourne Identity quite a bit and think the next movie will be good too.

This evening we set off some fireworks.

YES! Strictly speaking its not 100% leagal in the city limits, but we didn’t think anyone would turn us in. We got some a while back that spewed sparks. The packaging said something like “Flowers of Light and Fountains of Illumination” — I suspect the chinese translators left out that they wailed like a banshee!! I was quite put out, to be honest. I didn’t mind firing off a bunch of sparks but I was afraid the cops would come down on us.

But they didn’t. All is well.

I’ve dropped Liz off in Wakefield where the fireworks will be held at 9:45 tonight. We’ve got a babysitter for Grace while we take Ben and Gabe and Chloe to their first fireworks! I think they’ll really like it. Liz has staked out a great spot and there’s a band playing and she as a book. She’ll be fine. I just hope I can find a decent parking place.

This morning I went to REI to pick up sealant for the tent seams — I guess they’re not quite water tight. While I was there I saw the Kelty Sunshade was on sale for, like, 30% off. Its normally $185 and I got it for only $130. It was a splurge. See, yesterday when we went to the beach I was really quite uncomfortable hanging around on the beach baking in the sun. Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of sunblock on but I just didn’t really have anywhere to be. So I think with this I’ll be able to spend hours on the beach and not have to bake in the sun.

I cleaned out the pig’s cage and we cleaned up the bedrooms and the playroom and had a decent time today.

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