Apparently the cardinals have elected a new pope because the word is
that there’s white smoke coming from the chimney and the bells are
ringing.
CNN has a “Vatican Smoke Cam” so we can keep up to date on the status of the smoke.
Sphere: Related Content(it looks like my mail server at work failed to send this in a timely fashion. Its from Thursday 4/14)
Liz wants to know what I’d like to do with the upcoming 3-day weekend.
I said “mulch”.
She knows this will be a half-day at least.
She wanted to know what else I had in mind.
“Stain”
I have to stain the swingset, adirondack rockers, table & picnic
table. I figure that should pretty much suck up a good chunk of two
days. But its a three-day weekend and I should probably figure out what
to do with that last day. I mean, it doesn’t HAVE to suck up that much
time, but it COULD suck up that much time — if I really milk it.
Fish?
Ride bikes?
The GPS mount came in so I can put that on — cool. Also, bicycle-bag,
patch kit, wrenches and airpump arrived from REI. I’m still not sure
how to attach the pump to the frame of the bike. Tiny bungees? If Ben
is feeling better I’m certain we’ll go out for a ride wherever he
wants. Maybe the woods? The weather is supposed to be beautiful.
Maybe we’ll go see the Boston Marathon or the “Shot Heard Round The World” re-enactment?
Sphere: Related ContentThe weekend went very well. My
mother-in-law is visiting. The weather was outstanding so we spent the
weekend out and about doing things. On Sunday we went to Endicott Park
in Danvers where the kids enjoyed climbing and playing with all the
other kids who showed up. Ben has seemed a little down lately. He says
nothing is bothering him but he doesn’t seem to have the usual snap in
his step.
We had lunch out and enjoyed it. Everyone was good.
Afterwards we swung by Brooksby Farm and visited the animals briefly.
Finally we stopped by Northeastern Nursery where Liz got a bunch of
pansies. When we got home she planted them while the kids played
outside. She wound up squirting the kids with the hose — they loved
it. In fact, even the neighbor-kid, Jessie, ran inside and got his suit
on so Liz would drench him. After a while me and Ben went for a short
bicycle ride downtown and cruised around by the library and over by the
Bebe school. It was a nice ride but we didn’t have very long — it was
getting late.
Yesterday we went to Gloucester, MA — “Stage Fort
Park” specifically. Although it was warm the trees still haven’t gotten
their leaves. Everything looked kind of desolate. The kids loved the
playground and then we went down to the beach to see what treasures we
could turn up. Grace has been asking for months to go to the beach, so
she was thrilled to be able to play in the sand. All the kids played in
the sand and got their feet wet and had a very good time.
Afterwards
we did a quick loop around Cape Ann to Rockport, MA. We had an
outstanding lunch at “The Greenery” and spent some time on Bearskin
Neck looking at shops that were almost open. The kids got to buy some
special candy at a candy-store. We drove the rest of the way around
Cape Ann and then made our way home again. By the time we got home it
was nearly 3pm!
I found a place to take a nap and focused on
napping for a little while but eventually I got up and did some chores.
The kids played video games and watched some kid-TV.
We watched
“I, Robot” last night. Fun movie. I liked it. It was better than “King
Arthur” (2004) and “I heart Huckabees” that Liz and her mother had
rented. Clearly, I picked the winner.
Incidentally, the new
camera is outstanding! It takes better and clearer photos than the
elph. Its an interesting camera to operate because it offers so many
more choices than the standard point-and-shoot. It has so many more
capabilities and produces such brilliant photos. I’ll have to post one
Chloe took of a purple pansy that came out beautifully. Also, its very
easy to take a photo of Chloe where she looks terrific. She’s very
photogenic. I took one yesterday where she looks much older than five.
I’ll post some examples.
Sphere: Related ContentToday is Saturday. My mother in law arrived unscathed - this is good news.
I got 36cu.ft of mulch this morning. Chloe and I went and had a fine time. She took pictures with my new camera the WHOLE way. I’ll post a couple. We spread the mulch out and decided I was short about 12cu.ft so I have to go back and get some more.
I cleaned up the garage somewhat. I took my bike out for a ride after getting the GPS mounted. I didn’t watch the GPS as much as I thought I would. It turned out I wasn’t really very interested in it during the actual riding. I’ll see if I can post the route I took — I’m not sure if I can or not.
Anyway, I did 8.4 miles in 42 minutes with an average rate of speed of 11.4 miles per hour. That’s somewhat slower than I normally go, but the numbers don’t really reflect the hills involved. Still, by the end of the trip my legs were throbbing. halfway through I was close to home and I was thinking about how nice it would be to sit down and take it easy … and it was very appealing. But I was only 20 minutes in to it and left like I was wimping out. And I was ok with that. I was turning around to come home when I decided I could probably make it to the end of the block. Once I got to the end of the block I thought I could probably make it up the next hill and from there I figured I could go ahead and do my loop one more time.
It may sound like a silly thing … a teeny tiny achievement but I overcame my internal desire to loaf and pushed through the pain to complete the ride. In the end I felt really good about it.
Then we had a good BBQ. Ben and I rode our bikes to the cemetary nearby where everyone else joined us and we had a very nice post-dinner walk. The kids did really great! Gabriel loves his new rollerblades and Ben is a fine bicyclist. Chloe is getting better at rollerblading.
Then me and Ben took the long way home through a nice quiet neighborhood and had a nice ride. Its been a good day.
Sphere: Related ContentI’ve got a meeting at 10am that I need to be present for, so I thought
I could pop downstairs to the fitness center at 8:30am and workout
before-hand and even have time to cool down and look presentable. But I
forgot that I hadn’t eaten breakfast and after 20 minutes of really
pushing myself I very nearly threw up!
That doesn’t bother me as much as the octogenarian in the locker room giving me shit for such a short workout.
I’ll have to get to the “Y” tonight and finish what I started.
Why go to that kind of trouble?
If I don’t make this important, nobody else will.
Sphere: Related ContentI went to Whiskers for my haircut today and had a fine time. I kind of
hate paying $23 for a haircut but I have to confess that it turns it
from a chore in to a reward. They don’t do anything except wash my hair
and cut it but they sure are sexy! They treat me well. They’re always
happy to see me. Its a nice experience. Its completely changed the
smell of talc for me.
Its beautiful and sunny out. Its cold too,
though. Chloe’s t-ball practice was called off on account of snow. How
absurd is that?!
Ben is still sick but he’s doing better. He’s
got some kind of fever that has laid him low. Gabriel is terrific.
Nothing special is going on with him or with Grace.
I expect to
be posting new pictures soon. My new camera is due to arrive tomorrow.
My extra memory card arrived last night. I was opening the package with
my knife and it was kind of stuck. So I decided to go about getting in
to the package in the stupidest way possible: I was drawing the knife
towards myself when it slipped and I stabbed myself in the belly.
No, really. Right in the gut.
The
tip of the blade went through my favorite work-shrit and a t-shirt and
in to my belly. It wasn’t very deep. I didn’t even think it had gone in
until I took off my t-shirt to go to bed and found some blood on it.
Sure enough there’s a bloody nick on my tubby belly!
What a dope, eh?
Sphere: Related ContentSNOW!!
I know it will be gone shortly, but its coming down in buckets right now!!
We had to cancel Chloe’s t-ball practice because it was SNOWING TOO HARD!!
ugh. I’ve had enough.
Sphere: Related ContentSo last night I was cleaning up the rice-paddie operation. I pulled
on my sneakers and went outside and started hauling hose in to get it
neatly wrapped and stowed. It was dark, so I turned on the
outside-light. The sprinkler trailed at the end of the hose bouncing
along as I reeled in more and more hose. Finally I got the hose put
away and stashed the sprinkler in the store room.
I went inside and took off my shoes. THEN I remember that I had left the light on!
*DOH!*
So I dashed outside and lifted the spring-loaded switch cover that’s over the switch.
*!BBZZZZAPPPP!!!!!**
Sonofabitch!!!!
I hadn’t expected that!! I had gotten zapped by the cover! While my
finger wasn’t black or anything it left a welt that’s still there 18
hours later! I’m a pretty tough guy so I didn’t cry… much.
I dried my hand on my shirt and touched the cover again to see if I would still get zapped.
*!BBBZZZAPPPP!!!!
DAMNIT!! I got zapped again!! What a dork.
So
I tried lifting the spring-loaded cover with a variety of
non-conductive materials so I could get to the switch. And nothing
really did the trick. Finally it occurred to me where I was going
wrong.
You know, besides just leaving it the hell alone.
I
had taken my sneakers off and I was standing my socks. Furthermore, the
light is on the garage and I recalled from earlier work I had done in
there that much of the electrical wiring in the garage consisted of
only two wires: positive, negative and no ground!
So, I was the ground!! When I added the rubber soles I was able to turn the switch on and off with no nasty zapping going on!
I should really get that thing looked at. I wonder if its expensive getting a ground wire added to all the wiring…
Sphere: Related ContentOn top of everything, my face is beet red due to the sunburn I got from being outside for a few hours in the 65 degree heat.
I look pretty silly. It turns out that between my Swedish and my English heritage I don’t handle UV rays very well at all.
Sphere: Related ContentOverall the weekend was good. We got some work done. We got some playing done. The weather was beautiful.
On
Saturday morning I went the Y @7:30am — it was already very busy. I
have to confess I don’t like feeling like one rat out of 50 all on
treadmills (figuratively & literally). But by 8:30am I was home
again and it was time to move on to other things. I got cleaned up and
took the boys to the barber shop. The girls always like to tag along,
I’m not really sure why. They say its because of the free lollipop.
Boy’s haircuts around us are up to $15! amazing.
Afterwards
we went over to the optometrist to pick up Ben’s new glasses and Liz’s
contacts. Really, they’re just new lenses. The frames are the same. He
also complained of not feeling well. He was sluggish all day long, too.
We got home just in time for the boys to get ready to attend a friend’s
first communion.
This whole not-going-to-church-thing I have to
admit leaves them out of a certain amount of activities and cultural
knowledge. For instance, Chloe didn’t know what a “prayer” was. And the
kids were discussing among themselves the relative merits of being
catholic. They all decided they didn’t want to be catholic — including
the boy who was receiving his first communion.
I stayed home
with Grace while everyone else went to the church. Later we all met up
and went to Kowloon for the celebratory lunch. Everything went fine
with that.
Afterwards I took Gabriel, Chloe and Grace to the
elementary school playground and I started trying to teach Chloe how to
ride her bike. She got frustrated at not being able to do it right
away. Which is easier to work with than Gabriel’s issue: he’s afraid of
falling. So he didn’t even try. Next weekend its his turn — I can only
handle so much running! In the meantime, Grace has mastered the
tricycle. She pedaled up and down the playground some distance behind
me and Chloe.
All in all, it was a nice afternoon.
On
Sunday we went to Chloe’s t-ball practice at noon. By this time Ben was
too sluggish to go. I guess he’s got some kind of bug that’s making him
very tired. We had a good time. I went to the hardware store and picked
up some new grass seed. We cleaned up the backyard some — we picked up
a lot of sticks and burned them in one of those outdoor fireplaces. I
still need to rake up the smaller bits.
I put the new playsand in the sandbox.
I
also spread the grass seed all over the yard. Gosh, I hope some of it
takes. I didn’t put down any fertilizer because I just added some a few
days ago and I don’t want to overdo it.
Liz and I scrubbed the
Adirondack rockers and table. Next weekend we may stain them. But I
think I’m definitely obligated to buy a lot of mulch for the swing set.
At
the end of the day I set up the sprinkler to water the fresh grass
seed. My thinking was that rice is basically “grass” right? And what’s
the best way to grow rice? In paddies loaded with water. So I soaked
the back yard. We’ll see if that was an effective way to start things
up. I’d like to continue soaking them every night for a week but I
noticed recently how much water we’re using — well, how much money
we’re spending on water and it was, like $1200 a year! So I feel kind
guilty about giving the grass all this water. I’m sure I’ll get over it.
Work called. I did about an hour’s worth of work.
The
current weather forecast for next weekend looks pretty good, so I
should be able to get over to Northeastern Nursery on Rt.1 with the van
to collect a bunch of mulch to go under the swing set. I also need to
put some up front around a barrel that Liz usually fills with flowers.
Also next to the driveway I want some mulch. Its going to be a lot of
mulch. But it really does a lot to beautify the backyard.
I’m also thinking I should stain the swing set, the picnic table and some outdoor furniture (see “Adirondack rockers” above).
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