still a busy family
the weekend was really very busy again. Saturday was spent mostly out of the house. Peterman got his nails trimmed first thing in the morning. Then we drove down to The Pru in Boston. Its a skyscraper with a mall at the base. That’s where the Boston Duck Tours take off from. My company sponsored the event so I took the whole family. It was a good time. We left around 11am and for the next 90 minutes we toured downtown Boston by land and by sea. The kids got to drive the duck in the Charles River. Turns out they’re all lousy drivers!
The tour guide was fun and it was kind of cool seeing Boston from that angle. I would definitely do it agian.
Afterwards we went to California Pizza Kitchen - an upscale pizza restaurant in Boston’s back bay. I have to admit that they serve some outstanding pizza!
We had promised Benjamin that he could go to some Pokemon event at the South Shore Plaza shopping mall. So it was a 30 minute drive down there only to find that the place was packed. We found the event at the center of the mall and there was a line wrapping all the way around the center sqaure. I sent Liz and Grace on their way because I had volunteered to stay with the boys and Chloe. There were people milling around everywhere and in the middle of the square was a lounge with a bunch of kids silently playing gameboys. There were also a bunch of LCD screens set up so people could play a game, but I think you had to pay a pile of money to register for it and again, there was a long line.
Nonetheless that would have been preferable to what we did. It turned out that we stood in line for (get this) 90 minutes to buy three plush pokemon toys.
I know, I know, I’m so humiliated. My parents didn’t bring me up this way! I don’t know what’s the matter with me! It wasn’t even like the kids were DYING for a particular toy or anything. I’m still kicking myself.
But we made it back to Melrose by about 4pm - just in time for a seven year old’s birthday party!
I was a little irritated because I was getting hot and losing my patience. The good news is that there was cold beer served at the party and that seemed to make everything alright again.
We stayed until about 8pm and had a good time.
Whew! Busy day.
Sunday was also busy, but it was spent largely at home. My personal rule is that I don’t mow the grass before 9am. I figure its the least i can do for my neighbors. But at 9am on the button I was putting a new blade on the mower along with some new oil and a fresh air filter. The heat was oppressive. It was crazy-humid with very high temperatures even by 9am. So I spent about 2 hours mowing and trimming and did a lot of sweating. I showered off before going to Fudruckers for lunch. Ben had gone to a friend’s house for the morning and a buddy of Gabriel’s had taken him to a beach in Nahant. Since I was all clean and refreshed when we got back I went back to the yard and dismantled the old picnic table and taught my helper, Chloe how to use an 18-volt drill. really it was way too large for her and she couldn’t use it for long. The crescent wrench was better, but was very tedious, so I showed her how to use a socket wrench. And she was actually a great help! I also went around the yard picking up and fixing things that needed some attention.
I think I took the rest of the afternoon and evening off. I was absurdly sweaty again so before going to Papa John’s to bring back pizza I had to shower again.
I think I put in a couple of hours of work in the evening too. That’s been the case more often than not for the last month or so. While watching TV I will get some things started at work and check on the progress of other things. I haven’t yet burned through both laptop batteries in one evening, but I do often require both.
That’s how the weekend went. Busy!
Yesterday our plumber started removing our furnace. No, we asked him to. its ok. Today he’s supposed to come back and replace our oil burning furnace with a more efficient natural gas furnace. Also, his buddy is removing the oil tank (yippee!). Our oil company sent us a contract for the coming year’s oil and it was going to be $300 a month! during the winter — less in the summer, but mostly it was $300 a month! When we arrived at our house eight years ago it was $104!! So we’re switching. We already had gas in the house for the hot water heater. The gas company gave us a good price on a furnce ($500). We’re regular customers of our plumber so he cut us a good deal too. Its still an expensive proposition, though.
So that’s going on this week. Next week we’re going down to South Jersey for our bi-annual family reunion in Wildwood, NJ. It should be a good time. I could use a bit of a vacation. I’ve been working a lot and need a break.
I’ve also been playing some chess at www.redhotpawn.com. Its been going well. If you want to play, look me up!
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