Kangaroo Climber

That is the name of the slide toy we got Henry for his 2nd birthday. As you can see, he can fall off the top, side, or even the inside platform. Great fun!

We put it out on the screen porch, which has a 0.000005" thick carpet over the cement floor. We have since picked up (another) set of interlocking foam pads (AKA crash pads) to surround the slide. The pictures were take May 12th.









Henry takes the camera:








I take the camera back:

My head is shaped like an egg

If I can't have the camera, I'm leaving!!

Beachie Keen

Wow, 2 trips to the beach in less than 1 week!

Joni and Henry went to Rockport last week during one of the 80 degree days. Today it won't even make 60 degrees. Ah, New England...

We went to Crane's Beach in Ipswich last weekend. We followed that up with a stop for cider donuts at Russell Orchards along the beach access road. The Orchard also has a small playground, ice cream (we had pumpkin spice), chickens, goats, pigs, turkeys, ponds, barns, and the country store. They make their own wine and hard cider too.

Here are the Rockport photos:




















I hope those are swim diapers.



Here are the Cranes Beach photos. The high temp for this day was only about 70 and with the ocean breeze a warm layer was needed:













I apologize for not getting any Joni photos. Also no photo of the man in the safari hat who gave Henry a dinosaur toy he had found while beach combing for his daughter's lost ring.

Reading - Read

The Framingham library has an option on their website to track your reading selections. I flipped it on the end of last year. I read a lot.

OK, I listen a lot. Most of my reading is in the car with audio books during the hour or so each way for the work commute. Without the distraction, Road Rage would take over.

Here is the recent list with some commentary:

• Eldest / Christopher Paolini.
  Not sure I could recommend either the books or the movie.
  
  
• Building the data warehouse / W.H. Inmon.
  (Oops, a work related book here)
  
  
• Mountains beyond mountains [sound recording] / Tracy Kidder.
  Reminds you that you have not done anything of meaning in your life.
  

• Life interrupted [sound recording] : [the unfinished monologue] / Spalding Gray.
  The work in progress when he committed suicide. Laugh and cry.

• Unleashing the soul of money [sound recording] : [finding sufficiency, freedom, and purpose through your relationship with money] / Lynne Twist.
  I chew up personal finance books from time to time. This one is rank. About half of the audio recording is a guided meditation about money. Honest.
  

• Barracuda 945 [sound recording] / by Patrick Robinson, read by David McCallum.
  Submarine stories - love 'em. This one is so-so, but read by the guy from Man from U.N.C.L.E. Not that on, the other one.
  

• Why do I love these people? [sound recording] : [honest and amazing stories of real families] / Po Bronson.
  I have read all of his books. 'nuf said.
  

• State of fear [sound recording] / Michael Crichton.
  Good fact/fiction story about global warming - with guns!
  

• No god but God : the origins, evolution, and future of Islam / Reza Aslan.
  Islam / Charles Clark.
  I had 3 or 4 books on Islam checked out for my discussion group at church. The best one was actually a text book for middle school kids.
  
  
• Something rotten [sound recording] : [a Thursday Next novel] / Jasper Fforde.
  Both the Nursery Crime and Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde are fantastic. Quick wit, twisted, and juicy. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Timeline [sound recording] / by Michael Crichton.
  A practical application for those quantum computers we have lying around - time travel.
  
  
• Holidays on ice [sound recording] / David Sedaris.
  Ha Ha Ha - some of his Ho Ho Ho stories, including "Dinah the Christmas Whore".
  
  
• A briefer history of time [sound recording] / Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.
  Hmm, maybe a quantum physics theme developing in my reading habits?
  
  
• The old man and the sea [sound recording] / by Ernest Hemingway.
  
  
• The life and times of the thunderbolt kid [sound recording] : [a memoir] / Bill Bryson.
  Also have read almost everything by Bill Bryson. One of his best. Highly recommended.
  
  
• The Trudeau vector [sound recording] / Juris Jurjevics.
  Russian subs, Arctic romance, biological warfare. Recommended.
  
  
• For one more day [sound recording] / Mitch Albom.
  Finishing this one in the next day or so. Read his other 2 big hits. They all make me a little verklempt.

• The automatic millionaire homeowner [sound recording] : [a powerful plan to finish rich in real estate] / David Bach.
  On deck. Another personal finance chewy.

• The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors : [the extraordinary World War II story of the Navy's finest hour] / James Hornfischer.
  A recommendation from Scoots Hambuli in response to my recommendation of "In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis".
  

• The number [sound recording] : [a completely different way to think about the rest of your life] / Lee Eisenberg.
  Another personal finance book. Yawn. Also includes a play on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal, another Quantum Physics reference.
  

There were also some music CD's in the list. As you can see I like The Shins.

• Oh inverted world [sound recording] / The Shins.
  
• Prolonging the magic [sound recording] / Cake.
  
• Chutes too narrow [sound recording] / The Shins.
  
• Wincing the night away [sound recording] / The Shins.
  
• For me, it's you [sound recording] / Train.
  
• American V [sound recording] : a hundred highways / Johnny Cash.

Richardson Dairy Farm

We took advantage of the good weather and the first weekend in weeks that we have not had to go work on the house in Ashland. Henry and I went to the park in the morning. We did the slides, swings, some basketball, and roller hockey (OK, he just picked up the balls and threw them at the hockey net). We came home, cleaned up and ate lunch, and then took a nap.

Then we all headed off to Richardson's Dairy Farm ("From Cow To Cone") in Middleton. There has been a dairy farm at that location for over 300 years. Not sure if it had mini-golf, a driving range, and batting cages back then but it does now! Jim and Ellie met us there and we all enjoyed seeing the golfers, cows, and having ice cream.

Here is the pen with the calves. Each has its own igloo.

Ice creamed:

The chickens are in another pen next to the calves:

An igloo:

"Dimples" O'Holt:

Trying to get a picture of Joni's belly:

The corral with the young cows. Looks like a postcard:

This is what the cows see when they look at our side of the fence:

Who needs an axe when you can head-butt?

"Hey, Wilbur is trying to head-butt that tree again! Ha Ha Ha!"

"... and then it is Pasteurized to remove the pathogens ..."

The 2 mini-golf courses are on the left. The driving range is further down, and after the driving range are the batting cages.

This reminds me of that scene where Kramer is walking with the cane and the Coat of Many Colors from Jason and the Technicolor Dream Coat:

Click the Kramer pimp for the video

The sun is setting and its time to go home.

A quick addition to the blog today. The governor is here today, speaking in the room above my office at this very moment. There is the usual collection of cops, swivel-heads, and black Crown Vics in the parking lot outside. I popped upstairs to take a quick pic:

Governor Patrick is to the right of the podium, waiting his turn to speak.