Bought the ripple chips this morning and the onion dip last weekend. If I bought both at the same time there would not be any left for new years...
Here is the link to December's photos including a nice set from Henry's nursery school holiday show. It was held at the Reading Memorial High School performance center - a huge stage for tiny performers.
His class sang two songs and joined in for the sing-along at the end of the show. They have started their own Flickr site. Its been great to get a peek into his school life.
Also the Christmas day photos are available in the above link. Tonight we are breaking tradition and are getting Indian instead of Chinese for New Years. I suspect we will join the roving neighborhood celebrations for a little while, but I'd rather just spend some time at home (and the kids are at Nanni and Bubbies).
Oh, I should mention some of the hits and misses this year:
[hit]Henry now enjoys episodes of The Thunderbirds.
[miss] The Jupiter Jack hands-free phone accessory.
[hit] Zenni Optical inexpensive prescription glasses and a big selection of styles.
[hit] Wii - can't wait to hook it up to the wireless network, create a Mii, and send it into the e-world.
Finally time to head home - I'd give a [miss] to work for not closing early on both Christmas eve and new year's eve, but I think I am more grateful to have the job I have.
Merry New Year, happy 2010! [that's twenty-ten, not two thousand ten].
Rainy Saturday trip with the boys to the Wenham Museum. It was actually our second trip there, but Sam was asleep the first time I traveled there. This time both boys were wide awake and ready to explore.
There are quite a few model railroads at the museum. A local club operates multiple gauges in the basement, including 0-27 and a G-gauge layout featuring Thomas the Tank Engine. Every layout has the fun "Push-Button-To-Operate-Trains".
The main exhibit was examples of American folk toys. Almost every toy in the exhibit had a "TRY ME" version for the kids to play.
There is a family play area in the basement where kids can play dress-up, have snacks, run a pretend store, play in the pretend kitchen, read books, and play with toy trains.
Other exhibits included period doll houses, dolls, tea sets, puppets, masks, and a tin soldier collection. The museum is also connected to an 17th century New England house that you can tour. We were there for about 3-1/2 hours before hunger finally overcame their interest.
I was so impressed with the exhibits (and trains, of course) that I joined with a family membership.
Here is an upside down video of one of the layouts.
Diane and Pop went for a biplane ride around the south east corner of Martha's Vineyard while waiting for breakfast at the Right Fork restaurant near the house we rented. My phone only videos upside-down so flip your computer over.
Sam, Bubbie, Nanni, Pop, Diane, and I walked over to the restaurant. The biplane happened to be ready for flying so Pop jumped at the chance and went up with Diane for about 20 minutes.
In addition to the scenic tour, they did some aerobatic stunts - a Cuban Eight, barrel roll, loop, and a hammerhead stall. Good thing they had breakfast AFTER the flight.
Pop flew up from NJ for the weekend to attend the 18th annual Yankee Ultralight Flyers fly-in at Sanderson Field in Greenland, NH. Joni flew down to NJ to attend a certification class. Sam spent the day with Nanni and Bubbie. Henry, Pop, and I went to the fly-in on Saturday, arriving just after Noon.
There was a decent crowd of gawkers and a fair number of planes. There were 2 vintage spotter planes from the Korean War era that were being used for airplane rides and for Boy Scouts earning their flying eagle merit badges. They flew almost continuously during the 2-1/2 hours we were there.
There was a table set up with kid activities and items. Henry got a paratrooper parachute toy, a foam glider, and a Tootsie Pop. There were a few events scheduled just for kids and in the evenings there is a candy drop along the runway. For adults, there are technical sessions and FAA safety programs as well as some vendor presentations.
The event runs for a week, with the public invited on the weekend. There were campers and tents around the shaded pond and more tents on the far side of the runway. For pilots staying over, they have a camp fire every night and a cook out. Over the weekend, they had a BBQ / sausage vendor come who served Henry and me a cheese burger and sausage (pepper and onions of course).
Most of the planes are registered and certified private planes, but there were a couple true ultralights (less than 250 lbs, 5 gallon gas, 50 knot max speed, single seat, no FAA registration or pilot license required). I did overhear one pilot mentioning that due to health reasons he could not keep up his FAA certification so he was flying his ultralight exclusively. I counted over 30 planes as we walked down from the parking area to the field. There was a plane taking off or landing every couple of minutes.
The grass runway is quite unique – it has a pretty steep hill at one end that the planes taxi up under power, turn and then race down for take-offs. When the wind shifts it is not quite as dramatic launching from the far end of the field. The runway is 2,000 feet long, so most of these lightweight planes are airborne in less than half that distance.
The weather was ideal – sunny and mid-seventies. There was a mild breeze which helped to keep the visitors cool, but challenged the pilots landing to crab and side-step when the wind came across the runway.
Henry and I wandered around looking at a few planes, but mostly he wanted to sit under the large canopy tent watching the crowds (“I see Granddad!” was a favorite cry) or walk along the edge of the pond. He cut me off after I had visited about half the planes, declaring that I couldn’t look at any more.
When it came time to leave, we headed off to Middleton, MA to visit Richardson’s Dairy Farm. Click the link to see an old posting from 2007 – Henry is almost 2 and Joni is pregnant. We had ice cream, visited the cows & chickens, and watched the mini golf games before heading back to Reading.
I have had a fascination with Julia Child for quite some time. I bought one of her biographies (Appetite for Life) within a month of publication in 1999 and read it cover to cover, although it was not particularly well written.
I remember watching her show during the original broadcast years.
I think we had (have) a JC cookbook when I was younger, though I cannot remember ever looking through it.
And of course there is the Dan Ackroyd parody.
I also recall being truly surprised to learn she and her husband Paul had worked for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) after World War II. Who would ever suspect her of espionage?
I recently finished "Julie and Julia", the story of a young New York woman who attempts to make all of the recipes in JC's first cookbook in 1 year - and blogs about it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I recently purchased a used copy of "The Art of French Cooking", the very same cookbook from the story.
I borrowed a bunch of the old TV series episodes from the library and watched a few including the lobster episode, the omelet episode, and the very first episode.
And now I can't wait for the movie based on the book, with Meryl Streep as Julia, opening August 7th.
Took some time out today to download photos from my phone, organize them, and start uploading to Flickr. Started with a few from a spur of the moment trip to Plum Island beach last month on an unseasonably warm weekend.
Love this photo of Sam giving me a look while Henry and Joni are playing in the surf.
Shoes off, time to play in the sand.
You try to get kids to hold still for a photo at the beach. . .
We parked right next to the beach in a parking lot that probably just went up to $20 this month. It cost us $1 on this day in May.
I was reading a post on another blog the other day about a farm in Sherborn that has fresh produce, llamas, knitting classes, and other seemingly disconnected but interesting things. The person who posted the note had a link back to her family blog.
It turned out her blog was filled with photos of lunches she had made for her kids. Many of the food items had been shaped, sculpted, and colored to resemble non-food items. The name alone was enough to make me want to click on the link: DisposableAardvarksInc.blogspot.com
This photo is just one sample, apparently from the Super Bowl lunch.
The other thing that caught my attention was the containers. She uses Japanese Bento containers. Bento, I believe, means "box". Most sushi places do a bento lunch as well as a la cart sushi. OK, so much for my knowledge of Japanese food packaging.
The boxes have neat compartments for each food item and are stackable. They also have fun themed designs, like fruits and animals. She orders them from Ichiban Kan, a store in California that specializes in Japanese household items, most for less than $2.
Many of the items have those odd but cute "Japinglish" translated phrases like this gem from the Putifresh collection (which you can't help but read as "Putri-Fresh"): "Happy fruits is very delicious. I will eat this and become fortunate all together."
We are making reservations now for our summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard. We were there in 2006 and 2007; last summer we strayed to Ogunquit Maine. This year we return to MV.
Today the car said it was 8 degrees (F) on the way to work. Planning a summer vacation at the beach now has got me ready to go. I feel like I am going next week and it will be sunny and 80 degrees.
We decided to invite the parents (grandparents?) along this year and both sets were enthusiastic. Joni put together a list of potential rental locations big enough for 8 adults and 2 kids. We then decided to go to the island and see some of them first hand. Why not? Its only a couple hours from us and would be kind of fun to be there in the off season.
We drove through the start of a raging snow storm early Sunday morning. As we got closer to Woods Hole, the snow changed to rain. We had a pleasant crossing on the "Island Home" ferry (photo above taken from the ferry salon). After arriving, we had a late breakfast at the Black Dog Tavern.
View from our table at the Black Dog
We stayed a the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven. In season it would have been too pricey for my spend-thrift ways, but off season it is a bargain.
After cruising Oak Bluffs, we set our sights on Katama, the residential area near South Beach. Here is a video of the house we picked. It is close to the Katama airfield (a grass strip frequented by a biplane that gives rides), a tenth of a mile from the closest bus stop and bike lane, and less than a mile from the beach.
Fortunately we had some time to bum around, visiting places we had been in Edgartown and the shops in Vineyard Haven.
Bought the ripple chips this morning and the onion dip last weekend. If I bought both at the same time there would not be any left for new years...
This photo is just one sample, apparently from the Super Bowl lunch.
