Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Day, continued

After presents and breakfast and maybe some snacks (I don't remember actually when the snacks came in) we went outside for some bubble blowing fun courtesy of Mom Pf.



As usual(or as expected), this involved some of us (the know-it-alls) trying to prove that we knew best how to make big bubbles. Nobody really won, but bubbles were made.



Then we went for a wildlife walk on the golf course (closed for the day).

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Day

After much debate over when Christmas would start, it was agreed that it would begin at 8:30AM and that those who chose too would appear in pajamas. Michael promised a special shirt for Dad F. (and I totally knew it was an Obama shirt, I mean, I knew before I saw it). Christmas took a very long time and was punctuated by breakfast. Mom and Dad Pf seemed to enjoy it too. I was introduced to Fluff, who was apparently an integral part of Brian's childhood. He has certainly seen better days, but at least the snot has been washed off of him.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Walks on the beach

It's Christmas and I need shorts. What is up with that?


12/24/08. We went for a walk on the beach. It wasn't perhaps the best beach weather, but the light was really interesting and we examined the seaweed and the wildlife.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Snow, Christmas, more snow, power outages and a PAPER!

First it snowed and there was much freaking out because I was trying to get my paper submitted before everyone went on vacation.


Then, we had Christmas at my mom's house. I couldn't get a good shot of the tree, because there was stuff all over the floor (first presents and then then it looked like a hurricane had struck) and it was too dark, and I forgot about taking pictures until after all the presents were unwrapped anyway, but I did get some good shots of my mom's Christmas mice. I LOVE the Christmas mice. They are my favorite Christmas decorations. I also got some shots of some of the mushroom ornaments. We ate dinner and I ate a lot of beets. I'm not going to go into detail about what happened after THAT, but if you've ever eaten a lot of beets, you probably know. If not, you should try it sometime. Brian got a knife sharpener and I got a pouring shield for my mixer. Plus, we both got some good books and a plate (well, I called it a plate, but my mom insisted it was a dish) and a washer (HINT: it's like the year I got a piece of wood-- a board--a key, and a tiny little mouse). Got it?


Yesterday it snowed some more, my paper was submitted (Oh my god! Passive voice!), we shoveled a lot and the power went out again. It came back on overnight, so unfortunately for Margot, we don't have to go stay with Adam and Christi again.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Snow!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Presents, Part II

If anyone is still looking for a present to give Brian, I have an idea so you should ask me. Meanwhile, this is a picture of a cake!

Ice Storm

If you live in New England, you are surely aware of the gigantic ice storm that affected the area on Friday, December 12. There have been massive, widespread power outages in MA and NH, over 300,000 customers in each state, with more in Vermont and Maine. In Boxborough, our power was out for the better part of three days. We were fortunate that our friends Adam and Christi, who live in Acton (one town over) never lost any services, and they were very gracious in offering us their spare bedroom, since we had no light, heat or water. We actually had a great time all weekend!

We were fortunate not to have much damage (trees or otherwise) around our house. One chunk of one of the pine trees came down on the edge of the yard. We moved some stuff out of the fridge into A+C's fridge, and moved the rest into a container outside, since the high was about 30 on Saturday and 40 on Sunday. To guard against frozen pipes, we chose to drain the boilers on Saturday afternoon, as the temp in the house got down to about 40 during the day, and it was supposed to be 15 overnight. Not sure if this was overkill or not, but we didn't know when the power would be coming back on, and the temp on Sunday morning was 34 inside the woman-cave!

The attached pictures pale in comparison to others I have seen from further west and north, but there they are for documentation purposes. In addition to the ice, we also got a lot of rain, as you can see from the high water level in the pond behind our house. You can sort of make out the old beaver dam -- this is normally a dropoff of about 18 inches.

On the other side of Boxborough (to the west), the town of Harvard *still* has power out as of this morning. I guess it could have been worse!



Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wishlists and such

OK people, there has been some demand for wishlists and such around the holidays. I'm not one to refuse a gift, so I've added my Amazon.com wishlist to the sidebar. I admit that it tends to be a somewhat random assortment of things that I was interested in at one time or another, so use your better judgement. I don't seem to be able to add Brian's, but his is a less random assortment of things that he might actually want on a more consistent basis. It turns out that he'll probably be getting most of those things anyway (oops, did I say that?) so if you want to buy him something, I don't know what to tell you.

That is all.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Sure has gotten quiet around here


Not much going on since the big house project reached the penultimate milestone. By the time it was finally done, I was expecting that painting would have to wait until next year, but the project manager insisted that they were still doing painting jobs. As long as it is above 40 degrees (or 35 in a pinch) it is supposed to be OK. So wouldn't you know it, as soon as they work one day and paint two sides of the house, we have about a three week cold snap with periodic intermissions of rain. Finally, today, the painters have returned to continue the job. Today and tomorrow look good, and they might even get to work Thursday, if the forecast improves.

Meanwhile we have lived a quiet and relatively uneventful existence since the last update, at least compared to our friends who have been busy moving and having kids and stuff. I suppose we should be preparing for the holidays now, but mostly I have been playing bridge and Rock Band (not at the same time), while Edith works on her sewing projects. The house work has inspired a couple of other small side projects, like switch wiring and general cleanup/organization, and I have been watching more home improvement TV programming. This too will probably pass, as soon as it becomes clear that I can't build a deck and re-landscape the yard in 22 minutes.