Wednesday, August 31, 2005

First Day of School

Today is Ferris’ first day back to school.
First day of his senior year.

He was ready early for school today. Which was completely accidental …he simply needs to re-hone his timing down so that he is tearing out the door with just enough time to fly past the security guard before he starts handing out tardy slips

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Live Draft

I have my first Live Draft today at 4:00.
I will be doing it here at the office.

Luckily, I just found out Boo Williams has a torn ACL and is out for the season...whew - he was my top TE pick.

I am now, wisely, researching the rest of my players...many of whom are chosen because I like their names...or their pictures.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Leave it to me to get long winded.

It seems I have been ‘tagged’ for a meme.
To be polite I do participate only when tagged (and it helps to be tagged by one of my favorites)
So, this is for you Suzanne.
[and…uncharacteristically, I even named other players]

First, the rules to this meme game: Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. Heather http://outloudvoice.blogspot.com
2. Suzanne http://mimilou.blogspot.com
3. Gina http://objustanotherday.blogspot.com
4. Suzanne http://lifethesuburbs.blogspot.com
5. Lisa http://weese.blogspot.com/

Next: select new friends to add to the pollen count. No one is obligated to participate.

1. Lachlen http://www.mysocalledblog.com/
2. Maxine http://www.nolanoni.blogspot.com/
3. Lisa http://www.mittenmusings.net/
4. Ace http://www.acepryhill.com/
5. Bayou http://www.aperfectanomaly.com/

Let the game begin!

What 5 things do you miss about your childhood?
1. hmm….

Huh. I had planned to put a nice neat list of five items, and be done with it really.. but in simply trying to come up with this list I got to thinking.

First, I had a wonderful childhood. I grew up in a well-to-do town in Fairfield county, we were not rich, but really I can’t say I ‘wanted’ for anything. We were a harmonious family (well until I hit my teens – but that’s a whole ‘nother story).
My father died when I was very young, so my mom was both parents to us. She taught me to be a strong woman, capable of getting along on my own.

I have many fond memories of my childhood, but that is not what the question asks.
The question asks what I miss.. is there something I long for.
And really, no. I can’t say I have a ‘longing’ from my childhood. I actually prefer being an adult.

That said… I loved my purple banana seat Schwinn Sting Ray, Muffy our smelly mutt, running to catch the ice cream man, swinging in the rope swing behind the neighbor’s house, and most of all leaving the house in the morning to play outside all day …until summoned by the dinner bell.
Yes, my mom used to ring a bell out the door for us, rather than calling us home as some of the other parents used to do, usually because we were so far down the hill it was hard to call out that loud.

Can you imagine that today – young kids just going out the door after lunch, and their parents not knowing where they are or what they are doing for hours, and I mean --- all afternoon… and then, around dinner time, parents need to literally call their names …holler out the door to get them home.
We needed to be called because there was no friend’s parent or babysitter to tell us what time it was or what to do… or even to watch what we were up to all day. In our neighborhood, we were usually in the woods at the bottom of hill. Other times we were right in the middle of the street, drawing elaborate chalk outlined ‘roads’ to guide our bikes through, or setting up jumps from scrap wood ‘borrowed’ from the back of a neighbors house (or from construction sites) to run our bikes over—with, of course, the expected disastrous results, sending the wounded home, cut up and bleeding from multiple scrapes and cuts…only to be patched up and sent right back out and down the street.

Do I miss that? … well no, because of course I can leave the house any time I want and play outside all day ‘till dinner ... or even later (and my toys are better now). – so I don’t miss that for myself.
I do miss it for kids today. It’s an unparalleled freedom, to go off on your own with your friends and have the greatest of daily adventures. I learned more about life, living, getting along, physics and biology out there in the neighborhood... on my own, living large and soaking up those long summer days.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Hint

ok... look at the tower pic again. Think of the old Donald Duck cartoon...the really old ones. Now look at the arched windows in the tower and think eyes.
Does that help?

Michael Cunningham mentions this in his book, and admittedly its easier to see at night when the tower is lit. But we spent all week looking for the duck. We kept stopping all over town to gape at it helplessly. I am sure we looked insane, and certainly did when we finally saw it!
We were coming out of 'Tea' at the time.
You do know 'Tea'... right?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The duck

Can you see the duck?

Oh, c'mon...no one sees the duck!

just a couple more

It's been very busy here at work lately - leaving me little time to blog, surf and shop online. So I will wrap up the vaction stories with just a couple more.

Today I just wanted to thank, hug, smooch and otherwise fondle and cuddle our two best friends, Bets and Sammy, who shared our 20th anniversary in town with us - and treated us to dinner (and much fabulous wine) at the best restaurant in town. There is a short list of things that I am so honored and blessed to have in my life- these two people are on that list.
Here they are at Front Street with us. (I will post a better picture of them tomorrow...but I wanted one at the restuarant and this is what I took - it was pretty hard to get a picture of someone that night without a drink in their face)

And here we are across the table. This is the night I was nicked named 'ho'.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Another day in Town

One of our favorite places to go while we are in ‘Town’ is the Euro café.
It’s a second floor outdoor café located ideally in the center of town on Commercial Street. It is without a doubt one of the best spots for people watching while sipping cool and refreshing cocktails.

Because we travel with Sammy (Sammy…Betsy’s lovely wife and without a doubt THE travel queen when it comes to fine restaurants and the best seating)– we always get the best table for four right near the railing for optimal viewing.

On this beautiful August evening – we were sitting at the Euro enjoying our FABuLoUS cocktails and discussing how we will never plan our trip for the first week of August again and yukking it up in general. In the distance we heard honking…my first instinctual reaction was to comment on how inappropriate that is in PTown. There are certain things that are just not done here… one is – if you drive down Commercial Street, you NEVER honk. You wait. You basically drive at the speed of the average pedestrian and do so patiently. The drive down Commercial Street is basically done to see, and be seen. It’s an event… not a thoroughfare.

Anyway – it became quickly apparent that this particular honking was not traffic related. It was consistent and as it got closer we could hear crowd noises too – clapping and happy shouting – this was clearly a celebration. The noise got louder and louder as it drew near and finally came into view.

We stood and went to the railing as did everyone in the restaurant… as did everyone in the streets. The whole town came to the curb, came to their windows, came to their doors and applauded and waved and shouted cheers as we all watched the brides go by, followed by what looked like their wedding party, parents, family and friends.
They were seated up on the back of the rear seat of a convertible with a big sign
‘Just Married’

The four of us cheered and waved and whistled… and cried. We wept for change, we wept for equality, we wept for the beauty of acceptance in this wonderful little town, we wept …well, because you weep at weddings.
After they passed we toasted to this happy, nameless couple and kissed our beautiful wives and hoped for the future.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Friday

Unwrap your favorite bar soap and slip it between your sheets or towels in the linen closet. Especially off season items, this makes your linens smell fresh and clean. Also, unwrapping the soap dries it out and hardens it so it will last longer in the shower.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Let the crisping begin

ah yes, now where were we ...

Of course the first day in town we went to the beach.
We like to check out the hot topless women of course.
Hmmm, now where were those topless women...
Bets at Herring Cove
oooo, right it was family week.

At least my sumptuous wife got to sport her newly acquired fabulous hat.
my sumptuous wife

We go to Herring Cove beach. If you have not read Micheal Cunninghams description of Herring Cove in his book Land's End, I highly recommend it.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Friday

We interrupt this ongoing vacation saga to bring you our regularly scheduled Friday Tip of the Day.

Outlet saftey.
We live in an old home and outlets are few, far between and not very well placed.
Upstairs in the bedrooms where we needed to place beds against the walls, especially when the kids were small, I was concerened about bedding and such hanging over the outlets. I investigated childproof covers, but they only block access to the outlet itself, I wanted it covered with stuff plugged in. So we installed outdoor outlet covers.These allow easy access but completely cover the outlet and the plugs.
(also: some models can also be made childproof by securing the cover down with cable ties)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Rookie Mistake

We have been vacationing in PTown for 20 years. It’s our favorite place to go.
Isn’t it fantastic that you can learn something new about your favorite place even after all this time?

After having mimosa's for breakfast and slurping down our jello shots at the beach we decided to drive into town, check in, park the car and perhaps stroll around a bit, find a place to have a cocktail.
Oddly, we didn’t really piece together the teens playing Frisbee in the park, the ridiculous amount of strollers, and so many gay dads fawning over infants – until we got about halfway down Commercial Street and saw the banner.
10th Annual Family Pride Week

Ok. Now I know a lot of you out there have kids…hey – so do we.
But we didn’t bring ours… and that’s NOT why we come to PTown.
We had no idea this had been going on for 10 years. Don’t get me wrong…its great. I am very happy all these lesbian, gay, transgendered, etc. folks are taking the plunge into parenting… I understand it’s a huge step for the movement and for acceptance... and alllll that... but really, we don’t want to vacation with them.

Of course my child-rearing wife and I smiled to ourselves many times over the week – as we passed these happy new families, with their colorful toddlers… we smiled because we know. We know these adorable little cherubs will one day – drive, drive too fast, drive into things, get drunk and puke, have sex way before they are ready, and for a short time in their tumultuous teens…completely ignore their parents – not because their parents are gay…but because they are parents. Have fun. See you on the other side. See you when you want to vacation in PTown on ANY other week but the 1st of August.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

The Trip

This week I will share short passages from our trip.

We travel to PTown most often with our Favorite Friends, B & S.
It is our tradition to have a champagne/mimosa toast prior to departure.
This year we toasted at about 5:45 a.m. - It's a great way to start the morning.

It is also tradition that as soon as we can see the Provincetown Tower from Route 6, that we pull over immediately and have our first cocktail.




This year, my colorful wife made us rainbow jello shots for our first day at the beach.

Monday, August 08, 2005

ahhhh

We're back. Town was FANtasTIC.
I will have some stories and pics to share.
But first I have 323 emails to read...

hmm, I wonder if I can get a bloody mary downstairs at the Corporate Cafeteria...