He always had a knack for things mechanical. When my electric train locomotive wouldn’t run right I took it to Grandpa and watched as he patiently examined it and administered a drop of oil here, or re-soldered a wire there, then handed it back to me with a reassuring “here, try that.” I can still smell the 3-in-1 oil in his florescent-lit basement workshop, well-stocked with tools and parts. Having come of age during the Read more…
We spent 2 weeks traveling to Cleveland, Chicago, and finally Colorado, seeing lots of family the entire time. The boys took some great pictures: Bennet’s pictures:
After Kenai died in the summer of 2011, our household was without a canine for well over a year, but everyone missed living with a friendly quadraped around the house. So after some discussion we decided to rescue a puppy from a shelter. Surprisingly, it wasn’t easy finding a mixed-breed puppy in the local shelters (we wanted an 10-12 week old pup), but there’s an organization in Maine that finds good homes for shelter dogs Read more…
This summer the Boston Red Sox sponsored a “Fenway Park Art & Essay Contest” to celebrate the venerable ballpark’s centennial, inviting kids ages 16 and under throughout New England to submit original artwork and/or an essay on “what Fenway Park means to you.” The prize was tickets to a game, a tour of the park, a chance to watch batting practice from the field, and an introduction to the crowd in a pregame ceremony on Read more…
At the end of July we took some time out at the island, beginning with a small weekend gathering of friends to share music, good food, and camaraderie. After the weekend it was just us, enjoying some quiet time in a very peaceful place, a good opportunity to “recharge.” Lots of swimming at the beach, relaxing in the hammock, skipping rocks, curling up with a book, Parcheesi, cards, and whiffle ball (the boys had homerun Read more…
A little late this year, but Ben and Landon finally got busy with the annual egg-dyeing ritual. The great debate in our house is whether the eggs are supposed to be hollow or hard-boiled–as a kid I always did it the former way, Marina the latter. This year Dad prevailed, and Landon especially enjoyed watching me poke holes in either end of the eggs and blow out the contents (can you guess what we had Read more…
One September day we took the kids on an excursion to Fenway Park. This is no ordinary outing to these boys: fully afflicted with baseball fever, there’s pretty much no place they’d rather be. So the kids were delighted, having resigned themselves to the apparent reality that there would be no trip to Fenway this season–until they were informed yesterday of today’s agenda. As fairly attentive fans of Major League ball, they were aware that Read more…