Today was a long day.  I am sore, but not in places I expected to be - but maybe that's because I didn't think logically about exactly what it meant that I signed up for a trip to the trapeze school.  It was a Groupon.  My friend A and I had been eyeing the crazy furnitue store and theme park right by the highway here that has a trapeze rig, but it ( Read more... )

Just spent a fantastic weekend showing my dad and stepmom around the area - lots of fun and lots to see and lots of food!
- Afghani food at Hellmand was as fantastic this time as the first time I tasted it, but the trout dish wins out over the lamb.
- driving tour of leaves and visits to coastal beauty spots, including a coastal sunrise (this weekend ( Read more... )

I - myself - do not actually know how to dance.  Couple-dancing kind of stuff, I mean.  The problem is, I know surprisingly well how to do a pretty good approximation of whatever the guy who's leading wants me to do, but I couldn't tell anybody ahead of time what that's going to be. I've taken a ballroom dance class (college gym credit) and done a ( Read more... )

My buddy Jo had bought a toy for his kids, that he'd told us enough stories about that he finally brought it in to work for us to play with.
Behold, the MindFlex:

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We played a fine “vintage game” on Saturday, a gift from Dirk’s parents.  Wine Cellar is a drinking game, basically an adult version of Candyland combined with Trivial Pursuit about wine. It was created in 1971 by the California Wine Advisory board, in the era before California wines had won any major tastings, and the whole concept of wine- ( Read more... )

So, we spent Friday afternoon cleaning up, Friday evening into the late-night throwing a party for my coworkers, Saturday morning cleaning up, Saturday afternoon and evening throwing a party for our dance, music, and comics friends, and were not actually as rained-out by "hurricane" Danny as I was afraid we'd be, then Sunday morning doing a quick ( Read more... )

Last night, we met some friend-of-friends at a dinner party (well, okay, friends of family of family-in-law) and it turns out they play in a bank locally, of the folk/roots/trad/irish/etc direction, and they'd brought the guitar and electric violin to entertain the toddlers.  They were very entertained!  I unfortunately, had nothing with me, so ( Read more... )

My absolutely awesome nieces were visiting last weekend. We went to the beach and I sunburned my legs. We played in the backyard with the hose, then washed the car (and boy did it need it, it's been since late fall). We bought a grill, then cooked on it. (this was so inspirational we'll be hosting a bbq). Lots of drawings were made and books ( Read more... )

Well, the day has come. My lovely soda siphon has been used Three-Stooges style.

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We were out all day yesterday at the Boston Celtic Music Festival (BCMFest) which was a blast.  It's not a "how many fancy musicians can we pay to come to Boston in the middle of winter" event, it's a "good lord there are a ton of excellent musicians who live in Boston" event.  It was great to go out and see the locals and say 'hello again', as I ( Read more... )