Monthly Archives: November 2003

Santa Parade

Today marked the annual Santa Parade, apparently a tradition on the North Shore. Since I had some time to kill while the laundry was going, I walked down a length of Cabot Street to observe and ***photograph|http://gallery.prwdot.org/santa_parade***. Apparently, a representative entourage from each locality’s fire department was on hand to generate as much noise as possible. The streets were lined with fairly large crowds, and it was actually a pretty decent day for it – clear and cool, but not so cold that you’d freeze without a hat. There was at least one drum and bugle corps that I saw, handfuls of local businesses and government officials, and other local groups. It reminded me of most of the parades I had seen when I was growing up in Mount Vernon. I think the biggest difference now is that I have little or nothing at stake in terms of local interest… I don’t follow any Beverly sports or politics, am not involved in any Beverly organizations, and really don’t know many people in the city at all. I do patronize some Beverly area businesses, but as far as I was aware, none of them were represented in the parade. So it was moderately engaging for the few minutes I spent walking up and down, and snapping photos… but for the most part I was content to head home and finish up the laundry.

A Day In Beverly

This morning was crisp, cold, and partly cloudy… which made it a good time to do a little photography in the town we call home. I took a walk to ***Independence Park|http://gallery.prwdot.org/independence_park***. This park is just a short walk down the street from our apartment. It runs along Lothrop Street in Beverly, and has a beach facing the Atlantic Ocean. The most “lovely” feature, I feel, is the excellent view of the PG&E coal-burning power plant across the harbor in Salem. I also made up a panoramic shot of the park, beach, and ocean, which you can see at the end of the photo gallery, or view ***here|http://prwdot.org/mov/independence_park.mov***, in QuickTime VR format,(4.5 megabytes), if you have a relatively fast connection and an up-to-date version of QuickTime.

While I was gone, Becky started whipping up some cookie dough, and when I returned, we made some cookies with this nifty cookie press we got. You stick all the dough in a tube, and then hook up a caulk-gun like attachment to it, with a metal plate of sorts on the top. Squeeze the trigger, and the dough is pressed through the plate, creating a cookie in that plate’s particular pattern. This got me to thinking – in TV commercials nowadays, you see parents and children “making cookies” with the pillsbury dough-in-a-tube, or even more recent, the pre-made-dough-bits-in-a-sheet…. just break ’em and bake ’em! I see a day coming where children will watch old movies and ask, “Why are they mixing all of that goop in the bowl? Why don’t they go down to the hypermart and buy ConGlomCoEZBakeSheetz like you do, daddy?” I mean, I’m sure those things taste just as good as cookies made from scratch, but come on – it’s not too much more effort to make up your own batch of dough!

There was a point somewhere in all of that, but I’m sure it’s long since forgotten.

In any case, I hope your holiday season is shaping up to be a joyful one.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was spent in South Boston at the Lowe house, with 18 people in attendance if my count is correct. There was a lot of good food to be had, but here are some of the selections:

turkey (at 28 pounds, it was bigger than either Thomas Jr. or Christopher, who weigh about 22 pounds each!)
cranberry sauce
homemade stuffing
corn pudding (yummm)
mashed potatoes
grilled brussel sprouts (never knew these things could taste so good)
gravy
sweet potato pie (amazing dessert… better than pumpkin pie)
apple pie
apple spice cake (made by the Woods!)
mud pie (for Corey’s birthday)

Besides the delicious food, there was also lots of football watching, playing with the twins, and napping off the effects of tryptophan.

Relive the whole experience in pictures ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/thanksgiving*** – including some photos from the pre-dinner walk Becky and I took around Boston Common/Public Garden.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We are headed down to South Boston today to celebrate the feast with the Lowe family. I hope everyone has a great holiday.

And as long as you are on the web, check out Boston.com’s special section on ***Plymouth|http://www.boston.com/travel/newengland/massachusetts/articles/2003/10/29/plymouth/***, Massachusetts, where the Thanksgiving tradition started.

Happy Birthday to Corey

Becky and I would like to wish Corey a Happy Birthday! In honor of his birthday, I thought I’d post one of the most flattering photos I could find:

Corey Lowe

Looking good!

Oh yeah, and there were also some photos taken at the ***birthday celebration|http://gallery.prwdot.org/coreys_birthday*** in Townsend.

interesting happenings

a. recently I launched “project mail-a-thon” based on ***michelle’s|http://mikao.blogspot.com/2003_09_01_mikao_archive.html#106460371587482857*** original concept. I only had one taker. the very likable ***Jennifair|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com***. I sent southward a cute little lipgloss on a cord that had strawberry shortcake on the label and smelled nice! I received on Saturday a very cute teeny piggy banke that had my name on it and holds one lucky penny. What fun mail!

b. TNT has reached the end of the ER reruns that it has and Today has swung back to the first season. This allows me to recognize more familiar faces… This morning there was a police officer who came in after having shot himself in the leg. The officer was non other than FRANK the (somewhat) loveable admit desk clerk. Weird.

c. wishing for myself a little more spending money this holiday season… and having yet to obtain full time employment, I have gone and found myself a part time job. Yes, that’s right, your hostess is Barnes and Noble’s latest Barista. hmmm. interesting, no?

Days Gone By

Wednesday, November 19 – Becky and I went in to Boston to see ***Les Mis|http://www.lesmis.com/*** at the ***Colonial Theatre|http://www.broadwayinboston.com/html/theatres/colonial/index.html***. I am pretty new to the show – I just started listening to the London cast recording a few weeks before the show. Becky has been a fan of it for a while, though. She has read the original Victor Hugo novel and has listened to the London and Broadway cast recordings. The show was great! The stage effects were incredible, the singing and acting were great, and the story was fabulous. We had dinner at ***Maggiano’s Little Italy|http://www.maggianos.com/locations/detail.asp?sid=001%2E025%2E0139*** before the show – also very good! The service was fast and the food was delicious, and we had no trouble getting a seat right away before the show.

Friday-Saturday November 21-22 – We drove up to Townsend to hang out with the Lowes. Friday night we watched “Elf” in Nashua… a surprisingly good and entertaining movie. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at ***Parker’s Maple Barn|http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/index.html*** …. deeeelicious. This time I did not get the stuffed french toast, as seen on the ***breakfast menu|http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/breakfast.html***, but I did have a nice omlette. After breakfast we visited the craft fair at the Congregational church, then in the afternoon we hung out at the Lowe house and got a little fresh air at a park in Ashby. The day was chronicled in photos with my new Canon Powershot A70 ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/townsend_ashby***

Today we’ve been hanging out at home and doing holiday type preparations… this week is the start of warehouse work at ***CBD|http://www.christianbook.com/*** – all employees who don’t already work in the distribution center or the call center have to spend about 8 hours a week helping out in those areas in order to handle the extra Christmas season rush. I usually end up doing checking, which is where you verify that boxes are stuffed with the correct items before they are shipped. It can be entertaining at times, because you get to see the interesting stuff people buy. 🙂

Tuesday we’ll be up in Townsend for ***Corey’s|http://corey.prwdot.org/*** birthday, then Thursday we’ll be in Southie for Thanksgiving. The holiday season is starting to, well… snowball. 🙂

A Nightmare

I had a nightmare Thursday night. I was dreaming that Becky and I were on some sort of a college trip to a city like San Francisco. We were staying in a house down near the water. There was lots of stuff related to the trip and who we were travling with and the things we did, but I don’t remember that stuff. Here’s what I do remember. One night, we were walking down the hill outside of our house, towards the water. At one point I looked up towards the sky, and at that moment I heard a loud sound, like an enormous explosion or a huge clap of thunder. At the same time, I saw a streak of light and flames stab through the clouds and plunge into the ocean. I didn’t believe it at first, and I thought I must be dreaming. So I ran over to Becky and asked her if she had seen it too. She said she had! So at that point, I was really scared. I ran back to the hill, and I heard a peculiar sound like the boiling of water. To my shock, the ocean in front of us started to bubble and boil! The boiling kept increasing and moving ever closer towards the shore. I could see that it was going to crest over the shore some time soon, and that we would all be doomed. So I yelled to Becky “Let’s get out of here!” We both started running up the hill, away from the boiling ocean. It was at that point that I woke up.

Phew.

How do you spell Rejection?

B-e-v-e-r-l-y H-i-s-t-o-r-i-c-a-l S-o-c-i-e-t-y!

That’s right folks. Over a month since I interviewed with them I have received a letter that proclaims, “You are not among those selected for further consideration at this time.” Also that they, “received many inquiries from capable individuals such as [me].” Well, that makes it better!

But, incase you were feeling that the esteemed Beverly Historical Society was completely heartless, I leave you with one final quote, “Truely, I wish that this letter were bringing you more favorable news, as I can imagine your disappointment. Please do take comfort in the fact that your application and interview was given long and careful consideration before the selection was made.” Oh good.