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I spent the day today touring parts of the lovely town of Newport, Rhode Island. It was the Historic New England summer outing. I’d say that for a Monday it was quite lovely.

Our first stop was the ***Schooner Aurora|http://www.newportexperience.com/aurora.htm***. We took a nice “sail” around Newport Harbor. There was absolutely no wind! The crew was fun and raised the sails for image sake, but we had to motor for most of the time. It was hot and sunny and really pleasant.

After the sail we trooped across town to the ***Ocean Cliff Hotel|http://www.newportexperience.com/oceancliff.htm*** for lunch. We had a tent on the deck with a fantastic view of the harbor and the Newport bridge.

Our last event of the day was a tour of ***Rough Point|http://www.newportrestoration.com/roughPOINT/rough.html*** the home of Doris Duke. It was a beautiful mansion, and the first one that I’ve toured in Newport. It was incredibly lavish and furnished with 16th and 17th century tapestries and furniture and accented with 18th century Chinese imports and dutch portrature. A nice ending to a lovely day.

All my pictures from the day are in our gallery ***Here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/hne_outing***

ps. to my elementary/high school friend Erin Murphy–You were right Tropwen was great!

Today at work we had a little departmental food day to celebrate the holidays. Many people brought in food for others to enjoy. Our contribution was a plate of cranberry cookies made by Becky and me:

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There was also quite a nice sunset at the end of the work day. As seen from the conference/food room:

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Do any of you out there know how hard it is to find a decent bathing suit at the end of November? Very hard! There are some out there for all the skinny minnies who are headed to the Carribean on a cruise, but none for me. argh.

“But why do you need to buy a swimsuit?” you may ask. For my new job. “say what?!?”

It’s true. I have finally found the perfect use for my ability to stay in bodies of water for unhumanly long periods of time. Swimming Instructor at the YMCA. I love kids, I love swimming, what could be better? And it pays a teensy bit more than what I was making watching ‘ER’ reruns on my days off.

Remember, reach and pull, kick kick kick, reach and pull, kick kick kick!

Becky was quoted in an Associated Press article on the Otis House. Also quoted in the article was our friend Jackie Way! You go, girls!

Last week, the ownership of my employer, Christian Book Distributors, changed hands. The company was sold by its owner, Stephen Hendrickson, to his brother, Ray Hendrickson. Ray has been with the company for just as long as Steve, and I think he’ll do a great job. Obviously, with a new person in charge, there will be changes, but by and large I think Ray will stay true to Steve’s mission. There are sure to be interesting days ahead!

Since CBD is a privately-held company, I waited to post this news on my blog until I was sure that the sale was public knowledge.The Boston Herald ran an article today on the sale, so there you have it!

If you have any comments or feedback on the CBD website, the best thing to do is probably not to talk to me. Rather, please use our feedback page to make sure it goes through the proper channels.

Also, if you are within a day’s drive of Peabody, Massachusetts, plan to come to our Warehouse Sale on Saturday, September 18! It truly is a fascinating experience if you have never attended. People from all over the nation show up – I’ve even heard that some churches in the midwest charter buses and drive out to make a trip of it! Our site has more information on the sale, if you’re curious. I’ll be there for much of the day, of course – almost all CBD employees put in a full day of work on warehouse sale days. So if you are planning on coming, drop me a line beforehand – I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you!

So, the Democratic National Convention has taken the city of Boston by storm. This has thrown a bit of a wrench in my commuting habits. Nevertheless, I set out this morning an hour and a half early with hopes of a smooth trip into the city.

I was walking from the commuter train in Lynn to the shuttle bus that would take me to South Station, and imagine my surprise when I saw nice people there smiling at me! And there was a musician playing some happy morning music for us commuters. How nice.

On the way home, walking back to the train from the bus I encountered many more Lynn representitives who were handing out little gifts; a free subway token, a half-pint of lemonade, a Lynn gift bag (with some casino cruise tix, a stress ball, a pen and other stuff). Who knew that Lynn was so full of nice, cheerful people!?