Still taking pictures. Sometimes.

An update on my picture a day project:

I am still taking pictures, but I admit to taking them less frequently. I forget. My mind is occupied with other things. And at times I feel like I'm running out of cool things to take photos of. There's only so many times I can take pictures of the cats, after all.

You can view my latest pictures-a-day here. And here's one that didn't make the cut, but I still really, really like. This is what's laying on my coffee table, waiting for me to read. I may not make it past that picture of those donuts, though. Time for a snack.

It's raining!

Miracle of miracles - it's raining! We woke up in Monroe this morning (spent the weekend with Doug's parents) to see the rain splashing on the skylight. It was heavenly. And now, back in Dedham, we are listening to the rain splattering on the street outside, and a cool breeze is blowing through the windows. Now this is a lovely summer night.

Things on my mind tonight, as the weekend comes to a close and I'm looking another week straight in the eyes:

* Weight Watchers? I'm giving it considerable thought. I'm really not looking to lose weight, but I am looking to get a grip on eating. I find that I eat when I'm bored, and when I want to be somebody else, both of which are happening more and more these days. And when I'm in these frames of mind I don't make good food choices. Being held accountable could be helpful.

* Six Feet Under. We've started this series. Back in 2003, I watched the first two seasons of this show in one weekend, but never finished the rest of the seasons. Now, because Doug and I are on a major Dexter kick and when we first started to watch Dexter all I could do was think of Michael C. Hall as David Fisher, we are watching this series. There are many parallels between shows, and between characters. Our DVD player is getting a lot of use.

* Nantucket. When we were at the art show last weekend we saw many paintings of Nantucket (and my mother even bought one). Now I want to go. And I want to spend time biking around the island. So this week I plan to scope out B&Bs and look at the calendar to see what weekend could be good this fall. I've got to get Doug there; the scenery is great and who knows how much longer we'll be able to enjoy it.

* Pets. We still haven't gotten a third cat, and we haven't gotten a dog. We are having second thoughts about the addition. Meg has come out of her shell quite a bit since Wyatt's passed away. She sits on the bed next to me at night. She's always on the couch with us. She is now asking for love in an active way, which she never really did when Wyatt was around, preferring Wyatt to get what he wanted and needed. We worry that if we had a third cat that Meg would go back to being passive. We like Meggie being more direct. We want an environment where she can feel comfortable. So for right now - no third cat. And no dog. But, you know. Things can change, so we'll keep you posted.

I think we're caught up. That's all that's on my mind. I'm going to go listen some more to the rain. I love this sound.

Too many things on the list.

Often I find that I have way more things on my to-do list than I have hours in my day. Tonight is no exception. I wanted to come home, quickly do chores, go to the gym, cook dinner, eat dinner, hang up some of the art that we got at the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, blog, do some brief work on the computer, work on my photos a bit, head upstairs to watch Coco Channel, and be sleeping by 11pm. Well, you can never tell me that I'm not ambitious! Needless to say, not everything's going to get done. No Coco for me tonight, which may be just as well, since it's long and I'm not the biggest fan of Shirley Maclaine. For me she's like tomatoes. Sometimes I like them, but often I don't.

Anyway, last weekend Doug, my mother, my brother, and I made our annual trip to the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival. Last year my sister joined us, but this year she's in Maine so she couldn't be there. We missed her, but she's probably having a blast in Maine and not thinking at all about art. We thought a lot about art, though, and made a few key acquisitions for our art wall. It's funny, but last year I don't remember seeing much art that I really connected with at all. We bought a small watercolor for the art wall, but that's it. And this year we connected with many, many things. And so did my mother, who bought several pieces of art for the rooms that she's redecorating. She bought a really nice piece of original art - a scene on Sconset in Nantucket - that was supposed to be for her bathroom, but it's really too nice for the bathroom so now she has to find another, more prominent place, to put it. It's nice to have these dilemmas.

At the art show we saw other kinds of neat things, like animals (and their butts) and nineteenth century whaling ships being restored and smiles from my brother! That might have been the loveliest part of the day.

And I can tell you what wasn't the loveliest part of the day. Seeing The Expendables. It's not that I didn't enjoy spending time with my mother and brother or being in the movie theater (I rather enjoy the movie theater, really the best way to see most movies), but I was very disappointed in the movie. I know, but really, what was I expecting? Certainly not good acting, a good plot, and understandable dialog from a movie staring and directed by Sly Stallone. But I was, actually. Turns out this might have been the best part of the whole show: Next time I think we'll have to listen to what my brother tells us The New Yorker says. We'll let it be our cultural guide.

More summer days.

As sometimes happens at the end of the summer, Massachusetts has decided to have a tax-free weekend. And that weekend is this weekend. Right now, shoppers all over the state are coming out in droves to see what kind of merchandise they can score. Stores have extended hours, and some stores are offering additional savings to further entice we consumers. And thus begins my rant about tax-free weekend.

I do not like tax-free weekend. Being able to purchase something tax-free does not entice me to buy stuff, especially when items like cars, boats, and any single item costing more than $2,500 still have tax included. If I'm going to buy some clothes, shoes, or even a camera or a DVD player, I'm going to purchase it when I want to purchase it, not when there is tax-free weekend. For one thing, when it comes down to it, the sales tax on most of the items that I buy is not really all that much. And on this weekend especially, in this kind of an economic environment where we're at risk for a double-dip recession (as if we ever got out of the recession in the first place), I actually feel like we should pay tax on our purchases. Not to mention the fact that this kind of incentive is artificially stimulating our consumer economy. Once tax is back on receipts tomorrow, people are going to close their wallets again. So how is this really helping? It certainly didn't help me and Doug when we were out doing our errands today (which we would have done anyway, regardless of tax-free weekend). Parking lots were crazy-packed, shelves were pretty picked over, and there was a distinct feeling of Armageddon in the air. I can't say that I endorse the state's decision for tax-free weekend. I hope it achieved whatever the state was hoping for, but I hope they think twice before offering another of these gimmicks.

Rant over. Moving on. Things have been trucking along here at Dustbunny Central. I got so tired of the dust bunnies that we pretty regularly work to keep at bay that I was up and cleaning at 7:30 this morning. Sasha has been shedding something awful all summer (I've been plucking these little clumps of fur out of her flanks as if she were a rolly-polly (and sassy!) chicken), and that combined with Meg's hair combined with general dirt and debris makes my allergies a nightmare and my OCD kick into high gear. The bathroom and bedroom were thoroughly cleaned today, the mattress flipped, and the lampshades de-furred. We also tackled more of our clutter in the garage, so now it looks like this: I'm so happy with our garage. I can walk into it without stepping on a pile of birdseed, without tripping over shovels and rakes and other tools, and I can even maneuver my bike out of the door. Let's see how long this lasts.

And let's also see how long this lasts: In case you can't tell what that is, because it's been so long since you've seen it, that's Doug without his beard. He shaved it off last weekend on a whim, and he's been keeping the stubble at bay. I predict that by Labor Day he'll be back to his old, bearded self, but I'm enjoying re-familiarizing myself with his face while I have this chance. When he first shaved his beard off I just stared and stared at him. I remembered his face, but it was so long since I had really seen it that I had to remind myself of its little features. Like the moles. And the chicken pox scars. And the chin. To me, Doug looks so much like his father without his beard. Those Sisko genes really dominate.

Let's see, what else. It's been a while, so I want to make sure I cover all the most important things. We drove around Mini Red for a while this past week (faulty fuel sensors in Mini Gray). We saw Brian Scalabrine in Dedham, which confirmed my view that basketball players are just unnaturally tall.

I finished three strips on my quilt! Only four more to go before I start work on the back piece.

And we've been taking in a lot of culture lately - specifically art. Cinematic art, but also fine art. We saw I am Love and most recently The Expendables. How fitting - one really great movie and one really stinky one, just like our trip to the Museum of Bad Art and the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival (which I'll post more about later, since that always deserves a post of its own). We like the really good and the really very bad around here. Nothing in between.

Speaking of which - time for hot dogs and fresh, local sweet corn. I'll let you guess which is the really good and the really bad.

Two years and counting.

I remembered yesterday that Doug and I have been in our little house for two years now. More than two years, actually. We closed July 24, 2008, a Thursday, and moved in the first weekend in August. I feel like we've been here longer; I feel like we've always been here. And I take that as a testament to how good a move this was.

That's why it's a little difficult to think of moving again. Doug and I are somewhat wandering souls. We like changes. We like new challenges. And for me, I like new experiences. They scare me to death sometimes, and cause me more anxiety than I can reasonably process, but ultimately I enjoy them. I have always wanted to live outside of New England. Or, at least, I have never really thought that Massachusetts would be my forever home. I've got another move in me, and Doug feels the same way. It's just a question of when. And where.

Oh, we won't be moving any time soon. Part of that is because we like our little house and we've only been in it for two years. There's still so much we want to do with it, and there's still some stuff that we need to do in the Boston area, job-wise, education-wise, that kind of thing. And the thought of moving makes me feel just the way I felt when I moved the last time. Non-plussed.
Of course, moving itself isn't so bad. It's fun and energizing to pack up all of your things. You can weed out so much. And then you can move what's made the cut into your new place. And you can make your new place into your new place, complete with decorating touches that the other owners didn't think of. For example, I barely remembered how our living and dining rooms looked before we moved in. But this photo reminded me: Look at those yellow walls, and look at those red sconces! And the green in the dining room! Here's how we have it now, more or less: (But just so you know, we don't keep our steamer in our living room). It's these changes that we've made to our house, and the work we do to it each day (some days more than others, admittedly), that make us so reluctant to leave.

I know, I know - we're not leaving any time soon. And that's the truth. We've got a house, we're attached to it, and there's more for us to do here. But in thinking back over these past two years in this house, our first house, and in thinking towards the next few years or more that we're here, it's a bit of bittersweet thinking. Excited about new adventures but happy with current ones, and fond of past ones. Like this one: Moving day 2008. Great friends and family all around us, welcoming us to our new home. Just two years ago this photo was taken! And while I'm eager to think of how the gang of us will look when Doug and I do take that next move (Ruby could be there, my nieces and nephews will be so much older - and so will the rest of us!), I'm definitely a bit nostalgic for the past. It's been a good two years here so far. Happy home-ownership anniversary to us!

Maine, Chapter Two.

Before you read Chapter Two in our Maine vacation memoirs, perhaps you should revisit chapter one (parts one, two, and three). Chapter one gives you the background, the everything you need to know about Liberty and our little house so I won't have to go too much into detail. And that's good, because I can get caught up in the detail.

What I will do in this chapter is give you more of a highlights post, because there's just too much detail to recount in one post (and who needs a three-parter again?). And I'll start with kayaking. Doug and I have become huge fans of kayaking, and we got to do a fair bit of it this vacation. We did some group kayaking and some night kayaking and we even kayaked with some of our favorite waterfowl, the geese. (Note Doug's binoculars. We got them on Craigslist right before we left for our trip, and I have to say that they were a great acquisition. Birding here we come!)

We got some fishing in, too, although I only cast out a few times myself and caught nothing. Doug caught a couple of fish (two small bass), none of them while doing this lazy-man's version of fishing, by the way, so we can't recommend this style for the serious fisherman. Chris was more of a serious fisherman, going out to a secret spot in the lake and catching quite a few, including this one, caught on our last night at the lake. Nice one!

And then there were our excursions, our time spent away from the lake and the house. We made it to Isle au Haut. The boat ride there is worth the whole trip (we saw an island of sun-bathing seals on our way out there, in addition to numerous sea birds) but the island itself was pretty cool. There's nothing much to do there but hike, and thanks to the National Parks Service and Acadia National Park there's plenty of that to be done. Very early on in our trip I fell into a huge section of quick sand, and while I managed to get myself unstuck I spent the rest of the day sloshing around in wet, muddy shoes and socks. Thankfully I did not let the unpleasantness in my shoes distract me from the beauty of the island. I highly, highly recommend a trip out there (and I'll happily go back with you, this time with a spare pair of socks!).

We also spent some time in Belfast again, walking around Liberty and soaking in the local sites, and hiking in Camden Hills State Park. Camden Hills is a really nice park, offering some pretty challenging hiking. The challenges were worth it for us, though - look at the view from Oceanview Trail! You can see all of Camden and Penobscot Bay from up there. I'd do that trail again in a heartbeat, too.

Finally, there's our food. Our lovely, lovely vacation food. I eat well on vacation. Doug and I eat poorly during our normal lives (by poorly I mean sporadically), but on vacation we have a chance to be healthy. So, in addition to our walking and treking about, we also crammed a lot of great stuff into our bellies, like this pie (we had Moody's pie two times during our vacation week! That was such a treat.). Starting each day off with a beautiful breakfast like this, and eating a lunch or dinner like the one showcased here (and note the baby in the background! She was such a wonderful mealtime companion) made each day worth living, that's for sure. And lest you think that we spent a week in Maine but did not have lobster, think again. On our way back home we stopped off at The Lobster Dock for one of the state's most iconic specialties. We got one and shared it. Our verdict? Interesting. The flavor was fine - really almost non-existent - but the texture would definitely take some getting used to. When you bite into the roll there is a crunch to the meat, but then it's so chewy. Not rubbery, but it does take a lot more chews to break it down then you would think. We plan to try another next year, so it was good enough to try again, but we're okay waiting to try again until Maine, Chapter Three.

But how terrible is it that Maine, Chapter Three will be a year away! We have so much fun there. The scenery is just breathtaking, the weather is divine, and the company we keep could not be better. Do we really have to wait another year to take another of these on the steps of our vacation abode? Too bad we couldn't make this a bi-annual trip. I'd see Maine in the winter. I'd actually love to see Maine in the winter. I'd love to ski, snowshoe, even just drive around and see what it looks like covered under snow. Maine's really making itself quite comfortable in our hearts and our minds. We feel relaxed there, peaceful, rested, and alive. We really are beginning to love Maine.