Category Archives: Family

They Grow Up So Fast…

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The tyke had her first day of kindergarten today.

We were watching some home movies the other day, videos from when Zoe was one, two, three years old. It’s amazing to watch these moments from just a few years ago and to see just how much she has grown up. I can still see traces of the baby and the toddler when I look at her, but the kid we sent off to school today is so much more.

The first day of school seems to have gone well. When I asked her what her favorite part of the day might have been, the answer I got was “all of it.” And I’m pretty sure she meant it. The pride on her face when she revealed that today she was the designated door holder was a thing of beauty. I can’t wait to see what other new experiences excite and inspire her in the coming days.

Sleeping on the Ground

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We just finished our second camping trip of the year, a visit to Meadowbrook Campground in Maine. We camped with some good friends, folks we’ve spent time with out in the woods before, including a semi-disastrous trip earlier this year. Unlike that trip, the mosquitoes did not come close to bleeding us out this time.

The site was pretty nice: a rocky hillside with a view of an old beaver pond. The pond was the kind of place I could hang out all day, full of cat willows and frogs, frequented by several of our New England birds and dozens of dragonfly species. And at night, the frog chorus was just the thing after a long day.

We spent most of Saturday at Popham Beach, one of the few true sand beaches in Maine. And it was spectacular. The breeze off the ocean, the cool water, the sunny day. Just the sort of thing.

Beyond the site, this was our first try with the new tent. It’s enormous compared to the old three person we’ve used for the past few years. It’s a double-domed tent from LL Bean; it’s technically sleeps four, but there’s an integrated screen tent on the front. It was nice to be able to set move all of our gear into the tent and standing up to change was a huge plus over the old shimmy-and-pull. But the thing is pretty darn big and setting it up is a two-person task, no doubt.

We’ve taken a little side-trip on the way home, stopping in to see the in-laws, take a dip in the pole at their park and provide some technical support. And then it’s home to get ready for the week.

I really feel like a need a real vacation, but it was great to get away.

I’m fine. How are you?

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It has been a while since I wrote anything here, but I just wrote a short post for the Cantina blog, so I thought maybe it was time to jot down some stuff here, too.

We just got back from a weekend in dirty, old New Jersey. My grandfather just turned 88.5; my mom has decided that it would be a nice thing to celebrate his semiannual anniversaries. He’s shooting for 90, which seems like a pretty good goal to me. We went down with the tyke to celebrate with the family. The kiddo got to spend some time with her G-ma and we had one of our not-often enough four-generations dinners.

Besides the eight human beings in attendance, there were also four iPads. And I must say, we spent a lot of time jawing about those amazing tablets. I don’t think I ever expected that I would find my mom, or her husband, that interested in a computer. EVAH.

It was also an interesting weekend for us car-wise: we grabbed a MINI Clubman from ZipCar for the trip. I have wanted a MINI ever since I first saw one, perched atop a van on Newbury Street. I don’t know what it is about those little cars. It may be the same thing that drives me to contemplate kidnapping my neighbor’s French Bulldog, Reggie. He’s cute and tough at the same time.

We figured that the best way to figure out if there was any point in going beyond the mere fantasy was to try an extended test drive under real conditions. And it was worth it. The MINI may be small, but the ride was really enjoyable and world’s better than our old Civic or the Subaru we’ve grown to hate too soon. We won’t be getting a MINI soon, unfortunately, but now at least I feel like I can really get one.

In the larger picture, things are going well. My job at Cantina is amazing, largely because I get to work with a crew of super smart, super funny and all around good folks. The tyke is wrapping up her last year of pre-school and the whole family is buzzing a little as we careen towards KINDERGARTEN. Wow, how time flies.