Aqueduct

Posted by amy at April 8th, 2008

Take me out to the ballgame, or at least let me get away with streaming the game online today at my desk. It is opening day for the Red Sox and I’m going to be cheering for the home team.

Posted by amy at April 6th, 2008

(.)-(.)

3 beers over 7 hours and I’m a bit hung over. Pathetic, no? Congrats to Ali Benjamin on a fantastic event, Northern Berkshire Nursing Families raised just shy of $19,000 last night, Eric and Eric, the evening’s mcs were fantastic. I hang my head in shame for thinking that Thomas Paine and not John Jay was an author of the Federalist Papers, but saved some face by being able to name Marge Simpson’s maiden name. She shares it with a former first lady, can you name it too?

Thanks Molly Kerns for inviting me to join the best table in the room.

Posted by amy at April 4th, 2008

Needed to get a post in before I left for work, had nothing to write about so I spent a few minutes in Flickr.

Photo by Fort Photo
This photo is available under a Creative Commons agreement, which is how I can share it with you today.

Posted by amy at April 3rd, 2008

My children are eating cheerios, watching the Flintstones while we wake up and get ready today. Turn the clock back 35 years and it could easily be me and my brother.

In other news, I’m competing this weekend in Northern Berkshire Family Nursing’s trivia contest at the Williams Inn on Saturday. This is a cause very close to my heart. Nursing doesn’t come naturally to some women and babies and having a free support system in place is beyond invaluable, especially in an era where the most likely source of support, your own mother, probably didn’t nurse.

I spent most of the first 12 weeks of Cate’s life working with a very expensive lactation consultant before surrendering to the reality that she was going to be a bottle baby. Alex took to it much easier, and I think still has moments when he remembers the comfort he got from it, even though we stopped three years ago.

Posted by amy at March 31st, 2008

It isn’t that I’m not blogging regularly, I am, just not here.

Which makes me sad. I love my blog, I miss my blog, I just haven’t had much to say.

Posted by amy at January 21st, 2008

about the history of the civil rights struggle and MLK Jr’s role in it, I give you:

Posted by amy at December 11th, 2007

Cate with her namesake, my grandmother Catherine

Several months ago, Cate’s teacher asked if I would come in during the holiday season and talk about our family’s holiday traditions. She showed me the list of available dates, one of which was Cate’s birthday, so I grabbed that spot. Then I panicked. Holiday traditions? The only thing we really do annually is run up a huge credit card bill. I’m not sure kindergartners want to hear about our debate over interest rates -vs- cash flow issues. Then I remembered that for the past few years, we’ve brought holiday cookies to the neighbors. Perfect.

In addition to making a three tiered mermaid birthday cake, and throwing a mermaid themed birthday party for 20 six year olds, I managed to squeeze in several rounds of cookie making over the weekend. Yesterday, I assigned Dave the final task of making the gingerbread dough so it could chill, and I rolled out the cookies last night. The first two batches were a bit too thin and crispy for a 6 year old’s refined palate, so I rolled the second half much thicker, the men and women were puffy and soft, and quite yummy. I painstakingly hand painted each one with a glaze and then left them on their drying racks and went to bed.

And now, for the rest of the story …

I awoke to the sound of the fire alarm this morning, and then heard the heavy footsteps of my husband’s feet running up the stairs. He bursts through the bedroom door, and without even so much as a cup of coffee to cushion the blow he says:

Did you hear the one about the woman who put her laptop in the oven to keep it from getting stolen, then she turned on the oven and burnt the laptop?

My mind immediately went to precious Mac PowerBook G4 that was sitting on my desk when I went to bed. My Laptop? What did he do to my laptop? I’m going to kill him if he killed my laptop.

Well, I didn’t do that. But I did put your cookies in the oven last night to keep them from getting eaten by our resident mouse. And then I forgot about them, and turned on the oven this morning and, well, your cookies are toast.

My cookies! All that hard work! I came down and looked at the cookies, and realized that we are now even. He can no longer hold that ill fated kayak trip against me — the one where I flipped the boat and lost his gold plated fishing rod into the Atlantic Ocean. Payback is a bitch.

Posted by amy at December 5th, 2007

This is Cate in her first stage performance ever.

Posted by amy at November 20th, 2007

Just one of the things I miss most about the television show “Friends” was their annual Thanksgiving episode. There was little sentimentality, lots of acknowledged dysfunction, and I tended to laugh my ass off when I watched. While I love my family, and enjoy spending other holidays with them, the process of reclaiming my thanksgiving as a day of choice and not obligation has been wonderfully liberating. We’ve been trying to talk our children out of the big “turkey with all the trimmings” propaganda, proposing a menu of foods were thankful for but they will have none of it. When I read our shopping list to my 4 year old today, he circled “lobster” and wrote “NO” - he learned to write his own name a little over a week ago, so I took his objection seriously and left it off the final list. I’m willing to bet lobster was actually on the first thanksgiving table, but I won’t press the point this year.

After the feasting has finished and our guests have returned, I thought I’d head out to two exhibits on Saturday. The first is LEDs Are Pretty at Greylock Arts in Adams. I’ve seen a couple of pieces from the street and it looks really cool. The first (and only?) LED exhibit I ever saw was a Jenny Holtzer (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Jenny Holzer, Dec. 12-Feb. 25, 1990.) Holtzer opened a new exhibit at Mass MoCA this past weekend, so a trip to the big museum will round out my afternoon. There are giant bean bags to sit on while watching the projection, which is a great way to view modern art, don’t you think? On place you won’t find me this weekend is at the Mall.

I usually put off Christmas shopping to the last day, not because I’m lazy or procrastinate, it just seemed more efficient. This year though, something shifted and I wrote out my recipient list - I think the sheer length shocked me into action - and after a night of online credit card abuse, I’m almost done.

How are you with your list? Haven’t started? Haven’t a clue? Looking for ideas? I’ve got a few.

Starting close to home, Danny-O is having a sale on his 2007 Red Sox prints. If you aren’t familiar with Danny-O’s fantastic collages, please click on over and just browse. Most are done on album covers, are inexpensive and easy to frame. He has a huge collection (regional, holidays, seasons) so if heaven forbid you have a Yankees fan on your list, you could cross the divide and offer up a memory of better summers in the Bronx.

I think I’m going to splurge on at least one of these new flip video recorders this christmas. This looks like a great present for the technically challenged (but not phobic) grandparent on your list.

I fell into a really cool site the other night and took care of most of my shopping. ETSY is a site for people who hand make things, and before you roll your eyes and click away, trust me on this one. My biggest caveat with the site is that I found it really helpful to look with a person or an object in mind. I found myself browsing and liking a lot of items with no idea who to give them to. If you are willing to dive in, start with the homepage and their list of hand picked items, want to shop locally, try the geolocator or search by color. The variety, quality and price will surprise you.

Once inside, I needed to work pretty quickly through my list - I like giving fancy soap, and pairing it with a hand made dishcloth, because if it isn’t your cup of tea, you can easily regift it and if it is your cup of tea, then you’ll appreciate it. Shine Your Hiney Soap Company had a beautiful collection of holiday inspired soaps.

Despite living in the digital age, there are still times when I want to send a real card. I’m hoping other people on my list feel the same way and have selected a couple of hand crafted card sets.. Pick a complete set or work the category sidebar and give someone a backup collection of cards for when they get caught off guard without a graduation or birthday card. Practical, fairly inexpensive and not more plastic crap made in China.

Have a Martha Steward wanna be on your list? How about a beautiful apron with matching tea towels. They have camouflage ones for hunter on your list, which in the Berkshires could be half your family. If they are better with a fishing rod than a riffle, this mousepad may be more fitting.

There is always one drunken uncle who can handle a mildly inappropriate gift, how about a bb game?

If your wife is in my knitting circle (or wishes she was) don’t miss the selection of hand-painted sock yarn. Maybe if you pick a color you like, she’ll even make them for you.

Finally, I’ve been told that there are people who still listen to cds, for those people on my list, I’m planning on burning a show or two from the Internet Archives.

So how did you do? Are you close to finishing your list too? Please leave a comment if you found something to share!

Posted by amy at November 6th, 2007