Quote of the Day

Colleen, who is celebrating her 30th birthday has this to say, "I've
never done it in the kitchen, but I've never been with a foodie. "

I love this.

Mystery Solved

So I've been wondering who bumperstickered my car last week and assuming that it was one of my Hope and Olive coworkers.  Assumptions are usually a bad idea, and as it turns out I was barking up the wrong tree.  A few days ago Johanna (my landlady and good friend's mom) knocked on my door to apologize for the stickers, which she revealed were planted by her nephew Eben.  This was a good turn of events for several reasons, and funnier as well.  First it was good to know who had done the deed and secondly it released me from feeling like I had to keep the stickers on until the joker (again an assumed coworker) got a chance to see them when the restaurant reopened a week from BumperstickerNacht.  Also, it meant that Eben had gotten the "message" I left for him (I set his homepage in Safari to goat.se) and was responding in kind.  

It was fun to find out that I had some humor in common with Avi's cousin, whom I've seen from time to time since I started being friends with Avi in first grade or so.

ps. Those of you who know what goat.se is, good for you. For the rest of my (3) readers, if you haven't heard of goat.se, you probably don't want to look it up, its pretty gross.  Suffice to say, goat.se is an image that was used in a classic (meaning at least a year old) internet meme, where you would send someone a link that you said would lead them to something they wanted to see, like a family photo album or Paris Hilton's tits but would instead take them to this very unsavory image instead.  Look up "RickRolling" if you want to see a funny (and non-disgusting) and more current version of this joke.

WTF?!!?

I came back to my car after seeing "Get Smart" with the Cuz and didn't
recognize it for a second. Apparently the "Less Bush More Trees"
sticker had spawned a host of Leftern Massy sentiments.

Foul play? Or just the ghost of Osgood street?

Why I love my iPhone

So I'm halfway along the "Dutch and Mary Barnard Trail" at the High
Ledges and I was wondering if the trail looped back or if I should
turn around at some point. So I did a little google search and stuck
the phone back in my pocket for a minute, checked it and found this
handy map if the area, showing me that it is in fact a loop, and I'm
on my way to the ledges.

I should buy some Apple shares.

http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/images/maps/highledges_trails.gif

Tenacious Fly

I dropped Max (the young ruffian that my dad hired to help him out this summer) off in Charlemont after work yesterday because it was on the way to Johanna's retirement party.  As I crossed the Deerfield river and turned west onto Route 2 I noticed his fly was hanging on to my window, on the outside.  Its wings were perfectly still as I approached fifty miles an hour and then, just like that, it lost its grip and went flying up the windshield and over the van (I hope).

Poet's Seat

Colleen and I went up to the tower this afternoon. She offered to take me to see the platform where we could see the crack pipes and needles, but when I learned that it was a mile away it became less compelling. I'll just watch an episode of "The Wire" or something.

Evelyn and August

Its Father's Day, and Jim's family has dropped by during the in
between time.

Its nice to go out once in a while.

I got to go out for dinner with Clayton and Tiffany a few weeks ago.  We met up at the community gardens in Greenfield, where they were working on their plot, weeding and watering their beans, carrots, and potatoes.  They had done some reading about gardening (something I've never done) and it was interesting to hear some garden theory, like planting low stuff next to tall stuff or sun loving stuff so it provides shade for the more heliophobic members of the garden.

We also discussed the relative merits of fertilization, especially compost vs manure:

After the gardening we went to Ristorante DiPaulo.  It was a yummy meal, though I'm not sure they have changed their menu since I was last there a few days before Thanksgiving.  

Past Due Posting

So there are several things that I've been planning on posting about, but you know how it is (maybe you super-actualizing people don't) with getting things done.  Speaking of getting things done (which I'd prefer to do at the moment instead of getting them done) I have a growing list of things to accomplish before I head out west for my 4th cross country drive in two years!

Get the new van checked out and inspected.

Arrange for the clearing on my property to get mowed so it will still be a clearing when I get back.

Save a ton of money (not looking too good on that front).

Plan our route out west, and get in touch with friends or family that we may try to stay with.

Consolidate all my music on the laptop so we can replenish our iPods while we are on the road.

Do something about the mullet that is growing down my neck.

and the list continues...

Are you kidding me?

I just read this abstract from a medical study of the linkage between cigarette smoking and Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease.  It looks like they are saying that people who have quit smoking are at higher risk for recurrence of the disease (in the case of Ulcerative Colitis) and even that smoking reduces the chance of needing surgery.  Weird.

Drive By!

So me and Cousin Colleen and Jim and Jen were leaving the Sex and the City movie when we heard a loud muffler and as the noise passed us and I felt this smack on my side and a splash. I had just been drive by water ballooned! It wasn't a hate crime though, some teenage girls around the corner were standing around their just ballooned car with a big puddle next to it. We all shared a chuckle about it as we walked past.

Some of my coworkers:

This cricket lives in the sewing and cutting room. It has a lot of
friends, but you'd think I was the I.N.S. if you saw them scatter when
I came in the room.

This is a Pony clamp. It is good for holding fabric to the cutting
table or to a framework.

This is Max. He works with us a few days a week.

Ars Awnica

Fold down two inches. Sew down sides before spline pockets. Repeat.