Weekending

August 13, 2019 By Carole

If you thought last weekend was busy, well, hold on to your hats because this weekend was actually quite busy! Busy with fun, that is.

It started on Wednesday night when we went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This was on Kym‘s recommendation and I’m going to tell you what she told me: don’t read anything about it first, just go see it.

On Thursday we headed into Boston. We had a fun tour of the State House with our friend Steve, who works for our local NPR radio station and has his office in the building. After that we went to see the Downton Abbey Exhibit. It was wonderful – the sets of the kitchen and dining room were recreated beautifully and so many of the iconic costumes – including all of the wedding gowns – were on display. I’m really glad we made the time to go see this.

We walked back to our car through the Public Garden and actually rode the Swan Boats for the first time ever for both of us. It was reasonably priced ($4 for me and $3.50 for Dale with his . . . ahem . . . old man discount) and it was old fashioned and fun. The sun was hot but there was a breeze and it was just sweet to be out on the water on that little paddled boat.

We knew rush hour would be starting soon so we headed south towards home and stopped at a local golf course restaurant I’ve been wanting to try. The drinks were good, the food was even better, and the view of the Boston skyline was spectacular.

Friday was a busy day of getting ready for company (Doreen and Mark were with us for the weekend) and also getting our tailgating stuff together for Jimmy Buffett. Lobsters were on sale for cheap money at our local grocery store so I got a bunch, had the store cook them, and then let them cool. Dale and I shucked them and set the meat aside and we had lobster rolls and local sweet corn for dinner. I can’t think of a better or more iconic summer New England meal!

Saturday was Jimmy Buffett Day. We headed over early so that we’d be in line to get into the parking lot at 1pm when it opened. That’s right, friends, we started tailgating at 1pm for a show at 8pm. This day is not for amateurs! It was super fun with lots of time to hang out and drink some beer and tequila, eat delicious cheeseburgers (what else?!?) and play some games. The show was terrific and I’m so glad we got to go since we haven’t been since 2015. This was our 10th time attending a Buffett show and I sure hope it won’t be our last.

Sunday was a day of hanging out and relaxing. We said goodbye to Doreen and Mark, emptied coolers, put away our tailgating gear, and read a lot on the couch. That first part was me since they left before Dale got up, the stuff in the middle was Dale, and the last part was me again, in case you don’t know how work gets divided up around here.

We ended the evening on the deck with drinks and burgers and lots of thoughts of a very happy weekend.

Weekending, Summer Style

July 23, 2019 By Carole

Like pretty much everyone across the country, we had excessive heat this weekend. We also had excessive humidity and that just saps any energy you might have for doing . . . anything.

And yet – we rallied and had a pretty great weekend.

On Saturday we attended a Brunch with Lincoln. While this would ordinarily be something I would send Dale to on his own, I decided to join him for the event. It may have been the enticement of a good brunch and not much else but it was actually pretty interesting and I have to admit I enjoyed myself. The man in the photo with Dale portrayed Abraham Lincoln and talked with us and answered questions (as Abe) for several hours. Dale was in his glory, dressed in his 19th century civilian outfit (I called it his period correct leisure suit) and acting as a reporter for The Boston Post.

The other reason I wanted to go was because we were halfway to Doreen’s and we made plans to go to her house for the remainder of the weekend. It was, as I said, super hot, and it seemed like everyone else had the great idea of going to the Cape because the bridge traffic was the worst I’ve seen in a while and it took us twice as long as it normally would to get there.

We were greeted with fresh flowers in our room and plenty of love from Doreen and her family. We had an enjoyable afternoon and evening but we all did retreat to our bedrooms pretty regularly as those are the only rooms with AC in Doreen’s house.

Sunday was just as hot but we headed out for some adventuring anyway. We had lobster rolls for lunch and ice cream for dessert and really, what’s better than ice cream on a hot day?

We got up super early Monday morning to head back over the bridge but we made a quick stop at the beach first and I snapped these photos. In just a few weeks we will be here for our annual family vacation and this little weekend away was the perfect appetizer for that upcoming trip!

Hope you had a fun (and cool) weekend, too!

Adventures of Dale and Carole: Maine 2019

July 9, 2019 By Carole

Let’s take a virtual trip to Maine, shall we? And let’s look at photos of all the things we could do if we were there.

We could look at sunrises.

And rainbows.

And sunsets.

We could eat lobsters.

Lots of lobsters.

And even lobster rolls.

We could have fires.

And relax on the porch.

We could celebrate a birthday.

And have cocktails. So.many.cocktails.

We could walk to a super cute neighborhood library.

And do other things we won’t take photos of, like shop and visit the Farmer’s Market and have ice cream and read and do puzzles and go for drives and take walks along the shore.

And we could do it all from the most adorable waterfront cottage in the world.

After looking at these photos I’m ready to go back. Let’s do it!

A Quickie Maine Post

July 2, 2019 By Carole

Work reentry is a tricky thing at any time of year but work reentry when it’s the end of the fiscal year and beginning of another is it’s own special kind of hell. I had a stack of bills to process yesterday that dismayed me, particularly since I thought I had gotten a lot done before I went away. Those librarians of mine, though, they spent a lot of money in the last couple of weeks in an attempt to make sure we don’t turn money back.

On top of the bills I had payroll to get through. Pay day is every other week around here and I turn in 3 payrolls each time. BUT! Raises go into effect on July 1st so that means 6 payrolls this time around, 3 for the end of FY 19 and 3 for the start of FY 20. It is nice that July 1st was on a Monday as that makes for a cleaner split of the two different pay rates everyone gets.

And then, after work, I had a selectmen’s meeting. #superbusy and #ialreadyneedanothervacation

This is all just a long way of saying . . . I did not get a post of photos prepared to share with you today. I do, however, have a one minute video of one second highlights of our week in Maine.

I hope it’ll keep you satisfied until I have time for a proper vacation recap.

Thursday In New York City

May 21, 2019 By Carole

Today I will wrap up our April vacation in New York City.

After 3 days of being on the go and up early, when Thursday came we all slept in (I was fighting off a lousy cough) and checked out of the hotel at 11. We had a 3:30 train and literally had one goal for the time we had to kill until the train: PIZZA. We took the subway to what is reportedly the best pizza in the city: John’s of Bleecker.

We were not disappointed! They have an original coal fired oven and the pizza is huge with very thin crust in the middle and big chewy edges – perfect for folding! We weren’t the only tourists there but there were also plenty of locals. The pizza definitely lived up to it’s reputation and I’m so glad we made the effort to go there.

After lunch we walked up to Washington Square and then, worrying about the time, we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and go to the train station. The traffic was heavy and we were getting nervous but . . . we needn’t have because once we got to Penn Station we saw that our train had a 90 minute delay. That delay kept getting longer and longer and, believe it or not after all that time we almost missed the train because we went down the wrong escalator, but we finally got on and got seats in the quiet car.

Did I mention I was fighting off a cough? So yeah, there’s me, hacking away and making a fair amount of noise while doing so, and getting glaring looks from everyone around me. I’m pretty sure they all thought I was Typhoid Mary. Good times.

All kidding aside, this trip was nothing but fun! It was great to have all that time for exploring the city, going to shows, eating fabulous food and drinking plenty of wine with Hannah and Dale.

I’m already plotting a return!