like father, like daughter

evie was much better at conquering the rope ladder than aaron was. and i was smart enough to not even try it.

news from newsweek

mom and dad got me a subscription to newsweek magazine for christmas. i feel like the newsweek and people magazine sort of cancel each other out in terms of their implications about my interest in the world around me.

in the latest edition of newsweek, there was a brief blurb about a partnership between the library of congress and the photo-sharing site flickr to create flickr commons, which features over three thousand of the library's old photos. they're hoping that joe q. public will be able to provide more information about the people, landscapes, and buildings captured in the images. the pictures are quite lovely. you should peruse them and perhaps contribute to the greater good whilst you waste time gazing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157603671370361/
photo information: Wolcott, Marion Post,, 1910-, photographer.
Spreading fertilizer from 4-mule team wagon, Georgia
ca. 1940

helpful comment added by joe q. public: "pa, ah thinks we needs t' adjust them mules' feed a bit.

i imagine the library of congress will quickly regret this decision. and perhaps they'll realize that they could have just as effectively advertised their need for more information in people magazine. same result either way.

putting it all together

nina totenberg and i have been attending beginning agility class on sunday afternoons for three weeks now. so far, we have practiced rewarding nina for being pushy and for the past two weeks, i have spent an hour in an unheated indoor horse ring giving nina treats every time she makes eye contact. and by "treats," i mean that i stick the first two fingers on my right hand into a can of moist dog food and let nina lick the gruesome substance off. so now, nina has learned that shoving her face against your hand to get attention to a rewardable behavior, i have stinky dog food under my fingernails, and i am seriously starting to question the 200+ dollars i paid for this class. and then, i remembered this:

remember when...

remember when it was warm and it didn't ever rain in massachusetts and i had a haircut that didn't make my head look like a bowl? min-hi sent me this picture she took and it brought all these memories rushing back. ahhh, the good ole' days.

a new beginning

i taught my first class of the semester at dean college tonight. after i was done with my lecture, one of the students came up to me and said, "i just wanted to let you know that i am really enjoying this class so far." off to a good start.

updating the technology

i wonder if the brazilian economy would be better off if they didn't force the traders to communicate with clients using walkie-talkies made by tonka.

this photo is from today's new york times. it shows traders at the sao paulo stock exchange reacting to the plunge in the market today. or something economic like that.

catching up

golden oldie for a golden oldie

i heard the pointer sisters on the radio today and whenever i hear the pointer sisters on the radio, i think of this scene from the movie "love actually:"



i'm not much of a hugh grant fan in general, but i found his boyish charm quite appealing in this movie, in which he plays the prime minister of england. one of my favorite moments is his expression when the second guy starts singing:

separated at birth, part deux

turns out, matt might be closely related to seth green (star of such classic films as... well, i would be hard pressed to come up with a "classic" film that starred seth green. but he did play dr. evil's son in the austin powers movies. so at least he's got that going for him.)













note: that is not matt's real facial hair.
note 2: ok, the mustache is actually his.
note 3: i think matt is a lot more attractive than seth green. seth green is like the creepy little brother that wants so badly to be like his more attractive, more intelligent, more festive big bro.

blast from the past

i think it might be at least fifteen years since the last time i had strep throat. i remembered two things about the disease: it makes your throat really, really sore and it really, really hurts when they stick that giant q-tip down there to swab up some germs. i didn't even feel sick until late sunday night, when my throat was just a tiny bit sore, but by monday morning, you could see the bulging lymph nodes in the left hand side of my neck from across the room. we attempted some home-diagnosis, which involved me holding the flashlight and shoving a butter knife into my mouth to hold my tongue down while matt took pictures of my throat with the digital camera. it was relatively unsuccessful.

finally, after my fever continued to increase and my whining started to get overwhelming, matt convinced me to call my doctor and i managed to get an appointment for 7:00 yesterday evening. it only takes 6 minutes to do a strep test these days (the times really have changed) and the doctor took two swabs- he was so sure that it was strep that he said if the test came back negative the first time, he wanted to have a back-up ready to run the test again. perhaps the double-swab made it hurt more or perhaps i was just having flashbacks to the swabbings of my youth, but the giant q-tips brought tears to my eyes.

after 24 hours of penicillin and a few doses of motrin, i feel practically as good as new.

willing to be best friends with whoever has an apple

the white horse

during his visit here last weekend, a.j. became quite smitten with wizard the horse, even going so far as to say that wizard was his best friend. grammy slack, mommy, and aunt sarah should all feel a bit hurt that he has selected a horse over us. one of the highlights of the visit for a.j. was the opportunity to give his best friend an apple. although a.j.'s face is in shadow in the picture, you can still see that he is demonstrating to the horse the proper way to bite into the apple. "you see, wizard, you just open your mouth real wide, like so..."

a really big deal

look what evie got to do this weekend:


and look what ginger had to put up with:

matt's secret hiding spot

for those of you who were young in the early 80's.

a hug while napping

what's my dog?

we have always assumed that our little black dog jake was a mix of many breeds. he sort of resembles a border collie, although entirely lacks any form of herding instinct or obsessive compulsive behavior (outside of the morning licking routine). and he has the general appearance of a flat-coated retriever, but is significantly smaller than the average size of that breed.

smoosh these two together and it makes our jake, right?

not so fast! for my christmas present, matt had jake's genetic make-up analyzed by the Mars Wisdom Panel, which attempts to decipher your dog's breed make-up. now, thanks to a little blood sampling and dna analysis, we know that jake is part labrador retriever, part collie and, despite the best efforts of science, still part undefined mutt. he thought about having nina tested as well, but i really don't see the need. she is a perfect mix of sheltie and italian greyhound, wouldn't you agree?

nina sniffs the air for cougars

she really hates cougars. i told her there were thousands of them in maine and that they would eat her. she was on alert all weekend.

maine in winter

two years ago in a silent auction, i bid on and won a three-night stay at a house in maine. this past weekend, matt and i finally managed to get our collective acts together enough to cash in on the prize. matt's sister bekah and her boyfriend eric were able to join us there as well. we stayed in this, errrr, unusual house with slate floors, lots of nooks and crannies, secret hiding places, indoor balconies, and not a single wall that went from floor to ceiling, including the bathroom walls. i'm told that i might have grown up in a house with similarly incomplete and ineffective walls, were it not for the bold interference of mrs. grier.

the weather was absolutely perfect, with tons of fresh snow but yet temperatures that were warm enough for it to actually be fun to go outside. matt and i snowshoed around the property and also went cross country skiing at a local park. bekah and eric spent one day at sunday river doing some downhill skiing, east-coast style.

it was also nice because we got to bring the dogs, who loved the deep snow, long morning walks, and the fact that i did not forget to bring the polar bear. lord help me had i forgotten to bring the polar bear.

why it's so difficult to teach her not to jump up

because she's just that cute.

mourning dove

mom and dad got me a canon EOS camera for christmas. and then for new year's, they got me a whole load of lovely snow, perfect for taking photos of dogs, trees, and shovelers. expect many high quality images in the days to come!

snowdog

yaaaawwwwwnnn- this blog is so boring