funeral

we lay m. poisson to rest.

swimming lessons

we spontaneously signed boo up for swim lessons at the ymca, which he eagerly agreed to since his great buddy, sports fan(on his left), was already signed up. i wish i'd gotten a photo of their huge goofy grins when they were in the pool!

look at me

i went to see this at the movies the other day. my francophilia tends to skew my opinion of french movies, but i really do think this one was pretty great. i did occasionally worry that it was going to turn into fat girl, which i loved despite its overall horribleness (of subject matter, that is), but which was scary.

my new look

bean and miss glissando kindly whipped up this hand-embroidered eye patch, with which i can camouflage my hideous condition.

le jardin

i can hardly believe this pretty garden lives in my backyard!

mr. tree

well hello, mister tree.

monsieur poisson, R.I.P.

alas, monsieur has died today. after a long life in a fish bowl with beautiful colored rocks, our sweet little beta has left this world. bean thinks he'll be reincarnated as a famous person, perhaps a movie star. no doubt a french one.

pink pillow

bean made this lovely pink pillow, which is embroidered with "i like sad songs. they make me want to lie on the floor." trivia question of the day: where does this quote come from?

last day of school

a melancholy boo keeping his chin up on the last day of the beloved mr. l's teaching career.

leaves of three, let it be

poison ivy update: my eye is giving me a very special "elephant woman" look today, having swollen nicely in the night. i seem to have some on my upper lip too, which makes me feel a little like meg ryan. you know, that artificially pouty, larger-than-the-bottom-lip thing.

gosh, i guess i really shouldn't have rubbed those plants all over my face the other day...

good times at the dog park

this picture doesn't adequately convey how large this dog looked next to the min. she wanted to be his new best friend!

minnow preferred the company of this little dog with the dr. seussian tail. he looked like a mix between a cocker spaniel, dachshund, and something else, and he was very sweet. minnow liked that he was so little, i think.

summertime fun

no, this isn't just any old picture of a freaky eyeball. this is my freaky eyeball, with POISON IVY adjacent to it. yes, it's time for my yearly bout of dermatitis, blessedly appearing (so far) only on my left eyelid, my neck, and a few fingers. i have learned over the years that, come june, i somehow come into contact with poison ivy from the air around me.

let me share an unbeatable home remedy for curing the dreaded itch: run water so hot you can hardly stand it on the affected areas for as long (or longer) than you can bear. repeat as needed. this seriously does clear it up pretty quickly. unfortunately, it doesn't seem like a good idea to run scalding water on my eyelid.

listen to this

today i'm obsessed with miranda july. i love this web-based project, especially assignment #38.

happy father's day!

brunch

what a treat, to get to take pop out to brunch at blue spoon for father's day! we are so lucky to have him just a short bus ride away now. the food was fine (i don't know, i think i'm more in love with artemisia for breakfast), but the company was excellent. after eating, we attended the many rivers 20th anniversary party/retirement celebration for isaac's teacher, mr. lagraffe. it was a wonderful party, and i had the opportunity to show off my youthful dad to many friends and acquaintances.

medieval celebration and parade

boo was a drummer in the shoestring theater parade at his school yesterday. it was a fabulous parade, featuring enormous papier mache puppets, buglers, jugglers, kings and queens, knights and dragons. It was followed by a performance of "st george and the dragon" and a party with tarts and (non-fermented) mead as refreshments.

mr. l

how can we allow this man to retire from teaching? at least until boo graduates from many rivers??

frankensteinian stuffed animal

when lisa and i arranged for boo to play with sports fan today, she asked me, "does boo have any stuffed animals that can be mutated?"

this creature came home from sports fan's house with boo this afternoon.

fiesta de la imagination

we had one last potluck meal with boo's fabulous d.i. team members and their fabulous families tonight. here is the very special cake purchased by m and bean for the event.

now the sad news

the sad news is that i've virtually given up on my baking career after one too many results like this one, which was supposed to be chocolate chip cupcakes. sigh.

breakfast at blue spoon

m and i went to breakfast this morning at blue spoon, which we've been meaning to try ever since it opened. it was great, and we even got a magic 8 ball on our table.

fish chowda

we had chowda at esta's lobster, and it was so good -- huge chunks of fish.

m and i go on a date

we drove out to south harpswell last night, while bean and boo slept over at dancer lady's house.

i bet some of the lobstas that ended up at esta's got caught in these traps.

haddock

this broiled haddock plate was delicious (i mean, the food on the plate was delicious). we ate outside on the deck beside a big fireplace until the atmospheric fog changed to nor'easter-style gusts of wind and mist. we moved indoors, where the family sitting next to us conversed in animated sign language and most of the diners suddenly burst into "happy birthday" for their waitress, donna.

maine

doesn't this look like maine? we drove out to the end of the road, where it became nothing but an old rowboat, some buoys, rope, and the ocean.

we took pictures of quintessentially maine things here. when we got into our car in portland, it was 87 degrees, and when we stepped outside in south harpswell, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees (i heard donna-the-waitress telling someone the temperature, so i know this is true).

boo's birthday is observed!

finally, we got around to the present-opening, cake-eating portion of boo's ninth birthday celebration. here he is opening STAR WARS RISK from mana and pop!

single candle is blown out

yes, only one candle on his cookie dough ice cream cake, but it sparkled.

cake

big star wars book

a big star wars visual dictionary from david and ellen!

it can read your mind

the famous 20 questions ball of mystery, from david and ellen.

thunder and lightning

unfortunately, it thundered throughout the birthday celebration, so minnow had to watch the festivities, panting frantically, from behind the chair.

scary t-shirts you can buy

cereal for mathematicians

ellen would like this cereal, i think.

you've got to pick a pocket or two

boo found out today that he got a part in the musical oliver! he will be in the ensemble, which we suppose to mean he'll be an orphan and/or a street urchin. the play runs in september.

happy baby

oh, this was utterly grim. also gorgeous, clear, and brave. stephen elliott sells happy baby t-shirts on his website.

apparently his father is nuts.

magnetic fields

this is so great -- from the creators at carnegie concert series last year.

evening dog walk

i have to restrain myself from grabbing a coat and scarf as i walk out the door -- just a few days ago it was still in the 40s.

archery

bean did archery with the girl scouts this weekend. she did very well (three bull's eyes!), despite her instructor's mantra: "you have to stand to the side! you look very foolish!"

ukulele, just like they play in haw-aiya!

bean got a starter ukulele! she's learning some chords, and can play the intro to "please please me." she can't wait to hang out with adam and get some tips from the expert.

scrabble

a nail-biter of a scrabble game tonight.

mysteries of pittsburgh

see what i mean? isn't this a lovely, clear, LARGE photo?

i love michael chabon, and i hadn't read this before. i didn't love it -- in retrospect, the characters were kind of wooden -- but i enjoyed reading it.

crazy girl came too

crazy girl was voted best dressed at the beach picnic.

picnic at the beach

we had a picnic dinner at kettle cove with a and crazy girl last night, after a day that felt shockingly like summertime. here's bean gazing out to sea. my phone photos will soon be clearer and larger, thanks to the help of my in-house tech support person (m).

we observed a man drive a truck towing a small motor boat up to the shore, put the boat in the water, start the motor after many attempts, and motor out to a small rocky island, where he removed an american flag. he returned to the shore, hooked his boat back up to his truck, and drove away. we wondered: does he do this every day?

breaking news: the temperature rises in portland

tom sawyer -- i mean boo -- at the beach, frolicking in the 40 degree atlantic ocean at sunset.

pretty pink cupcakes

i made these cupcakes for the cafe -- yellow cake with buttercream icing and pink sugar sprinkled atop.

anotomical teddy

this teddy zips open, and is full of humanish organs.