| 7/9/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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I had a fun weekend in Detroit. Logan airport was nearly deserted on the 4th. There was no one in line at security screening when I came through! We arrived on time, I rented a car, and made my way to Nathan's house without incident. His house was empty (the movers had finished the day before), the house painters were working on the holiday, and along with Russ and Lu, Nathan was working on small projects around the house as well as cleaning.
After I got the tour, we headed out for a good 4th of July bbq dinner at Memphis Smoke. I had some delicious pulled pork. After dinner, I got to see some pictures of Nathan's rental outside of London and hear more details about his move. His dog, Brandy, is being moved by a pet relocation company so should be able to fly into Britain without quarantine.
The trial went well on Saturday and Sunday. Michigan and Ohio have a lot of very skilled handler-dog teams who did very well at the trial.
Saturday evening, I met up with Elizabeth Kumin who has lived in Ann Arbor for the past couple of years. We had a great visit over a glass of wine on her very nice deck followed by a wonderful dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse.
On Sunday, I finished judging about 1 p.m. so was able to zip back to Detroit in time to stand by for an earlier flight. Chris was nice enough to drive all the way into the airport to collect me. I was tired from my busy weekend and glad to be home! [Heather] |
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| 7/14/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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Last Thursday, I spent the morning at Lahey Clinic for a number of tests related to my vertigo. The good news is that they didn't find anything wrong; the bad news is that they didn't find anything wrong.... I guess I was hoping for something easily identifiable with an easy fix.
Friday Chris was off at a regatta with the racing kids when I got a call from Leah Kumin. Her sister, Elizabeth (who I saw last weekend in Ann Arbor), and another friend were in Ipswich in search of clams. I directed them to the Clam Box then joined them to visit while they ate. They came by the house so I could print out some maps for them, then went on with their sightseeing. Chris was sorry to miss them.
On Saturday we ran errands, but on Sunday the grrlz insisted on some fun. We took them for a nice long off-leash walk at Ravenswood Park in Gloucester. It's a nice big (600 acre) park with lots of trails. Even though it was a beautiful Sunday morning, the trails weren't too crowded. We all had a good time and the grrlz slept VERY well the rest of the day! [Heather] |
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| 7/19/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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We've had a busy week. Friday was the "Greenhead Regatta", which the Ipswich Junior Sailing program hosts each year. Chris was busy all week with preparations, however we did manage to take a break for some fun.
Wednesday night, we were invited by the Duocots for dinner of fresh cod which they caught on Tuesday. The Duocot family is heavily involved in and supportive of the youth sailing program. Their older daughter, Danielle, is a 420 racer and a sailing instructor apprentice. 8-year-old Gabrielle is in her second year of Opti sailing. Parents, Darlene and Charlie, have been very supportive and Darlene agreed to run their Boston Whaler as the race committee boat.
The very fresh cod was delicious, especially paired with mussels, fresh corn, and great bread. Dessert was a choice of pies and some banana bread which I made. Tom, one of the YC launch drivers, also joined us. It was a very pleasant and congenial dinner.
Chris recruited me to help Darlene on the race committee, so we both headed up to the Yacht Club midmorning on Friday. Darlene and I took the entries while Chris coordinated with coaches and set the race course. Dick and Marty did a great job of orchestrating the shoreside arrangements including pizza for lunch and cake for the afternoon awards ceremony.
Once we were out on the water, Chris was joined by Jim (one of the Junior Sailing board members) and Darlene and I were ably assisted by John (another yacht club member). Turnout for the regatta was great; we had 17 Optis and 14 420s entered, making our job of running races and recording results pretty hectic.
Everything went very smoothly, even though the races started an hour later than planned. One of the other yacht clubs took much longer towing their boats over to Ipswich than they had anticipated. However, the weather was great, the winds filled in, and we got off three races for each fleet. The Ipswich sailors conducted themselves respectably against much more experienced racers.
By the time we got home late Friday afternoon, Chris and I were exhausted. We had a quick dinner and crashed. Later in the evening, however, we were treated to a spectacular thunderstorm. The wind blew quite hard and was accompanied by many bolts of lightning and thunderboomers. Minnow retreated to the bathroom and was quite calm. Kira paced for a bit but eventually hunkered down in the crate and drooled. They were both glad when the storm ended. [Heather] |
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| 7/23/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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On Sunday we had a great visit with Leah Kumin. She came up on the commuter rail from Boston and we met her in Gloucester. First, we took the grrlz for a great walk in Dogtown Commons and introduced Leah to the Babson boulders -- large rocks carved with pithy inspirational sayings as a make-work project during the Depression.
After our walk, we headed up to the Lobster Pool in Rockport and enjoyed lobster rolls and fried clams at the picnic tables overlooking the water. Thunderstorms were starting to threaten, but we next made a quick stop at Habibut Point State Park to enjoy the view. We dashed back to the car as it started to rain.
On the way back to Ipswich, we stopped for the major food groups -- wine, cheese, and chocolate -- then had a nice visit while we nibbled and sipped. We headed out about 7:30 p.m. to run Leah back to the Beverly station. Luckily we waited with her because a message came up on the board saying that the train was indefinitely delayed. We opted to drive her back to Cambridge rather than waiting for the train or bus. On a Sunday night, traffic was very light and we made good time.
On Monday afternoon, I drove to Lexington to run a couple of errands and pick up our mail before heading to Lahey Clinic for my MRI appointment. I opted not to use valium since I had to drive back to Ipswich after the appointment. I did fine in the MRI despite being mildly claustrophobic, but if I ever have to do it again I want drugs!
On my way back to Ipswich, I stopped in Topsfield to fill the propane tank for the Chase's grill. Just as I paid, the skies opened up. Luckily, there was no thunder and lightning nearby but I waited in the car about 15 minutes for the rain to let up enough for the attendant to come fill the tank. By that time, there were a couple of inches of water running over the parking lot. The attendant wasn't happy about getting his feet wet, but I really didn't want to make another 45 minute roundtrip to get the tank filled another day. [Heather] |
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| 7/31/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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Another busy week! Early Friday morning, Chris drove me to Manchester NH so I could catch a plane to Raleigh NC to judge rally obedience. Shannon didn't have much help for the trial, so I ended up being on the go from early in the morning until late each night. I enjoy judging for the NC group and loved sharing judging duties with Cindi, but was exhausted by the end of the weekend.
Late Sunday afternoon, one of the exhibitors drove me to the airport. When I checked in, my flight was supposed to be on time, but by the time I had a bite to eat and made my way to the gate it was delayed due to thunderstorms in the Northeast. Oh, no -- not again! Last year I got stuck overnight in Raleigh for the same reason.
By 6:45 p.m., my 6:10 flight was delayed until at least 8:20 but the 4:10 flight was still on hold until at least 7 p.m. I had no confidence that my flight would ever leave and didn't want to get to Manchester at 1:30 a.m. with an hour drive ahead. So I rebooked for the morning and headed to a nearby hotel for some much needed rest.
I made it to Manchester 1/2 hour AHEAD of schedule on Monday and caught a shuttle to Woburn where Joan collected me. After work, Chris drove down to his mother's house to meet us. We had a nice dinner and a visit, then headed back to Ipswich.
Wednesday, I had my second appointment with an excellent physical therapist at the Gordon College Center for Balance, Mobility, and Wellness. She managed to eliminate some possible causes of my vertigo and identify some other problem areas. All along, I had been saying that my "near vertigo" was worse when I turned my head to the left. The doctor had said those symptoms sounded like cervical vertigo but dismissed the idea since I hadn't had a neck injury. The physical therapist did some hands on tests and found that in addition to a lot of stiffness in my neck, three of my cervical vertebrae are not turning symmetrically. Finally! We have something concrete to work on! So, I've added some additional neck stretches and exercises to my repertoire. [Heather] |
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| 8/8/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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Another week has gone by too quickly, filled with errands, physical therapy, Chris teaching, and the usual stuff. Chris has been busy getting his 420 racers ready for Junior Olympics starting on Sunday. Before then, though, we'll steal a quick bit of time for ourselves.
This afternoon, we're driving up to Rockland ME for a Saga Rendezvous. Several Sagas will be there and so will the person who has purchased the rights to produce future Sagas. It should be fun! We'll socialize and dinner tonight, then camp overnight. Tomorrow we'll do some sightseeing and, with a little luck with the weather, a good dog walk before heading back to Ipswich. [Heather] |
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| 8/12/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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We had a fun trip to Maine, even though the weather didn't cooperate. We left about noon and found that the traffic was only bad around Wiscasset, ME. After one bit of confusion caused by our Streets and Trips map, we found our campground and selected a site. Then we blasted on to Rockland.
The Saga group had been planning to raft up for a cocktail party but the cool, rainy weather led to a change of plans. We all gathered on one of the boats that was in a marina and had heat. The grrlz were able to join us as well. The host family included Sadie, an 8-year-old light brown Portuguese Water Dog. The grrlz had a good visit and thought the boat looked familiar, but didn't understand why they couldn't go below and stretch out on the settees!
After a couple of hours of visiting, all 14 of us (minus the three dogs...) headed off to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We sat across from Terry, the Toronto man who has bought the Saga molds and hopes to restart production. He was eagerly soaking up info from the current owners and made an interesting dinner companion.
After dinner, we sloshed our way back to the campground and settled in for the night. After breakfast Saturday, we stopped at a highly rated dog-friendly park for a walk with the grrlz. Unfortunately, the only off-leash area was a possibly tick-infested high-grass meadow. So, we settled for a short on-leash walk through the more interesting areas of the park.
From there we headed to Boothbay Harbor and found another dog-friendly park along the way. All of the trails in this park were off-leash, so we had a good hike. We had planned to stop at Boothbay Harbor for lunch, but it was still too early after our good breakfast. We weren't even inclined to do much sightseeing since Boothbay Harbor has gotten so touristy in the last 35 years. Instead, we decided to blaze on back to Ipswich.
We did stop along the way for a quart of wild Maine blueberries. We polished off half of them on the way home and they were sweet and delicious. Luckily, we still had plenty for marvelous blueberry pancakes Sunday morning.
Late morning on Sunday, I dropped Chris off at the Yacht Club where he met up with one of his sailors to take one of the safety boats over to Rockport. They met the other sailors and the 420s there to register for the Mass Bay Junior Olympics.
Monday was the first day of racing and conditions were pretty intimidating for our less-experienced racers. Winds and waves were high, and the fleet was large. Not the best conditions for our sailors, but everyone survived the day intact. Chris arrived home about 9 after the evening festivities. Unfortunately, today's weather looks even worse, but the last half day of racing tomorrow may be better. We'll keep our fingers crossed. [Heather] |
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| 8/19/2008 |
Ipswich, Massachusetts |
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Chris and his sailors completed the Junior Olympics last Wednesday on a bit of a higher note. Lighter conditions allowed the Ipswich sailors to move up in the pack for better finishes. Everyone seemed to have a good time.
Since Chris needed to drive the safety boat back from Rockport Wednesday afternoon, I drove him and the racers over in the morning. Then the grrlz and I headed to Ravenswood Park for a walk. About 15 minutes into our walk, just as the grrlz had discovered mud to wallow in, I got a call from Chris. He had left the safety boat keys in the car. We raced back to the car as fast as we could and drove back to Rockport.
After delivering the keys, I headed down to the Land of Retail to run errands. Shopping is really exhausting! So all of us were pretty tuckered out Wednesday night. However just as we sat down to dinner, Chris got a call saying there was a junior sailing board meeting at the yacht club. So, he propped his eyelids open with toothpicks ;-) and headed off to the meeting.
Thursday was a busy day, too. In the morning, Chris had to swap out boats, setting up the ones that had been trailered to JO. Then that evening, we went to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" at the North Shore Music Theatre. Dick and Marty had graciously offered us the tickets and we really enjoyed the very funny and entertaining musical.
Friday afternoon, we headed down to Lexington for the weekend. Saturday was spent preparing for Barbara's 85th birthday feast. Saturday night, Chris and I headed off to the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts for a couple's cooking class. The "Full Moon Lover's Swoon" dinner was a great way to celebrate our anniversary.
We took on the challenging task of making a chocolate - orange - almond tart in the alloted two hours. We really had to hustle and we had a new appreciation for the chefs on Iron Chef America! Our tart came out great and went well with the dishes prepared by the five other couples: oysters rockefeller, pasta with basil and pine nuts, salad with avocado and carrot-ginger dressing, roasted asparagus, sauteed carrots, grilled fennel, beef tenderloin in mustard rub, truffled polenta, and fig-almond paste ice cream. Yum!
Sunday morning, we finished preparations for Barbara's dinner, loaded it all in the van, and headed down to Hingham with Joan. Along the way, we picked up a custom Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake. We spent a very enjoyable 5 hours at Barbara's eating our three course meal at a leisurely pace, watching Barbara open her presents, and setting up Skype on her computer as a birthday present. The food? Fantastic! Appetizers of smoked salmon and tarragon cream cheese on cocktail rye, marinated mushrooms, and marinated olives. Main course was an extremely elegant lobster salad with tarragon vinagrette and a sesame cucumber salad served with two delicious breads. The dessert, of course, was the ice cream cake. We definitely ate well this weekend!
Sunday night, Chris headed back to Ipswich with the grrlz. I stayed in Lexington for some more medical appointments. Monday morning, I went back to the Lahey Balance Center for some more weird tests on my inner ear function. I was whirled slowly in a rotary chair, watched dots jump around, had my ears filled with water balloons, and my eye movements captured on video. Definitely strange stuff. I have a followup appointment in early September to see if all this testing has led to any conclusions about my vertigo problems.
Monday afternoon, Joan drove me up to Ipswich and we took her to the Clam Box in appreciation. Nothing beats the Clam Box native clams! It was a very pleasant evening, so we sat at the outdoor picnic tables while we enjoyed our feast. [Heather] |
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| 8/28/2008 |
Lexington, Massachusetts |
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We're now back in Lexington after a very busy 10 days finishing up the season in Ipswich and getting resettled in Lexington. The last week of classes went well and Friday the 22nd was "Competition Day". I helped Chris run races for the more experienced sailors, and some of the instructors organized fun contests for others, such as fastest bowline tying, fastest capsize and recovery, and fastest rig-derig of an Optimist dinghy.
After the contests, everyone enjoyed pizza and cake before helping the instructors drag all the boats up the hill to the yacht club lawn and get them ready for winter storage. Chris was pleased that his other instructors took charge of the boat derigging and let him concentrate on other issues.
Saturday we got all our belongings grouped up and loaded in the van and thoroughly cleaned the apartment before heading back to Lexington. We reached Joan's house in midafternoon and I dashed back out to pick up some interesting dinner fixings from Trader Joe's.
We had an enjoyable but brief visit with Joan. She took off early Sunday morning for a week-long trip to Grand Manan Island with her friend, Jane. Chris and the grrlz also took off early Sunday to go hiking in New Hampshire with John and his dogs. I enjoyed having a day of solitude to relax and start getting settled and unpacked.
This week we've been picking away on some urgent projects, like ordering boat parts and completing some final work for Ipswich. The grrlz have enjoyed a couple of walks in their favorite local spot, Willard Woods.
Tonight I'm thoroughly relaxed after taking advantage of my last year's Christmas present from Joan -- a spa day! I've been admiring my red-polished toenails and reveling in the limp-noodle feeling of my thoroughly massaged and pampered body. [Heather]
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| 8/29/2008 |
Lexington, Massachusetts |
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Early this afternoon, I clicked on Google News to check the latest headlines and was astounded to see that Sen. McCain chose Governor Palin of Alaska as his running mate. She's immensely popular in Alaska and seems to have done a very good job in her first two years as Governor. Still, it was definitely a surprising, long-shot choice. Personally, I can't imagine running for VP as a sitting governor with 5 kids, the youngest just 3 months old! Oh, well -- more power to her.
We mainly just puttered around at tasks today. One of my chores was yet another trip to the grocery store. However, technology has made that task less onerous. The Stop and Shop near here not only has self-checkout available, but also has hand scanners that you can take with you to scan items as you shop. I've found that I'm getting good enough with the system now that I can save a lot of time by scanning my items as I go and putting them directly into my reusable grocery bags. Then, when I'm done I just have to hit a couple of buttons, swipe my debit card, and go. Very fast! [Heather] |
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| 9/2/2008 |
Lexington, Massachusetts |
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Saturday morning, we met friends John and Liz out near Groton for a walk with our combined pack of four dogs. We had a great time at Groton Place and Sabine Woods, a conservation area along the Nashua River managed by the New England Forestry Foundation. The trails were wonderful and the dogs all enjoyed a good splash in the river. Afterwards, we stopped for a late lunch at Bull Run, a historic restaurant. It was good to get a chance to visit in advance of their wedding next Sunday.
On Sunday, Joan got back from Grand Manan and bustled around to get ready for a short trip to Cape Cod with her sister. We had a good dinner of ribs, something we've never made at home before. We were inspired by Alton Brown on "Good Eats" to give it a go. Not perfect, but next time they'll be even better.
Monday, Chris got started on some more drywalling in the basement. Pulling down the old metal lath on the ceiling is a horrible dirty job. I helped him move some stuff, but am staying far away from the lath removal because of my allergies. [Heather] |
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