Camping in Southeastern Maine

We marked the end of the semester with a camping trip to the southern coast of Maine, we were gone Thursday to Sunday. According to the weather forecast it was supposed to rain Thursday, scattered showers Friday and sunny Saturday and Sunday; they were right. Rain it did, all day Thursday, Thursday night, most of Friday and Friday night. Eventually the sun did come out and we had a good time.

Knowing that it was going to rain Friday we spent a good part of the day at the Children’s Museum of Maine. L served up ice cream, drove a firetruck, fed tadpoles and dozens of other activities. That evening we did have a reprieve from the rain and roasted bratwursts and made s’mores on the fire.

Saturday the sun did come out and we spent the day near the ocean. We climbed rocks and found snails near Nubble Light,

and splashed in the waves and waded in the tidal pools of Ogunquit Beach.

The Fast Runner

As all you parents out there know, young children have a way of placing certain restrictions upon one’s social life. Dinner and a movie. What’s that? Pam and I can easily count on one hand the number of times we’ve been to the theater since L was born. I’m sure that won’t change much after the arrival of #2 in October.

We’ve learned to make do with Blockbuster. We tell Blockbuster which movies we want to see and they send them to us in the mail. Sometimes, we take the mailed movies to the store where we can exchange them for an in-store rental. It’s actually a pretty good deal. The average cost for renting a movie this way is about half of what I remember paying for a rental 10 years ago. Anyway, we end up watching about 1 to 2 movies a week. Last weekend, Blockbuster informed us that it was shutting down its website for a day to do maintenance. They compensated their mailout customers by giving each of them a coupon for a free “Favorites” rental in store. (“Favorites” is actually code for “movies that nobody ever wanted to watch or wants to watch anymore.”) So we decided to take advantage of the free rental.

The movie we chose was a genuine, made-in-Canada film called ‘Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner‘. It’s “Canada’s first feature-length fiction film written, produced, directed, and acted by Inuit.” It’s one of the most unique movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a movie that feels like a documentary of Inuit life and culture. I highly recommend it.

Warning: If you aren’t comfortable watching a nude Inuit man run for his life across the partially melted ice of the arctic–yes, you get to/have to watch his “manhood” wave in the chilly breeze for the whole scene–then this movie is not for you.

I’m so sorry…

…Western Manitoba. This picture was taken May 15th near Riding Mountain after receiving 1 foot of snow overnight.

Thankfully Western Massachusetts is having different weather. Today L and I did some gardening. I posted a request for unused garden space on a community board. I had a few offers of “come make a garden out of our lawn”, but someone was willing to let me use a piece of his market garden. The garden is a 15min drive which isn’t ideal, but it seems like a good spot. The garden is also at a higher elevation, so even though the lilacs are blooming it was recommended to me not to put out plants until the 25th of May even here in Massachusetts.

L and I both had a great time playing in the dirt. I have to admit that seeding is the most exciting part, after that comes the work. It will still be good to be outside out of town this summer. L was perfectly content to dig in his big sandbox, look for worms and drop in the occasional seed.

Still here!

Contrary to some people’s opinion we are still here, but spring is also here so we have been spending our free time outside. We have been enjoying 28 to 30 degree Celsius weather. Suddenly in the past few days everything has turned green and started blooming. Sorry to hear that some places in Manitoba had snow flurries on the weekend.

What have we been up to? Basically more of the same I guess. Lowell is putting in time at the university and constructing towers with L when he is home.


I am hoping that my days of dragging myself around are almost done. It doesn’t feel like it is taking me quite as long to recover from my 2 night shifts a week. L had a bit of a cold last week, so he did nap a couple of times that week. However other than those circumstances he is all done napping, I think that I will give in and stop “rest” time in the afternoons too. He is getting louder and busier during nap times instead of quieter and calmer. Nursery time at church is good at playing L out, so he was more willing to cuddle on Sunday afternoon.

Today I was doing some housecleaning which included scrapping some boxes that had been hanging around. L picked one up that I had flattened crawled inside and thought he looked like a robot. I helped by giving him armholes. Now he is playing “Wall-E” and I am supposed to be “Eva”

When Dad Gets Home

It’s always pretty exciting when Dad gets home from work. Dad usually stretches out on the floor which to L is an invitation to wrestle or bring him a book to read.

L is my little helper only when convenient for him. Bubbles in the sink, that works.