What holiday is next?

Today is February 15, the day after Valentine's Day. I stopped in at Reny's for some quick items. I'm always annoyed but not surprised to see Easter candy and decorations show up in retail aisles on this day, but patriotic decorations? We don't need those until Fourth of July. Maybe Memorial Day.

7/7/2011 Castine Update

Check out this article in the Castine Patriot about the 4th of July. And pay particular attention to the photos and the photo credits.

Mrs. C's daughter-in-law got a phone call at 7am on the 5th of July from a local reporter who told her that the camera of the paper's photographer wasn't working right and they didn't have any photos of the parade. The photographer knew Mrs. C's d-i-l and had seen her taking photos, so she called to ask her if she had any that she could use. Mrs. C's d-i-l said Karen had a better camera and had been taking tons of photos so she should ask her. So the reporter called Mrs. C. who came and got Karen (who was just getting out of the shower), apprised her of the situation, and put her on the phone with the reporter. Karen actually had over 1,000 photos from the day but was able to pick out 30 or so to send to the reporter and the rest is history. :-)

7/5/2011 Farewell Castine

I do love a good Dutch door. And in Castine, the weather is so nice (and in this case, the view of the elm and the yard) that you can actually use your Dutch door. Of course, Mrs. C. has one.

KMO, Mrs. C. and me in Mrs. C's backyard.

Stephanie and me.

We had breakfast at Bah's Bakery. KMO and Stephanie had quiche, I got the famous crab cake (for breakfast?? why not!). It was delicious and the view of the harbor while eating was nice, too.

Because you can see a lot of people on this schooner, Mrs. C. said it must be the Bowdoin. A Facebook friend suspected it was the Bowdoin as well. I'm doing well to know it's a schooner. What nobody said was that the Bowdoin is owned by the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. It's a teaching ship!

7/4/2011 Town Band concert program

7/4/2011 4th of July Concert, Castine, ME

Not sure what this was about. This car was parked at the Town Commons for the Town Band Concert. I'm thankful for the 4th of July, does that count?

Instrumentalists getting ready for the big concert. Look right between the T and the I in the word Castine on the big drum, now go up to the rim of the drum, . . . there's my sister!

The Tarratine Fifes and Drums made a guest performance at the concert. Oh look! There's my sister--second fife from the right.

The Dice's Head (or Dice Head or Dyce Head . . . depends what you read) Lighthouse right on the edge of town.

We had a big barbecue tonight. Mrs. C. and her son and daughter-in-law and 3 grandkids plus 4 family friends plus my sister, me, and my friend Stephanie. We ate barbecued brisket, sausage, and ribs sent from The New Braunfels Smokehouse by Mrs. C's daughter Katy who is my sister's best friend which is how we got here in the first place. Gorgeous evening. We all sat underneath Mrs. C's really big elm tree. Yes, elm tree. Castine's elms didn't get hit by the Dutch Elm Disease blight and in fact, all the trees are carefully cared for and tagged and baby elms are now being planted across the country from cuttings from Castine's elms. Anyway, it was a gorgeous tree to sit under and enjoy our wonderful meal. Then we went inside for dessert of brownies and strawberry-rhubarb pie. What a great 4th of July!!

Next on the agenda was the fireworks display at 9:15. At 9:00, two fireworks went off into the fog and just kinda, sorta set the fog aglow. Not much to look at. At 9:15, the harbor lights went out and one more firework went off and glowed. Even the bang didn't sound right in the fog. Next thing we know, they're announcing that the fireworks are postponed to Friday night. :-( A smart decision, just not the evening we were expecting. (This photo is of the Maine Maritime Academy's big ship at the harbor . . . you can kinda tell that there was a lot of fog.)

We came home to Mrs. C's house with a welcome flag. The US flag flies high and proud on a lighted pole on her rooftop, but this flag hangs proud and welcoming in the front porch.

7/4/2011 4th of July in Castine, Maine

KMO was invited to return to Castine to visit the mom of her best friend and most especially, to play flute for the Castine Town Band and fife with the Tarratine Fifes and Drums. She's been to Castine many times before but this time I got to play chauffeur and it was my first time to this historic Maine town. My good friend from UMF, Stephanie, joined us for the fun. I picked up KMO Sunday night at the airport and we spent the night at a hotel in Portland. Left by 6:45 this morning and headed to Augusta where we picked up Stephanie and then headed to Castine. We arrived at 9:45, in plenty of time to get to the Children's Costume Parade at 10:00. The parade was around the Town Commons area. No floats, no bands, no commercial or political statements, just patriotic music blaring from the 1790 Congregational Church steeple and lots of children (and a few accompanying adults) walking through town. What a glorious way to celebrate!

After the parade, there is a giant celebration on the Town Commons including free watermelon, lemonaid, hot dogs, cotton candy, and fried dough. They also had sack races, a tug of war (with a REALLY long rope and a lot of people on both sides), a pie eating contest, and free fire truck rides. How Norman Rockwell can you get?!

This is The Abbott School on the Town Commons.

After the festivities on the Town Commons, we headed down to the wharf, but there were so many kids lined up for the fire truck rides that those were still going on. We got to see one in action.

We stopped at The Breeze, a local fast food place on the wharf. I got their chocolate chip ice cream sandwich made with fresh chocolate chip cookies. It's bigger than it looks. It was as big as it was delicious.

The morning started with a lot of fog ("marine layer" as some call it), but it started to burn off around 11 and though the rest of the day had a haze (and threatened rain off and on), we could still see the beautiful Castine harbor and I managed to get a good sunburn.

On the second floor of Mrs. C's house is a staircase that goes to the ceiling. But at the top of the staircase is a big hatch and you lift that door and you are on the roof of the house with room enough for 7 deck chairs and a big table with this dramatic view.

Happy Anniversary

January 8th--an awesome day. Four years ago today, I moved to Maine. Of course, back then, I thought I was only coming for four months. Now it's been four years. How does that happen??!!

I have a ton of amazing memories amassed in this very short time. Thank you especially to MRM (My Room Mate) for the first 18 months. I doubt seriously I would've acclimated so well or enjoyed life in Maine so much without your support (both moral and physical) and good humor. You are a very special friend.

And here's a big thank you to all the amazing and wonderful people I've met in these last four years--both in the Farmington/Wilton community and at UMF. I definitely believe in the state motto: Maine--the way life should be.

4/20/09 Happy Patriots' Day

Though April 19 is the real Patriots' Day commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, it is now celebrated on the third Monday of April. It is a Massachusetts holiday but since Maine was originally part of Massachusetts, we get to celebrate, too. The University of Maine Farmington is closed today to commemorate the event. Of course, it fell during our spring break, so it's a holiday for staff who are on 12-month contracts but was already a holiday for students and faculty.

Wikipedia has a nice article with more than you ever wanted to know about Patriots' Day including its timing with the Boston Marathon and Red Sox games.

I was going to go into the office today (I have a key to my building, so even though the University is closed, I can get in) and get work done but I slept in this morning and am still in my pajamas at 12:30 in the afternoon. I have been busily working on our Maine Community Heritage Project over the weekend and am tempted to stay home and work on that some more. But I have a giant list of things to do at the office, too. Oh the dilemma!

4/12/09 Easter Dinner

Ashley invited me to Easter Dinner at her house. It was a Southern Style Eastern Dinner complete with fried chicken and "extra bacon in everything". (That's what her mother told her to do. However, since she had a vegetarian friend attending, she put the extra bacon in a dish and we could all add as much extra bacon as we desired to anything or everything.) There was Southern-style corn (Ashley personally husked and de-kernelled 16 ears of corn), fried okra, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, biscuits (I had to correct someone who called them rolls), fried cabbage, and I don't know what all else. We overstuffed ourselves and then out came dessert: 7-layer chocolate decadent brownies and a triple berry cobbler a la mode. It was incredibly delicious. And the company was awesome. Such fun people. The conversation and the laughter never stopped. What a glorious way to celebrate.

4/12/09 Easter Bunny Delivers!

After returning from the Easter Sunrise service, I took a little nap and when I awoke, I found this between my door and the storm door! There was a cute little white Easter basket filled with goodies (including my first Peep). I do not know if the Easter bunny purposely snuck up and delivered the basket anonymously or if the generous bunny attempted to deliver in person and I slept through the event. Either way, the result is, I do not know the identity of my Easter Bunny. It's almost like a May basket and an Easter basket combined.

Whoever you are, Thank you to my personal Easter Bunny!!!

4/12/09 Easter Sunrise Service

At 6:01 am the sun rose and the trumpets sounded at Farmington Area Ecumenical Council's Easter Sunrise service. It was awesome! The service is at the top of Voter's Hill. It used to be held on the side of the road and then a family in the area let the group use their driveway (and the trumpeters use the garage to keep their instruments a little warmer). Then after the service we went inside for a light breakfast (pastries and coffee mostly) and an opportunity for fellowship with fellow worshipers. It was a very very awesome Easter. The original family that hosted it has since sold their house and the new owners inherited the event but have continued being gracious hosts. The original family was in attendance! Andrea and her sister (who was visiting from Massachusetts) picked me up at 5:30 so that we could carpool and arrive in plenty of time to park and get to the event. The two of them have been attending since childhood and they knew many of the people in attendance.

12/13/08 Happy St. Lucia Day!

This is actually a Minnesota and Swedish event, not a Maine event. But Karen, my Needham-making buddy and Games Night hostess extraordinaire is from Minnesota and she decided to bring a little bit of her home to Maine. So she held a St. Lucia party. And one of guests actually came as St. Lucia! I'll never get the names of all the yummy foods correct, so you should read Karen's husband's blog about the event. Read all the details there. But know from me that it was a) a lot of fun, b) quite delicious, and c) a great diversion in this hectic, end-of-semester time of year.

10/18/08 Pumpkin Carving Party

How handy that I have friends who blog about events that I attend so that I don't have to. Well, okay, I'll create my own blog entry on this, I promise. But until then, read about the great pumpkin carving party. An advantage (or is it a disadvantage? well, it's a difference) of reading someone else's blog is that photos of me appear in it. :-)

http://keatsfan.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/pumpkin-carving-party/

Here are my photos from the event. Can you guess which one I carved?

7/4/08 4th of July Party #2

It's so fun to have two parties to go to on 4th of July! This is
Ashley's annual party but since she just got home from 3 weeks in
Africa and wasn't sure what condition her apartment would be in, it
was held at Sheena's house. What more could you ask for than some
fireworks . . .

. . . good food and fun people . . .

. . . in a beautiful setting.

7/4/08 4th of July Party #1

After the parade, I walked to my old house with MRM (okay, she's not My RoomMate anymore, but I'll still refer to her as that in this blog). Later RBF (Roommate's BoyFriend will still be RBF as well) and his brother, Rodney, came over and we spent a lazy afternoon at poolside with the dogs just soaking in sunshine and taking in the Red Sox game. Fortunately, they won the game. It was a good one.

Check out MRM's flower garden. It's beautiful . . . lots of variety
in shape, color, texture, et. al. It's attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, and humans.

I actually soaked up more shade than sunshine. RBF did even more shade than I did. MRM and Rodney probably tied for most sun in a single afternoon, but MRM shifted from in the pool to by the pool to working in the garden. Rodney was mostly in the pool. Check out the iced tea in the drink holder on the side of the float . . . what a life.

Here's MRM adjusting the peas in the veggie garden. We were able to harvest 5 pods. . . the first peas of the season. YUM!

It's a dog's life. Elf almost seemed to enjoy being on the float with his mom. I think it was more being with mom than it was being on the float that he was enjoying.

Rodney was dogsitting for his brother and sister-in-law. That's Zoey who eventually settled in and had quiet times with the other dogs. She REALLY liked Elf. I think she either thought Elf was her puppy or a new toy.