Yeah, it's been busy

I could have sworn that we just took off for Nashville last week. But alas, Christmas is just around the corner and there are forty million things to do.

But first, let's get everyone updated.

Our Trip to Places South


This trip was a mix of business and pleasure. And some pleasurable business. It's nice when your line of work involves visiting historic recreational places (Tellico Dam) and national parks (the Blue Ridge Mountains, for one). It's even better when you can rest for a few days in a place that has some pretty decent music and even better food. But what really makes a road trip is learning about a new wine producing state that share an ocean with you. Oh yes, Northern Virginia, we look forward to getting to know you better.

The Wedding of the Year


Our niece on the Good Mr. Dr.'s side got married. It was a great trip home, even if it was too short. It was a beautiful wedding. The reception took place in one of Whittier's historic Victorian homes (which was an incredible location). She was a beautiful bride and we couldn't be any happier for them.

The Baby Shower of the Year


In the same weekend, we were able to squeeze in my little sister's baby shower. All but one of my sisters were able to be there. Queenie skyped in from Alaska. It was a mixed gender party and the guys were totally into the shower party games. We learned that even the Good Mr. Dr. is not above a little bit of cheating.

In one trip, we managed to visit with 90% of our family, which is good since we will spend our first Christmas in our new home this year. More on that later.

We are happy to report that Baby Xavier was born happy and healthy.

Hanging with the Tata

A 1980s Homecoming Murder at Mayhem High


Mrs D, my ever-ready partner in Halloween festivities, with the assistance of the faithful Jazzy and her friend, pulled off our twice a decade Halloween murder mystery bash. This year's murder took place at a 1980s homecoming dance. I know. Totally rad. Fifty of our friends sleuthed their way through an overly complicated plot. Even the children were part of the fun. Incredibly, one person was actually able to figure it out. The party was, in short, the bomb.

Fall in New England



As you know, the Good Mr. Dr. has been furiously working on his book over summer and through the fall. Despite that, he also managed to grow four pumpkins and keep the garden in great shape.

Since pictures tell better stories than I ever could, please click on the Gallery link above to check out all of the pics we've been withholding from you all year long.

A Little Bit of Sadness
Two weeks ago our Uncle Sonny passed away. We know that he is not suffering, even if we are pained by his absence. He was always full of laughter...

Taken from the Familia Faces FB page

and unconditional love...

Teaching the Good Mr. Dr. to play cards

I toast my glass to my Uncle. May you finally find out what flavor water the sun likes. I bet it's either Ron Abuelo or gin.

A Preview of Postings to Come

We are hosting the Good Mr. Dr.'s Department Holiday Party. Which means one thing: Christmas decorations!

Just to give you a taste of what is in store:



Just kidding. :)

Before the trip blog begins…

I have been completely irresponsible in my duties to the our faithful readers about updating this website.For that I apologize. However, it has been a busier summer than either of us anticipated.In summary:

The Roof

It is done. We have two beautifully rebuilt chimneys and two new skylights. One is a modern skylight that is crystal clear and lets all kinds of light into the house. The second was refabricated from the original. We asked that they make it in copper. So now, in the bathroom, we have a soft glow of copper illuminating the bathroom when we take a shower.

This is the modern skylight that is over the staircase.

This is the refabricated skylight in the bathroom.

One of two beautifully built chimneys that our neighbors across the street can enjoy.

The garden.

We have been diligently working on remaking our garden. Our lilies, daffodils, and grape hyacinths were beautiful but are done for the season. The Good Mr. Dr. planted pumpkins, giant sunflowers, nasturtiums, French marigolds, and lavender in the back. Everything is growing, much to our amazement. We have been fighting white powdery mildew on our pumpkin plants but two pumpkins are growing. One is growing on the fence and we’ve had to make a sling from old pantyhose. The other is growing under the willow tree. No pictures yet, but they will be forthcoming.

The long view down the center of the garden.

Lavender in a pot. These make great tea and make the house smell good.

What is left of the first couple of cups of blueberries from our orchard harvested in June.

One part of the pumpkin patch and sunflower field.

Our grape crop was looking really good.

One section of the vinyard, as of late July.

That was until the local wildlife got a hold of them. Some creature has been picking the entire bunch, taking two grapes, throwing the bunch on the ground, sucking the juice out of the grapes, and then throwing the husks on the floor. Our grape crop has been decimated by either squirrels or raccoons, or both. I will admit that I now truly understand the strong feelings of loathing directed at these animals. We are now trying a variety of repellents, including a chili pepper and garlic mixture that is sprayed on the plants. That seems to be somewhat effective. Here’s to hoping.

Most of the work has gone into the hardscaping. We have built a small bench space on one side with a circle kit bought from Ashland Landscape Supply. We highly recommend this place to folks living in the area. Our Good Friend Mr. J helped with the digging it out. When they did, we discovered steps. The only explanation we could think of was that the back of the house was at some point lower than it is today.

The gentlemen digging a really deep hole.

The Good Mr. Dr. supervising.

"Hey!"

Steps from a bygone era.

The men had to stop working when it got dark and the mosquitoes started to feed on them. The Good Mr. Dr. finished it up a couple of days later.

The Tenure Party/ Fundraiser

The Good Mr. Dr. and our other good friend, Dr. C, were awarded tenure this year. In order to celebrate, and raise money for one of our favorite East Boston organizations, Zumix, we threw a party. One of the Zumix alumnus played a couple of songs for us. Food was provided by local caterers and restaurants. As per usual, there were games, prizes, and fun to be had by all.

A view from the side early in the party.

The Good Mr. Dr. and Dr. C awarded shades to signify their "coolness."

The girls come to visit

My baby sister and niece came for a 10 day whirlwind visit. The highlights of this visit include:

• A horrible overnight bus ride from Boston to New York to visit Ms. C. Our advice is: don’t take the 2 am Fung Wah bus. Unless you could sleep in a foxhole, you will not rest at all, which completely defeats the purpose of taking an overnight bus.

In Times Square. Woo-hoo! Sort of.

• A facing of fears as Baby Sister and I go down the 40 foot zipline at the Ecotarium.

Getting ready to conquer our fears. Well, at least me and Baby Sister. The Niece thought it was quaint.

• The Tomb, BBQs, lots and lots of Uno and a bit of Taboo as well.

At the Tomb for the first of two visits.

She always could sleep anywhere.

Notice the completed hardscaping.

Practicing their Taboo skills.

Trip to Nashville

The Good Mr. Dr.’s mother has a timeshare with Wyndham Vacation. So, we all decided to take advantage of this and meet in Nashville for a few days of southern hospitality. I will start posting pics of our roadtrip to Nashville, our stay in Nashville, and our roadtrip home shortly. Until then, be safe and happy.

Nothing's going on

It's been rainy just about all week. We haven't been able to do much in the garden, except borrow a truck (thank you Ms. S) and get some materials to do the hardscaping. We planned on doing some BBQ'ing on Saturday, but it was too cold and rainy to be outside. As you can tell, it's been great for the grape vines, but not so great for pruning.

I really need to get out there and do some pruning.

But the rain has made all of the various lilies we planted this year very happy. All of the tiger lilies have finally blossomed, including the two that we transplanted.

These are the Tiger Lillies that were here when we moved in.

The orange one on the left is the Tiger Lily that was transplanted into a pot to make room for the blueberry bushes. Also notice the yellow Asiatic Lily on the right. That was a surprise.

Our long absence seems to have given license to a couple of neighborhood cats to hang out in the weeds in their attempts to get at the birds. Smokey must have been inside. He truly believes our garden is only an extension of his yard. The intrusion of these interlopers would not have been taken to very kindly.

If you look closely, you can see the orange tabby and a calico hoping to snag a bird.

Dr. S from Miami is visiting. As usual, the gentlemen are gorging themselves on zombie/horror movies and man-flicks. Reportedly, The Hangover is very funny. I preferred the short descriptions of the funny scenes as reported over lunch to wasting my time on actually watching the film. Of course, I'm sure they would say the same about some of the movies that I would like to see (Breakfast at Tiffany's anyone?). Today they are exploring the micro-breweries and pubs of Providence, RI. I'm not entirely sure why, but these are not questions a wife asks of her husband. I only ask that they come home safely.

As many of you know, I am on the Board of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE). I've been a member and supporter of this environmental justice organizations for over 4 years now. I was in the office the other day and had the chance to meet a couple of fellows participating in the Vermont Law School's Environmental Justice Young Fellows Exchange, who were shadowing ACE staff all week. The gentlemen and I decided to join them and The Indomitable GB at a pub later in the evening. One of the fellows was Jon Ostar, co-founder and co-director of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon. They have set themselves out to the ACE of the Pacific Northwest. So, to all of my friends out in that direction, please check them out. And if you can, send them a check.

Other than that, the Good Mr. Dr. continues to make progress on his book. I am just about finished with my industrial place to park space tour. Planning for the tenure party continues, as does the super-secret birthday present. I definitely need to make some time for reading. I paid for this book on experimental economics. I suppose I should be reading it.

Thunderstorms of all kinds

Over the past couple of weeks, we've had some fantastic thunderstorms. The kind that shake buildings, trigger car alarms, and make your cat sleep on your head. Personally, I prefer thunderstorms to the steady, constant, flooding rain we had in March. And they demonstrate that we are small in comparison to nature and the rest of the universe. It's like nature saying, "Go ahead and built your 1000 ft skyscrapers and ski resorts in the desert. I can strike you down in an instant."

Thunderstorms bring rain, something called micro-bursts, and even mini-tornadoes. But since they haven't resulted in flooding, it's good for the garden. And the garden apparently has been feeling good over the past couple of weeks. Within 7 days of planting them, the pumpkins and the sunflowers have already sprouted. Apparently, I failed to mention that the Good Mr. Dr. has also planted nasturtiums, which have also started to showing their little heads. It's been two weeks of glorious sprouting.

The Asiatic Lily

The rose bush had to be cut back dramatically. But the marigolds and the wild mint are doing really well.

A really happy geranium.

It turns out that the pumpkin seeds should have been planted with a bit more distance in each mound than we did. However, seeds in two mounds have decided to sprout slightly outside of the mound.

Sunflowers, marigolds, and weeds

I continue in my quest to control the rose vines, which seems to reaching a plateau at the moment. No epic battles this week. But I did do some serious grape vine control. You have to make sure that the leaves are able to get sun, and you have to also control the budding grape bunches. For table grapes (sorry, no wine grapes this year), you are supposed to keep it to one bunch for every 12 inches or so. I don't think we'll have too much problem with that.

Grape vines that are being strapped in to get them to grow in the right direction.

One potential grape bunch.

We celebrated the progress in our garden, the start of summer, and honored those who serve in military by inaugurating our BBQ.

First BBQ of the summer.

Steak tips, corn, fruit salad, and beer. Life is good.

The neighbor's cat Smokey joined us. Those of you who were here last year during the big housewarming and graduation party should remember Smokey for his attempt to run into the basement in his search for someone who would give him food.

We managed to resist him, although he did sneak a lick of our plates when we got up to look at something in the back of the garden. You can tell he is not a starving feral cat.

There were also political thunderstorms this past week in Massachusetts. Our state senate passed a blatantly anti-immigrant (and ineffective and costly) amendment to the state budget in a middle-of-the-night backroom deal with the senate president. Suffice to say, I was quite angry and shot off letters of admonition to my senator who voted for it (the coward) and to another senator who I know and work with who voted against it (because she's a right-thinking person). I and several neighbors also attended a rally to protest this amendment, to demand that it be removed from the budget, and to show solidarity with those fighting the even more egregious anti-immigrant/ anti-Latino Arizona laws.

Continuing the tradition of fighting for justice at the Boston Common.

Rallies aside, I still have work to do, so I headed across the Boston Common to get to the Boston Public Library. Two of my neighbors and their kids walked in the same direction when we came upon this:

Each flag represents a Massachusetts resident who lost their life fighting in all wars through the current one.

East Boston kids who joined us for the rally pose with a Navy Captain (that's what he said he was).

In other news, we received notice that the Good Mr. Dr., in addition to receiving tenure, has also been promoted to Associate Professor. Round of applause to him. (clap-clap-clap-clap-woo-hoo!)

In even bigger news, I found my long-lost childhood best friend. She is married, a nurse, has two kids, and all is well with them.

Finally, happy 6th anniversary of legally recognized union to my friends C&B in Natick. I hope that one day, your anniversary is only important as a testament to your commitment to each other, and not as a sign of social progress.

Schooool's out for summer!

Quite a bit has occurred since I last wrote. The chimneys have been rebuilt as has one of the skylights. The large skylight from the bathroom has been removed.

Skylight being hauled down as seen from kitchen

Skylight on the ground

The roofers delivered it to New England Skylights and is currently in the process of being re-fabricated. The new skylight will be even better than the first one because it will be made out of copper. The old one was made out of steel, which as you can see, eventually does rust.

This is probably one of the sources of the leak, if not the source

We have had some good rain with no leaking so far. Here's to hoping that this fixed the problem. We haven't been using the third floor bathroom since it is only capped with plywood for now. I personally can't wait to be able to use my own bathroom again.



We have also been steadily working in the garden. I finally have a job to do to: Master Weeder and Controller of the Grape Vines. As I think I have stated before, I do not care for rose vines. A carefully controlled rose shrub is o.k. Wild rose vines are difficult to control and don't even look that nice. At least not to me. The Good Mr. Dr. likes anything that grows. Except grass, which we both agree on.

Here's what I've learned in my new gardening job: rose vines do not die. They are like zombies. Actually, they are worse than zombies because at least zombies die when you cut off their heads. Rose vines will simply sprout new shoots up from the roots that have spread wide and deep underneath the garden. This past week I decided to do a little bit of weeding. That turned into the Great Battle of the Rose Vine Roots. It was epic. Our neighbors next door were witness to it. I believe I only partially won that particular battle. This will likely be a life long war between me and the rose vine roots. There will be songs and poems written about my War with the Roses. Curses to the person who planted those damn weeds!

I will begin to start pruning the grape vines this week. As you can see, they are growing quite vigorously. Since the Good Mr. Dr. can't get himself to kill any living thing that is not suffering from poisoning (because he is a good man), I have volunteered to be the one who does the dirty work on that one. As we learned last year, if we don't control those vines, we will end up with a ceiling over our garden and it will kill all of our newly planted trees and perennials.

This picture was taken a week ago and there are even more today

The Good Mr. Dr. replanted the rose bush that was in the back in order to make room for our new vegetable patch. It isn't doing as well as we'd like, but the french marigolds that the Good Mr. Dr. planted in the wine barrel with the rose bush have started to sprout.

The transplanted rose bush. We're hoping it recovers.

Those little green things are the shoots of French Marigolds.

Our pansies must also like it here, since they've sprouted seeds.

Click on the picture to see the seeds.

And, among our proudest accomplishments: the geranium is back!

The secret is to water it, keep it in the sun, and tell it that it is loved.

We have finally planted our vegetable patch. We are starting modestly this year, which just one vegetable.




It should come as no surprise to anyone that we would try to grow pumpkins. These are Connecticut Field Pumpkins. They are heirloom pumpkins, your classic jack 'o lantern pumpkins. If everything goes well, there will be enough for us and to share. And if not, well, there are plenty of pumpkin patches around.

One row of three pumpkin mounds.

Second row of three pumpkin mounds.

The Good Mr. Dr. also planted Sunflowers, because we are need to keep up our Latino cred.

All sunflowers were planted along the fence.

In other news, I have another position at my university which started this weekend. I'll be working with students in our executive doctoral program helping them with getting their thesis completed. It should be interesting. I realize that this bit of news belies the title of this post, but it's a part time gig. As far as I'm concerned, I can still go to the movies at noon on a Tuesday, sit in my garden and read fiction on any random day of the week, and stay up as late as I want, which is the definition of summer.

Two quick shout outs before I end. I want to recommend a company to those living in the Boston area. If you need someone to do small pick up and deliveries, I suggest a company called Small Haul. I just bought one of those big lateral filing cabinets off of Craiglist. It is not something that would fit in the new car. And, the thing weighs more than 6.5 times what I weigh, so there was no way I would even be able to get it into a Zip Car. Matt and his assistant picked it up, took it apart, brought it up our narrow stairwell to our second floor office, and put it back together again. Great people and incredibly affordable.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to make a big shout out to Lt. Big Sister for getting her dream job. May I offer a paraphrasing of a snippet of a poem by Lucille Clifton (originally titled "we are running"):

I pray that what you want
is worth this running,
and pray that what you're running toward
is what you want