North Star Orchards!

Is a beautiful place--the way I remember apple orchards being from when I was a kid, when I used to pick at Dearshorn Farms in Maynard, MA. Wild, sprawling orchards. No frills. True nature. Not everything perfectly manicured and "neat. I see a lot of my childhood apple farm in North Star--and it is only down the road in Madison! Our friends Dave and Muriel invited us to go along--we were really excited, as they made it clear how this was a VERY special place to them. We are honored that they shared it with us....


Dave and Callum "braved the cold" (it was only in the 50s, and it shows in Callum!) on the tractor ride out to the orchard....Callum LOVES his vest, and wants to wear it all the time nowWe picked some Cortlands and McIntosh apples. I have to say that I have rarely seen apples this big; these were beautiful, rosy apples that looked like they had been doing a lot of bench presses and dead lifts. I love this picture below, and I think Amanda is a really great photographer; she is good at capturing "moments." One of us must have been telling some type of funny joke or story....perhaps I was telling Dave I consider myself to be a serious cyclist...now THAT would have been a laugh!
Callum continues to have a love/hate relationship with heavy machinery. He LOVES tractors, diggers, big trucks, lawn mowers, and weed wackers--yet he virtually breaks out in hives when any of these things come near him. As we decided to walk back to the farm store, instead of taking the tractor, we got "passed" by tractors a few times. When they were near, Callum virtually jumped into the arms of Muriel....
Another great picture--Muriel and Callum posing on the 1944 tractor that sits on the land of the orchard. I forget the name of the make, but it is a big, beautiful, orange tractor. Callum was pretty scared to go near it at first, but that soon changed when he saw that he could work the steering wheel......
....and that Dave could give him a "ride" on the springy seat!

Dave and Callum are truly "bike buddies." It is a cool little friendship to observe; each time we go into Mathieu's, Dave gets Callum's "store bike" (a green Raleigh) ready so Callum can tour the inventory of the bike shop...haha. And Dave is the one who both found and "fixed up" the used Trek Callum now rides. Good stuff.....
A great, cool, cloudy fall day. And the Patriots won too!

PS: (I want to remember this in years to come) Out of all the things a two year old would want to get/carry around at a farm store, Callum Stuart had his heart SET on a bag of dried, mixed beans (split pea, yellow eye, soldier, black, etc). He wanted them in the WORST way....he NEEDED to carry this bag of beans around. Hilarious.

Want to see my ice cream truck, my kitty?

Callum is overjoyed at his new kitten, Lupine. Yesterday morning we went up to Bangor, ate breakfast at Dysart's, and met Amanda's friend whose cat had kittens--one of them being this little girl....

She is nine weeks old, and seemed way too small to put in a huge pet carrier for an hour trip home...so Amanda sat in the back seat with Callum and held Lupine. However, immediately upon getting on the highway, Lupine crawled right over to Callum's car seat, snuggled right up on his lap, and slept most of the way home. They are buddies! And Callum is very protective (and kind of possessive) of "my kitty Lupine."
We are definitely a cat family, and, after having Thomas and dealing with his kidney cancer (and all the little pee pees he did all over the house) and then problems from other adult male cats we tried to bring home, we became despondent. We realized that if we were to have a cat, it would have to be a) a kitten with NO history or drama or habits, and b)a girl, with no domination/territorial types of issues with other males. So we lucked out with this little girl.
She loves to cuddle, and she slept with us all last night.

Here is a picture of a glowing Amanda, who still has ten weeks left to go with our little girl....I think she is looking fantastic (and HUGE). She feels huge too. I have to tie her shoes now.
Last night Jon and Kelsey came by to meet Lupine, see Callum, and go to enjoy some Asian Cafe. It was fun, and to make it even better, they are finally seeing the light that THE OFFICE is the funniest show ever....so we watched a couple of episodes.
Go Pats

Regional Differences

Lack of Honey Dew donuts: The only thing keeping Maine a "good" state and not a "great" state....you dont see the "old school" signs anymore. I freakin love this bear!

You could get a spuckie here....you could also get a "number 9" (named after Ted Williams), a TRUE "Italian" (and an AMerican), and the best Greek Pocket around (ask my mom or sister)

Short of when I asked her to marry me, I dont know if I have ever seen Amanda get more excited than when I told her George and Lynne were bringing these back from NJ!

I was teaching a lesson the other day on "cultural literacy" and the differences between the denotations and connotations of words depending of WHERE and WHEN you say them. For example--the word "gay" today has a much different meaning than it did a hundred years ago. The topic is really quite interesting, especially to a nerdy word maven and language fan like me. This is why I have few friends. Consider the differences between the words NUDE and NAKED. They essentially both mean UNCLOTHED....but dont you see how NUDE has more of an "artistic" and less obtrusive sound to it than NAKED does? Artists dont paint NAKEDS, they paint NUDES. And you dont look at the sun with your NUDE eye...it is your NAKED eye. Stuff like that.

Ultimately, the conversation turned to food. As it does most of the time for me WHENEVER I am talking about something.

What we call "soda," the new girl in my class from Kansas calls pop....and my Nana, from Boston, called it tonic...and friends of ours Alabama call all soda "coke." You could have a root beer coke, a sprite coke, a coke coke, etc.

In Maine, we call them doughboys....back in Mass they were fried dough...in RI, they call them elephant ears....in NJ they call it funnel cake

What about Frappes (like I used to get at Maplewood back home)? They dont seem to exist in Maine....but milkshakes do....and down in RI they call them "cabinets," like a kitchen cabinets. And in NY, the (pretty much) same thing is called an egg cream. Why?

But what I find really interesting is the whole locus of terminology for sandwiches. It gets really heated depending on where you are. Back home, when I ordered an ITALIAN, I got a SUB with salami, montadella, pepporoni, etc on it. It was a type of sub. But in Maine, an ITALIAN is a blanket term used to describe ANY cold submarine sandwich (a turkey italian, a ham italian, etc). What Mainers call Italians (a cold sub) we in Mass call "spuckies." And when George makes these types of sandwiches, he is always making a HOAGIE, which is what they are in Philly. But then I have a student from New Orleans, and when he eats this, he is eating a Po'boy.

And dont even bring HOT sandwiches into this! Up here in Maine there is no real special name for these things--they are just called hot subs. But down in Mass all hot subs are called "grinders" as in a steak and cheese grinder or a meatball grinder, etc. But sometimes we would put our steak and cheese in a syrian bread pocket and eat it. You can do this in Maine, too, but no one will know what you mean if you ask for a "pocket." They will gladly oblige, however, if you ask for a DAGWOOD, which is how these are known. Weird.

This all came to me in a thought today because I had been emailing with George about all the great regional food he was bringing back from NJ (if they ever come back). He has some scrapple, pork roll, tastycakes, boost, and Ivan's spicy wafers. Has anyone ever heard of any of these things? I had not heard of Ivan's spicy wafers until today. But I guess that is the same way some of my friends from away dont truly understand what I mean if I talk about a whoopie pie, bismarck, Allyn's (a type of coffeebrandy....wait...THE type of coffeebrandy), or salt pork on hotdogs. Or what about brown bread? Or salmon peawiggle?

Wow. This blog is driving me crazy.

Regional differences. Kind of cool. Can you help me think of any others???

RIP Chelsea

Callum and Chelsea share a moment....

This is from Callum's first Thanksgiving; Chelsea was always around, and she always loved being with her family. A sweet dog.

My sister and brother-in-law, regrettably, had to put down their beloved dog Chelsea this evening. I dont think I've ever had to do anything in my life that has been more difficult than put an animal down--and it seems like many dear friends and family have been in this position as of late; friend Mike had to put down his dog Burt, and our dear neighbors Cindy and Dana had to put down Toby, their Yorkie, last week. The English nerd in me is led to quote Claudius, from Act 4 of Hamlet: "Oh Gertrude....when sorrows come they come not in single spies but in battalions."

Chelsea was a dear dog who was about as loving and loyal to her masters as I have ever seen a dog be. I always joked that she didnt really like me at all, since all she wanted was to be with my sister or Bob (who is universally loved by all things little--babies, cats, American Eskimos, etc). But secretly I know she had a special place in her heart for her "Uncle Jared." We had some good games of chase, sock, and tug-of war with her dragon and her crab. And I'll never forget when Kris and Anthony got her...she was so small she could sit in your hand.....and when they brought her down to our place in Rochester NH, she pooped and peed on my kitchen floor a few times since Anthony and I were being too rowdy in our drink inspired mood, and she became overtaken with fear.

We had to put down our cat, Thomas, a few years ago now, and I can only imagine the feelings of sorrow, guilt, and pain of having to put down a pet like that. Before Thomas left us, Chelsea and Thomas were accomplishing what, in the animal world, was the equivalent of peace in the Middle East: They were not only "co-existing," but becoming friends. Cat and dog. Just like that. Chelsea used to really taunt the heck out of Thomas, egging him on to play with her. And Thomas, in his gentlemanly ways, would just get up, walk two feet away, and lie down again in utter arrogance. But soon they both came around, and Chelsea really loved her Thomas.

It will be weird going to CT and not hearing Chelsea bark incessantly each time we pull into their driveway, close a car door, and just generally walk around the house. And it will be strange not to have to put the bathroom trash on top of the toilet to keep her out of it each time the Favry's visit Maine--Chelsea's favorite thing in all the world was to abscond with used tissues and run around the house with them.

We got to see Chelsea for the last time this past weekend, and she just was not the dog we always knew; she is definitely in a better place now. It was strange: This past weekend, Chelsea was affectionate toward me (for the first time I can ever remember) almost as if she were saying goodbye. She came right up to me, let me pet her, and we had a nice time. Our thoughts go out to Kris and Anthony as they deal with their loss.

Connecticapples

This weekend was a CT one, and we headed down on Friday night after work and school for a weekend of apple picking, good food, and good visit with family. And we were three for three....

There's always so much to talk about after a weekend in CT, but there never seems to be enough time or effort for me to encapsulate it all. So I will try to hit on the big points.

On Saturday morning I had a fantastic run through some hilly farmy streets while we waited for Nannie, Upbob, Papa, Grammie, and Joanne to arrive for apple picking. Then we made our way over to Homberg Orchards, which is the first Asian-owned apple orchard I have ever heard of and been to--it was funny to see all the signs for picking in Vietnamese. What made this cool, however, was that they had some interesting apple varieties there, one in particular being "Musco," an Asian strain that looks like a granny smith, but has a really crisp and sweet (not at all bitter) flavor. And they had some interesting Asian types of pears too. So we got on the tractor, took a little ride, and just watched as the boys had their way with the apple trees....


We call this picture "the blood."
And this one we call "the outlaws."
It was a beautiful day--kind of warm actually. That has always been my observation with fall; people seem to try to "rush" it in a way that beckons them to usher it in before summer is really over--it is like we have this "sensor" that tells us that once Sept hits, summer MUST be over and fall must be here. Wardrobes change so rapidly; we see people at the orchard in sweaters, fleeces, etc...like they are trying to create a certain mood by dressing for fall. But the funniness of it all is that it was most definitely a summer day! In addition to apples, both the boys got pumpkins to bring home, and Anthony hired a forklift to transport all the pumpkins he bought...haha. He also got some cornstalks as well. This, as my dad and I were saying, really pisses us off--not the fact that Twon got stalks....but because he had to PAY for them. What a sham. Farmers making people pay THEM to take THEIR trash away for them. Kind of funny. Hey...good for the farmers, ya know?

Mommy and Callum....and you can get a sense of how big little *&$^#@* is getting inside mumma's belly ( Dec 7th due date!)
In addition to apple picking, we had a great BBQ back at Chateau Favry, where Anthony made some delicious marinated tomatoes (from his garden), and we enjoyed some great dips. Papa brought some bupke (a Jewish cinnamon bread) and some Knishes to eat as appetizers. I love the food of my people.....

Anthony and I played a hot game of Bocce, we enjoyed some college football on tv, and ate some delicious burgers, dogs, orzo salad, and a million other things. That night, the girls went out to Kohl's to buy crap they dont need, and Anthony and I cuddled on the couch toggling between the Michigan State-Notre Dame game AND the 30th anniversary broadcast of AIRPLANE (dont call my shirley...)

Callum and Jackson enjoyed their time together, as usual. Last night before bed, they took in an episode of Elmo's world, and they held hands in counsinly love....
There's lots more I am sure....

Always a great time to get together. And I think we are going apple picking in just a few more days...again! Fun times

What are you reading?

wearing grampy's shoes around the house......

our new camera has this cool feature where you can take panoramic pictures. This one is creepy as heck (look at my head) but you get the idea. For when we go to Acadia and such....
Callum has this thing that when he gets up from a nap, or is upstairs and is going to come down, where he likes to bring "all friends" downstairs. He hands you ALL the friends in his crib, naming each one specifically while he hands them to you, and then he says "daddy hold you now." He uses "you" instead of "me." Here, he has mee mee hold you and his friends....

Callum and I (and mommy too) had a fantastic summer of books--Callum and I would ride to the library at least twice a week (and these visits would almost always coincide with a trip to Hillman's for an "Elmo," tiger, lady, or bear cookie). By summer's end, both the library staff and the Hillman's employees knew us by name, and they knew why we were there.

As I was packing for CT tonight (we are headed down for the weekend!) I was getting together some of Callum's books, and I felt bad because ever since school started I realize I haven't really been reading with him like I did over the summer. I'd like that to change. So that is a goal. We had some great reads this summer, and he got to really love looking around the library shelves.

Callum's favorite author, by far, has to be Chris Van Duesen, who wrote the "Magee" books as well as "The Circus Ship." He is a Maine author and he has fantastic illustrations. Callum's other favorite books of all time? "Burt Dow: Deep Water Man," "Goodnight Moon," anything involving Thomas the Train, and "The Little Red Caboose."

If you are looking for something fun to read, I have to say I, too, had a great summer of books, and the highlights are definitely:

LOST CITY by Clive Cussler-A fast paced adventure and suspense story taking place mostly under a glacier and 4 miles beneath the ocean. Totally riddled with grammatical and stylistic errors, but a fast paced read

TINKERS by I forget-My friend Muriel loaned this to me. I have had dreams about this book...that is how powerful the writing and imagery is. It won the Pulitzer back in March, which usually means jack squat. But this is some of the best WRITING I have ever seen. Seriously. The whole book is like a poem

Right now, I am trying to get through THE GREAT GATSBY because, for one, it is the "great American Novel," and, number two, when Mrs. Mooney had us read it in tenth grade I thought it sucked and I didnt read it. I want to see what all the buzz is about

Nana Courtney would be pissed

I heard a story on NPR this afternoon about how this will be the final year for the National Liberace Society museum in Las Vegas; I guess ten years ago they were booming with over 5 million people visiting each year. Now, they have an average about 35,000 people go to the museum, so it just isnt financially feasible to keep it open. I think my Nana would say otherwise.

If you are not familiar with Liberace, picture what would happen if Harry Connick Jr and Lady GaGa had a baby....then multiply it by seven. Libarace was a PERFORMER, and an amazing piano player. Nana Courtney used to watch Liberace each and every Saturday night (I think it was Saturday) and a lot of people used to make fun of her for it. To be perfectly honest, I think when I was little I was kind of scared of this Liberace person who used to dress up like a psychedelic chicken to play the piano. And now people won't be able to go and see all his pianos and golden shoes and sequin mink jackets and so on.

I wonder if Nana ever took one of her Paragon Bus Tours to go see this museum...

It is funny: I find that as I get older, I am becoming more like my Nana in terms of how I seek out entertainment. My grandmother did a lot of "unconventional" things for fun, and things that made her "famous" in the eyes of her kids and grandkids for how idiosyncratic they were. She was obsessed with her Ellery Queen mystery magazines (which, I can tell you, they still make...because Amanda and have checked them out and thought about getting them). She also was a big radio person, listening to Claprood and Whitley on WHDH (the station that now is a bastion for all kinds of radically stupid talking heads like Howie Carr, et al). And I prefer radio to television ten-to-one. I would much rather listen to a good NPR story or show, or some kind of cool podcast, or some type of neat station on the Wunderradio Application for Amanda's iPod touch.

We are a bit unconventional in how we seek out entertainment, just like my Nana was. I think she would be proud of the way I take after her in terms of my affinity for mysteries and my affection for listening to the radio while drinking a cup of coffee. I guess the biggest difference, though, is that when I drink coffee, I drink COFFEE. Not Sanka. Like she did.

So I guess we are different....

More catching up....

Again, more pictures, less writing. Until we "catch up" with our lives. We went to the Clinton Fair--our favorite fair by far--last weekend. Callum had a blast and wanted to make sure to fit right in with his Bass Pro Shop hat and his "digger tractor" shirt. He's a little Mainer....


His favorite part was seeing the animals--the cows, ducks, chickens, rabbits, llamas, and a 2 year old (700 pound) pig. He's still a little skiddish around them, which is funny because when he was just a year old, we have pictures of him literally playing with two week old calves. Callum also enjoyed the merry go round with me.
Another big thing going on in my life right now is that I am the teen youth leader at church. I had some of the kids over for supper, games, fun, and study over the summer. This was the last picture we took before our camera broke. But here we are, all gathered around the table, in our ultra drab dining room that still is not painted....

Callum is our mascot.
"Daddy take you to see cows now a minute?"
Callum is really until P90X, and all kinds of crossfit, true strength kind of activities. Here, he tries to deadlift one of the prize winning pumpkins at the Clinton fair. What do you think Timmy: Good straight back, and good overall form, huh?
Okay that is all I have for pictures. That is what you missed. Now we continue like before. I'll probably be a wiseguy starting tomorrow....

Finally, here goes the blog

Rather than write about a stuff (it has been wayyyy too long), I thought I would just briefly annotate some pictures of what we have been up to lately. The first picture (above) is from Rangeley when we rented the camp. Callum and 'ampy relaxed a lot, getting in some reading.....



Callum makes a lot of new "faces," including "funny eyes" where he creeps around while staring at you....

He's such a boy....

Here is a view of the first floor of the camp we had on Rangeley. Beautiful place. Called "Loon's Echo," and each night we were serenaded by loons.
On the way back home we took this. It is a nice shot of Mosselookmeguntic Lake. Real name. Spelled right. We stayed in Oquassac, which is like a little peninsula between Mooselook and Rangeley lakes....

WE ARE BACK

WE bought a new camera today. It is great. And we are getting a new Mac. We will be posting shortly. Goldsmith5 is alive and well. Stay tuned.

Love, Callum