Monday, June 29, 2009

More from the Mouths of Babes

Two new humdingers from the last week of spending my mornings with 2nd graders:
  • A boy told me this morning that he plans to "play baseball until I have one thousand dollars, then buy a stunt plane." Awesome. I decided not to tell him how much a stunt plane would actually cost.
  • We read a story last week about when sparrows came to the United States from England in 1868. The story began with a mention of Liverpool & one of the boys raised his hand. "Isn't Liverpool where the Beatles are from?" Haha, God bless him.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Portsmouth Hijinks

So The Boy, Mr. Segundus (our roomie & best man), another friend Aelfric (not his real name), and I went out last night to celebrate Aelfric's birthday. Hijinks ensued. The highlights?
  • Someone played "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the jukebox at the Coat of Arms & we broke into song, quietly at first, but eventually at full strength. We managed to get the table next to us to join in lustily and the manager to come up & give us high fives.
  • After the bar closed, we took our show across the road to Gilly's. Somehow, we managed to recruit more minstrels and spent the hour or so we were in line serenading the other patrons, passersby on Fleet St., and the local men in blue (who were staking us out until they realized we weren't going to do anything more obnoxious than sing).
  • On the way home, for reasons not to be disclosed here, Aelfric ended up taking a bit of a walk in South Mill Pond. He came back to our place smelling of mud & seaweed. Good times, good times.
When we were at the Coat, The Boy & I popped $5 into the jukebox, which gained us 15 song choices. Being music nerds, we agonized over our picks & came up with a kick-ass playlist. However, there were so many songs ahead of ours that when the bar closed at 1, we still hadn't heard a thing from our list. :( However, we were able to reconstruct most of the list in the light of day, so we'll have to make it an at-home playlist at some point. Here's what we were able to recover:

The Lost Playlist
  1. David Bowie, "Suffragette City"
  2. The Jam, "A Town Called Malice"
  3. In Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
  4. Cream, "Crossroads"
  5. Faith No More, "Epic"
  6. The Clash, "Guns of Brixton"
  7. The Darkness, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love"
  8. Kaiser Chiefs, "I Predict a Riot"
  9. Warron Zevon, "Werewolves of London"
  10. Black Sabbath, "War Pigs"
  11. Beastie Boys, "She's Crafty"
  12. something by B.B. King

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Summersong

Around eight o'clock this morning, I was walking to work & the smell of the tide was strong. It was finally not raining & the day promised to be warm & sunny later on. I sucked in deep breaths of salty air & smiled to myself. "This," I thought, "is why I live here."

This afternoon, I listened closely to the lyrics of The Decemberists' "Summersong" & they seemed to hit the nail on the head:

Waylay the din of the day
Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay
In deep far beneath all the dead sailors
Slowly slipping to sleep . . .

Summer arrives with a length of lights
Summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave

Monday, June 22, 2009

AWOL

Sadly, my compy 5000 is currently in the computer store, getting fixed up. It has what we think is a virus, which won't allow me to connect to the Internets in any of the three most common browsers. The nice old guy at the store said it shouldn't take them long to fix, but they won't be able to get to it for another 5-6 days. :(

However, I have a loving fiance who will let me check email, send out resumes, etc. on his (virus-free) Mac. I probably won't be posting too much, though, as I feel bad taking it from him for too long. Cross your fingers that mine own baby will be back soon!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Out of the Mouths of Babes

So I work at a place that sees a lot of kids in the course of a year - school field trips in the fall & spring and summer camps in the (duh) summer. Therefore, I tend to overhear a lot of chestnuts. The camp that I run starts next week, so there will definitely be more of these. Here's what I picked up this week, though.
  • Small boy to his classmate who gently moved a hanging American flag out of her way: "Stop it! Stop it! You're disrespecting the flag!" I think he's been watching too much Fox News.
  • Walking home from work, I passed a mother and her two kids as her little girl climbed out of their wagon to help pull it. It seemed important to her to pull, rather than sit in the back like a baby. As I walked around them, the mother said, "Let's just let this lady pass, then we can go!" The little girl replied, "But why is she going faster than us?" Her mom said, "Longer legs." ;)
  • During my demonstration/talk yesterday, the room I was in was crowded with school kids. A tiny girl came in with her parents and after a minute or two, loudly announced, "I want to leave." I didn't mind the giggles of the school kids, as I was trying to hide my own smile.
More to come next week!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

"This Box Contains Pure Nerd"

In the course of my moving in with him in January, The Boy (who I think needs a new nickname) & I combined our book collections. Gasp! I know. My friend K. and I always talked about how that is the true measure of committment, never mind rings, pets, or mortgages.

At the time, we thought that we had just two duplicates in our entire collections - The Things They Carried and The Catcher in the Rye.

However, in the course of moving into the new place, he did a more exhaustive survey. And we found that in the category of sci fi & fantasy, we ended up with six duplicates - most of which issue from the realms of Tolkien. And so, to commemorate this fact, the moving box that housed all of our combined sci fi & fantasy received the Sharpie-d title, "CAUTION: This Box Contains Pure Nerd." ;)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Apartment Photos, Finally

We're starting to sort out the crappy things that have happened this week, so my mood is beginning to improve. The apartment is also getting cleaner & neater as we continue to unpack & move unnecessary things into storage. I'll post photos of the furnished apartment soon enough (once I take them), but here are some of it empty for now.

The building we live in is an impressive brick one, built in the 1860s and converted to apartments in the 1950s. Our apartment is in between a studio and a 1-bedroom, as it was the parlor, but has a partition wall for the sleeping area. It's a lovely space, with high ceilings, big windows, and beautiful decorative woodwork. Check it out:






Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Updates

Sorry for not updating on the new apartment sooner. It's been a trying week. Among other things:
  • Money's very tight this month
  • My car is acting up (which doesn't help #1)
  • I failed to get a paid part-time summer position that I thought was assured (which also doesn't help #1)
  • Worst of all, we recently found out that The Boy's military deployment is now scheduled for a month before our scheduled wedding date.
Sigh. I've always been a "focus on the positive" kind of girl, but this week's news is putting that optimism severely to the test. We were looking forward to a relaxing Saturday at my parents' lake house, but unless the car is fixed by then, we're not even going to get that solace. I'm sure things will come out ok in the end, but here at the beginning, it's a little grim.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Hilarious post from NH Craigslist

Black Graduation Gown - used once
Date: 2009-06-02, 9:21PM EDT

I bought this about a month ago and wore it once. It'll fit anyone 6'1" to 6'3". It's clean and includes cap and '09 tassle!

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Awwww . . .

God bless them for finding the time to dress up & have some time together. Photo courtesy of the NY Times.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

A Bit Late . . .

but wanted to take a quick moment to praise the New Hampshire legislature for passing a June 3rd bill approving same-sex marriage. You can read a NY Times article about it here.

This topic's been on my mind particularly in the last couple of years as a dear friend married the love of her life last summer & as I prepare for my own wedding next year. I just never did understand why same-sex marriage somehow threatens the institution of heterosexual marriage. If anything, having more loving, committed couples willing to take the plunge into the scary sea of life-long monogamy seems like it would do nothing but strengthen the aforementioned institution.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

New Place!

Sorry for the radio silence lately, but I was in the throes of moving (again). We're happily ensconced in the new place now though, so will post photos and get back into a regular posting schedule soon!