Mm-mmm good

Back at work from the Memorial Day weekend, nice normal pace and I didn't bring a lunch with me. Not to despair, it's off to my favorite diner, Marcy's, on the corner of Oak and Free Streets. Today's lunch special, tuna melt. Most of the time I go in I don't even have to think about what I'm going to eat, it's either on the specials board or the waitress will tell me what I'm having and I go with it. Sit at the counter, coffee-black, rock station playing, plates clanging, couple of dozen people talking, cook calling out ready orders, the dishwasher talking sports and songs playing on the radio, waitress teasing him about getting back to work while balancing dishes, cashing folks out, filling coffee mugs. There's no place to hide here. Cook, waitress, owners, dishwasher are all behind the counter in plain sight - one row of booths along the windows across the aisle from the counter. Just one room on the ground floor of the building it resides in. Old dark stained wood panel walls with some new touches of the present owners. They have a passion for Harleys so there's a lot of motorcycle memorabilia on the walls. There's shouting, joking, working all going on at once, what bliss, it's like a freaking symphony only better. Oh yeah, I got the tuna melt, comes with a generous helping of chips and pickles slices, at least five top-offs of coffee and you just know that... just a little is enough.

More from Mt Desert Island

Amended 5/29/06 (originally posted 5/28/06)

We spent most of the day at or near the campground. We took a walk down to the Bass harbor Lighthouse and sat on the rocks for awhile, watched several lobster boats go by. Lois and Jim went for a drive. It was a beautiful day.

A short while after Lois and Jim got back John Stanley stopped by to lead us out to his place for a lobster feed. Meeting John has been part of the genealogy work Lois and Carol have been doing. - John’s grand-father (Johan Alfrid) and Carol and Lois' grand-father (Hjalmar Gustaf) were brothers. Carol and Lois and John’s mother, Anna, are first cousins, so they are 2^nd cousins. - Got that? Their will be a quiz. Thank you Lois for the correct connections.

Once we arrived at his and his wife Linda’s house, he, Lois and Carol went through a bunch of old photos he has. Later we went over to the neighbors, Inga and Lester. Inga is a German South African from Cape Town and Lester is German. They, John and Linda are terrific hosts and kept up a very lively conversation, great fun and a great evening.

Carol eating her first lobster, she got the hang of it real fast.

Linda, John and Baxter

Inga and Lester

Back at the keyboard again

First off, it’s Memorial Day weekend, we honor the service men, women and veterans who have served our country at great personal sacrifice, Thank you.

I have dropped off the bloggers radar for over a week now. Haven’t had time to do a decent write up. Last weekend I was working on the town newsletter, which was held up by me attending the town meeting (which approved my funding for another year). I ended up working Sunday and Monday night until 1am to make deadline. Tuesday night Carol and I went to the Troop meeting. There were two Board of Reviews to be done (1^st Class and Life ranks). Ian went to do a Crossover ceremony for a Cub Scout Pack in So. Portland. Wednesday we attended Senior Night at Ian’s High School where awards, recognition and scholarships were handed out. Ian received a very nice scholarship from the Shakers for his work in the Shakers Studies program. Taylor came away with several scholarships herself. Congratulations to both of you. It was a terrific evening. Thursday, once we were all home we stayed there. Ian’s Graduation gift arrived via UPS. A new cell phone on a plan. We’ve been on the GO phones for a couple of years so with Ian heading out to college it was time to improve his cell service.

Friday, Carol and I left with the camper to go to Mt. Desert Island for the holiday weekend. We are staying at the Bass Harbor Campground, Lois and Jim are here at the site beside us. Ian is home with the dogs and his own plans. Great cell phone reception here to stay in touch, though the WiFi is weak at our site I can access the net at the rec hall. Today, Lois and Carol and I hiked a trail up and around Mt Acadia. A terrific hike on a very nice day, about 3 plus hours. We ate lunch overlooking Somes Sound with the view stretching out to the outer islands. Here are some pictures from that hike.

Graduations Galore

While Greg graduating was pretty cool...he's not the only one from our families graduating this year. My brother Dennis and his wife Barbara's son Eric just graduated from Southern Maine Community College and has immediately acquired a new job in his field of study. Graduating from high school are my Sister Kathy and her former husband Jim's daughter Lindsey, brother David and his wife Carolyn's daughter Jennifer and then our own son Ian. In Florida, sister Judi and her late husband Cal's daughter Samantha will be graduating later this summer from her college in graphic design and possibly a job at the college. Quite a unique year with our families.

Congratulations to you all!

You have some very proud relatives.

Graduation Congratulations

Carol's brother Greg graduated from Dallas Seminary College Saturday night. He and his family moved to the Dallas area in 1998 for him to attend there. It's been a long road, Greg and Bev have held several different jobs during this time and made a good life for their family which includes their daughter and son, Lena and Jonathan. The whole family will back in Stockholm this summer before Greg, Jonathan, Taylor and Ian canoe the Allagash.

Way to Go Greg!

Let it rain, let it rain

Can't ignore the weather. We've had a lot of rain around this part of the state recently and there no let up in sight. Down in York County, where my brother David and his family live, has been declared a disaster area by the Governor. There's high water in the streets, washed out roads and a dam is threatening to break. Around this county it's just plain wet. As usual once supper near over the dogs start pacing around - it's time to throw the ball - it's time to throw the ball!! They don't care about the rain - JUST GET THE BALL!! Suppose to rain right into the weekend, figures, it's Spring Camporee weekend, another wet one. I'll be home though for this one. This is the town newsletter weekend for me plus Saturday is the town meeting. Didn't it just seem like yesterday I was blog-moaning about that and other tasks I was behind on. Well, I not going to blog-moan now, I've plenty to do but it's more the normal pace of things, part of the routine.

Past weekend movie rental - The Chronicles of Narnia. Very well done. I haven't read the books but the movie was entertaining on many levels. Far from a favorite of all time but I recommend it. Coming up this weekend, "Serenity". Carol and I saw it in the theater but I want to watch it again before I decide whether or not to buy the DVD.

Called my mom last night to wish her a Happy Mothers Day. She went to my sister Kathy's for dinner where Jay cooked up lobster and clams. Mom likes that a lot, she had a good day.

Did get the lawn mowed this weekend despite the weather. Had to set up the yard tractor for mowing. Sure enough the mice had been in it building nests and a community center and whatever else, that was Saturday. Yesterday, Sunday, Ian went to mow and I took a peek under the hood, cripe they had rebuilt! I'm going to have to pickup some De-Con for the shed.

Here's a picture of Ian cramming some homework into his head. Getting close to the end of high school, still more to do.

A very Happy Mother's Day

Hey Mom, Happy Mother's Day - some of the things I like remembering from my childhood. Cookies - the snickerdoodles and the molasses you'd would make, we could have three for morning and then afternoon snacks, they were great. Talking in the kitchen after supper, either with just you or with the brothers and sisters, teasing and joking. Sunday dinners and beef stew Mondays. And the biggest blowout of the year...Christmas, you really did up a great looking tree. Thanks for the memories!

Where Eagles soar

Our Troop has another Eagle tonight. Several of us adults attended the Eagle Board of Reviews held in Portland. Each candidate for Eagle is asked to bring three Troop committee members who will serve on the BoRs of other Scouts there for their Eagles. Myself and the mother of our Eagle candidate sat in on a BoR of a Portland Scout. He was a fine young man and seems to be a credit to Scouting. His project was helping restore a church school playground. It was a well done project but his personality and his thoughts on Scouting really won the day. Our Scout did well also and now is an Eagle.

A toothache of a different kind

It's been a good day, worked on 3 different projects today, one which is ongoing. Another that I have that is ongoing I didn't have time to work on. For that one I'll need to visit a service bureau for mounting and framing. No meetings tonight, a little bit of side work to do. The bummer of the day is a bill from the dentist - I had a crown pop out a couple of weeks ago, it was a difficult tooth to repair at the time of the original work, surgery on the bone to expose enough root to set a crown on, back in 1999. Well a post holding the crown in place broke off. Dr Jim put a titanium post in to replace the broken one. Pretty quick job - the bill was a stunner though - insurance wasn't much help for that one.

Here's a picture from my department's window Monday, in the middle of the picture is Back Cove. It was about 7:30am when I took the picture, the water was calm and reflective. The view for the camera may be a little flat and distant, It's a spring view in town, just a little is enough to start that day.

Ian has gone to his Fire/Rescue Explorers meeting, they have some special training tonight. Carol's doing the banking. It's early in the game and the Redsox are ahead of the Yankees 3-1 in the bottom of the 3rd - GO BOSOX!

Started a new book the other day, DeepDrive (SciFi), picked it up at a used bookstore in Portland up the street from the office, "Book Traders". So far an exciting read, never heard of the author before, Alexander Jablokov, isn't that a SciFi kind of name (oh-oh I jinxed it, Yanks tied it 3-3). Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back.

Regular busy

Yes, I'm having a busy week at work. Funny how no matter how long I do this job things keep coming up with a new twist. After the way things have been going for the past few weeks I'd like some boring, mundane, mindless work for awhile.

Last night we went over to Lois and Jim's for supper with Margaret there before she left for Dallas. I left earlier than Carol, Ian and Taylor to attend the Troop Committee meeting. It was a short one, only an hour and fifteen minutes. At last month's meeting I annouced I'd be stepping down as chairman after the June meeting. At tonight's Troop meeting I spoke with the man that will be joining the Committee to take my place. Good guy, has experience chairing other local groups as well. His youngest son is a new Scout with the Troop.

Tomorrow night I'm home! Thursday I get to attend one of our Scout's Eagle Board of Review, Always a interesting experience.

That's it for now, not much of a blog, just a little is enough for tonight.

We can now move on...

That's it! The Church newsletter is out for proofing and I finished the website updates. There'll be very little about these subjects for awhile and for me it will be back to the Great American Blog. OK, quiet in the front row.

The Brothers Grimm, bizarre. Hey, it was produced and directed by Terry Gilliam, what else can we expect. It was kind of funny, kind of weird, kind of hard to follow. I liked it though. I'd give it a 3 out of 5. The character that Heath Ledger played grew on me as the movie progressed to it's conclusion. Matt Damon was OK. Oh, and if you don't get enough of crows around here this movie is for you. Narnia is up next in our netflix queue. We'll watch that next Saturday.

Carol and I went out to breakfast at Danille's Diner. We were out of bacon so that was the excuse to go. Good basic food.

Carol, E'owyn and I went to Lois and Jim's for brunch. Lois made porky's. Always a hit. Jim has been working on the wharf deck for the camp, looking good. That will make the shore more enjoyable. Margaret is coming down from Stockholm tomorrow, then she will fly out to Dallas to attend Greg's graduation from seminary.

The new 3 in 1 printer went over very well with Carol. It's all hooked up to the network so unlike the old printer which had to be shared through one computer now any of the 3 computers that are on can use it.

Am I coming or going?

Took me to almost noon but I finally started the church's May newsletter. AHH! More budget sheets!!! So there is a lot more formatting and other prep work than usual but it will great when I'm done. I should have the finish draft tomorrow and also try to get the website updates done at which point I should run into myself coming the other way.

After Carol left for UMO Ian and talked awhile about several things including what he was planning to get his Mother for Mother's Day. I offered for him to go in on the 3 in 1 printer Carols wants. She and I were talking about it last night, she thought it would make a great Mother's Day gift, I thanked her for the idea and said I'd pick it for my Mother, I survived that remark. I picked up the printer today, we'll give it to her a week early because I know she wants it for some of her personal projects and may have time to work on them tomorrow. I hope she lets us use it.

Carol's science fair judging went well and though Ian has been home from Bomazeen we haven't heard about that yet. E'owyn caught a garter snake this morning. From the kitchen window I saw her pull it out from under the dog house and whip it around over her head. Then she went about the business of figuring out what it was. I came out to check on it, it was alive and well so I picked it up and carried it to a place outside the backyard fencing. Snakes eat bugs, I like that about them so I generally let them go about their business. Otherwise I'm not very fond of them.

Taylor has come over to work on homework with Ian and spend some time together.

Tonight's movie, "The Brothers Grimm". Let you know later if we liked it.

The Digital Dungeon

Alright, not a week worth repeating. Nothing tragic mind you, just a little is enough to put me on the edge wondering where I'm going to find that point where I can kick back some. Lets bullet item this:

• Work at the office has been over the top this week. More on that later.
• The annual report; I got back the proofed copy after work Wednesday. A lot of little ticky tack things that should have been proofed before I received it the first time. Aside from that it was a great job proofing, except..., to be continued. I worked until 11:30pm and uploaded the files for publication. I was in bed by midnight, the alarm comes early, 4:45am.
  
• Back at the office something in regards to a particular division of one of our newer/bigger clients. We got hit by a "Special" document one of the clients of our NJ office. Mega report/presentation - all to be done in MS Word - I was involved in supporting the production of the document creating, correcting and repairing graphic files while a project assistant worked at setting up formatting as per the clients instructions and receiving a barrage of edits and additions. I was in and started on my part at 7:00am (not knowing when I arrived that I'd be working on it), we left at 11:30pm.
• OK, I was in the office by 8:00. I received some e-mail crap about the document. As things turnout later I found out that the client had been reviewing an earlier version than what we closed with last night. Later I spent a couple hours tightening up the graphics before leaving at 1:00pm. Net gain - 6.5 hours overtime (time & a half). I also picked up a lot of my work assignments assuring next week will be busy. Also, to finish up the annual report bullet, I received a call from the town clerk, a total line was missing from one of the budget lines, got missed in the proofing, I took care of it when I got home, life goes on.

There so much more in and around what I've written, just the overview here. Here's some of what I missed, Carol and Ian chased a bird out of the garage attic - a barn swallow is trying to build a nest in the breezeway - dogs are doing fine - Taylor came home with Ian to hang out for the afternoon - Carol and I headed out to Thatchers for dinner then we went to Big Lots and Wal-mart before calling it a night. Tomorrow Carol is going to UMO to judge at the annual high school science fair. Ian will be going to Camp Bomazeen for OA Ceremonies practice. Me, the church newsletter awaits as does the website updates that have been put off for three weeks. Does the fun ever end.

'bout time

Alrighty now, I've finished my draft of the annual report and have sent it to the town clerk for review. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's nothing major out of wack with it. I've got to get to the church's newsletter soon and that website that was suppose to be updated 2 weeks ago. Maybe I'll be caught up by Friday. I'm not asking for much.

That tops off a pretty decent day, quite busy at the office and tomorrow's work was piling up before I left today. I also discovered that one of the women in the office has an "excuse caddie"! I had come into the reception area where Amy was sitting down reading the paper and she commented that she needed a break, with that Michelle who was in the area then began to tell about all the work that Amy had been doing and I realized that she had become Amy's excuse caddie. So of course I had to comment on that. It should be good material for a couple of days.