334/365 - 501 Must See Movies

I have been looking at this book for the last couple of Monday nights at Borders. It is divided into sections (comedy, romance, Sci Fi, etc) and each section starts in the 1930's or so. It's fun to read about all those movies. So many of my favorites are listed.

333/365 - Letterboxing at Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick

This afternoon Paul, Marley and I went letterboxing. We started off at Springfield St. Cemetery in Feeding Hills. The clue was Jane Chatfield November 22 1881 to August 21 1935. Under the tree. That was it. Do you know how big Springfield St. Cemetery is? Anyhow, we walked around there for about an hour and a half and never found it. We gave up for now (to be continued later with Paul and I eventually checking every grave stone), and headed out to Southwick to look for another letterbox. This one was on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick near the CT state line.



It took us a while to find the trail, but the rest was rather easy. Except for the fact that you had to cross a swamp on 2x6 boards. That was a little scary.


We found the letterbox hidden underneath a rotted out tree. I love this hobby!

332/365 - Doctor's box "thing"

I must have had a premonition.

On 6/30/09 I took a picture of this Doctor's box "thing" that was hanging on the wall near the back door of my work. Yesterday when I went in to work, it was gone and the hole boarded up. Today the hole was plastered over. I couldn't believe it! I don't know what they did with it. I know it was very old and none of the doctors used it anymore, but it was a piece of nostalgia, and now it's gone. Sad!

331/365 - Marley feeding Mason

Marley is getting to be a pro at feeding Mason.

330/365 - Thanksgiving Day

So thankful for family. Happy Thanksgiving!

329/365 - Holiday Carrots

Today I made these carrots for Thanksgiving. Kristen's mother-in-law gave me this recipe years ago. My family really likes them. I usually only make them on holidays as they take some time to make, but are SO worth it (even I eat them and I don't like cooked carrots!).

328/365 - Sophie's Choice

Last night at Borders Paul bought this DVD for $5.99. It was released in 1982 and we saw it at the movies but I really didn't remember much of it. It is a haunting story of a Holocaust survivor. We watched it this morning (I have today and tomorrow off to get ready for Thanksgiving). It was worth watching, but now I have to get to work vacuuming, etc.!

327/365 - Minnie in her bed

This is Minnie in her new bed. Every now and then she gets in Izzy's bed, but it is amazing how she remembers that this is her bed. I think she likes it here.

326/365 - Mark and Mason

Mason loves it when Mark kisses his face. I wish you could hear him laugh. It is so cute.

Note Minnie in her new bed that Paul and Marley bought for her yesterday!

325/365 - Izzy and Minnie in their beds

Well, Minnie has been with us for four days and so far so good. There have been no fights, just a lot of growling and hissing, but things are getting better. They seem to be getting more used to each other. They are still nervous and skittish but not as bad. Tonight will be the first night that Minnie doesn't stay in the bathroom. We'll see how things go!

324/365 - Rest in peace Hawkeye

This past Tuesday a wonderful lady passed away. Helen was a volunteer in my office. She volunteered for over 20 years and "retired" in August of 2008. Helen was there every Tuesday like clock work. She took her work very seriously. There was no extra talking or fooling around. She said "good morning" and then got to work. We had lunch with her and then she stayed until about 3 o'clock. I knew her for 12 years. She loved us (she told us all the time) and we loved her. She was an inspiration to all of us. It was very hard for her to have to retire. The work she did has never been caught up since she left. One of my co-workers posted her obituary over her desk so people coming into our office would know of Helen's passing. She nick-named her Hawkeye because of her keen eye if something was not right with her work. As Cindy wrote, "Rest in peace Hawkeye."

323/365 - Dot's Zeuss

Tonight we went to my aunt Dot's house to set up her new cable box. She loves watching O'Reilly and with the changes that Comcast made she wasn't able to get it without getting an adapter box. Paul had a lot of stuff out on the floor while he was working on the TV. Dot's cat Zeuss loved it. I haven't seen him this playful in years!

322/365 - First days with Minnie

On Tuesday night (the first night that Minnie was with us) she spent the night in our upstairs bathroom. She was also there all day Wednesday and until we got home from church on Wednesday night. She made herself comfortable on the hassock tonight. There is still a lot of low growling going on!

321/365 - Adopting Minne

Today Paul and I went to the Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center and adopted Minnie. You can read about it on Debbie's Blog.

We Adopted Minnie!

Today Paul and I went down to the Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center and adopted Minnie. We said we would never have two cats again, but there is just something about Minnie. It all happened so fast. We both had the day off from work and started wondering if Minnie had gotten adopted yet. Before we knew it, we had called the shelter and found out that Minnie had just been put up for adoption today (they keep them on hold for a few days while they have them checked out by a vet, have shots, etc.) I was so excited when I saw her in her cage. She came right up to the window and rubbed up against my hand. When we left the shelter we stopped by Kristen's work (it is close to the shelter) and Paul went in and asked her to come out to our car. You should have seen the look on her face. By the time we got home there was a message from Marley. "Grandma, you adopted Minnie?" Everyone came over tonight to see her. Everyone already loved her and we all wanted one of us to adopt her. I just hope Izzy can accept her. She was not a happy camper tonight. Lots of low growling from both of them!

320/365 - Another crop

Getting ready for a crop on Saturday. This page is going to be about Kris and Toby's new house.

319/365 - Letterboxing in Laurel Hill Cemetery

This afternoon Paul, Marley and I went letterboxing. I wanted to take Marley to the place where I had come upon the first letterbox. We needed to stamp it in our book, and also there was another letterbox, placed by the same person, in this cemetery that we hadn't found yet. We planned this day back when we found our first letterbox in Southwick, and all of us have been looking forward to it. What luck that it was a beautiful, warm day. Even though I had told Marley where it was, she read the directions as we walked towards it. This one was called Pushing Up Daisies (apropos for a cemetery). The second was called Moody Butterfly. It was a hand carved butterfly stamp from Nigeria. We didn't know where this was, so Marley read the directions and eventually we found it. Marley said this was the spookiest cemetery she had ever been in. She wasn't scared, though. In fact, she told us that she loved walking through old cemeteries.



We headed up to Greenfield. I had directions to another letterbox but, unfortunately, it was getting dark and we never did find the one we were looking for. That will have to be for another day.

If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

318/365 - Letterboxing Connecticut River Valley The Door"

Today we went on a Letterboxing hunt. We were going to LL Bean in S. Windsor, CT to get new boots for Paul, so I went on to the Letterboxing site to see what letterboxes were in the area. I found one in the same town. This one was called "Connecticut River Valley The Door" and it explained about a historic style of doorway that developed in the Connecticut River Valley in New England in the mid-eighteenth century.

This first picture was where it lead us, describing that this door was one of 11 original doors of this type still on the houses which they were built for. It is the Ebenezer Grant House in So. Windsor.


The letterbox was located just down the steet in a cemetery behind the Board of Education office. It had a hand-made stamp of a Connecticut Valley doorway. It was beautiful!



If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

Minnie The Cat

This is Minnie. About a month ago she just showed up at Kristen and Toby's house. She was very skinny and looked very hungry. They started feeding her so, of course, she kept coming back. I talked to the neighbor next door and she said that she didn't know where the cat had come from. She said she and her daughter rescued it from a tree in their yard. She didn't seem to belong to any of the neighbors. None of us in the family were in a position to take in a new cat so last night Minnie went to the shelter. The nights are getting colder and Minnie needs to be in a warm place. She is the most loving cat. She loves to be picked up and held and she has the most beautiful face. She is at the Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Shelter if anyone would like to adopt her.

317/365 - Friday night

Friday night with Mason and Marley. She is already a good babysitter. He loves to watch her!

316/365 - Bad Izzy

This is what Marley's poor Lincoln Log Town looked like after a few days of being exposed to Izzy (the cat).

The Prims Make Snowmen On A Stick

Tonight in Prims we made Snowmen on a Stick. The kids loved it! Most of them made one to eat, and another to take home.



Snowman on a Stick

These banana-based snowmen are decidedly more tropical than the frosty variety, and kids can assemble their own if you prepare the fruit for them.

Ingredients
Bananas
Grapes
Carrot
Apple
Bamboo skewers
Mini chocolate chips
Pretzel sticks

Instructions
For each snowman, you will need three thick slices of banana, a grape, a sliver of carrot, and a triangular piece of apple. (Tip: Poke a hole in the apple piece with a bamboo skewer first to make assembly easier.)

Have your kids slide the fruit onto the skewer, then use the carrot slivers for noses, mini chocolate chips for eyes and buttons, and pretzel sticks for arms.

315/365 - Veteran's Day, David R. Waite

For Veteran's Day, Marley's 3rd grade class had an assignment: write a paragraph about a person they know in a military uniform.



This is what she wrote:
This is my Great-Grandpa David Waite. He was only 17 when he joined the Navy. He was in the Navy from November 1944 until July 1946. He was a member of the forward crew on the USS Sirona. The Sirona was one of over 100 ships in Tokyo Bay getting ready to invade Japan when Japan surrendered and the war was over.

Thank you to all of our veterans!

314/365 - Mason at 5 months

How cute is that smile. Mason was five months old this past Sunday.

313/365 - Pink Christmas?

Christmas has come to Borders. A little early don't you think?

312/365 - A Western town!

Marley spent the evening making this Lincoln Log western town.

311/365 - Letterboxing at Metacomet-Monadnock Trail

Today we found our first letterbox. After Marley's game this morning we went on our first adventure. There are several close to us and we chose to look for the one on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Southwick at the remains of an old homestead. I had gone on to letterbox.org and printed out the "clues" to find it. This one was called the "Gift Box." Marley was so excited. She read the directions to us in the car and also as we were looking for it. The directions were perfect and we were so excited when we found it. We weren't exactly organized today, though, and after we found the letterbox and went to put our stamp in their journal, we realized that we had left our stamp at home. Good thing we weren't too far. Paul and Marley explored a little while I went home to get our stamp. I think this is going to be a fun little hobby. We were talking about some of the other letterboxes in the area that we want to look for and Marley said, "Don't do too many without me!"

Here are a few more pictures of our adventure:







If you are interested in letterboxing, go here.

310/365 - Baba & Mason

Tonight we babysat for Mason. He is really starting to get to know his "Baba."

309/365 - Stamp and Sketch Book for Letterboxing

We are ready to start finding letterboxes. (See Post 300 which explains how I found out about letterboxing). Tonight we got our stamp and our sketch book. Our trail name is "Izzy's Crew". I can't wait to start. To learn more about Letterboxing, go here.

308/365 - Prims/Daisys Music Time

The Prims and Daisies during music time. They really get into it!

307/365 - Election Day

Voting for mayor tonight.