Back to Lenny & Joe's

Ever since we went to Lenny & Joe's last month, we have been wanting to go back. It's a fun ride and the seafood is great, so that's what we did today.

After eating, we took a ride along the coast. We stopped at West Beach, a pretty little town beach in Westbrook, CT. You can see Long Island in the distance. It was a bit too cold and windy to walk on the beach but I did take a couple of pictures.





Then we drove along the coast to the Book Barn in Niantic. This is where I got all of those Nancy Drew books. When we were there it was dark, so today I wanted to take a picture of it.





This picture shows where you can bring books to sell. I might do that some day.



We decided that rather than backtrack, we would drive along the coast to Misquamicut State Beach and then go home from there. The whole beach area was really deserted, which I guess it would be at this time of year. We saw a very pretty sunset.



When we got home we stopped at Redbox and rented a movie, Sarah's Key. It was a really good story taking place during World War II; sad, but a really good movie.

Scallops, the Beach, and Nancy Drew

Our goal today was to go to The Book Barn in Niantic, CT to look for Nancy Drew books, but to also go to Lenny and Joes, a seafood restaurant that my friend Joanie had told us about the last time we went to this area.

We went there for lunch, which was absolutely delicious.

Then we drove around Hammonasset Beach for awhile. We got out to see the beach but it was freezing and very windy so that didn't last long.







Then we drove down Rt 1 to the Book Barn. This place was huge. My friend Dora at my old job told me about it awhile ago. There are three locations in Niantic. One was, I think, the main one that looked like an old mill. There was Book Barn Downtown, and Book Barn Midtown.

All of the Nancy Drew books were $1 and they were having a sale so we got them for .70, all 58 of them! That should take me awhile. I'll be starting #12 in a day or so. Only 164 to go!



What a fun day.

****Another Post Office - Westbrook, CT


P.S. Today is my cousin Lynda's birthday. I sent her a card with this picture on it. It is of us at the 1965 World's Fair in New York. Good memories. Happy birthday Lyn!

Nancy Drew Books

Today I was on a quest for more Nancy Drew books. I have decided to read them in order, and there are 175 of them! I just finished #8, but didn't have #9.

We went to three used bookstores. This one was in Whatley, MA. It used to be an old school. Neat bookstore!







We also went to Raven Used Books in Greenfield, and Montague Book Mill in Montague. I got 10 books, but no one had #9.

So, we ended up at Barnes & Noble in Enfield to get a new #9.

It's one of my crazy "retirement" projects, to read all 175 Nancy Drew books. Luckily, Paul puts up with my crazy projects.

Like Mother Like Daughter

I turned around to make sure Marley was following me in the grocery store and this scene brought me back to when her mother used to read everywhere, even while brushing her teeth.

333/365 - A funny little story

Tonight Kristen called to tell me that Janelle called her. Janelle said that she was reading The Wheels on the Bus to Mason tonight. There was a picture of a lady knitting on the bus.


Mason pointed to the lady and said "Auntie." Janelle asked him, "Where is Auntie?". He pointed, again, to the lady knitting. I guess he has seen her knitting quite a bit! Isn't that just too funny?

I was looking for a picture of Kristen knitting; I know I have lots of them. This picture is from August 2005, taken at Janelle's mom's house. It was the first one that I could find. She doesn't go too many places without her knitting.

197/365 - Friday Night Fruit Surprise

Marley usually comes over on Friday night with some agenda (!?!). Tonight she brought over some blackberries that they picked today in their yard. She said she wanted to make "Fruit Surprise." She decided that we would be on a cooking show, hence the stuffed animal (and one live animal) audience. They must watch a lot of cooking shows at the Gonsalves' because she had the whole thing down pat. She sounded exactly like a cooking show host. I was Vanessa, the assistant.

This was the finished product - cooked apples (with food coloring), honey and sugar sauce, and cooked raspberries.



Paul was the "famous food critic."





He said it was very good, "the best I ever had" which meant we won the cooking contest!



After the cooking contest was over, we all got to enjoy (it was a little scary looking but was actually pretty good)!




On another note, I have been trying to get Marley to read some of the many kids' books that we have in Kristen's old room. There are old books from me, Paul, Kris, and Mark. When she was little, I used to read her a lot of them and, even though she is an avid reader, she has never really seemed interested in reading any of these books. I have tried to come up with some "incentives", but tonight Marley came up with a challenge. She said, "If I read all the books in a year, would you give me $3.00?" I said, "If you read all those books in a year, I'll give you $10.00." (Still pretty cheap in my estimation.)

This is a picture of the books. What do you think? Do you think she can do it by next July 16th?




P.S. Don't mind the huge pointed thing covered with a sheet - it's just my fully decorated Christmas tree LOL!!

Marley at the Library

Tonight we went to the West Springfield Library to sign Marley up for the Summer Reading program. I hadn't been in this library for years. The library has been remodeled since I went there as a child and I tried to orient myself to where things were, but it was difficult. I think the front desk was in the same place but I'm not really sure. I have a lot of good memories of time spent here, and I hope that Marley will have them too!

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.

281/365 - Lunch

Nancy Drew and pork fried rice. Can't get much better than that!

85/365 - Nancy Drew

As many of you know, I love Nancy Drew books (see Debbie's Blog, Sept. 9, 2008). So, tonight we went grocery shopping and Paul spotted a bin with old books for sale (proceeds to go to the Jimmy Fund), including many old Nancy Drew books. Well, of course, I didn't remember which ones I already had, so Paul kept on grocery shopping while I went home to make a list of my ND books. I ended up getting nine new books. When I got home I "googled" Nancy Drew books check list, and found out that there were 101 of them written. Now I'm on the hunt!

34/365 - Speed Cleaning Book

Last night at Borders I picked up this book to read and I'm hooked, and I think I got Kris hooked (which is a good thing - start out right with the new house).

Nancy Drew

I love Nancy Drew books. It goes back to the start of summer vacation from school. I can remember my cousin Lynda and I walking to the library in West Springfield, spending time picking out an armful of books (I always gravitated towards mysteries, mostly Nancy Drew). Lynda and I would sit on the front porch for hours reading. Every year at the beginning of summer I feel like I want to read the Nancy Drew series again. I can still feel that excited feeling about starting one of those books. I have started the series many times but this year I am going to try to read the whole series; I'm on book 2.

Oh My Goosh!

Paul and I have been spending a lot of time lately at Borders Bookstore at the mall. Our kids know we go there, so it seems whenever they are at the mall, they stop by to see if we are there. Tonight Kris, Toby, and Marley stopped in to say hi. Marley likes to pick out a book and read it with me. She likes to read one page and then have me read the next one, etc. So we were reading a Junie B. book and she got to a part on her page where Junie B. said "Oh my Gosh". Without skipping a beat she read "Oh my Goosh." I started to laugh (which she was not real happy with). Maybe it was one of those times when you had to be there, but it sure made me laugh!