Road Trip to MA

The kids and I took a road trip to the Boston area earlier this week. Here are some highlights ....

 L. taking charge of the camera in the car on the way down. How many pictures did you take? Ooh, lots I see....

Going to the car wash with Grandma. They acted like it was the first time they'd ever seen one before. Well actually by the look of our car, maybe it should be a little more often....

Running around Boston in their new ponchos - they were certainly easy to spot in a crowd.

Taking a Flat Stanley on the Freedom Trail in Boston to learn a little history.

Checking out the ice skating rink in Boston Common. Of course the kids were upset with me for forgetting the ice skates but then decided that was OK when I asked them if they would have carried them on the T. That was a resounding no.

Eating a "real" roast beef sandwich. Well that was my highlight. I love them and I haven't found any better than in the Boston area. But I'll leave the blogging about great food to my co-worker, Colleen....

George vs. geocachers

This morning I went to put my dollar into the candy machine here at the office and noticed a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on the back of my dollar bill. And in a moment of curiosity (and knowing I really shouldn't eat a candy bar anyway) I decided to keep the dollar and log onto the website to find out where my bill had been.

Well, the bill's history consisted of two entries, one of which was mine. And where was it originally logged in?

Westbrook.

A whole 4.6 miles from my zip code. Not nearly as interesting as the kids' travel bugs in New Zealand.

And it was funny I should compare it to geocaching because there's actually a page on the wheresgeorge.com website about geocachers. Apparently the George people aren't so keen on geocachers using bills as travel bugs.

The general rules of this site specifically prohibit trading or exchanging bills with friends, family or anyone known to the bill distributor. This rule is to encourage "natural circulation" of the currency, and to prevent multiple "fake hits" from happening on any bill. Afterall, the purpose of Where's George? is to track the manner in which currency naturally circulates throughout the country and the world. Allowing people to arbitrarily enter multiple hits to track that a bill was traded among a circle of friends and family defeats the entire purpose of this site.

Poor George, feeling threatened by geocachers. Where's this game's sense of fun? Oh I know, it's with their related Where's Willy website....

New season, new road sign

A couple of weeks ago, snowmobile crossing signs were put up around our town. Since we don't have a snowmobile, the kids found an alternative way to introduce a Flat Stanley we're hosting from France to the snowmobile season in Maine.

Please sing to a snail

Tonight at my tap class (it should be called a talk-and-laugh -with-a-couple -minutes-of-actual-tapping class) my friend Darnell said that if you sing or hum a tune to a snail you find on a beach, it will come out of its shell.

OK, I have never heard this and I am skeptical. Before Darnell shared this bit of snail trivia, she had been talking about how she duped her young children into believing she made home-made oreo cookies. She went so far as to create the illusion of assembling the cookies and warming them in the oven as her children arrived home from school. She even explained away the oreo word stamped on the cookie, saying she had worked hard all day making it perfect for them.

So can you see why I question her information?

With winter upon us here in Maine and the fact we're unlikely to wade in the ocean when it's 10 degrees Fahrenheit, I am writing to request that my warm weather friends go to the beach, pick up a snail and try singing to it. Then tell me if it really comes out of its shell.

I really would like to know if this is another homemade Oreo cookie story...

Screaming for the Pirates

Yesterday we met some friends to see a Portland Pirates game. Bunny and the Flat Stanleys we're hosting came along for the fun.

This was G. and L.'s first live hockey game and they weren't sure they liked all the checking and fighting.

"Ooooh mommy his face smashed against the glass! That rat guy wasn't very nice."

"I am happy the Pirates won but I feel sad for the other team. They look sad."

Yeah I know, they need a little more exposure to live sporting events.

The highlight of the game was the slapstick goal by the Pirates at a face-off and everyone jumped out of their seats to cheer. And of course, Crackers, Salty Pete, the popcorn, nachos and soda were big hits with the kids - and Bunny had his share of popcorn too.

But I think the best part, particularly for L., was screaming her lungs out along with her friend - something I don't generally encourage at home....

Cross country skiing and disc golf, an interesting combo

What do you get when you combine cross country skiing and disc golf? An entertaining afternoon with a lot of laughs, especially when I heard G. lamenting ducks. But you'll have to wait until my next column is finished to find out what that was about....

I would admit that it would have been handy to have been an octopus while playing the game. I needed the extra hands to manage the ski poles (which I ended up ditching in the parking lot), score card and pencil, golf disc and camera. And we all agreed that it was no small effort to make tracks in 11 inches of ungroomed snow on cross country skis.

We took a lot of wipe outs on the course and ended up dumping the skis after 6 holes. It was a serious cardio workout and we were wiped out with the duck-walking up the course's hills. But we did play a few more holes in our boots before we headed home.

We took Robot Bunny out to play the game with us. He's been a bit neglected lately with all the Flat Stanley comings and goings. But he's back in action. There is something to be said for being able to stand up on your own.

Flat things require a lot more hands-on attention....

Waxing away the night

When I got home from the office yesterday afternoon Fino and the kids were already out on their cross country skis. The kids' skis arrived on Thursday (we rent them) and we were psyched they came in time for the snow storm yesterday.

But when the kids came through the door after their ski adventure around the neighborhood, they were wiped out. Along with using muscles they hadn't used in a while, they told me that their skis weren't working correctly.

They aren't sliding right, G. complained.

It turned out Fino hadn't waxed the skis before the kids strapped them on so last night he spent a couple of hours taking care of the wax issue for all of our winter gear - 4 pairs of cross country skis, 2 pairs of downhill skis and both of our snowboards.

Fino's thoughts after he was done with the task? "Man, that's a lot of f***ing gear to wax."