A Friend

Here's a quick post to let any of you who haven't heard yet about my friend and groomsman Al. Last week, we all received a giant shock in hearing that he had suffered a stroke. He's very young, having graduated a year ahead of me, in Jeff's class. Obviously, this is not a common occurrence for someone of his age, but fortunately, he is doing pretty well considering.

The problem appears to have sprung from an unnoticed hole in his heart present from birth but never detected. He has been in the hospital since the incident, but we heard today he will be leaving the ICU today, which is great. He has been cognizant, aware and there appears to be little loss of brain function. He is struggling with swallowing and lost a great deal of mobility, which is to be expected, but doctors are confident he will make a full recovery. A timetable for that is uncertain, though.

His family has been keeping an online journal of his progress everyday, which we've been reading regularly. Most of the news is encouraging, and any thoughts/prayers sent his way are obviously appreciated by his family (and us).

Plymouth - A Grand Caravan

I'm very late in reporting about Sarah's and my pre-Thanksgiving trip to Boston/Plymouth, Mass., but better late than never. Our trip there had nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but rather a free hotel stay we'd earned and one of the few weekends we had completely free to use it. This was the second trip I've made to the area, and some of you may remember the first, accompanied by the Grandparents A. and my siblings. Sarah also has gone before, so we weren't overly anxious about hitting all the classic tourist destinations, but we did make sure to stop by some of the more notable ones.

We of course hit Plymouth Rock:

The Rock Itself


Sarah was cold.


I found Armstrong ancestor John Allerton on a monument.


We were in Plymouth.

We also took a ferry through the "hah-bowar" to the U.S.S. Constitution site.

The famous boat was closed, which I pointed out to Sarah. But the ferry ride was still nice:

We also walked along the Freedom Trail, hitting notable American Revolution-age sites including the Old North Church and Paul Revere's house.

A church I first thought was the Old North Church, based on its similar appearance to one seen near the end of the Nicolas Cage epic "National Treasure."


The actual Old North Church, which still operates as a church but is open otherwise for tours. We entered it to see many things:


A man's head.


My head.


The Wardens.

I took many opportunities along our trip to re-enact scenes from the Nicolas Cage epic "National Treasure":





We also saw many things related to Paul Revere:

His house from the front.


His house from the back.


A statue of the famed Silversmith and midnight rider.

While our trip to the Plymouth waterfront also brought us upon a festival of some type, netting us free cranberry products from Ocean Spray and beverages from McDonald's, sadly, I was once again denied the opportunity to enjoy one of New England's culinary treasures:

The storied Stevie's Pizza.

And Now For Something Completely Different

If anyone wishes to comment on any posts, I'll now have to moderate your remarks before they go up. Too much Spam! I'll try to be speedy with the process...

Journey To The Center Of Western Massachusetts-based 18th Century Historical Reenactment Enthusiasts

If you've been paying attention, you'll have noticed that I've failed to post an update in several weeks, while Sarah has posted several terrific travelogues about our various journeys. She assigned me to write a very small one about one of our barely-out-of-town trips, to nearby Deerfield, several weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to it.

It is a long neighborhood featuring many period homes, an inn, restaurant and a few museums as well as two boarding schools, many of which have been deeded to a historic preservation foundation and decidedly historically preserved. Residents of Deerfield may gain access to the public buildings for free, while non-residents must pay for a ticket which entitles them to tour some of the homes. A few historical interpreters very cordially guide you through select homes. Also, in September, History Detectives star Tukufu Zuberi made an appearance there in support of the Springfield, Mass.-based PBS station. We did not attend.

So join me on a journey BACK IN TIME to MID 18th CENTURY WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS...

A table.


The Bement House, which was constructed out of bement, an early forerunner of cement fabricated from birch bark.


A home so well constructed for privacy that it is, in fact, invisible.


Dwight House, inhabited by early members of the Schrute family, an active clan of beet farmers.


Even as a guest residence 200 years ago, this tiny house was considered a small, piddling disgrace.


The wheel, invented in Deerfield circa 1753.








Several pictures of Deerfield Academy, a prestigious boarding school which I made a special point to visit, as it housed not one but two stars of television's LOST, in fact just one year apart from each other--Matthew Fox and Nestor Carbonell. Despite my intensive searching, I found no mysterious hatches, polar bears, eyeliner or other artifactual remnants of their time there.

The cat's out of the bag (and back home)

It's been a few weeks now since Dubu has returned to his rightful home, and we have both mostly gotten over our sadness. Knowing that he is being treated well by his real owners has given us solace, as well as finding the occasional artifact he's left behind (bits of fur, a hidden waterdish, cat food stains on the bottoms of walls). Here are a few photos from some of Dubu's last stellar feats before stealing away back home.

1) Finding his way into a paper bag:



2) Finding his way out of a paper bag



3) Realizing we've been watching him the whole time



4) Getting picked up by Bia and Ian

Dance Dinner

Tonight, as some of you know, is the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance, or as its become known in the 140-character-limited Twitterverse, SYTYCD. Neither Sarah nor I would ever claim to be dance experts, but we've enjoyed being couch-based critics of this past season.

In honor of tonight's finale, we expressed ourselves in a creative arena with which we are both more familiar--the kitchen. On tonight's menu we enjoyed Funky Chicken sandwiches, the Mashed Potato, and Groovin' to the Beets. We thought of all these dishes while commuting to work, and it was only when we were home this evening that we realized we missed a fairly obvious dance-related delicacy--Salsa. Oh well.

Sorry, no photos.

Anyone else have a suggestion for an appropriate dish to GET SERVED tonight?

It's Been a While

I realize I haven't posted in almost a month, but hey, we've been busy! And what we've mostly been busy with has been traveling, mainly in the form of weekend trips to various cultural and historical hot spots throughout New England.

I haven't posted much about those trips, though, but Sarah has been posting some excellent photo-/travel-ogues about them. Yet they are receiving very few comments! So skip on over to her blog to read about our travels, or shoot directly to our most recent trip to NYC/Cooperstown, including an excellent video she shot of John Fogerty performing his now 25-year-old baseball-themed classic, "Centerfield."