Busier than Busy and Contradance

Did I mention that I finally got my chainsaw and feel like real man? I asked my kids if I looked like Paul Bunyon and they said, "Who?"

The thing is, now that I've got my saw, it's one more thing to deal with, and I'm not exactly swimming in time. Yesterday we had a busy day, and even though you're tired of hearing about it, I'd like to share with you what we did. We were supposed to have HS tennis in Hanover, but weren't feeling so well because it's been a busy, social week. There are two major immediate projects on the home front and they both take a lot of time.

First, the woodpile. It's going to take me awhile to get through that, and I can only squeeze in a couple of hours each day, if I can even do it each day. And then there are the clapboards on the back of the house, which will eventually all have to be painted. Yikes!

So yesterday, knowing that we had all these things to do, not to mention being exhausted and having contradance that night, I made the executive decision that we were not going to make it to tennis. I knew the kids wouldn't be broken hearted, and sense that they were almost dreading it.

We had breakfast as usual and then we went outside. N wanted to play games but I told him I had real man work to do, and being the real man that he is, he said he'd join me. I spent the morning hours cutting wood, but at some point around noon, I knew I had to stop to make lunch. Since the weather has been so beautiful, the kids always lobby for the picnic lunch, which I dread because it's more work for me. And, of course, I always relent because it is nice out, and it's not such a big deal, reminding myself that life is about the little things.

After lunch, I had to wash dishes and then go to work on the clapboards. The one bonus was that we were planning on going to contradance so I didn't need to make supper. As much as I love to cook, I find that making meals (and the subsequent cleanup) takes a huge chunk of time out of my day, not to mention the disruption in the flow of my work.

Anyway, enough of my whining. After lunch and doing the dishes, I did a quick cleanup of the house, which is much tidier when the kids play outside, and threw in two loads of laundry because the weather was so warm and breezy and I couldn't pass up the chance to dry them on the line outside-our first time this season. A seminal moment, though hanging clothes on a line takes up a lot of time. Just for the record, we don't have a dryer (our conscious decsion), so have little choice in the matter.

I then set to work on the clapboards, knowing that I had about three hours before having to get my act together. I spent a lot of time last year learning to do clapboards, and though I'm still a novice of the highest order, I at least have a better sense of what I'm doing, which streamlines the process immeasurably. I know what I'm looking for, and thankfully after taking off a few layers and peeling back the Tyvek, the plywood underneath was not rotting. In fact, it was in surprisingly decent shape, so I set about applying the ice and water shield.

The day was beautiful, but my daughter, who has been tracking and studying the weather as part of her HS science work, told me it was going to rain on Saturday, so before getting the kids ready for the dance, I had to haul pallets and tarps over to cover the exposed frame. Life in New England never lets you slide, but it makes you a better person for it.

I still have a lot of work to do on it, not to mention needing more i&w shield and clapboards. We have my mentor #1's truck, so I can jet over to Brittons and get them, though I'm staying away from cedar and will go with primed softwood. A lesson I learned last year, go with primed clapboards, they save you time and money in the end.

By 4:30, I had to round the kids up and hound them to get dressed. Just a quick note, life was actually easier when we did everything for them, like putting on their clothes. You'd think it would be simpler to have them just get dressed, but it always involves a great deal of coercing, wrestling, and finally breaking out the bigs guns, i.e. threats, bribery, and extortion, to get them to do what you want them to do, even if it's something they really want. How ironic is that.

We drove out to Woodstock for the dance and the kids really have a good time. I'm sort of mixed on the whole thing. We have some really good friends that go and we love to see them, but the dance is really a Waldorf scene, and as I've mentioned, I feel like a persona non grata in Waldorf circles, mainly because I don't talk the talk. They don't go out of their way to make me feel this way, they just are adept at completely ignoring me and excluding me by default. No malice involved, just lack of sensitivity. Mind you, they are not all like that.

That may be changing, however. There was definitely a more mixed crowd than usual there, with what looked like a large contingent of hip, consumer-conscious kids, some of whom had cell phones that rang during the dance. Scandalous! Maybe contradance is heading in a new direciton, the result of its growing poplularity.

I also wanted to mention that my wife and I (while holding our son, mind you-he refuses to dance) danced with the son and daughter of a family that comes regularly and has something like ten children. I don't know anything about them except that I've been told they are a "sect" family and it's clear that they are religious. Whatever be the case, the kids are really nice, and very mature. I've actually danced with one of the boys, who is I believe a tween, and we had to hold hands when we danced - this is the nature of contradance, lots of hand holding and switching partners. To his credit, he didn't blink and eye and just went with it. When I was his age I would have run from the room screaming. We also danced with the one girl in the family, a teenager I believe, and she was very sweet and very spunky. A really cute kid, with loads of personality. Go figure.

Today is Saturday, market day, but I've got to also stop by Lavalley's and get more i&w shield, and then to the WRJ Coop to get our copy of Transition Towns. Later in the day we'll head over to Hanover for some work and library time, then off to our favorite eating digs, Boloco. We love those Summer and Classic burritos. It's when school's out so the place isn't such a zoo.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to our kids for the great pics.

Weekend in Burlington and Corned Beef

We're having Saint Patty's Day supper with our long lost friends with whom we seem to lose contact with even though we live so close together. It's an odd situation, actually, and I'm not always sure what to make of it. We have lost touch with them because our circle of friends has shifted. When we lived closer we seemed to get together a lot more, but now that we are a whopping five miles further away, we never see these guys. I go out for a beer with P, but as a family we seem to operate in other places. It makes sense, they have their own community, they are very social people, and we have our own place in the universe.

Around this time of year, a certain birthday (P's) is celebrated at our house, but again, it's a little odd because not only do we not see them for the rest of the year, but throwing a birthday for someone else at our house is not something we would initiate. In the past it has been suggested by the other party, and in essence, an invitation is made on their own behalf. I.e., they are inviting themselves over to celebrate one of their birthdays. It's become a tradition, and not an awkward thing because not only do we know each other well, but we really enjoy their company and miss seeing them more often, but that's another story.

One thing that has crossed my mind is that our friends are very social and have a strong circle of acquaintances, and yet I know they don't include us in their social calendar. So now it brings in the whole high school mentality of being included and if not, then quid pro quo. I hate to admit it, but the thought has crossed my mind-if you're not going to invite us to your birthday parties, then I'm not going to invite you to ours.

In the end, that's the not the approach we took. We really like P&J, and out of the people we know, probably enjoy hanging with them as much as anybody. They're just good people, interesting and eclectic, and though over the course of time we have lost touch, it's nice to reconnect with them, and it's always a good time. So with this in mind, we're looking forward to a nice corned beef supper and good conversation while the kids have fun and destroy the house. Awkwardness be damned!

On the subject of Burlington, we had an awesome weekend, and would love to make quick jaunts up to the city a regular thing. It's very doable, not to mention affordable. After a nice long swim in their pool, which I may have mentioned has the largest jacuzzi that I'd ever seen, we ate supper at the Skinny Pancake. That place has really taken off, I don't know if it's the location or what, but man were they packing it in. Good for them.

We had the Garlique Chic and the Ham and Egg, and the Veggie Delight. Not vegan, mind you, because it had egg and cheese. We finished it off with a Banana/Strawberry/Nutella crepe, and we were ready to hit the sack. There's something about swimming that really drains you. We went to sleep around 8:30, our standard hour when we travel, looking foward to our buffet breakfast in the hotel.

I got up, as usual, before everyone else, and hid out in the bathroom and read my new favorite book, The Shock Doctrine. Great reading for a conspiracy theorist in all of us, but so well written and intelligently, not to mention convincingly argued. There's nothing like having a great book that you look forward to reading.

Our first stop was the Echo Museum, which I've come to think is inferior to the Montshire, but again, like the Montshire, the kids go crazy for the place. I had two free passes from a survey I'd done, and it helps, because that place is expensive. And it hadn't changed much, except for the one room that has the new exhibits, the place is always the same. I guess because they are big display the can't move them around, but the Montshire has much greater variety, not to mention diversity. The Echo really focuses on biology, which is a great thing, it's just that the Montshire also includes physics and chemistry. And the Montshire seems to be more hands on, which the kids love.

After the museum, we had a quick lunch of soup and sandwiches, where everyone was jockeying for a place on the deck because the weather was beautiful. We headed into downtown and wanted to use our Macy's cards that my mom gave us years ago, hoping they were still valid. Church Street is always a lot of fun, and we all enjoy it, though it can get a little squirrelly at times with the urban experiences that you just don't get in small towns. There were the usual street performers, one guy was singing one of our favorite songs, Wagon Wheel, and the street was packed.

Our first stop was Ben and Jerry's, and man was that place packed. You'd think in a big city they'd have more than one ice cream parlor, but that seemed to be the only game in town. The line was practically out the door. You can see how much B&J has evolved into a big corporate mess, with all the marketing and horizontal integration, it's not what it used to be, but we needed ice cream. For the record, I didn't have any.

We hung out on the drag and ate our dessert, and even were told by a cop that we had to move because we were blocking traffic. He was very nice about it, it's just that we were holding up the flow of people, and he even said he felt bad but also thought he couldn't tell the riff-raff (not his words) to move and not tell everyone else. We also learned that one of our favorite eating places, Boloco, is actually a franchise, but that doesn't change anything.

Macy's was a trip, as well. I've always had this impression that Macy's was more on the upscale side, but that place really seemed like a dump. Something about Macy's outside of Manhattan just doesn't seem to work. They are somewhat depressing, and all the clothes are trashy or too commercial. It's hard to find things that aren't completely overwhelmed with kids cartoon images, unless you want to pay more. And the girls clothes struck me as too provocative, if not downright trashy. It was appalling.

After a lengthy search, we found some stuff, the service was very average, and you can tell that you were clearly bothering them by asking questions, but I'm guessing it was a long day. We got some stuff, chipping away at our Macy's cards (for the record, we spent about $30), and then began the long drive home.

It takes about an hour and a half to drive, and we got home in time for mom to get her call from her mom. Off to bed to cap a nice weekend, hopefully one of many.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Five Favorite Places to Eat

Since I mentioned that Boloco was one of our five favorite places to eat up here, it begs the question, what are the other four? Now keep in mind, we are not high end, fine diners. We are looking for something comfortable, reasonably priced, and healthy. We don't want big dishes of all you can eat processed and greasy fried food, and we like kid friendly environments. Most of all, we want tasty food that we feel good about eating.

With this in mind, I would say the list would be as such, not in order, of course:

1. Boloco-killer burritos, all natural meat and tofu, very tasty, comfortable kid friendly digs. Hip and friendly.

2. Stella's in Hartland-a gem and blessing to the town of Hartland. John cooks killer local food, all natural with healthy vegan dishes and fresh fruits and veggies, many of which are locally grown. Also plays great music, a lot of the Dead, serves a mean burger from local beef and a killer veggie burger. Also one of the few places around where you can find a falafel.

3. Jesse's-we never eat the steak, though it's a steakhouse. We like it because it has a great salad bar and when you do order meat, you can sub steamed broccoli for the starch. Very kid friendly and the staff are top notch. A nice place for a special occasion.

4. Tip-Top Cafe-Great local food in an artsy and hip environment. Food is very creative and very tasty, and though there is a certain elegance to it, it's very kid friendly.

5. Lou's-needs no introduction. Greatest staff on earth, killer food, not neccessarily the healthiest, but just a fantastic place to eat. Mark, the manager, and Brian are just great guys.

Just a quick note-Boloco's scores high on the K&A scale of legtimacy because they serve true vegan burritos, and we've run into K&A eating there. Enough said.

Homeschool Considerations and Goals, Writing, and Skiing

We have made a vow to be more diligent about our homeschool obligations. I don't mean in terms of our daily teachings, but more in terms of answering to the state. It behooves us to do as such. We just received our enrollment paperwork for the next school year, and last year we waited until the zero hour and suffered accordingly. The shame of it all was that we had so much time and rested on our laurels. Or should I say, I rested on my laurels.

The fact of the matter is, homeschooling is my job, though I got a little huffy when my wife seemed to hint at this. My apologies to her, and I'm sure she wants to flog me for my behavior at times. Then again, she'd better be careful, I just got my blue belt.

Either way, our short terms goals go something like this-we need to sit down and assess where we've been and what we've covered, then compare that to what we said we'd do (i.e., our curriculum). We can still cover the things that fall short because there is still a lot of time, but again, it goes by quickly, and the better prepared we are, the easier it will be.

Then we need to begin assembling the portfolio, which isn't due until Labor Day, I believe, but like a lot of situations, when you have so much time, you waste all of it. The easier part will be to fill out the enrollment for the next school year. For the record, I admit that I got a little whiny when it became clear that this was going to fall in my lap. My apologies, once again, to my wife, but at least I'm not getting angry... sort of.

Just thinking about it makes my head spin, which is the kiss of death because those are the times when I just shut down and try to ignore it. Can't do that this time.

To make matters all the more complicated, I have my minor writing gigs that don't pay much but I want to maintain, while I'm also searching for the elusive writing gig that will pay me much, or at least enough to maintain our fabulously opulent lifestyle (for those of you who don't know me, this is a joke) And then there's my blog, or should I say, blogs?

It's all a bit much, so we'll deal with it in the best possible way-by trying to go skiing. Today is Friday, the last Friday that the Quechee Hill will be open, and it's supposed to rain. Bummer, but yet another example of how life is unpredictable, and rather than moan or get angry, just deal with it and make the most of it.

See how well my anger management is working?

If it were possible to put in a humble request to the weather, however, we would not complain if the rain came later rather than earlier, but that's just us.

We have a busy weekend up ahead, and it just might involve... you guessed it, skiing. Looking forward, however, to Saturday in Hanover at the Howe Library (one of my favorite libraries of all time!) and dinner at Boloco, one of my five favorite places to eat in the Upper Valley.

Until then, thanks for reading.

More on Homeschooling, On a Roll, and Burrito Bowls

Looking back on our year, I think we're in pretty good shape, if only for the fact that we're monitoring ourselves early than last year, where we totally blew it and just squeaked by with the extensive assistance of the state offices. Much thanks for all of them for their patience and help. Hopefully we've learned something. The biggest issue for us is still history and social studies. How the heck do you teach it so it's interesting? Maybe the point is, at this stage in their lives, it just isn't. All things considered, we are doing fine, and will begin the process of reviewing our year and answering the to the state, who for the record have been very helpful and patient with us. Did I already mention that?

Spaced out on homeschool art class yesterday, didn't even know it was going on and thus missed out. Bummer.

That is not to say that we haven't been having fun, however, even though we haven't skied for three whole days, maybe four. As I've probably mentioned for a million times, we skied for six days straight last week, so it's almost as it if it's become our regular routine. With the recent storm, we can't wait to get back out there, but the Quechee Hill is back to it's weekend schedule, so mid-week skiing is a bit of a challenge. Our goal, however, is to give the Dartmouth Hill a try again, and hopefully it will work out. Looking to Wednesday for that, if all things work out.

Last night had the killer pseudo-vegetarian meals, our favorite Boloco inspired burrito bowls. We put a little chicken in the kid's bowls to make it more interesting for them, but I think they could go vegan, because it's all about the beans and the salsa. Maybe not as good as Boloco burritos, but close. The key I've found is the juiciness, from the salsa and the fillings. When it's drippy and wet, somehow it just tastes better. Funny how that works.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Good Vibes at Boloco

Not that we need another reason to love Boloco, but besides the killer burritos, we've been getting good vibes from the people who work there. It strikes me everytime we eat there that they've hit on a good formula-besides embracing the eco-friendly, health conscious approach to food (i.e., all natural and minimally processed, with compostable corn cups-you cant' beat that), the food is tasty, reasonably priced, served up promptly and in a hip, clean, and family friendly environment. It reminds me of the Panera model.

In a way, they may very well suffer a little from their success, only in the sense that the place gets packed and can draw a crowd of people looking for wireless internet and clean bathrooms, but they're tolerant of it all. I've noticed that besides groups of hungry college students, the two groups that gravitate to there are high school students looking for a place to hang out, and their biggest nightmare-families with young kids, of which we are one, though I like to think (delude?) that we clean up after ourselves.

Unfortunately, some of these families leave the place a mess, and I've seen that sometimes, not always, the families that seem to have the most affluence leave their tables in the worst shape, and I feel bad for the people who work there and have to clean up. Despite all that, they're patient and friendly, and never complain when people glare down at them while they're making the food, which can't be easy.

We go in about once a week, and everyone looks forward to it. My ideal day goes something like this-do a couple hours of skiing (preferably with the kids) in the AM, followed by lunch at home, then off to the library and the Coop, then dinner at Boloco. By the time we sit down to eat, we're all pretty excited to dig into our burritos, and it's one of the warm fuzzy feelings in life when you get that first taste of your classic w/carnitas or the summer w/tofu. We connected with one of the guys who works there, and I regret not getting his name, but there's always next week.

Good food, good vibes in warm and friendly atmosphere, you can't beat that. Just try to get there before the 6:00 PM rush, and you'll be just fine.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.