jessie's visit pt 3: nh, me, ct

on monday of jessie's trip, we drove from mass up to maine, where we visited our favorite lighthouse, nubble, in york. we stopped in at the kittery trading post for old times sake, then back over the bridge to portsmouth, nh for lunch and some time in downtown portsmouth. one of jessie's visiting new england goals was to see the quintessential lighthouse and this one couldn't be closer to that. while in portsmouth, jeremy and i stumbled across the coolest thing in a store we hadn't visited before. we were on a mission for a new hampshire shirt for jess which we never procured, but we walked out of the store with a wick attached to a cork and some parafin oil. now, any empty wine bottle is a candle, with no dripping wax or smoke. it is awesome.

we made our way back home. on tuesday we had originally planned to head to new york city, but the travel logistics did not work in our favor. instead, we explored the mystic seaport, which jeremy and i had never done when all of the exhibits were open. they are working on restoring a tall ship from long ago, and they have a row of shops that resemble what would have been open in a port town like mystic in the late 1800s. It is the coastal version of cowtown. :) we got to go on several boats and peek around.

after lunch at five guys, we hit the road for thompson, ct. there was a giant corn maze there waiting for us. it took us an hour and a half and i bet we walked at least three miles inside that hing, but we conquered it. then we had farm-made ice cream and apple cider. talk about visiting new england in the fall!

jessie's visit pt 2: boston

on sunday we got up early and started driving. we drove through rhode island and up into massachussetts. we stopped at a couple of places on the way to boston. we hot up foxborough to see the patriots stadium. it was insanely huge. then, we drove to cambridge for a quick tour of the harvard campus. i much prefer yale. :) we were planning on meeting ryan and stephanie at the prudential building in boston for lunch then doing some exploring. there was a cool infinity pond/fountain across from the building so we stopped for a few photos before eating. after lunch we went up to the top floor of the prudential building (that's the 52nd!) and took in the breathtaking views of the entire city. 

after lunch we hopped on the t and headed for fanuiel hall and the sights around it. we stopped in at christopher columbus park and the north end to check out the hahbah. the water was beautiful and the weather was perfect. we walked around the area and saw the site of the boston massacre, the holocaust memorial and quincy hall. jessie got to see the cheers bar and the hard rock cafe boston, both things that were high on her list of activities.


we spent the night up in bedford, mass, so we were ready to go on monday for our tour of new hampshire and maine. it was so much fun seeing ryan and stephanie - it made been almost two months since they came down here to visit, and i was overdue for my stephanie fix!

jessie's visit pt 1: hartford

 jessie came and visited us last week. she flew in and out of hartford, our state capital. we spent saturday afternoon driving around the city, sightseeing and doing a few fun things. the hartford marathon was just finishing up as we drove into bushnell park. the park's entrance is a beautiful bridge with a castle/tower over it. that was the finish line for the race - how fun is that? the park has a really old carousel in it - it ws built in 1914 and is a historic site. i had to ride it, and for a dollar, who could resist? i kinda love carousels, and always have. i used to have an old carousel horse in my room when i was younger. jessie wasn't quite as excited as i was, but we had a good time. jeremy refused to participate so he became the official ride photographer.

we drove out of the park past the capital building - it is pretty! the grounds are beautiful but there was orange construction tape up everywhere (i think they were re-landscaping or something) so i didnt take any up close pictures. you can see the gold roof of the building from almost anywhere in the city.

after hitting the main sights in hartford, we drove the hour back to groton and hung out for the evening at home. jessie got to meet rumpy and cricket and see our community. we went to bed early because we had big plans for sunday and monday!

banned books week #speakloudly

this week is banned books week. i have posted about this before, so you probably know that i think banning books is ridiculous. the most recent incident of this that made the news (at least the news that i pay attention to) was in missouri. a man wrote a 20-something page letter to the school board of his county about any number of things, including the history and science curriculum, but what was most talked about was his accusations that the english teachers that were assigning their kids to read speak by laurie halse anderson were promoting pornography and teenage drunkeness etc.

(this next paragraph prolly contains spoilers)

first, the book (also a lifetime movie featuring none other than everyone's favorite vampire lover kristin stewart) is about a girl who is at a party with her firend at the end of junior year and is raped by a popular guy. she calls the cops who bust up the party, but never tells anyone about the rape. everyone hates her because they think she randomly called the police. she goes through senior year as an outcast, and finally works up the courage to express herself through art and speak up about what happened to her.

that is the super simplified version - the book is absolutely amazing. seriously, go read it (or anythign else by laurie halse anderson for that matter). bascially this dude in missouri thinks that by having a scene in the book where teenagers are at a party drinking that it will cause teenagers to go party and drink. now i wasnt into that at all in high school but i know plenty of people  are/were. and i highly doubt that any of them got the idea to do a keg stand or whatever from reading a book. just a thought. also, equating rape with porn is messed up. although i know that some people have strange and out there fantasies, including the rape of a teenage girl in the same category is just wrong.

so what does it all mean?

well, if you are a parent, you have the right to watch over your kids and keep tabs on them. i think that if the kid wants to read, let them, but that's me the voracious reader talking. if a kid wants to read something that a parent objects to, maybe the parent should (shocker!) have a conversation with their kid about what is in the book (or movie or tv show or wahtever) that they disagree with. i think open and honest conversations are a lot more likely to prevent kids from partying or doing drugs or having sex or doing whatever the objectionable thing is. keeping them from reading a book that mentions it probably isnt going to do the trick.

what do you think?

do you think keeping kids from reading stuff is important?

just a side note - i dont disagree with making grade level appropriate choices for kids in general. obviously you arent going to give a copy of speak to a first grader. however, some kids are more mature than others. i read gone with ithe wind in fifth grade and that book has all kinds of adult themes and potentially objectionable things in it, but it was handled appropriately. i didnt go buy a slave or start using the "n word" just because i read that book. in middle school i read a christian series of books where the main characters held hands and (gasp) kissed and i think she might have even snuck out of the house and ran away. did i do any of those things? no. (well, obviously i have held hands and kissed a boy now, duh, but i didnt do it in middle school!)

anyways, take it for what you will, but if youve read twilight, youve read a banned book. or to kill a mockingbird. or huckleberry finn. or a separate peace (required reading at trinity in my day). so go read another one.

better yet, go buy a banned book. use your purchasing power to show that you think banning books is as silly as i do. go buy speak. you wont regret it.

check out these articles for other's take on banned books week and the debacle in missouri.

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• Celebrate Banned Books Week (blogher.com)
• #SpeakLoudly: Laurie Halse-Anderson's "Speak" Is Not Porn (blogher.com)
• Twitter: Banned Books' New Best Friend (papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com)

book review: warrior by zoe archer

Warrior

Zoe Archer

from the back:

To most people, the realm of magic is the stuff of nursery rhymes and dusty libraries. But for the Blades of the Rose, it's quite rael, and in danger of being misused by a powerful enemy...

In Hot Pursuit...

The vicious attack Capt. Gabriel Huntley witnesses in a dark alley sparks a chain of events that will take him to the ends of the earth and beyond - where what is real and what is imagined become terribly confused. Intrigue, danger, and a beautiful woman in distress - just what he needs.

In Hotter Water...
Raised thousands of miles from England, Thalia Burgess is no typical Victorian lady. A good thing, since as a Blade, she's trying to protect a priceless magical artifact. Huntley's assistance might come in handy, though she has to keep him in the dark. But this distractingly handsome soldier isn't easy to decieve...

my review:
as you can tell my the cover, this hero is indiana jones-esque. and as you know (if you know me at all) indiana jones is the best. well, harrison ford really, but i digress. this book had lots of adventure and several interesting side characters. it was set in the wilds of mongolia, which is an usual setting for lots of fiction books of this type so it was fun to read something different. there are three more books to follow in this series, each featuring one member of the blades trying to save an artifact and presumably falling in love. the "magic" elements of this books werent like witches and spells, but also similar to the temple of doom stuff. lots of folklore mixed with physical danger and drama. i liked it.

close encounters of the sea kind

we spent the day at the mystic aquarium. the groton library has these great passes that i checked out with my library card that got us a great deal on the entrance fee. so it was a thrifty and educational outing. im feeling smarter already!

the first thing we did was head to the theater for the sea lion show. there were four sea lions performing and they did all kinds of fun tricks. we also learned the difference between seals and sea lions which is a question that has surprisingly arisen more than once in our marriage. one of the outdoor exhibits had even more sea lions and this guy saw me with my camera and hopped up on a rock and posed. then he waited for me to throw him a piece of squid. unfortunately, all i had in my purse were boiled peanuts from our trip to kittery yesterday. not exactly sea lion fare.

we walked around many mroe exhibits, including penguins, swamps and deep sea exploration (with stuff from the titanic).

my favorite stop of the day had nothing to do with the ocean, or really even water. we got to go in the aviary and hang out with 300 birds from down under. they gave us millet on a popsicle stick to feed to them. they were quite tame and hopped right on us to eat. different birds even got into fights over who got to eat off my stick. there were bigger birds that looked like parrots that would tear a huge chunk off the stick then hold it in their claws and eat it from there. it was really cool to watch.

the jelly fish exhibit and the beluga whales were very cool also. i had never seen a beluga whale in real life before and they had jellys that i had never seen. there were ones that lived upside down on the ocean floor and their tentacles stream upwards. crabs will pick them up and carry them on their backs to protect themselves. cool, huh? there were rescued loggerhead turtles and sea lion pups too. great day (and it threatened to rain all day but held off while we were outside!) at the aquarium!

yalies for the day

jeremy and i drove to new haven for the day on monday. we spent some time exploring the yale campus. it was gorgeous! it was everything i dreamt ivy league and new england meant. the residence halls were gorgeous - even the dining hall seemed like it could be a theatre or something. beautiful. if i had an extra 50k laying around i would totally go to school there. there were mysterious looking gates and doors everywhere. everyone on campus seemed focused and studious, even though it was a holiday!

after lunch we went to the peabody museum of natural history. there were dinosaur bones and stuffed wildlife everywhere we looked. i felt like i was in the land before time. :) there was a whole section on connecticut wildlife with glass cases containing stuffed birds, pinned insects and other examples of animals found here. very cool to learn more about this state too.

it was only about 45 minutes away so i would love to go again, maybe in the fall or winter when the campus will look different. there were other things we didnt get to do while there too - the rare book museum was closed - we both really wanted to see the gutenberg bible that resides there but maybe next time!

my green thumb (or lack thereof)

i got this african violet about a month and a half ago. i have been watering it and talking to it faithfully and it is blooming. beautiful. you can also see the cat hairs where crickey and rumper have helped me talk to it and love it. thanks guys! she doesnt have a name yet. violet is what i named my first african violet that gma koci gave me. she didnt last long. i have become a better plant mother since then though. or maybe not...

remember fred the bonsai? jeremy bought him for me when i was in new hampshire and he was in california and it was one of the best gifts he has ever gotten me. fred hasn't adapted too well to all the stress of moving jobs and states and our hours. he looks it too. jeremy thinks it is time to just throw him away but i have a hard time with that. i want to bring him back to life. bonsai require lots of patience and i think i can wait him out. although patience isnt normally my strong suit, i think we can make this work. at least that's what mr. gunn told me to do.

casino day

last weekend steph and ryan came to see us. steph did hand massages for our big event at windham falls on saturday, then they stayed the night so we could play on sunday. we were going to go sailing on her dad's boat, but we awoke to a massive rainstorm so that was out.

the only indoor activities we knew of in the area were the mall, movie theatre, or the casinos. we decided on the casinos.
first we went out to a huge breakfast at the shack. it is similar to the good egg for anyone in the wichita area. i was the only one with a happy plate but we all left stuffed to the gills.

we headed to foxwoods first and played a few slot machines and walked around. jeremy took the above picture of us right before a cocktail waitress came and told us there were no photos allowed in the casino. oops! i put the camera away for the rest of the day. foxwoods didnt have any $5 blackjack tables which is what ryan and steph wanted to play, so we piled in rex and headed over to mohegan sun. it is a nicer place anyways. not as smoky, cooler themed, and better shopping. i took steph to lush - i hope she likes her bath bomb!

we played some more games and watched them at the tables for a while, had lunch and then headed home. they still had to drive back to new hampshire for work the next day. it was a great day (although sailing would have been super fun too) and i can't wait to see them again!

daddy's princess

my mom still sends me care packages. she used to mail me quarters, even though i am a grown, married woman with a full-time job. if a girl has to go to the laundromat there is nothing to do but have quarters right? and even though jeremy worked at the bank, somehow we never had enough quarters. so we imported them from kansas. drove jeremy nuts, especially since he worked at a bank and could theoretically cash out a ten for a couple rolls of quarters any time he wanted to. anyways, now that we have free washers and dryers, my care packages now consist of magazines and spices by the ounce from spice merchant.  in my most recent box, i got a bunch of stuff including a card from my dad. after securing an adult's help to make the bracelets, rings and pendants from the cardboard and sparkle stickers inside, i am now blinged out like any good disney princess should be.

(except i had to double up the bracelets since they were not made for adult sized wrists.)

book review: infinite days

infinite days

rebecca maizel

from the back: I release you Lenah Beaudonte. Believe... and be free.
Those were the last words I could remember. When I awoke, I immediately felt a cold surface on my left cheek. An icy shiver rushed down my spine. "Rhode!" I screamed. He had to be here. There would be no world without Rhose. A door somewhere near me opened and closed. Rhose loomed over me but he was a blur. Even in the haze of that moment his icy blue eyes pierced me, down to my soul.
After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires - to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year-old, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the newfound pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her...forever?
In Infinite Days, Rebecca Maizel rewrites the rules of blood-sucking eternity with this fresh and edgy debut novel, the first in a sizzling new YA series.

my review: what i really liked about this book was the different take on the vampire legend. often vampire books have heros or heroines who change their human counterparts into vampires but theis had a vampire who just wanted to be a normal person. she gets her wish at the beginning of the novel, meets a nerdy guy who becomes her best friend and overthrows the entire social order at the preppy boarding school where her guardian, Rhose, has placed her. She was asleep for the prior century and has to learm about computers, cars and the whole works of the 21st century. By the end of the book, Lenah is forced to make some hard choices and figure out what her true priorities are. I enjoyed this novel and, after the cliff hanger of an ending, can't wait to read more in the series!

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• Becoming Human Again: Rebecca Maizel Discusses Her Upcoming Debut Novel Infinite Days (tor.com)

window kittehs

just to brighten your day (because it certainly brightened mine!)

they like to sit in the window, but usually not together. how funny! they were watching a bird or bug or something flying around the window outside because their heads were bobbing around in unison and their ears kept perking up at the exact same time. it was too much.

book review: 7 souls

7 Souls

barnabus miller and jordan orlando

From the Back: Mary expected her seventeenth birthday to be a blowout to remember, courtesy of her best friends, fellow New York City prepsters Amy and Joon, and her doting boyfriend, Trick.
Instead, the day starts badly and gets worse. After waking up in a mortifying place with a massive, unexplainable hangover, Mary soon discovers that nobody at school is even aware that it's her birthday. AS evening approaches, paranoia sets in. Mary just can't shake the feeling that someone is out to get her - and, as it turns out, she's right. Before the night is over, she's been killed in cold blood.
But murder is only the beginning of Mary's ordeal. Her soul gets trapped in a strange limbo, and she must relive the day of her death through the eyes of seven people - each of whom, she finds, had plenty of reasons to hate her. As Mary explores the mysteries of her world, discovering secrets that were hidden in plain sight while she was alive, she clings desperately to the hope that she can solve her own murder, change the past, and - just maybe - save her own life.
With its blend of suspense, horror, fantasy, and realism, 7 Souls is an adrenaline rush of a thriller.

My Review: this book was a little different from a lot of other books in that you relive parts of it through other characters eyes. the birthday day took up a large portion of the book, then events re-unfold as mary's soul visits each of her firends' eyes during brief portions of the day. there was mystery and suspense and a little bit of witchcraft, but overall, the story was about friends and how one's treatment of them makes a difference. mary's friends run the gamut from rich preppy girls that let her borrow insanely expensive dresses to nerdy guys who tutor her and are, of course, in love with her.

the characters were a little bit one dimensional but still the story offered insight into friendship and family.

overall, i liked the book, but it is not my new favorite.

beachin monday

monday we headed to rocky neck state park for the second time. this time we managed to stay on the highway for two more exits, cutting about 15 minutes off the total trip time. (you win some and lose some). there weren't very many people there, so we walked down the boardwalk a little ways then set up our towels and chairs. i should have known it was going to be a weird day since, as we were setting up our stuff, one of the lifeguards jumped down from the nearest stand, ran into the water with a shovel (like a digging shovel not a sand castle shovel) and comes back out with a giant jelly fish. she dropped it on the sand, dug a hole a buried it. then she said, "i love catching jelly fish!" and ran back into the water, presumably to catch more.

that was a little bit strange but she lost interest after a while (or switched stands - there seemed to be a lot fo that going on) and i read my book and listend to my ipod and soaked up my vitamin d for the week. after we had been there for over an hour, comsumed our subway (jeremy gets the spicy italian foot long and i like roast BEEF on a salad), and started aqcuiring new tan lines (which are the most annoying part of laying out btw, but there are no nude beaches around here - JUST KIDDING), we heard the whistle blow and a voice over the loudspeaker:

"everyone exit the ocean, this is a WATER EMERGENCY." everyone obeyed and the lifeguards came running from all the different lifeguard stands along the beach. there were about 10 guards in total. they went to a spot in the water not far from where we were all set up and all waded in. then they linked hands and made a line extending perpendicular from teh shoreline. they put on snorkel masks and put their faces in the water. while holding hands, they walked along looking in the water. for waht, we were not sure. they went about thirty feet, then went farther out in the water and came back, repeating the process. after getting back equal to their original starting point, they moved out farther in the water. at this point, they could no longer touch the bottom of the ocean, so someone would shout "one two three go" and they would dive under water, surface, and repeat.

eventually someone from the shore shouted over the loudspeaker "we found him, you can come in." apparently they were searching for a kid under water. wow. he was found on shore. i'm sure that was the happiest mom ever. but if i lost someone in the water, i would want those kids looking for that person. they had a great system and hauled ass to get it done. way to go guys!

afte that excitement we stayed for a little while longer, but then decided it was past well-baked time and we better head inside. all in all it was an entertaining day at the beach.

stonington on sunday

sunday afternoon we were planning on going to the beach but the forecast was 40% chance of rain. after getting drenched last time we attempted a beach day, we decided to head to stonington borough and shop, then run some more boring errands. of course it wound up being a gorgeous day, but that was just a bonus.

the borough shopping was not all it was cracked up to be. the store i was most interested in was closed and the clothing stores all seemed geared for women with my style but in about 20-30 years and after multiple children and lots of wine and cheese. nice stuff but not for me now. i was annoyed, because jeremy was in the mood to buy me clothes and i couldnt find a single thing i liked.

we went to target and the mall and still... nothing. he bought jeans and we bought a drying rack at target (which actually excites me... it is a sickness i know but clean laundry makes me pretty happy).

i had mild luck at tj maxx and got a couple of new things for work.

the best part of the day was walking along the boardwalk in stonington and looking at the water. public access to the shoreline was easy and the path was a beautiful walk. no one else was on it so we felt like we owned that part of the ocean for a little while. pure bliss.