Endings and Beginnings

Well, in theory, it is the beginning of spring. Really, it is pretty hard to imagine spring, given how much snow there is on the ground still.

(not going to torture you with more snow photos, there really have been enough, I think)

But, Giffords opened, and that must be some sort of a sign of spring. In the fall, we ate A LOT of Giffords. An embarrassing amount. But it was so fun. So many flavors to choose from, all so good. It was exciting to see that they were going to open, and I quickly pulled over to take a picture. But, in truth, I don’t quite feel like it is ice-cream eating season yet.

*********

Today was pretty much the end of the ski season for us. It was the last day at Titcomb, and Alden and I had a perfectly wonderful few hours skiing, while Milo was home napping and Ray was stuck at home (okay, home being the responsible adult for Milo, but, in truth, it was all planned as it was because Ray is on call at work, and is therefore tethered to his phone and computer, not really able to leave the immediate vicinity of the house.).

Titcomb was actually supposed to close last weekend, but, they stayed opened one more Saturday, because the conditions have been so good. We are quite sad that they are closed and that we have to be done with the winter fun that we have been having there. But, I guess it is a good thing that we had so much fun there in the first place. Only nine more months until they open again.

*********

In other juxtapositions, there’s the indoor woodpile, with all the wood we’ll still need to burn, because it is still pretty damn cold.

And, there’s some seriously good late afternoon light – picture taken at about 6:00, or even a bit later.

Seven Days

Only in Maine. Only in Farmington. Only at Titcomb.

Alden and I, just for fun, set ourselves a goal, a challenge, really: ski every day for seven days (in a row, that is).

We did it (concessions, confessions, and more details below.)

It began on Saturday February 23rd.

Saturday: weekend, family skiing (which means the juggling - one parent with Milo, staying home at first and then heading to Titcomb, the other at Titcomb with Alden skiing. Lunch together as a family, parent switch, one person goes back home with Milo for the nap, the other gets to ski.)

[picture is of the "apparatus" at the top of the T-bar. I know it just looks like some strange contraption, which I suppose it is.]

Sunday: repeat of Saturday..

Monday: I pick up Alden from school, we head over for a few runs before going to get Milo.

Tuesday: Alden has his after school ski program. I go over during that, ski by myself for a bit, then he and I ski together after his program ends.

Wednesday: we have our x-c program this day. All season, Alden has been wanting to ski alpine after finishing with x-c. Today, we do it - switching skis at 5:20 or so, and heading up the T-bar for a little under the lights/in the snow skiing.

Thursday: repeat of Tuesday, though Alden skis after the program with Ray, while I manage Milo.

Friday: Annual Winter Fun Day for Alden's elementary school. They spend the day at Titcomb - you guessed it - skiing... Like I said at the beginning - only in Farmington...

That's seven days.

Concessions: I actually only managed 6 days. Alden and I would have needed to ski together after school on Friday for me to get seven. He was so wiped out by his full day of skiing that by then that he didn't want to ski more.

Confessions: Thursday, annual potluck for Alden's Alpine Snow Kids program. Milo ate really well (there were about 6 kinds of mac and cheese on offer. Toddler culinary paradise.) Alden was so busy skiing with Ray, and then playing outside with friends, he never even came in for the supper part. So, cake for supper when we got home. It was carrot cake, though, so, doesn't that make it sort of reasonable??)

more details: Alden went on to ski Saturday - on x-c skis, but hiking up and then skiing down a downhill trail; and then on Sunday we skied at Mt Abram - his first real "big" ski mountain experience.

List of Things to Do: Visit Maine

If you move to Maine, then your friends who do not live in Maine, and who keep lists of things they want to do during their lives (lists which include visit Maine), can come and visit you and check that one off.

Apparently, Karen has always wanted to visit Maine, and now that we are here, she had the perfect opportunity. [Other things on her list include crazy ideas like “go for a helicopter ride”, “go for a glider ride”. Wish I could remember a few more (maybe they’re not all as crazy as those two – both of which, I might add, she has done. Crazy brave woman.)…]

Others (not in Maine) questioned her decision to come in February; and, I know that even though February is the shortest month, people in Maine also think it is pretty damn long and brutal and really want it to be over as soon as possible.

Not me. I am enjoying February tremendously.

For one thing, I got a one week vacation during this short little month. This following only four weeks of being back at work after the Christmas break. How cool is that? I didn’t even have any major sets of papers to grade (sadly, I will when the April vacation rolls around…). So, I have gotten to have a lovely little week off, full of leisurely mornings at home, before packing Milo off to d-care (hey, I have to pay for it anyway, plus he is at the stage where he doesn’t want to leave when we go to pick him up and talks about the place even when he is at home), baking sweet treats, reading out loud to Alden and Ray in the middle of the day (we are reading the Swallows and Amazons series – we’re on the second one, Swallowdale, right now. Highly recommended.), playing Settlers of Catan, and skiing.

And, for another thing, we had really cool friends come to visit in February. Karen said it didn’t matter that it was February, you could still drink wine and eat cake. And so we did.

Other highlights included skiing.

[Samantha: we are really proud of you for being such a brave and good skier and T-bar rider. You were awesome!]

Walking on frozen water.


Reading and snuggling.


And, introducing Milo to the delights of licking the frosting spatula (This is the wacky cake frosting. He already knew he really liked wacky cake, but, he didn’t realize that it could actually get even better than that.)

[further documentation of the eating cake part of the visit to appear soon at make more cakes.

And, more pictures and the ability to see them in a slightly larger format over at flickr.]

Thank you so much for coming to visit us, David and Karen and Samantha. It was wonderful!!

You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two....

I took Alden to see Oliver! (the musical) a few weeks ago. I had these vague but fond memories of it from my own childhood – possibly just from listening to the record that I think my mom had. The show was getting a lot of “local press,” that is, emails sent out over the staff/faculty listserv saying people should go; posters around town, etc. I knew also that various people we at least sort of knew would probably be in it.


It was a totally classic “Community Theatre” production (and just the sort of thing I love about living in a small town in Maine*). A little blurb in the back of the program states:

“community theatre, like the name implies, is theatre produced, constructed, and performed by community members. Among community enterprises, it’s a unique venture. To put on a show at SRP, we use virtually all of the resources that the community gives us. Theatre brings together at times, young and old; skilled and unskilled trades and business people; men and women; children, parents, grandparents, singles, couples, and families; and people of all shapes, sizes, and religious persuasions to create something bigger than ourselves and then present it to the people of the community for their enjoyment.”

Oh, I just love this sort of thing.

The cast included, broadly: kids from Alden’s school, faculty/colleagues from UMF (and their children) – some of whom I know better than others, UMF students, older students from the local school district, teachers from the local high school (some of whom have been mentors/hosts for my teacher ed students). More specifically: the little girl/neighbor who lives across the street from us, one of my current students, and one of the former occupants of the house we are now living in.

Alden dragged his feet at first – I think he thought it would be like a regular big screen movie, and he really has an aversion to those (too scary, still). But, I insisted. For one thing, I had bought the tickets and they were NOT CHEAP. Also, it is just the sort of thing I am always wanting to do but then never manage to make happen. This time I was bound and determined to actually do it. And, I liked the idea of sharing this with Alden. So, off we went, on a cold, cold January night.

As soon as the music (played by a small, but genuine live orchestra) began, I think we were both pretty drawn in. For me, the familiarity of the songs/music, for Alden, the newness of the experience. At intermission, I asked him what he thought. “Top notch!” he says. I offered him the choice of going home, but he said he wanted to stay. In retrospect, I wish I had taken him home. The second half is a bit darker, especially with Bill Sykes offing the lovely Nancy. Alden definitely did not like that and I think it put a bit of a damper on the experience for him.

*My above comments about it being “classic community theatre” and characteristic of small town Maine are not in any way meant to suggest that it was a low quality production. It wasn’t. Alden was right, it really was top notch.

We had some fun the next morning scouting around on YouTube and listening to bits and pieces from some old production. I’ll leave you with this, one of our favorites from the show.

A girl can work AND ski....

Turns out, if you live in Maine, where I live, you can work a full day (starting pretty early, I might add, and including a quick trip to the pediatrician for a kid with an ear infection), and still fit in a few runs on the ski hill after work.

Yup, I’m not kidding. Today I did a bit of early morning before the kids were up school work (as well as threw together a lasagna). Then we entered complete crisis mode, as one kid woke up with a serious earache, and the other woke up with wicked cranky pants on. Nevertheless, we proceeded as the day was intended to be – me to work and kids to school/daycare. I then managed to teach both my classes, and attend a meeting in between, and meet with an advisee in need… Then I headed off to Titcomb, so I could see Alden during his break in the middle of ski program (when a colleague heard that he had an ear infection, she said, “and you are going to make him go skiing?” Damn right I am. And, he’s going to like it, too. Really, he was excited and wanted to go skiing, ear infection notwithstanding.)

I skied one run by myself, and then three or four with Alden, after he finished his ski program.

A few concessions:

I did let my morning class out a bit early, so I could get Alden to the doctor.
I was late to my lunchtime meeting.
A babysitter picked Alden up from school and took him to his ski program (I was still teaching class then).
Ray did pick up Milo from daycare.
I did use no-boil noodles for the lasagna.

Lest you think I have turned into superwoman, I wanted to be clear about those few things.

Anyway, the point was not so much about what I managed to do, on this day that had quite a rocky start, but, to note how cool it is that I can go and do a little skiing after a day at work.

Sunscreen in January

My mom says she likes it when I write blog posts (instead of just putting pictures up on flickr), because then there is some writing. So, I thought I’d try to get back in the habit a bit.

Sunday, Alden and I went skiing over at Titcomb. It’s 15 minutes, door to door. No lift lines, really (okay, no lifts, either, at least in the vertical traditional sense: just two t-bars and a rope-tow), such a quick walk from the parking lot, and there you are, skiing. Actually, I dropped Alden at the bottom of the rope tow, from the car, that is – you can drive right to the rope-tow, and then let him ski there alone for the few minutes it took for me to go get rental gear (still waiting for my gear to arrive.…).

We had a great time. Alden already has a sense of the mountain, the trails, the different things he likes to do: little jumps and bumps, cut-throughs from one trail to another, paths and patterns he likes to follow. He has not yet started his after-school ski program, but he already can easily get down the mountain, and it is a delight to watch him.

It was a lovely sunny day. I put sunscreen on us both and wore my sunglasses the whole time.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We interrupt our regular programming (meaning, the part where I try to catch up on "old" events, and back-date posts so there is some semblance of "historical accuracy") to bring you an up to the minute post about the WEATHER. Yup, we got snow!!!!!!

No school. Home for the day. Big fun.

No chance that Ray will run out of shoveling work. You know how much he loves to shovel.

Alden has snowboarded, shoveled, and been sledding.

The only bad thing is that I don't yet have boots for Milo (poor second kid, I never buy him anything NEW. He is pretty much always in Alden and Max's hand-me-downs. When Alden was this age, we lived in Seattle, so, there are, unfortunately, no snow boots. Need to get on the phone with LLBean.