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May 30, 2006

first weekend in misquamicut

i went down to misquamicut for the weekend with sporty. before we drove down, i went to sue's bridal shower. unfortunately, from where i was seated, i couldn't get a decent picture of the bride

there was a chair set up in front of the gifts so sue could show us the stuff as it was opened. there was also a microphone for those not-so-obvious items. there were about 10 tables of people, so it was a good idea to have that extra sumthin-sumthin

i liked the childhood pictures that were used throughout all the ceremony stuff. i think it's a neat juxtaposition to show a person before they even had any kinda clue about what rights-of-passage are.... and the cake looked scrumptious! unfortunately i wasn't able to have any as i left before it was served. i'd caught a ride with abby and cathy, both of whom had to leave for their own reasons. once i was home, we headed south in the convertable. as usual, it was quite a trip. there weren't that many people out-n-about the beach area, but there was a bit of action around the house. the pages, close family friends who live accross the street, had a variety of house guests for the weekend. dona's cousin and her husband were two of them...the husband is bobby unser (http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1990/Bobby_Unser_main.htm), whom i had honestly never heard of before. however, i'm sure it would suprise no one that i'm not a racecar enthusiast...got nothing against'em, just not down with it. any who, the unsers used our driveway for their behemouth vehicle. for some odd reason, there was also a lot of hat wearing this weekend, both with regulars new and the old timers as the weekend drew to a close, mr.unser (his own pit crew on this trip), prepped the behemouth and drove that sucker out in some close quarters (that he backed into i should add) (did i mention that this sucker had bay windows that were automated to extend from the body of the vehicle when it was parked? well, yeah, it did.) and with the dunebuggy in tow they initiated the weekend departure....leaving behind a few smoked trout as a thank-you... does anyone have a suggestion on what to do with the trout?

Posted by Meagen at 12:51 PM | Comments (2)

May 27, 2006

a true czelusniak sheabang

tully and sue's engagement party was tonight. WHAT A BLAST! it was a true czelusniak party, with all the tasty polish foods, plentiful adult beverages, and singing to the wee hours that a body could ask for, and then some

here we see, from the left; the back of someone's head, linda rainville, bob czelusniak, joe cross, tully, and the back of cathy cross's head...for a few other shots like this, check the photoalbum area. i was a little too busy enjoying the adult beverages to remember to use the camera i hauled around all night....how silly....

Posted by Meagen at 12:42 PM | Comments (1)

May 24, 2006

sporty's back!

and in true sporty fashion, we picked him up from his 8PM arrival at midnight...when it finally got in....from florida

hey, they don't put THOSE on chipmunks!!!

Posted by Meagen at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2006

not just for second showings anymore

the di vinci code opened in northampton this weekend (opening weekend too; i was impressed with the academy of music). i loved the book, and i wanna see the movie, but what if it isn't all that it could be? would i be disappointed the way i was initially disappointed with prisoner of azkaban? sheesh, thankfully i got over that quick....i learned you re-read the book AFTER the movie; it's more like a personal extended version of the film....yup-yup, that's what the 21st century has come to....

Posted by Meagen at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

wedding preparations=tutorial in gardening

as i've mentioned previously, i'm trying my thumb at the garden/yard thing, to see how green it is

so far, so good, with the seeds i got started.

however, getting them in the ground is another matter. in addition to the rain, there's the whole matter of my never having transplanted more than houseplants, from one pot to another pot....why i would think this was so much different than transferring from pot to ground, i don't know, but i did. i found out that there was a bunch of planting going on over at the sullivans' (where the wedding reception will be held) yesterday, so i went to offer my assistance. i figured it would be a very practical tutorial; not only would i be learning, but i would actually be able to say i'd done a little bit in assisting with wedding preparations. now, i don't want to spoil anything by showing everything...which i suppose i couldn't really do, since not everything's been done. HOWEVER, i will be only showing snippets of the "wedding carpet" as phil calls it.
speaking of phil, here he is under the yellow arrow...

although working on one of the original paddle boats from look park at the moment, he's been doing major yard prep, with

my brother tully.
here's gail, overlooking part of the carpet, as she's been designing the flora arrangement of the carpet

and here i am, just in case the photo's themselves weren't enough to prove i was there...(and might i mention that gail and phil are brother and sister, which was funny to me, in that my brother and i were there too)

although i look kinda upset, i was really just blowing hair out of my eyes...i wasn't upset AT ALL, because in addition to helping plants summa these

and summa these

which i assure you is only about a 20th of the entire wedding carpet...
there wound up being the glorious reward of having a lunch and snack made for us by phil's mom...who would be about the same age as my grandmother, if gram or gi were alive...needless to say this was an exceptional treat to be eating ol'skool food that wasn't made by me! we had asparagus on toast (first local of the season, and everyone knows western mass has the best asparagus grown in the country), and date filled cookies for the afternoon snack. dude, i'm talking TOTAL TREAT OF TREATS!!! i wish i'd thought to have taken pictures, but i was too consumed by the food...i mean consuming the food!

Posted by Meagen at 12:29 PM | Comments (8)

May 13, 2006

i suppose it should seem natural

this is the wysteria growing outside the front door. as i've told a few who are in correspondence with me, it smells divine..my mom planted these vines a wicked long time ago, so i'm not suprised that they've continued to flourish over the years; she had a VERY green thumb..

nor am i suprised that the lilac trees are bowing under the weight of their current blooms

although i know this is not necessarily great for the tree itself; i'm currently researching how i'm supposed to deal with this sitch.


what i AM suprised/elated to the point of dancing about the house over is:






ALL THE SEEDS I PLANTED ARE SPROUTING!!!
i should mention that i think the heating pad is really helping the vegetables along, since it's been incredibly damp the past week. i did have some concerns about being late in getting the seeds going, and the growing season, and whatnot. i've double-checked with the farmer's almenac, and as long as these guys are in the ground by the endish of the month, the plants should be ok. i am soooooooooooo stoked!!!

Posted by Meagen at 05:50 AM | Comments (5)

May 10, 2006

rainy daze

today is yukky, and rainy, and i know i'm not going to take a walk today. i know this may mean a night of insomnia ahead....although, sage may be coming over for dinner, and perhaps that means a bit of wine (not the usual whine), which may help out in that area. i just can't seem to get out of my pajamas.... i do have to do to the store; i have no milk for coffee tomorrow, so i suppose i might as well do that now. it's prolly the warmest part of the day. i'm really struggling in some kind of fogbank...and it's not even drug induced; i'm so confuzed...
what you see on the table there is a new piece of knitting. it's been kinda chilly here the past couple of days, so i started a lap blanket with some wool my aunt sent. i don't know what it is, but it's definately got some mohair in it, cuz i've noticed it on my clothes...you know how mohair do...
here's the little sketch i did of that bird, as i DID say i'd scan it in..

Posted by Meagen at 09:12 AM | Comments (10)

May 09, 2006

life in a small town

(one of the lilac trees in the back yard)
with the sole exception that my acquaintance has dwindled to about a tenth of its size in san francisco, with the reprecussion that i have gone up to four days in a row without really talking to anyone, i've been pleasantly suprised at how happy i am to be back in northampton.

there are some issues at night, having a lot to do with the size of the space, age of the building and the city's bike path running behind the house, but i believe once i have a dog, these will subside. there is a TON to be done in the house and the yard, and it seems that the more physical labor i complete during the day, the more easy it is to sleep at night. there is NO SHORTAGE OF WORK TO BE COMPLETED. in fact, there's so much, i'm completely overwhelmed. since i'm having difficulty with establishing any kind of routine, other than a daily walk at some point before 3PM, i'm sort of approaching everything in a haphazard way. dude, i still have stuff to finish putting away...well, actually, we're supposed to have some rain over the next week, which means i can't do yard work, so i suppose i'll prolly finish all the putting away by the end of the week.....providing i can figure out where the hell the salvation army drop-off had moved to; i suppose it would be needless to say that i need to clean out a buncha stuff before i can finish moving things in... then, the inside work can begin. everything is digustingly dirty, is in desperate need of a paint job, and there are actually a lot of repairs to be done; i have to wait for sporty on that, since i don't know who he likes to work with, what he thinks should be done now, etc. the yard i can get more of a handle on, because it's alot more obvious. i've gotten some seeds started, the garden mostly cleaned out, i'm only about a quarter of the way finished with weeding, and i still have more grass seed to lay out....not to mention the garage, which is even more desperate than the house for some organization and cleaning....aka-i don't want to buy tools that are simply buried under insulation, tarps, and assorted other crap that's just been tossed everywhere...
in terms of entertainment, i have been spending quite a bit of time reading and watching the wildlife in the yard. so far i have seen sparrow, finches, wrens, robins, blue jays, cardinals, and even a raven! i also found out that we have one of the world's largest woodchucks living under our house. i was out reading on the porch, and it crawled out from underneath, and left me speachless. tully (my brother) says it's been living there for at least 6 years, and although i thought it prolly weighed about 15 pounds, he thinks it's more around 30!!! in terms of reading, i've become a jane austen junkie; since i've been home i've read SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and MANSFIELD PARK (which, by-the-by, takes place in northampton, england). although i'm really tempted to just start right into EMMA, i think i'm gonna try and finish THE TWO TOWERS first, so i don't burn out...plus i'm convinced it's having quite a negative affect on my own speach....i'm hoping to develop a more regular schedule, to be finished with work around the house at 2PM every day, so i have the rest of the afternoon to more artistic/creative endeavors. the only creative thing i've done so far, other than some knitting (finishing sean's sox), is to sketch the poor sparrow who flew into one of the sliding glass doors and had a most horrific death before my eyes (does death really have to follow me everywhere?!?!?!?). i'd finished cleaning the glass panels of all this tree sap sporty kept calling "condensation inside the windows", and apparently i did too good of a job. at the time it happened, i was completely paniced, cuz what do i know about birds and how to save them in life-threatening moments? after the crying subsided, because of course i felt i was to blame for the whole of the thing and it was extremely traumatic to see the blood coming out of it's beak, i decided all i could do was try to honor the thing by drawing it after it had died. in fact, it came out pretty well, even for such a sad situation. there are a number of other projects i want to venture into, but i think it will only happen once i have something resembling a routine....


and now for some pictures....i'm kinda just throwing these in because i'm still working on photoshopping the ones from my trip, and some of the activities from before the trip. these were snapped as i took one of my walking routes this morning...it's gonna rain today, and i wish they were sun-shiney kinds pictures, but they're not

this is one of my favorite dorms at smith college. until i saw the movie of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, this is what i imagined the dashwood's cottage at barton park to look like.



this is the president's house at smith college....i've actually partied in this house when i was much younger...any details of which will be retold only in person...anywho, it's how i envisioned norland to look (again before the movie), and as it so happens, it's almost directly behind the "cottage"...smith college is beyond beautiful, and i will do a much more complete photo essay at some point in the future. i have always compared the campus of any academic institution to it, and none that i've seen have come close to being as beautiful, except, perhaps, trinity college, but that's in hartford, and who the hell would want to live in hartford (would be like living in west oakland, but without the benefit of having san franscisco or berekeley near by; think employment opportunities)? i shouldn't say that...springfield would be way worse...but now i'm just sh!@#t-talking...



this is paradise pond. i would like to point out that the ice skating only happens in the winter, when the pond has frozen over. it's about a 10 minute walk from my house, and i've spent a lot of time there in winters past. it's almost like a currier and ives kinda experience...wicked ol'skool new england!



this is the greenhouse i've mentioned to some, as being a miniature version of what's in golden gate park. once i've gotten some picts from inside, you will especially notice the comparison. it's surrounded by one of the botanical gardens on campus... there's also a wonderful little pond with a bronze statue of a heron in it...



and finally, this is northampton's public library; FORBES LIBRARY. it's the place i went to get my nancy drew fix as a child (although i do own a few of the books). i will also try to do a photo essay of this, because it's an amazing building. they've done enough work on it that it's quite changed since i was in high school (how i wish i had pictures from then; SUPER, SUPER GOTHIC!!! i have quite a few memories as i spent a lot of my time there), but it's still pretty elegant for a public library.....how does it compare to YOUR hometown library?

Posted by Meagen at 10:25 AM | Comments (2)

May 03, 2006

GREETINGS FROM NORTHAMPTON!!!

i've made it to northampton, but i'm still struggling to get settled in. today, for example, is the first day i've had on-line services at home since i arrived. i'm also with faster service here, which i'm hoping will encourage me to post more(since posting up pictures on dial-up basically sucks!) for today, though, this will be all. my brother and his fiance are coming for dinner tonight, and i gotta clear all the crap off the kitchen table and floor, in order to be able to cook and serve them (which i'm pretty much looking forward to)...then on to mecca normal who are playing at a gallery on main street. although this is in direct conflict to the next episodes of TEXAS RANCH HOUSE, i'm pretty much stoked!!!

is anyone else out there watching TEXAS RANCH HOUSE? is anyone else suprised that nacho got fired?

Posted by Meagen at 08:35 AM | Comments (2)