The Big DumpTruck

Yesterday, Mr. Dump, Junior and I took a field trip to Rockport MA, one of my favorite places in the universe. We went to just have a nice, no pressure day, just to walk around, maybe get some chowdah and an ice cream, and take a few photos.

I met a guy who is now my new best friend. We did the whole "check out the equipment to see if we're Canon or Nikon (or whatever) people" and saw we both had Canon stuff. He had this magnificent lens on a tripod, and I was walking around with my 17-40, not the greatest lens for taking distance shots. It turns out his lens beat out my 40 10 fold...he had a 100-400mm lens. Niiiice. The cool thing was that he asked if I wanted to attach my camera to his lens to take a few shots. He showed me how his tripod worked (damn, I can't even afford his tripod, never mind the rest of his equipment!) and let me take the photo you see above. I can honestly say I had no idea there was a lighthouse within eyeshot of the end of Bareskin Neck...I don't think I had ever really spotted it before, and I certainly didn't have the fire power to take a decent photo of it.

So thank you, kind stranger! If I'm ever in the same position as you, being the one with the really good lens when a fellow Canon-ite comes by, I will let them try out my cool lens so they can tell their friends how awesome I am.

p.s If you are in the Rockport area looking for a meal with a view, I HIGHLY recommend the Blacksmith Shop, which is a block or two up (to the right) of the parking lot (the one with the town offices). I don't think a ton of people walk up that far, because the place was fairly empty, but we literally had one of the most amazing views I have ever had from a restaurant. I had a fantatic lobster/pasta dish, and the two boys both had caesar salads - Junior had his with shrimp, and Mr. Dump went with the chicken. All our meals were fantastic, but really, the meal was the amazing part. If you go to my flickr photostream (click the link on my name below the photo) you can see were we were sitting right on the edge of a deck. I will eventually upload the photo I took of the view with the iPhone. Fantastic.

Labels: restaurants, Vacation

Junior plays in the City Championship for Little League Baseball tonight. I think it would be REALLY cool if they won. I mean, who doesn't go into these things hoping for a win. I've never been on a team that won a championship. Thinking back to my Lassie League days, I was on the team that got stuck with all the strays. There was one girl who quite literally could not figure out how to swing the bat. What's weird is that I can totally see the faces of some of these girls in my head, and we're talking about not seeing them for 30+ years. Just as long as you don't ask me their names, we'll be good, I think.

Thanks to everyone who donated to Junior's Jimmy Fund fundraising efforts, whether in person or on the Jimmy Fund website. You people rock, seriously. North Leominster Little League had 4 teams playing in the tournament (at various levels) at raised a total of $15,000. I think that's very cool. I should not be hitting you up for anything here in the foreseeable future. Wait, no, I think I'll start accepting pastry donations. Please, help support the, uh, American Pastry Association, with your kind contributions of pie, cake, danish, brownies and cookies. The APA is a fine and worthy cause, and, um, fresh, homemade pastry (or one of those big danish rings from the Dutch Kitchen) is greatly appreciated. Remember our motto - The APA: Fill Our Your Piehole!

Labels: baseball, food, fun, pie

If I may be 19th century for a moment, I think I may have the vapors. (Because if I had 21st century vapors you might think I had tried to commit suicide by missing ammonia and bleach in the bathroom. But the correct sentence structure in that instance would be "I had the vapors" in the past tense because I would most likely be dead.

That's why when I put the Drain-O in the tub yesterday I didn't clean the tub afterwards. I was afraid I'd die and embarrassing death. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think I have them because I woke up and it wasn't raining. It wasn't raining, people. That is all.

[Updated: I went to look up "the vapors" to link to it and found out it maybe doesn't mean what I thought it did. I thought it was one of those things where you faint from shock. It appears it might be related to hysterical depression and flatulence. I don't think two non-rainy days in a row gave me gas and made me depressed. Quite the opposite.]

Labels: cleaning, weather

I found an email address at the Huffington Post where you can request permission to reprint or use some of their material. I found that really funny, so that's the email address I wrote to, because I figure THAT recipient would understand the importance of asking permission.

All I said is that I wanted someone to point out to Mr. Alcindor that just because something is located using a search engine doesn't mean you are free to take it and use it as you want. And yes, I understand that these days you're taking your chances whenever you post anything to the web, because people steal and steal and steal. One chick had her [not nude] self-portrait taken from Flickr and used in dirty magazine which was VERY VERY BAD because a)she didn't want to be in a dirty magazine and b)she was under 18. It's hard for people like me, who have seen all their ad revenue and amazon referrals run completely dry, so that we don't make ANY money doing this, lose their unique ideas and creative work used elsewhere without permission. I typically grant it whenever asked. But you hafta ask, people.

Labels: stuff

It's never good to get an email from someone with only two words and a link in it, if the two words are "Uhhh, Jody?"

So I have no idea why this person has sent me a link to a Huffington Post article (originally published in 2007, republished Saturday), until I get about halfway down, and see, much to my amazement, my picture. A picture I modified using Paint Shop Pro 3.5 years ago, that to this day floats around the internet as an example of a bad makeup job. Even though it's not makeup, it was me playing with photo editing software. A photo that originally appeared here on the BDT on the day of my 40th birthday party, because I was wearing my birthday tiara.

Mr. Dump asked me if I was going to contact them for credit, and I said "Are you kidding me?" Here's the thing. That's not how I look. That's not real makeup, and I don't smoke. Do you think people will take the time to find that out? Do you think they will look at the original photo and the modified one and figure it all out? No, they'll think I'm Tammy-Faye-Courtney-Love LaFerriere. And that would be bad.

On the other hand, I find it INCREDIBLY amusing that a photo of me is used next to one of Reese Witherspoon on a hugely popular multi-national website. I hope people don't confuse us.

Labels: funny, me, photos

Photo take today at Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth NH, as Mr. Dump made every effort on the planet to give me a typical touristy vacation day. They have some old-fashioned toys available for today's modern child to try out. Junior was VERY taken with rolling a hoop and trying to get the little wooden ball into the cup. (Shades of Stewie Griffin, anyone?)

He was also very taken with the Jacob's Ladder toy. Seriously, we were amused by how much he loved these hundred + year-old toys. I could trade in a bunch of his video games and buy some little wooden toys. I'll bet that would go over really well.

Actually, this is a kid whose most valuable possession is a beat-to-hell blue plastic bat. So wooden toys might be good.

Please note the blinding sunlight in this photo (actually screwed up most of my photos so I have to add fill light in post-processing). After we grabbed a traditional Irish Pub [late] lunch at Molly Malone's (Mr. Dump had bangers and mash, nuff said.) we headed home - into the worst thunderstorm so far this summer. And that's saying something. I'm waiting for the power to go off.

Labels: fun, junior, Vacation

Finally got Junior's Team added to the Jimmy Fund web site (the manager is supposed to do it, but our league didn't, so I took matters into my own hands).

http://www.jimmyfundevents.kintera.org/littleleague/laferriere

I have only a few days before the donation deadline for physical checks, but you can also use a credit or debit card to donate on the official Jimmy Fund website and they'll handle everything for you.

I set up a web page for donations, and if you're interested in seeing the most handsome second baseman on the planet, you can see a photo of him collecting outside of Wyman's last Saturday at the donation website.

I appreciate everyone who even visits the site to check out my kid. *proud parent*

Labels: baseball, charity, junior

Lots of reasons why, but the least of which is that Target did not have my deodorant in stock when I went in there last week. That is NOT COOL. I will be swinging by CVS to see if they still carry it, and if they don't, all hell is going to break loose. I CANNOT wear baby powder-scented deodorant. It does not and will not work for me.

Also, my right foot hurts. A lot. I don't know what I did, it feels like a combination of a muscle problem and a bone spur or something, but it's impacting my ability to walk like a normal person. Unless normal people have an inability to walk normally because one of their feet has raging heel pain. That could be, I really don't know.

Lastly, I'm mad that last year at this time, we were just starting our Cape Cod vacation. Seven glorious ocean-view days. It's breaking my heart to not be standing in that living room, looking out at the sea right now. And I haven't even been to the beach since it officially became summer, just that one trip in the spring. I sat in one of those little chairs you use at the edge of the ocean, you know, to dip your toes in the water, but I had no reason to buy one, even if it was comfortable. Sad. Very sad.

So yes, I'm cranky today. It's Monday, and it feels like it's been Monday for a couple of days in a row.

Labels: cranky, sad, summer