weekend

my mom and dad drove up for the weekend, which was marked by hurricanish weather on saturday and then a perfectly beautiful sunny cool maine late summer day on sunday. we met miss gliss at arabica on saturday afternoon to bid her adieu before she heads off to lille, france for a year.
























my parents treated us to delicious pizzas at bonobo saturday night. below, boo tried on bean's new ira glasses*:
























bean and boo both had very tiny crème brûlées for dessert, and i am now officially inspired to buy myself a little kitchen blowtorch.
























we went for a lovely long eastern prom walk on sunday and had iced coffee from bard (i am now holding all iced coffee to the 1369 standard, and bard's didn't quite make the grade, though it wasn't bad). some time over the course of the weekend, bean finished her owl sweater.
























she doesn't get her knitting ability from her mother. this is a gorgeous cabled sweater (the first sweater she's attempted) in a soft undyed wool. she will be completely finished when she sews tiny buttons on to be the owls' eyes.


























*that's my name for them, anyway. i think anyone who wears them looks a bit like ira glass.

summer job

bean has been babysitting a lot this summer. her charge is this awesome baby, e:
























here they are getting ready for a morning stroll from our house downtown:
























and today boo is acting as assistant babysitter:
























bean was a little nervous when she started this job, since e is the youngest baby she's taken care of. however, she has quickly come to really love hanging out with her, reading her books, pushing her around in the stroller, and feeding her cottage cheese. e's a sweet sweet baby with a silly sense of humor. i especially love watching bean and boo pushing the stroller down the street - they look like the nordic wondertwin babysitting team!

18

artemis turned eighteen yesterday. yeah, i know - crazy, right?* for the past five years or so, we've been meeting her and her family for a birthday picnic at kettle cove, and there's never been a year that the weather wasn't just perfect. last night we saw the loveliest sunset ever. and ate some delicious picnic food, too.




















*maybe even crazier is that the animal lover turned fourteen the day before! all of these kids are growing up at a ridiculous rate.

together

there are days that i love maine so much i could cry.

mean mama's neighborhood

just a few notes from the neighborhood this morning (m and i were outside painting the trim around the new windows).


**we kept hearing someone yelling at their dog, and they were either saying, "HARRY!" or "LARRY!" or possibly "GARY!"

**you know you live in a small town (masquerading as a small city) when your dental hygienist calls hello to you from her car as she passes.

**an unapologetic motorcyclist was proudly blasting everybody's working for the weekend, which brilliantly and poignantly rhymes "everybody's working for the weekend" with "everybody's goin' off the deep end."

dream job?

Are you friendly, outgoing and physically active? Can you be all of the above while wearing a large Acorn costume?

who, me?

oh, nothing. just drinking a delicious glass of homemade kombucha. this is batch number three, and while it's still not perfect (not fizzy enough), it's way better than my second batch was. which is funny because last time i was quite scientific about the whole thing and this time i was just in a hurry - i lost track of how long i'd fermented the kombucha, and i bottled it quickly and added 1/2 cup of apricot mango juice to each bottle. i also tasted it a lot sooner after putting it in the fridge (maybe three days, instead of closer to a week). so it's sweet/sour, but not too much of either, and has a hint of carbonation. for my next batch, i'm using earl grey tea instead of plain black tea.

college tour

bean is going to be a senior in high school this year, somehow, so i suppose it makes sense that she's thinking about applying to college right about now (although, having lived without her for an entire year, m and i are in no rush to send her off again on her next big adventure). i took her to boston for a couple of days this week to check out brandeis and tufts, and we had a great time despite the official heat wave we endured.

first up was brandeis, right outside boston in waltham, mass. here is bean (on the right) beside the castle, which is the weirdest building on campus, housing a dorm and a coffeehouse. it looks like it belongs at storyland.
























she liked a lot of things about brandeis, especially their tradition of inclusivity and the influences of jewish culture. we had a sweet, slightly nervous tour guide, and we sweated like pigs. for lunch we found a macrobiotic restaurant in waltham called masao's kitchen where we ate plates of hot food in a space that was not air conditioned. we felt healthy but even hotter.

the next day we checked out tufts, whose mascot is jumbo the elephant.



















bean was very impressed with tufts - our tour guide was really wonderful, the campus is lovely, and she loved how close it is to the davis square t stop. tufts has an emphasis on globalism, international travel, and language acquisition that seemed like a great fit with bean and her interests. she asked lots of questions, and we're planning to return after school starts so she can get a feel for the campus when it's full of students. my mom came along on this tour expecting to be bored out of her mind, but she was pleasantly surprised!
























much iced coffee was consumed. above, iced americano from 1369, and bean with her brand new ipod touch, a gift from my dad!

mom took us out to lunch at the buddhist cultural center, one of my favorite places to eat in all of boston. again, the food is healthy as can be, but it is SO good. below, the lunch special, with the most delicious tofu skins and stir fried veggies and perfect brown rice. bean and i also had bubble tea.
























the next stage in bean's college plan is a trip to chicago with m to tour the university of chicago. she's also interested in checking out columbia, barnard, and nyu. i can hardly believe that in four months or so she'll have mailed off all of her applications.

more friends

my bestest friend holly came to visit for a few days this week, and she brought her amazing kids evan and maia with her. it's been a few years since they've made it up to maine from their house in connecticut, and it was wonderful to have them here. we managed to pack in lots of expeditions and still had plenty of time for lazing around drinking coffee while maia, evan, and boo played with our playmobil collection (maia calls the playmobil people "lillies," which i love).

one night we drove out pine point road to eat some fried food at ken's place (us vegetarian types pretty much dined on coleslaw and onion rings, while holly & co. had lobster rolls). there was also ice cream eating involved:



















evan and bean had root beer floats:
























we strolled around town, took the gang to arabica, and just about everyone picked out some yarn at knit wit for various knitting projects (have i mentioned that since bean got home from germany, she and boo are looking - adorably - like nordic twins? they are almost exactly the same height now, and have nearly identical hair! i need to take more of these "twin" photos before he grows taller. also, in this picture, evan looks like he could be their little brother).
























on wednesday night, we drove up to topsham to emily's house for a fabulous picnic. eva and nathan were there too, as was martha, pictured below with holly (i stole this photo from martha, in fact, since i neglected to document this gathering):



















it was over too fast! i missed them so much when i woke up this morning. holly forgot to dig up some lamb's ears from my garden before she left, so i am already scheming about when i can drive to connecticut with bags full of plants and dirt...

happy birthday, minnow!

minnow is seven today! happy birthday, sweet pup!

nature

today while bean was in cambridge at her incredibly intensive, two-day, 18-hour long SAT prep class, m and boo and i went to the wells nature reserve for a lovely peaceful walk (sorry, bean!). it is an absolutely gorgeous place to stroll, with a picturesque old barn and paths through the marsh and woods. it feels so much like block island there, kind of open and breezy with a lot of low-growing foliage and the smell of the ocean just ahead. the trail ended at drakes island beach, a gorgeous stretch of soft, sparkly sand.
























it was an impossibly perfect day, too. breeze. sun. puffy clouds floating across the sky.
























a perfect day for a milo in maine photo shoot, actually!

field gallery

on friday night, boo performed at field gallery with a bunch of his friends. he plays a nintendo ds with korg synthesizer application; his music is a mix of programmed and improvised electronic, synthy tunes. it was really great, and he had an impressive turnout of friends, acquaintances, and people who stumbled upon the gallery while artwalking.


boo and his music:



















boo, derek, and artie:



















boo and friends from the doorway of field:
























the audience poured out the door onto the sidewalk:
























boo's friends leander (also on a ds) and mitchell (on guitar) also played at various times throughout the evening. heather, matt, nick and ava came to cheer boo on, and afterward they treated us to milkshakes and fries at silly's:

a week with many friends

this week was full of friends, both real friends and "friends." we referred to our roofers, insulation guys, window guys, and contractor as our "friends."* m even gave them each a nickname (the two i can recall were "think safety" and "bandanna"). it was awkward having them around, but it sure was worth it. here are some of the new windows in our sun room, which we now need to paint, but which are otherwise complete:



















and the same windows from the outside:



















(not pictured: insulation in the walls! insulation in the ceiling!)

also this week our good friends from baltimore, susan, erin, and sylvie, came to see us for a few days. erin is bean's very oldest friend (they met at preschool when they were three and spent their days painting together, mostly elaborate mashups of sea creatures and planets). susan and i would trade babysitting a few times a week, and i used to love pushing baby boo and baby sylvie around in a double stroller and having people ask if they were twins.

bean, boo, erin and sylvie have a tradition that's lasted about six years now: every summer, they create a restaurant at our house or at susan's house in baltimore. we take them to the grocery store with their list and buy the ingredients, but otherwise, they put together a meal from start to finish and serve us in a separate room. this year, the restaurant was in our newly tidied up sun room, and the theme was "fancy schmancy." they served us an 8 or 9 course meal, and it was amazingly delicious. like, you would pay good money for this food. here is the first course, stuffed mushrooms:



















and here are three of the four chefs (the fourth had fallen asleep on the couch due to his hard work and aching teeth) with dessert, a vegan peach cake with raspberry filling and blackberries:

























*we were able to have this work done on our house (all of which is directly related to energy efficiency) thanks to the portland owner occupied rehab program, which is a really amazing (and i think underutilized) option.

yo, check out his grillz

boo got braces yesterday!



before:
























during:
























after:
























so far, he is not a fan of them. ask him again in a couple of weeks!

a very fine house

we've been spending a lot of quality time with a whole bunch of worker guys. two or three of them are on our roof at all times, pulling off the old and hammering on the new. the last couple of days the front of our house has been shrouded in a blue tarp which makes us feel like we're living inside some eerie little cave or something.



















roof tiles go raining down past that blue tarp, and feet appear in windows. we awake around eight every morning to the sound of pounding and the whole house shaking.



















the roof is pretty exciting, but even more thrilling is the fact that we are getting all new windows and insulation in our sunroom, effectively turning what has always been a summer-only room into a year-round one. it is also just about the prettiest room in our house, surrounded by lovely old hydrangea bushes and filled with lovely light.

rabbit rabbit!

rabbit,
























rabbit.
























and an extra rabbit, for extra august luck!