Happy 4th from Boston!

Here's the free Boston Pops concert and fireworks from previous years:

RIP Mollie Sugden

Congratulations Lisa!

Crazy lady's sister, Lisa, just finished her first triathlon. She's already a wonderful climber, and came in first during the Limestoner Monster Rock event earlier this year. She wanted to give swimming/running/cycling a chance. Here's a brief snippet from her blog:

"...Actually, my initial perception of triathlons was shaped by growing up and seeing the first Ironman races on television, so when I talked to a friend who’d done the Danskin and heard what distances were involved, I remember thinking, “That’s not a REAL triathlon.” But I also remember thinking that it was a triathlon I might be capable of doing.

I still wasn’t sure if I’d want to do it, though. After all, it involved an open-water swim. And I am not a swimmer. When I was in college, in preparation for becoming a counselor at a kid’s camp one summer, I took a water rescue class. At the end of the class, the teacher handed me my certificate, but then she looked me in the eye and said, “I’m giving you the certificate, but I don’t want you to ever try and rescue anyone.” That sums up how bad a swimmer I am.

I think the most swimming I’ve done since that class in college was the brief 200yd swim required to get my scuba diving certification. Now, if I decided to do the Danskin, I’d have to somehow work my way up to a continuous 800m swim in Decker Lake. But at least it sounded more do-able than a continuous 2.4 mile swim in the rough seas near Kona.

While trying to decide, I talked to a friend of mine whose wife had raced in the Danskin the year before, grilling him with all sorts of questions. What if you have trouble during the swim? (Lots of women don’t swim well, so the water is full of Swim Angels offering you noodles and kayakers waiting to keep you from drowning.) Do you need a wetsuit? (No, the water is warm.) Are most of the women riding fancy road bikes? (No, only maybe a third of them.) Finally, he looked at me and said,

“Most of the women are just there to see if they can do it.”

That decided it for me. I was in."You can read more about Lisa's training here. Congratulations!

Oh, and the line about "lots of women don't swim well?" Crazy lady assumes that it was the friend talking, not her sister Lisa. Plenty of women are fabulous swimmers. She still has the scars from losing "water chicken" against Lisa, while they were wrestling in the pool growing-up. Crazy lady insists, "Lisa has always had freaky strong legs for a girl."

Portuguese Festival

We are headed back to Ptown for the Portuguese Festival this weekend.You might be able to see us on the live webcam. Ptown is one of the dog friendliest places we've ever visited in Massachusetts. I am REALLY looking forward to this weekend!

Cat Ladies

I know. I mock the evil demons, and consider them a tasty snack. Crazy lady was asked to screen this film, though-- and it broke her heart. Learn more about the film here and here.

"No bones, anymore"

Interesting OpEd piece in NY TIMES here.

Whales, beach and books

Happy Father's Day!

Plus, some twisted humor from 30 Rock on Father's Day (completely unrelated to crazy lady's father and family, but still funny):

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Evil Ones

I was prevented from enjoying crazy lady's reading in Connecticut because of these instruments of torture:Here's hoping I can have fun with this delicate demon at the beach this weekend:

Fire! BBQ!

During the week of insane travel, crazy lady went to her brother's for a family BBQ. She managed to seriously burn the ribs:She loves to barbecue-- and, I know she's an awesome cook-- but wow. What a hot mess (haha). When she opened the grill and discovered that they were ON FIRE, Max told her, "don't open the grill. You add oxygen, which feeds the fire. Can I hold the tongs?" She moved the flaming ribs to a plate and handed her eight-year-old nephew the tongs. She figured he might have better luck with the food. The surprising thing? They actually ate the ribs!Humans. They'll eat anything...
Well, we are off to Connecticut and the "Cape" this week. You probably won't hear from us for another week or so. This time, crazy lady hopes to take plenty of pictures of my adventures at the beach. Bye!

Only in New York

(still on the road, but couldn't resist posting this pic)

Out of Office

Readings, readings, readings across three (technically) Southern states this week. Then, headed to NYC for a lecture, and Maine for a family bbq. See you'all when we return!

Grocery Store Wars

Food, Inc

To commemorate our first week of the CSA box:

Read Fast Food Nation. Wonderful insightful, frightening book. It's one of crazy lady's "top 5 books of all time" and changed her approach to food. Michael Pollan and Alice Waters are great; but crazy lady sometimes worry that they lose sight of poverty, culture and economics in their quest to change how we think of food. In other words, they can be a bit arrogant and condescending. Eric Schlosser , the author of Fast Food Nation, has the same message as Pollan and Waters-- but no pompous attitude. Read his book.

Killer Bunnies

One of crazy lady's earliest writings involved a clan of killer bunnies and cannibals. (Yes, I already know that she has "issues.") She recently read a very sad post about someone's beloved dog who "walked the bridge," and she will not stop with the Monty Python references. First, we had to watch the "bridge of death" scene:

Then, we killed time with this precious scene from the Holy Grail:

She's reading her killer bunny series out loud and laughing at her own jokes. I am staying in bed, until this torture ends.

Run! Don't squat!

Baby Bambi

We ran into this newborn critter, during our early morning walk in the woods today:I wore my e-collar, and only required 1 small zap to return to crazy lady on the trail. She had no idea what I was "hunting" until I walked her back to the baby deer, for another look. As soon as she saw the deer, crazy lady warned me to "leave it," and she said "let's go." Darn it. The compulsion to obey was greater than my desire to hunt. I was really hoping for a morning snack. I whined and barked, but followed crazy lady on the trail. She said that she is very proud of my restraint-- and very happy that I was trained to avert disaster. Crazy lady still has flashbacks to my smiling, bloody face, the last time we ran into Bambi.

Congratulations, Joaquin!

More about Joaquin can be found here.

1978

Museum Adventures

Finals are done! Woo hoo! Crazy lady, the Princess and her mom spent the day at the Museum of Science. I stayed home while they played in the Discovery Room nature domes:The Princess practiced her outstanding engineering skills (after all, it runs in the family...):Isn't the final masterpiece beautiful?Then, the Princess had pizza for lunch:Overall, it was a fabulous day! I missed spending time with the family, but it gave me a chance to chill out and rest. Tomorrow? We're off to Fresh Pond for swimming and hiking!