“is there anybody wanna lend me a hand…”

“…with my one man band.”
July 31 2009
His right foot is tapping out the rhythm, which is being strummed on a guitar and a bass, and banged on a cowbell. His right foot is also causing the little doll to hop around. His left foot is changing the chords on the two guitars. His hands are either strumming away on a third guitar or a banjo, while his mouth sings along or plays the harmonica. All very impressive and lots of fun. Certainly not something you see every day.

package

Today I got a package from NASA. It contains samples of rock and soil from the moon. As I walked through the building with the case that contained them, I felt a bit like I was in an espionage movie–like the case should be cuffed to my wrist and that any minute someone was going to chase me down the hall. All very exciting.
July 29 2009
But really….I’ve got a piece of the moon at work! How cool is that!

freshly mowed

Here’s something I wonder about:
Here is a patch of grass. It’s between the Mass Pike and Route 16 and the commuter rail station. No one really looks at it. Why must it be mowed? Can’t it just be left alone, where it would become shelter for some birds and critters and maybe sprout some wildflowers? Why is the city spending my money mowing this grass???
July 28 2009

picture-taker picture

Getting Doug’s family to gather all in one place for a family picture is a lot like herding cats, but we did manage it. Here is Doug setting up his camera on top of someone’s car; our nephew
Daniel has already done the same with his. The rest of us are posing on
the steps waiting for Doug to press the timer and run to join us
July 26 2009

making cupcakes

My sister-in-laws family is staying with us for a few days, so we’ve got 5 extra people in the house, with 2 of them under the age of 18. So the house has been a bit of a circus, but not in a really bad way at all. Today, Doug and our niece and nephew made cupcakes for Doug’s dad, who is celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend. I’m happy to say the kitchen is still standing, and the cupcakes look delicious.
July 25 2009

chairs

I don’t know which struck my funny bone more: the sign that has a picture of a person sitting in a chair, in case you’re not sure what chairs are; or the note that assures the reader that putting the chairs back just isn’t all that hard.
July 23 2009

my god it’s full of stars

So we’ve had this inflatable planetarium, called a StarLab, for about a week at work, and we’ll have it for another week. It’s pretty cool, and it’s easy enough to use since our visitors are so young–we’re doing some very simple introductory programming.

It’s hard to get a picture of the inside of it, of course, because it’s dark. and since you can’t really use a flash, everything is blurry. But I still like this picture.
July 22 2009