Enjoying a Deep Tissue Massage to Work the Kinks Out

Orange Double Tiger Lily in bloom

I had a deep tissue massage today and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. I am so totally relaxed from it. Props out to Rebecca for treating me so greatly. I went with the deep tissue this time because I felt I needed it and it had been quite a while.

Other things I managed to get around to today were: I returned some grout that I had purchased in error a few weeks back to the Home Depot and used the refund to get a Jersey Mike’s for lunch, handed a donation benefit to a visiting African pastor (long story), I mailed an RSVP letter indicating that we will be attending a ceremony later this year, I changed the air purifier filters, I purchased gas, I went to the bank, I played the Powerball, and I cleared out the basement/gameroom of most of the kitchen things. It was nice to be able to get access to the air hockey table and arcade Ms. Pac machine. I fired them both up to make sure they still worked. The Ms. Pac is the real deal from the 80s, that takes quarters, not a reproduction. Nice to see that even though I was rusty I can still score over 100,000 points. Now, except for a few minor finishing touches, the kitchen is fully functional! Yay!

While walking around the garden, I saw several double tiger lilies blooming beside the ordinary ones. That caught me off guard! I don’t recall adding those. Anyways, I had to take a picture of one!

I decided to grill tonight even though it was pretty warm out. Another night of burgers.

Kitchen Remodel Sneak Peek

About 98 percent done! We spent a bunch of today finally putting everything back where they go, getting rid of some old stuff, making room for some new stuff, etc. It’s been a little over a month of hard work but the results are paying off now!

Campus Dreams

Last nights dream…

I was walking with LD along a college campus. It was a mix or where she used to be but had a large campus like Harvard, so somewhat of a mix of the two. We ended up sitting for a while and listening to some kids’ stories since they were about to graduate soon. One girl we focused on ,mostly because we could hear her, and she was regaling all her wild escapades to her friends. After a while we got up and starting walking across the campus because LD needed to get back to work or something. When we eventually get to the the building she needs to go in, I somehow got behind a pillar or something and LD lost sight of me. I recall the stairway out front had a series of platforms with stairs and ramps in parallel a few times. I called out to her and she started looking around. Eventually she found me to say bye for now and now unfortunately the dream is fading from my memory as I’m writing this, but we were going to hug but then LD said something to me and then all the kids were watching us and we ended up kissing in front of the building. Then I woke up with happy tears in my eyes.

The dream had more to it I’m sure, especially at the end but I can’t seem to recall it all now but I wanted to get down what I could. Why? Because I didn’t want to forget it anymore than I already have.

We have so many different varieties of lilies popping up all over the garden this year. It’s quite spectacular!

Yesterday was a crazy day and I spent a good chuck of it over at Earth-1. First I went to get my car inspected by my mechanic. That passed with flying colors, I had no worries about that. Then I took my mom over to Dunkins to grab a coffee. I had to drive her over to the Stop & Shop because she wanted to get a few things using her card but for some reason at the checkout the card wouldn’t take, even though there’s never a problem. While that was happening I decided to play the a Powerball. What the heck, right? We were there for a while but the card just wouldn’t take so we had to abandon that mission for a bit since her other cat had an appointment for its yearly checkup and rabies shot. He ended up getting a clean bill of health, although he is a bit over 20 pounds (he’s a big cat!) and he has some dental issues, but not unusual for a cat of his age. Heading back to Earth-1 I dropped the cat off at the house, releasing him from his pet carrier, and then we proceeded to hit a different Stop and Shop, this time in Medford, to see if the card would work there. No dice there as well, although I was able to purchase a crossword puzzle book. Basically the only one that I like because it’s the only one I found that isn’t too hard or too easy. It’s called Superb Crossword Jumbo y Kappa and comes out monthly. I’ve thought of subscribing to it a million times but never do. Eventually my mom ended up calling the card people and they’re going to send her a new card. It could be that from too many swipes the code has worn off too much. Hopefully that will fix the issue she was having.

painting at the vet’s

Heading back to Earth-2 I got stuck in traffic. Took me about an hour and a half to get back. Typically I can make the trip in 30-45 minutes. I had to pick up some meds for LD on the way so I did that as well. Then I ended up grilling us a couple or burgers for dinner. We ended up not watching tv or anything, just enjoying the silence for a change. Then we passed out in the living room but eventually found our way up to the bed.

The backsplash guy has been here all week! Mostly because of all the intricate cuts to the glass tiles that he had to do to go around corners and such, He should be finished today. As a final step he’ll be applying the whitest grout that the grout makers make! Looks real good! Getting to the very end of the reno now! Hurray!

Currently reading: Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs

Acquiring Authentic Dedham Pottery

Picked up some authentic Dedham pottery this week. Shown here are two candlestick holders, but we’ve also obtained salt and pepper shakers and a larger singular egg holder that we had from before. Dedham Pottery was an American art pottery company opened by the Robertson Family in Dedham, Massachusetts during the American arts & crafts movement that operated between 1896 and 1943. It was known for its high-fire stoneware characterized by a controlled and very fine crackle glaze with thick cobalt border designs. The most common and recognizable design is a repeating crouching rabbit referred to as “the Dedham rabbit”. The rabbits crouch on the ground with their ears back. They should match the colors of the new kitchen rather nicely.

It’s a 7-11 Kind of Day

It appears that those mourning doves that had babies a few weeks ago are reusing that nest again. Could it be that more babies are on the way? That would be pretty cool. Also, on the topic of birds, I’ve noticed quite an abundance of cardinals and blue jays this year.

This week, the backsplash for the kitchen renovation has finally started to go up on the walls. This appears to be absolutely fantastic and SICK looking! I bought the whitest grout they had available at the tile store, which would really make the blue stand out. It pops as it is right now. This will only improve it. It’s good to see that everything is finally coming to an end. Taking a little longer than projected and costing a little more than anticipated, but that’s only to be expected. The mason doing the work is a real character! A little cranky but generally a good guy and more importantly, he knows his stuff.

I moved my “office” out of the kitchen area where I was stationed starting during the pandemic. I have moved all my computers and stuff to another room upstairs finally. It was time.

The Beautiful Moves in Curves

Soft curves, warming shades, organic contours.

Been pretty busy getting down to the last of the kitchen remodel. It’s almost done and looks spectacular! I’ll post a before and after when it’s all done. I think you’ll be amazed by the transformation. I know I was! LD worked hard to get it just right and it shows.

The various lilies in the garden are just now beginning to bloom. Since they were all planted at various dates and in various places, I never really understood how many distinct varieties we actually have. Now that they all appear at the same time, the variety excites me, plus they are so cool to look at.

One benefit of remodeling the kitchen is that I’ve developed some grill master skills. I suppose it’s accurate to say that practice makes perfect. When it’s extremely hot outside or the weather is simply not cooperating, it’s not really that much fun, but then we’ll either have some leftovers or possibly some takeout, but overall, I’m becoming somewhat of a little chef.

Nature’s Own Little Fireworks Display in the Garden

Pretty low key July 4th here today. Glad I got to do all I wanted to do yesterday. I think everyone had a pretty good time. The rain does make for good flower photos though! I noticed these little babies growing over in the corner of the yard and needed to take a closer look. I like how they had all arranged themselves around like they are. I also made a bunch of progress on my reading. The garden is looking spectacular all around. My folks were impressed with our green thumb! We’ve created quite the lush oasis around here! Thankfully by supper time the rains had stopped and I was able to get out there and grill some stuff up.

Thankful Third of July

Today was the day of the BBQ that I had been hoping for since early in the year! The weather was a bit overcast but that’s alright by me, as long as it didn’t pour on us it would be fine. In fact, maybe it would even keep down the heat of the day, although it was pretty muggy out. At least the plants are all loving this kind of weather – they are growing like gangbusters. As the festivities went on though the sun came out and stayed out. It ended up being a successful outing! I was a master at grilling dogs, burgs, salmon, corn, and veggies. Did a quick fire pit, admired the garden and relaxed in the sun and for dessert….

Here are the treats we made last night for today’s BBQ. Aren’t they cute?! They are little grills with food on them! It’s actually just Little Bites for the grill, some food coloring to get the grill lines and Mike and Ike candies for the meats and vegetables. The legs are lollipop sticks. Let me tell, these were not that easy to make, but they sure were a huge hit and totally worth it!


Thanks for the share Boston.com! I didn’t even know about this until after I got out of the home improvement store with a gallon of paint and 29 kitchen knobs!

Sunday Preparations for Early Fourth Festivities

Quite the day. Busy busy busy. It all started off with an old colleague of LD’s coming for a quick visit to consult about a few things. I didn’t really hang with them because I went to get a bunch of items for the BBQ tomorrow. Speaking of BBQ’s we got invited to a little one over at LD’s old landlady so we spent some time over there and had a late lunch. We even got to see LD’s old apartment which was currently empty so it was like a little trip down memory lane for me.

After that in the late afternoon LD got tickets to a live play in Brooklyn written by a person she knows so to support it we could watch it through a virtual stream through her phone and then we casted it to the television in real time. This play wasn’t as good as the last one I saw but still impressive in it’s own way.

Then we worked until the early hours of the night making some of tomorrow’s delights. At the conclusion of the BBQ, we’re going to surprise everyone with some delicious, adorable tiny sweets, but I won’t post images of them until then because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I’m planning to go pick up my mom and hopefully my little sis around 11. I need to make a trip to the home improvement store before then and get some paint for the kitchen. Yes, finally a color has been decided upon!

Currently Reading: Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. It’s from the author of Sill Alice, which was another book that I read a couple of years ago. I think they even made a movie out of that one.

Of Beautiful Bike Rides and Feline Shots

Since I was going to Earth-1 today for a visit and to help my mom bring one of her cats to the vet for his yearly physical, I figured I’d take the bike again but and check out the GLX path but this time follow it to the end. It basically ends at Lechmere but connects to North Point so getting to the Museum of Science, or TD Garden, the North End, etc. is super easy and one straight shot. Seriously, this is pretty cool. Naturally I had to get a shot of myself by the Zakim Bridge. The park actually goes underneath the bridge so it’s pretty freaky to be under something that so many cars use. (I-93) Plus the Charles River is right there. I must say that everyone involved did a really nice job tying everything together.

Anyways while I was doing that, my mom had a dr. appt but I was done and waiting for her by the time she got back. She wanted to run a couple of errands so I took her around to do those. I got some gas for my car. A bunch of little odds and end things.

The contractors demolishing the old laundry building out back are almost done it looks like. They’ve been using a backhoe to scoop up all the debris and place them into giant dumpsters. It’s all open now, which seems kind of weird being able to see the houses across the way that were blocked by the building before. It won’t last though as new buildings will go up to take it’s place.

By around 2 o’clock it was time to take Hardy to the vet. His brother Laurel will probably be going in a couple of weeks but today was Hardy’s turn. Just the usual exam, he was due for his rabies shot and got his nails cut while there. He wasn’t a happy camper while he was there but he mostly behaved himself and got a clean bill of health.

Finally after all that and he was returned to his abode I decided to take one more short bike ride over to just outside Harvard Square because I wanted to take a picture of this church that has all these really neat looking wildflowers growing out in front. So I banged that out as well.

Heading back to Earth-2 LD was kind enough to order us up some Greek food takeout, which I picked up on the way back from the ‘Ville. I did end up grilling some chicken afterwards though because it needed to be done and we can eat it tomorrow. I’m planning on having my mom and sis over for a BBQ day here on Monday so I’m getting pretty excited about that. I hope the weather will be alright.

First Fire Lily of the Season

I was really excited to see this fire lily open up after the rains last night. I love the fire lilies that we have and am always so glad when they decide to show their colors for us. They don’t last too long so we have to catch them when we can. This little guy seemed to bloom a bit early, but I’ll take it!

I want to try Starry soda and some Warheads Sour soda based off the candy, which sounds really disgusting and probably is, but I think I want to try it anyway, at least the Green Apple and Watermelon flavors.

This afternoon was spent checking out paint colors, determining what handles to have for the cabinets, and a bunch of other things that I won;t bore you with at the moment.

Century Old Lilies Bring the Fire!

100 year old bulbs came to life

After work today I decided to do some long overdue work in the garden, especially during a lull when the breeze was blowing and the day felt cool to me, so I thought it would be a good time to get to it. I basically used six mulch bags to surround the bases of all these lilies. Something LD’s been wanting me to do for a while now. It was on my to do list and I finally got it done. These particular lilies were gifted to us from one of LD’s pool buddies who also is in charge of the town’s garden club. Anyways, these lilies are , like, a century old! Nice to see they still have that fire. I hope I still have that kind of fire if I can make it to a century old!

The electrician came by today. We needed to move a couple of the outlets around to accommodate the new countertops in the bar-top area, I was afraid we were going to lose them but he managed to figure out a way to get most of them newly situated.

Love from Boston

Show me you live in New England without telling me you live in New England.

Here’s a picture I took during one of my various photo expeditions throughout the city of Boston. I like this one. It’s got Long Wharf, the Constitution floating out in the harbor, and a couple enjoying the sights.

I went and took a drive down this afternoon and picked up the specific backsplash tile that the kitchen will be having over in Rockland. The regular place where you would pick it up normally is currently within the midst of it’s own renovation so I had to go to the warehouse that they use to get the goods. Pretty straightforward. Moved up to the loading gate and got my grubby little hands on all the boxes and got them in the SUV and took them home. All in all, roundtrip that whole adventure only took about 45 minutes.

I then went ahead and mowed the front lawn. I need to go out and get some more gasoline for the mower so I can do the back still.

Location, Location, Location

Latest Work: One of my latest Cape shots has been put up for purchase. I think the notebook would be really cool. The metal print large would look pretty sick too.

Spent the morning weeding out the prarie area a bit, ans then added mulch to the central lily area in the middle of the back yard. I want to do more but then it got a little too warm out for me, so I’m going to wait until later this afternoon once it cools down a bit to maybe try to finish some of the things that I started. I don’t want to overdo it.

I spent some time with LD down at the gym, watching her do her amazing swim routines. It was quite the beautiful day for being in the pool for sure.

Below is a shot from Nubble I discovered I took from last year. Figured I’d share it because it looks kinda cool.

Sunfire Nights

Yeah! The sink is back up and running. Most of the morning was spent dealing with all that stuff. Even got a new disposal out of the deal. As usual there were a few snags here and there but everything was figured out. In the meantime, enjoy these two pics I’ve taken. I may end up doing something special with the bottom shot, if there’s sufficient interest in it.

Serenity Now!

Well, I forgot to mention yesterday another thing going on over at Earth-1. Contractors are ripping down the old industrial laundry building behind my mom’s house. What a giant mess that is! They’re making space for, what else, some new condos. I saw the skeleton of the stairway exposed that led from the front door up to the old iron pressers on the 2nd floor. I remember going up and down those stairs many, many times when I was a wee lad bringing those ironed shirts down from there and across the street to the dry cleaning operation, which is now gone and also replaced by a condo. Interestingly as a side note, before it was a dry cleaner building, it used to be a Dairy Queen and I can remember being 4, 5, or 7 and my aunt coming over and giving me a dollar to go get an ice cream from there back in the day. Eventually the prices started the climb and I’d still get the dollar, but my aunt didn’t seem to realize that a buck didn’t buy as much as it used to. I appreciated the gesture though!

Some of the tiger lilies are staring to bloom in the garden, What an explosion of color! I need to do some more weeding around that area though. It’s on my to-do list! Also can hear another baby hawk squawking all day long again! You might remember from last year, all the adventures I had in dealing with those creatures!

Busy day at the mansion here today. The new countertops are installed and what a day it was seeing how the process goes. They look super awesome and they even got the muted veins to match the slabs where they cut Amazing. It’s really going to look sick once the backsplash tiles LD selected go in. Anyways, every day it’s something happening! The plumber is set to come tomorrow to get the new sink up and running and get the dishwasher all back online and integrated into the new cabinetry.