It's a twister! It's a twister!

Wow!!

So we had a tornado on Thursday. My family was safe, as were all of the kids on my bus (a couple of them live really, really close). I still haven't heard from my boss or the people at base, and I'll take a drive up there later today as they just opened the road. I know my boss is OK though, 'cause one of my co-workers who I spoke to saw her on TV, and I'm assuming the damage to the buses was minimal 'cause the news would have been all over it otherwise.

One of the little girls that came to Ali's Birthday party last night lost most of her house and her next door neighbor. Here's a picture of her Dad from the Boston Globe:

Interestingly, this is the fourth deadly tornado to touch down in Deerfield. Wow!

I'm glad it's over.

Coming up for air

Briefly taking a pause to give some updates on life at the O'Brien household. Ali has turned 11.

We had a really hard time deciding what to get her until I heard about a benefit concert that Pete Seeger will be performing for the strolling heifers in Brattleboro VT in September. So we got her 2 tickets and she and I'll be going to the concert and attending the reception afterward. It's going to be a fun night, and I hope she remembers it always.



We spent the day at Grammy and Papa's boat. We had an Om put on her cake 'cause she'd just finished yoga camp.

My gardens are is doing well and I finally got all my tomatoes in the ground. I still need to find something cheap to hill my potatoes in (cheap mulch hay anyone?) . I got some fence sections for my birthday last month and Ali and I spent Saturday putting up the first 3. They look awesome - much better than the old fence, but they'll look even better once I slap a coat of paint on them and plant a nice little perennial garden in front of it.

I've gotten both sleeves and a third of the back of Ali's Peace sign sweater done, and I'm nearly done with the second of her purple and yellow striped socks done - 2 more pairs of socks left to go, and the remainder of the sweater plus a hat and some gloves and she'll be all set knitwise.

We'll wait until next month at least before we start in on the pants - been doing a summer school run and I actually have less time at home between runs now than I do the remainder of the year.

Happy Birthday Quinnie

This is Quinnie 2 years ago today. Note the IV taped to her hand...


This is Quinnie today. Quinnie has boo boo hand again on her birthday.


On Sunday, I had to go pick Sean and Ali up after they had stayed at the Old Salt (restaurant my sister in law works at) well actually they satyed at Lamies Inn which is attached to the Old Salt, but anyway we had to go there to pick them up so we were going to have brunch there as well. Ali called me on the phone and said something to the effect that we're up and come on down, so I finish doing Quinnie's hair and go downstairs to iron my shirt and once that task has been completed I set the iron on the kitchen table as it is a much more stable place than the ironing board, and I don't want Quinnie to topple the iron onto herself or have the iron set fire to the house or anything like that so I tell Quinnie "no touch, hot hot, lets go find your shoes" and proceed to turn away. I get aproximately 10 feet away when I hear a blood curdling scream and I know instantly Quinn has burned herself. I cannot even express how awful I felt about having my poor baby burn her entire right palm. On something I was trying to be careful with too. It was awful. The burn didn't look too bad at first so I put some bacitracin on it and wrapped it up and took her to get her Dad, and later on that day when we were changing the dressing it had gotten significantly worse so I took her to the emergency room. I got the most acusatory, demeaning attitude from the doctor who not only implied he thought I had done this to her, but that I was also tying to circumvent my own doctor by coming to him (it's sunday night BTW) and then rewrapped the burn exactly as I had it and charged my $50 to boot. Long story short, we went to our doctor on Monday and were treated fairly, and they de-roofed her blisters and sent us away with some medicine for it and instructions to change the dressing twice a day.
The boo boo looks a lot better today. And the birthday girl is happy.



We got Quinnie her "big" birthday present. A fish - well it will be a few fish but the guy at the pet store suggested we start with one 'cause we don't have any beneficial bacteria built up yet so he suggested we come back in 2 weeks for the remainder. Quinnie loves her fish.





So in between fish tanks and boo boo wrappings, Ali had colored some eggs, and I, of course took advantage of the leftover easter egg dye to dye some roving. I wound off balls that looked like they might fit in the dye cups and put the whole thing in the microwave for a couple minutes and this is what I had.
I let it soak while we were out getting the fish and setting the tank up and stuff and a while later I rinsed it and this is how it came out. I made mittens for Sam (when she was about 4 - so 15 years ago) with easter egg dyed yarn and they are still bright and cheery. I think these might become socks for Ali - well at least that's what the roving whispered to me when I was hanging it up on the curtain rod. We'll see.

My Dad

My Dad turned 60 on Valentine's day this year so we had a nice little party for him at my parent's house on Sunday.

So in honor of my Dad's big day I'd like to tell you a little bit about him. My Dad is a fantastic man. He's the father of 3 girls (bless him!). He's incredibly handy. He can fix anything (and does on a regular basis). He's the most helpful person I've ever met. Or maybe he's just helpful to me 'cause I'm his kid, but he'll go out of his way to help you fix something that's broken, and if he can't come by he'll at least walk you through it over the phone. He has some creative outlets too, he went through a stained glass phase in my mid childhood, and everyone in my family (even my eldest daughter most recently) has some furniture that was hand made by my Dad. It's good stuff too - nearly indestructible. He's made my Mom a couple of rings out of spoons and if that's not a neat trick I don't know what is. He's a walking map. This man can give you directions to anywhere, and give them to you right - none of this highway numbers and miles business - he gives you directions by landmark "ok so after you turn left at the oak tree you'll see an old victorian house with peeling paint on the front door, veer right around the dog that will be laying in the middle of the road" and he offer helpful tips too like when I went to the Forks ME when I was like 16, he actually said "when you get off the highway stop at that gas station and fill it up even if you think you don't need to 'cause you won't make it there if you don't have a full tank" That still kills me. But he's not overbearing with the advice. He only gives it if you ask. Not that I'd ever not take unsolicited advice from my Dad, but other people go spouting off all sorts of nonsense without you wanting to and then try to give you directions with miles and route numbers - he's not like that. Most importantly, my Dad taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to. And I completely beleived him (OK so I also beleived him when he told me that Jack Dempsies bite, and I didn't find out that weren't some domestic form of piranah until last year). Truly though, I live my life as if I can do anything, and I jump in with both feet and just do it. I don't think about it I just go. My Mom says I'm a lot like my Dad, and I take it as a compliment 'cause there isn't a person in this world I would rather be more like.

He's Quinn's hero to boot.

Harry Potter Movie

Today is Ali's 10th birthday and in honor of the event I wanted to make the day special. She had invited over 3 girls for a sleepover but only one could come so I took them out to see the new Harry Potter film tonight. We didn't get there in time for the IMAX version so we watched on the traditional screen. It was pretty good though you could tell what would have been 3d in the IMAX. I think we'll go back for the other version later this summer.

I printed out the 4th installmant of the MS3 this morning and I feel kind of ashamed that I'm still on the second clue, and haven't even started the 3rd yet. I'm hoping that I'll get them both finished before clue 5 comes out in 2 weeks, but I have a really good book going right now (New England Year by Hayden Pearson) and the new Harry Potter book should be arriving at Miss Ali's doorstep tomorrow, and I can assure you the world will come to a grinding halt while we delve into that. I'm quite looking forward to reading it with Ali this summer. Hopefully Quinn will cooperate with us more than she has been for my knitting on the MS3.

Happy Birthday Ali!