So TheBlizzardOf2015 has come and gone....well...actually....its remnants are still here....and hopefully WILL be for a while. And, as I write this (on a Thursday night) I wonder if, in fact, we will have our THIRD snow day of the week tomorrow, as we are forecast to get another 10-14 inches. Crazy and awesome. Although, I am definitely surprised at the amount of..well...yeah...I guess it is...ANGER directed, by people, in my direction, because I love the cold and the winter and the snow so much. For example, so often this week people have said to me things like "are you happy now??!!??" and "i hope you are happy" and stuff like that...as if me 'liking' winter is somehow 'causing' the snow. Oh well. I will say the same to them this summer when it is 110 and horrendously bright and sunny....haha

Anyway, here are some pics of the blizzard. No idea how much we got. So many drifts. At least well over two feet. It was awesome! Here is where our deck used to be....

I shoveled it off the day after the storm, rendering an amazing foundation for a snowfort, as you will soon see. I am happy to say I have not TOUCHED a snowblower during this whole storm event.

I tried using the snowmobile (under there somewhere) today. Hilarious. There is actually too much snow to go snowmobile...I keep getting stuck. Tomorrow I will have to shovel myself out so I can get some running room.....

Sally on run # 2 of the day during the storm. It snowed for about 36 hours straight. Again, it was amazing.

The snow is a gorgeous, light, very 'playable' kind of sow. Great to pack down and sled down, etc. Although, the snow has come with some bonechilling cold (which, again, is awesome) and the kids can only stand being outside for like an hour before Maira starts bloodcurdlingly screaming because she got a modicum of snow in her boot....but, alas, they have made a sweet sledding slope. The thing is at like a 45 degree angle....

Just about done shoveling out the deck....the huge bank will be an awesome hide-out. Or maybe a place to keep food too. Who knows. So much potential!

A great storm!! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. Here's to dozens more blizzards just like this!!!

Sherlock fever has undoubtedly infiltrated the house of Jerry and Sally Goldsmith...we cannot get enough Sherlock!

It is no mistake that we love mysteries--British mysteries in particular--but, lately, we find ourselves enamored with all things Holmes. We are working our way through TheAdventuresOfSherlock starring--in our opinion the BEST and ONLY Sherlock Holmes--the incomparable Jeremy Brett. Not only does he play the part of Holmes brilliantly, but also he has become one of my favorite actors of all time, almost eclipsing RObert Hardy (the guy who played Cornelius Fudge in the HarryPotter movies and played a plethora of brilliant roles before that).

Jeremy Brett is a fascinating actor who, as I have read and seen in various interviews, suffered immeasurably from depression, anxiety, and even suicidal tendencies. The character of Sherlock Holmes, for him, became almost too much for him to bear, as he got so deeply enmeshed into his character's life, that he became actually more downwardly spiraled into the abyss of sadness and melancholy...he actually 'credits' his retirement from playing Sherlock to the fact that it was too mentally exhausting and emotionally crippling on his body..

A lot of folks have this pop culture 'vision' of a romanticized Sherlock Holmes who sits in his armchair, smoking his pipe, and introvertingly seeking out folks to help--almost like a very deductive grandpa. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth; Sherlock HOlmes, as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was in fact introverted to a fault--in fact, one might even call him somewhat of a hermit. He is incredibly obsessive compulsive, he is outwardly mean and socially inept, lacking any warmth whatsoever. Furthermore, he is an addict. In the best of situations, exercising his brain cells in an effort to solve a crime will suffice as his 'drug.' But in the doldrums of life--in between cases--he becomes morose, often returning to his cocaine or opium. Obviously, this is not the Sherlock society portrays!!

Many Sherlock series' have been produced--from the old ones with Basal Rathbone to the newest ones with that ENglebert Humperdink guy or whatever the heck his name is.. Sherlock is pretty 'hot' right now in pop culture, but in this case, I dont think you can do better than the one portrayed by the great Jeremy Brett! Amanda and I get excited to view one each night! And, contrary to what you will see with Agatha Christie, Inspector Lewis, etc, Sherlock stories are not 'mysteries.' Rather, they are 'detective fiction.' In college, during my senior year, I took an honors seminar with Professor James Krasner (who wrote his Ph.D dissertation on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, btw...) who taught "Horror, mystery, and adventure across the centuries." An awesome class. I dont remember the difference between detective fiction and mystery...something with the genres. But I do know that, according to literature professors, StarWars is NOT a fantasy...or scifi...or adventure.....Star Wars, according to the rules and conventions of literature, is a....wait for it....a WESTERN set in space!!! Ieeee!!!!

I even love the intro to the show--the song, the shots, etc etc. The music, at first, goes in rhythm with the ubiquitous steps of the horses that were the transportation of the day....but then, you catch a glimpse of Holmes, looking out into the streets of London, and you realize that the convoluted, yet rhythmic music crescendos, matching what must undoubtedly be the thoughts racing through the mind of ultra-observant Sherlock Holmes.

Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34sPW1azwOo

When I was a senior in college--I think it was the winter of 00-01 or something--we had a winter for the ages...it was more snow than I had ever seen in my life. We had storms (the plural 's' being the operative letter) where I can remember numbers like 26, 24, 28 when it came to inches. I have some pictures and I should dig them out. Well, if there is one thing that will get Americans to shut up about a scandal involving footballs missing a few pumps of air, it is an impending blizzard. Americans are 'onto' the next drama. My professor, David Watters, who is a congressman now, emailed us the night before a big storm to tell us that a) class was canceled for the next day and b) we should read this poem by Robert Frost. It is a magnanimous poem, and you should read it too....

Amanda, tomorrow, begins her training for her second half marathong, the Maine Coast Half sponsored by Shipyard beer. She has been getting in some runs outside. Sometimes.

The other day at school, everything was going nicely, and it was sunny outside, when, all of the sudden, at about 130 or so, the world looked it was going to end--we got a snow squall of epic proportions that probably dumped two inches of snow in like ten minutes. It was amazing. My classroom window looks out onto a football field and then acres of woods/trails...so it is always majestic to look out and see a good snowfall...

Maira has been dying to have Brittany come over and play with her. So, finally, the other day after school, Brittany came over. Maira set up all her animals ahead of time, got "Clarice" (her WICKED fast horse-on-a-stick), and dug out some books she wanted to read aloud to Britt....

Final random picture of the day is this: This was taken the night of the Ravens/Pats game when Amanda and her girlfriends were away, and the kids and I went to watch the game with Andy and the girls. I snapped this at halftime, while they were reading books and playing games and, apparently, drinking bottles of IBC root beer. I joked to Beth and Amanda: Fast forward twelve years or so and this could easily be a college dorm room....right?

Hope to get pounded with snow almost as hard and the Pats will pound the Seahawks with touchdowns next week! Go Pats. All this silly witch hunt has done is make me love them even MORE.

Been away for a while. Suorry guy, suorry

Why does every problem/situation in the world end up, by default, being a circular shape (ie 'loop')? When something serious is going on, people always say "keep me in the loop" or "I am out of the loop." It would seem to me that a REAL problem would be a convoluted knot-shaped thing, right? Knots are confusing. Loops are simple. Just regular circles. If it is a real problem, then, I would say "I dont know....but keep me in the sheepshank knot, okay?" I was just thinking about this this morning....


It is midterm week at WHS...one of my favorite weeks of the year...true, it is amazingly stressful and busy and mindnumbing to grade so many tests and papers in such a concentrated amount of time...but you get to see the kids in a different light...it is, if you can imagine, a more laid back kind of week....lots of 'downtime' to catch up with kids, talk about school and life, etc. I love it. And it is a good time to recharge, so to speak, for the second semester and final PUSH of the year....

On the whole silliness with the deflated balls and the Pats. Here is my final ruling:

The whole thing is just stupid. If the refs knew about this at halftime, they should have addressed it right then and there. Clearly they knew the buolls were deflated at that point, because they INFLATED them for the second half. The refs, at that point in time, if they determined the buolls were deflated, should have called a 15 yard 'unsportsmanlike conduct' penalty on the Patriots. Case closed. Move on. IFFFFFF (and it is a big IF) the Patriots 'knowingly' deflated balls to their advantage, then it should be treated as any other 'penalty' in the game of football--it is the same as when Richard Sherman 'knowingly' holds an offensive player to avoid them catching the ball....or when Harbaugh tries to get 12 men on defense in order to confuse the refs and advantage the Ravens...or when Suh steps on Aaron's calf in order to try to get him out of the game, rendering the GB offense ineffective....it is ALL. THE. SAME. This deflating balls thing is not cheating....no more than holding, tripping, helmeting, or chop blocking is cheating. They are penalties. Deal with it in the game. And that's one to grow on.....

During one of the last days of vacation, we went to the Bangor Children's Museum. I have been to Bangor many times (concerts, mall, driving through, etc), but until this day I had actually never been to the traditional 'downtown' Bangor section--it is quite charming! A very 'old downtown' feeling like you would see in Portsmouth, Portland, etc! We had lunch at a great Irish pub called Paddy Murphy's (although it took close to an hour to get two burgers and two hot dogs...but whatever). Charming place with a real 'pubby' atmosphere....

The children's museum in Bangor has a lot of neat stuff--my favorite, in particular, are the rooms themed after popular children's books like this one, which is one of our all time favorites--BURT DOW, DEEP WATER MAN by Robert McCloskey (the guy who wrote MakeWayForDucklings). We got to sit in Burt's boat, the "Tidelly-Idelly" and recreate the scene!

And they have a really neat library display celebrating Bangor's rich library history. In the background you can see the barn from CHARLOTTE'S WEB and the gas station from ONE MORNING IN MAINE. A great idea....definitely my favorite part of the museum....

I think Callum's favorite part was this 'cargo ship' they had where you could load boxes on and off the ship, pull the air horn, and do other types of work that one does on a cargo ship, I guess....haha

And Maira, of course, had her favorite part be the kitchen they had there--she was cooking with all the pretend food,, and bringing over thirteen course meals consisting of ice cream, cereal, chicken, eggs, spinach, carrots, and milk....and things such as this....

Meanderings I was thinking about lately while running.....

1. The word "banks" is kind of funny because of the two COMPLETELY drastic definitions it has--on one hand, a 'bank' is a place where you go to get 'free' stuff (like a food bank, you see?). But, on the other hand, if you go to the OTHER type of bank and look for 'free' stuff, you could go to jail for attempted robbery. What's a brother to do, ya know?

2. Here's something you never see anymore--those cute sports-car things with the retractable headlights that went in and out of the hood depending if they were needed or not. Why did those go away? That was about as close to Transformers that real cars ever got :/

3. Here are some foods that are super popular in Mass, but you virtually cannot find ANYWHERE in Maine: Chinese 'bone in' spareribs at restaurants, potato rolls, corned beef hash (well, VERY rarely you will see it for breakfast up here), linguica/chorizo, 'scrod,' and turkey 'parts' sold at grocery stores (meaning how in Mass you can always buy turkey cutlets, turkey thighs, turkey legs, etc....you cant get that up here!)

4. 'popcorn chicken' made a pretty good run a few years ago...it was almost more popular than chicken nuggets...now where is it??

5. A funny Halloween costume I was thinking about doing next year: coloring a picture of a trophy or a plaque, and then wearing it around my neck with a piece of string. What are you supposed to be, you ask? A 'grand prize drawing."

6. While on the subject of Halloween (I know it is January and all, but whatever): It seems to be common practice now that people who live out in the 'country' where there aren't a lot of houses now drive their kids over to thickly settled neighborhoods, so their kids can experience a more active trick or treat experience. Good for them. But, by the same logic, can I drive my family over to your house this summer and have a picnic in your lush fields, or hike through the woods in your backyard? Ya know...do things that I can't do in 'my' neighborhood....I'm not bitter...I'm just bored.

7. A student said to me the other day "irregardless, I use incorrectly." I said "you use WHAT incorrectly?" She said "irregardless." Get it? I thought the word 'regardless' in her original statement was modifying the rest of her statement. Like I said, I'm just bored...

8. These people that use the 'reusable' k cups (the hard plastic 'cartridges that you keep refilling with coffee). Forget about the fact that they are a pain in the butt and leak everywhere, but don't you realize that you are missing the point of KCups? Isnt the whole point that of 'convenience' so you dont have to spoon stuff out and measure stuff and deal with plastic and moving parts and things to clean? I dont know. Maybe I'm the moron here.

9.There's been no significant change or improvement to the bookmark since the 1700s. What the hell is wrong with us? Have we gotten lazy? Surely there's gotta be a better way.

Despite the title, this is actually an awesome book!!! Takes place on a Christmas tree farm in Maine...written by a Maine author...

Amanda is making me some bow-ties as a Christmas gift....Cupcake is helping.....

Thanks Jawnny Croquette for the books for Christmas!! Both these books are hilarious and the kids legit love them! Let's Do Nothing is a cool idea!!

Over vacation, we had a long overdue visit with the Fitzpatrick clan, and we went bowling! They came over for snacks first, and Brad and I sampled some great holiday beer. Siena, as usual, was in love with our kitten, Cupcake....and the feeling was definitely reciprocated!

Callum and Caden got RIGHT to work playing Legos, and the two of them created a 'mash-up' so to speak, by combining a Batmobile and an Arctic drilling machine into some mutant battle tank kind of thing...it was awesome....

Caden and Mia got to see a record playing for the first time, as I had on a gift that I got from my friend Brian: Willie Nelson's PRETTY PAPER Christmas album!

We went bowling at 'SpareTime Recreation' (I love the Pun) over by Thomas College. Now, I will be the first to tell you that I despise bowling and never want to do it....ever. But it was a blast (perhaps because I didnt actually bowl...I just drank beer and cheered on all the kids--who were the only ones who bowled). Maira had a little help from her friend Mia and she used her handy dandy ramp!

Callum had some great technique....look at Efthemios and Jaycine!!!! He is the heir apparent to UltimateWednesdays.....

All the kids really enjoyed bowling--one funny thing I have noticed in Maine is that you cannot find 'candlepin' bowling anywhere....it is all tenpin bowling. No matter. The kids had a blast. And we ate pizza. And went into the arcade and played some air hockey (I won) and ski ball and other stuff. And Siena modeled the hat Amanda got me for Christmas...a very warm, very cozy hat that I will need in the next few days of negative degree temps!

Two buddies hanging out after a great night of bowling and fun....

What a great Christmas vacation we had--almost two full weeks for me, but I am definitely rearing to get back to a routine at school--and I know Callym needs to get back to school as well....he is kind of getting cabin fever as the last week or so (right after Christmas, actually) has been very,, very, very cold and windy and . not conducive to playing outside. And, furthermore, this is the first Christmas vacation I can remember in a long time with no snow! No snowmobiling, no sledding, no snowshoeing, and no fort building. We DID get a few inches last night...hopefully this will be a good base of things to come

Feeling very blessed that I got to spend the whole vacation at home playing with the kids and doing all types of crafts and activities. I think Legos were the highlight of the week for probably both kids, and, lately, it has all be 'freestyle' building from their imaginations! Yesterday, Callum and Maira each used some Christmas money to buy a 'lego' Julian Edelman man (Callum) and Rob Gronkowski (Maira). They have been building 'houses' for Edelman and Gronk to live in, and today, Maira built Gronk a 'huge snowmobile.'

For me, getting some great reading done over vacations is always my favorite thing to do. At night, (and I guess this is KIND OF reading) Amanda and I have been working our way through some of the Sherlock Holmes programs on DVD (the one starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock). So many people would be so surprised to learn from the actual stories (and the very well adapted programs) that Holmes, in addition to being a complete a-hole and social misfit, was also a coke addict. Betcha didnt know THAT!!

Books are always big in our house around the holidays; I have a special affinity for children's books--I would probably love them just as much even if we DIDNT have kids, The overwhelming two 'winners' of this holiday season (meaning that Maira has them virtually memorized from reading them so much) are "Biddy Baby Ballet Adventure" (Biddy Baby is like a 'baby' AmericanGirl) and Happy Birthday Hamster (written by Cynthia Lord of Maine). I am pretty excited about YODA, written by Beth Stern (the great Howard Stern's wife) and it is based on a true story about a cat named Yoda who was rescued from a shelter, had tons of problems, and became healthy after finding a purpose for his life caring for other little kittens!! I just love children's books!

Other highlights of vacation included getting to sleep in (we both helped each other out taking turns), coloring our brains out, working on making apple sauce with the remaining apples I had stored out in the cold garage, baking cookies (well, this was Amanda, cuz I dont bake), going bowling, going to the Children's museum in Bangor, playing Jenga, playing Headbandz, and playing Twister!

I cant remember if I put a picture of my ugly sweater from school this year...so there ya go....idk guy, idk

LL Bean trip...hanging out in the bubble with the brook and rainbow trout....

One of the solo pieces I sang at church during this Advent/Christmas season thus far...this was the program from Christmas Eve...

Well, one of the only thing sadder than the fact that the holidays are now over is that the regular season of the NFL is now over as well....today is WildCard Saturday, and even though the patriots are not playing (they win their division the correct way....they dont need the system invented by the liberals to get to the postseason) , I still love watching all the teams play their hearts out to get into a position to lose to the pats neeexxxxt week. Plus, all football should be played on Saturdays, shouldnt it? I will really miss NFL games. Once the season is over, we are truly in 'dark territory' until...like...well....summer I guess. There is really nothing else to do as far as sports go. Well, there's the Bruins, but no tengo cable....

I was able to watch some of the Bills/Pats finale with one of my favorite dogs--Ms Lola Carlton. I dont think I've ever had an animal like me as much as this dog does--but I bet she loves everyone. But I will believe that she just loves me....

Lupine/Cupcake update: They are learning to co-exist with each other, and sometimes they even have cute moments such as this:

But this Cupcake is driving me absolutely crazy. What a KITTEN she is....she is either moving at 120 miles per hour, attacking Lupine, knocking decorations down, etc.....or she is dead asleep in front of the wood stove. She is unreal.

A few more 'cousin' pictures: Callum is such a gentle, tender, nurturing spirit. He would make a wonderful teacher, I think. He loves teaching Maira how to draw pictures and write her letters...and he always compliments her on how great her artwork is. Likewise, with Annabella, he is very attentive to her--he wants to make sure she is safe. It is funny though...he doesnt want other people to 'know' he is doing this...he likes to be out of the limelight, so to speak. Below, he saw Annabella crawling toward Nannie's door, and he wanted to make sure she didnt 'fall outside.' So he crawled/followed her over to the door and coached her on, telling her how well she was doing....

Woops! Now Maira wants to help too! They love helping her; they both love babies....

Annabella has been standing up on her own, while leaning on things....and Callum and Jackson were trying to help Annabella to stand up on her own and 'walk.'

I love this picture: Annabella propping herself up onto one of Nannie's end tables, while Maira 'spots' her attentively to make sure she is safe....if you blow this picture up, you can see that the photo on the table is my mom when she was a little girl--she is sitting on Santa's 'yap,' as Maira would say.....

Last week, on our way back from Mass, we stopped over at LL Bean in order that Sally could exchange her slippers I got her for Christmas (they were too small). While she did this, the kids and I enjoyed one of the last days of LL Bean's light show. The kids love the way the lights move and are sychned up to songs like CAROL OF THE BELLS, etc...

It was nice to see one last 'flash' at Christmas festiveness....we took our tree down last night, and I am actually kind of happy about that, since Cupcake was going to knock it down anyway...haha. Here we are. January 3rd. Very very cold lately. Very windy. Absolutely no snow on the ground. Just frozen banks and ugly lawns. We are supposed to get some snow tonight...let's see!!!