The Blapp Report

Martha's Vineyard

2009-06-22T17:30:00.006-04:00

From our home, it's about a 3 hour drive to Woods Hole, MA, then a 45-minute ferry ride to the island of Martha's Vineyard. The island is about 20 miles long at it's widest point, and is home to around 15,000 year-round residents, swelling to over 100,000 during the summers.

We made it just ahead of the main busy season, and the weather was rainy during our time there, so we were able to explore without negotiating a massive rush of other tourists/vacationers.

There are hundreds of these "gingerbread" houses in the town of Oak Bluffs.

Oak Bluff town common, near the ferry port.

Among other things, the Vineyard is known for its historic lighthouses. This is located outside of Edgartown.

D r i f t i n g into summer

2009-05-27T11:51:00.005-04:00

Last Wednesday we trekked into New York for Jay's Christmas present -- Heidi had reserved tickets to attend a taping of The Daily Show. Our reservation info suggested that we arrive at the Daily Show studios between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. We arrived in the city around noon, so we spent a few hours wandering around Central Park, bought lunch at the Hello Deli (ordered from Rupert himself!), and even saw Larry King while walking around. We arrived at the studio to stand in line around 3:45.

After around an hour of waiting in line, a Daily Show staffer began working his way from the start of the line, handing out number cards. He made it to about 10 people ahead of us, at which point he stopped, walked back nearer to us, and yelled to all, "People, I'll be blunt: if you don't have a numbered card in your hand right now, you're not getting in tonight." We knew they overbooked the show, but we were still disappoined, to say the least. We were allowed to add our names to a list to get VIP tickets for a future showing (theoretically, reserved tickets / guaranteed entry), so we'll try again in August.

In other updates, we've just wrapped up our school years -- Jay is now out of the office for the summer, and Heidi just submitted her final grades for her Spring class. We had a wonderful, quiet Memorial Day, spent enjoying the sunshine and catching up on some reading.

We're aiming for some low-key R&R this week, and tending to the garden in hopes that everything gets off to a good start. Looking at making our first venture to Martha's Vineyard in the next few weeks, then planning for our annual summer cross-country track to MN.

Easter weekend

2009-04-12T15:57:00.003-04:00

A happy Easter to all.

The last patches of snow have just about melted off, and signs of spring are all around, though we have yet to have an extended stretch of sunny, warm "spring-like" weather -- wind, rain and gray has been the dominant themes of the past few few weeks.

A nice weekend for Team Blapp. We met friends at the funky Apollo Grill in Easthampton; great food, cool atmosphere, occupying a slot in the Eastworks Building, a massive renovated mill/manufacturing space that is now home to retail shops and loft workspaces -- roughly equivalent to St. Paul's Bandana Square.

We hosted an Easter Brunch this morning, with Quentin & Alanna joining us for a few hours, then we were off to the laundromat (long overdue...) -- weee!

A new restaurant!

2009-02-15T17:03:00.003-05:00

We had sort of settled into a routine of visiting our favorite "known" restaurants when headed out to eat somewhere lately, but made an exception last night on to make our first trip to The Hope and Olive in nearby Greenfield. Great food, great atmosphere, and only 10 minutes from home -- awesome.

Local warming

2009-02-11T14:24:00.003-05:00

Thanks to a recent string of days in the 40's and 50's, our many-feet-thick layer of pristine white snow is quickly turning into a soggy, dirty inches-thick layer of sand and crusty ice. Potholes galore!

Heidi is getting ready to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday tomorrow. To help everyone get into the proper spirit, we offer you this:

One day a zookeeper noticed that his orangutan was reading two books, the Bible and Darwin's Origin of Species. Surprised, the zookeeper asked, "Why are you reading both books?"

"Well," replied the orangutan, "I'm trying to figure out if I'm my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."

Something to ponder during your Darwin Day celebrations.

- jbc

Two days in NYC

2009-01-16T10:50:00.003-05:00

Jay did his annual career exploration trip in NYC with a group of Smith students, and I tagged along to do some informal research at some of the museums. A few notes from our whirlwind trip:

1. If you see lots of helicopters, police cars, and ambulances all heading in the same direction, it may mean that a plane has just landed in the Hudson River. We didn't see any of the actual rescue efforts, but we were quite impressed with how the whole city seemed to be focused on what was happening without the place shutting down or getting chaotic. We were a few blocks away from the scene and didn't see anything other than a slight back-up in traffic.

2. I was sitting in a Starbucks in Soho to escape the cold (yes, I gave money to the evil empire--non-Starbucks coffee places with tables were surprisingly hard to find) and a guy sitting next to me asked me for marital advice "from a woman's perspective". He seemed like a nice guy--I wanted to ask him to let me know how it turns out!

3. I'm 90% certain I saw Susan Sarandon at the Evolution store. I was standing next to this woman and when I heard her speak there was no mistaking the voice (kind of like when you hear Garrison Keillor). I didn't see her face-on, hence the 90% certainty, but through my Google-stalking I learned that she lives in the area and found recent photos of her with the same hairstyle. As for my own purchases at the store, since I did not have the $14,000 to buy a real skeleton (and question the provenance of their specimens anyway) I settled for a laminated skeletal reference poster. Jay was not nearly as excited as I thought he would be, especially when I told him I wanted to hang it up at home.

4. Did you know there is an Irish Hunger Memorial in NYC?

We were a bit curious about why it was there, so we went to check in out. Turns out it's closed in the winter and there is no signage outside, so I wonder what people think when they walk by this little patch of land in the middle of the Financial District.

5. Speaking of districts, I found what can only be described as the Light Fixture District and the Restaurant Supply District. It was oddly fascinating to walk through several blocks worth of stores selling nothing but chandeliers and other light fixtures. Sadly, the single block worth of stores selling plumbing supplies did not seem to be sufficient to warrant identification as the Plumbing District, but perhaps I only stumbled across the edge of it and further exploration will reveal several glorious blocks worth of plumbing treasures.

6. It was pretty cold walking around the city, but every time we started to complain we thought about our friends and family in the Midwest and realized that the cautions about "extreme cold" in the Northeast are actually kind of funny. It was 21 degrees that day. That's 21 degrees ABOVE zero. The weather forecasters made it sound like everyone would freeze in place as soon as they stepped outside. It is colder back here in Massachusetts, but we still have enough Minnesota blood in us to laugh rather than cringe when we hear everyone get all worked up because the temperatures will be in the single digits.

All in all, a good trip. We both have one week left before the Spring semester begins, so we plan to make the most of the more relaxed schedule. And while we will still laugh at the extreme temperature warnings, we can't help but think that we did the right thing when we moved to a place that is currently about 40 degrees warmer than Minnesota. Stay warm, everyone!

Dinosaurs!

2009-01-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

We made our first trip to Amherst College's Museum of Natural History (where "Admission is free!"), in the guise of scouting out possible outside-of-the-classroom learning opportunities for the class Heidi will be teaching this spring. An impressive little museum featuring (according to the person who greeted us and gave us the 45-second rundown of the place) the world's largest collection of fossilized dinosaur tracks. Wacky stuff.

Was a bit odd to be walking around downtown Amherst today -- the colleges are not yet in session, so most students haven't yet returned from their holiday breaks; therefore things seemed eerily quiet for a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Still here!

2008-12-12T09:06:00.003-05:00

Recent Blapp blog silence has been due to busy end-of-semester activities for the both of us. In other words, it's not you, it's us!

Rain/sleet/slush/snow storm has shut down parts of the state this morning, but the immediate Amherst-Noho area is simply a cold, soggy, gray mess, with only a few local school closings. Yuck.

Go USA!

2008-11-05T11:56:00.003-05:00

There are currently several large groups of kids -- 20 or so in each group, maybe grades 4-6 -- walking the streets of Northampton and the college's campus carrying handmade 'Obama' posters and shouting "BARACK!" and "OBAMA!" in call-and-response style.

They are making quite a noise, and many cars and trucks passing by are honking, which causes further cheering and screaming. Looks like they're having a lot of fun.

Right on.

A reminder...

2008-11-04T10:41:00.002-05:00

For those who don't know, today is Election Day. Finally. Go do what you're supposed to do today. :-)

Our congratulations to our readers who live in "battleground states" for surviving what must have been a brutal onslaught of campaign advertising over the last several months. Way to power through the noise!

As it's among the bluest of the blue states, there's little doubt which way Massachusetts' electoral votes will go. As a result, the primary campaign was fairly active, but we've been largely spared of political ads during the general election season -- we'd see the occasional Obama commercial, and in the past two weeks we started to see a few TV ads for local congressional candidates, but that has been the extent of things. Awfully nice to not have a lot of that stuff buzzing around the airwaves, to be honest...

Cheers,

- jbc

Just going about our business -- nothing to see here...

2008-10-26T18:00:00.004-04:00

We spent a low-key weekend here in wmass, enjoying what may be the last remnants of reasonably comfortable weather outside.

Heidi has been in academic mode, glued to books, papers, etc., while I've been puttering around the house working on little projects like mixing new Derailleur songs, cleaning, and the ongoing fine-tuning the project guitar (now christened the "Less Paul" -- thanks to Quentin for the suggestion).

My band here had another show this past week, our fourth in the past two months, at a great Northampton bar/restaurant called The Sierra Grille. Also on the bill that night were members of the Young@Heart Chorus (playing unannounced as "Secret Special Guests") and a cool Boston band called The Needy Visions. Cool show, and we had a fun time. You can see some pictures from the evening here. No pics of me, but Matt shows up in a few (black shirt, black guitar w/white pickguard) and Chris is in a couple (funky hair, white Les Paul guitar).

Some travel plans in the near future -- a potential trip to NYC next weekend, then I'm off to Baltimore for three days for a work conference, then Heidi leaves for a big anthropology conference in San Francisco.

- jbc

Mad Max's fall foliage tour?

2008-10-09T15:53:00.004-04:00

The big-time movie folks stormed town last week for their work on The Edge of Darkness; mostly visible via a few previously-unused parking lots around Northampton now filled with semi trailers of equipment, and small sections of Northampton closed to traffic for part of the week to accommodate filming. They've also built a "bad guy lair" on top of Mt. Sugarloaf in S. Deerfield.

A coworker took this picture of Mel Gibson on the set -- handsome fella, no? We’re not sure if he’s a method actor and this is him “in character”, or if it’s just Mel being Mel… (Ed's note: The Dunkin' Donuts coffee is a classy touch. Very authentic.)

It’s coming up on Columbus Day weekend, which means the leafers are expected to be out in full force for the next few days – Peter Pan tour buses and cars with NY license plates will be a common site in the area, and traffic around Yankee Candle is likely to be quite heavy. (Heidi recently stated that Yankee Candle is the most popular tourist attraction in Massachusetts, which is frighting for a number of reasons. She has yet to provide verifiable evidence of this assertion.)

- jbc

Back to business

2008-09-11T21:12:00.003-04:00

Back to school and back to work for the both of us -- the busy season is upon us.

In other local news:

A) Hollywood is coming to town -- Mel Gibson will be in the Valley in a few weeks.

B) Reported in the local police logs:

Sunderland, Sept. 6
1:05 AM -- Officer observed a man walking around a building at Cliffside Apartments with a green Star Wars-type light saber toy; it was determined to be a migrant farm worker looking for his artificial eye, which had fallen out; subject was advised to continue his search when the sun rises.

Can't make this stuff up.

Visitors from afar!

2008-08-23T20:38:00.009-04:00

We were so excited to host Jay's parents for their week-long visit earlier this month. We had a very busy week around the valley, including a trip to Yankee Candle Co., dinners at local favorites Pizzeria Paradiso and Bub's BBQ, and a nice bike ride on some of the farm roads around Historic Deerfield.

We also spent a few days in Rockport, one of our favorite destinations on the coast. On our way to Rockport, we stopped at Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau spent two years, inspiring his book Walden; or Life in the Woods.

Site of Thoreau's cabin.

View of Walden Pond from near site of Thoreau's cabin.

While in Rockport we made a triumphant return visit to the Lobster Pool restaurant for super-fresh and tasty seafood.

View of the ocean (looking North) from the backyard of the Lobster Pool.

Fun pics from at the beach in Rockport, including mom's first ever steps in an ocean. Yay!

- JBC

Follow the Dig!

2008-07-20T19:21:00.002-04:00

If you want to keep tabs on what we're up to on the dig, check out the course website:

http://www.anthro.umass.edu/field08/

The students will be writing about our activities and finds in the Blog section. We've been in the field for two days (95+ degrees both days) and so far only one injury! I cracked my toenail in half when a piece of surveying equipment fell on my toe... :(

-hbc

Garden goodies

2008-07-20T18:16:00.005-04:00

Our landlords were kind enough to let us "borrow" a small section of their garden so we could plant a few things. We've got a bunch of basil, some pepper plants, a couple of rapidly-expanding squash plants, and a row of arugula. Between this, the massive blueberry patch in the backyard that ought to be ready for picking soon, and the many farm stands nearby, we'll have plenty of tasty goodies to eat that were grown within a few miles of our home.

Hot and humid weather for the last couple of days in WMass -- rather uncomfortable to be outside. The hottest days of the year coincided with the start of Heidi's field school project; one week complete, 5 to go.

Travel Pictures

2008-07-07T15:26:00.006-04:00

Some fun pics from our time in MN, in no particular order. We invite you to create your own story using the photos provided.

Shortly after arriving home we promptly repacked the car for a short trip to see Lyle Lovett play a show in Cohassett, a little town near the ocean and south of Boston, and we camped in a nearby state park.

On our way back we drove to Nantasket Beach in the town of Hull -- an amazing mile+ stretch of sandy beach on the ocean. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely unsummerish that day, so the beach was mostly deserted except for a few hearty folks.

Last on today's menu: a bunch of folks have asked for updates on the ongoing guitar project, so here's the current state of things:

A few finishing touches to wrap up, but the wiring is complete and it plays quite smoothly. In polite technical parlance of the day, it pretty much rocks.

Until next time...

- JBC

Back in Happy Valley

2008-06-27T11:18:00.003-04:00

Hey there, friends!

Despite Chicago's best attempts to place major road construction along our driving route, the city did not foil us, and we have arrived back in WMass -- only to be leaving again for a short weekend camping trip on the south shore near Boston...

Great times in MN and WI, so good to connect with so many people during our short time there. Thanks to all who bent their schedules, stocked their refrigerators, fluffed their pillows, and all manner of other things to accommodate Team B-C -- we appreciate it!

We'll be posting more mighty blog action updates soon now that we're back home, but for now, we're loading up the car and heading for the ocean!

- JBC

Keep on keeping on...

2008-05-14T11:04:00.004-04:00

Today we begin with the opening lines from “UMass”, The Pixies’ glorious (and charmingly descriptive) ode to their alma mater:

In the sleepy west of the woody east
is a valley full, full o' pioneer
we're not just kids, to say the least
we got ideas to us that's dear

Pretty much says all you need to know about the area.

A busy past month for both of us as the school year winds down, so no amazing new adventures to report. Heidi has acquired a nasty cold, just in time for her finals to begin this week. The weather has finally turned consistently nice, so it has felt good to get out and put a few miles on my bike. We’re both looking ahead (and looking forward to) a short road trip to MN – just a few weeks away.

The ongoing guitar project? The guitar body wasn’t taking the stain evenly, so Plan B was several coats of a rich burgundy red spray paint – looks pretty good so far, and the varnish is going on now. Should have things finished and wired up for play testing within the week; I’ll post pics when ready.

- JBC

Operation: Luthier, part 2

2008-04-08T12:00:00.003-04:00

Project El Cheapo Kit Guitar continues in fits and starts, with promising results. The neck has been fitted and shimmed, seems stable. The nut was too high, so it was sanded down (then shimmed because I over-sanded it, oops) and re-glued. Neck needs a little more relief, but in general it definitely seems to be a playable instrument, and string intonation is close enough to warrant continued work. Next steps: finishing the body (perhaps a cherry red stain?), and installation of a Kent Armstrong P90 pickup (on order) in the empty bridge position.

(I'm experiencing a sudden strange urge to watch Spinal Tap...)

In non-guitar geek news:

The end of the academic year is rapidly approaching (yay!), and the snow is rapidly melting (yay!) as spring considers whether to show up on time or make a fashionably late entrance.

- JBC

Operation: Luthier (part 1)

2008-03-26T21:15:00.009-04:00

I recently acquired, for free (and via almost entirely legal means) this:

It was dusty bits and pieces of a beat-up kit for a replica Les Paul-style electric guitar (already cleaned and rough sanded before I took these pics). The neck fitting needs to be fully redone, the bridge pickup is AWOL, and the body is all but unfinished -- in short, it's a mess. However, the body seems solid and usable, the neck is complete and the frets & fretboard look OK, the bridge hardware is all there, and the internal electronics are functioning properly.

New project for Jay: see if I can work it into playing condition, and perhaps make it look halfway decent too...

If the project is successful, who knows? (As you can see here, it would be the right guitar for Ace's role in a KISS cover band...)

Happy spring! :)

Heidi's Birthday Adventure

2008-03-23T15:14:00.011-04:00

To celebrate Heidi's birthday we decided it was time to visit somewhere new -- a day trip to the small former milling town of North Adams, in the Berkshires in the NW corner of the state. As the milling industry faded, the town was left with a wealth of warehouse space, a portion of which was redeveloped into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MassMoCA.

To fuel up for our adventure, we started our day with breakfast at a local "sugar shack".

Early spring is prime season for maple syrup, and there are a number of these sugar shacks in the upper Pioneer Valley, all open for a month or so during tapping season. A tasty breakfast with super tasty maple syrup makes Heidi smile:

Next, a scenic drive approximately 50 miles up into the sparsely populated Berkshire hills - a very pretty drive this time of year.

A view of the Deerfield River, the hills, and of an impressive stretch of icicles along the highway.

MassMoCA.

Photography is not permitted in most of the gallery spaces, but we did get a few pictures of one exhibit, called "Projections" -- a massive room (roughly the size of two gymnasiums end-to-end) with poetry projected in a constantly moving stream, very cool because of the sheer size and because the work is in motion around you...

So that's how you say it?

2008-03-07T13:13:00.001-05:00

A clever (or not, depending upon your point of view and or city of residence) advertisement has gotten a little buzz in the region lately, as Athol is a town just north and east of us.

Here’s the full story.

For those not in the know, there are plenty of town names with unexpected pronunciations here. Amherst is pronounced like “Ammerst”, Worcester is pronounced like “Woostah”, and, Athol is pronounced, well, you can probably figure it out.

As for us? Break week is just a week away, and we can’t wait. Our massive piles of snow are rapidly disappearing, but, like last spring, it has been rather overcast for much of the time, so it has felt a bit dreary despite the warming trend. We’re hoping we’ll get a nice long dose of sunshine soon.

- JBC

And we're free!

2008-02-13T11:28:00.003-05:00

Our driveway has been cleared! There was a tense moment when the plow guy briefly got stuck while plowing our drive, but his approach of "gun the engine so hard your tires smoke" did the trick.

When all the roads and driveways are cleared in a few hours there will be a line of pickup trucks (with plows on the front) parked outside the Polish-American club in town. I guess you work up a big thirst hauling all that snow...

Snowed in

2008-02-13T09:42:00.002-05:00

Jay and I are sitting in the living room, each with a laptop and cup of coffee. It's like our own little internet cafe. We are waiting for our driveway to be plowed after yet another Nor'easter last night. We're still getting used to the weather here--nowhere near as cold as Minnesota (we're not complaining!) but we're amazed at how quickly snow gets dumped on us! The system for dealing with storms is pretty efficient. Cancellations start the night before, and plows are out quickly. With all the long, winding roads and driveways, though, it's still slow-going the day after a storm.

UMass has a delayed start, but Smith opened right on time, the only one of the Five Collleges to do so. Oh well--until the ice-encrusted snow in our driveway gets cleared we'll just stay put and enjoy our coffee!

We're Back!

2008-01-20T19:05:00.000-05:00

Did you miss us?

We traveled to Minnesota for the holidays, spending quality time with family and friends. Lots of babies to hang out with (seven under the age of two!), food to eat, and Guitar Hero to play.

Troy recieved Guitar Hero as a Christmas gift, and of course we all had to try it out. Chad and Holly rocked, Laurie revealed her inner rock-goddess, Jay got booed off the stage the first time he played, Troy scored almost 100% on a Foo Fighters song and Heidi found the game strangely addicting. But perhaps the best moment of all was Heidi's mom, in an effort to encourage Troy's playing efforts, clapping enthusiastically to "Shout at the Devil." Good times...

We got to spend lots of quality time with our nephew, Liam.

He went from barely walking to practically running during our visit.

Liam got a little tangled up in some tape while helping Heidi wrap some gifts.

We got to meet Emma, the daughter of Jay's cousin Kris and Chrissy. So cute!

Heidi's parents gave Jay Wild tickets for Christmas. The Wild lost, but we had such great seats (fourth row!) we didn't mind really mind!

We had our traditional holiday dinner with our college friends. Lots of great food and even better company.

Jay even got to play a song during a performance by his old band.

We also had lots of family Christmas celebrations, spent New Year's Eve with the DL nerds, heard lots about Holly's trip to Thailand, enjoyed some quality time in front of the fireplace at the Clapp's, and just generally had a great visit.

Christmas in less than two weeks? That can't be right?!?

2007-12-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

Wow. The academic semester is winding down, schools go into final exams next week. If you talk to or email Heidi over the next few days, be sure to ask her how much work she has to finish before the break. :-)

So, New Englanders aren't big fans of cold temps (anything below 10 degrees F freaks 'em out), but getting a foot of snow in about 8 hours really doesn't phase them -- par for the course, as the saying goes. Still some digging out to do before the next major snow dump starts tomorrow. We might even get our snowshoes out before heading back to MN for the holidays!

- JBC

Turn on the radio in the morning...

2007-12-03T08:59:00.000-05:00

Good news: The colleges are starting two hours late today due to inclement weather -- snow and freezing rain.

Bad news: I didn't discover the late start until I arrived at work and found that I was the only one in the building. Oops...

-----------

We got our Christmas tree yesterday! Bought it from a nice fella who grows a bunch of trees in his backyard, wears a lot of camouflage, and has three beat-up pickups in the driveway, one featuring a "Dog is my Co-Pilot" bumper sticker. Customers drive right onto his lawn, then go wandering in search of the perfect tree while a couple of wise-looking hunting dogs patiently follow. When you've picked your winner, he comes running with a chainsaw, chops it down, and sends you on your way...

- Jay

The past two weeks...

2007-11-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

Generally, not much happens in my day that could be considered excitement--lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of grading, but not much else. However, the past two weeks have included several events more noteworthy than usual:

1. Bomb scare at UMass. The whole campus was shut down for the morning so the course I teach was canceled. Thank goodness I stayed up late the night before to finish my lecture! Turns out to have been a class project that got into the wrong hands. Don't ask...

2. Visit from Tony. Good times.

3. General student strike at UMass, meaning that students and faculty will stage a walk-out for two days. Issues include no contract for graduate student employees (me!), high fees, and lack of diversity funding.

4. I worked it out so that I could take a little time off from homework to watch the Packers-Vikings play this afternoon, since I hadn't watched a game yet this year. Apparently the Vikings suck so much that Fox doesn't even want to show them anymore, as the network switched to a different game right after the start of the second half. Choice words were yelled at the TV.

5. Ummm, I guess I don't really have a #5. Jay and I did get groceries this morning (our poor fridge practically had tumbleweeds blowing through it) so we'll call that exciting and make it an even 5.

Can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store!

-hbc

+7 Charisma

2007-11-07T11:56:00.000-05:00

Good times were had by all as the honorable Mr. “Llama” Smith, esq. managed a brief overnight trek out to the wilds of Western Mass during his recent trip to Boston.

We saw a few of the sights of our corner of the valley, caught part of the Pats/Colts game on TV, enjoyed tooling around in the rental Jeep Liberty, made the required visit to Pizza Paradiso, and even had time for a quick breakfast at the Bookmill before sending back on the Mass Pike towards Boston.

To use parlance that we know Tony will appreciate: wOOt!

- jbc

Scenes from South Deerfield, part 4

2007-10-28T13:04:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since we posted pics of the neighborhood, so here's a few shots of New England in fall...

Took this shot from our backyard last weekend after a brief storm had just come through. The "hill" in to the right side in the background is Big Sugarloaf, and Mt. Sugarloaf is just out of the frame to the right.
Some views from the top of Mt. Sugarloaf. This is looking south - Connecticut River is in the foreground, Mt. Holyoke range in the distance approx. 10-15 miles.
A few shots looking more south-easterly, across the river towards a town named Sunderland.

Looking nearly due east from Mt. Sugarloaf. Mt. Toby in the background -- supposed to have great hiking trails; we haven't checked it out yet, but it's on our to-do list.

More late night games?

2007-10-22T10:29:00.000-04:00

Yes, it appears that we have become Red Sox fans. The Twinkies will still be first in our hearts, but it's hard to resist the spirit of Red Sox Nation. And with Chad and Laurie in Colorado (when did they get a baseball team?) the series should be even more interesting. Will any games be snowed out? Tell us what you think!

How is analysis of Marxist theory like a Marx brothers movie?

2007-10-15T18:42:00.000-04:00

As I was reading for my social theory course one of the passages reminded me of the famous contract scene from "A Night at the Opera". You be the judge...

Dialogue from "A Night at the Opera":

Driftwood: Now pay particular attention to this first clause because it's most important. It says the, uh, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part." How do you like that? That's pretty neat, eh?
Fiorello: No, it's no good.
Driftwood: What's the matter with it?
Fiorello: I don't know. Let's hear it again.
Driftwood: It says the, uh, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part."
Fiorello: (pausing) That sounds a little better this time.
Driftwood: Well, it grows on ya. Would you like to hear it once more?
Fiorello: Uh, just the first part.
Driftwood: What do you mean? The party of the first part?
Fiorello: No, the first part of the party of the first part.
Driftwood: All right. It says the, uh, "The first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract" - look, why should we quarrel about a thing like this? We'll take it right out, eh?
Fiorello: Yeah, it's a too long, anyhow. (They both tear off the tops of their contracts.) Now, what do we got left?

Text from my theory reading:
"However, the reader will not have failed to note one thing. We have discussed the reproduction of the means of production--but not the reproduction of the productive forces. We have therefore ignored the reproduction of what distinguishes the productive forces from the means of production, i.e. the reproduction of labor power." If you really want the citation (and it's good reading, I tell ya) let me know.

Maybe I'll just put the two together and let the party of the first part discuss the reproduction of the conditions of production. It's not like it could get any more confusing than it already is...

Where are the pretty leaves?

2007-10-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

We've been patiently waiting for the famously glorious New England fall colors to "pop", but things have been rather muted so far -- lots of green still on the trees -- perhaps because we haven't yet had a first frost. Still planning to bring the camera out on some of the local trails to grab a few shots.

Thanks to all who participated in the "Is it seafood?" poll. The end result, 5 to 5, didn't bring the sought-after closure to this dilemma, but maybe that's okay...

Until next time,

- JBC

Mountain Day

2007-10-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

Today is Mountain Day at Smith College – woo hoo! The college’s president selects a nice fall day, traditionally in late September or early October, and cancels all classes and academic events so that students can go out and enjoy the weather. The actual day is a surprise, so there was much speculation on campus that it was going to be last week.

Some residence houses have trips planned to pick apples at local orchards, and others go hiking, canoeing or just out for picnic lunches. Staff do not get the day off, although campus offices are closed. A good, low-key day to catch up on things!

-------

Heidi and I went to Bub’s BBQ with Boone, Sarah and Rose last night. Out of curiosity I tried the Gator Tail, which turned out not to be the best decision – it was sort of like really tough chicken. This led to a lively discussion about whether I was breaking our plan of ‘no meat, but okay to eat fish and seafood’. The gator tail was listed under Seafood on Bub’s menu, which was good enough for me, but the rest of the dinner party was unconvinced.

Which leads to the audience participation part of our post: please give us your opinion on this weighty matter using the poll to the right of the screen.

- JBC

Sprucing things up

2007-09-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

Okay, apparently the "old" template coding I used for the Blapp Report was too 2006 for Blogger, so I had the glorious privilege of rebuilding things tonight.

Alas, the Blapp Report will look a bit different, and different is good, ya? It'll still be us on the other end of this world wide interweb thingy.

- jbc

What the ?!?!

2007-09-24T10:11:00.001-04:00

Sorry -- it appears that the formatting of this page has become all gunked up. Will look into it. In the meantime, please excuse our mess...

- jbc

The wrong getaway car

2007-09-07T09:44:00.000-04:00

The lead story in yesterday's Greenfield Recorder newspaper. Just so silly that it had to be shared:

GREENFIELD -- An Osgood Street man with a long record of fighting with police had an unpleasant shock -- in fact, several -- Tuesday night.

The first was when Douglas James Aprile, 40, attempted to evade police officers trying to arrest him for disorderly conduct by jumping into the back of a car parked in downtown Greenfield.

To his surprise, he found himself in the back of a car containing two narcotics detectives, Kevin Rowell and Lee Laster.

''He got into the vehicle and said 'Get out of here, the cops are chasing me!' said Greenfield Police Sgt. Ralph Odom later.

''And then he looked at Rowell and said 'Hey, you are a cop!'''

According to Odom, Aprile immediately tried to escape from the vehicle, but was stopped by Laster.

Fun in the Commonwealth!

2007-08-30T20:26:00.000-04:00

We had to make the most of what's left of summer, so we headed back to the coast with Mr. Nelson. One day in Rockport to play by the ocean (and eat AMAZING seafood) and one day in Boston. The weather was great, so we were able to walk all of the Freedom Trail in Boston. We took advantage of the subway, too, and managed to avoid getting lost. Best part of the trip? Finding Leinie's on tap at a bar in the North End of Boston. Oddly enough, we found Leinie's a few days earlier at a store in Northampton--we think it's Jeff, so we're encouraging him to come back and visit often!

A few pictures from our adventures:

Jay and Jeff feasted on lobster, which they named Helmut and Garcia.

Jay mourns the loss of tasty Garcia.

The view while we ate dinner. Jeff and Heidi disagree on the location of a really cool object on the horizon.

Fenway!

Recovering from The Bear Who Lumbers

2007-08-27T10:44:00.000-04:00

Was awesome to host his majesty, Sir Jeffness, CEO and president of the Nelsonic Party. Trips to emergency rooms were minimal. If any laws were broken, we did not get caught, so they don't count against us.

More detailed updates, and perhaps a few pics, to come soon.

- The Royal We

P.S. Jeff, this one's for you:

Salem & Rockport

2007-08-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

It took us nearly a year, but we (finally!) made it to the Atlantic coast last weekend, starting with a visit to Salem, MA, about 45 minutes northeast of Boston. Salem's claims to fame include the infamous witch trials of 1692 and Nathanial Hawthorne. One of the oldest cemetaries in the country is located here, and next to it is this monument to the 19 individuals who were hung in the aftermath of the witch trials. Each bench has the name of one of the accused and date of death carved into it.

Salem was once a major shipping port. The National Maritime Historical Service offers several tours along the wharf, including visiting this replica of an old sailing ship moored in the harbor.
No explanation required.

After spending the day in Salem we drove another 45 minutes to Rockport, an old fishing village and resort community on the tip of Cape Anne.

View of Rockport's harbor, looking east into the Atlantic.

(Left) Rockport's small "downtown" along the harbor features several blocks of small artists' galleries, shops, and restaurants. (Below) Stacks of lobster traps.

(Left) Sea kayaks along the boardwalk.

Digging in the dirt

2007-08-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week Boone and I made a semi-surprise visit to Heidi and the gang at the archaeology field school going on in Old Deerfield, on the grounds of the Barnard Tavern.

We learned that the most annoying thing visitors can can ask during a dig is "Find anything yet?" Therefore, we asked this question multiple times during our short visit.

There are several pits being excavated as part of this dig. The pit on the right has been nicknamed The Stargate because 17th and 18th century artifacts have been unexpectedly found above more recent items.
(Here's a real Stargate.)

(Left) Boone shares his excitement at his discovery of the Barnard Tavern's front door.

(Right) Heidi and Boone were very impressed with this bulletin board.

(Right) However, in an ugly incident for all involved, Jay and Boone did not see eye to eye on the bulletin board. The two were soon escorted from the dig site.

- jbc

Tanglewood

2007-07-31T10:03:00.000-04:00

Summer in New England. Randy Moss is a Patriot (and is on his best behavior so far in training camp, since he needs the Pats more than they need him), Manny Fernandez is a Bruin, and KG is a Celtic (to be playing alongside Ray Allen & Paul Pierce). Huh?

This past Sunday we made our first visit to Tanglewood, the famous summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, located in Lenox, a small town about an hour west of us in the Berkshires. The grounds are massive, and include a main "Shed" for large orchestra and jazz concerts.
Surrounding the open hall is a huge lawn where other concertgoers can bring picnic lunches, lawn chairs, and perhaps a bottle of wine, and ice cream carts are on the grounds as well. There are other smaller concert facilities, cafes, and gift shops on site too.

We spent the afternoon rocking out to the music of Mozart.

Trip pics!

2007-07-18T13:30:00.000-04:00

Some pics of people, places, and things seen during our recent trip, presented in no particular order. There's plenty more photos - this is just a starter.

On the road again.

2007-07-03T11:43:00.000-04:00

Apologies to all: Team Blapp has neglected the Blapp Report in recent weeks because we’ve been on a whirlwind breakneck chaos-filled barnstorming tour of the upper Midwest. Whew!

We’ll be back online more regularly very soon, but for now, here are some deep thoughts inspired by our travels.

1. Whitney Houston had it right: children are our future, so teach them well and let them lead the way.

2. The Scandia Bake Shop in Minneapolis makes the best glazed cinnamon twist pastries ever.

3. Sichuan Takin is NOT a meal – it’s a mammal related to a cow, native to mountain regions of east Asia. You can see one at the Red River Zoo in Fargo.

4. An alarming percentage of cars seen driving south through Minnesota on I-94 between June 28 and June 30 had Manitoba license plates. These may be the pre-invasion scouts… We suggest you start brushing up on French and the metric system now. Wolverines!

Cheers,

- jbc

Bookstore confidential

2007-05-24T10:15:00.000-04:00

One of the coolest things about small town western New England is the prevalence of used bookstores – they are everywhere. Every town seems to have one, usually housed in an old farmhouse, church building, or other historical structure.

This past weekend we ventured to the out-of-the-way village of Montague, MA to check out a place called The Bookmill (tag line: “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”). It’s a very cool, picturesque used bookstore, accompanied by a roomy café and a restaurant, built in a mid-1800’s grist mill on the edge of the Sawmill River. We didn’t bring a camera, but I found a few pictures online and am posting them here to give you a sense of the place.

The book selection is reasonable and well laid out, but there’s something about the place/location (or maybe subliminal messages piped through the sound system) that encourages one to spend an afternoon browsing, wandering the grounds, watching the falls, and having coffee or perhaps a glass of wine or ale. If you want to write the next great American novel but have had trouble getting started, the café might be optimal place to shake off that writer’s block…

- jbc

Our new neighbors

2007-05-10T21:38:00.000-04:00

We have a large pond in our backyard and we've been getting to know some of the residents. The largest inhabitants are two critters we eventually identified as muskrats. The first time we saw one we were standing on the bridge watching it swim towards us. I pointed to it, which startled it, and it quickly flipped over, making a large splash. Jay and I screeched and jumped towards each other--if there had been a chair on the dock we would have jumped up on it. We kept watching for it to come back, leaning forward on our toes in case it decided to leap out of the water and come at us like a Monty Python rabbit, but we didn't see it again that day. After diligently watching for a few weeks, we finally got a picture of one of them--we have named them Dwight and Angela, but can't yet tell them apart.

After getting a picture of Dwight (or Angela) we spotted a few frogs--the croaking keeps us up at night, but as you can see from the picture of Jay below, the pond is a peaceful little place, so we don't mind.

Big hitter, the Lama...

2007-05-10T14:36:00.000-04:00

It has been a hopping busy week here in Western Mass. It’s finals week at Smith, and UMass will be wrapping up its school year next week, so Heidi is 'knee deep in the hoopla', as the song goes.

Another cause for excitement: Smith and Hampshire Colleges are currently hosting a visit by the Dalai Lama. Yep, spiritual and political leader of Tibet, Nobel Peace Prize winner, etc. Wow! He spoke to the gathered campus communities yesterday, and Heidi and I were both able to attend. The college’s indoor track facility was packed, and the speech was broadcast throughout the area. A thought-provoking, passionate, and often humorous speaker, who spoke in English but occasionally asked his translator for help with particular words, he has an infectious chuckle that had the whole audience smiling throughout. Very cool, indeed.

Sorry, we didn’t get pictures of him– tight security, no cameras allowed – but the campus itself was spruced up in anticipation of his visit with a large archway and Tibetan peace flags all over. He’s still around today, speaking with groups from the valley’s relatively sizeable Tibetan community.

Sitting out on the lawn at Smith, enjoying the great weather and Thai take-out (there is no Tibetan food to be had in the Valley!)

- jbc

The Way We Get By (and other songs too)

2007-04-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

We saw the band Spoon on Friday night at Northampton’s Pearl Street Club. A great show featuring songs from throughout the band’s catalog, including most of 2005’s Gimme Fiction and half of 2002’s Kill the Moonlight as well as a few new tunes from the forthcoming album due out in a few months. Britt Daniel and crew just started the current tour a few nights ago, so his voice was sharp and the band was flawless. Kept hoping to hear my favorite tune, “Jonathon Fisk”, and it was finally played - as the encore’s closer. So good.

- jbc

TGIS

2007-04-19T12:52:00.000-04:00

The ‘s’ is for ‘sunny’.

This is notable because we haven’t seen that shiny happy ball of fusion in the sky for nearly two weeks, thanks to the mind-numbing swirl of rain/sleet/snow/wind which blessed our neck of the woods in recent days. Sheesh.

The little creek (er, brook) behind our house, normally 4-5 feet wide, stretched to nearly 30 feet wide in a few spots a few days ago, covering up nearly half of our landlords' blueberry patch as well as the foot bridge that crosses the water. (Fortunately, the brook lies down a hill and well back from the house, so no chance of flooding or house damage.)

- jbc

Fun in Philly!

2007-04-15T20:58:00.000-04:00

I was in Philadelphia recently for an anthropology conference. I got the chance to meet up with some friends from Minnesota State. The weather was beautiful so we had a great time exploring the city between conference sessions.

Christ Church cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Philadelphia. Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here. The grave in the middle that looks like a cradle is designed so that it can be planted with flowers.

This is Ben Franklin's grave. Our guide told us visitors often throw pennies on the grave for luck--"A penny saved is a penny earned". The church makes about $3000 a year from these pennies!

We walked everywhere, which really gave us a feel for the history of the city.

The home of Betsy Ross, which was staffed by costumed guides who feigned confusion when some in our group said they were from Minnesota.

-hbc

Happy Easter!

2007-04-07T14:38:00.000-04:00

It is a beautiful sunny day here in western Massachusetts, but the temperature is still in the 30s and 40s, and it's windy, so it's not as pleasant to be outside as we would like.

We are going to pay a visit to our local candy store, Richardson's, to buy some Easter goodies. We are having brunch with some friends tomorrow, and while we aren't doing full-blown Easter baskets, it just wouldn't be the same without some chocolate bunnies!

And now the long-awaited pictures of our new nephew, Liam. By all accounts he is a happy little guy, inspiring many fights over who gets to hold him next.

In spite of Jay's fears, he did not break the baby. True to his word, however, he did not change any diapers.

The proud (and sleep-deprived) parents!

Liam meets Jay's Grandma Rehnberg. They share a birthday (March 18th) but she had it for 90 years before he came along!

Happy Easter to all!

It's about time for a Simpsons reference

2007-03-29T12:09:00.000-04:00

Back in MA. Was great to see young master Liam and his proud parents (pics on blog soon), and we were able to visit with just a few other folks during our short visit. We plan to return to Minnesota for a longer stay in mid-June, after the end of the school year, and will definitely have more time to connect with people then.

Heidi headed off early yesterday morning for an anthropology conference in Philadelphia, a 5-hour train ride from the nearest Amtrak station in Springfield. Will return on Saturday.

Yeah, Springfield – 30 miles south of us, it’s the nearest metro area (150,000 people, plus a few small suburbs), birthplace of basketball and the Indian brand of motorcycles, and home to the Basketball Hall of Fame and Dr. Seuss – but beyond these the city’s reputation is less than stellar. Crime, slow economic development, and underperforming schools are part of the equation. Several former city leaders have been convicted of a variety of corruption charges, and the city’s financial situation was so dire a few years ago that a state-appointed Finance Control Board was brought in to provide strict oversight for all mayoral and city council actions. A bit sketchy, indeed, though a slow turnaround does seem to be in progress.

However, there’s definitely some positive buzz about that town these days, too: article from 3/25 edition of the Springfield Republican, the city's daily newspaper.

- jbc

Call him Uncle Jay

2007-03-19T12:51:00.000-04:00

Two weeks after his due date, our nephew decided to quit being stubborn and join the world! (A stubborn Bauer? Imagine that...) Heidi's sister Cindy gave birth to a healthy baby boy Sunday night. Named Liam Ryan, we are told he has quite the cone-head and is already the center of attention. We are excited to meet the little guy, and I'm sure pictures will be posted soon.

We are finally headed out to Minnesota later tonight. We were scheduled to fly out Saturday morning but our flight was canceled due to the big snowstorm. We went to the airport Friday night in the hopes of getting a stand-by flight later on Saturday--after 12 hours in the airport we gave up and came home. The first flight we could get confirmed seats on isn't until tonight, so we have been trying to enjoy the start of our spring break here in town, since we can't do anything about all the stuff we are missing back in Minnesota. I think we are finally coming to appreciate the fury of the infamous Noreaster...

Nor'easter strikes!

2007-03-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

Big snowstorm in progress. From Spring back to winter, just as everyone heads out of town for Spring Break....

For kicks, here's a live web cam view of Smith College's Campus Center. (This link seems to work best if you're viewing with Firefox rather than Internet Explorer...)

- jbc

Spring has sprung

2007-03-14T14:22:00.000-04:00

Low 60’s and sunny in the Valley today – really nice to be outside, as long as you don’t look at or step in the muddy slurry that’s coming out of the snowmelt.

The warm weather means the buskers are out in force in downtown Noho. A diverse assortment today: a few guitarists, a sax player, and -- an exciting new addition -- a tuba and banjo combo accompanied by a woman hula-hooping.

- jbc

Get yer grub on!

2007-03-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

By this point we have several "favorites" among the endless restaurant offerings in the valley, so our "Get yer grub on" postings will become more of a challenge. We have found another great Thai place, Thai Garden, with locations in Northampton and Brattleboro. Now we can have great Thai food in the north and the south! We would love to take our Thai-food dining companions, Katie and Grant Weeks, to either location, followed by a long walk around the downtown to check out the fun and funky shops. Mmmm, massaman curry...

Vermont!

2007-02-25T19:36:00.000-05:00

It's been a social weekend for us! Last night we went to a house-warming party for one of the anthropology grad students and today we went to Brattleboro, Vermont with another grad student and his family. Brattleboro is like Stillwater, MN, but more "earthy-crunchy". It was a beautiful day to be out and about--we had lunch and then wandered into some of the shops on Main Street.

One of my favorite features on the New England landscape, the church steeple. There are several of these old beautiful churches in Brattleboro.

Jay with our friends Boone and Sarah and their daughter Rose.

Cheers to the Birthday Girl!

2007-02-24T15:56:00.000-05:00

Our friend April has pointed out to us many times that she has never been featured in our blog. Our response was to refrain from mentioning her for as long as possible, but today is her birthday and we just couldn't let the shut-out go on any longer. So in honor of the birthday girl we have created a special list--Top 20 Reasons Why We Love April

20. "Oops, I guess I should have pooped first" and other similar stories
19. Mind games
18. That tall dude she hangs out with. He's pretty cool, and so patient!
17. Owns more towels than anyone else we know
16. Hostess with the mostest
15. She's an "Us Weekly" person not a "People" person
14. Close personal friend of the Wooger
13. Entertaining to hang out with before she's had her morning coffee
12. Ran a freakin' marathon
11. Can replace the lightbulbs in her car headlights
10. Insert your own April-loves-the-Redsox story here
9. Partied with Prince at Paisley Park
8. Pillow talks
7. You know the sound a fork makes when it scrapes against your teeth? She loves that sound.
6. Karaoke skillz to pay the billz
5. Frequent Miss Blarney contestant
4. Not at all competitive--she likes it when everyone wins and just has fun
3. She promised to visit us soon (hint!)
2. Some people use sarcasm as a tool--she has elevated it to an art form
1. She's April!

There, now we can go another six months without mentioning her on the blog. Happy Birthday to Simon, too!

Scenes from South Deerfield, Part 3

2007-02-22T23:48:00.000-05:00

This is the view from the little town commons. Adjacent to this commons is the town's major intersection--a four way stop! We live about a mile up the road pictured here.

There is a fountain in the commons area that the city keep running all winter. As you can see, it's become a huge ice sculpture. We managed to take a picture during a quiet moment--the local kids throw things into the fountain and try to break through the ice. The building in the backgroung is Georgio's, a local pizza place we really like, and if you could look through the pine tree you would see the GoNomad, the local coffee shop.

True story

2007-02-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Heidi, quoted at 6:23 PM ET, 2.19.07:

"I get to look through this book tonight to get information on how to properly store a shrunken head."

That is not normal.

- jbc

Snow, man.

2007-02-17T12:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry if there's a weird Blogger navigation bar now appearing at the top of this page. Google's doing some Blogger acount changes, and I'm still figuring out how to work around some of the new coding for this page's template... Grrr.

Big snowstorm here that began Tuesday evening and tailed off late Wednesday -- we got roughly a foot of snow; fun to have it finally look like winter.

We'll get some more pictures of stuff up here soon -- promise.

- jbc

Time for another posting, for crying out loud!

2007-02-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

Holy hazelnut, a Blapp Report update is long overdue! "February" sort of rhymes with "lazy New England lethargy", doesn't it?

ANYHOO, a couple of kudos are in order:

Bravo to Jeff & Karen, now en route to the sunny Caribbean to get hitched. Woo hoo!

Thanks to all who entered our recent Super Bowl contest, and bravo to Tracy for her winning submission. Your genuine, personally-chosen item from Yankee Candle is on its way now!

Bravo to Holly, who suffered a flat tire on one of the coldest days of the year!

Bravo to everyone else who deserves special recognition in this forum. You know who you are.

Our big excitement this weekend was a short road trip to an outlet mall in Lee, MA, off the pike (that's the Massachusetts Turnpike i.e. I-90 for you out-of-towners) about an hour west of South Deerfield. It's a typical mid-sized outlet mall featuring the usual retail suspects, except for the location: the middle of the Berkshires, so the place has these beautiful snow-covered wooded hills rising all around it. Very pretty setting, but kind of weird too...

You may have heard rumors that we have become vegetarians--they are true, at least for February! We are "trying" it for one month, then we'll see if we want to stick with it. We didn't eat much meat to begin with, and the reading about the food industry Heidi did in preparation for her class at Smith pretty much turned us off the stuff completely (check out Fast Food Nation--mmmmm, E. coli). I kinda miss bacon. Other than that, so far so good.

- jbc

Super Bowl Contest!

2007-01-25T14:25:00.000-05:00

Surprisingly, there is little mourning in the general public over the loss of the New England Patriots. TV coverage, however, is another story. Analysis over the analysis over the speculation of "what went wrong" in the second half of Sunday's game is on nearly every local channel. Boring...

Now that the teams have been set for the Super Bowl, we are trying to find a fun way to watch the game. In the absence of the Ranua's stadium seating and the great "play along" game, we are afraid there just won't be enough excitement on game day. We would try to host a rival Super Bowl party in an attempt to break the Standard Oil-like monopoly the Ranua's have on the event, but 1400 miles is a long way to travel for some chips and dip (although we could offer some great local microbrews). It looks like it will be a party for two, but we need your help to make it fun--we've been entertaining each other for the past six months and we're out of ideas!

So if you have suggestions to offer on how to hold a Super Bowl Party for Two, we are all ears. Offer us suggestions in the "Comments" section, and we'll blog about our favorites. The person who offers our favorite suggestion will win a straight-from-the source, genuine Yankee Candle! We get to pick the scent, of course...

-hbc

p.s. The spell check function on the blog doesn't recognize the word "blog" and suggests replacing the word "Ranua" with "raunchy"

Did we lose you yet?

2007-01-18T12:33:00.000-05:00

We're back! We have returned to Massachusetts after a wonderful visit to Minnesota over the holidays. We had the chance to see almost everyone we wanted to, even if many of the visits were shorter than we would have liked. We spent Christmas with our families, rang in the New Year with the ever-expanding Nerd Clan (those babies can party!) and enjoyed lots of time with friends, visiting many of our favorite restaurants in the Cities.

Once back in Massachusetts, we both had lots to do. Jay returned to work at Smith College and has been enjoying a relatively quiet schedule over the winter break. He is currently in New York City with a group of students interested in careers in publishing. They are meeting with Smith alums at places like Jane Magazine, Scribner, and Random House. The image of him leading a group of undergrads through the streets of New York brings to mind the illustrations from "Make Way For Ducklings."

I have spent the last few weeks preparing for the Spring semester. I was offered the chance to teach a course on Anthropology and Food at Smith College. Jay assured me I was not infringing on his territory, and we will be able to carpool to work the day I teach. I will still be taking two classes at UMass, so it will be a little weird to go back and forth between instructor and student, but I am excited for the opportunity.

Still no snow here, although it has gotten much colder. We are patiently waiting to break out our snowshoes but may have to wait until next winter. We still have lots of places we want to explore, so we'll keep you updated on all our adventures! It was so much fun to hear people tell us they read the blog--we miss everyone a lot, and love that we can stay connected this way!

--hbc

Who will be visitor # 1000?

2006-12-19T10:02:00.000-05:00

Inching towards The Blapp Report's one thousanth site visit...

Things that make us happy...

2006-12-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

1. Finding a Dairy Queen closer to home. The oh-so-lively Hadley Mall features a Dairy Queen and a roller-skating rink, so if Jay and I were in middle school we'd have the makings of a perfect date.

2. Free parking in Northampton (courtesy of the Northampton Business Association), making our Christmas shopping a little less expensive.

3. Bailey's Irish Cream, which I get to enjoy when I am done with my papers and finals (to do so before that time would probably make for funnier papers, but poorer grades)

Oh, and we're excited to come back to Minnesota in five days, too...Family, friends, and Leinie's Honey Weiss!

--hbc

The Hold Steady @ Pearl Street, Northampton MA 12-15-06

2006-12-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

Heidi and I went to see The Hold Steady on Friday night at The Pearl Street, a small club here in Northampton. A really great show – both band and crowd were in good moods, lots of joking and banter. It’s not often that you see bands looking like they’re having a good time on stage, but these guys clearly were.

HS’s massive AC/DC-meets-Thin Lizzy riffs and Craig Finn’s manic narrative bark are tailor-made for a venue like this, and most of the crowd raised their beers and sang/shouted along at all of the appropriate ‘whoa-oh’ points. They ran through all of the tunes from the new album, plus a few favorites like “The Swish” and “My Little Hoodrat Friend” from earlier records.

Openers Catfish Haven were pretty cool too, despite that horrible name – acoustic/electric soul/punk, and they had one guy whose primary role was to bang the heck out his cowbell.

Show ended with Catfish joining HS onstage, and eventually lots of people from the crowd packed onstage too and surrounded the bands while Finn climbed up on the drum riser and led everyone like a big choir.

Pretty dang cool.

- JBC

P.S. As far as I know, Heidi was not involved in Friday's riot at UMass.

Puttin' on the foil.

2006-12-12T10:26:00.000-05:00

Was great to see some live hockey. UMass pulled out an ugly, scrappy 2-1 victory over Boston College on Friday night -- the Minutemen were outshot, outmuscled, and didn't seem to understand what it meant to be on a power play, but they've got speed, and goalie Jon Quick stopped 39 shots en route to the victory. (BC promptly trounced UMass in the Saturday game, 5-2.)

Most of the sports excitement around Amherst this week is for the university’s football team, now on its way to the NCAA Division 1-AA national championship game after defeating Montana 19-17 in Missoula in the semifinal game. UMass plays defending national champs Appalachian State in the final on Friday night (ESPN2).

- JBC

"He was in the crease!"

2006-12-08T11:26:00.000-05:00

It’s Friday, and the Blapps shall be experiencing the in-person wonder of Hockey East action as #16 UMass hosts #6 Boston College. It’s Mullet Night at the game.

I think the #16 ranking means that the Minutemen are only about 6% as good as the #1 ranked Gophers.

Still -- it is Mullet Night!

- JBC

Get your grub on!

2006-12-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

One of our favorite finds is The People's Pint in Greenfield. The Pint is a microbrew with fabulous food and a great atmosphere. Live music, dark woodwork, a friendly host who never seems to take a day off--we love this place! Paired with: Jeff, Andi, and Dylan (we forgot to mention that they're kid-friendly!)

Signs that Christmas is coming...

2006-11-30T17:53:00.000-05:00

The man who stands outside Whole Foods wearing a cape and playing a bucket added a Santa hat to his attire.

Turkey Day weekend in Massachusetts

2006-11-26T19:57:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our first major holiday here in the commonwealth. We missed our traditional family gatherings but made the most of the four day weekend. On Thanksgiving Day we ate dinner at the Blue Heron restaurant. We ate there on our anniversary, so we knew it was good, but the four-course turkey dinner was amazing! Grandma Bauer and T.L. Bear make better turkey, though.

On Saturday we set out to explore New York City. We drove to New Haven, CT and took the train into Grand Central Station.

Jay can barely contain his excitement on the train.

Grand Central Station is a great welcome to New York City. The classical architecture is amazing, but the huge crowds are a little overwhelming. Jay compared it to the most crowded day at the Minnesota State Fair, minus the cheese curds and pronto pups!

Times Square hypnotized us with the flashing lights. For some reason we left feeling like we should buy something...I'm sure it had nothing to do with the dense concentration of ads we saw.

We gave in to the pull of the street vendors and got hot dogs but resisted the temptation to buy "real" Prada handbags, although there was a lovely blue leather one that would look stunning with Jay's eyes...

Even though it hasn't been officially "lit" the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center is impressive! We were surprised at how small the skating rink was, however.

We walked through the Theatre District right in the middle of the Saturday matinee rush. If you look closely at the people in the bottom of the picture you'll notice a man being arrested, which on its own isn't very entertaining, but it happened in front of the families in line for "The Lion King". Jay was particularly impressed with this scene.

Hanging out in Central Park enjoying the beautiful weather. We didn't see any celebrities during our visit (we tried, Sarah!) but Jay swears he saw a guy who looked exactly like Brian Lien in the Park. Hmmmm......

After Central Park we went to the American Museum of Natural History, where we came across this statue from the Olmec culture in Mesoamerica. Heidi was especially excited to find it since she had talked about them in a lecture she gave on the Olmec just last week. Jay was not expecially excited to find it, even though he sat through Heidi's practice lecture. He lost even more points when he laughed at the fact that the evolution wing of the museum was closed for renovation.

Before we left the museum Jay got a call on his cell phone from his grandma. When he told her where we were, her response was "Oh, for heaven's sake!"

Our final stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We only had a little time to spend there so we went straight to the European wing. The Impressionist art is amazing! After the museum we walked down Park avenue to Grand Central Station to catch the train home.

-hbc

Today is Julia Child Day; Dylan in concert

2006-11-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Today, Thursday, Nov. 16, Smith College celebrates Julia Child '34 and her contributions to the college community. Her recipes are featured at the Campus Center Café and Smith College Club for lunch as well as in the Smith dining rooms and the café for dinner. “What I learned in the Kitchen,” a panel with Smith faculty discussing the pleasure treasures of a life well-lived and loved, will take place in the Campus Center at 4:15 p.m. and will be followed by a gala reception.

-------------------------

Last night’s concert deserves a ‘pretty good’, but not a ‘great’, in the humble opinion of this Blapp.

Openers The Raconteurs = indie songwriter stud Brendan Benson + the rhythm section of Cincinnati’s The Greenhornes + some manic fidgety guy named Jack White who plays a pretty mean guitar and sings a bit too. The flashes of Led Zep worship shown on Broken Boy Soldiers were in full effect live, and several songs were extended by bluesy psychedelic Page-esque noodlings that probably would have been much cooler in a small club setting.

White blew his voice out mid-way through the set, but gamely kept reaching for those high notes anyways. Ouch. Rhythm section was very solid, but clearly relegated to second-fiddle status backing up the Benson & White show. A noisy version of “Steady As She Goes” was the closer and highlight of the set, which ended promptly at 8:30 PM.

Dylan? Well, Dylan’s songs speak for themselves, but on this night he was definitely not a showman or a performer. He played the keyboard and the occasional harmonica line, facing his band, shoulder to the audience - his only verbal acknowledgement of the crowd was the mumbled afterthought of, “Thank you, friends” as he left the stage.

Interesting demographic mix in the audience, with an about-even mix of boomers, gen Xers and college-age troopers.

An excitable young fellow sitting near us apparently felt that giving the “devil horns” sign for each song was an appropriate tribute, and his friend’s yelled proclamation to anyone and everyone of, “He’d better f&*#ing play ‘Like a Rolling Stone’!” midway through Dylan's set was . . . um . . . charming.

Mr. Zimmerman and his band performed songs drawn almost entirely from the new record Modern Times, with the notable exceptions of “Highway 61 Revisited” and a driving version of “Like a Rolling Stone” as the crowd-pleasing finale. Dylan's voice was a bit ragged and scratchy; of course Dylan’s backing band was fantastic, propelling each song with precision and finesse.

DQ!

2006-11-15T12:08:00.000-05:00

An important update / correction to information posted previously in The Blapp Report:

New England DOES have Dairy Queens after all
I found one, in Springfield’s Holyoke Mall
My Blizzard purchase: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,
I consumed it swiftly, I’ll have you know,
Blizzards taste great any season - winter, spring, summer or fall.

So...

We’re seeing some guy named Bob Dylan tonight – he’s in concert at UMass, with The Raconteurs opening. Looking forward to the show.

- Jay

Voting is neato, eh?

2006-11-09T20:01:00.000-05:00

The election is over, which is fantastic because it means that my TV viewing will again be dominated by irritating product commercials rather than irritating campaign commercials. Bravo to the Dems for their successes this week – or, more appropriately, bravo to the voters for their success, right? (My political leanings are a lot like my preferences in dress shirts – blue, light blue, blue with stripes, and a little bit of green – so I’m pretty pleased about Tuesday’s results.)

MSNBC recently reported that over $160 million was spent solely on campaign advertising – the vast majority towards negative ads. Imagine the collective good that amount of money could have done if it was distributed to some school districts, health clinics, and business development organizations rather than to cruddy TV commercials...

Here in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick (D) won the race for governor by 20+ percent margin over the Republican challenger. He is a former civil rights lawyer who worked in the Clinton administration. He also had a high-power exec job with Coca-Cola for awhile, which briefly raised the ire of some uber-lefties a few months back, but they quickly got over it. He comes across as thoughtful, humble, and charismatic – a leader who doesn’t seem like he’ll result to “just folks” style pandering. Good stuff.

I will admit to being confused by Patrick’s campaign slogan, “Together We Can”. No announcement has been made about what it was that we are canning… Pickles? Tomatoes? Perhaps he’ll tell us when he formally takes office.

In other news, I saw Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth with her daughter while we were wandering around Northampton last week. This was cool as heck.

Which reminds me: Derailleur scored a gig at the Guthrie this Friday night. You should go.

Be good; be good at it.

- jbc

Visitors!

2006-10-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy few weeks here in the wilds of western MA, so a little catching up is in order:

We recently hosted our first official visitors, starting off with the esteemed Mr. Adam Soderlind two weeks ago. Hiking, pool, pizza, and pandas were featured elements of the visit. We had a great time, and I shall be scouting out local off-road cycling trails in anticipation of his next visit.

Hiking up Mt. Holyoke.

Next, Heidi’s parents, sister Holly, and brother Troy flew into town, as Holly was visiting several colleges out here. During their time here we spent a day in Historic Deerfield (it was Archaeology Day!), trekked to the top of Mt. Holyoke, and, for old times’ sake, I defeated Troy at NHL hockey on my trusty old Playstation.

Putting Troy to work: loading up for a run to the garbage dump.

Another trip up Mt. Holyoke -- great views of the Pioneer Valley.

In Historic Deerfield: Holly expresses surprise when she realizes she doesn't already know everything, while Troy plots how to stump Jay with his next batch of Green Bay Packers trivia questions.

Randy with camera on Mt. Sugarloaf.

We really enjoyed seeing people and being able to show everyone around the area of our adopted home.

A final update: I’ve now begun my new job at Smith College in nearby Northampton, MA. I am working as a counselor for the college’s Career Development Office. Am really enjoying the work, and this position is closely related to my original professional goals when I decided to pursue graduate school. I miss my colleagues at Capella and will definitely miss the work and work environment of that institution, but am also very excited about this next step in my career.

- jbc

More fun in the local news...

2006-10-10T00:22:00.000-04:00

From last Friday's Greenfield Reporter:

Shelburne woman seeks aid with stray cat tormenting her

SHELBURNE — Mechanic Street resident P. Goodwin complained to the selectmen this week that a stray cat has been tormenting her for three years.

She presented selectmen with a petition, signed by four neighbors, who would like to see the cat removed. Selectmen indicated that cats are not within the animal control officer’s jurisdiction, but said that Goodwin could have a warrant article at town meeting to have cats registered.

Goodwin said that the cat has prevented her from sleeping because of its yowling. It also is frequently in fights with other neighborhood cats, and once intruded into her home, she said.

Goodwin indicated that Selectman Joseph Judd has tried to capture the cat with a Havahart trap but has not succeeded. The trap has only been successful in capturing a skunk, she said.

Goodwin said Friday she was unsatisfied with the selectmen’s response and plans to seek a gun permit so she can “defend” her house against the cat, which she said has entered her house through a cat window as recently as Thursday night.

--hbc

Fun with linguistics...

2006-10-06T11:20:00.000-04:00

Since I still don't understand most of what I am reading, Jay and I decided I might as well have some fun with linguistics. The terms lend themselves quite nicely to insulting-sounding phrases. Our favorite so far: "Take your fricative dipthong and go aspirate yourself!" I don't think this counts as extra credit for the course, however...

-hbc

Turf Wars

2006-10-04T21:19:00.000-04:00

Greenfield is a town just north of Deerfield; it's a bit bigger in population, more retail and restaurant options, and a bit more "stuff" going on -- Greenfield is the Brainerd to Deerfield's Baxter. The following item was reported in the Greenfield police log for October 2:

"5:05 p.m. -- Group of youths in front of Fiske Avenue location swearing and yelling at residents and refusing to leave, officers sent, spoke with involved parties having a turf war, one subject believes she owns the street, peace restored."

- jbc

A trip to Yankee Candle Company--Yippee!

2006-09-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

The flagship store of Yankee Candle Company is right down the street in South Deerfield, and today we felt as if we had resisted its pull long enough. We ventured in to see what brings hundreds of cars and tour buses full of people each day.
Jay is amazed by the parking lot--this only shows about 1/5 of the cars.

Jay is having second thoughts once he gets a whiff of the place...

But once we get inside, Jay gets carried away in the scent sampling room. He carefully followed the instructions on how to properly sniff a candle, then made his way through the seemingly endless rows of shelves in order to choose his favorites.

Once he had selected his favorite scents (sadly, "pizza" and "chocolate chip cookie" are not among the options) he proceeded to the votive candle smorgasbord. This gigantic room is set up like the produce section in a grocery store with bins of votive candles organized by scent. You walk around with an egg carton-like container so you can mix and match your custom selection. Eighteen candles for only $19.99!

As exciting as the candle selection was the highlight for Jay was an encounter with the King Candle. Disappointment set in when he realized it was not for sale...

The visit proved to be a bit too stimulating for Jay, and he was grateful when we finally left so he could give his nose a break.

Jay perked up when we got home and he opened his custom mix of the best votives Yankee Candle Company has to offer! It may take a little while to get the scent off his clothes, though...

-hbc

Postseason!

2006-09-29T15:03:00.000-04:00

Cover story in this week's Pulse...

2006-09-24T17:27:00.000-04:00

For Twin Cities folk:

Track down a copy of the Sept. 20-26 edition of Pulse! The very cool cover story "Crossing the Great Divide: A bike trek through Bush country" was written by Heidi's aunt Anne. (That's Heidi's sister Holly pictured on the cover.)

If you can't find a hard copy, you can view the article here.

Along the trail: Holyoke Range

2006-09-20T20:33:00.000-04:00

The Holyoke Range runs west-east just south of Amherst (one of the only mountain ranges in North America that is not aligned N-S) -- tons of hiking trails, great views of the Pioneer Valley. Last weekend we got out for a short hike to the top of one of the "peaks", called Bare Mountain.

On the trail.
Overlook, facing east, about two-thirds of the way up.
Looking north from top of Bare Mountain.
View south from top of Bare Mountain. If you click on this picture to enlarge the view, look closely near the left side of the picture -- you can see the modest skyline of Springfield, MA, roughly 25 miles away. We could also see Westover Air Force Base, home to the massive C-5B Galaxy transport planes that can often be seen lumbering over the valley.)

Belated pictures: Heidi's first day at school!

2006-09-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

A tasty, nutritious, inspiring lunch...

nice new backpack and the good ol' Nalgene bottle...

and out the door she went...

Why I am not a linguistic anthropologist...

2006-09-18T20:34:00.000-04:00

Actual line from one of my course readings:

"We may approach the process of entextualization in performance in formal and functional terms by exploring the means available to participants in performance situations to render stretches of discourse discontinuous with their discursive surround, thus making them into coherent, effective, and memorable texts."

I'm taking suggestions on what you think this means, because I have no idea...

(The article is "Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life" by Richard Bauman and Charles Briggs, just in case you want to check out the full text. It's good reading, I tell you what.)

-hbc

It's the little things...

2006-09-15T11:30:00.000-04:00

Whisps of fog on the upper parts of Mt. Sugarloaf this morning – peaceful and pretty. It makes me feel like a hobbit, and I’m suddenly motivated to find a good walking stick and use the word “precious” to describe things.

I just dropped my car off for the fine folks at Fisher’s Garage to administer their inspection magic, and I’ll find out the results later today. In the meantime, I wait and wonder how harshly my trusty Mazda will be judged.

Inspection blues: someone told me that his car failed a recent inspection because his front turn-signal lights “were not yellow enough”.

While walking back home from the garage, I saw a gentleman perched upon a lawn tractor, parked in his driveway. The tractor wasn’t running. He was just sitting there, observing quietly as the day passed by. The king on his throne, surveying his kingdom…

- jbc

Get Your Grub On!

2006-09-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

We visited the Moan and Dove when we were first here back in February, and it made our decision to move out here a little easier...true pub atmosphere with barrels of peanuts, dark lighting, large wooden booths and over 100 different types of beers. This place has brews from around the world, including one category simply labeled "Mystery Brews". They even pour the different types of beers into the proper type of glass...
Paired with: Tom Clapp and T.L.B. (of course)

Jerry's Place (no website yet!) is right on the busiest corner in bustling South Deerfield and was suggested to us by Jay's parents when they were in town to help us move. This is a true small-town diner complete with counters and stools, waitresses who call you "hon" and the ability to start a tab (if Jerry, the owner, knows you by name). Coffee is free with breakfast, and the fried egg sandwich would make Heidi's grandpa Bauer proud, so this is paired with: Grandma and Grandpa Bauer

Academic Watchdogs

2006-09-07T19:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my first day of class at UMASS--I felt like a little kid going off to my first day of kindergarten! I'm taking three courses and serving as a TA for one undergraduate course, which means Jay will not see very much of me this semester. The workload for my courses is pretty heavy (one professor just listed weekly readings as "yes, lots") but I know I'll be able to stay on task because my portable nerds are watching over me and cheering me on while I am at my desk. Thanks guys!

-hbc

Get Your Grub On!

2006-09-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

We'd like to introduce a new feature we developed while out to dinner one night--we don't have many conversations with anyone but each other lately, so we've had to get creative in our topics!

In "Get Your Grub On" we will profile a restaurant/pub we visit, then "pair" that eating establishment with family/friends we think would also like it.

We went to the Blue Heron on our anniversary. The food featured lots of local ingredients, handmade pastas, and a great wine list. We would definitely go back for a special occasion or long dinner with good conversation and good friends. Paired with: Jen and Scott

Thai Blue Ginger in Greenfield does not quite compare to our favorite Thai place in Minneapolis, but it's pretty close. Fresh vegetables from local farms are featured in most of the dishes, and the "spice" is scaled at levels we Minnesotans can handle! Paired with: Karla and Brian

Stay tuned for more Grub!

Scenes from South Deerfield, part 2: Who was Capt. Lathrop?

2006-09-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

Perhaps this monument to Captain Lathrop and his men will enlighten us?

Text reads:

On this Ground Capt. THOMAS LATHROP and eight four men under his command, including eighteen teamsters from Deerfield, conveying stores from that town to Hadley, were ambuscaded by about 700 indians, and the Captain and seventy six men slain, Sept 18th 1675 (old style). [Eds. note: Whoa! No one likes to be ambuscaded! Bad luck, that.]

The soldiers who fell were described by a contemporary Historian as "a choice Company of young men, the very flower of the County of Essex none of whom were ashamed to speak with the enemy in the gate." [Eds note: So you're saying they were nice fellows, then?]

And SANGUINETTO tells you where the dead
Made the earth wet and turned the unwilling waters red
[Eds note: Wow -- check out the fancy pants literary reference to Lord Byron's Child Harold's Pilgrimmage.]

The Same of the slain is marked by a Stone slab, 21 rods southerly of this monument.
[Eds note: why southerly and not just south? Geez, get an editor next time...]

Anyways, the whole event became known as the Battle of Bloody Brook, which you can read more about here. The brook itself runs right through our backyard -- we are very pleased to report that the water has long since shed its reddish hue; these days it maintains a murky, slimy earth-tone brown.

So there you have it: this week's edition "The Happy History of South Deerfield."

- jbc

Headlines

2006-09-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

From the Greenfield Recorder (As you can see, our news is a little more low-key these days...)

Dog found: Northfield dog, Hank, found in cellar hole after 7 weeks

NORTHFIELD — “We feel like somebody has died and come back to life,” said a very happy Marianne Wood.

Her dog Hank, missing for seven weeks, was found on Monday, alive and remarkably well for a dog that had wasted to 54 pounds from a healthy weight of 75 pounds.

Speaking from her mother-in-law’s summer home in upstate New York, Wood told the story of her beloved golden-haired bloodhound/Labrador retriever cross.

The story actually goes on for about twelve more paragraphs. It was bigger news than the use of a helicopter during a police chase (the helicopter was already in the air for police training, and yes, they did catch the bad guy).

-hbc

Registering a car in Massachusetts (is not fun)

2006-09-02T10:48:00.001-04:00

In order to become official residents of the commonwealth (and who doesn't want to--it's a commonwealth!), we needed a driver's license and license plate for each of us. We made our way to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (don't call it the DMV, they don't like that) and filled out the necessary paperwork. Jay, as usual, is not smiling in the new photo for his driver's license, although they still look cool with the semi-high-tech graphics. I successfully registered my car, but Jay has to wait until a copy of his title is sent from Minnesota. He is excited because he gets to keep his Minnesota plates a little longer--this allows him to drive as poorly/slowly/erratically as he wants and people will just forgive him as a crazy out-of-state driver.

After putting the new plates on my car (and saving one of the Minnesota plates to hang in my office) I took it in for the required inspection. The commonwealth requires all registered vehicles to pass a safety and emissions inspection once a year, and you have seven days to complete this task once a new registration is entered. I, of course, waited until 4 p.m. on the 7th day, only to find out that my beloved (and well-maintained!) Saturn had failed. Actually, to avoid damage to my car's self-esteem, I don't like to say that it failed but merely didn't feel comfortable passing the first time around. The problem was with the exhaust system and according to Massachusetts law I was not allowed to drive the car until the problem had been corrected and the car passed inspection. Apparently spewing toxic emissions into the air is a no-no in the commonwealth.

There are three car repair shops in South Deerfield--one was busy getting all the school buses ready for the start of the school year and one was closed until Sept. 5th because the mechanics were on vacation, so that left me with Fischer's Garage. They have proudly been in business since 1912 (I don't think people around here trust a business less than 50 years old) and still have full-service gas pumps, complete with the little hose you drive over to make a chiming noise in the shop so someone will come out and pump your gas. After two days and $395.22, my car has a new exhaust system and proudly displays a "passed inspection" sticker (see right). As Jay's car has not yet been registered or inspected, expect a "Part Two" of the car saga soon...

-hbc

Scenes from South Deerfield, part 1

2006-08-30T21:37:00.000-04:00

View of our backyard.

Reverse psychology?

Captain Lathrop is the protagonist in my rock opera ode to South Deerfield (work in progress)

Park and water fountain in "downtown" S. Deerfield

Buy stuff!

2006-08-27T20:33:00.000-04:00

After our first few weeks here, it seems appropriate to give you a review of some of our Pioneer Valley shopping discoveries. Consumerism = good, right?

There are no Dairy Queens here. This is a problem.

No Chipotles either. This is also problematic.

Minnesota-based retailers are well-represented in nearby Hadley, with a Target and a Best Buy. Nothing that fantastic about either of these stores, but it is nice to have some familiar names close by.

The Hadley Mall also features Dave’s Soda and Pet City. True to the business name, this warehouse-style store caters to the multifaceted needs of the region’s dog, cat, fish, and reptile owners, while offering those same owners the convenience of replenishing their dwindling supplies of carbonated beverages in the same shopping trip. Not the cheapest place to buy that 24-pack of Diet Coke, but it is perfect if you’re desperate for Diet Coke AND kitty litter…

Yesterday we made our way down to the Holyoke Mall, just north of Springfield. Readers familiar with any of the ‘Dales in the Twin Cities would feel at home here, as this mall features pretty much the same shopping options – Gap, Old Navy, Abercrombie, Sears, JC Penney’s, DSW, and so forth.

Virtually every town out here has a Dunkin’ Donuts. We haven’t yet succumbed to the pull of our local Dunkin’, but rumor has it that their coffee is decent, so we can’t avoid it forever.

Favorite new find so far: Trader Joe’s in Amherst. Hippie/granola/organic foods, fun atmosphere, cheaper than Whole Foods, pre-made cheese enchiladas – how can you go wrong?

- jbc

Forced family bonding in Colorado...

2006-08-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

Six days after we arrived in Massachusetts, I left Jay to finish unpacking boxes in our new apartment and flew to Colorado for a family reunion. Leaving so soon after we moved was stressful for both of us, but Jay enjoyed some much needed "chill-out" time and I loved spending time with family in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Our time together was a mix of scheduled activities and free-time, which allowed us to participate in lots of fun activities together and still have time to recover before the next group activity. Highlights of the trip were whitewater rafting (in the same boat as my two of my youngest cousins, Benjamin and Jonah) and spending time in the arts and crafts house with my sister, mom, and grandma.

I also got to spend a night at the new home of my brother Chad and his wife Laurie. Like us, they recently sold their house and moved to a new town. Laurie will be attending grad school at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. I have to thank them again for getting up so early to drive me to the airport!

Looking forward to the next Morey reunion...
-hbc

Celebrations!

2006-08-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

We celebrated our fifth anniversary over dinner at Sunderland's (pop. 3777) Blue Heron restaurant. In typical New England fashion, the restaurant is located in a renovated building that was once the town hall. Very tasty!

Oh yeah -- we offically became ex-homeowners today, as the new buyer closed on our beloved bungalow in South Minneapolis. We're happy that the selling process has ended, but we'll definitely miss that house.

- jbc

Derailleur, with 2D Jay

2006-08-23T09:13:00.000-04:00

Derailleur played the annual Bike-In at the Bell at the University of Minnesota on August 12.

Really wish I could have been there in person for the show, but the commute would have been rough... As an alternative, Bob, Mark, Keith, and Grant conjured my cardboard likeness to join them onstage, as seen in this live-action photo (click the photo to enlarge).

Reports indicate that a gust of wind blew me over halfway through the set. Long live rock and roll!

- jbc

First impressions

2006-08-13T15:37:00.000-04:00

After 1400 miles, countless highway toll booths, a smelly motel room in Rochester, NY, and some serious cash spent on keeping the gas tanks full, we arrived in sunny South Deerfield, Massachusetts on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 8.

The move went relatively smoothly, and at this point we're about 75% unpacked. The apartment is already starting to feel like home.

The apartment is on the second level of an old house -- it features a big kitchen with walk-in pantry, a big living room, and several smaller rooms that we'll set up as offices / workspaces. We're almost exactly one mile from the main block of South Deerfield.

South Deerfield is in a hilly and mostly forested region right along the Connecticut River. Mt. Sugarloaf state park is on the edge of town, and it's a steep drive up to the top, but it's worth it for the great views of the valley, and one can easily see the U-Mass campus roughly 10 miles away. (The view seems to bring happiness to all, as you can see...)

Massachusetts residents seem to be morbidly proud of their state's (er, commonwealth's) nickmame of Taxachusetts, but things don't seem that much different than in Minnesota (except for groceries). However, this weekend Massachusetts is having a "tax holiday" -- the state tax (normally 5%) is suspended for the weekend, and stores seem to be doing brisk business as people go for those purchases they've been putting off for awhile.

- jbc