Reuben Rowen

Reena and I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family: Reuben Rowen Freedman-Riles. He was born December 9th in good health and weighing 7lb 2.3oz. The name Reuben derives from the Hebrew name of Reena's maternal grandfather, Robert, who passed away this past June. He was an amazing man who we miss very much, and we hope Reuben will embody his industry, immense knowledge about the world, and love for family. The name Rowen comes from Dan's paternal great-grandmother. Bertha Belle Rowen loved gardening and music, and she was ahead of her time in advocating for fairness and equality both on a personal and national level.

We hope those of you who are local you will get a chance to visit us and meet Reuben! Phone calls and visits are welcome anytime.



Rose playing with her friend, Allie, and the big, green ball.

Rose and Animoto

Playing with Animoto yeilded this:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

New School, Year beginning

Beginning a new year at a new school is always a bit of work, and thus nothing has shown up on my blog for a while, but things are good. For those out there who are starved of Rose photos:
We went to Drumlin Farm yesterday. Among the highlights were sitting on an old tractor, picking potatoes, and the chicken house.

Boats

Rose loves all forms of transportation. This morning, we took the train to the Charles River and watched sailboats navigate the choppy water. There was a boat in front of the public boating facility that Rose enjoyed pretend sailing with Daddy gently rocking it to simulate waves.

A Morning at Drumlin Farm

At Drumlin Farm, Rose encountered many animals and tractors.

Here she is watching a cow. The front end of the one in the background is a much better view than the one she was looking at.
Lots of goats and sheep in this building. There was one chicken which Rose pointed out immediately. She really loves chickens! No photos of her in the hen house, though.
Waiting for the train to come to take us home.On the commuter rail going home. It passes pretty close to our house and the park on our street, and it stops nearby.

Back to the Fishies (penguins, turtle, sea lions, etc)

Today, I took Rose and Zora to the Aquarium. I used Zora's family's double stroller that fit through most of the elevator doors on the T. I had to take off a wheel to fit through two of them. Time for a new strategy--a smaller stroller!

Here are the two of them sitting on the sill of the big central tank looking at fish as they swim by.
And looking at penguins.
The other day, I made these puff pastries (I have to learn better rolling technique). This was what I tried to do to make kohlrabi leaves more edible. Not a fan of kale and other dense, leafy greens, kohlrabi leaves had water repellency of a high end raincoat. I blanched them, sauteed them, and added spices before wrapping them up in puff pastry with some Parmesan. The result is moderately edible. I really hope it is high in all kinds of vitamins and such though I suspect all the cooking I did probably lessened their nutritional value. Raw, however, I imagine they would have just passed straight through impervious to any digestive attempts made on their integrity.

Summer adventuers with Rose

Rose and I have been going out on adventures. I decided to walk from Park Street to the Aquarium because from Park, one has to transfer twice to only go two stations. The time waiting for trains and spent locating and riding unpleasant smelling elevators is not worth it, especially when there are exciting fountains to be found on the way.At the aquarium, Rose was fascinated by the turtle rescue tank. The turtle in this tank was recovering from cold shock. I think all of Boston is still recovering from cold shock, and lazing around in a tanks would probably help me, though I wouldn't want thousands of folks walking by and peering at me.
Penguins were a favorite. We returned to these Plexiglas portals regularly to see and listen to the swimming birds. Rose loved following their trails of bubbles in the water.
At the top of the massive central column of water about which a walkway spirals, there is a surface reef ecosystem. Rose was fascinated by the huge turtle, the rays, and the divers who submerged to feed the large fish and sharks below.
Outside, the sea lions were swimming and one was scratching itself. Rose was transfixed.
But of course, it is the boats that are the real attraction. Even while inside (except for penguin watching) Rose would repeat, "Boat?" So we went outside and walked the waterfront to look at all the boats. The sun shade is off only for the sake of the photos. This stroller is one of the only ones we found with a real sun shade that actually shades most of her body. Other strollers had these miniature afterthoughts that required ill-fitting third-party accessories. The one shown in the link is a newer model that has solid tires. We like the soft ride of the air filled ones.
On another day, we stopped by Raymond Park
A happy light near our house.
I've seen this being pedaled around before. Frankenshoppingcycle.
Rose and I went to Chinatown. It is amazing how it is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is Boston, and it now clicked into place.
Looking at garden tools at Tags.

Ice Cream Castles in the Air

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at cloud that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.

Taken from "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell

Glorious sunsets are not confined to the American Southwest and other equally amazing places, though they are pretty spectacular there. It just takes looking up and noticing they are there amongst the buildings and wires. On the day I took this picture, I was walking down to Porter Square to get some groceries. I had a great view of the clouds pulled from N. C. Wyeth illustrations or other books from that era. These clouds invited Bostonians to enjoy their sense of wonder if they would just look up.
During one of our many powerful rainstorms, worthy even of Midwestern thunderstorms, about a third of our tree fell down. I wrote about it in a previous post. Here are the photos.Neatly chopped pieces
The very big stack of limbs awaiting chipping.The previous owners of the house set up the black composter in the middle of an ivy patch, added lots of non-compostable items, and left it to sit there. I have cleared thorn bushes and other things, including a mosquito breading pit known as a pond, from next to the garage and set up both the drum composter for kitchen waste and the black one for yard waste and finishing the kitchen waste. Yardwork continues. I just managed to convince the bushes in front to not encroach on the sidewalk. Had to use the hedge trimmers to do the convincing!

Transition

Today is the last day I sit in my classroom at the Atrium school. I have returned my key, wiped computers, organized files on DVDs for teachers following me, and organized materials in the class as well as the storage room. Everything is neat, organized, and ready for a new teacher to step in. This does not mean that she has to use what I have left behind; she has the choice. At the beginning of every teaching job I have started, I have walked into a less that useful chaos of old files, random materials, and often a very dirty space. It feels good to not be adding to that trend.

Impressed!

During dinner, Reena saw a third of our tree in front slowly fall to the side. Because I was facing the side of the house, I missed the show and heard only the quiet sound of a branch cracking. The limb, if a third of a tree can be called that, miraculously landed on the sidewalk missing several cars, the house, and anything else valuable. It did dent the hedge, but that is easily remedied. However, the whole thing was hanging from the wires both to the house and between the two poles on the street. We called NSTAR, the local power company, and a friendly but distant representative said that people were on the way. I then called the City of Cambridge Dept of Public Works. Wow! They got someone out here right away, got the cogs moving to get the NSTAR crew out quickly, and are about to show up with a chipper to clear away the debris. Everyone involved was very polite and professional. I am thoroughly impressed. I think I hear the chipper pulling up right now!


Yep, chipped and gone in about 20 minutes.

Super Duper job.

blast from the past-scanned

When I was in the height of my Magic playing days, I saw a piece of art someone had made from cutting multiple copies of cards and gluing them together to make a mini-shadow box diorama. I did the same with some magic cards and some cards from the Milestone series of comics.

I took one of the Magic ones to the Comic convention in Philly when I saw that the artist was going to be there. He enjoyed it and signed it for me.

Barcode

An article in a magazine pointed out the obvious, one that I had already dabbled in but forgotten, that the scanner can be a fun toy to make art.

The decorative grasses that emerge at the corner of the house near the garbage cans create a small island of emerald and cream contrast. While I must do battle with this probably invasive and aggressive species, I do admire the plant's beauty. When lined up on the scanner, I could almost read the leaves at a grocery store checkout.

What would my work be without the requisite spiral. I lightly dampened this shell before putting an old, faded piece of construction paper over it.
I tried some still life compositions with materials found in the yard. I like them, but I will certainly have to spend some time with the medium before I achieve the look and feel I want. I do love ferns, and this is their season!
Lastly, I created a high-resolution close-up of one of the purple flowers. I cropped to what seemed to me to create an other-worldly image. Imagine a yellow rocket launching from a purple landscape.

Probably my scanner is unhappy with plant residues, but I like this promising start of a new hobby.

Cards baseball

Thanks to Sarah and her family, I was indoctrinated early into fandom for the Cardinals. Living out of market, I have in the past received only a few telecasts a year when they were playing on national tv at a time when I could watch. Last year, I purchased the cable extrainnings package. It was disappointing to say the least. Most broadcasts were the away team, and many games were just not broadcast at all. This year, I switched to trying mlb.tv because more games would be available, and with the premium package, I could choose the broadcast I wanted to watch. Initially, I have had to watch it on the web interface either through the mac mini connected to our tv or on my computer. The feed is choppy and very unsatisfactory. Today, I updated the roku player upstairs and the version of Boxee on the mac mini downstairs. Now they both play mlb.tv and do so much better than the web interface. yay!

San Diego and Back

Rose eating crackers
Serena who Rose led around the house and yard for quite a while.
Cousin Jenny, Serena and Tyler's mom.
Dad (Granddad) and Tyler
Uncle Dave
Aunt Judy
Uncle Roger

Missing due to Rose's love of the delete button are Grandma Linda, and Toby dog.

There is nothing like leaving the New England area on a plane and touching down where rows of palm trees and cacti declare unequivocally that you have left home. This last week we visited family in San Diego where my aunt lives. Rose was a great hit and spread the love with her cheery personality. One of the presents she received was her very own camera. After some trips to get batteries, a memory card, and a small screw driver, we were able to put the thing together. Rose loves the sounds it makes when turning on and off, when moving through the pictures she has taken, and unfortunately when she deletes them. She also loved the pictures of the various folks visiting and living in San Diego.

recycling and more

This is the new composting center that just fits next to our back door. The bins are easy to take out, it fits a very small footprint, and it is not garishly colored. Quite perfect for what we need. Bins as a bit small, but that was stated in reviews online. We just take stuff out a few times a week to the larger bins on the back porch.

Other than that, busy, busy, busy.

flowers

Crocuses are opening, the sun is shining, and spring may finally be here. The appearance of flowers always tremendously lifts my mood.

The mad dash

I have just finished reading Stones into Schools after having read Three Cups of Tea in preparation for a whole school reading event. The book, newly out, is on a speed read program at my library which means it can only be checked out for one week and is not renewable. I didn't fully grasp this until the two days until due email appeared in my inbox. I have since then become absorbed in reading in a way reminiscent of my childhood. I would disappear into Narnia, Moomin Valley, and many other fantastical or realistic realms only to surface for food, sleep (as necessary), and other necessities. Only when the book was done would I want to go back outside and join the neighborhood games of tag or practice soccer. Books have always been able to draw me in, and it was refreshing to be so deeply immersed in the narrative of how the vision to promote education, and specifically girls' education, to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan has unfolded over time. Both books were beautiful, moving, and inspiring. I highly recommend them.

Mariachi

My writing group met for a social dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Amy's husband plays in a mariachi band there on Wednesdays. It was great food, great company, and great music.