boston commoner.

welcome home

Finally, I get to meet my niece in person. I hope she makes this old-surly-man face a lot:

Here she is, my precious new niece!

She’s got dark hair like I did when I was born. She’s also wide awake, as you can see, with a bright, inquisitive soul behind those big, brand-new eyes. She was actually born on Wednesday, January 4th, but I didn’t want to post until they were able to send me pictures. I’ve been bursting at the seams with the news :o) She and my sister Liz are both healthy and happy. Thanks for your prayers! (more…)

This week I began dismantling the Christmas decorations in my parents’ house (I didn’t really have any of my own at the apartment to speak of). Soon the city of Boston – if they haven’t already – will begin to take down their own. Below are a small sampling of the city’s Christmas and New Year’s decorations. The first two were captured the day after New Year’s, remnants of the annual ice sculptures set up for Boston’s First Night festivities. The last is a random shot of some of my favorite decorations, absolutely ginormous Christmas tree ornaments suspended seemingly in mid-air under the glass roof of the Prudential Center. You can also find them out in the Center’s courtyard and out on the sidewalk in front of the Huntington Ave entrance by the Cheesecake Factory. Wherever you find them, they absolutely dwarf you, and for some reason I get a kick out of this every time… (more…)

Okay, I found this pretty hilarious appeal when I was cleaning out my comment que today. This comes from “RON” in Canada, who likes to type in caps and apparently is in desperate need of a hobby:

DEFINATELY DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE? GOOGLED”I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE” AND CAME UP WITH YOU….NOT TO SURE WHAT THIS SITE IS, I’M FROM CANADA, SINGLE 34 AND WONDERING WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT, UNEMPLOYED WITH LOTS OF TIME ON MY HANDS, WANT KIDS AND A FAMILY, DO YOU FIND THAT APPEALING? LET ME KNOW

Well, Ron, THANK GOODNESS I’M ALREADY TAKEN.

I’m just gonna have to balk at temptation and PASS ON THIS ONE.

My pastor’s daughter Linda has become a little sister and good friend since I came to Boston over two years ago. She likes to call me Squashy. I think there’s a story behind that but I honestly can’t remember what it is. I think it might involve the German word for Pumpkin, but I can’t be sure. For those who haven’t experienced this firsthand, Linda (or “Linder”, as we like to call her) makes a fabulous Cranium partner. She wows and amazes us all with her skills at the acting/silent charades cards. She is too smart for her own good and makes great puppy chow. I could go on and on about her virtues, but to close, I will just list her latest one: she recently got herself a blog :o) Let’s hope she posts more often than I do ;o)