Tag Archives: Maine

Seven years

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It is hard for me to believe that today marks our seventh wedding anniversary. Sometimes it seems like time has flown by, and at other times, it seems like we’ve been married for longer than seven years. We are really blessed. Some of the events of the past seven years include the following:

  • three more children (Keegan was eight years old when we married)
  • three household moves
  • the death of my father
  • my mother-in-law’s hospitalization and long recovery from dilated cardiomyopathy, as well as a later surgery to replace both of her knees
  • the death of both of Michele’s grandfathers
  • the death of one of Michele’s uncles as well as two uncles and an aunt of mine
  • the legal adoption of Keegan as my son
  • Michele’s extended neurological illness (which has since reoccurred)
  • my hospitalizations for meningitis and other weird ailments including a severe case of the shingles
  • purchase of two different minivans, and the sale of a car and one of those minivans
  • the adoption of three dogs, two parakeets, several kittens, and several freshwater fish
  • three job changes on my part
  • three graduate courses taught
  • more than 15 emergency room visits
  • thousands of miles traveled to/from relatives and one plane trip as a family (to Maine)
  • the purchase of two Mac computers
  • several business trips made by me, including a trip to Sweden, two trips to the UK, and trips to various parts of the U.S.
  • several other funerals and marriages of friends
  • the marriages of a niece and a nephew

I’m surely forgetting some other important milestones, but this list covers a lot as it is. Happy anniversary to us!

LibraryThing and the moose

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LibraryThing > Our poor moose

It’s taken me a while to do but I wanted to comment on this interesting post from the folks at LibraryThing about a moose incident near their building. I thought it was incredible that a moose had wandered into Portland, Maine! I’ve been there (and elsewhere throughout the state) a few times and it is one of my favorite places on earth. I would never have imagined a moose wandering around in the city proper, though.

There is a bit of irony for me personally in this story, because each time I’ve been to Maine, as well as to other areas where moose are supposedly prevalent, such as northern Minnesota, I secretly hoped to see a moose. I have struck out so far. The only place I recall seeing moose was many years ago in the area around Glacier National Park.

A funny video of Keegan

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He’ll kill me for doing this but I can’t resist linking to a funny video of Keegan, taken almost five years ago on a family trip to Maine. This was filmed at Ferry Beach State Park. The video file is located on one of my favorite Web 2.0 sites, Multiply.com, which, unlike Flickr, allows me to upload videos and other stuff. Plus it allows me to easily import photos already on other photos sites, including Flickr. That means I can keep using Flickr as my main photo site and just import stuff that I want into Multiply.com. I highly recommend it.

The Lobster Chronicles

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I just finished reading a thoughtful, sometimes droll, book called The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island written by Linda Greenlaw of The Perfect Storm fame. Since I have a special fondness for Maine, where this book is written (and is the home of the author), it was an entertaining read. As I read it while lying in bed, every once in a while I’d laugh or chuckle. Michele would then roll over and, in annoyance, tell me “Go to sleep!” This is one of the many joys of married life ;-) We were there in Maine for our family vacation last year and had a great time. I wish we could go back this year but we simply can’t afford it. My favorite area is the Harpswells. I’d love to own a summer house there! Tristan has once again spiked a bit of a fever and last night was a fairly restless one. Hopefully he’ll feel better today. Sometimes this happens when he is teething, other times we don’t know what causes it. Keegan, I think, is hoping to spend more time on his new skateboard today. His grandma bought it for him when we were at her house this past weekend. Yes, his grandma loves to spoil him rotten! Next door, a new access road is being built to the elementary school. Every morning now for the last few weeks, we’ve been woken up by extremely loud and heavy machinery starting up. It’s so loud that quite often, our entire house shakes. Then there are the gravel trucks rumbling to and fro in front of our house. They are filling in part of the parking lot at our church to enable new classroom space to be built. I’ll be glad when all of this construction work is done.