August in WaterColor, Florida

Fortunately, Mother returned from her travels in Wales and Ireland in time for us to surprise her with our plans to take her to Florida where we met up with the Stevens family at WaterColor. Those eighty-year old ladies are tough to pin down -- at least in Mom's case -- and we had a bit of anxiety thinking that she might just not arrive in time for our planned trip. BUT, all turned out well.
We spent hours just bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico where the water was apparently 90°. Schools of small fish swam around us and over our bellies as we floated on our backs. It was divine! Every morning we swam out to a sand bar and literally hung out there for hours, often repeating it in the afternoon. Despite our best efforts to protect ourselves, we did pink up a bit:

Each night, we took turns cooking lovely meals then afterwards, we played games. Our favorite seemed to be Balderdash.

Evenings, we had cocktails on the deck overlooking the ocean. Bill and Stan shared a somewhat different concept of vacationing ;~) :

Which is not to say that Mom didn't spend a fair amount of time with her communications:

...OR just relaxing:

Here's the group. We sure had a wonderful time:

Meara McGinn

Congratulations to Bernie and Scarlett! Meara McGinn was born in the wee hours of Saturday morning, July 22. She was just under 5 pounds but 19 inches "tall!"
Meara now assumes her place as the FIRST second-generation progeny descended from those of us once known as the Benson girls. She's the first of a new generation and very unique since the generation prior to hers is ALL MALE.
It remains to be seen as to how long it will take Cheryl to get used to being called a grandma. I'm still struggling with the "great" that's suddenly preceding my aunt status. We all know that Mom will have NO problem with her "great-grandmother" label. She's very excited about Meara.

More photos of Bernie, Scarlett and Meara may be found here

"Black Friday" named album of the month on WERS

Cooper's focus during his senior year at UMass Amherst was a studio CD of music by "The Doo-Wop Shop," the 7-man a cappella group he'd been singing with since his sophomore year. Cooper secured funding for the CD by arranging a song at the request of the vice chancellor for use in university promotions.

The recording took place here during spring break. We had guys sprawled all over -- wherever a decent place could be found for sleeping :~) Meals were like a camp mess hall -- the table was full. It was such a treat to have those guys here.
Cooper arranged all of the music for the CD. Ed Boyer, from Hyannis Sound did the recording and engineering. I did the graphics. The discs were completed in May and Cooper rushed them out to Amherst for the group's final concert.

"Black Friday" was named "Album of the Month" for July, 2006 by WERS, 88.9 Boston (or on the web at WERS All A Cappella Program
We are very proud of Cooper and the rest of the Doo-Wop Shop for the work required to bring this project to fruition.

Liz, Alex and Chris celebrate birthdays

The family gathered in June at David and Patricia's to celebrate the birthdays of Liz (80!!) Alex and Chris (both 21). You may view photos of the day here.

Mom and Liz:

Phyllis and David came down from New Hampshire. Kerri and Alan, Andy, Janet, Barbara, and Doug were all there. We're all very excited about the approaching birth of Kerri and Tree's baby. Alan has a dynamite new camera (Panasonic DMC-FX01) so we should all expect plenty of terrific images.

Hyannis Sound interview on WERS 88.9 Boston

On June 17, a "Live in the studio" interview with Hyannis Sound was broadcast on WERS 88.9, Boston. You may listen to that interview here. Cooper is the one who talks about the upcoming first concert and about the auditions taking place ("... two days on a weekend, usually a Saturday and Sunday..." ;~)

The guys sing 3 songs, all arranged by Cooper. In August, 3 more songs will be aired. Fun!!

Listen to the interview here

Cooper with a few of the guys:

Brad Graduates from Scituate High!

Brad graduated June 9, 2006 from Scituate High School on the Boston south shore.
He sang "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" with the chorus at graduation and was called to stand for recognition a number of times. He will matriculate in the fall in the School of Engineering at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Grant did his best to promote this choice when Brad visited the university last spring. Both Grant and Cooper are delighted with Brad's decision.

Stan with Brad.

My trip to NYC

On May 5, I made a sudden decsion to go to New York because I couldn't stand missing Cooper cast as Ichabod Crane in the New York debute of "Sleepy Hollow," a new musical by Michelle Akerman. At 10:00 am I checked into hotels and transportation then caught the Limoliner bus to midtown Manhatten, leaving the Framingham Sheraton Tara at 2:30 pm. The bus has wireless internet so I worked on the trip down and it went really fast. I walked from the bus to the Emerging Artists Theatre off of Times Square. As I entered the theatre, I was greeted by Megan and Luann! That was so much fun. We all went out to dinner afterwards. Cooper and Grant walked me back to the Times Square Crown Plaza where I had a room on the 42nd floor. The next morning I was awoken early by the Revlon Walk for Cancer so I took a walk to Rockerfeller Center and enjoyed a trip to the Top of the Rock. I fooled around the city a bit for the rest of the morning then walked back to the bus for an early afternoon return to Massachusetts.

It was great that the bus had web access so I could email images to Stan revealing who I fooled around with in NYC:

The Allens Visit from Oregon

Six Allens (that includes Bernardo from Caracas) graced our home with a very special visit in April. I warned them that we've had nor'easters on April first that bring life in the Bay State to a halt but they came anyway!
So wouldn't ya know...it was shirtsleeve weather. Here are Carley, Bernie, Kara and Ross at Fenway Park:

We visited the Lowell Historic Park, Boston (a couple of times), Lexington, Concord and took in the blues jam at John Stone's here in Ashland. It was a GREAT time.
Mary, Cindy & Steve at Walden Pond. The two of them ensured that we had a Starbucks at all times (Just like Thoreau only he had to walk further into Concord):

It's nearly September and the tomatoes are still green

I'm only hoping that my foray into horticulture is going to result in SOMETHING. Hey. I germinated these things in April and it as August draws to a close...

Yeah, they're BIG honkin' green things, but "green" is the operative adjective here. Ok, everyone must "visualize" soft and red for me.

Cheryl writes that they've purchased a boat! Yaaay. I added a few accutrements to the photo, but they clearly have good times ahead.

Cooper showed up here today for his physical but is returning for one last night on the Cape tonight. He'll be finishing up the cleaning of the Hyannis Sound house tomorrow then it's the end of another idyllic and lucrative summer on the Cape. We enjoyed having him home for the first time since the Spring.
Finally, I leave you with my potato man. I was inspired to add a few limbs after I discovered an eye-full in the pantry.

Cooper ends his 2005 season on the Cape

Stan and I drove to Falmouth on Cape Cod last Monday to see the first of Hyannis Sound's final week concerts. It was very emotional so I can only imagine what the final concert tomorrow night will feel like for them. It's always difficult because a number of the guys must move on and the decisions are generally announced this week.

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance. These guys are so marvelous. If you'd like to see the videos I taped of Cooper's solo songs, click on these hyperlinks: "Take Me On" and "Washing on the Water"

We also had fun seeing Ed Boyer who joined the guys for the traditional Irish parting blessing.

We wish each of the ten guys in the Sound the best of times in the coming year and we look forward to seeing ALL of you at the reunion concert. You are a fabulous group of brothers. Townsend Belisle gave you a wonderful gift in 1994 when he founded the group.

Peace.

Back in MA; kind of missing the Pacific Northwest

My visit to Oregon was terrific. It was a whirlwind of activity and although I had no specific agenda when I flew out last week, the process of dealing with my McMinnville property took form. Mom and I drove to Mac on Thursday to take care of the Water and Light transfer and met with some realtors whom I've known most of my life since they were in our church. They had some terrific ideas about facilitating improvements on the property and I was quite excited about working with them. The following morning, Stan listened to what I laid out as our options and suggested holding an open house on Sunday. I scrambled to put the ads in local newspapers and set out to work on cleaning up the yard. Mary Bernards Allen was unbelievable in the support she gave me. Come to think of it, she's always been unbelievable in the support she gives me. When Mom and I drove up on Saturday, there was Mary mowing the lawn!! We worked the rest of the afternoon and it felt really good to have a project together. We're dirty, scratched and bloody but still smiling:

Then we went to her place and sat on the deck beneath the water mister that Steve had installed. We sipped lemon drops beneath the fine mist, laughing, telling stories and enjoying the sunshine. Kara breezed through:

When Steve returned (he had taken Ross to buy a Lance Amstrong type bike in Salem), we went to the Golden Brew Pub for dinner. It was terrific. Ross with his new bike (below) before he left for the inagural ride with his friend Sean:

Sunday, Mom and I hurried out to Mac after I delayed departure in order to deliver a job to a client in MA for a Monday meeting with the CEO (this wasn't a vacation--I was still working as far as my clients knew). I had put together a spec sheet on the house that morning and I photocopied it at Staples then went to Wal-Mart to buy "FOR SALE" signs. As I asked an associate to help me locate them, I was stopped by a man who asked "you're selling a house?" This turned out to be the " signa" as in "Under the Tuscan Sun" because it was these very nice folks who have submitted the best offer and who will be owning my property if all goes well. We actually met lots of nice people throughout the day. Mary and Steve came by a couple of times to sit with us. She cleans up "real good":

McMinnville is a really nice area of the world.
On Monday, we drove over the coast range to visit with Cheryl, Sheldon and Brian in Manzanita. We went out to breakfast at Wanda's and then on to the beach for a while. We watched kite boarding or whatever it's called -- quite dramatic as they soar 20' into the air above the surf. Christy spread her blanket over the huge log but before long she grew far too warm. I looked over to see her blanket glowing red. It was on fire!

It was great to see Brian again and he's doing great. He's going to have a bright future, I'm certain. I only wish that Bernie could have been there as well. Here we are in Cheryl's and Sheldon's back yard and below at the beach.

I posed by the Tsunami Evacuation Route sign. What a tourist:

Mom and Christy pose at the overlook on highway 101 with Manzanita visible below:

Christy took us out for a lovely meal at Camp 18 on the ride home.
The next morning I flew back home and Stan collected me at TF Green Airport in Providence sporting a new vanity plate for the MINI: "MTRING" Ah...yes, we're motoring in the MINI.

Suddenly Oregon

Saturday July 30th I decided to travel to Oregon and booked the trip for the following Tuesday. So that puts me in the great Pacific Northwest this morning! I flew past Mt. Hood in all of its magnificience:

On Wednesday, I joined Mom as her "Senior Serenaders" performed for a local Hillsboro nursing home:

Following that, we jumped on the MAX, destination "Old Town" Portland's Chinese Gardens. Oh, what an enchanting place. Here's Mom in the "Pavillion of knowing fish."

We had white peony tea and some very brown marinated Chinese eggs in the tea house.

Afterwards, we hoofed off to "Dan and Louis Oyster Bar" to meet Christy for dinner. Mom and I enjoyed an assortment of raw oysters from various locations, both local and distant (mmmm!) And I had a huge crab louie.

MINI DRIVER

What does it mean to be a MINI driver? For me, it meant personalizing the rear hatch of my "Cooper S."
Ok. ok. This may only be understood among our circle of friends, and I'm not trying to make a grosse point _________. (I'm hunting for some goodwill here). Stan indulges me in this vehicular enhancement. But then again, he's an ideal husband ;~)

We'll just have to wait until MINI comes out with a model named "Grant" I guess. Or maybe something else relating to "Grant" will come my way. How 'bout a $250,000 grant? Well that might be ok, too.

Liz Thibeault delivered Alec early evening on July 16, 2005. Way to spend a Saturday night!
Danny wrote that Alec weighed in at 6.13 lbs. I wonder if that's actually 6 pounds, 13 oz.? Otherwise, he's 6 pounds, 2.08 oz. if you do the math (and that's kind of a strange stat). So I'm going with the 6 pounds 13 oz. which fits pretty well with his 21 inch frame!
We're very excited to meet him.

He's an adorable peanut in his mom's arms:

Dental EMERGENCY

Whoa. I've been telling my dentist for a year that this tooth needed to be crowned. I always like to save on a root canal by having it crowned before the nerve goes south. WELL...this one remained a bit of a mystery to him and I clearly wasn't forceful enough to make him undertstand (Mah bad. Lacking assertiveness). There wasn't an obvious problem with the tooth and we'd been treating it with many other approaches: the patches at the top of the teeth where gums had receded (he doesn't like me to call them patches but I can't remember what they're called) and brushing with "sensitive" pastes. Finally, I decided that I was tired of pain radiating up into my head when I ate anything warm. So I scheduled an appointment for today. He decided he would remove the filling on that tooth and replace it with a medicated filling, barring the discovery of anything else amiss. Well, he discovered that "amiss" part when half of the tooth broke off at the crack that's likely been there for years.

So, he announced that this tooth needed a root canal, a post, and a crown. Whoa.

He canceled appointments and went right to work on it. After the first hour, I asked "With a post in it, how can a root canal be done?" He said "The root canal is all finished. That's what I just did." Geez. Last time I had a root canal -- about 23 years ago -- it required several visits to an endodontist (and rubber dams which likely triggered my latex allergies). I didn't know that a root canal could be done in a dentist's office. Cool.

He put the post in and I'm pain-free. FINALLY! After probably more than a year! I feel good. Yeah! I get my temporary crown next Thursday.

Dateline Ashland: Tomato Update

There are little tomato buds popping out on my plants. These are perhaps the largest and they are on the ones earliest into the ground. But it might be because this plant gets the most sun.

Buds are appearing on the others, but they're far more shaded. No matter, fewer buds may be a good thing with 16 tomato plants (hey...now I know not to plant the entire seed packet). Being a gardener takes experience.

Seeing the Stevenses off to Atlanta again

Somehow I failed to get photos of the kids (!) It was probably because they weren't still for long. No, it was because I didn't care to move out of my chair! WELL, it was a heat wave here to be sure. But I did snap (yes, my SONY has audio cues) a few of our group of friends when we gathered at the Eiler's home the last day of Nancy & Bill's visit on July 17, 2005.
Joe and Coco

Craig and Jill:

Bill, Rob and Nancy:

Deb and Reid. The reflection over Deb's left shoulder is the only photo I got of Christy (sorry). Note that she has her cocktail glass raised..:~)

And of course, Bubba and his gal:

As usual, we had marvelous hors d'oeuvres, a good 'ole traditional barbeque meal and ice cream dessert. And we came home with some Blue Moon beers in our cooler (?) Whose were those? Hey, thanks!