The Fabulous B@ker Blog

Today is the big day for the Fourth Avenue Street Sale, and it's incidentally the first day we've gotten a MUCH NEEDED GOOD SOAKING RAIN in a really long time, I'm taking more than a month. Everything is brown, dry, and hard so we definitely needed the rain, but c'mon! How am I ever going to take my sale loot and go out for dinner when I can't even put my treasures out? Hoping for the weather to clear...

This weekend we celebrated Cam's graduation with a dinner/dessert/bonfire, which was exactly one month after his June 23 graduation from FHS ( it seriously seems so long ago!! ). I think you may recall me mentioning at one point, probably back in the early winter, that Cam said he did not want a graduation party. The dinner, followed by dessert at home was an acceptable compromise for all of us. At 5:30pm, our extended family, plus a couple of friends (about 30 people in all, counting the littler kids), gathered for a dinner at Bocaccini's , a nearby restaurant that is one of our local faves. Mom/Jeanne, brother David and our nephew (Jackson) and niece (Amelie) had come from Arlington for the weekend, and Mary and her family, came from Watertown for the day. The beautiful day was the crowning jewel to what had been a hot and sunny week. We had a delicious dinner with appetizers and four entrees (served family style) that we had chosen ahead of time. At the beginning of the di...

This has been a wonderful, action packed, fun-filled (hot) summer so far, but there are two areas that have not been successful: my garden and week 1 of eating out while the kids are at camp. I'm not much of green thumb, but most summers I manage to get some nice, colorful annuals and a bunch of herbs into my garden by the end of May so that I might enjoy them all summer long. This year, according to my usual routine, I picked up my herbs and a couple of flats of nice red verbenas, along with a couple of pumpkin plants just to shake things up a bit. I also found a couple of packets of peas and green beans in the garage and decided to give them a try, growing them in a pot so that I might have a nice little patio garden. Unfortunately, I had two main forces working against a hearty garden this year: the heat and the squirrels/chipmunks/rabbits (I don't know which one is the culprit, so I might as well list them all). Within days of planting the verbena, the plants has been merci...

A trip to the IMAX theatre this afternoon marked the last time we'll see our friends Harry, Ron and Hermione (in 3D, no less) on the big screen. The long awaited Part 2 of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is complete, and it's so sad. JK Rowling is a brilliant writer, and the movies (some better than others) brought her characters to life. Could we envision anyone else playing Harry, Ron, Hermoine and the other characters? Probably not! We will miss you, but you will live on on the "small screen" for a long time to come. On another note, welcome to the 500th post of the Fabulous B@ker Blog. You know what that means! I will be publishing the first 500 posts into a book for each of the kids to enjoy later. I hope you'll join me for the next 500!!

On Tuesday night at midnight Mary, Annalisse and I returned from this year's junket to Sin City - Las Vegas. As with last year, I had to go to Vegas for my national association board meeting (poor me!!), and Mary and Annalisse tagged along for fun. After my meeting was over we had a couple of days to shop, eat and sight-see. If I had to characterize this trip it would be: totally fun and a lot of laughs!! While Mary and I are not big gamblers, we did designate a litte $$ for the slots in honor of our father, who loved going to Las Vegas. Mary was pretty lucky the first night, winning $175 while playing just $6. She was really excited! The next night I got up to $350 on $20, but got greedy and cashed out at $200, which I used toward tickets to see the Beatle's Love , a Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage (where we were staying). Acrobatics, dancing, spinning, flipping, bouncing! It was amazing and I would highly recommend it, even if you're not a Beatles fan (which I am). ...

Wow, do I ever owe my faith readers an update from our trip to Las Vegas. In a nutshell: lots of fun, lots of laughs, but it's been nose-to-the-grindstone since I got home, and when I get a minute to post (usually in the evening) I'm too whipped to do it. Will post details and pix soon!

Isn't the sky so blue today? Hey, look at that sweet bunny in the garden. I don't think he knows I'm here. Where's Jasper? I wish there were a stronger breeze so I could rock back and forth. Chippy, I don't care if you're mad that I'm under the tree. Blue jays, can you keep it down? I probably should go back inside and fold the laundry. Nah. I wish I could sleep here tonight. Zzzzzzz....

We just got back from our one-night attendance at my 30th HS reunion. SO MUCH FUN! I saw so many people that I wanted to see, and had a great time catching up with everyone. Although, I must confess, it was a bit of a different experience than our 25th get together, mainly because of Facebook. The ability to keep up with everyone's news on a daily basis certainly takes away from some of the mystique surrounding the event. Instead, the mood changes into one of familiarity rather than the greeting of a long lost friend. Of course, that only applies to classmates who are "on Facebook." Those who are not were chided and cajoled (by me) to join, mostly out of my desire to stay in touch now that we've reconnected once again. The highlight of the reunion was seeing my old friend Chris Derby, and his wife Marie. There are always a couple of people that I especially hope to see at these shindigs, and he is one of them. Chris was a very special friend throughout my HS years...