The Fabulous B@ker Blog

The Pier at Old Orchard Beach On Sunday morning, after dropping Cam off at work (he didn't want to go anyway...) we turned the car east and headed down the thruway on our journey to Maine. It was a quick trip; the main (Ha! No pun intended!) purpose of the trip was for Mark to spend some time fishing for the continuing celebration of his 50th birthday last October. You do the math: Mark  Fishing +  Judy Hanging at the beach and shopping =  WIN WIN! We got to the Waves Resort at Old Orchard Beach around 6pm on Sunday, dropped our stuff, and took the short walk into town. Perhaps the most redeeming quality of OOB is...wait for it...the beach. The hotel was a typical beach hotel (outdated, and you get the feeling the rug gets a lot of sand action), The town itself is totally tacky (but fun) featuring tons of souvenir shops and an old-fashioned amusement park. We had a great dinner at The Landmark restaurant (good food but the service was a little backed up - ...

This has been another whirlwind of a week. People who know me are asking, "Don't you ever stay home?" It sure seems like I don't, and I'm feeling a little worn out. Today is a precious stay-at-home day with just the usual running around to do until our quick trip to Maine tomorrow morning. On Wednesday after work, I drove to Albany for the NYGAP meeting. It is super tough for me to do any kind of driving in the late afternoon (I'm best first thing in the morning), and I fought fatigue the whole way. After getting there I had dinner with a few friends, then we went back to the hotel bar for a couple (I nursed one beer for two hours...). Around 11pm I decide to head up to my room when at the bar I spotted: MY SEVENTH GRADE BOYFRIEND, Pete Dishaw! I wasn't totally surprised to see Pete since he had previously told me he came to Albany a lot for union business, but he was totally surprised to see me . He was a little, er..., alcohol impaired, so he was r...

On Saturday night I went t0 the B52s and Squeeze  concert at CMAC with my friend Melissa. The amphitheatre was amazingly sparsely populated, so I was surprised we had such incredibly bad seats (first row of the last section toward the back). I was super excited to see Squeeze, one of my ALL TIME favorite bands. While I do like the B52s, I never really got into them. Now my friend, Sue, that's a different story (it turned out I really only knew about five of their songs. Sue would have been rocking through all of them). The B52s opened the concert, which was also a surprise. I would have thought they were the 'bigger band' but my high school friend, Mike, whom I chatted with before the concert texted me a little later to say he had heard from people around him that when Squeeze opened before the B52s in previous concerts half the audience got up and left before the next act. Huh. Very cool for Squeeze! The B52s put on a great show. Their voices are still strong and clea...

As of yesterday at 1pm, all the Bakers were in the same place, albeit for less than 24 hours. Annalisse arrived home safely from Germany on Friday night with many tales and a hunger for American food that was satisfied by a trip to her work, Otto Tomotto's (not American, by the way). Mark picked her up at the airport as I was still in Las Vegas, and he said she hit the wall and crashed on the way home. But, she was oh-so happy to be home! I arrived from Las Vegas on the red eye on at 9am Saturday morning, and after basically three sleepless nights took a nap (as did Annalisse) so I would be awake for the B52s/Squeeze concert Saturday night. The last little chick arrived home at 1pm on Saturday. Cam went directly from work on Friday night to dinner with his counselor pals then to a bonfire where he apparently slept on a sleeping bag under the stars. I was waiting (un?)patiently for him to get home so I could complete the Baker Laundry Odyssey and repack his bag for Sunday morn...

I'm heading out to Las Vegas for my quick trip this morning, returning on the red eye Friday night. 113 degrees? Yes, please. I've been communicating with Annalisse via text and she'll finally be home in two days. She is missed by all and Jasper, in particular, keeps checking her room just in case she returned when he wasn't looking (probably during one of his all-day naps). In LV I'll be another three time zones away from her...too far! Safe travels, Little Bird!

Happy Birthday to my great dad, Louie, who would have been 85 today. Of course, his smile is now frozen in time at a younger age and not a day goes by that I don't think of him. His birthdays were always a big celebration that we usually combined with the July 4th family picnics. We were luck to have had him so long, but would love to have had him longer! In other Baker news: Annalisse is home in less than a week. Tomorrow starts the "travel" portion of her trip where they will see the sights of Southern Germany, as well as a little of Austria and Switzerland. We're looking forward to her safe return! Cam is about to start "week 2" of his job but he's been at it for three weeks since he had a week of training. It's been pleasant having him home on the weekends. On Wednesday, I head to Las Vegas to participate in NAGAP's Professional Development Institute. I'm flying out, attending the program on Thursday, and flying back on the red-eye...

We are in the middle of week 2 with (mostly) no kids - with the exception of Cam's brief respite at home from Friday night until Sunday morning. It sure is quiet here. [crickets, crickets] There's a lot less laundry, no picking up, I've hardly run the dishwasher (you need to cook to create dirty dishes). Unlike in years past we haven't really eaten out a lot (trying to keep the expenses down with another round of tuition due soon). The German trip is going "okay." Some of the issues that occurred here with personalities have continued to Annalisse's homestay and are making for a true learning and growing experience for her. She's trying to keep positive and appreciate the opportunity, and is looking forward to next week when the kids travel around a bit more. Cam is, of course, enjoying his time at camp and was actually quite pleasant and talkative when he was home last weekend. A nice surprise. I'm taking advantage of this time to have a c...