Results from Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival

Today the winner of the Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival was announced and a man from Montreal won $5,000 for his sculpture of an octopus that was called "Let me Spread Ink." (To see a picture click here.) I know that there probably are sand sculpting contests all over the place but this one reminded me of how as  a little girl I used to rather like building sandcastles when my family and I went to the seaside. I particularly remember going to beaches in Wales, UK which my mum described as "picture skew (meaning picturesque but somehow saying "picture skew" made my siblings and I laugh.)  It was like a ritual-packing picnic lunches and going to one of those shops that seem to always be beside beaches to buy buckets and spades.  I pretty much ended up making sand mountains. I'd keep piling up the sand just to see how high I could get the mountain to go. It rather annoyed me when the sand just slid right back down until I realized that water helped solve the problem by making the sand stick together. Even if it didn't win loads of money (or anything else for that matter,)  making sandcastles was always fun!

watching a cartoon is so much funnier when watching it with a kid (not that the kid in me has ever gone away!)

Partially because it was so hot again in Boston and I wanted to be in air conditioning and  in part because I did actually want to go see it, I went out with a friend to see Monsters University at the cinema. Monsters University is a fun movie all about monsters learning how to scare kids (a premise which probably sounds anti-kid but it is really funny.) At one point in the movie when the action got quiet for a minute or two, all of a sudden a child in the theater roared just as the monsters in the film were learning such a technique. The kid's timing was perfect and it got quite a bit of laughter from the rest of the crowd. I'm glad I went on a night when a lot of families with children were there as well. There's something about kids' reaction to children's movies. They laugh at all the right moments and even though in other circumstances it might be annoying, the way they make their feelings known about certain scenes in movies that especially affect them emotionally, makes those scenes all the more interesting and fun. So if you go to see Monsters University I hope there's at least a small group of kids there as well so the inner child that is still in you can enjoy the movie even more because of their influence!

The Ice Bar cometh!

After enduring the hottest day in Boston on record, it was refreshing to hear that currently an Ice Bar is being built at Faneuil Hall! These types of bars originated in Scandinavia and are kept at a constant 21 degrees Fahrenheit because everything in it is made up of ice (bars, chairs, tables and all) - 50 tons of ice to be exact. It is going to be the world's largest ice bar. It is supposed to open next month so if there's a heat wave then  I guess we can all rush off to have an ice cap there. The idea of an Ice Bar would have seemed even more impressive to me if they could just have decided to have it open to the public today. Oh well, it's something to look forward to anyway. To learn more about the Ice Bar click here.













(Photo from Boston.com website: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ottdfx2)

Even if it's ruddy hot.....

So it's been a scorching 90 degree plus week and in an attempt to find something good about it, here are some things I thought about:

•  Even if it's ruddy hot at least the sun is shining which makes things seem cheerful to me.
• It gives me the opportunity (albeit by necessity) to wear sundresses which I like.
• Ice cream and cold drinks (although pleasant generally) seemed even more pleasant this week.
• I'm very grateful to the person who invented electric fans as I think I would have been lost/very sick without the help of my big electric fan this week!
• Heatwaves (like all things) don't last forever, it's supposed to get cooler soon! 

Stay cool everyone!

 

If I could respond to spam mail...

My e-mail seems to get an inordinate amount of spam. While deleting the latest bunch of the inbox clogging stuff I got to thinking what I'd write if I actually decided to respond to some of these messages. Here are some of the things I might write back, just for the heck of it!

 

- Dear Sir/Madam-While I'm sorry if you're one of the many starving Sudanese refugees I'm still not sending you any of my money! ( Mostly because I don't believe you're a starving refugee as I doubt that refugee camps have enough Internet access for you to write to me!)

-Dear Sir/Madam- While a cruise might be nice, the horror stories I've heard about your company's cruises ( e.g. outbreaks of E. coli, sinkings, people mysteriously going missing etc) have made a land lover out of me. So no I don't want to go on  your discounted cruise.

-Dear Sir/Madam-I'm not a man so I really don't need or want your enhancement products for goodness sakes!

-Dear Sir/Madam- I'm allergic to cats so no I really don't want your year's supply of cat food however inexpensively you might sell it! 

-Dear Sir/Madam- I don't think I want to transform my lips with or without surgery. I think I have a nice smile as it is, thank you very much!

Here's to the T!

My experience of Boston's T
 
Want the experience of riding a train?
If you come to Boston you will see
How culturally stimulating riding a train (I mean the "T") can be!
It seems that every train I've ever been on here
Has people from all these places that I've never been

There I was on the train the other day
With a man who I think was from China
A bunch of students singing a Spanish song with a very loud refrain
And even an old lady reading something in Acrylic-I mean Cyrillic!
(Get it right, Maggie! Don't put your International Studies degree to shame!)

Anyway the T can also be 
A place with quite a bit of chivalry
As on more than one occasion 
I've seen men give up their seats
So women can finally rest their aching high heeled feet!

As much as I might get tired of waiting for a T
And even if the ruddy driver doesn't always wait for me,
I still take the train as it does get me from A to B 
And I must say at least  in terms of getting around Boston
The T is one of the best things that has happened to me! 

There's something about pajamas

If I had to pick a favorite type of clothing it would be pajamas. It's nice at night just to put on an oversized shirt and cotton shorts and chill out. It's interesting to me that I like pajamas but I can't seem to bring myself to wear them outside my apartment. 

In college I admired the spirit of people who could literally roll out of bed and go to class in pajama pants. ( I never did this as I felt if I always wore pajamas then they'd lose their appeal and I liked having that as yet another thing to look forward to at the end of the day.) I did actually wear my pajamas to elementary school once. Every year or so my school would have Spirit Week. Every day had a theme and as long as we wore something related to the  theme we didn't have to wear the school uniform. (This made Spirit Week more enjoyable although I still don't quite understand how not wearing the uniform increased school spirit.) In any case, I liked pajama day best. I think we were given a designated nap time that day too. (Goodness sakes I miss nap time!  I wish I'd appreciated the nap more because now there are days when I think being allowed to have a designated nap time would be lovely!) Anyway maybe  one day I'll get up and just go and walk around both in and outside my apartment in my pajamas, jut because I can! Ah! Yet another way for me to  rebel!