Its a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

The Cat of COG is nonchalantly hanging around the bird feeder - don't mind me, birdies, I'm just hanging out. Son of COG once suggested that we just put a little cat-sized picnic table out there. But, really, Cat of COG prefers mice to birds. The mice live in the high grass, which is uncut until the daffodil leaves turn brown.

Peculiarities of Online Shopping: Exhibit B

I looked up 'baby swing' on amazon and got mommy porn:

Got what I was looking for when I searched on 'toddler swing'.

Peculiarities of Online Shopping: Exhibit A

The Reproductive Console Table with Drawer.  In what sense is this table 'reproductive?'  If I buy one, does it make another, smaller one?  

New App / Old Photos

I used my new app on some old photos. I think they are super.

Awesome new iphone app

This is an awesome new app that kinda makes me look like an artist with just a click of the camera and nothing else. It's called Cartooniacs. These would look even more artsy if I had taken any care at all to compose them.

 

A Sign Near Home

This is so excellent and kind of post-modern at the same time. A meta-sign, commenting on the lack of a sign, but still working as a sign.

Plus - who steals Free Manure signs?  Is it decorating a dorm wall somewhere?  Is there an aggressive competitor in the free manure business who is hoping to drive business their way?  Lots of fun to think of ideas here.

Son of COG called today......

He was in Biddeford Maine and he asked if I wanted to come up for lunch.   I hopped in the car and drove the hour and a half to meet him.  He had spent a couple of nights in the house they'll be staying in during their research this summer.  It's pretty wonderful - a charming old summer camp with electricity and plumbing and hot water -  perched on a wooded hillock in a salt marsh, across the street from the ocean.  He made a nice spinach salad for us and we sat and admired the view and talked. Then, we walked across the street to the beach.  What a great place to spend the summer. Although, as he pointed out, they'll be getting up at 4 am and going onto Scarborough Marsh, which is 30 minutes south of there. But they'll be done midday, and come back and nap and swim etc.  They have computer facilities set up a few miles away at the Biddeford campus of the University of New England, so they'll spend some time there, too. 

The place was left to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, which really wants the land, not the house. Kind of sad that they will be tearing it down in the future, but now it's used by researchers. This will be the Son of's room.

Above,  the loft under the roof where the two undergrads will be staying. It's reached by very steep stairs.

The Son of making salad in the little kitchen.

The sitting area.

One of the other bedrooms.

From the outside.

 And last is a picture of the road out. You can see two houses, they are right on the ocean. And the bit of blue through the trees on the right is water in the salt marsh.