Barron

Barron's going away happy hour

Hockey

Michael had a game last weekend. They were down 3-0 until late in the 2nd period when they scored their first goal. Then they played a great 3rd period to score 2 more goals to tie it up. With 30 seconds left in the game, they scored the go-ahead goal. It was very exciting, and taught the kids a good lesson about never giving up.

I added a couple of pictures to the hockey photo album.

Thanksgiving

We saw Uncle Keith for Thanksgiving, who flew here from Orlando, FL. It's always great to be with family on this holiday. Aunt Janet, Uncle Larry, Jack and Andy also came up for the weekend. Mike and Andy played so well together. It was a very relaxing, food-filled weekend.

I added some photos to the addition photo album. The walls are up and the roof is on. Now we're at the mercy of the weather to finish the rest of the outside work.

Mike had a hockey game today, which they lost 6-1.

The things they say...

Here's a funny little anecdote from Emily. I went to my workbench in the basement to get a tool. Emily followed me and watched me find what I was looking for. "What's that", she said. "It's a rachet set", I replied. "Oh.", she said, then added "I didn't really know what that was I just said 'Oh', like Mommy does". I'm not quite sure what she meant by that, but it sure made me laugh.

Mike had 2 more games this weekend, both of which they won, 7-2 and 5-2. Where would you rather be at 6:30 on a Sunday morning than at the rink? He continues to be enthusiatic about it. This weekend he declined an invite to a sleep-over birthday party because of the early game time. I'm pretty proud of him for that.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving. In addition to the time off, it will be nice to see Uncle Keith, as well as Aunt Janet, Uncle Larry, and cousins Jack and Andy.

Addition

Posted some new pics of the addition.

Hockey

Mike played in 2 games this weekend. Lost the first one 5-3 and won the second one 6-1. He played left wing at first and then the coach tried him on defense, where he seemed to play more naturally. We'll see how that goes. I updated the hockey photo album.

Our addition is coming along. They took the forms off the foundation walls and will start framing Monday. See more pictures on the Addition photo album.

Kicked by the Colts

I went to the Patriots game last night with some guys from work. We had great tailgate food, a nice cool but not cold November evening, and witnessed the surgical dissection of the Pats secondary. I'm 1-1 at Gillette Stadium.

Manning the booth

Manning our vendor's booth at a trade show in Danvers, MA.

Hockey

Michael had his first hockey game today at Bridgton Academy, about 1 hour North. Due to a scheduling snafu they ended up playing a Mites team (7-8 yr olds), which was a mismatch since the Squirts are 9-10 yr olds. But, since it was the first game, it gave them a confidence boost. Michael scored his first goal early in the first period and ended up with 2 and was +6 in his shifts. They won 8-0 (I think; they stopped keeping score). We'll see how they do against kids their own age.

Of course I made a photo album to which I'll post pictures throughout the season.

The Addition Begins

Big news at the Chapin house is our new addition, which will add a family room off the back of our house with a walk-out basement rec room. They broke ground last week. You can take a look at the progress in this photo album, to which I'll post periodic photos.

Halloween

OK, I'm on a roll. Here's a photo album with Halloween pictures.

Soccer

Here is a photo album of Michael and Emily's soccer season. It was shortened by the rain and one week was indoors, which was bad for photography. But they had fun, and it was Emily's first Gorham Rec Dept sports team.

Beaches 2005

I posted a photo album of some of our beach trips from this summer. I figured it's a pretty safe bet that we will not be having any more beach trips this year.

Priceless

Barbie Doll $20

Game Boy $99

Trip to Disney World $3000

2 cardboard boxes and 1 roll of packing tape...
Priceless!

Watch out for that zamboni!

Wall

Portland Pirates goalie. His name is wall. No kidding.

Sugarloaf

Yesterday I took the day off for probably my last golf outing of the year. Golfing at Sugarloaf Mountain in October definately has to be seen to be believed. We had a great day: warm weather, clear skies, great foliage.

Go UMaine

Each year the University of Maine plays a game in Portland (their campus is in Orono about 2.5 hours north of here). We went this year to see them beat up on Albany 31-7.

Pot of gold

Here's a rainbow over our neighbor's house.

Soccer practice

Soccer season is upon us, and we now have both Mike and Emily to keep track of out on the soccer field. And with Hockey starting next week, our Fall weekends look to be very busy.

Seadogs

Game 1 of the AA Eastern League Championship Series.

Maine company picnic

First Day of School

OK, it was actually Sept 1 and 2, but I'm just now getting around to putting together a photo album. So far it's going very well for both of them. Emily is excited about making new friends, and Michael said this is his "best year ever".

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels at the Brunswick Naval Air Station Air Show

For par

A little Sunday morning golf at Gorham Country Club.

Racin'

Saturday night at the races.

AI

Believe it or not that's the stage at the American Idol concert. Don't ask.

My Desk

Here's my first foray into moblogging. I decided I needed to find a use for the camera in my phone. I haven't been using it much, since we have a nice digital camera. Maybe this is it.

Next up: geoblogging...

East Grand Lake

Last weekend (8/20-21), we went to our neighbor's camp at East Grand Lake, on the Canadian border near Houlton, ME. It was a great time. Very large lake with little development and hardly any boat traffic. We played in the water a lot. Snorkeling, swimming, diving, fishing, boating, jet skis, tubing. Well worth the 4.5-hour drive north. I'll post some pictures.

This past weekend, we went to Splashtown, the local water park. The kids each brought a friend and they had a great time. We also hosted a birthday party for our neighbor, Leighton (who's parents own the camp we went to). Sunday was back-to-school shopping, followed by more tonight. Emily is entering kindergarten and Michael 3rd grade starting Thursday.

Whale Watch

Chris' dad came to visit us this weekend and we had a great time. Saturday night we went to the races at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. It was a lot of fun. The kids really got into it, picking out their favorite cars during qualifying and rooting for them in the feature. We have to get some better ear protection for Michael, because the modified feature was too much for his sentitive ears and we had to leave early.

Sunday we went on a whale watch out of Portland and saw a ton. A few seals on our way out of the harbor. Then we saw a pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins feeding at the surface. When our boat approached suddenly we were surrounded by at least 20 dolphins surfacing, diving, bow riding, and jumping. It went on for probably half an hour when the captain decided to try to find whales. It didn't take long for him to locate a couple of feeding finbacks. 3 or 4 puffs at the surface separated by a 3-4 minute dive. We followed them for quite a while and got some close looks. Michael and I even got a blast of "whale breath" in the face.

On the way back to the harbor we stopped to play with the dolphins some more and one did an incredible leap 10-feet out of the water right off the starboard bow. Even the captain said that was great. We also saw a school of tuna jumping at the surface. All in all, a cool trip.

Emily's first fish

Chris had to work last Saturday, so I took the kids fishing again last weekend. I bought Emily a Barbie fishing pole and she caught her first fish ever - a smallmouth bass! The trolling motor on the canoe has been working out great.

I had to work last Sunday so Chris took the kids out on Sebago Lake with our neighbor in their 19' Grady White. Lots of sun and water.

Today was Michael's last day of summer camp. He got his camp shirt signed by all his friends, and got a yearbook too. He'll miss his friends, some of whom he only sees at camp each summer.

Fishing

Took the kids fishing Sat. Hot and sunny in the middle of the day but still managed to catch 1 pickerel, 1 largemouth, and 1 smallmouth. The kids did most of the fishing, I did the only catching, but they still got a kick out of it. We went around Dundee Pond on the Gorham-Windham town line. Very nice small lake. Not very developed.

Earrings

Emily got her ears pierced today for her Birthday. She was very brave. One ear stung a litle and the other one didn't hurt at all. She's walking around now with her hair pulled back and her ears sticking out (if that's possible).

I told Michael when he's 18 he can get his done too. He pinched his earlobe with his finger and said "OW! No Way!".

Emily's 5!

Today we had a nice little birthday party for Emily, who turns 5 tomorrow. Can you believe it? She has grown up so much recently. Tomorrow she's getting her ears pierced (at her request). I'll post a picture.

Catch Up

Wow, I haven't blogged in so long, it would be impossible to fill you in completely. Here's a quick recap of what's been going on the last few weeks.

11th Anniversary.

Had friends visit from Mass for July 4th. Doug and his baby Aaron. Shawn, Suzanne, and their kids Jeremy, and Benjamin.

Block Party. Lots of people. Rained, then sunny. Great day.

Golf weekend at Sugarloaf, Maine. 72 holes in 3 days. 107, 110, 114, 115.

Visited Dan and Kathleen at Little Sebago Lake for some swimming and fishing.

Mike has overnight camping with his summer camp tonight.

Well, that's the last few weeks in a nutshell. It's been hot and busy all summer.

Hopefully I'll be posting more often.

10th Annual Penobscot Fishing Trip

This weekend we had our 10th Annual Penobscot River Smallmouth Fishing Trip. We fished from Passadumkeag to Greenbush, ME. Generally the same group of guys have been coming to this spot for 10 years, except for 1 year when we were flooded out.

This year we had the best fishing of all the years we've been going. Shawn, the only one who counted his fish, caught 71 smallmouth bass on Saturday. I personally lost count. The conditions were excellent. Extremely hot (upper 80's and humid). Slightly higher than average water levels. The fish were spawning and agressively defending their nests. With 30, 40, even 70 fish per person per day there were no complaints.

Here's the photo album.

Play Ball!

Baseball's back! On one of the first truly summer-like days of the year I took Mike to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. It was a bright, hot day and the Sox treated us to an exciting 6-3 win. We took the Downeaster train from Portland to Boston, then took the subway from the train station to Fenway. It was a great way to travel. Much more relaxing than driving. It was a great day.

Check out the photo album from the game and Michael's baseball game on Saturday.

Bar Harbor

On Memorial Day Weekend we went to Bar Harbor (see the Photo Album) . It was rainy all weekend but we still went out on the first whale watch of the season. Unfortunately there was offshore fog that kept us from seeing any wales. But, we did see harbor porpoise and some seals, puffins, and lots of waterfowl. The kids loved the boat ride and we got free tickets to come back when the weather is nicer. Add to that the sparse crowds and some mini-golf and it was a great weekend. When we got back, Mike and I saw Star Wars III and loved it. On Memorial Day we had a barbeque at our house with our neighborhood friends. It ended up pouring rain (surprise surprise), but we all had a good time anyway.

Rangeley Lake

Wow, what a weekend at Rangeley Lake in northwestern Maine. We were stream fishing in the Kennebago and Magalloway rivers. The weather was not good. Cold, maybe mid 50's for a high on Saturday. It was threatening rain all day, but never did until dark. Even so, it was not the best fishing conditions. Cold, high water, late Spring, no bugs. 4 fish from 6 guys, all Salmon. I had one, Dan had 2, and Pat from Rochester had 1. There were also some chub caught. Not much to look at. Still, just being out there in the North Woods was worth the trip. I could just wade down the stream without a fishing pole and still enjoy it. We saw 7 moose, a porcupine, loons, waterfowl, crawfish, a porcupine, snowshoe hares, and tons of birds.

Check out the Photo Album.
Check out last year's album.

While I was gone, Chris took the kids to Michael's baseball and to a movie on Saturday. Today I got back in time for Caelyn's 5th birthday party. Happy Birthday KK!

May Flowers

Well, our Spring has finally arrived. We are still not in full leaf yet, but at least some flowers are in bloom. I mulched the flower beds this weekend (still sore from that).

Saturday Michael had baseball. The 1st and 2nd grade have a combined league where the coach pitches and an inning consists of every kid bats. Not much action in the field, so it's hard to keep their attention, but I guess they have to start somewhere. We had some friends over for take-out Thai food Saturday night. Sunday, Michael went to a friend's birthday party at a bowling center. His first time playing big balls.

Here's a picture of the flower beds next to the front door:

APWA

On Tuesday I presented a paper at the New England Chapter of the American Public Works Association meeting on using GIS to map the sewer collection system of Waterbury, CT. It was at Smith College in Northampton, MA. I went down the night before and stayed at my sister's house in Montague. It was a quick visit - got in about 9PM and left at 8 the next morning. It was quiet there too - Larry was away on business so it was just Janet and Andy.

It was weird driving around Northampton. I haven't been there since college, and even then we didn't go there often. It's weird how you can navigate roads you literally haven't thought of in 15 years without really thinking about where you're going - you just end up there.

Tomorrow I have to drive to New London, CT to visit a client. Down and back in one day.

Emily's got a cold so she's not sleeping well. Lots of coughing and can't breathe well due to congestion. Let's hope it doesn't spread to the rest of us.

Chris is out tonight at a jewelry party down the street.

Training

I went to Washington DC Thursday and Friday for a training class. I was learning how to develop applications with ArcGIS Server in .NET. It was mindnumbing, but I learned a lot and it gives me one more skill under my belt. A cool side benefit of the trip was that I got to see and stay with my friend Chris Albert, who I used to work with at E&E who now works for ESRI where the class was held. It was great to hang out with Chris and Denise for a couple days.

Very cold, windy, and rainy here. I hope it stops raining soon or the water will be too high for my fly fishing trip coming up.

Tooth

Michael lost a tooth this morning. Bottom incisor.

Flying Solo (with a couple of co-pilots)

This is Chris' big Vegas getaway weekend. She and a bunch of her friends have been in Las Vegas since Thursday night, coming back today. Wednesday was the last swimming lessons for this session. The kids should be in good shape for beach season. Thursday we bought Michael a new baseball glove and cleats. Friday Michael had his 2nd grade musical. It was great. He was in the front row. A bunch of kids had speaking parts, but he would never volunteer for that. 2nd-grade coreography consists of a lot of hand gestures, most of which he forgot or was too embarrassed to do (he just stood there like a statue), but at least it looked like he knew the words. Saturday was Michael's first day of baseball practice. He's on the gray team. Next year he tries out for Cal Ripken (Little League). We went shoe shopping yesterday, and we all got a new pair of shoes (Chris is going to kill me - that's her turf). Today we're just chillin'. It's been raining for about 15 years now, it seems. But, as long as I own a lawn, I'll never complain about Spring rain. It's funny, we pay a guy to come make the lawn grow faster so we can spend our summer Saturday afternoons cutting it down. Go figure.

Oh yeah, and I fixed a leak in our roof. It seems that the plumber who installed our pipes left a check valve in the sewer vent just above the bathroom ceiling which allowed rain water to back up over the PVC joint that he neglected to seal. Oh well, besides that and the roof not being properly attached to the house, we haven't had any problems.

Chris comes back tonight, probably tan, probably exhausted.

King Missile

Coming on the heels of my fascination with Google maps, my recent baseball stadium listing, and some aimless web wandering, check out my list of former ICBM missile silo locations. It's too long to post here, so follow the link to a file in my Road Runner space. Don't ask why, just poke around for an Atlas rocket near you...

Grandpa

Chris' Dad spent the weekend with us. The kids spent the day with grandpa on Friday; he took them and the neighbors' kids to Jokers (local version of Chuck E Cheese) for the day. What was he thinking?

We went to see Robots yesterday (I didn't think it was that great), and went out to dinner at Bull Feeney's, which was great.

Pretty rainy and cold all weekend, so we pretty much are laying low today.

She's got wheels


Emily's been waiting to get these skates out since she got them for Christmas. She had to wait for Daddy to blow all the sand off the driveway so she wouldn't slip. Now she's ready. You can tell from the background we are still waiting for leaves.

Baseball Stadiums

I've been having some fun with Google maps lately and for some unknown reason I decided to locate all 30 major league baseball stadiums. I got this idea from a blog about google sightseeing. Here are the stadiums:

Angel Stadium, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Minute Maid Park, Houston Astros
McAfee Coliseum, Oakland Athletics
Rogers Centre, Toronto Blue Jays
Turner Field, Atlanta Braves
Miller Park, Milwaukee Brewers
Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals
Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs
Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Bank One Ballpark, Arizona Diamondbacks
Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers
SBC Park, San Francisco Giants
Jacobs Field, Cleveland Indians
Safeco Field, Seattle Mariners
Dolphins Stadium, Florida Mariners
Shea Stadium, Ney York Mets
RFK Stadium, Washington Nationals
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles
PETCO Park, San Diego Padres
Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Phillies
PNC Park, Pittsburgh Pirates
Ameriquest Field, Texas Rangers
Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox
Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati Reds
Coors Field, Colorado Rockies
Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City Royals
Comerica Park, Detroit Tigers
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minnesota Twins
US Cellular Field, Chicago White Sox
Yankee Stadium, New York Yankees

Spring has sprung

This was the first weekend that we could comfortably go outside in shorts and a shortsleeve shirt. It must have been 70 today. It felt good to feel the sun. We just spent time playing baseball, riding bikes, and getting the yard ready for summer, like patio furniture, hoses, etc.

The kids have swimming lessons on Wednesdays but other than that we don't have a lot of planned activities right now. That's good, because pretty soon the chaos will begin again as our summer weekends start filling up.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Not much exciting happened this weekend. We just enjoyed the nice weather.

Emily said something funny yesterday. She and Chris were arguing - Emily was getting in a little trouble for not brushing her teeth and was really frustrated at Chris for making her do it. Finally she pointed her finger at Chris and said: "You better stop talking to me like that. You're making me shake!"

At a restaurant yesterday, the kids had a choice of ice cream or "fresh strawberries" for dessert. Michael chose the strawberries and after the waiter left he asked me what fresh means. I told him it means new, not old. He said "why would anyone bring us old strawberries?" It didn't occur to me that fresh meant not frozen.

The Big Melt

The rain is washing away most of our snow. We still have a continuous covering except the hill in the back which is angled to the sun. I walked in the backyard today and it was still kneee deep in places. Very soggy.

Saturday Chris and I went to the boat show at USM. There were lots of boats, but hardly anyone was there. Must have been the weather. Shawn and Suzanne came over Sat night for a quick visit. They were at her brothers house about 5 minutes away for a birthday party and spent the night at our place.

Today we just hung around and played with the kids. Now I'm watching David Wells get shelled by the Yankees. Hopefully the Sox won't fall too far behind before their pitchers get healthy.

Hola!


Took the kids to see Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob last night at Jokers. They also made the most of a trip to Jokers.

Happy Easter!


The Easter Bunny had to hide eggs inside this year. We still have over a foot of snow on the ground. It's melting slowly but surely. I thought I had seen the last snowstorm but I had to drive to New Haven for work last week and got caught in a blizzard.

Friday night Emily had Caelyn sleep over and I went to a neighborhood poker game.

Saturday Michael had a baseball clinic at the High School to get ready for the upcoming baseball season. Next year he will be old enough to try out for Little League; for now it's one more year in Farm League. Chris and I went out to dinner last night and Chelsea, our babysitter, watched the kids. It was nice to have a night out with just us.

Today the kids went on an indoor Easter egg hunt, found their baskets, and spent the rest of the day hopped up on sugar. We had a traditional corned beef and cabbage Easter dinner (actually a belated St. Patrick's dinner) and went to see the Harlem Globe Trotters at the Portland Civic Center. That's how we do Easter up here in Maine.

My Great Grandpa (aka Gum Gum)


We're sad to say that Chris' grandfather, Francis Kelly, passed away last night. He had a long, full life, was a kind, gentle person, and we will miss him very much.

Look Out Below!


This picture just about sums up our winter. Snow, snow, and more snow. The snow banks in our neighborhood are comically huge. The snow on the front lawn is chest-high. Our bushes are completely buried. It has been an incredible winter - even by Buffalo standards!

Ice Skating

Took the kids ice skating yesterday at the Portland Ice arena's public skating. It was Emily's first time on skates, and mine in about 10 years. We puttered around the edge, shuffling along and managing to hold each other up. Meanwhile Michael was doing laps zig-zagging among the crowd, showing off his skating ability.

Rastafrozian

Today we went to the Ice Derbyfest on Sebago Lake. This is a 3-day winter festival out on frozen Sebago Lake. It has a midway with concessions and local organizations' booths. Everything is out on the ice: hundreds of people, snowmobiles, ATV's, cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters. Today featured an air show with biplanes doing crazy aerial stunts. I can't believe the contortions they get their planes to do. At one point, right after a biplane finished his stunt show, and everybody in the crowd was looking in the same direction, a stunt jet flew low overhead from behind and startled just about everybody there. Skydivers, ultralights, wingwalkers, the works. This was such a surreal event; all these people and machines out on a frozen lake doing normal festival things in 20 degrees, sunny, no wind (my favorite weather of any season). To top it off we enjoyed the sun to a live reggae band, complete with tams, dreadlocks, and parkas!

We love Maine.

Disney On Ice

Took the kids to see Disney on Ice tonight at the Civic Center. It was the Toy Story 2 show, a movie with which my kids are very familiar. We brought Emily's friends Johnny and Caelyn. Everybody had a good time. Michael said he was just there for the snow cones, but I could tell he liked it. The little ones were clapping and dancing, especially Johnny. They all fell alsleep on the way home. Tomorrow is Mike's last hockey practice of the season, then we plan on heading to the air show at the derbyfest on Sebago Lake.

Winter Fun

The kids played outside yesterday and today with the Petersons. Cold (20's) but sunny and no wind. It rained last week, but still lots of snow. At least a foot of hard frozen snow cover plus a couple inches of fluff made for ideal sledding conditions. After the last couple snowfalls, they couldn't really play out there; it was too deep. Emily couldn't walk at all as it was waist deep for her. Mike tried sledding, but the sled would founder in it. But the rain hardened everything up and now they can walk on top. They had a blast. I'm glad they're making the most of a pretty snowy winter. Afterwards we watched the Daytona 500 while the kids played some more.

Michael has only 2 hockey practices left. It has been a long season, but he enjoys it so much and has really been improving. His effort has been outstanding all season. Now it's a couple of months to baseball. He wants to try out for Cal Ripken (their version of Little League), but he has to be 9. One more year in the farm league. We'll try to get him in some swimming lessons in between hockey and baseball. Emily could use swimming lessons too, so she'll be a little more self-sufficient this summer at the beach.

Well, that's all for now - still trying to get into a rythym with this blog thing.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day. Chris went to my workplace on her way to work and decorated my cube with streamers, sticky notes, and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, and a dozen roses. I guess you could say I was surprised when I got to work. Chris received a dozen of her favorite flower (tulips) in her favorite color (purple) at work. Emily made us a very sweet valentine's card at daycare, and Michael got all kinds of valentine cards and candy at school. We topped the day off with an excellent dinner at home.

Winter Sunset

Victory Dance

We had the Clarks and the Smiths over for the Big Game. After some Vinny T's lasagna and more snacks than we could eat, we all settled down in the Movie Loft for some football and commercials. A good time was had by all, and as you can tell, we were pleased with the result.

Go Pats!

The week before the Superbowl, we decided it would be good karma to give Michael's room a Patriot touch. It turned out to be a good decision.

Sweet Dreams

Chris and I took the week after Christmas off from work and decided to do a little home redecorating. Chris and her Dad painted Emily's room pink and Chris hand-painted these retro flowers all over the room.

Happy 35th!!!

We took Chris out to her Birthday dinner at Bugaboo Steak House. We had a great time. I think Emily wanted a kiss too.
Kiss the Moose!

I had a little run-in with a car who cut in front of me on 1/14/05. He was making a left-hand turn in front of me and I guess he thought he had more room than he did. I was the only one in the car and no one was hurt. It was totalled. We were planning on getting a new car this summer anyway. Replaced it with a Chevy Uplander.
A Total Loss