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.