Happy Halloween

Western Mass

Berkshires, BoSox...and, yup, the RMV

I guess this will be the first time I have tried my hand at our family blog. I actually have to really hustle with this. I am told by trusted sources, that our blog posts are actively read, criticized, laughed at and sometimes pooped on. I have had to resist the temptation to make every word a link (which I call HTdoubleB, or HyperTextBarfBack). All html-related biznazz aside, it is time to hunker down and blog away.

First off, glad to hear that the Keer-wans are fine and not melting in Land o' Diego. I hope they didn't bring that wildfire badluck with them to Show Low. The days of the Rodeo fire would not be fun to reenact (i.e. load up the pickup Jeremy and don't forget Dad's love of his life--the piano). Is pickup truck two words or three? Could never figure that out. As long as another "damn rodeo" doesn't happen things should be fine out there.

Laci is busy at Ethos. She is trying to find a work buddy with whom she can bond. She tends to buddy up and create tons of inside jokes to the point that the inside jokes are inside the inside jokes. Make sense? Not to me. It got to a point that when I would attend get-togethers with her co-workers where my silly question of "What do you mean?" would be answered by a "It will take to long to explain." That is cool though. I have tons of lame-o inside jokes myself that only Bartók might find only somewhat amusing, when they are not at his expense. Silly thing is that my insides aren't much into joking--just passing gas and causing great amounts of phlegm to explode out of me when I sneeze. I am still waiting for the day where one of my monster sneezes happens in front of a class room full of bright-eyed (stoned) college students. Fortunate for me, my Old Faithful Geyser-like sneezes have only occurred at home or while camping. Grateful am I that we don't live in a camper trailer. Speaking of which, Laci and I were discussing what grown-up toys we would prefer to have--you know like, jet skis, boats, campers, four-wheelers, etc. I really don't know what I would wish to own. You see, when you own something big, like a boat, for instance, that means you have to take care of it and use it and pay for it. All of which seem to suck all of the fun out of the idea. So, I pose the question for you? If money were no option, what recreational stuff would you like to own? I am subtly trying to get some comments going.

As far as events around here, i cover a lot of them with my lil' podcast that is linked later. I like the podcast idea, it should be a lot of fun. You have to here the podcast for the RMV story. Tonight, we are going to eviscerate some pumpkins, light their brains on fire and put the skulls on our front porch for everyone to see. The flames should shine through the eye sockets and hollow, soulless mouth. How exciting is that?!? Pictures will be soon to come.

In other news, I have learned that the Red Sox Nation isn't just a website. It is an actual group of crazy people that are only truly happy when the Red Sox are winning. It is crazy how nice everybody is right now. People aren't swearing at you for driving like a Kentuckian (fixed that actually by changing our plates), they actually smile and wave back when you are waving at your friend behind them, they help you at the store by saying "Get it yourself, it is down two aisles," instead of "Get lost yourself, the exit is two aisles away." It is great to see everybody so happy. Just in case, though, (i am not trying to jinx things here), we are getting our food storage ready and our deadbolts fixed. Who knows what will happen if things don't go as planned (yes, they are already talking about a sweep). Well, I add my barbaric cheer to the throng of fellow parishioners, yet, it is disingenuous. Deep in my heart I am always going for the underdog. The Red Sox left that status three years ago. Objectively speaking, it is the Rockies turn to do it. But, for my own health and safety I will keep those thoughts to myself.
This is our first podcast. It is boring, but fun nonetheless. Music credits include Beirut, Deerhoof and Yours Truly (not a band, just music by me, Christian). Most importantly is the awesome piano playing of Jihye Chang---pianist extraordinaire!

McDuff

McDuff goes for a new look!

Many of you have been asking for updates on McDuff so I wanted to give everyone the dirt. McDuff has been a great sport in our transition to Boston. He didn't really love the ride in the Buget truck for 17 hours but as long as he was on his mommies lap things seemed to go better.
He has adjusted to his new home and not having a sliding glass window to look out every day but he has found plenty of other ways to access windows. He was sad to leave all of his squirrel friends in KY but luckily he has made many new squirrel friends here in Somerville. They love to get into our trash and it just drives McDuff crazy to watch them do so. He is enjoying having is own backyard where he can roam outside with out a leash, he does however love his leash time because it means that he gets to go on a walk or a ride with his mom and dad.
McDuff is a big hit with our elderly neighbors. They LOVE him and he has scored 2 huge bags of bones from his new beloved friends! They think he is the most well behaved dog they have ever seen and we cant disagree with that!
Overall, McDuff still does a lot of sleeping, snuggling, tricks for treats, and playing with his squirrel toy.
We will see how he likes the Boston winters as he has only seen snow once in KY and it was not a lot. YIKES!



Boston Rocks!

Salem, MA.....Witch Country

giant, scary, purveyors of death

Shedevil

So we have been waiting to visit Salem until it was October.....and it was well worth the wait!!! The town of Salem is a huge party during the month of October celebrating Halloween, witches, and lots of yummy food. The down side is that there is no where to park except lots that charge you $20!!! Yikes! We made the most of it however! We were able to go to the Salem Wax Museum and even see a witch cast a spell (which was not as exciting and one may think and it was not a mean spell). The witch was very nice but had very immodest clothing on. They had lots of psychics and what not but we did not participate in that. We did enjoy going into all of the cute shops with Halloween decorations and costumes. Many of the people there were even dressed up in their costumes! Christian would not go into the Haunted Houses with me because (he would kill me if he knew I was writing this) he is afraid of them. We were not able to go to the Salem Witch Trial Museum due to long lines and waits, but we will hit that up next time around.
Overall, it was a fun filled day with lots of Halloween festivities. There is just something magical about a place that thinks regular people are witches and hangs them from trees if they wont admit that they are.
This will definitely be a repeat tradition for Halloweens to come! I am sure by the end of 5 years I can convince Christian to go to a Haunted House with me.

Those hands are so daft

The Big E, food services and FINALLY getting a job!

So it has been a busy month here in the Gentry household.
Christian has been attending school two whole days a week thanks to all the wonderful Jewish holidays that he gets off. This has allowed him lots of time to write and work on the various projects he has going on. He always like to take on way more than he can chew, but he always manages to come through with beautiful work after all the blood, sweat and tear. He is an inspiration to us all! He is loving school at Brandeis and is enjoying his fellow composers and professors. He finally got a calling in church to be the accompanist to the ward choir, this he believes will help brush up his site reading skills. (lets hope so!)
Laci has been working her temp job the last three weeks. It has been a VERY interesting experience to say the least. She has been working in the food services department of the Cambridge Public Schools. By the looks of how things went she doesn't think they have ever had a temp that had to many mad skills like she does. They were very impressed with her work of entering in over 3,500 applications for free/ reduced school lunch and mailing out all the letters to the parents letting them know if they were approved or not. It is very exciting work and I can tell that you are all jealous. This opportunity made it possible for Laci to really get down the Boston accent as all the employees are locals and it was quite a treat as you can imagine. On her last day the office bought her 1/2 dozen cupcakes with a nice Thank you card. It really was a blessing for Laci to be earning a little money but more importantly to get her out of the house and give her something to do each day so she didn't go CRAZY! The best news of the month came a week ago when she was FINALLY offered a job! Yeah, applause, cheers! She will be working for a company called ETHOS which works with the elderly population. She will be doing elder protective services and is thrilled to be back doing social work even with a new and exciting population. She has realized that before when people would say to her, "You job must be so fulfilling." she was like sure, yeah it is what I do. But after doing work with is not so much on the fulfilling side she truly understands that social work is fulfilling and she LOVES doing it. She starts her new job on Ocotober 1,2007!
Laci has also joined a soccer team called the Worthless and Weak which is pretty much what the team is but they are doing pretty well considering none have ever played together and many have not played at all. Of coarse Laci has played the staring role as goalie and has had some amazing saves if I do say so myself! She loves to look to the sidelines to see Christian and McDuff cheering her on. It is amazing to see how McDuff stares at his mom the entire game. He knows her movements and his eyes don't leave her at all. So cute!
Laci and Christian recently took a trip to the Big E in West Springfield, MA. What is the Big E you may ask. It is the six New England states fair. it is HUGE and all the fair and fun one could ever want. It was a great time and fun to see what all the other states have to offer.
McDuff is a good boy, he has been enjoying his walks but is nervous about this thing called snow that he hears could stop his outside walks completely! He has won the hearts of all his neighbors and has benefits greatly from the experience by getting lots of love and treats. He still loves to go on car rides, walks and chase the squirls in the backyard. His new favorite activity is going to his mommy's soccer games and watching her run around on a lot of grass. He has gotten into trouble due to the mailman slipping the mail through the door slot and he just couldn't resist from eating it. (Mail just tastes so good!)

All seems to be going well!
Go Red Sox!