New Thing #165: What Is In My Backyard?

There I stood at my kitchen window Tuesday morning, preparing some food for my daughter, when I spotted something moving outside my window. I saw some brown, figured it was a cat, but something about the way it moved made me look twice.

It wasn't a cat.

But what was it?

I'm still not sure.

I'm going with groundhog. But I'm not 100% sure.

This is like nothing I've ever experienced. I've had an opossum walk across that porch - that was a one-time deal. Never saw a possum again in that area. As I've mentioned, there are cats. Sometimes a neighborhood dog gets back there. And things like rabbits and squirrels - once even a red squirrel. They're quick darters. Chipmunks. And I'm sure there have been raccoons back there, but I like to pretend not. I've only ever seen a raccoon out my front door and window...and I hope it stays that way.

This animal, though? It didn't quite freak me out as much as it would usually. Especially considering it was broad daylight.

I had the presence of mind to snap the pictures you see above and at right. I observed it for a few minutes. It did the standing up thing you see it doing here and kind of sniffed the air. I was struck by what good posture it had.

The worst thing that happened was, since I was preparing food for my daughter, I went to give her the food. When I came back to the window, the animal was gone.

That's when I got scared.

It could be anywhere.

Then we left town for a few days. Who knows what the backyard will look like when we come back.

Maybe he'll move in with his entire family.

That's the real shame of it here. This is the time of year I like to spend time relaxing in the backyard. I'll read the paper or just sit out on the porch sipping a drink waiting while I barbecue. Now I don't know if I can do that with my mind at ease.

Or at all. I might never go back there again.

I can only think of one reasonable solution.

It may be time for us to move.

New Thing #164: No More Grandparents

Today is my grandmother's funeral. I hate to get too personal here, but, well, I kind of figured that doing something like this every day might result in an occasional dose of bad news mixed in with the good.

And this one's kind of a bummer.

My grandmother passed away this week - the last of my four grandparents to die.

And I kind of feel like that's one of life's mile posts.

Let me stress to you here, this is far from a tragedy. Grandma was 97 years old, and I know that I've been lucky enough to know each of my grandparents for a good part of my life. I remember grade school friends who didn't know their grandparents at all.

And I'm not entirely comfortable putting a picture of my family up here. If you're close enough to know me on Facebook, you can see more personal pictures there. This here is a picture of the funeral home in my neighborhood where wake services were held - Farenga's. (Quick side note - for a few years Farenga's was the sponsor of my Little League baseball team. This led to lots of little kid jokes. "We're going to kill you!" was one. We were a good team. One year we went 16-0 and then lost in the playoffs. It was sad. Lots of sadness associated with Farenga's, I guess. But that's another story for another day.)

Anyway, back to grandparents. My mom's dad passed away in 1985. That was my first exposure to death. A friend was supposed to come over my house that day - her mom met her at the door to school and kind of swooped her away. That was weird. Then my dad was waiting by the playground to pick us up. Also weird - he never picked us up - he was always working at that time. And, he had toys for us. Little transformer knock-off toys. That was a weird day. Didn't quite get death at that point,though.

My dad's dad died in 1994. That was much more real - I was in high school. For some reason dates really resonated with me at that point in my life - October 14, 1994. It was a little more than a year-and-a-half after my dad's uncle died - January 3, 1993. (I remember we got the phone call at halftime of the Bills-Oilers 35-3 comeback game, and the Oilers collapsed in that second half. I was rooting for the Oilers. But you probably already guessed that.) That was a rough stretch. In 1995 our dog died. For someone like me unaccustomed to death, that was a lot of dying in a short period of time.

My grandmothers lived for another decade and two decades, respectively. There were long, slow declines in health. One's memory slipped pretty quickly (my inspiration for making sure I keep honing my brain with crossword puzzles and other activities), the other stayed pretty sharp for a good long time.

I don't know if this is a weird thing or not - maybe other people do it too...but hardly a day goes by when I don't think about people I love dying. I don't know why I do it - it's just something that pops into my mind every so often.

What I've found, though, is that whatever age, whatever mental exercise I've done to try to prepare myself for death, it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

97 is a good long life. It's hard to feel too sad about someone living to that age. I mentioned earlier that some people never know their grandparents. One of my greatest happinesses is that my daughters got to meet and spend time with their great-grandmother. My oldest daughter is at an age where she can pretty well appreciate that. (From Great-Grandma's point of view, she had this experience times  12.)

But on the other hand - it's hard to adjust to being without something you've had your entire life. Grandma was our leader - she was always the top of the chain. We've had her around for all of our lives. And now we won't.

And, 97 or not, that's what makes this so hard.

New Thing #163: A Rousing Game of Go Fish

I'm not going to pretend I have the perfect family. It's easy to say things like, "We shouldn't waste a minute of a nice day." But sometimes we do.

Sometimes when it's really sunny out, we sit around inside and watch TV.

I don't know if other families ever do that sort of thing - or if they go outside on sunny days and judge families like mine.

But this week - judge this! - my family set aside some time to do something really nice...and we're going to have to make an effort to do it again and again.

My middle daughter got a goody bag from a birthday party and opened it up to find inside a mini deck of 'Go Fish' cards.

My wife and I, along with our two oldest daughters, decided to play a few rounds.

It was the best time I've had in a long time.

First of all, the girls were impressed with how I shuffled the cards. (I'm not a great shuffler compared to my friends, but compared to a 6- and 4-year-old I'm like a casino dealer. And speaking of which, I'm the best dealer in the group, hands down. The kids are sloooooow.)

During the game, we began to goofily ask each other for certain cards. ("Pardon me, ma'am, but do you happen to have a sea turtle card?" The girls enjoyed yelling at me for being rude when I shot out a, "Give me your shark!")

And I brought down the house when I snuck in the instruction card to my pile  and asked my wife if she had an instruction card. (My joke was trumped when my middle daughter copied it later. And asked for the 'construction' card.)

Sorry if this is too cutesy for you. We're not usually a cutesy family.

But we might be soon...because it looks like we're going to have to start having a game night.

Or at the very least, a 'Go Fish' night.

New Thing #162: Back To The Farm Share

After a year off, we're back to having a farm share. We had one for a few years - maybe five - and took last summer off...because they're expensive.

But we got back on the wagon this year.

And Monday was our first pickup of the year.

It's a farm in Sudbury called 'Siena Farms', and it's not more than 20 minutes away. (That means it's within bike riding distance for future pickups.) We pick up on Mondays, and the boxes are kept in a little corner under an overhang. Once you convince yourself no little animals are going to jump out at you, there's really nothing to picking up the vegetables.

You check off your name, grab your box, and you're on your way.

Monday afternoon we enjoyed some fresh lettuce in a side salad with our dinner. It just feels healthy when you eat it. It's amazing how you can even tell the difference between the quality of this lettuce versus something from the store.

The pickups continue through November, and this time, unlike two years ago, in August and September fruit and corn will come with our regular vegetable box.

There's another change at the farm compared to two years ago - you used to pull up to a lot that faced a pasture with a calf. Now that pasture is totally fenced off and you can't see any animals.

I'm looking forward to a non-rainy day to pick up the vegetables - that's when the farm workers are all out cleaning the vegetables and there are different farm machines set up to sort and clean them - I like checking that out.

And it occurs to me I'd better get over there with my bike in the next few weeks, before they start giving us two boxes in August. Because I'm not even sure I can pedal back home with one box...let alone two.

New Thing #161: The Tonys Opening Number

I won't lie - it's been kind of a crazy week. I haven't had a chance to listen to any new music.

I figured on Sunday I'd listen to one of the songs nominated for a Tony Award and call it a day.

As it turns out, I don't think they nominate individual songs - just the musicals themselves, as far as I can tell.

Still, I figured if I watched the Tony Awards long enough Sunday night I'd find something new worth writing about.

I didn't have to wait long.

Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the Tonys, opened with a musical number that paid tribute to a number of Broadway shows as well as the fact that the event was back (I think?) in Radio City Music Hall...sorry for not knowing for sure. This is not my area of expertise. (New Thing!)

I know this, though - the musical number was awesome.

If you didn't know, Harris is talented. He's hosted this show before, and I think I saw him do it. Or maybe that was the Emmys. But he did a similar song-and-dance routine there too. (He did say during the Tonys that it was his 4th time hosting this show.) He can sing, he can dance, you probably know he has great comic timing...he's talented.

This act featured some circus acts - that's him jumping through a hoop in the picture above - and some magic, a la Pippin, and spoofs/tributes of a number of other shows, including singing from the top of a cheerleader pyramid, a la Bring It On.

I'm not sure if this is the type of thing that gets put on YouTube or not, but it's worth a search to see it in its entirety...whether or not you're a fan of Broadway shows.

The song itself wasn't bad. Probably called something like It's Bigger, if you need help with your search.

As a quick bit of background info, I'm not the biggest Broadway fan in the world, but I do enjoy a good show. And what Neil Patrick Harris does - man, am I a fan of that. I'd love to be a singing, dancing, emceeing act. Even acting - I'd like to give that a whirl. For now, though, I'll just have to continue to live it vicariously.

UPDATE: Here's the video from YouTube:

New Thing #160: American Restoration

There's a show on the History channel (I think it's just called 'History' these days, and not The History Channel anymore) called American Restoration. A little more than a week ago, the Billy Joel Twitter feed tweeted out that Joel would be on the show.

So I set the DVR.

I figured at the very least, New Thing.

Turns out, I kind of enjoyed the show.

The deal is a guy named Rick - at "Rick's Restorations" in Las Vegas - can take these antique items people bring in to him and restore them to working condition.

There were two items to restore in this particular episode, along with a third sub-plot. I won't bury the lead - Billy Joel, I guess, knows of the show and he bought a 1967 BSA - a type of motorcycle.  It's similar to the first motorcycle he ever bought, but he bought this one as a 'basket case', which according to him is the literal meaning of that term - he bought it as a bunch of parts in a basket.

The show begins with this huge package that Joel sent to Rick, and he didn't open it until Joel was at the shop. Like with the actual show, I'll get back to the Billy Joel part at the end - now I'll tell you about what else happened.

A customer bought a walk-behind tractor from Rick, who collects and sells these antiques from his shop. The customer wanted it fully restored - with its original paint job and restored to working condition, along with a seat for the driver and a bench in back for him to have his grandchildren ride with him. It ended up coming out awesome, for $12,000.

Then, the other three guys who spend time working with Rick were sent on a 'pick' - they go to this lot where some guy keeps all these different antiques. The worker - including Rick's brother, son, and some other guy whose relation I didn't pick up on - who brings back the most profitable item gets to go to New York for the 'reveal' with Billy Joel and meet Joel.

As for the motorcycle? It turns out great - Joel is happy with it. You may know that in Oyster Bay Billy Joel has a motorcycle shop - but he doesn't do restorations. He takes new bikes and tries to make them look old. He says he likes the new technology, but the old design. Essentially he's the opposite of what Rick does. They did the reveal at Joel's motorcycle shop.

The show is pretty good - it's not like I'll seek it out every time it's on, but if I caught it again I might watch it. It's a little painful to watch the scripted unscriptedness of it - the people on the show are all characters of a sort, but they're not actors. And they try to act, which makes it feel stilted.

Billy Joel was perfect for the show, though - he's got a great sense of humor. He was kind of a perfect balance for the other over-acting around him. He walked and talked with Rick through the lot, recognizing different vintage items and talking about them, and then stopping to play an old spinet Steinway piano. He was the highlight of the show.

But I might watch it again just to see how people go about fixing these things - I have no clue about restoring engines or building benches - I have neither the know-how nor the ability nor the tools. So I can learn a lot by watching a show like this.

Whether or not it features my favorite singer of all time.

New Thing #159: Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

You've probably heard by now that Dunkin' Donuts debuted a new sandwich this week. It's a glazed donut breakfast sandwich - a pepper fried egg and strips of bacon sandwiched between a glazed donut.

I have to admit - as much as I love all things Dunkin' Donuts, this did not sound appealing to me.

But I had to try it.

And today I did.

Here's the story of when I first heard about the new sandwich:

My wife told me about it. I said that does not sound very good. She said, "Kevin will love that!" I clarified, "I think you mean that he will like that I don't like a New Thing [he's been trying to get me to write about a week of New Things I don't like, because apparently I like most things], but you should also know he'll probably also like the sandwich." (Kevin likes Dunkin' Donuts sandwiches. For some reason I thought he'd like this.)

When I texted Kevin to tell him of this exchange he wrote, "I think that sounds amazing!"

I understand the appeal - what's not to like about a glazed donut (love glazed donuts!) and a bacon and egg sandwich (love bacon and egg sandwiches!)?

Well, I'll be honest - to me, they're not the best mix.

The sandwich was fine - it's not that I didn't enjoy it. I liked it well enough. But if I'm getting a bacon and egg sandwich, I'll get it on a bagel. And if I'm getting a glazed donut, well, I'll get it without the bacon and egg in the middle.

The most amazing thing about this sandwich to me is that I'm told it has less calories than the turkey sausage sandwich, which I wrote about in January. My wife suggests that's partly because this one doesn't have cheese.

There's some more new stuff to try at Dunkin' Donuts this summer - they have a new line of chicken sandwiches out. I enjoyed their chicken salad sandwich, so I'm  looking forward to trying one of the breaded chicken sandwiches.

I've mentioned this before, but all things being equal I prefer Dunkin' to Starbucks. (Here's why 'all things being equal' makes sense as a saying there: Starbucks has the hazelnut macchiato I like. Dunkin' has the sandwiches I like. But if it came down to plain coffee - all things being equal - I give the edge to Dunkin'.) So I like that Dunkin' Donuts keeps adding options - they're working to keep themselves fresh, and I like that. And I like living in an area where there are plenty of options to get Dunkin' Donuts.

Last Sunday in the Boston Globe, they mapped out in Massachusetts a town-by-town breakdown of Starbucks versus Dunkin' Donuts. And on Boston.com they lit up the United States with orange dots and green dots to show where the two shops are located.

Which leads me to believe that if I was President of the United States, one of my first priorities would be getting some more Dunkin' Donuts down in the D.C. area.

But it wouldn't necessarily be because they have a glazed donut breakfast sandwich.

New Thing #158: Bike Phone Mount

I think I got this for Christmas, because it's been sitting around for a long time and I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. It's a mount for my iPhone that attaches to the handlebar of my bike.

Don't worry - it's not a distraction for me - I won't be getting into any accidents.

If anything, it actually keeps me more focused on riding my bike than before I used it.

I attached the mount to my bike and took my bike out for the first time this past weekend. It was great bike-riding weather.

And I was able to mount my phone and use my bike-riding app to see how long I was riding and how many miles I was piling up.

Why was this less of a distraction?

Well, in the past I'd still try running that app, but it was while the phone was in my pocket. And with the athletic shorts I was wearing, with not-so-deep pockets, I'd check my pocket about 100 times during a bike ride to make sure my phone didn't fall out of it.

Now I worry occasionally that the phone will slip out of the mount, but all it takes is one tap for me to feel how secure it is in the mount and I can continue with my ride worry-free.

It was easy to assemble and mount, as I said it's secure, and it allows me to check the time of day pretty quickly as well. (I haven't worn a watch in a long time - I rely on my phone, so this also prevents me from having to reach for my phone in my pocket to see what time it is while on a bike ride.)

I assume I could pop my iPhone on speaker phone and this would be a pretty convenient way to talk on the phone while I was riding my bike as well....but let's not try that.

That would be a distraction.

New Thing #157: Ill-Timed Car Trouble

On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go to the Red Sox game. I got a ticket through work - I threw my name in for one and I ended up with a ticket a few weeks ago.

I failed to realize at the time that it was scheduled to be the night before the last day of school - always a busy time.

So I started to regret it...but then I got psyched up for the game again - especially Wednesday.

I had hot dogs for lunch, and was getting hungry in the afternoon.

I was looking forward to a sausage and pepper sandwich, or something great at the game.

I figured I'd find a New Thing to write about at Fenway Park too.

But I never got there.

What you're looking at in that picture above is a piece of my car hanging off the bottom of the car. (My wife's car, if we're being technical about it.)

I was driving down Storrow Drive when all of a sudden I started hearing a loud scratching noise. Eventually I realized it was coming from me...and then I feared I had a flat tire. I pulled over on Commonwealth Avenue - less than a mile from Fenway Park (whether I would have found any metered parking there became moot) - and was relieved to see the tires were fine. When I peeked under the car, though, I saw our problem.

Recently my wife had a rattling noise on the car - she brought it in and apparently there was a piece of metal hanging off and making the noise. The guys at the garage removed it, free of charge, and we were on our way. I think this is related debris that is hanging off - and it was scraping the road. The guys at the garage said they were meaningless pieces of metal. But - and I don't know much about cars, so humor me here - I imagine you can't have too many metal pieces fall off the bottom of your car before you're dealing with a major problem. So we'll see what the deal is here.

I have more to tell you about Wednesday's situation, but allow me to break in for a moment to tell you about 'Old Time Garage' in Newton, Massachusetts. These guys are amazing - tremendously honest and reliable. If there's nothing wrong with your car, they'll tell you. We've experienced that before. They're great. Highly recommend them.

They're right down the street from Newton-Wellesley Hospital on Route 16. We have had great experiences on that stretch of road, first with 3 daughters being born at the hospital and then with the garage.

OK. Back to Wednesday night. I'm going to look on the bright side:

-I really started to learn how to drive with a piece of a car hanging an inch or so off the ground. Smooth roads, avoiding manhole covers, and not hitting the brakes too much are all key elements for success. (It was slightly embarrassing though - because when that thing scraped the ground it was LOUD.)

-Amazingly, I had never driven to the end of Beacon Street before. My wife, once I told her where I was on Comm. Ave. and where I'd be able to get to Beacon, said I should just take Beacon to where it ends and then I'd be on Route 16 by the hospital. What an interesting tour - I saw all of these places I had seen from different approaches (Boston College, Coolidge Corner, Cleveland Circle, the Reservoir, Newton Center), and didn't realize that Beacon Street cut through them all. And I lived on Beacon Street for 2 years - just shows you how reluctant I was to do New Things and go to new places for much of my life.

-I got to spend some time with my daughters and rest up for the last day of school.

So that's my story. I'll have to make my first trip of the year to Fenway another time. I did watch some of the game on TV.

New Thing #156: Brooklyn Water Bagels

A new bagel place opened up in town. We knew it was coming for a little while, and I for one was pretty excited about it.

I don't like to be a New York snob all that much (OK, yes I do), but you really can't find good bagels in Massachusetts.

Dunkin' Donuts bagels are kind of like fast food bagels. (But the bacon and eggs and steak and eggs and stuff they put in them make up for the sub-par bagels.)

Other bagels? There's always some kind of flaw.

*Sigh* Not like the bagels I used to have at home.

But that's why this new place was so encouraging to me - it's called "Brooklyn Water Bagels". Brooklyn! That's New York! They make great bagels there!

And I've heard this before - but what supposedly makes New York bagels better than elsewhere is the water.

So, it's no surprise that Brooklyn Water Bagels goes by the slogan, "It's All About The Water!"

Whatever they do, it works. These bagels were pretty close to the good bagels from back home.

But while we're on the subject, let me tell you about a similarly named place back home that has the best bagels you'll ever have in your life. It's called "Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company". (But we people in the know just call it 'Brooklyn Bagel'.) If you're ever in Astoria - it's worth checking out. (Hm. I just now realized that the only locations of Brooklyn Bagel that I know about are in Queens and Manhattan. Not Brooklyn.)

My brother reported recently that they just opened a new location in midtown Manhattan, near his work. So you have some options. And if you're reading this in New York, appreciate what you have.

Good bagels are truly hard to find.

New Thing #155: Orange Coolatta

It was so hot on Sunday. We were at an outdoor event from noon to 2pm or so - the hottest part of the day.

We were parched.

On the way to our next event, we stopped by Dunkin' Donuts for a quick drink - we needed something cool and refreshing.

I was all set to get an iced coffee when I pulled into the lot and came face-to-face with the sign you see at left.

And boy am I glad I made that decision.

I'm pretty sure I've had a coolatta before - but I think I've only ever had a coffee coolatta.

This one was an orange coolatta - although my wife tells me that the proper name is a 'Minute Maid Orange Coolatta'.

And after Sunday, I'll call it whatever the heck they want me to call it.

It was so refreshing. So refreshing. I can not stress this enough. Look at this thing - tell me it doesn't just look refreshing:

It hit the spot.

The only drawback?

A little bit of brainfreeze.

But that's because I just couldn't get enough and downed the thing.

I can't wait for the next really hot day.

'Minute Maid Orange Coolatta' for me.

New Thing #154: It's A Beautiful Day

I'm sure there are people who don't like Michael Buble. I thought I might have been one of them back when Haven't Met You Yet came out.

It was constantly on the radio and I wanted to think it was overplayed before I just admitted to myself that I loved the song.

Then I came around to realizing that in addition to being a talented singer, Michael Buble was a pretty friggin' cool guy too.

Really.

At least I think so, anyway.

I've never met the guy (obviously?) - but everything he does seems to be done well,and with a hint of self-deprecating humor to boot...how can you not like the guy?

And his new song is likable too.

I don't know what it's like around you, but here it's been getting a lot of radio play.

It's called It's A Beautiful Day, and it seems that DJs are contractually obligated to say every time at the completion of the song, "That's the happiest song about a breakup that you'll ever hear."

And they're right. It is.

It's not all that different from Haven't Met You Yet, which is to say it has that certain Michael Buble feel to it - it sounds like a Michael Buble song.

Or a song he sings, I guess.

I'm not sure what the deal is with his songs - there's the occasional new original song, but I think most of what he does is covers.

Whichever...there's no denying it - the man can sing.

And that humor I talked about - it's on display in the video for his new song, which I'll leave you with.

If you haven't heard the song yet, I'm sure you will - this is another one that I sense we'll be hearing throughout the summer.

New Thing #153: Doing Dad Things

I don't mean to mislead you with that title. I've always done "Dad things".

It's just that for so long those things have entailed feedings and diaper changings and the like.

Things that I don't remember my dad doing because I was too little.

But now, as my kids are getting older, I'm doing some of the things for them that I remember my dad doing for me.

And that's what I think of when I think of "Dad things".

On Saturday, I spent some time doing these sorts of things.

I had to get the girls' bikes ready for the bike-riding season.

My first task failed - I have a pump at home and I tried to pump up their bike tires. I can't figure out that pump for anything. But the tires were passable enough for our ride.

The next thing was adjusting the seats. For some reason, this brought back a flood of memories from when I was younger and we'd get our bikes out, and my dad would adjust the bike seats.

It went well - a regular wrench did the trick on one bike, and then on the other bike I had to use an allen wrench. The cool thing about that is that I had never used an allen wrench for anything but the ready-to-be-made furniture (shelves, desks) that you buy at Bed Bath & Beyond or Target. Where the wrench and everything you need to make the thing comes in the package.

When I saw my daughter's bike seat I was shocked - there was no nut for a wrench or spot for a screwdriver or anything. Then I realized it looked like the kind of hole allen wrenches go into, so I tore through my toolbox to see if there was something in there that would fit in that hole.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that I owned a set of allen wrenches - including one that was perfect for this task.

It was very dad of me.

Next up, sometime in the next month - no more training wheels for my oldest daughter's bike.

Don't worry - I'll figure out a way to get them off.

I'm a dad.

New Thing #152: A Spelling Bee Winner From Queens

Thursday night my Twitter lit up with Queens pride. The Mets had beaten the Yankees for the fourth game in a row, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner was a boy from Queens.

I didn't know which news to celebrate first.

The former is a big deal to me - anytime the Mets get the better of the Yankees it's a big deal for us Mets fans.

The latter - well, it's a little less universal, but I had cause to celebrate:

I once knew a boy from Queens who was good at spelling....

My wife LOVES to poke fun at me for this.

As a matter of fact, she did so in a very public way 7 (!) years ago now, when she took over my sports blog for a few days while I was on a school camping trip. (It's entertaining stuff - after you click the link above you can read the May 30 and 31st entries here.)

I was a 4-time spelling bee winner at my elementary and junior high schools - I won in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Winning my school spelling bee advanced me to the District Spelling Bee - District 30, for those of you scoring at home. Each year, though, that was the end of my journey - I don't even know if there was a regional bee after that, or straight to the state spelling bee.

To be honest, I never really got close to finding out.

One year I was knocked out on 'whimsical' - I think I didn't put in the 'h'. Another year - and if you read the link to my wife's writing, you know this - it was 'terrarium'. I tell my students every year that they're lucky to be exposed to a bit of Latin and Greek as they study languages, because had I even thought to ask about language of origin on 'terrarium' I still wouldn't have realized when I was a kid the Latin 'terra' root rather than thinking it was spelled like 'pterodactyl' (which I think is a Greek root).

It's made worse when I remember shortly after being eliminated seeing one of the next kids get to spell 'apron'.

One of the best moments of my childhood was spelling 'facsimile' correctly to win the PS2 Spelling Bee. My teacher was in awe - she didn't think I even knew the word. I did, because a worksheet we had done that week had the word featured on it. It was quite a coincidence.

Anyway -  I tell you this because the winner of the National Spelling Bee this year followed a similar path as yours truly.

True, he went to Middle School 74 in Bayside rather than PS2 or JHS 141 in Jackson Heights. And yes, he's Indian-American, just like the past 5 winners of the National Spelling Bee. And you're right, he won the earlier rounds whereas I did not.

But we were both Daily News competitors (the New York Daily News sponsors the New York bees, and then sponsors the New York winner in the national competition). And I feel like he completed the journey I never could.

Congratulations to Arvind Mahankali for winning the Bee. He's taking some heat for not celebrating after he won. I don't blame him - I don't know what I would have done if I won at that age. Which I didn't.

Which leads to another important difference between me and Arvind. He's 'retiring' from spelling now. What's he doing next? Studying physics all day. I just never had that kind of academic discipline.

But I sure could spell 'discipline'.

Here's a look at his winning word:

New Thing #151: Conjoined Lightning Bugs

Maybe this is something you see everyday. I sure don't.

It's bug season.

The ants are out and around the house.

I can't walk two feet without going through a spider web.

And the other evening, I saw some lightning bugs crawling around the outside of the house.

But I never saw a lightning bug like this one.

These ones?

Look - it's a conjoined lightning bug.

I saw it on my door when I came home from work. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture - the camera kept focusing on the wall you see through the glass beyond the bug[s]. As though the wall is worth focusing on more than a freak bug!)

Later in the night, and the next night (yes, I looked for it), the bug(s?) was (were?) gone.

Which I'm a little disappointed by, because as you can see, those lightning bugs are conjoined at the lightning end. And I can't really think of a better science experience than taking a look at these bad boys at night. Do they both light up and form some kind of super lightning bug? Does the conjoinedness make it so that neither has their nether lightning-regions?

The world may never know.

At least I got a picture.

New Thing #150: A Decision With No Regrets

One time, when I was a kid, my dad took me and my brother and my sister to a Toys 'R' Us. I forget what parameters were set - I'm not really sure there were any at all - but he said we could get "anything we wanted".

My impulsive brother probably grabbed the first thing he saw.

My sister didn't seem to have trouble making a decision, but I have no memory of what she got because we never cared much for the girl toys she had.

Me? Paralysis.

I had no idea what to do, where to start, how much the toy should be, which toy genre I should pursue (action figure? book? board game?), which toy characters I should get.

I'm embarrassed about what I finally decided on even now, more than 25 years later.

And it didn't take long for me to regret my choice that day.

I still have trouble making some decisions...but I have come a long way.

Here's a story about a recent decision I made that I didn't regret.

Remember when I went to Quebec? (I know, how could you forget. Here we are more than a month later and I'm still talking about it.)

Well, a big part of the last day for me was what to bring home to my girls. I made a good decision for myself - I told you about my Nordiques glass - I got my wife something nice, and I got t-shirts for my daughters.

I'm here to tell you that there was only a little stress involved - I popped into a few souvenir stores before I was able to make my final decision. I'd love to tell you I bought immediately, but that's not really the way I operate.

With my girls' t-shirts, though, it didn't take long at all. (I spent more time agonizing over what to get my wife.) I saw a couple of very similar t-shirts for the older girls, and then for my youngest, well, you can just take a look and I think you'll agree that I made the right call:

The shirt's a lot cuter if you can see my daughter's face. But I'm not in the business of slapping my kids' pictures all over public web sites.

No regrets on that purchase.

OK. I know. You don't even care about my daughter's shirt anymore. You're wondering what toy I settled on that day at Toys 'R' Us when I was a kid. It's embarrassing.

OK. Here goes.

It was a He-Man bath set, with some soap and scrubby things. Maybe a bath crayon or two.

Oh man. Such an embarrassing decision. I cringe thinking of it.

Stop laughing at me.

New Thing #149: Having My Finger On The Pulse

Here's a confession: I've often thought I invented something.

Nothing huge like, say, the Internet.

But sometimes I'll hear somebody say something and I'll think, "I thought of that a week ago!"

Or I'll hear a common saying and think I was the first to think of it.

I'm trying to come up with an example to illustrate this, but I'm sure you know the feeling - I don't think it's unique to me. (It may be unique to me how often I think it compared to other people. I think I have an active mind.)

What I imagine must happen is that I'm exposed to something, it sits in my subconscious for a little bit, and then when I hear it come from a second (or third or fourth) source, I feel like I've had my idea stolen...or it went public some other way.

It's happened with jokes, it's happened with sayings, and it has happened more than once in these past 149 days...most recently this week.

I need to stress here - I'm not upset. I really don't think my ideas are being stolen in any way...if anything, it makes me second-guess that I'm not stealing other people's ideas.

But what I'm about to tell you is really nothing more than a bunch of strange coincidences.

The first thing, which I mentioned quickly in the 100th New Thing post, was shortly after I wrote about Billy Joel singing with the student at Vanderbilt University, it picked up steam and ended up being more widely publicized. Going viral, as they say. It appeared on a bunch of other sites, and I knew it was pretty popular because a lot of "Billy Joel Vanderbilt Student" searches brought people to my site. (While we're on the topic, Sunday's New York Times Magazine featured a lengthy Q & A with Billy Joel. It's worth the read.)

Another coincidence was from my pal Justin, who wrote about his fake friendship with Marc Maron less than a week after I had written about how it feels being a fan of Maron, and Maron, and WTF with Marc Maron. After I read what Justin wrote, I traded texts with him, and then I guess he read what I wrote, and he felt the need to tell me that he hadn't read mine before he wrote his. I believe him entirely. I just think it's weird that we were thinking the same thing at just about the same time. (Well, not too weird. There's a reason we're good friends.)

Further, on Sunday in the Boston Globe Magazine, there was a feature article on the proliferation of frozen yogurt places, with - you guessed it - Orange Leaf featured prominently.

Finally, my wife directed me to this article on Tuesday. It's all about chia - the ingredient I wrote about on Tuesday as one of the things I didn't include in my smoothie. (Looks, too, like I was wrong about referring to it as a 'shake'.)

On the one hand I feel a little validated. I'm the only one driving the content on this site, and for me to be hitting on so many current topics, well, I feel good about that. My finger is kind of on the pulse, it seems. If I notice there seem to be a lot of frozen yogurt options out there - whether or not the yogurt tastes different from one place to the next - well, it seems other people are noticing it too.

On the other hand this is all very weird. I'm far from a trend-setter. But maybe I've accidentally stumbled across some eternal truth: there's no such thing as trend-setters, only people who are willing to try New Things.

New Thing #148: A Shake For Breakfast

I did something pretty healthy Monday morning. After I went for a run (they're getting shorter, though I'm trying to build up some stamina...but that's a story for another day), I had a shake for breakfast.

I've thought about having shakes for a long time, but I knew I needed to set aside the proper time to think about it, execute it, and then decide whether it was filling enough.

That couldn't be a school day.

So Monday - a day off - was the perfect day to give it a shot.

My wife's been doing these lately, so she guided me through the process:

-one yogurt

-some frozen strawberries (we had some fresh ones, but she encouraged me to use the frozen ones to make it taste a little colder)

-a banana (we had an old one that was turning brown and mushy sitting around that was one impetus for me to make a shake - I figured I could just throw it into the blender)

-a little bit of milk

-one scoop of protein powder

I should say, I've come to appreciate the value of a good breakfast in the past couple of years. (Forgive me if I'm repeating myself - I feel like I must have written about this before. But maybe not.) For a variety of reasons, my lunch period at school isn't until 1:15pm. We know it's late - we always tell the students they need to eat a good breakfast to help them get through the day.

But I never used to follow my own advice. I had to hit the road in the morning and I didn't take the time to fix myself something healthy.

The past couple of years, though, I've driven to school with my daughter - and that forces me to leave later, and that forces me to eat breakfast before we leave. So for two years I've been eating a good breakfast every morning consisting of eggs and English muffins. (OK, sometimes I'll still hit Dunkin' Donuts on the way in - but far, far less frequently than I used to.)

So I recognize the importance of the protein in the eggs helping me make it through a long day. I no longer feel starved between 11am and noon - I actually make it through 1pm (with the snack provided by the school in late morning). And if I don't have my good breakfast, I get a headache mid-day that I just can't shake.

So all this is to say I know the difference between a good breakfast and a bad breakfast. And this shake was pretty good.

It was my wife who suggested the protein scoop - and I bought in 100% because of my eggs experience. (See how I resisted writing eggs-perience there? I'm maturing.)

Bonus great thing about the shake? Well, besides the cool blending of all of the ingredients? The souvenir cups I collect from my ballpark visits are the perfect size for what comes out of the blender. I used my Nationals Park one for this test run.

There were a couple of things my wife suggested that I didn't include: one was some chia seeds. My wife uses those...I might include them next time, but I wanted to keep things simple this time around. She claims they add some protein and fat too. Same with the frozen blueberries and raspberries - I only had strawberries in my mind this time, so that's what I did.

But there will be other opportunities for other ingredients, because this will be something I do again.

It certainly won't replace my eggs as an everyday breakfast...but with summer vacation coming up I can see a breakfast shake coming into play once or twice a week.

(Note: Is this technically a smoothie? Should I have said smoothie instead of shake? Is this a regional thing like frappe and shake? Are those even the same things? I don't remember. I think I'm saying shake because of the old Ultra Slim-Fast commercials. OK. End of note.)

New Thing #147: Of Monsters And Men

What do you get when you cross Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros with Ho Hey by The Lumineers? In my mind, at least, you get Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

(If you want further explanation of that, leave a comment and I'll try to bring you inside my head.)

Little Talks has been my recent musical obsession - I can't get enough of it.

And I wasn't hearing it enough on the radio this week, so I took matters into my own hands.

I bought the album.

It's called 'My Head Is An Animal', which is a line in the first song on the album.

And what I didn't realize is that I actually knew three of the songs on the album.

Little Talks, of course, is pretty well known. (I posted the video at the end of this post in case you're not sure you know it.) And King and Lionheart is getting some radio play right now as the newest release. (Though probably not in wide release - I've only heard it on the independent station here, not on the big hit stations like Little Talks was.)

Similarly, I was surprised when Mountain Sound played on the album - I recognized it instantly, even though it had been a while since I had heard it. It got some pretty extensive radio play recently too...at least, around here.

The rest of the album is fine. Nothing over the top great, but nothing terrible. I really like the female singer's voice - and there are a couple of songs on the album where she gets featured prominently (rather than a split). The male lead sings quite a bit too..I can't decide if it's an even balance between the two or if he is featured more. I'm leaning toward an even balance.

The band is from Iceland - and apparently Little Talks has been around for a couple of years, and the album has been out for one. You can get more info about them at their website.

New Thing #146: Orange Leaf

One of the new places in the Wayland Town Center is a frozen yogurt place named Orange Leaf. I had never heard of it - my wife told me they were opening one up there and it meant nothing to me.

But maybe it should have.

According to their website, Orange Leaf is 'America's Frozen Yogurt'.

And there are more than 250 stores open across the country, with 130 more coming soon.

One of those 'coming soon' locations is Belmont, where I work, so there's something to look forward to.

The frozen yogurt is fine - I think I'm coming to the conclusion that frozen yogurt is frozen yogurt.

Two things, though, in my early findings, set Orange Leaf apart.

First, and I haven't noticed this at other frozen yogurt places, but I'll sure start looking for it: they have brownie bits as a topping. That's not something I've seen before. Fudge brownie ice cream is my favorite, hands down. And it's not something you see automatically at every ice cream spot. (I have a couple of go-to spots where I know they have it on the menu.) But if I can get some chocolate frozen yogurt and mix in some brownie bits...watch out.

The other thing is the spoons. I don't really like the Orange Leaf spoons. The interior of the store has all of this odd-looking (modern-ish) furniture. It's like they're going out of their way to make things look different - even if it's not in their best interests.

I think the spoons fall into that category. Different for the sake of different. They're shaped in such a way that it makes it harder to eat.

I don't know that anyone has ever said, "You know, this frozen yogurt is OK, but this spoon is giving me too much of a bite at a time. I really need a spoon shaped like a guitar so that I don't get as much frozen yogurt with each scoop."

I do not like the spoons.

But if there are brownie bits on that spoon...well, I'm willing to make a sacrifice.