New Thing #185: Boston 1775 Blog

The 4th of July seems like a good time to tell you (remind you, in some cases) that if I could travel through time to any point in history, it would be Boston, circa 1775. Sure, there would be less of the creature comforts I've grown so used to.

I'd have to adjust to the food.

And boy, would it be smelly.

But I just think, knowing what I know about that time period, it would just be so exciting.

Time machines, as you may or may not know, do not exist.

But I might have come across something just as good.

The Boston 1775 blog was cited often in Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill. It appeared so often in the Notes section of the book that I couldn't ignore it - and then every time it was mentioned it was about the most interesting topics.

So I made a mental note to check it out when I finished the book.

There is a ton of information on this blog. It's written by J.L. Bell, a Massachusetts writer who, says his bio on the site, specializes in the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. (My kind of guy!)

The blog was started in May, 2006, and Bell has posted almost every day since then.

I wouldn't exactly say I'm overwhelmed by the content on the blog...it's more that I'm pacing myself. I've only read a few of the entries at this point, but I plan on making my way through the entire thing. (I'm starting in May 2006 and working my way forward, but there doesn't seem to be a need for chronological reading. Probably like my blog - you can essentially pick it up anywhere and go in either direction. But I like chronology.)

I kind of feel the way I do when I have a bunch of shows I want to watch on the DVR (or podcasts in my queue) - at any moment of down time I can just pop onto the Boston 1775 blog and read a few entries. And I'll probably feel a big sense of accomplishment and a small bit of sadness after I make my way through...although the good news here is that there will be a new post almost every day...so long as Bell doesn't decide to quit blogging now that I've decided to start reading.

The entries seem to include everything from short bios and informative texts to primary sources or links to related articles to events taking place today related to the study of the American Revolution. There's also an extensive list of tags on the right hand side of the page so you can click a topic of interest - almost anything or anyone imaginable connected with the Revolution.

If you're interested you can find the blog at Boston1775.blogspot.com.

New Thing #184: Reading A Book On A Nook

I had a plan for my beach reading last week on the Cape. (Little did I realize being a father on the beach significantly cuts into reading time on the beach. But it did lead to more time than I may have ever spent in the water before.)

I was going to take advantage of this opportunity to read a book on the Nook for the first time.

I finished Bunker Hill the day before we left and cleared my plate.

And on the first morning we visited the beach I set up my chair, took out the Nook, and (amid numerous interruptions from my children) read Tina Fey's Bossypants.

My wife got the Nook a few years ago. She likes it. I kind of like it because it leads to less clutter around the house of books she's started and left sitting around.

But I had never read anything on the Nook. When my wife got the Tina Fey book electronically I resolved to make that the book I read when I first tried the new piece of technology. Obviously, it's taken me a couple of years.

I did not expect to enjoy the process of reading the book on the Nook. But it wasn't bad - especially considering the sun glare I was expecting, the screen was entirely readable.

But I'm sorry to say I didn't like the Nook more than I liked it. Here's why:

-First of all, when you put the thing to sleep you have to look at images of ugly old authors. It can be jarring when you open the Nook and you have faces like this staring back at you:

-Secondly, I think it would take a lot of getting used to. Whenever the wind picked up, my hands automatically pinned down the Nook as though the pages were all going to blow in the wind. I know that's a stupid thing to not like about the Nook, but I think it speaks to how used I am to turning pages.

-Thirdly, Bossypants features a lot of footnotes. Not the kind of footnotes I talked about last week in non-fiction books which contribute to me having trouble keeping track of the forward motion of the story, but little asterisks that contain bonus jokes in the back of the book. At least I assume they're in the back of the book in hard copy form. All I saw on the Nook were these little asterisks every so often and then at the end of the book were a whole bunch of random notes that I had to remember back to where they might have appeared. (By the way, I should mention that I really enjoyed the book. There were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments.)

-Fourthly, sometimes my reading comprehension abilities (or deficiencies?) require me to go back a page or two (or many) to figure out who a character is or where a scene started or something. That is much more challenging on a Nook than it is with a book and it's the worst thing about the Nook for me. It affected the way I read this book, because I just stopped doing it if the reference I wanted to go back to was more than a page away. (There might be ways around this that I'm not aware of, but the bottom line is it's not as easy as flipping back a few pages.)

-Fifthly (and this falls in the category of things that may have since been fixed or upgraded since my wife bought her Nook), as easy as the Nook was to read on the beach in the sun, when we were sharing a room with my daughters in the hotel and I didn't want to turn on a light to read, it was impossible to read the Nook. There was no backlight or glow option or anything. It just sat dark there in the dark.

-Sixthly, sometimes I like to write in a text as I read, John Adams-style. If nothing else it makes me feel more intelligent, like I'm engaging with my reading in a valuable way. That's impossible on a Nook.

There's a menu at the bottom of the Nook that I didn't explore all that much outside of getting into the book from the main menu. Maybe it fixes all of the things I mentioned above. I don't know. But I don't know if I'm willing to find out.

I'm not knocking the Nook for you - if you enjoy it good for you. And I'm sure there are youngsters out there who never considered reading some books and are reading on Nooks and improving their skills.

But I'll take my good old-fashioned paper book, thank you very much.

New Thing #183: Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory Tour

I love Cape Cod Potato Chips. When I brainstormed a list of possible New Things for '365 New Things In 2013', the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory Tour was on that list.

If you've ever eaten Cape Cod Potato Chips, you know that on the back of the bag there's always a little map of how to get to the factory and it says if you're ever in the area you should come by for a tour!

So when my wife booked the Cape Cod vacation I suggested we check out the factory.

And so we did.

And it sucked.

There are signs all over the place as you head in for the tour: "No Photos", "No Video". I thought this was so you don't accidentally send off any top-secret information to competitors.

Turns out, I'm pretty sure it's because if you put up pictures or video, other people would see how terrible the tour is and not turn out.

It started out really promising - the tour is self-guided. I LOVE self-guided tours, because I don't much love having to be grouped with people I don't know and be led by a guide who I also don't know. Self-guided is just my speed.

But it turns out the tour was self-guided because all it involves is walking down a long (medium-sized, really) hallway and looking into some windows.

There's information posted on the walls along the way, but you don't really see any of the good stuff. You see a bunch of potatoes go into a machine. You see a whole bunch of potato chips on conveyor belts. You see a bagging machine, though you don't see the actual bagging. You see a bunch of people inspecting chips and putting bags into bigger bags and think that they must either really love Cape Cod Potato Chips or really hate their lot in life.

And then you open a door and you're in the gift shop. The tour might not have been what I was hoping for, (What was I looking for, you ask? Well, I thought we'd get to put on lab coats and goggles and walk through and see machines in all their glory and touch stuff)  but I still love Cape Cod Potato Chips. So I loved the gift shop.

My in-laws spotted a chip clip with the Cape Cod Potato Chips logo on it. Sold. My only problem with the chips is when they lose their crispness because the bag isn't sealed tight. Not a problem anymore. And then I got a Cape Cod Potato Chip magnet.

We also got free samples. They let you take two of the small bags of potato chips on your way out. I took a new flavor (New Thing!) - roasted garlic and red pepper. I tried them later that day on the beach - they were a little too roasted garlicky and red peppery.

I was a little disappointed by the tour overall, but I'm glad we did it. It was just about 15 minutes from our hotel, so it was worth checking out. I couldn't imagine some chip enthusiast, though, from the west coast, say, coming all the way out just to walk down a hallway. I imagine that has to happen once or twice a year. I wonder if they complain to management and if anything is done to accommodate those folks.

I probably would have been furious if I had driven the 1 hour, 45 minutes from my house to check out the factory.

But I only drove 15 minutes. And they gave my daughters free potato chips. So we're cool, Cape Cod Potato Chips.

New Thing #182: Despair by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

As you can tell by the picture, this week features another Starbucks free download. But that's not why I'm featuring it today.

I'd been holding onto it for a while, just because I hadn't pulled the trigger yet on listening to the song.

I figured I'd get to it eventually.

Then I came across a tweet from The AV Club about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' video for their song Despair - it was the first video shot at the top of the Empire State Building.

That caught my attention.

OK. First, let's clear up a couple of things.

I'm pretty sure I've heard of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before this. Why? I don't know. But enough so that I absolutely confuse them with the Ting Tings. (Why do I know the Ting Tings? I'm not sure if there's any other reason than the fact that they sing this birthday song from Yo! Gabba Gabba...but whenever my mind wonders who sings that song, it automatically answers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I guess it's the repetition of the names.)

Secondly, I was shocked to read about this being the first music video filmed atop the Empire State Building. How is it that it happens with Despair and not something iconic like Billy Joel's New York State of Mind? My guess is there were some big hoops to go through - but then again, it's not like there weren't movies being filmed up there. (For what it's worth, I read that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a New York band.)

Anyway, it surprised me to learn that. Here's The AV Club article about the video. The song's not bad. (Interestingly, the video is longer than the song I downloaded - it starts with about 2 minutes of acoustic singing, and then the 4:30 song as recorded.) But it's not like the song itself was the big draw this week - I liked the story more than anything else.

And the parts of the video that take place on the Empire State Building's observation deck are pretty cool - definitely worth whatever hoops the band had to jump through to get that video filmed there.

But nothing beats that last shot, which I assume is from a helicopter. That has to be one of the coolest music video shots I've ever seen. Here's the video:

New Thing #181: Vacationing On The Cape

One time when I was a kid, my family spent some time on Cape Cod. I remember very little about it - but I'm pretty sure it was a pool-centered trip rather than a beach-centered one.

Another time, when my wife and I were dating, we took a day trip to Craigville Beach and laid out on the sand.

It was a windy day and all I remember is that the sand was blowing in our face and we didn't even go in the water.

We also attended a wedding on Cape Cod.

For a long time I let that middle experience dictate my views on Cape Cod - I didn't think I'd enjoy spending extended time there.

Then last week happened.

My wife gets credit for planning this one - she thought of it way back in the winter. She found the place where we stayed, she picked the days we went...she was the mastermind.

She found a place called The Ocean View, on Craigville Beach in Centerville, and we went with most of her family for a couple of days.

The timing was right - some towns were still in school (due to added-on time from snow days and the hurricane), so the beach was pretty empty. (It didn't hurt that it was also a Wednesday-Thursday trip rather than a weekend.)

The Ocean View is across the street (and a parking lot) from the beach. Our room was perfect - we all stayed in a big suite, and I can not tell you as a parent how convenient it is to be able to walk to the beach rather than having to pack everyone up in the car and wipe off the sand and dry off wet bottoms before they sit on the car seats etc. etc. etc. The picture at the top of this post is the view of the hotel from the beach. This picture is a view of the beach from in front of the hotel.

 The days were perfect too - sunny, the Cape wind (which I've now decided is a thing and not just a coincidence that the wind happens to pick up whenever we're there) acted like air conditioning on muggy days rather than a source of annoyance, and the water was the calmest I've ever seen.

The last time I went to the beach it was July 2009, and that was a particularly stormy summer, I think. The days we spent at the beach in Montauk were sunny, but the water was churning. It was rough - there were a couple of times I went in the water and I started making my way back to shore and didn't know if I was going to make it back. I got my butt kicked. I still have scars on my knee from those days when the waves crashed me down onto the sand.  (Is it coincidence that it took me four years to get back in the ocean? Maybe. But maybe not.)

This time the ocean was like a pool. Literally. The waves gently broke on the shore and I was thrilled that my daughters showed no fear wading into the water or sitting on the sand and letting the waves splash on top of their legs. (This fearlessness might become dangerous on days when the ocean is rough, but I'll cross that bridge when we come to it since we visit the ocean so infrequently. I'm just excited right now that we're dealing with the opposite of the usual with my daughters, which is excess caution.) It was a great beach vacation.

I'm looking forward to building on this momentum and doing other water-related activities with my girls. It's also not out of the question for us to take a day trip to the beach now, knowing that it wouldn't be a waste of our time.

I took a trip to Martha's Vineyard a bunch of years ago and I loved it - the beach reminded me of Montauk, which for me is the ideal against which all other beaches are measured. After my previous experiences on Cape Cod I just never thought it would measure up - I didn't like the shells in the sand. And that wind. My goodness.

I still prefer Montauk because it's where I spent so much of my childhood summers. There are great family memories from the beaches there. But now I have my own family of five. And we have had one great vacation experience in Montauk (well, we were a family of four then) and now another great vacation experience on Cape Cod.

And at the end of July my wife and I are going to another wedding on the Cape. She had the great idea that we should make a weekend out of it. At the time she booked it I wasn't too thrilled about that.

Now I can't wait to go back.

New Thing #180: Jamba Juice

I guess there was a part of me, deep down in my subconscious, that was missing my alma mater after spending time at my wife's reunion. Because last week I had some time to kill between doing some work at school and needing to be back at the school to pick up my daughter from day camp.

So I decided to spend that time near Boston University, going for a run along the Charles River.

And as I drove there I developed a plan which worked out so well for me it's almost unbelievable.

I left work at about 12:30. I intentionally didn't bring anything for lunch, figuring I'd grab something near BU after my run. But as I drove from Belmont to Boston I couldn't think of anything healthy enough to not negate the workout I was driving all this way to do.

My mind kept coming back to burgers and pizza - two of my favorites, for sure, but not what I was really in the mood for on this particular afternoon.

I thought about what I would be having if I was doing lunch at home, and my mind went to smoothies. It was perfect - I convinced myself then and there that somewhere on BU's campus was going to be a smoothie place (you know, catering to the health-conscious college students) where I could grab something healthy after my run.

I kept an eye out as I looked for parking. Nothing. I walked to the Esplanade and looked up and down Commonwealth Avenue where there might have been a place. Nothing.

I ran from behind Marsh Chapel, down about a mile to a turnaround point, and then ran back until I exited near the School of Education. (I give these specifics for the BU readers. They'll know what I'm talking about.) I walked up a part of Commonwealth Avenue I hadn't checked out before...still nothing. Then I crossed the street in front of Warren Towers, and lo and behold, in the last place I would have expected to see one, there was a smoothie place.

It was a Jamba Juice, which I had never been to before. As much as I fully expected to find a smoothie place, I was taken aback when I finally did. This little storefront is located on the ground floor of one of BU's signature dorms. When I was there it was a little sandwich/bagel/coffee place, and I think it has also been a burrito place. It has never been a recognizable franchise like Jamba Juice, as far as I know.

I looked at the menu, but I wasn't really registering what I was seeing. I feel like I settled - I wish I had a chance to re-order. My smoothie was fine, but it was nothing extraordinary. I want to go back and get something a little different from something I could easily create at home.

I ended up having an "Orange C-Booster" smoothie. It was essentially a fancier, thicker orange juice. It's advertised (right there on the menu!) as a Vitamin C and zinc boost as well as an antioxidant boost, and it's made with orange, peach, and banana. (On this day 'peach' served the same purpose for me as 'avocado' on a food menu - it looks so good to me that whatever I ordered had to have that in it.) It was refreshing enough, and it held me over until dinner time, and I did feel healthy having it. So it served its purposes.

The smoothie was 350 calories. They sell 3 sizes of smoothie - "sixteen" (16), "original" (22), and "power" (30). I had original and I'm not sure I needed anything bigger.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Jamba Juice, but they also have sandwiches. I'm not sure if I'm in the market for a sandwich that this would be my first stop, but it's nice to know it's there.

I can easily see myself swinging by Jamba Juice on my way to Fenway Park the next time I head to a Red Sox game and grabbing a smoothie.

Maybe it'll make me feel a little better about shoving my face full of crap at Fenway if I have a smoothie first.

New Thing #179: Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution

I'm kind of obsessed with the American Revolution. Not even the whole war - more like I'm obsessed with colonial Boston, 1770-1775 or so.

I keep reading books that focus on that time period, and I've tried to wean myself away from them so I can learn about other times in history...or even the rest of the war once the regulars left Massachusetts.

The latest addition to my library is Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution.

And I didn't even choose to read this one on my own.

I got a text from my wife one day in May. She was leaving work to enjoy a little bit of a nice day and decided to pop into the bookstore. Did I want anything? she wanted to know. I missed the text, and saw it hours later. (I worked straight through the nice day, I guess.)

When she came home, she had bought Bunker Hill for me - it was just out recently and was getting some good press. I had read about it, and how Philbrick is a good storyteller.

I said above that I didn't choose to read this book on my own...I should actually say that I didn't seek it out on my own. Once it was in my possession I jumped it up on my summer reading to-do list, and I plowed through it pretty quickly.

It's a good book about Boston in the 1760s into March of 1776, and Philbrick is indeed a good storyteller.

I expected, based on the title I guess, the book to focus more on Bunker Hill than it actually did. It was pretty typical Revolutionary Boston fare - talk of taxes, soldiers in Boston, Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, etc. - but it was one of the more detailed accounts of all of these events that I have ever read. And there were hardly any points where my eyes glazed over or something felt boring - it was very engaging throughout.

Another pleasant surprise was how prevalent Joseph Warren was in the book. I've enjoyed learning about Dr. Warren over the years - I definitely didn't learn about him in school and I've come to learn more the more I read - but this book serves as almost a mini-biography of the Boston doctor-turned political and military leader. He's really painted as a Samuel Adams-like ringleader in making things happen that led the colonies into a war with their mother country.

Philbrick offers unique takes on the Boston Tea Party and some of the actions of the Sons of Liberty in Boston, and he spends a couple of chapters going through the events of April 18th and 19th, 1775. I love reading about the messengers (led by Paul Revere) being sent out on the night of the 18th and then the engagements in Lexington and Concord on the 19th, and Philbrick devotes a couple of chapters to these events (and the ensuing chase back to Boston that began the Siege of Boston). As a matter of fact, he spends more time writing about all of that than the title battle.

And he provides some of the goriest details of all of those battles that I've ever read...which paints the writing as realistic, because those were some gory days. (I had never before read about 78-year-old Samuel Whittemore, who killed several regulars on April 19th, then "took a musket ball to the jaw and was bayoneted repeatedly before being left for dead." He then lived for another eleven years.)

I've written before, I think, about my love for Johnny Tremain - a young adult historical fiction novel by Esther Forbes. Much of the book is historically accurate...and some of the incidents in the book that I thought might be somewhat fictional were supported by fact in this book, such as the saying that the regulars marched out on the morning of April 19th whistling 'Yankee Doodle', but would hear it sung back to them before the end of the day, or something along those lines. According to Philbrick, that actually happened...give or take a few details.

One detail I was surprised not to read about in this book was that after Joseph Warren was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill (spoiler alert!), I had read that his body was so badly disfigured that it could only be identified by his teeth. I had heard this was done by Paul Revere (who made Warren's false teeth), but Philbrick writes it was done by Warren's brother.

I half-read/half-skimmed the notes at the back of the book - they're thorough, citing where Philbrick got all of his information. (And the way I read non-fiction books, I was glad he went with pages of notes at the end rather than footnotes - I always feel obligated to look up footnotes when I come across them. It's hard for me to read books that way.) They're also, by the way, indicative of Philbrick's writing ability - they're very readable. Anyway, I was hoping to see some mention of the Revere/teeth story in there but there was nothing. So I hope I'm not making that up.

I admire the work that goes into a book like this. Sometimes I wonder if I have a work of non-fiction like this in me - I certainly have the passionate interest in the subject matter...I just don't know if I know how to go about writing the book.

But that's what I leave you with today - this was a great book...and it's books like this that inspire me to think about someday writing something that comes close to it.

New Thing #178: Gatorade Energy Chews

I saw that Kevin Durant - Dwayne Wade Gatorade commercial about a million times before I watched it for content rather than story. I liked the circular idea of it the first time I saw it...and then shortly after saw it start with the opposite point of view.

Then I started ignoring it.

Then during the NBA Finals I watched the commercial and realized it wasn't just about the energy drink.

I thought I saw one of those guys pop something into his mouth.

And then I went to a sporting goods store and I saw the energy chews.

I had to at least try them.

The chews come 6 to a pack and they cost $1.99.  I went with the strawberry, since if there are flavors offered of something I haven't tried I usually try to go red for my first taste.

This was a day that I was going for a run at around lunchtime, and I figured I'd pop a chew right before I worked out. Then I read the directions.

"Eat 6 chews 15 minutes prior to exercise or competition."

I was taken aback. Before I had even read the directions I was thinking about eating all six - I wasn't sure for a second if I was just reading it the way I wanted it to read.

But no, that's what it said - go ahead and eat all six. (Six pieces is a serving size, and there's 100 calories per serving, in case you're wondering.) So I ate all six. And I waited 15 minutes, and then I went for my run.

It was a good run. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it was great because I had a handful of energy chews beforehand.

But I kind of like the idea of acceptably having a form of candy before working out.

Although, as my wife cautioned when I told her it was "only $1.99!": "Watch out - $1.99 can add up fast."

Maybe I'll just stick to the usual, free, water before I run in the future.

New Thing #177: Caked By Kate

I'm no expert in the kitchen. (Well, there are a lot of places I'm no expert. The kitchen is just one.)

But I'm not jealous of people who are experts in the kitchen.

Interestingly, and I'm just coming to this realization as I write this, this is one of the few instances where this is true.

Sometimes I watch certain people who are in a different profession than me (like broadcaster, say) and jealousy creeps in: "I can do that," I think.

But bakers? Chefs? Cooking hobbyists? I support their work and appreciate it tremendously.

Such is the case with my friend Kate.

Within the past year Kate has begun a little baking business - and I can't even begin to tell you about the amazing artistic ability she has in designing and making cakes and cupcakes.

But I'll try.

First I should tell you that we ordered a cake from Kate for our youngest daughter's second birthday last week - we ordered a rainbow cake with chocolate icing. You see the outside of the cake in the picture above. As for the inside:

Pretty cool, huh?

And believe me when I tell you that probably falls into the 'easy' category of cakes Kate has made.

I've seen Goodnight Moon-themed cupcakes for a baby shower, birthday cakes ranging from Spongebob to race cars to baseball diamonds to Legos.

They're all amazing.

'Caked By Kate' is based in Sudbury, so if you're within driving distance, it's definitely worth checking out. (She delivers all her cakes.) Her Facebook page features all of her creations, so you can see the designs I told you about and get an idea of pricing and such.

And, oh yeah - the cake tasted pretty good too. But I feel like that's almost secondary when you get such a good-looking cake. But we enjoyed it and, if it's possible, liked it even more the next couple of days as we had leftovers from the party.

We'll be repeat customers...my other two daughters already have thoughts on what kind of cake designs they want for their birthdays in the fall.

New Thing #176: Voting For A Senator In June

It wasn't all that long ago here in Massachusetts we had a special election to fill a Senate seat. When Ted Kennedy died in August of 2009, the election to replace him was held in January of 2010.

This time, it's to fill John Kerry's seat, after he was named Secretary of State.

And today is that election.

I was talking with my wife about how different this election feels.

She thinks it follows the same timeline as the last one.

I suppose she's right, but maybe the big difference is that a January election falls closer to the regularly-scheduled November elections, and here in June we're about as far in the calendar as we can get from the November elections.

Anyway, I'm not here to tell you who to vote for.

I'm just here to tell you that I'll be voting today. And if you're in Massachusetts, I think you should too.

And I offer this political analysis: everyone's predicting an Ed Markey runaway. Which, if I'm Markey, makes me nervous, because voter turnout will be low in late June anyway. And if Markey supporters get complacent and don't go to the polls, while Gomez supporters rally and show up in droves...well, I could see an upset happening.

But I'm not an expert. I'm just a citizen exercising his right to vote.

It'll be interesting to see how many Massachusetts citizens exercise that right on Tuesday.

New Thing #175: My Only Problem With You

If you follow my brother on-line on any of his various social media outlets, you probably could see this coming. He put out a new song last week.

And that earns him an automatic berth into the 'Music Monday' section of '365 New Things In 2013'.

Which I'm relieved about because I didn't want to go through this whole year without devoting a post solely to his music.

I've directed you to Matt Sucich's website before, but - this is new too - he's updated it since I've last linked to it. So visit there to find out more about his background, and to find his new music.

There's actually a bunch going on with my brother these days - he just got back from Delaware where he played in the Firefly Music Festival.

Ahead of that appearance he released the new song I'm here to tell you about today - it's called My Only Problem With You, and Matt's especially excited about this release because if you act quickly you can get a limited edition vinyl copy of the music. (To be honest, I have no use for the vinyl unless I wanted to get him to sign it so I could put it up on the wall...I have nothing to play it on.) You can just download the music without getting the vinyl, too, I think.

I remember liking My Only Problem With You when I heard it for the first time - if I'm not mistaken he played it at his last album release show. I remember being struck by the lyrics.

As part of the build-up to this release and his participation in the festival in Delaware Matt did an appearance on WXPN in Philadelphia, in what I guess they call their Folkadelphia Session. I know I'm biased, and I'm sure you're taking that into consideration as you read all this, but I think it sounds amazing. Check it out for yourself - Matt played four songs, all acoustic, for that session.

You may notice that site also wrote some nice words about Matt. So did Ryan Spaulding recently. Spaulding was responsible for bringing Matt to SXSW in Austin, Texas as part of the Outlaw Roadshow back in March, and last week he had some nice things to say on his blog as Matt released his song.

I guess I'll take advantage of this opportunity to leave you with a video of my brother, since I've done it for so many other musicians about whom I care a lot less. Enjoy, like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter. This is a live version of My Only Problem With You from February:

New Thing #174: Bridge Out

Not far from where I live is Wickford Road. It's not a huge road, but it serves as a bit of a shortcut if you're going to a certain part of town.

I used it often to get to the gym (which I no longer belong to), the post office, and Target, among other places.

But in March construction began on the bridge.

And this week I swung by to check on the progress.

It's not like I decided this out of the blue - we had driven by the road one day and my wife thought she noticed that there was no bridge there anymore.

I had never seen a construction project that resulted in the full removal of a bridge road, so I didn't know if I quite believed her. Well, I guess it's not that I didn't believe her - but more that I needed to see it for myself.

You can't get too close to the site (obviously), but I caught a glimpse of where the road should be, and it pretty much looked like it wasn't there.

Here's a picture - it's hard to see here, but to the right of that red vehicle, you can kind of see that there's no continuation of the road.

I blew that spot up a little more so you can get a tighter look:

It's still not perfect, but I think it helps give you an idea of what's happening there.

I looked on-line to see if there was any updated information about the project and found this Patch article from back in March (including a map of the affected area and the detours which signs are all over the place around here pointing out) - the bridge closed in March and the project is expected to be finished in the fall.

Maybe I'll get back to you with an update then.

Or maybe not.

You probably don't care all that much.

But maybe the new bridge will be nice enough to garner status as a New Thing.

New Thing #173: Vicki Lee's

I met a friend for lunch the other day. She suggested a place which, as it turned out, we had both heard a lot about, but had each never been.

It's called Vicki Lee's, and it was delightful.

Vicki Lee's is located at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road in Belmont, Massachusetts. That also happens to be the town in which I work, but this restaurant is in a further south part of the town from where I work. It's not a spot where I spend a lot of time.

It's a really great little establishment.

We got there at about 11:30am, grabbed a table, had a couple of sandwiches, and were able to chat. Even when the place got pretty crowded it never got too loud. (I had my back to the door, but it did get crowded after 12 as the lunch crowd arrived. We didn't linger long after we finished eating so as to make sure we didn't take a table from someone.)

It's open, though, seven days a week through dinner time. Not necessarily for dinner, but through dinner. They have a good dinner menu, but the menu states that there is only so much of a given item, so once they run out they're done serving that item for the night.

It's an interesting place - it's like a hybrid cafe/breakfast place/lunch place/sit-down restaurant.

It's kind of hard to describe. (Here's their website if you're interested.) But I'm interested in what dinner would be like there - lunch was very good.

Next time I'm staying late at work for a meeting or something I might have to swing by and see what's left over from the dinner menu.

New Thing #172: 3 Kids Over 2

Today is my youngest daughter's second birthday. For my wife and I, it marks our third second birthday celebration.

And it's not like this is one of those dates we've anticipated where we've said, "I can't wait until we have three kids over the age of 2!"

But it still feels kind of like a parenting milestone.

What situations are we anticipating, you may be wondering? Well, I think having three kids out of diapers will be a big deal. I can't even imagine what that will be like. Three kids in school. One kid driving. Three kids driving. You know, those sorts of things.

But when the baby in the family hits little milestones, that feels like a big deal.

For example, she's two. So it's probably time to stop referring to her as "the baby". (It reminds me of when my grandmother used to refer to my brother as "the baby" when he was like six. And then our neighbor. When he was like 10.)

And so many things happen around 2 years old that it's a big developmental time - she's walking, she's stringing words together that mostly sound like gobbledegook but you can tell she's trying to convey something. (You can figure out when she sees an ant in the house and says, "Uh-oh, Mommy, unt." But then there are times when she spits out something like, "gubble baba fuzzle mumpegada daddda." She says it so sincerely that you know she thinks she just solved one of life's greatest mysteries but you just say, "I know", in that sing-song voice. She smiles, but you feel empty because you just established that it's so friggin' easy to lie to a child.)

Sometimes she blows bubbles and lets the wand get too close to her lips (and I think she does it on purpose), but for the most part 3 kids over 2 means we don't have to worry about kids putting things in their mouth that they're not supposed to. We're at a point where we're still cautious around stairs but we don't have to race to put up gates to block them off. We might even be able to re-arrange our furniture back to the way it was before we had kids when we didn't use coffee tables to block off stairs and instead had a passageway to the living room from the kitchen.

It's not all positive - there's that 'grazing' period right about now where she just won't sit through a meal - we've just come out of that phase with our other two, so that might stick around for a bit. But we're that much closer to all three girls fully engaged in play together, which is all very exciting to think about.

Still, I wouldn't mind if time slowed down just a little bit.

Because I can't believe our little baby is already two years old.

New Thing #171: Bungee Cords

First of all, let's make this perfectly clear: I did not bungee jump, nor will I bungee jump as part of '365 New Things In 2013'. But I did purchase two 32'' bungee cords.

I had the idea that, if I was going to bike to pick up the vegetables, I could strap them down to the back of my bike with the bungee cords.

It was a great idea.

And this post is also my way of telling you that I biked 18 miles on Monday when I picked up the vegetables.

When I bought my bike, my oldest daughter was a baby. Or a toddler. I forget. But the point is I added the rack on the back of the bike so that I could attach the little baby seat and take her for rides. I did it a few times with her, one time I used that baby seat to carry groceries, and I don't think I've used it since. Perhaps this summer I could get the 2-year-old in there. But the seat has been sparsely used.

As a result, the rack has been sparsely used as well. But I'm always aware it's there, and I enjoy thinking about possible uses for it. I know there are bags - kind of saddlebag-type bags - that drape over the rack. I might get one of those so I don't have to worry about keeping things in my pockets during bike rides. But I'm thrilled that in picking up the vegetables (and bringing back the empty box) I now have a use for the rack.

But I knew that I couldn't just plop the veggies on the rack by themselves and expect to get them home. That's where the bungee cords came in. I went to a hardware store over the weekend, almost bought the 24'' cords, followed my wife's advice and went a step bigger, and they were perfect for the size of the veggie box and hooking onto the rack.

So Monday I set out and biked the nine miles to the farm. Framingham to Sudbury is a fairly easy ride, if you follow the main roads. A couple of hills, but nothing too terrible.

Coming back, I decided to take a slight detour past the street where my wife grew up. I had biked that way before and I didn't remember it being too terrible. Well, there's a huge hill there, and that hill, coupled with the fact that I had already biked nine miles, almost did me in.

But I made it over the hill, and then I made it home. (I think Sudbury to Framingham is slightly hillier.) And I'm proud of that. I like biking for pleasure well enough, but I love when I can bike with a purpose.

(I also like when I feel like taking my bike helps the environment. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly an environment-saving move - that day I drove through Sudbury twice, so I could have easily picked up the vegetables one of those times without doing any extra harm to the Earth.)

I'm not sure this was my longest bike ride ever. Last year I rode my bike from Watertown into downtown Boston, and that was about the same distance, but it was much flatter. So it might have been my most complex.

You might think I'm making too much of this. I don't really know how to explain to you how much I enjoy taking a long bike ride. Growing up I had a bike, but I don't know that I ever took it more than like, three blocks. One time in Montauk we rented bikes and went for a long ride, but I was younger. It probably wasn't more than 5 miles or something.

I like when I can walk or take my bike somewhere - to a destination, rather than just a loop for exercise. I like exercising with a purpose! And now that I have these bungee cords, well, maybe I can work in an extra chore or two on future bike rides.

New Thing #170: Thetford, Vermont

I spent last weekend in Thetford, Vermont. Thetford is located 10 miles north of Hanover, New Hampshire.

Which is how my wife had even known about Thetford, and also how we came to spend the weekend there.

This past weekend was reunion at Dartmouth (located in Hanover), which is where my wife went to school. Reunion at Dartmouth is a pretty big deal. First of all, they cluster some years, so this year featured grads from '97, '98, and '99 all celebrating their 15th reunions. There were also 1988 grads and I think 1978. And I think, due to the layout and location of the campus, and quite possibly the size of the class, though I think it's more the former than the latter, most people look forward to coming back for reunion and reconnecting with their classmates.

Why I bring this up is because I don't have the same feelings about Boston University that my wife does about Dartmouth. I see who I care to see from my days at BU, and I probably will not attend a reunion. Part of this, I think, is the more spread-out campus of BU. (Also part of this is my general lack of desire to socialize.) Anyway, my wife and I like to visit Dartmouth - it's a beautiful campus. I particularly like it when no one's around, but here we were attending the third Dartmouth reunion since my wife and I have been together.

But this time we didn't stay on campus. We rented this house in Thetford. I've only spend significant time in Vermont once before in my life, that I can remember. And I know exactly when it was - October of 1988. I know because my dad and I went up separate from the rest of the family (or we delayed the trip, I can't remember which) because we attended one of the games of that year's NLCS. (I'm also pretty sure we watched Game 1 of that year's World Series in Vermont, but I could be wrong - it doesn't seem like we'd be there that long in October. I'm more sure we saw Big in a movie theater there with my cousins.)

I don't remember much about the trip 25 (!) years ago. Just thought I'd mention it. This trip we stayed in a house off the beaten path and up a big hill. This offered a beautiful view of the surrounding area, and it looked like the type of place where we'd see wildlife. We did. 4 deer. 3 at once, as you can see in the picture at right. (The fourth wandered by Sunday morning before we left.) These 3 came by Friday evening and spent a lot of time picking at the tall grass for dinner, I suppose.

Another highlight of the time we spend in Thetford came Saturday morning, in East Thetford, actually, when we ate breakfast at Isabell's Cafe. If you're ever in the area, I don't know if I can recommend it enough. It was exactly what you'd want from a breakfast place in a small town like this. It was like you were seated in a kitchen, but there were plenty of tables, and it was just down-home friendly. I really liked it. The coffee was pretty terrible, though.

I told you that weekend that I was going to be off the grid, but it turned out that even in the middle of nowhere there was a wireless connection. I didn't expect that. I thought a few times that I might like to return to the Thetford house and just lock myself in the for the weekend and write. But I don't even know if I'd be able to eliminate the distractions. I was able to settle in after my girls went to bed and do some reading.

Still, though, I'd go back, if for nothing more than the family time. The girls liked it. They enjoyed the time in the house just as much as they enjoyed exploring Hanover. I would imagine it's very pretty in the winter time, and if we were a skiing family it would be awesome. But we're not. Yet. (My daughter indicated she might be interested.)

The other problem is that hill that offers the great view - I don't know how keen I am to drive up and down it in the wintertime. And how dark it gets at night. Whatever we were doing last weekend we made sure that we were within a distance where we could drive back to be in the house by 7pm or so, because we didn't want to get caught outside after dark. And by "we" I mean "I".

But for a city boy like me, it's good to sometimes experience some time in the country. I was proud of how I handled myself in a country house. I'm looking forward to doing something like that again.

As long as we're home before dark.

New Thing #169: A Picture-Perfect Rainbow

Had a quick thunderstorm roll through Monday evening. It hit at just about 5:30pm, and everything was back to normal by about 6:54pm.

How do I know?

Well, those are the times when our power went out and was restored, respectively.

But it wasn't so much the storm that impressed me and my daughters as it was the resulting image.

I was downstairs turning lights back on and making sure everything was in order when my daughter shouted out, "I see a rainbow!"

(I don't think she spotted the rainbow on her own - I'm pretty sure the neighbors who were gathering outside drew her attention to the window, and she followed their gazes to see the rainbow up above. My daughters are kind of nosy that way.)

I came upstairs to see it. Apparently our house must have been the best viewing spot on the block for the whole thing because the neighbors were in our driveway trying to take pictures.

("They're in our driveway," my daughter reported.

"They're just taking pictures of the rainbow," I told her. "It's OK."

"Not with me," she replied.)

It was the type of rainbow straight out of a cartoon. A perfect arc - from behind one set of houses on the right all the way to another set of houses on the left. It could easily have led to a pot of gold.

It was picture-perfect, really. Sorry that my pictures of it are less than perfect.

New Thing #168: Mozart

When I first started '365 New Things In 2013' and decided to do new music each week, I thought I'd be listening to a lot more classical music. By which I mean, I thought I'd be listening to some classical music. (Because "some" is more than "none".)

But here we are, almost halfway through the year, and this is the first time I've taken on classical music.

And even now, it's not like I sought it out.

So here's what happened.

I went to New York last week, somewhat unexpectedly. Then we drove straight to Vermont for an already-planned weekend away. While in New York, I figured I'd borrow a CD I'd never heard from my brother, listen to it on the drive from New York City to Vermont, and have my new music taken care of.

When I asked him for a CD he laughed at me, implying he wouldn't know where to start finding a CD that he probably hadn't handled in more than ten years. I insisted anything would do. He didn't think it was possible.

So instead of a four-hour car ride filled with new music, I fretted over where I was going to find new music.

Then we got to the house we were renting, and the shelves were lined with CDs. Problem solved.

Among the CDs was quite a bit of classical music, so I figured this would be my first opportunity to dive into that genre.

I picked Mozart, just because. And this is my biggest problem with classical - I feel like it is so tremendously expansive that I have no idea where to start. Mozart? Beethoven? Bach? Something else? (Or maybe it's not that expansive. It's just those three guys, right?)  Do you go in a chronological order? Do you have to do symphonies in numerical order? I just don't know what to do and it gets overwhelming.

So I picked this one off the shelf and hit 'play'.

It was very pleasant to listen to, and it seemed perfect for some nighttime listening at a home in woodsy Vermont. I could actually see it playing on an endless loop at my house, too - I definitely get the appeal of classical music as background music in your home.

But I know there's much more to the music - the art of it, the story behind it. I just don't know how to get that information.

The liner notes on this disc helped. I guess I should tell you what I listened to from Mozart - it was Symphony No. 41 in C major (does that matter? Probably not, but it says it on the album), which had 4 tracks (that probably didn't matter in Mozart's time, but it mattered to me), and then Divertimento, K. 136 (D Major. 3 tracks.). The liner notes suggested the divertimento (is that a type of a thing? It sounded like it was a category) wasn't really a divertimento, but people didn't really know what it was intended to be. The symphony, I guess, is more commonly known as 'Jupiter'.

I was a little disappointed to not recognize any of the music in either selection. That's always a pleasant surprise with classical music, when you see a title that makes no sense to you and then you hear some of the music and you're like, "I know that!"

What I did like, though, is making historical connections. Mozart lived from 1756-1791 (also now on the to-do list - finding out why Mozart died so young), and Bach was a big influence on him. I like reading that he was writing this music in 1772 (16 years old!), which is around the time of my favorite period in American history. It's easy to get caught up in what was happening in America at that time, but I like reminders that there was a whole world of history and things happening at the same time.

So I guess that's all I have to say for now on classical music. I hope that sometime in the next 26-plus editions of Music Monday there will be other ventures into classical music. If you have any suggestions on where I should go next or someplace I could start my classical adventure, put them in the comments. I'd love to know what I should be listening to.

New Thing #167: Vegetable Tofu Cream Cheese

I accidentally did a New Thing on Thursday morning. Before the funeral, my brother was responsible for bringing some bagels by my parents' house.

When I got out of the shower, there was quite a spread of bagels and spreads.

There was butter, plain cream cheese, and veggie cream cheese.

Or at least, so I thought.

Turns out what I thought was veggie cream cheese was vegetable tofu cream cheese.

I spread it willy nilly on my bagel thinking it was your run-of-the-mill veggie spread, and then my brother slapped me on the back. "Hey! Good for you for trying the tofu!"

"The what?"

"Don't you read labels?"

I had read the label. All it said was 'Brooklyn Bagel' - you may remember I wrote about that place before. I love it. (But it turns out they could do a better job of labeling their cream cheese containers.)

I didn't love the veggie tofu. It was OK, but it wasn't as flavorful, I guess, as the regular veggie cream cheese.

It was probably healthier, though. And the bagel was good.

I guess next time I'll take a closer look at not just the label, but the consistency of the cream cheese as well.

New Thing #166: Going Off The Grid

Don't expect to hear from me this weekend. The family and I are in the woods of Vermont.

I'm sure there's no wireless where I'm going.

I expect cell phone service will be spotty.

It's rare that I'm as off the grid as I expect to be this weekend.

I'll tell you more about the trip itself - the where, the why, the what - later in the week.

For now, I'll just tell you what I'm expecting: Some time to read, experience nature,  some old-fashioned disconnectedness.

I've set my fantasy baseball lineups through Sunday. I've lined up my New Thing posts to go through the weekend. I'm ready to not be online again until Sunday night.

I don't even know if there will be a television where I'm staying.

The only thing I'm expecting to connect with these next couple of days is my family.

I'll fill you in on how that goes when I return.

(Update: Turns out there is weak wireless. But after I write this I am shutting this computer down and pretending like I'm off the grid for the weekend. I saw three deer out the window of this house. This is definitely not a weekend to be spending on a computer.)