New Thing #225: Rox Diner

Though I like the area a lot, I don't spend all that much time in Newton, Massachusetts. The few times I've been there my wife has had a plan - either to go to a certain restaurant or a coffee shop or store - and I've just followed wherever she led.

On Saturday, though, I was in the area by myself, so I explored it on my own.

The plan was to drop off my oldest daughter at a birthday party, then take my two younger daughters for a quick Dunkin' Donuts lunch.

But after walking around and exploring we found the Rox Diner.

Some of you might be familiar with the Newton area without even realizing it.

If you've ever driven to Boston on the Massachusetts Turnpike (and I know many of you have driven this route) at one point you pass under a Shaw's Supermarket that hangs over the Pike.

The neighborhood where that Shaw's is located is exactly the neighborhood I'm talking about.

There's a Starbucks, there's a Great Harvest Bread Company, there are a couple of pizza places (yes, there is a Dunkin' Donuts too), and there looked to be a bar across the street from the Rox Diner.

(I should take this opportunity to lament the fact that there are not a ton of diners in the MetroWest area. New York City is rich in diners. That was one of the stark differences that stood out to me when I moved to Boston 15 or so years ago - very few diners.)

My daughters had mac and cheese and chicken fingers. (For what it's worth - both portions were too big. I probably should have wrapped up the rest, but we weren't heading straight home, so I didn't. Big portions from the children's menu - either a plus or a minus, depending on your perspective.) I had an avocado BLT...which came without bacon. I'm not sure if I didn't read the menu carefully enough to see if the avocado replaces the bacon by default, like for vegetarians, but I was fully expecting bacon and avocado. (It's not called an ALT, after all.) But the food was good.

It was crowded, but not cramped.

And - no small thing for a dad with young girls - they give placemats for the kids to color while they wait. That doesn't happen everywhere, and it's worth remembering the places that do it.

I love the Watertown/Newton area. I'd like to spend more time there.

If I do...I'd probably become a regular at the Rox Diner.

New Thing #224: The Civil Wars

A little more than a week ago my brother tweeted the following:

That sounded pretty powerful, so I made a mental note to check out The Civil Wars.

Turned out, although I didn't realize it at the time, I had skimmed an article about the band in the Sunday New York Times just before that tweet.

I did some more reading on them and listened to some of their music and decided they were definitely worth a Music Monday write-up.

The reason The Civil Wars were written about in the Times is that they released a new album - their second, following up on a very successful debut album.

But here's the catch: The duo - Joy Williams and John Paul White - haven't been on speaking terms since canceling a tour in November, after they recorded the album in September.

So the album is now out, there will be no tour to promote it, and the folk duo's future is in serious doubt.

I'm glad I'm not a huge fan, because that is the type of thing I would find immensely frustrating.

It sounds like there's a pretty passionate fan base that's now left hanging.

I listened to the two songs my brother mentioned. I listened to Safe and Sound, a song The Civil Wars did with Taylor Swift for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games. I watched a couple of live performances on YouTube.

There's a definite chemistry you can feel between the two during those live performances. And I like the music...though you know me, I prefer my songs a little more upbeat.

If you want to read a little more about the turmoil, Rolling Stone also wrote about the new album and talked about the rift - from Williams' perspective, since White isn't talking about it, I guess.

I'm sure there's a lot of speculation about why they're having the "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition" they referred to in the statement they put out in November. (I've known of the band for less than a week and I could offer a theory or two.)

And I'm sure this has been said, and I'm sure it's trite, but I'm new to the game, so I'll offer this: wouldn't you think a duo calling themselves The Civil Wars was destined for this type of split?

Maybe they should have gone with "International Incident" or something like that.

(OK. Turns out NPR used a play on the band's name in this interview with Williams which offers a little more insight into their situation. Thanks to my brother for sending that along.)

New Thing #223: Kettlebell

Remember when I told you that we canceled our gym membership? Well, contrary to popular belief (lying - there is no popular belief in this department...not even unpopular belief), I have not let myself go.

In fact, I've spent a good deal of my limited free time this summer exercising.

I'm running a lot.

I've biked a little...but not in a while. I've kind of gotten hooked on the running.

When I'm around the house, I've done some basic weights exercises - and I even bought a kettlebell.

I have to admit to you that I had almost instant buyer's remorse with this kettlebell. I bought it because I thought if I lifted this heavy object I'd really build up muscle or feel more muscular or something like that.

Also, it's my favorite color!

But then I looked up on-line what to actually do with a kettlebell, and it seems like the more popular kettlebell approach is to have two slightly lighter kettlebells, one for each arm, rather than the one heavier one. (Which, I guess it's important to note here, is labeled as a "Competition Kettlebell", which I did not realize at the time of purchase. I really messed this one up. But who knows? Maybe I'll discover a new career. Where I can competitively kettlebell. Or something.)

No matter, I made do with what I had.

I lift it.

I swing it.

I lift it again.

Sometimes I lift it while I kind of do sit-up things.

I feel like I'm doing stuff to my core or something.

The important thing is I'm making an effort. Right?

It's not the ideal piece of exercise equipment that I thought it would be. But it's not bad - I am using it and I'm exercising.

And I haven't hurt myself using it - which is maybe the most important thing.

It's also not the only exercise-related New Thing I've done this year. I'll be telling you more about the others later in the week.

New Thing #222: Not Being Scared Of A Baby Bunny

Listen. I'm a city boy. I'm not used to animals running around in the human world.

Growing up, we had a dog, so I'm fairly fine around dogs (though my default setting is I don't trust them around kids), but I don't like cats.

I think this is in no small part due to the fact that there were a lot of random roaming cats in my neighborhood when I was a kid. (OK, maybe there were like 2.)

They'd frighten me when I'd see them.

But I was lucky to not have to deal with mice or deer or raccoons.

Until I was an adult.

But this week, I manned up around that cute little baby bunny you see there.

All right. As has been my writing style recently, before we move forward we must move back.

1999, Boston University on-campus apartment, Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts. I'm sitting around on a Saturday morning and I see something move among the mass of wires behind the television. I was home alone and I darted out of that apartment so fast I didn't even finish putting my sneakers on until I was on the sidewalk. I went to some friends' dorm, spent most of the day out. That night we watched Saturday Night Live and I swear I saw a mouse dart into the bedroom. My roommate wasn't so sure. He decided it would be a good idea to lay out a Pringle in the kitchen, just on the floor, to prove whether or not we had a rodent. (I hate that word.) Woke up, the Pringle was gone. Worst sleep I've ever had, those couple of nights. We trapped it by Monday or Tuesday.

When I lived in Watertown, probably in 2003 when I was working overnights, I was leaving for work at around midnight and saw a raccoon the size of a dog dart across the street. Working overnights was pretty terrible. Never more terrible than the next few nights when I had to go from my apartment to my car.

Every night before I go to bed I say a little thank you prayer that I have not had a rodent problem where I have lived since college. (But I don't pray to Saint Francis of Assissi. That dude just wouldn't understand.)

Every so often something gets close to the house - once a possum walked across the porch. You'll remember there was this back in June. And, quite often, there are bunnies.

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning up the backyard this summer, trying to make up for a couple of summers of too much neglect. This week when I was back there, for the first time this summer really, I saw a couple of critters. First was a chipmunk. This'll happen every now and then, but it ran away from the house, so we were cool.

Then I saw something dart across the yard and hide beneath some brush. I didn't really recognize it but I thought it was a bunny. It just didn't seem that big. I heard it rustling and rustling. It was close. But I didn't run away. So I know that was good progress for me.

Then, I saw it kind of hanging out on a brick ledge. Not only was it a bunny - it was a baby bunny!

I went up close and snapped a picture. Then it scratched its ear with its little hind leg (which, even on a baby rabbit is quite big) and I thought I should take a video. I thought then it would make the perfect Vine! (I'm waiting for the right moment for my first Vine New Thing. I thought this was it.) I recorded it pretty much doing nothing for the 6 seconds.

Somehow I deleted that video. Very frustrating. But let's focus on the positive - I was real up close to something that wasn't a person or a dog for, essentially, the first time in my life. It was kind of thrilling. I almost wanted to touch the baby bunny. But I didn't. I'm not a crazy man over here.

So, turns out, I like baby bunnies.

Or, at least, I don't hate them.

Or, better yet if we're being honest with ourselves, I'm not scared of them.

OK. I'm less scared of them than other things.

And I'm already recognizing the big problem. If I have a baby bunny in my backyard...well, chances are it's not the only one.

You know what they say about bunnies and proliferation.

If I come across a bunch of baby bunnies at once...well, that might be a whole other ballgame.

Hope no one takes a Vine of me if that happens.

New Thing #221: Running By The East River

The house where I grew up (and where my parents still live) is in Astoria, Queens, a mile-and-a-half from the East River. Or the West River, as we called it where I grew up. (Not true. But maybe we should have.)

I know it's a mile-and-a-half because I checked my Nike app when I ran there from my parents' house last Friday and it was just about exactly that distance.

It had been a long time since I spent any time down by the River...but it's as beautiful as it ever was.

I really love it down there. It's called "Shore Boulevard" now...I think when I was growing up it was just 18th or 17th Street or whatever number it actually is.

When I was old enough to drive it was a destination to show people from out of town. And it's not like I spent a whole lot of time there, so I'd build it up in my mind as the best thing ever, and I'd forget about whether or not it lived up to expectations between visits.

It does live up to expectations. I love the sightline - there's the Hell Gate Bridge, the Triboro (sorry...I mean RFK) Bridge, and midtown Manhattan is visible down a ways.

Now they've also repaved it so there's a bike path and a running path where there used to be just a railing and some sidewalk.

I've never actually exercised down there. I ran on the Boulevard once - but further north, on 20th Avenue, I think. It was for a 5K I ran, probably when I was at the end of high school or home for summer from college. I was not in tremendous shape. I had a donut that morning before the run. The only thing I remember distinctly about that run is when I threw up the donut at the corner of Shore Boulevard and 20th Avenue.

And that was my last memory of running down there before last week. I'm in pretty good shape right now. (I don't want to brag, but I've really worked - and succeeded -  this summer at increasing my stamina.) So I was able to take in the view, and appreciate the fact that I wasn't gasping for air a little less than two miles into my run.

I ran down 21st Avenue to the river, then cut back through Astoria Park and ran back on Ditmars Boulevard. It was nice for a couple of reasons: One is that it was a very different route for me than the streets of Framingham - which is always a big thing for me to spice up a run - and two is that I just love being able to do these things in New York. I miss that city.

Oh. And there was a bonus good thing about this run:

I didn't even throw up.

New Thing #220: New License Plates

I love license plates. When I was a kid I kept a pad and pencil in the backseat and wrote down license plate numbers.

I think that was because when I was a kid we had a license plate that spelled BEE, and I thought it was cool that plates could have words in them.

Or it was because I was weird.

I probably still am weird - but license plates are kind of thrilling to me.

So when I get new ones - it's a very big deal.

This week, I got a new license plate number.

The process - what a headache. Let me go through that quickly with you. In June 2010 we leased a Toyota Venza. We really liked the car, and decided pretty early on we would probably buy it. Three years later, the lease was up and we began the process of buying the car. It involved a lot of misinformation from the dealership where we bought the car, and a lot of FedEx-ing back and forth paperwork with a loan company to get papers notarized and signed and such.

The last step (so it seems) was a trip to the RMV for new registration. I waited at the RMV for 2 hours on Monday (only to find out there was an error and I had to go back on Tuesday, but I will not get into that here), and was surprised when I was given new license plates along with everything else. (Lessons learned: Do NOT use Ira Toyota in Milford. They're terrible. And the RMV is the worst-run organization in the history of the world. Except, maybe, for Ira Toyota in Milford.)

So, I was left to put my new license plates on the car. Simple enough, right? Well, you know me and tools...

I unscrewed the front license plate no problem. Replaced it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as my daughters have taken to saying. But now I was getting cocky. I moved around to the back of the car and the screws looked different - more plastic-like. The screw resisted my turn a bit...so I turned harder. Snap.

"That was weird," I thought. So I moved to the other screw. I turned. And twisted. And turned. Snap. Broke 'em both. The license plate came off, but now I was left with two headless screws protruding from the back of my car. I wracked my brain. I had no idea what to do. So I called my dad.

He suggested I remove the inside back panel and see if I could get at the screws from the inside. I did. I couldn't. There's like a sleeve around the screw. It's the strangest thing. (Look at that picture to the right. This is the exterior view of the screws, obviously. And that's masking tape surrounding the spot where the screws were protruding. If that doesn't say something weird's afoot, I don't know what does.)

Anyway, I decided I would try to cap the headless screws with a bolt cover. Which would work great, except that when I ran to Home Depot just before closing, I got the size too small. So, that is how, at 6 in the morning on Tuesday I became one of the first Home Depot customers after being one of the last the previous night, and then finished off completing the most convoluted license plate attachment in history. (My neighbors must just set up at their windows and laugh at me. I'm certain of it. Usually I do things I might screw up inside the privacy of my own home...but a. I didn't think I'd screw this one up, and b. I had no choice but to do it in plain sight in the driveway.)

The license plate itself? Well, I already told you - the letters and numbers are important to me. And that was the only thing about the Venza that disappointed me - I didn't love its license plate.

It had a hard act to follow - my previous car, and license plate - a Corolla - had a repeating number followed by YE. So I could actually say it. Two six two six YE. So great.

Since I leased the new car, I had to get rid of that one and replace it with the non-memorable one...which is now retired. (I'm not going to go printing all of my license plate numbers here - you know, in case it leads to a stolen identity or something.)

I am proud to say that, from the category of "Every cloud has a silver lining", this license plate is the silver lining of this whole ordeal. The number is the same as my New York City Junior High School, and then the letters practically spell "Venza" - VZ - and then there's a repeated number to cap it off.

It's a great license plate number.

Trust me. I'm an expert.

New Thing #219: Nike Vapor Earphones

For my birthday my brother got me some new earphones, which I desperately needed. I had been rotating through three pairs I had gotten for free within the past year or so - they seemed to be a popular free giveaway in the 2012 calendar year. (I think I got one from my health care provider, and my dad gave me a couple of others that he got at some giveaway.)

The old saw "You get what you pay for" rang true - the free earphones would quickly fray - visibly or invisibly.

Sometimes the wire would come apart, and sometimes the music/podcasts would simply stop coming through one of the ears, indicating a loose connection under the wire covering. (I could sometimes get it to work in stereo by fiddling with the spot where the earphones connect to the iPhone...not ideal for when you're running.)

Anyway, the orange earphones you see there are the latest ones that broke - and after I told my brother I needed new earphones, he got me the white ones you see there.

It's taken me a month to write about the Nike Vapor earphones because I needed some time to live in them a bit.

Especially considering I have weirdly shaped ears.

I don't know if this is the case for everybody or just me...ear buds don't fit into my ear too well.

And these Nike Vapor earphones, well, they're weird because they're kind of upside down. Instead of hanging down out of your ears, they kind of stick up out of your ears...you can see what I mean in the picture here:

At first I thought they were disastrous - I could barely fit them into my ears and the bud actually hurt my right ear on my first run.

Then I realized you can adjust the ear fitting every which way.

Look at that picture - there's a gray connection that comes up out of the ear bud and hooks over the ear - see it? That thing folds out, twists around, and raises up and down.

The only thing that's inflexible at all is the bud itself. Which I still occasionally have trouble fitting into my right ear...but usually I can get the buds in there comfortably enough.

I might have to eventually try the new ear buds Apple designed, which they advertised, if I remember correctly, during the NFL Playoffs this year. I had a problem with the ad, though, because the narrator of the commercial makes it sound like it was our idea to come up with ear buds that don't quite fit our ears...not theirs. I finally found the commercial on YouTube....judge for yourself:

New Thing #218: Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich

At long last, I've tried the new chicken sandwich at Dunkin' Donuts. And, I'm sure you're not surprised to learn, I loved it.

I had the Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich - there's also a barbecue one that I have not yet tried.

Despite my love of all things Dunkin', I kind of had low expectations for this chicken sandwich.

Needless to say, it far exceeded what I expected - it was really good.

But I have some other things to tell you about this as well.

First of all, I find franchises like Dunkin' Donuts interesting.

I did a Google search to try to figure out if it was called a 'Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich' or a 'Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwich'. (Now that I think about it the latter sounds kind of ridiculous, but I thought that's what it was called.) The search turned up lots of different regional Dunkin' menus, including one from Alaska, where they have a chicken tikka sandwich. It's interesting to me that different regions have different types of sandwiches.

Also worth mentioning - this particular Dunkin' Donuts I went to has undergone a renovation - instead of the tables with chairs you're used to seeing at Dunkin' Donuts, there are different-looking tables and chairs, booths, and comfy couch-type chairs. Almost like a lounge. Almost like, dare I say it, a Starbucks. I wonder if this is a chain-wide change or just this particular location. (They also changed the menu at this location to one of those videoboard menus, which I've seen at newer locations. But the seating was totally different than what I've seen.)

Finally, as you can see in the top picture, I had an iced tea with my sandwich. Nine times out of 10, when I go to Dunkin' Donuts, I have a coffee. That tenth time is usually a coolata or something. Rarely do I get the iced tea...but whenever I do, it's the best iced tea I've ever had. That's not a New Thing...it's just a fact.

For what it's worth, the Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, according to Dunkin' Donuts' website, when ordered with a French roll (its default), is just 250 calories. Which seems really reasonable to me for a fast food sandwich. But the other thing is it's not all that filling...so inevitably it's only part of a lunch for me. But, as with most everything else from Dunkin' Donuts - I really recommend it.

New Thing #217: Bianca Merkley

Here's another entry in the "My Brother Has Very Talented Friends" category. This particular friend is named Bianca Merkley, and she just put out a new song called 'Hope' which you can download for free here.

(My brother produced that song. And there's the weekly Matt Sucich plug.)

I told you back in February that my brother and the folks he's befriended through the open mic music scene are quite supportive of one another.

It's also worth repeating that they're incredibly talented - so let me introduce you to Bianca.

I think I've only seen Bianca Merkley perform live once - if I'm not mistaken it was at Brick Cafe in Astoria on a night when I saw a bunch of the people my brother plays with one after another - it was a great night of music.

But I follow her on Twitter and whenever she posts something I check it out - and it's always enjoyable.

The new song, which she put out on Thursday, brought me to her website, where for the first time I heard quite a few of her songs in album form.

By that I mean, everything else I'd heard of Bianca's music was live in some way -  either in person or on a video somewhere. (Like her blog, for instance, where she posted another song she did with my brother - you can find a link to her blog from her website.)

The girl can sing. Sometimes she joins up with two more talented singers (Amy Vachal and Jamie Bendell, who I'll hopefully get to at some point before the end of the year) singing as a trio called C'est La Rie. (They tell you not to think to hard about what it means...that it just sounds nice. I think it translates literally to "Chest of the King". Or not.)

I don't want to be too gushy about my brother's friends, but take a listen for yourself. I think you'll recognize the talent.

But I know I'm somewhat partial - and not just because of my brother's involvement. He not only has good taste in music...he has good taste in people. And they don't come much nicer than Bianca Merkley. Go check out her music.

New Thing #216: Pate's Restaurant

One last recommendation for you from last weekend's Cape getaway. It's Pate's Restaurant in Chatham.

My wife and I were looking for dinner our first night on the Cape, and we figured we'd treat ourselves, since we were without children.

Our first choice was a seafood restaurant that, once we were inside, was deceptively small - so the wait was too long. (Truth be told, our first choice was a Cape Cod League baseball game...but it was a rainy night, so a nice restaurant it was.)

We left there and went to Pate's.

After a 5-to-10 minute wait, we were seated.

Pate's was the opposite of the seafood place - it is deceptively big - the dining area was huge.

Their website says they don't take reservations, but even on a busy Saturday night they say your wait won't be more than 10 minutes. (I believe it.)

Even though the sign outside bills Pate's as "Steak and Seafood", it felt more steak than seafood to me. So I did a steak...my wife did a salmon dish. Both were pretty good.

Now, while we were down there, we asked someone who spent significant time on the Cape about Pate's. First of all, we were pronouncing it wrong. We just assumed there was an accent on the e, and the a was short. Not so - apparently it's a long a, silent e. Which makes sense since I saw on the website it was just some guy's last name.

Secondly, though our source didn't name Pate's as one of his top choices for restaurants (top 3, at least), when we asked him about it he said he liked it. He did mention that it was an old crowd.

Sure enough, we realized, we were probably the youngest people in the place when we ate there.

It's not often my wife and I get out for a nice meal by ourselves. When we do, if we get the double of good time and good food, we're happy.

Pate's made us happy.

New Thing #215: Meeting My New Nephew

My wife and I, as you probably know, have three daughters, no sons. (And no plans on changing that ratio.) But don't you worry about us - what we lack in sons we more than make up for in nephews.

As of this past Monday, we now have three nephews and no nieces. (Still a possibility that ratio may change.)

It was earlier than we expected, but my sister had her second child - another boy, naturally - and on Friday we took a quick trip down to New York to meet him.

My family has been blessed with pretty healthy babies, and despite his early arrival, this little guy is no exception.

My sister wasn't due until mid-to-late August, and just like with her first son, she delivered about three weeks early.

The first delivery was crazy - three years ago we had just met our first nephew, born to my wife's brother and sister-in-law, when we got the call that my sister was going into labor. My parents were in town - it was the 4th of July - and when we came back from the hospital they went to New York. We followed soon after, and met the new baby in the hospital the next day.

This time we couldn't make it that soon, but we were able to squeeze in the overnight trip Thursday into Friday. It gave us a taste of the whirlwind trips my family took to meet our three girls.

Anyway, the older two nephews are both three, obviously - and they're at very fun ages right now. In another year or so I hope to institute an annual tradition where I take the boys (separately, considering they're 200 miles apart) for a summer day and we have crazy adventures. Or just calm adventures. But we would get to spend the day together.

Looks like I'll have to set aside a third day in future summers for the new baby in the family.

New Thing #214: Peach Ice Cream

When I was a kid, I loved strawberry ice cream. It wasn't chocolate, it wasn't vanilla - but it was often a third choice available.

And I guess I figured it would be good to try something other than the two main flavors.

Similarly, when I would buy iced tea, I'd usually wouldn't go directly to lemon-flavored.

Often, my choice was peach.

I love peach flavorings...but now that I'm writing about it, I don't know if I can think of instances where I've tried something peach-flavored other than iced tea.

But last weekend, I had some peach ice cream.

I feel like I MUST have had some peach ice cream at some point in my life....but after tasting it last week, I don't think I have.

I ordered the peach ice cream, but I was afraid the peach was going to taste too strong. So what I did was I ordered it with chocolate sprinkles (or "jimmies", as they - but not I - say in these parts) to dilute some of that taste. Then I started eating the cone before my wife suggested I could write about the peach ice cream as a New Thing. That's why there are no chocolate sprinkles on the bottom part of the ice cream. (I like to lick my way up the ice cream, so that it's not dripping down the cone. It looks weird in a picture like that, but it's very practical. And you don't notice how weird it looks while you're eating it.)

So, setting the scene a bit - this is another New Thing coming off of our Cape weekend - we went to the ice cream place 'Sundae School' in Harwich. They had a wide selection of flavors...and for what it's worth I'm pretty sure I saw a sign pointing to another Sundae School shop (shoppe?) nearby. You can not swing a stick on the Cape without hitting an ice cream shop.

Anyway, my strategy was effective. As I worked my way through the sprinkles I was telling my wife that the peach ice cream didn't taste any different from anything else. Then, once I got through the sprinkles and it was just ice cream I did taste the peach. It was really good.

Usually when I get ice cream these days I don't get too adventurous - my all-time favorite is chocolate fudge brownie, and if that's not available I'll go with chocolate chip or cookies 'n' cream...maybe Snickers if that's offered.

But now I'll have to start noticing whether or not peach is on the list of flavors...because I think I'm adding it to the rotation.

New Thing #213: Peripatetic

I came across one of those words last week that I see a lot but of which I never stop to get a full understanding. But this time I did.

It's 'peripatetic' - and as you can see at left, courtesy of dictionary.com's iPhone app, it means "walking or traveling about; itinerant."

Perhaps you knew that.

Perhaps I should have figured that out from the many contexts in which I've read it.

Maybe I have before...but it's never stuck.

I hope it will now.

I can't remember all of the instances where I've come across 'peripatetic' recently, but I know I've seen it a number of times.

This time it was in last week's Sports Illustrated, in the 'Scorecard' column - an article about Keith Olbermann coming back to ESPN.

It's a good example of how I've seen the word used - it always seems to be used in the sense of a "peripatetic journey". But - and I may be wrong here - I think I am going to take issue with its use.

It seems like a really unnecessary word.

Peripatetic: "Walking or traveling about; itinerant."

Itinerant: "traveling from place to place" or, especially in this case, "working in one place for a comparatively short time and then moving on to work in another place, usually as a physical or outdoor laborer."

So basically, to me, if you're describing Olbermann's work career, it's an "itinerant journey"...I don't know that you have to use "peripatetic."

Further, it's a journey - I don't know that you need an adjective that describes the journey - if you're listing the places he's worked afterwards anyway, we get the idea he has bounced from place to place...no need for an obscure word like 'peripatetic' there.

Seems unnecessary. Or redundant. Just my opinion.

But if I happen to come across it in my reading - or in a crossword puzzle in my (regular, non-peripatetic) journeys....I'll be ready.

New Thing #212: Photo Booth

I think I told you that the reason we hit the Cape this past weekend was for a friend's wedding. If not...well, the reason we were on the Cape this weekend was for a friend's wedding.

What I most certainly haven't told you is that at the wedding reception there was a PHOTO BOOTH!

I didn't quite know what to make of this feature until I decided that it is the best idea in the world.

So here's the deal (if you've never been to an event where there is a photo booth...which I hadn't before Saturday):

The booth gets set up, you choose black and white or color, you get your four pictures just like at a mall or an arcade or something, then two copies print out. You keep one copy - that's your wedding favor - and the other goes into a scrapbook for the happy couple.

There is nothing not to love about this. (Except for the fact that there's a screen to watch when you're posing for the picture and the screen turns off about a second before the camera flashes. So if you're like me, you think the picture was taken when the screen goes black, but then a second later - FLASH - the picture is taken when you start moving. This, despite the lady telling you to, "Watch the camera." And your wife next to you telling you the same. But you finally get it by the fourth picture. The other three weren't terrible.)

I love how they have a staff member at the photo booth telling you what's going on for the pictures.

I love how they have a staff member at the scrapbook telling you exactly what you need to do when she puts the pictures into the book.

I love that scrapbook - it wasn't my wedding but I kind of want a copy of that book.

I love how clever I was with my entry into the scrapbook. (Once I got a sense of how the photo booth was working I formulated a quick little plan for our four picture poses and essentially our message in the scrapbook was a greeting card. It turned out great.)

My wedding ship has sailed. (The flash went off on my photo booth 9 years ago, so to speak.)

But you - if it's not too late - get a photo booth at your wedding.

And if you're at a wedding with a photo booth, and you need an idea for how to pose - give me a call.

I've got some more ideas up my sleeve.

New Thing #211: Handkerchief Shoals Inn

On our second - and final - visit to Cape Cod of the summer, we stayed in Harwich. Which is right next to Chatham.

And not far from Dennis.

The Cape is interesting like that - you drive for a few minutes and you cross through a bunch of towns.

We were there for a wedding, so the bride suggested a few places people might want to stay.

We picked the Handkerchief Shoals Inn - and I would recommend it if you're ever looking for a place in the area.

There was a lot about the place I liked.

First and foremost, while the inn had a small pool, it was just a half-mile from the beach. My wife and I didn't have the time to do the full-on beach thing, but we did go for a nice walk down to the beach and back. On our way we passed families who live between the inn and the beach who were heading down to the beach - they had all of these cool contraptions to transport their beach stuff from the house to the beach without having to bring a car. I didn't go for a run at all, but I did clock the mileage on a loop that took you down by the beach and back that was a little more than two miles. So in other words, if you're looking for some beach time, this place is conveniently located.

The room was reasonably priced. (It occurs to me now that perhaps we got a wedding block type of discount, but still - it was a good price.) There was also a continental breakfast offered each morning between 8 and 10am. The owners live above the office, so they were always on hand if there was a problem. (More than once this weekend I thought how nice that life might be. Or not. Because if I was on call for problems at all hours there would be two problems: 1) Me being woken up in the middle of the night to handle problems, and 2) Me not knowing how to solve said problems.)

The handkerchief shoals from whence the inn got its name are apparently steeped in maritime history, but my wife made the joke of the weekend when she pointed out how small the bath towels were and said perhaps that's how the inn got its name. (The water pressure was pretty weak too. But that's about the extent of our complaints.)

I joked to the bride that I will always celebrate her anniversary as the last time I got some rest. We had a really restful weekend without the kids...and as such we'll always fondly remember our weekend at the Handkerchief Shoals Inn.

New Thing #210: VH1 Track By Track

I haven't listened to much (any) new music this week, because I'm still pretty obsessed with Sara Bareilles' new album. For the first week I was pretty focused on the first half of the album.

Now I can't get the second half of the album out of my head. (Particular favorites are Cassiopeia and I Choose You - which appears to be the new single...and also is probably soon coming to a wedding near you.)

I've also been poking around her website a bit this week - and that's how I stumbled across this week's Music Monday New Thing.

The main reason I went to the site was to find out Bareilles' tour dates - I mentioned last week (which includes my thoughts on the album, if you want to click back) that I would love to see her live - and I was disappointed to see that at least at the start it's only taking her to the western part of the country.

But while I was on the site I poked around and came across some really good stuff...and one of them made devoting two Music Mondays to Sara Bareilles worth it. (That's how much I like the album - I haven't even devoted two Music Mondays to my brother. Well, I kind of have. And maybe it's worth mentioning that he played at the Newport Folk Festival this weekend with The Lone Bellow - it's like Music Monday worlds colliding!)

In addition to a bunch of video of Bareilles promoting The Blessed Unrest, there's a link to a series of interviews she did with VH1. (The channel seems to love her - I think they take partial credit for "discovering" her and she is one of their featured artists. I wouldn't know - I haven't watched a music channel in years.)

(Also parenthetically, I tried to find more video of this VH1 series. It doesn't seem to be something they do regularly, but I hope they consider doing more of it. I searched their site for 'track by track', and this is what the search engine spit out - there might be some stuff there worth checking out. They also have pages devoted to certain artists, and Sara Bareilles is one. Another series of videos worth checking out are "Sara Bareilles Makes A Record" - there's 6 of them, and it's a quick inside look at the production of an album.)

Anyway, in the 'track by track' videos, Bareilles spends a minute or two talking about each of the tracks on the new album.

This is something I always wonder about - in fact, I speculated about the meanings of some of the songs in what I wrote last week. I was wrong in some cases, and I liked hearing the real stories, like:

-It turns out, disappointingly, that Bareilles was at a wedding in Germany when a friend texted her about a jog he took through a Queens cemetery, with the skyscrapers in the background. She has not yet even been in that cemetery, though she might if they film a video for the Chasing The Sun.

-As I grew to like Cassiopeia I decided to watch the video of Bareilles talking about each of the tracks. The more closely I listened to the song the more I thought, "Is this really a love song for stars?" When I saw her talk about it I realized, yes, it is.

-The fact that December is her favorite song on the album. I always wonder if artists have favorites.

-Finally, Bareilles talked about making the video for Brave. Fun fact - Rashida Jones (of Office/Parks and Rec fame...and many other things as well. Google it.) directed the video. It is a really fun, uplifting video.

I recommend three things: 1) Get the album. It's so good. I'm thinking, at this point, I like it even more than Kaleidoscope Heart. 2) Check out Sara Bareilles talking about each track at VH1.com. The link is above, but here it is again - this one will take you to 'Part 2' - the second half of the album. I just think she's the coolest. 3) Watch the video for Brave. I'll make it easy for you:

New Thing #209: Kream N' Kone

I told you the last time I was on the Cape that we were coming back. Well, that was this weekend.

Turned out to be a rainy first day, when I was hoping to hit the beach again.

But my wife and I were able to do some other fun, relaxing activities.

And eat a lot of food.

Our first stop for lunch on Friday - the Kream N' Kone Restaurant in Chatham...where we had nothing either kreamy nor in a kone.

What we were really looking for was something to hold us over - it was late for lunch and we were going to have a nice dinner, so we just needed a quick bite.

This place looked like it was going to fit the bill.

But before I go ahead and tell you about it, let me flash back once again to Montauk -  I told you the last time I wrote about the Cape that everything I do there gets measured up against Montauk...which, by virtue of being where I spent so much time growing up, I view as my ideal vacation spot.

One of my favorite things, food-wise, in Montauk was the fried seafood. Fried clams, fried shrimp, forms of fish 'n' chips...that was always my go-to meal whenever I was unsure what to get.

Especially at Gosman's Dock.

At Gosman's there was an outdoor stand where you'd get your food at a window and then sit on the water and battle the seagulls while you ate your food. Once in a while it would be tasty to get a burger or something grilled there, but 99 times out of 100 I got something fried in a basket with french fries.

And that's what I wanted on Friday.

And that's what I got.

It's been years since I had something that looked like this...and was also this good. And it brought me back to my Montauk vacations...which is always a good thing. The only thing missing was the seagulls swooping nearby.

New Thing #208: Cyto

After a long hiatus, I tried out another Starbucks 'Pick of the Week' last week. And I'll be honest - I'm not sure how many more of these games I'm going to try out.

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of originality here.

The latest - a game called 'Cyto' - is not all that different from 'Fibble', the first game I wrote about thanks to Starbucks back in January.

But you have to hand it to their marketing team, because they effectively made me think I was going to be playing an entirely different game from what 'Cyto' actually is.

See where it says "Test your memory...memorably"?

I thought I was going to get a brain teaser/memory game. I don't know what such a game would entail (maybe something along the lines of being shown images and then tested on the images later on), but I was looking forward to something that would challenge my brain and make me think a bit.

But it turns out - at least as far as I got with it - this character 'Cyto' has lost his memory and your job is to help him get it back.

You do this by trying to enter portals, in the same slingshot mode that 'Fibble' used that was a play on what 'Angry Birds' did in the first place.

It makes me think there's a limit on what new game modes can be done on the iPhone - it seems like you start with the slingshot thing and see what happens from there. (I don't play it all that much anymore, but at least 'Circadia' is still unique in its style of game.) And I think the 'from there' is the most unique part of these games - it's all about what story is trying to be told rather than the activity in which the user engages.

Which is fine. In the long run I don't need any more distractions on my phone. And if I learned nothing else with my recent foray into getting rid of apps to keep me from overloading my phone's memory, it's that trying New Things (like these apps) doesn't mean I need to keep them forever.

I've already deleted 'Cyto.'

New Thing #207: Sweet Spot Frozen Yogurt

I didn't think we'd be trying any more frozen yogurt places as part of '365 New Things In 2013.' After the last one I came to the conclusion that these places aren't all that different.

But we were out earlier this week and we decided to treat the girls to a dessert, and my wife convinced me to try Sweet Spot Frozen Yogurt.

And there's enough about this place to set it apart.

First of all, it's the most convenient of all the new places we've been to this year. It's located on Route 9 East at the Edgell Road exit, which is about two and a half miles from our house. So that's a bonus.

The frozen yogurt itself is not any better than the frozen yogurt at the other places...but it certainly isn't any worse. And there's the usual assortment of toppings - that's become pretty static from place to place too. So the product itself doesn't really set it apart.

The price does - this place was not as expensive as the others. (And for what it's worth they gave us a card where you get a free frozen yogurt for every 10 you buy. Since we did 4 in one shot, we're already almost halfway there!)

It's also across the street from Framingham State University, so they seem to want to be kind of a hangout -  there was a shelf with board games, there was a lot of seating, and there was a TV. (It was tuned to one of those A&E shows when we were there, though - something like 'Storage Wars' maybe. But this was when there was a Red Sox game on. So that seemed like a poor decision.)

My biggest gripe with the place is that the floors were terribly dirty. I chalked it up to the fact that it's still a pretty new place and maybe there is further construction or flooring to be done...but it was pretty gross. It was also a rainy day, now that I think about it. I'll have to check the floors the next time I'm there.

Speaking of the next time I'm there...the chances of a return visit are high. A few weeks ago I had a late-night urge for some dessert. I drove around and settled on an ice cream place where I hadn't been in years. I think I would have been happier had I gone here.

It's so close...making it pretty convenient for frozen yogurt at the drop of a hat.

New Thing #206: Playing Tennis With My Daughter

I told you last week how my daughters were having a grand old time at camp. One of the activities my oldest daughter has particularly enjoyed is tennis.

This led her to off-handedly remark to us that she might be interested in taking some lessons.

This is a girl who has had no interest in any organized activity whatsoever in her seven young years.

And my wife and I certainly were not going to force her to do something she didn't want to do.

But when she opened up this door we came barreling through.

My wife scoured the internet for lessons that might work.

And last weekend I took her out to hit some balls.

For some reason this felt like a third-person story...so that's how I'm telling it.

It was a humid morning, but not unbearable like it had been recently. Still, it wasn't the type of day people were rushing out to play tennis. So, the dad and his daughters had the courts all to themselves.

The dad had never played tennis. Well, not in an organized way. There was that one time playing his brother years ago when he swung hard, whiffed on the ball, and the racket hit him in the eyebrow. He still bore that scar - it probably needed stitches but he was so embarrassed he pretended like it was no big deal. You have to look hard for the scar - it's hidden by his eyebrow. But he had gone through enough instruction at different points in his life that he felt he could pass some knowledge on to his daughter. (Beyond "Hit the ball, not your face.")

He started with the grip - he remembered that the skin between your thumb and index finger should form a "V" when you held the racket. So he showed the girls that. He could tell, though, that they were really interested in hitting some tennis balls. He started to lose patience. And he started, in that moment, to sympathize a little bit with the hard-driving parents who pushed their kids too far with sports...wanting the kids to know the skills a little more, sometimes, than the kids wanted to themselves.

So he stopped and reminded himself that they were only 4 (almost 5) and 6 (almost 7).

He tried to show them how to balance the ball on the racket. How to try to hit the ball themselves by bouncing it and then swinging at it. (The resulting swings and misses were almost cartoon-esque.)

Then he started tossing the ball to them over the net. This was met with minimal success. The 4-year-old quickly lost interest - hitting a couple into the net and barely over using a variety of non-USTA-endorsed methods and then chasing the balls that got away from the other two.

But the 6-year-old was ready to learn.

The dad showed her where to position herself on the court. He put her just inside the 'T' halfway back to the service line. (Is that correct terminology? He doesn't know.) He showed her how to be ready - knees bent, racket in the middle.

He tossed her a couple of balls. One she hit into the net. One she hit too hard - way out and towards the fence. But she was making contact. Progress was being made.

The dad started hitting the ball to her lightly. Every once in a while his daughter would make contact.

Then, a perfect return.

The dad was caught by surprise. He certainly wasn't in the ready position himself - he stumbled to lightly hit the ball back to her.

Then - again! - a volley!

He certainly wasn't ready for this next hit. He hit it into the net.

The daughter knew she had done something really good. (She had played 'Dungeons and Dragons' at camp. The dad knew it as 'Jail'. If you hit a successful return you stayed in line. If you didn't, you were out - either in jail or in the dungeon depending on the variation you played. She knew that for the first time in her life, she had managed to avoid the dungeon. What she didn't know was that she had also won her first career point.)

They continued for a few more rounds, never meeting with the same success as the first volley of the daughter's burgeoning tennis interest.

The dad put away his racket and came back towards the net where his daughter had gathered the stray balls and was making her way towards the car.

"How was that?" the dad asked. "How do you feel?"

She smiled, and her reply made his heart melt.

"Proud."