New Thing #265: A Stress-Free Fall Sunday

Jets_gameThere's nothing like sitting around on a rainy Sunday doing nothing but watching football. Those Sundays are few and far between for me.

Either it's beautiful out and I feel guilty for staying in and watching the games, or the Jets aren't on TV and I have to figure out a way to get the free hours to leave the house to go somewhere to watch the game.

But that's no longer a problem.

I've already told you about 'Football On My Phone.'

I'm not going to rehash that - nor will I write much more about football after today (probably). But I do need to let you know today will be the first day I will be watching the Jets on my phone.

For the season opener they were on the local Fox station while the Patriots were on CBS. The next week they were the nationally televised Thursday night game.

Today there are just two games on local TV - the Patriots at 1 and the 49ers at 4.

So I'll be watching both of those games on TV, with the Jets on the phone late in the day.

And there's rain in the forecast, so I'll be able to sit and read the Sunday newspapers and then veg out without worrying that I should be taking the girls for a walk or to play outside or anything.

They can play inside and I can have a stress-free Sunday. (Provided I can get the newspapers inside the house before they get soaked through.)

I just won't be able to flip between the 4pm games on my phone, which is too bad. There are quite a few this week. But maybe I'll get my fill switching between the 1pm games.

I might even watch a baseball  game on my computer. David Wright is back in the Mets' lineup, and I haven't watched the Mets in a long time. And I just love David Wright. (He's been out 7 weeks. I might not have watched a full Mets game in something like 5 weeks.)

So that's where I'll be this Sunday if you need me.

Try not to need me.

Especially if you have news that might stress me out.

And if you happen to pass my house before I make it out to grab the newspapers, you can help make my Sunday stress-free by bringing those papers closer to the door and sheltered from the rain.

Thank you.

New Thing #264: Running To Time

RunningI've written a few times before about the running I did this summer. And there's kind of a lull in Trying New Things right now, so let me tell you about what I did with my running this summer that was new.

(You'll notice the dates from the screengrab I did of my Nike app there are from mid-August. As I suspected would happen, once September hit my running regimen was severely impacted.)

The best thing I did this summer was change the way I run - instead of running for distance, I ran for time.

I've been running for a while - but in the past couple of years it had become a little more of a struggle.

Not that it became any more difficult really (outside of one injury where I think for one summer I couldn't run at all) - it just became really, really boring.

I had a path that I ran over and over. At most it would take me 3 miles...but often I would decide to pull up short and cut it after a mile and a half or two miles or so.

I had nothing holding me accountable for anything longer than that.

I don't know why it took me so long to do it, but this summer I decided to start with a 30 minute run and then just keep adding time. I went from 30 to 35, then 40. (I run roughly a 10-minute mile, so we're talking up to 4 miles or so.)

I stuck at 40 for a bit, then started pushing myself to distances I'd never reached before - up to 5 miles, and then that 6-and-a-quarter-mile run you see in that picture above.

Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark. That was August 13. Shortly afterward, I went to Florida, then back to school, and I haven't had the time to run that much since. I was hoping to write about this as a New Thing when I was consistently up over 6-mile runs.

It's really hard to find an hour when it's not dark where I can get a good run in like that these days.

If I get out I'll go a couple of miles at a quicker pace to feel like I'm doing something...but I know what it felt like over the summer when I was doing these long runs and it's not really the same.

Fall into winter is always a tough time to keep up the good work I do running in the summer.

This year it feels like a particularly tough dropoff.

But you can bet that as soon as the weather is passable - or I get a few extra hours on the weekends - I'll work to build up my stamina again.

Because now I know how to do it.

New Thing #263: Bringing Two Girls To School

BackpacksMy two oldest daughters attend the school where I teach....in case you didn't know that. The oldest is in first grade - this is her third year at the school.

The New Thing here is that my middle child started pre-K this year - so now my commute is dependent on getting two children ready in the morning.

So far, it's been OK.

But it's certainly an adjustment.

I used to get to work pretty consistently at 7am.

I liked getting there more than an hour before any students - I got so much done in that quiet hour-plus, and then during the day I had opportunities to be social because I had lots of time before school to get done what I needed to.

Then I started taking my daughter to school, and I wasn't leaving the house until 7am.

Good-bye, free time.

Now I spend most free minutes during the school day slamming to get work done because I know before school isn't an option...and there are few days I can stay after school without family obligations to pull me away.

Luckily for me, the girls enjoy the activities offered after school, so if I'm in a bind and need to stay, I don't feel guilty about it. Also, they had some practice this summer with a long day and commuting between school and home with their camp experience.

And I'm sure I'm healthier because of the chauffeuring of my daughters. With the time I'm saving by leaving later I'm eating the solid breakfast that I know I've written about multiple times before. If I was on my own I'd be having Dunkin' Donuts way too much and I'm sure I'd weigh too much right now.

Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes one or both girls are slow to get going in the morning. Sometimes they want to listen to the radio while I want to listen to podcasts. Sometimes I remember a jacket for me and forget that I'm also responsible for two other little people and they're not exactly dressed appropriately for school and colder fall weather.

But almost every day for nine months I get to drive in the car to and from my place of work with two of my favorite people in the world.

And that's worth a rough morning or two.

New Thing #262: My Middle Child Is 5

Sept_19Five years ago on September 18th my wife called me at work to tell me she was going into labor. It wasn't totally unexpected - our second-born was due on September 15th - and my wife had first experienced phantom labor (is that a thing? I think it's a thing.) as early as September 10th or so.

But the fact that for most of the month of September the doctor was telling us she was  due "any day now" (this is the only one of our three daughters we knew was going to be a 'she', incidentally) had us on pins and needles.

But finally, at just before 12:30 on this Thursday afternoon I handed over my lesson plans to the sub being put in place for me and I went to meet my wife at the hospital.

It would be about another twelve hours before we had ourselves a baby.

It wasn't like twelve straight hours of labor.

In fact, one of my favorite stories about the birth of our second daughter is how laid back it was.

Whereas for our first-born everything had to be perfect - the right music had to be playing, we had to do the correct breathing exercises, I had to make sure I didn't pass out - by the time we had our second we were old pros.

I liked to joke that with the first we had all kinds of CDs to make sure the ambience was just so - with our second, we sat around waiting for the contractions while watching 'Hole In The Wall' on Fox. (This was a show with a wall that moved towards a person on a plank. The wall had a cutout of a person in a weird position. The person on the plank needed to assume that position to make it through the titular 'hole in the wall' or else get knocked off the plank into water or muck or something. I'll never forget that show or the role it played in our family's life.)

Anyway, our daughter was born a little after midnight...and she is certainly worth all that waiting.

Today she turns five.

They were five pretty quick years - faster than an approaching wall to a contestant on the short-lived Fox show "Hole In The Wall."

And in about two weeks' time, I'll be telling you a similar story about how fast seven years have gone by.

New Thing #261: Karma Coffee

Karma_CoffeeThere are good coffee smells and there are coffee smells that remind you of a dead animal....or worse. Unfortunately, the coffee brewed at Karma Coffee in Sudbury smells terrible.

It's that smell - which isn't always there, but which I've smelled enough to have associated with the place - which prevented me from trying out Karma Coffee before last weekend.

But Karma Coffee is tucked away behind the dance studio where my girls take lessons.

And, as I've told you, my new Saturday morning routine involves taking my daughter to her dance lessons at said studio.

So, based solely on proximity, all future Saturdays (and one past - I went there this past Saturday) will feature some kind of coffee from Karma Coffee.

It turns out the coffee may stink something awful - but it tastes something delicious.

The menu is relatively simple - there's coffee, cappuccino, espresso, iced beverages...for my debut I chose an iced mocha. (My only complaint - maybe I should have gone with something a little more caffeinated. I'm not sure the iced mocha cut it for my first coffee of the day -  I had traces of a headache the rest of the day. But I think that's my fault much more than Karma Coffee's.)

I've had iced mochas at both Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. This one was - by far - the best I've ever had.

That's a promising start for sure.

The space is interesting - there's a little seating area in the front, and there's a wide open space in the back, including the big coffee-making machine. (I think. I'm not sure exactly how that works.) It's a local coffee brewer - it's not a big corporation. I think that's part of what makes it so good.

There are roughly 30 more weeks of dance practices for my daughter...and visits to Karma Coffee for me.

The approaching autumn weather also means it's about time to switch back to hot coffees.

That gives me enough time to explore Karma's entire menu - first hot, then maybe cold.

It'll never smell like a pack of ground french vanilla from Dunkin' Donuts...but if everything else on the menu tastes like their iced mocha, I think I'll learn to live with that.

New Thing #260: An (Accidental) Night Time Walk

Night_WalkAll right. I'll admit it.

I'm a big 'fraidy cat.

Or, more accurately, I'm very afraid of cats.

One time, when I was around 10 years old (maybe a touch younger, maybe a touch older), we took my dog for a walk after dark. It was my dad, my brother, my sister, and I. We turned a corner and there was this cat - it arched its back and hissed at us. I didn't like cats before that happened...that made me downright afraid of them.

And I avoided any possibility of that happening again.

If the sun wasn't out - I wasn't going out...for the most part.

Now, there are caveats - it's different walking around a big city (or little cities like Boston) - I'll do that at night. I know I might see a rat (or many rats *shiver*), but in cities there are more people out at night and the probability of seeing a wild animal is not as high. (Even my old neighborhood in Queens is populated enough that I've done a walk home from the subway after dark with no problem many, many times.)

I won't bore you by re-telling you stories of seeing raccoons and possums, but that's why I won't go out after dark in the suburbs - which happen to be where I currently live.

I am not afraid of muggings. I am not afraid of cars not seeing me. I am afraid of what animals I'll run into in the dark.

It's the only thing stopping me from doing early-morning runs - I want to do the exercise, but I'm afraid I'll run into tired raccoons on their way home from a long night of scavenging and intimidating people like me.

And it's exercise that brings me to write about this accidental late night walk I took this weekend.

It's also an opportunity to catch you up on some New Things from earlier in the year. I no longer keep track of my calories with the Lose It! app. But that experience has made me more aware of the balance between my calorie intake and my exercise. And I'm ultra-aware of it because I still weigh myself every morning - and I've done a good job of hovering around the same number all year. What I haven't told you about is how well I've been running over the summer - I really increased my endurance, which I'm proud of - but if I haven't had the time to run, sometimes I'd go for a brisk walk, like I did in the wintertime.

This is what I did on Saturday - after dinner, I left the house at 6:30pm and decided to try my 3-mile route. It took about an hour - I was back in the house at 7:30pm. But whereas a couple of weeks ago coming back around 8pm meant I was just getting home before darkness hit...I didn't realize how dark it was getting at 7:30 these days.

It wasn't too bad. The worst animal experience I had was on one street a young couple was walking their dog - it must have been a Great Dane, and I admit to a little trepidation. That dog was huge. I spent the few minutes after I walked past them thinking about how many ways that dog could have killed me if it was not leashed.

Other than that, though, I didn't feel the least bit threatened walking by moonlight rather than sunlight.

I don't know if I'll make a habit out of it, but I could see myself doing it again - maybe even getting out before the sun is totally up and going for a run. I like the idea of starting outdoor exercise in the dark and finishing up when it's light.

Just not on garbage day.

That's when the raccoons are out.

New Thing #259: Radiohead

RadioheadA few weeks ago Thom Yorke was on WTF with Marc Maron. I really enjoyed the interview, and it occurred to me as I listened that I didn't know very much about Radiohead, the band for which Yorke is the lead singer.

The extent of my Radiohead knowledge, I think, is their OK Computer album, which came out in 1997.

There are a few possible reasons for this:

1) I was confounded by what "OK Computer" meant when that album came out. Those two words didn't really go together in my brain.

2) The video for Paranoid Android, one of the singles off that album, was on MTV constantly. I'm sure you've seen it. It's a cartoon - I must have seen it come on 1,000 times that year...and I'm not sure I watched it all the way through once.

3) Karma Police, another single off that album, was on the radio a ton through my college years.

For this Music Monday, though, I listened to their album Pablo Honey.

The album was suggested by my friend Justin, who, when I texted him for Radiohead suggestions offered this: "I don't really like them much anymore. I have the first 3 albums. I happen to love Pablo Honey, which is their very first album. It's a great pop album before they decided to just make weird ambient noise." (This is why Justin is a great resource for my Music Mondays - I couldn't quite put my finger on why Radiohead didn't much interest me. That last comment kind of sums up what my impression of them was.)

Before they made 'weird ambient noise', though, I wasn't much of an album buyer. I was familiar with Creep, because that was on the radio constantly in the years leading up to college, and then while I was in college - I feel like WBCN in Boston (which was always on at the Boston University gym where I exercised and was also the preferred station of one of my college roommates) played it once an hour. Until I listened to it on the album I never knew there was such an explicit-language lyric repeated so often.

I liked Pablo Honey - I'm not positive I knew any of the other songs on the album, but a couple sounded vaguely familiar. It could have been just that they reminded me of what I expected songs on a Radiohead album to sound like - or maybe I have actually heard the album somewhere before.

As I investigated Radiohead a little more I discovered other songs they had done which I didn't realize was them - I'll categorize them as "Songs You Hear On The Radio And Don't Really Realize Who Sings Them"...which I suppose makes them somewhat generic and is probably not a real compliment to the artists who record them: High and Dry is the main one I didn't realize was Radiohead...and in a brief listen to a bunch of the songs on Best of Radiohead it occurred to me that I could have heard any of those songs on WBCN in the late '90s and not been able to tell the difference. (I would never have associated Radiohead with a band like the Gin Blossoms...but as I listened to Pablo Honey there were times I thought they could have been any '90s band, and Gin Blossoms was one that came to mind.)

Anyway, if the early albums are similar to Pablo Honey, I might try them out at some point. But like Justin, I don't think I would enjoy the later stuff either - partly because I know for a fact I don't much enjoy the stuff from OK Computer.

New Thing #258: Another New Fantasy Football Game

Fantasy_GameOne of the first things I wrote about this year was fantasy football. And then one of the other first things I wrote about this year was fantasy football.

They were both playoff fantasy football games - and they were both fun ways to end last year's football season.

It was fun to play a different kind of fantasy football.

Well, a friend of mine e-mailed me with a new game to begin this football season, and at the last minute I decided to join.

Turns out I just can't resist a good stats-driven fantasy football game.

I'm in two fantasy leagues this year - this one I'm writing about today and another more traditional one - along with my picks pool, picking against the spread.

What's unusual about this year is that I'm not doing an elimination pool for the first time in a bunch of years, and for the first time in a few years I also don't have the fantasy league I've done with the guys I do a baseball league with.

But this pool fills some of those gaps.

It's traditional fantasy football - you pick a QB, 2 RB, 3 WR/TE, and then a defense. You pick a new slate each week. The catch? Once you pick a player, you can't pick them again the rest of the season.

It's an interesting strategic game, the strategy of which I haven't even begun to wrap my mind around yet. (The closest I've come to strategy so far is the chart that I created, which you see above. It'll at least keep me aware of the players I've picked.)

Since I made the decision to join so late, I kind of slapped together my Week 1 picks - I decided I didn't want to use any real stars yet, so I picked against the Oakland defense (which played better than I expected) and I guessed at a decent defensive performance with Miami (I succeeded) and filled in the rest of the gaps.

As the season goes on I'll employ more strategy, probably.

It's similar to a baseball picks league I used to run - it's all done by hand (though the guys in charge are working on a computer program to make it easier). As such, though, it's all guesswork during the day to as to how well your players are doing relative to other performances.

So far it's fun.

Another interesting thing about this football season is that I didn't make any season picks - that's the first time I haven't done that in possibly a decade-plus.

It's interesting - I sense that with my involvement in these games, and without the self-imposed pressure of my season picks, which may or may not subconsciously color the way I pick games and players - I might actually enjoy this season more as a football fan.

So far, as Week 2 continues today, I am.

New Thing #257: A New Saturday Morning Routine

Ballet_ShoesThis past year has been a pretty busy one. I think I've told you that before - and I also think I've said this before:

I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm just stating fact.

I get up early every morning, work is busy, and sometimes I go to bed too late.

As the week goes on it gets harder and harder to wake up in the morning...and it all catches up to me by Friday.

All of which is to say, by Saturday morning, I'm ready to sleep in.

But beginning today, that won't be happening.

As of today, I'm the parent in charge of taking my daughter to her dance/tap class.

This isn't terrible for me - remember, I enjoyed it when I took her one morning last year.

Even had I not enjoyed it that first time I'd be ready for it now - because watching the recital in which she participated would have convinced me the time invested in it was worth it. That recital was awesome.

It was also in May.

So we're looking at a new Saturday morning routine, beginning today, lasting all the way until May - that's the stretch in which I'll be in charge of Saturday morning dance dropoff.

This year both of my daughters are doing dance, actually. (My wife will be doing the other dropoff - it's after school.) That means both girls will be participating in this year's recital.

So if you're looking for me on Saturday mornings...I'll be waiting for my daughter at the ol' Dancer's Workshop.

And I wouldn't count on seeing much of me on Saturday afternoons either...chances are that's when I'll be sneaking in a nap.

New Thing #256: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

GardnerHere's one of those New Things that makes the highlight reel for the year: On Thursday I went with my class to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

You might know about the Gardner as the art collection of an eccentric woman.

Maybe you know of it as the Museum of Fine Arts' often-overlooked little sister.

Most likely you've heard of it because of the 1990 art heist.

I knew of it, but had never been.

Now I can't wait to go back.

Here's the quick and dirty history: Isabella Stewart Gardner was an art collector, and she built this courtyard/outbuilding to house her collection. When she died, her will stipulated that the collection should remain as is. This is the early 1900s.

Fast forward to 1990, and a couple of thieves, disguised as police officers, duped the on-duty night guards into letting them in, tied up the guards, and proceeded to steal millions of dollars worth of art. (You may have heard this story on the "Boston" edition of Drunk History.) Some of the pieces of art were cut out of the frames because the thieves couldn't remove them from the wall. Remember the will stipulating that the collection should stay as is? Well, the frames stay on the wall empty because of that fact.

So we took a little hourlong tour on Thursday in small groups. My particular tour guide was great - she let the students talk about the art but kept us informed as we walked. She showed us some nice pieces, and told us about how Gardner would sit in the courtyard sipping champagne and eating donuts, admiring her art and courtyard.

It's a really amazing place, and the courtyard is just beautiful. It's one of those places where while I'm there the entire time I'm thinking, "I want to come back with my family." (Not unlike my thoughts when I was in Quebec.) Unfortunately, there are no photos allowed inside (and I'm a rule follower), so I can't show you what I liked so much.

There's something about the fact that everything is left as the owner intended - I like the idea that when I go back everything will be exactly where I saw it this time. That same fact makes it somewhat chilling to see the empty frames on the wall. I saw two big empty ones in the "Dutch Room." It's weird to think that thieves did their work in that exact spot.

I've said before (I think when I visited the Met) - I'm not the biggest art fan in the world. I'm not sure I know how to appreciate art the way it was intended. But I'm becoming better able to appreciate art museums.

And the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is already one of my favorites.

New Thing #255: The Peter Schrager Podcast

SchragerIf you're a football fan (and I'm sorry for this past week or so if you're not), you'll love this New Thing. My friend Justin texted me last week to tell me his brother had a podcast.

Now, this is not like if I started talking about the Jets and Mets and recorded it and my brother went around telling people his brother had a podcast.

No, Peter Schrager is fast becoming one of the most respected football guys in the business.

So if I hear that he has a podcast, I'll check it out...and I'm sure thousands of others have been doing the same thing.

Let me quickly catch you up on my football podcasts. For a year-plus I listened to the Rich Eisen Podcast. I figured the guy was on NFL Network, and if there was anyone who had the inside track on the National Football League, it would be him. Turns out I was right...but it also turns out that Rich Eisen is insufferable. I couldn't stand it. I'd listen and then complain.

Then I decided, I'll just stop listening. (This is a bigger step for me than you might realize. Or, perhaps after reading 9 and a half months' worth of reading about me, you're not the least bit surprised.)

Then Peter King started a podcast. That's what I listened to all last year, and it wasn't about him - it was about the football - it was perfect. This year it's the MMQB Podcast - I still listen to it.

After two episodes, the Peter Schrager Podcast is getting added to the list. In the first edition, Schrager had a good football talk with Pete Prisco and in the second one he spoke with Scott Fujita - a good storyteller - and Kevin Burkhardt.

The Burkhardt interview was awesome, talking about his rise through the industry to get to where this year he's doing play-by-play on TV for FOX NFL games. (As an aside: Burkhardt did the Jets-Buccaneers game Sunday. There were a couple of rough patches, but overall he and John Lynch were excellent. Here's how I know: When a broadcast is bad, I obsess over it. Case in point: Dick Stockton. Holy heck was he bad doing the Rams-Cardinals on Sunday. Hang 'em up Dick. Watching the Jets, though, I barely thought about the broadcasters. That's a sign they're doing it right.)

Back to the podcast: There's a really contagious enthusiasm in the way Schrager talks about the NFL - he strikes a real balance between being a fan and an analyst, as well as in the way he can really schmooze with his guests and also ask some pretty deep questions about them and about the game.

Justin and I often joke about the success of our younger brothers. I have to admit, though, that while I often heard Peter's name in various places, I didn't see his work all that much. (Which is becoming harder to do - he wrote a book with the Giants' Victor Cruz and soon a new one he wrote with OJ Brigance of the Baltimore Ravens will be coming out.) I just don't watch very much FOX Sports. (I'm working on doing more.) With this podcast, though, I now have the opportunity to listen to Peter without other elements of Fox that I might not care for.

So, finally, after all of these years of Justin supporting my brother's music, I can throw a little brotherly love back his way.

New Thing #254: Glickman

GlickmanI had a free weekend of HBO this past weekend. I can't overdo it when one of these free weekends comes along.

I just don't have the time to binge watch a show like The Sopranos anymore. (Two Sopranos references in two days! It can almost challenge football's dominance this week!)

But if there's a show or a movie that catches my eye, I can either watch one or DVR it and watch it a little bit later - I have the time for that.

Thankfully, this documentary caught my eye - because I had seen an ad for it and I was psyched to watch it.

It's called Glickman - a documentary about Marty Glickman, who I remember primarily as the Jets broadcaster when I was little.

But his life was much, much more than that.

The first words you hear in the documentary are in Glickman's voice - "I don't remember ever walking as a young person. I always ran. It was just in my nature to run." I feel like I've heard this quote from him before...or maybe I read it. (Or maybe it was in the commercial for the documentary that I saw.) Regardless, it's a powerful quote.

Marty Glickman, above all else, was an athlete. Primarily, he was a runner. An Olympic-quality runner. Unfortunately, he was a Jewish American Olympic-quality runner in the 1930s. And the 1936 Olympics, when Glickman was 18 years old, were held in Hitler's Germany. And Glickman's American coaches - for what were later found to be Nazi sympathizing reasons - kept him from competing in those Olympic games. (It's somewhat chilling to see the video footage of the 1936 Olympics and all of the goodwill shown towards Hitler.)

I didn't know anything about Glickman when I was younger other than his voice. (When I placed a face to the voice it was close to the image you see above, which was featured in the documentary - that's how I remember Marty Glickman.) I think the first thing I learned about him later on in life was that he was really the first ex-athlete to become a broadcaster. He was really a pioneer in the field...a field about which I care a lot. Probably too much.

Glickman was an early sports broadcasting giant - calling the Giants, Knicks, Rangers, horse racing and any other number of sports and teams in addition to the Jets.

His voice means a lot to me - and it's featured prominently in this documentary. It's filled with passion and anger and sadness when he talks about how he was wronged in 1936 and when he talks about his biggest regret in life the following year. It almost has a 'gotcha' tone to it when he talks about how he realized no one was broadcasting basketball and took advantage of that to become the voice of the game. (And then prominent Glickman fans and proteges like Bob Costas, Marv Albert, David Stern, Larry King, and Mike Breen talk about the basketball broadcasting terms Glickman invented at that time.) He's frank when he talks about how he describes the games. It all reminds me of being in the car listening to Glickman's voice talking about the Jets. (And I didn't remember until the end of the documentary that his time with the Jets that I remember so clearly was actually post-retirement, when he came back to the Jets for a few years to finish his career.)

There's a bonus great story embedded in the documentary about Lou Zamperini, another one about how as broadcaster of the Giants Glickman beat some of the players in a footrace.

It's not the best-made documentary I've ever seen. (I'm getting old - sometimes just the very fact that graphics are too small and I can't read them is reason enough for me to get frustrated with a program. Also, I now call things "programs.") But it's a good sports documentary.

And, if you grew up like me, parts of its greatness lie in the sentimental reasons.

New Thing #253: Writing A Letter From The Tooth Fairy

You might not want to read this one around the kiddos...it might shatter some myths. At my house, like many others, we are in the practice of lying to our children about certain fantastic people who enter our house while they are sleeping to leave them things.

The Tooth Fairy is one of those people. (Are fairies people?)

This is a hard parenting decision for me, because for much of my young life I was frightened to death of these people.

So I will not be too upset when my children no longer believe in the lies I spew - in fact, it will be sort of a relief.

But for now, I guess I'm all-in.

My oldest daughter is probably the most like me as far as apprehension about magical beings. Not apprehensive like doubtful. She fully believes in them, which is probably why she's so scared of them. (Clearly only the most intelligent of us who fully comprehend what is happening are the ones who experience this fright.)

She wants the benefits of the Tooth Fairy without actually experiencing the Tooth Fairy. Which is complicated (she's shedding teeth these days like Tony Soprano in one of his dreams), but fine by me. Tooth comes out, we leave it far away from her bed, she wakes up and there's money, and we don't talk about it for weeks or months until the next tooth comes out.

Except that recently, she has seen from a couple of her peers that the Tooth Fairy sometimes leaves notes. And you can just see it on her face: "Why does the Tooth Fairy love them more than me?"

My wife had a great explanation: "Well, you really haven't wanted to have much to do with the Tooth Fairy."

My daughter thought this over, and after her most recent tooth came out last week she wrote a letter: (Warning! It's adorable.)

Letter1

Well, now of course the Tooth Fairy had to write back. So I went to work. I crafted a handwriting style for the Tooth Fairy. I tried to strike a balance between caring and teeth business.

Letter_2

I'm not going to say I'm the best Tooth Fairy going right now...I'm just saying Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had better just recognize he might have some competition for any future Tooth Fairy movie roles.

The only drawback is the amount of time it takes to get into my handwriting character. Maybe my children will stop believing before it's time for me to write another note.

Signature

New Thing #252: iTunes Music Festival

Lumineers_MusicI'm not sure how often iTunes runs this music festival. It's probably once a year - but the last time it happened feels more recent than a year ago.

Because I distinctly remember wanting to check out some of the acts the last time around but not having the time to do it.

But when I saw the online ads for this year's (or just the latest) edition, I knew I had to make an effort to tune in for a Music Monday.

I saw a few acts in the lineup that I was interested in. But the times they aired live did not seem to be conducive to my schedule.

Then I was poking around and saw that you didn't have to watch the shows live - you could watch in full acts that had taken place already. (Which seems like it should obviously be the case, but I don't seem to remember being an option last time around.)

So on Friday night I sat myself down to a concert by The Lumineers on the computer.

Quickly, to refresh your memory - The Lumineers were one of the first bands I checked out on Music Monday as part of 365 New Things In 2013. I loved their music immediately and filed away in the back of my mind that I might like to see them live. (In fact, what drew my attention to them first, besides Ho Hey, I suppose, was that a friend had seen them opening up for Dave Matthews Band and raved about them.)

Well, this was my chance - all with the click of a button.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at how easy it was. But part of me always thinks that technology will come bite me at some point. Like mid-concert a pop-up would come on asking me to pay to see the rest of the concert, or the concert video would overload my computer and it would explode in a fireball or something.

But none of that happened. So maybe I'll check out some of the other live performance offerings before the month is up. (As I write this, I now wonder exactly what the 'live' means on the iTunes Music Festival. They're all "live" performances, meaning concerts. But does that mean iTunes actually streams them "live", as they happen? I'm not sure. There are times posted next to each band...now I'm wondering if that's when they are actually playing live, or if that's just when their taped live performance is posted. I'm not sure.)

As for The Lumineers, I was worried at first - they started with Submarines, and it was kind of a slow start. But it picked up and I really enjoyed it.

They played a new song which I enjoyed, and there was a really unrehearsed feel to the set that made me think, "Wow. They must have rehearsed the heck out of this performance."

Remember when I wrote that there was a raw, back-of-the-bar-type feel to their album? It's amazing that somehow they manage to transfer that raw feeling to their live performance. At one point they move from the stage to a semi-stage in the middle of the crowd to recapture the intimate settings in which they played not that long ago.

You can see all of the other bands through the iTunes store. And there's a link to it all at apple.com - just look for this image:

promo_itunes_festival_2013

New Thing #251: Football On My Phone

Sunday_TicketI apologize in advance for all of the football talk over the next week-plus. It's a very exciting time of year for me.

Especially this year.

See, I'm the fan of an out-of-market team.

Years ago that meant I was destined to Sunday afternoons on my computer watching the prehistoric version of ESPN GameCast to try to figure out how the Jets were doing as the Patriots games aired on the local stations.

Over the years, though, my options have progressed such that I've alternately owned the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV or been able to seek out a place that does - watching the Jets either at home or a bar or restaurant anywhere within 25 miles of Boston.

This year, I should be able to watch the Jets from my home...or anywhere I happen to have my phone.

I'll have the Sunday Ticket again, but this time it's on my phone - and the story of how I got it is a good one.

I guess I should tell you first that the Jets are on TV in this area the first two weeks of the season. I had calculated this a while ago when I realized that they were going to be a FOX game and the Patriots on CBS...I long ago developed an ability to roughly gauge the chances of watching the Jets at home on local TV based on their schedule and that of the Patriots'.

But after that, by the time the networks recognize that the Jets are terrible, if I want to watch whether Geno Smith will progress into an NFL quarterback, I will need this Sunday Ticket more than ever to watch the Jets. (Or, more likely, to more closely follow my fantasy players.)

So let me tell you how all of this unraveled:

When I went to Florida the conversation with my friend Kevin turned to his Apple TV, and how I could use that to watch Mets games on my TV rather than my phone or computer. Then he told me that he heard about a deal where I could even watch the Jets.

Apparently, if you pre-ordered a special edition of the new Madden football game through Amazon, you could get a code to download the Sunday Ticket to your phone for the entire season.

Ticket_SkedThere had to be a catch, I thought. Kevin thought so too. But we both separately looked up what had been written about the promotion, and it seemed legit. A couple of weeks later, I took the plunge and made the purchase. I bought Madden, which I will never play, and there was my login code. I downloaded the Sunday Ticket app, I entered the info, and there it was - football on my phone. (Including the Red Zone Channel and the opportunity to keep track of your fantasy players using the app!) (Also, it seems to be working OK right now...but there will be no higher anxiety on Sunday than about 12:45-1pm waiting to see if the video kicks in on time. Kevin is feeling the pressure too - he feels like I paid for it because of him, and if it doesn't work it's on him.)

I'm sure next year if this is a success (and I'm sure it will be) the price will be exorbitant or some part of this process will become more complicated.

But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Because for the 2013 football season, at least, I'll have all the games wherever I want to watch them.

It's basically all I've wanted in my entire football life.

And if the Jets miraculously turn out to be good this year, well then that's just all the better.

And I'll admit - the first time I saw the Manning brothers' "Football On Your Phone" commercial I didn't like it as much as some other people did. But now that I have football on my phone...well, my tune has changed. I think it's a kinship thing. Here that is, if you haven't seen it:

New Thing #250: Corn And Fruit Share

Corn_And_FruitYou may remember that when we re-started our farm share this year, we also decided we were going to try the corn and fruit share for the eight weeks it was being offered. We're nearing the end of those eight weeks, so I think it's time to weigh in:

And I'll be honest...

I don't think we'll be doing it again.

The corn and fruit are fine.

We're getting about 12 ears of corn per box, and a bunch of peaches and plums and some apples.

But they're nothing extraordinary - and it's not all that much different from what we could walk up to a farm stand and get...and possibly get cheaper.

(And then there's the potential for what happened this week, when they had our regular veggie box for our pickup, but were out of the corn and fruit boxes. So I had to go back Thursday to get the corn and fruit. Which means we have a lot of corn and fruit to eat before the next box comes...not to mention the unnecessary trip back to the farm.)

It's not been all negative - I haven't had peaches in the house for a long time. And when we had some in these boxes, I was able to throw some peaches into a smoothie or two. (Also, for what it's worth - and despite the extra trouble of going back for the box a second time - my wife was quite pleased with this week's corn and fruit selection.)

But for the quality of the corn (don't get me wrong - it tastes fine - but again, it's nothing extraordinary) and since the amount of fruit we've eaten has dwindled, leaving us with more than we need....

Next year I'm pretty sure we'll just be getting the box of vegetables.

New Thing #249: Driving Down A New Road

From_BedfordOne of the routes I take to school saw a lot of construction this summer. I couldn't really figure out what was going on, but there was a lot of tree clearing for a while.

There was a cop set up to monitor traffic, there was a heavy construction vehicle presence...

And then all of a sudden the trucks were gone, and there was a road where there hadn't been before.

It all looks so normal that I almost feel like I imagined the whole thing happened.

Last week, I decided to drive down the new road and see what was up.

The above picture is what the new road looks like from the already existing road.

This is what the road led to:

Cul_De_Sac

It's a little cul-de-sac. I was expecting, as I drove down the new road, to see a police detail and more construction vehicles continuing to build something...but it looks like they were just making a new access road to the residences around that cul-de-sac.

I was hoping I could capture a Google image of the site to illustrate it for you, and I did. I drew a red line where I estimate this new road to be:

New_Road

I'm still not quite sure I understand the purpose of all of this. Even driving down the new road I had to convince myself that all of the construction had indeed actually happened. (You can see some leftover traffic cones and on the right of the picture at the top there is some exposed rock from what must have been blasted away to form the road, as well as a covering over some more rock.)

You can see on the map where Route 2 (Cambridge Turnpike) is located. There is intense construction going on there - I wonder if part of the deal with the locals affected by that construction was that they get a different access road so they don't have to get stuck in construction traffic when they try to go home...but that seems like a whole lot of environmental damage to accommodate a few houses.

My only thought is that there is more construction coming - they just haven't started it yet.

I have to admit, though, I'm kind of fascinated at how quickly a road appeared where there hadn't been one before.

If you have any more information about the goings-on in Concord (or maybe it's Lincoln), I'd be happy to hear them in the comments.

New Thing #248: No More Season Tickets

Season_Ticket_BagThe NFL season opens tonight when the Ravens play the Broncos. I'll watch the game, of course, but for the 30th-plus year I'll really start caring on Sunday, when the Jets open their season.

This season will have a different flavor to it, though.

Not in the quality of play on the field - the Jets will stink, and unfortunately there have been way more of those types of seasons in my time as a Jets fan than the successful seasons.

No, it's the fact that for the first time in my life, my dad is not a Jets season ticket holder.

My dad has had Jets season tickets dating back to the 1960s. I've always been very proud of that fact. And I loved the fact that, less the tickets he'd give away each year, I knew that any game I wanted to go to, I could.

Of course, ever since I moved to Massachusetts it became a lot harder to go to multiple games a year. But if there was a home playoff game (there were a couple) or really important regular season game, I knew I could come home for it.

Not anymore.

But the truth of the matter is, it long ago stopped being convenient to get from Queens, New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey...and I learned to appreciate the benefits of watching NFL Football on TV rather than in person. (Though I still loved the atmosphere of a big game in a winning season at the stadium.)

And despite my dad being a loyal customer for more than 40 years, the Jets didn't treat him as such. There was more leveraging by the Jets over seating in the new stadium than there was appreciation towards long-time season ticket holders.

So as another season gets underway, there have been elements that have made it not just another season. Usually by now I've put my magnetic schedule on the fridge, gone through the yearbook for the upcoming season, and checked out some kind of free gift - all perks of the season ticket holder. (Even though it was my dad's account, I'd get all the spoils.) I know from Twitter that this year I missed out on a fleece blanket.

This year, there was none of that.

My dad and I have talked about taking advantage of not having to use the upper deck season tickets this year and buying some nice seats to one game - spending a little more on a game to sit closer to the action, but spending nowhere near what he would have spent on tickets to all the games.

So that might happen at one point this season.

There will definitely be a different kind of season ticket to this year's Jets games. And I'll be telling you about that New Thing later in the week.

New Thing #247: Drafting From My Phone

photoProbably 12 or 13 years ago I was one of the suckers who paid to play fantasy sports. I knew fantasy baseball was free elsewhere, but I thought I was getting a better deal on ESPN's site for however much I was paying for our league.

I only played on that platform for a year or two, but that was definitely a year or two I could have been playing for free.

Since then, I've used Yahoo!, with maybe one ESPN (now free) exception.

And this year, I'm playing on ESPN again with some folks from work.

But that's not what's new...the New Thing I want to tell you about is that I drafted part of my team from my phone!

I had seen the ESPN football app recently when I was looking quickly through the apps. I thought about it only in terms of editing my lineup - it never occurred to me that I could draft my team using the app.

But about a half-hour before the draft a friend of mine texted to say that's how he was doing the draft. So I downloaded the app to check it out.

As soon as I logged in to the app, I was booted from my computer - it wouldn't let me be signed in from two different places. So I disconnected the app and went back to the computer - I had the first overall pick and I didn't want to screw things up with the new technology.

But I knew, with a snake draft and the first overall pick, that I would have a lot of time in between my picks to play around with the app, so I came back to the app in the later rounds to try out the draft.

The computer makes little noises when someone is drafted from your preferences list, and when it's your turn to draft.

The app made the same noise when someone was drafted from my 'queue,' but as far as I can tell it didn't make a noise when it was my turn to draft. It also made no noises when other people drafted. And I couldn't find where the draft history was.

So you have to pay close attention to the picks as they happen because they only show at the top of the screen and there aren't really any noises to draw your attention to a new person making a pick.

FF_DraftOther than that, though, it was pretty much the same experience on the phone as the computer. You had the countdown of how long there was for the pick to be made. You had the ability to sort available players by position. You had the chance to check out your list of preferred picks.

It's just, on the computer it's easier to navigate between all of those things. On the phone, it was harder to keep track of everything.

I made my last four or five picks from the phone, which was enough to just get a taste of the experience.

I wouldn't want to conduct an entire draft from the device...but it's good to know the option is there if I ever needed it.

New Thing #246: Mead

MeadWay back at the beginning of the summer, when we were in Vermont and New Hampshire, my wife bought a bottle of mead. She thought it would be a fun New Thing to try.

She was right...except we didn't drink it right away.

In fact, we didn't touch the bottle we bought at the beginning of the summer until the last day of the summer. (Well, one of the last unofficial days - the day before Labor Day.)

I had no idea mead was still a thing. Isn't that what people sat around long wooden tables drinking from goblets in medieval days?

This was actually made in a meadery in New Hampshire (we bought it in Hanover, New Hampshire). It's honey wine fermented with vanilla beans...and it's pretty strong.

I described it as "wine for men." My wife called it "a combination of wine and scotch."

(And yes, I know men drink wine. But I don't love it. If wine tasted more like mead...well, maybe I'd drink it more.)

I couldn't have mead every night. (I'd either need to be living on a street corner near a convenience store or be the king of a 1300s nation for that to be socially acceptable.)

But I could mix it in as a rare alcoholic treat - especially around the holidays.

And to complete the experience, maybe next I'll work on getting a moat.