All for twelve bucks!!

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BOSTON AREA SINGLE ADULTS and FRIENDS
BOSTON HARBOR CRUISE AND HISTORY LECTURE & REFRESHMENTS

TUESDAY EVENING – JULY 31ST
6:15PM – 8:30PM

A FASCINATING LOOK AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOSTON HARBOR RIVER BASIN

LECTURE BY DR KARL HAGLUND, PHD
Author of the book: Inventing The Charles River and Bishop of the Cambridge 1st Ward

ON BOARD THE CHARLES 1

PRICE $12 PER PERSON

DEPARTS FROM THE LECHMERE CANAL
(OPPOSITE THE CAMBRIDGESIDE GALERIA FOOD COURT)

New appliance on the block

Camden, ME 04843

My bags aren't packed...

...but I'm ready to go. My friends Mary Ellen and Elizabeth (Walton code names) arrive this afternoon from L.A. and then guess where we're going this weekend???

New book

I started this book today. I think it's going to be a good read.

Summertime

This picture was taken of the California Pattons on a summer trip to the dessert, I mean desert (I wonder if we had dessert in the desert?). We were probably 9, 8, 7 and 2. I love taking candid shots and love finding candid shots that were taken of us.

I sure wish I had a two month summer vacation like the good old days...

The BAR(s)

My friend Kristen is taking the Massachusetts Bar Exam today and tomorrow. Good luck, Sister! I hope you remember everything you've studied and you ace the exam. And, thanks for all the chocolate chips!!

Happy Pioneer Day!

What's a hogwart?

In case you can't tell, I'm not reading Harry Potter #7.

Queen Elizabeth

When the Windsors lived in Lexington I visited them a lot. I watched their kids many times and we went on a few trips together (my favorite was to the red cottage in Maine). Their daughter Elizabeth was born here -- in Concord on Patriots Day! I call her Queen Elizabeth and she's one of my all-time favorite little friends. When she was a baby if she made a peep I'd ask if I could get her out of her crib and they always let me! She's very good natured and fun to be around (and she's a nightowl just like me). She sat by me today at church (just like the good old days) and snuggled up next to me at our friend's house after dinner tonight. I love Queen Elizabeth!

Picnic in the park

My friends "the Windsors" are visiting this week from Columbus. We had a picnic in the park and I took my camera. I love photographing their kids! They are an amazing couple with seven great kids (Mary, Teddy, Jack, Queen Elizabeth, Henry, William and Peter) and are some of my dearest friends. I just wish they still lived in Lexington.

One of my most embarrassing moments...

I wrote last night about how the sewing machine repair guy carried my sewing machine to my car but didn't give me the cord/pedal back and how I was inconvenienced. [I have since deleted that from yesterday's entry.]

Well, I confess. I found the cord/pedal in my back seat today. I emailed one of my friends that I was embarrassed about it and she wrote this back: you owe it to your blogging community to set the record straight.

So, I was wrong. Apologies to the sewing machine repair guy. And, I can start sewing like a mad woman.

Pick-up time

I took my Singer Stylist 776 to the sewing machine repair shop in South Boston on Wednesday (I left work early and barely got there before they closed). The repairman said my machine would be done on Thursday and I told him I'd be picking it up on Friday. My plan was to drive to work today and pick my sewing machine up during my lunch hour. The man at the repair shop called me at work this morning and said, "Could you come and pick it up?"

That comment reminded me of the summer my brother John and I ("the reds") visited our Pitchforth grandparents in Salt Lake City for a month. I have great memories of that summer though I do remember getting restless and running around the Bell Wines where they lived which did not go over well with the building manager (or our grandparents for that matter). We showed him--by leaving rocks in front of his door! One day we were in the basement with Grandpa Pitchforth while he was getting things out of his locker and we locked him in the locker. [I told this story to a friend once and they asked if it was an accident. I replied, "Two redheaded kids did not accidentally lock their grandpa in his own locker."] I believe it was that day that Grandmother Pitchforth picked up the telephone and called our mother/her daughter Nancy in California and said, "Could you come and pick them up?" And the next day our mom drove from L.A. to Salt Lake City to gather her sweet children and take them home.

Look what I just saw in the parking lot...

...I didn't take this picture...but I could have.

Where is this cool red barn you ask? On the road to Saratoga Springs, New York.

Summer Shack

I went to dinner with my coworkers tonight at Summer Shack. It's a noisy, fun, brown-paper-on-the-tables kind of place with great food.

"With the best lobster and corn dogs in the land, the Summer Shack is a family favorite." - Gourmet Magazine -

I debated over getting the fish sandwich and a few other items and ended up having a corn dog for dinner!

Sewing machine repair

[from the Boston Globe]

SOUTH BOSTON -- George Candora, 81, has had a sewing machine repair shop in Boston for more than sixty years. Elliot Sewing Machine Company started in Elliot Square in Roxbury, hence its name, then moved to Broadway in Boston. When the Mass Turnpike extension was built, he moved to Harrison Avenue, and now his three-story shop is located on West Broadway in South Boston. His nephew Edwin Pacheco works with him now in a shop crammed with more than 4,000 sewing machines, including a couple dating to the early 1800s. "Business is slow," Candora admits. He used to service all the city's factory machines, but "all the factories have moved to China." Pacheco pipes in, "Soon we're going to move to China too." Candora responded, "And we'll work for 50 cents an hour too." These days, they mainly work on home machines and sewing machines from cleaners and tailors and colleges.

(Globe Staff Photo / Suzanne Kreiter)

I cut this out of the Boston Globe a few months ago. I called today to see how much it would cost to have my sewing machine serviced. It will cost $45. Then I asked how long it takes. "You can pick it up the next day." Wow! That is amazing. I'm hoping to take my Singer Stylist 776 to the shop this week.

On the ottoman

Cora's parents hired me to take her birth, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month and one year photos. It's been really fun. When I did her first pictures I took some on their cool ottoman and decided to take some each time on the ottoman to see how big and grown up she gets. Well, I forgot at the 3-month photo shoot so I went back this morning to take some. Cora is an adorable, fun model!

The turbo trip to Maine

My coworker Diana said recently that she had never been to Maine so I told her I'd take her on the "Ellen Patton Tour of Maine". Today was the day! The weather was perfect and the only drawback was a little bit of nearing-the-tollbooth-traffic. This was our day:

--Shopped at L.L. Bean in Freeport (we were there almost 1.5 hours)
--Ate lobster rolls at Day's in Freeport (yum!)
--Visited the Bush compound in Kennebunkport
--Enjoyed blueberry pie at the Maine Diner in Wells
--A quick stop to do some antiquing in Ogunquit
--Bought taffy at Goldenrod in York Beach (and watched it being made in the window)
--Saw Nubble Light (lighthouse)
--Stopped at a farm stand to buy blueberries but the blueberries were from New Jersey (what?!?) so I bought cherries instead and Diana bought a peach and a tomato
--Shopped at the Crate & Barrel Outlet and Eddie Bauer Outlet in Kittery

and...we ended the day with dinner at Chick-Fil-A in the Burlington Mall!

P.S. We didn't see a moose. That was on our list too!

R.I.C.E.

A friend dropped by to return a book last night and I showed her my swollen ankle (from my July 3rd fall). She asked if I knew about the RICE method. It stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation: The RICE method often helps with many types of joint and muscle injuries. The method will ease pain and help speed recovery. The RICE method is very helpful if you use it right away after an injury.

Forget the Rest part of the method; I'm not good at resting. I have been icing my ankle at night with bags of frozen peas (they are nice and mushy in the morning). I've never owned an elastic bandage but will buy one tonight. And, I'm elevating my leg even as I type. Two out of four ain't bad.

Maybe tonight while I'm Resting, Icing, Compressing and Elevating I will eat rice cakes, rice-a-roni, or rice pudding.

Stinkin' cute

My friend adopted a baby girl last year. Now that the adoption is final, Olivia is going to be blessed this Sunday (that's Mormon for christening). I wanted to make her something and decided on the Swing Swing Smock from bend-the-rules SEWING. The fabric is from the Dick & Jane collection. I was eyeing it at The Fabric Place the other night and went back tonight and bought a yard. The picture doesn't really do it justice; it's so stinkin' cute. I wish I had my own little kid to model the smock but they wouldn't be up this late (or would they...) so I'll use the hanger instead. Now I want to make smocks for everybody under 2 feet tall!

7-11

It's 7-11 so I stopped by 7-11 tonight to get a Slurpee. Unfortunately they had already given away the 3 million FREE Slurpees celebrating the 80th birthday of 7-11 so I had to pay for it.

Oh thank heaven for 7-11.

Driving 22 miles to get an ice cream cone

Massachusetts has lots of yummy ice cream! I've heard about Richardsons for years but have never gone---until tonight. I went with my friend Mary Anne, her neighbor Denise, and Denise's daughter Holly Dolly. Oh, and their crazy dog "Ruggy" (real name: Rugby). I got a kiddie cone with peppermint stick and chocolate and it was really really good. Richardsons ice cream is creamy and reasonably priced-----well worth the 22 mile drive!

Letters from Belgium and France

My nephew is in the MTC and I've been wanting to dig up some of his dad's old missionary letters to share with him. I looked through 4 bins of old letters tonight and found a bunch of letters Robes sent to me while he was a missionary in the Belgium Brussels Mission. I also found a picture of Robes the day he entered the MTC in 1978 which I am going to send to Ian, I mean Elder Patton.

Ward Campout = rain and fun