Hey, new look for the blogger dashboard. Which means I haven't posted or even TRIED to post since August 14th when, apparently, is when they updated it.

Big doings on the lake today....seven hundred swimmers, some lifeguards, two scuba divers (that pond is deep, yo) - the end of summer triathlon. The last of the triathletes has just swum by... this year's viewing was made all that much more pleasurable by the fact that my husband cooked french toast and sausage for breakfast and brought it down to the pond.

We're packing up the car and heading to New Hampshire for fourish days. Enjoy your week!

Husband: Hey, we saw groundhog at the tennis courts the other day.

Me: A big groundhog? Like a Puxatawney Phil groundhog?

Girlie: Well, maybe not a groundhog....Maybe it was a quahog!

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FedEx phone guy: So, you're shipping from zip code 21356?

Me: Nope, *gives correct zip code*

FedEx guy: Darn it, I thought I had Massachusetts memorized?

Me: You have to memorize the zip codes?!?!

Him: Yeah, we're supposed to know the whole country but...

Me - interupting: What?! Hey, I hope FedEx is paying you well over there, Rainman.

Him: I'm totally lying to you.

Me: Ack! You totally had me!

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Husband's Work Friend: So they wanted me to work with P. at the job site but I turned them down. I told them that the last time P. has put in a hard day's work the Dead Sea had just gotten sick.

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Husband's Work Friend as he gets off the phone with his ex wife - to my husband: Don't ever have an Ex.

Me: Oh, he'll never have an ex but he may have a widow.

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The FedEx guy just called me back and asked me to bring up the website. So I click around and watch it start loading.

Him: Sorry to do this to you, I know you're busy with the phones and whatnot.

Me: That's okay but I hope you've got awhile. I'm on dial-up.

Him: HUGE pause, then - Um, oh. Okay.

Me: Gotcha.

Him: AHHHHH! Payback for the zipcodes! Well played.

I wish I had tales to tell but seriously? We've been just around. Not spectacularly busy but I just haven't gotten around to posting.

However I am completely and totally exhausted.

A word to the wise....if you decide to place multiple holds at the library - all at the same time- for, say, Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica and Big Love - be prepared to watch a helluva lot of tv after your kids are in bed. Why I can't just return them unwatched I don't know. But I've been up far too late every night for the past two weeks.

Like two a.m. too late.

Other accomplishments?

I am this close to being a tennis pro on the Wii.

I've started thinking about embroidery and knitting again.

Made reservations to take the kids camping for a few days in New Hampshire.

I bought glue sticks and pencils for back-to-school.

I made this shrimp the other night and it was a huge hit.

*yawn* Three more episodes of Big Love and I'm home free!

Fenway, from Yawkey way. For five extra dollars I parked on Yawkey Way, a stone's throw from the gate. You can almost see my car from here. I'll tell you, that was - quite possibly - the BEST five bucks I've ever spent. Five minutes from the car to our seats. And traffic? ZERO. Also, no sweaty T ride with five thousand other Sox fans trying to get out of Dodge. Lesson: if you're going to pay thirty dollars to park? Pay thirty five. And Jacoby sure does look like he put on a few pounds, doesn't he?

We were there early enough to get in some batting practice. The Angels' right fielder, whose name I won't even bother to look up because I could care less? Ass. He'd field ball after ball and end up with three or four. Then, he'd pretend like he was going to throw one up to the kids in the stands and he'd turn and throw it in. Nice. Still though, the park is beautiful. And my girl?
She was fabulous. FAB. U. LUSS. Really, I know I said I wasn't all that thrilled to be taking her but she surprised me in the best way possible. We bought some chick hats on the way in (baby blue for her, lavender for me) to celebrate the lack of boys. And while she yelled "Right here, Right here!" and held out her glove at BP I scanned the park for our section/seats. Here's the view. The only trouble? Once you sit here there ain't no going back to right field. Well, maybe there's some going back but I'll be pouty and mad the whole way.

Gratuitous Mike Lowell shot for Dawn.

First Fenway Frank. She spent the better part of three innings tracking the cotton candy man and taking inventory of his supply. There were probably five thousand people between him, with his two bags of cotton candy left, and us and she's trying to get his attention - worried that he'll sell out before he gets to us. Which, of course, he did. And when he came back up in the stands with his fresh supply, she nearly jumped out of her seat. And then she got a bag...had three bites...and decided that she didn't really like it. And contrary to all previous girlie ball game behavior? She didn't ask for another thing and then sat back and enjoyed the evening.

Ciao, Manny. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Not that I didn't love me some Manny Ramierez...but pre-Dodgers trade? Insufferable. Hearing some of the things that his Red Sox teammates were saying though? Interesting. Like the fact that he showed up at ball games late and was benched (even though we might have been told it was a hamstring ) and the fact that he recently moved his locker from the back of the clubhouse (outside the reaches of the press) to the area with the rest of the team - insuring he'd have an audience for his sound bites.

Anyway, we saw his last game in a Sox uniform and like many of his recent appearances...yawn.

The Sox lost...and they lost big. And much like the last time I went, which strangely enough was two years ago to the very day, the score matters so little when you're there, doing the wave and singing some Neil Diamond.