Birthday 2006

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. I turned 33 on Sunday. A bunch of us went to see Deep Sea (3D) at Jordan's Furniture in Reading and had lunch at Fuddruckers on Saturday. We also played a fun duck game. The movie was great. I highly recommend seeing it if you can. The food at Fuddruckers was good, but we had some issues making a reservation. They were going to charge me $3.00 per person to make a reservation...we decided to not do this and play it by ear...and it worked out perfectly. The duck game rocked. I even won a stuffed duck. As you can see...it was an intense game.

The rest of my weekend was fun too. Brenda took me to eat at Garden of Eden and we went for a walk around Castle Island. I love the mac-n-cheese at Garden of Eden. Sunday I had breakfast with my dad and then went to Woodman's in Essex with Brenda, Mom and Russ. The line at Woodman's was insane...and it was hot, but it was worth the wait. After lunch we had some yummy Carvel ice cream cake. Thanks Mom and Russ. I love the chocolate crunchies. We spent the late afternoon at the farm getting our share and picking strawberries. That night Brenda made me some amazing strawberry shortcake with the berries we picked. Overall it was a wonderful birthday. Thanks to everyone who made my weekend special.

On another positive note. My Mom went to the doctor today. They said her tests came back and they look great. She is still cancer free. Yee haw! It has been two years since the surgery where they put her back together. Doctors used to say that people with colon cancer who went for five years without it coming back were not likely to have it return. They now say that folks need to be cancer free for five years. Reason being that the medications they now use are stronger and stick around longer. Two years down...three more to go. I'm hopeful that she will continue on a healthy path.

Happy Pride

Happy Pride! Just a fyi...the Pride Parade and Festival will be delayed by 1 hour in Boston tomorrow. The parade is now starting at 1:00 p.m. in Copley Square. The festival will go from 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. on the Boston Common. Read more about it at the Boston Pride. Looking forward to seeing y'all!

Save NPR and PBS

This just in from my friend Lisa G.......

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:
http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time.

This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.

The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at:
http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Boston Globe story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1864

Memorial Day Weekend 2006

We had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend in Provincetown. We got there mid-day on Friday and stayed until Monday afternoon. We stayed at Howard's End Guest House which is close to the monument and a good place to sleep if you are looking for quiet and affordable accomodations. We spent some time with other friends who were in Provincetown for the weekend. We went to Tea Dance at the Boatslip. Tea Dance at the Boatslip is nice because their deck is bigger than the Pied's and looks out over the ocean. We also spent quite a bit of time at the Clem and Ursies Happy Hour. Clem and Ursies has a happy hour from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. where they sell $1.00 oysters and shrimp. I don't eat seafood, but their watermelon lemonade is quite tasty. We had breakfast one day at Tips for Tops'n which is a local diner with standard american fare mixed in with some portuguese specialties. We had pizza at George's. I like George's because it is open year round and consistent. We also consumed a lot of espresso shakes and pizza at Spiritus. I love their espresso shakes so much that I am often tempted to drive all the way from Boston to Provincetown just to get one. We ate dinner at Cafe Edwige one night. Cafe Edwige is the only higher end restaurant I have eaten in Provincetown (other than Gallerani's) where I had no complaints. Edwige is definately worth a trip. We stopped into the new Bacchanal Wine Bar at the Vixen one night. I think this is going to be a nice place once they work out some of the new business kinks. They only offer an extremely expensive port by the glass, they notified us that the plumber hadn't been able to get there yet and the only thing I could order on the menu was water etc. We went for walk one morning. There is something wonderful about the early morning quiet of Commercial Street. We tried renting a skiff (16' wooden boat with a quipped wth 8 HP outboard motor) at Flyers Boats . Well...we did rent it, but had to turn around quickly when I realized that I was having a hard time driving straight. They were good to offer us four round trip Long Point shuttle tickets in return. It was an adventure. We laugh now. On Sunday Brenda's friend Janet came to spend the day with us. She took the Fast Ferry from Boston to Provincetown. I love the Fast Ferry. It gets you there in an hour and a half. You cannot beat it. We hung out downtown, went to Happy Hour at Clem and Ursies (I said we spent quite a bit of time here right?), and went for a walk on the dune trails at the ProvinceLands Visitor Center. The trails are nice there, but I wouldn't suggest exploring in the woods. We saw a lot of poison ivy. Unfortunately we had to head back to Boston on Monday, but we did get a chance to spend some time at the beach on our way out of town.