The bell tolls ...

37 times at 8am and 19 times at noon. Anyone know the significance of that?

Back in May, J and I started hearing church bells. We put two and two together and realized they were coming from our Catholic Church across the street--the church where Eugene Levy is the pastor. How nice, we thought, they must have fixed their bell. Now 2 months later, we realize the bell-repair-person must have experienced a layoff, or maybe we missed a class in Catholic School.

The bells might just be possessed. We've been scratching our heads trying to figure out the bell patterns. The bell dongs at 8am 37 times. Yes, 37 times. That's not even military time. That's simply 37+ seconds of sleep that I miss out on. The bell also seems to dong around 19 times at noon. The dongs do not really follow a consistent pattern, so I always lose count. Just when I think it's over, here comes another DONG.

The bells also play nice church songs, like Amazing Grace, but that's random too. Then one time, we thought we might have heard a Pink Floyd at 6pm. This really can't be right.

Maybe if I attended the Church of Eugene Levy in the past 2 months (I've been to church, people, just not that church), I could figure out the mystery. But until then ... dong ... dong ... ... ... dong ... dong ... dong ... ... ... ... ... ... dong. You get my drift?

Hell froze over

What did you do for Independence Day? Did you help your husband with his big community event that required manual labor, willingness to get up close and personal with garbage and about 20 hours of your time?? I did! I did! Though it was all tiring, I'm not complaining really. J does a great job and I love to see him in action in his job. The community loves him and you can tell. I don't blame them ... And of course the weather didn't cooperate, but we all made the best of it.

We got to recuperate on Sunday by boating on Lake Winnipasaukee. Every time we go out on the lake, it's a different experience. Sunday was no exception. We had blue skies and no rain during our 30-hour reprive of crappy weather, but it was still super windy and choppy. We were glad we weren't driving the boat this time.

So who were we out on the lake with??? NHBound and Mouth, who are newly engaged!!!! I know, I know. It's only been nearly 8 years since they've been together. I think it must be a cold day in hell.

Mouth was the only "brave" one to get in the water. J was considering it until he heard Mouth scream like an 8-year-old girl when he jumped in. That sealed the deal for him ...

And J and Mouth insisted on cuddling in the front of the boat on the way back home. They just about froze their nuts off!!

Phoenix Wrap-up

I survived the heat, and the best way to describe the visit is with a mosaic! Lots of GNOs, work stuff, babies and tortoises! Did I mention it was HOT???

PS - Happy Birthday America!!!

30+ degrees of separation

Blogging from Phoenix for the next few days and I went from this:

to this:

Internet, don’t let anyone tell you Phoenix has a dry heat. It is M-F H.O.T. here. The best way to describe it is to put a pillow over your mouth and try to breathe.

I lived here for 4 years. I biked to work for one year. I trained for two half marathons during the summers. I hiked mountains on a weekly basis here. I seriously don’t know how I did it. There’s a medical myth that your blood thins when you live in a warm environment. That’s not it. It’s just your heat tolerance, just like a tolerance you build up for alcohol. When I lived here, my heat tolerance on a scale from 1-10 was probably a 9.5. Now, it’s a 5!

I had a company meeting today, but last night after I flew in, I went to church at St. Gregory’s and out to Hamburger Works with my S-G peeps. It amazes me how much this community makes me feel so much “at home” even after all these years. Each of these people had a great significance in my life. We do not keep in touch regularly and see each other even less, but that’s okay. The bond is still there.

Sunday was a significant day for St. Greg’s. For those of you who aren’t Catholic, you may not understand this jibberish. But the Holy Cross order took over St. Greg’s from the diocese right when I moved out to Phoenix through the Holy Cross Associate volunteer program in 2000. Holy Cross often comes into parishes like that. It’s an interesting concept, but I can tell you from experience that it makes a world of difference. The Holy Cross order is da bomb in my opinion. I can’t even begin to tell you the significant role they played in my own life. Anyways, Holy Cross is leaving St. Greg’s after 9 years. It’s sad, but the parish is strong now and the community will most definitely keep it at the caliber it is now.

I'll blog again soon as long as I don't melt here.

Olde New England Brewfest

Our day started with a lobster hangover. With so much to do in NH, we wanted to make the most of the day before hitting the beerfest. So we settled on Franconia Notch State Park. TheHoss and Accessory were impressed. We looked and looked for the Old Man in the Mountain, but he was still missing. Guess we are 6 years too late ... After filling up on yummy food at Woodstock Brewery, we headed over to the Old New England Brewfest in Lincoln. And it did not disappoint. I was DD, but it was still a really fun atmosphere. By the end of the night, the rest of them probably had about 30-40 beers each (okay, they were only 3 ounces). Good beer and we met some cool people too. J and theHoss had a competition to see whose t-shirt would get more comments and Duck Tales Woo Hoo beat out More Cowbell. Our visitors leave tomorrow (along with me for a business trip) and we are visitor-free for at least 2 weeks. We won't know what to do with ourselves!!! I'll leave you with picture of the rainbow at Brewfest..

J & P's B&B

After J's mom left on Tuesday, more visitors came on Wednesday! Seriously, this is great practice for the B&B we hope to open someday ...

TheHoss returned to NH for Jimmy Buffet take 2. There were many differences this year compared with last year.

For one, the Hoss brought his GF, Accessory. He also didn't sleep through the whole concert. As for me, I did not puke and pass out while tailgating. It also wasn't as hot as last year. Because, remember, we haven't seen the sun pretty much this whole month. Although the rain ceased for the day, there were reprecussions. The lawn was m.u.d.d.y! Being one of the non-drunkards out of the group, it was quite amusing to watch as every other person ate it, especially when their newly purchased $9 Bud Light disappeared. There was this one, holy cow, even if he tried, he couldn't pull the stunt he did. A faceplant, followed by a 100-yard dash and turn on his stomach.

The concert was really good, but again, the tailgating is where it's at. Grilling out. Cornhole. Jello shots in syringes (we had this one woman seriously convinced that we got them from the HIV clinic). We do it right.

Tomorrow, we're going to a Beerfest (just what the boys need. More drinking). Oh, and you'll just never guess what we had for dinner???

Who needs sunshine?

Despite the threat of rain all weekend, J and I decided we desperately needed some QT with nature, so we opted for an easy paddle on Saturday at Hopkinton Lake & Stumpfield Marsh. It was marvelous. I think Mother Nature and I have kissed and made up. Okay, maybe not. Sunday was supposed to be rock climbing. But it's a little hard to climb in the rain ...
Also, do we resemble circus people? Cause that's what we were going for with this look. Yep, another dance on Saturday night.