26 February 2011

Sand Plains Index show #1...

...at least for me. I recently joined Michael, Brooke, Nathan, and Tom's newish band. We played for an art opening right around the corner from our apartment, at the Rendezvous


We moved some tables so we could play in the middle of the bar, as opposed to the usual end of the bar. No microphones, just our (and others') songs played to a hushed crowd. We played...

1. the grenville shore (instrumental)
2. need (Nathan's song)
3. in my time of dying (traditional)
4. american fields (Michael's song)
5. my donal (traditional)
6. bring it on home to me (Sam Cooke)
7. a horse and a sigh (Nathan)
8. better life through chemistry (Michael & Nathan)

And it was so fun.

12 February 2011

Cutest fortune cookie ever


Who wouldn't love a little anthropomorphizing of a fortune cookie fortune.

From New Golden China in South Deerfield.

01 February 2011

Alfie Metivier, 2005-2011


Soon after Michael and I moved into our apartment in South Deerfield in early 2006, we started searching for a buddy for our guinea pig Thelma. PetFinder searches were aplenty, and we eventually stumbled upon the Critter Connection guinea pig rescue in Connecticut. From their online listings, we settled on an orange guinea pig named Sarge. He had been left in a cardboard box, outside a church in Baltimore on Christmas Eve, along with around 30 other guinea pigs.  He had a strong personality, which we thought would be a good mix with ever-senile Thelma.

After a trip to the IKEA in New Haven for a some shopping and a little hanging-out with Michael's college friend Becky, we headed north to the rescue. We drove up a long driveway and were greeted by Cindy, who led us through a gate and into her house which serves as the rescue. We headed down some stairs into a cozy, warm basement being heated to the piggies' content with a wood stove.

Cindy took us over to Sarge's cage and explained that he had recently flown out of his cage and onto the floor and needed a little bit of healing time before he could go out for adoption. Then, she took a different orange pig out of a nearby cage and handed him to me. His name was Alfie. He had been in the same cardboard box as Sarge, and was much cuter in person than he had been in his PetFinder picture. As soon as Cindy handed him to me he snuggled right into my winter coat. He was sweet and needy. It didn't take us long to decide to adopt him.

Cindy set us up with some veggies for the car ride home and sent us on our way.

Since then we've had a lot of adventures with him. He saw us go from a dating couple to a married couple. He was with us through a few different jobs apiece. He was with us for our move from South Deerfield to Turners Falls. We spent our first married Christmas helping him recover from an intensive surgery to remove an abscess from his jaw. He recovered like a champ, but couldn't quite recover from his last illness. We'll both miss him a lot and will always have a little Alfie-sized hole in our hearts.