To blog or not to blog

Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt. I, the founder of this blog, and have yet to post one meaningful blog. I am ashamed. Well, I thought I would post some pictures from the last little while and explain what Anna and I have been up to.



Morgan described his family Sabbath principle as "The more nude the better". That was the guiding principle for his after-church clothes. Well, Anna and I have adopted a principle to guide us in our summer activities: "We've only got 3 months of reasonably nice weather--we better make use of it". Last Sunday we went to Mount Auburn Cemetary to walk around. It's got a great view of Boston as seen above.



Yesterday we took a rare day off from the beach and went to a driving range. Anna borrowed mom's old clubs (I'm pictured carrying both them and my clubs) and did really well. For her first time ever hitting a ball, Anna's a natural. And then in the evening we went to a free production of Hamlet on the Boston Common (that explains all my phrases from the Prince of Denmark). It was a great performance and we had a lot of fun.



Well, I best be going. I've also included an older picture of me and Bennett in case Beth and Mo wanted a picture of Bennett with his uncle and because we need more Bennett pictures on this blog.

FORE!

I've just barely walked in the door from Fresh Pond Golf Course (there is a tournament at Oakley) and HAD to let you all know that I hit 53 on 9 holes. A first for me. (I participated in a tournament at Oakley on Wednesday - only the worst day of the summer in decades - and shot 64, just to give you a point of reference.) Dad had a bad round (he shot 50 - and I'm sure he'll appreciate me telling you) but a lot of fun for me.

The weather has finally broken - after some scorchers with high heat and humidity making the real temps over the 100 degree mark. Yuck. Today we are at moderate humidity and mid 80's. We call it a "Calgary" day. Maybe with my golf score it's down right paradisiacal! (ya that's spelled right).

The best day ever

It is the best day ever because today I woke up to realize that Bennett had slept for 9 and 1/2 hours. I took a picture so you all could see him after he had slept the most he's slept in his life. He consequently woke up. Coincidence?

Here are some other photos of the
little guy.

One is a bathing photo in which he is wearing his usual shocked expression and the other is of him in the gown he was blessed in (for those who couldn't attend, this is the same gown Morgan was blessed in). Can family members please e-mail all photos from Bennett's blessing day to me? I know there were a lot taken because I remember smiling for multiple cameras, but none of those cameras was ours!

Morgan says to tell you all that he would like to blog but hasn't been invited. He's starting to feel a little excluded . . .

Adventures in baby's breath

First off, I'd like to know who came up with the idea of calling baby's breath 'baby's breath.' As I learned from Bennet, a baby's breath does not nearly smell as nice as the little white flowers that all other flowers seem to love and adore. A baby's breath, or at least Benett's, smells like milk/spit up. Not pleasant.


Anyway, I just wanted to let y'all know that I made my first arrangement at work today. Tada!
The picture's a little green - bad lighting.

"Watertown Main Street Florist"

Despite the fact that I spend most of my hours driving around in my car delivering flowers instead of in the shop, my boss has given me a key. Apparently, compared to the obese and chronically late designer, I am a welcome and respected employee. My boss, Mary, is out of town for a few days and decided that I should open the store and forward calls for the shop to my cell phone after hours. So,when I get any call from a number I don't recognize, I have to answer, "Watertown Main Street Florist. Can I help you?" I'm a little wary about answering phone calls in the store, so why my boss thought I'd be up for this is beyond me. I can be a real retard on the phone.

Anyway, this morning I opened the store at 10 and read Harry Potter 6 for an hour before the next employee came in. It was kind of cool to have the whole store to myself. I could have had a hay-day in there - making bouquets left and right, burning all the Roots candles. Good thing I have a little of what I call 'impulse control.'

These are photos of the store. It's pretty cute.

A Good Day in Boston, astonishing!

Clarke and I had a great day on Saturday - perhaps our best Saturday in Boston, yet. Okay, I don't really "love" Boston, so maybe that is not such a big deal. But, Saturday is always my favorite day because I get to spend all of it with Clarke, we get to sleep in, and if it is nice, we usually go to the beach! I am training Clarke to be more of a Californian (aka beach bum) which will come in handy for Mazatlan. We have gone to the beach several times now and tried out many different beaches. Although, it's not the Pacific, I still have really enjoyed it. We had a great day with Laurie and Gordon and since Laurie already posted a picture of Clarke and I which is much more flattering than the up-close version, I will leave our picture out. However, this picture shows us a little more clean and clothed, at the Boston Public Garden. We walked through the Public Garden, which is so charming, on the way to eat at PF Changs. It was a beautiful night and warm enough and not too humid that we could eat outside on the patio. To add to the pleasure of being downtown, I did not have to ride the bus or the subway in (aka I did not have anyone's armpit in my face or high-heel on my foot). Besides, Clarke is the best date!

What is it about Palmyra?

I feel your pain, Heather. I seem to recall a vomiting episode in Palmyra too! Mom, can you confirm this memory. I remember sitting on a bench nearby the Sacred Grove while everyone else went and spent time there. I was more upset about missing out on the pizza and ice-cream everyone else was enjoying on the trip than missing seeing the landmark. Being sick while traveling is the worst. Nothing, however, tops the onion-tartlet induced episode on our Spain/France trip. I can't imagine a worse place to feel nauseated than that crazy Dali museum.

Glad to hear you're all having fun on the East coast. We've survived another Stampede (and I didn't have to dress Western once!) here. On Saturday we went down to the Sunalta (our old street) Stampede Breakfast. Our neices and nephews were wreaking havoc and ultimately banned from the petting zoo which featured baby bunnies, ducks, goats, kittens and a pony. Luckily (for the animals), it started raining so we headed in to my sister-in-law's place for ice-cream birthday cake for her son. We had Carolyn and Coy over for dinner that night (leftover lemonade cake for dessert) and enjoyed visiting with them into the wee hours of the morning.

I've lately been toying with the idea of starting a book club with friends and relatives here. Would the girls of the Low fam be interested in having an online contingent? This way we could discuss the book in advance of my book club meetings, and I'll be able to offer brilliant, pithy comments when the actual meeting comes. How do you all feel about making me look better to my friends? Oh, and I think it would be fun too.

While the parentals were playing cards

Heather and I, as mentioned in mom's blog, were in Palmyra this past weekend. We drove out Friday night; I was driving the honda and Heather was being an attentive and helpful shotgunner. The trip out took longer than expected as our car stopped at Denny's for a late breakfast and I got pulled over for speeding in my effort to compensate for lost time. Fortunately, I didn't get a speeding ticket - just a ticket for not putting my hazards on when the policeman pulled me over.

About 20 kids from the University Ward came out on Friday. Of those 20, I don't think many of us slept well first night. We got to the campsite around 1:30 and after setting up camp, I was way too tired to fall asleep. So, much to my fellow tent mates' chagrin, I was tossing and turning - trying to make our gravelly patch as comfy as possible. I don't think I slept more than 20 mins if at all. I woke up the crew (those who had slept - lucky bums) at 5:15 so that we could get to the sacred grove as the sun rose. It was a perfect time to go 'cause there were no crowds. I was able to go off on my own and experience the grove without another person in sight. For me, one of the best parts of going to the grove at this hour is the beautiful symbolism of the world being filled with light. Afterall, the sacred grove is where the Restoration began. The world was again being filled with the light of Christ.


For the rest of the day, most of us puttered around the campsite and enjoyed eachother's company. Heather and I didn't go to see any of the historical sites in the area. However, we did go to Hill Cumorah ar 7:30 to get seats to see the Pageant. It was raining cats and dogs at this point. So, we donned on plastic bags and hid under umbrellas. Let me tell you, though, that there is only so much that plastic bags and umbrellas can do to protect one against the elements. After sitting in the rain for about at hour, with 45 mins to go 'till the show even started, I opted to return to the campsite and stay somewhat dry. I saw the pageant two summers ago and it wasn't worth it for me to stay. When I got back to the campsite, I was the only one there and could re-charge my batteries a little before turning around to pick up those who had stayed.

I got some sleep Saturday night, though it was broken because Heather woke me up in the night because she was feeling sick. She got out of the tent just in time - our tent was vomit free. Poor Heather. On Sunday, I was able to drive the 6 hours home without a problem. Sunday afternoon, however, I slept like a log. And last night, I slept for 12 hours.

All in all, despite severe sleep deprivation, two very enthusiastic thumbs up for our weekend in Palmyra.

Fun in the Sun

On Saturday we went to Plum Island with Anna and Clarke (you can see them way off at the waters edge to the right of Gordon in the picture, ya that's right, the little stick people). It's about a 45 minute drive from our house and it was a perfect day - the temp at the beach was in the low 80's with a gentle breeze. We took our beach chairs, umbrella, a picnic lunch, books and even our small beach table so we could play cards. We stayed all afternoon - Gordon and Clarke were the only ones to actually enter the water. I was the only one to actually use a porta potty (because I didn't go into the water). We had a great time. (Amy and Heather went with the University Ward to Palmyra for the pagent - hopefully they'll have pictures). I took this picture with my camera phone (don't you love Gordon's "do") so it's official - no one is safe now!

Gordon and I had a "date" with Linda and Al Turco later. For about 3 years now we have gotten together once a month to have dinner and then play Whist (they taught us how to play this New England card game) and Rook (we taught them and frankly I think it's a much harder game). To put it nicely - we were awful. I think we played well - but I don't remember having such a run of bad cards in a long while. Every hand, both games. It reminded me of my Dad - who for years (literally) refused to play Rook because he kept getting bad cards. It's a good thing the company and food were good!

It's been very quiet without the girls here this weekend. Just a taste of what is to come in September. (Dad and I went the the Red Sox/Yankee game on Friday night - he went with Clarke on Thursday. They lost Thursday, won BIG on Friday ( 17 - 1, yawn) and lost Saturday afternoon. The bull pen is killing them.)

Bennett Blessing Reception

Burrito Babies

Familia,

Look at these burrito babies!

Creepy!

Though, I'm glad to see that Bennet as friends, even if they are plastic dolls.

Amy

Grandpa's Summer Vacation - Revised

After slaving at work for months (golfing with clients, sitting in meetings, reading thousands of emails, deleting hundreds of email messages, fighting with Billy Battleship, taking clients to sporting events), it was time to return to the "motherland" and see my family.

As soon as I arrived Laurie and I went down to Waterton to meet with the family at Waterton Park. It was really nice to see everyone, but the real delight was to get to know Anna, who was just a little toddler last time we saw her. She's grown and is an enthusiastic icing fan.

There are many good memories for Laurie and I in Waterton, where we each spent lots of time as children, not knowing each other. We walked up by Yahatinda, were we spent our short honeymoon 27 years ago.

One of our primary reasons for going to Canada was to see our new Grandson Bennett. Everyone loves Bennett, starting with Anna. Now this picture shows that Bennett, who started as 5 lb. small guy, has really packed the pounds in. He's grown to 15 pounds and has expanded in all directions geometrically. His mother wraps him tightly in a burrito like wrap so that he can't move his arms. She also plays white noise when she puts him down to sleep. It's supposed to simulate the noise in the womb, but it me the noise that's so loud that Bennet goes to sleep in defense. Beth is an attentive and very committed mother.

Next is Bennett's Grandma, who doesn't look old enough to be a grandma, but this picture is strategically taken to reinforce that assertion. Now a summer vacation is a time to relax, sleep in and have a good time. One of the challenges of summer vacations with Bennett's Grandma is that she wakes up at the crack of dawn and tries to wake everyone up to go for a walk. She roused me from bed a couple of times to do this. It's always fun to walk and talk with Laurie, but it's not the easiest way to wake up. Grandma is getting older now and uses two walking sticks to keep her from falling during her walks. She claims that she uses them to simulate cross country skiing. While she was tempted several times to stick one of the metal poles into the spokes of a passing bicycle to "see what happens", fortunately she restrained herself, and was not charged with asault.


Here's an old guy who also had to get into the action. His hair is getting gray and he weighs to much, so I don't really recognize him. He shot his best nine ever at Waterton, a 38, but followed up with his worst nine of the year 55. He was successful in getting out golfing on every available day except 1. He played at Waterton with Gary and Murray, and with Laurie the next day, at a challenging Springbank Links in gail force winds with Uncle John, at Earl Gray with Uncles John and Gary and competed in the Low Family reunion McGrath tournament with Uncle Coy.

We had a wonderful dinner at the top of the Calgary Tower, overlooking the city at dusk and the Stampede Fireworks. Heather is holding Bennett, just before a shakey handoff to Grandpa accross the table.

We're Back!!

This is my first entry ever. After weeks of reading Wendie's family blog I've been bitten by the blogging bug. I think this will be a great way to stay in touch with Beth, Morgan and Bennett - and a great way to share pictures of Bennett. He's the most interesting one of us to look at anyway. Well, at least he's the one who is changing the fastest.

Thanks to Clarke for walking me through the process. I know, it shouldn't be that hard (and it wasn't) I just needed someone to hold my hand. Next I'm going to learn how to download pictures from my camera ... and then my phone ... and then no one is safe!

Bye.

This is a test.

I'm just making sure that we can add new users to the blog.