Greetings from Tougas in the Rain

My Wednesday was all pre-travel chores interspersed with a couple of online chats -- two of my high school friends in the early afternoon, and Cel and Laurie in the late afternoon, with the latter of whom I finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (hamster wheel!). 

The only other things I watched were sports around visiting with our cat-sitter, hunting down my travel chargers, and sorting my clothes. The football season has officially started but the Seahawks already have too many injuries! Animals and apples in the rain at Tougas Farm:

Greetings from Fenway and Kimball's

Quick post after our second Red Sox game in as many weeks -- it was both KPop Demon Hunters Day, with Huntr/x and Saja Boys jerseys for fans with special tickets and some decorations like at Heated Rivalry Night, and David Ortiz football jersey giveaway day, meaning that we went home with two new shirts apiece. We also got to see a really fun game in which Duran and Rutschman both homered, the latter hitting Pesky's Pole at over 112 mph, plus Bello pitching a good game and several other players getting hits, knocking the Angels out of postseason contention. 

We had sandwiches and fries at the stadium plus an excellent hot pretzel, and we stayed for the whole game plus the post-game hugs and high fives. Then we walked back to the car and drove to Kimball Farm in Lancaster, where we met Adam, Haley, both her sisters and their husbands, and her parents plus her father's parents to get ice cream for her father's birthday. We all had large scoops and sundaes, then we came home, fed the cats, and we're watching more of Marble Hall Murders while I sort photos of Red Sox players and Kpop fans.

Greetings from Tougas Farm

We went in late morning to meet Adam and Haley at Tougas Family Farm to pick apples. We went to see the goats and guineafowl, then we rode one of the tractors out to the orchard, where we picked honeycrisps and had just arrived at the ginger golds when it started to rain very heavily. We ran for the information tent along with about 50 other people until the rain let up, picked some more apples, and walked back to the center of the farm, which is having a Jimmy Buffet tribute weekend with music and nautical decorations for the end of summer.

 

We stopped at Shaw's on the way home -- it was very cold in the store because we were wet from the rain -- and put on some college football around various chores, though the main game I cared about was later (the Terps won 62-0, though that game wasn't televised here on anything we can watch). Paul made apple cider chick'n for dinner, then we watched the Red Sox-Orioles before 9 to 5, which Disney+ put into the lineup after airing it on ABC last week; I hadn't seen it since it was in the theater in the 80s and remembered none of the details!

Greetings from Spencer

Quick post because after an early lunch and late-morning appointment for the new covid and flu shots, we went to the Spencer Fair for most of the day! We met cows and alpacas and saw chicks hatching, we watched a magic show, we ate healthy things like a fried snickers bar, fried mozzarella sticks, and ice cream, we saw bees making honey in a craft barn with pottery and crocheted clothing. 

We went to a two-hour concert by a local yacht rock group, Below Deck, at which I knew every word of every song (there was some Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston as well as "The Pina Colada Song" and "All Night Long"). We got home, had chicken soup for dinner, and watched the Red Sox beat the Orioles before the Silo season finale, and now we're watching this week's Dark Matter.

Greetings from Fitchburg and Worcester

Sunday was another gorgeous day. Adam's brother-in-law Sagar, who is training for a marathon, wanted to run a 5K with his friends for his birthday, so we went over there to offer cheering and dog-walking, though Pepper only made it 1K before she had had enough so we went back to hang out with Hildy and Tom plus others who did not want to run a 5K. There were snacks and eventually pizza and cake, so it was a lovely morning. 

It was also Pokemon Community Day, so Paul and I went to the Fitchburg State campus and then Elm Park, where I caught a bunch of shiny Nickits and saw many geese and ducks. We got home in time for the end of the rain-delayed Red Sox game, then we ate dinner and watched the new Lanterns, which I liked but I'm hardly enough of a Green Lantern fan for my opinion to count. Now it's more of the Worcester-hating Kevin Can F Himself.

Greetings from Phillipston

We had absolutely perfect weather on Saturday. We thought we were going to Gloucester for a festival and to meet a friend I haven't seen since high school, but it turned out he had relatives visiting and I had the wrong day for the event, so instead of the long drive east, we went to Red Apple Farm for their sunflower festival. There were, as expected, two big fields of sunflowers, and also early apples and pumpkins, live music on multiple stages, local craft tents, apple cider donut sundaes, bees and finches in the flowers, and goats, donkeys, and bunnies out greeting visitors while begging for food.

 

We stopped at Shaw's on the way home, then switched back and forth between the Orioles and Red Sox around dinner (they both won, though it was a near thing for the Orioles and the Sox were only up by one until the ninth). Then we watched Office Romance, the Jennifer Lopez-Brett Goldstein rom-com with a cast (Bradley Whitford, Tony Hale, Amy Sedaris, Edward James Olmos, Michelle Hurd) that's vastly better than the screenplay, but it's worth watching to hear Betty Gilpin (playing very on type) and Jodie Whittaker (very not on type) snark at everyone they come into contact with; not good if you hate cringe though!

Greetings from Polar Park

Another quick post because we got home late after tonight's Woosox game, which we decided to go to this morning so we headed out to Polar Park when Paul got home from Boston. There was a forecast for some rain but that lasted maybe 45 seconds, and otherwise it was a magnificent not-too-warm evening. We parked a few blocks away, walked to the stadium, I got a quite-good Beyond Burger and fries with (of course) Polar cola, we ate it during the national anthem and Puerto Rican Heritage Night events with Roberto Clemente's son. 

The Woosox were playing the Buffalo Bisons. Gage Ziehl, who pitched last week when Adley Rutschman was catching, was the starter. Unfortunately the home team only led for one inning and lost 6-2 (not as bad a night as the Red Sox had, they lost 8-4; at least the Orioles won), but we got to sing "Sweet Caroline" and watch mascot races and t-shirt tossing and, after the game, there was an excellent karaoke fireworks show mostly to 80s and 90s music. We got home just in time to save the cats from starvation, and now we're watching this week's Silo.