Gah! Holidays Again!

This has been such a super busy, crazy, kinda bad year for me and a lot of my loved ones. I feel sorta fortunate for living on the street in Waltham with the craziest Christmas display. There is a caravan of minivans that go up my street from sunset til 10. And, all I have to do is step out on my porch and see the beauty!

My 11 year old's son's best friend's dad calls it "beastly." It is a tad garish, but so's my tree.

I do not approve of pure white lights and matching decorations for the sake of making your house look like a magazine. Ok, I do. It's fine and beautiful, but my house is bursting at the seams with two boys who prefer colors over neutrality :)

I am quite looking forward to the holidays this year. I'm co-director of a UU pageant at my church which is so wonderfully chaotic......I can't wait to see how it turns out. I can't wait to see my folks in WV the day after Christmas. I can't wait for 2010.

Student Philanthropy in Waltham

A philanthropy class at Brandeis lets students choose worthy nonprofits to give money to.

Waltham Tour Guide

This new tour guide feature coming out of google labs is so awesome. You can enter any city (In this case, I entered Waltham, of course) and it will be your tour guide. This tour guide even tells you what to do ON EACH DAY!!! Will virtual tour guides supplant actual ones? Well, since I don't really know of any Waltham tour guides (except that boat tour outfit at the Moody Street dock) other than this lovely blog, this is a good place to start. If you use this Waltham tour guide tool will you give me some feedback? Is it too much for one day? Thanks!

Cheap Things to do Around Waltham This Summer

I'm totally posting a link to this story in the Herald that gives us a great list of cheap things to do in the Waltham area this (or any) summer.

Waltham Bicycle Track

Who knew? There used to be a bicycle racing track that was a big hit in the early 20th century near South Street. This "velodrome" attracted 10,000+ people to each bicycle racing event. I guess it was kind of like a pre-automobile NASCSAR race. Check it out.

Waltham Watch Factory in the News

The old Waltham Watch Factory is being turned into offices/residences (I thought it already had been). Check it out here.

Waltham Ham - A - Rama

Every year at about the same time a pepto-bismal pink colored sign for the "Ham - A - Rama" materializes at major Waltham intersections. I'm not sure exactly what this intriguing event is, but I figure it involves eating lots of ham. What makes it a "Ham - A -Rama" though, instead of just a ham dinner? I wish I knew.

I guess I better check it out some time.

Waltham Farmer's Market

It's that time of year again. Time for the Waltham Farmer's Market. The parking lot behind the bank at the intersection of Moody and Main transforms into a bustling urban-ish outdoor market each Saturday.

Aside from fresh, local fruits, veggies, flowers eggs, homemade cheese, bread, pastries and oh man, I'll just stop there, there is usually a performance around 11:30 ish by a local band. Also, local craftspeople have begun selling their goods like handblown glass at the Waltham Farmer's Market.

The farmer's market is an important part of Waltham civic life. It's right next to the common and across from the library. And, it's at the head of Moody Street, for which Waltham is probably best known. It's also across the street from Waltham's Cafe on the Common (excellent fair trade coffee & ice tea, pastries & more) and next door ice cream shop. You could really center a day around this.

Also cool:

• Senior citizens get a discount
• The vendors accept WIC coupons
• Leftover produce is donated to food pantries.

I've moved 3 times within the city of Waltham and I'm always delighted to run into old neighbors here. I've also signed lots of petitions and had lots of free ice cold water. Check it out this year. You won't be disappointed.

This year the market runs from June 13 through November 7.

Little Acadia - Waltham, MA

I have always idealized Quebec. I don't know why. I guess it is because its frenchness just makes me feel like it must be a very civilized and cultured chunk of Europeishness that I can drive to. I've never been to Europe, so Quebec is probably the closest I'll get for a while.

My only real brush with Quebec was a few years ago when my husband and our not yet one year old and seven year old were driving to northern Michigan from Waltham. We were going to go through Canada since that was the most direct route. Please reference google maps and type in "waltham, ma to traverse city, mi" for a visual of what came next. We left Waltham at about 3 a.m. and ended up in Quebec around 11 a.m. We first called husband's mom and said "we're in Quebec! It's so funny! Everyone speaks French" She was like, "that's great." Then we called my dad and said the same thing to which he replied a very similar sentiment.

We merrily continued our journey, stopping at subway to get a le b.l.t. I had to order. It went like this "le blt si vous plait?" "quoi?" "le tomate, le lettuce et le bacon sur la pain, si vous plait." They were confounded by my le bacon....le jambon? le porc? le quoi? Well, whatever they gave me, at least husband ate it. Then I tried to practice my amazing french at a gas station. Bon jour. Merci. They were like: good bye. you're welcome.

Toronto, which we were supposed to be going through, kept getting further away as we kept driving. Finally, we decided to consult our map and realized WHOA! WTF are we doing in Quebec? We are supposed to be about 500 friggin miles west of here and 200 south. SOMEONE wasn't reading the map properly somewhere around northern NY. Thanks mom in law! Thanks dad! If we had spoken to my mom and his dad, we probably would still be deaf from them yelling "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN QUEBEC!" Oh well, surely there was some lesson learned there.

At any rate, this whole post was born tonight because I worked the little league "shack" (concession stand) with a true Acadian, which Waltham is chock full of. She was from New Brunswick and grew up with french as her first language. She also married a Waltham townie. I also learned that a. Waltham is full of Acadians (she said she could point out at least 12 outside of the shack, which is a pretty small area) and b. that New Brunswisk is actually the only province in Canada with 2 official languages: french and english. I thought Quebec's national language, or at least one of them had to be French. But non! Ce n'est pas vrai! C'est englais! WTF!

Anyway, I still believe that Quebec (but not the parts we saw so much) must be a very cultured and refined place brimming with tradition and elegance. For that reason (and many more) I'm glad to have my own little Acadia here in Waltham.