What's been going on!

Wesley is now 4 weeks old and this month has gone by so quickly!   His sleeping has varied but it’s about 3 hours at a time, which is pretty good.  I realize that Kate is the one that is suffering the most sleep wise as I’m at work at night and when I get home she lets me sleep.  I’m sure once Kate goes back to work there will be further adjustments that will be necessary.

He’s such a handsome boy!  I love his facial expressions, yes I know they are mostly involuntary.  He has this one where he looks so concerned.  We’ve taken him a couple places he has been so good.  Kate’s friend Andrea came over the snag a couple photos and there was some really nice ones but the one above is my favorite!

In non-Wesley related news:

Canaan took 4^th place at the Boy Scout’s Pinewood Derby.  Not too shabby!  We found a car design on line and had it cut out at a pack meeting.  Bob helped hallowing out the bottom to make room for the weights and he cut the head off a large bolt that made up good portion of it.  Canaan painted the car himself.  I wasn’t able to go because Wesley was being born.  But I’m hoping to watch the video that Jessica recorded of it.

Canaan also just started his second year of Gardiner Cal Ripken Minor League Baseball, he’s on the blue team coached by CJ Elliott and they have adopted the nickname the Blue Diamonds.

Addison is doing well in dance.  Her recital is on May 16^th if anyone wants to go tickets are just $15, Money due by April 23^rd.

The three of us took a day trip on April 14^th to Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde.  It was such a beautiful day and the weather was just perfect.  It was nice walking on the rocky shore and I got some fantastic photos.  There was no one else there until it was time to leave.  So glad we went, Kate was itching to get out of the house and I was itching for a nice day drive.

We stopped for a slice of pie at Moody’s eating it in the van so as not to disturb the sleepy guy in the back.  A quick stop at Morse’s sauerkraut where we found the delicious 7 year aged Old Quebec cheese that we had on our honeymoon.  The $20 a pound price tag deterred us from buying it, but we at least know where we can get it now.   We got a pound of kraut for Kate’s mom and I got some sour mustard pickles.  Kate said it really reminded her of The Mouse Trap, a place she worked at in Kentucky.  I too was surprised what they offered inside, especially considering its location!

I recently submitted a story to Level Best Books for their annual anthology.  I also have one that I submitted last September to another anthology that I should be hearing from anytime now.  I’m not going to lie I’m getting a bit anxious having not heard from them in so long.  I’m really hoping one of these 2 stores gets accepted.

I have a new blog that I started, and I even paid the $12 to register the domain name.  It’s called the Wrestling Insomniac and it’s all about wrestling.  As you all know I love professional wrestling and I really want to be involved somehow.  Writing this blog entertains me and is fun for me.  If something comes it, then awesome, if it doesn’t then that’s cool too!  It’s been up and running since March 1^st and I’ve already gotten almost 1000 views so it’s a start.  www.thewrestlinginsomniac.com

 

and perhaps you could like the page on Facebook to increase my like count.  Thanks. 

If I haven’t mentioned it yet, let me please mention that I Fat Boy Drive In opened March 19^th and I had my first whoper burger of the season on the 22^nd.  I’m a magnet guy as far as I like to collect magnets of places that I have been, I don’t want people buying me magnets.  That way I can look at my fridge and me reminded of the fun places I’ve been. 

Not the current sign but the basis for the magnet, I like this sign better than the current

 Anyhow Fat Boy has never had a magnet, t-shirt, hats, bottle opener (I bought one), prints, a key chain flashlight this year, but never magnets.  While standing in line for my burger I posted a photo on Instagram and while exploring the hash tag fatboy I came across people holding these cool looking magnets of the Fat Boy sign. 

So I messaged on of the people who had one and long and the short is, turns out a local artist did a painting of the sign and then made the high quality magnets out of them.  Really professional and was selling them on her etsy page for $5, sold!  So right there in line I went to her page, ordered and paid for the magnet with pay pal.  It now adorns my fridge.  If you would like your own here is the link to her page.  Here's the link to her etsy page: Fat Boy Sign Magnet

Speaking of burgers, Elevation Burger has opened an Augusta location and even though I have yet to sample there delicious burgers, I will be soon, very soon 

That’s all for now, take care!

Later Readers!

 

This and That

Greetings readers, 

My Grammie  Connie died.  She was my mother’s step-mother.  My whole life she and Grandpa Hobart lived out west at the Grand Canyon and Pahrump, Nevada.  I was never as close to them as my other grandparents based solely on proximity.  I would write Grammie Connie letters a few times a year, the last I received was earlier this year.  And up until the last 10 years they would visit most summers.  The last time I saw them was when I went out to Las Vegas in May of 2007.  We had a nice visit, went to lunch, and they got to meet Canaan.  They’ve never met Addison and I doubt Grandpa Hobart ever will, he seems determined to stay in Pahrump even though he had no family there at all.  

Everything seems to be falling together for us finding a new place to live.  The bank that is foreclosing on the home basically told us we could live there through the winter as it wasn’t being sold until February.  I don’t want to buy and oil for it though, so I’m trying to limp through with what we have.  A place we live on Oak St in Gardiner looks like it’ll be ours come first week of November.  It’s a little bit more a month, but heat is included so awesome!!

Baby Labbe is coming along smashingly, at the time of this posting it is the size of an avocado.  We had an appointment Monday and heard the strong healthy heartbeat along with some kicking and moving around.  It was fantastic!  We have an appointment next month to hopefully find out the sex.

Aunt Carolyn was ordained as the pastor of the Water of Life Lutheran Church in Newcastle this past Sunday.  It was quite an interesting event to witness first hand.  It was nice to see the whole family there, including Aunt Linda up from Maryland to share in the moment. 

Kate and I hit Fat Boy for the last day of their 2014 season, such a fantastic place!  Looking forward to next March.

If you have a chance you should check out my hot dog blog, I have posted it on facebook like I do this one but I should start trying to get the word out more. http://mainehotdog.blogspot.com/

Later Readers

Better Late Than Never

Wrote this back on April 14th,

So we finally had some spring weather and I think it’s here to stick!  Kate and I, mostly Kate while I was sleeping for the most part got the whole front and side lawn cleaned up from years of sand and leaf build up from before we moved in.  It looks so good now, very visually pleasing.

WrestleMania XXX has come and gone; Paul came over and watched it with me.  It’s always nice to have someone to watch a great event like this with someone, it enhances the experience.  It was definitely one of the best Mania’s in a long time.  Even the pre-show match was a great competitive match.  Brock Lesnar beating Undertaker and ending the streak was so shocking and unexpected.  As a life-long wrestling fan I have read and heard many stories about the night that Ivan Koloff pinned Bruno Sammartino ending Bruno’s over 7 ½ year run as champion at Madison Square Garden.   It’s always been said that you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet as the fans sat in stunned silence.  That is what it was like when Lesnar won.  Paul and I weren’t even really paying attention to the match, because it wasn’t very good, when suddenly we realized it was over.  The audience was dead quiet and everyone seemed to have the same gap mouthed wide eyed expression frozen on their faces.

Daniel Bryan defeated Triple H in the opening contest to advance to the Triple Threat Main Event to defeat Randy Orton and Batista to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship!  Two great matches and such an awesome feel good moment to see Bryan hold both belts to close out the event.

As of late these night shifts has been kicking my rear!  They have been dragging so slowly then my time out of the center just flies by. 

Canaan had baseball tryouts for Gardiner Cal Ripken Minor League.  He was drafted by the Orange Team which is the color he wanted to play on the most.   Practice starts Monday the 14^th with games not starting until May I think.  This, I feel, will be the first sports team that he plays on where the games are serious.  Three strikes, three outs, no pitching until the hit it, actual ball play and not just instructional play.  It’ll be exciting!

Sunday morning Kate and I went to Brunswick flea market after I got home from work.  I hadn’t been in a long time and I have been itching to go.  Even though it was raining out it was a good day at the ole flea market.  I grabbed a comic book I’d recently wanted to pick up again and an original Wicked Good Band record featuring the songs “Wicked Good” & “A’yuh (the potato picking song)”.  Kate found a small Pyrex refrigerator dish a the small Pyrex bowl to complete out set for VERY cheap so be bought them too.  We grabbed a whoper burger at Fat Boy drive in before heading home as I needed to get some sleep.

Took a good 50 minute power walk around the neighborhood Friday, the weather was just beautiful.  Looking forward to more good weather and walks!  

Another  blog coming soon!

 

Weekend Getaway

Kate and I had a wonderful time on our Rhode Island & Cape Cod Getaway even though it rained for half the time we were there.

We headed south Thursday night after Kate got out of work stopping at Fat Boy Drive In on the way for our first Whooper burger of the season, delicious!  We arrived at our hotel around 930pm and got checked in.

We stayed at the Ramada in Middletown, Rhode Island.  The room was clean with a separate living room from the bedroom, good water pressure for the shower.  However the mattress was very hard, much harder than our bed at home.  Also included in our $48 a night rate was a daily newspaper and continental breakfast.  The hotel had no pool.  The continental breakfast was poor.  It featured stale bread, muffins, donuts, English muffins and the like.  The toaster was a 4 slicer that was broken with only two slots functioning.  Fruit was limited to old fruit salad with no apples or bananas or oranges.  The only real edible item was the cereal.  I’m sure in the summer when they have multiple guests instead of the two that were there the breakfast is better because the food doesn’t sit so long.  Regardless they shouldn’t even bother.

Friday we headed to Cape Cod, it was partly sunny but very windy.  Kate loved driving around the area and looking at all the little cedar shingled homes pointing out everyone that she like, there was a lot of pointing going on. 

We visited the Cape Cod Chip Factory for a tour and essentially it was similar to Covered Bridge factory in New Brunswick, Canada except instead of one machine to cook the chips Cape Cod has like 9 cookers.  It’s very impressive.  The Chinese group that was in there at the same time as us was very impressed by everything.  They have a contest if the take a picture outside the plant and tag them on Facebook, Instagram, or twitter they pick one winner for a prize, here is out entry by the broken arrow sign. 

Next was the Cape Cod Beer brewery tour and tasting.   For $5US you get five 3oz samples and get to keep a souvenir glass.  I tried their blonde, red, porter, milk stout, and black van lager, all very good with the red and porter being my favorites.  We bought a bottle of their red ale that is aged in bourbon barrels, we were excited to try it but the fridge at the hotel room was set too high and it froze the brew causing the seal to break and ruin the beer.  Thanks shitty fridge.

After lunch we traveled to Woods Hole stopping at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the country’s oldest aquarium opening in 1885 and it’s completely free!  It’s a nice little aquarium where the tank location hall is L shaped the tanks on the right side of the L and on the left different displays relating to ocean life and exploration.  At the end of the L you can go outside to view the two seals in their tank, too injured to be released to the wild or go out behind the scenes to view the backside of the tanks, a touch tank and other displays.  It’s quite quaint and we had a great time there. 

We made a quick stop at Nobska Lighthouse then continued to Sandwich to walk to boardwalk to the beach.  It was a nice walk and super windy!  We ended our tour in Plymouth at the famous Mayflower landing sight Plymouth Rock. It’s a rock in a mausoleum but it’s a historic rock.  For whatever reason we went into the gift shop right there and JACKPOT Kate found Maple Tea direct from Canada!

We picked pizza to eat at the room, a tradition we started on her family reunion vacation that must be carried on indefinitely. 

Saturday we picked up Jay in New Bedford before heading to Autorama’s World Of Wheels car show at the Seaport Convention Center in South Boston.  That’s right we went to a car show to meet a Wrestling Superstar in the “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels!  An exciting dream come true for Jay & I and a big who cares for Kate.  She was a good sport though and stood in line with us for over two hours to get me an extra autograph and also agreed to get her picture taken with HBK himself.  With this photo and these cards added to my collection I’m not really sure who’s next to meet. 

We left the show after meeting Michaels and didn’t even look at the cars, we had no interest.  We ate lunch at Boston Burger Company as seen on Diner’s Drive In and Dives and other shows, the burger was good but the appetizer was THE BEST!  We split something called The Pig pile, homemade potato chips with sausage, bacon, pulled pork, coleslaw, chopped pickles, bbq sauce, and ranch dressing.  So freakin’ good! 

We drove Kate back to the hotel, it started raining on the way and it didn’t stop until we drove home Monday.   Saturday Night Jay and I went a Top Rope Promotions wrestling show in New Bedford.  It was a really good show with 9 matches on the card; I would say 8 of them were really good.  Big crowd pushing 300 people and they were very lively!

Sunday it rained all day, we had a lazy day and explored Newport.  We had a great breakfast at the Atlantic Grille, drove around looking at the fancy Mansions, and briefly strolled on the Cliff walk during the brief moment the rain let up.  We played tickets games at Ryan Family Amusements where Kate hit the jackpot on the Wheel of Fortune generating 500 tickets for a scant 35 cent play.  We cashed in our tickets on some cool swag for us and the kids.  We had dinner at Lucia Italian Restaurant based on the online reviews that it was a great place.  Those reviews were wrong, very wrong.  Boxed pasta, frozen pre-cut chicken, tasted like canned sauce, not worth the money.

We went to Ocean State Job Lot, the Marden’s of Rhode Island, and looked around.  At the advice of a local we bought some Portuguese Bolo’s or English Muffins to try.  We later ran into her at Ryan Family Amusements.  She couldn’t say enough good about them and even picked out what she considered the perfect package of bolos.

Monday we took our bolos to the continental breakfast room and toasted them up, she was right, they are excellent!  We bought some butter at Stop and Shop as the butter at hotel tasted off.

We drove home in the rain that didn’t stop until we got north of the York Toll.  We didn’t stop until Famous Dave’s in Scarborough for some delicious BBQ.  

It was a wonderful getaway even with the rain.  It was nice to get away and relax and take in some sights.  I had always wanted to go to the Cape Cod Chip factory since I first ate them at Nana’s house when I was a little boy Canaan’s age.  I remember looking at the back of the bag and it said you could tour the factory and ever since then I always wanted to go.  It was nice to finally accomplish that goal.

I’m looking forward to plotting our next getaway!

My Jubilation

What is happiness?

Everyday people say they are happy.  They wake up, they go to work or school or whatever it is they do on a daily basis and they are happy.   Are they really?  I thought that I was happy for a long time, but I know now I wasn’t.  I’m not sure if I was complacent or in denial, but I know that I wasn’t happy.  I wasn’t for a long time.

Shawn Michaels said he lost his smile and that he had to go find it and I can now understand what he meant by that.

My lack of happiness affected just about everything around me in my life.  It affected my work, added multitudes of stress, didn’t allow me to truly enjoy the things that I love, and even effected my interactions with my children.  I can see that now.

So much has changed this past year and through it all I can sit here today and say that I am happy.  Truly happy with my life, where I am, and where I’m going, and who with.

So what is it that makes me happy?  Well in no certain order….

Later Readers!!!

Michael Labbe