A Sinnock Thing Happened On Their Way To Ontario!

Hub and Kelly came over with the kids on their way back home from his dad's place. I made a sauce and fried up some eggplant slices, Caprese and green salads and bread. We had an awesome visit, and I need a serious nap now! My face hurts from laughing. Gabe and Lucy are two of the happiest, most expressive and friendly little people. Gabe found the thumb piano and plucked out a song, then he sang us a Christmas carol he learned at school. I...

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Peak Gen X: Joe can't decide WHICH Donny & Marie shirt to wear tonight

What's a party host to do?...

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Throwback Thursday: 2008

Election Day. Joe snapped this one on the way to Jackson Mann School. That's our polling place. Ward 21 reporting for civic duty....

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Spotted on my way to work. Don't worry, Allston Rock City. He's got you. The PBR is stocked for tonite. It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. ...

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Marty Lederman came over to tune the piano. He was early. Joey wasn't home yet, so Marty hung out with me. I was in the kitchen pickling a daikon radish. So Joe came home to find me and Mr. Lederman just hangin' and talking all the things we like to pickle. There's a Joe Show about Marty....

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Excuse my dust...

While I am on a Low Budget Superhero hiatus please enjoy the diary archives, explore the awesomeness under the linked sites, and listen to the Voice of Vashon's limitless musical excellence. If you need me, get in touch on gmail (it's my name, no caps, no gaps) or use the contact form below. ...

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Wakey wakey, Custer Walsh

I am at my Jenny's house in Foley, Alabama. They got good stuff down here. I'ma come back way fatter. This is Jenny's dog, Custer. Custer mad because I woke him up when I got out of bed. Sorry, dog. (Click to embiggen dog)...

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This Is All I Will Say About Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone magazine put the face of the Boston Marathon bomber on its cover this month. The tension is high, the heated discourse is still underway, and of course fire burns hottest at the center so here in Boston it's a divisive issue. On one side of the divide, outrage.  On the other side, here comes the splainy-face, finger-wagging crowd that likes to pretend intellectual superiority. These are "don't be a crybaby" naysayers...

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I Am So Sorry, Trayvon

That monster saw a black boy walking in his neighborhood, followed, taunted, confronted and shot that boy for no goddamn reason. George Zimmerman should be in jail. My heart, my soul, my mind all ache for Trayvon, his friends, his family and everyone in America whose expectations were dashed last weekend. George Zimmerman is a predator who hunted and killed a boy just because he thought he could get away with it, and now the law has shocked...

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I'm Not a Damn Toucan

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Dear Adults: Reading Is Still Fundamental

Remember bringing home your math book for the first time? Everything was new, there were symbols and fractions and apples being added up and subtracted. It was fun. Most kids start out thinking school is awesome. Some keep that enthusiasm, but a lot of kids lose it, and for those little guys, school is a drag. But what happens to that early enthusias...

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Holly Crab

Photo: Joe Kowalski Chris and Joe picked up food from Holly Crab, the new place on Comm Ave. It's a big Cajun crab boil, with the bibs and gloves. It's good. I hope they make it. Good luck, Holly Crab! hollycrab.com/allston...

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Throwback Thursday: 1984

Frank Davis Resort, Moody CT (Photo: Colleen Berry) Eighth grade class trip. This place closed down, but just envision Dirty Dancing and you've got the idea. But without any of the dancing or dancers. Just the vaguely germ-spreading social activities, and also the pool from Caddyshack. Me and my best friends all went a different way dressing for the class trip. That's the problem with having to wear school uniforms. We get this one single day...

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We're Doing "News" Wrong

Maybe it's because I'm a *card-carrying member of the TV-addled generation who can remember a time when "the news" was actually the news, but I am sick of all the crap, know what I'm sayin'? People are tripping. It's too much. * It's just an old defunct video store membership card.   In our super low budge deadest-end of Connecticut's ramshackle urban sprawl, we got the daily local, The Waterbury Republican, and my father bought...

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The sun is not my friend

Photo: Joe Kowalksi Going to the deep south, y'all. My new Coolibar hat got here. It's...big. Joey says "well, you WANTED to block out the sun..." #PaleOnPurpose ...

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April 15th, 2013

It's been awhile, sorry about that. I had a pretty rough April. Wasn't feeling much like myself. Airports, chaos, sweat, tears, rental cars, exhaustion. Las Vegas, for that work trip. This time I'm not just mouthing off when I say that I am never. Doing that trip. Again. Ever. In other news, Joe and I got married in Vega...

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You Have The Right To Remain Stupid

I'm really out of patience. Out. The well is dry. I am done tolerating outrageous lies broadcast by one bonehead and parroted by a thousand more. As I sit here writing what should be a wholly unnecessary post, the Boston Marathon bomber has been captured about three miles away, in Watertown. So why is this post necessary? Because people who can't even find Chechnya on a map are suddenly law enforcement experts nattering on about this kid's...

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Do you like school uniforms?

Given that Facebook has rendered life quite non-linear, socially-speaking, I've actually got my St. Margaret's School friends at hand. That's weird on a daily basis, but oddly comforting and makes me smile. Today I raise a question that I haven't thought about in years, can't wait to hear your take on it. A friend raised the question recently and I found myself fascinated...School uniforms. Good idea, bad idea, or makes no difference? It's a...

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Red Rock Canyon - Nevada(Photo: Joe Kowalski)Joe climbs things.I'm one of the dots in the parking lot....

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Knuckleheads In The Sky

We're pretty much trapped in a sinister new pluto-theocracy where we willfully vote for bible-bangers and billionaires to dictate a rigid societal and economic construct with little hope of resurrecting the faded idea of the American Dream. God and Greed, working side by side, dismantling America brick by brick. But what's really pissing people off is having to remove their shoes at the airpor...

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Mansplainers LLC

It was Sunday morning and I was performing that universally-endured household ritual of purging the fridge before stocking up on whatever science experiment fodder is passing for food these days. "You don't want this?" "No, it's dead," I said, glancing over to see that Joe was holding up a bottle of  Bloody Mary mix I'd just put into the the thanks-for-coming pile, along with a shriveled lump of ginger that had escaped notice for...

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American Borer Story: The Blair Witch Project Turns 15

Fifteen years and a whole bunch of copycats later, I still say that it's a miracle we ever heard of The Blair Witch Project. That being said, if you haven't seen it, go ahead and give it a shot, if only because it's an early bringer of the popular "found footage" motif, and for that it deserves a a nod. Happy 15th, Blair Witchers! Okay, I'm on record (somewhere) as saying that the only people terrified by The Blair Witch Project are...

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It Girl #1

"It Girl #1" Pastels on paper (Photo by Joe Kowalski)...

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Archive: Jury Duty

2006 Follow me, bo...

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Another Bullshit Night In Suck City

Can you get out of it?" That's what everyone asks me when they find out I've got jury duty. Every person. The same exact reaction from every person! Disappointing, people. Disappointing. Do what you want when you get your summons, but listen to what you are saying. Don't bitch about "the system" if you're unwilling to participate. You ARE the system, sweet cheeks. Why would I want to get out of it? Why would anyone? As a citizen, when...

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Moving Papers Around

See, THIS is the kind of thing that makes me want to just burn all my stuff and walk around the planet with my "desert island" backpack containing five things. Bar of soap, towel, toothbrush, change of clothes and...my ipad...

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I Hate Writing

I had this boyfriend in college. I was 19 and he was 40. I know, I know -- but every college-aged guy I met was a giant brainless douchebag, and this guy was smart and funny and really cool. And a talented singer and guitar player. English dude. I met him at the Irish pub on Division Street, the one that let us in without ID. Though he could play the heck out of that guitar, when he was at home practicing and trying to work out a part, he'd get...

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