Just Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale...

It was my turn yesterday to see the whales that are as close as 1/2 mile off the outer beaches of Chatham! I have never been on an "official" whale watch before and this was really not official, but our purpose was to see some whales!

We boarded Matt's* fishing boat with his brother(Timmy), our sister in law(Kathryn) and their son, J. I had the Giligan's Island song in my head, but hoped that our "3 hour tour" was going to be just that: 3 hours.

Because K is a teenager, she was more concerned with looking cool and being unamused with our antics, Fritos and cold beer.

I took some pictures of the boat, because even though it smells like fish guts, some of the parts are very photogenic. This is the hauler, the machine used to pull in the nets.

This is a variety of ropes. I have no idea what they were doing there, but they were colorful.

This is the life saving device that looked as if it were 20 years old. Thankfully, we didn't need to use it. It may have disintegrated when it hit the water.

J and B were on the look out for whale tails.

K was looking off the bow. She found a jellyfish instead of a whale's tail.

B already showed you some great shots, so I will add in just a few of my own here.

Here are 2 whales side by side. You can see one blowing out it's blowhole.

Then we saw a boat on fire nearer the shore. We heard about it first on the radio when someone was getting in touch with the Coast Guard. I don't believe anyone got hurt, but I guess people on the beach could see if very clearly.

It was a beautiful, sunny day with the 70's satellite radio playing loud. Yes, J has a sweet cast on due to a trip in soccer.

B had on some sweet mirrored shades.

K was cool, but we did get her to dance a little when Michael Jackson came on.

The wake from the back of the boat was pretty cool. The girls call pictures like this my artsy-fartsy pictures.

Here we are arriving at the Chatham Fish Pier. J and B gave all the tourists a show by dancing on the fish boxes as we pulled in. I am sure a few tourists went home with the tales of the crazy fishing boat with kids on it.

All in all, a great afternoon! Whales are amazing! You can hear them blow out their blow holes a ways away. I was hoping to see some jump out of the water, but was just happy to see some tails in the end.

*Yes, Matt and I can be in the same place at the same time, but, no, we are not getting back together. Just saying.

Sundays in My City

This week, little dude's Mama had a baby girl. She is adorable (of course!).


K got a new horse and named it Prince (Prince of Aces will be his show name).


And to keep little dude out of the house and entertained, we took him to our barn to see the animals. I just love this picture of him with K.

To see more wonderful photos from around the world, stop by Unknownmami's and tell her I said hi!

The New Swear Word

The new swear word in our house is, dare I say it, school.

That's right.

We are not allowed to mention the word until September.

I know some of you are already back, but as I have said before (way back in 2008), we don't start school until after Labor Day. While some parents are skipping through the aisles of Staples,

we are trying to cram in a bunch of fun before the bell rings on the 7th. I will completely admit that I love having my kids home in the summer. The schedule is lighter, the days are longer and we are flexible. There is no arguing over homework, there is no figuring out how to fit dinner in among horseback riding, jump rope practice or swimming and my meeting schedule is lessened.

There is, however, summer reading. I am not really a fan of the complexities of summer reading. Read this, write pages about it, oh yeah and don't forget to enjoy it. Why can't the kids pick 3 books that they WANT to read, enjoy them and have their parents sign something that says they did actually read. It is like pulling teeth around here to finish up before the first day of school. Maybe when they get to HS, they should read specific books, but not until then.

Anyway, for the next week and a half, we will be watching lots of Phineas and Ferb, completing the dreaded summer reading, hopefully welcoming a little niece/cousin into the family, going to the beach and NOT mentioning that particular "s" word.

The 6:30 AM News

I watched the news this morning for 1/2 hour. Mostly to see if the rain was going to go away and bring Mr. Sun out, but I caught some of the actual news.

First off, there is a traffic jam in China that started on August 14th. It is now 60 miles long. I have never been to China before, so I don't know, but wouldn't you think they would have exit ramps? The people living near the highway are selling noodles and water to the people stuck in the traffic. I am pretty sure I would have abandoned my car after a few days.

Secondly, some miners in Chile have been found alive after an explosion. There are 33 miners in a space that is about 550 square feet. They have already been under ground for 2 weeks or so and the news is saying that they will not be rescued until Christmas. I am claustrophobic just thinking about this.

And lastly, I am thinking of moving to LA.

AP photo

Los Angeles is putting the finishing touches on a 578 million dollar public school. What do you think the finishing touches are? Gold trim? Damask table clothes? Diamond encrusted walkways? Evidently it is being built on the old Coconut Grove and the hotel where RFK was shot and killed. The auditorium is the Coconut Grove and the room where RFK was shot is now the library. The teachers' room is the hotel bar. (I am not sure if it is serving shots or not, but it has stools belied up to the bar.) Isn't California in the worst debt of it's existence? They started building this school in 2006 when things were "economically sound". California has 3 of the most expensive schools in the country. This new one, one that cost 377 million and one that cost 232 million. The problem in that state is that they have been reducing teachers and supplies by half. What good is this beautiful new school campus if it cannot afford enough teachers to staff it?

I have decided that I can only handle watching the news once a week. Or maybe I will just stick to People Magazine.

Sundays in My City (by B)

Please check out Unknown Mami for more inspiration on Sundays!

Hi! It's me, B, writing a guest post for Sundays in My City. So yesterday I went on a whale watch on my Dad's boat with K and cousin J. Very cool. So I took the pics and I hope you like them!!

This is the shot I got a lot. Very cool! Oh and by the way this was our (K, J and I) first time seeing whales this close.

Cool shot with the tail and fin together.

You can sort of see the blow hole water coming out from the whale.

Cool ridges. I wonder where that is on the whale?!

4 in a row!! Isn't that cool?

He's waving to you guys! Helloooooooo!!!

Look at that tail. That's amazing!

You can totally see the spout of water coming out there!

And I decided to throw in some seals too :) They are pretty cool, too, but not all that exciting to Cape Codders. Well if you were wondering (I forgot to throw it in) I'm pretty sure they were Humpback Whales. I hope you liked those pictures of the whales. Happy Sunday! :) =D

Brunch at Scholastic Headquarters!

Would you board a bus if this was your tour guide?

Of course you would if you knew the series The Magic School Bus! It was the one and only Ms. Frizzle who met the bloggers going to the Scholastic Brunch. She welcomed us aboard her "magic" school bus and away we went: whisked to Scholastic Headquarters!

We were summoned up to the top floor where a delicious feast was waiting for us! But there was so much to see first, such as their creative centerpieces. (I love the David series by David Shannon.)

And their outdoor patio where I would definitely spend all my lunch breaks if I worked there!

Seriously, look at this view!

We were dragged back in off the patio by our rumbling tummies. We had a delicious breakfast and then heard from some of the top execs about what is new at Scholastic!

Billy DiMichele shared with us his love of Scholastic (and Canada).

Francie Alexander shared with us the top trends in education.

We also got a preview of new books coming out in the fall from Tracy van Straaten and information on Scholastic Book Clubs by Carol Marchesano. The interesting thing about bookclubs is that you can order online now! Your child's teacher should get a special online number to be shared with the class. That way, you can order from a wider variety than the 100 or so books offered from the paper flyer and still score points for your child's classroom!

On our way to nirvana, I mean the Scholastic store, we were offered a bunch of books, posters, bears and lunch boxes for free. We were also given a gc to spend in the store. Why did I take a picture of the gc? Because it said to a "great blogger". Everyone needs an ego boost now and then!

The Scholastic Store was amazing!!!

I love books!!! Once upon a time, I was a Kindergarten teacher. I am a mom and a babysitter. I have a huge picture book collection. Someday, my books will be in a store like this and I will do author signings like Raina Telgemeier was doing in the store. Raina wrote the book Smile which was a true orthodontia story. B wants to be an orthodontist when she grows up (at least this week), so I had to buy the book and have Raina sign it. (B and K read it in one day!)

See what I mean? Nirvana!

The quote we all walked away with from our time at Scholastic was, "Read every day, lead a better life". Love this quote. Simple and true.

October 22nd is Scholastic's 90th anniversary! They are suggesting people think of the top 5 books that influenced you as you grew up and write about it. I am giving you plenty of warning to think of those books now. Come back and share with me on October 22!

Thank you, Scholastic, for a truly memorable morning and for sending me all the books I bought at your store in a red and white Scholastic box! So fun!!!

Frag'n Friday

Thank goodness for Fridays and Mrs. 4444's. Gives me a chance to spit out some random pictures and thoughts into one nice, neat, little bundle of a post.

*I met some very famous people, stars, wax figures in New York City.

Here I am with the Jimmy Dean Sun.... he was HOT! (bahahaha, little sun humor there)

Here is the Pillsbury Dough Boy snuggling up to Melisa and me. He squealed when I poked him in the stomach. Oh yes, I did do that.

I did a news cast with Al and Matt. Well, yes, I did all the talking.

Elton and I sang a little Crocodile Rock.

*The Hersey's Smore Suite was the most fantastic suite of them all. They transformed a hotel room into the outdoors so you felt like you were roasting marshmallows at a campsite. Cute, right?

*One very hot morning after walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, we came across this pretty fountain that we wanted to photograph. Being as subtle as I usually am, I said, "Holy Crap! There is a man bathing in the fountain!" in not too quiet of a voice. Sorry I interrupted your quiet time, sir.

*I snuck over to the Today Show at 6:30 Friday morning to try and catch site of Train. At least I saw the back of them and heard them practice for their performance later in the morning.

*If anyone knows what this building is called, a bunch of us would be grateful. It is being built near Pace University. Funky, right?

*I had the pleasure of photography the cutest little girl this week on the beach. This is one of the 300 pictures I took of her.

*How old does your daughter have to be before you let her go to the mall by herself without you being in the actual mall? This is the question of the day.

*Happy Weekend!