No sunset on this career - NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA

Check out this great article on the Salisbury Lifeguards! My running relatives will surely enjoy it!

No sunset on this career - NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA

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I <3 My Bed, And the Outer Banks

"I Miss My Bed" became my mantra for the last 4 days of our Outer Banks vacation this year. (BTW, acc. to Julia, everyone knows that <3 means "love".)

I truly love the Outer Banks. Our family has gone there every summer (except one ... details to follow) since Ethan was 18 months old. We have watched our children grow up there, as they have transitioned from being carried aloft to avoid the hot sand, to being handheld close to the shore, to swimming with life vests out to the sand bar, to boogie boarding in bigger and bigger waves, to ocean kayaking and sound sailing, to surfing. While we have wonderful beaches here in New England, nothing can match the immense shorelines, splendid waves, dolphins and relaxing spaces of the small stretch of land known as OBX that stretches from Virginia's southern shore all the way to Nags Head and Hatteras Island. The picture above shows Julia and my niece with their sailing instructor while getting U.S. Sailing certified this year soundside in OBX.

The only year we missed North Carolina was when I insisted we take the year off to vacation in Nantucket. The summer before Nantucket, we were on OBX with the two girls, the two boys (long before Julia was born) and two of the girls' friends. With six young children in tow, we were informed via the local news that we were subject to an immediate mandatory evacuation due to Hurricane Felix. Of course "immediate" was made impossible by the one-lane-in/one-lane-out evacuation route (can you say Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant?). The fact that the waves were huge and the red flags were up meant little to us, as the sun shone brightly outside while inside our refrigerator and cupboards had just been filled to the brim with fresh veggies and meat for a menu of bountiful meals planned for the week ahead.

It was all eerily similar to our honeymoon -- except for the kid part -- at Caneel Bay on St. John's, when, on a perfect, sunny day we were informed by resort management that they were evacuating all guests due to Hurricane Hugo. On the boat to St. Thomas, we overheard several vacationers opting not to evacuate, deciding instead to stay overnight in St. Thomas since they were sure the warnings were overblown and unnecessary. Needless to say, Hurricane Hugo largely destroyed St. Croix, while wiping out large sections of both St. John and St. Thomas. People were barricading themselves in their hotel rooms while those outside were shooting each other for water and food.

So, we evacuated our family that year from OBX to the Wintergreen Resort in Virginia -- where we got lost on a "short" hike through the woods (another story for another time). When we finally returned home, and had to sign the rental agreement for the following year, I refused to go back to OBX because of the obviously huge potential for evacuation during hurricane season.

Ah, but experience is quite a forgiving and memorable teacher. For our vacation in Nantucket that year, we rented a house by Dionis Beach for two weeks. The "cottage" was old, run-down, and made even more dreary by the fact that it rained almost the entire time we were there. I'm betting that most of you haven't been to Nantucket with kids, especially for longer than a weekend. If you have, you'll know that there's not a whole lot to do on Nantucket when you can't go to the beach. When it rains, there's no bowling alley or carousel to amuse, and the Whaling Museum only takes so long to go through. Even ice cream stands are few and far between. To add insult to injury, the bed that we slept on broke, falling to the floor one night while we slept. Truly. I would not lie about that.

We returned to OBX the following summer and have not looked back.

All of which explains some of the reasons I love my bed. It's the same queen bed that arrived as a set purchased by my parents as a wedding gift. High four-poster, with a canopy rail and an extra-high mattress set that I love, love, love.

After surviving several years on numerous different mattress types, Bill finally broke down and went by himself to purchase a Beautyrest Black Mattress Set. That's right, by himself, without consulting with me as to type or price. Announced when he came home that a new set was on its way. I only found out weeks later from a friend how expensive it was. Then, as Bill's luck would have it, the Red Sox won the World Series. Who knew? Who could have even dreamed of it? And, because they won, and because Bill had purchased the mattress during Jordan's Furniture's special promotion, we got the mattress for free. Can you feel the love?

Mostly, my very comfortable and inexpensive bed is a haven. As blog readers know, it's where I spent much of the day with Julia watching the Obama Inauguration. It's where almost all the kids have had a birthday breakfast-in-bed at one time or another, and where each one has ventured at least once because of a bad dream or a large bolt of lightning. It's our oasis of privacy in the middle of a public world, where we can ignore the phone and listen to birds outside the window. It's where I have read the very best books that I can't put down without finishing. It's where I drink my first cup of coffee every morning, courtesy of my sweetheart (truly more an act of self-preservation than anything else!). And, it's where I can't wait to return following a wonderful vacation, no matter how long or far away. After a 15-hour drive (TONS of traffic this year on our way home; our way to OBX took only 12 hours, a record!), I couldn't wait to crawl in.

It's also where I watched the news of Ted Kennedy's death today. He died in his bed, at home, peacefully, ready, surrounded by his family.

There truly can't be a better way to go.

Some Great Recipes

Just in time for the end of summer, when you are looking for an extremely simple and delicious homemade dessert, I offer the following suggestion:

Emily Luchetti's [Delicious!] Oat Crisps

Serves 6

1 1/4 ounces (2 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and corn syrup and stir until blended. Stir in the oats, mixing well.

To form the crisps, drop the oats mixture by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake, rotating the baking sheets 180 degrees at the midway point, until golden brown and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets. Then, using a metal spatula, transfer the crisps to a large flat plate to cool.

These couldn't be easier to make. Be sure to leave plenty of room between tablespoon-ful scoops of batter, as the cookies are similar to tuilles, and spread considerably on the pan.

To serve them for dessert, I mixed a large container of non-fat plain Greek yogurt with 3-4 tablespoons of honey. Then I added a handful of fresh blueberries/raspberries. Depending on the size of the cookie, you can put one or two per serving. They also crumble nicely over the top. I made a double batch of these twice last week, and brought them to a friend's house for dessert and then served them at our house for dessert. Julia loves them, and so do I! Click on the title "Some Great Recipes" to go directly to Emily Luchetti's website. She's a pastry chef at two restaurants in San Francisco. I can't wait to try some of her other recipes. Good luck with this one!

Let The Wild Rumpus Begin! Or, Maybe Not

Question: What happens when all your children and all your animals leave you and your spouse alone for an entire evening?

Answer: Nothing, because you are so exhausted that you can't even think about initiating a wild rumpus of any kind. You quickly fall asleep (much to the chagrin of your husband and your blog fans who had expected (finally) some juicy insight into the secrets of a 20-year marriage!).

Ethan is at water polo camp, Julia slept over a friend's, Will was at the lifeguards' summer shack for the evening, and all the dogs are on vacation at the breeder's home in uppper New Hampshire. So, the house was very, very, very quiet last night. So much so that it was completely weird this morning not to get up with the dogs, not to hear the coffee maker, not to hear teenagers leaving for work, and not to hear, well, anything.

I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure this is what happens when the last of your children goes off to college. The house gets deathly still, and the quiet you believed in your heart of hearts that you were searching for over the past 20 years is suddenly the most frightening sound in the world.

Not that we are in danger of that happening any time soon, but the entire process is enlightening, nonetheless.

Quiet is a relative term in our house. As in most families, we have one child that creates hurricane force winds when he is home. He breezes in and out of the house, leaving chaos and fast-moving particles in his wake. Because he is in constant motion when he's home, he (and you) don't realize how much he sincerely needs his home and family as reliable constants in his life. When he finally leaves home for an extended period of time, he quickly realizes that his hurricane force winds are quelled only by the constancy, and forgiveness, of his family. Strangers and ever-changing environments are not nearly as forgiving or pliable as brothers, sisters, and your own room.

Ah, but I digress.

I can't imagine the quiet that existed in the homes of the two journalists recently returned from North Korea. Whether you disagree or agree on the political appropriateness of the United States' actions in retrieving the journalists from behind the Iron Curtain, both Bill and I found David Gergen's comments particularly poignant. While we may disagree on our preferred news channel -- guess who prefers Fox and who runs to control the clicker to set up CNN? -- we both find Gergen's commentary intelligent, substantial, and unafraid.

Last night on CNN, Gergen debated a former Bush political adviser who opined that former President Clinton's roll was completely inappropriate, that his actions would be viewed by the international community as conceding in the worst way possible to the North Korean leader's desire for both international attention and parity on some level with the United States. Gergen's position, on the other hand, was that Clinton, acting on behalf of the U.S. government -- because, let's face it, he is and will always be part of the U.S. government no matter how much of a private citizen he allegedly aspires to be -- did exactly what the United States does for its citizens: protects them and extends its powers as necessary to retrieve them from hostile forces.

The notable lack of smile on Clinton's face throughout all the photo ops while in North Korea, tells the entire story. As did Laura Ling's statement upon returning to California. I only cried every time I watched it (maybe 6 times, total ...).

Ling's husband said the hardest part of her time away was when he would return to their home and be surrounded by everything that reminded him of her. Euna Lee's husband spoke of his daughter drawing, for the first time, a picture of her family with his likeness in the middle, next to her own, without a likeness of her mother in the drawing.

The quiet in my house is obviously nothing like the quiet in the two journalists' houses. And, like their houses, mine will soon be filled with noise and familiar rumblings. And, all I can say is, Thank Goodness for that, because quiet is completely overrated.