Nina Simone Dies
I still remember first hearing Nina Simone. Jim was a big fan and sang Gin House Blues in the group we were playing in at the time, The Mendicants. Somehow, I'll always relate her to listening to Del Ray play piano at the bar at the Williams Inn, too.

Three Conversion Stories Well-Told in the Secular Press
After yesterday's post and its implicit criticism of the secular press -- at least in its coverage of religious matters -- comes this story in The Telegraph. Al McKeon does a very nice, sensitive job looking at the confirmation Saturday in the Catholic Church of three Nashua area folks, who despite the scandals, the horrors, the sorrows and in the incessant bad press of recent years found their ways home. Happy Easter.

The Pope's Newest Encyclical Letter "Ecclesia de Eucharistia"
Appropriate reading as we prepare for Easter. It's been covered in the secular media, but in remarkably negative terms ... mostly missing the point of the letter and misunderstanding the theology behind it.

TelegraphOnline.com Picks Up Two Awards in New England Associated Press News Executives Association 2003 Web Site Contest
Yahoo! Wish it could have been three, but this is good news for yours truly nevertheless!

It Adds Up (and Up, and Up)
This article in the New York Times tech section details how much greater a chunk of the family budget gets spent on connectivity than 20 years ago: One family pays "$225 a month for services that enable them to watch television, make phone calls and communicate over the Internet. That is more than a threefold increase [since 1974], in today's dollars, for communications and home entertainment." Don't we know it! And we're not even early adopters ...

Fishermen Ready? Stocking Trucks Ready to Roll!
Ahhh! That fine time of year when the ice is off the rivers and the trout are rising to the flies ... or at least willing to take a swipe at a slowly fished muddler minnow. Fish and Game says it's putting some big fish in the river this year, including some nice landlocked salmon up north. Tight lines!

Note to self: Do not bring babies on relaxing spa weekend trips
Yes, our trip to Plymouth and our stay at the Common Man Inn was quite nice, but not quite the respite that one hopes for when one gets away to the "spa" for the weekend. Now, it was not because the Inn was lacking in any way- on the contrary. Everything was wonderful, the rooms cozy, romantic in a rustic way. The sitting areas with their stone hearths and plush armchairs and sofas, the barstools calling from the lounge, tempting you with a myriad of elixirs to take the chill off and settle the mind. The airy spa with its clean lines, wafting aromas, trickling fountains and light-filled rooms...all these things drew me in and I was ready to kick off my boots, put on a white robe and indulge all my senses...Calgon, take me away! And then David spits up on my new shirt, pulls my hair and I remember that I am not really allowed to relax this weekend. Don't get me wrong; I got to eat well, stay in a great room and get a little pampering on the side. But the demands of a seven-month take a little of the hedonism out of the "getaway" experience. To his credit he was a great little guy this weekend, only getting slightly hysterical once at dinner making it difficult for me to eat while trying to keep David's hands from the pristine, white table linen that he was eyeing mischievously. Ernie and I had dinner separately that night, but he brought me dessert back to my room which I got to eat in front of a fireplace while my baby slept nearby in his portable crib.

I may not have "gotten away" in spirit this time, but the place my spirit was at wasn't so bad in the first place, so how can I complain?

Ahhhh, Raindrop Therapy, The Manliest of all Massages
Got back yesterday afternoon from the The Common Man Inn and Spa, where Kristen, David and I had gone to work on a piece for the magazine (which will appear in the June issue). What a fun place! It has a sort of theme park experience without losing a sense of authenticity -- the inn is built inside the hull of an old wood mill. We had a gas operated fireplace in the room, which David loved. There was one of those pools that lets you swim from inside to outside, even as the snow is falling. (Which David also loved!) There was a great restaurant, and of course, the spa! Kristen had a facial and I had the raindrop massage. I'd originally picked a massage with "stones" in the title, thinking it sounded a bit more macho, but that one wasn't available when Kristen was booking us, so she picked raindrops. It was amazing. Soft music plays while a raindrop pattering of essential oils (oregano, basic, thyme, birch, and a bunch more) is applied along the spine, then feathered out across the back. A dry towel is then laid across your back, and a very hot wet towel applied to the spine, then another dry towel. You are left to sizzle in an amazing heat when your legs and feet are massaged, then your back is massaged. Then the masseuse flips you and does the front, including head and face, arms and hands. You can hardly walk afterward, but you feel amazing. And you smell pretty good too!
How I suffer for the magazine.

Ernesto Unfair to Celine Dion Fans?
No, but judging by the 10-minute screed left on my voicemail this morning, at least one person out there thinks I am. I'll explain. At the end of a recent column for The Telegraph's Encore magazine about the LAUNCHcast personal internet music service, I mentioned that you can X artists off your private station and they won't be played again. This morning's caller didn't understand the entire point of the article. She accused me of being unfair to Celine fans by blocking Celine from the public airwaves. (If I really had that much power, I doubt censoring Celine Dion would be at the top of my to-do list.) She also insinuated that I was unpatriotic and a godless communist for disliking Celine's music, because Celine was the only celebrity brave enough to sing the Star Spangled Banner after 9/11. I don't even know how to respond to this ... my incredulity dial only goes to 10, and I think it would have to go to 11 or so... read the columm | listen to my station

I must be out of my blogging mind...
Ernie has been very worked up about this blog today, so I figured I'd better get on the ball and post something quickly. See how he tried to lure me in with the cool kid analogy? Well, it kind of worked. I don't have a whole heck of a lot to contribute today as my head is in a dense fog and my nostrils are numb from too frequent nose-blowing. I have moments of clarity though, this just isn't one of them. Let's see...what happened today? Oh, David grabbed the skin on my throat today and pulled really hard and somehow I still managed to think it was pretty funny. If anyone else in the whole world had done that I would have clocked them soundly on the head. I guess that's what motherhood does to you...
Well, I'm getting ready to hunker down for the evening...more to come tomorrow. If Ernie lets me use the computer...

A New Look, A New Name, A New Mission
This here's a team effort now. I thought, at about 5 this morning as I was having my coffee, after putting David BACK to bed, that I'd stepped on a slug. That would be odd, on the cozy second floor of our old house, in the middle of a wintry spring. It wasn't a slug; it was a half-masticated Arrowroot cookie. I thought about K, back to bed herself now, trying to sleep off a cold and another long night awake with the boy, who also has a cold. I thought, I'm not that interested in my own opinion all the time anymore. I like being a family guy. Let's open this Web log up to family. After all, the only part of my Web site that gets any significant traffic these days is the baby's photo album. Maybe if K comments here ... well, it's kind of like asking the cool kid to join your band. You don't even ask if he can sing ... you know people will show up one way or the other. (Not that I'm saying K can't sing, she can!) Blah, blah, blah ... welcome.