Erin Shaw Street

Farewell, Evel

A little more than 10 years ago I found myself sitting in hairdresser's chair in my hometown of Clearwater, Florida. I had no idea who the grey-haired man sitting next to me was, until he started talking about his aches and pains. In the course of the conversation it came out that he was the one and only Evel Knievel.

I don't think I actually got the significance of this hair encounter until much, much later, maybe during a conversation with my husband and a friend during which they talked about Evel jumping Snake River Canyon, their 70s-era Evel Knievel dolls (I mean "toys") and Robby Knieval's attempt to live in his leather-clad, broken boned father's legacy. Tonight I found myself telling Shane that he was a "true American Hero." What?

Who didn't love him? Thankfully he and Kanye West made peace after Evel recently sued him for stealing his image ("it's satire," Kanye said). To paraphrase Dad, Evel is now flying on a motorcycle high above 23 schoolbuses, somewhere.

Evil Knieval, Dead at 69

Thanksgiving 2007

The four-day weekend is drawing to a close. We had a great time, beginning with a party in Nate's classroom on Wednesday. All the other kids sat in their square and sang a turkey song, but Nate opted to run around in circles and throw balls, as evidenced in teh photo to the right. Nate rocks!

We had a great surprise the night before Thanksiving when Dad pulled up to our driveway with Ryan in the car! We were all thrilled to see him, especially Nate, who learned some new dance moves from his uncle. Eat your heart out, Beyonce.

A Shaw family holiday is not complete without intepretive dancing. This year's theme song was "Xanadu." You know, as a child I was often compared to a young Olvia Newton John. Call it the early 80s and my blonde hair, but the similarities are pretty striking.                

Here I am at the table, ready to set the Thanksgiving feast that I have lovingly reheated from Publix. Memories were created for sure thanks to our dear friend, the microwave.

thanks giving

It's Wednesday night and we have a lot to be thankful for.

First and most importantly, Shane was released Friday after spending six days back in the hospital from a surgery-related complication (bleeding). It was very upsetting, especially because his recovery had gone so well for two weeks. In addition to this being a physical setback, it has been an emotional one too, because we had felt we'd rounded a corner. Logically it's easy to understand how illness can happen. But logic doesn't mean a whole lot when your life is turned inside out.

But there is good news in that he is home, and it appears that a procedure performed last week stopped the bleeding. He will get stronger each day. We have been so fortunate to have had the help of our families and friends, which have been a lifesaver. 

This whole thing happened after Dad and I had left for our long-planned trip to Boston. Shane encouraged us to stay, saying that they had everyting under control, so we did.  I knew he was in good hands with the doctors and kept in touch with Shane and his family.

It was definitely one of the best trips I have ever taken. It took me nearly a year to figure out where I wanted to go on the trip he gave me for Christmas (along with one for Megan and Ryan to celebrate trips we'd taken way back). After much deliberation, Boston seemed like the perfect place, since it was the only large American city I'd never seen. Everyone said I would love it and they were right -- it was filled with so much history, great architecture and art and fantastic shopping.

We flew up on a Saturday, arriving mid-afternoon at our hotel in Copley Square. From there we went to Cambridge to see Harvard, my second choice after University of South Carolina (ha-ha). The campus was really beautiful, with all the fall leaves in bloom. There were zillions of tourists taking photos (see the science building where I would have studied if they'd just let me in to the physics program). That has to be weird to have all sorts of people taking pictures on your campus. The other photos here are of Dad on the steps of the library and the Harvard flags on one of their zillion chapels.

From there we took the "T" to  Newberry Street, which has great shopping (I hit Filene's Basement there later in the trip and scored some major finds.) Then we ate at Legal Seafoods, where we had oysters and fresh fish and Boston Cream Pie (of course!). Here we are with that low-calorie treat.

On Sunday we braved the 20 degree weather to walk the Freedom TrailLink to the Freedom Trail , which I would recommend as a must-see to anyone visiting Boston for the first time. (Here I am with a donkey (Go Dems!) and Dad and I are with an "authentic" patriot.)

The 2.2-mile trek, clearly marked by a red line, takes you from site to site, covering all of the historical firsts you could ever imagine -- Paul Revere's House, the cemetary where he, Sam Adams (turns out he was actually a failure at making beer, who knew?), Quincy Hall, the meeting house where the revolutionaries decided to, well, revolt ... all ending up at the USS Constitution, a.k.a. "Old Ironsides." We took the audio tour, which provided excellent narration to all these sites (once we figured out how to press the buttons while simultaneously blowing our noses, taking pictures and adjusting our gloves). I especially liked all the great neon signs in the North End (the Italian district). Neither of us can believe we walked the entire seemingly uphill trail, which our legs are now paying for. But it was really fun.

From there we took a rest before seeing The Police, a band that has remained on my all-time "must-see" list for at least 15 years. They were amazing, especially Sting, who I think has officially tapped into the fountain of youth because he forever looks 35.

On Monday Dad and I journeyed from Boston to Salem, stopping on the way at Filene's Basement (where I bought so many clothes I needed to buy an extra suitcase to get them home) and the JFK Presidential Library, which was well worth the stop. As by far my favorite president, I was impressed with the design and exhibits of the museum, which walks the visitor through JFK's campaigning days through his presidency.  There was also a special exhibit about Jackie's White House dinners, where her hand-written dinner seating charts and gowns were on display. This was fantastic to say the least.

We arrived in Salem mid-afternoon. There is no doubt about it -- that town is spooky. Of course I immediately jumped on the nutty bandwagon and signed us up for a "ghost hunting" tour, which turned out to be led be the ghost of Elvis, a sideburned-covered "licensed" ghost hunter. It's serious stuff, you know. He explained the important differences between ghostly "orbs," "ectoplasms," and "apparitions," and we set off for a journey to capture some of these images on our cameras. All we captured though were pictures of our Elvis-inspired tourguide pointing toward various sites, like this Dunkin Donuts. It was still fun, though.

I really liked Salem, especially the Hawthore Hotel Hawthorne Hotel Blog , where we stayed. As in the "other" Nathaniel. I was overjoyed to discover the lobby had a)Complimentary hot cider and more importantly b)an 1,008 lb. pumpkin. After recently seeing a great documentary about competitive pumpkin growing ("Lords of the Gourd") I was fascinated by this bad boy, named "Flat Jack" and prominently displayed in the hotel lobby. Amazing! They also had a bar that served "Scarlet Letter" martinis, and they host a 16-piece big band every Monday night for their practice. So I was in heaven. Dad and I capped off the night with a great meal at "Nathaniel's," where I had a mean white chocolate macadamia bread pudding. Yum!

I would definitely recommend Salem as a great side trip. Where else can you see a haunted barn (see dad at left), Witch Museum and the House of Seven Gables? Nowhere!

I completely loved Boston, its history, food, shopping and ginormous pumpkins, but the best part was spending time with my Dad!

Please check out the "Boston 2007" album to the right for the whole story in pictures.

So now it's Thanksgiving Eve and Dad gave us yet another gift, surprising us by pulling up in our driveway with Ryan tonight! We had no idea he was flying in, and are thrilled to have him home for a short time. I'm stretching in preparation for our traditional "Beyonce-off: dance competition. Just the prospect of it makes me excited. I taught that boy all he knows about dance.

Rights of passage

This morning Nate, his Grandma and I went across the street to a neighborhood called The Preserve, where they had the second Moss Creek Festival. I was pleasantly surprised with the event, which they bill as an "eco celebration," where nature meets art. There was a good selection of artists, some of whom I'd never seen. I was impressed by the art from local schools, who made art out of recyclables (see photo at right) and local businesses who designed earth-friendly works. Nate was impressed by the number and quality of small dogs present. We bought some cool art, including Nate's first tie-dye, which I said he could get as long as he promised not to start getting into jam bands. (The guy selling tie-dye was very impressed when I said that my Dad went to Woodstock. I swear he even said "far-out.")

We celebrated Halloween with our massive neighborhood parade. Nate made for a very cool cowboy, and was especially helpful in selecting candy to pass out to the other kids. To the right are my selection for second cutest kid(s) on Halloween! For more photos, see the "Halloween 2007" Album to the right.

The Tootsie Rolls haven't even been eaten and the holidays are hurdling toward us. Yesterday I experienced a right of passage as a parent -- standing in line at Toys 'R Us praying to the patron saint of hard to find Christmas toys as the manager checked the stockroom for a Kangaroo Climber. Being still pretty out of touch with the "must haves" of little people, I had no idea this was the *hot* toy for the 18-month set. Thankfully Mom clued me in and I headed to Geoffrey's Place at the crack of dawn to see if I could secure this toddler slide/playset. "Yes!" I thought when I pulled the ticket from the shelve, which meant they had one in. But then I got to the register and the manager, who was wearing a tag that said "Hi My Name is ... Delighting Customers Since 1983," said they were all out. What?!?!? And you can't place an order, you just have to go back periodically to see if they get a shipment of Kangaroo Climbers.

It seems that there is an order to the universe, and that my parents' angst over Cabbage Patch Dolls and Dream Houses came back like a karmic boomerang. I got just enough of a taste when a glorious stockroom clerk paged the manager to say yes, there was a Kangaroo Climber in stock -- it had just been misplaced. Victory! Then I headed to Chik-Fil-A, where in line I fully realized that I am a suburban mom.

All of this is of course small stuff in the scheme of things. Shane is doing really well. He got his sutures out last Friday and his follow-up appointment with the doctor is November 20. He is able to move around the house and play with Nate, though he can't pick him up and gets tired easily. But he is getting stronger each day.