Rusharound

River eating his first dinner at the new house, secured to the railing with the barn, yard, and tree behind.

Keys.  Today we finally got our keys!

Two months ago, Sarah, River and I moved out of our Cambridge condominium.  Ten hours before the moving company arrived that day, we learned that we no longer had a house to move into because the seller had (ahem, illegally) changed his mind and no longer planned to sell the house we had under contract.

The last two months have seen the roaming gypsy Hambletons living at borrowed homes (thank you J & L Horner!) visiting family in California and Massachusetts, some overnights with friends in NYC, and some additional nights with friends in Mystic, CT. In between all this shifting around, we found a replacement home, got it inspected, new mortgage secured, and as of today, closed!

I’ve also had the usual ongoing work to attend to, and even served as the volunteer webmaster for the biannual Newport Bermuda Race, all using a shared family cell phone wireless 3g account.

Tomorrow the moving truck and Comcast installer will bring the furniture and much-needed broadband to kick off our new family chapter in Mystic, CT.   In the past two months River’s grown an inch and the weather’s changed by 30 to 40 degrees, so many of the clothes that will come out of storage tomorrow will go directly into storage again.

Coming up soon – some details of this great house we moved in to.

Oh, and a hacker spammed the website’s comment feature, so I’ve had to temporarily turn it off.  Sorry.

In 1977 my grandfather bought a neat wooden powerboat built in Maine.  He and my dad had a lot of fun on the boat, including working at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and lots of trips to Catalina Island.  Somewhere, there’s a picture of my dad holding me as I ‘drove’ the boat as a toddler.

My grandfather sold the boat in 1985

In 2002 my grandmother discovered the boat in San Diego.  It had been bought and sold by several owners.

My dad bought it soon afterward.

And yesterday, my son River got to ‘drive.’

Hi everyone.  Just in case you’re thinking of calling us at 7AM east coast time, be forewarned – we are  in California.

…not that I wouldn’t be able to take your call.  Since Saturday R4 continues to wake up at 4:15AM. *Yawn*

If you want to watch the action, here are photos of this trip.

We’ll be back east in a couple of days.  Oh, and if you’re a burglar reading this, good luck finding our home (not yet purchased) or our things (under lock and key with a storage company).  This time, I’m not kidding.

That’s it.

Today I went to the grocery store (confession, it rhymes with Mole Dudes) and saw that they were out of Tazo China Green Tips.  Add to the fact that Sarah’s career has changed (from librarian to laid off librarian and mother of River), and the fact that we sold our condo and that a moving truck will be outside our building in 36 hours (all true) means that we’ve decided to MOVE.

Yup.  We are headed to Mystic, Connecticut.  A place we’ve wanted to be for quite some time.  As soon as we close on a house you’ll all be invited to the party.  Keep watching this space.  Oh, and yes, we are super excited.  This has been in the works for awhile.

Many of you have wondered what we were going to do when River outgrew his sling.  Today we have a partial answer: a bike.

Several months ago while visiting Sarah’s parents in Hingham, MA, we saw a mom pedaling a bike with the coolest child seat – one that holds the kiddo in front of the rider.  As soon as I saw it, I knew we’d have a hard time avoiding this most necessary purchase. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a little behind on reporting this, but our extended family just got extended.

On March 29th my sister had her third baby: Olin Ellis Movalson.  He’s adorable and there’s lots to read about his terrific name, his first week, and more pics of his cute little mug.

The very next day, Sarah’s brother and sister in law had their second, Elspeth Kathryn Dunbar.  Her pictures are after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you have heard me talk about a some-day-web-venture called HowWillitBreak.com.  It’s a little project I’ve wanted to start for some time.  Here’s the synopsis:

• Each week on the website, we outline a test we plan to execute over the weekend. One favorite example:  we buy a child’s stroller at a yard sale, attach it to the back of a car and strap 15 lbs of sand in the seat.  Then we drive at 75 MPH until something goes wrong.
• Web visitors can forecast by multiple choice what they think will go wrong.  (i.e. Will the hub get too hot, melt and release the wheel?  Will the attachment point to the car fail?  Will the stroller speed wobbles and capsize?)
• After we’ve collected everyone’s forecasts, we’ll execute the test and film the results, narrated by an engaging and hilarious commentator.
• When we show the video, it’ll be edited so the viewer enjoys the commentary, and juuust before the mayhem ensues, we cut to a 15-second word from our $spon$or before returning to the video and the charismatic ending.

Think of it as Mythbusters meets WillItBlend meets Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville.

But here’s the catch:  I don’t have time to execute this money and laughter making idea. Do you?  Do you know someone who does?  Have them give me a call.