Back from Mass!

No, not a mass at a church....I am the GrimmWITCH:) Korny:)

Mr. G and I wanted to get away on the cheap just for a few days and our anniversary was coming up anyway (July 23rd was 4 years). We went to Massachusetts for four days...or planned to.

Our plans for day 1 were foiled when the Estate lawyer needed us to run around and do stuff for the closing of my late mother-in-law's home. This experience has been a difficult one from day 1 for poor Mr. G, and the town in which she lived made it very difficult. The town's requirements were insane (as we heard time and time again from different workers we hired for different jobs in the home). Phewy to you, Rutherford!

When we finally did get up to Mass. it was after 8 pm and the day was wasted:(

We visited quite a few places. One really great stop was the New England Aquarium in Boston. This was a spot I visited when i vacationed in Boston with my parents and sister. It has an amazing floor plan, with most of the exhibits spiralling around one massive cylyndrical tank in the center...maybe 24 some odd feet in diameter.

Pic pilfered from the New England Aquarium

These little guys are playing in the massive pool that forms the base of the aquarium. A bunch of them jumped into the water and took off swimming - they looked like they were flying under water. You can see the bottom of the central tank in the background.

The sea horse below is a species that blends in by mingling with the sea weed it looks like.

Neon green anemonies glow in the background as fish chase eachother in this tank.

This giant puffer lives in the massive tank...I think I remember it having somthing like 200,000 gallons of water in it constantly being filtered.

The guy below, Issac, is one of the seals that lives at the aquarium. I was splashing around playfully the entire time we were there.

This peachy - red jelly fish looks like it's made of some pretty frilly fabric.

When we were done with the aquarium we went to eat at Todd English's Kingfish Hall Restaurant in Quincy Market in Boston.

Mr. G had perfectly cooked steak and a delicious crab cake...excuse the poor phone pic.

My lobster and corn chowder was so good I actually said WOW involuntarily before I could stop myself.

After that we walked around Boston and did some exploring. Mr. G caught a pic of the Paul Revere statue.

Later on in the week we went on a late night tour of Bostons legendary spook spots in the Ghosts and Gravestones tour trolly. Sounds KoRny, but it was immensely informative. The people who work the tour are very knowledgeable. One of the most important things to me when I indulge in my cornier side is to be respected. Jumping out at me, grabbing at me, checking out my boobies (not that I'm a hot mama or anything, but it has happened), not cool. These people were wonderful! Respectful, and what I found most endearing, great with and sensitive to the young children who came on the tour. The two well behaved boys were not too young.

On another day we took a trip to Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester, MA.

John Hammond Jr., the former owner, was an inventor with a pension for collecting anything medieval or reminiscent of the time. Here is an exterior shot.

The castle is pretty much on the water, and I spent most of my time outside viciously inhailing the sweet smell of the sea as if it were laced with drugs.

Just a few pics of the more remarkable areas in the castle. One shot I don't have here is a pic of the indoor pool...awesome...here's a link though.

Below is a shot of the great hall. There was a cute, but massive group of middle schoolers there that I kept dodging...don't really like being around any large groups of children but my own.

This chair in the great hall...I suppose then, a thrown, was so beautiful.

We also went to Salem, although I have no pics of that (thanks alot, Mr. G, you pain you:)

I love Salem...yeah, it's got all the witch stuff (I actually identify unclassifyable pagan, but I do have a lot of beliefs that overlap with Wicca) but again, it's really all about the sea proximity. So beautiful! And a great place to bring kids.

Pic pilfered from usatourism.com

One of Mr. G's favorite visits was to the Higgins Museum in Worcester. The collection of weapons, armor, and other related items was compiled by the late steel tycoon John Woodman Higgins (I wonder if he knew Mr. Hammond...I imagine they would have been great friends).

Some of the weapons were rare versions of concepts that never took off like this gun/shield combo.

Another of the more unusual items was this doggie armor. The collection is second in size in this country only to the Met's weapons and armor wing and is far more varied.

Our last visit of the vacation, or so we thought, was a stop at Lizzie's house in Fall River, MA...

There I am outside waiting for a tour.

This is a pretty much exact replica of the couch where Lizzie Borden's father was found murdered. Mr. G and I posed for a pic on it later. Morbid, yes. If you're offended please skip to the bottom. I'd say I was sorry but I think you're being too sensitive and I'm a bad liar:)

This was the spot where her step mother was found.

This was Lizzie's room.

Here's my homegirl Living Dead Doll Lizzie in Lizzie's room... well, not really mine, mine was still in /jersey, but you understand...

We were driving home when we decided to stop in Mystic, Conn for fudge and food. Here's a gaggle of phone shots.

We got delicious food at the Sea View Snack Bar

Crab cake...yum!

Scallops and Calamari!

And saddly, I did no knitting:(

An Old Time-y Village, Drinking from a Jar, Hearses, and My Crack

Life at school totally sux right now. We are getting ready for DARE graduation and as piffly as the production has become (we used to do an actual play with scripts written by my co workers and myself) it's still stressful. And grading tests (a pile, no kidding, a foot high), and end of year junk, and Swine Flu is sinking its delicious, bacon-y hands into the district slowly. Then we walk in on Friday and Mrs. A found this in her room.


Yes, that is the ceiling missing up there, pic taken on the cell phone. The building is literally falling apart. The ceiling fell in in another area last year when Mrs. A was pregnant with Emma (the baby from such well known FOs as Emma Baby Surprise and Emma Baby Bolero). Thank the Gods both times there were no children in the room. The debris fell with such force that the closet was thrown open and the crap cascaded out.



My room hasn't caved in yet, but yet is the key word there. This is my crack...get your mind out of the gutter...not that kind of crack...this kind.



That's in my fucking classroom, ladies and gents, like, where my young students and I do math all day. I think that the pic does it no justice. It looks as if there's some kind of weird coloring inside the crack. Mold?? Who knows?

First you saw my crack, now I'll show you my nipple. I call this one the nipple b/c it has an areola made of water stain and mold-looking-browniness and it leaks water whenever it rains.

Last year the nipple that is located on the ceiling just outside my room against a wall adjacent to my crack was patched and I thought it was gone for good...but the tit came back the very next year. It is grosser looking in person, but you get the idea. If someone from my district somehow sees this, which they won't, and gets pissed...I am one of the district's most loyal employees. I could get a job and teach elsewhere but won't not b/c I can't, but b/c even though times are tough now I fucking love my job. I love the town, I adore my students, I love my co workers, and some how my freakin' rockin' supervisor, Also Mrs. G, has made me a math obsessive. All I want is for more effort to be put into giving the kids what they deserve...the least restrictive learning environment. My little guys have to look at this stuff every day, climb over the mountains of other obstacles such as language issues, community dysfunction, and poverty, and still compete with the suburban kids' test scores. But they keep their spirits up. They are awesome little minions.:)

Anyway, after a week like that I was drooling for the weekend this time around. First, these are the people in my neighborhood.

Mr. G hooked us up with a bird feeder and we are the popular food joint in the 'burbs. I know they're not unusual birds, but I could watch them for hours. They are beautiful. The shot below was my favorite. She or he looked like she or he was posing.

So, Mrs. L, Griffin's mom, called me up and asked if Mr. G and I would join her, her hubbie, and the Griffster on Saturday to visit Museum Village in Monroe, NY for a gem show and then an antique show @ Ramapo College. Mrs. L and I love gem shows, and I needed a break, so I agreed.

The five of us (Mrs. L, Mr. L, Griffin, Mr. G, and GrimmWitch myself) drove there and I got to sit next to Grif, which was a complete pleasure. He is by far the most easy going and delightful baby of all time and I thoroughly enjoyed his company. The gem show set up all around the small lost in time village was a 4 out of 10 as far as gem shows go, but the fact that it was inside the historic-y setting was a huge plus. The number of vendors would be massively dwarfed by the number at any other show we go to in NJ or NY.

The village is a conglomeration of genuine and reproduction buildings brought from all different places and reconfigured by the land owner similarly to poor Waterloo Village in NJ (Corzine, get off your fat ass and help Waterloo!). Although people dress in period clothing and do demos, there were none there on Saturday. Mr. G was very disappointed that he didn't get to chat with any "old time-y people." He did take some great pics of the place. Here's the schoolhouse.

Notice the lack of crack in this room when compared to my own classroom. It is equipped with a dunce chair in the left hand corner (I would have lived on that!:)

The Village also has a Natural History building. NJ has had some great dino finds throughout the state's history, so I was not surprised about fossils being on display, but this was great!

And they also have the biggest giant sloth skeleton I've ever seen. That includes the one from NYC.

There were some really beautiful Victorian carrage hearses in another building. Morbid, but I am the GRIMMWitch after all.

I love the finials on this one. The fabric is still there.

After the Village we ate at the Mason Jar. I had lovely Eggs Florentine and we drank our beverages from mason jars, hence the name.

The antique fair @ Ramapo was also really wonderful. There were so many beautiful things, but most were a little too expensive for a young couple with a new mortgage. Mr. G ate a deep fried Twinky that I didn't get a chance to shoot a pic of...but before he bit into it it looked like a corn dog. I did get one non-antique thing.

So scrumptiously Anne Taintor-esque, and so true. Do I have to go back to work on Monday?

Finally, I finished the Ribbed Lace Bolero from 10 feet high. I really love it.

See, I am the designers neck twin...(see previous post).

Back from Vacation

Hubbie and I went away for a few days. We went to Connecticut and hit some really nice sights. On the way to our hotel in Mystic we visited an old prison, Old New-Gate Prison. The prisoners had once mined copper in the caverns beneath the prison and visitors can still go there. Hubbie and I love Eastern State in Phili so much, we couldn't miss this. It was really cool in the caves in temperature as well as experience.

The 2nd day of our vacation we went to the Mystic Seaport and the Mystic Aquarium. I'd been to both places before, but it was nice to go back with Hubbie, and the whole trip lends itself to relaxation, which is what we were after.

On the 3rd day we visited Gillette Castle & Park. The drive there was wonderful, but long. On the way a deer crossed the street in front of us and checked us our as she went. The houses were beautiful rural, farm looking, just lovely! As we drove the forest was like a pair of flowing green ribbons on either side of us. Once we reached the castle we were pleased to see the long ride had been worth it.
Gillette was the 1st actor to portray the character of Sherlock Holmes on stage. He designed and partly built the home. It was awesome. The doors, the windows, had been hand made and were opened and closed with wooden cranks and knobs and doodads...brilliant! After we'd looked through the castle we made our way outside to a multitude of hiking trails on the grounds. The woods were breathtaking. We happened upon a pond complete with lilly pads and frogs (if it you don't already suspect, I love animals!!)

On the way back to Jersey we visited The Beardsley Zoo, and The Maritime Aquarium. The zoo was small, but lovely. Some of the enclosures were a bit small, but the zoo is certified so I supposed it's okay. The aquarium was more for small kids, but we had fun. We saw some seals, and a sea turtle, and some sharks..very cool.

I do have some pics of the trip and some of the little guys we met along the way.

I got very little of the surprise jacket done, and none of any of the other projects I'm dreaming up. I want to make a small sweater for myself out of some Schaefer Yarn. I love their yarn. And now i want to make an iPod case - got the idea from one of the ladies on Punk Rock Knitters.

I did get some yarn on my trip.
The Araucania Patagonia, (on top) is from The Knitting Niche in Greenwich, and the other skeins are from Mystic River Yarns and are by Ellyn Cooper.

The Ellyn Cooper yarns were so delicious no one could keep their hands (or noses) off them.


Smudge is just as nuts for yarn as I am...the perfect pair!