Summer on the Cape

My parents rented a house again on the water and invited us down. It wasn’t the whirlwind of activity it was when my godson & sis were here, but that’s ok. We like to just hang out sometimes. But that of course doesn’t mean we didn’t have any adventures…

First there was an Eco tour. We learned all about the horseshoe crab, the Ospreys, the marshes. I actually never knew that there were marshes down the Cape. I also didn’t know there was forest. Spotty Chop had a great time with all of the information they wanted to share.

My God but Spotty has a great time with his Papa.

There was a lot of kite flying, dragon flying, car racing and just having fun to be had

We also frolicked in the water

Papa taught Spotty how to make the perfect omelet

We went kayaking in one of the marshes and yes those are seals. No great whites thank god!

Spotty was of course invited into the neighbor’s hot tub

Had fun in my parents Jacuzzi

And made friends. I saw less of Spotty than I wanted, but he found kids to play with and he had a blast.

We missed my godson & his sister so we had Spotty take a few photos 

this is why i love my brother

So THIS is why people go to Cape Cod…

It’s snowing here again in New England so what better way to celebrate than to post about some summer fun.


My parents rented a place in Brewster for a week this past summer and they graciously invited us down to visit.

People in Massachusetts seem to be in two camps when it comes to summer fun. There are the beach people (the Cape, the Vineyard, Nantucket) or the mountain people (NH, VT). You may be able to guess from previous camping posts we are in the Mountain camp.

I was going to write “I am not a fan of the beach” but that isn’t true at all. I love the ocean, I love the sand, I love the sound of the waves crashing...what I don’t love is…the Sun. in fact if I say the word out loud I will instantly receive a 2nd degree burn, if not worse. However, a free place to stay is…free!

The house my parents rented was a 1 minute walk to the beach. It had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (not including the outdoor shower), and 2 porches and the beach is rated one of the safest beaches in the Cape for kids, the water was incredibly shallow and there were multiple sandbars that kept the water warm. It was heaven. We could only stay one night because  I was working on a release. My parents rented the spot again for next year. I am pushing for 2 nights maybe 3…

Christmas Palooza!!!

So before I talk about how our Christmas was (and it was lovely thanks for asking) I need to talk about the drama and trauma that I faced.


Spotty Chop


1) told us late (but not so late that we couldn’t get it) that Santa loved you and was bringing the Xbox 360 with Kinnect to you


But


2) after sitting on Santa’s lap told me “I let Santa know what I wanted” and I said “what was it?” he looked at me as if I were a crack whore and said “I can’t tell you it’s a secret!”


There were nightly visits to Toys R us, calls to my parents and lots of praying. Guess what? I found it!   Zoobles . Boy Toy wasn’t so sure about giving him a Girls toy. But he got the eyebrow of death and I wrapped that bad boy up. Spotty loved it and was so sincerely happy about getting it, “I knew Santa wouldn’t forget!” Made me cry.


Sorry lets back up the backup…or forward the back up and then kind of back it up again.

Christmas Eve started with our annual brunch with Lennon and B-52. The brunch is our way of gearing up for the X-mas madness. There is never drama or trauma, just friends hanging out, eating and playing. B-52 cooked up some extra diabetic snacks for Boy Toy’s dad which was a kindness. The best part of the visit was Spotty and B-52’s now annual cookie baking for Santa. Spotty decided to kick it up a notch and told us he wanted to use cookie cutters! I think B-52 enjoys this tradition a little. In fact, he told Lennon that he could drive his own damn car to our house because he was not rushing Spotty with the cookie baking. We don’t see them nearly enough. But it makes me happy that a few traditions have held true from 357.

 Oh and look what my parents bought me, this AND  this …Santa is gonna be BLOWN AWAY next year!

Christmas Eve night was spent with Boy Toy’s family. It was a very enjoyable evening. Spotty had fun playing with the Terminator and Hockey. The Terminator’s big brother was home from California where he is a proud member of the Fresno Monsters . He even purchased a Santa suit and wore it for photos and handing out the gifts. He is really turning into a fine young man (and holy crap did that just come out of my mouth?) Spotty got great gifts, we had good food, one of Boy Toy’s brothers stayed home because he had an elephant up his ass, and truth be told, he wasn’t missed…well except by his sons…douchebag! Boy Toy spent a lot of time with the youngest of the two, who just drank up the attention. The oldest is a junior in HS, and was surprisingly more vocal than usual.

We left there about 10 or 10:30pm, Spotty fell asleep in the car thank God because we needed to change his room from "baby/little boy" to "I'm a boy boy now" . Spotty didn’t notice at first (as it was dark) but when I turned on the light so he could find his Christmas jammies his head exploded. We then had to wait at the gate by the kitchen (child safety gate we used when Spotty was born, we installed it into the wall and have never gotten around to removing it) so that daddy could check to see if Santa came (and give him time to set up the video camera) and then? CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

My parents gave us a bonus Christmas gift (Spotty calls it “an extra crunchy bonus”) they told us to stay home and play. Much as I wanted to see my family on Christmas, it was so unbelievably fabulous to not go anywhere.


This is our blueprint for Christmas fun.

Spotty first opens some gifts, then we play with some gifts, then we open more, we eat breakfast, we read some new books, maybe mom & dad will open some stuff in our stocking (we don’t exchange gifts, but Santa brings us presents). We play some new video games, we open more gifts, we play more, we have lunch, or ice cream, or both. By 5pm we still had not gotten to the X-Box. We kind of “hid” it so I had Boy Toy pretend to go looking for something and hurt his foot by kicking it. Well, I am sure you can guess what happened after that.

Sunday we went to my parents, Favorite brother and Froggy were there. We again had great gifts and great food. I made Froggy promise that they would stick to a $25 per person for us because the bro and I can sometimes try and outdo each other if there are no limits set in stone. We opened up our GameStop gift cards and then Favorite Brother handed us a bag full of games. I started yelling, when he quickly assured me that these were HIS games and he eventually wanted them back. That is of course completely different and we are now enjoying Grand Theft Auto (san andreas?) Oblivion and Fable 2 (in addition to the Games Santa brought us Dragon’s Age (original) and Risen. We left around 4 or so, during our first snow storm of the season. Boy Toy got called in to plow later that night/early next morning so I got the 360 all to MYSELF…well after Spotty went to bed. I was in heaven.

And that is how we spent our holiday, how about you?



I forgot to add, this is what Spotty bought for me with his daddy….you should see me driving down the Mass Pike when I have to glare at an Asshat

The joys of being an Uncle

Over the weekend Spotty Chop and I were planning on doing some baking. Spotty said "I know, we can bake a birthday cake for favorite uncle!" So we did. I called the favorite and asked if he would be around on Tuesday as Spotty would be at Nannies and had baked him a cake.

I could hear in his voice how tickled he was that Spotty did that for him, so he said he would be there with bells on.


Now how do you think he repaid me for my son's thoughtfulness? Any thoughts?

Did I get flowers? A new book? an old book? OH no. Favorite Uncle introduced my son, my perfect angel to...


the self inflating whoopee cushion


HOURS of entertainment people HOURS!


and in the immortal words of my mom... "why on EARTH are you people laughing so hard? Why do you think this is funny?"


HOURS of fun...