Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

If HAL 9000 was Alexa

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Home again, home again. Lunch at the Rosewood.

2. I watched On Golden Pond

3. A few ears of corn and a watermelon harvested from the garden

4. Another play day with Teague. We were talking about our Summer trips and half joking about where we would go this month

5. Too beautiful a day to do anything except hang out in the sunroom

How was your week?

T Stands for Lunch On Golden Pond

It was still too early to check into the motel after visiting Claude Rain's grave  so we stopped for lunch at Walter's Basin along 

Little Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire

We had a nice table overlooking the lake, and I had an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade and half iced tea)

Along with a fish sandwich and fries. Besides ketchup there was another sauce to dip sandwich and/or fries.  It was delicious and took us a few minutes to figure out what is was. In Rhode Island, it's popular to have fries with Malt Vinegar. I could taste the vinegar, and then we figured out the other sweeter flavor. After all, where were we? In Maple Syrup country. The combination was fabulous.

Squam Lake/Little Squam Lake became famous because the movie On Golden Pond (1981) starring Katherine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda was filmed there. The boat filling station at the end of the dock is where Katherine Hepburn fills up the boat while her curmudgeon husband waits for the teen to fill the tank. She also returns to this spot to get help when her husband and their young guest don't return after a fishing expedition looking for an elusive trout named Walter.

Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda both won Oscars for their performances. Jane Fonda presented her father with his Oscar. He passed away a few months later.

On the way to the hotel I was very excited to see the restaurant Pop's Clam Shack made famous by our T Day Friend, Erika, from Bio Art Gal. The restaurant was closed on Monday and Tuesday so I was hoping to get there before we left for home.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Dumb Trail That I Loved

The week before Teague and I left for our last runaway trip of the Summer, I had been watching a bunch of Claude Rains movies on Tubi.  He's probably best known for playing the title role in The Invisible Man and for his role as Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart.  I've loved his performances in a lot of movies Mr. Skeffinton, Now, Voyager, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but I love him best as Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood

Rains has the most delicious voice especially when he's trying to beg forgiveness from his brother, King Richard the Lionheart. John pleads, "But Richard, Richard."

TCM Tribute to Claude Rains, narrated by Richard Chamberlain

If you don't know who he is, you've missed some seriously great acting and films. I got curious about him as I was watching these old movies so read his bio on IMDB.com and found that he had lived in New Hampshire not far from where we were going.

Teague had asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to do. I told her I did, but it was a dumb trail. I think her brother coined the term dumb trail or they coined it together. A dumb trail thing is usually a tourist thing, that sounds like it will be lots of fun until you get there. And then underwhelming. This is it? Anyways, my dumb trail was only a half an hour north of where we would be staying. Could we head up that way. Sure. Teague's a good sport.

We stopped at a rest area on the way to New Hampshie. This cloud reminded me of the iconic New Hampshire emblem, The Old Man in the Mountain.

Some of the best times I've had with Teague involve a traipse through a cemetery and since we had time to kill before we could check in, we headed to Red Hill Cemetery on Bean Road in Moultonborough, New Hampshire so I could visit the grave of Claude Rains.

The cemetery is tiny and is in the middle of a residential area. We passed the entrance because it looked like a driveway in an empty lot. Turning around we overshot the entrance again and entered a very narrow entrance to another cemetery. Since the two cemeteries were close to each other, we thought maybe the roads would connect. Nope. And there was no exit. Teague masterfully backed her Moose onto the main road and we made our way to Red Hill Cemetery.

From pictures I had seen on Find A Grave, I knew the cemetery was small and the graves would be easy to find. The headstones were distinctive from the other monuments in the cemetery. 

Claude is buried next to his 6th wife, Rosemary McGroarty Clark. She passed 3 years before he did.

Somewhere along the way, I read that Rains designed and wrote the epitaph on his gravestone. I imagine he selected the epitaph on his wife's headstone, too.

"When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me"

When I Am Dead, My Dearest - Christina Rossetti

the inscription continues:

Father,

In thy gracious keeping.

Leave we now

Thy servant sleeping.

Claude Rains

1889 - 1967

"All things once, 

Are things forever,

Soul once living,

Lives forever

In previous photos, visitors left small tokens of remembrance. There was a Wolfman doll (Rains played the father of Larry who became a werewolf in The Wolfman. Someone had left an Invisible Man figure. There were also flowers, a pumpkin. I was a little disappointed that these type of items had been cleared by the cemetery groundskeepers. Still Claude had some visitors before I got there. There were a few quarters, other coins, and some small stones. I left the roundish, white stone. 

The end of the dumb trail turned out to be there was no exit from this cemetery either. There was an open gate at the far end, but then it looked to be someone's property. Nothing to be done about it so Teague turned the car around as quickly as she could, and we bid a fond adieu to Claude and Rosemary Rains. 

Hey, Buddy? I found some references to Rains' home in Sandwich, New Hampshire: His house is located on Rt. 109 in nearby Sandwich, at the intersection of Little Pond Road and Wentworth Hill Road. We probably went by it or we were very close. Can we go see this, next time?

Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk

 

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. We met the new baby at the annual Family Gathering

2. I Skyped with the Young One at the Gathering so she could be apart of it, too.

3. Over an hour search for Calli, but she was no where to be found. I looked in all the places and called and called. I thought maybe she had gotten by me when I went outside to take a picture of the sunset. I went outside with a flashlight calling and calling. When I went back to the sunroom, she suddenly appeared like a little ghost. We have no idea where her new hidey-hole is

4. Tubi has some great offerings of old movies. I watched "Judgement at Nuremberg" with Spencer Tracy and Richard Widmark 💙and "Taras Bulba" with Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis

5. Tiggy messaged me on Facebook asking if a wee package arrived.

How was your week?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

OSU Marching Band Tribute to Blockbuster Movies

A Happy, Little, Time Waster Tribute: Happy Towel Day!

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Chapter 3: Towels (narrated by Douglas Adams)

Towel Day celebrated on May 25 is an homage to Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Don't panic, but do you know where your towel is? 

Tea Stands for How To Make Tea

 

Maggie Smith The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

112 Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic.

 

Uisce Beatha ('Whiskey / Water Of Life')

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I had to pick Himself up at WPI and to wait an hour or so until he got out of class. I walked up to the Campus Center and treated myself to a Chai Tea Latte.

2. Happy Mail. A St. Patrick's Day card from Nan

3. We had our traditional St. Patrick's Day corned beef and no cabbage, and we watched A Quiet Man. It was free on Pluto. But surprise! They cut the ending to start Donovan's Reef, another John Wayne movie.

4. On impulse I purchased Celestial Seasonings Vermont Maple Ginger tea. It was delicious

5. After a brief hiatus, Teague and I finally had a play day

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week

1. Saturday pizza and movie night. I made pizza for dinner, and Himself, The Eldest, and I watched A Christmas Story and A Christmas Story Story (3 rd movie)

2. I was able to address a few Christmas cards

3. We made it through the storm. Us and another house a block or so away lost electricity for an hour or so. Weird

4. I was able to put up the tree and decorations

5. Wasn't feeling up to an in person visit, but had a virtual couple of hours visit with Teague.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Through the week, the Young One sent pictures of the new apartment as they moved in.

2. Lunch at D'Angelo's (subs) with Teague, and then a Napolitan (Napoleon) from the bakery for dessert

3. I watched The Electric Horseman

4. Himself fried eggplant. I put it together to make an eggplant Parmigiana. What a team!

5. Since the Eldest had to work Thanksgiving, Himself and I had Italian Thanksgiving. We had the eggplant, and I made lasagna. I also baked an Italian bread. We'll have the traditional holiday on Saturday when the Eldest has the day off.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Teague and I  took a tour of the new high school in the town where we grew up and then went to our 50th class reunion.

2. I had a long phone call with my cousin's daughter.

3. I tagged along to an appointment with Himself, and then we went out to breakfast

4. We watched The Mummy with the Eldest

5. Another week, another  play day with Teague

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Heard from a friend. We call ourselves potential relatives as I have a  member in my family tree with his family's last name. It was fun catching up with him.

2. My SIL in came for a visit and brought us a ton of purple iris bulbs

3. We watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on Netflix. Delightfully funny and mindlessly entertaining

4.My guilty pleasure is watching period pieces. Home alone, I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice. I had tried reading the book, but got bored with talking heads. The movie was so much better.

5. Had a fun conversation with my cousin and his daughter

How was your week?

T Stands for National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

Another play day with Teague. Our new hobby is to eat lunch where we've never boldly eaten before. We ended up at the Medway Cafe.

The Cafe features pub type food and seemed to be popular with the older set. Teague and I were the youngest of the Senior patrons in the restaurant.

I had an unsweetened ice tea with lemon and Teague had lemonade.

The placemat featured celebrities that were born in Massachusetts for entertainment while waiting for food.

The decor was mostly movie posters. We were seated in a booth next to James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause."

My choice from the menu: "Larry Bird’s Grilled Chicken Flame broiled all white breast brushed with your favorite sauce (Bourbon BBQ) and topped with green leaf lettuce, tomato and red onion (I pulled the onion out of my sandwich) Served on a warm round roll" Larry Bird used to play for the Boston Celtics (basketball, 1979 to 1992)

Other favorite movie posters

Since it was National Chocolate Ice Cream Day and the day was warm enough (I don't like ice cream when the weather is chilly or cold), we went for a run at the Dairy Queen. I had a small, Chocolate Brownie Blizzard.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Attended our nephew's wedding (Himself side of the family). Sadly cold and rainy but thankfully someone thought of handwarmers at the tables

2. Made dinner plans for reunion weekend with Himself's college roommate and wife

3. Watched "They Might Be Giants" a delightful movie with George C Scott and Joanne Woodward.

4. Play day with Teague. In honor of National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, I had a chocolate brownie blizzard at DQ

5. The Eldest's contract in Arkansas ended early so she's coming home for a visit.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Texted with the Eldest...

2. Her supervisor got her a room at the hospital so she doesn't have the expense of a commute ($130 taxi fare!). Breakfast and lunch at the hospital. A laundromat within walking distance.

3. Play day with Teague is turning into a weekly event. 

4. Teague finalized plans for another runaway weekend at the end of the month to Camp Newport.

5. Errands and out to dinner.

How was your week?

(Image from IMDB. Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford, The Great Gatsby, 1974) in front of his home (Rosecliff, Newport, Rhode Island) 

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. A rainy, Saturday afternoon. Perfect for watching Richard Widmark in The Alamo

2. Lost my gold crown while taking supplements. Fortunately, I didn't swallow it. The Dentist was able to squeeze me in so he could glue it back

3. Another week and another play day with Teague. She had a surprise for me.

4. Had a good class even if the iPad-pocket projector didn't work

5. Old tech might be old, but it works. Demonstrated on the chalkboard.

How was your week?

Happy Towel Day

 

Don't forget to bring your towel wherever you go today.