All posts by ihatehardware.

Lockdown

It’s hard to believe I’m posting about crime yet again, but here goes. I was working at home today when I got an email from Lana, who always has her finger on the pulse of local events, news, hot sales, and networking opportunities. It was a link to a news story about some of the Framingham schools being in “lockdown” because a suicidal maniac was on the loose in the neighborhood. Of course I went right to the window to see if the suicidal maniac was hanging out at my picnic table, but no such luck. In actuality, I think it was more like a drunk guy threatening his wife with suicide and ending up as the center of a manhunt, but it was still scary. I could hear the police cars speeding by and the helicopters hovering overhead. He was last seen about 2 miles from our house, and a 2-minute walk from Adlani’s school. I emailed the director and she said everything was fine…the kids were kept inside and there were police on the school grounds. At the end of the school day it got a little crazy because the schools didn’t want to send kids home on the bus to the area where the police were searching for the guy. They eventually found him and took him into custody. Phew.
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As of noon, the guy was last seen on Joseph Road and was found somewhere in the area. Adlani’s school is the large building on Joyce Lundberg Drive. Way too close for comfort.
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http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17380195/detail.html
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/09/framingham_poli.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6
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Bad Boy Bad Boy, Whatcha Gonna Do?

This was the scene in front of our house at about 1:30 this morning. I was answering email when I noticed that our neighbor’s motion sensor light was on (yes, Nikki, Leah, and Nancy – this was the activity in your driveway while you were asleep). There was a Wayland cop in front of our house, and another Wayland cop and a Framingham cop pulled up about 30 seconds later. They cuffed the two 20-somethings in a car parked in my neighbor’s driveway. The guy got arrested for DUI after refusing the breathalyzer and the girl wandered off, presumably to find a ride home. The car was picked up by a wrecker and the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful once again. I guess I can go to sleep now.

The perp didn’t do as well on his field sobriety test as this guy:

But he passed with flying colors compared to this guy who apparently had a crack problem too:

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They’re Going Back!!!

Today was Aliya’s first day of school (first grade), and parent orientation for Adlani’s Spanish immersion preschool class which starts Tuesday. Back-to-School time is even better this year than last because the kids will all be in the same schools/daycare as last year, so even though they’re transitioning back from summer at home we don’t have to deal with the uncertainty and anxiety of new schools and unfamiliar procedures. I am so PSYCHED to get back into a routine, and it was great to see all of the teachers again. Aliya obsessed about her first-day outfit (note the color-coordinated underwear and Hannah Montana socks) and had a hard time falling asleep, but she came home giddy with excitement. Adlani is insisting that he hates school because of naptime. Aliya told me this morning that I love back-to-school time because I want to get them out of the house and have peace. She’s a smart little bugger. I hope I can disguise my glee until after morning drop-off on Tuesday.

Here’s one of my favorite commercials of all time which captures the essence of back-to-school:

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Loved It!

I don’t know what made me pick up this book other than that it was on the “buy 2, get 1 free” table at Barnes and Noble. It was great! Here’s the review from Publishers Weekly:

Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Margaret Lea, a London bookseller’s daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman’s tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle’s twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children’s caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield’s sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she’s a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That’s where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures.
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