A Case of Mistaken Identity

For months now, my little grammy, age 90, has been receiving calls for a "David" on her new phone number in Exeter. The people looking for David are really looking for him, if you catch my drift. Despite Grammy saying she has never heard of David, they call back again. And again. And again. They leave messages saying David had better call them back right away or suffer the consequences. "We know you're there David," they say. They won't take "Nope we've never heard of David for an answer."

These frequent calls often lead Grammy to walk about sputtering when the phone rings "That's probably those people looking for David."

I know what you're thinking, like I was, that a David must have had her phone number previously. I surmised he must have left some unpaid bills.

They called again last night.

And this time, I got on the phone to explain that David didn't live here. I asked if they could give me David's last name. They did. It was Bridgeham. And so I did a reverse phone look up and low and behold, there's a David Bridgeham listed in Stratham with gram's phone number. I googled David. And, yep, you guessed it, he's in jail. To read the complete story about why he's in jail, click here.

I've no doubt these people looking for David think the sweet old lady is just a cover for David, who's hanging out in her apartment or something. I told Kenny to watch out because if he misbehaves, Grammy's going to call out her secret hidden tenant to lay the smack down on him.

I told Grammy we should change her answering machine so that it included the phone number to the county jail for the people looking for David.

"Oh, no, we couldn't do that, what would my friends think when they called and heard I had a criminal's phone number?"

Holiday Party Games

Maybe it's the snow. Maybe it's the fact that I was inside all day. Maybe it's the season. Who knows. But tonight I found a fun game for the holiday parties. It might be more fun after the holiday eggnog.. Check out the top picks on the Comcast On Demand these days. There it is--holiday karaoke. Yes, you heard correctly. You don't need to visit Stacey Janes down on the beach or long for the days of that place on Epping Road. Right in your very own home, you can host your own Christmas karaoke party.

Kenny is oh so thrilled---NOT---that I found this little fun game. Just think of the fun we can have at the annual family Christmas Eve celebration, I told him.

Now I googled this and found that there is a whole subculture of people addicted to not only Christmas karaoke from Comcast, but regular karaoke as well. Check it out here

Exeter Inn Closed?

No doubt there are countless Exeter families out there that look forward to going to the Inn of Exeter for their holiday meals and get togethers. Now I'm hearing that the new owners of the inn have closed up shop for renovations and will be closed right through the holidays. When I drove by yesterday I saw scaffolding inside the inn. Where will people go for their fancy New Year's Eve dinner or New Year's Day brunch? What about Christmas? The inn's web site isn't even up any more with information about when they will re-open.
Lucky for me, the inn wasn't up there on my list of places to take a young toddler for a relaxing meal. We'll likely hit the Old Salt or Abercrombie and Finch in North Hampton.

Moose Book on Sale in Exeter

It's a big day! Through frantic scrambling, I was able to get some early copies of the book in time for the holidays. Thanks to the wonderful help of book store owner Dan Chartrand, the moose book is now available for sale at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter. It's still kind of surreal, but how cool!

Life with the Christmas Crab

As the clock ticks down to Christmas, I thought it might be a nice time to revisit a column about how this time of year goes in my household:

Call me cheesy, but I’m one of those people who starts getting excited about Christmas even before Thanksgiving. I tune my radio pre-set buttons in my car to those 24 hour holiday music stations the day after Thanksgiving and ride around singing every Christmas song (even when I don’t know the words) until the big day. I bake cookies. I make decorations. I even watch all of those feel-good Christmas specials on TV. (Yes, I even watch the really bad made for Lifetime TV Christmas movies).
My husband, on the other hand, transforms into a creature I call “The Christmas Crab.” As soon as the holiday decorations start going up in stores and around town, he starts to grumble. He scowls. He frequently growls, “I hate Christmas.” There is nothing I can do to change his mind.
Of course, this doesn’t stop me. It just challenges me. The more he hates Christmas, the more I try to make him like Christmas. And the more I try, the more he claims to hate the holiday season. It’s a never-ending cycle.

To read the complete column, click here

An Escape Plan

I went outside to put the horses out and couldn't find my winter boots. Instead, I pulled on a pair of Kenny's, size 10 wide hiking boots. I'm a size 8.... I closed my eyes to get across the driveway, thinking of happy thoughts, warm weather of a week ago. Snow is blowing. Coming up under my pants through a hole at the top of the boot.

Freezing cold. Freezing Cold. Freezing cold snowball in my, I mean Kenny's boot. Got in through a big hole in the side. Cold. Cold. Cold. I hope this old retired horse doesn't run away while I have a snowball in my foot. It's burning cold. Stinging cold. I hate winter....

Back inside;

"Hey Kenny, you've got a hole in your boot"

"I know"

"I got a snowball on my foot"

Should've checked it, he says.

And that's when I found the great winter escape--Skybus out of Pease. They are now offering flights to St. Augustine/Daytona area airport on the east coast of Florida and the Fort Meyers airport on the Gulf Coast side. Fort Meyers fares are a lot higher. Most likely because it's near Marco Island and Naples where everything is 3x more expensive. But there are deals to be found on St. Augustine side, from $45 one way! Most in January are $65 each way. Combine that with the fact that you don't have to pay to park and you can get away for a weekend cheaper than going to Boston. I spent a lot of time in St. Augustine growing up and it's a very historic and interesting place to visit. And it also happens to be the oldest city in the US.

And warmer!

I've made Amazon.com

So unfortunately we missed the deadline to the printer for Christmas delivery on the big moose book. Welcome to the world of publishing, which is a lot slower than the frenzy of the newspaper world. It should be available late December/early January now.

So you can't stand not spending some extra money this holiday season? You can order it now through amazon.com which is pretty exciting and a bit surreal. I find it odd that a book store in the UK picked it up, but who knows.

Check out the listing by clicking here