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An annual tradition…

It’s getting to be that time of the year…the annual visit to Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA, by the fabulous Tim Holtz!  He always comes to the store sometime in August, and this is the third year straight now.  This year, Tim will be teaching classes at the store August 17-19.  I think there still might be A FEW spaces left…if you are in the area and are interested, best to call the store and ask.  The phone number is on the store’s website.

The first two years, I only took one class with Tim, but I’ve always regretted not signing up for more.  In the past, we had baseball games scheduled for the days of the weekend classes, so I always had to take a class on a weekday.  This was sort of a pain, as we only have one car.  If I need to take the car, I have to worry about getting Mike to work, AND picking him up.  This doesn’t really allow for late afternoon/evening classes.  So I could only choose a class that fit in with that schedule.

This year, no ball game on Sunday (but we DO have on on Saturday night).  I signed up for TWO classes for Sunday the 19th…”Mystery Class” and “Industrial Sunday”.  The store is also having meals catered in, so I ordered dinner as well.  These classes are a bit pricey, and two classes and dinner set me back around $135.  But it will be well worth it!  And since I used money from paid blogging to finance this, Mike can’t exactly complain.

I reserved my spots back in April, (or what it even sooner than that?) when they started signups.  It seems like forever since the classes were announced, and I can’t believe that it’s now less than two weeks away!

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It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Since I posted anything over here!  I’ve been WICKED busy, mostly on my other blogs, the ones that I’m doing paid posting on.  I’ve had an awful lot of work assignments coming in, and I’m taking as many as possible, to save up for our vacation at the end of this month.  Vacation is more fun when you have money to spend, yanno?

Mike and I are going up to Portland, Maine, but first, we have a weekend in Manchester, NH.  We have two Fisher Cats games on Saturday & Sunday, the 25th & 26th .  Rather than drive all the way home on Saturday night and then back again the next day, I booked us a room at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is right smack next to the ballpark.  We’ve stayed there before, it’s a very nice place.

Then, we’re home for one day on Monday the 27th, and then we turn around and head up to Portland for the rest of the week on Tuesday the 28th.  We have tickets to two Sea Dogs games there, on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  There’s also some train show in downtown Portland that Mike wants to go to.  I will probably skip that and find other things to do.  I know Mike loves his train conventions, but I get bored too easily at these things.  But that’s okay, there is plenty more to do in Portland.

We will be staying at the Inn at St. John…a very nice little place that is an easy walk from Hadlock Field, the Sea Dogs’ ballpark.  We’ll probably have time to drive up to Freeport to the L.L. Bean store there…Mike buys all of his clothes there, and he needs new pants.  He’s lost so much weight this past year, from being in the hospital and all, and he’s not gained it back.  All of his pants are so loose now, so he really needs new ones.

I KNOW…we can order from the catalog or the website.  But the store is wicked cool, so much fun to browse in.  Plus, Mike isn’t sure what size he needs, so it’s best that we go to the store so he can try the pants on.

A big highlight of this trip will be a dinner at our most favorite restaurant in the world, Fore Street.  This will be on Friday, the 31st.  This place is hard to get into, so you need to make reservations as far in advance as possible.  They accept them to up to two months ahead of time.  I called and made our reservations last week, and luckily, they still had some slots for a busy Friday night.

Then, we come home on Saturday, drop our suitcases, and are headed for a day trip back up to Manchester on Sunday, for yet another Fisher Cats game.

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