New2Maine.com

For the past nine months or so, I’ve been blogging here using the entirely uninspired pseudonym He. And my wife has been referred to as She. Since the vast majority of the readership here are friends of ours anyway, I’ve concluded that this serves no real purpose, and that revealing our names (well, at least our first names) will do very little to damage our privacy and may help increase our readership a little. Thus, let me introduce us. My name is Jason. And my wife is named Amber. Hello, and welcome to our blog.

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of its original license to distill, Bushmills, Ireland, is conducting a nationwide search to find its “Twin City of Bushmills in America.” Portland is one of three finalists (in addition to Boston and Louisville, KY), and you can help. The winning city will receive a $40,000 grant - if we win, the Southern Maine Chapter of Share Our Strength and citywide responsible drinking programming are the winners.

Visit www.Bushmills400years.com to cast your vote for Portland! Oh, and everyone who votes can also enter a contest for a three-day trip for two to Ireland, so there’s something in it for you, too! I already voted for Portland, so what are you waiting for? Boston is currently in the lead, with 52% of the voting. Portland is in second, with 33%. Help the cause—go vote for Portland!

I just finished reading an interesting article on The Vigorous North entitled Preserving real estate, not nature. In it, the author relates a story of a recent trip to one of the nature preserves down in Cape on a warm winter day in Maine. There are numerous pieces and parts to the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, and Cape itself is a beautiful little peninsula town. The most photographed lighthouse in America, Portland Head Light, is in Cape Elizabeth, as is the previously mentioned Crescent Beach State Park. Our church is in Cape, and the ride down there is quite lovely.
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Last night saw the Patriots 19-0 dream season fall short by a Lawrence Tynes opening drive field goal. All of (northern) New England is now in mourning as what might have been the best year in the history of professional sports for a city (the Red Sox won the series, the Patriots looked to be a lock to win the Super Bowl, and the Celtics looked dominant in the NBA, at least until mid-January) is now no longer a possibility. Not to downplay the significance of a perfect regular season in professional football, but 18-1 just doesn’t have the same ring to it as 19-0, especially when that one is the Super Bowl! We’d certainly trade that Week 17 victory for a win last night.

In an oddly perfect “a picture is worth 1000 words” moment, I saw a Patriots balloon floating next to a headstone in Evergreen Cemetery while walking my dog this morning. Update: I snapped a picture of the back of the grave (I didn’t want to post the name of the deceased) and have posted it. Sadly, the person’s birthday was February 3—a perfect season would have been his gift. The blue object laying on the ground on the front side of the stone is a 2007 Patriot’s AFC Champions sweatshirt.

Thanks, Tom Brady and company. It was fun while it lasted. If only it had lasted three minutes longer…

Thanks to reader SteveG for pointing out that this site was down for almost a day. I guess that’s what I get for only checking the admin portion of the site (which was still running fine). The problem turned out to be a memory usage error in the little widget I use to display the current weather conditions in Portland. I’ve disabled it until I have time to figure out exactly what was causing the issue, and that seems to have restored the rest of the site.

Speaking of the weather in Portland, it’s been cold lately. Actually, make that Cold, with a capital C. The last several days the temperatures haven’t make it out of the teens. The highest forecast high for the upcoming week is 33°F, or just barely above freezing. The lowest overnight low is forecast at 4°F. I think She better pull out another blanket from the closet. It appears we’re going to need it.