HELP!!! Does anyone know a company or individual who can identify and spray to destroy poison ivy? This is the 4th time I've caught it since May, and I am ready to just concrete my whole yard in West Roxbury & paint it green (there goes the neighborhood!!)....I have searched the internet to no avail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anybody have any suggestions for single folks over 50 to meet in the West Roxbury/Roslindale/Dedham area?

Because it was such a nice morning, and we had some time to kill, Greta and I drove over to Houghton's Pond this morning.

As usual, I took my camera with me (Greta and Nancy have somehow learned to tolerate me and my camera). As Greta effortlessly went around the monkey bars (the playground there has an unusual round set), I took some pictures (I love how she can do that; maybe because, as a kid, I sucked at it). We played tag for a few minutes. Then we walked over to the snack bar, got some chicken fingers and fries and went over to the beach for lunch.

A State Police trooper in a cruiser slowly drove down the pathway behind the beach. He then turned around. When he came even with us, he stopped. Got out of the cruiser. Greta courteously offered him a fry. And when she skipped a few feet away, he asked if he could talk to me.

Seems somebody had reported a suspicious character with a camera. He asked me some basic questions, such as my name, where I'm from, what I was doing with the camera - and when he called out to Greta to ask her name, he pretended not to understand what she'd said to see what I'd say.

To his credit, he was professional and polite - waiting until Greta was out of immediate hearing range was a nice touch (even still, afterwards, she asked me why he wanted to talk to me - I told her he was just making sure everything was OK). But it's kind of sad knowing that I can't take photos of my own kid without somebody calling the State Police - and that I now apparently look like a perv.

Billed as the largest fireworks display in Southern New England, the fireworks started just after 10 PM. After a nice start, the display ended abruptly about 3 or 4 minutes in. We sat there waiting for about 15 minutes before a man in the crowd said that he heard on his scanner that the fire marshall cancelled the fireworks because of "high winds". Looking at the leaves on the tree nearby, we could see little or no movement of the branches. WTF?