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Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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And now onto this past weekend...
I moved to the Boston area/Somerville a little more than three years ago (most of you know this, but it's important for perspective). In that time, my parents have come to visit exactly zero times. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily happy about this. I also haven't seen any of my other relatives in New England since I moved here.... until this past weekend! My mom's older brothers (my Uncle Nick and Uncle Tim) were in Rhode Island for a couple of weeks because Uncle Tim had a job out this way, and I finally was able to meet up with them in Newport, RI.
Newport was lovely. We ate lunch at 22 Bowens Wine Bar & Grill, where they import their beef from Chicago and get their seafood from local waters. Naturally we were there for the seafood (so that I could show my uncles what it tastes like out on the east coast), but it's nice to know they know good beef. ;-)
After lunch, we walked around, staying close to the water so that we could look at the boats. At first, my uncles said Newport was a little too ritzy for blue collar guys like them, but then they saw this:
and others like it, and they seemed to change their tune... apparently, they could get used to owning one of those. :-) I just enjoyed seeing some familiar faces and catching up, as well as being close to the water on a very steamy day. They might be back in the area for more work, and I hope then I can get them up to Boston where I'm in more familiar territory (yes, this probably does mean a little bit of time on the Freedom Trail).
Sunday, I went and did something... significant, but I'm not telling you what it is yet. Ha! If you're going to see me this weekend, you'll find out then; otherwise, it'll have to wait until next week. I don't mean to be a tease (okay, maybe I do)... it's just that the impact right now isn't quite what I want it to be. ;-)
Something I did on Sunday that I can tell you about is play poker. I miss poker so, so much. It was nice to see some faces I haven't seen in several months, and play a game I love. Every time I think about why I don't play every week anymore, I get angry/upset (depending on my mood). But I've told myself I can't go back to the old weekly game until I'm no longer angry/upset. Except then... will I even want to go anymore? This might not be the most logical way of handling things, but I'm at a loss for what else I could do. I lost $7 Sunday night, but it was $7 well spent, as far as I'm concerned.
Moving on... THIS WEEKEND should prove to be a fantastic time. I'm really looking forward to seeing friends I haven't seen in awhile, and to relaxing on the annual Labor Day trip to the Poconos. I've even gone a little crazy with the food preparations, pre-making some parts of the dishes I plan on making (roasted vegetable baked ziti with marinated grilled chicken for dinner one night, and two different types of breakfast strata/casserole for, well, breakfast one morning). I love cooking during this trip, and eating lots of homemade meals, since we're in the middle of nowhere, but I don't want to spend my WHOLE WEEKEND in the kitchen. Hopefully this will be a good compromise. I can't wait!
- Lizzardie, at 5:40 PM
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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I am behind on posting. Let's see if I can start to get caught up.
A little over a week ago I went up to Maine, where I met up with Kristen, Kim, Cheryl and Kristen's mom for the Maine Highland Games. If you're unfamiliar with what the Highland Games are, think bagpipes and men in kilts throwing really heavy objects (there are also women in kilts throwing heavy objects, but that's not the picture I have in my head from the weekend).
For example:
We camped on the grounds where the festival was. This was a little better than I thought it was going to be, but still wasn't the GREATEST night's sleep, either night. I brought fleece pajamas, so I wasn't cold, and thankfully had both flip flops and tennis shoes, because my tennis shoes got soaked overnight. Five people in a tent is surprisingly not that uncomfortable - it's really the hard ground that me.
Saturday morning we went to this cute little diner, and then on to the festival. In addition to the bagpipes, kilts and heavy object throwing, there was a sheepdog herding demonstration, little girl Highland dancers, a little tent with carding, spinning and knitting, highland cattle and lots of "fair" things to buy, including Scottish meat pies. The five of us took part in the haggis hurl and rolling pin toss, and we generally just walked around and looked at all the sites. I enjoyed a Bridie (seasoned meat pie), sweet potato chips I watched them cut on this cool spiral thing and then fry and an apple crisp with ice cream and whipped cream. It was all yummy.
If you want to see more pictures, they're here.
After the festival, we went to play cards at our campsite, and then made a trip to Wal-Mart (where we all found several flavors of Vitamin Water to tempt us) and then to this cool drive-in restaurant. It was fun to have them come to the car, take our order, and then bring the tray out to the car so that we could eat. It was a little cramped in Cheryl's car, but we made do - I had fried clams, which are one of my favorite foods during the summer.
On Sunday, we headed to Freeport to do some shopping, and spent a great deal of time at the L.L. Bean "mall" which was rather impressive. I was happy to get my shopping in there, so that I didn't have to stop in Kittery later on.
All in all, it was a fun weekend with the girls. I think I was a little disappointed, just because I'd heard Kristen, Cheryl and Susan all talk it up so much, and maybe it didn't live up to expectations. But other than the shopping, it was a very inexpensive little trip.
I'll have to write about this past weekend tomorrow....
- Lizzardie, at 2:32 PM
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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Here's a short list (uhh, two items count as a list, right?) of things that have caught my attention today:
25 Hottest Schools - Cornell might be tied for 12th on U.S. News & World Reports annual list of America's Best Colleges 2008, but Newsweek says we're the "Hottest Ivy" and, well, I can't say I disagree. :-) I was about two sentences in when I glanced at the picture, and noticed it was the A.D. White Library at my distinguished alma mater (of course, I couldn't remember the NAME of said library, but I knew it was of a Cornell location!). It made the rest of the article that much more interesting.
passiveagressivenotes.com - Uhh, the name of this one sort of says it all. I think we all have our moments of passive aggressiveness, but some of these are downright hysterical. I particularly enjoyed this one (as did the site readers, it seems) about a guy demanding $76 for the storage of a futon for 10 days, after moving into an apartment 2 days early. In the comments, the original poster weighs in, as does his ex-girlfriend, real life friend, mom and someone pretending to be his dad.
I have photos from the Maine Highland Games that were this past weekend, but I am right now too lazy to put my photos online or write about the weekend. Maybe later this week.
- Lizzardie, at 5:43 PM
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
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I stopped posting meme-type things a long time ago, and I'm not about to start up again now. But my friends do post them, and I do participate on their blogs when I feel like it. Kathy had one up last week with song lyrics, which is not my forte, but I did recognize the Ani DiFranco lyrics. And THAT made me look up tour dates.
No, Ani is not coming back to Boston anytime soon, nor will she be anyplace I will be when I'm there (she will be in Italy at some point this fall, but not at the same time as me). But! She put out a CD from the concert I did go to at the Orpheum last November. Since it was only $10, I had to get it (and another one of her CDs, which are pretty reasonably priced with cheap shipping from her record label). It arrived yesterday, a whole four days after I ordered it - nice.
I've been listening to the CDs at work today, and I gotta say, this is WEIRD. Yes, I'm enjoying the music, and I have other CDs of Ani live, but I was at this concert. Except... I don't quite remember everything. So it's a very strange feeling, listening to a couple hours of music/chatter that you actually experienced, exactly this way (except I was in the balcony of the Orpheum sitting in a seat with a loose spring that ripped my cordoroy pants, but those are minor details). But as strange as it is, I am loving it, and I wish she would put out a CD from the concert I went to the next day in Providence, because that was such a fun concert combination of fun - some overlap, but a lot of the older classics (as "classic" as Ani is) appeared in one concert or the other, which was phenomenally good. Yes, a Providence CD would make me very happy.
The production on the CD is very good, by the way. It is of course a live recording, but they did a good job of filtering out the singing of the crowd, which is great AT the concert, but maybe not what you want on a recording.
The only bad thing about the CD is that it's making me relive the emotions I experienced the weekend of the concerts. I was very anxious about, and ended up partly dealing with, something that weekend, and those issues have led to some of the recent turmoil in my life. But I guess that's how life goes sometimes.
- Lizzardie, at 12:24 PM
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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I guess it's time for an update?
It's Restaurant Week here in Boston. I have been hoping for years that my birthday would fall during Restaurant Week, and this year it did... except I had a lot of trouble getting excited about it. However, I finally got my act together, and made a reservation at Harvest in Harvard Square - Jeff, Kristen, Cheryl, Steph, Kathy, Corinne and Ron joined me, and I had a nice time - the company was good and the food and wine were wonderful. I had an heirloom tomato salad, some pork dish which was good but I couldn't tell you what was with it, and a dark chocolate custard (panna cotta, maybe?). I went with the half glass wine pairing, which included a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (quickly becoming my favorite white wine, if you can believe such a thing exists), a German Reisling and the Banfi red-colored raspberry-infused sparkling wine (which I've had several times). Before dinner I had a cocktail that was called a Ruby Red, but I think it was mostly orange flavored.
I also went out to Pigalle in the Theatre district on Saturday with my roommate and her friends Angie and Chris, and this evening I went to Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square with Corinne, Ron and some of their friends. At Pigalle, I had duck liver terrine, crispy half duckling and a lemon tart with blueberries, all of which I enjoyed very much. The wine we chose was a red Burgundy. And at Eastern Standard, we found out that they were not offering a dinner menu for Restaurant Week, but we went ahead with the reservation anyway. We split a cheese platter as an appetizer, and then I had veal schnitzel, which was really tasty. Thanks to the Pigalle and Eastern Standard meals, I have developed quite a taste for sparkling water - that stuff is really delicious.
Friday ended up being the perfect day to use many of my birthday presents. Kathy got me a "Remover of Obstacles" candle, which has a picture of Ganesh on it. Jeff and Kristen gave me a tea set (with a tea pot and little tea cups), which is great because I've been wanting one for awhile, and this one is beautiful. And Steph gave me rose petal-infused black tea and two types of chocolate - lavender and blueberries, and dark chocolate. These were quite complimentary gifts, and all by people who don't know each other! I guess they know me, though. Since it was so cool on Friday, I lit my candle and drank my new tea out of my new teapot. My other presents included an electronic translator from my parents and an Italian travel book and map from Kim - those will come in handy very soon. :-)
The apartment is coming together, all though it's quite a mess. We finally have curtains up in the dining room, and it only took me two years! I've also started to drink more wine - my tolerance seems to have gone out the window the last several months, and I want to make sure I can drink as much wine as I want when I go to Italy (I leave in less than a month!).
Otherwise, work sucks, and there's a lot of it. There's talk of a potential promotion in my future, but I'm not holding my breath. Committing myself to staying for six months might not have been my best idea ever - it didn't seem like so long when I decided that's what I was going to do, but it's only been four, and those have been excruciating. I gotta figure out what to do at some point, but I'm so not motivated right now.
I'm looking forward to a couple of adventures, I guess you might say, in the coming weeks, so at least there's that. This weekend I'm going to the Highland Games in Maine with Kristen, Cheryl and Kim. Then Labor Day weekend will be the annual trip to the Poconos, which I'm really looking forward to. Plus Italy. If I get my way, next week will be my last full week of work until October, and THAT is definitely something to look forward to.
This entry has only served to remind to me to look forward to things. It's sad that I need so many reminders lately. :-/
- Lizzardie, at 11:38 PM
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Thursday, August 02, 2007
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A random set of things....
I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a little less than 11 hours after it arrived on my doorstep (I had no trouble with my Amazon.com preorder). I have some thoughts on it, but I'm waiting to really discuss until I've reread it, which won't come until I've reread the other six books (I'm on Chamber of Secrets right now). It took me about 3 pages into DH to realize I'd forgotten A LOT - I'm hoping the rereads will allow things to make sense. Overall I'm satisfied.
I stumbled upon this New York Times article sometime last week, called, "101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less," and it's GREAT. Lots of recipe ideas (uhh, 101 of them) and it's perfect for the humid weather we've been having (hello, August and July). I wish I'd gotten a chance to write about it before it went into the NYT archives, but if you don't have a Times Select account and are REALLY INTERESTED in this, I might have printed it to a pdf. :-) I've been trying to both cook and stay out of the kitchen, which is a difficult task (uhh, I wish I'd remembered to NOT make risotto in the heat), and this helps a lot. Mmm, food.
My roommate and I have been watching a lot of Law & Order this summer, while nothing much else is on (which is of course entirely a work of fiction). And I'd like to think I care about women's rights without being fanatical. So I'm both fascinated and appalled by this case out of Nebraska, where a woman who was sexually assaulted was forbidden to use the words "rape," "victim," or "assailant" during the trial. I want more information before give any more of an opinion on it (and I haven't had much time to hunt down the information), but wow, everything I've heard so far makes my stomach turn.
I don't talk a lot about knitting here anymore, because I've moved all of that content over to my knitting blog, but there are a couple of things going on that I think might interest other people. One of them is Ravelry, which, while still in beta, is going to be this HUGE knitting community/resource, where participants can input all of their projects/yarn stash/needles/knitting books, search for ideas/help/other local or faraway knitters, and of course network and discuss knitting to their heart's content on their message boards. I got my invite (because it's in beta and everyone wants to be a part, there's a waiting list) last Friday, and have already spent many hours inputting all of my stuff. This is interesting to me not only because it's my hobby, but also from my perspective of working for a company very interested in word-of-mouth marketing and social media. As far as I'm concerned, this site is a marketer's DREAM and I'm interested in seeing where it goes. And this site is big enough to have made some waves over at TechCrunch.
The other knitting-related thing is something called "Mystery Stole 3," hosted by a knitblogger and designer, that has more than 6,000 participants (yes, I am participating and it's a lot of fun - you get a set of "clues" or instructions to knit, and you don't know what it is your knitting other than that it will be a stole and there is a theme). The "knitalong" is being hosted on Yahoo Groups, and apparently there are so many of us that we managed to temporarily "break" Yahoo Groups when we all tried to download a clue at the same time. I wish I could find an article on that, but I know that someone at USA Today interviewed Melanie, who is hosting the knitalong, so if I ever stumble upon that, I'll be sure to post it. Apparently it's a BIG community. :-)
July ended up being a big baking month for me. I made two batches of cookies, two blueberry pies, banana bread and sour cream blueberry muffins (and I still have a ton of blueberries in my fridge from blueberry picking with Kim and Patrick - which means more baked goods and probably some freezing this weekend). This is ironic, given my desire to stay OUT of my kitchen, but oh well. Baking was very comforting. And here's a nice blueberry pie picture:
I saw the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Sunday. Now, I've gone to Shakespeare on the Common every year since I moved here (this my fourth performance), and while it's always a good time to some extent - you have to get there early to get a good view, so bringing a blanket, food and knitting/a good book makes it more enjoyable for me - this was not my favorite performance. It was just.... weird. This is a little disappointing, because last year's performance of The Taming of the Shrew was phenomenal. Still, I hope it continues, because it's one of my favorite summer activities.
My passport came on the same day as Harry Potter, and I paid for my trip last week, so now I can really get excited about Italy. I need to start thinking about things to buy for the trip (comfy shoes, clothes, etc...). At some point I'm also going to solicit addresses for postcards. :-)
I started my Christmas shopping a few weeks ago. I know, I know, it's early, but it turns out this way it's more fun - I actually have time to consider what people might want and what would make a great gift. Plus, I can spread out some of the cost. I've been doing quite a bit of shopping on Etsy, and I'm going to have to leave it to another post to go into some of the fun things I've found on there. It's hard not to buy a ton for myself, but I already have a bad yarn habit and I've got this trip coming up, so I'm trying to have some self control.
I've now been to five Red Sox games this year (my roommate and I went to the game against the Orioles on Tuesday). Despite their stellar record, I've now seen them lose 4 out of 5 games this year - depressing - and this is after they won all 5 games I saw last year! At least, as of this moment, the Cubs are tied for first place in their division, so I'm not terribly upset. :-)
I think that pretty much sums up what's been grabbing my attention the last few weeks, while I've been overwhelmed with work. I'm really hoping August will be busy with things other than writing reports (which might make for a less gloomy Liz). We'll see.
- Lizzardie, at 12:23 PM
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