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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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I'm back from Italy. I really enjoyed the trip, and would totally go back to Italy again. I'll start saving my pennies now...
Anyhow, more later, once I get through all of the pictures (about 1,300 of mine, and hopefully more coming from Steph and other people met while I was there) and have a chance to update and type up travel diaries (they are not exactly diaries right now, more like little notes to remind me).
In the meantime, I have today off of work (thank goodness) and then back to the grind starting tomorrow....
- Lizzardie, at 6:40 AM
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
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I leave for Italy tonight! Crazy!
I'm hoping to keep a journal (written, of course - no phone or internet, I hope, until I return the night of the 24th) of my travels, so there will be that and photos when I return.
Before I go, though, I wanted to write briefly about the past couple of weekends so that I'm all caught up!
First, Labor Day weekend was spent in the Poconos at Rob's family's house. I put photos up on Flickr just now (uhh, I didn't even edit or sort through them, sorry, no time), and I wish I had time to say more about the weekend... BUT... I had a fantastic time. Seriously, the summer really sucked for me, for a number of reasons, and seeing some of my friends that I hardly ever get to see was a huge help. I feel so much better since going there - it was totally relaxing and I had an amazing time. I hope everyone else did, too. It even made my want to visit New York City, and I HATE going there - how crazy is that?
Last weekend was fun, too. Chris and Dana were in town for a wedding, so we went out to dinner at Sunset in Allston. My coworker loves to take her first dates here.... I'm not sure if it's that sort of place for me, but they do have a lot of beer, and the food was tasty (I got a "sausage sampler" - how could I pass that up???). On Sunday, we met in Boston, had lunch in the North End (why don't I do this more often? We sat by the big open windows, the portions were still huge and it's much less expensive than dinner), saw a parade go by, and then walked to and from Newbury Street for some shopping. And, of course, Dana and I made Chris pose for a picture in a lobster hat (or two) at the Best of Boston store - see one of them here. Hope we didn't scare him off from Boston too much, but he had his revenge by making Dana and I stop in not one but TWO cemeteries along the Freedom Trail (and we're not fans of anything along the Freedom Trail).
All right, that's all! Talk to you when I return from my fabulous vacation! :-D
- Lizzardie, at 2:56 PM
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Thursday, September 06, 2007
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Sorry to keep you all in suspense last week. I meant to write as soon as I got back from the Poconos, but I've been exhausted. As Cat astutely figured out, though, I did put pictures up on Flickr, so I wasn't a total tease. :-)
Anyhow, I did in fact buy a new car. Here is my old car, sitting in front of my apartment for the last time, looking sad that I'm about to trade her in:
She had 69,001 miles on her when I finally turned her off at the dealership (ohh, the irony on that one, if only I could have managed to not drive that extra mile AT SOME POINT in the last six years):
And her is the shiny new car:
The shiny new car is a 2008 Mazda3 (Mazda Mazda3, I guess? That sounds kind of silly to say, though). If I knew much about cars, I could tell you the fun features on this one, but I don't, so you can just check it out on the site, if you want (I got the i Touring version). The features I DO care about include the moonroof, 6 CD changer (along with a place to plug in my iPod, if it was working and I had the right cord), the car saying hello to me and the largest glove compartment I've ever seen. It also has cruise control and keyless entry, which to most people I think seem pretty standard but they are NOT on cars like my old one. I also have anti-lock brakes and some side-impact air bags of some sort (you would think that one of these days I would pick up on car stuff, but I'm convinced I never will).
I have been talking about getting a car (this car, as a matter of fact) for awhile now. A few weeks ago, I even said that I hoped it would happen by the end of next year. The reason I moved up the timeline was I was in a position where I needed to put a good amount of maintenance into my car before driving it to Pennsylvania for the weekend, and it just wasn't worth the cost involved. So, I used that money to buy a new car instead. :-) I purchased it last Sunday, and picked it up Friday. The suspense last week had to do with not blogging about it until I had pictures, and because I was having some title problems with the old car (I had the title, but the car was in both my name and my mom's name, my mom is in Illinois and the dealership was telling me the wrong things) - I was afraid something was going to go terribly wrong if I was too optimistic.
But everything went according to plan, the car was picked up without a hitch and I drove it to Pennsylvania. The trip out there was a learning experience - the car is a little bit bigger than I'm used to, the brakes/accelerator are more sensitive, the sun was in my eye, my tailbone injury was acting up because of the extended sitting period and there was traffic - but the trip back was really smooth and I love cruise control.
I will give both Cat and Dan half-credit on their guesses - Cat for making it her SECOND guess and Dan for exclaiming "I knew it!" when I broke the news Friday night. Half credit is pretty good, considering no one else gets any credit at all, though. :-D
Everyone has been oohing and aahing about my new Mazda, so I guess that's kind of fun. This includes the lady who gave me my resident permit at the Somerville Parking & Traffic office (and if you have ever been to the Somerville Parking & Traffic office, you know these are not the most friendly people in the world).
Here is one more picture, this time with me and my new car, right after I got back from the Poconos on Monday:
- Lizzardie, at 8:33 AM
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