For those of you who regularly check our blog, I have some good news for you: the rest of our website has been updated! We now have more pictures (not just the wedding ones), and our FAQ has also been updated!
Archive for July, 2006
Just a quick post to announce that the pictures from the meeting of the future in-laws in April have finally made it into my Yahoo Photo Album!
It was quite the weekend, we went to Galveston, the Museum of Natural Science, and the Galleria. It was also my birthday that weekend, and the Church had a picnic.
Most of these pictures were taken by Stephen. I know I’ve got some more somewhere, and they’ll be posted once I find them!
The joys of living in Boston are endless. In today’s news we have more on the BIG DIG DISASTER and then last night some contractors managed to burst a water main in South Boston and make a nasty sinkhole causing more traffic problems.
In other exciting news, the weather guru says we’ll be getting rain from tropical story Beryl possibly sometime this weekend.
I haven’t been following the news that much recently, but when the BIG DIG makes national headlines, I notice. I’m not going to complain too much about the rain this upcoming weekend if it keeps the temperatures out of the 90s.
I haven’t quite gotten used to the weather map of New England. At home the map was of Texas, and things made sense. When there were nasty storms, the counties listed made sense, around here, I’ve got no clue where any of the counties/cities are, I’m geographically confused.
I just know we’re in Somerville… which is near Harvard and Cambridge. It means nothing to me. Gavin has been trying to explain where we are relative to things… and trying to give me directions… sometimes it works better than others.
This morning’s activity was a trip to the Mother Church. It was quite eventful and we saw quite a few Prin people. My former RA from Rackham Jenny was there –she’s doing an internship for the summer, Frankling and Nick were there (Frankling –Matt used to live in Brooks, and Nick and I had a few classes together), we also saw Andy, Stephanie, Makenna, and Christina (most of them on Solar Car).
After church, we met up with Jenny and Paul (not Jenny the RA), and Roger (a friend of Gavin’s from Sunday School back in CA), and we all went to lunch at the Prudential Center’s Food Court.
Following lunch Roger had to go grocery shopping, so Gavin enlightened him on the wonders of Whole Foods v. Shaw’s. Jenny and Paul had to free their car from the garage by 1pm, so we sat around chatting until then. 
When those festivities had passed, Kelly, Gavin and I wandered around the Prudential center with a significant stop at Barnes & Nobel. I picked up a copy of A Woman in Berlin a diary of eight weeks in Berlin after the Russian’s arrived in 1945. So far it is a good book, but I can’t help but think it was better in the original German.
We were going to stay in the Prudential until around 6 pm, when Kelly was going to see the Episcopal prayer service at the church next to the Boston Public Library, but by 4:30 we were exhausted, so we opted to come home instead. Gavin is now contentedly reading whatever book it was he got, Kelly is playing her Nintentdo, and once I update the blog, I am going to try and find the LC numbers for the books we got today.
Today a trip to the New England Aquarium* was in order. Kelly and I ventured through the crowds of strollers, babies, toddlers, small children, their parents, and boy scouts to sneak peeks at the varied aquatic life held with in the tanks.
We didn’t spend much time in the side galleries (a bit crowded with strollers), instead we went to the top of the huge central tank and watched the turtles surface and swim laps around the top of the coral reef.
Slowly, we worked our way down and around the tank, stopping every few sections to gape in awe of the varieties of fish that swam past. My favorite was the fish that looked like Gorbachev* when viewed front-on.
We also spent some time at the jellies exhibit, where Kelly was bemused to see the generic farm in Missouri was affecting the delicate balance of ocean life. I was not pleased that one of the “hands on” things that showed the relationship of warming temperatures to decreasing fish and increasing jellies was not working properly (the fish didn’t die, there were just more jellies, last time I went the fish died).
The feeding of the Penguins was one of the highlights of the trip. Today they were being fed sardines. Apparently the Rock Hoppers do not like sardines (I think they were the rock hoppers anyway). The feeder would hand them fish (more like stick it in their mouth/beak), one particular penguin sat with the fish lopsided half out of his mouth for several minutes showing no intent to finish consuming it. Several others just turned the feeder down entirely.
There was also the training/exhibition of the sea lions, not nearly as amusing as the penguins, but still fun to watch (and easier to take pictures of*).
After the Aquarium, we met up with Gavin for dinner. We went to “that little Italian Place” where the line stretches down the block and the food is fantastic.
For dessert, we went to Mike’s Pastry. Gavin and I split an eclair, while Kelly had a trimisu cup. We ate in the park near the Aquarium and enjoyed the cool breeze and lack of mosquitoes (although I was sure they were lurking for us in the grass, none ever appeared).
*Pictures will be forthcoming once we figure out how to get them off my phone.
This morning at 8:30 am there were 5 police cars parked outside the Extra Space Storage facility across the street from our house, at 8:40ish they were down to 2, and by 9:05 they were all gone. We’re speculating.
In other, more exciting news, yesterday my super nifty Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer arrived.
Gavin’s comments: “My mother waited 26 years to get one and you got one in the first two months” (Yes, 2 months to the day!) and “Where are we going to put the thing?!” — I pointed out we had a roaster and the mixer was going to get more use than it was. There was much sighing and he finally disappeared off to play World of Warcraft.
To prove that it would be used, Kelly and I searched the internet until we found a recipe that we had ingredients for: sugar cookies.
So we made sugar cookies. The mixer is so much fun to use. It has 10 settings and is set to rival my hand mixer for the “Favorite Kitchen Appliance” … although I doubt I’ll use it for little things like egg whites and whipping cream.
We now have a container of sugar cookies, and there was much rejoicing. YAY!
A few months ago, I got an instant message from a good friend/former college roommate.
“I would like to make you a quilt for a wedding present,” she said. “What are the colors of your bedroom.”
I fished mouthed and finally told her “blues and greens.”
The finished quilt arrived today, it is incredibly beautiful, amazingly made, and a great weight for summer nights in Boston. I am quite impressed.
I just wanted to share with everyone the lovely quilt that now graces our bed.
The quilt pattern is called “Lover’s Knot”
Kelly is visiting for a few days, she’s a friend from high-school (we met my freshman year), she got in last night after some eventful flights, and is the very first guest (Guinea pig) Gavin and I have had since we got married (two months ago today)!
Today Kelly and I walked to the 86 bus to Harvard Square. We lingered for a few hours to walk around and check out the stores and get a change of scenery.
As we walked around we noticed several people about our age with bright-blue DNC t-shirts (and clipboards) trying to get people to “help the democrats take back Congress.”
We walked past at least five or six of them… they completely ignored us.
I am the first to admit to not being a democrat, I’m a diehard centrist with apathetic tendencies. Kelly tends to have more moderate Republican/Independent leanings.
We were never stopped and asked to help the DNC.
I feel discriminated against. From what we could see the t-shirted goons with clipboards were only stopping minorities to talk to them. They didn’t stop any white women in their early 20s, they didn’t want to talk to us.
They ambushed a group of young asians, they hunted down a group of people with “mixed” ethnic heritage. I’m a little irked, I have mixed ethnic heritage too! I just don’t look like it or demand affirmative action.
For a party that talks about including everyone I feel left out. They didn’t care what my political views were. They discriminated against me because I wasn’t enough of a minority. I didn’t even get a chance to tell them what I believed in, they didn’t ask, they didn’t care.
This evening Gavin played World of Warcraft, we had a late lunch so neither of us was particuarly hungary. I was reading the Drudge Report to pass the time and noticed Gavin had brought in a plate with some FigNewtons on it, or rather RaspberryNewtons.
How does one refer to the FigNewton when the filling is no longer Fig? And are FigNewtons cookies or fruit bars?
NabiscoWorld.Com refers to them as Cookies, and markets several varities including Fig, Raspberry and Strawberry, in a variety of shapes and sizes, Fig-to-Go packs, Bars, Chewy Minis, and what looks to be single-serving sized snack packs. They also come in fat free and 100% whole grain.
Sadly the FigNewton’s site did not answer the questions I posed above, so I then turned to Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, I learned about the history of the FigNewton:
The Fig Newton was created in 1891 by Charles M. Roser of the Kennedy Biscuit Company, a Massachusetts-based bakery. The company named many of their products after surrounding communities. The Fig Newton was named after nearby Newton, Massachusetts. It was first simply called the Newton, but the name was changed to Fig Newton in 1898.
Nabisco makes several varieties of the Newton, including Strawberry, Cherries ‘n’ Cheesecake, Caramel Apple, Raspberry, and Apple Newtons, in addition to the original Fig. The cookie is the company’s number-three seller at more than a billion a year.*
Wiki brought out the excellent point that the cookies were origionally just called the Newton, so I guess they are Newtons regardless of what filling they have. I was hoping for something a little more spectacular.
So what brought this on? I don’t quite know, I just finished the last of the four Newtons Gavin brought in and I don’t think that he’s noticed just yet.
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* Wikipedia contributors, “Fig Newton,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fig_Newton&oldid=62109785 (accessed July 11, 2006).
Today we got yet another Crate & Barrel Best Buys 2006, Organize your home on time and under budget.
On the very first page/back of the inside cover bold letters assault you: Customize your own personal storage story. It goes on to describe the “versatile modular pieces” and the coordinating storage totes especially designed to go with the aforementioned storage cubes.
There is Evil Capitalist Genius at work here.
Flipping through the rest of the catalogue there are no other handy-dandy-spiffy storage totes that even approach the dimensions that would fit the “versatile modular pieces” of storage cube.
To match the “versatile modular pieces” C&B has coordinating wall boxes/shelves. To give them some credit the wall boxes/shelves do match the audio tower/media stand on the next page… but those come with different “braided robe lidded totes” (not the handy-dandy-spiffy storage totes).
Again, these totes are not displayed anywhere else in the catalogue, and their dimensions are just off enough where they could not be easily incorporated into the other solutions for modern living.
I’m beginning to wonder how many other Generic Contemporary Living Solutions outlets do this. I shall have to find other catalogues and look.
Not only are you buying into their generic lifestyle but you are forever bound to them by the storage totes that won’t fit in anything else and are not compatible with other “versatile modular pieces” in the Generic Contemporary Living Cartel.
Personally, I think this is brilliant, this is almost as brilliant as the Class Rings, Yearbooks, and Graduation paraphernalia provided by Jostens. This is a case of Evil Capitalism at it’s finest! Not only does this squash individualism, but the inherent desire to “keep up with the Jones” compels you to buy into it. Ha! Genius!
