Humid, you think?

Having just spent time last week in Miami and the first part of this week in Atlanta I've been experiencing a lot of humidity. Still, I was surprised to see this coming out of work tonight in Boston.

Friday Night Round-up

- This week I've been limping along. I've been under the weather and super tired. But maxed out my vacation/sick days so am waiting to accrue more time.
- I'm very happy it is Friday and was going to make it home early today.
- Last minute job popped up which had me working late tonight so I didn't have to bring anything home this weekend.
- I'm heading home right now and am catching the second wave of subway crowd. I love the people watching at this time of night.
- I rode my bike to the subway which means another mad dash home in the dark. I need to install my bike lamp. Plus my contacts dry out from the wind when I'm not wearing my sunglasses or I'm tired. Hmmm, this will be interesting.
- I'm carrying my bike helmet in my hands since my bag is too small and if I'm not paying attention I start to put it on. I caught myself three times when I was walking to south station. Habit I guess.
- I'm traveling next week and had to bring some stuff home tonight. It should be an interesting bike ride with all my papers and wearing my heels - they don't fit in my bag anymore.
- I'm heading to Miami next week - just a quick trip so won't see much. And I hear this time of year isn't pleasant. I've just been watching Burn Notice so should be interesting. Gotta figure out what to pack.
- All week I've been sneaking peaks at my loft. It looks so different with the carpet gone. Well most of it is gone. I'm really hoping I have time this weekend to work on it some more. It's going to look awesome even if it's only half as good as I have it in my head!
- And my phone battery is down to 4% so that's me for now. Wish me luck on my night ride home.

Bumper Sticker Sighting

Just saw this one on my way to meet up with friends for lunch in the sun today.

Wag more. Bark less.

Kid Adventures

Another crazy week!  Right now, it’s dreary and rainy and cold and I just want to crawl into bed and finish my book and sleep.  I had taken Monday and Tuesday off (the last of my vacation days - I need to start accruing!)  and took my two god-children, Cameron and Maggie.  It’s amazing what kids remember.  Every time Cam goes to my car he asks about the kazoo.  My mom had sent me two and the kids had first used them when they were in my car.  For everyone’s sanity I kept them in the car (and not brought into the house).  Except one time, Maggie brought hers in.  Months and even years go by and Monday, when we are loading up the car seats, first thing Cam asks for is the kazoo.  I only have one, so the adventure starts in our search for a kazoo.  In the end, we spent time running errands, but no kazoos.  We checked out the new movie, Turbo.  

We got to the movie theater a bit early, so stopped by the neighboring grocery store and picked up some food - bananas, rabbits (a take on the classic gold fish) and lemonade.  And we had a little picnic on the side of the store.  It turned into a great time of photo shoots.  The kids wanted to be captured in super hero mode as they were running by.

After the movie, we swung by their mom’s place and had a nice visit.  It was really strange since her work has been going through some changes so the office was very quiet.  Perfect timing for a visit with two little kids.  We wrapped up the day with a play date at a nearby playground with a good friend of Cece’s who has three little girls about the same age.  The playground was empty - all ours and we got to play and catch up.  At the end of the day I felt like a proper suburban mum.

Tuesday was the grand adventure into the city to visit the Museum of Science a la public transportation (one bus and two subway trains).  Another funny thing was that we parked my car at my place and I explained how my neighbor, Cathy, looked in on my cats while I was away.  They were excited on seeing the cats, but really wanted to meet my neighbor - they were enthralled.  Of course, she was working so not this time.

Of course, it took longer getting to and from the museum than the time we spent in the museum, but the kids loved the adventure of the traveling and thankfully the waits weren’t too long.  By mid-morning, both kids were tired already.  I attribute it to all the excitement of having me visit. We’d start the morning with them coming into my bedroom (I stayed over) and hanging out before getting ready for the day.  And then we’d pick out outfits (first day, Maggie and I had matching shirts on, second day, Cam and I - pure accident that I packed clothes they had - good old polos) 

and I’d try to talk them into eating breakfast - they’re aren’t big on eating in the morning.  So at the museum, they would oscillate back and forth between super happy and then cranky, pouty, close to throwing a tantrum.  Good old power of distraction would do the trick and snuggles (at least with Maggie - she was exhausted) to keep them going.

I did kick myself that we all chose blue shirts.  It turned out that the museum was popular for school groups and they all seemed to have blue shirts on.  So keeping an eye on two kids running around in blue shirts was challenging!  

After the museum we made our way to Dad’s work this time and got to check out his work and all the cool toys the IT guys had on their desks.  And then I was off to my dentist appointment were I think I was close to falling asleep a few times as they worked on my fillings.  I was exhausted!

It turns out that I was coming down with something - Wednesday I tried to make it into work and my body was just done.  I was dressed, make-up on but couldn’t get out the door.  I ended up crashing and sleeping most of the day (I had done this on Saturday so must have just delayed the inevitable).  It wasn’t until the next day I woke up with a sore throat I realized I had a cold.  Very strange feeling and even more of a reason why I just want to crawl into bed today.  Instead, I have to finish ripping up the carpet in my loft since Nick is coming over early tomorrow morning and we’re loading up the pick-up to dump it all before we have to return the truck to dad.  I can’t wait to get it out of the house.  I have high hopes of the transformation of the loft.  I did realize last night I forgot to take the before pictures. But the after pictures will be awesome!  I just need to do all the work first….

 

Summer Mini-Vacation

This week has been busy!  I had my mother come visit for part of the week.  Both Nick and I were able to take time off from work and got to spend time putzing around.  After a delayed flight Tuesday night, mom finally made it, about 4 hours later.  On Wednesday we ended up running errands - I was able to return the extra bikinis I had ordered, and we finally checked out the fish market in east Cambridge.  I’ve been trying to make it to this fish market for years.  You’d think living in Boston, fresh fish wouldn’t be a problem.  But I don’t have any good local fish places.  Actually there is a place two blocks from me, but they aren’t that friendly and seem awfully expensive.  We went to New Deal Fish Market which is this cute little shop that has a nice selection of fish, friendly service and even had some extra groceries we could stock up on - fresh fruit and veggies.  We ended up getting this delicious salmon and blue fish and cooked up some very healthy meals.

Thursday we explored the Harvard Square area.  I finally made it to Longfellow’s house and we enjoyed a nice tour and history lesson.  A great national treasure.  We were planning on exploring the Harvard Square shops but after some time in the Harvard Square bookstore, we had to lay low in a café waiting for the rain to subside.  None of us thought of bringing an umbrella.  We finally made our way over to the law school and were able to check out Nick’s work.  He has a nice new office that I’m envious of.  

I sometimes wish I had a door, although it definitely benefits me to be in an open office plan for most of the work I do.  The new law school building is quite opulent.  Strange seeing the inside finally since I got to see the evolution of it being built from my bus on my commute to work.  And the best part - in one of Nick's colleagues offices, there was this picture that the guy had painted himself!

Mom and I made our way to Dallas on Friday.  We were successful in surprising my Aunt Sue - she had no idea we were coming.  Well rather, myself and my other Aunt Mary.  My Uncle Rob was also able to pop out for the weekend festivities celebrating Sue and Fred’s anniversary and Sue’s birthday.  It was so strange visiting.  I just saw all the relatives just last fall.  It was seeing Sue and Fred’s place again.  I think we figured out the last time I visited it was 1985 or somewhere around there.  It’s all very much the same, except it isn’t since I’ve grown and am looking at it from a different angle.  Also, they used to be out in the country and since then there’s been a lot of development, including this crazy ridiculous house with a dozen turrets - a strange McMansion/Hogwarts Castle type house.  We kept staring at it every time we would drive by.

We had ridiculously nice weather - for Fort Worth, at least.  It was a fairly dry 90s - not bad for July.  It was so nice hanging out with everyone again and finally got to have a ride in my Aunt Sue’s baby - her Lexus convertible.  I also got to meet Lucy and Tramp - Sue and Fred’s two dogs.  You can guess which one this is, right?

Saturday night we had a fabulous dinner at a local steak house.  Fred got Sue a beautiful ruby necklace, which prompted a nice little sharing session between me and Sue the next morning - checking out all the wonderful jewelry Sue has gotten over the years.  I realize that I really only have two “nice” pieces, my grandmother’s wedding/engagement rings I inherited and a drop pearl necklace I got at dad and Barbro’s wedding.  The clasp just broke so need to find out how to fix that.  I never was into nice jewelry too much, but think I might keep an eye out for a nice little treat down the road.  Maybe for the big 4-0 birthday.

I know that Sue and Mary read my blog, but didn’t realize they read it fairly regularly - good lunch break reading, if I post of course.  So figure I’d give them a shout out in classic style.  I was trying to find embarrassing pictures to post like what I did for previous friends.  Instead, I’ll just provide a few action shots…

The joys of digital cameras - you get to see right away if the photos turned out.

And a group shot - it only took three tries to finally get it right!  First we had this:

Then we finally got the full family photo: