Friday, August 09, 2013

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:


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