moo.

I continued the cow hunt today. Actually, I went downtown to get some cannoli for my brother from Mike's Pastries. He loves them, and since he's been helping me out recently, I thought he deserved them. While I was down there, I decided to try and blend in with the hoards of tourists, and take some pictures of the cows. Normally I don't like playing the tourist bit, but since I'm going to be a real tourist soon, I decided that it was a good time to take some baby steps. It wasn't so bad actually. Granted I wasn't wondering around looking at a map and talking in another language like I will be in Europe, but I did do a lot of waiting for people to get their kids off the cows so I could take a picture. I looked for Evil Twin #2's favorites, but didn't have any luck. I'm not quite sure where they could be either. I figured they'd be down by the harbor ferry/aquarium, but not so. I'm not giving up though, I can do it.

good.thoughts

Due to my most fabulous brother's help in calculus, I not only think I'll make it through, but actually pull off a B/B+. This is a much better prediction than my initial guess of a D. While I won't even mention what I got on the first test, the second was a 13.5 out of 15, and the third was a 14.8 out of 15. Only one more to go- this sunday. *k's* coming in to help me when I mix up my derivatives and antiderivatives. Good thoughts...good thoughts.

fortune.cookie.two

Here's the fortune in my fortune cookie:

"A cautious person leaves no stones unturned."

And for those of you who are still trying to learn chinese; squid = you-yu. Now we're up to two words. A few more and we're ready for a trip.

new.tv

While folding laundry tonight, I got hooked on a new tv show; Design Star on hgtv. There are 10 designers who live together and compete in challenges. (Think apprentice, top model, etc.) This week they had 24 hours to design and redo their living quarters. My favorite was the brown and orange bedroom, although I also liked what they did with the patio. There was this wacky lady, ramona, who painted some crazy miss utah mural on the wall, and found a vacuum in someone's garbage which she spread plaster over and put outside as a sculpture. Kooky, kooky. While I'm happy to have something other than the sox's to watch, I'm sad that I'll miss most of the episodes while I'm gone for a month. I'll have to catch up once I come back.

my.new.nickname

Here's the whole scoop on the much anticipated camping trip. Took the ferry to george's island saturday morning. Hung out there and checked out the cool fort for a bit. Pretended we were shooting cannons off at the bad guys, and sister *j* scared the crap out of me two times while I was gingerly descending the VERY dark and foggy stairs to an underground room. (Which I swear had bats in it!)Then took the inner-island ferry to grape island (that's a photo of it up there). Set up our tents and the tarp over the picnic table, and then it started pouring. We played some cards (*k* and *j* kicked butt) and then did some hiking around the island. The beaches were pretty sweet- all slate rock and mussel shells. (Pics over there of *k*, *j* and our dad walking the beach, and my foot with the shells.**) We worked as a team to get a fire going. *j* found an old dock up on the beach that we then tore apart for wood, and I dug a fire pit area and built up a wall to protect it from the wind. We had to build it below the high tide line, but luckily, the tide schedule worked perfectly in our favor. We got a great fire going, and made foil packets for dinner (hamburger, potatoes and onions wrapped in tin foil and stuck under the coals for 10 mins) and then s'mores for dessert. Then we sat there and watched the tide drown our fire out (pic of *k* on the rock watching it drown**). More card games, and then we called it a night. Slept pretty well despite the downpours and thunder/lightening at 4:30am and 7am, and woke up dry thanks to my fabulous tent. On sunday we took a wild edibles tour. I ate some curly dock(?) leaves and something else. I also got a new nickname from my siblings; "short legs". Just to clarify for you readers who don't know me, I'm 5 foot 9, which is pretty tall by normal standards. However, I happen to be the shortest kid in my family. *j* is 5 foot 11(but has freakishly long legs compared to her torso length), *b* is 6 foot 4.5 and *k* is 6 foot 5. There's a photo of *j*, *k* and myself up on a big rock.** This is where the name first came about. It was, "Hey *j*, short legs is going to try to hop up here. Ha ha." It continued from there, and became the snickering as I stepped up a very large step, and the surprised "Hey! Short legs made it!" So yup, I'm now to be known as short legs.

**Note- the promised pictures are not included because blogger stinks right now, and won't add them even though it seems to think it is. So you only get the picture of grape island for now. If things start working right around here, I'll add them later, but it's been four days with no luck so far.

cow.hunt

*ac* and I walked around boston finding as many cows as possible. Today we came up with 41, but I know there are lots more. Tomorrow I will try harder. I'm hoping to reach the 100 mark pretty soon. It appears that there are 119. I wonder if I'll be able to find them all. I'm not sure what my favorite is so far. Maybe the "moo-rathon runner on cow-moo-nwelth ave" or "olive". Look here to find yours, and I'll see if I can locate it.

*sigh*

Grrr...I have a new post all set up, but can't add pictures for some reason. I go through all the normal steps, but when I click the "done" button, nothing happens. No picture appears. Hmmmmm.
On another note, *ac*, *mc* and I had dinner tonight. It was just like old times. *ac* made gazpacho (yummy) and strawberry shortcake (double yummy). Then *mc* held a photo session in which 25 photos were taken of the three of us. It was quite a process since the camera had to be propped up on a placemat, on a chair, on a table. Regardless, we ended up with some great pics which I can't share since the add photo feature is out of commission today. Technology.

ghost.ship

When the ferry just left long wharf, we saw "old ironsides" which was out for some special occasion where it would shoot of some cannons or something. It was so foggy out that it looks like a ghost ship. Eeek.

rooms.to.let

I'm having visitors! Tomorrow, my friend from san diego *ac* is staying over, along with another friend *js*. *ac* will be here monday and tuesday nights too. I'm really excited. I only see *ac* a few times a year, but we always have such a great time that I wish we could get together more often. I'm currently working on getting her and her husband to move back to the boston area. Another visitor is an old college roommate *nk*, who is staying here for the first week of her medical externship at tufts, where she'll be for a month before going to brown, and then umass medical center in worcester each for another month. She's in her fourth year of med school and she's a smarty. I haven't seen her in a long time, so I'm happy she'll be here before I leave for the big trip. My sister's also staying here since she's working nearby for the rest of the summer, so I'll always have someone to keep me company!

Rather.innapropriate.if.you.ask.me

do.you.want.some.mail?

One more thing. Whoever wants a postcard from somewhere in Europe, send me your address. If you want, send it as a comment, and I'll reject it so it doesn't show up for everyone to see. Or just e-mail it too me if you're a good enough friend to have my address. I'm printing up address labels to bring with me so I can just stick them on the back of a postcard, and not have to worry about re-writing anything. (Thanks for the idea evil twin #1.)

grape.island

Going camping this weekend. While I grew up going up north (you know- new hampshire, vermont, maine) and still really like that atmosphere, this info my dad forwarded to me is looking pretty great:

“Grape Island: An hour's ride from Georges Island. In Hingham Bay, just off Weymouth's Webb State Park, Grape is a very real island, one known for its raspberries as well as grapes. Mowed paths lead to secluded campsites in shady woods and beaches are a mix of mussels and shells. This was a favored Indian summer spot for 7,000 years before settlers arrived and you can understand why. Pick up a map at the dock and follow the trail past the stone foundation, past the marsh wildflowers and along the shore to the picnic tables under the big willow at Sunset Point. Follow the path with its vista of Bumpkin Island and the Hull Shoreline. Short side trails leads to the northern shore. Circle the island once and cross it through the high grasses in the middle. Pick a spot to sun, read or snooze. Meet the tamest, sweetest skunks you will ever see."

I'm not so sure about the sweetest skunks, but I'll take the rest!

pandora's.x

My sister tuned me into this site. It's pretty sweet. You type in an artist you like, and it plays their music, and then will find other music that's similar to what you originally typed. If you knew about this, and didn't share it with me, shame on you.

weekend.update.with.scs

This has been a busy weekend. I've learned a bunch of new stuff.

• First thing saturday am, I had a photo shoot in a fabulous old schoolhouse-turned-condos in south boston. It was with a boy I've photographed every year, for four years now. I only see him on these yearly visits, so it's interesting to see how much he changes, and yet how little at the same time.
• After I finished up down there, I met *nn* and her canine pal, barney for a walk and some frisbee lessons. *nn* is great at frisbee. She played in college, and can do all sorts of fun moves while she throws it exactly where she wants it to go. As for me...let's just say that *nn* got a TON of exercise chasing after my woobly, misguided tosses. It was rather embarrassing, but fun none-the-less. I'm planning on purchasing myself a frisbee, and making the kids run after it while I practice.
• Since it was super hot out, my next stop was the pool. I brought along *g* and *s*, *ab* and *kb's* (the ones who have a three week old baby) kids since *ab's* in london, and *kb* can't swim yet. (Apparently you have to wait a bit after popping a baby out. Never having had kids, I wasn't privy to this bit of info until recently.) Some other friends showed up just as we were about to leave, so we had a longer swim than planned.
• I got home at 6:30, and studied calculus until 1:30am. I accomplished only a little bit in that time.

Today was a bit less busy.

• I woke up at 8:30 and studied until 12. My little brother came in at night to drop of our sister, and he saved my butt. He's a genius at calc, so he helped me figure out some of my mistakes. There's nothing like getting help from you younger sibs!!
• Then we went to the red sox game at 2:05. Sadly, we lost to the oakland a's, (..oh crap. The yankee's are only .5 games behind us.) When I was younger, I used to babysit for several families on our street. One family had two boys who were so unbelievable at sports, that I used to joke about taking my picture with them each year of their life, and having them sign it. The youngest one once listed off the red sox lineup to me when he was three. So, the eldest boy got a job at fenway as the locker guy for the visiting team several years ago (Dan Duquette lived up the street from us, and hooked him up) and now works as the visiting team's batboy when he's home from college. He even got a world series ring when we won in 2004. I've seen it, and it's very impressive. It even has his last name in diamonds like the big players. I was talking to him a couple months ago, and he was saying that he's going to quit in a year or two (when he's done with college) because he needs to make real money. Apparently he only makes $7.50/hour. You'd think they could pay a bit more than that, although I'm sure they could get someone to work for free if they wanted to. He was working today, and it was pretty cool to actually know someone on the field, even if he's only a batboy in the visiting team's uniform.

international.holiday

Joyeux bastille day! In honor of this great day, *ac* and *gl* hosted a bastille day picnic in part of olmstead's emerald necklace. Her invite was great:

Bonjour,

Join us for a Bastille Day Picnic next Friday, July 14 at 7 pm in Olmstead Park (just south of Jamaica Pond). Those of you who aren't Francophiles might want to know, What is Bastille Day? Simple-- the French equivalent of Cinco de Mayo. So trade in your Coronas and nachos and bring some fine wine, brie and baguettes. Don't forget your picnic blanket, wear red, white and blue (Vive la France!) and perhaps we'll bring the frisbee. Although in true French spirit there would be no semblance of exercise. Instead we'd all smoke cigarettes. C'est la vie!

Let us know if you can make it* and if you need directions.
A and G

*J, P and M-- it's unlikely you'll be able to join us from Africa, and M from the land of sushi, but we'll be thinking about you all!

We had lots of yummy french inspired food (brie, pate, baguette, and (of course) wine). We also had fruit salad, tomato/basil salad, sausage, crackers and cheese, veggies, and little pastry cookies to name some. It was the perfect night- great weather and great company. We've decided that this will have to become a more regular occurrence. It definitely helped satisfy my urge for brown bagged picnics!!

i'm.a.dream.maker!

Today one of my favorite radio stations, mix 98.5, is running a fundraiser for children's hospital. I was dropping the kids off at french camp, and was listening to these super sad stories about sick kids, and how children's hospital has made such a difference in their lives. I actually teared up. (There's just something about hearing parents talk about their sick children that really gets to me.) They're trying to get a certain number of "dream makers" (people who donate $15+ monthly) each hour, and when I thought about all the crap that I spend money on each month, I really couldn't claim financial hardship or something as a reason not to help out. So now I'm a dream maker. Good for me. They're not lying either- it really does make you feel good about yourself.

shoulder.update.update

I finally had my appointment with the orthopedic guy down at mgh today. It was at 8am. I wasn't aware that real doctors even had appts that early. Regardless...I needed to check out what building this guy was in, so I looked his name up online, and clicked on the first link. I don't know what I was expecting. Apparently a guy in his late 50's with a bad haircut or who was balding, maybe a little round in the middle who, while pleasant, was definitely not going to be someone I'd think was cool. The first clue into my misconception was the picture that popped up. Hmmm...definitely not old, tubby and bald. He's on the younger side, and pretty good-looking. So I make my way downtown, fill out the pile of forms they need, and get in to see the nurse practitioner. She was cool. She asked the normal questions ("did you injure it in any way? Does it hurt here?") and then went off to get the dr. This guy was great! Not only was he cute, but he was super friendly (or just really good at pretending). After moving my arm around, hearing the click noise it was making, and poking it a bit, he diagnosed the problem as tendonitis. He gave me a cortisone shot, some prescription pills, and told me not to miss switzerland on our europe trek because apparently switzerland's the best. Good to know. Now my shoulder should be set to carry a 30 lb backpack for a month, and the pills will keep my feet from swelling up while I'm doing it.

*b*- in case you don't click on the link, this guy's not only a sports medicine guy, but a shoulder specialist as well. Nice.

i.get.to.go.here

cinque terre, italy

phew...

That sox vs sox game last night was unbelievable! Nineteen innings! I can't imagine how those poor players were feeling after six plus hours of batting/fielding. I know how the fans were feeling- tired. Especially that guy they kept showing who was asleep. I have to say...although I wish the red sox had won (and they should have if they'd argued that bad call), it was such a good game that it was okay that they didn't. They gave it their best against the second rated team, so that's okay. Plus the yankee's lost, so we're still three games ahead of them. I was looking online to find record innings in games, and I found this site which has all sorts of interesting facts, like; the shortest nine inning game was the national league new york against philadelphia on 9.28.1919, and it ran only 51 mins! How pissed would you be if you paid good money for those tickets?

cover.art

Every once in a while I notice that someone, who has the same book as I, has a different cover on theirs. This often happens at book club, and I just assumed that because so many people buy used books now, the cover had been updated. Yesterday I was adding recent books I've read to the sidebar of my blog, and while searching for a photo of the cover, I found that every single book I looked for (granted, I only had three) was shown with a different cover than mine. I searched around a bit since I liked the covers on my books the best (especially in "kafka on the shore" (which is a great book, so go read it right now). My cover is far superior to the ones that were showing up on amazon and the like.) After some searching, I found the right cover for two of the books, but I wasn't able to find the same one for the book "saturday" by ian mcewan. Let me also say that all three books were purchased new, and not long ago either. I'm not sure what's going on.
On a recent note, when I'm looking for new books and don't have any particular ones in mind, I tend to glance at their covers (the ones on the bargain table at the brookline booksmith are set up perfectly for this) and pick up the ones that pique my interest. This doesn't mean that I buy them based solely on the cover. If the description looks boring, I put it back. However, it is the first thing to catch my eye. I'm sure that there are tons of great books out there that I'll never read because they have crappy covers. Actually, not long ago, I was cruising the bargain table, and picked up a copy of "the fig eater" by jody shields. I liked the cover, and thought it would be good. It was also only $3.99, so I got it along with two or three others. I got home, and was putting them on my shelf of not-yet-read books, and realized that I had already purchased the same exact book, but hadn't gotten around to reading it yet! If anyone wants a copy and is interested in doing an e-mail bookclub type thing, let me know. Whoever responds first gets it.

brown.bagged.booze

Today I went rollerblading with *tm*. It had been a while, but came back quickly. A few summers back, *ac*, *mc* and I would meet up and rollerblade on the esplanade every other week or so. We brought fancy picnic dinners (once with brown bagged wine!) and would enjoy the great views, weather, and people watching as we ate. Then*mc* moved to san diego, and while *ac* and I tried to keep at it, we met less and less until it just wasn't happening at all. I starting bringing *e* when she was little to millennium park, and would throw her in the jogging stroller while I bladed around the loop. The sad thing was that I started to get overly reliant on those handle bars, and then was a bit less steady when I tried to go without her. Back to today. We did four loops around the top of millennium which is about 2 miles. We probably would have done more, but we had to hike up to the top of the hill before we even started. (Note- millennium park is built on a landfill- thus the beautiful view and #1 kite flying area in town.) Normally you can just drive all the way to the top and put on your rollerblades from there, but today just happened to be "hazardous waste drop off day" (you know...it used to be a landfill!) and there was an unbelievably long line of cars waiting to drop off their paint cans, etc for proper disposal. So we parked at the bottom of the hill and started our work-out hiking all the way up to the top. All-in-all, it was great to get back to blading, and I want to get a regular thing going now that it's nice out. Plus, I really miss that brown-bagged wine. Let me know who's in!

label.crazy

Yesterday I went with the kids to a friend's house north of boston. It was beautiful- the kids played tennis on their tennis courts, and went swimming in their pool. The lawn was fabulous. All lush and green like in those Scott's commercials, although the child's mother mentioned that she only has the lawn guys use organic natural type fertilizer. If only I had the same economic background! The funniest thing was inside. Every cabinet, light switch, and door was labeled; in the kitchen, each cabinet had several labels on the outside proclaiming what was behind the door. "Yellow and Blue Mugs" said one, and "White Cereal Bowls" another. The light switches marked which light was attached to the switch- "chandelier" or "entryway". It was impressive. I thought that I was a bit ocd, but this was way above and beyond anything I could ever be capable of. However, if I had a staff of employees (many nannies, a cook, and several cleaning ladies (not to mention the lawn care guys)) who knows what I could do!

i.hate.calculus

Some of you may recall that I have to catch up on calculus courses before applying to grad school for statistics. Well, it just so happens that while I LOVE statistics, I HATE calculus. I was very worried when I first discovered this because I didn't want to get to grad school and realize that I hated the whole math thing. I did some questioning, and found that while you need calc for stats, it's not a huge part of it. I was also relieved to find that my sister (who loves calculus) hates statistics. So maybe I'm not doomed. However, I'm now in the beginning of a month long online calc 2 course. I'll be impressed with myself if I actually figure it all out by myself since I normally have to ask lots of questions (and probably was the kid you hated in class since it would extend the class time exponentially!). It makes me so anxious that I start to think that maybe this is the way of telling me that I really should be teaching, and not trying to do something that stresses me out so much. I consider this for a while, but then don't want to feel like I'm just chickening out when things get a little rough. I guess I'll wait and see how I do in this course since I've already paid for it anyway.

Grrr.

I'm really disappointed. The red sox are losing to tampa bay again!! Tampa bay is at the bottom in the ranks for east coast american league, and we're at the top. Not for long at this rate.

four.day.weekends.rock

Happy fourth of july! I was supposed to go camping this weekend with my family, but no one made reservations in time (we all thought someone else was taking care of it!) By the time I tried to make some, nothing was available. So we're camping on the boston harbor islands at the end of july instead. I was happy to have four days open at the last minute. If I'd known we wouldn't be camping, I would have made other plans, and wouldn't have had these days to fill as I pleased. I ended up doing a lot of two things; visiting with friends, and doing yard/house work. I spent most of saturday and sunday with the *b's* (the ones with the new baby) and most of monday with *ki* having lunch and taking a short hike in Arlington. Sunday morning I mowed the lawn, trimmed the hedges (with the manual trimmers non-the-less since the electric ones were on the fritz) and weeded the vegetable garden. Today I spent the entire day cleaning out and repainting my darkroom. It was getting pretty gross, and since I spend the most time down there during the summer, I figured it made sense to have it free of toxins. Now I'm just waiting for the paint to dry before I put everything back in there. I think I'll go fold some laundry.

oil.change

I got my car's oil changed today since it had been a while. Apparently everyone else had the same idea- I had to wait a bit. While I was sitting there (and reading my Rick Steves europe book which I bring everywhere) all I could think of was the part in the movie Robots where the elevator opens to a robot guy going to the bathroom. He was sitting there with a newspaper and everything. Except since he was robot, he was really just changing his oil. He said something like "this is my third oil change of the day." I guess he wasn't feeling well. My little jetta's lucky if I remember to bring it in every three months (since I only put 7000 miles/year on it, I'm not supposed to wait for every 3000 miles!)

i.know.nothing

I have recently become more aware of how little I know about things. Eight year old *m* constantly comes home from school and shares some obscure fact that her teacher told her. I swear I learn more from her than I ever did in school. In the past few days, I've found that things I've taken for fact have been incorrect. Take today for example. I was visiting my friends with the new baby, and I told them that the only part of the human body that is the same size from birth to adulthood is the eyeball. I don't remember where I heard this, but I've believed it for years and years. After I said this, I started to wonder about the validity of it all, and when I got home, I did a search online. I found that a baby does not have a full grown eyeball, but an eyeball that's 66-75% of the size it will become. So relatively speaking, it's still enormous in those little baby heads, but not nearly as impressive as I'd thought. From now on, I'm going to double check before I go spouting off a bunch of lies.