old.friend.

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from someone I knew (or who knew me) quite well, but who I haven't seen in over three years, or talked to in over one. It was such a nice surprise. It got me thinking about how people come into and leave your life, and how they change you in doing so. It was strange to think that this person knew a different me, and stranger to think about how I was different three, five, fifteen years ago. I'm much stronger and more self-assured now. I suppose it's like losing weight. When it's someone you see all the time, the change isn't as noticeable. When it's someone you haven't seen in six months, it's in-your-face obvious. Sometimes I wish I could tell the old me stuff. Now that I'm so much wiser, that is.

power.mac.g3.

I have this cute little (old) computer. Someone gave it to me, but because I'm scared of macs, I never really used it. It also has a mere 6GB of storage, which wouldn't even hold half of my music. Now I'm moving, and it can't come with me, so I have to figure out what to do with it. Any ideas?

one.down.one.to.go.

Right now I have two bedrooms. Mine, and my guest room (aka "julie's room"). When I move, I'll only have one, which means I have to drastically cut down on the amount of stuff I have. Yesterday I brought the extra bed back to my parents' house, and today I cleaned out most of what was left. The things I'm keeping are packed away in the attic space, and the things I'm selling/donating are in the hall. It's pretty cramped out there. Luckily, our yard sale is planned for saturday morning, so it will be gone in five days. Tomorrow the mattress man comes with two new twin beds. That way they'll be able to smoosh them together to have one big king when they need it, or keep them separate and have two visitors. I think I might be the first visitor and try one of them out. Ahhh....new comfy beds.

gesundheit!

I was at my parents' house for my sister's going away dinner (she's moving to sacramento for a year to work with homeless druggies and lushes) and my dad was checking out my computer. My mom was sitting next to him but with her back turned since she was playing backgammon with my aunt. All of a sudden, my dad turned towards my mom, and sneezed into his arm. He scared the pants off my mom in the process. This is the headline I'd write for the boston globe: "Local woman rests in area hospital after suffering heart attack brought on by husband's sneeze. Doctors expect a full recovery."

happy.birthday.jen!

She's the big twenty-ten today!

cookout.number.two.

Today was k and k's cookout. It was also the female k's birthday. She's younger than me by just over a month- a rare occurrence since most of my friends are older. I headed out for the festivities just after 4:30 (it's a 45 min drive to the 'burbs from boston) and got stuck in several huge thunder/lightening storms. I had to try three ways to get to the pike since the traffic was so bad, some lights were out, and a tree had fallen across the road. Wipers on full blast did little to clear the view, but thankfully, the rain passed, and I made it out there with no more problems. The cookout was super and the company hilarious. I even managed to catch the last inning of the sox/devil rays game when I got home. We won 12/6 in the 12th inning. Sweet!

it.could.only.happen.to.her.

We have an automatic grill brush like this one. We don't tend to use it since it doesn't work as well as the manual kind, and since it can't be left outside with the grill, it lives on the basement stairs. Today, we came home from the pool, and as l ran up the stairs, she bumped the brush with her foot, turning it on. E ran over to turn it off, and as she bent over to press the red button, her hair got stuck in the spinning bristles. It was really stuck in there- it wrapped tightly between the gray part and the wire bristles, and it took me forever to get out what I could. We had to snip part of it out, but it's not noticeable when her hair's brushed out. Poor thing. Of course it would happen to her.

it's.good.to.have.a.kid.along.

Today the plan was to drop the two oldest off at tennis camp and meet kelly at the reservoir for some laps. I've done this the past two days, and even though I went to the bathroom before we left the house, by the time I was running, I had to pee. Today I decided to stop somewhere to use the bathroom before meeting kelly, but there were limited options between tennis and the reservoir. I found a gas station/cumberland farms, and figured that would do. Unfortunately there were no public bathrooms, just a door that read "employees only." Luckily, I had e with me, so when I went up to the counter, I pushed her front and center and asked if they had a bathroom we could use. The manager pointed us towards the door, and apologized for the state of the bathroom. From the way he talked, I thought it would be a stinky germ-ridden pit. It wasn't. It was nice and clean, with a few closet supplies in with the sink and toilet. When we got to the reservoir, I was able to keep up without having to cross my legs and hop the last 1/2 mile.

kiva.

My brother gave me a gift certificate to kiva for my birthday. It arrived the day I was going on vacation for two weeks, so it took me a little longer than usual to check it out. I spent a good deal of time surfing around tonight, and it's really neat! Basically, you scan profiles, and pick a small business owner in a developing country to loan money to. They use this money to build their business, and repay the loan within a certain time frame. You can also check out their journal entries to see how they're using the money. Then you can pick another person and loan the money all over again! I have a few people I'm deciding between so far. I'll let you know when I choose.

run.

I had a month or so of little to no running. It was bad. I came to the conclusion that not running can't be an option- I just have to make myself do it. Starting up again was rough. My knee was killing me after only 2 miles on monday (which shouldn't have happened since taking a break is supposed to improve i.t. band issues), and my breathing is off. Today I ran outside with the jogger, and managed a few rounds of the brookline reservoir. Tomorrow I'm planning to do the same. What I really need to do is to sign up for another run. That'll put a fire under me.

lindsay.lohan.is.arrested.again.

What's wrong with this kid? I understand that "addiction is a terrible and vicious disease," but seriously? She just got out of rehab. If she felt like throwing those six weeks in the garbage with cocaine and booze, couldn't she have at least let someone else drive? Maybe a driver? Or a sober friend? I'm so sick and tired of her. Grow up lindsay.

where's.george?

I just read my friend k's blog, and learned about the where's george site. I'd never heard about it before, but I like it. I looked in my wallet and found three one dollar bills (I know. I'm super rich.) and picked one of them to register. I think that each of you should look in your wallet and do the same. Write something original when you register it, and maybe one of us will get it.

over.and.over.

I tivod all six of the sarah silverman shows about a month ago, and I just keep watching them over and over again. I never do this. I usually can't stand rewatching anything (or rereading a book for that matter), but she is just so inappropriately funny I can't get enough. Tonight my favorite part is her conversation with the black woman in the drugstore. I wonder what it will be tomorrow?

birthday.surprise.

Last month, on my birthday, madeleine told me that she had ordered my present and that I'd get it on july 21st. Kids are funny. She talked so much about the surprise (like, she ordered it from barnes and noble, it was coming on july 21st, etc) that it would have been hard not to know what it was. So today when she gave me the newly released harry potter book, I faked surprise- and did a pretty good job if I say so myself! She was just so cute and proud that she'd bought it herself. So now I have to hurry up and read number six so I can read number seven!

little.mutt.

Right now it's 10:55. Eleanor and her yogurt have been sitting at the kitchen table for almost three hours now. We're taking bids on when she'll eventually finish.

along.for.the.ride.

I took andrea's example and reactivated my library card yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Just $15 in fines, and a $1 fee for the new card (which is prettier than the old card, so even if I could find it, it would probably be worth the extra buck). The last time I used my library card was four years ago when my sister and I drove across country. I took out three books on tape for the drive, but found that we were too easily distracted to follow along, so we never really listened to them. Then it took me about three months to return them, thus the $5 fee per item. Yesterday it was rainy, and we had no one to play with. So we grabbed our umbrella's, and walked into town for the afternoon. The girls were excited about going to the library, something we clearly hadn't done in four years. We asked the librarian about getting them their own cards, and they can do it. They just need a parent with them. So yesterday they each picked out two books which we checked out on my card, and then we stopped at the real deal for lunch before walking home in between the raindrops. Once I whittle down my bookshelf books, I'll start using the library myself!

apartment.layout.

Here's the to-scale apartment layout! No furniture in it yet, but I have them cut out. It's on flickr with some notes added, along with real pictures of the kitchen and dining room. Very exciting!

i.heart.the.charlie.card.

I took the bus and t down to mgh today, and it reinforced how great the new charlie cards are. Not only did I not have to dig through my change jar for quarters, but I just scanned my wallet, and the $1.25 was automatically deducted from my account. Then, when I switched to the t, I didn't have to pay the full t fare. No. With a swipe of my wallet, only $0.45 was deducted- the difference between the bus fare of $1.25 and the t fare of $1.70. Plus, these fares are already discounted. For those poor saps who are still paying cash for t rides, the fare is $2.00, and $1.50 for a bus ride, and no free transfer- the same ride would have run me $3.50. So by picking up a charlie card, I saved $1.80, and made my life infinitely easier. It's about time boston caught up with the likes of london and their oyster cards.

call.me.anal.

Today I went over to the new apartment to get some measurements in order to plan the layout for our furniture, and figure out what we need to do in terms of storage. I came straight home, and am now making a to-scale graph paper model of the apartment, and the furniture I already have. Poor, poor jen and ben.

flickr.

I was playing around on flickr to see if there was any way to import my photostream into my blog (I don't think there is) and I checked out the popularity section for fun. It organizes your photos by popularity within four categories- views, favorites (people can "favorite" one of your pictures, and this organizes them according to the most "favorited" first), comments (obviously the ones with the most comments would be at the top here), and finally, interestingness. I don't get this one. How can flickr tell which of my 935 photos are the most interesting. It looks like it takes in account how many times a picture's been "favorited," but that's it. Some of the ones at the top haven't even been viewed yet, while ones below them have been viewed a ton. Someone, please enlighten me here.

external.hard.drive.

I need to get an external hard drive- mainly for storing photos and music. Any recommendations on brands/models? I like this one, but that's because it's small and cute. I've learned that this isn't necessarily a good reason to buy something.

happy.bastille.day.

Today was my cookout. I keep calling it a picnic- not sure why. It was fun! A lot of people showed up, around 15 or so. I grilled my first hamburgers, along with some hot dogs and yummy apple chicken sausage. According to what I heard, they came out well, although everyone might have been lying to be nice. It was great to get most of my friends together. Some of them had met each other before, but not everyone. This way, they all know who I'm talking about when I gossip. Once it got dark, we lit a bunch of sparklers. I think this is et#1 in the picture, but since you can't see the person, it's anyone's guess.

big.news!

No. I'm not getting married. But I did make it to my 70th platelet donation today! Only 2 more to get to 9 gallons and another pin! I was planning a party for when I hit ten gallons (80 donations) but I think I'm putting it off until I hit 100. That just seems a little more exciting. Assuming I keep on track with my biweekly donations, this should happen sometime around october or november of 2008. Mark your calendars!

cookout.

I'm having a cookout tomorrow, so come on over if you're around. (Unless you're a grown-up. This is a kids thing.) It starts around 5, and all that you need to bring is yourself, your friends, and whatever you want to drink. I'm providing the meat (the burgers will probably be burnt since I only know how to grill chicken and hot dogs) and some snacky stuff. It looks like there will be a decent crowd even though both nora and ben can't come (losers) so it should be fun. Let me know if you need directions.

after.only.eleven.posts.

we're famous. Check out the second comment under the "veronika decides to die" post. I've posted over 400 posts on this blog, and haven't been recognized or reposted anywhere else. So make sure to check this page at some point on monday the 16th. That's supposedly when the review will be posted. Maybe this will actually get our pagerank for a shelf full of books on the board.

maine.

I just got back from a three day trip to maine. My friend cindy and her husband just bought a cottage on an island near boothbay harbor, and I showed up to help paint. The bathroom was a fabulous color combination- bright turquoise walls, a bright pink sink cabinet, and a bright yellow light fixture. The floor had originally been brownish tiles, but had been painted a bright blue, and then white, both which had started to scrape off. The funny thing is that the floor actually looked white, and not so bad before we painted all the walls white. Then it stuck out like a sore thumb, so we decided to paint it a light blueish green (a nice color, not the crazy stuff that was in there to begin with) for the time being. They'll put new tiles down when they have a few other things fixed in the fall. We also painted a wall in the living room, four stools, and two chairs, and reupholstered the chairs as well.
We were talking about the saying that 48% of new england residents prefer the cape, 48% prefer maine, and the 4% left over are spread out over new hampshire, vermont, etc. I think I'm a cape fan, although that may be because it's what I grew up knowing. I love maine too, but there are a lot more mosquitoes, it's a lot colder, and the beaches are more conducive to "hunting" than anything else. We were hanging out on the beach yesterday (on a rock, of course) and I was watching some kids play in the waveless water, throwing seaweed at each other, and pulling in a lobster trap. Other kids were roaming around on the rocks with their buckets, looking for crabs in the pools left as the tide went out. I'm sure I would have been all over this as a kid, but as an adult, I prefer boogie boards, castles, and bathing suits full of sand.

seriously?

I just found this while scanning craigslist.

Soiled Mattress for Sale - $75
Recent death on old mattress. Deeply soiled with various fluids. Must pick up.

I'm surprised that they're asking any money for it. I can't imagine anyone wanting this thing. Even homeless people would probably prefer a park bench. If someone wants an old soiled mattress, all they'd have to do is go trash picking on september first. Blah.

week.away.

I was on the cape for the past week. It was hard having no internet access for seven days. I don't think I've gone that long without checking e-mail or posting blog entries ever. It's a little sad that I've become so reliant on it. Anyway...since I haven't posted this past week, I copied in my daily activities from the last seven days. If you don't want to read a reenactment of my week, it can be summed up like this: I acted like a ten year old- All I really did was sit on the beach, read three books, boogie board, eat salt water taffy, start and finish a 100 count box of pop ice with julie, and hang out with cousins. A great time, and a relaxing week in all. Here's the link to some more pictures if you care.

saturday.june.30th.

I love the cape. I've gone there pretty much every year since I was in utero. My aunt peggy and uncle tom bought a house in wellfleet a couple of months before I was born (an amazing investment that's now worth at least 50 times what they paid for it), and my parents were the first people to sleep there. It's on a private sand road right on the beach, with a killer dune that I used to dread climbing. I'm never happier than when I turn off the side road onto their street and see the sand, dune grass and ocean. It's my favorite place to relax. In fact, I decided that I want to get married on that beach. We'll rent the other houses on the street, and have a big party. I told my dad to start saving his money since I found out that the houses rent for $4000 to $5000 per week. Ouch. Anyway. We're having our family reunion (to celebrate my grandmother's would-be 100th birthday) this weekend, and most of us are staying for the whole week. Today I drove down around 1pm, hitting minimal traffic, and went to our rental house. (Since our family's huge, we couldn't all fit at my aunt's so we rented three other places to stick people at night.) We unpacked our stuff, hung out for a little bit, and then headed over to my aunt's place for dinner. Nothing much else happened today, but it was good to see my cousins and their kids. So cute. I stuck in a picture at the top of the dune. To the right is the fence that leads down the dune, and all those little dots are people on the beach below.

sunday.july.1st.

We went to the flea market at the drive-in theater today. I got some good stuff- a cool leaded glass vase, two kitchen knives, three spools of rope, a turquoise necklace, and some sunglasses. I don't know what I'll do with them since I can't see without my glasses, but they fit super well, so I figured I'd see if I could have prescription lenses put in. After the flea market, we went to the beach, where I proceeded to lose my real prescription glasses in the ocean. I wasn't planning on going under water, and since I can't see without glasses, I wore them in. When I dove into a wave on a whim, I came up without them. The undertow took them out to sea faster than kevin and I could find them, so I guess it's good that I got the other sunglasses at the market. We zipped home, took showers, and headed over to mac's for the reunion. It was fabulous. My mom's the youngest of six kids (peggy, julie, david and rosemary (the twins), nancy and mom), all of whom have three or four kids (except aunt nancy). Since my mom's the youngest, most of my cousins are now between 35 and 44 and many are married with kids. From my grandmother's point of view, there are 6 kids (my aunts and uncle), 5 kid spouses, 18 grandchildren (me and my cousins), 9 grandchildren spouses, and 20 great-grandchildren for a total of 58 family members. Apart from the chicago group (19 folks) who couldn't make it (except my aunt julie, she was there), my brother brian, cousin jimmy, and his daughter becky couldn't come. So the turn out of 36 people was pretty impressive. I'm pretty sure that if my grandmother was still alive, a bunch of those chicago folks would have made it out too. This picture doesn't make it easy to see everyone, but it you click here, you'll go to my flickr account where I added notes over everyone's face with their name and other info. There's also a bunch of other good pictures from my week. We all ate lobsters and other beach food, had some good stuff to drink, and milled about for the night. That's about it.

monday.july.2nd.

Today was another great beach day. I spent some time on a towel next to my african-american sister, finished my first book, ate a ton of pop-ice, and hung out with the cousins at my uncle's place for dinner.

tuesday.july.3rd.

We went to grumpy's for breakfast. I got a blueberry muffin and a frittata. Both were delicious. Then to the ice cream smuggler for some ice cream since we were already in dennis for breakfast. On our way back to wellfleet (30 mins further down the cape) we stopped to pick up paper plates at the christmas tree shop. In theory, I don't like this store. I never shop there in boston, but it's part of the tradition of being on the cape. We usually pick up some cheap floaty stuff to use at the beach, and if we're lucky, we'd find a whiffle ball and bat. (We weren't lucky this time.) However. While we were there, I poked around, and came across the exact style plates and bowls I wanted for the new apartment. They're plain white and pretty flat- with no rim an inch from the edge. They're also breakable- not plastic or paper- and the price was very nice. Twelve dinner plates, twelve salad plates, and eight bowls ran me less than $26. At this price they could last me a couple of months before breaking and I'd be happy. From here we went to the beach, and finally made it home for a big dinner at our place.

wednesday.july.4th.

I wore red and white with a bluish necklace. We went to the town parade and stole candy from the little kids, spent the afternoon at the beach riding waves in on boogie boards, and "babysat" jack-jack, richie, jason and ryan- my cousins little kids- at night so they could go out to dinner. We made s'mores on the grill and lit eight boxes of sparklers before watching some fireworks on the beach.

thursday.july.5th.

Today was overcast. It looked like rain, so julie and I decided to spend the day in provincetown. I like provincetown. While you have to be careful about what stores you take kids to, (as my cousin's 11yr old son said, "I saw some stuff I probably shouldn't have seen") there's so much character and entertainment that it makes a rainy day much more enjoyable. I got some cabot's salt water taffy (a must for the cape), a butter girl, and some other kitchen stuff. We stayed dry, and hung out at home that night. I finished my second book.

friday.july.6th.

Julie and I got in about two hours of quality beach time. The sun was super hot, but the ocean was pretty seaweedy due to the storm on thursday, and we weren't thrilled about getting in it. Rich, chris and the boys came down, set up their stuff, and fifteen minutes later, it started thundering and dark clouds started moving in. We packed up, trucked it up the dune, and made it inside just as a huge thunder and lightening storm hit. When the first storm passed, we zipped over to our rental place, and laid low during the subsequent storms. The power went on and off, and the crack of lightening sounded like it would take down trees. Megan and ellen had talked about getting the cousins together for a night out, and we passed the grandkids off to their grandparents to grab a few drinks at the beachcomber. Even though most of my cousins had left already (most of them couldn't take the whole week off work, and went home on wednesday or thursday) it was so much fun. We all had several drinks, and talked so much more than we would have been able to if the "grown-ups" and little kids were around. I feel like I got to know them all so much better. Next time, we decided we're planning a cousins' night out right at the beginning of the week. Here's the picture the bartender took of us. Clockwise from left- megan, danielle (my cousin patrick's wife), julie, rich (my cousin meg's husband), chris (my cousin ellen's husband), patrick, me, and ellen.

saturday.july.7th.

We got kicked out of the house at 10am, so we packed it up and went to aunt peggy's house for the day. We had a beautiful beach day which we took full advantage of, and finally left for boston around 3:30. My mom and kevin had both left earlier in the week (kevin on wednesday and mom on friday) so we were down to just my car. I was planning to drive my dad and julie to my house, and my mom would meet us here for dinner. But ellen's staying at the cape for another week with her husband chris and their two boys, and asked julie if she wanted to stay with them (since julie has the life of riley and goes from london to the cape to california). She had to come back to acton for a couple of days, and since she doesn't have a car anymore, chris told her to take his since both he and ellen had cars down there. This worked out well. Julie could drive my dad home and they wouldn't have to squish in my car. Then she could have tomorrow and monday to take care of stuff, and drive back to the cape for another four days. The deal's even sweeter since chris has a brand new, super fancy mercedes benz. If it were my car, no one would be driving it but me!