MTH to BWI

Heading to Baltimore today for a quick work trip. My work trips are always crazy, fast, and super hectic. Can’t wait to hang out with Mrs. Reid tomorrow evening.  On the aJENda, “rock and roll all night and party every day.” Also on my to do list before I leave, locating specific animal-shaped surprises for a certain trio of tiny people…who’s last name starts with an H…. who have curly-q hair….any guesses…..

One last thing to leave you with today…chop stick kitty:

My fancy drink was so fancy

Last week I met some new friends, Molly and Lori, for lunch at Lemon Tree, which is a really great Thai place. (Molly and Lori work in Thommy’s office. Actually, they are the designers in Thommy’s office.) I ordered a Thai ice tea, which arrived with this perfectly folded little crane sitting atop my straw. How cute.

More idyllic countryside coming right up

On Sunday, we went to the Fruitlands Museum in Havard, Mass. I swear, I did not photoshop these images…the colors are just that amazing. We took Sam and then had to fight off the ticks (note: never walk dog through woods during height of tick season again). It was a great outing after such a rainy nasty Saturday.

Fall in New England

Each season this year has been a new experience for us…It’s been exciting to see our new home under snow, thawing out, full of green trees, and now turning back in to the colorful crisp New England we visited this time last year as we thought about making the move here. It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a full year!

These pics are all from our day at Walden Pond with Val and Charlie!

Val and Charlie come to Mass.!

We had a great weekend with Val and Charlie, who hopped on the Megabus on Thursday to visit for the weekend.

On Friday, we went in to Boston to take a walk and have lunch in the North End, which is like a little italy. Charlie had some recommendations from friends, and they were spot on. We had a great lunch followed by some fantastic cannolis. (stay tuned for pics).

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful fall day. We drove up to New Hampshire and had brunch at Parkers Maple Barn, did some shopping at L.L. Bean and then came back to Mass to take a walk around Walden Pond.

What? It was a pretty background.

Later that evening we went out for lobster. You’ll have to wait until Val sends me pics of that adventure (Hint: It was Charlie’s first lobster)

Catching up

My mom wants to know why I only blog once a week. If I blog more, she says, she wouldn’t have to call me all the time. And that would probably make us both happy. #facetiousness

So here’s what I’ve been doing lately.

1. Last week I tried a power vinyasa yoga class. Vinyasa = flow. Power = well, power. As in, “power up those thigh muscles…hold it…hold it (5 minute time lapse)….and back to down dog.”  It was a heated class, although not a “hot yoga” session…the room was about 75 to 80 degrees and let me tell you somefin, I was drenched in sweat within minutes. It was a great class and I will definitely be going back. But not this week, because….

2. My sewing class starts this week. I’m going to make this Amy Butler Weekender Bag. Off to Joann’s tonight to pick up a few things I need like super duper stabilizer and fabric for the lining.

Also,

This past weekend was Grandma Kipp’s birthday and Ellie Skepton’s birthday. Happy 94th birthday and happy 2nd birthday, respectively! Today is Robby’s birthday, so happy day to her too!

Annnnnndddd…. we did some house hunting this weekend. Went to a few open houses yesterday. Overall, we didn’t visit many we liked, but one did stand out. It’s a cute little cottage in the woods, it abuts conservation land and there’s a path to the pond from the back yard. It has a big open kitchen next to an open family room with huge windows and a big fireplace. Three bedrooms upstairs and a separate office space downstairs in it’s own semi-private section of the house. It’s kinda perfect. It’s also kinda over our price range. We’re going to keep an eye on it to see if it comes down in price.

The trees, they are a-changin’

Take a good look at this pic. The trees on one side of the street have changed (and even fallen off the tree). But look at the other side. Still green. weird.

Little bits of stuff we did

There comes a time when you stop gallivanting all around New England over the weekend and just chill out. Here’s some of the little bits of stuff we did that all string together to make a really enjoyable weekend.

–Found a Thai place that had the spiciest noodles I’ve ever tasted. We both ordered only one “spicy” (out of four) and we were both crying like little girls.

–Went to the Acton Library Used Book Sale. And when I say “Sale,” I mean “All the books are free for the taking from 2 to 4.” First on my list: “The Entomological Adventures of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone.”

–Made new pillow cases for the couch. Zippers and all.

–And made peanut butter cookies, which were then stuffed with Fluff (Ode to the Fluffernutter, Massachusetts state sandwich, hello.)

meh-wug, pork ribs and melons

Married people everywhere live by a few basic principles. They are different for everyone, and for everyone, they are important guidelines for their marriage. One of the basic principles of FvS is “Eat Good Bar-be-que.” And so, to that end, we headed to the Harvard Fall Festival yesterday, where low and behold, a BBQ Cookoff was being held. It’s not easy to find good BBQ in New England…the kind we’re used to anyway, with that good southern mac and cheese, greens, cornbread, you get the idea. But we did manage to find a BBQ tent that was right up our alley: ribs and mac and cheese. Here’s Thommy, eyeing up the goods.

Speaking of meh-wug, congratulations to Jenni and her farmer boy, Adam, who got engaged last week!

Also, while I was in Baltimore last week, I got to visit with Royce Hartin and her brothers (oh, and her mom!). Royce is growing cantelopes in her backyard!

The leaves are turning!

I meant what I said about summer being over in New England. The leaves are already beginning to turn! Not many of them, but still. The interesting this is that only the leaves of the small trees are turning so soon. Thommy and I speculated that this was because they are smaller and so need to defend themselves from the cold winter more so than their bigger tree brethren. We are, of course, tree scientists, you know.

See that little baby tree that’s turned red? Hiding under all of the big trees.

Other interesting things that happened over the weekend:

1. There was a break out at the horse ranch behind the apartment. A couple of horses were hanging out in the empty lot behind the trash dumpsters in the complex.

2. Sam got stung by a bee. On his foot. Really, Sam attacked first, but I don’t think he saw it that way.