A life changing experience...at Costco

Every morning on my way to work I stop and get a coffee...that is, until yesterday. With some birthday money, I bought the cadillac of coffeemakers. Last night, I filled it with beans, set a little timer and happily went to sleep. This morning, I got out of the shower to find a pot of freshly ground, freshly brewed, hot coffee. What an amazing thing!! I didn't quite know what to do with myself when I got in the car. My pre-coffee autopilot was all out of whack. I didn't have to sleepily find my way to the coffee shop. I just got in the car and drove happily to work, coffee in hand. So, what does Costco have to do with all of this... I found the coffee maker of my dreams for quite a reasonable price at Costco. I feel like a new woman.

Maegen's Birthday!

We celebrated Maegen's birthday on Saturday. Dinner at Trattoria, drinks at the half, and the Chuch at Nectars. Good times with family and friends.

Rail Jam Bro

We went the rail jam in front of our apartment last night. It was kind of lame, but fun. We made our own VIP box in the back of truck so we could see. The rest of the night saw us at Mr. Mike's (where we spotted some random French Canadian) and then onto Finnegan's. For some reason I took a lot of photos of Ross.

Mike and Kelly in Keywest

Mike sent me this photo to my phone last night (it was 30 degrees here).

Conscious Alliance video

People often ask me what the deal is with the Conscious Alliance. Justin put together a nice video that sums it up....

Erin's Wedding

Erin's Wedding

Erin and Dean (a great guy) were married on Saturday. The food, location, and weather were perfect. We had a really fun trip down to Charlottesville, VA for the weekend. Click on the picture above for all the photos. It was great see Erin's family, WeHa friends, and check out a new city.

True confessions...

1. I still love Trey.
Trey came out with Phil a few weeks ago and killed it. It's so good to hear he's doing well and recovering. Here is a really bad quality video of him signing wharf rat. I have the sound boards and it actually sounds great. Anyway, very touching. "I'll get back on my feet some day"




2. I was not really a Red Sox fan until 2003
Not that I was a Yankee fan or anything, I just hated baseball (I played lacrosse). It was not until I started watching games with Greg that I really gave a shit. Yes, now I'm hooked. And I bring Terry Francona strategies to the kickball field.

Just need to get that off my chest.

house hunters

As I sat at my desk today eating my lunch (beef stew compliments of my husband) I decided to write a list of all the houses Jay and I have looked at so far in our search for our first house. I came up with 30. Together, Jay and I came up with about 16 more. We have looked at 46 houses so far (that we can remember)!! 46 houses, and yet I still sit here writing this from our 500 square foot apartment. We had a couple close calls last week, but nothing. I try to remain hopeful that this rollercoaster like journey will come to an end soon. A good friend of my mother's told me she looked at 99 houses before buying the 100th...I'm not sure if I find that hopeful or really depressing.

the things we do...

to sell snowboards. Let's just say this has something to do with a poster we are designing for Burton. After this I went a little further and rocked a mustache for the weekend. Nothing left now but Dylan McKay sideburns.

Food Drive...again.

Maegen and I ran a food drive for the Conscious Alliance Thursday night at Higher Ground. It was for a Umphrey's McGee show. Over two nights we raised over 300 pounds of food and $300 for the local food shelf and the Conscious Alliance. Here's the poster given out for $20 or 10 cans of food. It was designed by Ned Beebe and printed in Iskra. Thanks to Lee for helping to run these.

WeHa update via west coast

I spoke with Kevin last night. He's safe, but San Diego is burning.

And up in Seattle today is Shawna's birthday. Happy B-day.

always watch out for the little guy.

World Series here we come...

Food Drive.

Maegen and I ran a food drive for the Conscious Alliance last night at Higher Ground. It was for a Yonder Mountain String Band show and went really well. Over two nights we raised over 600 pounds of food and $700 for the local food shelf and the Conscious Alliance. Here's the poster given out for $20 or 10 cans of food. It was designed by George Mench and printed in Iskra.

Sunday

We spent all weekend cooking and watching sports teams from Boston. As Maegen mentioned, I made the season's first stew Saturday night. Today we made beef stock from stratch - what an adventure. Hopefully we'll be able to use it for a while in the stews. For dinner we had skirt steak on a bed of baby spinach topped with a mushroom medley and a parsley sauce. If you like to cook, do yourself a favor and buy Cooking with Shelburne Farms. That's were the recipe came from.















Random pic of Maegen from last weekend.

Fall Harvest

The first batch of Jay's famous beef stew is in the oven. It smells delicious...I can't wait to eat it.

It's Back!!

After five months of trekking up the stairs to the fourth floor, our elevator is finally back in action!! What a long and frustrating process. For a while, Jay and I would wake up to what felt and sounded like jack-hammering in our bedroom. While in the shower in the morning, it often felt like the elevator builders were going to come crashing through the door and into the shower. (Our apartment is right behind the elevator shaft) My favorite day has to be last week when we woke up to the fire alarm. It went off intermittently for the entire hour that I was showering, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. Such a nice way to start the day. After all that, we were told the elevator was finally ready (over a month late) and just had to pass inspection. Surprise, surprise...it failed! And now, just one short week later, it is up and running and faster than ever. I never thought I would be excited about an elevator before. The only down side is that now we don't get to laugh at our friends who stumble into our apartment exhausted from the climb up. Oh well!

go for the gold!

This Saturday evening I won an Olympic gold medal!!

Well, what really took place was an 1984 Olympic themed pub crawl in honor of our friend Miya's Birthday. A few events were canceled due to rain, but the thumb wrestling contest and the slow-motion race were quite spectacular. I won my medal in the slow-motion race both because of my superior form (as shown below) and because I actually won the race. It was an amazing evening, especially because of some visiting Olympians from Brooklyn (Thanks for coming up Ange and Jimmy- it was great to see you)!

Listen to Lee.

SIN and Lee last night at Higher Ground.













"must you rap", is what Lee's shirt says.

Pop.

I dislocated my shoulder again last night warming up for a soccer game. Below are the x-rays from last winter when I did the same thing. This time I was able to pop it back in right away, no trip to the ER.

Update on moving to the country...part two

So, it looks like we are going to continue to be city dwellers for a little while longer. Our dreams of moving to the country have been shattered...well, at least in terms of buying that particular house (shown below). For some reason that is too long and complicated to write about hear, the neighbors of the house we wanted had a "right of first refusal" when it came to someone buying the house and the land. In the end they decided they wanted to buy it, so it's theirs. We are bummed!

Now, instead of thinking about moving far away, we are setting our sights a little closer to home...Shannon's home that is. On Thursday evening we will be looking at the house literally right next door to my sister and Benjamin. I try not to get my hopes up when it comes to the Burlington real estate market, but I guess you never know.