Tis the season for road trippin'

Last week we headed to the great white north, braving the frigid rain and downright cold climes of Boston for a birthday party. We packed up a our new little car and prayed that the EZPass would work smoothly on its inaugural voyage and that the car would not decide to surprise with anything (mostly breaking down). I freelanced on Saturday, so we headed out as soon as I got home/ cleaned up, around 4pm or so.

I-95 led us straight into the remnants of NYC rush hour (yes, on Saturday). We sat in traffic for about an hour until we reached the toll booth, where we zipped through with our properly functioning EZPass transponder. It was smooth sailing for a few more hours until the wintry skies opened and dumped torrents of icy rain upon us. We had the customary response to such weather: put the wipers on high speed, lean forward to the windshield, turn the radio off, and follow the tail lights of the car in front of you with 100% confidence that that driver knows where the road is. (She/he did.) We arrived in Bostonia a little after ten and slid into party mode. Good times -- and happy birthday, Maria!

On Sunday we set our sights on getting to know Mary Baker Eddy. She was the founder -- nay, discover -- of Christian Science. Yeah, not Scientology, but it's equally as fascinating. We went to the MBE Library which, along with a Hall of Ideas, houses a really big walk-in inverted stained glass globe that depicts the world as it was in 1935. See below for stock photography of the place because they don't allow mortals to take photos:


Amazing, yes? As you can see, it's pretty big and there is indeed a catwalk through the middle of it. A tour guide led us through this in a group of about 30 and instructed us to be quiet as the slightest sounds can be heard very easily. So, of course when you hear instructions like that you immediately look around for....children. And there he was, about 2 years old. The guide spoke quietly, and sure enough, we heard everything with great clarity: his voice, shuffling of feet, nervous rustling of paper, and oh yes -- "shriek! shriek! shriek! ha ha ha ha ha." A good time was had by all.

At the end the guide let us talk amongst ourselves while we looked around, and I felt like Bruce Almighty when all of a sudden Jim Carrey can hear the prayers of every person in the world all at once. Yes, 30 or so voices all sounding as if they are speaking directly into your ear...plus "shriek!"

Luckily the drive back to our balmy southern home was quick and uneventful, with mostly clear sailing home.

This weekend (aka tomorrow) we head further south to visit some folks we met in an airport in Miami about three years ago. Somehow this couple exceeds all standards of awesomeness and we're super stoked to spend some time with them. We had high hopes of visiting for 1 or 2 weeks and now it has been whittled down to one skimpy little weekend (dangit work, sometimes we hatecha!) but we'll take what we can get. Ben and Alexis, be prepared for a sleep-deprived coffee-fueled good time weekend. Waxhaw or bust!

new fence, new job, new summer

So, biggest news first. Sharon is coming home in two days. She is in the middle of papers and exams as well as trying to get her room ready for the sub-letter and getting her stuff together to come back to Philadelphia. Can't wait for her to be home!

Second biggest news is that we finally finished the fence that we've been planning for the side yard since we started cleaning it up. As you can see, the fence has been built! We used 15-20 8' slabs from a sawmill in Fairview Village (Spacht Sawmill). These slabs are the first cuts made to logs to make them square, so they are pretty much useless scraps that they sell as firewood. We got all the wood for a little under $30. The people there are super friendly and specialize in fine woods, custom woodworkers, carvers, etc. Go check it out.


The yard rises, so with the old, short fence we would be basically eye-to-eye with sidewalk passersby and the neighbors across the street when we're hanging out on the deck in the back, so the new fence was much needed. This morning I put down all the stone (Schist), and hopefully we will be adding some plants soon to make it pretty.

On to other news. I have a new job which I will begin next week at Preservation Tree. It's a small company and the other guys are really cool. I'm definitely excited to climb some big trees and not be making intern pay anymore. It will be sad to leave the Arboretum, but we have to leave the nest sometime.

In the so-so news category, we are buying a car. I'm half excited to be among the folks out there that can go anywhere they please, no matter the weather or distance. At the same time I'm bumming that I will be back in the land of clutches, brakes, tires, oil changes, light bulbs, timing belts, squeaks, rattles, etc. We're getting a 2001 Honda Civic that gets 35mpg, which I am really excited about. Our last car got 24ish mpg and with $4-5 gas on the horizon, we couldn't go back to that.

Looking ahead, I start my job on the 9th, Sharon starts her summer job on the 16th, we have a Nowak family wedding on the 21st in VA (which should be fun) and then a whole summer of fun ahead of us. On a small side note, Sharon was fortunate enough to receive some funding to do research in Paraguay, so we are starting to plan for a trip to the middle of S. America. Travel, you long lost friend, we are coming back!

Life's short, so take a few days off work.

Last Sunday Ben called and told me he was going to come through Philly, so I got super-stoked for a night of hanging out with Ben and all of his awesomeness. He had to drive 10 hours from NC to Philly in his 1980 diesel VW rabbit. When he called from the road to clarify directions he could barely hear me over the Rabbit's healthy rumble. 

Anyhow, Ben arrived without drama and I made egg sandwiches for old times' sake. We went to Johnny Brenda's then came home to have a fire in the ol'  fire apparatus (well, new to me)even though it was cold as all-get-out. At some point I decided to join Ben on his day trip to NYC, so I called out of work for a few days and booked a ticket on Megabus, and at 6am the following morning we were off to NYC. 

Ben had a few meetings and plenty of time in-between to check out galleries, eat, walk around, etc. We met up with a friend of a friend and spent the night at her place in Brooklyn, after hanging out at a gallery opening (it turned out to be more of a bar with a PowerPoint presentation going, but hey). We headed back to Manhattan the next day, ate good Vietnamese food, checked out the largest camera/video store in the world, and made our way to lower Manhattan for another meeting. Before we knew it, we were hanging out near the bus stop waiting to go back to Philly. 

Honestly, it was a lot of fun: I miss Ben and Alexis a lot, and ditching work to hang out with Ben was just what I needed.I miss him (again) already.

In other news, the idiot that burnt a copy of the Qur'an really has me down. There is so much hatred in this world, and when people who call themselves Christians do stuff like this, it makes me feel like the entire human race is terrible. But in response to that I listened to Matisyahu's track "One Day" about 6 times and my hope for the human race is slowly being restored.

Well, this has been quite a ramble with no pics. Worst blog post yet!

best weekend evah...

So, I got my self together and booked some tix to Nashville for last weekend, not only is my sweetie there but the Depps(!) were there too. So here is the picture tour of the weekend. It's not so great, I know, but it's better than nothin'. 

My pre-flight bus ride through the airport.....

I remembered too late to get a photo of Ben and Alexis and this is THE BEST I could do....


 

 We went to the Tennessee State Fair on Saturday, which was an experience unto itself. Apparently we missed the diving pigs (boo), but managed to soak up the local culture. 

Need I say more? Pay attention to the Farm Bill, it's bigger than you think!

 The result of government subsidies in agriculture: 900+ lb. pumpkins and starving people in Africa/Haiti (kidding, sort of...):

The TN State Fair, where motorcycles jump over (not much) macadam?

Last but not least, just when I was most unsure how God felt about me, this guy shows up:

Well, what can I say? Not much.

Despite the (lack of) photos, it was a great weekend.

Nashville or bust

So long, city of brotherly love...

hello, music city!

Weekend in the...city?

Yes, we've gone agricultural again, what with all the blueberry picking in New Jersey...

 And the hours of labor in the side yard:  

(Yes, that is a bag of trash, but hey! It's bagged up!)

I should have taken photos before we got started, because then you'd be super-impressed at the amount of work that went into getting the side yard to this point. It may not look like much more than a trash garden to you, but at least now we can see what's happening and make a real plan.

I was going to say we cheated a little and got a few starter plants, but a.) it's almost July already, so we needed to get a move on; and b.) we also planted seeds.  

I have to move to Nashville in just about seven (short) weeks, but I was thinking that if my Philadelphia legacy is a sprightly little garden and a freezer packed with blueberries, that's really not so bad. Not bad at all.