Red Sox Parade

I missed out on the 2004 Red Sox Parade, because I was in Providence at the time. Holly braved the weather that day (freezing and rainy!) but didn't even get to see her beloved Mark Bellhorn.

Today, though, I knew the parade was going to be coming right through Copley, a block away from me!

This morning, tons of little kids and families (and high schoolers skipping school for the day!) were on the Lowell commuter train, decked out in all kinds of Red Sox Merchandise. The T was pretty crowded. When I emerged @ Copley Square, the police were beginning to block off the road, and a small crowd had gathered. Channel 5 was setting up their news reporters, and a big Jumbotron was set up so that the crowd could follow the parade route through the television.

I wore my Red Sox hat into work (a breech in dress code!), but received smiles and "Go Sox!" all morning.

Some of the gang at work were excited to catch the parade, so we followed the parade route online for a bit, then headed out to Copley, which had become much more crowded! Toilet paper rolls were tossed back and forth across Boylston. Some people were hanging out of the windows at Trinity Church and the surrounding tall buildings, or climbing the trees and bus stop stands!

I chatted on the phone with Mom right before the boats arrived, and poor Corey had to miss out because of class!

Then we caught sight of the tops of the Duck Boats! Confetti was blown everywhere.

A few players and their families were in each boat - we got pretty good views of practically everyone (although I didn't get a good view of Curt Shilling!) But we got to see Mike Lowell - Kevin Youkilis kept shouting "Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!" and the crowd went wild, and later other players repeated the sentiment to the crowd

[the pics below are from the Globe, who had much better cameras and viewpoints than I did!]

And Dice-K


Manny and David Ortiz were on a boat with our beloved Jordan's Furniture guys - WOO HOO for my free bedroom set!!! Manny had the mic and kept thanking the crowd.


And of course, everyone was waiting for Papelbon..


To do his jig with the Dropkick Murphys!


We only caught a little bit of him dancing, but it was pretty funny.

It was neat to see everyone - old, young (the parents of a 9 month old baby girl were saying they had taken her to several games this season!), people in business suits, people in Red Sox gear, guys with no shirts and covered in red paint - together and cheering. Red Sox Nation was proud!

And nice to see the very cute Jacoby Ellsbury up close! =)

Time warp @ North Station

A few weeks ago, after work I headed up to North Station to catch the train home.

Needless to say, it was a bit strange to see a man from the 17th century sitting there, reading a newspaper

(fresh from the Freedom Trail, I am sure!)

Flooded train tracks

On the ride home tonight, the train tracks were flooded at various points - not deep enough to prevent them from running, but still pretty strange looking to be gliding through water!

August cookout

Matt's brother Tim, his girlfriend Cindy, and her two girls came over from England to visit for about two weeks. We had an early birthday cookout for Chris & Jessie and had a blast getting to catch up with everyone.

After the cookout was over, the girls and I had a chance to talk-both profound and silly!- and we played together - multiplayer Ninendo DS games! And tried out a few photos on the camera phone, too:

Hollie

Jessie


Matt playing guitar

Duxbury Beach

With Matt's brother & the England gang still on vacation in MA, we had made plans to visit Salem. Unfortunately, Chris had hurt his foot and didn't cherish the thought of walking around all day, so Louise & Chris stayed at home, while Matt & I went with Tim and the girls on a trip to Duxbury.

We stopped for lunch at Arthur & Pat's (well-beloved restaurant in Marshfield) where we had tasty food and good conversation (as well as a conversation about the differences between a frappe and a shake)

We then headed down to Duxbury beach. It was too crowded to fly the kits we had brought. But the ocean was wide open for Hollie's grand plan - we had given the girls little rubber duckies, and Hollie brought several long lines of rope to tie around their necks, so that they could be tossed into the ocean and then retrieved.



While Cindy dozed on the beach, we transformed her into a lovely mermaid:


The culprits left their signatures:


Jessie, Tim, Cindy, Hollie


We then set out to create a medieval English sand castle


With pretty impressive results!

Happy birthdays to me

I love birthdays. They feel like Christmas. Its not necessarily the idea of getting presents (although that's certainly a wonderful bonus!) but the idea of celebration. And luckily for me, I got practically an entire birthday week!

Matt took me out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill , which has delicious Italian food. And crayons, which we couldn't resist. I made some lovely cartoons of myself & Matt , which he promptly turned into villains...
We spent an evening at the pond with a few good friends, and got to swim, canoe, grill, make s'mores over the campfire, play the guitars and sing songs. And my favorite, ice cream cake!!

Later that week we went to see Entrain, which was the band Matt & I went to see on our first "date". It was a pseudo-date (we saw them in August 2001 and didn't begin officially dating until November). Kristin Webster was living down the road from the Mayflower and brought us sandwiches! There was also a waterfight, which I distinctly recall winning (Matt might disagree, but he can be a crafty liar!)

This time around the whole family came, and it was so much fun to sit around with everyone, hear the band (ok, so maybe they aren't that danceable - but they do have fantastic rhythms!) And huge chocolate chip cookie birthday cakes, too!

Hmm, my friend Greta was on vacation during my birthday week, and I missed hers too.. maybe we can extend this into a whole birthday month!!

Harry Potter Party

Professors Mary & Matt of Hogwarts hosted a Harry Potter party! It was a lot of fun decorating the apartment. We also hosted a food-creating contest which a) encouraged people to being food and b) encouraged people to bring GOOD food! =) We later headed out en masse to see the 5th movie, which was fantastic!

Our guests first arrived at Platform 9 3/4...


Cousin Kate made wizard cupcakes


Mark & Megan made an owl cake


Mary made Tonks' Tasty Trifle


and the Fortress du Fromage!


Natyra made Gryffindor cupcakes


Sadly, I did not get a photo of Greta's Hogwarts Brie or Holly's Pumpkin pasties! Holly was the lucky winner of the food contest, with her delicious creations.

Mark & Megan


Natyra & Greta


Kate, Holly & Katie


Mary & her Mischief Managed shirt!


Lamppost o' directions!


And of course, Hogwarts Library

Nickel Creek Concert

Matt & I love the band Nickel Creek, a bluesgrassy, acoustic folky rock band (ok, they can't classify their music either!) One night we were listening to their cds in the car, and Matt wondered if they still toured. We went online that night, and as luck would have it, they were - and it was their Farewell (For Now) Tour, to boot! So we bought tickets, and then as a surprise bought two extras for Corey's graduation and Julie's confirmation gifts. Then Louise was talking about how much she enjoyed them (years ago she heard them on NPR and bought their CD) so we got a ticket for her too.

They were playing at the Lowell Summer Music Series, really close by to us. Driving through Lowell several times, I have found it to looked a bit depressed, its former industrial buildings no longer active. But the music series was in the heart of downtown Lowell, across from the Boott Mills in Boarding House Park, a big outdoor park with a bandstand. The roads were blocked for traffic, and with a big parking garage on the corner, it was very pedestrian friendly and safe.

We arrived a bit too late with our blankets and lawn chairs, so we sat at the back of the park, but we were still close enough to hear and see fine. Glen Phillips (formerly of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame, another one of our favorite bands) opened, and sang wonderfully, though he is a bit shy and backed away from the mike when he wasn't singing. Then Nickel Creek came out and during the night they played their own songs, plus a few Mutual Admiration Society songs with Glen Phillips.

Man, can they play! It is sheer joy to be in the presence of great musicians. Song after song, we were blown away by their musical talent: Sara on the fiddle, Chris on the mandolin, and Sean on the guitar. Great playing, great harmonies, and fantastic stage presence - they were really funny. Chris said he should win for "Most Effeminate Bluegrass Song Ever Written", with his "Ode To a Butterfly" and "Smoothie Song". And they introduced a new song, setting it up to be an epic, profound tale... but really the main riff was "If you break up with me, could you fix me up with one of your friends?"

Jubee met up with her art teacher during intermission, who was really fun (and had way better seats than we did!) And Corey kept his ears open to the music while pouring his eyes over the 7th Harry Potter book, which had come out the night before.

We had a beautiful sunset to accompany the beautiful music:


And here's Nickel Creek: Sara Watkins, Chris Thile, (a bassist), and Sean Watkins

Barre Reunion

Every year, Matt's family holds a family reunion up in Barre, Vermont, which is where his grandfather August's family lived. His family was large - three Sironi siblings, then after the death of his father, four Somaini half-siblings. Each of the kids had families, many of whom travelled and raised families far from Barre, and several who still remain in the town to this day. It is an impressive sight to see so many people, many of whom are now distant cousins, gather together with a shared sense of history and place. Bob Somaini, who has hosted the reunion for the past few years, just purchased a gorgeous house on a mountainside, filled with many antiques from the antiques store that he owns.

There had been flooding in Barre the week before we came, and scenes from its destruction of the roads and land could still be seen. Luckily none of the family suffered too much damage, but it was strange seeing photos of people boating down the main roads!

We stayed at a hotel and had several misadventures there, as they first lost our reservations, then assigned us to a room that was already occupied, and finally reassigned us to a new room, only to not record the fact that Matt & I were in another room, so that when a group of people came in at 2 AM, they assigned our room to them, so they walked in on us sleeping in the middle of the night! Needless to say, we'll be choosing a different hotel next time around!

But it was wonderful seeing the family, and hanging out with the cousins and uncles and aunties. We were taught how to play Pitch, a card game (Matt got the hang of it quickly... me? not so much!) I brought up a lot of Sironi-Somaini genealogy that I had been working on, and it was a blast hearing stories of Italy and Barre in the early 1900s, family scandals, and funny tales.

We also visited the Rock of Ages granite quarry, a huge working quarry that produces beautiful rock for buildings, monuments, gravestones, etc. Here's the quarry:

Safe in NH

Just a quick update to say that things have settled down a bit.. check out Mom's blog for all the details. Yesterday a man gunned down three men in a store across the street from our campground and then fled the scene, supposedly a botched robbery. Police were in the campground all day, as they suspected he might attempt to run or hide in the nearby woods or Saco River. As of last night, he was still at large.. needless to say it was a long night. Today they caught him and arrested him in nearby Fryeburg, Maine. He was guy previously charged with armed robbery and arson in several other states. The manager of the store was killed along with two young guy customers, both from MA.. one was from Plymouth.

Although our sense of safety on vacation in North Conway has been mostly restored with the arrest, our prayers go out to all the families connected in this senseless tragedy...

Happy news!

Congratulations to my friend Greta, who just got engaged last weekend while on vacation to Cape Cod! =)

NEHGS Internship

Northeastern's masters program has an internship requirement, similar to it's co-op program in its undergraduate school. I applied and was recently accepted to an internship at the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. I love every moment of it. I'm in Research Services, and each day help clients solve their genealogical "brick walls". The library's collection of resources is top notch, and I get different styles of cases all the time, which allows me to explore and utilize a wide variety of resources of different types (such as land records, probate, taxes, vital records, local histories, immigration, census, maps, atlases, newspapers, etc) or different locations (although NEHGS is largely focused on New England, it has one of the largest Canadian collections in America.. and of course, lots of Irish records for all those Boston Irish descendants!)

For a few years now, I've run a variety of town history and genealogy websites, as well as several family genealogy websites, and receive requests all the time for genealogy assistance and puzzles. In a way, it is very much detective work or puzzle solving: some of it is sheer luck, but mostly it is knowing where to look, what records to use, and understanding what positive as well as negative evidence means. And now that's what I get to do everyday. I'm learning so much, and it is wonderfully satisfying to solve those questions. And sometimes the answers just aren't there, as records were lost or not kept over time.. but more often than not, there is that "ta da!" moment that makes it all worthwhile.

The people there are friendly, smart and in true appreciative style, sometimes incredibly knowledgeable about the most obscure things! It's a good environment to work in and research in.. plus on my breaks I catch a few moments to work on those dratted Ramsdells, Buckleys, Mahons, et al...

A retrospective of jobs

I've had a variety of fun and unusual jobs.

Jobs I had during high school included tutoring flute and saxophone (ok, so I was paid in jazz CDs instead of money), working the barn crew at the Marshfield and East Middleboro fairs, and babysitting (ok, so sometimes that always fun!).

During college I worked at Sears for one summer (where I discovered that working for commission was not something I enjoyed.. but I did learn a lot about tractors, grills, lawn mowers, and exercise equipment!). I also worked for BUDS, which sent me to a variety of locations on campus: the Ivy Room (where I made a mean falafel), the Gate (where I got to take home tasty pizzas), the CIT cafe, and the Campus Market (my favorite place to work - the late night shift!). While those jobs helped me pay for books and bills, I certainly did not love them.

But I certainly had some wonderful jobs at Brown. I was a community assistant (known as an RA in most colleges) for the greatest dorm on campus, Slater Hall, which was one of the oldest (and smallest) buildings. I loved helping my residents and running community events, and really feeling like I was making a difference, whether it was in a silly way like bonding with your neighbors during a dorm Halloween party (everyone knows what a great team Mary and Halloween makes!) or in a more quiet way, through counseling a resident through a difficult situation. The following year I became a leader of community assistants in addition to being a community assistant - so I worked with and helped counsel the community assistants themselves.

I was a research assistant for a wonderful anthropology professor who travels to South Africa to study child development in some of the villages. Part of my work was to create large family trees that connected families across the villages, over many generations. I was fascinated and captivated by the lives of these people and children who I had never met.

Last year I worked through the John Hay library at the university's archives, where I worked with the Hall-Hoag Collections of Dissenting Propaganda. I loved both the process of archival methods as well as the potential for research held within the archives.

A love of research, archives, history, genealogy, libraries, working with people, teaching.. these certainly were some shared aspects across these varied jobs...

Graduation Party

Congratulations to Mom, Tim and Corey who all graduated over the past few weeks!!!




PJ falls in love with a little kitten...

A sampling of the Blauss family at the graduation party!

Lindsey's Bridal Shower

Lindsey's bridal shower at Papa Razzi's was lovely. Lindsey's family and friends from the Hanover area as well as some of Nick's family from Baltimore and their friends from college in Maryland all came. We got a peek at their wedding colors (purple and yellow!), had a delicious lunch and incredibly tasty chocolate mousse cake. Plus, I won a shower game (I guessed correctly how many questions Lindsey would answer correctly about Nick.. it was 17) and won a pretty set of stationary as my prize. Nick himself even made a guest appearance!

We look forward to the wedding =)

Turkeys, Turkeys, everywhere!

Recently we have been hearing gobbles in the distant, but at first dismissed it as strange construction noises (they have been installing new pipes under the main road all year long)

But today, who was hanging out beside the apartment? Our new turkey neighbors!




They seem to be living in the woods behind the apartment complex, where a little river runs through marshland. Maybe all the construction has caused them to wander.

Spook by Mary Roach

For awhile now, Holly has had an interesting book out on her coffee table. She picked it up for spring break reading, and loved it. I admit at first I was drawn to it because it was shiny - there are two little reflective mirrors on the front. Then I flipped through a few of the chapters and went out and bought a copy for myself because it was so amusing and fascinating!

The book is called Spook, and it's written by Mary Roach. She's a freelance writer who writes hip and funny articles, and she came out with a book called Stiff, which was about the weird things that modern society uses corpses for... apparently more than just your run-of-the-average medical uses. Spook is billed as a scientific look at the afterlife. She's a skeptic, but she goes into a lot of fascinating situations with an open mind. She looks at both historical attempts to study to soul, the afterlife, etc.. and then looks around at what's going on today. She goes to India to visit a scientist who interviews poor rural children who are supposedly reincarnated.. she travels to England to take a "how to become a medium" class.. she learns about electromagnetic field testing, which is supposed to be a scientific explanation for hauntings.. and is horrifed at Cambridge University to discover what they hold in a small box in their archives (read to find its true disgustingness! It has to do with ectoplasm, and where it supposedly was secreted by female mediums in the early 1900s... I would NOT want to be the archivist who had to box this thing up!)

And so on an so forth. She has an engaging writing style - at once both hilarious and also very scientific and informative. And while she doesn't end with any earth-shattering conclusions, it's a heck of a fun journey along the way.

PS I am determined to use my genealogical detective skills to find out who Dr. Duncan Macdougall's "Patient 1" was who died in Dorchester's Cullis Consumptive Home in 1901. Macdougall was determined that the soul left the body upon death and had to have a weight.. upon Patient 1's death in the presence of several doctors and a precise scale, he lost 3/4 ounce.. known today by Hollywood as 21 grams, the supposed weight of the soul.

I didn't know "grill" was a natural flavor...

Matt sometimes spots food at the supermarket that boasts unusual (and sometimes, quite frankly, just plain strange) flavors, and is often compelled to buy and eat them, simply to have the experience and see what it tastes like.

The other day, he spotted steak-flavored potato chips. What consists of steak-flavor, you ask? Well apparently...
(heh heh heh.. ok, so actually they were pretty tasty!!)

U2charist Globe Slideshow

Apparently the reporter at the service was from the Globe! Check out the article about it today, and also an audio slideshow.

Greta & I are featured on the first slide on the left-hand side (me in green, Greta in blue):

U2charist

On Sunday, I had a wonderful experience with my friend Greta. We attended a U2charist at St. Andrew's in Framingham. She had read a recent article in People magazine about it, and had heard that there was going to be one held in the area, so she asked me to come along. I'm glad I did!

So what is a U2charist? According to their website, "A U2charist is an Episcopal Eucharist service that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals." In 2000, 189 countries, including the US, supported the Millennium Declaration, whose development goals are:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger .
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainabilty.
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.
Bono of U2 is a "global ambassador" of these goals.

The service itself was great. In many ways it reminded me of a variety of Catholic retreats I have been on. I was curious to see if the music would be done by a choir, band, or recorded (I do love music ministry, after all!). It turns out it was arranged like a powerpoint presentation, with the songs accompanied on a large overhead screen that had the lyrics to the songs and interesting facts about the songs themselves.

Since this was a special event, the church was really crowded, and some interaction with the audience revealed that people had come from all over New England. The U2Charist team itself comes from York, Maine, and travels to different parishes. It's led by Reverend Paige Blair, who was very enthusiastic and genuine. She had previously been involved in Episcopalian youth ministry (she was describing a girl's leadership retreat she had run in the past) and she had great charisma. Although the U2charist is not specifically a youth-based service, many young people were in attendance and knew all the words. Most everyone was up and dancing during the musical portions, and attentive during the sermon (based upon global poverty and ways the average parishioner could make a difference) and regular parts of the church service.

Here's an article about the service from the Boston Globe. There was a reporter at the church taking photos (some of us!) but I didn't spot any articles in the major Boston newspapers about it yesterday.

I found it very refreshing to hear women reverends. Both the U2Charist leader and the reverend of St. Andrew's were relatively young women. Perhaps it was their youth in additional to their gender, but they were each very welcoming, profound, and sincere in their discussions with the parish. I do love the Catholic Church, but after an event like this it makes me think about how much the church is missing out on by not fully incorporating women into its hierarchy.

Our new bedroom

Here's our new queen-sized bed (with a wonderful new mattress and bedding). I am usually drawn towards blues and greens in fabrics, but Matt spotted and really liked this chocolate color with red accents. I really like it, and think it looks great with the cherry wood.


The bed's design is inspired by Shaker craftsmanship, and I love the details on the headboard and footboard:


We also bought a matching dresser:

Our New Guest Room/Study

Jordan's Furniture delivered today! Matt has a little time off before he begins his next project at work, so we had fun setting up our bedroom and the guest room. We still need a few accessories, but the rooms look good!

Before: we didnt have much to fill our study with beyond our computers and one bookshelf (plus lots of things still in boxes!)


After: we moved our full-sized bed into the guest room, bought new bedding and a lighthouse/nautical theme


After: with a second bookshelf, we have a bit more room for storage

Our run-in with fame

Yesterday we journeyed to Jordan's Furniture for a new bed, mattress, chest and bookcase. (Being delivered this week, so more photos to follow!)

As we were exiting, who walked right past us, in all of his pony-tailed glory? The man himself. Jordan's Furniture president Eliot Tatelman!!

Jordan's Furniture brothers Barry (l) and Eliot (r):

It was very exciting!! Now to search YouTube for the countless funny Jordan's Furniture commercials that they have made over the years...