Happy Halloween Party

This past weekend, we had a fun Halloween party at the apartment. The night began with a tour of the South Burying Ground at dusk (led by yours truly). We didn't get to do any gravestone rubbings, because it began POURING! Luckily we had jackets, hoods, or umbrellas - and the rain did make the tour very atmospheric and creepy!



We then came back to the house for our food contest, costume contest, episodes of Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror (with my favorite episode, where James Earl Jones reads the entire poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe!) and, of course, watch the RED SOX!

Here's the lineup of costumes:

Katie won the Best Costume Award as Edward Scissorhands


Matt made a dashing Dr. Watson (of Sherlock Holmes fame)


I was a colonial patriot:


Natyra was a Halloween spirit:


Greta was very bewitching...


And Holly was a vampire (note her purple colored contacts!)


Katie had a bit of trouble getting her way...


But she found a solution!


Finally, we carved pumpkins, and they all came out looking extremely impressive! Here's the whole gang's finished pumpkins, sitting on our balcony:
Greta's ghostly dog Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas, Holly's Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, Natyra's Dawn of the Dead, Katie's pug, and my Victor and the Corpse Bride (it was a good night for Tim Burton!)

My pics from the Red Sox Parade

Here are my photos from the Red Sox Parade, taken on my camera phone...

The Globe Bar Cafe had a painting up of the Rocky Mountains and a stick of TNT with a sign saying LEVEL THE ROCKIES!

Here's the sparse crowd at Copley at 9 AM

And here's the big crowd at 12:30!!

The first Duck Boat arrived, with machines that blew confetti everywhere

Terry Francona!

Youkilis, shouting "Re-sign Lowell!!"

More confetti at Copley Square

Papelbon and the Dropkick Murphys

Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury

More Coco and Jacoby! And a sign in the background reading THANK YOU FOR THE FREE TACO!

The sun was too bright for Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and the Jordans Furniture guys!

Mike Lowell, Julio Lugo, and Alex Cora

The Red Sox announcers got their own Duck Boat

And another member of Red Sox Nation! =)

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...