Greta's Derby Party

Our favorite Kentucky belle in New England, Greta (and fiance Brian!) held a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday. A grand day for wearing big hats!

Each of the horses names were placed in a hat and we picked them at random to place bets on the Derby. The extent of my knowledge of this year's race was that Hugh Hefner was betting on Big Brown and that Hillary Clinton was supporting the only filly in the race, Eight Belles [apparently, knowledge of bizarre trivial knowledge runs in the family!].

We belted out My Old Kentucky Home, and played Dan Fogelberg's Run for the Roses, and then the Derby began! Big Brown [who Brian had selected from the pool], after trailing for awhile, eventually took the lead and won the Derby. But Big Brown's win was overshadowed by the fact that Eight Belles, who took second place, collapsed at the end of the race. She had broken both of her front ankles, and was euthanized as soon as the equine ambulances pulled onto the track! A very sad turn of events. My horses, Z Humor, Gayego, did ok, and Matt's horses, Monba and Adriano took last place!

Everyone brought great food - Natyra made dainty cucumber sandwiches, Seneca brought her signature cupcakes, I brought a Boston creme pie, and Matt loved Greta's Cajun shrimp. Greta served delicious Derby pie in the Louisville Stoneware pie plate I bought her for her bridal shower!

The history girls - Greta, Natyra, Seneca, and Mary

Matt, Mary, Natyra, Seneca

Graduation

Yesterday I received my masters degree in history (with a certificate in public history) from Northeastern! Despite the rainy weather, it was wonderful to be joined by Matt, Mom, and the Edwards for the ceremony on campus, then afterwards with the rest of the family at the Crackerbarrel! Seneca and baby Jack were also cheering us in the audience, as guests of Natyra.

Graduate school was a fun and engaging process, and felt quite different from being an undergraduate. Classes were smaller, the work was more intense, and there was a greater sense of community within the department. I was accepted into Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society (although by a bizarre turn of events, it was my husband Matt who was signed up for the membership - they confused my name with his from the check I paid with for the subscription to the magazine! - that's soon to be remedied!)

From learning and developing the methodologies of writing historical articles for publication, learning about managing non-profit organizations, producing a museum exhibition, writing and presenting conference papers, and spending many fascinating hours in a variety of archives, it was a challenging yet instructive process. The department was in the process of developing a world history program, so there was less of a focus on American history than I had hoped for, but classes like Prof. Fowler's colonial American history, Prof. Green's Problems in Public History; and Museum Exhibitions; Prof. Correll's Oral History; and Prof. Penna's Non-Profit Organizations offered a great deal of valuable information and also provided room to perform in-depth research for topics was I particularly interested in. And, of course, my internship led to my wonderful job!

So here's to studying the past, celebrating the present, and looking forward to what is to come!

This one's for Margo

Meet the latest addition to our fridge:

Matt is also fond of Moose:

Suzannah's baby shower

Yesterday went down to Medford for Suzannah's baby shower. There were a variety of fun shower games (and a discussion about some of the stranger games that other people had played at previous showers... "guess the melted candy bar in the diaper"!?)

I won one of the contests - I guessed the number of diapers in the diaper cake (featured below!). Suzannah's finishing her degree and having the baby this summer in Utah before returning to MA in September, so the gifts were small (she didn't want to have to lug big baby furniture or toys for the move!) A variety of crafty ladies made beautiful hand-made cards and sewed a variety of blankets, bibs, etc. The cutest one was a yellow onesie with a loooong green dachshund sewed on the front, which wrapped around to the back! I knew that Suzannah loves those towels that have a corner which serves as a hat for babies, so I brought a cute one with ducks, as well as a Johnson's baby product gift box with a variety of lotions and a copy of Goodnight Moon (a favorite... with perhaps the most hilarious rendition of it performed by Christopher Walken!).

Next week Suzannah finds out if the baby is a boy or a girl (so there was lots of yellow and green featured at the shower)!

Silver and Golden Wedding Mass

Each year the Archdiocese holds a mass to celebrate the couples in Massachusetts who have been married for 25 or 50 years (and this year there was even one couple celebrating their 60th anniversary!)

Cardinal O'Malley performed the Mass, in the beautiful Holy Cross Cathedral, and the whole family - and the Lees, Eileen, and Edwards' came to cheer for the renewal of vows for Mom and Dad, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this August. Dad looked great in his new suit, and Mom was beautiful in her new dress - and those gorgeous shoes!

And the family was able to get a photo taken with the Cardinal, who cheerfully sat for a variety of photo shoots!

Plymouth Plantation

The other weekend, Greta, Natyra and I ventured down to Plymouth Plantation - despite the cold wind and rain! More in-depth coverage to follow in a week or two once papers are done!

Valentine's Day Surprise

Matt sent me roses and a little box of chocolates to me at work! It has made my day =)

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

Two wonderful women, Lynne and Pauline from Carver, MA are in full training mode for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Boston, for all 39 miles!

If you are interested in making a donation, check out their website. I hear that as part of their fundraising efforts, "Pauline and I are also making special breast cancer bracelets. The bracelets are sterling silver with pink Swaroski crystals and the attached charm can either represent you as a breast cancer awareness supporter or a breast cancer survivor".

New Years Eve

Our New Years Eve party was a blast. I had prepared a ton of appetizers, dinner, and desserts - our pigs in a blanket were the hit of the evening! Holly, Katie, Andy, Greta, and Greta's fiance Brian made it up our way. We set up Rock Band to play, which is really fun to play in a group setting. I know Greta has a great voice, and she was awesome on vocals. Holly loves to sing (but she was coming down with a bad cold and was too stuffy to sing, except for some Weezer!) We downloaded some extra songs per group request, including more Weezer, David Bowie, The Police, and Radiohead.

It was good to see Andy, who we briefly saw over the summer, but hadn't really had a chance to hang out with since the wedding. Brian usually has a jazz band gig on New Years, but this year he wasn't playing, so he came along with Greta. Greta and Brian brought an updated Trivial Pursuit, with 80s, 90s, and current trivia. We had a blast playing, and it turned out that Greta & Brian were the trivia masters! Matt & I had Andy on our team, which was good, since Andy is a walking encyclopedia of music knowledge.

We watched the ball drop at Times Square (where Katie was last year!) and rang in 2008.

The next day, Matt, Katie, Andy and I caught a morning showing of Sweeney Todd, which I had been looking forward to seeing. I had picked up the soundtrack before Christmas, so going in I was familar with the music (although the soundtrack did not include the final few songs, so I had no idea how it ended!) Despite its gruesomeness, I was amazed (as always) with Tim Burton's direction and artistic style (particularly the streets of London, and the beach set for Mrs. Lovett's "By the Sea". And I absolutely love Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and, of course, Johnny Depp!

Of Christmas and Wisdom Teeth

We've had a wonderful Christmas season. Matt's work Xmas party was at Max Stein's Steakhouse. The steak was delicious, and the room chosen had a huge projector screen, which the gang hooked up XBox 360 to and played Rock Band all evening! My work Xmas party was held at the Society, and was catered by Vinny T's and had a string quartet playing holiday songs, which was fun. The family reunion was a blast to see everyone (although I missed my dear Daleys!), especially little Jessica - not quite so little as the last time I saw her!

For Christmas Matt & I continued a mini-tradition we started last year - roasting chestnuts (we don't have an open fire, but carving X's in the shells make them roast quite well, then serve with butter and cinnamon sugar or sea salt), and Terry Pratchett's Hogfather was playing on TV, as well as the beloved A Christmas Story, which Matt had never seen!

Christmas morning we opened our gifts - an abundance of history books, scifi books, Tim Burton, Elizabeth Peters, Neil Gaiman, VeggieTales, Nintendo DS and video games, Mel Brooks, For Better or For Worse, etc!

Then we headed over to Carver and got to see all the kids goodies. Mom & Jamie made delicious appetizers, Joe showed off his iDog, Nikki wore her Aeropostale pjs, Julie & Corey showed off their electronic stuff, Tim his Sudoku, Dad his Beatles collection, and Mom her new video camera. We then went over to Hanover and got to see the Sironi's, including Jeff who was home from LA. It was inadvertently a penguin-themed - we gave Chris Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, and a singing penguin Hallmark card, and he gave us a set of stuffed animal penguins!


After Christmas, I met up with Momoko, Jojo, and Sara in Boston for a Brownie reunion. Coming from DC, Nova Scotia, and Texas, it was wonderful to have a chance to catch up with everyone and spend the day together.

Then last Friday I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed -ack! The surgery was quick, and there were no complications [nice, but it still hurts like a son of a gun!]. I spent most of the weekend sleeping, with large ice packs on my face.


My mouth, while still hurting, is feeling a lot better, and tonight we are having a New Years party with the gang - luckily it has stopped snowing!

Here's to 2008!

Christmas decorating

Today we went to the Greenwood Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We picked out our tree last year from a flower stand on 3A, and the tree didn't last long, dropping its needles everywhere, and drying out too fast. So we thought it would be fun this year to go to our local tree farm. They have several fields of trees which they rotate each year. Their trees generally grow for 5-6 years. You grab a saw and go out, pick your tree, chop it down, and bring it to your car! Plus they had a neat little farm stand with apple cider, farm-made honey, and a variety of Christmas wreaths and centerpieces for sale. We picked our tree and a nice small wreath. The farm was really neat, it's on a huge piece of property along Dudley Road, which spread back near the Concord River and the famous historical "Two Brother's Rocks", which served as landmarks in the 17th century for John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley when they marked the boundaries of their properties.

We set up the tree, then grabbed lunch at the Border Cafe, for a Mexican Christmas fiesta.

Then we had fun pulling out all the ornaments and decorating the tree. Our ornament collection is filled with a fun collection of old and new.

Here's Mary's tooth-brushing Santa from 1985:


Here's Matt's teddy bear glass ornament from the 1980s:


We also received several "Our first Christmas" ornaments for our engagement in '05 and our wedding in '06. Last year we bought a variety of bulbs and other ornaments to fill out the tree. This year, I bought Matt two Hallmark ornaments from Pixar's Cars and Ratatouille.

Here's our Hilton Head Lighthouse from our honeymoon:


And here are some of our kitchen decorations:

Alasdair Fraser

Yesterday, we saw an amazing performance by Alasdair Fraser, a Scottish fiddler. It was Matt's Aunt Linda's birthday, and as a present, Louise got tickets for us, Steve & Linda, and Chris & Louise to see him perform. They had seen him twice before, and loved his music.

So they came up for a big lunch at the apartment - Steve & Linda had never seen the place before, and Chris had not been up in awhile. Matt was excited about the prospects of making (and eating!) antipasto for an appreciative Italian audience.

The concert was held at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, which we had visited last year.

The music was wonderful, and Alasdair was really entertaining and funny. One of my favorite parts was when he asked the audience if there were any fiddlers in the room. He started marching through the auditorium, playing his fiddle, and all these little kids popped up from different parts of the room and followed him onstage, playing the same song, a fiddling Pied Piper!

There were also two Boston-based Scottish dance groups that performed, which was fun to see.

Now if only I could persuade Matt to dance in a kilt...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's my favorite holiday.. the apartment is decked out with creepy things, as well as lovely autumn decor (my favorite season!). Although this will be (gasp!) my first year without trick or treating myself, it should be fun to hand out candy to the kids in our apartment complex, and see all of their costumes.

Our newest decorations come in the form of our jack o'lanterns!

Here are our Victor and Corpse Bride jack o'lanterns this year, carved by yours truly:

Here is the inspiration for them:

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!)