sad news

Fred (the snowman, remember? You have to remember Fred!) is dead. He melted away a few days ago. Now the weather is FRIGID. My buttocks froze and fell off on my walk to work. I do not know where they are.

The rain is melting away my beautiful winter wonderland.

a compelling argument

The Boston Now is one of those daily newspapers passed out around town. It competes with the Metro (the other daily newspaper). Anyway, makers of the Boston Now and the Metro feel that their circulation is higher if they hire people to stand at the train stops and busy corners to literally hand out the free paper. I guess people are more likely to take it from someone who is shoving it at them, than to open the box and get one for themselves. (I don't usually read them, A picks one up out of the box every morning for the sudoku puzzles).

When I get to Park Street, and I walk through Downtown Crossing, there's one gentlemen who's always calling out "Boston Now. Get your Boston Now. Have a cup of coffee and sit down with your Boston Now. Boston Now." His voice has become a morning comfort, if you will, part of the routine.

Today, he had quite a compelling argument: "Boston Now. $1,000 can be yours. Just pick up a Boston Now. Find the clues. Solve the clues. $1,000 is yours. Take the day off work."

I almost took him up on the offer.

Winter Wonderland

This morning I took off for the T walking through the Winter Wonderland of whatever that street is that I walk down every morning. (no, I don't know it's name, and no, there's no sign)

It was absolutely gorgeous with literally two inches of snow covering each tree branch. The whole street was flocked in white. I thought I'd seen flocked trees, but these are FLOCKED! As I was admiring the beauty of the snow covered trees and appreciating the clear sidewalks, I noticed that I was walking right next to a giant fallen tree. Right there on the side of the road, an enormous tree had fallen (from the weight of the beautiful snow?). I stood there gaulking for a few minutes at the enormity of the tree which I hadn't noticed because I was looking forward and up. Who know a winter wonderland could be so dangerous?

Living Snowman

Winter is back! Saturday was the most perfect autumn day, sunny, crisp, and warm. I enjoyed a run around the reservoir. Yes, for those of you keeping track, it was my first run of the year, and my first run since the half marathon in September! The run felt great. I'm feeling rather sore now, but the run was fun. he he ...fun run...





This morning we awoke to THUNDER SNOW! An estimated foot of snow is falling as I write this. It's been falling at a rate of 1.5 inches per hour. There were about 3 inches when I shoveled this morning. Meet Fred:

I built him when my shoveling duties were done and am eager to see what he looks like after a full day of snow has fallen over him. I'm hoping he grows! (living snowman?)

On the walk to the train, in the falling snow, I thought to myself: "Gee, if I could dedicate my life to art, today would be a perfect day for a project entitled 'The Living Snowman'. This project would involve myself, dressed in my warm parka, snow pants, hat, scarf, mittens, and boots. I would stand outside on the front lawn very still, for as long as I could, letting the snow pile up on me and around me. The idea being that I would eventually look like a snow man! I'd need someone to come by periodically and take pictures of my progress for my portfolio. Perhaps install a straw mechanism so that person could also feed me hot chocolate."

Here's hoping that the snow brings out your creativity too!

Happy New Year!!

2008 is officially underway! This is the year A and I get married!! We are full steam ahead on celebration planning and looking forward to the month of September.

This year began with a bang. We strolled around First Night Boston on New Year's Eve. We caught the parade, the 7pm "family" fireworks, and the ice sculptures scattered throughout the city. One was of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves! Of all the years I'm in town to appreciate the ice sculptures, I thought it was very kind of them to include my favorite fairy tale. I grew up a huge fan of the Disney Dopey character. How could one not love him? He dressed in green and purple and he's adorable! (just like me)

We were actually home by 10:30 pm and rang in the New Year watching the rest of Boston's celebration and the Times Square ball drop on TV from the comfort of our warm couch. New Year's day we relaxed...read magazines, books, played a game of scrabble, and watched some Netflix. It was a great day!

Since then, we have both been working hard including long hours and some weekend time. We did fit in a snow tubing adventure with some of A's work buddies. We'd never been before (almost no one in the group had). It was a blast! We went to Nashoba Valley, right here in Massachusetts, just north of Boston! There were dedicated lanes (like water slides) that we hopped in an innertube (with a hard plastic bottom closing the hole) and went WEEEE all the way down the hill. We spun around, slid side to side up the edges, and glided at the bottom until we stopped. I did a lot of WEEEE -ing. We even went down as doubles and threesomes. A and I figured out that we had maximum momentum as a twosome compared to linking our tubes with a total of four people. This is what happens when you snow tube with engineers. They calculate the most efficient means of getting everyone up the hill (via a rope pull) and down the hill (via the sledding lanes) and repeating the fun. We finished the day with some hot chocolate and hot dogs before moving on to Jasper White's Summer Shack to celebrate the snow tubing organizer's birthday (Janice). All in all it was a great day!

In more recent news, A had his wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday and is doing very well recovering. He calls himself the fourth chipmunk, but I think he looks cute! We are having a challenge to identify (and diversify his diet) many different kinds of non-chunky soups.

We hope your New Year is happy and fun!