Wow, it's been about a month?

So yes, I haven't posted in a long time. Sorry for those of you that actually come here. (Sorry in the sense that I haven't had new material; not the fact that I'm sorry you visit me.) We have gotten our new couch - it certainly wasn't as comfy as the one in the showroom, and I was on the verge of returning it (along with the $45 pick-up fee) because it wasn't nearly as comfy as I hoped, but since it's so big and . . . well, big, we decided to keep it. I also got to sit in the Get Bucket Brigade section for two games - which was fun, but I think I took too many pictures and annoyed the Buckets Brigade the first time, and then the second time I was self-conscious and didn't really cheer much, so it was a mixed bag of emotions for me. And now Christmas comes along, and I'd really like to wish everyone I encounter a Merry Christmas, but I don't know if they're Jewish or not or what, so I say happy holidays, and I'm proud of that, but apparently people get mad if you don't say "Merry Christmas," but I say whatever, all the semantics boil down to is well-wishing anyway, so plthhh. So I wish you all well! And I hope everyone gets to see their loved ones this season. It's going to be 44 degrees tomorrow. That's warm for this time of year.

Recap of the weekend

Now that my butt cheeks have healed from sitting on a few too many couches, I thought I'd say that we had a very nice weekend. Of course, Thursday was Thanksgiving. Then Friday we went to Bri and Kerry's for their Thanks Again party - as always, a great time. Friday night saw Jay cheering on Ricky D at the TD Banknorth Gaaahden. Saturday we went out looking at new couches - Jay and I are getting each other furniture for Christmas instead of gifts, 'cuz we sort of need new furniture. Luckily, we have the same taste when it comes to shopping for couches - it has to look decent, but it has to be super squishy and comfy.

So today, unfortunately, Jay's not feeling too well (much like Pat - hope you're feeling better, Pat!). I just wanted to say that I don't like the recent weather. It seems like the weekends are either rainy or cold, and then the weekdays are nice and sunny and warm. OR the warm days are rainy and the cold days are sunny. For instance:

Weekday: Warm, but rainy!

Weekend: Sunny, but cold!

Couch shopping and its repercussions

Quick post here: today we went looking at couches, and so we sat down in lots and lots of different ones. Now my butt is all chafed, and it literally feels like someone scraped medium-grit sandpaper on my butt for an hour or so. Jay thinks I'm weird. But man does it hurt!!

Post-Thanksgiving post (redundant?)

Hey, I love Thanksgiving, I love the stuffing, I love the turkey, I love the side dishes... but I wouldn't love washing the dishes. Haha, can you tell I just left my mom and dad to clean all these dishes?? Man, I suck!!

How was everyone's Thanksgivin'? We had dinner at my parents' house and got to hang out with my nephew - I'm scared of babies, but he's a cutie and I got to burp him a lot - and then today we went to Bri and Kerry's for Thanks Again, which seemed much more low-key than other Thanks Again parties. If you don't know what Thanks Again is, it's the day after Thanksgiving party where people bring any leftovers they have and Bri fries up some whole turkeys. If you haven't had fried turkey, your arteries haven't lived. So delicious... so crispy... so tender... oh, so fried.... mmmmmm.

Oh, so Thanksgivin's over, it was a bunch o' fun, and now we have to do the holiday shopping. Thankfully, my immediate family is doing the 'Secret Santa' thing where we all pick a person to buy for, instead of trying to buy a gift for all six of them. But we're still going to get the baby a gift, namely some Celtics clothes. Jay noticed that Mason has lots of Red Sox and Patriots baby clothes, and now we want him to represent all the Boston teams. Especially the C's. I said we should get him some New England Revolution gear (shout out to Dennis!), but Jay wasn't very excited about that....

Turkey turkey turkey

Well, here Jay and I are at my parents' house out in the WB (West Brookfield, not the TV station), and it's snowing, and the aroma of roasting turkey is in the air, and I'm in the middle of fixing a veggies and dip platter. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - I hope everyone has a great meal and a great time with whomever you spend it with.

Last night we got to go out to Ye Olde Tavern, the ONLY bar in my hometown, where every townie congregates on the eve of Thanksgiving. I saw a few guys from my high school class (no, none of them were boyfriends; I didn't have boyfriends in high school because I was too interested in marching band), I saw a few people from the class one year behind me, and there was also a girl fight on the dance floor. Woo! It got really crowded and really surreal, so Jay and I got the heck out of there.

And here we are on Thanksgiving morn. I got to set the table. I have to go finish making veggies and dip now. (I get distracted. Look, a turkey!!)

The Publick House

I took Jay out to a place called The Publick House in Brookline last night. We found out about the place on The Phantom Gourmet, which is becoming a source of weekend entertainment for us lately. They said that this restaurant had a great macaroni and cheese, which happens to be Jay's favorite thing in the world. And plus they have like 27 beers on draft and many more I can't count in bottles. So we drove on into Brookline and got to the place at 4:00. I didn't know they don't open the kitchen until 5:00. Not to worry, though - we just sat ourselves down in the corner and got a beer. Jay picked out a throne chair. Seriously. It was this really uncomfortable wooden chair with a very high back that had intricate carvings in it. He loved it. When dinner time came along, Jay ordered the mac and cheese, and asked our server for some add-on advice: should he get asparagus and caramelized onions and add an extra artisanal cheese? Heck, why not?? He ate the whole thing, so I'm assuming he liked it a lot. We had a great time at this place! The workers were friendly, the service was great, the atmosphere was fun - not too loud that you couldn't hear yourself speak, the food was good and the beer was great.

Which brings me to my next suggestion: Jay and I decided that for his birthday in February, we're going to have a mac & cheese cookoff! Everybody you meet has a different recipe for this comfort-food dish, and Jay wants to try them all. No details are set in stone - I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that this February will be mac & cheese-rific.

One year ago

So I was looking through our digital pictures, and looking at ones from about a year ago revealed that this was about the time we were in the middle of getting the house. It's strange, I feel like for the first time in my life that I actually have stability and can actually remember things like where I lived last year and what was going on. In the past it's been like life moved and changed way too quickly to actually put roots down and have an idea of where you'd be in 6 months. Ah, philosophising...

So yeah. Looking at my trusty PDA, I see that we put an offer down on the house on November 3rd, 2004. We went to a Celtics game on November 5th. We applied for a mortgage on November 16th. I brewed my delightfully clovey gingerbread beer on November 21st (ew, it's a year old! but it certainly has mellowed...). And I also have a note on December 2nd that says my sweater smells like poop. Well, then... Here's some pics from November 13th, 2004, a year ago from last week when we had a 70-degree day:




So anyway, it's strange to look back one year and remember what was going on. I certainly don't remember two years ago or three years ago... I see people in court saying, "Oh, I've been working there for 9 years come this February," and I have no idea how people remember stuff like that! I don't even remember when I started WORKING in court! And it's only like 2 or 3 years ago! Maybe this will be the turning point, who knows.

UPDATE: Regarding the recent post where I had my first roadkill incident (yeah, I killed a racoon with my car), I was reminiscing through the posts over at my old blog, "Erin Talkin', ye-a," and came upon this post from June 17, 2004. Animals should fear me!!

Midweek post

So we're still getting used to Abe having a nice haircut. I swear, he seems like a much more pleasant dog! It's weird. He's all clean and neatly trimmed, and he seems much better behaved. Jay bought him a new octopus toy the day he got his grooming done, and the thing's probably a bit bigger than him and with 6 more legs. Abe was scared of Wally (yes, we name Abe's toys - what?) because Wally was bigger than Abe, but just yesterday he embraced the new toy and started to bring to toy up to our laps and growl at us because we were too close to it. Abe's a weird dog.

Nothing much else going on... my new session in Worcester is going to have lots and lots of crazy trials going on, which is exciting, yet mildly scary seeing as how it's all criminal stuff. Jay's away at the Celtics game now -- well, he's actually on his way home at this point... the C's had a really bad game, unfortunately, but they showed a great shot of the Get Buckets Brigade in the 3rd where Jay was standing on the back of the seat in front of him. Good stuff.

Is everyone excited for Thanksgiving?? I love turkey!

groovy pic

I just killed a racoon!

My first roadkill experience, and wow, it sucked! Well, I guess they'd all suck... but anyway, I was just driving back from the Oriental House with my Chinese food, and right before the Mobil station on the way back, I looked down very quickly to change the station on the radio when I saw something out of the cornerest of corners of my eye, and that something was a flick of movement in front of my car. My front tires, and soon after, my back tires both hit something pretty substantial. Doh!! I turned my car around in the hopes I hadn't just blatantly killed someone's cat or dog... and as I drive my car back and flash my high beams, I see the still-flickering reflection in the eyes of a big racoon laying motionless on its back. I totally killed a big racoon. Thank God it wasn't someone's cat!

On a side note, Jay killed a possum with the same exact car pretty much in the same exact spot not but a week ago... animals should learn to not play in the road near the gas station.

Too much work

So it's silly, but I find it difficult to keep up the whole blogging thing. (A) I have to find something interesting to write about, (B) I have to find pics that correspond, and (C) I just really don't have the attention span to accomplish all that!

So anyway, this past week entailed Jay going to Celtics games (watch him on Fox Sports Net, you'll see the Get Buckets Brigade I guarantee!), me being moved to the Worcester courthouse, and Abe getting a haircut. I am going to focus on Abe getting a haircut.

Before:

after:

Wowsers!! It's two different dogs, pictures taken on the same day!! No kidding, I'm laughing my ass off at how different he looks. Oh, but he's a cutie pie...

Party?

We might have some peeps over around 2:30/3:00 on Saturday - it's gonna be nice and I want to grill! Let me know if you're interested.

Other goings-on

So my last post (a) had a random picture of Jay, and (b) mentioned something about taking classes. Well, I researched the kinds of classes that colleges/tech schools offered around here, and hell, they're not that great. Okay, granted, I have no idea what I want to do or what kind of classes I want to take, but the ones that sound interesting on the surface end up having already started or end up not being not what I really expected. I truly thank everyone for their suggestions - I looked up all the continuing ed classes at all the suggested schools offered... I think I just have to wait until next semster, and I also think I have to not be so picky... I don't know what I want to learn, so I say, "I don't want that," but when I see a class I'm on the fence about, I automatically say, "I don't want that!" So what do I want??

Well, enough about my so-called academic endeavors... Jay's getting into full force with the Get Buckets Brigade. He went to the last preseason game on Wednesday, and somehow managed to hold an Asian baby on his lap. You'll have to ask him about that. He and Matt are semi-major celebs in Celtics circles! I hope to attend a few games as a non-member of the Brigade in order to somehow document the Brigade song being played on the JumboTron. (The C's media peeps have told Jay and Matt that they'll play the song that Jay & Matt wrote about Ricky on the JumboTron during the opening day game! All I have to do is sneak my camera in...) I know that Jay works a lot of overtime, so hopefully he'll be able to put in extra hours on days when there's not C's games to compensate... but we'll see. It's all very surreal. Jay has freakin' season tickets!! C'mon!!

Well, that's it from here. October has been much too short and much too cold, and soon we'll turn the clocks back and it will be winter after that. We're coming up on a year living in the Indian Spring house... it's pretty much the same as last year, but soon there'll be some changes. Maybe. God bless saving money for a long time and then spending it in one fell swoop! (That's a reference to it costing $4000 to take trees down. That's just inhumane!! Because, shit, $4000 is a shitload of money!) Sorry for saying "shit" so much. But hey, all I gotta say is that life hits you with things you totally don't expect, and as long as you can keep up, then you're doing okay.

Classes?

I've been toying with the idea, and I think it's a good one, of taking some classes during the evening. God bless continuing education, for reasons I shall soon be enlightened by (hopefully).

So I get pretty bored very easily. My job is very boring, and most days consist of not doing anything. Literally. So I get very bored, which makes every minute feel like an hour. I leave my boring job, and I come home, where I don't have much to do, so I get bored again. (Oh, sure, I could, y'know, CLEAN or something, but that's something I dislike very much.) I realize that I've created this boredom cycle where I'm bored at work and I'm bored at home, and boredom makes my days go by soooo much slower, so I feel kinda crappy about myself by being so bored. Cure to boredom? Classes!

I've realized that late October is not such a great time to look at enrolling in classes at various schools, because most classes happening near this time have already started. Take Arnis, the Art of Filipino Stick Fighting. Oh, sure, you wouldn't think I would be interested in something like that, but Christ! that's just damn interesting! But it already started. Or Astronomy. I've always been intersted in the heavens. But that, too, has already begun... If only I had the continuing education itch one month ago.

But that doesn't mean I won't sign up at some point! I just have to be aware of semesters and such. Semesters have lost meaning to me since I left college. God, it's 2005?? I graduated in 2001? (Should have been 2000 if I didn't stop going to classes in my junior year... doh!) So four years of constant work with no 3-month vacation have skewed my concept of semesters. I shall soon get into the swing of things, as long as I keep checking in on these classes.

Hey, if you know of any college/technical schools that offer classes around the Ashland area, let me know! I find it difficult to search for such things on the Internet. But that just means I'm bad at searching for things on the Internet...

Another flooded basement

Well, we didn't get to go to the White Mountains last weekend, but we did spend some time up in Beverly with Jay's parents. When we got home on Sunday (well, when I got home; Jay had to work all day), I found the basement was flooded. Which I guess was to be expected... even though we bought a house whose basement was "guaranteed" never to have water in it. ::shaking fist at previous homeowners::

So other things going on: didn't get to go to Hell Night, it was booked up over a month ago... Jay went to his first Celtics game (preseason) last night at the TD Banknorth Garden last night, and the Buckets Brigade was on TV for a bit... we have no heat, so I'm waiting for someone from Nstar to fix it... we're getting our wedding pics back tonight yay!... I've been considering signing up for some classes at different places, who knows if I'll actually follow through... I had Chinese food last night yum!... I want to hire a housekeeper because I'm a wimp who hates cleaning... I want Jay and I to be millionaires by age 55, even though it'll only be worth $411,070 by then... y'know, same old stuff, different day.

I was also considering again joining a gym, but if I know myself well (and I think I do), if the place I join is in like Framingham or something, there's no way I'll want to drive 20 minutes there to exercise. So I noticed this place in the CVS plaza about a mile from our house, it's called "Feel Good! Fitness for Women," and I assumed it was going to be like a Curves-kind of setup or something. Well, click here. It is. I might drop by anyway to see if they actually have treadmills or stair-climbers instead of strange specialized contraptions that you sit in for 4 minutes at a time and then rotate.

Apparently, Jay and the rest of the Get Buckets Brigade got tickets to the Celtics' open practice on Sunday, and they can bring a guest. So looks like we're going to see the Celtics practice! It'll be a fun way to spend a rainy day.

Well, my fingers are cold and numb... can't type anymore... where's Mr. Nstar??

I can't think of good titles, here.

Didn't look like we had too many takers for Hell Night (see post below), but I'm going to make a reservation for 6 people for Wednesday night, and just let me know if you're interested. (I know you are, Dennis)

So this weekend we had been offered to use our realtor's condo up in the White Mountains for $50. Okay. That might sound odd. Yes, we still keep in touch with our realtor - only because he keeps sending us little notes every 3 or so months to check in (they're on company stationary), and when Jay got into the Get Buckets Brigade, I emailed him (our realtor) to let him know. (Our realtor is also a Celtics fan.) So when he emailed back saying how embarrassing that bucket-on-the-head thing is, he offered to let us use his condo for ultra-cheap. So we took him up on it. But now it looks as though we might not be able to go, because Jay's been super-busy at work. He's been working 12- to 14-hour days all week, and he might have to work this weekend. He's a damn hard worker, and I'm proud of him! Although if we do go, it'll still be raining up there as the sun comes out here. So we'll see.

Last weekend we had a tree guy come give us an estimate of what it'd cost to take down some of our problem trees. It was a very expensive quote. But we must take the trees down so we can put on a new roof (also expensive). There's many, many things we'd like to do with the house - if only we both made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year... We'll get there in about 10 or so years' time, though. Little by little...

Last night I was messing with Abe's head (not too hard because he's not too bright) - I was tossing Goldfish crackers into the air and catching them in my mouth, but he didn't realize I had caught them, so he was all freaking out about where they landed. I wanted to get the video camera - he'd look at me, start shaking, try to follow the path of the cracker, but then get all confused when he didn't hear it land. He'd just sniff around frantically, then run up to me, start shaking, start whining and barking... and then I'd do it again. He got his fair share of crackers, though, 'cuz he's so damn cute.

Hell Night at the East Coast Grill

At the East Coast Grill in Cambridge (right near Improv Boston), they are having what is dubbed "Hell Night." We saw it on the Phantom Gourmet. They serve really really spicy dishes, the spiciest being the Pasta From Hell, which you have to sign a waiver for before you eat it since they were once sued as a result of a customer ingesting it.

Jay and Matt are fascinated with spicy things. They love hot sauce, even though it hurts. It's a good hurt, apparently. So we're going to make some reservations for a night out, and if you're interested in being on the list, let me know. They will accept reservations for up to 8 people, so if we have more, we'll make two reservations. Oh. It's next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I think probably either Monday or Wednesday. Let me know what's best for you.

I bet Jay's nose is sweating as he reads this...

Steak!

I was very, very bored last night and had just finished watching the Red Sox lose. So I was itching to get out of the house. Jay is good at deciding on things to do when we go out, and I am incapable of making decisions, so I let Jay do the driving. He pulls into Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, which is odd because he doesn't eat steak. But he wanted to take me out and have me get a big ol' steak, because I really really really like steak. A lot. So I got myself a 16-oz. prime rib! Mmmm! So tasty!

That's my story. There were sure a lot of birthdays there. We saw the moose get kissed like 4 or 5 times in the 45 minutes we were there. But, oh, my steak was tasty. Medium rare deliciousness... thank you, Jay!

Auntie Erin

Well, at 6:50 p.m. last night, my sister-in-law had a baby! Mason Patrick Reardon. Awww... so now I'm an auntie by blood. In the span of a little over a month, Jay pointed out to me that I acquired 4 new nieces and nephews - three from his side and one from my side. Wow!

Love the timestamp...

UPDATE: His hair is SO long!! I saw him tonight, and he's a dirty hippie for God's sake!

A job interview. For my job.

Today I have to go into Boston for a job interview. I'm being interviewed for my current job. Hmmm... odd? Well, I apparently was hired as a "temporary full-time employee," and now there are "permanent full-time positions" available. I don't get the logistics of it all, but in the back of my head I'm scared I'll somehow lose my job. The stupidest thing is I'm all paranoid about what to wear. I don't know if they expect me to wear a business suit or just nice office clothes. I tried buying a suit for the past couple of days, but I absolutely abhor shopping and refuse to spend large amounts of money on clothes.

So anyway, I spent the morning mapping out my route into Boston. I don't really like the city, only because of the lack of parking. I like free parking. But they don't have that in Boston. I'm going to take the T, I believe. It takes me a while to plan things out, as I have a hard time planning ahead. But I think I'm all set.

So hopefully I'll make a good impression on my bosses, who really haven't even met me yet in the almost 2 years I've been working for the courts. We'll see! ...I think I'm just bitter that I have to get interviewed to keep my job!