The Provosts

Birthday party: Candids

2009-04-30T16:52:00.000-04:00

I liked this picture of Lara, but I really liked the shadow behind her.
Kyle and Sarah:
Is he playing Rock Band or plotting your demise? You decide:
Mandy's Jello mold. It's hard to see in this picture but she made a lamb, an owl, and a heart. Everyone was impressed.
Candice, Peter, Tiffany, and Jim, all smiles:

Birthday party: Rock Band Idol Winners

2009-04-28T16:46:00.001-04:00

At the party, Jay ran a game called "Rock Band Idol". It was basically American Idol with wildly better prizes that the real Idol, which were: a package of fake mustaches, an inflatable globe, and something else that I can't remember. Here are the four finalists. You can probably see who won first place: it's either Dastardly Dan or Josh. Second place was Sarah, who won major Song Choice points over Rob (who apparently should stick to Journey and Boston), and bringing up the rear was Tony.

Birthday party: Erin and Nate

2009-04-26T16:40:00.000-04:00

I know I said that birthday party pics were coming a long time ago, but I'm just now getting around to it (lots of grading, what can I say?). Plus, someone (and you know who you are) took a bunch of great pictures and has yet to give them to me (slacker). Anyway, file this series under "they'll probably hate me for this," and they're not even great pictures (fuzzy), but they made me laugh. Here are Erin and Nate laughing heartily at one another:
Oh, Nate! You're so funny!
Gosh darn it people, sit still so Jay can take your picture!

Everyday Amusements: Danger Men Drinking

2009-04-24T16:15:00.003-04:00

This is a sign that the corner neighbors proudly display. And let me tell you, there is some truth to this sign, because there are constantly men out on this porch, and I don't think I have to tell you what they're doing. Fortunately, I have yet to see any danger, because they are very friendly. We knew it was spring when the Danger Men were seen out on the porch.

Everyday Amusements: Sexy Frog

2009-04-17T11:41:00.003-04:00

Today I'm beginning a photographic series of my favorite everyday things. This is the most everyday item on the list, since we really do see her everyday--in fact, we see her every time we enter the house. I give you Sexy Frog:

Sexy Frog resides in our front yard, and looks like she is perpetually posing for a nudie pic. We can't take the credit for Ms. Frog, since she was already there when we moved in, but we've become her biggest fans.

Easter Cupcakes

2009-04-12T09:49:00.005-04:00

Not much to say about these. Cute, though, aren't they?
I made twelve egg cupcakes and the rest of the batch just got dollops of frosting. When I was doing the dollops, they looked amazingly like little piles of doggie doo. The little hearts and flowers helped reduce the excrement-ness...or made it look like the dog had had a very interesting meal. Your choice.
I've been attempting to improve my photography skills, and this week, I've discovered--gasp--wait for it--how to turn off the flash (work with me here people, I'm a musicologist, we're not so good with technology). It helped, don't you think?

I've also been trying to do that nifty thing where the front item is in focus and the ones behind are progressively fuzzier. This is the closest I got:
I want to eat that front one now, don't you? Now I just have to learn how to remove the cans of cat food from behind the picture before I snap it.

Has this become a baking blog?

2009-04-11T09:04:00.003-04:00

The answer: no. It's just that baking seems like the only thing worth taking photos of lately. I do have some party pics that I just haven't gotten around to yet. Anyway, here is something non-bakey:

http://blog.firstascent.com/

Everest climbing season is underway and I discovered this great expedition blog recently. The First Ascent Everest team includes Ed Viesturs (star of the '96 IMAX movie) and Dave Hahn (who was on the '99 expedition that discovered George Mallory's body), among others. There are tons of Everest blogs out there, but this one in notable because they upload a very polished video dispatch every day. The "arrives Everest basecamp" dispatch from a few days ago includes some gorgeous footage of the icefall. I can't wait to see what they produce when the actual climb begins.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...I'm off to do some baking.

Because on your birthday...

2009-03-22T14:56:00.004-04:00

you get to decorate your cake however you want. This birthday girl wanted to practice the technique of filling in shapes with the star tip, so she made a kitty stick figure on her cake.
And she wrote "yay" in the corner, just for kicks.

Partway through the evening, someone very carefully cut out kitty's head and served it to me. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat it, and by the end of the night, kitty's head was reattached to his body, only upside down.

Party pictures coming soon.

Sunflowers

2009-03-20T16:16:00.002-04:00

I made these for a small gathering at my friend Erin's house. They were really fun to make. The sunflowers were oreos with frosting petals and Fruit Roll-up leaves, and the ladybugs were M&Ms. I loved using my frosting tips and will definitely be using them more often.

Some cupcakes had two sunflowers or more:
And some had ladybugs, while others were not as lucky.

My favorite show is returning

2009-03-17T13:03:00.003-04:00

Looks like we get both IMG and Himex this year:

Everest: Beyond the Limit

March Lions and Lambs

2009-03-13T10:21:00.003-04:00

After several tries at copying the recipes out of my cupcake book, creativity has finally struck. I'd come across a neat blogger (http://bakerella.blogspot.com/) who had been creating something called "cake pops." Basically, cake pops are cake balls on sticks. Okay, what's a cake ball? Well, besides the source of many a sophomoric joke, cake balls are crumbled up cake mixed with frosting and dipped in candy melts. Bakerella decorates hers in all sorts of neat ways, so I decided to combine my enthusiasm for cupcake decorating with cake pops.

I made lions and lambs in honor of our lion-like entrance into March:

The best part about these is that the decorations are almost entirely of my own invention. I stole the lion's mane (which is my least favorite part, frankly) from the cupcake book, but everything else was my own. The lion's ears are created with chocolate chips stuck to the cake pop with frosting before dipping, and the pink insides are little hearts. The lamb's ears are Swedish fish stuck into the ball before dipping, with curled Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel for the inside of the ears. Noses are an M&M and half a Jelly Belly, respectively.

The rest of their faces are drawn on with my new toys: edible pens. I was stupidly excited about the idea of edible pen, but it practice, it didn't go so well. The candy started sweating fairly quickly and then the pens hardly worked. Next time I'll probably keep everything in the fridge while decorating.

They turned out pretty cute, and they were tasty, too. Hopefully none of my creations ever turn up on my other new favorite blog: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Gizmo

2009-02-20T12:26:00.002-05:00

For the past week, we've had a visitor. Most of Jay's family went to Florida to sort out Grandad's things, and little Gizmo needed a place to stay. So he came to our house.

Taking care of Gizmo confirmed that I am indeed a cat person. The dog drove me a little cuckoo. He's the best dog ever, too, so I can only conclude that it's the presence of a dog and not the particular dog that bothered me. The cat was also extremely annoyed by the whole thing. We started calling her Puffy Slow-Mo, because those seemed to be her two operating procedures when Gizmo was around: all puffed up and spitting, or in extreme slow-motion like a ninja. The one thing I enjoyed, though, was taking the dog on runs around the block. Not only did I get my exercise, but it tired Gizmo out and reduced his whining:
Jay, on the other hand, loved having the dog around. Their interactions made it all worthwhile:

Jay drove Gizmo home this morning and apparently Gizmo was sad to see him go. The cat isn't quite as upset about Gizmo's departure.

Butterfly in the sky

2009-02-08T15:56:00.004-05:00

I can fly twice as high!

I had the Reading Rainbow theme song in my head all day yesterday as I made these. My mother chose these cupcakes out of the book at Christmastime, and didn't think I'd actually do them. Well, Mom underestimated me! Mom's birthday is on Wednesday, so the J crew (that's Jay, Josh, and Joanna) and I went up to mis padres for dinner last night, and the butterflies came along.

These are my favorite cupcakes so far. Not only are they completely vegetarian, but they turned out the closest to the book design. They were also very tasty--the last two designs were extremely sugary, but these, with dark chocolate cake and dark chocolate in the wings, were just right.

The wings are made of two different colors of candy melting wafers. The wafers are melted in ziplock bags and then dripped onto wax paper. This was certainly the hardest part. First of all, the book insists that it's easy to use ziplock bags for decorating (both for the wafers and for frosting designs). That is a load of horse hockey. The bags are far too flimsy and no matter how much tape I use to reinforce the seams, they constantly break apart. I've ended up covered in chocolate every time. So from now on, it's official cake decorating bags only for me.

The wings set really fast. Once I didn't even have time to sprinkle the nonpareils on before it had set. So that is one plus--the process moves fairly fast. 24 sets of wings took me about an hour, and probably would take half the time now that I've gotten the hang of it. The rest of the decorating is fairly simple. The wings are held up by M&Ms underneath:

Jay deserves an honorable mention for his involvement in the Butterfly Cupcakes. First of all, I sent him to the store twice: once for eggs, and once because I'd accidentally made the wrong kind of cake (it had pudding in it and the cupcakes blew up like muffins, impossible to frost). Then, as we were leaving the house with cupcakes in hand, he took a bad step and twisted his ankle horribly, but managed to save the cupcakes from certain death and dismemberment. His ankle blew up to the size of a baseball and he is hobbling around like an old man today.

I have no more cupcake plans for at least a month from now; so, if you are having a party, invite me, because I'm bringing cupcakes.

Little Effing Penguins

2009-02-02T18:17:00.003-05:00

After a pretty crappy January, I've finally gotten around to making Cupcake Project Round Two. This time I picked penguins, since there's only a month left of winter (wahoo!), and I was making them for my friends Dylan and Mandy, who were having a party. For some reason, I felt Mandy would appreciate penguins.

Here is how they came out:

These were much easier than the dogs, mostly because I could assembly-line them. The most time-consuming part was creating the shape: they are made with a donut hole on top of half a mini donut on top of the cupcake. The whole thing is slathered with frosting to hold it together, then dipped in more frosting, which allows them the ability to give you diabetes immediately.

I made two versions. This is the vegetarian version, with gumdrops and Mamba candies:
And this is the original recipe, with marshmallows and Starburst:
The Mambas were a great replacement for the gelatin-laden Starburst, but the gumdrops didn't look as good as the marshmallow, since they're not as stark white. I'm still looking for some veggie marshmallows--our Whole Foods didn't have them. Also, the penguins were supposed to have Starburst feet, but I was too lazy, so I skipped that part. I'm also starting to hate those chocolate cookies--I ruined a bunch of flippers, and then they softened as the evening went on and fell off the penguins. However, they were much appreciated by the partygoers. Mandy kept saying, "they're little effing penguins!" Only she didn't really say effing, but you know.

Next installment of the Cupcake project coming soon!

Why you can't trust Wikipedia

2009-01-28T22:12:00.003-05:00

It's very hard to see, since this is a screen shot, but at the bottom of the article on James Lincoln Collier (a jazz scholar), it says, "i love nick jonas!"

Yes, you know Nick Jonas. Don't pretend you don't. He's that kid in the band on the Disney Channel. The big question is, how did an 11-year-old find her way to the article on James Lincoln Collier?

Top 5 Musical Discoveries

2009-01-20T17:59:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about what I've learned from writing my dissertation, and one of the things that sticks out are the recordings I've discovered. It's not that I dug them out of a hole or anything, but they're recordings that I didn't know before. So today, here are some of my favorites.

1. "I'm Coming Virginia," Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer

Benny Goodman did a tribute to several earlier jazz artists on his Carnegie concert, and this was one of them. I read a lot about Bix before I heard the original song, and I thought, "there's no way this can be that good." People talked about falling off their chairs when they heard Bix play, and most of them cite "Virginia" as the best Bix solo. Once I finally got around to listening to the recording, I was floored. It's poignant, melodic, almost vocal, and I can't imagine a better solo. If you like this, you'll like the Bix/Frankie runner-up, "Singin' the Blues."

2. "Body and Soul," Goodman trio (studio recording)

Teddy Wilson hits me right in the heart with this one. His soloing is always lovely, but this one is superb. The studio recording is better than the concert one, though both are good.

3. "Blue Room," Bennie Moten

Goodman performed the Fletcher Henderson arrangement of "Blue Room" at the concert, but I ran across this one when I was searching for information on the original song. It has little to do with the Goodman version except for the main melody, which disappears after the first chorus of the Moten arrangement. If it weren't for the wretched clarinet solo in Moten's version, I'd pick this as one of the best early swing songs. I think this would make a great team dance routine--I'll choreograph, anyone up for some aerials? :)

4. "Swingtime in the Rockies," Carnegie recording

This is far and away the best offering on the Carnegie Hall concert, largely due to Ziggy Elman's spectacular trumpet solo and some re-arrangement from the studio version. Very exciting--too bad it's only two minutes long.

5. "Rock and Rye," Earl Hines

Okay, I didn't really discover this one in the course of my studies. I first heard this one in the Silver Shadows Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown performance (2006 I think? There's another performance here, not quite as good--I can't find the original anymore). I came across some interesting tidbits about Earl Hines during my research, though (lots to do on him--next project, maybe), and it rekindled my interest. It's a bit of an odd song--straight eighths and swing eighth, pick one--and I hate the sax solo at the end, but overall, a very cool song.

You can hear all of these at http://jazz-on-line.com/ .

New week

2009-01-18T10:56:00.003-05:00

Last week was just an awful week. It started on Sunday, when my car was broken into. I was at Simmons college for orchestra rehearsal, and when I got out, my back window was smashed. They took my rock climbing bag--which stinks on its own, since I had about $250 worth of gear in there--but I'd done something especially stupid, and I'd left my wedding rings in the bag. I'd been climbing that afternoon, so I took them off and put them in a little tiny pocket in the bag, and forgotten to put them on after climbing. So, it was an unexpected payoff for the thief, who couldn't have known that the rings were there, but now is the owner of a 1920s wedding band and a diamond solitaire.

So, we covered the window with a trash bag and waited for the glass people to come on Monday. It's nice that insurance completely covers glass--but it does help when the glass people bring the right glass. Yep, that's right--they brought the wrong window. Since we were their last customers of the day, they didn't have time to go back to get the right window. Thus we were stuck with having one more night of worrying that our car was open to the elements and crazy people.

They did come Tuesday afternoon, though not in time for me to take the car to my class at Brandeis. I took the bus--which is fine, I don't mind the bus--but the bus stops running at 3:30, and my class goes until 4. Supposedly, a Waltham shuttle takes over at 4, so I waited for that. When it drove up to the bus stop, the driver rolled down the window and told us that the bus was full. Now, my eyesight isn't that great, but I didn't need glasses to see that every one of the seats on the shuttle was empty. But the driver wouldn't let us on. So, I walked 40 minutes home.

Wednesday morning we got the news that Jay's grandfather had passed away. We spent the day with his family. Thursday was a bit of an odd day--I learned that there were layoffs at the Brandeis library, mostly affecting my old department, which lost several of the nicest people imaginable. I also got a raise (bright spot!) and learned some excellent but surprising news about a friend (another bright spot).

Friday was the wake. Wakes are never exactly a good time, but it was nice to see a lot of Jay's relatives that we don't often see. We had a really amusing conversation with Jay's great uncle about "CVS music," which is a phrase that will forever stick in my memory. My parents came, which was really nice, except that our bad luck rubbed off on them, and they got a flat tire in the funeral home parking lot. If you remember Friday, you'll remember that the nighttime temperature was below 0. Perfect!

However, we did get a sign that our luck was changing. While driving home on Friday night, a flash of whiteness caught our eyes--deer! There were three big beautiful deer on the side of the road. Jay slowed down and the deer stood still and we all stared at one another for a minute. It was a good omen, I think.

Saturday was the funeral, and afterward, lunch at Jay's aunt's house, which lifted everyone's spirits. So, we made it through the rest of the week without anything untoward happening. I'm extremely glad that there is a new week ahead of us. Now that things have (hopefully) settled down, I hope to return to photos for this blog. I've hardly been able to use the camera Josh gave us for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to playing with it.

Oh, and Grandad--I don't know if they have internet in the hereafter, but if you're reading this, you should know that Grandma's got it in for you. She told me that in return for you leaving her first, she was going to punch you out when she sees you next! You may want to locate a helmet when that day arrives.

You Will Be Missed.....

2009-01-14T12:14:00.004-05:00

Got some devastating news today. My grandfather passed this morning. A few days after New Years Day he had congestive heart failure and was in the hospital ever since. Things did not look good at the start. But his condition had improved since Friday. So much that he was removed from the respirator and was alert and talking to my mom and aunt. His first words when he woke up from his sedation were, "I Want to Go Home" as he and my grandmother had been up from Florida since a few days before Christmas visiting with the family. But early this morning his condition suddenly worsened and he passed away.

He was the best grandfather a boy could have. My childhood memories have so much to do with him. Let me share with you a few things that are on my mind.

First off, he was really funny. As a kid, I can remember camping with my grandparents and my brother in their motorhome. A highlight of my childhood. We would play Uno and he would have us rolling in laughter with his jokes and general demeanor. During breakfast he would proclaim, "I Never Have Coffee and Donuts for Breakfast!" This of course as he was enjoying coffee and donuts for his morning meal. I don't know why it struck us so funny, but it did. Again his sense of humor struck a chord with me. And he could tell. He kept that joke going even on this last visit. On the very same camping trip, it was his unfortunate sense of direction and his sharp wit that caused the infamous "We're Going to Boston" episode my Grandma will never live down. There are so many funny moments that escape my memory right now, but his humor stays with me.

He loved dogs. And dogs loved him. If it wasn't for him, we probably wouldn't have had our family dog that we cherished for so many years. Rusty was a stray and he took him in, picked the 30+ ticks that were all over his body, and definately convinced my parents (although i dont know if they'll admit it) to keep the dog. We were living with my grandparents at the time and when we moved out, Rusty missed my grandfather. Everytime we said "Grandpa is coming over!", the dogs ears would perk up and he would get excited. Recently, they rescued a dog Gizmo and he made the trip during the holidays. That dog LOVED him. The first few days he spent in the hospital, the dog would look out the window waiting for him to come back. At night, the little Gizmo would perch himself up on the bed looking for Grandpa. Even though Gizmo will be with our family or my grandmother, he wont ever have a better owner.

I'm happy the family got to spend the holidays with him. My little cousin Michaela counted down the hours to when her Papa and Grammy were going to arrive, and I'm so happy that he got to spend some of his last waking moments with her.

As I close this letter i'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this. It was a tough little piece of writing to get through as I sit in this coffee shop waiting to pass the time to meet with my family.

I hope you enjoy the picture. This is from me and Sarah's wedding day and it is one of my favorite photos of the day. He really enjoyed himself and the band. He danced more than us!

We love you, Grandpa.

My Go-to Game

2009-01-10T18:02:00.002-05:00

Nothing much new here. The semester starts next week so I've been scrambling to get syllabi done and lessons planned. However, there's always a little time for my favorite computer game:

http://www.wordtwist.org/

This game is like Boggle, except that you score points for the length and rarity of your word. It's actually on the hard side--there are some people who must have mighty typing and language skills, and they skew the average (skew--remember that one for the game! It could come in handy!). This game fully satisfies my penchant for words and general dorkiness.

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-07T11:24:00.001-05:00

Even though dates seem awfully arbitrary to me--numbers are imaginary, after all--I welcome the opportunity to set some goals, and the new year is a good excuse. This year I've got a few things in mind. I recently saw an article about how people fail at their resolutions because they make excuses, turning "wants" into "needs" (as in, "I need this candy bar because I've had a crappy day"). People also set goals that are too lofty or ambiguous ("I'm going to get healthy"). So here is my attempt to set attainable goals:

1. Eat sweets only after dinner. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a serious sweet tooth. In the interest of preserving my teeth and my insulin, I should probably cut back on the candy and cookies. That'll mean a serious overhaul of my breakfast habits, which involve many a donut and danish.

2. Take a class in something I've never done before. Scuba diving and African drumming are at the top of the list.

3. Keep a cleaner house. This one was Jay's idea for both of us. It's true that I am the world's worst housekeeper. I just can't bring myself to care about cleanliness and organization. However, I do care about Jay, and if this makes him happier, it makes me happier too. I wouldn't mind having clean clothes once in a while, either. So my attainable goal is this: clean something every day, whether it's doing a load of laundry or dishes or picking up the clutter in a room. (I can hear my mother now: "Good luck!" with accompanying eye roll.)

Some hopes for the new year, too:

1. Take a trip. Anywhere. Overseas preferred but not required. If we have to stay in the continental US, I pick New Orleans or Mount Rainier.

2. Play more music.

3. Have my family and friends keep their health and happiness.

ETA: I wrote this post on New Years' Day, and unfortunately, one of my hopes has already been dashed. Jay's grandfather had a heart attack on January 3rd--2009, you suck. My Memere also went into the emergency room the same day for something that turned out to be non-life-threatening, thank goodness. So I'd like to amend my #3 hope to say "Renewed health and happiness for my family and friends."

You can call me Betty

2009-01-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

A radio program about my favorite pop album:

Paul Simon talks about Graceland

Erin's new endeavor

2009-01-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

I mentioned recently that I made a quilt for my mom for Christmas. The process was helped along considerably by my college roommates, Erin and Lauren, both of whom had made several quilts. Well, Erin has decided to take her quilting to the big time. She's started a website to sell her beautiful baby quilts. Check it out: www.ducklingdesigns.com .

This one is my favorite (picture is a little grainy because I suck at computers):
I'm totally impressed by her quilting prowess, especially now that I know how much work quilting is.

Pup Cakes

2009-01-04T07:09:00.000-05:00

For New Year's Eve, I took the opportunity to try my first batch of decorated cupcakes. I picked designs that didn't involve piping, since I don't feel too confident with that yet, but had multiple versions to try. The ingredients for the pup cakes were really easy to find, too. Here is how they came out:
From left to right: dalmation, chocolate lab, beagle, dachshund.

Sadly, the first three are not vegetarian, since their muzzles are made of marshmallow (underneath all that frosting). So I decided to make the dachshund also, which was the least cute in the book, but the only one without any marshmallow. He looks great in real life, though, and turned out to be my favorite.
The book (called Hello, Cupcake!) insists that all of the designs are easy enough for anyone. I agree that they were easy; however, they're very time-consuming. It took me three hours to make eight of them, though it was a fun three hours. Most of the time came from cutting the chocolate cookies (you can see the cookies on the dachshund's ears; they also make up all the dogs' mouths), and mixing frosting colors and loading bags. I couldn't find a good way to shape the cookies, which turned out to be the most annoying part. They tended to split in the wrong places. The book suggests popping them in the microwave for a couple of seconds to soften them, but that did nothing for me. The rest of the designs were easy. The ears for the beagle and lab are made of smooshed Tootsie Rolls, which was fun, and the pink tongues are squished Starburst.

I made two of each breed. Here is the whole dog park:
The book has a ton of really cute designs, so I hope you all like cupcakes, because that's what you're getting for your birthday!

Jay's First Post - "Slumdog Millionaire"

2009-01-03T07:20:00.005-05:00

Alright, alright! Since this blog is titled "The Provosts", and I am the "Provost-to-end-all-Provosts" I suppose I should be a part of it. Sarah has done a such a great job writing in this blog that I've been inspired to FINALLY jump on the bandwagon.

Just a forewarning, my writing style will be a little different from Sarah's. My posts may feature a little more "ranting and raving" than my better half. Oh, and as you will soon find out, she is a much better writer. My parents are always telling me how great "The Provosts" is and how much they love reading her entries.

Time for me to ruin it. Sorry honey.

On to my first posting.

Last night we went and saw the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" in Framingham. The theater was PACKED. Upon arrival to the lot we noticed there weren't any parking spots (which as you know is never a good sign.) We made the decision to drop Sarah off so she could get in line while I began my quest to get a spot. After about 1 minute of searching in the main lot I gave up and parked in the overflow lot across the street, which if you've never parked out there is quite a hike. I made my way towards the theater and was very surprised to see the crowds. It was so busy! I immediately glanced up to the marquis to see the other movies showing. I was confused. Other than the indie flick we were about to see, the theater was showing a lot of forgettable flicks. What was so exciting about this Friday night that so many people had to come out? It was so busy that there was a line to get into the door. I immediately became claustrophobic upon entering and quickly found Sarah who was almost at the front of the line thank god. Okay okay, onto the movie.

Did I mention it cost $4.25 for a medium soda?

Alright, the theater was packed! No buffer seats. A couple our age sat next to me, with the bearded husband to my right. They seemed normal. I remember his mom called him and i thought it peculiar to hear him say "Yeah Mom, we got in!"

Here is Yahoo's synopsis of the movie so I don't have to type it out.

"The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Intrigued by Jamal's story, the jaded Police Inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out..."

Okay, back to me. The movie was great. It is drama in its best form. I'm not going to attempt to write my critique; so I won't tell you anything other than it provides you the full spectrum of emotions.

Here's what messed with my experience of the movie. THE GUY NEXT TO ME!

This guy was all over the place. He gasped "oh no!" loudly in every suspenseful scene, rocked back in forth in his seat during the tense moments, made the "awwww" sound in the film's tender scenes. He couldn't sit still. He kept bumping my leg with his. I even heard him crying.

Yeah...a grown man...with a beard....crying.....in public. He was acting ridiculous. I actually contemplated leaning over and saying something like, "Seriously dude, it's a movie. You'll be okay."

Don't get me wrong, there were scenes where I was on the edge of my seat and worried for the characters. But was I even close to tears? No way. If you are a man, and are crying so much that I can hear it.....you may need professional help.

So, in closing.....go see Slumdog Millionaire. Just move your seat if a bearded man sits next to you. Even if you need to sit in the front row.

Oh and to my Slumdog Millionaire neighbor,...if you are reading this.......

Shave your beard. You are a disgrace to bearded men everywhere.

Wait, maybe that's why my dad shaved his beard? Maybe it was the movie Braveheart that did it to him!

God no.

2008 Highlights

2009-01-02T11:16:00.000-05:00

Now for the obligatory "passing of the year" nostalgia. This year's highlights:

1. The Year of the Dissertation: I wrote almost the entire thing this year. All right! 2009 WILL see a graduation (perhaps not a job, but that's another story).
2. Milestones for friends: two weddings. Peter and Candice's was a hot but amazing day.
We didn't make it to Ricki and Fritz's (though we really, really wanted to), but we were there in spirit:
3. New activities: in a strange role-reversal, Jay took up a musical instrument and I took up a sport, both having to do with rock:

4. Family: a vacation with the Caissies and some great parties with both families were definite highlights.

5. Trips with friends: Camping and Mt. Washington was my favorite part of the summer.
In November, I also went with my college friends to the Cape for a crafty weekend. I've refrained from posting these pictures, since I was making a quilt for my parents for Christmas, but now I can post them. One table, five sewing machines:
Little Rory was a great distraction from Hemming Hypnosis:
They'll probably hate me for posting them in their PJs, but here is everyone with their almost-finished projects on Sunday morning:
6. Home: where my two favorite favorites are. Favorite 1:
And my favorite favoritest of all:
Happy 2009!

Christmas Part 3

2009-01-01T09:49:00.001-05:00

Christmas morning started with Dad's famous pancakes. He makes them with Crisco--mmm, hydrogenated oils!--and chocolate chips, which make them possibly the worst thing you can eat. But they're ridiculously good, golden and crispy. I had a mini to start out with:
After breakfast was gifts at the Caissies'. Jay gave me a pennywhistle and a ukulele, just in case we ever want to have a Leprechaun Luau. Josh gave us the best regift ever--his digital camera. So our blog is back in business (and it is a super camera, too).

After Caissie Christmas, we split up. Jay and I went to his Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda's and the other Caissies went to Auntie Sue's. I was a little out-of-sorts until after dinner--I was so tired. We took a short post-dinner nap and I perked up, but forgot to take pictures. My mom took some at Sue's of the kids:
Jay and I gave Peter this Auto Garage (which I hope lasts more than two days--it wasn't very expensive). Apparently Emmy liked it too and turned it into a ladder for her dolls, saying "up up up up! Down down down down!" over and over.
After both of these gatherings, Jay and the Caissies headed over to cousin Kayla's for a few minutes (Christmas number 3), then Jay and I went back to Mom and Dad Provosts for Provost Christmas. There we did the stocking swap (Dad Provost did an impressive job on mine this year!) and other gifts. Mom and Dad Provost gave me some cake decorating supplies and a book on decorating cupcakes, which I think opened up a door that will result in everyone I know gaining at least ten pound from eating all of my creations. The book is super cool.

I only took one picture there (I was too busy playing my pennywhistle):
After Christmas number 4, Jay and I went back to the Caissies' and crashed.

Christmas Eve--Pie and Rock Band

2008-12-31T09:21:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve we continued our annual Caissie-Provost combo gathering. This year, Dave and Amy stopped by too. We started off the night with a pie extravaganza, provided by Jay and me. We made a french meat pie, which no one can stop talking about, two chicken pot pies, and a veggie shepherd's pie, which was mostly consumed by me but was delicious. The pielicious spread is seen above. The rest of the family were in the picture too, but I cropped them out because, well, they looked like mutants.

After dinner, we played Rock Band and some of us drank too much. To protect the guilty, we won't say who "some of us" are. This year, Jay and Josh had made avatars for everyone and gave them all funny names. Mom Caissie was "Antsy Metzy", the nickname bestowed on her by a pronounciation-impaired little Emily.

Sarah Casavant was "RedHotSarahPepper" due to her excessive use of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a vehicle for her vocal prowess. Other name highlights were "Rubber Band Denis", whose catchphrase is certainly, "Just like a rubber band!" His avatar was designed to look like he wasn't wearing pants, the reasons for which were unknown to all except the creators. Uncle Dave was "Ticketless Dave" because of his unfortunate timing in giving up his Red Sox season tickets. And Dad Provost was "Dennis Pukevost" as a tribute to last year's Rock Band night.
I'm not sure what Jay is doing in this picture, but it amuses me.
Josh looks very serious in this one.

Christmas

2008-12-30T09:12:00.003-05:00

At Christmas, we went to NH for a few days. Here is my gingerbread house version of the Caissie abode.
More Christmas pictures on the way.

Ready to blow

2008-12-13T10:54:00.003-05:00

Lately, things have been insane. I have a huge stack of papers to grade, tests to give, gigs to play/sing/dance, holiday stuff to do, and a dissertation to revise (which I haven't even looked at in two weeks). The only reason I have a moment to type this is because I'm giving a final as we speak. It's a little sad when the only time you have to yourself is when you're at work.

I'm not really complaining. Things could be much worse, of course, in the grand scheme of things. However, I do feel the need to apologize to anyone who I've threatened to kick, punch, verbally abuse, or otherwise offend in the past week or so. Really, things will be better next week and I won't be on a murderous rampage. Special apologies to the cat, who is on her "pre-holiday diet," also known as "I keep forgetting to feed her."

You may have noticed a distinct lack of photos on our previously photo-rich blog. That's because our digital camera is possessed. Sometimes it turns on but won't take pictures. Sometimes it turns on but spouts random words, like "Memory card full!" when there isn't even a memory card in it. Sometimes it just doesn't turn on at all. In other words, it's broken. So if you get a new camera for Christmas and you're looking to unload your old one for an inconceivably low price, we're your customers.

We did manage to get our tree up on Wednesday night (we started at 10:30 at night...you take the time you can, right?), which looks great. It took the cat a whole ten seconds to obliterate our Gary the Snail ornament. I would post a picture of the tree, but...you know...

Additions

2008-12-07T08:36:00.004-05:00

Two more additions to the Dad list, courtesy of the family at dinner last night:

5. When I was in high school, the infamous inbreeding episode premiered on X-files. You know the one I'm talking about. It's the one where they keep the deformed, limbless mother on a roller under the bed. I watched it and was completely freaked out. Anyone who knows me well knows that I can't watch scary movies or shows. I have a very active imagination, and I stay awake all night imagining whatever zombie or alien I'd just seen on TV is in my room, waiting to attack. Apparently this time, Dad forgot about my delicate consistency. After the show, I was in my parents' bedroom talking with my mother, sitting on their bed. Dad decided it would be a great idea to roll out from underneath the bed to scare me. Well, this seventeen-year-old immediately burst into tears. He says he still feels bad about that.

6. One from the "That Just Happened" files: apparently Dad was transporting a crock pot full of clam chowder to an event a few weeks ago when the whole thing spilled into the front seat of his truck. That's bad enough, but he didn't clean it for a week. Then, when he finally deigned to get off his butt and drive to get some products with which to clean the festering mess, the truck died and he had to subject a poor, defenseless mechanic to the smell of rotting clams and cream.

For Dad

2008-12-02T19:54:00.003-05:00

He said he couldn't think of anything weird, so for today's show, we have: Weird Things Dad Has Said or Done.

1. There is the ubiquitous Dad quote, "just like a rubber band!" The story: he snapped his Achilles' tendon in an ill-fated Christmas Day football game and his telling of the story always included that fateful phrase, which is how he described the feeling of the tendon snapping.

2. We also can't forget the "six-foot tall deer" he saw in the neighbor's yard one day. (He is slightly prone to exaggeration, if you haven't guessed.)

3. One of my favorite stories from childhood: once I was riding with him in the car when the song "Oh Won't You Stay Just a Little Bit Longer" came on the radio. The man sings very high in one of the verses, so I asked, "Dad, how can that guy sing so high?" Dad's response: "He had an operation." For years I thought he meant that he actually had an operation on his vocal cords...sometime in high school or college it occurred to me that it was an entirely different type of operation Dad was alluding to.

4. Another one from the childhood vault: Josh and I were eating watermelons one day when Josh swallowed a seed. Panicking, he ran in to ask Dad what would happen, and Dad told him that a watermelon would grow in his stomach. After assuring Josh that he was kidding, Josh appeared to forget about it--until the next day when Dad took Josh to the supermarket. As luck would have it, the headline on the National Enquirer was "Boy Grows Tree Out of Stomach," which featured an accompanying photo. I think Josh may still be scarred from that one.

Any others from the peanut gallery?

High Five!

2008-12-02T19:43:00.003-05:00

A friend gave me some photos from Jay's party and this series caught my eye. The scene plays out in the background of a conversation between me and Kristin. In the first picture, Josh is giving a rather unenthusiastic high five to no one:
In the next, he rachets up the enthusiasm, but alas, no one responds:
Finally, a victorious high five!
The high-fiving actually continues for several more pictures before it descends into some sort of weird high-foreheading:
It also looks a little like I have Josh's head coming out of my cup in the last one, which delights me.

Oh Lordy, Who Started This?

2008-11-28T16:31:00.002-05:00

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Alex at Celexo's Rite to Write tagged me.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.

1) My hidden talent: I can whistle songs with my hands. I learned it from a Klutz book called "How to annoy your parents" when I was twelve. It impresses small children and drunk people to no end.

2) I am absolutely obsessed with mountaineering books. I can list the seven summits and all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks. I can also detail several routes up Everest. So if you're on Everest and you get lost, give me a call. I might not be able to help you much, but I'll be so excited to talk to someone on Everest, even if he's in his final hours.

3) I once got pulled over by a policeman who asked (without even bothering to leave his car) if I'd "had a brain fart." (My answer: a teary "yeeeess!")

4) My favorite TV show is America's Funniest Home Videos. Because an dose of "grannies getting hit in the head with giant lawn toys" cures all ills.

5) I'm a vegetarian, but I don't really like salad. I only eat it if I've done something stupid earlier in the day, like eat Snickers for breakfast. Not that I do that...often.

6) I have a really cool idea for a pre-teen novel and someday I'm going to put it on paper. But! I'm not telling you my idea! It's a secret!

7) I sing to my cat constantly. Sometimes she gets recitative, sometimes she gets an aria. Most often she gets a variation on "Clementine" or "O Tannenbaum."

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog. I'm changing the rules here because I'm anti-chain; if you're reading this and you have a blog, consider yourself tagged. (That's you, Dad and Josh.)

Jay's Birthday Party

2008-11-24T09:07:00.004-05:00

Saturday night was Jay's 30th birthday party. It was a rousing success. You know you've thrown a good party when you were having too much fun to take pictures. I managed to snap exactly one:
This is a prime example of why you should never indulge in rum-induced photography. Note that no one's entire head is visible and the focus of the picture seems to be the floor.

Jen managed a few more than I did, including these two pictures of the parents playing Rock Band:
Mom Caissie was a hit on the drums (oh no, she didn't just make that pun!). People kept coming up to me, saying, "your mom rocks at drums!" As you can see in the above photo, rocking at drums takes a lot of concentration. Sadly, only one photo of Jay from his own party has turned up so far, and in it, he is displaying some inappropriately doctored cupcakes, so you won't be seeing that photo here.

The cat made a spectacular appearance late in the evening. Anyone who has ever caught a glimpse of our cat knows that she is extremely skittish around strangers and prefers to hide under the bed rather than socialize. Well, apparently she was behind the couch when guests started arriving, and must have sat there paralyzed with fear for many hours. Around midnight she decided to make a break for it and took off at a full run through the living room and dining room towards the bedroom. Once she hit the linoleum in the kitchen, it was all over. She careened into several cabinets and, in a blind panic, ineffectively pumped her legs like she was on a treadmill gone haywire. That was the last we saw of her that night.

It was a fun time. Lots of people came and we managed to wipe out over a hundred bottles of beer and several bottles each of rum and whiskey. There were many fights over the musical worthiness of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and an embarassing photo of Jay as a child surfaced. Thanks to everyone for coming!

Priorities

2008-11-21T08:18:00.003-05:00

This article caught my eye--I see a lot of babies in strollers at work (usually expensive "travel systems"), but I found myself appalled for the wrong reasons. Please take a long, hard look at the photo in the article. Why is anyone worrying about the stroller when it is plain to see that the child has a mohawk? If you want to developmentally delay your child, screw the stroller, give him an unfortunate haircut. But that is nothing compared with the horrors of the parent--what on earth are those pants? Is that some kind of wonky zebra pattern? Could they really be MC Hammer pants? And the big question--why is he out in public wearing them, never mind allowing journalists to photograph him in them?

Wish List

2008-11-15T13:23:00.002-05:00

I was recently asked what I'd like for Christmas, so here's my wish list for the year.

An Irish penny whistle:

Then I can frolic like a leprechaun. Won't that be fun!

Music books: The Real Book (Hal Leonard publishing) in C, Jamey Aebersold Play-Along books in C (any except Maiden Voyage, I have that one already)

A new music stand. A nice one. Mine is sad. I have one that won't go higher than waist level and one that slowly slides down when I use it.

Rock climbing stuff: a headlamp is at the top of my list. Or a Boston Rock Gym gift card or membership.

Cute dresses: Everyday dresses or teaching-worthy dresses (nothing evening). Size small (4 is safe). I'm girly, I like shoes and bags too (though preferably not leather).

Jewelry: cheap Art Deco costume jewelry from the antique store are my favorites. I have a few marcasite (faceted metal) pieces that I really love that look similar to this:

Sign of the Approaching Apocalypse

2008-11-07T08:13:00.001-05:00

Oldies 103 has started playing Christmas music allllll day. On November 6th! Excuse me while I attempt to ward off a psychotic break.

Election ruminations

2008-11-06T08:02:00.003-05:00

For the first time in my life, I've voted for a winning presidential candidate. Not only did I vote for the winning candidate, everything and everyone I voted for won. Even though I'm completely ecstatic, I feel a little nervous, because if things go wrong, it'll be partially my fault. That's a sobering thought, and one I've never really had to deal with.

Even so, I feel a great joy that I hope even people who voted for McCain or someone else can feel some measure of. About electing a black president, my Memere said it best: "I can't believe I lived long enough to see that!" What I really feel proud about is that he wasn't voted in because he's black; in fact, his multiethnic background was a source of fear for many (uninformed, I believe) people. He was elected because he spread a message of positivity in a time when a lot of the US was disillusioned. The most encouraging news, to me, was the response of the rest of the world: this Amanpour article talks about the renewed hopes for peace and cooperation that are quickly spreading across the world. I can remember being in England in 2002 and constantly being treated with disdain simply because I came from the country where Bush was president (I kept reminding people--more than half of us voted for Gore), and that was even before the invasion of Iraq. Willingness for international cooperation on the part of the rest of the world alone is worth the price we might pay because of Obama's lack of experience.

Hopefully--and it seems like he will--Obama will make good on his promises of bipartisanship and re-unify the country. Many McCain supporters have valid concerns and hopefully Obama and his adminstration will find ways to address those. Even if he does, I believe in the capacity of some Americans to make life infinitely more difficult for themselves through fear and ignorance. The Secret Service must absolutely be wetting themselves thinking of the task ahead, considering there's already been an assassination plan foiled. Here's hoping for a quiet four years for them.

Even though I'd really hoped we'd be welcoming the first female president right now, I feel really happy about Obama's election. I feel even more happy to live in Massachusetts, a state where my ideals line up so nicely with most other people's. It reinforces my reluctance to move elsewhere (even California--boo on Prop 8!).

Halloween

2008-11-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

Friday night we went to the Halloween dance at Boston Swing Central. Our costumes were both hits. Jay was teaching Thriller at the lesson (which turned out really great), so he was obligated to dress as a zombie. He was a very convincing professor zombie, which almost scared me into finishing my dissertation right then and there. Here he is preparing his next meal:

I went as the old game Operation. I stuck cutouts ("broken heart," "water on the knee," etc.) on some flesh-colored clothing with velcro, attached a pair of tweezers and string to my shorts, and wore a blinky red nose. I kept catching people staring at me, then a look of excitement would cross their faces as they figured out what I was. Here is the zombie playing Operation:

Anniversary

2008-11-03T08:24:00.002-05:00

For our anniversary, we went to Ten Tables in JP for dinner. I'd been wanted to try it for a long time and our two-year seemed like a perfect excuse. They have a vegetarian tasting menu every night, plus they serve homemade smoked meats and sausages and all the meat is from humanely treated animals. Tuesday is wine tasting night, so they served a pre-fixe menu and paired each of the four courses with half a glass of wine.

Appetizer was a "French take on a Russian salad--" a root vegetable mix (Jay's had tuna) that was wonderful. Soup was butternut squash for me (I keep eating squash soup, because it seems like I should love it, but I'm just not crazy about it. I ate half), spicy lentil with ham for Jay (he loved it). Main course was chicken in tomato sauce with farro (some kind of grain) for Jay and potatoes au gratin with artichokes and bread crumbs for me (amazing). They paired mine with a little arugula salad and I could have eaten two entire plates. The cheese course was the part neither of us were crazy about--it was really strong bleu cheese, which almost activated Jay's gag reflex. There were also candied hazelnuts and pear puree, which redeemed the course. All in all, it was fabulous and we can't wait to go back.

When we got home, we had champagne and took this self-portrait.

Two years ago today...

2008-10-28T12:56:00.002-04:00

It was much like today weather-wise, but a wonderful day in spite of the rain.

I can't believe it's been two years already.

Uh, make yourself comfy

2008-10-22T21:10:00.000-04:00

Very unladylike!

Jay's New Activity

2008-10-21T20:59:00.003-04:00

Check out the budding rock star. Jay bought himself an inexpensive bass last week and today he had his first lesson.
Ask him in a week and maybe he'll play "Money" for you.

In other news, Saturday I went on my second outdoor climb. Dylan and I went to Hammond Pond, which has a bit of top-roping and bouldering on some very interesting rock called Roxbury Puddingstone. The rock has great hand-holds, which made it a lot easier for me. We got in a number of routes and I got up them all!

My first outdoor climb

2008-10-12T17:08:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I went on my first outdoor rock climb. I'd saved for weeks to buy rock shoes and finally had enough money last week. With the nice days fading fast, it was definitely time to get out of the gym and onto some real rock.

My climbing friend Dylan and I went to Quincy Quarries, which is an old granite quarry directly off of route 93. It's billed as Boston's premiere urban climbing experience. Apparently, it used to be deep and filled with water at the bottom, but a lot of people died cliff-jumping. Then someone got the brilliant idea to put old street signs and telephone poles at the bottom to discourage people from jumping in, and the death toll multiplied from people jumping in anyway and hitting the poles on the way down. They filled it in with Big Dig dirt about ten years ago and it's become popular among climbers. Now there are anchors all over the tops of the rock to attach top-ropes to.

Dylan set us up a top-rope at an easy-looking corner. Alas, I forgot my camera, which was a crying shame considering the views of Boston and the ocean from the top of one of the rocks. I had to snatch these pictures off of the internet, but you can see our first climb in this one. It's the corner in the middle of the picture, right where the rocks step up a little.
I made Dylan go first. Then it was my turn. I was pretty freaked out going up, and I had a hard time with some of the moves. By the time I got to the top, I thought very clearly, "I'm terrified. This is not fun. I'm never doing this again." Then I had to let go and be lowered, and I froze. I honestly thought I was not going to be able to move off of the rock to get down. Once I touched the ground, my knees were knocking. Then, of course, I went right back up it again. How quickly we forget! It was much easier the second time and my sense of impending doom was squelched.

Next we set up on a slabby wall (I couldn't find a picture of that one). It basically looked like it had no holds whatsoever, plus it had a lot of graffiti that made it slick. I made Dylan go first again. He made it up, but since he climbs several grades higher than me, that was no indication of my success. I couldn't even get three feet off of the ground. I ended up climbing a little off to the side of Dylan's route, but it was really hard, and about 3/4 of the way up, I panicked again. After getting to the bottom I gave it another go and made it up. I was kind of proud of that. I even managed a sort-of mantle (mantling is sort of like the motion you make when you hoist yourself over the side of a pool), which I have yet to pull off in the gym. I scraped up my leg doing it, but I did it!

We set up one more rope on the biggest formation--you can see the spot above along the streak of white. Sadly, we were running out of time, since I had a gig that afternoon, so I let Dylan go up. I didn't get to try this one, but it was probably for the best, since it was the tallest and hardest of anything we'd done. Maybe next time. Hopefully we will get some more climbing in before the weather turns.

Dad's Pesto

2008-10-10T18:58:00.003-04:00

This week we have been enjoying Dad Caissie's pesto, made from the copious amounts of basil in his garden. Wednesday, Jay made tortellini with onions, peas, green beans, and broccoli and tossed everything with the pesto. It was a really satisfying dinner, particularly since I'd come off of an entire day of giving tests and answering "oh my gosh I'm going to fail help me" questions.

Today I made mozzarella, cucumber, and red onion sandwiches and used the pesto as a spread. I like pesto in pasta but I love it on sandwiches. I served that with leftover vegetable soup from the night before. Thanks for the pesto, Dad. It's delicious.

The vegetable soup was really good this time. My veggie soups are hit or miss, so I'm recording this one for posterity.

Carb-loaded veggie soup

2 medium russet potatoes, diced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 leeks, chopped (white parts only)
large handful of split peas
10 cups veggie broth (I use water and bouillon, it's cheaper)
2 pinches dill weed
1 pinch thyme
3/4 can chickpeas
1 cup alphabet pasta, cooked

Combine everything put the last two ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 5 hours. Add chickpeas, cook 1 more hour. Add pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a really leeky soup, which I love. If you're not a huge fan of leeks, leave one of them out (but that's a mistake if you ask me). Most people might pick potatoes OR pasta, but I say don't skimp on the good stuff. Plus, you can practice your spelling if you use alphabets. The secret of a really good veggie soup, I think, is the handful of split peas. They thicken the soup and give the broth a nice flavor. Normally I might add minced garlic and definitely a chopped celery stalk (I didn't have one). You can also sub cannellini for the chickpeas, or maybe even navy beans, but I think the chickpeas were really good this time, and they hold together better than cannellini.

For those about to rock...

2008-10-08T20:10:00.003-04:00

I salute you.
However, the rockingness of this crew is definitely in question. Apparently the only rock signal known among this crowd is the sign of the devil.

Another link

2008-10-03T17:35:00.006-04:00

This is a really fun game. I've been wasting copious amounts of time on it. It's called Fantastic Contraption, and if you play, show me your favorite design. My two crowning achievements are in "Up the Stairs" and "Four Balls" (click to see my designs. Press Play, Continue, then Start).

Zombies

2008-09-30T15:11:00.004-04:00

I have a funny picture from Josh's Rock Band night to post but I just can't seem to get my act together enough to upload it. So instead, I give you Reasons Why Zombies are Better Than Stupid People. This is from several years ago, but do zombie rants really go out of style? I'm irrationally afraid of zombies but now I'm rethinking my position and instead may start locking my doors against stupid people.

One of my favorite things about Waltham

2008-09-25T09:48:00.000-04:00

Waltham is adamant about the parking orientation of its citizen's cars. These signs are in every city parking lot. I shudder to think of what the penalty may be for the hateful crime of backing in.

This is either a scene from The Grapes of Wrath

2008-09-24T09:40:00.003-04:00

Or it's a picture of our apple-picking trip yesterday.
We went to Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, where we met many a screaming child (apparently apple-picking is a popular field trip destination. Jay expressed dubiousness at the education value of such a trip) and several kinds of apples. We got enough for a couple of baked goods (I'm attempting a pie later this week) and a few weeks of good eating.

A Real Room

2008-09-19T19:09:00.003-04:00

Since moving into this apartment two years ago, our second bedroom had been a catch-all. I'll bet some of you didn't even know we had a second bedroom. We kept the door shut so as not to let the insanity spill out into the rest of the house. And so we weren't completely shamed when company came over. It was pretty bad. If you compared it to a dump, the dump would look nice.

One of my projects this summer was to clean the room out. I took out at least six trash bags full of stuff. Four other bags went to Goodwill. In the process, I found all kinds of surprises. The best surprise I found in the bottom of a random box--several gift cards from our wedding! So this week, Jay and I got to go spend the last of our wedding money.

This is how the room turned out. We bought the chair and large bookshelf with our Ikea gift cards. As you can see, the cat has claimed the chair. It had cat hair on it quite literally moments after I opened the package. A rug and some art on the walls would complete the room nicely.
For the first time since I was very young, I actually have free space on my bookshelves. Can you imagine? I can buy more books and there will be actual spaces for them. With three bookshelves, I now feel confident in calling this room "the library." Or perhaps "the study." I can't decide which one sounds more professor-ish.

We had a couple of random things that didn't have homes that still ended up in the room. You can see the sewing machine here, and there's a corner with Jay's DJ equipment stacked up. But all in all, it looks at least a jillion times better. Plus, with our air mattress, we now have a place for people to stay.

Why it is so hard to get work done at my desk

2008-09-17T21:25:00.002-04:00

Er...could you move a little? I can't quite see my notes.

Nothing New

2008-09-13T17:14:00.002-04:00

No news is good news, here. Things are settling down after the start-of-school/car-death business of last week.

The only thing I've really accomplished this week is that I finally finished the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series (major spoilers ahead if you're planning on reading it in the future). I started the series because the book jacket said, "Move over, Harry Potter," which meant I had to read it. The first three books went really fast, and while I had some qualms about the characters (Bella is pretty unremarkable, and Edward's reasons for loving her--her blood smells good?--is unconvincing. Edward himself was much more interesting in the first book when he was mean and confusing to Bella, and he descended into blathering romanticism after that), I enjoyed the books for what they were.

Today I finished the last book, Breaking Dawn. I knew it had gotten poor reviews but I didn't read them in advance. I can definitely see why the reviews were bad now. Some of the book I liked. Vampire baby? Great! Jacob's slightly uninnocent love for said vampire baby? Scandalous but great! However, the end--blah. I got the feeling that things were working up to a big reveal a-la-Harry-at-the-end-of-Potter-7, but the climactic moment was completely unconvincing. The Volturi had a vote? And voted to just go home? Huh?

I also have some ideological issues with Meyer, which I try to squash. First of all, Bella is the antithesis of a feminist. I greatly dislike her need to change to be more like her man. In addition, she feels the need to become forever young and beautiful. Wouldn't it have been more romantic if she'd aged horrifyingly and Edward stood by her? I also don't like the obvious conservative motives behind some of the plot moves. Not only does it just annoy me, but it makes for some predictable moments. I've never been so conscious of an author's political views when reading, and the book suffered for that.

Anyway. Series over and done. The Twilight movie is coming out in November and I'll definitely be seeing it, if only because Cedric Diggory is playing Edward. In other teen lit news, Christopher Paolini's next Eragon book comes out next week, which I'm eagerly awaiting. And J.K. Rowling is releasing The Tales of Beedle the Bard in December, which I need to pre-order ASAP. However, I'm still mad that they moved the Potter 6 movie to next July--I'd just seen the trailer and boy oh boy! It looks great.

Airing Out the Armpits

2008-09-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

Lately the car has taken to sitting with her arms stick-straight out in front of her. It's pretty funny. I call it "airing out the armpits." They must get awfully hot under all that fur and no one's invented kitty deodorant yet. This picture is blurry, but it has the benefit of a good angle.

From the front:

Mashed Potato Pizza

2008-09-05T22:19:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday Jay and I needed some time to relax together, so we planned Dinner and a Movie at home. I managed to whip together a slightly odd meal with things we had in the house. The result was Mashed Potato Pizza. I'd had a version at a pub before and it was pretty good, and we had potatoes, chives, and cheese from the farmer's market, so I gave it a go.

The idea was very simple. I made a batch of mashed potatoes (which I'd never done before), mixed in some chopped chives, cheese, and a little soy bacon (which had been sitting the fridge waiting for me to get up the nerve to try it). I spread the potatoes on the rolled-out dough, topped with cheese, and baked.

It was pretty good. A little heavy for a summer night, but good. Jay said that if I ran a pizza place, this one would be a fan favorite. The best part was the wine--Smoking Loon Merlot. When I popped the cork, it had words on it. It said, "Whooh. Whooh. Whooh. Whooh. Cough. Whooh. Whooh." It took me a minute to get it.

Unforseen Purchase

2008-09-04T21:48:00.003-04:00

Despite the fact that I pleaded with it to last *one* more year, my Nissan kicked the bucket this week. Last week, it started shaking when starting, and when I brought it in this Tuesday, the mechanic gave me the, "well, it's not good news. I don't know what you want to do..." You know when the mechanic, who sees every kind of car mess possible, mentions the possibility of sending the car to the Great Parking Lot in the Sky, it's bad.

Of course the stupid thing picked just about the worst moment to die. Now I'm convinced that cars can hear you when you talk about how much money is in your bank account, and act accordingly. They'd never die when you had oodles of cash floating around. Ah well. It was obvious that we'd need another car very quickly, so I went off to the Toyota dealership.

How'd I pick Toyota? Well, it's not too noble. I was picking between Nissan, our old friend, and Toyota, who showed up a lot on "dependability" and "best gas mileage" lists. I called Nissan first. The operator acted like I'd peed in her Cheerios or something. First she told me that she didn't know if they had any Sentras on the lot, and said I'd have to come down and see. I said, "well, I'm not going to come down if you don't have the car I want." Then she got all flustered and said, "of course we have Sentras, why wouldn't we have Sentras?" Yeah...did she not just tell me that she didn't know if they had Sentras? So, that was out. Then I discovered that I wouldn't even have to get on the highway to get to the Toyota dealership, which really cinched the deal, considering that my Sentra was quite obviously on its last legs.

Anyway. Long story short. I ended up picking a used '08 Corolla with 5000 miles on it. I saved a couple thousand by buying the used one. There was a used Mini Cooper that was pretty tempting, but I was feeling sensible. Here's the new ride:
They took a couple thousand for my trade-in, which was a surprise to me, considering it needed serious engine work, the back bumper was falling off, there's a dent in the front fender that I don't remember getting, the radio was cracked from my big accident in college, there was a rusty scrape on the side, the AC didn't work, and the upholstery was shot from me spilling, among other things, hot glue in the backseat. The funniest part was that the salesguy said that I obviously took good care of it. I wonder which car he was looking at. I had to pick up the new car on Thursday and I slept fitfully thinking that they were going to figure out that they gave me too much for the trade-in and change their minds.

So, goodbye Sentra. Goodbye power windows and doors and pretty blue color. Hello no more worrying about breaking down and no more repairs every three months. And hello to one more bill to add to the pile...

Random shots

2008-08-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple more random shots from camping. This was a spiderweb at our campsite that looked perfect:Before heading home on Sunday, we stopped at the Flume. Here, Peter and Candice experience the joys of nature discovery! Quite, someone use this picture to apply for a grant.
Jay took this one of me. I like it because it looks like I've been photoshopped in. All it needs now is a giant kitten terrorizing the scene.
OMG bears!
Self-portrait.

Mount Washington II

2008-08-28T20:02:00.002-04:00

We got to the top of the ravine around four hours after setting out. We figured, the end must be near! Alas, it was a mirage. After the lovely but steep and tiring ravine was another forty-five minutes up a hill of semi-loose rock with little vegetation and no real trail. It was just, go up until you can't go up any more, and don't fall off the mountain. This is Peter's picture of that section:
I'd held up remarkably well until about twenty minutes from the end, when I started sagging a little. Jay caught a second wind and breezed up the last hill. Peter and Candice may have contemplated throwing us off the mountain for ever having thought up the whole hiking scheme. Finally, Jay turned around and said, "I see a car!" I thought he was kidding until someone hiking down informed me that he wasn't just joshing, the top was up ahead.

Topping out to a parking lot was a little weird, but no one really cared at that point. The actual summit was up a staircase, and we had to wait in line to stand on it. A nice lady took this picture of us.
We found Matt at the top. Since his feet are size 15, he couldn't find hiking boots to fit. He ended up with a pair of super sexy imitation Crocs (later, he noted that the Crocs "really are pretty comfy!" So cliche, Matt!). He wasn't quite gutsy enough to wear his new shoes around all the hard-core hikers though, and saved them for the privacy of our campsite.
Because of the Crocs, he wasn't able to hike down. Peter and Candice weren't up for it, Jay's knee was bothering him, and I didn't want to hike alone, so I couldn't hike down either. I would have liked to, but it was okay--we did the hard part, anyway. We ate a slice of pizza each--it tasted much better than it should have, by the looks of it--and hung out on the observation deck for a while.
I wasn't sure about my poor little car making it down the mountain holding all of us without spontaneously combusting, so Peter and Candice kindly took a hiker's shuttle back to the bottom. My car's brakes thank them. Matt, Jay and I got into the car for the trip down, which was much more harrowing than the hike up. The road was narrow and the drop-offs were steep. We had to pull over a couple of times when the brakes started to smell like burning. But we made it down okay.

Now we can say, we did it! We climbed the highest mountain in the northeast. Where to next? Rainier? Denali? Get your crampons ready!

Mount Washington

2008-08-27T17:46:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning was a perfect day for hiking. We got a bit of a late start, having accidentally taken a small detour into Maine. We got on the trail around 9am. The hike is supposed to take around 4 hours up, 2-3 back down, so there wasn't a moment to spare.

At the beginning, we were so happy and naive:
We hiked the Tuckerman's Ravine trail, which is the standard trail that offers the best views. It followed a riverbed up most of the mountain, so there were a lot of rocks to climb over, and there was none of that "nice walk through the woods" that usually accompanies the start of New England hikes. We certainly walked through the woods, but it was steep most of the way. This was the longest flat section and boy, were we glad to see it.
About two hours in, we reached the Hermit Lake Huts, where Matt discovered that his hiking boots were in trouble. The sole of one boot had come almost completely off. He tried to duct tape it together, but he didn't deem it safe enough to continue up. Matt definitely wins the Sportsmanship award, because I probably would have said, "oh well" and continued up. But he definitely made the right choice, as we found out later. He headed back down with the car keys, thinking that if he could buy a new pair of boots in town, he'd drive up the auto road and hike down with me and Jay, and Candice and Peter could take the car down.

The four of us set off from the huts, having voted the strongest hiker off the island, so to speak. From the huts, the trail got serious fast. We saw this view from the huts and thought, "wait. We have to climb up that? Where's the escalator?"
The next two hours were rough, but had the most beautiful views. The best part of the hike was near the top of the ravine, where the trail followed a stream that cascaded down dramatic cliffs. It was incredibly steep but rewarding.
The view down the mountain from the same spot:
To be continued..... (dun dun dahhh!!)

Camping

2008-08-26T17:30:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, Jay and I loaded up the car and met Peter, Candice, and Matt in the good old White Mountains for a few days of camping. Matt and I had talked about climbing Mount Washington a while back, and though we didn't get a chance to do many "conditioning hikes" in advance, we decided to bite the bullet and do the Mt. Washington hike anyway. I figured this was the make-or-break point in my mountaineering career--if I couldn't do this, I suppose I'd never make it to Everest. (Don't worry Mom, I'm not thinking about going to Everest. Not much, at least.)

We went to Moose Brook State Park in Gorham, which was a great place. Peter went a little crazy in the Bass Pro Shop and bought a machete for the low, low price of 19.99. It was ever-so-useful for hacking our way through the knotted underbrush and menacing neighbors.
Jay had a psychotic break when the machete came into his hands:
If there's anything that can distract a man from weapons, it's fire:
Jay also made us S'mores using his special technique. He assembles the cold ingredients, wraps them in tinfoil, and puts the foil packet in the fire. I even broke my vegetarianism for a night to have them.
Tomorrow: the hike.

Dissertation Update

2008-08-22T21:35:00.000-04:00

Chapter 1: Half finished
Chapter 2: Drafted, edited, revised
Chapter 3: Drafted, edited
Chapter 4: Drafted, edited
Chapter 5: Drafted and on its way to adviser
Chapter 6: In progress
Chapter 7: Not started

Chapter 5--on its way!

Houseguest

2008-08-21T09:56:00.001-04:00

While Mom and Dad Provost are visiting Grandma and Grandad, Jay and I are taking care of one of their cats. Meet Beezie:
Beezie has a thyroid problem, and she eats and eats and eats but never feels full. Somehow, she's also thin as a rail. She needs medicine twice a day, which is why she's currently situated in our spare room. And because she's hungry all the time, she meows. And meows. And meows some more. Every time she hears me in the kitchen, she meows. When I'm in bed, I occasionally hear a yowling to beat all other yowling. If I say, "hi, Beezie," from another room, she answers with a barrage of meows.

I feel bad that the poor cat is locked in a room by herself all day, but the two-cat one-Sarah issue is a problem. The cats hiss and spit whenever they meet, so we can't let Beezie out (plus she'd probably eat everything in sight). When I sit with Beezie, Dinah gets intense pangs of jealousy and scratches at the door and squeaks her pathetic little meow (we were originally hoping that Beezie would teach Dinah proper meowing, but now I'm not so sure that would be a good thing).

Dinah is simultaneously terrified and intrigued by Beezie. She parks herself outside the door and stares at it:
Sorry Beezie! I know Dinah looks like a delicious mouthful, but you can't have her!

Blog wars

2008-08-17T18:37:00.000-04:00

In attempting to emulate my brilliance, both my Dad and my brother have started blogs. Okay, cool. However, now we have an all-out blog war here. First, my friend emails me to let me know that although my blog makes her laugh, my Dad's blog makes her laugh and cry. Alright, so Dad's got a bigger range of emotions than I do.

However, Josh has really upped the ante with his heart-wrenching account of how he sponsors a poor wayward child from Zambia. That is hitting below the belt. How am I supposed to compete with that? This is complicated by the fact that when approached on the street by the Childrens International people, I heartlessly told them that I don't give wantonly give out my credit card information to people on the street, no matter how philanthropic the cause. Yes, I denied a child a future because I was afraid of getting bad credit. I just hope my saintly brother doesn't shun me.

The Elegant Universe

2008-08-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the internet leads you to weird places. Last weekend I was taking a short break from dissertation writing when I found a video that explained the tenth dimension. Intrigued, I googled for more information, and my searching led me to Nova, one of my favorite programs. Now, I usually willfully ignore science and math. I like Nova for the adventure programs. They've done several programs each on Everest and Denali. But this Nova program was different. First of all, it was long--three hours. Secondly, it was on physics. Physics?? I dumped science in high school before I got to physics, and I never felt even the smallest pang of regret. And now, ten years later, I'm watching a program on physics.

Anyway, the program was called The Elegant Universe. Starting way back with Isaac Newton, it detailed the search for a "theory of everything," which naturally led to eleven dimensions, complete with parallel universes and time travel. This theory of everything is called "string theory," or "M-theory," the M standing for many things, one of which being "meaningless."

It was confusing, since, as I've noted, I ran screaming from science and math when I was 17. It boggles my mind a little bit that someone can do a bunch of math and come to the conclusion that "Ah! This means there are jillions of parallel universes, all just a hop, skip, and a dimension away!" But it was strangely fascinating. The program originated from a book with the same title, which I've checked out from the library. Either I'll read it, become obsessed, and decide that I need to become a string theorist, or forget about it after one chapter and never read another page about string theory again. Jay is probably banking on the latter, as I don't think he's prepared to support me through another 11 years of college.

Here is the program, all of it viewable in 6-8 minute chunks, perfect for a little break after writing a page of a dissertation. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

And here is someone else who also enjoys string:

The Puzzle

2008-08-11T18:55:00.000-04:00

Our trip to the Cape is the only time of year that I feel the need to do puzzles. Normally, the thought wouldn't even enter my mind. But at the Cape, sometimes it comes down to a choice: read, do puzzles, or actually have to take the initiative to plan something. Seeing as I spent 17 of my 18 waking hours reading, and the best part of vacation is not having to make decisions, I sometimes choose to do puzzles.

This year, Memere sent me with a challenge. Someone had given her a puzzle; let's call the puzzle, "Do This If You Hate Yourself." It was a puzzle featuring flying pigs. Sounds cute, huh? Well, it had a jillion similar-looking pigs flying in a nondescript sky. It also had no edges, five extra pieces, and the picture on the box didn't match the finished puzzle. But only 750 pieces (755 if you count the five that don't actually go anywhere). Memere, in her infinite wisdom, told me that she'd only try it if I tried it first. Sure, send the young one into the flames.

Of course I tried the puzzle. Several others entered the fray with me, at various points. Dave separated all of the pig legs for me, and even put some pieces together, and even got them in the right spots. My mother "helped" by shoving pieces together and pretending they fit. Everyone else heckled.

By the last day of vacation, you can see how far I'd gotten:

Fortunately, I'd gotten not-far-enough that it still was possible to pack up what I'd done and take it home. And, miracle of miracles, several days later, I'd finished! Here is the completed puzzle in all its piggy glory:

You may notice that there is a piece missing. I'm pretty sure it's in one of two places:
1. On the floor at the Cape house. I think I remember a piece falling and making a mental note to pick it up. Like most mental notes, it was useless.
2. To be found floating in the cat's water dish sometime in the next three weeks. She took a great interest in the puzzle-making once it was back home, and may have absconded with the poor pig's leg.

Now I will be giving the puzzle back to Memere, who is probably smart enough to dump the evil thing and never look back.

Butterfly Friend

2008-08-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

Look at me! I'm a beautiful butterfly!

Peter and Emily's Birthday

2008-08-06T20:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday, Steve and Jessica had a birthday party for Peter, who was turning 4, and Emily, who'd turned 2. Peter loves cars more than any kid I've ever seen, and can wax poetic about the Audi 86 and many other cars (don't ask me what other cars. I can't tell a Mustang from a Porsche. I'm pretty sure I could identify a Delorean, though). I'm not sure who got him the big rig, but that person gets Peter. He didn't really care about any of the other gifts after he opened it. Emily didn't care so much about the actual gifts as much as she cared about ripping open the packaging.
Just to prove that Josh isn't the only weird one in the family, here's Steve:
And Mom, who was reliving her childhood with the ViewMaster, but hilariously, she didn't take it out of the package before doing so.
Peter got a real bike, with real shocks! and a real mud flap! (This one lured him away from the big rig.)

The Cape: Silliness

2008-08-05T20:36:00.000-04:00

I wish I'd inherited my mom's smile.
I don't know whose smile Josh inherited. Neither Mom nor Dad admit to knowledge of this relative.

The Cape: Kayaking

2008-08-04T20:15:00.000-04:00

One of the things on my to-do list this year was sea kayaking. Tuesday, Mom, Kelly, Jay and I set out for a morning on the high seas. I was a little freaked out at first--I'm not the biggest fan of deep water. I don't like to think about all of the stuff that's swimming under me that I can't see. I got over it fast and could even appreciate the giant crab that we saw.

We kayaked over to a lighthouse and a beach over on the very tip of the Cape, where we ate lunch.

Before heading back, us girls went for a swim. Why don't boys swim? Jay went in the water when we started dating, but stopped after a while. Maybe he was just trying to look cool. At least he admitted this time that he's just a big baby about the water. Anyway, I'd worn my flip-flops in the water, because I didn't feel like stepping on seaweed and crabs. When I was walking back, I stepped into a soft spot and sank up to my ankle in sand. The ocean stole my flip-flop! We searched for a while, but it was gone. In true manly fashion, Jay didn't help look for it, but stayed on the beach and took pictures of the ridiculous scene.

In the end, I gave up the flip-flop as a sacrifice to the ocean gods. As punishment for my reluctance to sacrifice the shoe, the ocean spit up algae all over me, which colored my legs green and wouldn't come off. I felt so attractive coming off of the kayak back in P-town, covered in algae and wearing one shoe. We still had fun though, and it was nice to get a little exercise in midst of all the eating and napping.

The Cape 2008

2008-08-03T19:45:00.001-04:00

We're back from another wonderful trip to the Cape. On Friday, I dropped Jay off at work at 5:30 AM (do I win the Wife of the Year award yet?) and headed down to the Cape, successfully missing all of the traffic. Seeing as I couldn't get into the house until 2, I had some time to kill. Fortunately, Memere and Auntie Sue were renting a place in Falmouth, so I stopped in for a surprise visit. At 8am I knocked on their door. Poor Memere was so sleepy and my visit was so out-of-context, she didn't recognize me. Once she realized who was standing outside her door, she shrieked, "Oh my goodness! It's Sarah! I can't believe it!" It was a nice welcome. The three of us went for a walk on a little seaside path and saw this nifty ship:

Memere also uttered the most amazing quote. We drove by a kid of about sixteen and a couple who looked like the kid's parents. The kid was smoking, which was obviously so outrageous that we had to discuss it for a good ten minutes. At one point, Memere said, "well, maybe it was marijuana." "Does that make it better?" I asked. Her response: "Well, if you're going to smoke, you might as well do it right!" NICE! I think Memere has some stories she hasn't told me...

After lunch and a stop for some fudge (why do all seaside towns have an abundance of fudge? What about the ocean makes people think, "MUST EAT FUDGE"?), I set off for North Truro. This year, Fran and Dave stayed the weekend, which made for good times as usual. There was a rousing game of poker:

and several games of Catchphrase, which is always extra exciting when half of the players are partially blind and your own father thinks that a pirate wears a do-rag.

The rest of the week was spent on the beach and in Provincetown. Jay and I made it back to the vineyards for a wine tasting:

Last year, I didn't like wine, so I didn't participate. This year we both joined in. We got to taste every wine they made. Jay liked the dry reds, but I was taken with the sweeter wines (big surprise there). We bought a bottle of blush, which we drank with dinner, and a Maritime Red for Jay and a Cranberry wine for me. I'm not sure I'll be able to save my wine until Thanksgiving this year, seeing as I don't want to share!

And of course, we saw some spectacular sunsets.
Kayaking picture and some silly family shots to come later this week.

Off to the Cape

2008-07-23T09:12:00.000-04:00

On Friday, we are off to North Truro for our annual week at the Cape. I can't tell you how much we look forward to this. The house is beautiful, P-town is exciting, the company is wonderful, how could you ask for more? This year, my list of hoped activities includes sea kayaking, swimming in the glacial ponds, shopping in P-town (I'm hoping for some more good finds in the vintage clothing store and the antique shop where I found my favorite necklace last year), and of course, drag karaoke. One of my favorite things to do is to wake up early, run down to the beach, and wade in the shallow morning water, so I'm looking forward to that, too. Oh, and I'll be reading lots of books and doing the puzzles Memere gave to me.

In anticipation, here are some picture from last year. Check out this idyllic scene of familial harmony:
The view from the deck:
We went for a hike in the dunes one morning:
And for a winery tour one afternoon:
The whale watch was a highlight from last year. A baby whale was having a grand time breeching over and over. Here he is waving:
Here, Jay's ordered a dessert that came with instructions on how to eat it. To my great surprise, it did not say "1. Put in mouth. 2. Chew. 3. Swallow."
Can't wait for Friday!

Candice and Peter's Wedding

2008-07-22T08:34:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Peter and Candice got married. It was a wonderful night. Candice looked so beautiful walking across the grass to Peter, I got a little teary. We didn't get a lot of great pictures because a) I'm not the best photographer, and b) we were taping the ceremony and first dance for Peter's relatives back in Wales on another camera.

Cutting the cake:
And now begins another episode of Unintentional Headwear. Jay has a speaker coming out of his head in this one:
And Peter has a bulbous growth on his head here:
I stole this one from Matt, to show our intentional headwear. I got many compliments on my hat, which came to me courtesy of the parents. Jay was also really excited about his, which Peter and Candice gave to him in appreciation for DJing the band's breaks.
This one I stole from Tiffany. I like it because it looks like they are giggling a little. I remember that feeling during our ceremony--laugh, cry, laugh, cry. Theirs was a wonderful ceremony, and you could tell how much they were loved by the looks on everyone's faces.
Congratulations Peter and Candice! We had a wonderful time. Here's to a lifetime of happiness!

Farmers' Market

2008-07-21T08:40:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings is to walk to the Waltham Farmers' Market. I started doing it last summer and have hardly missed a week since. It always seems like a good idea to walk--save the environment! get exercise!--until I want to buy a watermelon or a sack of potatoes. Then the mile back seems impossible. Once last year, I walked to the market, saw the watermelons, walked back to my house and got the car.

It's been meager pickings at the market for most of the season--mostly lettuces and herbs. But this week, it was a veritable cornucopia of vegetables. I may have gone a little overboard, but hey, it was still less than $20. The bags were cutting painfully into my hands on the way home, but I made it.This week, I bought green beans, cucumbers, green peppers, a zucchini, a kousa squash (I have no idea what that is, but I'm sure it will be delicious stuffed with cheese), some wonderfully mild red onions (sadly, you can only buy those by the bunch. I never know what to do with so many onions), broccoli, blueberries, and the first corn of the season. There were also chocolate chip cookies that didn't make it into the picture--they somehow jumped off the table and landed in my stomach before I could find the camera. I've managed to resist the siren call of Big Sky Bakery so far this year--seriously, $6 for a loaf of bread?!--but a small cookie stand appeared this week, and the cookies were looking so forlorn, I just had to buy some.

The challenge is always in eating all of my purchases. I tend to be overly optimistic when considering our weekly menus. Last week I pulled several packages of lettuce out of the fridge that had achieved a jelly-like consistency. This week I'm determined that we're going to eat all of this stuff. So far I've made a pasta salad and a chopped salad. I'm going to stuff the zucchini and squash and serve it with the corn at some point this week. That will leave just the blueberries and the green beans, which I'm hoping we can finish off before we leave for the Cape on Friday.

July 4th

2008-07-05T22:27:00.000-04:00

We went back to the Caissies' for July 4th. Mom, Jay and I started the day off right with King Kone for lunch. Jay had a corn dog, which he immediately regretted.
Peter, Candice, Matt, and some of Josh's friends came up for swimming and barbequeing (creepy picture of Josh in Jen's platform flip-flops omitted here). After dinner, we all went on the boat to watch the fireworks with Mom, Dad, and the Clinghans.

Everyone felt a little friendly after a few beers on the boat:
This would have been a great picture if those two weird guys hadn't gotten in the way:

The night was capped off with sparklers and fireworks from the gas station (not a recommended place to buy fireworks). The night almost came to a fiery end when Jay, feeling his lightning-shaped scar prickle, pointed his sparkler at Josh and yelled, "Stupefy!" sending a burning ember directly into Josh's chest. Everyone survived and made it home safely. Thanks, Mom and Dad--everyone had a great time!

Father's Day

2008-06-20T20:55:00.000-04:00

For father's day, we went to the Caissie's house. The boat was broken and the weather was bad, so no trips around the lake this time, but we did light a fire that smoldered all day. For gifts, we had the $2 (or $3 depending on who you asked) gift challenge. Josh's contribution was a grab bag "for a girl" from the dollar store. It included a lovely orange creature that purportedly was a frog, a container of bubbles, and a little toy maze. In my estimation, it was worth so much more than $1. (The ghostly apparition in the picture is smoke from the fire.)
My contribution was a board game called "Mutual Fundz" that I got for $3 at a yard sale. Don't be fooled by the $5 price tag; I haggled. They also tagged the game "NEVER USED!!!" though I can't imagine why, because it's endless fun "for bloodthirsty capitalists of all ages." Jay decided he couldn't compete with the weirdness that runs in the Caissie blood and bought a book on barbecuing.
The boys also schemed evilly:
Mom and Dad Provost came, too, and Sarah and Kyle. All in all, a good day despite the rain. Thanks to both dads for being great!

Veggie Pot Pie

2008-04-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

This was absolutely delicious. The "gravy" was much better than I thought it was going to be definitely beat a can of Campbell's cream of celery (and no MSG!).

Ingredients:
One bag of refrigerated, diced potatoes
Several handfuls of green beans, snapped in half
Handful of carrot slices
Two handfuls of frozen peas
One small can of corn
2 frozen pie crusts, thawed 15 minutes
2 cups veggie broth
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp soy sauce
two pinches thyme
salt and pepper

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the vegetables with the broth. Add the soy sauce and the corn starch, simmering until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat, add the thyme and salt and pepper. Pour everything into a pie crust and use the other crust to top the first. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until golden.

Sarah want!

2008-04-12T12:50:00.000-04:00

Out of the two of us, Jay is definitely the gadget whore, but this caught my eye:

The Amazon Kindle. No more paper books! I could even carry my dissertation around with me.

"Bullets and Barbeque"

2008-04-06T10:42:00.001-04:00

Last night we hosted a murder mystery dinner party. This was the first time I've ever improvised recipes, and they turned out okay. Our menu included ribs for the meaties, red beans and rice, stuffed peppers and asparagus.

Red beans and rice:
I modified this recipe. I used canned beans (2 cans) and took all the meat out, including the Worcestershire sauce (which usually isn't vegetarian). We didn't have celery, or I would have used that. I also was too lazy to cook it for 2-3 hours, so I just added a cup of veggie broth and let it reduce down to a nice sauce. We mixed it with the cooked rice instead of spooning it over the top. The original recipe:

1 pound red kidney beans, dry

1 large onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

5 ribs celery, chopped

As much garlic as you like, minced (I like lots, 5 or 6 cloves)

1 large smoked ham hock, 3/4 pound of Creole-style pickle meat (pickled pork), or 3/4 lb. smoked ham, diced, for seasoning

1 to 1-1/2 pounds mild or hot smoked sausage or andouille, sliced on the bias

1/2 to 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed

1 or 2 bay leaves

As many dashes Crystal hot sauce or Tabasco as you like, to taste

A few dashes Worcestershire sauce

Creole seasoning blend, to taste; OR,

red pepper and black pepper to taste

Salt to taste

The peppers were a real experiment. They were good, but I would have changed a few things. I used:

6 red peppers, halved and scooped
1 can of artichoke hearts, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Several handfuls of baby carrots, chopped
1 small zucchini, cut into small pieces
Mexican cheese
Plain bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper
Parsley
Garlic

I sauteed the garlic, onions, and carrots until softened, then added the zucchini. After the zucchini softened, I added the artichoke hearts for a minute until they were slightly browned. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne (don't overdo this or you'll regret it). Stuff the peppers and top with cheese, then breadcrumbs and a sprinkle of parsley. Bake at 350 for an hour in an oiled baking dish.

If I do this again, I'll mix the cheese in with the vegetables. By putting the cheese on top and the breadcrumbs over it, it made the cheese crusty. I like hot melty cheese better, and this didn't have any.

Dessert was J.P. Licks ice cream with hot fudge, caramel, and whipped cream.

For entertainment, we did a murder mystery called "Bullets and Barbeque." Peter was hilarious as Juan Bandito, the meanest Mexican bandit in Drygulch. Candice was a close-runner up as Sally Forth, the Sheriff's mail-order bride with a mysterious mutating accent. Fritz was Rowdy Azell, a sweet-talking gambler and Ricki was Bibi Gunn, lady of the night. Jay and I rounded the group out as the town's drunk doctor and Miss Patience, the innocent schoolteacher. It was lots of fun and a lot better than watching Peter murder "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on Guitar Hero.

Recent books

2008-01-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

I've been on a book kick since Christmas. I'm running dry a bit, but I've still got a few left on my list.

Read:
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham. This was good, but it was my least favorite of late.
Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. This one was very entertaining, though it got off to a slow start.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Loved this one. I didn't think I would like it so much, but it was very easy to read, and I found myself interested in the Afghan troubles.
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I found myself a little too obsessed with these. Once I started them, I couldn't put them down. They effected me, and not always in a good way. Overall, I recommend them, but I was disturbed by them in a way that I was never disturbed by Harry Potter (so in that way, HP wins the contest).
I am Legend by Richard Matheson. I bought this one because I didn't want to see the movie, but I wanted to know what was going on. It was entertaining, though I was a little disappointed by the version I bought (it didn't say I am Legend and other stories, but it was really a collection of short stories. I didn't know that when I bought the book, and I got to the end of I am Legend and couldn't figure out what was going on).

I just picked up Reading Lolita in Tehran. I've only read a couple of chapters, but I've put it aside, since it's obvious that I need to read Lolita first.

Zucchini Quiche

2008-01-28T19:50:00.000-05:00

I made this quiche tonight and Jay said that it was the "best quiche he's ever had." Wow! It came out very fluffy with a bit of spice.

Ingredients:
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 tbsp. flour
4 oz. Mexican cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup light cream
1/4 cup 2% milk
frozen pie crust
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sage
pinch cayenne

Brown onion in olive oil. Put onion, zucchini, and flour into pie crust and combine. Add spices. In separate bowl, mix cream, milk, and eggs (you could use all cream, but I wanted to cut down on the fat). Add to pie crust. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Potato Leek Soup

2007-11-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

Yield: 6 Servings

Measure	Ingredient
5 large	Red potatoes; diced
4 small	Leeks; white part only, chopped
5	Cloves garlic; minced
1 pinch	Dill weed
	Fresh ground pepper; to taste
5 tablespoon	Flour
7 cup	Vegetable broth
½ cup	Cream or milk
¼ pounds	Cheddar cheese; cubed

1. Place the potatoes, leeks, garlic, dill weed and pepper in a 5- quart crockpot. Sprinkle with the flour and toss. Add the vegetable broth and stir to mix well. 2. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 8-1/2 hours or until potatoes are tender. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir in the cream and cheese, stirring until the cheese melts.