Our Tree, Part Two (Electric Boogaloo)

Well, we didn't get the tree decorated until Sunday afternoon! However, we did manage to turn on some Christmas tunes and trim the tree before our friend came for a visit (more on that later). Here it is (excuse the blurriness of the first two photos)!

Merry Christmas!

Merry belated Christmas to all of you who celebrate it! I tried to get this post up on the 23rd, but the days before Christmas were a wild blur of baking, cooking, wrapping, and preparing. However, we had lovely (though chaotic) holidays with both of our families in the end.

Hope all of you enjoyed warm, merry, and bright Christmases!

Our Tree!

Isn't she a beaut? It might be a bit hard to tell in the photo but she's a tall girl, too! Nine feet according to our tape measure. Like with my trees the past two years, she's a discard from the holiday event hosted at one of my jobs. We just got her today, a bit close to Christmas, but she came free of charge so the price is right. With luck, we'll have some time to decorate her tomorrow night!

(With such an epic tree complementing the beautiful woodwork in our circa-1865 apartment, I joked to Justin earlier, "I keep expecting a performance of the Nutcracker to break out in here!")

Duckie vs. Blaine

We saw Pretty in Pink last night. And I realized something.

I think the first five times I saw that movie, I did what I think John Hughes wants you to do - root for Blaine and Andie, i.e. for the "love conquers all" motif. However, before the movie started, I told Justin that a lot of women I know think that Andie should have chosen Duckie instead.

Then, we watched and that's all I could think! Blaine is a meek, spineless wet blanket of a rich kid and the Duck Man is awesome. He dances and sings to Otis Redding in the record store! He makes Cindi Lauper's thighs go up in flames with his kiss! He tackles the rich asshat for calling Andie "nada"! He wears a blue crushed velvet tux to the prom! Come on!

Sorry - got a little impassioned there. But seriously, that movie makes no sense to me now. ;)

John Hughes Marathon

Justin and I are four years apart. Most of the time, that's not a majorly discernable difference. However, sometimes we realize that we heard a song or saw a movie or experienced something at vastly different times in our lives.

Take, for example, the Chuck E Cheese animatronic band. My main Chuck E Cheese party-going days were in the late 1980s, while his jumped the decade line and were in the early '90s. I'm not sure when Chuck E Cheese added animatronic bands to their restaurants, but I definitely don't remember them from my childhood days there. Thus, when Justin mentioned the weird animatronic bands offhandedly, I had no idea what he was talking about and it sparked a heated discussion which ended with us realizing there would be times when this would happen.

In the example that sparked this post, Justin has not seen most John Hughes movies, a fact which surprised even his mother when I told her on Thanksgiving. He has seen Ferris Bueller and Weird Science, though. When I first found out, I added a number of Hughes classics to our Netflix queue and commenced our "John Hughes Marathon!" This weekend, we ticked off Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. And Pretty in Pink is on the way! Huzzah!

Unsorted Bookmarks

I am one of those people who has lots and lots of bookmark folders. They mostly contain blogs. I know I should switch to Google Reader, but I really enjoy my process of going to a folder marked "UK Blogs" or "Beer Blogs" or "Web Comics" and clicking "open all in tabs." Call me crazy.

A few of my normally visited sites don't belong in any of my folders, though, so they live at the bottom of the bookmarks menu. I thought I'd highlight a few today, since they're pretty interesting and often on my radar due to their unique position.

• shitmydadsays on Twitter. As the guy's bio says, "I'm 29. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says."

• John Quincy Adams on Twitter, "The line-a-day diary entries of John Quincy Adams, beginning with his journey to Russia on 5 August 1809."

• BibliOdyssey, the world's digital online library. Gorgeous books highlighted here!

• mattbites.com, "a man obsessed with food, drink & everything inbetween"

• The Daily Portsmouth. I've mentioned this site before, but it's here again because it just has such beautiful views of the city. Even though we live here, we don't always get to roam around and see what's going on around town, especially in the winter. But we can live vicariously through this blog's author!

'arry Potter, Part 2

In the same vein as my post the other day, here's another thing that proves I'm a big, fat Harry Potter nerd. As if anyone cares. ;)

I'd like to present our new fish, a red halfmoon betta named Professor Remus Lupin!

Another Reason I Love Portsmouth!

Item in this week's City of Portsmouth Community Newsletter:

DIVE-IN MOVIES
The Indoor Pool will be featuring two “Dive-In Movies” in December – “Jaws” on Dec. 10 and “Finding Nemo” on Dec. 15, both from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., for moviegoers 13 and up who will watch from inner tubes in the darkened pool or from the pool deck. Cost is $5 for Portsmouth residents and pool members, $8 for everyone else. Pizza slices and drinks will be sold for $1 each. Maximum of 40 participants who must pre-register and pay in advance at the pool’s front desk.

Thanksgiving, Part II

Yum. We had a lovely holiday, spent with both of our families and full of food, drink, and chaos. ;) We've been laying low this weekend, sleeping late and hanging around the house. Last night's dinner was another full helping of each of the Thanksgiving standards: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, and sweet potatoes.

However, today, we came up with some more creative uses of our leftovers. I found this recipe for "Egg Nests" in a Yankee magazine my mother gave me, and Justin adapted a potato balls recipe to incorporate our leftover mashed potatoes and some of our leftover turkey. Both yummy!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is in just a couple of days and I think I've been planning what I'm making for a couple of weeks now! My sister is hosting us all in Hometown, but my mother and I are both bringing a number of items. Justin and I don't have a big enough place yet to host family at the holidays, so I always try to bring as much as I can to make up for it. Here's what I'm bringing this year:

• Celery Sticks stuffed with Chive Cream Cheese (other stuffed celery recipes here)
  

• Roasted Pecans

• Crescent Rolls

• Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Topping

We're also splitting the day with Justin's family, so we'll be bringing Bread Pudding to his mom's house in the late afternoon. Tomorrow morning, I'm working a bit (until about 10am), then we're baking - baking - baking!

I'm using recipes from Martha Stewart for the two desserts and we'll see how they turn out. The celery and pecan appetizers, however, are family traditions (though I've listed recipes from the web). They were actually my grandmothers' signature appetizer dishes, so I'm a little nervous about messing them up. Hopefully, they'll turn out "just like Grandma used to make" and we can have a little reminder of our dear departed grandmothers on the holiday.

Whether you're traveling or hosting, wherever you go, have a lovely Thanksgiving!

'arry Potter, Part 1

Now some of you know this and some of you don't (hey - that made me sound like DJ Kool), but I'm a big ol' Harry Potter nerd. This wasn't always so - I once refused to read any of the series, on the grounds that I was already a big Lord of the Rings fan and adding another series (whose movies came out around the same time) was just bandwagon-jumping.

However, when I went back to Edinburgh in May of 2004 to visit my friend Kate (who'd spent the whole year abroad there), she had a ticket already bought for me to see "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." So, like it or not, I had to be caught up on the movies in one night. And, as was easily predictable, I loved them.

Kate then gave me the first three books as a gift and you can see them in the photo below, on the lefthand side. However, in addition to being a new Harry Potter nerd, I have always been a literary nerd and booklover. Because she gave me three of the series in the British juvenile edition (published by Bloomsbury Press), I decided I had to buy the rest of the series in the same edition. I know - I'm a little crazy when it comes to books. Luckily, a Canadian publishing company (Raincoast Books) produced a version of the Bloomsbury edition for the Canadian market, so I was able to buy the other four books on my annual PEI vacation. Whew - major disaster narrowly averted, right?

Anyways, part of the point here is that Justin and I were at Barnes & Noble last week and I found some awesomeness in the childrens section. See below:



Yes, that is a boxed set containing two books from the Hogwarts Library, specifically "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "Quidditch Through the Ages." The books, as reproduced, include fake wear, imprints of Diagon Alley publishers, introductions by Dumbledore, and in the case of "Fantastic Beasts," notes in the margins by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Can you stand it?!? I barely could.

They were written by Rowling to support a charity called Comic Relief, which gives 100% of the proceeds of book sales (less taxes) to improve the lives of children around the world. I love it.

(Stay tuned for part 2 of "see, I'm a really big Harry Potter nerd.")

Another Cross-Post about the Wedding! (Sorry)

We got our engagement photo CD in the mail today and they turned out great! We took them at the museum in Portsmouth where I've worked for over two years. The site is about ten acres and has over thirty historic buildings on it that we used as great backdrops.

The photographer was a little worried about the brightness of the photos because we did them around sunset and it got dark very quickly. However, we ended up with 39 shots that had plenty of light and so we're pleased. I've picked out some of my initial favorites and posted them below. Enjoy!

This was our first shot, taken in front of
the cooper's (barrel maker) workshop

Under an arbor by the strawberry patch. I do
hearth cooking in the blue house behind us!

In front of the 1695 First-Period Sherburne House,
one of the oldest houses in New Hampshire

And a nice shot as the light was fading, in front of the 1762 Chase House. I actually think I might use this image for our Christmas cards, as I think the lantern makes it somewhat festive!

(Cross-posted on Wer Ond Wif)

The Scots are Coming! The Scots are Coming!

Two lads anyone would want at their wedding, right?

As regular readers and good friends know, I spent the fall semester of 2003 studying in Edinburgh, Scotland. On our first night out to the pubs, my new study abroad friends and I met the gangly gent on the right (David) and became fast friends with him in our time there. Months later, I went back to visit a friend who had spent the full academic year there and met the blondie on the left (Stevie), who was an old friend of David's. And thus two going-on-six-year-long friendships were born.

As some of you also know, I've been back to Scotland a few times since and seen these guys (and some other Scottish buds, who will be mentioned later) almost every time. They've come over to the U.S. and stayed with me when I lived in Boston. Thanks to the wonders of the Interwebs, we've also stayed in regular touch via email and Facebook.

So when Justin and I were creating our wedding guest list, it was a no brainer for me to invite my Scottish lads. I wasn't at all sure they would be able to make it due to the long distance and expense involved, but I was really hoping they could. This week, I got pretty solid confirmation from them that they plan to be in attendance. As my silly soon-to-be husband is wont to say, "that squees me full of glee." And yes - in answer to your unasked question, those are the kilts they will be sporting in style!

(Cross-posted at Wer Ond Wif, with slight changes)

Synchronicity

So here's something I've been mulling over. Until now, I've tried hard to keep my three blogs and their content separate. Hodoeporicon, Museophilia, and Wer Ond Wif have their own spaces in my head and on your computer screen, so their content should be consistently different, right?

Well, maybe not always. The thing is - sometimes, in a given week, I spend more of my physical, emotional, and mental energy on the wedding or my work than I do on the other parts of my life (which are usually covered here). And in the end, that means that one or the other of the blogs gets neglected.

Now, I don't want to give the ax to any of them. Hodoeporicon and I will have been together for four years in March, Museophilia and I are coming up on two years in January, and I obviously want to stay with Wer Ond Wif at least until the wedding in June. However, I've decided to make life a little easier and give myself permission to cross-post occasionally.

I hope this works out for all involved and none of you desert me altogether! The idea here is to keep my creative juices flowing in different ways and maintain a high quality of content. If you're not convinced yet, let me drop this nugget of information on you. The other blogs have gotten detailed, reasonably interesting posts in the last week or so. My plan for Hodoeporicon today? Would have been an itemized list of the contents of my and Justin's lunch yesterday . . . . Yeah. I think this will work out nicely.

Real Estate

Riffing a bit off yesterday's post, I once lived in Edinburgh. Now, I live here.

In some ways, Portsmouth and the 'Burgh are similar. Now, despite my love for the Old Town by the Sea, I would never claim that P'mouth can equal the sophistication and glamor of the capital city of Scotland. However, both cities give off an aura of importance, a sense of the epic, if you will. You look around at the architecture and the streets and the natural features (the river for Portsmouth; Arthur's Seat, Castle Rock, etc. for Edinburgh) and you know that important things happened here.

The photo above is from a photography blog called The Daily Portsmouth. Check it out for a better description of the photo's background and setting. Or, just click on the photo to make it bigger and soak in the grandeur. :)

Word Redux

(NOTE: Justin and Andrew will enjoy this post, I imagine. Probably also Kate and Monica, if she still reads the blog. Why? The former two because it's about the different meanings one word can have and they are sometimes casual, sometimes serious linguists. The latter two because it's about Edinburgh and what it meant to me, and by extension to them. And forward we go!)

The other evening, I saw a photo on a Scottish blogger's site, titled "Morningside by Night." I remembered the name (it's a neighborhood of Edinburgh), but couldn't remember where in the city it was located. So I looked it up on Google maps, realizing as I did so that I hadn't typed "Edinburgh, Scotland" into that site for longer than I could remember. That in itself was strange to me - before, during, and after my time there, I looked at map views of the city a lot.

I eventually found Morningside (south & just a touch west of the main part of the city, near the A702). Finding it prompted me to swing north and east and seek my old stomping grounds. Because you know what? I had forgotten the name of that neighborhood, too.

Eventually, find it I did. And I had a moment of "Newington . . . right . . . I lived there." Such simple words, but imbued with such meaning. I LIVED THERE. I woke up in the mornings hearing the chirp of tiny birds in Holyrood Park. I walked to class through the streets of Newington and the lanes of the Meadows. I picked up coffee and sandwiches at the shops along Clerk St. I settled down with a pint and good friends in a pub on West Preston St. I went to sleep at night to the sounds of university students singing their drunken way home in Pollock Halls.

And now, I live about five minutes from a small town called Newington. For Portsmouth residents, Newington is the collection of malls, fast food restaurants, and speedy oil change places along Woodbury Avenue. It's far from special. When I first visited State U, I got turned around and couldn't find my way to downtown Portsmouth. I ended up driving through Newington instead and thinking to myself, "Oh my. Why does everyone like Portsmouth so much? This is Strip Mall City." Now, it's where we go when we want fast food, something from a big box store or to see a movie - that's it.

So, yeah. Your personal relationship to a word can indeed change dramatically. I wish I could trade New Hampshire's Newington for Scotland's. :)

NERAX North

Last night, Justin and I attended NERAX North. What is NERAX North, you say? Well, that's a valid question. As J. pointed out, a NERAX sounds like a Seussian character. However, it stands for New England Real Ale Expo and the North designation means it took place in Haverhill, as opposed to Somerville, where the March event takes place.

In essence, it's a small beer drinking festival for those who appreciate "real ales." According the the NERAX website, real ale is "top-fermented beer that complete its secondary fermentation in the [vessel] from which it is served. Cask-conditioned beers are real ales served from the brewer's cask."

At any rate, we ended up spending four hours at The Tap, the hosting restaurant, and had a lovely time sampling (small) quantities of a selection of American and British ales. The beers we tried are listed below, along with tasting notes from the NERAX booklet.

• O'Hanlon's (Whimple, Devon, England) - Port Stout. A black beer with roast malt in the aroma that remains in the taste, but gives way to hoppy bitterness in the aftertaste. ABV: 4.8%

• Marshall Wharf (Belfast, ME) - Wrecking Ball Baltic Porter. Complex malt backbone, brewed with molasses. ABV: 7.8%

• Gwynt y Ddraig (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales) - Haymaker Cider. A fruity medium cider bursting with the flavour of apples. A true Farmhouse Cider with a smooth finish. ABV: 6.5%

• Inveralmond (Inveralmond, Perth, Scotland) - Lia Fail. The Gaelic name means Stone of Destiny. A dark, robust, full-bodied beer with a deep malty taste. Smooth texture and balanced finish. ABV: 4.7%

• American Flatbread (Burlington, VT) - London Calling. They brew this traditional English style as one of their flagship session ales using Maris Otter malt, UK Goldings to bitter, late boil additions of UK Goldings and UK Fuggle, and on this batch, a whirlpool addition of locally grown Goldings and Cascade, fermented with a London ale yeast. ABV: 3.5%

• Orkney (Quoyloo, Orkney, Scotland) - Skull Splitter. An intense velvet malt nose with hints of apple, prune and plum. The hoppy taste is balanced by satiny smooth malt with fruity spicy edges, leading to a long, dry finish with a hint of nut. ABV: 8.5%

• Ridgeway (South Stoke, Reading, England) - Ivanhoe Pale Ale. Traditional warm, roasty, and fully-rounded English malts are punched up by a subtle yet direct shot of aromatic and refreshing English hop bitterness. ABV: 5.2%

On our way back to the car, we walked up an alley between two old brick buildings and I felt compelled to take the photo at the top, after stopping in my tracks and saying, "Ooh, look. It's like we're in New York, circa 1890." I'm such a history nerd.

New Bookshelf

You guys!!! I got a new bookshelf for my birthday a few weeks ago and Justin kindly put it together for me on Friday and it's set up now and it's AWESOME. :) We now have an entire wall of books!

Peep it:

The Boy's true name!

(Note to Hodoeporicon readers: this is my transparent attempt to make up for underblogging in the month of October by revealing a big piece of secret, uber-important information. !!! Will it work? We'll find out!)

So the man I'm going to marry has a real name. He wasn't born "The Boy." I figured it was time to go ahead and tell you what is was, for three reasons:

1. Most of you already know, since you know me in real life.
2. I used to nickname men I dated, in order not to reveal anyone's identity. However, The Boy is going to be the father of my children someday, so he's sticking around for awhile.
3. He shares co-ownership of Wer Ond Wif with me, so his name is right up on that page for all to see.

Anyway, without further ado, The Boy's true name is Justin.

(crickets)

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Vacation Photos, FINALLY

Hey, so, remember when I went to PEI over the summer and then came home and told you I went and then FAILED UTTERLY to post any of my photos? Yeah, sorry about that. Consider that officially rectified right about . . . now.

I went up first at the end of July into the beginning of August with my parents and grandpop. We had a fairly low-key time. It was really nice to be able to relax a bit.

Our house got a new porch . . .

and hammock.

We went fishing . . .

and caught this scary mother.

Oh, and we went blueberry picking.

Justin and I went up for the last week of August for four days. Too short a time, but we got to see lots of my friends. And here is us at the beach for Justin's first visit!

We wrote our wedding date in the sand there for our Save the Dates.

Then, went to my lovely cousin Bobbie's wedding!

Us in our going-to-a-wedding finery . . .

And us being typically ridiculous.

Are We There Yet?

Here, that is.

I think we finally are. :)

(Photo above taken by my talented friend Lisa at our rental house on our 5-year college reunion weekend! More on that later . . . )

Performance Anxiety

I think I have a mild case. See, much of the time, I sit down to blog, then decide I want to open up other people's blogs and read those first. Then, after having immersed myself in the wit and wisdom of my blog roll, I seem to have little motivation left for crafting my own missives.

Woe is the writer's blocked blogger, right? Maybe if I make an effort to write something before I dive into the depths of my blog list, maybe I'll get off more than a weekly post? We'll see.

Meanwhile, if you come here seeking entertainment and are sorely disappointed (more than usually, that is), perhaps you should check out my blog roll, too. Clearly, there's some addicting stuff in there. I highly recommend Dooce (but doesn't everyone?), The Frozen Icarus, Private Secret Diary, and Camels & Chocolate. Just be forewarned!

Peep this Historical Awesomeness

Love it. From the estimable xkcd. And the alt-text is pretty sweet, too: "Stephen Douglas actually died soon after the debates and election, but if you demand historical accuracy in your web comics you should be reading Hark! A Vagrant." If you want to read Hark! A Vagrant, which is also awesome, here you go! Don't say I never gave you anything. ;)

Miles to go . . .

Oy, I'm tired of driving. Since the 5th of the month, I've been up to my parents' house (80 miles & 1.75 hours from Portsmouth) three times and down to my hometown (60 miles & 1 hour from P'mouth) three times. I've also been down to my new job (31 miles & 35 minutes) on not-normally-working days twice. In summation, I've been driving a lot.

In addition, The Boy and I have weekend plans for the next three weekends that are not in Portsmouth, so there's no end in immediate sight. Ah well, what can you do? It's nice that we have so many people to see and things to do, I guess.

Just wish they all were closer to us, or us to them. ;)

Goodbye to Gramma

(My gramma and poppa on their honeymoon in the Poconos, 1950s)

My grandmother's wake and funeral were this week. As always happens when there's a death in the family, we were lucky enough to be surrounded by the love and support of our dear friends and extended family. After the wake, The Boy said to me, "There were so many people! And you knew them all! I kept expecting someone to be a random person, but you knew who they all were!" :) I really don't know how we'd get through these things if it were not for all of them. If any of you are reading, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

At the memorial service on Wednesday, my father did an amazing job speaking about his beloved mother and leading the service. My mother, sister, and I also got up to the podium and tearfully spoke about my wonderful grandmother, Alma Mae Wood Fraser. Here is what I said (edited slightly for Internet consumption):

"I’ve struggled with what I wanted to say today. On one hand, what do you say about someone who seems to have been taken from us too quickly? On the other hand, what do you say about a woman who faced an approaching end and calmly came to terms with it?

But I’m an historian and so, I did what historians do – I did some research. And I stumbled across a quote by a French Jesuit priest and paleontologist named Teilhard de Chardin. He said, “We struggle against death with all our force, for it is our fundamental duty as living creatures to do so. But when, by virtue of the state of things, death comes, we experience that paradox of faith that causes us to abandon the struggle and affirm death as part of a greater plan for the universe as a whole. To love life so much, and to trust it so completely that we can affirm it even in its final act....this is [an] attitude that can calm and fortify us. The end is to love extravagantly the life that is greater than any one of us, seeing our own death as a physically necessary passage toward union with a greater wholeness.”

In the end, Gramma did just that. She bravely acknowledged that her life had been full and wonderful and that the next step was to move on to life's final act. And so she did - peacefully and with a grace all her own. She courageously drew aside the curtain and took her leave of us. And her serenity in doing so granted her family a great deal of peace.

I miss her. I love her. I wish that every day of my life, I had told her how important she was to me. But in the end? She knew all of that. [Sister] and I were lucky enough to share with her “a lifetime of interaction,” as Dad called it the other night. There were a thousand “I love you’s,” a thousand hugs and kisses and holidays. [Brother-in-law, The Boy, Thing 1, and Thing 2] knew her for fewer years, but they, too, got to bask in the glow of the love she had for her family. And so we walk on, never the same without her, but always sustained and quieted by her love."

Sad News

My apologies for the silence over the past week. I had a couple of posts drafted, then received some very bad news. On Friday evening, my dear grandmother (my father's mother) passed away after battling cancer for the third time in eight years (and twice in one year). We knew this was coming, but it came much quicker than we expected. We will miss her very much.

I love the photo of her here, on Miami Beach in 1943 (at age 14). :) Wasn't she a looker?

Overheard in Portsmouth

I was at Dos Amigos, the local burrito/taco joint, the other day. The older, rather uptight-looking woman in front of me gave the shaggy haired cashier a gift card or coupon of some sort. He had to call over a long-haired higher-up to approve the card. Dude takes an appraising look at the card, then jokingly says it passes the "high tech inspection."

Old, uptight-looking lady's response? "You can use what's left on it to get a haircut."

!?!?!?

I thought I couldn't have heard her correctly - it just wasn't possible - who says that? Then, after receiving non-committal grunts from the employees, she says, "No, seriously, you need a haircut."

!!!

Deja Vu

The other day, I was sitting on the couch watching TV. The announcer came on with the following words: "It's the new season of 90210 and the premiere of Melrose Place."

And I swear to you, my brain briefly stuttered. "What decade am I in???"

That Girl (was) Gone

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I know - I've been gone forever. In my defense, I've been struggling to process the news about my grandmother as she starts palliative chemotherapy, The Boy & I snuck up to PEI without telling you, our roommate Mr. Segundus moved out (to Russia!), and I started a new job this week. And there's always wedding stuff. We're meeting with a local photographer we really like this afternoon.

However, I'm back, or I hope to be. Things will begin to settle down a little in the next few weeks & I really missed blogging. I can't count how many times I sat down to write something & got distracted by other things. So, with my apologies, forward into the breach! ;)

Quietness

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. Life's been a little hectic. I know, that's the lame apology of every procrastinatory blogger ever. However, I just finished my last week of running a summer camp for very active elementary schoolers. I'm also training for a new job, actively seeking another part-time position, and keeping up with the wedding planning.

And then last week, we got some very bad family news. My grandmother (dad's mother) has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. It's spread to the lymph nodes and the outlook is not good. So I may be around in the next week or so, but I also need to take mental time away to be with the family & think about things. Hopefully, I'll be back by the end of the week, though, as the blog affords me a chance to get things out in writing which I don't get anywhere else.

I'm Back!

And I've written over 600 posts!

OK, one thing at a time. I got home very early Sunday morning. Had a wonderful time on vacation, but happy to be back for a bit. The Boy will sleep at home tomorrow night for the first time in two weeks & it will be good to have him back!

As you probably noticed, I did not have any internet connection on vacation & therefore did not post at all. However, before I left, I noticed that between the three blogs I own, I have written over 600 posts in the 3.5 years that I've been doing this. Crazy. I think the break-down went something like this: Hodoeporicon - 547 (now 548), Museophilia - 70, and Wer Ond Wif - 21. You can tell which one I've had the longest, huh?

Will post some vacation photos soon!

Vacation - Yay! Without The Boy - Boo!

I'll be away from tomorrow (the 25th) until August 2nd, spending time with my family at our summer house on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Unfortunately, The Boy is on a two-week military training, so he has to miss this trip, which would have been his first time at my family's summer place. However, he & I are planning a trip up at the end of August, so that thought is sustaining me through 2+ weeks without him.

I should have limited internet access while at the cottage, so I may pop in here for a post or two. If not, see you the first week of August!

Word Clouds in the Forecast

My lovely & talented friend K. recently turned me on to this website: Wordle. You cut & paste either text or the URL of another website and Wordle turns it all into a word cloud, with the most common words shown as largest. (The Boy of course already knew about things like this, since he's a linguistics dude.) It's kind of the awesomest thing ever.

She got married last year, so she plugged in the text of her wedding ceremony. And lo and behold - the three most common words were her name, her wife's name, and the word "love." Really shows their priorities, huh?

I started off by popping in the text of my resume (above, click to biggify). The biggest/most common words appear to be historical, exhibit, research, assistant, and new. Not bad for an emerging museum professional! So go on - you know you want to. Go play with it yourself!

Weekend Update

I haven't done one of these in forever & a day, but we had a fun weekend last weekend and I thought I'd share a little. Warning - the post is long!

On Friday afternoon, we walked to the church around the corner (the one we're considering having the wedding in!) & gave blood. Since we were doing so at the same time, the nurses had a friendly competition going as to who would finish first. I'm proud to say that I smoked my future husband, pumping out a pint of blood in 4 minutes, 36 seconds. ;)

Afterwards, we were a little woozy, so we got barbecue delivered. Yeah, that's what I said. Southern BBQ, delivered, in New Hampshire. It's from MoJo's & it's good. Later, we went out for a couple of beers with a couple of friends & proved ourselves wicked cheap dates. Two beers was enough after the afternoon's loss of blood. After a stop at Gilley's for cheeseburgers & poutine, we took our tipsy selves home.

Bright & early the next morn, we were up to watch our roommate run in a 5K that went right past our front door. We made a sign for him (his nickname around the apartment is "Monkey," so it said "Go Monkey Go!" & had a picture of spider monkey) & cheered from our perch on the front steps as he went by.

Around 1:30, we headed down to Charlestown to check out the Tall Ships at the Navy Yard. We waited in an interminably long line to board the Amistad, then after a stop for chicken fingers & fries, waited in a much shorter line to see the Bluenose II. Having roots in the Maritimes, she's the one I really wanted to see anyway. Besides, I interned for the last nine months at the USS Constitution Museum, so I've toured Constitution quite recently. And we can always go back!






After we finished our ship-ogling, we headed to Cambridge to a show at the Middle East. Doors opened an hour later than we thought, so we popped into my old local, the People's Republic, for a beer & a bit of the Sox game. Then, back to the Mid East for a good mewithoutyou show.

We spent the night at my sister's in Hometown, then spent much of the next day at the Franklin Park Zoo with her, her husband, and the little things. :) We were exhausted when we got home, of course, but it was a fun weekend!

“Mackerel & Moonshine”

In honor of my leaving for my annual vacation to Prince Edward Island exactly two weeks from today, I wanted to share an awesome anecdote from the Island. Our neighbor, a hale old boy in his 60s, told me this story last summer. C was a crotchety old man who lived nearby & I love this tale of an "old boys' night in" that A & B spent at his house.

A & B go over to C’s house with a bottle of moonshine. A says to C, “Try some of this shine.”
C roars, “I’m not drinking your shine.”
A pours him a glass and says, “Come on, just try it.”
C: “No, I’ll not be having any of your shine.”
A: “It’s all we’ve got.”
C: “Well, maybe I’ll just try it.”

The boys go on a tear & try to cook up some supper around midnight. They’ve got some mackerel they jigged earlier that day & want something to put with it. A says, “I want a cabbage." C roars, “You’re not getting my cabbage!” They go back & forth for a bit, then A wins & the cabbage goes into the pot with the mackerel and some potatoes. When it’s time to eat, they discover that C, a crabby old bachelor, only has 1 fork, 1 knife, and 1 spoon. They each grab one utensil and make do as they can.

In the morning, B stumbles home to his wife & says, “See if you can dig up some silverware for the poor old bugger.” She brings some over and C roars at her, “I don’t need any of your old silverware!”

Good Working Playlist

I spent the afternoon & evening tweaking my thesis project for its live web release sometime this month (will let you know when). The artists on my working playlist were, in their proper order:

• The Decemberists
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• Lily Allen
• David Bowie
• Arcade Fire

Nice.

(One might argue that since I'm currently posting about the playlist instead of properly working, it hasn't actually inspired me to be that productive. But then, one might be a capitalist, unimaginative jerk-butt if one did so. Take that, left side of my brain!)

Cutie-Cutes on July 4th

The Boy & I spent the weekend on the Cape with friends (pics to come if I can wrangle them from those who had cameras), so we didn't get to see the little things on July 4th. However, their mama sent me some pics. I love these two in particular:

Thing 2 awed by the power of sparklers

Thing 1 with his first sparkler ever