Happy Halloween

Little B and Chase stopped by for a visit. B was a princess fairy and Chase was Mr. Incredible.

October 30, 2006

Pic of the day: a lovely reminder that bugs are plentiful.

Morning Trip to Sanibel

Last Sunday we woke up and took off for a morning trip to Sanibel. We had originally planned to do it on my birthday but were derailed a bit. We had a great breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe - whole wheat blueberry pancakes for me-- yum!-- and eggs and a pancake for Brad-- and then we went shelling. We were going to go down by the lighthouse where there is parking but instead decided to head to the other end of the island, where Sanibel and Captiva meet. We walked around a bit before hitting the jackpot-- just over the rocks was a whole beach covered with shells, and I mean covered! We filled up our bucket in no time and came home for an afternoon nap. Here are some photos from our day:

The bridge is being reconstructed-- used to be a low-rider with a draw bridge, and now it will be a much taller one with no need for the draw bridge. The construction has been going on for at least a year now and who knows how much longer. It will be really nice when it's all done, I'm sure.


The shells were everywhere and at least a food deep. There were about a dozen people sitting around filling up buckets and bags!


By the way, there's also a beach there with a name we've heard before...

Picture Catch-Up

I came across a stack of pics that I keep meaning to post... here they are, in random order.

This one is of the chicken sandwich Brad made for me a few weeks back. He has been experimenting with the George Foreman grill, and quite successfully I might add. He marinates the chicken breast in soy while it defrosts in a ziploc bag in a bowl of water. Then he grills it, chops it up, and toasts the buns as well! Quite a delish dinner.


A few weekends ago we went to a wedding of two friends of ours. Kubby is the drummer at Summit, our old church, and he and Brad played really well together. We've met Karina a few times, the first was just before they got engaged. They're awesome people destined for an incredible marriage. Plus, the wedding was really fun. I wasn't sure how things would be since we just left the church, but instead of awkwardness it was great-- the folks we knew acted like nothing had changed, and it was great to catch up with them.


This is the bag I made for our Columbus trip in September. I'm proud of the flap-- makes it feel closed without zippers or closures. I'm also proud of the strap-- I even embellished it with green grosgrain ribbon, just to be extra cute. The underside of the flap is khaki fabric, and the lining is just plain white.

For one of our last small group meetings I made bite size chocolate chip cookies. We then took little scoops of vanilla ice cream (Breyers, of course) and made sandwiches out of them. On our new little saucer-size plates. Too cute.

We had leftover cookies so we brought some over to Beth and Rico's house. Kena gnawed on it for a while until the gummy goodness was all over her hands and face, and then shoved the whole thing in her cute little mouth.


For Ralph's birthday we all got together and had family night at Ralph and Chris's house. Here's a great shot of Ralph and all the grandkids:


Tis all for now.

Ahh, Florida Wildlife

Let's play SAT analogies.

Small bird on truck :: small poop on truck
Large bird on truck :: ____ ____ __ ____?

We've had just the nicest Saturday. We woke up lazily at 10:30 a.m. and started our day late. Actually, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and had to tell Brad my dreams, for some reason. They were in crazy amounts of detail-- I went back to high school but had forgotten to go to a class all semester and today was the big test. And the staircases didn't have sides to them, just stairs and no railings and I am scared of heights. And I also visited my friend Renee in there somewhere and found out she had miscarried, but she wasn't getting married until March and I got confused-- should I be sad for her or disappointed that they hadn't waited until the wedding? Renee actually is my friend and actually is getting married in March, and both she and her fiance Bruce are leaders in our church in Evanston and I'm pretty sure she's not pregnant and really it's none of my business... but it was just a weird dream. And I don't have plans to go back to high school... it all made no sense at all. So we went back to sleep.

Later we ate some orange rolls for breakfast and snooped around craigslist and ask.metafilter.com for a while. Someone posted a link to the This Old House website this week-- it's a slideshow of homeowner do-it-yourself fixes that are horrible and scary. We were talking over breakfast about this house in Westerville-- would we ever put in an offer without physically going through it? After seeing this slideshow we pretty much agreed that we'd like to see the house in person.

We took showers and put in some laundry, started Roomba in the bedroom and took off for the flea market. I have a friend who owns a carpet place there and she had some leftover laminate that she said we could have for our metal table top. We're refinishing a metal table (last time I EVER refinish metal) and the top used to be old linoleum or rubber or something. There's a lip on the edge that is just less than a quarter inch tall, so most plywood or paneling is a little too thick. We're exploring options now for the table top, and we found out the laminate is too think as well.

Then we went to lunch at Firehouse Subs. A few weeks back I had a realllly slow day at work, so I decided to search for free birthday clubs. I got a free Firehouse Sub today as well as a free Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, which is huge and rich and made me a little sick. The sub was awesome, though.

Now we're home and just vegging for a bit. Tonight we made plans with Josh and Shaina to go to Steak and Ale where they're having live jazz tonight. I haven't seen live music in way too long-- should be fun.

Love to you all!

T.G.I.G.

Occasionally Brad's schedule is open and we get to have lunch together. This particular Friday Brad was working at a client's in Naples, which just so happens to be the home of Gatsby's Pizza, our favorite pizza place down here. Brad generously offered to bring a pizza up to me at work and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Well, actually, they got the order just a little wrong and instead of "extra crispy" they thought he said "extra cheese" and it was a little weird. But still pretty good.


Thank Goodness It's Gatsby's!

(And I think Brad is enjoying this picture-a-day thing less than I am. Really not much happens on a daily basis and I end up scrounging for photo ideas... you'll be seeing a lot of Brad this year.)

A Typical Thursday Night

Every Thursday night Brad plays World of Warcraft with some friends from Ohio. They use Skype so they can talk while they play-- it has been one of the few things keeping Brad sane here. This time is pretty sacred-- no other plans can be made on Thursday nights a 9 p.m. I'm just lucky that The Office is on at 8:30...


If you look to the left you can see another monitor-- this is for the old computer we have that just hasn't found the strength to leave us yet. Brad also has a computer for work. When my sister came to visit last year she took one look at the room and said, "Welcome to the computer lab!"

When Brad plays I usually blog, or watch HGTV, or sew, or go to bed early, or cook, or talk on the phone. This week it was talk on the phone time, and I got to catch up with Susan, my former roommate. I'll post her blog in the sidebar. She was a great roommate and is a good friend and I miss her much. It was really good to catch up and hear how Colorado Springs is treating her, even if we got disconnected when the power went out, again, from the 6 inches of snow they got.

Runnin' on empty...

How I feel can best be described by the photo of the day.


I got in the car to come to work and the tank was on empty and the idiot light was on. After a long weekend away, my tank feels the same way.

By the way

...the picture for 10/23/06 was the one of all the pizza on the table... scroll down...

Mmmmm...tasty

Here's the pic for today: Brad eating a breakfast of champions at the Cincinnati airport... a huge Rice Krispy treat chased with chocolate milk.

They say my picture taking skills will improve with daily practice...

And P.S.-- thank you so much for identifying yourselves, dearest readers. Some of you are still unknown, but I've decided to be ok with that. I hope my little life stories bring a moment of diversion to you, and maybe a little smile. And maybe you feel a huge debt of gratitude since you get to read my private-ish thoughts and you want to send up a prayer for us for guidance. Yeah, that sounds good and manipulative. Eek. If you think of us, mention to God that we could use his attention. And I really want that cute red house in Ohio. But not until, like, April or May. Because it's finally getting comfortable here.

Back from Columbus

I just added all the Boston catch up and now I can give you the rundown on the weekend we had. I like feeling caught up.

We received news on Friday at noonish that Grandma Bressler passed away around 11:30 a.m. She was at home and died peacefully with family around her. It was a relief in many ways as her last few months grew increasingly painful to her, and we all knew where she was going. I made arrangements for flights, hotel, and rental car and then left work a bit early so we could get our wits about us and pack. My boss is a dear friend of my father-in-law so he had compassion and was flexible with my time.

I came home expecting to pack and hit the sack early. Instead my dearest husband had a little birthday celebration planned for me! He had made a cake for me-- (there's a glare there-- it's not a blob of flour like it looks like)--


--a huge accomplishment for this mac-and-cheese-only chef-- and had presents! We're on a super-tight budget right now since we have these two car payments, so we agreed a while back that all birthday gifts would be in the $25 - $30 range, max. Well, Brad is a thoughtful man who dreams big. This is especially handy at birthday and anniversary times since that means awesome presents for me. But $30 was throwing him for a loop, as he wanted to buy me one of those bedspreads from the MIT hotel that has equations on it. (You get all the points for that one, lovebug. And extra points for staying in the budget.) He bought me a calendar with pictures of cats in the Greek Isles, a big book that is all pictures of cats, and a puzzle book of 30-second mysteries. The cat theme is because I've been pining for a cat. I'm allergic, terribly, and won't get shots or anything in order to have a pet-- that's too much for me. But I miss having a cat. A lot. So thoughtful Brad picked up on that and gave me the next best sneezeless thing.

So we had cake and more cake, and I opened my fun presents, and then we packed. We might have gone out to dinner later on, I think. But it was a bit of a blur.

Saturday morning our flight left at 7 something a.m. so we left the house by 5:30 or so. I don't think God actually invented early mornings. I think he thought he was done and forgot to make something beautiful of 5:30 a.m. I hate getting up early to travel-- my stomach always gets upset just thinking about flying, and I'm guaranteed to hurl if I have to wake the beast early. But God had extra mercy on me and let the dramamine take full effect. We flew directly into Cincinnati and rented a car and drove to Columbus. We stopped for (you guessed it) a Donato's pizza before checking into the hotel and napping for an hour.

Saturday night was the first bit of calling hours. The casket was at the church and we were there from 4 til about 8:30 p.m. And it was like nothing else I've seen, funeral-wise. I've been to more funerals than I think I should have (my former therapist agrees), and I've seen them done a myriad of ways. But this was unreal. People streamed in and stood around like it was a party. Grandma just so happened to be there in a casket, but the catchings-up and hugging went on and on. I met a billion people whose names I've heard here and there. I saw the family go from downtrodden and tired to their bones to encouraged and truly joyful. The community truly did what it is designed to do-- bear one another's burdens, cry with those who mourn. And it was good.

Afterward Brad and I tried to catch the end of a concert at his old church, First Love, but we missed it. We did get to see the gang and chat for a while, and that was wonderful. Poor Lisa is in a wheelchair after breaking her ankle and having to have surgery a few weeks back.

Sunday was my 30th birthday. And yes, I do feel different. Well, sort of. I will feel more different when I get out of this fog and am back in my routine. A while back I asked a question on my favorite time waster, "What's the big deal about turning 30?" Many of the answers were along the lines of, "I just stopped caring what people thought of me." Other things were said of course, but that sentiment resonated with me. And I think it's a perfect banner over my current state of mind and being. I am in the middle of change-- I sense the contents of the blender swirling around me and I don't really know what flavor of milkshake I am just yet. I've been hearing whispers of pastoring or teaching the Word here and there. I've been dreaming often of my days at Bryn Mawr and then daydreaming about being a head of school at a girls' school. And I think I'm at a point where I need to evaluate or just chew on this: I know my energy limits-- if i throw myself into one, I can't do the other. If I want to be focused on ministry, I can't get a masters in school leadership and be in administration-- I just won't have the energy for it. If I want to be a head of school, that's going to be it and all for me. And perhaps I'm being too either-or, and I don't need to be. But all the swirling is at least taking the form of a milkshake, instead of the bass-o-matic I felt I was in a few weeks ago.

So Sunday was my day. We slept in after being exhausted on Saturday night. Then we went for an early lunch at Max and Erma's where they have discontinued pretzel breadsticks and I am very disappointed. But I got soup and a salad and was happy. I got the tortilla soup-- haven't had that in ages-- oh, so good.


And a salad. Which, I discovered about two bites into, had a little friend in it. Just a little fly, dead, stuck to a leaf. I sent it back and asked for a bowl of french onion soup instead. Of course it came out just after the birthday cookies did... a haphazard meal but tasty nonetheless.


We finished our meals, including partaking of said fresh-baked cookies - yum!


And then we got dressed for the afternoon. The second wake was from 2 to 4, and then the funeral was at 6 p.m. By 4 p.m. I had had it. My introverted soul was exhausted and I needed some rest... and none was in sight. We had a meal at the church and then the funeral began. The service was amazing-- totally captured Ione and her mission. The word that came to me was "simple"-- her mission was simple-- to show people Jesus. The people who were there told stories of how she touched them, how she encouraged them, gave to them her time and money, you name it. She loved Jesus and was devoted to showing people Jesus. It was inspiring.

We left and went out for a bit- do I even need to tell you what it was? (Massey's pepperoni and bacon, in case you were wondering) and then headed back to the hotel for a long winter's nap.

Monday was the burial in Evansville, Indiana. Brad and I did not go, instead we got to have a little time to ourselves. We woke up to - gasp - snow flurries! It was c-o-l-d and gray all day, but we had a great time anyway. Brad showed me the city-- a really neat bookstore in German Village, basically an old house that wanders on for 32 rooms, full of books, cards, magnets, you name it. We drove through the campus of Ohio State University-- big and daunting, but also inspiring. We drove up to the Monte Carlo where we had amazing Italian food for lunch. And then we drove around a few smaller neighborhoods scoping out possible houses. I don't think it's any big secret that I'd like to move away from here-- that we both would like to. And though Chicago is my first choice, it's expensive and we've already lived there, and it's not Brad's first choice. I don't know what his first choice is, but I know we both like Columbus a whole lot. So we drove around and looked for For Sale signs for a few hours. That was super fun as we've never really gone house shopping before. The house we're in was the second one we saw, so we've never done any scouting, and it was a lot of fun. We realized that we both value charm and location over size and amenities, and we really liked some of the cute houses in Westerville by Otterbein College.

So we'll see what God has for us. We had a great conversation with Chris on Sunday afternoon about telling God what you want. And God knows we want out. The one thing holding us back is selling this house-- it's a bad market as you know and we also have a killer pre-payment penalty on the mortgage. Soooo, God, guide us. And work miracles.

After househunting we went back for a nap and then met up with the gang for a Pizza Trifecta. There are three pizza places where Brad used to eat when he lived in Columbus. There are five days in a week, so of course he had to have some of them twice a week. I hate to think of his cholesterol. The three best places are Rubino's (cracker crust), Massey's, and Donato's. Court and Cheri and boys were going to bring Rubino's but they're closed on Monday so they brought a variety from California Pizza Kitchen. Chris and Tina provided Donato's. We brought Massey's. And there were a few others-- I think Laura brought one and maybe Ben and Lisa brought a Minuteman one? Sorry if the details are off-- it was a sight to behold. We all met at Chris and Tina's house-- nine adults, ten kids. It was lots better than being in a restaurant and the kids had space to play while the adults talked childbirth, computer games, and innuendos. It was an absolute blast.


And this morning we woke up early early and left the hotel before 6 am for the drive into Cincinnati. We arrived in plenty of time, especially since I thought the flight left at 10 and it actually left at 11 am. Oopsies.

And we got home a few hours ago. Brad's napping and I'm blogging, soon to lay down.

Love to you all.

Boston Trip, Part Deux

Last I said was that we arrived at the Berkshire Mountains. To pick it up from there...

We drove and drove along Route 2 admiring the gold and brown and green leaves along the way. Not many reds, but plenty of golds to go around. The road is one lane in either direction much of the time, and I was expecting mass crowds. However, we had the road much to ourselves and took our time going under the speed limit. We especially had to watch our speed on the famed Hairpin Turn, where the road does a U-turn as we zig-zagged down the side of one mountain. (If you click on the picture you can see the Hairpin Turn sign.)


Shortly thereafter we arrived at The Spot. I think I mentioned already that this trip was inspired by a drive my sister and I took seven years ago. One particular spot on that drive was the inspiration for the trip-- a lovely stretch of road about 2 or 3 miles long that winds through a valley between mountains. The road is at the base of a mountain, so if you look left you see trees going up up up as far as you can see. If you look right you see a sweet brook babbling over rocks, about 20 feet wide. It's quite picturesque and just speaks rest to my soul. We came upon the stretch and I was in heaven. It was just beautiful, with the canopy of the trees overhead and the gentle brook next to us. I was so taken by it that I didn't take any pictures... oops. But this is what it looks like around there:

After the stretch of road through the valley the road climbs up to the top of the next mountain. At the top of that mountain my sister and I took a picture, which I happened to find the morning we left for Boston. I'll scan it tomorrow and post it here:

Brad and I found that spot at the top of the mountain and re-enacted the pose, with Brad being Steph. She likes to be goofy so she pretended to be zipping up her fly. Goodness. The place where we're standing is in the parking lot of a trading post gift store kind of place. There were people around so we asked a gentleman to take our picture. Brad tried to explain that he was going to do something out of the ordinary and pretend to zip up his fly, etc. The guy took the picture quickly and then he and his wife walked away in short order. Apparently they weren't so amused. I guess it might seem kind of creepy to someone who doesn't know my sister nor husband's sense of humor... but I thought it was funny.


And speaking of funny, or ironic at the least... what do you suppose is the name of the town where my inspirational stretch of land is found?


Florida, Massachusetts. God, you just crack me up sometimes. I leave stinkin' Florida for a dream vacation to... Florida.

And just for an added dose of irony, the "statue" of the town of Florida is a giant snowplow.


After we found The Spot we ambled on toward Williamstown, home of Williams College. It has about a zillion beautiful steeples with rolling hills, etc. (Sorry for the bad pic-- it was taking quickly with one hand reaching out the top of the convertible.)


Long ago when we planned this trip I had a fantasy that Brad and I would fall in love with Williamstown, move there and work at the college, and live happily ever after. We walked around the town, got out and got some ice cream at the local place and talked with the high school girl behind the counter. She was a bit reluctant to actually carry on a conversation (ah, yes. Now I remember how cold New England is-- and I'm not speaking meteorologically). We asked what people did on weekends, etc., and were told there was a movie theater at the mall about a half hour away, um, not much else, I guess, shrug. Hmm. Maybe we need a wee bit more city nearby. And that coupled with the abundance of non-traditional relationships / families we saw, along with some interesting postings on the community bulletin board at the coffee shop... made us think that perhaps our midwestern, slightly traditional selves might be more well suited in a different locale. So much for my little fantasy. A girl can dream.

I forgot to mention-- just before Williamstown we stopped at The Natural Bridge state park. It was closing in 40 minutes so we made quick time walking the 100 yards from the parking lot down to the actual bridge. The first thing we saw was a beautiful waterfall over marble. The area had once been a marble quarry and now is protected.


That water's path took it directly to a big HUGE rock, where, over time, it has eroded a hole through the rock, making a Natural Bridge.

The picture is really bad-- we had no battery time left and it was really hard to capture the essence of the place. It was like a giant jungle gym for grown-ups-- walkways here, stairs there, etc. It was truly amazing to see the power of the water. There are moments that I just marvel that God invented gravity. Why? Why not let everything float and be a mess? It was pretty cool.

And this was our final shot, taken by a stranger on the street in Williamstown. I so enjoyed being bundled up and feeling the cool wind against my face. Lots of wind, in fact. I had a decent windburn on my cheeks the next day.

To end the trip we drove south on Route 7 to the Mass Pike, and took that over to our hotel in Waltham. I pricelined a place that turned out to be a total dive-- holes in the sheets, mold in the shower, ick factor = 1 gajillion. But by the time we arrived we had 8 hours to sleep until we had to leave for the airport, so we made the best of it. Our flight home was uneventful and smooth, and we arrived home with time to do laundry and nap.

Overall the trip was amazing, a dream come true. But on the first two days I was a bit out of sorts. Brad kept asking me if I was ok, and my answer was, "I don't know." For many years I've yearned to live downtown in Boston, preferrably the North End with the cute bakeries and produce shops and meat shops. I've loved the charm of it, the character, the deep history and roots-- I think I take security in deep roots like that. But as we walked the streets the bliss I expected to feel wasn't there, and instead I was uncomfortable and on edge. People where everywhere, cars parked haphazardly, apartments on top of one another... it was hard to get a breath. I was confused at my reaction, as I guess I have been a lot in the last few months. Who am I if I'm not enamored with the city and lusting after a cozy apartment in the North End? Since when am I uncomfortable with all the people around? What is with this identity crises at age 30?

In the end I can answer that yes, I am ok. But my reaction threw me for a loop. Brad said that maybe one reason that God had us move to Florida (oh, please God, tell me your reasons so I can hurry up and learn the darn lessons and move!) was so that Brad and I would grow to have a similar mindset on a place to live. He has been more comfortable in the suburban kind of situation, which I have scorned for years in favor of city life. But now that we live in the boonies, I like my space. I like not hearing people on the floor above me. I like having shades open and not worrying about people seeing me in my pj's. I'm becoming someone I didn't know I wanted to be, but I see value in my changing preferences and it's fun to share dreams with Brad.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

Remember how, a while back, I said that I thought my only readers were my mom and grandparents? Well, I've learned since then on our travels to Chicago and Columbus that other dear ones are reading along. That's fun. It's helpful for me to know who my audience is.

But now I'm a little freaking out. Yesterday I put a sitemeter on the blog just for kicks to see how many hits the blog gets. I thought it would be 2 or maybe 3 a day... I was wrong. In the last 24 hours or so there have been 19 hits. And I don't know who you all are... and that freaks me out all stranger-danger-style.

(most recent) (country) (city, state) (miles from me) (my best guess at who you are)
1 United States Chicago, Illinois 1,127 (maybe Sam or Erika?)
2 United States Federal Way, Washington 2,636 (no clue-- no one in Washington knows me!)
3 United States Lombard, Illinois 1,134 (no clue)
4 United States Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 1,128 (no clue, unless my friend Tye from Balty moved back there)
5 United States Chicago, Illinois 1,127 (s or e again?)
6 United States Elk Grove Village, Illinois 1,142 (no clue)
7 United States Columbus, Ohio 946 (maybe Court)
8 United States Fort Myers, Florida 24 (I think Brad from home)
9 United States Hilo, Hawaii 4,640 (maybe julie or maggie)
10 United States Harvey, Illinois 1,110 (there's a harvey, illinois? no idea)
11 United States Newburgh, Indiana 870 (must be kate)
12 United States Fort Myers, Florida 24 (me from home last night)
13 United States Bellwood, Illinois 1,132 (no idea)
14 United States Villa Park, Illinois 1,133 (no idea)
15 United States Addison, Illinois 1,137 (no idea)
16 United States Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 1,128 (again, unless it's Tye, no idea)
17 United States Chicago, Illinois 1,127 (s or e?)
18 United States Evanston, Illinois 1,140 (rich?)
19 United States Fort Myers, Florida 26 (me putting on the meter yesterday)

Just had a thought-- I know I updated my info with my college alma mater-- and I have this suspicion that they published my blog address in their latest alumni magazine. Maybe you random Illinoisians are Trin folk?

So if you're out there, please identify yourself. If you're a lurker and you don't really know me, but for some reason you enjoy my stories, please do the courteous thing and identify yourself and maybe send me a link to your blog. I'm all for blog-friends. But I'm just a little scared of who all knows my business. This blog felt quite exhibitionist-y to me to begin with, and now I feel all exposed.

Those of you who know me-- should I move the blog elsewhere? And do you want me to change your name in the blog for your protection? Anyone else deal with this?

Feelin' Beany

Here's the story of one of the best trips of my life.

We left Fort Myers on Thursday around noon on JetBlue. Having never flown JetBlue before, I didn't know about the individual televisions in the back of each headrest, nor the have-as-many-as-you-like approach to snacking. We enjoyed the flight, the 36 cable channels, and variety of snacks until about 3:30 p.m. when we arrived at Logan Airport. Just before landing we opened the window shades (previously closed to prevent glare, of course) and I saw my first glimpse of autumn color!!!


We didn't check luggage so we took a bus to the T station (subway) and took the T into downtown Boston. We checked out Quincy Market (which is like a big food court) and Faneuil Hall (which is a really old meeting house) and then followed the Freedom Trail (red brick stripe in the road) over to the North End, which is Boston's Little Italy. We stopped at Paul Revere's house and went for a quick tour before closing.


Legend has it that when a certain Kathleen Horgan was about 10 her parents took her around the Freedom Trail on a hot summer's day. When they got to Paul Revere's house she exclaimed, "I'm sure glad Paul Revere had air conditioning." But I'm pretty sure a certain mother made that up.

We walked a bit through the narrow streets of the North End...


until we came to a pizza shop called Pizzeria Regina, rather famous in Boston for its authentic pies. We walked in the door and were greeted with, "How many are ya?" and after responding, "Two!", we were pointed in the direction of an open table by the surly waitress. She probably has been there since she was in her 20s. We ate an amazing pepperoni pizza and then walked up to Trani, a new dessert place that injects softserve ice cream into various baked goods-- cupcakes, brownies, turnovers, you name it-- and then runs the whole mess under a waterfall of chocolate ganache that turns into a hard shell. Yum. We had a cupcake each and then walked a bit more. I couldn't leave the North End without having a good cannoli, so I stopped at Modern Pastry and had a small one, reh-goat-ah (not ricotta) filled, with chocolate chips on the end. Yum.

At this point we were a bit weary so we took the T to our hotel in Cambridge. I pricelined a hotel and got this amazing place-- Hotel @ MIT, in the Hilton family. It's decorated all nerdy-like (remember I say nerdy with positive connotations). The pictures on the walls are of old calculating machines, old inventions of a mathematical nature, etc., and the bedspreads had equations on them!!! I loved them, but for $150 each they weren't quite worth it.


On Friday we had a full day planned. We woke up and bought breakfast at the full-size grocery store on the second floor of the hotel. Then we took a bus past MIT and past the Berklee School of Music to the Prudential Center where we caught up with our Duck Tour. DUKWs (not a typo) are amphibious military vehicles that have been refurbished and are used to cart tourists around the city. The driver tells fun facts as we drive along the streets, and then takes us into the Charles River for a view of the city from the water. We had a good time except for the stretch where we crossed the Mass. Ave bridge-- the DUKW doesn't have closeable windows and the wind took my breath away! I'm turning into a Floridian with thin blood, and I was cold to my core. But it was worth it. The tour was fun and gave us a view of the highlights of the city.

After the tour we went back to the airport to rent a car. I had wanted to get a convertible, but I waited too long and nearly every single car was sold out in Boston. We were lucky to reserve an economy car through Dollar. When we got there we had to wait a while for our car to get cleaned. After a while the lady at the counter offered to give us a minivan so we could leave right away. We declined, knowing that we would be doing quite a bit of driving and we'd rather have something smaller. We waited a few more minutes and then she said, "I just saw a convertible drive in-- would you like that?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? "Um, ok," we said nonchalantly. "YES!!!" we thought. That was my personal birthday present from God. He knew that was part of my dream and he made it come true. Thanks, God. I really appreciate it!

We drove out of the city and took Route 1A up to New Hampshire. Just outside Boston was nuts-- there are rotaries (roundabouts) aplenty and we got a little turned around in Lynn and Salem. But we found our way again and made our way up to Ipswich. After a while Brad had an idea. Since we had a convertible and all... why not put the top down and just blast the heat as needed? Great idea. So we did that and enjoyed the much bigger view. The trees are turning and the little New England towns with their 1700s houses are so darn charming. We meandered through Newburyport and made our way up to Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Seabrook is where I spent nearly every summer growing up. My dad's brother has a beach house about two blocks over the border into New Hampshire and about 300 feet from the sand. And it's about 3 blocks from the best pizza in the known universe, Pluto included. It's called,

Cristaldi's makes their pizza in a rectangular pan. The crust is soft and thin with a crispy bottom. The sauce tastes like fresh tomatoes and has little bits of mozzarella mixed in. If you like "extra cheese" they'll throw a circle of provolone on top before warming it in the oven. It's just divine. I've been pining for it for years. I think it's been six years since I've had it.

We indulged in quite a few slices and then headed to Haverhill where my dad's brother and one sister live. We visited with Kevin and Katie (Kathy was out of town) until our lungs couldn't take the cat any longer. It was great to see them and really nice to catch up.

We headed back toward Cambridge, stopping along the way to pick up inexpensive fleece blankets at Target for the drive on Saturday. We crashed at the hotel, heated up leftover Cristaldi's, and watched Click on pay-per-view.

On Saturday we woke up and ate breakfast in the hotel. We checked out and were on our merry way. We made one quick last stop in Cambridge at the Good News Garage, of Click and Clack fame. You know, the guys on that car program on NPR? One of the brothers still works at this garage.


We worked our way out of Cambridge, driving along Memorial Drive where the crew folks were rowing.


We also managed to turn the wrong way up a one way street while a cop waited at a light 100 yards from us. We quickly turned around and drove up a side street to hide for a minute. But it wasn't long enough. We came back out onto the main street just as he was passing us. And he was looking at us. But we didn't get pulled over or anything. Phew.

We drove out Route 2 through Lexington and Concord


and stopped at Walden Pond, home of Thoreau. We got out and walked down to the pond.


... where Brad pondered the meaning of life.





After about a half hour we got back onto Route 2. All along the way the trees were turning bright gold and orange. There was still some green as well, making for a really beautiful drive. After a while we came upon something I should know the name of. Basically it was a very very big valley with a big bridge over it. Just past the bridge was a parking lot off to the side so we parked and walked part way across the bridge until my knees started buckling and I was getting queasy. Damn that fear of heights. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was pretty amazing.


We kept on driving and were starting to get hungry. We passed a few mom and pop places and finally decided to stop at the Sugar House.

We just barely made it in time for lunch. We put our name in and then walked around the store, admiring the homemade maple candies and jams and jellies. We ate a quick lunch and splurged on a piece of homemade apple pie-- amazing. Then we were back on the road.

After about an hour we finally came to the place that was the inspiration for the trip. We arrived at the Berkshire mountains.

I really need to go to bed now, but I promise to edit this to finish the story very soon! Please pray for the Bressler family. Grandma Bressler has been given hours to live. We may be going to Columbus for my 30th birthday this weekend. Yay for the trip, but it's under sad conditions and it's very hard to lose a loved one. Please pray for comfort and wisdom for the family.