Steppin' Out Again

It's that time of year again...the time everyone dreads.  Yep, the time that I harass all of my friends and co-workers for their participation and/or their hard-earned cash.

Now, I rarely ask people for money (never for personal use...okay, only jokingly), but I make an exception once or twice a year when I participate in a fundraiser for something I believe in.  This time it's the American Diabetes Association®'s Step Out® Walk to Stop Diabetes®.  I think it's a good cause, especially considering that Diabetes has affected a number of my friends and family members, including my grandfather and my brother to name only a few.  I walk for them and for the other 25.8 million Americans living with Types I and II Diabetes.

Come join me on October 13th at Lake Merrit in Oakland, CA for the walk!  In addition to the 3 mile walk around the lake, lunch will be provided as well as activities, music and a healthy living fair.

If you want to register as a part of my team, visit my team page and click the link at the right hand side of the page.  You don't even have to live locally to participate!  If you'd like, you can join my team as a "virtual participant."  By becoming a virtual participant, you will help the American Diabetes Association provide community-based education programs, protect the rights of people with diabetes and fund critical research for a cure.  Registration for the event is free, and while it is a fundraising event, you do not have to meet any minimum fundraising requirements in order to participate.

As always, donations to my campaign are highly appreciated and can be made using the newly installed widget at the top of my page (nifty new gadget!) or by visiting this link.  If you use the widget, you can search by "Tami'sTeam" with no spaces or by my full first and last name. 

To anyone that continued reading to the end, thank you so much for your attention!  That in itself is a form of support.

Thank you!!

Recap

Oh look at that!  That date can't be right, can it?  It's been two months since my last post!  Someone has been busy!  Honestly, I can't remember what was keeping me so busy during the month of April, but May was chock-full of business trips, vacations and other social occasions...

So, now that I'm back here, I'll try to catch you up (you 4 people that read me, that is).  While I've been remiss in my blogging activities, I've mirrored that in my WW vigilance.  My tracking has been sporadic, starting in late April with my friend's daughter's birthday party.  It's hard to track during parties (it can be done, and I've done it, but I got lazy) - there's excuse number 1.  Past experience has taught me that I need to track my food or I slip quickly into old habits...which I did.  As a result, my weight loss has been pretty much flat-lined for the last 2 months.

I'm still down over 15 lbs, so I'm not using this plateau as excuse #2 to stop trying!  Nope, excuse #2 was the last minute whirlwind business trip to Long Island, NY.  Traveling on-plan is tough to start with, and I didn't plan ahead.

Excuse #3 was the bachelorette weekend in South Lake Tahoe that immediately followed the business trip.  After 2 weeks of not tracking, the old habits were just waiting in the wings to take over.  I discovered Ben & Jerry's Frozen Greek Yogurt and the fact that I have no control with anything that comes in a single pint container.  Still a better binge than their regular ice creams, but heavy on the points...

Enter Excuse #4 - vacation in Florida visiting my old college roommate, Moriah.  We hit the beach, the zoo, St. Augustine and had an all-around good time.  (I'm hoping she did too, as I can only speak for myself.)

After that, I did half-arsed tracking for about a week before slipping again.  I managed to maintain during the week that I tracked, though I did use all of my weeklies.  I blame cheesecake, which has a direct correlation to my lack of control.  That cheesecake was fully tracked and accounted for, though.  So, that's something.

Excuse #5 was all of the recent activity surrounding my step-brother Mark's wedding this past weekend.  I got permission to work remotely last Thursday and Friday so that I could attend the rehearsal (I did half of the prayers of the faithful during the ceremony) on Thursday evening and the luncheon on Friday afternoon.  Naturally, much food was involved...not to mention the wedding on Saturday and the brunch on Sunday - none of which was tracked.

So, my WW week has reset as of today, and I am done with the excuses!  (Please hold me to that statement.)

Back on Track...Again!

I knew I had a busy weekend chock-full of celebrations and temptations coming up for Father's Day weekend. Aside from Father's Day, Sunday is also my mother's birthday, and I had been invited to a graduation party at a swanky steakhouse. Since I just re-dedicated myself to following the Weight Watcher's plan and have been doing so well on it, I decided that I was not going to make excuses and allow this weekend to derail me. I was going to plan ahead, track my meals and snacks and be in control! Yeah! No one can stop me but me!

Stop...back to reality... Nothing ever really goes exactly as planned, right? My plan was to spend Saturday afternoon with my Mother celebrating her birthday. Since she's also on a diet (lifestyle, I know), we were going to simply meet at her house and have a healthy lunch there. I was also going to go through the WW materials and make a list of point-friendly steakhouse foods, so I'd have an idea of what I could order at the party without going overboard. I wasn't too worried about the food at my father's house on Sunday, since he typically cooks pretty healthy meals and the key for me would be to avoid foraging through his pantry.

Here's what actually happened...Mom and I were both running late (this must be a genetic trait), and I had to stop at my step-sister's house to drop off some stuff for her community band's fundraising garage sale, I got to my mother's much later than anticipated and was faced with a freshly baked peach pie and a cherry pie (my absolute favorite) in the making. She asked me to help assemble the cherry pie while she did some other stuff, and I managed not to sneak any tastes. So far, so good.

We prepared ourselves some healthy sandwiches, and out of the blue, the phone started ringing and my stepfather came inside to say he just got a call and his sister suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Shock and chaos ensued. I did not know my step-aunt well, as my mother got remarried after I was grown and out of the house, and I only met her a few times, so while still shocked and upset, I was able to support Mom and step-dad while the phone kept ringing and they tried to contact my step-siblings to tell them the news. They were both very much in shock, understandably. I wasn't sure if I should still go the graduation party that night, and wanted to be there for Mom if she needed the support. My mom and step-father were originally also attending, as the graduate is my youngest step-brother's girlfriend. I talked to my mother and asked her if she would prefer that I stay home with them, but she said she wanted me to go and sent me with the gifts and cards.

Since I got lost on foot between parking in downtown Sacramento and getting to the restaurant, I very likely got in maybe 1 activity point. I wandered around downtown in my ill-fitting (but very cute!) chic silver retro-looking high-heeled sandals for at least 20 minutes before I found the restaurant. I was getting close to panicking when I found a city map on a corner across from the capital building. (Good thing that's the area I was in or I would have really been in trouble.) It confirmed that I had wandered in the complete opposite direction from where I should have. I already knew this, since I didn't park that far from the restaurant, and should have only had to walk about 2 blocks. Too bad I didn't take the Garmin from my car and use it while walking.

I am glad that I went because my step-brother was there and in shock and able to talk to me a bit about stuff without ruining the celebration for his girlfriend. He wasn't sure he should have gone to the party either, but then he and his girlfriend also reminded themselves that it's what his aunt would have wanted (they were telling me that she was quite a spitfire and was pretty no-nonsense). With all that had happened that afternoon, I didn't end up prepared for the meal as planned, as I didn't have a chance to look up the points for common steakhouse items. I did try to be moderate with sauces and dressings (though I do think I could live off of Bearnaise now) and didn't finish my dessert.

After the party, which was fun and lively, I drove the hour to my father's house. I didn't have a chance to track my points that day, since I've become dependent on my computer for tracking and it was so late. I didn't end up tracking on Sunday either, since I was spending time with my family and honestly just not thinking about it. I did cave to a craving yesterday though, and stopped at McDonald's on the way home. Instead of the usual extra value meal that I would normally have ordered, I got a cheeseburger Happy Meal. Bonus - toy!

This morning, I tracked everything from the weekend, and managed to somehow still have weekly points left (a whopping 16). Considering the Chocolate Mousse I had for dessert at Morton's, which per the online points finder is 25PPV (and absolutely worth every single point), I am kind of amazed that I have a any weekly points left at all. Granted, I did not get all of my healthy oils or fruits/veggies in yesterday, but I still think I did pretty well with the hectic and emotional weekend.

Nobody's perfect, after all.

Festival Time

For a few years now I've been volunteering at the annual Walnut Festival in Walnut Creek. It's all Kristin's fault, as she is my connection to the festival...she had been on the board of directors for the Walnut Festival Association for a few years and got me into working with them behind the scenes. The Walnut Festival Association is a non-profit group that raises money for community projects and causes, as well as scholarships for local students. Aside from the annual Walnut Festival, the Association also holds an Annual Crab Feed (lots of fun!), Art on the Main (an art festival), and the annual Twilight Parade (not associated with the Stephanie Meyer franchise), among a few other events.

This year, for the first time, Kristin convinced me to volunteer at the Twilight Parade. I ended up working the registration booth before the start of the parade, signing in the groups of participants. After the start of the parade, Kristin and I high-tailed it to the end of the parade route, speed-walking past the marching bands, antique model-A's and the motorcycles surrounding the Huey Helicopter being towed down South Main Street, all the while wearing atrocious bright orange vests to designate us as parade staff. I keep waiting to spot us in the background of someone's rough YouTube footage, but haven't yet (Whew!). Once at the end of the route, we stood around with the cops waving the participants through the blocked off intersection, trying to keep the parade moving without a bottleneck at the end. You know, it's difficult to convince people that they're allowed to run a red light in front of a plethora of policemen, even though the roads are blocked off to all other traffic... Even when they're going about 2 miles per hour.

It was pretty fun, and I'll probably do it again next year. I got to see a lot of the groups practicing their routines before the start of the parade, and talked to a few of them during registration. It was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes and to meet some of the people. I also learned about Blue Star Moms, who were chosen as the Grand Marshals of this year's parade. They are a non-profit, non-political, non-discriminatory organization that provides care packages to the troops, as well as additional support services. Check out the link for more details, or to donate items to be included in a care package. I might never have heard of them if I hadn't worked at the parade...

This coming weekend, I'm scheduled to volunteer at the Walnut Festival on Saturday afternoon. I've also roped my friend Kerri into it, since she'll be in the area visiting and has never been to the festival. If any of you local readers want to dedicate a few hours to the community, click here to send an email to the Walnut Festival Association or call the office at (925) 935-6766. They can definitely use your help on either Saturday or Sunday. (As an incentive, I believe you'll get in for free and have access to their hospitality area.) If you sign up to volunteer, drop me a line and let me know - I'd love to see you there!

Now, while you debate the question of volunteering, you can peruse a few of the photos I managed to snap while working the parade last weekend. (I was mostly busy, so didn't get too many.)

Who you gonna call? I know it's a Vintage Ambulance, but it sure does look like the Ghostbuster's car...

Well, you don't see that everyday...

Newfoundlands!

I believe I was mid-sprint when I snapped this one...

Crockpot Cooking

So, apparently I am not the only one of my friends currently going through a crockpot phase. My friend Kristin led me to The Crockpot Lady's website, which I must admit is pretty awesome. Right after I visited that site and started cracking up at the humor level, I found out that my friend Caitlin was on a serious crockpot kick, too, and sent the link to her.

Anyway, the Crockpot Lady (Stephanie) committed herself to using her crockpot every day for an entire year - 2008. There are a ton of recipes (and she admits that they are not all winners) on the website, and today, I am making the Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. This has become a staple in Kristin's house, and I tried it once over there, so I already know that it will be good. It is in the crockpot as I type, simmering away to perfection.

I did leave out the mushrooms and cumin though. I'll add spice when it's done, if it needs it, but I just can't stand cumin. And the mushrooms don't seem to go with the rest of the ingredients, if you ask me, so those were left out. I added a bit more corn to make up for the mushroom omission. I'll let you know how it turns out. (Sidenote - as much as I love avocados, I just couldn't justify buying one for this, since they are a dollar each! I decided to save the money and the fat content...)

And yes, I realize how long it has been since I last posted on here. I broke the resolution to blog more often almost as soon as I had made it. But, I'll try...

Steppin' Out, With My Baby

Or rather, with Kristin's baby...

The StepOut to Fight Diabetes Walk is this Sunday, and my friends and I are rarin' to go!
My team's fundraising efforts have been going great! The team has expanded to 7 people (including Kristin's 5mo old), and with the expansion, our team fundraising goal was raised to $2,000. So far, with the help of all of you generous donors (you know who you are), we have collectively reached 82% of our goal with $1,630 in donations! If you look at the Top Teams box on the right side of the San Jose Event's home page, you'll see our team on the list!! (Our team name is Kristin's Team.) Not too shabby for only 7 people, if I do say so myself (and I do).

I have exceeded my original personal goal of $500, but am reaching higher! I have reset my personal goal to $700, and am already at 79%! If you would like to contribute, there's still time! Just click this link to donate or join the team. Thank you so much to all of those who have given to this cause (and to those who have offered support in any way).

You may want to see if your company matches charitable contributions and you could double your donation. If you are unable to personally donate to my campaign, please forward this message and/or my website to your friends and family on my behalf. Or consider joining my team and walking with us in San Jose! I just found out that we can have "ghost walkers," which means that if you don't live locally, you can still join our team and either walk the same distance on your own in your town, or walk in one of the other StepOut locations.

I'm also still donating 50% of the proceeds of any of my Etsy sales to the fundraiser, if you see anything there that strikes your fancy!

Again, I really appreciate all of your help and support! Thank you very much!

Please help my team reach our final goal of $2,000 by Sunday. Every little bit helps.

Thank you!!

New Looks

Firstly, I've changed the appearance of my blog a bit. I was attempting to get the new Layouts feature to work on Blogger, but for some reason didn't have the required Button where it is supposed to be. So, this may change again...keep posted.

Secondly, I've decided that I'll be donating 1/2 of the proceeds from my Etsy sales to my Step Out to Fight Diabetes campaign. In keeping with that, I've listed a new item, below:

This is Lucine - a half moon shaped shawl. I really liked this pattern (thank you to Lion Brand - and yes, I checked with the company about copyright, and I am allowed to sell the finished product) and am thinking about making one for me... Check out the listing for more photos and a better description.

In other news, I've planned a trip to Denver to visit my good friend Joie in mid-October. I'm excited. I've only ever walked through the Denver airport, aside from standing at the Four Corners once as a child. I think we'll have a lot of fun.

For Anne

That's Kristin's mother-in-law, not my aunt.

In any case, I've been promising to post this video of Kristin's daughter dancing, and I guess it's about time I did it. Here you go! (Isn't she adorable?)

Shameless Plug

Hey there everyone. I wanted to send an internet shout out for my friend (and cohort in craft crime) Moriah, who has just started her own Etsy shop: BeadyEyeLass. She has also started her own blog to go with it.

She has reinspired me on the jewelry front. I've been making crocheted necklaces, but haven't listed any for sale, since I'm still trying to work out the best way to finish off the closures. So far I have liked the way they are coming out though.

Please take a look at Moriah's sites! She will appreciate it!

Stick a Fork in Me...

I'm done... Or I was after Santa Cruz. Nice and crispy at least. I haven't had a sunburn like that in, oh, ever! And yes, we wore sunscreen. Waterproof even. Of course, it might have helped if we'd reapplied at some point during the day. You'd think we'd be smarter, collectively. Even my darker skinned Philipina friend got a little burn, in a spot that was covered by her suit at the time she applied the sunscreen (not anywhere as bad as the rest of us, who were sadly red, and in pain).

So, a week later, I am a bit tan, except for that patch on my back (that wasn't covered by my hair, spf 1000) that is still itching and not done peeling.

Burning aside, we had a great time. We started off after work Friday night by heading over to Chevy's for cheap happy hour eats and to skip rush hour traffic. Even though there was an accident on 17, we made it to Santa Cruz in less than 2 hours. And time passed quickly, what with our in-car vocal performances (Kristin, you would have gotten out of the car and walked the rest of the way). We got to the b&b (a realtor's in-law unit above their garage, but she called it a b&b, because they stock the fridge for your breakfast - and then some) and the proprietor offered to let us use her Garmin GPS for our weekend, at no charge! This because I was happy that she showed us a map to the local beaches, and mentioned to my friends that we could use that on Saturday to get to Monterey.

Saturday morning we got up early, yes - even me - to go whale watching out of Monterey. We got there in time (had to be there by 8:30am, for the 9am sailing), and headed out on the bay. There were a lot of CA sea lions on the rocks right on the coast, and some sea birds (the name of which I can't remember). We stopped at Moss Landing, over a deep underwater canyon, and waited for the action to begin. We got a little show from Curly the Humpback whale, but didn't see any other whales or dolphins. (There is no guarantee that any animals will surface during the trip.) A cute sea lion put on a little show for us. We saw some Harbor Seals (I think), and some sea otters.

Check out how close Curly came to the fishing boat!

Later, when heading back, one of my friends (the one who REALLY wanted to go whale watching, we'll call her Y) ended up quite seasick - thank goodness there was a restroom on the boat. Another of the friends felt queasy (let's call her Z), but I convinced her to go lay down in the galley, where she fell asleep. She felt fine when she woke up, right before we were back at the dock. Y fell asleep after getting sick and felt a little better after that (I would have spent the rest of the day laying down in the car recovering, or at least an hour or so). After getting off the boat, we all walked down the pier looking for a good place for lunch (Y didn't protest, and we asked to make sure she was up for food). We ended up having some excellent clam chowder.

After lunch, we visited some shops and made some little purchases. We all ended up buying the same shirt (it's totally cute!). You just can't argue good taste.

I watched our purses while my friends made a makeshift dressing room. I took this when they didn't know it was coming. Muahahahhahahaaa.

After our shopping spree, we attempted to use the Garmin to find a Starbucks. Aside from the coffee/chai buzz that Z and I were craving, we needed a large accomodating bathroom where we could all change into our swimsuits for the beach. We circled around downtown for a while before finding a free parking spot, then Y asked to girls walking by where the Starbucks was. They informed us that it was around the corner, but had burned down a few weeks ago. Naturally! So, we ended up at the mall, where we changed in the Macy's large ladies room, and Z and I got our Starbucks fix.

We spent the next few hours at the beach, fighting the waves and enjoying the sand and sun. We didn't even burn that day (except for the small bit of pink on my and Z's faces from the boat ride). After the beach, we headed back downtown for dinner and found that there was some big motorcycle to-do, sponsored by Red Bull, going on in the middle of the main strip. We stood around the barricades for a while waiting for some action, but we were hungry and tired, so headed off for food. After dinner, they were on another break before the last performance, and we had lost our prime spots, so we headed back to Santa Cruz.

Sunday we slept in until about 9:30am, then ate a liesurely breakfast out on the back balcony before packing up all of our stuff to checkout. Then we headed to one of the state beaches and hung out until dinner time. My mother would be freaked out to know how far into the ocean we swam - riding the waves. Though we all got taken out by the waves a time or two. And that salt-water will clear your sinuses, given a chance. And Y and I learned not to stand too close to Z when a wave is coming, because once she's under, Z will grab onto anything trying to get up out of the water. She almost got my suit bottoms at one point (I got them back into proper position before the wave fully receded), and Y's top at another. My joke was that Z was trying to get a whole new suit by the end of the trip. Of course, we know that was not really her intention.

After the beach, it was dinner on the waterfront before heading back home.

Dinner. Notice the pre-burn on the 3 white chicks? There was no hiding the trip from the uninvited co-workers come Monday!

We had a great time though, and it was worth the burn. Would have been that much better without it...but still a great time. No in-fighting or anything (got to love that!). But, what more would you expect from a group consisting of 2 Virgos and 2 Tauruses (Tauri?).

2 Weekends at Once

Pardon my tardiness, but it's something I'm known for. I've decided to recap the last two weekends together today.

I'll start with the weekend after I returned from Boston. (Makes sense, chronologically, after all.) On Saturday, I met up with my friend Christyn's sister-in-law to prepare for the baby shower, which was last Sunday. We hit Costco and picked up a bunch of food, and then headed over to their in-law's house to prep the favors and wait for the tables and chairs to be delivered. (Normally, I would not rent tables/chairs for a backyard shower, but Maureen was insistent, so she did that part.) We also planted individual petunias into little terra cotta pots as favors.

The shower went pretty well. We played a few games - even a water balloon toss (little water balloon in a diaper), and ate a whole lot of food. Maureen brought chocolate-covered strawberries and I made a key-lime angel food cake (in the photo above - the recipe didn't make quite enough frosting to cover the sides...or I am just not good at frosting cakes...). I am hoping that Christyn had a good time. :)

This weekend, I went up to my friend Kristin's cabin in LaPorte (CA). We left right after I got home from work on Friday and got there close to midnight. The cabin was freezing when we got there! So, Kristin started a fire in the cast-iron stove to heat the place up, and discovered that whoever was there last had closed the flue, which is broken, so you can't open it all the way from the lever on the outside of the chimney above the stove. It was a bit smokey that first night, but she managed to open it enough that we wouldn't asfixiate in our sleep. (I may be exaggerating a bit...it didn't fill the cabin with smoke or anything, there was just a little smoke seeping out the front of the fireplace, with the rest going up the chimney.)

On Saturday morning, we walked down to the lake, where there were a ton of these colorful little butterflies flittering and fluttering all over the place, close to the ground. It was quite difficult to get a good shot of them - camera shy, I guess. (And fast little fliers.)

After lunch, we sat on the deck reading for a while, but decided to head down to "town" and explore. We parked on the street in front of this tree, which had grown up and around this sign, of which I had to take a picture (naturally!). If you can't read it, it actually says, "DEER KEEP OFF HIGHWAY - MOTORISTS ARE PASSING." The tree trunk has grown over the smaller writing along the bottom.

Kristin and I decided to check out the little (literally - 2 rooms) museum on the main road, which was actually pretty cool. Lots of historical town information and items that had been recovered from the old gold mining sites. It also houses the world's largest bottle collection (old glass bottles) and the world's largest butter dish collection. (Not so sure if they really have the world's largest collections...but who am I to judge?)After that, we walked a few blocks to the town cemetery, which also is the site of the old schoolhouse. I think the oldest headstone was from 1830-something, with the newest ones in the 2000's. Kind of neat, but then I tend to get a kick out of old cemetaries (I'm twisted). The photo above is a detail of the ironwork fencing around one plot. After the cemetary, we peeked in the general store, then headed back to the cabin for dinner. Grilled burgers and salad...followed a little later with roasted marshmallows. You can't tell from this picture, but there really is a fire in that fireplace...flames and everything. (And don't you love the carpeting in the cabin?) Anyway, after filling ourselves with molten sugar, we settled down in easy chairs and read for a while (I crocheted a bit before my eyes got too tired, then moved on to my book).

And today we headed back. As we were packing up the car, the couple that owns the cabin next door were outside, so Kristin decided to go say hi. The man (Craig) is the nephew of Kristin's step-grandmother. I ended up chatting with his wife, and somehow it came out that I went to SSU, and she was wondering if I was there when her niece was, and she almost didn't follow through with the statement. But she threw out the name, and it turns out that her niece was my roommate when I was a sophomore (and her niece, Marta, was a freshman). What a small world!!

And now I'm tired again, and need to get to bed. I hope everyone else had good, relaxing weekends!

I'm Back - Boston Recap

I'm back, and my vacation was great! Over too soon, of course. I really liked Boston, and would go back again in a second. So much to see, lots of history, and walkable for the most part (not like SF hills…). And of course, the company was great. I'm glad that I have friends that I can get together with and interact as if no time had passed since we last talked. It also helps that the 2 couples never made me feel like a 5th wheel (which is usually not any one's intention, but you single people know how you can get that feeling as the one single person in the group?).

My friend Caitlin took a few days off of work, so she drove me around her hometown on Thursday afternoon (after I'd had a nice nap - not much sleep on the red-eye, hence the term). We picked up her husband after work and went to dinner, then headed back to their condo to hang out and plan the next day. Above is a photo of one of the Kennedy's homes, I believe...(Cait - correct me or clarify if necessary. I can't remember which town this was in.)

Caitlin in front of The Witch House in Salem, MA

Friday, Caitlin drove me out to Salem and we hit the Witch History Museum and the Pirate Museum. Both were pretty cool, but involved life sized scenes with creepy-looking human figures. We also did a fair amount of just walking around and talking. And it was really, really hot that day...97 degrees, according to the temperature gauge in the van. It didn't feel that hot, and it was humid.

Me & Caitlin in The Burying Point in Salem - self-portrait

We could have spent more time there, but had reservations that night for a ghost tour in Boston, so we braved the rush hour traffic and headed back home to meet back up with Kyle. After dinner, we took the T into the city and ran around Boston Common (Kyle considered it "walking") before the ghost tour. The ghost tour itself was not too ghost-centric, but included a lot of historical info, so wasn't bad. It included the Omni Parker House, where Dickens used to stay when in town, the Athenaeum, The Cheers Bar (formally the Bull & Finch - which they have actually renamed Cheers, after all the tourist questions), some graveyards I can't remember the names of... We had a nice small group of people on our tour, including a 3 people from Iowa from the town where they filmed Napoleon Dynamite (which I still haven't seen). Apparently, the girl on our tour actually designed those teal dance costumes that were in the performance at the end of the movie. I guess during filming, the crew was given free reign of the high school, and found the old outfits in storage. Of course, when she originally designed them, they were in style... (Sorry I can't be more specific, as I haven't seen the movie...but now I might need to check it out.) After the tour we hit Fanieul Hall for some ice cream and people watching. And there were lots of people to watch. Mostly drunk and under 25 (and I'm being generous with the ages).

Saturday started out slowly. I wasn't feeling great in the morning, and apparently Kyle hadn't been feeling great the night before. So we hung around the house until it was time to pick up our friends Moriah and Eric from the airport (they flew out from Ohio). We all went to dinner at the shore (and I got some good New England Clam Chowder). Later, we played Cranium - guys vs. girls. We women whipped their butts good. Yep, total modesty from me at all times... After Cranium, we kept the same teams and played Taboo. The guys started complaining that we were doing so much better because we had more players, so my team sacrificed me to the guys. Then my team won. Yeah, I'm a tad competitive...

On Sunday we hit Newport, RI (so we could see how the other half lives?). We toured 2 mansions (castles would me a more appropriate term!) - Marble House and The Breakers (The Breakers is on the left). Both "summer cottages" were owned by two of the Vanderbilt brothers - William and Cornelius. And Caitlin's service dog just happened to relieve herself on each of their well-manicured lawns... Not intentional by us, but we couldn't stop her! Both homes were gorgeous, and it was neat to learn about Alva Vanderbilt's personal suffragette mission (she designed Marble House, I believe, and used to hold suffragette rallies there).

View along the back of the Japanese tea house behind Marble House

Newport was beautiful, but ended up a lot colder than we expected it to be. And none of us thought to bring a sweater... Shouldn't we all have known better? You'd certainly think so! But after the 2 mansion tours, we went to Caitlin's favorite restaurant, Sardella's, and sat outside where the heat lamps were set up. NO heat reached us, and we were all freezing. We were joking (well, probably only half-joking, really) about sending someone down to the tourist section on a sweatshirt run. We toughed it out there, but we did all end up running into a souvenir shop and buying sweatshirts right after dinner. We went around a few little shops at the shore and then Caitlin bought us all hot cocoa (or whatever we wanted) at Starbucks, where we sat around chatting for a while.

Me & Moriah in our snazzy matching tourist gear

Monday we all ran around Boston. We got a late start, since it was raining that morning, so weren't able to cover too much of it. Plus, we had issues deciding what to do that day... We headed into the city and stumbled upon the Holocaust Memorial. Each of these tall glass towers represents one of the concentration camps, and has the numbers of all of the prisoners etched into the glass, all the way to the top. Kind of staggering. There are also quotes and factoids on the stone walkways and inside the towers. I'd encourage any visitors to the city to make a stop off there.

Next up - The Freedom Trail... We didn't do too much of the trail, since we didn't have all that much time left. We did run by Paul Revere's House, and past the tower that signalled him for the famous ride. We walked through the Paul Revere Pedestrian Mall (I think that's what it's called), which has the monument to Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, a fountain in the middle, and plaques commemorating historical figures from the city. I have to say, Boston had a lot of cute little park areas throughout the city.

Kyle and Eric hit Fenway Park that night and caught the game between the Red Sox and the Indians. And Eric is a big Indians fan, so went all decked out in support of his team. He didn't get any crap from the Sox fans for rooting for the other team though. And it sounded like the guys had a good time there. While they were at the game, we girls sat out on Cait's front patio gabbing. Then we moved inside, and gabbed some more.

Anyway, that's my trip in a nutshell. All of us out of towners flew home on Tuesday, and I've been trying to catch up at work since I got back. Today was the baby shower for my friend Christyn, but I'll get to that later.

I'll leave you with a creepy life-like sculpted (maybe molded) piece of the street lamp from in front of The Breakers. It's eerie, I tell ya!