You can't make this up (aka why we should have our own reality show)

This post can be filed under the "you can't make this up" category.  The day started like any other Thursday during the school year.  I began my carpool to work this week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in an attempt to get me home earlier and to get my colleague to stay at work later.  On our drive in today one of the questions we discussed was whether we would want children.  My response was that I have a pretty awesome life and am free to come and go as I please without them at this point.  Tonight was a prime example of this.  After being dropped off at home, the plan was to take a 45 minute walk to Nut Island. What happened was a phone call from one of my closest friends Ned that went something like this:
Me: Hello
Ned: Good evening how are you?
Me: I'm well, how are you?
Ned: I'm well, are you at home?
Me: Maybe, why?
Ned: Well, because you weren't anywhere else I tried.
Me: What do you need?
Ned: A drink, people are crazy
Me: I'll meet you at the Wharf

Fast forward 30 minutes where we meet at Wharf 88 and then proceed to the Farmers Market before settling in to prime seats at the end of the bar.  We are greeted by our regular bar tender (who we believe is named Brian).  We know many things about him, where he goes to school, that is he a single dad, what he wants to do after college, etc., but haven't exactly got the name thing down.  After determining that Fall sucks for drinks since people tend to put pumpkin in things and declare it a fall drink recipe, we order our regular summer drinks and an appetizer.  Everything is on track for a lovely evening, we plan vacations, talk about work, have some laughs, and then it happens.

Ned's eyes get big and I hear a little "oh look" and as I turn we see Brandi and Sandy.  These were two characters that we met several months ago -- Ned believes it was a year ago, it was really about 5 months ago.  They are regulars at the bar, but call themselves frequenters because regulars sounds too well, you know.  They sit down next to us and we chat about drinks, work, and that we never connected like we said we would since the last time we saw them.  Then I hear a "oh no" and as I turn and look I see Frank enter.  Frank is a regular at the Wharf and makes his way around to all the patrons.  He cal tell you why we know drink vodka and martinis, any number of things about Presidents and film trivia, and many other topics of no consequence to anyone.  The last we we saw him he insisted that Ned freed the Irish from persecution.

Brandi and Sandy insist that Frank is going to sit next to Ned, at which time he tried to take up as much space as he can at the bar.  This doesn't work and Brandi and Sandy let us know that Frank is in his 80s and we need to be more kind to him.  Ned continues to mumble "you can't make this shit up" under his breath.  At one point, our dinner comes, Frank, Brandi, and Sandy are all talking to us, and neither of us are listening to any of them.  I look at Ned and ask "Is he talking to you?"  Ned replies, "I think so, but I don't care".   Then Sandy and Frank decide to play trivia and begin loudly asking questions that come to their heads about various topics.  At this point another woman (maybe Susan) comes in and Brandi goes to talk with her while Sandy and Frank continue to quiz each other.

At the end of the night our bill arrives and Ned writes a note to our bartender that says:
"This was a completely crazy night at Wharf 88.  We love you!"  Brian had all he could do to keep a straight face while he ran our cards and returned the check to us to sign.  Ned (the extrovert) hugged all the folks on the way out, while I (the introvert) did a subtle wave and he promised Brandi and Sandy we'll catch up soon. The entire staff escorted us out when we left and were laughing with us when we made it to the parking lot.

And as I drove home to the sounds of the Frozen soundtrack I was reminded of the morning conversation where I stated that I wouldn't be able to have spontaneous adventures if I had to think of taking care of a kid.  I think tonight was a perfect example of that.

Cool things about my job

Most days work is pretty routine, but the past 2 weeks I've got to do some pretty cool things...

On October 21st, I hung out with Katie Hnida (blonde in the middle), the first woman to play and score in a Division I football game.  She came to campus to talk about sexual assault.

On October 27th, my class helped out with a Halloween party for children from a local after school program.

On November 2nd, I went with another one of my classes to the Greater Boston Food Bank where we helped sort 6,198 pounds of food which will provide 4,760 meals.

Today, I went with my class to the Naval War College in Newport, RI to tour the USS Buckeley.

All in a days work!

Birthday visuals



Flowers from friends



Pretty baubles



Sweet treats



All add up to a great way to celebrate a birthday!

What does Carrie carry?

So I was working from home the other day and happened to watch the Nate Berkus show.  He had a segment on about what women carry in their handbags.  For whatever reason this popped into my head today when I was looking at my purse and I thought it would be fun to let you see just what was in my purse today.  This is my purse...

...pretty average sized as far as purses go.

This is a picture of the contents of my purse - how many items can you name (there are 23 total).

If you look closely you should be able to see:
wallet (excavating this is a whole different entry)
tube of Excedrin
2 contact cases - one old school, one new-aged
tin of mints
library call number note
cigarette case (used to store rewards cards for stores I frequent)
box of contact lens solution
magenta flair pen
glittery chap stick
4 bracelets
gum
sunglasses
ticket stub
California Pizza Kitchen box with 2 pieces of pear gorgonzola pizza
pen
phone
sweater
2 bags of loose tea
envelope with parking receipts
form from eye doctor
photo album (to keep my coupons organized)

Kristina thought I should also mention that I had one gum wrapper, a Hershey's miniature wrapper and a paper clip in there as well along with an excessive number of tampons (all of which did not make it into the picture).

Finally, this is what you get when a pen explodes in your purse and it will be a lesson to me in not carrying your colleague's pen that doesn't have a cap.

What's in your purse or bag?

Things I heard today...

As I was walking to and from my classes today I heard the following:

1. "Dude, really, she was hanging out with a bucket all night."

2. Student #1: "Hey I need to apologize to you for last night."  Student #2: "Last night?  No you don't.  I don't remember anything from last night!"

3. "You wouldn't even believe it, I was @!*#ed up!"

And when I got to my sociology class and many of them were missing I asked, "where are all your friends today?"  The response was, "probably in bed, apparently there was some big party last night!"  To which I replied, "yeah, I know" and it freaked them all out.  When they asked how I knew I simply said, "How? Powers of observation and inductive reasoning - look it up it will be on your test."  I got a smile from most of them.

Gram-chat

This is what pops up most nights around 10pm on my computer.  My 85 year old gramma has a web-camera and so each night before she goes to bed she calls to say hello and to see what I've been up to -- it's a portion of the night that I've been calling "Gram-chat".  Sometimes there are guests on "gram-chat" like my aunts or cousins, my parents, or her sister, but most nights it's gram and Uncle Scott.  She is a big proponent of the web-camera and told me that she thinks it would be ideal for "those people who are in lonely hearts clubs" so they could see who they were chatting with without having to meet them in person. Gotta love the techno-gramma!

Well, that's one way to meet the neighbors!

So I was working from home, was getting ready to take out the trash and heard a loud crash outside near the house -- which I thought could quite possibly be my air conditioner falling out of the window - probably impossible but I worry about it nonetheless.  It was actually a piece of the neighbor's dead tree falling on the power lines to my house ripping the line to the meter from the house and dragging the power lines across the road - notice how it also fell right across the trash.

One of the neighbors called 911 -- it took the police about 30 minutes and another call to the non-emergency  number to arrive (apparently it was shift change time), I called the power company who told me they would put in an order but the lines to the house weren't their responsibility -- even if they were live wires -- they showed up after about 90 minutes.  By the end we had the police fire department, phone, power and cable companies all represented along with various neighbors who came out to watch the drama -- I live in a pretty uneventful neighborhood.  The most amusing was young girl (maybe 10 or 11) wearing pink pants, a pink shirt with a picture of Nerds the candy and a pink fedora.  She was assessing the situation and giving updates to anyone new who came out.  She also took it upon herself to write thank you notes (and took them around for us to sign) to give to the police and firefighters who were there which I thought was very thoughtful of her. 

In the end they had to turn off the power until the landlords could get an electrician to hook the lines back up to the house.  I packed up the freezer and fridge and headed to a friends to be cool for the night and to have power to do my hair int he morning - and at the very least I had to save my opened jam! 

When I got back this morning the power was on - although it looks more like a temporary fix (which may or may not be legal) rather than a permanent one.  You can decide for yourself from the pictures below.

Jammin' Friday

Since I had berries from last weekend's adventure in Maine, I decided to make jam.  I've never made jam but thought that 10:30 on a Friday night seemed like a good time to do so - it was cool, I had the supplies, so why not.  As of this morning it looked okay -- I have no idea how it might taste or whether or not it set up right -- I've decided to wait until tonight to open one to test it out.

The ingredients for my Triple Berry Jam:
2 1/2 c. crushe strawberries
1 1/2 c. crushed raspberries
1 c. crushed blackberries
7 c. sugar
1 box powdered pectin

I should have took pictures along the way, but I didn't so you just get the final product -- 4oz. jars of jam 20 in all -- anyone want some jam?!

A Summer Saturday in Maine

That's right the Banjos and Brastraps duo are back together this weekend in Maine for a summer Saturday!  After a series of subtle and somewhat blatant hints about coming up to see the wildness that is Kristina's garden, Carrie crawled through Boston rush hour late Thursday night to arrive in the balmy foothills of Western ME [That's "Maine" for those of you who don't know your state abbreviations.  Its ok, we still love you] where the temp that evening was in the mid-50s.

Friday's adventures included a trip to Frost's Antiques where I found a hinge for my porch windows that I'm in the process of refinishing.  Let's not talk any more about that project right now.  Ah hem... we then took a leisurely drive to Gardiner ME - after driving through semi-conjested traffic in downtown Farmington because apparently it was "Summer Fest" in town.  There were people all over the place - Carrie notes: "there were more people in town then I've ever seen in Farmington!" and then proceeded to note that the one weekend that something big was going on, I was taking her on an out-of-town adventure.

We met up with our buddy Jordan for lunch (who is a new Pastor w/the Methodist church - at some point we'll probably be reporting on "Party at the Pastors" since he's got new digs near the ocean).  I decided it was time for Carrie to visit the A1 Diner, which is fairly famous in foodie circles.  It carries local food, everything is homemade and you can find everything from a hamburger made of local organic beef to funky Asian dishes w/tofu or a Mediterranean Tajeen (sp?).  Jordan had a blue cheese burger, Carrie had mac-n-cheese and peas (Carrie notes: "not together"), I had blackbean and sweet potato chili with a side of homemade, homecut fries.  If it was a little later in the day we would of had beers but we were onto a shopping adventure at Chez Reny's and then Target. 

Later that day ....

I was in the process of making hamburgers, fresh yellow wax beans from my garden and sliced cucumber from Gretchen and Ruth's garden when Ruth called.  She had put in a 12 hour day working on a report (she is a fluvial geomorphologist), she needed me to come get her and take her to get her pick-up truck so we could be successful on our Saturday morning adventure - and - she might be out of gas.  So after dinner I grabbed what gas I had for the snow blower, Carrie and I hopped in the car and went and got Ruth.  We finished with that around 10pm, went and got our own gas and then when we returned home, I gathered my morning outfit together and had a wee bit of wine as I was getting nervous for my first time playing 'catch and toss the chicken'.

For the next four and one-half hours I had crazy dreams including one where I was surrounded by chickens going "Oh NO, I can't do this, I'm totally letting Ruth down!", to waking up two or three times worried that I was going to oversleep.  But, the alarm rang at 5, I quietly moved about the house putting on my carharts, worn 'work' MGFD (that's Maple Grove Fire Department) sweatshirt, work gloves and worn-out smokey the bear ball cap on while Carrie slept soundly for ten hours.

It was an absolutely beautiful, sleepy, coffee-filled morning.  As I was leaving my house the sun was starting to rise but I could still see the moon clearly in what was left of the night sky.  It was cool out and quiet.  By the time I got to Ruth and Gretchen's house, the sun was up and all kinds of wonderful colors and light was filling the sky - yet there was a bit of a feeling of uncertainty as we got ready to gather the chickens.  {Carrie says I'm being too wordy so I'll move it along} - we basically took the chickens out of the outside cage (aka 'chicken tractor') they were in and gently tossed them into the back of the pick-up truck.  Only one managed to get past us so we ran around the yard a bit but I did not freeze up as in my dream.  It was a little difficult but ok once we just focused on what our task was.  We drove about 25 minutes to the processing place which was very interesting and I won't share those details (it was humane) and it was a powerful experience.

When I got back home, I worked in the garden until Carrie got up - she's bringing home some yellow wax beans & patty pan squash from her adventures.  Later that day we happened to find some blackberries at a friends' house nearby who happen to be out of the country right now (thanks!). We walked

to town and had some gelato at the new Wicked Gelato store and then came home.

Tonight we decided to stay put, have a nice dinner of chicken speedies (but not chicken from today's adventure) and relax.

Best misheard comment of the day: "How long do you want to marry Nate the Chicken?"

C is for Crayons, Curdled Milk and Carnies

For the past few days I have been on vacation with my sister, Stephanie, and her family at Sesame Place -- more on all the fun we had there in another post and pictures too -- I forgot my camera so I have to get them from my sister.

Yesterday we headed back to Geneva, but on the way made a side trip to the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA.  The girls had fun playing with model magic, crayons, markers, and paint.  They made lots of fun projects and got some free crayons and markers to take with them.  We also made a squished penny as a souvenir.

After riding in the car and getting almost to Binghamton, Abby (the almost 2 year old) began puking in the car -- mostly curdled milk and french fries -- pleasant I know.  My sister and brother-in-law cleaned her and the car seat up on the side of the road (I wasn't much help in that department so I entertained the children) and we headed on our way to a rest stop to stretch (and air out the car).  The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we made it back safely.

When I got back to Geneva I rested for an hour and then went with my brother and his family to the Hemlock Fair.  We waded through the mud, saw a tractor pull (the highlight of my nephew's evening) and some animals, rode the rides and played some games.  We entertained ourselves with a lot of people watching - and there were some good ones!  I think the best would be a family of three who stopped to talk with Lesley and myself while my brother and nephew were on the giant slide.  It was a mom, son and daughter.  All three came out of a dark muddy spot by one of the barns.  The son was about 12 or 13, was tall and lanky had on overalls and no shoes.  The daughter was about 5 or 6 had a vacant stare on her face and was carrying a lantern that she kept holding to her face while smiling strangly at us.  The mom was commenting on the animals we were holding from one of the games and said she would give them all to Goodwill.  At this comment the daughter held up her lantern and laughed -- weird!  I also got hit on by a carnie while riding the balloon ride with my nephew.  He was asking if I was his older 21 year old sister -- my nephew of course said yes because he had no idea what the guy was asking and just wanted to get on with the ride.  The guy kept talking to me and emphasizing that I was at least 21 -- maybe he was in trouble for talking to people under 21?  As he walked away my nephew looked at me and said "What was that guy talking about?"  So that was my day -- started in Pennsylvania with crayons and ended in New York with the carnies...what a day!

Stolen?

This is the registration sticker from Kenny the rental car that we used while Consuela was in time out due to her temper-ature tantrum in VA. 

Good thing we didn't do anything to get pulled over or we may have been in a whole heap of trouble!

road trip recap (uno)

Meals: $162.58

Souvenirs: $1,203 (rental car + new radiator for non-rental car)

Tolls: $60

Spending 8 days in the car with your BFF: priceless


Having safely arrived back in Wollaston - we are in the process of catching up on our posts. This post has three parts titled: "things that suck", "things that don't suck" and "essential questions".

part one: things that suck

108 degrees outside while dealing with a cracked radiator in 4th of July traffic on I64 in Newport News VA

vaccuum cleaners

cash only establishments that fix cars

wideload trucks

rainbow twizzlers

Connecticut

a 93 degree apartment

traffic

people with straws

part two: things that don't suck

the Zingraff Thomas family, the Ryan Clan, the Pulliam family, the Waldron Koloff collective and the McKenna Egbert family.

Listening to the Boss sing "Born in the USA" in NJ

shimmy shake shimmy shake

cherry twizzlers

a personal bag carrying sherpa

a personal drink sherpa

free meals (and complementary adult beverages)

pop-up books

curious children

neighborhood 4th of July parades

The Deadliest Catch ( just to be clear this is on KBWs list not CLCs)

free laundry (but "Free Willy" sorta sucks)

Richard (aka 'Dick') the Tom Tom (except when he wouldn't shut up - then he goes in the other category)

part three: essential questions

What, do you think I'm stupid?

What's a footlocker?

Why do you think you don't see any of my college friends here?

Is ice a condiment?

What ring is your hand on?


And lastly:

A Banjos & Brastraps Game

Throughout the trip there have been several interesting things said -- can you guess who said what - Carrie or Kristina?

If you say that one more time I'll hit you in the head with this GPS! (that's an easy one if you read the blog)
I don't care where you stop, I just need to get out of this car!
What would you do if I threw up all over you?
What would you do if I cut off your head?
Who would put BBQ pig on an Acura?
Just in case you are a little sleepy, the speed limit is 65 and you're only going 60.
What would you do if I fell asleep at the wheel?
After you climb over the front seat, how do you get back?
Consuela needs a time out!

Are you going to stay up with us all night?
If by all night you mean until 11pm then count me in!

A 2 cent raise again?
For what?
Stamps.
That’s why I buy the forevers.
Yeah, but they’re ugly.
I don’t care, I’m not getting jacked around by the post office.

We're HOT -- but not in a good way!

After leaving Norfolk, we headed to Fairfax Station, VA to see one of Kristina’s friends from when she was an undergraduate back in MN many moons ago. The traffic was horrendous and Consuela (the Saab) decided that she needed a break from all the travels and I watched with alarm as the temperature gauge went up. After pulling off the highway we used our 1/2 jug of water to try to cool the car down which worked for about 10 minutes. We considered buying coolant, but decided it wasn’t the right kind and tried to continue to Pep Boys. When the TomTom tried to make us get back on the highway we pulled into the Citgo/Piggi Mart to see what they thought and to strategize the next move. The folks at PRS Auto Repair said there was a hole in the radiator and that it would take at least $550 to fix it and not until Wednesday and they would need $350 in cash to even begin - at this point Kristina said "Remember Suze Orman said there'd be days like this". Needless to say we called the Saab hotline and found a dealer 9 miles away and made our way there. As we pulled into the dealership Consuela was very hot and angry and even lit up her ! sign to warn us that she was not happy. So arriving safely we left her there to be fixed and continued on our journey with Kenny the rental Chevy Cavalier. Hopefully Consuela will enjoy hanging out with her peeps at the Saab dealer and will be better soon. We made ourselves feel better by getting ½ price Cherry Limeades at Happy Hour at the local Sonic – yum – although they didn’t give us any cherries in the drink which bummed us out.

A Tale of 2 July 4th Celebrations

We celebrated the 4th in both Cary, NC and Norfolk, VA. After waking up at Kim and Drew's house, we went to a celebration sponsored by the social committee in the Cary, NC neighborhood we were staying in that day. The celebration was in the cul-de-sac with a kiddie parade, ice cream and tattoos - our friend Kim is head of the social committee. Kristina was in charge of working the crowd and I was in charge of placing the patriotic tattoos on the crowd. Below is a picture of Kristina with her new friend Rose.

After that we headed off to Norfolk, VA to see Linda, Chris and Ella Rea. At this celebration we went to a neighborhood picnic where the locals were playing corn hole. We brought Ella Rea some tattoos from the other party -- here she is with them and her Cars pjs.

better than pop-tarts or cheerios

We forgot to note our fabulous breakfast at Le Farm Bakery today. We highly recommend this cafe in Cary NC. We both had a dish with the word 'Madame' in the title. It consisted of homebaked bread, ham, gruiere and two fried eggs on top - very fresh and yummy.

ps. Mardi Gras

Chez Ryan

We've been having a grand time with the Ryans and other pals in the Raleigh-Apex-Sanford NC area.

Carrie with Lee Anne and Tia after dinner at Daniels

One of the highlights yesterday was having yummy local ice cream - between the four of us we had mint chocolate chip, coffee, black cherry and coconut nut. Clearly we're on vacation since the first thing I'm noting is food. Oh, and the weather is totally beautiful here right now.

Kristina with David and Lucy

In addition to all this visiting, we have multiple new phrases to shout out - here's the story of two of them.

We were hanging out with a few of our friends as one of their Mom's is ill and they were telling us a story about the impact of the meds and her illness on her mind. When she was in the hospital she was halucinating a little bit and one night was singing. The songs are all church songs - she's been singing in the same choir for a long time. While she was singing she suddenly stopped and shouted "Kenny!" and then kept singing. Of course my friend was confused as they don't know anyone named Kenny. We weren't sure if this was the Kenny on South Park but guess it's probably someone different.

She kept singing and then just stopped and started knitting (mind you she didn't have anything to knit with). This went on for a short while and then she started singing again. Sometime later she stopped and talked about needing to go help one of her daughters - in a very concerned way. This was a little distressing to my friend but she felt better when her Mom relaxed and returned to singing. As things settled down her Mom suddenly shouted in a very excited way: Mardi Gras!!!

Of course we couldn't resist randomly shouting Mardi Gras in the middle of our conversation that evening and sometime over dinner my friend just blurted out: "Balloon Boy". Needless to say we are now adopting these two phrases to intersperse (sp?) throughout our conversations.

Today Carrie is going to the wedding which prompted this whole gypsy adventure. We also leave Chez Ryan for another sweet friends' home just down the road from us. I am going to [shout here: Balloon Boy!] do some work while she's at the wedding and perhaps pop into a bookstore.

Clearly not too much to report except having fun with [time to yell: Mardi Gras! here] friends, eating good food and relaxing a bit.

Future post to look forward to which we guarantee is way more [Balloon boy!] interesting than this one: "Musings of a Four-Year Old".

Ailment update: in addition to new bruises from running into things at friends' houses, the poison ivy is growing and now a cold sore has started.

ta ta for now "Mardi Gras!"

We made it!

After numerous hours in the car, several changes of control over the music, and a night in VA with the Zingraff-Thomas family, we made it to NC. So far on the trip here are some things that we have learned:

1. You should always eat somewhere with truthful advertising - we may check this out later to rate it's yumminess...




2. If you have an ugly roof with stains there is a company out there that can help you regain your status in the neighborhood --- roofshampoo.com

3. If you turn the seat warmer on because it's cold when you leave you should try to remember to turn it off when it starts to get warm -- otherwise your BFF might think she's having a hot flash when it's 85 degrees outside and she is now sitting in the seat - which I have to admit was pretty darn funny.

4. Some states take refreshments more seriously than others, the picture below is one where we feel they hit the mark --




5. Chick-fil-a did not in fact buy out all the Panera Bread restaurants in an evil plot to get us lost everytime we looked for one.
And finally ..
6. In the great Mt. Jackson demolition derby when you pit a Saab against a rock wall -- the Saab can make it out alive with only a minor bumper scratch.

i wanna get on the road.....

we got people waiting for us for dinner, if you type this into that blog i'm going to kick you under the table.

help! i'm being assaulted at panera bread somewhere near Richmond VA - send an ambulance or beer or something.....

{"you shouldn't put that on the internet, someone might think you're serious or something" - insert heavy impatient sigh here}

I stand (well actually, sit) corrected.

So the mighty Dr. C. returned from teaching her last class of the summa' and corrected my minor errors on the first blog.

1. The place we went to is the Dairy FREEZE not Dairy Treat (as is found in Minnesota). As a good sociologist, she of course provided evidence for her claim (notice foto on right).

Dairy treat is very different. I looked for a picture but couldn't find one. I did find a picture of one of the butter head sculptures that happen at the Great Minnesota State Fair every year. Princess Kay of the Milky Way and her court get their heads sculpted in butter. When the fair is over they get to keep them and offen the butter is consumed at some kind of big deal picnic or something.

2. The quote was actually (and this is better than what I posted - really, it is - just let us know what you think): "The ice cream is melting and running down my thigh."

3. There we some random grammar things but she's making dinner and I want to go back to working and watching the "Deadliest Catch" while I still have access to cable.

Assuming we have access to internet, more will follow at some point.

Snack list update: in addition to pretzels, carrots, an apple, some cheese & ham something, yummy organic cheese crackers, honey candy, trail mixes and some other stuff, we now have vanilla sugar wafers and twizzlers. We'll be able to get to VA just powered on the sugar alone. Good thing we're having tofu spring rolls for dinner.