New England Expatriates

We Live in the City Now

2011-03-22T14:22:00.004-04:00

I just saw that one of my favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie, is playing at a small venue in the city. Then I saw that it's on the same day as a wedding we're attending in Maine. And that got me to thinking...we really live in the city now. I mean, we've been here for more than six years, but it just occurred to me today that our schedules have finally adjusted to our new reality. In the past, our summer calendar was full of concerts -- most of my time off from my 9-5 job was scheduled for concert trips (and, later, low residency sessions for grad school).

It would be easy to see it as just a consequence of getting older: more friends getting married, fewer concerts we want to travel for. But I think it's more a happy circumstance of living in the city. We don't have to travel to see bands anymore. We don't even really have to plan ahead -- there's so much going on all the time, and we have friends in bands, and Philly is almost always a tour stop for our favorite bands. If we don't see somebody this year, maybe they'll be back on the next tour.

Plus, after decades of going to shows, the urgency has receded a little bit. I've seen almost every (living) band I've ever wanted to see, at least once, and although I want to see many of them again and again, I don't HAVE to. In fact, a lot of things have changed -- the music industry is completely different. The wealth of bands available makes it harder for me to focus and become a dedicated fan. Concert ticket prices are so ridiculous and cellphone-brandishing fans are so annoying that I tend to go see smaller bands now.

But I think in spite of all that, we'd still regularly be driving three or five hours to see live shows if we still lived in Maine. The biggest change is in the way Luke and I plan our lives. We schedule trips home and trips for weddings because we no longer live near our family and friends. That's kind of sad. However, we go to concerts whenever we feel like it, and my fourteen-year-old self couldn't have imagined anything better than that.

Culture Vulture

2011-03-01T13:11:00.004-05:00

Lately I've had a seemingly-endless appetite for art in all forms. Performances, movies, books, visual art, everything. I've been taking it in, making connections in my head, and wishing I had more people to talk to about it, or a specific venue in which to discuss it. Lucas shares many of my preoccupations, but not all, and we don't always consume the same things. I've also been happy to have facebook, but that small space for updates is like the shallow end of a pool that should have many different depths. I've been thinking that if I were at this point twenty years ago, I would have made a pretty good arts reviewer, and I think I would have loved doing it. Now, though, the internet has changed the reviewing game. But I don't want to just bemoan the fact that if everyone is doing it, it doesn't seem to matter whether I add my voice as well. I believe that art and the ability to make art and comment on it should be available to everyone, even if that might make it harder (in some ways) for me to make a career in the arts.

I don't know if I really would make a good reviewer, anyway. I'm not really interested in being a critic -- I want to make things and celebrate other people who make things. I want to share my enthusiasms. So all this is to say: expect some new pieces over at http://sundaymorningreviews.blogspot.com/

At the Eye Hospital

2010-07-10T14:06:00.002-04:00

Taped to the side of a letter tray on the receptionist’s desk is a copy of the Workman’s Prayer, printed in rainbow ink. It’s pretty, and I tell her so. You need it around here, she says. In the first exam room, the nurse checks my eyes with contacts in and then out. Then she asks me to follow her. I want to ask how far, but I don’t – I just try to follow closely enough to see where she’s going. She leaves me in a second waiting room, where I dig in my bag for my glasses. A woman in a bright orange dress and head wrap is walking up and down the hallway. When a nurse asks her if she needs help, she says no, she’s just afraid of heights, and we’re on the twelfth floor. I’m not afraid of heights, but when she says that, I look out the wide windows at the Old City rooftops, and I do feel a little light – not dizzy, but almost.

I’m called into another examining room, this one with low light. I close the door behind me, against the waiting room. The doctor takes my glasses and puts them somewhere. He checks my eyes with bright lights and then says he wants to dilate them. I lean my head back for drops, he wipes the excess off my cheeks with a tissue. I’ll be back when you’re dilated, he says, and then he goes, leaving the door open. I don’t know where my glasses are. I don’t know how long it will take for my eyes to dilate. I look down at my hands, pink earthworms. My red hair elastic like a gash on my wrist. In the lobby, the movement of a black ponytail swinging against blue scrubs. A blob of a foot bobs, moves up to scratch a leg. I hear people speaking Spanish and the pages of magazines turning. The doctor comes back and tells me I have tiny scratches on my corneas, common with contact wearers. He says if I had come into the emergency room, he would have put me on antibiotic eye drops, four times a day, and told me not to wear my contacts for a week. The head doctor comes in and confirms it -- no contacts until the antibiotics have run their course.

My grandmother sent me money for contacts as an eighth-grade graduation present. The day I got the check was one of the happiest of my life. I had already worn glasses for six years by then. The day I got my glasses had been a happy day, too; my mom took me to Dunkin Donuts after, and we sat at the counter to eat. I kept twirling on my stool to see out the big front windows. Everything was suddenly crisp and new. Either I'd never known or had forgotten that all the world could be so detailed. But my joy at having glasses diminished as I got older. I was clumsy and awkward, always getting hit in the face with some kind of ball. By the end of junior high I had started dreaming about paddling our canoe out into the middle of the lake, where the water was 90 feet deep, dropping my glasses and letting them sink away forever. When I called my grandmother to thank her for the money, I was so excited and chirpy that she didn't recognize my voice. I had to put my mom on the phone to explain.

Now, as I leave the dark examining room, my glasses slide down my nose, and I have to keep pushing them up. I only ever wear them in the familiar environment of my apartment. I can't remember wearing glasses for a full day since I got my contacts. If I have to wear them for a week, I’ll need to adjust them somehow, get new stems. The glasses shop is only one floor down, so I decide to take the stairs. But when I get into the concrete stairwell, I realize that the door has locked behind me. The ninth-floor door is locked, too. I try not to panic as I go down the stairs, one floor and then another until I reach the roof level of the parking garage. I think about going out, but am afraid I’ll get stuck out there somehow, and the sun is baking hot, 100 degrees on the ground.

The stairwell feels hotter and hotter the farther I go down, and then finally I come out through an emergency door onto the street. The sunlight is so bright that I can hardly keep my eyes open. It’s like a recurring dream I have, when something fun is happening, like skating on the lake or talking to my parents on the porch of my their house, but it’s too bright to see. In the dream, I have to squint and shade my eyes with my hand, and still the light gets whiter and brighter.

On Walnut Street, I creep through sun and shadows, afraid of every streetlight, with no peripheral vision to see the cars turning left through the crosswalks. In the past few months I’ve missed the early days of living in the city, when I felt alert to everything. This is a new way of seeing, but everything is blurred, distorted, and I feel drugged. I blunder along toward la Colombe, on Rittenhouse, where I will meet my writing group. Ten blocks to go. My glasses slide down, I push them up. I should just go home, but I want to see my friends. I want to pretend I don’t know that every day could be like this.

Memorial Day Wedding/Camping Trip

2010-06-01T10:25:00.015-04:00

Last weekend we went to Maine for Luke's cousin's wedding at Sugarloaf. We had a few complicating factors, like the long drive and the fact that I was sick. But we went, and we were both glad we did.

At 10 PM on Friday night, we left for Maine. We got as far as Balmville, NY, where we stayed in a cheap hotel ($55) for about six hours. It was a good spot -- not as far as we'd normally like to get, but not bad.

On Saturday we left the hotel at 7:30 AM. Luckily we didn't hit much traffic on the road, and we didn't have to stop much. Once we got into Maine, it was a pretty drive to Sugarloaf. The wedding was at 4. We changed our clothes in a gas station bathroom at about 3:20. I wasn't thrilled with the way I looked in my basic black dress, but I did wear a necklace that was in with my grandmother's costume jewelry -- sparkly cut glass beads. And I carried a black owl print Vera Bradley bag my friend Shannon had given me, so I looked kind of coordinated. I had to clean my earrings with hand sanitizer in the car, though, because the necklace was so bright that it showed how dirty the earrings were.

So, miraculously, traffic wasn't bad and the drive went smoothly, and we got to the wedding on time. It was in the chapel at the base of the mountain.

The bride's grandmother played the piano and her mother sang. The bride and groom wrote their own vows. My favorite moment was when the minister had the bride and groom turn and look at their families and then at the mountain behind us. With their eyes turned up toward the mountain, they looked hopeful and joyful and I had no doubt that they were perfect for each other.

(I also liked the bridesmaids' black dresses and hot pink high heels, and all the little details like the paper runner printed with the bride and groom's initials, and the packets of tissues in the pews.)

The bride and her family (and probably the groom and his family as well) had put a lot of time into planning this wedding, and as a result it was very well-organized. We went from the chapel to a room with tall tables and an open bar. I assume the wedding party went off to take pictures, but there was no awkwardness involved with that. They were whisked away, and we were entertained.

We all hung out and ate appetizers (bacon-wrapped scallops and shrimp with cocktail sauce) and picked up our table assignments. There were more than 200 guests. After an hour or so, we were led into another room (I think it was Sugarloaf's Widowmaker Lounge, and if not, it was the room next door), which was decorated beautifully. Each table had a different black and white picture of the bride and groom. Everything was black and white, with a few dashes of hot pink. We sat down and the wedding party was announced. Then the bride and groom made the rounds at the tables while salads and delicious bread were served. Between the salads and the main course was a slideshow of pictures of the bride and groom throughout their lives, and then together.

After dinner, our attention was directed to the bride and groom cutting the cake (which the bride's aunt made -- it tasted like a chocolate-covered cherry). And then the dancing started, and it was good dancing. The bride eventually changed into a shorter wedding dress with very high-heeled hot pink shoes. The groom got up and said he'd had enough "liquid courage" to sing -- the story was that their first date was to a Chinese restaurant with a karaoke bar, and the song he'd sung that night was "Jack and Diane". We were ready for a cringey performance, but the groom actually had a great voice. That was my favorite moment of the reception.

(I also appreciated the candy buffet, with buckets and plastic shovels for the M&Ms.)

I think everyone had a great time -- the dancing really didn't stop. Best songs: "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Sexy Back", "Poker Face" (I'm on a Lady Gaga kick lately, and we only heard "Telephone" once in the car), and three Michael Jackson songs (but I was somewhat disappointed that Morgan didn't remember the whole "Thriller" dance). Best dance move: Spike's "ice auger" with Luke setting traps behind him. I dread the dancing pictures that will inevitably be posted on facebook, but I don't regret having a great time.

The open bar didn't close until 10 PM, and we all stayed until about midnight. Some of the family members had rooms at the hotel on the mountain, but we had decided to stay at a campground with Luke's dad and stepmom and his brother and his brother's girlfriend, and her parents.

I changed in the car on the way to the campground -- I was ready to be in comfy clothes again. I had made it through the wedding and reception, but I really wasn't feeling good. My nose and throat were clogged. Travis and Kayla let us crash in their tent while they slept in Kayla's parents' RV that night.

* * *

The next morning, Luke and his dad and Travis got up early to go fishing. I woke up feeling absolutely horrible -- there was so much pollen, all the cars were dusted yellow. I took some Sudafed and went back to sleep for a few hours, and I woke up feeling a little better. Luke's sister Kelly and her boyfriend Bill came over and hung out with us all day. It was great to spend some time with them.

Camping was what it should be -- eating a lot of bacon and sausage and hamburgers and fruit salad and a ham that Kayla's mom slow-cooked on the grill all day. Drinking some wine and some kind of slushy drink. Knitting -- I had started a ribbed hat in the car with a ball of red merino wool, and I worked on that on and off all weekend.

The campground, Cathedral Pines, is beautiful. I loved the way the tops of the tall pines waved in the breeze. It was car camping, and the place was fully booked for Memorial Day weekend, but the other people didn't seem obtrusive. The whole place had a nice, friendly atmosphere.

Here's the Green Monster under the pines:

In the afternoon we drove to a nearby mountain to see a row of windmills that had recently been built there. It was spooky to stand under one of the windmills. When you look up at it, it looks like it's falling toward you -- some trick of the eye. You can see the shadow of the blades moving over the trees behind it, and hear the whirring along with the wind.

It was a nice, relaxed day that went too quickly. After dinner, we walked down to the water, where there was a view of the mountains. Kelly instructed us on the best way to make s'mores (hint: it's a two-person job), and then she and Bill had to head home.

Later that night we drove to a salt shed and saw a moose, which was good, because seeing a moose was high on my list of things to do this weekend. It got down on its front knees like a camel to drink from a puddle. We watched for a while, then checked a couple of other places, but that was the only moose we saw, so we went back to the campsite. We hated to end the day, but everyone was tired.

* * *

The next morning we had more bacon and sausage and pancakes. Luke and I walked back over to the waterfront to take some pictures.

I would recommend the campground to anyone -- we discovered rec rooms for adults and kids (I thought it was funny that the bookshelves are divided into Ladies' and Men's), and there are canoes and paddleboats to rent, as well as free showers and flushable toilets. I could comfortably spend a week or even a month there.

Luke and I got on the road around 11, but quickly detoured -- I really wanted to walk around at Sugarloaf in the daytime. I like inactive ski lifts the same way I like inactive fair rides -- there's something kind of cool and spooky about them that I can't quite pinpoint.

Our next stop was in Farmington. There's a hippie store there called Liquid Sunshine that I've always loved. I first went there in college when I visited friends who went to UMaine Farmington, and then always tried to stop on my way down Route 2 to Goddard. I bought a skirt and a string of beads and bells and a couple of purple "creativity" candles that smell good, whether they promote creativity or not. We also got some good Dunkin (it's always better in New England) and looked for fiddleheads at the local market. We had to try three more places, but we finally managed to get a couple of pounds of fiddleheads at a Hannaford store. We also bought Humpty Dumpty BBQ chips and a twelve-pack of Gritty's beer.

A friend had told us about a place called Roy's that had good hamburgers and batting cages. We stopped there for lunch, and I had a lobster roll on a toasted hamburger bun. The food was cheap and the place reminded us of Jordan's Snack Bar (a very good thing). Luke went through a couple of rounds of pitches in the batting cage.

By then we were really pushing it for time, and we had to get in the car and make some progress. Our last stop was at the New Hampshire liquor store, where we stocked up on almost a case of wine. It's always fun to go there. I could smell the ocean from the parking lot, and Luke kept insisting that he smelled smoke. Later we heard that there were wildfires burning in Canada.

The drive home was long, of course, but we were lucky not to run into too much traffic. We couldn't find the Flyers game on the radio, but we did listen to an interesting Mets/Padres blowout. I like the Mets announcers.

We could smell jasmine as we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania. I never noticed that before, but we could definitely smell it, dark and mysterious in the warm woods.

As we pulled into our street at 2AM, "Jack and Diane" was playing. A fitting end to a good weekend.

A Leaky Boat

2010-05-28T02:35:00.023-04:00

It's a rough night here at the Treeboat. I got a couple of "heads up" text messages from L while I was at the Story Slam: maintenance had needed to go into our apartment to fix a water leak affecting our downstairs neighbors. I heard water dripping earlier in the day, but only half-investigated -- everything seemed fine in my office, where I thought I heard the drip.

So I expected to come home to a torn-apart apt., because there's no way you can get to the utility section without wading through a bunch of stuff on the floor of my office. Luckily, there was no sign that maintenance people had come in, just a note on the door saying they needed us to call them and not lock the deadbolt. I quickly figured out that the water was dripping into the utility closet from the air conditioner, so I put a mixing bowl under it and worked on cleaning up my office for when they inevitably come in tomorrow. I have way too much stuff in that office, and lately, in spite of my organizing efforts (mostly done in short spurts after watching episodes of Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC), it's not looking too good.

LukeGyver came home and fixed the leaking problem (temporarily) with a paperclip. But I'm guessing we should keep the AC off until tomorrow, and here's where part of the trouble lies: I've had a cold all week, but it seemed like it might partly be allergies, because the chest congestion originally appeared when I was rooting around in the back of the closet under the stairs, stirring up a lot of dust. I started to lose my voice yesterday, but the cold has mostly been mild and only slightly annoying. Until tonight. I went to bed at about 12:30 and woke up at 2, feeling terrible. I think the cold is intensified by plant/pollen allergies from having all the upstairs windows open. So I was coughing and miserable.

To get away from the open windows, and keep from bothering L too much with the coughing, I came downstairs to sleep on the loveseat. Well, one problem with that is that the downstairs neighbor apparently has a really loud friend over. They're starting to settle down now, at 2:45, but they were really yelling back and forth to each other earlier. Another problem is that it's a loveseat, not a couch, and certainly not as comfortable as a bed.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to sleep soon, because now it looks like tomorrow will involve maintenance people coming into the apt., something we go out of our way to avoid. This is complicated by many things: the sickness; the fact that next week is the last week of classes, so I have a bunch of work to do; and the fact that we're going to Maine tomorrow.

Couldn't Resist it Twice...

2010-05-07T17:37:00.006-04:00

Fitler Square is a park I usually walk through on my way to work. Today I was surprised to see that their Spring Festival had started, and there were white tents filled with flea market stuff all around and through the park.

Well, I managed not to buy anything on my first walk through (even though I saw a plastic Ewok I remember wanting in 1985).

But on the way back, I thought it would be okay to look because I didn't have much cash on me. Here's what I got before I went to the ATM:

Booth one
The Sailor's Return, A Christmas Letter by A.M. Hopkins. It doesn't have a date, but I'd say maybe 1915-1925. $2

The Tale of the Enchanted Bunnies, illustrated by Ruth Sawyer. First edition, 1923. $5
You're Entertaining: A Handbook on Party-Giving for the Young Hostess. 1963, $1

A painted nesting Easter egg, old-looking but I'm not sure how old. $2

Book Booth
Three books for two dollars each:
Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cookbook, 1971 (spiral-bound)
Betty Crocker's Do-Ahead Cookbook, 1972 (spiral-bound)
Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham (I hope it will be a guilty pleasure at Christmas, and not just annoy me by being terrible. The hardcover is in great shape.)

Fitler Square benefit booth
This is where I was getting a little shopaholic-y, but I picked up a cross-stitched Christmas scene, very subtle and pretty in two blues, for fifty cents. I'm into collecting people's handmade knitting or stitching or quilting lately, as long as it's not too tacky.

Booth with friendly old couple
This was my undoing. First, there was a shoebox full of Viewmaster stuff. The guy went down from $55 to $40, and I know it's worth a lot more than that, if you want to bother to sell the pieces (or get a friend to, which I plan to do). Four Viewmasters, two of which are very old (1940s, I think) and in original boxes, plus a big stack of reels. I'm mostly interested in the landscape Viewmasters, so I will go through and pick out the ones I want (maybe keeping one of the Viewmasters, although we have a few at my parents' house) and get our friend Alex to sell the rest on Ebay. I bought a few reels for $3 each at the Chicken Barn last summer, so I think it should be pretty easy to make my money back on the things I don't want.

Small vintage suitcase! This is actually what hooked me. The tag says it sailed on Parthia, Cunard Line. It's brown with a red handle and red and white stripe, and the inside is a little water-damaged but mostly very good. There's a piece of the cruise ship sticker on the front that says Liverpool. It's awesome, and was only $15. The antique shops charge way more than that for pieces that are in worse shape.

I went to the Thriftway on South Street to get some money from the ATM. Meanwhile, I was thinking about one more thing from the friendly old people's booth: a small, square leather photo album with pictures from the 1880s. I have pictures taken by my great-grandparents from around the same era, but I was caught by these pictures -- young people who all look like they're having a blast at the shore (much like my great-grandparents did). "I think they were having a good summer," the woman said, slightly wistfully, and we agreed that the album was beautiful, with an etching of a woman's face in profile and army green ties on one side. It had been marked down from 40 to 30, and she said $25 was her rock bottom because that's what she had paid for it. She had enjoyed it and was ready to pass it on, and was pleased that I would appreciate it.

So, although I really don't need any more vintage photos -- my family's collection is a lot to handle on its own -- we put it into an inside pocket of the suitcase and I lugged the whole bunch home.

I wasn't planning to spend that much money, but I can justify it. I hardly ever buy stuff anymore, and none of it will take up much room in the apt. It was a fun afternoon.

Story Slam

2010-03-13T08:44:00.004-05:00

Once a month, Painted Bride Quarterly hosts a written story slam at the Pen and Pencil Club. I always participate, but I'm never sure what to do with the pieces I write. They're so specific to that place and time, and though each might have been pretty good for the moment, they reveal themselves to be much rougher in the light of the next day. Some might be seeds for more polished pieces, but others will never be seen again unless I can use them in the venue of my Pictures of Lilies blog.

The story slam (which isn't really called a story slam -- that's just the best way to describe it) has specific rules. First a poet reads (this was not always the case, but is an experiment that's working well) for ten minutes. The audience pays attention to words and phrases in the poet's work, and then audience members call out these words and phrases when asked to do so. These become the prompts for writing. The first round prompt consists of a noun, verb, and adjective. The second round uses a theme. The third uses a line. Usually we're allowed five minutes to write (sometimes a little more), and then we can choose to get up and read our work. The audience votes/judges with applause, and winners get books, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. The best thing I've won was a CD of Richard Marx's album Repeat Offender. To see my Story Slam writing, go to:
http://picturesoflilies.blogspot.com/

Spring Break Visit cont.

2010-03-13T08:39:00.002-05:00

I'm keeping track of my steps with the Nintendo DS Walking pedometer and game. During the parents' visit, I walked:

Saturday 10,000 steps (18,448, but some were with the Sat. Schoolers before Mom and Dad got here)
Sunday 12,515
Monday 16,559
Tuesday 11,134

So, that's 50,208. The parents took different routes, but they probably walked the same distance, if not more.

Mom and Dad's Spring Break Visit

2010-03-11T10:37:00.007-05:00

Mom and Dad came to visit us this week. Here's a record of what we did.

They left a day early so they could go to the L.L. Bean store and stay over in New York. On Saturday they went to Ellis Island before getting back in the car to come to Philly. We'd had a week of grey weather, but suddenly it was Spring. Saturday was beautiful. They got here mid-afternoon. We unloaded the car and then miraculously found a parking spot pretty close to our apt.

Saturday
First we went to the Atlantic Books on South Street, which is unfortunately closing. All books there were half off. We walked down South Street to the new British football store (Covent Garden). It was still early, and we weren't quite ready for dinner yet, so we walked along the Delaware for a while before coming back to eat at the Artful Dodger. Dad and I had the cashew-crusted chicken and Mom had the tuna steak special. Mom had a Walt Wit beer and Dad and Luke had Hop Devil. That night we tried out the Wii and Dad got to play guitar for a while.

Sunday
We've lived here long enough and the parents have visited often enough to see all the "major" sights in Philly. Which is nice, because we could now explore some of the smaller things. Sunday was another beautiful day, so we set out walking toward Old City. We first happened upon the American Philosophical Society's Darwin exhibit. I really liked the collection of all the editions of Darwin's books, and I was also struck by his writing style. I'd like to read The Voyage of the Beagle sometime. Mom liked the way they had the museum set up with interesting activities for kids.

Then we went to Pine Street and sat in the churchyard in the sun while we waited for noon, when the Kosciuszko museum would open. The museum was fun -- I'd never been there before. It's very small and has a replica of Kosciuszko's room. Mom and I got our National Park passport books stamped.

We went to Zeke's for lunch/brunch. I had scrambled eggs with Nova lox and Dad had eggs benedict. Luke just had soup -- he was probably smart to pace himself.

We walked over to the Eyes Gallery (where they have lots of Mexican imported art -- Dad got some tiles and Mom got me an Easter Egg with a swan in it and I got a few beads) and then to Brickbat Books. I picked up an Easter book to put with the collection and Anne Sexton's Love Poems. Then we went to the City Tavern, where they let us sit with drinks on the porch. I had a raspberry shrub (Martha Washington's recipe) and Luke and Dad had Thomas Jefferson's 1774 Tavern ale. It was so nice to sit out in the nice weather and relax. The food smelled so good that we considered coming back for dinner, but the City Tavern is pretty expensive. I'd never been there before, but I'll definitely go back, for drinks if nothing else.

We meandered over to the Book Trader, where Dad got a couple of books, and then to the Ritz at the Bourse, where we saw the Oscar-nominated animated shorts. We thought they were okay overall (Luke and I thought not as good as last year) and we liked the Wallace and Gromit. We decided on dinner at the Mexican Post (the one in the Old City area). Finally, we went home and watched the Oscars while I did some machine translating work and Mom hemmed our curtains and sewed the buttons back on my corduroy peacoat.

Monday
Luke had to go to work all day and I had to work in the late afternoon. Mom and Dad decided to wander off on their own for a while and meet me for lunch. They went to Liberty Place, where Dad bought a jacket, and to Whodunit, where he got some John D. MacDonald books he hadn't read. We went back to Zeke's for lunch (where I had my usual bagel with Nova lox) and then walked back into Old City. Athenaeum had a neat architectural book exhibit. We also got to see more of the building, including Napoleon's brother's stuff. We went in the Curtis Building to see the mural, and then we had to go our separate ways again -- I went to work and Mom and Dad kept wandering.

After I got out of work we all met at Rangoon for dinner. On the way home we went to the Foodery to get some local beers. That night we watched a Beatles Anthology "episode" (really each of those episodes are full documentaries in their own right) and Dad played guitar. Then we played Wii a little more. I'm not sure I convinced them to get one, but I will enjoy seeing the parents' Miis running around in the background when we do the Wii Fit.

Tuesday
I had the day off, but Luke didn't. Dad got a coffee at Starbucks and then the parents and I took a taxi over to the Art Museum to see the Perelman Building. I was impressed by the fashion exhibit in honor of Tom Marotta. I've just been getting a little bit interested in fashion (more in making it than in wearing it) because of Project Runway, and it was interesting to see the signature styles of different contemporary designers. We were also impressed with the surreal/psychedelic Marcel Wanders: Daydreams exhibit, with a huge lamp and knitted chairs and interesting lighting.

We took the shuttle up to the Main Building. We hoped to find a lunch truck -- it was another beautiful day, and it would have been nice to eat lunch outside. But there were none close by, so we went to the museum cafe for lunch. The cafe has great food, so it worked out fine. I had very good mac and cheese and grilled vegetables and blackberry lemonade.

Then we got tickets for the Picasso exhibit.
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/354.html?page=2

I had renewed our membership at the Perelman Building, so one of the parents got in for free and then we used our free member Picasso tickets (although I'm hoping to be able to go back with Luke, too). I really liked the exhibit. Like Cezanne, the museum had set it up with lots of Picasso's contemporaries' works to show the cross-pollination and collaboration among them. I'm not sure which piece interested me most, but Dad liked "Chair with Gladiolus" (I couldn't track down a picture of it online).

and Mom liked a piece by Charles Sheeler called "Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting":

Because Lucas couldn't come, I got him a poster of "Three Musicians", which I knew he liked:

Mom and Dad also got the "Three Musicians" poster. We had had enough museum going, so after the gift shop and a quick run through the Philagrafika exhibit, we went out into the sun. We sat in the sculpture garden behind the museum for a little while, then went down to get a view of the boathouses. We walked along the shore path to the Race Street? entrance, and then headed back into the middle of the city. We stopped at Starbucks for coffee and a snack, and then went on to Rittenhouse. Lucas got out of work at about 5:30, and we met him for dinner at Monk's (where I'd never been). http://www.monkscafe.com/

Monk's is famous for its beer, in fact, it was called one of the "five best places in the world to have a beer"

Dad had Duvel Green and Cantillon Monk's Cuvee Gueuze, Luke had Duvel Green and Unibroue Ephemere, I had Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale, and Mom had an Allagash White. For dinner, Mom had the Trout Saison
(baked in Saison Dupont, cilantro garlic & spices); Luke and Dad had the chicken (which I can't find on the online menu); and I had the Monk's mussels (they're apparently known for the mussels, with mussels painted on the wall in the entryway) with Cantillon gueuze, garlic & parsley. The mussels come with pommes frites with bourbon mayonnaise. Dad also had the fries for an appetizer. The mayonnaise dipping sauce was delicious. Overall, I thought Monk's was great, and I hope we can go back soon. I don't think it will completely replace our standby Fergie's, but it's a good alternative.

We went back to the apt. (with a stop at the Foodery to look for Thomas Hardy ale on the way) and watched another Beatles episode, then Dad and Luke played guitar and Mom and I did some Wii skydiving and frisbee playing.

On Wednesday (yesterday) morning, the parents went home. I was sorry to see them go. It was another good visit, filled with adventures. I wish I hadn't had to work while they were here, but I don't think it disrupted things too much. Now I'm back to paper grading and eating at home and looking forward to their next visit.

Mom's Holiday Visit

2009-12-17T13:29:00.005-05:00

My mom came on Sunday, and we had a great visit together. On Sunday night we got dinner from Little Italy and watched football while I did some grading.

On Monday I did some grading in the morning and then we went all over the city -- Washington Square, the Curtis Building, the Visitor Center (I got her a National Parks passport, and we needed to get it stamped), the Money in Motion exhibit (so she could get some state quarters from the machine), Franklin Square, Reading Terminal (we shared jambalaya from the Cajun place), Macy's (the Dickens Village was a highlight. We also saw the light show.) We went to the Christmas Village and then to the Comcast building, where they give you 3-D glasses to see their Christmas special on the big screen. We went to Anthropologie and to Rittenhouse, then to dinner with Luke at Rangoon and then came home. We all watched Monday Night Football while I graded and Mom started knitting an elaborate cabled tree skirt from Handknit Holidays.

Dickens Village:

City Hall/Macy's:

Ceiling at Anthropologie:

On Tuesday morning I got up and did some grading while Mom ripped out the tree skirt (she didn't like the way it was coming out with the yarn I had). She started a pair of cabled socks for me. Then we got in the car and went over to the Drexel area, where we went to the bookstore and got a parking permit. On we went to the Brandywine Museum (where they had great kale/sausage/something else soup for lunch, and where we saw the Christmas trains exhibit, the doll collection, the Critters, and an Alice in Wonderland exhibit). (I love Andrew Wyeth's paintings so much. They create an instant calm for me while also inspiring me to write.) Then we went to Longwood Gardens. I had been there in the daytime at Christmas, but not at night. We drank hot chocolate in the cafe while we waited for it to get dark. At the last minute, we decided to go to the skating exhibition -- a junior pairs team and a 13-year-old male skater. It was only $5, and was fun to see skating outside. The lights at Longwood are amazing -- totally worth the admission. At night we came back and had dinner here (Luke made stir fry) and I graded while Mom knit. We had a system with dark chocolate M&Ms. Each M&M represented a paper I needed to grade, and I would move them from one cup to another as I went through them. At the end of each evening, we ate the M&Ms.

Brandywine Christmas Critters:

Wreath at Longwood:

Longwood at Night:

My GRID issue at Whole Foods:

Yesterday morning I still had a lot to do, so I was in marathon grading mode. (Mom had originally planned to go home on Wednesday, but I talked her into staying until Thursday.) I managed to get the final grades in a couple of hours early, and then we got in the car and went to Cape May. I love the shore in the winter, and I didn't get to go for my birthday this year. It wasn't as busy as I expected (in fact, it was kind of a ghost town). But we had fun poking around in the shops, and then we walked on the beach and drove out to Sunset Beach (just missed the sun going down, but saw some of the aftermath) and to the lighthouse. For dinner we had Freshchetta at home and watched Prep & Landing, which was on TV again. Luke loved it, like I knew he would. Mom liked it too, but was jarred by the commercial interruptions. Then we watched the "Crazy Christmas Lights" special on demand and knit. I'm making a set of six Christmas ball decorations with Noro yarn for my friend Bonnie. Mom worked on my socks.

I was sad to see Mom go, but at least this time I'll see her again soon!

Monkey 2

2009-05-17T23:36:00.001-04:00

Getting tired of knitting updates yet? If so, skip this. I knitted a new monkey this weekend:

I had a hard time picking a new project, but finally decided to try a tiny monkey with the same general pattern as the big one. The big one was a lot easier to make, as it turns out. I used size 3 needles for the head, body, legs, arms, and tail and then switched to size 1 for the face, ears and feet. It was a tough time, even with the tiny needles. Like with the big monkey, every stitch made a difference because of the scale. Then I used black seed beads for the eyes, and I had to use a ridiculously thin-eyed bead needle to sew them on. Oh, and I also made one of his feet upside-down, but whatever. I'm trying to let that go.

So far, the monkeys seem to be getting along well:

Monkey

2009-05-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

I finally finished the monkey tonight. I used Burly Spun in Mountain Majesty? and Oatmeal, and some Lamb's Pride Bulky in brown for the face. Lucas helped a lot with suggestions about monkey anatomy, including the great idea to double the ears like that. Here are some pictures:

SnowAnimals

2009-05-06T09:07:00.003-04:00

Finished rabbit on May 1st, but realized yesterday I forgot to add a tail:

Finished snow "wolf" yesterday. He doesn't look exactly like a wolf, though -- maybe he's some kind of dog mix.

I would like to set these things up with good lighting and take better pictures of them -- some of the knitting blogs have great pictures. Nevertheless, here are PhotoBooth pictures of the wolf:

He finally came together when I put his nose on:

I'm not sure what my next move will be. I used up every last bit of that great yarn on the wolf, but I have bulkier snow-colored yarn.

Older Knitting

2009-04-27T11:36:00.002-04:00

April 5
I made a bunch of Easter eggs, and then I realized that if I didn't finish an egg but made a couple more sections instead, maybe I could make a bug. Originally I thought it would be a Cootie, like in the game. So I made this:

Now, I'm not quite sure it's done. Lucas thinks the back legs are a little anatomically strange and should be moved to the middle section. I'm inclined to agree, but then how would the bug drag its giant end around? He thinks that having all the legs together would make it more closely resemble the structure of a real ant, which is what he thinks it most likely is. However, I think his view of knitted bugs might be overly scientific.

The other question is whether to make wings. This would make the bug not an ant, but something else. I mean, there are flying ants, but I don't think I want it to be a flying ant, because those are kind of gross. But wings are cool, and it would probably be fun to knit some wings if I could find the right yarn.

What do you think about the leg placement and wings/no wings?

P.S. This is going off the deep end a bit, but here's another example of the egg pattern's usefulness. I made a hat for my egg timer:

April 17
Bug #2 -- Lucas made the legs. I'm not sure this one is done. He probably needs a face, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. The face makes a huge difference in the creature's character.

I have another bug body made, but I'm not sure what I want to do about the legs for that one.

Today I finished a bird. Shannon sent the link to this pattern:
http://berroco.com/exclusives/bluebird/bluebird.html

I think that bird is so cute, so I tried it, but the pattern confused me. So last night while we were watching the new Bond movie I just tried to freeform it, purposely not looking at the picture again. I used the good old Easter Egg pattern and then modified as I went along. I think the beak on mine is too long, making him look like a duck. I also put the tail on sideways. But I like him anyway:

Knitting Update

2009-04-27T11:34:00.001-04:00

I really don't like being in between knitting projects. I mean, it's nice to finish things, but then there's a slow period when I try to decide what to do next. I still have a bug body without legs and an elephant without a head, so I guess I wasn't exactly in between projects this time -- I just wasn't inspired to work on anything. But the Red Sox were playing the Yankees last night, and I wanted something to knit during the game. I mentioned this to Lucas and he suggested an abominable snowman. (He had been playing baseball all day in the ridiculous heat.) It turned out to be a great project, although like all Yeti, he was difficult to photograph.

Yet another flavor of human weakness...

2008-12-05T23:55:00.003-05:00

Let's not worry too much about how I ended up watching WHEEL OF FORTUNE in a Japanese bar with a couple co-workers on a Friday evening. That's not the point. Instead, let us consider this scenario:

Woman #1 spins the wheel and lands on the improbable $1 million wedge. Then she solves the puzzle. But she still has to win the whole game before she can claim the million dollar prize. How would you signal to your competitors that you'll split the million if they let you win?

As a casual and infrequent viewer of this show, I don't have total confidence in this guess, but I think on a good night a contestant might walk away with $20-30,000. It probably shouldn't cost much more than that to buy off your competitors. A million dollars is a big pie to split three ways. A generous person might pay out as much as $100,000 to her competitors. And only a ridiculous greedhead would demand more.

But no, our hapless hero botched her plays later in the game and ended up losing to Woman #2 in a close contest. Woman #2, oblivious to her devastated neighbor, celebrated her $20,000 prize by clapping and jumping. It was a sad spectacle that left me in an abstract state of despair. I haven't quite worked it out yet, but I'm convinced this episode illustrates some deep flaw of human behavior. And Woman #2 deserves to be ostracized from humanity.

And we're all doomed.

Shouldn't it be obvious that the million dollar prize is a game-changer? With a little collusion, the contestants can guarantee themselves a big prize. Otherwise they're competing for the chance at a much smaller one. This should have been worked out in the green room before they even started.

It's kind of like chopping the pot in poker, but not exactly.

National Novel Writing Month

2008-11-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

We've both had bad colds, but we're doing okay with NaNoWriMo. Here's my word count widget:

World's Largest Pinata

2008-11-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

We saw the World's Largest Pinata while we were walking to the stadium the other day, and we didn't even know it! There was so much other stuff going on that we barely registered this huge thing -- we figured it was a remnant of Cirque de Soleil or something. Apparently it's full of candy, and hasn't broken yet because of "technical difficulties".

Phillies Parade

2008-11-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

Where to start...

I took a couple hundred pictures at the Phillies parade, but I won't subject you to all of them.

First, I went down Pine Street to Broad and saw a band playing on the roof of a bus:

I watched the parade go by from the corner of Pine and Broad. It was hard to see because this guy put his tall girlfriend up on his shoulders right in front of me.

This is an idea of what it looked like before they blocked me:

The parade was going from 20th and Market down Broad to the stadiums, where there would be a big rally in Citizens Bank Park. Free tickets for this went really fast online, but a woman standing near me gave her six tickets to some other people near me. I asked if they had any extra, and they gave me all six tickets because they weren't going to go. My cell phone wasn't working, but finally I got in touch with Luke, who had sort of seen the parade when it went by City Hall. We decided we'd try to get over to the stadiums. But of course there were no cabs, and the subway was only running Northbound.

I had always wanted to walk over to the stadium (it's about three miles) but the neighborhoods between here and there are usually not too safe. But we walked with a whole bunch of people up Broad Street behind the parade:

And then we caught up with it:

We went through some back streets and ended up in a huge park where we had a great view of the parade.

Cole Hamels is in the front of this float (wearing black):

Shane Victorino is in the front of this one:

We were back on the move, and we caught up with the parade again at the park:

Here's the Flyin' Hawaiian again, and you can see Brad Lidge (the closer) in the back:

Here you can see Charlie Manuel (the manager) next to Cole Hamels, and the trophy is in the back:

We got into the stadium and bought Cokes and nachos. We had given our extra tickets to two women with two little kids, and it was great to see that they were in there, too. The one kid seemed really happy. From then on, it was a lot of big screen shots of players, the Phanatic, and Harry Kalas (who is a legendary sports announcer).

Each player came into the stadium in a convertible. Pat Burrell brought his dog along. The players' families sat near them in the infield, and some of the kids played in the dirt.

Matt Stairs lives in Bangor in the off season:

"Zombie" Romero used to play for the Red Sox:

Jamie Moyer grew up in the area. He skipped school to go to the parade in 1980 (the last time the Phillies won):

Then we had fireworks and confetti at the same time, which was totally awesome but unphotographable:

Harry's call when they won:

Phillies

2008-10-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

I stayed up for the whole game last night (it was rain-delayed an hour and a half, so it didn't even start until 10). Even if we're not at the ballpark, it's really cool to have the World Series so close to us. I ran up to the roof in the bottom of the 9th and caught the whole fireworks show from the stadium. As soon as they won I could hear people yelling and honking their horns.

It's a pretty pessimistic city, especially about sports, but people are cautiously excited now. On my walk home from work I see a Phillies sign in a window, colored and signed by a kid, maybe in school or daycare. The city workers are all wearing Phillies hats. "Fightin' Phils" towels hang in upstairs windows.

The other day I heard a kid telling his mom, "You be Ryan Howard and I'll be Jimmy Rollins, and I'll pitch to you..."
The mom said, "But Jimmy Rollins isn't a pitcher."
"Oh, who's the pitcher?" the kid said.
"Cole Hamels."
"Okay, I'll be Cole Hamels, and you be Ryan Howard..."

The Homebrew Experience (Take 1, continued...)

2008-10-05T18:12:00.000-04:00

Got up at 6:30 this morning for baseball and discovered my fermentation vessel was foaming over. Luckily I caught it in time to prevent a big mess. I rigged up a hose to allow the overflow to spill into a bucket, and I think I was able to clean out the airlock lock (basically an "S" shaped plastic vessel that allows gas to escape the tank while keeping contaminants out) well enough to salvage it.

We won both games today (2/5, 2 RBI, BB) which puts us at 2-4 on the season so far. Beautiful day, 70° and sunny. Public transportation to some of these fields is a nightmare (I hate you SEPTA!), but today it turned out to be worth the hassle.

So now I'm home again and have resolved the first homebrew crisis. The sanitized airlock is back in place and bubbling away quite rhythmically. I think I'll take a nap before the Sox play tonight.

The Homebrew Experience (Take 1)

2008-10-05T01:04:00.000-04:00

Just finished cleaning up after brewing my first batch of beer. The recipe kit came from Home Sweet Homebrew: "Dark Star Brown Ale." The specific gravity is supposed to be somewhere around 1.040-1.045, but my brew came out to 1.026. I think I added too much water filling up the fermenting vessel. Oh well, we'll see in a few weeks when it's done.

Dodgers just swept the Cubs in the NLDS. Hopefully the Phillies can finish up in Milwaukee tomorrow. I like a Dodgers/Phillies matchup...that'll be fun.

ALDS Game 2: D Matsuzaka vs. E Santana

2008-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

I forgot Daisuke is pitching tonight so we don't have any sushi for the game.

Dunkin' Donuts "Uphill Battle" spot makes its Treeboat television premiere.

I'm hoping the early lead prompts Daisuke to work in the strike zone a little more than he usually does. Except with Vladdy at bat. Just roll the ball to the plate on the ground and let him swing at that.

Whoops. Torii Hunter just wrecked his knee in protest of a close play at first. That's embarrassing.

back on track?

2008-08-15T12:39:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. Also sorry to make you switch to this new site, but I like this blog service a lot better. Last time I tried to update on WordPress (a few months ago) I couldn't get it to post pictures. So, this will be the blog's new home, and maybe I'll be able to update it more often.

To catch up, let's do an update in pictures, roughly one for every month I've been absent. I last posted in January at the other address. Apparently I took no interesting pictures in February, but here's one from March:

We saw the Sixers play the Celtics. The Celtics won.

In April the city was really beautiful with all the trees flowering (again I took hardly any pictures this year). This was in Washington Square:

In May we went to the baseball exhibit at the National Constitution Center and saw a bunch of traveling stuff from Cooperstown (including Mike Lowell's hat from last year's World Series):

Also Travis and Kayla came to visit us:

June was really eventful. My mom came to visit, but I apparently took no pictures when she was here.

We went to Bonnaroo again:

We saw the Red Sox play the Phillies:

I saw Day One of the women's gymnastics Olympic Trials:

And we went to my grad school friend's wedding in North Carolina. It was a beautiful drive, and I picked up a new state (West Virginia) that I'd never been to before. This is in Tennessee:

In July I went to the writers' conference in Washington, and it was as beautiful as usual, maybe even more so:

Then Shannon came to visit for a few days. And now we're looking forward to coming home at the end of August. Luke is still playing baseball, but I'll let him talk about that if he wants to.