Pretty much...DONE!

Well, I've turned in all of my assignments and finished my last presentation for my grad program. I have one more class to attend on May 10th and then I graduate on May 17th! I can't believe I'm done already, the time has flown.

Ann and Allison and I all went out for a drink after class on Tuesday to celebrate.


The bar attached to the place we went had this sign out front:


We had to go in and see what it was all about. It literally was an Air Band Competition. Just imagine three guys, a keyboard stand (and no keyboard), and drum stands (and no drums). It was hilarious. We were pretty exhausted so we didn't stay for long, but it was worth popping in to see what it was about.

And tomorrow I'm off to Denver for the Art Libraries Society of North America annual meeting. It should be fun and I'm sure I'll have some photos to post when I get back.

Fenway and Thile

Thanks to the generosity of my friend Mark and the fact that I could take half a day off work, I got to go to the Red Sox game today! This was my first game at Fenway and it was great! We met up at Beerworks before the game, got a drink and then headed into the craziness that is Fenway Park. We had good seats on the 1st base line in the outfield. The game was pretty exciting, ending with a 2 run homer by David Ortiz in the 9th inning, but that wasn't enough to win it for the Sox. But it was still a great experience. During one of the pitching changes the crowd really got in to doing the wave and it went all the way around the ballpark about 4 times before the game got going again. I really love live baseball and I'm glad I got to see a game at Fenway. Thanks, Mark!


And now for the Thile part of my day. After the game, I got to go to a lecture/demonstration by Chris Thile, best know as the mandolin player for Nickel Creek, although his newest band is called Punch Brothers. He talked a lot about his creative process and gave us a sneak peek of some of the pieces he's currently working on, including a fugue. It was fascinating to see how the creative mind works. He was humble and humorous and had a lot to say about the differences and similarities between folk music and classical music. It was amazing to see him in such an intimate setting.

News...

Well, it turns out that my awesome job is coming to an end. The second part of the project was denied funding, so as of August 29th, the jig is up. This leaves me plenty of time (I hope) to come up with some new and interesting form of employment. I'd love to stick around Cambridge, as I'm enjoying my life here, but I'm not opposed to looking in other places as well. And for those of you wondering, yes, Chicago is one of those places. But there are others... So September is the great unknown at this point. Wish me luck, and if you find any interesting job postings, be sure to send them my way.

Remember Little Shop of Horrors?

When I was in my Musical Theatre phase (some would argue I'm still in it) I LOVED the movie Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin and that awesome woman as Audrey. I watched the VHS tape so much that the sound was warbly in spots. Anyway, I woke up this morning and noticed that I've got my own little Little Shop of Horrors going on.


Let me explain:
For those of you who don't know, the main plot line of the show is that the dorky guy, Seymore (Rick Moranis) works at a flower shop and one day they notice this odd plant that just magically appeared during a total eclipse of the sun. I won't ruin the ending if you haven't seen it.

Well, mine didn't appear during a total eclipse of the sun, but this morning I noticed that this house plant that I've had for YEARS that has shown no significant growth has that crazy bud in the middle of it. This plant came to be mine when I rescued it, with two of it's friends, from a $1 bin at the grocery store in Chicago. For anyone who knows, I think it was the crappy Jewel on Clark Street. The only label on them was:


They are all really different plants, but they all had the same tag. Here is an overall view of the crazy plant with one of it's friends in the background:


Now if anyone out there knows what kind of plant I'm dealing with here, part of me thinks it would be nice to know, but part of me is excited about the mystery of what's to come. So maybe just let me know if there's anything special I should be doing, but don't tell me what kind of plant it is until after it blooms.

I'll keep posting photos with the plant's progress. The mystery continues...

Community Supported Agriculture

Today I had the pleasure of heading out to Lindentree Farm in Lincoln, MA to learn about their CSA program. Some co-workers and I are splitting a share and we all had to attend orientation. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and to begin to imagine all of the amazing vegetables (& flowers!) that will be grown in these fields. Part of the "deal" with this CSA is that we all have to put in 4 hours of work on the farm, and I have to admit I'm really looking forward to it. Above is a photo of seedlings in the greenhouse, almost ready to be transplanted. Below is a photo of the fields as they are now. I'm hoping to take a photo from the same location every time I go to witness the growth on the farm.


These are fresh parsnips. We got to taste some roasted ones while we were there today and I'm happy to say that we got to take some home! I'll be roasting them as soon as possible!


There is a strict 2 mph speed limit on the property. It gets pretty crowded with chickens and kids when it's time to pick-up our share.

The Great SkeeBall Throwdown

This Saturday marked the first of hopefully many SkeeBall matchups between Mark and Christi and I. As far as I can tell, there are a limited number of SkeeBall options in the greater Boston area, and my personal favorite is the quirky machine in the basement of Pazzo Books in Roslindale. After much planning, discussion of rules, Google invites and one glass of caffeinated iced tea to get me riled up, we finally met up and walked over to Pazzo. At first we were told that the machine wasn't in working order, but the owner went down and set us up after he saw the look of disappointment on all of our faces. So after a couple warm-up shots, we went in for best of 3. It was pretty exciting and involved a little trash-talk, but overall, a friendly game. Christi, a novice by comparison, was the sleeper tying with me for first. Mark let his nerves and the cramped quarters get the best of him. So we went across the street and had an excellent lunch and then headed over to Roslindale's finest neighborhood dive bar: BK's. We were, by far the youngest people in the place and I think Christi and I were the only women. But we got to watch some of the Red Sox game and Joe the bartender kept us in stitches. We topped it off with a little stroll through some of Roslindale's cute shops and then headed back to Mark and Christi's for a nice chat on the front porch, since it had turned into a beautiful afternoon.

From Roslindale, I headed straight to Club Passim to volunteer for Antje Duvekot, which was great. Overall, an excellent way to spend a Saturday.