Snow, Finally

Last week, we finally got some snow here in Boston. 

The snow was followed by rain. Gross. So now it's almost gone. It was kinda nice while it lasted, but I think I'm looking forward to spring. 

It's almost time to change the clocks! Next weekend, baby. 

MIT Museum

Yesterday Eric, Max, and I went to the MIT Museum. It was pretty much the perfect museum for me, since we got to touch everything! I love when exhibits are interactive.

That's Max's hand.

10 Feb 2012

I'm inside working from 9:00 - 5:00, so it's no wonder I'm so eager to take pictures as I walk to the bus. Especially now that it's not pitch black as I head home.

I took this picture on the 10th; today it was soooo much lighter at the same time! It's so refreshing.

P.S. Yesterday and today it really smelled like spring. Do you know what I'm talking about? Although I hear we're getting another round of winter weather. 

Sending Letters

I love sending mail. 

And these stamps are so pretty. 

Boston At Dusk

My commute is incredibly frustrating since we moved to Belmont, but some parts of it still make me so happy. For example, Boston at dusk. 

I'm so happy that it's not completely dark when I leave work these days. Still dark when I get home, but that'll change soon enough. 

Sugar Hearts

A co-worker brought in some huge cupcakes today. Huge. They were leftover from some Valentine's Day celebration somewhere, and they were sprinkled with little sugar hearts.  

I had a quarter of a cupcake (huge, you guys!), and I just had to take a cell phone picture when some sprinkles fell onto my notebook. So sweet (pun intended). 

I hope your Valentine's Day was better than ours (we spent it freezing because our heat is whack, and in the dark because we blew a fuse and found out the hard way that the fuse box is in our neighbor's apartment and we had to wait 2 hours for her to get home). If yours wasn't great, celebrate it this weekend instead - that's totally what we're doing. Valentine's Day deserves a do-over, don't ya think?  

Paperwhites On The Floor

Last Thursday morning, at 4 am, we woke to the sound of a horrible crash. It was really scary, and we got up to have a look around. At first we thought that maybe a picture had fallen off the wall, but no. Then we checked the kitchen to see if a glass had fallen out of the dish rack. Again, no. But we finally found the source of the crash: our beautiful paperwhites had called it a day and had taken a nosedive for the floor. 

Yikes! Since their bowl was broken, I didn't really have anything else they could fit into. I cut the flowers off the bulbs, stuck them in a vase, and then cleaned up the rest of the mess (several days later).

  

Here's what they looked like when they were on the table:



Plus a bonus closeup of the pretty, pretty blooms:



It was hard to get back to sleep after all of the commotion, but at least we sorta saved the flowers!

Travel By Bus

The New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) started on Sunday morning, and I had to be there at 9:00 to man the booth for my day job. Since I didn't really want to leave my apartment at 3 in the morning, I left at 3:30 pm on Saturday. I got the the city around 8:00 pm and then it was just a 20 minute walk to my cousin's. 

 

This was my view about an hour into the trip. 

I got to the trade show on Sunday morning right on time, and it was a delightfully busy day. I've been the NYIGF twice before (last January and then again in August), but I was there for the end days which are much slower. I also worked the show on Monday, before hopping on a bus back to Boston. 

Orange Hearts

For Eric's birthday salad, I cut the carrots into hearts.



I'll have to do that again; it was so simple!

Happy Birthday, Eric!

I've organized a birthday party for Eric every year since 2008, and last night was the 5th annual get-together. For the happy occasion, I made a really fun cake*. I need to work on my cake writing skills. Writing with frosting is HARD. But even with the messy handwriting, it came out really well! Everybody seemed to like it, and when I cut it everybody said "WOW," so I must have done something right!

our friend's birthday is next weekend, so i included her name on the cake, too!

surprise! rainbow cake!

here are some action shots of making the cake

Everybody brought appetizers and drinks, and we served lasagna and salad (and cake + ice cream). I'm still stuffed. After we ate, we all played a fun game that our friend brought. We laughed until we couldn't breathe, and had so much fun. We have great friends, so getting everybody together in one place is the best. 

Many thanks to our guests for making it a night to remember. And a very, very happy birthday (tomorrow) to Eric!

*If you want to make one of these cakes, here are the directions I used as a reference. I didn't follow the Weight Watcher's diet guidelines at all - I just followed the directions on the box of cake mix. Since I'm not a baker and making a cake is scary, I decided a box mix was safest (Betty knows what she's doing), but you can definitely do this with any white cake recipe if you're a confident baker. And you're not afraid of a lot of food coloring gel.