Provincetown

Continuing on our way to the tip of Cape Cod, we arrived too late at the Edward Gorey House, but I took pictures anyway.

I spy with my little eye...A CAT!



Along the way, I had discovered that I made our B&B reservation for the wrong night! Of course, they had no rooms available on the night we needed and no chance of a refund. So I made a reservation somewhere else. Well the phone was smart but the user was stupid. When we got to the new hotel, me in my ripped pants with jacket strategically tied around my waist, I found I had made the new reservation for the wrong night too. Holy cow, what the heck is wrong with me? Lack of sleep?

Anyway, kudos to dear kind Jocelyn at the Harbor Hotel, which still had a few rooms available. She took pity on my predicament and gave us a suite. Very nice beachy feel, although the upstairs neighbors were rolling their luggage around till 2 am but that's not the hotel's fault.

We were intending to eat at The Lobster Pot, but a 75 minute wait was just too much for me to deal with at that point. We went across the street to the Governor Bradford which had no wait. Lobster photos here! I felt so much happier after the lobster.

We took a short walk around town after dinner. It was chilly! What is that sensation? I hardly remember it.

The Pilgrim Monument.

The hotel had a bar and a cool bartender. We were chilly enough so we didn't hang out at the firepit. There was a decent breakfast buffet the same morning. Jocelyn and the bartender were working in the morning too!

Once again, such a brief trip but maybe another time I can see more.

Then we were on our way back to Boston.

Plymouth

I have some more trip pictures sorted out!

I was glad I hauled out the big camera for the drive to Cape Cod.

We made a brief stop in Plymouth.  

Every stop we made was brief

and made me want to go back 

to spend more time everywhere.

Handy took this photo, because he liked the car.

Aaaand, my cell phone selfie. What you fortunately don't see in this picture is that my jeans had completely ripped up the back seam. Handy had noticed a flash of pink and thought I'd sat in gum or something. Nope, it was a total wardrobe malfunction. 

Spiced Pear Upside Down Cake

We at the book store were enthralled by the cover of the latest Bon Appetit. I want to make that, I resolved. At first I just snuck a photo of the recipe, but later I bought the magazine. At full price! That's how dedicated I am.

First I had to hunt down pomegranate molasses. I heard a rumor that maybe a store in another small town had it. This was the store whose credit card system was hacked, causing 80% of their customers to have fraudulent charges. Yeah, I didn't shop there. I got it on Amazon instead.

I dawdled and procrastinated while the first batch of pears went bad. The second batch of pears took forever to ripen. I still don't think they felt ripe, but they were getting bad spots so they must have been.

I didn't have a 10" round cake pan 2" high. Really? Who does? I couldn't find one at the grocery store, either. I suppose I could have ordered it on line too, but then this cake would never get made.

Instead I used my springform pan which was 9.5" wide. It oozed a little but otherwise was OK. It didn't overflow like this horrible ordeal.

I'm not a food stylist, but I think it looks pretty close. Their cake is half a pear short!

It was delicious, too.

Silly Old Spell Check

Viscously? I imagined some oozy goopy dogs. 

Common Household Mom came across Visit Fan Turtle instead of Cosi Fan Tutti. I'd visit a cute little fan turtle any day.

Hospitality

Remember when Handy visited his company's sales office in Shanghai a few months ago? They were incredibly hospitable and kind to him. Everyone took him to lunch and dinner every night.

Two of the Shanghai people came to the U.S. Except for Handy, the rest of the company ignored them. It's embarassing how selfish people are here. Handy did his best, but was hampered a little by the distance we live from the company. We barbecued for them on the weekend, and Handy took them out to lunch every day. No one else would bother. The second week was tougher still, because the one who drove left after a week, so the other one was really stuck. We took him to the zoo and out to dinner. Handy drove him around sightseeing.

There's tons of people that work there. How hard is it to make time for one lunch, one dinner, one movie, one anything?

When we had the barbecue, one of the guys asked to take pictures of my cat art bathroom, home of the American Museum of Vernacular Cat Art. His girlfriend loves cats. He found a lot of cat things to photograph! I gave him a pair of cat socks for her, from my stash. (Not to worry, my dear M-I-L, I have plenty more cats socks stashed away.)

Zentangles

You will recall I occasionally doodle.

I was intrigued by Zentangles but never got around to buying a kit or book.

Then my sons' middle school math teacher (she planned many of those wonderful field trips) became a Zentangle instructor. So I thought I'd try it.

What fun!

I love how something that looks so complicated can be broken down into tiny simple steps. That's good advice for life.

Coincidence or Conspiracy?

Clearly there is no room for any one else, kitten or human.

Dorm Room

Last year Ernest was in a very old, small dorm.

This semester he is in a brand new tower on the 9th floor. There is a ballroom on the 16th floor. The 17th floor is a mystery. No one's allowed up there.

The dorm fish are doing fine. Ernest will probably get custody of both next semester, as his roommate has an out of town co-op. 

The mass of mail boxes is bigger than our small town post office. Some students haven't even checked their boxes yet. Through their mail boxes' windows, you can see the coupon books that were delivered when school started.

This dorm opened in January, and already the air hockey table (hidden behind the center column) is unusable. There's a big dent where someone got angry and slammed down a striker with great force.

Ernest says this furniture is just as comfortable as it looks. Which is to say NOT AT ALL.

Since his roommate will be gone on an out-of-town co-op next semester, Ernest and another friend are getting a dorm apartment across the street. It will have a kitchen! They are quite happy about that.

Ernest got his co-op arranged, too. Oh happy co-op semester! No tuition, a $20/hour job, and no cafeteria food. It's like being grown up. 

Changes

About a month ago, I left work at 3:00, ran all my errands including a large purchase at the pet supply store, and came home to find the answering machine blinking, the red light throbbing like a bad hangover. Yes, we still have a landline, No, we rarely get messages so I was taken aback to see so many. I proceeded to just push play and a series of voices played out a bad dream. Your cat, Tiny, was hit by a car. I'm so sorry, we just didn't see her. We turned around. It was quick. We don't think she suffered. We petted her. We put her in a safe spot. We came back after the wedding and brought her a box. Here's our number. I called back. What can you say? I thanked them for stopping and being kind.

Rest in Peace, our dear sweet Tiny. Who came into our lives unexpectedly and stole our hearts.

(One of her favorite spots: the placemats my M-I-L made for us. Tiny probably helped sew them.)

A week later, and Handy's already cat shopping. You will recall he has done this before. There are so many cats needing homes. But should I return the small cat sized Advantage I had just purchased? I decided to hold off...

He found several likely candidates, including a kitten. We were thinking it might be nice to have a kitten for a change. It's been 24 years since we had a kitten. We visited the kitten on the way to the airport, and brought him home the day after we got back. 

His name...the shelter gave him the name of a musician who lives in the area. I thought that while it was a nice name, we couldn't keep it. The musician is a book store customer. I can't talk about my cat X at work and then have the namesake walk in. And I was so right! Last week X came in the store when I was talking about the cat!

We bandied about a few names before we brought him home. He's gray. So I said Gandalf. Handy said Gary (gray misspelled). Ernest said Randi for Mithrandir. Frank liked that. I wondered how many other names Gandalf had?

When we got the kitten home we noticed he was quite a hunter. Hunter? There was a long line of cats named Hunter in my mother's family. Plus Hunter and Homer? So cute and alliterative. So Hunter it is.

Homer and Fifi are not too sure about the new addition. But they got used to Tiny, so they should get used to this one too.

Us humans? We think Hunter's just adorable.

Pictures or It Didn't Happen

I had to hunt Frank down at work for this.

He's Luigi. He says Luigi's the smart one.

I have no idea about those things.

He went to his girlfriend's to hand out candy.

The first trick or treater was his "brother," Mario.

His real brother finally came through with a picture a few days later.

I Got My Lobstah

We had so much great food in Boston, but what with all the walking I think I lost a couple pounds.

Since I had lobster rolls at both the beginning and end of the trip, I am happy.  

Had to start with some chowdah, 

Then the lobstah!

North end Italian food was a must. I had gnocchi with wild boar.

Must not forget the cannolis.

In Provincetown, we had whole lobsters.

Paninis here along the Freedom Trail.

French Cambodian.

The final lobster roll, from a food truck at Harvard.

Then there was what I didn't photograph. More seafood, Ethiopian, pizza, pho, shwarma, Not to mention a really good burger at LAX and a decent deli sandwich at SFO.

Ernest introduced us to his favorite breakfast sandwich at Chicken Lou's:

SEC's On The Border sausage, egg and pepper jack cheese with a hash brown patty, topped with our own chipotle ranch dressing. served on a bagel.

that's pronounced SEX by the way.

NaBloPoMaybe 2015

I remember back in the old days of blogging, national Blog Posting Month was a big thing. Now? I have no idea. But it is a useful exercise to break the writer's block. 

And I have some trip photos to share, interspersed with other things. 

See you tomorrow. 

Sometimes It's Like This

Signs of Fall, Boston Edition

Cold Oktoberfest beer. 

Cool temperatures. 

Dressed for fall.

Decorated, too. 

Colorful. 

Carpeted. 

What's this wet stuff called?

And why did the geese cross the road?

Back to the Future Day

October 21, 2015

Happy Back to the Future Day

Do we have hoverboards?



Power-lacing Nikes?



Jaws 19?

Two out of three isn't bad.

Meanwhile, enjoy some then and now some film locations.



Handy and I are on a road trip.

Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.