It's Been A Long Day...

This week has been crazy at work, namely because we were working on a huge employee event for today. This has meant a lot of long days and early mornings, hence, me being too tired to post anything interesting.

So our event went off without a hitch today and was a lot of fun. The weather was decent - no rain, just a hint of sun (although it was strong enough to give me a light sunburn) and only slightly muggy. Despite being on my feet at 6:45 am, it was well worth it seeing everyone enjoying theirselves. Plus, who'd be unhappy with a free lunch, dessert from an ice cream truck, giveaways from companies like Izze, Red Bull, Otis Spunkmeyer and Food Should Taste Good. I've loved scavenger hunts since I was young, and I've made them for Amy (when we were young), the kids I used to babysit for and for Andrew on occasion. Thus, it was only natural that I was in charge of developing and overseeing a building-wide scavenger hunt as well - it was a hit and had our company's CEO approaching me to comment on it.

Then, I left straight from the close of the event at 3 pm to drive down to New London, CT. I managed to snag the 5 pm ferry rather than 6 pm that I booked. Although feeling clueless and apprehensive about driving a car onto a ferry (primarily, not knowing what to do), the process was pretty quick and painless. Getting off at Orient Point, Long Island, I enjoyed a nice drive through snazzy vacation homes, countless (literally a dozen) vineyards, farmstands. The only thing that seemed out of place was a cat that ran across the road that had the word "Ha" shaved into its side. I swear I wasn't hallucinating from exhaustion.

The nice part of the drive ended with 30 miles of highway. So totaling five hours of travel time, I finally arrived at my hotel in central Long Island. I had swung by a Bertucci's to pick up a dinner to go at 8 pm. I get to hotel, change into my pajamas and open meal of bruschetta and salad only to find that they forgot to pack any utensils. I was drained at this point and the thought of trying to find silverware somewhere in the hotel exhaused me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I ended up eating the bruschetta by hand (easy enough to scoop the topping with the pieces of toasted bread) and made an improvised sandwich by stuffing lettuce, mozarella and tomatoes into a hallowed out roll. Thank goodness I had ordered menu items that were relatively easy to eat by hand!

An long day of meetings awaits so it's time for this girl to get to bed!

Another Busy Day

Out of all the things we were trying to get done yesterday, we successfully:

• Returned my library books
• Went to the gym
• Headed into Boston so Andrew could get his hair cut
• Walked around Boston
• Enjoyed the JP Lick's new yotango frozen yogurt (thank you to Jen and Amy for the recommendation)
• Chilled out at home, after Andrew did the dishes and I folded two loads of laundry
• I'm bummed that I still don't have my camera but we didn't have time to swing by Amy's place before Andrew's haircut - we did have time to meet Phu and Amy on Saturday for a drink at the Otherside Cafe, but didn't get a chance to tell them to grab the camera in time

Today, similarly motivated by the warm weather, Andrew and I were busy from the getgo:

• I washed more dishes while Andrew figured out how to fix my bathroom's leaky faucet
• I popped in a load of laundry
• We drove out to Natick and went shopping at BJ's, Lowe's and Walmart
• Andrew set up my new mouse repelling noise machine and the squirrel trap in the attic
• I baked blueberry muffins for work and chocolate chip shortbread to bring with me to NY
• Looked over my tax forms to get ready to do my taxes (tonight if I'm really ambitious, sometime this week more realistically)

Things I still need to get done:

• Hang my diploma
• Go to the dry cleaners!
• As CR reminded me, pack for my quick overnight trip to NY on Tuesday and Wednesday

It's Going To Be A Good And Productive Weekend

It's been an uninspiring week for posts for me, I think it's tied directly into the fact that I left my camera at Amy's place last weekend and haven't been able to document any part of my life this week!

While at work yesterday, I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish for the weekend because I knew it was supposed to be warm and sunny for once. And warm weather means that I'm inspired to be outdoors, getting things done rather than feeling like I'm in hibernation mode in the house.

Of course, my weekend is off to a late start already due to the fact that I woke up at 1 am and couldn't fall asleep for another hour. I'm usually a pretty sound sleeper, which means I fall asleep right away and I sleep throughout the night. What woke me is that I heard loud noises in the attic - I mean, REALLY loud noises in the attic. Andrew thinks it's too big to be mice so I think squirrels have gotten in. I haven't been in the attic in possibly a year since it's covered with black dust from the roofing job a few years back. I had cleaning the attic as one of my resolutions for the year but wanted to wait until it was a little warmer. I couldn't go back to sleep because I was just skeeved out at the thought that more vermin was running over my head and I couldn't figure out how long they'd been up there. Since I'm easily awakened, they could've been up there for months. I haven't brave enough to venture up there yet this morning, but I'll have to poke my head up there sometime today.

And on the docket for the rest of the day:

• Andrew and I getting our butts to the gym (I'm supposed to be changing into my gym clothes as I type this)
• Swinging by Amy's place to get my camera - I need it!
• Heading into Boston so Andrew can get his haircut by Mario in the Prudential Center (which sounds swanky but it's this nice guy who runs an old school barber shop in the basement level of the Pru, which most people don't know exist). I like doing this since I get to shop in Pru/Copley/Newbury street area while Andrew's getting his haircut.
• Walking around Boston enjoying the nice weather and possibly grabbing some sort of snack or meal there since we haven't been in town during the day in a while.
• Heading back to Newton to get more chores done, such as:
• Returning my library books
• Activating the BJ's membership I just purchased through work, I'm excited about this because I was previously a Costco member and I've never checked out BJ's
• Buying more mice/squirrels/killing vermin or getting them out of my house type traps from Home Depot - also, finally buying the washer or whatever it is that will fix my leaky faucet in the bathroom upstairs
• Buying more Kashi bars - it would work out perfectly if BJ's had them but I think I'll have to back to Walmart
• Dropping stuff off at the dry cleaners - I almost never use a dry cleaner, it's just always seem likes a hassle and I try to use Dryel whenever possible. However, a group at work is collecting old prom/bridesmaid dresses to provide high school girls with an option for their proms for free. I've got some cute things that I will never wear again, but they need to be cleaned. There have only been a few things donated so far, and judging by what I see on the rack, I think they're too matronly for the high school crowd so I'm trying be motivated about getting my dresses in.

That's all I can think of for now - it's time to stop wasting time typing and starting getting stuff done!

Shopping at Trader Joe's

Inspired by one of Underoo Elf's last posts, I'm going to try to capture the conversation I had tonight with the Trader Joe's cashier.

Waiting in line, I knew this guy was going to be a talker. It took him forever to bag the groceries of the woman in front of me, as he wasn't one of those efficient-baggers-while-keeping-up-cheerful-chatter people.

Cashier: Hi there.
Me: Hello, handing over my basket, just to let you know, there's a wallet buried somewhere in there. At least I hope there's one.
Cashier: Chuckling to himself, she says she hopes there's a wallet in there.
Cashier: Looking over my purchases, Do you have any children?
Me: Laughing and looking startled while wondering if I bought too much frozen Mandarin Chicken, no!
Cashier: Too young?
Me: Definitely too young although my Mom doesn't think so.
Cashier: Stops abruptly. You've got two different eyes. One green and one brown. That's cool.
Me (trying to be friendly): That's right. There must be something about store lighting because cashiers always seem to notice my eyes while I've had coworkers not notice the difference even after working together for a long time.

Cashier: What do you do for work?
Me: I work in Corporate Communications for XXXXXXXXX.

This gets the cashier excited as he used to work on Route 9 by our Westboro office. I get confused when he references Route 9, realizes he's talking about one of our other offices and tell him that I actually work in Waltham and that all of our offices will be consolidating this year into a new location in Waltham. This prompts the next series of questions:

Cashier: Do you think you're going to be laid off?
Me: Surprised, Um, no, working for a utility has its benefits, everyone needs their gas and electricity.
Cashier: Well, I was laid off last year.
Me: Awkwardly, I'm sorry to hear that. I feel like with this economy, everyone knows someone who has been laid off.
Cashier: And now I work at Trader Joe's.
Me: Trader Joe's seems like a good company to work for.
Cahsier: Leans in, It's a good place for the time being.

My debit card doesn't go through, so I crack a joke about how he may be onto something about layoffs if my bank account is empty. I run it through again while he watches intently to make sure I'm hitting the buttons correctly. It goes through and he looks at my name on the receipt:

Cashier: Joyce XXXX?
Me: Yes, that's Korean. I make a lame joke. That's where the brown eye comes from while my green eye is from my Caucasian side.
Cashier: I had a Chinese friend out west who had blond hair and blue eyes. She was of Polish and Chinese descent and looked nothing like all of her sisters or brothers, who all looked Chinese. She married a Brazilian surfer and now has kids who look Brazilian and Indian.
Me: That sounds like an interesting combination, especially with the Polish and Chinese mixed in as well. I'm sure her kids are beautiful with having all that mixed in.
Cashier: Well, one daughter is beautiful. Leans in intently while looking me directly in the eyes. The other, he pauses, doesn't look the best.
Me: Grabbing bags and scurrying away, Nice chatting with you.

I'm not sure how long he'll last on the job, did I mention he dropped a bag of groceries while talking to me? All in all, a very weird conversation.

More Gym Observations

1. Read an interesting article in Glamour that echoed a Today show story from this morning - getting enough sleep for 10 weeks straight can help a woman lose weight. Seriously. You simply need to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep each night, establish a bedtime routine for an hour before you go to bed, avoid drinking caffeine after 2:30 pm and avoid drinking alcohol at least three hours before you go to bed. You'll have to read the article to find out all the reasoning behind it because I'm feeling lazy tonight It sounds simple but I find it hard to go to bed before 11 pm, especially if we hit the gym. But I might have to try it. It seems somewhat easy and good for you.
2. I had another smelly guy working out next to me. He didn't smell most of the time. He would go slowly on the elliptical, not using his arms but would instead, check out his slowly moving legs in the mirror. The rare 30 seconds he would use his arms, whoa, major BO would hit me. Good thing he was vain and lazy.
3. This observation is from Andrew. He overheard Camie and I laughing on the phone about skinny girls always farting on the treadmills (who doesn't love a fart joke? But seriously, I don't use the treadmills often enough to notice this phenomenon). Andrew, however, is an avid runner. He told me that he kept smelling farts during his workout. Yet, he was only surrounded by girls. Is this enough scientific proof for Camie's theory? Thinking about it, skinny girls are more apt to eat healthy (and gassy) foods like broccoli.

Human Lint Ball

Monday mornings in the office are always a little rough, and yesterday was even worse since I was running on around six hours of sleep due to the Super Bowl (I need around seven hours to function normally). The last thing I needed was to pull off my peacoat and the fleece jacket I wear under it to find my black turtleneck covered in white fuzz. Literally, it was coated with so much fuzz that it looked like I had five fluffy white Persians at home that had used this turtleneck as a bed for a week!

The problem is, as I was thinking back, was that I happened to wear a lot of white this past week. By process of elimination, the culprit had to be the white Martin & Osa cowl neck sweater I wore out for our anniversary dinner on Saturday night. The fibers from that must’ve have rubbed onto my fleece jacket which then transferred onto my nice black turtleneck.

With an improvised lint brush made out of packing tape in a loop, I was able to remove most of the fuzz from the front of my short (thank goodness the turtleneck wasn’t long-sleeved). To remove the fuzz from my back, I had to enlist the help of a female coworker.

Unfortunately, my desk is placed smack dab in the middle of our open office environment. Open meaning that our cubicles have only one foot tall walls that extend over our desk, so if you stand one side of our floor, you can see across all the cubicles to the far wall. Which means, everyone in our area could hear and see me standing next to Elise’s desk as she enthusiastically got into her role of lint remover.

She ripped off a three feet long strip of tape and holding each end in her hands, she rubbed it back and forth across my back while laughing her head off. I’m sure my face was beet-red but she was doing me a favor and it did get the fuzz off.

I humbly returned to my desk and tried not to move from it for an hour, hoping that the rest of the floor would forget my existence after watching the lint removal spectacle. You’ve got to love Mondays.

I Took The Weekend Off

Due to a combination of having a busy weekend and forgetting my laptop at work, I haven't had a chance to blog for three days straight. Needless to say, I think I'm suffering from blog withdrawal. I also have a backlog of posts to share with you so stay tuned!

Going to the Gym is Hard Enough...

...without having smelly guys making working out even tougher.

I was minding my own business on my favorite machine, which I still don't know the name of - it's a cross between an elliptical and a stair master.

A guy plunked down on the machine beside me, and immediately, his smell wafted towards me. I'm not trying to be cruel. Yes, I know gyms are filled with sweaty, smelly people. But this wasn't guy musk from working out. This smelled like I peed on my clothes, left them in a pile for a month, put them on, pooped in my pants and then decided to work out.

I tried to breathe through my mouth (even though you're supposed to breathe through your nose). It didn't work. I could still smell him. I know I was making involuntary faces, grimaces people probably attributed to working out. I couldn't help it, my nose is pretty sensitive to scents and it DID NOT like his smell.

I started to get self-conscious, hoping people walking by my machine didn't think it was me that smelled. Finally, after twenty long minutes of me mentally telling him to move on, he left. Two dainty spritzes of cleaning solution, a quick swipe with a paper towel and he was gone. That is why I have started wiping down my machines before and after using them - there's no telling whose funky body was touching it before yours. Andrew being even more fastidious had already started this practice after viewing other people skip their machine wipe downs (People, take note, it's really bad gym etiquette - and really gross - not to wipe down your machine after using it!)

Meet The Hottest New Band...

Thanks to video game Rock Band, Amy, Joey, Phu, Andrew and I turned into musicians for a night.

At least, wannabe muscicians. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is how we appeared on the game:

Amy and Phu are clearly having a good time:

Although Andrew held out at first, he eventually joined the band as bass guitar:

I think it's even safe to say that he had a good time and really got into playing:

I had a hard time following the notes on screen AND remembering to strum:


Singing was easier for me, but that's not to say that I was better at it:


Poor Ben had to suffer through it all!

Jamjuli For Dinner

Andrew joined my gym today, yay! We promptly worked out for almost two hours and I'm hoping this will be the start of many joint exercise sessions - we're planning on going back together tomorrow as well.



After closing down the gym (having always worked out during the weekdays, I didn't realize they closed at 6 pm on the weekend), we were ready for dinner. In fact, I would describe it as starving since the last meal we had was french toast for breakfast around 11 am. I was too tired to cook and Andrew had the brilliant suggestion to order takeout from our favorite Thai place, Jamjuli.

This is our typical order:

• Two orders of hot and sour soup (chock-full of mushrooms and shrimp)
• Pad Thai for Andrew
• Vegetable spring rolls for me (with a yummy turnip dipping sauce)
• White rice ( I would normally make this at home, but no way was it possible for me to wait 30 minutes for a batch to cook!)

Full and content, we have big plans to be lazy and watch a movie tonight, relatively guilt-free.

Orange Lunch

I was originally supposed to have a hot pocket for lunch yesterday but it ended up slipping out of my hands and landing on the floor as I was trying to stuff it into its microwave sleeve. I hate the new hot pocket sleeves.

Anyway, I headed down to the cafeteria to grab something else to supplement my lunch and I spotted butternut squash soup with Granny Smith apples. I love butternut squash soup but find that some recipes are too bland or conversely, too spicy (blech to Whole Food's butternut squash, orange and ginger soup). This batch looked nice and thick and I was intrigued by the addition of apples.

As I sat down to eat, I realized that everything I was eating happened to be orange, matching my shirt. This included:

• the soup (very yummy!)
• an orange
• cheddar and sour cream Baked Lay's

Alas, I went with a Diet Dr. Pepper (got to have my caffeine) rather than orange juice as my beverage of choice.

Joyce vs. Jet Lag, Day Three

I'll admit it, I was prematurely smug in my last post.

By the time 9 pm rolled around, I realized how tired I was.

I went to bed immediately, reading a few chapters of Breaking Dawn (the last book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series) and ended up falling asleep around 9:30 pm...

...only to feel wide awake at 1 am. I fear my jet lag has won this round.

I've been up since. I spent the next three hours, ensconced in warm blankets, finishing Breaking Dawn.

Now I'm going to finish the baking I didn't get to yesterday.

I'm hoping I'll feel tired enough for a nap later on so I'm not dragging by tonight.

After all, I've got a semi-busy day planned.

This morning: baking and a possible nap

Noon: Picking up Phu for lunch. We'll need to stay near Newton since I want to make sure I get my mail (and any possible packages) today.

After lunch: Head to Wrentham (I know I'm asking for a ton of stressful traffic and craziness) in order to exchange a gift and return another item. I'm justifying this by thinking about how much worse it will be at Wrentham after Christmas.

Afternoon: Make it to Plymouth by 5 pm at the latest. Phu and I will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Silvia's and we're really looking forward to it.

Evening: Call my parents, Amy and Rich in Japan - it'll be Christmas morning for them!

Today was a good day

After suffering a disappointment last night, I was expecting to wake up grumpy today.

But it ended up being a good day after all.

• I had a complete night of sleep (granted, it was only 6 hours worth) but I didn't wake up at all before my alarm went off. Take that jet lag!
• Work was pretty calm today and
• I got to leave at 2:30 pm today!
• Because I left work early, I was able to put on my pajamas, watch tv (White Christmas is currently on) and comfortably finish all my Christmas wrapping.
• I now have the energy to start a batch of cookies (and the chance to try a new recipe!)

The only thing that is worrying me now are two Christmas gifts that are supposed to arrive tomorrow. At least they're not from Oversuck.com.

Back in Boston

After another long and torturous journey - starting at 11 am Saturday (Japan time) and ending 10 pm Saturday EST (12 Noon Sunday, Japan time), I'm finally back in Boston.

My trip wasn't too bad, except for:

• Feeling nauseous for the last five hours of the flight, so much so that I skipped all meals on board (which isn't that much of a hardship now that I think about it).
• Being delayed for an hour on the runway at Newark (waiting for a plane to pull out from our gate) and then waiting another hour for my baggage to arrive. Then I had to go through Immigration, Customs, Agriculture and Security, check my bags again and run towards my gate as it was supposed to take off at 6:15 pm (the screens showed it delayed to a 6:30 takeoff) and my watch was showing 6:20.
• Having my flight from Newark leave at 8 pm (1 hour, 45 minutes later than it was supposed to), after sitting on the runway for another hour awaiting permission from Logan airport.
• Having my third piece of luggage, which is Andrew's Christmas gift that I paid extra to check on my flight, missing when I landed in Logan. Current status on this is that Continental received the box and sent it out for delivery (apparently, the delivery service is 24 hours so it could arrive at 3 am) so I won't get too nervous about it until tomorrow.

Best part of my trip was seeing Andrew waiting for me at Logan, with a bouquet of white roses (my favorite). First, he had arrived early at my place and shoveled out the walkways from Friday's snow storm and had thoughtfully picked up a breaded eggplant pizza for dinner.

Waking up on Sunday morning, this is the scene that greeted my eyes

My car buried under snow from Friday's storm and a fresh coating from today's storm.


This is how high the snow was on top of my car - I had to clear one of the back doors so I could grab my scraper.



This is the view from the other driveway - Phu's car is buried right next to the house and Andrew's is parked at the end of the driveway. The snow was so heavy that it cause the hedges lining to the driveway to bow over and block part of the access - the first time I've ever seen that happen!



My fridge was pretty empty after being gone for two weeks so we headed for the nearest supermarket, a Shaws. From the parking lot, it was clear that everyone was stocking up on groceries in the middle of the storm.


We spent another 2 hours shoveling out the walkways and clearing off the cars tonight - which would've taken even longer if it hadn't been for my plow service and for my neighbor's snow blower. Quite the welcome, considering I was enjoying 60 degree weather in Japan!

Travel Observations

I just completed over 26 hours of straight travel to make it back to my hometown of Camp Zama, Japan to visit my parents.

This journey consisted of:

• Waking up at 4 am to finish packing on Friday
• Driving to Amy's at 6 am so she could drop me off at the airport.
• Catching an 8:30 flight from Logan to Newark. The flight was a quickie, I think we spent just an hour in the air, but spent the same amount of time boarding the flight and sitting on the runway.
• One hour layover, and then catching a nonstop flight from Newark to Narita - this was the longest part of trip, clocking in at almost 16 hours.
• I breezed through customs and immigration, spent 20 minutes waiting for my baggage and then spent the next hour and half with my Dad, waiting for the 5:30 Narita bus to leave and bring us back to Zama.
• Narita bus arrives at 9 pm (we're now on Saturday, which would technically be Saturday morning for everyone in the US) at Zama
• I'm in bed by 11 pm.

Some random observations that I made on my trip:

• Checking in at Continental, it's now standard to do self-check in (which I prefer), with attendants nearby to help check baggage. The only part that confused me was when the machine asked me to scan my passport like a credit card. I looked it at, thinking there was no barcode, but scanned it anyway. And what do you know, it actually worked and picked up my information.
• Going through security at Logan was my first experience with the new travel lane system. They divide the lanes into three separate sections: Expert travelers, intermediate (I can't remember if this was the exact term) travelers, and travelers with families and special needs. I found it very effective and breezed through the Expert lane.
• Samsung had a mobile charging station at my gate in Newark, which I thought was a cool idea.
• I saw a Jamba Juice in the Newark terminal, but was too full from my Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich to indulge. If these are all over NY (and Hawaii, where I first encountered the chain), why can't they open more in Boston? Currently, I believe there is only in the BU student building and I believe this was the result of a special project.
• On my flight to Narita, the flight attendant went around asking people if they had stuff in the overhead bins, and then went row by row asking them to close the bins. Which I found odd, as the typical experience is that people leave the bins open, anticipating that more people will board the flight and add their baggage to the bins, and then the flight attendants would close them before we take off. The smart people could hear the attendant coming and would jump up and close in anticipation of her question.
• On my flight to Narita last year, I experienced a wondrous new device on the flight. It was the typical screen in front of every chair but it acted like On Demand, meaning you could access hundreds of movies and show when you wanted instead of being stuck with the same ten channels that loop the same two hours of programming. Every time I've boarded a Continental flight since, I keep looking for that new system but it hasn't reappeared. Now I think it would've been better if I had never seen it, because it makes using the older system very frustrating.
• Continental has served the exact same meals for three years straight. Their food is decent for airline food but it would be nice to have more variety. It is comforting to know that my mid-meal snack will be a cheese burger that has been microwaved in a plastic bag (yet the bun is mysteriously unsoggy) and a 4 oz container of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream. Yet I always know that I will get the same queasy feeling in my stomach after ingesting said snack.

Too Much To Do

This week has been extremely stressful for me.

Despite being excited about going home to Japan (two and a half days to go, woohoo!), I'm frantically trying to get stuff done at work before I leave so my boss doesn't regret giving me the two weeks off.

At night, I'm running errands (either picking up gifts or ingredients for baking), baking and doing laundry. Tonight, I got home, ate dinner with Andrew (Thai food from Jamjuli, one of our favorites) and baked for three straight hours in preparation for my girls' baking night/cookie swap tomorrow with Kelli, Z and Heather. This will take up all of my time tomorrow night and I still have to:

• Write, address and mail Christmas cards
• Pick up books from the library to read on my flight to Japan
• Make holiday treat bags for my coworkers
• Order the last of my gifts online
• Do one last load of laundry
• Clean the kitchen (so nothing starts growing while I'm gone)
• Change the battery in the heating panel (so my pipes don't freeze and burst)
• PACK!!

There's just not enough hours in the day. And I'm sitting here blogging at 11 pm.

On the flip side, Andrew was very helpful in assisting with Beantown Baker's Easy M&M treats. Here is the fruit of our labor:

Ex-Monster Gathering

As I mentioned on Sunday, the ex-Monster get together at Rebecca's place was one of the things I was looking forward to most this week. When you put a lot of these former coworkers in one room, good times are sure to ensue. I don't know how to explain it, but there's still a strong sense of camaraderie that spans the group!

I left straight from work but had to go home (which was the opposite direction of where I needed to go home) to pick up the goodies I had baked for the night.

This was important, as the party was supposed to serve as a judging panel for my baked goods. These people had tasted my creations for over two years and I could count on them to tell me what was really good, thus helping me decide on what I should make for next week's bake night/cookie swap.

The White Chocolate, Cranberry and Pistachio cookies were an early favorite but Caramel Shortbread Bars were the clear winner at the end of night. That definitely seals their place for next week. I just need to decide on one more thing. I can't decide if I should go with an old favorite or a new recipe, so I may be doing more recipe test runs this weekend. I also apologize, as I know I've been fixating on these items all week but be warned, this is just the beginning of my holiday baking talk for the week! I also unveiled my Thanksgiving surprise. People loved how they look and were eager to snatch one to take home, but seemed afraid to try one on the spot.

My favorite dish of the night was a crab dip made by Brad's wife Barb. It was INCREDIBLE. I don't even think I would like a crab dip but this dip tasted like horseradish-sour cream goodness. I may need to get this recipe!

Tommy Doyles

Last night, we headed to Harvard Square to see one of Andrew's friends play a 45-minute set with his band Moniker. This was their last show in a nationwide tour, which took them to places like San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Georgia and back to Boston.

They were playing at a place called Tommy Doyles which I had never heard of. When we arrived there, I realized it was the building that used to be Brother Jimmy's, which in turn used to be the House of Blues.

Matt had a cheering section consisting of half the town of Plymouth as well as Andrew, me, Amy, Joey, Jen, Phu, and Pete.

He did a great job and looked like a pro onstage. As Andrew likes to claim, he's responsible for getting Matt started on his musical career. The reason? Because Andrew had bought a guitar years ago, decided he didn't want it, sold it to Matt's brother Sean, who ended up doing the same thing and selling it to Matt.

As you can tell, we had a great time at the bar (this is the sisterly love shot).

Pete and Amy even did some crazy dancing (although this looks like a "not it" shot).

My Left Arm is Sore

…from getting my free flu shot at work today. This is a benefit that I first started getting at my last job and conveniently, is offered now at my current employer. The conference room where the nurse was set up couldn’t have been closer to my desk – it was literally 20 feet away from where I sit. One form to fill out, a one minute wait in line, a quick jab to the arm, a Band-Aid (without cartoon characters) and I was done. It was definitely an efficient operation, as I was the 49th person to receive a shot even though it was just 9:05 am (apparently, a line formed outside the room at 7:20 am, even thought the nurse wasn’t supposed to show until 7:30 am).

I know there are skeptics out there that doubt that flu shots do much at all. Admittedly, I’m an abnormally healthy person (knock on wood) that rarely gets sick, even in the winters that I wasn’t getting shots. The worst thing to knock me on my butt is usually a cold. However, if the shot is being offered free at work and it’s convenient to get, I consider getting it a no-brainer and a way to hedge my bets.

The only thing to complain about is the shot hurt more than I remembered. My arm feels fine now but I feel like I’m still moving it gingerly. I remember getting shots every year as a kid and holding my arm completely still for an hour after the fact because I was afraid that I would bust open the Band-Aid and liquids would come gushing out! I also went through a phase where I would hysterically laugh for a minute before, during and after getting a shot. Fun times for my poor parents and the staff at the Army dispensaries.

Random Thoughts from Tonight

1. It's really embarrassing having the guy waiting behind you in line watch you insert the Redbox DVD wrong twice in a row before he kindly explains what the large red arrow on the DVD box means (and I've returned these DVDs without a problem before!)
2. It's irritating to have your favorite machine (elliptical/stairmaster thingies) taken up at the gym and being forced to use random machines near them so you can keep an eye out for an opening. On the plus side, I did burn 40 extra calories doing five minutes on the rowing machine - although, I don't know how sore my arms will be tomorrow!
3. Thanks to my reading material (People and Entertainment Weekly), I figured out what the meaning of The Killers song "Human," which Camie was obsessed with when she was visiting a couple weeks back. Apparently, the line "Are we human? Or are we dancer?" refers to a Hunter S. Thompson quote, "'America was raising a generation of dancers." Now the song is stuck in my head again and I hope it's stuck in yours too.
4. Despite what Andrew says, I had no shame in returning a book to the library via its book drop slot while it's still open. Especially since I was still in my running shorts from the gym. The running shorts came in handy since I ran shivering from my car to the book drop and back.