Uprooted

Today was already a good day. Work was fairly good, my walk home was pretty, the rain went away and was replaced by some early evening sunshine, and we're grilling tonight. Sidenote: Grilling is my favorite. Delicious food with minimal prep and cleanup (because Will takes care of nearly everything). The gas grill was a fantastic invention.

Anyway, as I was saying, today was a good day and then it became even better because as I arrived home, my neighbor (a sweet older woman who only speaks Portuguese) said something to me. Since it was in Portuguese, I didn't know what she was saying but then her daughter interpreted for me: "Would I like some flowers?" I was a little confused, but of course happy too (who doesn't want flowers?). "Sure!" So my neighbor just reached down and ripped some plants out of the pots they were growing in, roots intact, and put them in a plastic bag so I could replant them. I am actually quite tickled about this, but I have no idea what kind of plants they are. Can anyone reading this identify these plants?

I think my neighbor said the top one would get blossoms. The lower one almost reminds me of some sort of cabbage because the leaves are quite firm; my sister said it might be sedum. Regardless of what they actually are, I am excited to add them to our garden. Yes, we have a garden. Climbing up our steps

and onto our balcony.

 Soon (as in tonight, hopefully) we will hang more plants from the balcony. Mystery ones, as well as another tomato plant and some flowers. I am so excited!! We had a garden last year too but it was a failure because our pots were all too small. I bought bigger pots/planters this year and hope it works out. Also, I hope our garden doesn't attract rats because if it does, I think our landlady might kick us out. She likes us but sure does hate rats with all the passion in her 5'2 soul. Fingers crossed that there are no rats, the pots are big enough, the squash is an itty-bitty squash, the sweet peppers grow and that our uprooted mystery plants take root and are beautiful/edible. If nothing else, they'll be a reminder of the generosity of our neighbor and I think that knowledge alone will  provide its own kind of beauty and nourishment.

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Just keep snowing, just keep snowing

We had a snow storm. You probably already knew that. It was a really, really big one. You probably already knew that too. But see, here's the thing - I wasn't too convinced all the fuss would amount to much at all because Boston has had quite a few false alarms the last little while. No false alarm here though. Nemo was definitely a persistent little guy.

It started gently enough, with pretty snow flakes Friday afternoon. I got to work from home because on Thursday the governor declared a ban on all driving and commuting after 4pm on Friday. (My sister was asking me why that was. It's not due to a lack of snow clearing vehicles but rather because when you live in a city with narrow, twisting, one-way streets, it's impossible for snow trucks, ambulances, and other critical vehicles to do what they need to do if commuters are clogging the roads. It is a hot mess when all the commuters try to beat the storm at the exact same time others are trying to deal with the storm so it was a smart move on the governor's part.)

Will came home at his normal time. We ate, watched a movie, and by the time we went to bed at midnight the snow had already quietly settled into a relentless rhythm.

The view from our bedroom of our front lawn and the stairs leading up to our apartment at midnight on Friday. For context, there had been exactly 0 inches of snow on the ground at noon on Friday.

 By Saturday morning, Boston was muffled and softened by the aftermath of Nemo. When we woke, everything was quiet. We first heard the sound of our landlady exiting her apartment. She saw this:

Our front lawn around 9am Saturday morning.

 She's a good landlady who didn't go on her ski trip because she didn't want us to have to shovel the snow. We were grateful because there was indeed quite a lot of shoveling to do. Here's an image of my car:

Don't be deceived into thinking this is a little lump. My car is a RAV4, not a hip little European thing.

After 30 minutes of shoveling, I had achieved a small measure of of success (don't worry, I kept at it).

I've learned (the hard way) that when you shovel a car from lots of snow, you actually do need to clear out from under the carriage because cars will indeed high-center on snow. Also, clear out the snow from your tailpipe before starting it or you risk carbon monoxide poisoning. I didn't think about that two years ago when I was in a rush and forgot to clear my tailpipe. Luckily, I was actually driving not just warming up the car so it melted quickly enough there was no issue with carbon monoxide. However, I did get some funny feedback with my engine and a Check Engine light. Who do I decide to call? That's right, Will, my then ex-boyfriend who was sweet enough to come look at it for me. And I took him to lunch for payment (for real-this wasn't a way for me to make a move or something) and we had a great time together. It's no exaggeration to say that was the beginning of our reconciliation so sometimes good things come from snow storms and little mistakes.

Will went to work for most of the day, so I strapped on some snowshoes and walked him to work before exploring the rest of the snowy city. Here are a few shots from that trip.

The pretty park we get to walk through on the way to Will's lab. For a sense of depth, there are park benches between the lampposts and the trees.

Bike rack at MIT.

Sledding at the Stata Center.

Skiing on Massachusetts Avenue.

Some people really like to wear shorts, even in 2-3 feet of snow.

Patriotism in Cambridge.

Impulse Purchases and Tracking Wildlife in the City

Sometimes we go to the grocery store together and end up making impulse purchases that look like this:

One part of that impulse purchase stems from the fact that my office did a Yankee swap for the holidays and the requirements were: purchase a calendar under 15 buckaroos (what a funny word that is) that is humorous, interesting, awkward but still office appropriate, wrap it, and add it to the pile of funny/interesting/awkward wrapped calendars. Proceed with traditional Yankee swap.

I ended up with this beauty, because nothing says professional like a homage to processed meat from the 1950s.

One unexpected bonus is that the calendar provides 12 (!) spam recipes including Spam 'n Lima Bean Platter, Spam Salad, and Double Baked Spam. Now, truth be told, I had never eaten spam prior to this gift which Will thought was a bit of a travesty. So--bada-bing bada-boom--suddenly we were purchasing a can of spam! And chocolate pretzels because we all know they at least were going to be delicious.

In other news, sometimes when I walk home from work I end up looking like a snowy bear (who likes to wear fun red down coats).

And then I when I get home and I see tracks in the snow and I wonder if they are rat tracks. We have rats around our house (much to the horror of our landlady who unfortunately is terrified of rodents especially, apparently, rats). A few nights before the following photo was taken by a world renowned wildlife photographer, Will came home a and mentioned there were rat tracks outside so when I saw these I was pretty excited to see what he was talking about. And, frankly, excited that I even noticed them at all because they were pretty small and I was in a rush to get into the warmth. Will can't confirm these are indeed rat tracks since I didn't put a penny down or something to provide a scale for the photo but I'm pretty confident they are. We're gonna say they are, anyway.

Finally, I close with this little photo that was taken a week or so before Christmas. It's the Boston skyline, which is beautiful in and of itself especially when you're crossing the bridge on a clear cool night. What made this view especially lovely though is the cute little sailboat in the bottom left, all lit up to celebrate the season of light. It made me feel all happy inside when I saw it the first time and then again when I found it in my phone. Belated Merry Christmas to all.