The Life and Adventures of Rachel and Jeremy

Mini burger truck

2011-03-28T11:56:00.001-04:00

On Friday, we hunted down the roaming mini burger truck. Sacramento has strong anti-food truck laws, so it has to move every thirty minutes.

It was very good. 2 mini burgers and fries! Yum.

Circa 1951

2011-03-11T13:43:00.003-05:00

We've started another blog dedicated to our house, which was built in 1951:

http://circa1951.blogspot.com/

Rachel painting bathroom after dinner.

2011-03-10T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Cable Company Was Here.mpg

2011-03-10T17:32:00.001-05:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWavua-1FI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"if a doctor can do it why can't we?"

Great question.

Baseboard trim

2011-03-10T14:27:00.001-05:00

My apologies to those subscribed to the blog; I'm blogging in real time.

Baseboard trim has been measured, cut, primed and installed.

Sanded the baseboards

2011-03-10T12:56:00.001-05:00

Floors are done!

2011-03-10T12:55:00.001-05:00

Until I ran out of wood

2011-03-10T10:40:00.001-05:00

Here's what I've got so far...

The dining room

2011-03-08T13:24:00.001-05:00

Here is a picture of our inspiration dining room. We like it because it has classic elements with a modern touch.

Using my new mitre saw and compressed nail gun I was able to start the moulding until I ran out of wood. Need to wait til Rachel gets home to purchase more.

Master floors

2011-03-08T01:36:00.001-05:00

The first coat of sealer went onto the floor today, thanks Dads for the help.

I think it looks great. Will post photos tomorrow.

It's nearly official

2011-02-24T16:54:00.000-05:00

We have been told that tomorrow, we will receive the keys to our new house! We're very excited.

Yosemite 2010

2010-11-29T09:58:00.000-05:00

Rachel and I went down to Yosemite for the long weekend and enjoyed the snow:

Half Dome on Sunday

Winter Wonderland

Camp Curry: heated tent

The Ahwanee's Great Room

We spent about 6 hours watching the snowfall on Saturday (Rachel's warming her feet on the radiator)

Our offer was accepted!

2010-11-19T16:39:00.001-05:00

We have put an offer down on a house in Sacramento, and we found out last night that it was accepted!

Because it is a short sale, the seller's bank needs to approve the deal first. We are hopeful that everything goes through quickly and easily.

Donuts, bikes and unpacking

2010-07-04T21:43:00.002-04:00

I finished painting the bookcase we bought a few weeks ago and brought it into the house today. And it fits all of our books!

Then, we rode our bikes to Marie's Donuts on Freeport blvd (2.5 miles away). Then, we rode around Land Park ogling all of the gorgeous homes.

Customer Complaint Update

2010-07-03T13:40:00.001-04:00

Please recall the post I made about my customer complaint to Wyndham Rewards. They did in fact respond to my letter just one week after I sent it in. I am pretty impressed with their response time and for my particular problem, this was a good comprise. Interestingly enough, even with a free night's stay, it wasn't any cheaper than staying at Motel 6's, which we did because they have a "pet's stay free" policy. I was really hoping that my letter would enact some sort of policy change, but Jeremy said that is as likely as calling up the President and asking for and receiving world peace. But, keep articulating to the companies you patronize because it is your money and you can spend it wherever you want. Here is what I received via email:

Dear Rachel:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding your Wyndham Rewards account. I apologize that you were still receiving emails from Wyndham Rewards shortly before the closure date of 2/14/10.

I have reinstated your 2,973 points and reactivated your account for another six month timeframe. If there is no additional activity on your account within the six months, your account will close permanently on 11/19/2010 and all points on the account will be forfeited. Account activity is defined as the earning or redemption of Wyndham Rewards points. In addition, points will expire off of an account 4 years from the date they are issued.

For your convenience the activity on your account can be monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by visiting our website. Member Services is also available to assist with any account inquiries Monday – Friday 9:00am – 11:00m EST or Saturday & Sunday 9:00am – 6:00pm EST by calling 1-866-WYN-RWDS (1-866-996-7937) or via email at customerservice@wyndhamrewards.com

Sincerely

Steph

Wyndham Rewards Member Services

For Every Kind of Traveler. For Every Kind of Trip. www.wyndhamworldwide.com

Sacramento 2009-2010 rainfall

2010-07-02T09:28:00.001-04:00

Just read this online:

1. THE RAINFALL SEASON ENDED AT 98% OF NORMAL WITH 19.55 INCHES. THE CURRENT 30 YEAR NORMAL IS 19.87 INCHES.

2. THERE WERE 70 MEASUREABLE RAIN DAYS THIS SEASON WHICH WAS SLIGHTLY ABOVE THE NORMAL OF 63 DAYS

3. THERE WAS ONLY ONE DAY WITH OVER AN INCH OF RAIN, WHICH OCCURRED ON OCT 13TH, 2009. A NORMAL WATER YEAR HAS AT LEAST 4 DAYS OVER AN INCH OF RAIN.

4. THE RAINIEST MONTH WAS JANUARY 2010 WITH 17 RAIN DAYS AND 4.75 INCHES OF RAIN.

5. THE WETTEST STORM IN SACRAMENTO WAS OCTOBER 13TH AND 14TH 2009 WITH 3.24 INCHES OF RAIN IN A TWO DAY PERIOD.

6. THIS WAS THE CLOSEST TO NORMAL SINCE THE 1989/1990 SEASON WHEN 19.40 INCHES OF RAIN FELL. THE 30 YEAR NORMAL DURING THIS TIME PERIOD WAS 18.61 INCHES.

PLEASE HAVE A SAFE AND ENJOYABLE FORTH OF JULY FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA. --------------------------------------------------------------------
SACRAMENTO, CA (DOWNTOWN)
2009-2010 RAIN SEASON---- NORMAL
JULY... 0.00" ----0.05"
AUG... 0.00" ---- 0.05"
SEP... 0.19" ---- 0.37"
OCT... 3.42" ----1.00"
NOV... 0.36" ---- 2.59"
DEC... 3.16" ---- 2.76"
JAN... 4.75" ----4.18"
FEB... 2.28" ----3.77"
MAR... 1.95" ----3.15"
APR... 2.60" ----1.17'
MAY... 0.84" ---- 0.60"
JUNE... 0.00" ---- 0.18"

New hardware on the dresser

2010-06-30T12:55:00.002-04:00

We purchased a dresser off of Craigslist for Rachel's clothes, and the drawer pulls it came with were hideous (think gold from the 50's or 60's, paint speckled and rusting).

I spent $10 for a pack of 6 pulls at Target and installed them a few days ago. Had to drill new holes because they werent the same size, but the new pulls cover the old holes which is great.

Makes a world of difference.

A little like this? The IKEA Edland for $300.

Our new coffee table

2010-06-24T00:55:00.002-04:00

Picked this up off Craigslist today for $20! Five feet long.

Just needed to be cleaned up and the wood oiled. btw---the "white" on top is just light coming through the blinds.

Furniture finds

2010-06-23T03:41:00.001-04:00

We got these pictures from the Thrift Store for $8 each.

The chair for $30.

Grand Canyon and Neon from Old Route 66

2010-05-25T09:55:00.001-04:00

More Pics from Old Route 66

2010-05-24T09:30:00.001-04:00

Route 66

2010-05-24T00:03:00.000-04:00

This place is a like a ghost town of a time passed:

Were in St. Louis

2010-05-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

Another long day of driving today, but were here. Olive is doing fine and seems to not mind staying in her carrier. Tomorrow were heading to Elks City Oklahoma.

An empty apartment

2010-05-19T22:13:00.000-04:00

Were leaving tomorrow morning for Washington PA! Apartment is packed and lightly cleaned. Car is gassed up and our new ice chest is ready for the trip too.

Just Say NO to Wyndham Rewards

2010-05-09T17:50:00.001-04:00

May 9, 2010

Kristine McNamee

Wyndham Rewards

P.O. Box 4888

Aberdeen, SD 57402

RE: Wyndham Rewards Complaint

Dear Ms. McNamee,

My husband and I signed up for the Wyndham Rewards program when we moved from the West to the East Coast. It was recommended that when doing a cross-country trip, a rewards program is a great way to reduce the cost of your trip, because the points could easily lead to a free night’s stay. As a result, we made a concerted effort to stay in Wyndham hotels throughout the entire trip, but we were unable to earn enough to yield the free night’s stay. However, we are now moving back to the West Coast and will be able to stay in Wyndham hotels and with the already accumulated points, will have enough to redeem at some point during the trip.

When I tried to log into my account, it indicated that the account had been closed. When I called customer service, I was informed that due to 18 month’s of inactivity, my account was closed. I explained to the customer service manager (“Brandon”) that in the next week we would be purchasing 7-8 nights of hotel stays and that I would like it to be with Wyndham, but only if I could get the account reactivated. Again, he said that this was not possible. What is extremely frustrating about this is:

a) I received zero notification about my account being cancelled, leading up to cancellation. As Brandon informed me, it was in the fine print that I was provided with when I originally signed up, but I would have liked to have an additional notice, because I could have reserved my hotel at that time.

b) I continued to receive Wyndham Rewards emails, even after the unknown account cancellation. In fact, the most recent email included my account number and number of points I had in association with the account. Why would I have any idea that my account had been cancelled and points lost, if I was still receiving emails about my supposedly active account? (Please see print out of email included in the letter).

a. This seems to me, as false advertising.

b. It also indicates that the capability of sending individualized emails does exist, and that this technology could be used to send an account termination email to individuals prior to their accounts being closed. When I asked Brandon why this doesn’t happen, he told me that this is not the focus of the marketing department.

c) The mutually beneficial recourse was not an option. As a consumer, I have a choice. As I explained to Brandon, it seemed like an easy solution for him to reinstate my account. I had so few points earned, that it wouldn’t be much of cost to Wyndham for me to use them and I have to book 7 nights of hotel use which I can either do with Wyndham chains, or with another brand altogether. Of course at this point, my family and I will not be spending money at any Wyndham brands and I will be conscious of this when booking any future hotels or travel. But despite all of this, Brandon was unwilling or unable to be flexible and as result Wyndham lost a potential life-long customer.

Overall, I feel like I was tricked into purchasing your product through the guise of a rewards program. I wish that this could have been resolved and encourage you reconsider the way you run the rewards program as a way to prevent customer service complaints of this kind in the future. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my experience.

Sincerely,

Rachel

NOTES:
This is a letter that I wrote and mailed yesterday. I hope to hear back from Ms. McNamee ASAP with an explanation.

WYNDHAM HOTELS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

Baymont Inn & Suites ,Days Inn, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Microtel Inns & Suites, Ramada Worldwide , Super 8, Travelodge , Wingate by Wyndham , Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

Full Circle [California Here We Come]

2010-05-09T17:45:00.001-04:00

This blog is about to go full circle...as many of our readers know, this blog started as a tool to chronicle our trip across America as we made our trip to Boston. And now, we are about to set out on the road once more and make the trek back to the West Coast! This time around we won't be hauling a U-Haul, but will be driving the Passat. We also plan to dip just a bit into the south west and hope to check out the Grand Canyon along the way! Count down to departure is 11 days; we will be saying goodbye to Bean Town on May 20th.

Check back for more on our adventure back to the Sunshine State.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTu8jiuQE5w

FYI: It's no longer called Goethe Park

2010-05-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

Charles Goethe founded CSUS and gave the University $640,000 at his death. He was a lifelong Sacramentan.

Goethe also recommended compulsory sterilization of the 'socially unfit', opposed immigration, and praised German scientists who used a comprehensive sterilization program to 'purify' the Aryan race before the outbreak of World War II. Goethe also funded anti-Asian campaigns, praised the Nazis before and after World War II, and practiced discrimination in his business dealings, refusing to sell real estate to Mexicans and Asians.

Goethe believed a variety of social successes (wealth, leadership, intellectual discoveries) and social problems (poverty, illegitimacy, crime and mental illness) could be traced to inherited biological attributes associated with 'racial temperament'.

Therefore, Goethe Park is now River Bend Park.

Coming Home

2010-05-05T14:37:00.003-04:00

We Love You Grandma

2010-05-02T14:39:00.000-04:00

And will miss you very much...

32nd Birthday

2010-04-24T20:30:00.000-04:00

Me on my 32nd blowing out the candles on a wonderfully yummy carrot cake Rachel made.

Dandelions versus Green Leaf Lettuce

2010-04-19T15:17:00.003-04:00

So I was watching this video of a 94 year old lady who makes meals from the Great Depression:

And in it she mentions several times that Dandelion Greens are "good for you". Rachel and I eat a decent amount of salads and usually make them with Green Leaf lettuce, so I wondered are Dandelion Greens "good for you?" Are they better for you than Green Leaf lettuce?

Answer: Yes

Take a look at the image below comparing the two taken from www.nutritiondata.com. Note: the amounts arent exactly equal, but even at the same quantity, Dandelion greens are pretty competitive.

Maybe we should be picking these out of our gardens. Also, if your response is that it is "dirty" or that there are a lot of pesticides in your garden, I'd venture a guess that there is less chemicals on your lawn than at the local farm.

Panko Eggplant with Chile-Yogurt Salsa

2010-03-07T10:47:00.001-05:00

I came across this recipe through one of the cooking shows we watch, Simply Ming. Every episode, the chef, Ming Tsai, uses two "heroes" or highlight ingredients that he uses in all of his dishes, one hero is always from the west and the other hero is from the east. For this recipe, Greek yogurt and Sriracha sauce were the heroes.

Although it does not include the nutritional information, it should be healthy as it is vegetarian and the yogurt is fat free. The Sriacha sauce is something that I had seen, but never purchased and was at the regular grocery store. It has a nice kick that really added a lot of flavor. The second time I made this recipe, I used regular eggplant, rather than Japanese eggplant. If possible, use Japanese because the regular eggplant was a little stringy on the inside and wasn't as tasty. Out of 5, here is how I rank this dish:

Taste: 4.5
Health: 5
Ease: 5
Acquisition: 4

Note that sometimes these categories get weighted depending on how the dish ranks in the other categories, for example, because this dish was so easy to make and is healthy, the taste is weighted. It was great, but it was especially great because of the fact that it was so easy and healthy. (i.e. it's not lobster dripping in butter). For those of you who try this one out, let me know how you rate it! Here is the link: http://www.ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-7/panko-eggplant-with-chile-yogurt-salsa.htm

Ingredients

3 Japanese eggplant, halved lengthwise and scored diagonally
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons Sriracha
1 cup panko
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 scallions sliced thinly
1 large tomato, 1/2-inch dice
8 leaves Thai basil, fine ribbons
1 tablespoon sriracha

Directions

Pre-heat oven to low broil. Lay out eggplant and season. Mix together the oils and sriracha. Brush mixture onto sliced side of eggplant and dip into panko, place on baking dish. Moisten breadcrumbs on top with a drizzle of olive oil. Place tray on middle shelf. Cook until golden, brown and delicious, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine Greek yogurt, scallions, tomato, basil and Sriracha, season and store salsa in fridge. To serve, plate with a few tablespoons salsa spooned over hot eggplant.

How to Choose a Recipe

2010-03-07T10:37:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, I enjoy both cooking and baking; however, I am no Martha Stewart. When deciding to take on a new recipe, there are several factors I take into consideration:

Taste: Will this recipe taste good? If yes, it is still in the running, but must pass a few more hurtles before it gets made.
Health: How healthy is it? If it is a dessert, this gets less consideration because desserts aren’t meant to be healthy. But main dishes need to be, unless it is for special holiday (i.e Thanksgiving). For example, one of my magazines has a recipe for baked penne with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes. It looks so good! But with the butter, cheese, and whole milk it comes to be 636 calories and a whopping 26.2 grams of fat per serving. This has kept me from making it, as tasty as it may be, it isn’t worth getting hooked on a dish that is bad for me.
Ease: How easy is this dish to make? To determine this, I look at the time it takes to complete and the amount of steps it takes. I also check to see how many pans and bowls do I need to use. Do I have to do something special to each part of the ingredient? Do I need to use special tools that I don’t even have? Sometimes a recipe is not worth it, these are the dishes and desserts that might be better ordered when going to a restaurant if you don’t think you have the skill, tools, or patience to pull it off.
Acquisition: Do I need special ingredients that will either be hard to find or expensive to buy? You don’t want to make any ingredient replacements if it will change the integrity of the dish, but sometimes you can get around some of the specialty ingredients if they don’t play a large role in the dish. Acquisition can definitely be a deal-breaker because I am not in a position to shell out $15 for a special spice of which I will use only teaspoon or drive around town looking for fresh lemon grass.
Do keep these four factors in mind whenever I’m recommending a recipe: nothing will ever be too hard to make, ingredients won’t be too hard to find, it should defiantly taste good, and should be reasonably healthy!

Note about photo: This what is called a croquembouche. This is tower of handmade creme puffs that is decorated with hand spun caramel. Needless to say, this would not pass the Rachel Recipe Test....although I would not be opposed to taking a bite if offered.

Scientists have determined what makes a perfect marriage

2010-03-07T00:21:00.000-05:00

Scientists have determined the key to a happy marriage. I think Rachel and I might have a shot :)

The perfect wife is five years younger than her husband. She is from the same cultural background. And, please stare at this very carefully: she is at least 27 percent smarter than her husband. Yes, 35 percent smarter seems to be tolerable. But 12 percent smarter seems unacceptable. In an ideal world--which is the goal of every scientist--your wife should have a college degree, and you should not. At least that's what these scientists believe.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10463132-71.html

XC skiing

2010-03-07T00:13:00.001-05:00

Rachel and I went cross country skiing today. Specifically, we took a beginner class in skate skiing. Skate skiing is the fastest form of XC skiing and after watching the Olympics it looked fun.

However, this is a lot harder than it looks. Well, I think the videos of us might better show how tough it is (we do not make it look easy).

Rachel skiing LINK

Jeremy skiing LINK

Upgrading Tivo

2010-03-05T15:13:00.001-05:00

Our Tivo was acting strange lately, and I ran a hard drive test on it and it failed one of the tests. Our HD Tivo came with a 160 gb hard drive (which is a decent size).

I read online that you can buy normal computer drives and install the special Tivo software on it. A company also sells these drives with the Tivo software pre-installed.

So I bought a 1TB hard drive off of Amazon that's designed for desktop computers. Took out the old Tivo hard drive and plugged it into the laptop, then plugged the new 1TB hard drive into the laptop and basically cloned the drive copying all of the saved programs and settings from the old to the new.

Guess what? It works!

Before with the 160gb we had 20 hours of HD recording capacity, now we have 157 hours of HD recording space. As seen here:

Tivo sells a box with 1TB of space for $499. The new drive cost me $90.

Ushering

2010-03-04T21:12:00.000-05:00

Notice anything interesting about the picture above? Yeah, the ticket price is $50...so $100 bucks for us to see the show! Instead, we showed up 1 hour before the show started and ushered people to their seats and whala! We are volunteers and get to see the play for free! It is such a great gig, that we've done it 3 other times and have seen some great performances at the premier theater house in Boston! As you know, I am a huge advocate of volunteering, and here is just another example of some of the interesting benefits you can get by giving up some of your time. And for the record, Stick Fly was a great production!

Bradford Valentine's Day Race

2010-02-15T11:24:00.002-05:00

Rachel and I have been training for the Bradford Valentine's Day Race, which we completed on Saturday. It was pretty chilly out there (not such a big deal during the race as it is standing around waiting for the start). The course was hillier than we expected it to be, also there was a decent wind which made things a little more difficult.

We both exceeded our goals: Rachel averaged 9:09 miles over the 3.6 miles and I averaged 7:16 over 5 miles.We were racing in a husband/wife division (due to the Valentine's Day theme, this is not a normal category) and we got 19th out of 50 couples. If we were racing individually, Rachel would have placed 15th out of 38 and I would have finished 18th out of 40.

We're excited to start training for the next one!

Rachel's Townie Bike Project

2010-02-15T11:08:00.000-05:00

So Rachel had this Schwinn that we got a thrift store in Sacramento. She rode it a lot in Portland, and when I wanted a new bike project, I dove into making this ugly 1991 Schwinn something pretty cool.

I showed Rachel a picture of a townie bike that I thought she might like:

But that bike costs $1200. I took the Schwinn she had and added $200 worth of parts/materials to make this. Fun project.

In the end, I kept the Headset, BB, RD, frame, fork and wheels. I had the Schwinn decals custom made by www.bikenames.com. Also, ground off the teeth on the large ring so that it would act as a guard.

Before:

After:

Ethos' Haitian Relief Fund

2010-02-12T07:41:00.003-05:00

Boston has the third highest Haitian population in the United States, as a result many of my co-workers are Haitian and have suffered great losses back in their home country. My work, Ethos, has started a Haitian Relief Fund of which the money goes directly to the families of my co-workers. (They fill out an application of need and they are granted the money upon approval from the committee and then they get the money and Ethos collects the wired receipt.) My co-workers have used the money for things like buying tents and basic needs items. Or in more heartbreaking circumstances the money is used to prevent mass grave burials for loved ones.

I know that many of you have already donated money, but if you still haven't decided where to direct your money, this is another option. One good thing is your money is literally getting into the hands of those who need it, so you don't have to worry about administrative costs, etc that you find with larger aid organizations. This is not a plea, but just another option and should only be considered as such. If you are interested, donations can be made out to "Ethos" with "Haitian Relief Fund" in the memo. Ethos is located at 555 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. Or you may send the checks to me and I can submit them on your behalf.

Winter Running

2010-02-07T10:20:00.004-05:00

In order to embrace the winter this year, we had initially decided to try winter sports. We were planning on trying cross-country skiing! Snow Shoeing! These sports are inextricably related to snow, so in participating we would say: Come on Snow, come on cold weather!

Well, we haven’ t done either of those yet…BUT they are 1) still on our to-do list and 2) we are, rather than embracing the cold, ignoring it. Case in point: we are signed up to do the Bradford Valentine Road Race and as a result have been training for several weeks which also includes practicing outside in the frigid cold.

We are signed up in the couples division; Jeremy will run 5 miles and I will run a 6k (3.8 mi) and our times will be combined. Both of us are focused on improving our personal times. We both belong to the Boston University gym (I get a GREAT discount as a spouse) – it is an awesome gym with an indoor running track! This means after work we can do actual running, instead of training on a treadmill. On the weekends we bundle up and run outside in order to practice running “in the elements” as we will on race day.

Yesterday was the coldest we were out there, around 22 degrees, but real feel 5! It was COLD. With appropriate clothing (this includes running tights, base layers, fleece, gloves, hat) it can be done….but when we ran around the unprotected side of the reservoir, that wind was biting cold. At that point you start to question: Am I hardcore? Or am I an idiot? We have to run again today, the longest run we have planned before next Saturday (race day) and it is not going to be much warmer, so wish us luck!

For more information on the Bradford run, check it out here:

http://www.bsrs-timing.com/valentinerace/information.html

It's snowing and Olive doesn't care

2009-12-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

Pasta!

2009-12-14T19:07:00.003-05:00

Jeremy and I have tried three new pasta recipes over the past week which have yielded some great results!

The first pasta dish was from Rachael Ray and was something that I had tried in the past: Spaghetti and Clam Sauce with Grape Tomatoes. This time around I didn't buy any clams and it still tasted great! In the beginning you add a few anchovy fillets to olive oil along with garlic and crushed red pepper...the anchovies make the whole dish taste salty in a great way. The best part of this dish is the fresh produce...the tomatoes cook until they split, but then the parsley and green onions are put in the dish last minute so they remain fresh and crisp. Here is the recipe if you are interested in trying this at home. Click me!

The second pasta dish was from a popular blog called "The Kitchn". The main ingredient in this dish is Brussels Sprout! Growing-up, I think we were served Brussels once...my mom didn't like them, and since she did most of the cooking, she didn't make them...fair enough! So I wasn't sure if this would be good because I didn't have much of an idea about the flavor and taste of Brussels Sprouts...however, the other main ingredient in this dish is pancetta which adds a great flavor to any dish, so I thought I would go for it. The sprouts go into the dish shaved, so the distinct flavor is spread throughout the dish without it being to concentrated. At the end, toasted pine nuts are sprinkled on top which adds a whole different dimension of texture and taste. I thought this dish turned out great and loved the idea of eating such a hearty vegetable in the main dish. Here is the recipe: click me!

The last recipe (see first picture) was one that Jeremy found in Gourmet Magazine awhile back and had on his "To Cook" list for awhile: Ziti with Poblanos and Chipotle Sauce. This pasta dish has a creamy sauce that is made by blending sour cream and a tablespoon of chipotle in adobo sauce. The sauce and ziti are mixed together with cooked poblano chilies, onions and roasted red peppers and topped off with green onions and cilantro. I was very excited to try this dish because it sounded so flavorful! Verdict: HOT!!!!!!!! It was way too spicy for either of us...it was tear jerking, sinus aggravating, heart-burning, spicy! The heat over powered all of the flavor. We tried to salvage it by added the rest of the left over sour cream to the sauce and pulled out most of the poblano chilies. This seemed to temper the spice at the time, but when I tried again the next night it was just as spicy. We had to throw it away. Jeremy is not ready to give up on the recipe...clearly we will add less chipotles. I also think it would be really good to include sliced chicken. When he gives it another shot, we will let you know how it turns out. Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested in trying it themselves: click me!

If you do try one, let us know how it turns out!

Boston University's ranked 40th Internationally

2009-12-03T11:01:00.001-05:00

The Economist just released its ranking of the best full-time Business Schools in the US and World.

BU is now ranked 21st in the Nation and 40th in the World!

Pretty impressive.

BU Press Release

Economist Rankings

A couple panoramas

2009-11-30T07:41:00.001-05:00

I discovered this really cool feature in Photoshop; you can take multiple photos of the same area and Photoshop will merge them together to create one photo. Sometimes you get "ghosting" effects like the Time Square photo below (busses and people cut in half). Reminds me of Back to Future:

The Walden pond panorama was made by combining the following 6 photos (you can see just how narrow of a range you would normally get):

Our Bedroom

2009-11-29T17:40:00.000-05:00

We finished this awhile ago, but havent gotten around to blogging it.

Our inspiration room which we found on Flickr:

Our bedroom:

The photos are from our engagement weekend at the beach in Oregon which I enlarged and made some mats for from mat paper from Michaels. The duvet cover is an exact match to the inspiration room. It's from Pottery Barn and was discontinued so we got it on eBay. The monogrammed pillows Rachel and I made. I also made the bed.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-29T10:36:00.002-05:00

About a month ago, I bought Gourmet magazine's last issue, their Thanksgiving issue. Sad to see a magazine that has been around for 68 years go away. Especially when Rachel and I found many recipes we wanted to try and were excited about new flavors this Thanksgiving. We especially wanted to try the recipes from the "rural Pennsylvania Thanksgiving" section.

This was what we ate:

Pumpernickel Rye Stuffing with apples
Smashed Yukon Golds with Bacon and Dill
Grain fed Turkey with Apple Cider Glaze
Handmade cranberry relish with oranges and apples
Carrots with shallots, sage and thyme
Rachel's Grandmothers dinner rolls
and Rachel made a Berry Crisp for dessert

Everything was very good! We enjoyed trying new twists (at least to us) on Thanksgiving classics.

Its Fall!

2009-10-18T16:58:00.003-04:00

Rachel and I took a drive out west from Boston to see some fall leaves as well as go to a pumpkin patch.

60 minutes away from Boston

Road near the pumpkin patch

Town of Sterling

Rachel at the pumpkin patch

Apple cider donuts

Jeremy with our pumpkins

New York Photos!

2009-09-09T21:52:00.007-04:00

Here are just a few of the photos we took while in New York:

One of NY's many beautiful buildings: Outside of Grand Central Terminal

Here is a photo merge that Jeremy put together of Grand Central Terminal. The main concourse was amazing. The ceiling was this beautiful turquoise color with all of the constellations.

Outside the theatre for Avenue Q: "The best show I've ever seen" - Jeremy B.

The piano in FAO Schwartz...the one from Tom Hanks' "Big"

The Jim Henson Puppet Factory in FAO Schwartz. You could create your own puppet!

Saks dress made of feathers - on 5th Avenue

Rachel with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin! Go 30 Rock!

30 Rockefeller - as seen on TV!

Beautiful store front fruit stands - check out the hand drawn chalk signs

The photo you've all been waiting for: R&J by Lady Liberty!

View of the city from the ferry

The famous stockmarket bull

Bull's backside

"The Sphere" - a sculpture that used to be at the world trade center now acts as a memorial at Battery Park.

For your information, here is what is used to look like at the Twin Towers:

Here is a picture of Statue of Liberty buskers. The stand on large boxes dressed as the Lady Liberty and people can take pictures with them for money. You can see the second man has just arrived to work and is getting dressed for the day!

Empire State building at dusk

Inside the NY Public Library. That's all marble folks!

New York, New York

2009-08-30T13:41:00.004-04:00

We are going to the Big Apple! We have been on the East Coast for one year now and we are finally setting aside time to spend three nights during Labor Day Weekend in The Capital of the World! Already on our to-do list includes a ferry ride to Ellis and Liberty Island as well as tickets to the Broadway show Avenue Q. We also plan to see The Met and we still haven't settled on either the Guggenheim, the MOMA, or the Museum of Natural History (we are just not going to have time for more than two museums)

Of course we have plenty of other site seeing on the list as well, including:

Rockefeller Center
Grand Central Terminal
Times Square
Central Park
Wall Street
Tom's Cafe
Broadway
The New York Central Library
The Empire State Building
The Chrysler Building
Trump Tower
Macy's
Fifth Avenue

Who knows if we will ever have the chance to go back, so we hope to make the best of it. We might be able to squeeze it all in considering we are visiting The City that Never Sleeps. If anyone has any suggestions for MUST SEE's or GREAT EATS, let us know!

Empire City...here we come!

The World Without Us

2009-08-09T11:19:00.002-04:00

Jeremy and I started our own personal bookclub where we both read the same book at the same time. Often times one of us will read something and then try and articulate the whole thing to the other person, so we thought it would be fun if both of us were getting the exact same information so that we could really discuss it. The first pick, compliments of Jeremy, is The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It is the New York Times Best seller about how the planet and how the remaining occupants would grow and change if humans were to go extinct tomorrow. He talks about human made structures (houses, cities, etc) and how they would (or would not) decompose and be integrated into the changing landscape and what would happen to plants and animals without humans and human interference. http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html

Has anyone read this book? What did you think? If you are interested in reading along, feel free to pick it up! (Try your library first, there should be plenty of copies).

JFK Library

2009-08-02T21:39:00.008-04:00

Jeremy and I went to the JFK Library with our friend TJ who was visiting Boston and was able to spend some time with us. It was a really cool museum with memorabilia, live footage, and videos that helped demonstrate the impact that JFK had on the US and what his life was like as a politician. Here are some photos:

Rachel at the 1960 Democratic Convention

Jeremy, amazed at the newfangled electronics

Recreation of the setting for the Nixon JFK debate - they had television screens running the debate on a loop

News magazines after the election

This cartoon reminded me of what many have said about Obama today

One of the original spacesuits

A replica of JFK's oval office - the televisions were playing clips of a Civil Rights documentary

TJ and Jeremy

JFK's actual boat - a present from his father

More Cape Cod Photos

2009-06-30T21:50:00.004-04:00

Some more photos of our weekend at Cape Cod

Provincetown: the Lobster Pot

Really old windmill

Marion's Pie Shop near Chatham

Chatham Lighthouse

Fish Market near Chatham

Fish coming to the market

I want some...

Cape Cod

2009-06-29T20:30:00.008-04:00

I have been wanting to go to the Cape since we've been in Boston. This past weekend was supposed to be really nice so Rachel and I booked a hotel on Saturday night in a town called South Yarmouth. Everyone told us that the traffic to the Cape was horrible, so we left at 7:30am on Saturday morning. We missed all of the traffic and arrived at about 9:30am.

Everything you've ever heard of the Cape as being a very uppity place is mostly true. Of course there were some not so uppity places as well, but by and large it was a very well to do area.

Other than being a vacation destination, the city on the very tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown, was where the Mayflower first landed. Yes, that Mayflower.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Rachel finding sea shells by the sea shore

Constitution beach where we spent part of the day Saturday

Unknown harbor; one of the many

That's NOT a hotel! And it overlooks the ocean.

Jeremy near a fish market

Monument to the Mayflower in Provincetown

B&B in Provincetown

Jeremy in Provincetown

Rachel in Provincetown

Flowers in Provincetown

Map of Massachusetts

DIY Tailoring

2009-06-21T20:38:00.004-04:00

"I don't wanna be a pirate"

Finding shirts that fit me both in long arms and narrow torso is pretty difficult. Usually, off the rack shirts are puffy and look terrible on me.

Some companies make "fitted" shirts. Sometimes this is fitted enough and sometimes it is not. Today, I looked up online how to take in a dress shirt and tried it out. I'm very happy with the results. Check out the before and after...

Before:

I did not stuff the shirt with newspaper or anything else to make it look extra puffy.

After:

Short video on how to do this:

The Time Machine

2009-06-14T23:04:00.005-04:00

Awhile back, I did some sleuthing online to figure out when our apartment building was built. I came across a lot of old maps of this area from the late 1800s and early 1900s. And found out this building was built around mid 1920.

Check out the old maps...

1880...not much of anything

1899...vacant land

1916...we have some neighbors

Current map

The original city planners wanted Commonwealth avenue to be a "grand boulevard" that rivaled those in Europe. After building the road, and supplying it with the commuter train, mostly apartment buildings were built, which ruined their plan. They had wanted mansions to line the street. Today, for most of Commonwealth are all apartment buildings dating back to the 1920's.

Stainless Steel Straws in action

2009-06-13T11:51:00.003-04:00

Made these drinks for a cocktail hour yesterday, and my new straws worked and looked awesome, especially for Mojitos------no crushed mint leaves in your mouth.

Made two monogramed pillows

2009-06-10T13:27:00.001-04:00

I have this week off, so I had time to do another project. We are decorating our bedroom and following a photo of a bedroom we liked on Flickr. The bedroom has blue and white pillows with a monogram on them. After searching a few stores we couldn't find them, so I made them! From scratch!

I started the embroidery of the R and Rachel finished it, then she did the J all by herself.

I snapped some photos during the process of making the pillow today. It's not retail quality, but its pretty good, you'd have to get pretty close to see my mistakes.

I had to make the monogram patch double layered so that the blue wouldn't show through. And the back of the pillow is an envelope closure. All in all, pretty simple, just took a few hours.

Summer Cocktails

2009-06-07T19:57:00.003-04:00

Summer is officially here, and I just ordered these stainless steel straws. They have been out of stock for months. I'm excited. Perfect for mojitos.

Pear Tart Tatin

2009-06-07T12:57:00.005-04:00

This morning I continued exploration in baking by making a Pear Tart Tatin. It has been on my to-do list for a long time and I finally got around to it and it was yummy! It was pretty easy to make as well because it called for puff pastry sheet rather than having to make the crust dough from scratch. Here is is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the origins of this dessert as well as photos from my own creation (also above)!

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down apple tart in which the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked.

Tradition says that the Tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France in 1898. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories concerning the tart's origin, but the predominant one is that Stéphanie Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day. She started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. An alternative version of the tart's origin is offered on the Brotherhood of the Tarte Tatin website,^[1] according to which Stéphanie baked a caramelised apple tart upside-down by mistake. Regardless she served her guests the unusual dish hot from the oven and a classic was born.

The Tarte became a signature dish at the Hotel Tatin and the recipe spread through the Sologne region. Its lasting fame is probably due to the restaurateur Louis Vaudable, who tasted the tart on a visit to Sologne and made the dessert a permanent fixture on the menu at his restaurant Maxim's of Paris.

Tarte Tatin has to be made with firm dessert apples: cooking apples will not do as they mulch down into a purée. In North America, Tarte Tatin is typically made with Golden Delicious apples, which are not the type used for American-style apple pie.

Tarte Tatin can also be made with pears, peaches, pineapple, tomatoes,^[2] other fruit, or vegetables, such as onion.

The pears are simmering in the pan after the sugar, water, and apple cider vinegar had browned for 15 minutes

The puff pastry draped over the cooked pears - the whole pan was then covered and placed in the oven

This is the tart after cooking in the oven for 15 minutes. Now the lid stays off and it cooks another 15 minutes more

The tart is done cooking! The center has the second layer on it because after cutting the pastry puff into a circle, I had extra dough because I had rolled it too thin. I just placed on top because this is technically the bottom of the dessert.

Inverted and Finished!

If I make this again I will use peaches in order to bring out a more tart taste to the dessert. Pears are pretty sweet, especially after they have been cooking. Pineapple is probably to acidic for this type of dessert, but they may be good too. After all, the fruit is cooked in sugar for 15 minutes before the baking begins, so the pineapple may end having a great balance once it is all finished.

Whew!

2009-06-02T22:47:00.002-04:00

Well, the hunt is over. After 125 cover letters to 70 companies, I accepted an offer today at a company called e-Dialog.

I submitted my first resume for an internship on 12/23/08 and my last one five days ago. It feels weird to be done with the hunt. I can honestly say that I've never applied for or thought about job hunting for such a long time. And I learned a bunch along the way too.

My first day is the 15th.

Bathroom Painting

2009-06-01T21:22:00.003-04:00

So, most of our bathroom is black and white. The sink cabinet, however, is not; its just ugly. We decided that it would look cool and be fairly easy to paint the cabinet to allow it to blend in well with the rest of the room. Additionally, we are planning on making black and white a "theme" of our bathroom with matching towels and shower curtain.

The process was pretty easy, just took off the door, sanded it down, masked off the area and then put a layer of white primer on. The finish "white" color was a custom mix at Home Depot. We didnt want it to be actually white, because the tiles are actually cream as is the dingy linoleum. So this is called "Marble Falls" by Glidden.

Then, I went back with a small brush and applied the black to the front faces. Finished off with some new chrome and white hardware, as well as new white hinges and we think it looks mighty nice.

Total cost was about $30 and one afternoon.

Trip to Wellesley

2009-05-30T21:28:00.011-04:00

Today, Jeremy and I spend the afternoon in Wellesley, a little community outside of Boston - home of the famous all-women's college of the same name. It was great weather and the campus was expansive and beautiful. We also drove through the neighborhoods and the houses were New England fabulous, home to many famous people, like Celtic players and politicians...so we dreamed away...

Cute little Wellesley Fire House

Big bird on the entrance gate of Wellesley College

Jeremy on the steps of the campus observatory

Campus sculpture

On the campus

The photo doesn't do it justice (this one's only $5.2m)

"Senior" Sock Hop Prom

2009-05-30T10:53:00.005-04:00

As part of Senior Palooza, a month long celebration of elders, I helped put on the grand finale event: Senior Prom! Here is the skirt I found at The Goodwill and then sewed on the poodle and leash for the poodle skirt look! I tacked it all on so that I can snip it out in order to wear the skirt again. It is actually pretty nice, made of wool with thick pleats. The pleats, however, made applying the poodle difficult because I had to sew the poodle on top of multiple pleats in order to prevent it from being hidden inside - I finally got it right!

We've known this for a while...

2009-05-20T18:40:00.004-04:00

but now our elevator is officially "Dangerous" says the Department of Public Safety.

We came home today and saw this sign posted on our elevator. Maybe something good will come from it?

Halfway done!

2009-05-07T19:19:00.002-04:00

Today, I finished my first year of business school! Yeah!

The second semester was a little easier than the first, but the 2nd half of the 2nd semester was difficult. Several team projects and finals added up to a bunch of work. It feels good to be done for a little bit.

I have a short break, and then 3 weeks of classes for my Masters in Information Systems degree. About 40-50 hours a week of class time from May 18th to June 6th.

Funny Dog Video

2009-05-06T22:51:00.003-04:00

This is really funny...

Additionally, here is a link...

My New Desk

2009-05-06T14:45:00.007-04:00

So, the desk in our bedroom has been used more as a place to put stuff we don't want to put away than as a place to study. This makes using it even more difficult because I have to clean it off whenever I want to use it.

The desk we had is pictured above (it is in the hallway here) and imagine it covered in stuff.

I wanted to build a drop leaf desk that would fold out of the way when not in use, so as to assist us in not accumulating a mess. Ikea has a a drop leaf table called the Norbo that I basically copied.

The table top is from the Ikea "as-is" section and was a cabinet door at one point and it cost $2. The bracket is a wooden shelf bracket from Ikea ($7) and then the wood and hinges are from Home Depot that I painted white ($11).

The desk chair folds up and hangs on the back of the bedroom door.

It works really well, folds out of the way when not in use and isnt a place for us to put stuff.

Total cost was $20! Bonus is that it matches my Macbook.

It's Spring!?

2009-04-04T18:46:00.004-04:00

*

It is April and things are starting to “warm” up. The snow has melted and all that remains are the huge, massive piles of dirty snow that have been shoveled into the corners of large shopping malls – mini glaciers that shrink a few inches every time we have a warm day. I won’t be surprised if we still see them well into May.

Things are going well here on the East Coast; Jeremy has about 5 weeks left of the semester which means he is almost done with his first year! He is in the process of nailing down his internship and has some promising and exciting prospects. We will both be pretty happy when everything is finished and so we can imagine and plan for the summer. He is also wrapping up his current internship that he had this semester and is working on his multiple bike projects.

Currently, at work I am in the middle of planning, along with my supervisor, our organizations first large fundraiser which will be in 6 weeks; there is a lot of work and it is good experience to be learning the ins and outs of this type of large scale fundraiser. I am also working on Easter Egg Hunt volunteer project for out toddler and preschoolers which should a lot fun!

Today was my first time as a Big Sister for the Big for a Day program I am volunteering for. I picked up 2 12 year old girls and took them to this month’s Big Sister event which was a sports clinic at Tufts University. It was a lot fun – we played hockey, basketball, soccer, and volleyball with the perspective women’s team members. My only complaint was that I spent at least the same amount of time driving around picking them up and getting to and from as I did at the actually event! Every month they do something different like visit museums, dance and sports clinics, etc. so I am looking forward to volunteering again.

And Olive…she is doing great!

* Disclaimer: The flower pictured was taken in Oregon - currently Boston only has crocus

Wishful Thinking...

2009-03-01T12:39:00.002-05:00

Weather Forecast as of March 1st

This Afternoon...Snow. Snow accumulation around an inch. Near steady temperature in the upper 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent.

Tonight...Snow likely with a chance of sleet in the evening... Then snow after midnight. Additional snow and sleet accumulation of 4 to 8 inches. Near steady temperature in the upper 20s. North winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Monday...Snow in the morning...then snow with sleet likely in the afternoon. Total snow accumulation of 8 to 12 inches. Cold. Near steady temperature in the upper 20s. North winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Goodbye February, Hello Spring!

2009-02-28T17:51:00.004-05:00

How much longer will we have to wear these crazy coats?!

Jeremy and I are happy to see February go tomorrow, because we are now officially done with the two coldest months of the year! It obviously doesn't mean that we are going to have significantly warmer weather...but we are hopeful! Some days I don't have to wear my gloves, and for living on the East Coast, that is a true indicator that things are "heating up".

Other than the weather, we are all doing well. Jeremy is heading into his spring break, which means he is half way done with his second semester. I think it is safe to say that this term has been a lot easier than the first one. In addition to classes and projects, he has picked up an internship at a local technology company and has been gaining experience in business development. Recently, Jeremy purchased a used road bike and is hoping to be able to fit some cycling into his busy schedule. He is spending some time detailing it and has also taken on my old commuter bike as a project and is slowly re-building it into a coffee shop/"townie" bike. We will be sure to post before and after's once it is all finished.

I recently began volunteering at a local nonprofit agency as an English teacher for an ESOL adult refugee night class. I just started last week, so I don't have much to report except that I am really excited about this opportunity! The students all work, which is why it is a night class, and all though I don't know their full stories, it is safe to say that as refugees they have seen and experienced things that I can't even imagine. I am truly in awe at the strength of character and heart that must be necessary in order to rebuild one's life from scratch, especially after suffering through tragedy. Hopefully I will be able to teach them, and learn some new things myself.

And last, but not least - Olive! She is doing well. She has recently found a new sleeping/hiding space that wasn't intended for her, but appears meant to be. On our clothes rack, we have attached a clothes organizer that has large compartments that you can use to put your folded clothes into. During the day Olive likes to sleep and she used to spend a lot of time under the bed, but then one day we saw her climbing out of one of the little clothes cubbyholes! She now goes in there and sleeps everyday...

We are now short one cubby!

And so we say goodbye...

2009-02-10T19:22:00.005-05:00

Grandpa (Gene) Burlingame passed away this past Saturday

(Beau, Jeremy, Joe, and Gene)

"While both joy and sorrow are fleeting, and often intertwined, love has the power to overcome both. And love can last forever."

One of my fondest memories about my Grandpa is the bike he built for me; my very first bike and the one that I learned to ride on. All he asked was the colors I wanted (red and black) and within no time I had a new (to me) bike built from refurbished parts. Interestingly, building and restoring bicycles is now one of my favorite hobbies.
- Jeremy

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T19:39:00.001-05:00

Here we are ringing in the New Year! Happy 2009 to everyone!

The label we made for the Integrated project

2008-12-21T15:15:00.003-05:00

Part of our recommendations for the Integrated Project was to redesign the label. A team mate had a family friend that is a graphic designer that does graphic design for consumer packaged goods. He designed a label for us with our input (that we got from a few surveys we had conducted).

Before:

Our label:

We took this label, printed it and wrapped it around a peanut butter jar to show the judges we were recommending (this impressed them greatly!).

First Day of Winter

2008-12-21T13:52:00.006-05:00

Jeremy in main street Brighton

Today is officially the first day of winter and fittingly, we are still experiencing snow. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like in Boston.

Neighborhood House

Rachel Near Our T-Stop Outside Our Apartment

This biker won't be going anywhere for a while

Neither will this one!

Park Bench in Main Street Brighton

Snow covered church

Jeremy making the long trek home

In addition to our own photos, I also want to share a link to a wonderful slide show of winter's around the world (from Slate.com) Check it out!

Done!

2008-12-20T22:47:00.004-05:00

My team presenting at Best of the Best

On Wednesday, I wrapped up my last day of my first semester of Business school. Finals had ended about 10 days prior, but within that time, my team had to finish what is called the Integrated Project or IP.

My team was assigned in the beginning of the semester, and we had chosen Skippy Peanut Butter as our product to analyze and make recommendations for. A 25 page paper was due Friday the 12th. We've been working hard on it all semester long, but we had to do even more work to finish, and spend 12 hours Tuesday, 13 hours Wednesday and 23 hours Thursday to finish it by noon on Friday the 12th. But we got it done!

Next, we had a 20 minute presentation to prepare for, most of the work was already done in the paper, but we needed to create the powerpoint deck (or group of "slides").

We presented this Wednesday around 1pm, and everything went really well. We were very confident in what we had put together. Our group of five professors got together at 3pm and selected our team to represent our cohort, in whats called the Best of the Best.

Basically, there are three cohorts of 50 students. The best team from each cohort was selected to go head to head, of which the best would be chosen by outside consultants from major companies like Bank of America, Bain, McKinsey, etc.

Our Best of the Best presentation went well, and 45 minutes later it was announced that we won! Very exciting. There were about 25 teams, and we were the best. Our hard work really paid off.

Now, I have a little time to rest before it all starts back up again.

Celebrating later that night...my team minus two people

Trunk: the rebirth

2008-12-20T22:46:00.001-05:00

As mentioned previously, I got this old trunk off of Craigslist for $40 and it needed some work. Well, it needed more than "some". About 20 hours or so later of sanding and repairing and stripping and etc.....it was done.

The brass hardware polished up nicely with steel wool and brass polish and looks almost like new. I couldnt find replacement hinges that were the exact same size, so I repaired the ones that it came with.

While we were originally going to use it as a coffee table, we found it worked better as a bench in our living room, inside is our collection of board games.

Again, here is the before picture:

2008-12-19T16:23:00.004-05:00

BOSTON SNOW STORM

Boston is currently experiencing the first snow storm of the winter! In preparation, the Governor called a State Emergency and requested that all non-essential personnel stay home from work and the Boston Public School System was closed all day. It started snowing at around 1:30pm and it is still snowing now, accumulating a few inches every hour! It is supposed to snow until about 11pm or so...we are not sure what the damage will be, but are excited to check it out in the morning. Luckily I made it home from work just after it started snowing and before the wind came in. Needless to say, we will be staying in tonight.

Holiday Party at the Aquarium

2008-12-14T17:02:00.003-05:00

On Friday, Jeremy and I attended his school holiday party which was held at the New England Aquarium! The event was held right in the middle of their feature exhibits which included a penguin area and a giant four story ocean tank (200,000 gallons) which is home to over 400 animals including sea turtles and sharks. It was a party and also a celebration for Jeremy who turned in his cumulative paper earlier that day. Once more project to go before his hardest semester is complete!

The kitchen light

2008-12-04T11:10:00.002-05:00

Rachel posted earlier how our kitchen light was ugly and that we got this stainless steel one for a good price. Well, a few months ago I put it up.

This was kind of a big deal; I've never hardwired a light before. It was fairly simple, I had to do a few modifications but nothing too crazy.

We were going to buy a medallion to cover where the old light was, but instead I stole the kitty's food placemat, cut a hole in it, taped it to a piece of cardboard and put it up. Crafty! (yes we replaced the kitty's).

Total spent:
$13 for the light
$1.99 for the IKEA "medallion"

btw--I kept the old light just in case we decide to take the new one with us :)

off

on! Yeah it works!

The tree is up!

2008-12-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

Sunday after Thanksgiving, Rachel and I put away our Thanksgiving stuff and pulled out the Xmas boxes. The tree is decorated and as the caption reads, kind of leaning. I havent had a chance to go to Home Depot to correct this, yet.

We're Back!

2008-11-29T21:14:00.007-05:00

Back! By Popular Demand!

It has been brought to our attention that The Life and Adventures of Rachel and Jeremy blog was much more popular than we first thought! As such, we would like to continue using this outlet as a way to keep everyone updated. In order to get caught up, I have posted some pictures of some of things that we have been doing. Basically, Jeremy has been very busy with school and I am working and enjoying the holiday season.

September

In September we celebrated our one year anniversary! We went to a restaurant called "Top of the Hub" which is located on the top floor of the second tallest building in the city. The view was amazing...

The Prudential Center from the outside

View from the restaurant

Obama came to New Hampshire in September and so we drove up to Manchester to see him speak. If you look real close, you can see him!

Obama - the one in blue!

Rachel right after Obama's speech

October

In October we celebrated Halloween and Jeremy wore a costume for the first time since junior high! =( But don't worry, by the time we were heading home, he was already planning our costumes for next year!

Captain Hook!

Captain Hook fraternizing with Tinker Bell

November

Happy Thanksgiving! Jeremy and I hosted Thanksgiving again this year and Jeremy did a great job with the turkey. I boiled down the leftovers and made turkey soup which we will be eating for some time.

Olive says hi!
Olive is finally settled in to her new home and is back to her old self. Which means she is still crazy, but not quite as crazy as before. We still love her...

Our Apartment

2008-11-29T18:50:00.004-05:00

Kitchen

Shelving that Jeremy Put Up

Living/Dining Room

Living Room

Fun Find!

2008-08-19T17:55:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Jeremy and I went to the Boston Building Materials Co-Op which is a non-profit that sells used building materials such as doors, cabinets, sinks and smaller things like door knobs, handles, and other hardware. We went to a similar one in Portland called The ReBuilding Center where we picked up a medicine cabinet for only $5! So we decided to check out this one just to see what they had. It was a little smaller, but we did come across a really cool metal pendant lamp. We had been talking about replacing some of the lighting in the apartment, which really isn't too bad, except for the kitchen which is circle of florescent tubing (!)

Ugly Off

Ugly On

So we thought this was a real bargain at only $13!

Compare this lamp to the one at the top which can be bought for $149!

These types of rebuilding centers are pretty cool, although they are similar to thrift stores so they require patience and sometimes you leave with nothing. But when you do find something, it is a great feeling that you got such a good deal! We will put up some more pictures when we get it up. Jeremy had a creative idea for the "medallion" that needs to go on the ceiling, so stay tuned!

BBMC (Boston)
The ReBuilding Center(Portland)
Habitat ReStores (Sacramento, Chico, etc)

Old Timey Elevator

2008-08-16T11:42:00.002-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, our building has what I like to call an "old timey" elevator which provided somewhat of a challenge in the moving process. I took some pictures so that you could get a better idea of what it is like:

Here is Jeremy holding open the first door, revealing the black gate

Now Jeremy is attempting to open the black gate while holding the white door open with his foot:

Here is a shot from inside the elevator and the "old timey" buttons:

Moving Process

2008-08-14T22:17:00.000-04:00

The physical moving of the apartment was pretty difficult. With the two of us working at full steam, we unloaded the truck into our new apartment in 6 1/2 hours! We had several obstacles that prevented us from moving more timely and from beginning to end, here they are:

1. Steps leading up to the building door
2. Door that doesn't stay open
3. Steps leading up to a second building door
4. Door that is locked
5. Elevator door that does not automatically stay open - must be held open
6. Old timey rusty elevator gate that needs to be opened and held opened by hand
7. Hallway and locked front door

After awhile we figured out a system, part of which included keeping the first door held open by tying it back with an extension cord and the second door held open by wedging a saw underneath it!

We would then load up the lobby with boxes and then we would load our little handcart with as many boxes as would fit and them we would force the cart into the elevator. This was difficult because the cart barely fit and one of us would have to hold the door and gate open with our hands or feet while we were fitting the cart into the elevator. Then once we got to the top we would to the same thing as we got the cart out and then I would pull the cart to our door and Jeremy would grab any loose things that we had and haul them down the hallway as well. We did trip after trip and finally got everything into the apartment. The only thing that we took up the stairs was the mattress, because it wouldn't fit into the elevator. That night we were certain that we would have to dump our couch because it was still in the truck and we didn't believe that we would be able to get it up the stairs. I think we were partly delirious with exhaustion, and luckily our friend came over the next day and was able to help Jeremy get it up the six stories!

Messy living room

More Apartment Pictures

2008-08-14T22:04:00.000-04:00

Kitchen - view from the entryway

Kitchen - with minimal counter space!

Other side of the kitchen

Kitchen Pantry

Bathroom

New Apartment - Pre-Move In

2008-08-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

Entryway from the front door

Living room view from the entryway

Livingroom

Living room with interesting trim

View from the living room

Getting updates

2008-08-14T16:00:00.000-04:00

On the right hand side of the screen there is a link to subscribe to this blog. When we update it, an email will be sent to you. Totally optional of course, but you must sign up first by clicking on the link.

Moving in

2008-08-14T15:38:00.000-04:00

Moving isnt easy. And unpacking boxes isnt either. We are tired and ready to live our lives, but there are boxes everywhere too.

We are slowly unpacking those boxes and moving in. We spent about 4 hours at IKEA (including lunch) yesterday and got a lot of items to make life a little easier, theoretically.

The bedroom is taking shape, some curtains have been hung, and our list of things to buy has been created.

Pictures soon to come...

We made it!

2008-08-10T19:08:00.000-04:00

We drove into Boston tonight and are in the Super 8. Were picking up our keys tomorrow morning and moving in!!

Yeah!

Our Drive to New York

2008-08-10T01:46:00.000-04:00

Another long day is finally over! Today we started in Indiana and made our way through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and finally into New York. Some highlights included seeing Lake Erie! I convinced Jeremy to take a minor detour for our lunch break so that we could see it up close. We also drove parallel to it while driving through Cleveland. This drive was much more pleasant than some of other days because the scenery was varied. Through the first half of Ohio, we saw a lot of "homesteads" complete with barns and silos. Many, however, were dilapidated with sagging roofs and and peeling paint. The second half of Ohio and throughout the rest of the drive, especially New York, was very green. There were trees lining both sides of the highway - I even caught glimpse of some deer! Coming into Henrietta we got caught in a heavy rainstorm; much worse than the ones in Nebraska. It was raining so hard is sounded like little rocks hitting the truck. Poor Olive woke up at that point and starting meowing and meowing, but she has forgotten all about it now as she is cuddling on the bed with us.

We thought that we might be able to unload the truck tomorrow, but we aren't going to get in early enough. Plus this drive has been killing us, so we are going to need to have a nights rest before we start the next part of great adventure. Jeremy and I were talking today about our trip, and we both have this feeling like we are on this weird vacation and not a cross country move. It will be nice to actually be in Boston in our new place so that we can begin to feel like home. Less than 48 hours to go!!

More Photos - Saturday Indiana to New York

2008-08-09T22:28:00.000-04:00

And we thought our truck was big?

The little truck that could!

Cleveland, OHIO!

New York Storm a Brewin'

Photos - Saturday Indiana to New York

2008-08-09T22:23:00.001-04:00

Olive and Jeremy are planning our route

One more state down! Welcome to Ohio!

Our lunch break near Lake Eire

Welcome to Pennsylvania!

NEW YORK!! So close!!

Another map

2008-08-09T21:54:00.002-04:00

Henrietta NY

2008-08-09T21:13:00.000-04:00

We made it to Henrietta NY. 500 miles or thereabouts. Thats a fairly long distance really and I can feel it. Were in a Microtel hotel which is actually fairly nice despite the weird silicon valley name. It sounds like Alcatel-Lucent merged with Microsoft to create some super tech company. But its nice.

We traveled through a big rain storm today, which scared Olive. Overall though, she's been doing a great job, better than expected.

Tomorrow is "only" 385 miles (thats Sacramento to Los Angeles). This country is so wide!

Anyway, we are tired and ready to begin the next leg of the move---the unpacking and moving in.

Photos - Friday - Stuart, IA to Elkhart, IN

2008-08-09T07:54:00.000-04:00

mmmm, the Subway pig made me hungry for more

These are pictures of the fancy midwest rest stops - nice, new, and clean!

Two more days

2008-08-09T07:22:00.000-04:00

Today we are heading into Henrietta NY and then tomorrow into a suburb of Boston called Framingham which is about 18 miles outside the city. Then the day after that, we will go get the keys to our place and begin the unpacking process.

Today is the last long day of about 500 miles. I wish we could drive in positions other than sitting. I'd love to stand and drive sometimes.

Photos - Friday - Stuart, IA to Elkhart, IN

2008-08-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

Jeremy in front of the corn field near the Stuart hotel

The bridge going over the Mississippi

Mississippi

Welcome to Illinois!!

Map of our trip

2008-08-08T18:43:00.001-04:00

Portland Oregon to
Ogden Utah to
Kimball Nebraska to
Stuart Iowa to
Elkhart Indiana