Saturday, December 20, 2008





We had our Christmas party at work on Friday. Bailey decided to make an appearance and so did Lindsay's baby Alison. Bailey, was not the best behaved baby there, unfortunately. They were both really adorable and probably the favorites of the party. Everyone had to hold Alison, while not as many wanted to hold screaming Bailey. She isn't normally so grouchy, so I can forgive her this time. I had way too much food and I think so did everyone else. We invited the roofers in for some dessert and only one of them actually ate any, but he certainly made up for the other guy not eating any.
This morning I finished up most of my Christmas shopping. I went to Longfellow books and managed to spend more than I had planned. I bought the first two Sally Lockhart books for myself, since I've been waiting for them to come out in tradepaper. I also bought that book by the nine year old boy who gives dating advice. It is too funny! I should have bought that for everyone for Christmas.

Thursday, December 18, 2008



Christmas in Portland is so beautiful. My favorite lights are those in the Deering Oaks Park. They changed color! They were blue and purple and now they are white and orange. I really loved the blue and purple. It was so beautiful with the ice and the snow with the reflections of blue.

Saturday, December 13, 2008


The past few days I've been staying at my parents. This is because of the storm, which knocked out our power and made it too icy to return to Portland. It was nice to spend some quality time with Woofie. It was so pretty to see all the ice on the trees. I know how dangerous it can be, but it is also so beautiful.

My brother won't be getting power back until sometime early next week. He had some major problems with his power box being ripped off his house by a tree limb. Thankfully my parents house never lost power. We did have to deal with a basement that was filling up with water. It always does that though, so we have a plan in place for dealing with it.
Now I have to get through the next week.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008


I saw all of these birds lined up on the roof and had to take a picture of them when I was on the walk this weekend. It was really close to the house on State Street that has the prayer flags on their porch.
I'm kind of realizing today how much work I have to do in a week. Finals are seriously going to kill me this semester. My accounting professor seems to think it's a good idea to throw us the financial statements to Lehman Brothers because it will be a good learning experience. This would be great as a project sometime during the semester, but for our final?! He even admits that he doesn't understand them all, but wants us to give our best effort.

Sunday, December 7, 2008


This is my street. In all it's trashy, dirty glory. I jumped on that chair on Halloween dressed up as a fairy. It has been sitting out on the sidewalk for months. For some reason there is also a car bumper right next to it. It is interesting to see what people put out on the street. They don't do that in Damariscotta.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Saturday morning walk





This morning I went to the Space gallery in order to get signed up as a volunteer. I can't wait to start volunteering! I'm signed up to be a gallery sitter next Saturday. I also signed up to work a show and a film at the end of December.
It was so fantastic walking through Portland on a quiet Saturday morning. I was in love with everything I saw. I took a lot of pictures with my Holga and my digital camera. You can see more pictures at my flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29668807@N08/
I took a lot of photos of that statue with the holiday outfit on. It is in Longfellow Square and I find it really great that someone dressed it up for the holidays. I wish someone would do it to the fountain in Bath.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008


When I was little, I was convinced that this plant was in fact a fish factory. It is located in Wiscasset and I'm pretty sure it's not a fish factory at this point in my life, but whenever I drive over the bridge taking me into the "prettiest little village in Maine" I look at the fish factory and it makes me happy.

Sunday, November 30, 2008


I bought my planner for 2009 on Friday night at the bookshop. It was the last Edward Gorey one there! I guess they cut back on planners this year and I feel pretty lucky to get this one. It's pretty much the same one that I had for this past year, which I have managed to lose at some point in the past few months. I keep hoping it will turn up and that I'm not missing any important dates or appointments. At least it will soon be 2009 and I can have a fresh start. I really love going through a new planner and putting my friend's birthdays in and appointments that I already have made. I'm pretty sure that makes me a gigantic nerd, but I'm ok with that. With the type of memory that I have, the only way I'll ever be able to remember things is if I have them written down.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Last night I went to one of my favorite restaurants with three of my favorite people, Erin, Sandy and Elisabeth. Erin's Blog I love reading her blog!!! There are so many fantastic pictures of Elisabeth.
I was able to have my favorite salad, the Tofu Health Nut Salad. It's pretty good with apples, nuts, raisins and a fantastic balsamic vinaigrette dressing. It was a good balance to the rest of the day where I had Thanksgiving leftovers and a lot of that cake that I made. I came to the conclusion that I needed to see my friends more often, because my two year old friend Elisabeth just kept saying "HI BOBBI", which I'm thinking is a sure sign that I just don't see her enough for her to have any other conversation with me! She did tell me that she liked my coat and boots. Elisabeth is pretty stylin' so I take it as a great complement.
My parents have gone to camp, so I'm at home watching Woofie this weekend. He's been ill lately and has to take two different medications. I'm hoping he gets better, but he has another ultrasound scheduled this week. The first one made him pretty groggy for a few days, because they had to put him out. I think he's just happy that someone is at home all day with him, however he does seem to like to ignore me for most of the day.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!
I made the most amazing cake ever. It's a pumpkin chocolate layer cake and I would post pictures of it, but I forgot my camera cord. My dad liked it so much that he had two pieces, which is unusual for him, due to the fact that he hardly ever eats dessert. If you have ever had a Zoe's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie, it pretty much tastes like that, but with chocolate frosting on it. All of it was made from scratch and I'm pretty proud of it. I saw the recipe on the New York Times website and decided that I should make it.
I am trying to decide if I want to go out shopping tomorrow morning or not. I feel like Black Friday early morning shopping is something that everyone should experience at least once in their life. I'm not sure I can convince anyone to go with me, which means I would be by myself and that is kind of frightening. Those shoppers get a little crazy.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

This morning, I was drawn out of my slumber by someone playing a trumpet. Now, this might have been amusing had it been six or seven in the morning on a weekday, but this occured at 2:40 am. Not only was this person playing the trumpet, but they were not very good at it. Turns out the only song they knew how to play was taps. It seemed that my neighbors were not a fan of this musician, because one of them in a scratchy voice yelled out "Hey! Knock it off! Some people are trying to sleep!" I think that not just some people were trying to sleep, but most people were. However, you never know with Pete (from YO PETE fame) living right next to you.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Too bad for this man...


I probably already posted this picture, but I think it's good enough for a repeat.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008


The real Halloween! I was a fairy, Julia was a bee and Jesse, in the middle, was America!!! We went to the Halloween dance party that was going on at the Space.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Halloweeeen



I went to a Halloween party this past weekend and dressed up as one of my favorite children's book characters, the Paperbag Princess!!! Only two people there knew who I was, some guesses were the Burgerking King (?!) and Pocahontas. Even people who didn't know who I was said I was adorable in the costume, so I guess that's all that matters.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Yo Pete!


Often when I'm in my room, whether it be early afternoon or very early morning, I will often here a male voice yell out "YO PETE". This afternoon he did it for at least ten minutes. I kind of wanted to say "Pete doesn't want to see you!! Leave him alone!" This happens pretty much every single day. This is the first time I've actually bothered to look out the window to see what "yo pete" looks like. He will go down the alley next to my apartment building to holler up at the windows in apartment next door, where hopefully Pete lives. It could just be where he thinks Pete lives and that is why Pete never actually comes down to get him.

Friday, October 17, 2008

This past weekend was also...

Joel and Juliana's wedding. The second picture is from the bachelorette party that we had for Juliana and the first one is right before I gave my toast at the reception. I was talking to the best man about our toasts before we did them. Since I was in the wedding, I do not have any pictures of the ceremony. I think that the toast that I gave was a pretty good one. I presented Juliana with a spoon. Joel and I had this habit of taking spoons from places we would go to when we were in high school. This was one of those many spoons. Many people asked where the spoon actually came from, but I never kept track of where each spoon was actually from. So this spoon could be from Moody's Diner or maybe even from our senior prom.


This past weekend there was a huge pumpkin festival in my town. There was a pumpkin regatta, where giant pumpkins were carved out into boats and then raced against each other in the river. This picture is from my personal favorite race, the one with the dogs included on the boats.
This video is from the pumpkin drop that happened on Saturday. The pumpkin was up at least a hundred feet in the air, held up there by a gigantic crane. It must have weighed more than four hundred pounds. It was a big pumpkin. The car was flattened.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

My new archnemesis


This cat that likes to sit on the cars in our driveway. I looked at it from our window on the third floor and it gave me the dirtiest look ever. YOU ARE ON MY CAR!!! Stop giving me dirty looks. This morning this cat had another cat with it. Both of them looked at me like they were going to cut me.

Monday, September 1, 2008


Yesterday was the bridal shower for Juliana here at my parents house. It went quite well. The food was all really good, thanks to the additional dishes that Karen brought with her. Her daughters also made these adorable heart shaped blueberry tarts, that were quite delicious. I'm sure they had a more successful morning in the kitchen than I did. I managed to start a fire in the microwave and have the oven smoking the entire time I was using it. I'm not sure I should be using the oven or even the kitchen without adult supervision. I'm slightly less stressed now that I know the bridal shower is over and that it went well. I was so worried about it all, but it managed to all come together and everyone was so wonderful. Juliana has some really special people as friends and family. Today is moving day and I haven't packed at all yet.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Welcome to the world Bailey Mae!


My brother and his wife had a baby yesterday. That makes me an official aunt! All she does so far is eat and sleep.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Summer...



Summer in Bath, for me, is the naked lady fountain in the library park. I've always loved this fountain, even when I was a little girl. I also love the stories my parents would sometimes tell me about going to work and seeing a bra decorating/attempting to clothe the woman. I took this photo during one of the fantastic days of weather we have been having this week. It is so nice to be able to walk around the city of Bath on my lunch break.

Friday, August 29, 2008

The office that I work at (also known as my parents office) is going to have a Biggest Loser competition. If you are unfamiliar with the Biggest loser, it is pretty much a competition to see who can lose the most weight. I've already discussed how I think it should be percentage of body weight lost, since I'm outweighed by everyone there by at least twenty pounds. Perhaps even thirty. My father and brother will not be taking part in the competition, since they are both very skinny already. I've already told the secretaries that I'm going to kick their butts. They seemed uninterested in my comment.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Rummage Sale





The picture of the bike is my NEW bike that I bought for fifteen dollars. I love the rummage sale. There were far too many people there this morning. I went with the intention of getting some sort of furniture, but it was so packed in there with people and stuff that I quickly was too overwhelmed to be productive in furniture hunting. I'm going back this evening with my mother and probably tomorrow and the next day. You have to go multiple times, because there is just so much stuff there that it is easy to miss things. Plus the last day is bag day and they pretty much want to just get rid of all the stuff.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Woofstock







Today Joel, Sequoia and I went to Woofstock over at the Lincoln Home in Newcastle. It was amazing how many people and dogs were there. Mardi (Joel's dog) came, but my dog Woofie stayed at home. He isn't all that keen on other dogs and a large crowd of people.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008



I am officially a graduate student at the University of Southern Maine. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for it.

Monday, August 4, 2008


Yesterday there was a thunderstorm so intense, that there were rapids on our street. The water was just pouring down the road and then over our lawn into the river. Also down into our cellar.

Friday, August 1, 2008

In the past few days, since I've been stuck at home trying to recuperate, I've had a lot of time to read. I finished two books, the first one being "Eight Lives Down" by Chris Hunter and the second is "Don't Eat this Book" by Morgan Spurlock.
Morgan Spurlock is probably better known for his movie "Super-Size Me" and his television show "Thirty Days". "Don't Eat this Book" is pretty much what Spurlock went through doing the filming of the documentary, where he ate nothing but McDonalds for thirty days, and then ties his experience in with the state of nutrition in the nation today. It's probably not the best book on that topic, but it was a nice, fairly light read. He's a pretty funny guy, even when he goes on a multi-chapter long rant about the food industry.
"Eight Lives Down" is a memoir of a British soldier in Iraq during 2004. Chris Hunter is in charge of a bomb disposal unit, who are called out daily to diffuse bombs and try to catch the bad guys who are making them. This is a book that I would call a "dude" book or one that is definitely suitable for a guy who isn't really into reading, but likes either the army, bombs or exciting stories about other guys in dangerous places. I would place this in the same category as the "Time Bandit" which is about two brothers who king crab fish in Alaska and are on the show "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. It was quite interesting to read what a soldier goes through on a daily basis in Iraq, specifically the stresses that are placed on them emotionally and physically. It gave me a greater understanding of what is going on in Iraq or at least what was going on in Iraq in 2004. One of the most interesting aspects of the memoir was the interactions that Hunter had with the Iraqi civilians or at times the obvious restraint that he had to show to not interact with them.
I've also become quite addicted to Mark Bittman's blog on the New York Times. He makes cooking seem so simple that even I could make some of his recipes of the day.
http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/
It really is fantastic. It makes me realize that I need to get out my "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" (by Bittman) and start to actually cook some things out of it. I've decided that I'm going to try to make this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/dining/302mrex.html?ref=dining
which is an Indian style rice salad. It looks easy enough that even I could not mess it up. The videos that he posts are interesting to watch as well. That is what made me convinced that I could try this recipe, but I will have to wait until this weekend after a trip to the store.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008


I have a sinus infection and some sort of ear problem. Let's not dwell on that though and instead think of a fond memory of me and Mardi.

Monday, July 28, 2008

The real reason I left Vermont...


This bug was so gigantic and scary. When Ben and I would walk past it, it would lean back and try to eat us.
I am back in Maine...

Sunday, June 29, 2008

I have a job interview tomorrow. This is exciting and I'm really hopeful for it. It is at a publisher that does academic journals and books. I'm not sure as to what the position is, because the woman I talked to hasn't emailed me the specifics yet. She said she would email me a job description along with an application. I'm a little nervous since that was on Thursday and it is now Sunday and my interview is tomorrow.

What didn't work out so well down in Boston was the expectation that I would be able to find my way around in a city that is quite large and confusing all by myself. I was taken to the corporation's headquarters, which wasn''t very large, and was expected to find my way back to the hotel. Now, this would have been alright if we had only walked like a block there, but it was quite a long walk, where we went through random buildings and even went to a different location at one point. I managed to get lost three times on the way back to my hotel and the only reason I made it back there was because I knew that the Hancock building should be on my right. Being in the hotel by myself was also quite miserable. I feel that if someone else had been sent down with me so that I could have had a cohort in the situation it would have been bearable, but it was just me.

I also realized that the job isn't that great. I know that when you are unemployed and poor you can't be all that snobby about which job you will take, but I really don't want to work in the food service industry at that level. I would be fine with being a waitress at a nice restaurant...but this job was pretty much schlepping fast food to college age kids. I'd like to think of myself as slightly above that, but I don't want to get a big head or anything. At least when I was working at the bookstore I had a lot of pride in what I was doing because I believe in sharing the love of reading with others and I'm passionate about books. I'm not sure I can believe in sharing the love of burritos with the same enthusiasm.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Boston didn't work out all that well. I am now back in Vermont enjoying the company of my friends. That picture above is from the highway coming into Burlington. It is an amazing whale tale sculpture right next to the highway, which seems really random to me. I'm hoping to go to the beach tomorrow.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

I officially have the job with Boloco. I'm going down to Boston on Wednesday to start training. I"ll be there until Monday. That is such a long time! I'm kind of scared to be down there by myself. I'll be taking the subway to get around to the different Boloco locations in Boston. Scary! My boss here in Vermont is one of the nicest people I've met, so hopefully everyone done in Boston that I'll be working with for a couple of days will be nice as well.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008


This is pretty much the best sign that I have ever seen. It is on Church Street in Burlington.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008


Hannah and I went to the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory store today and were able to take a tour. The tour consisted of going onto a viewing deck and looking into the factory, because we were not allowed to actually go inside it due to health codes.

That is one of the machines that makes the truffles. The best part of the tour was the free samples!!! We had so much free chocolate there.

This is me with some chocolate robots. They were amazing!!! You couldn't touch them because they were made out of chocolate, obviously. I wanted to eat them.

Hannah and I were big fans of the factory deals. They had chocolate treats that were not up to their standards but still delicious. We went in on a deal that was buy one truffle box and get one free. It was awesome being able to be savvy shoppers today with Hannah. We also went in on a buy 8 pairs of underwear for 25 dollars deal later in the day. We both got four pairs! Who would need 8?
I shall leave you with a fantastic photo of the stairs that we have to go up to get to our apartment. Safe? I think not. However the guys that are fixing them are really nice. I think there is a hole in them right now, but who cares?! The apartment next to ours is vacant right now so I think they took the opportunity to put in new stairs while they could. I think they are building it piece by piece so that they don't have to actually take them down.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

River Float!


Today Hannah, Mary and I went to Stowe to float down this river in tubes. It was so nice and sunny today that it was the perfect day for a river float. I don't think I have gone floating down a river for at least ten years. This river was shallow in a few places, but as long as you held your butt up out of the middle of the tube you were fine. The picture above is looking up the river that we went floating down. There was a family sitting on the sand bar with two dogs. We went down the river twice and the second time we came back to go float again they were packing up and surprised to see us again.
After we finished floating down the river and enjoying the sunny day, we went and had a slice of pizza at Piecasso, a local pizza place in Stowe. I had a basil and tomato piece of pizza and it was really nice. We then went to the Ben & Jerry's Factory. They had stopped giving tours for the day and they don't make ice cream on the weekends, so we will have to go back Monday-Friday so we can go on a good tour when they are making ice cream. We did get some ice cream. I had a small with Phish Food and Mint Chocolate Chunk in the same dish. It was delicious.


This is Hannah and I standing in line waiting for our ice cream! The line was crazy long, but it didn't take too long for us to get to the front. They were giving away free small cones for fathers, since today is Father's Day.

This last picture is of the landscape of Vermont. It was so beautiful out in the country today.