Boston: Home of Dunkin Donuts and hand sanitizer.

I've been battling a miserable cold for the last couple of days. Considering I was all over germ invested airports last week, I guess it was only a matter of time before I fell ill. Everywhere we visited in Boston, from offices to public places, there was hand sanitizer available. A lot of good it did me!

Last week's trip was my third visit to Boston. This time, I got a chance to see another part of the city, the Back Bay neighborhood. As I said to my boss, a couple of more trips, and I will have seen the whole city!



On our first night, we had dinner at a place called Clink, which is inside the Liberty Hotel. The hotel is in the building that housed the Charles Street Jail. Inside, the vestages of the former jail can still be seen, although with a modern flair.







The food at Clink was fabulous. Seriously one of the best meals I've had in my life, ranking right up there with the time that I partook of a home cooked Hungarian meal prepared by a drag queen. But I digress.

Here is the menu. We had foie gras for an appetizer which came accompanied by the most divine buttered toast I've ever tasted. For the main course, I had the organic chicken, and I can say without reservation that it was the best chicken I've ever tasted. They say that animals that are treated well taste better, well, let me tell you - my chicken must have spent its days eating bon bons and watching TV. It was that good.

Sorry that there are no photos of the food. It was way too dark.

We didn't get back into the city until Wednesday morning, when we had meetings in Boston's tallest building, the Hancock Tower.



Unfortunately, the observation deck has been closed since 9/11, so you'll just have to settle for a view of the giant silver and gold reproduction of the Declaration of Independance that hangs in the lobby.



After our meetings concluded, we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and walk the streets. The area is brimming with luxury stores such as Chanel, Burberry and Hermes. Sadly, I didn't think my boss was much interested in browsing Hermes, but I did see one store that I would never patronize.



Note that it is going out of business. Power to the short people! We shall overcome!



Why can't we have a cute Paper Source store in Pittsburgh? It taunts me wherever I go!


Next we headed to the glorious Public Garden.



I was disappointed that the swan boats were done for the year, but there were still other pretty sites to see.









Next time, I hope to visit Beacon Hill and finally attend a Boston sporting event.

Tomorrow and Saturday we will be busy with various Halloween activities, so there will be more fall photos to come!

Movin' on.

Crickey, that's a lot of boxes (Yes, that is none other than Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, may he rest in peace.).

As of Monday, my company is moving us to new offices. I had been at the current location since 1997. 1997. That's eleven years. I practically grew up there. It is a heck of a lot of work execute such a massive relocation. Everyone really pulled together and pitched in, and as a result we were able to leave 2 hours early today confident that everything was packed and ready to go.



Mel C is coming along too. At the new office, she'll be sitting few feet down the hall from me.



Sadly, we cannot say the same for the Crocodile Hunter. We tried to pack him inside a box, but he just wouldn't fit.



I tried to have a photo taken of me fake weeping in front of my office, but they came out too blurry. So here is one of me and my counterpart Dave having one last meeting before we hit the road.

Buccaneers and buccinators.

Last night, I was fortunate enough once again to enjoy watching the Pittsburgh Pirates lose to the LA Dodgers from the confines of my company's luxury box. I've become so spoiled at this point that I don't think I can ever watch a game sitting in the stands again.



This year, my best gal pal Mel C got to tag along too. Poor girl was still reeling from the news that she had torn her buccinator. But not even her devastating injury could hold her back from cheering on our favorite pierogi. She's a trooper!

Now before you watch this video, please keep in mind the following:

--This is a very poor quality video of The Great Pierogi Race

--"Saul" is none other than Sauerkraut Saul.

--The beer had long run out at this point.

V fib? No problem!

As of today, I think I can safely say that I have recovered. I'm still taking it easy on my stomach, so you won't see me at All You Can Eat Wing Night anytime soon.



I was able to get my hands on a copy of the program from Saturday's awards ceremony. Mark keeps commenting that I look like I'm topless underneath my blazer. Why doesn't anyone tell me these things before I have my photo taken?

As you can see above, today I attended an all day training in life saving and first aid techniques. Having bad memories of 8th grade health class where 30 of us had to take turns giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to homely female dummy while our gym teacher wiped it's mouth with an alcohol soaked cotton ball, I was slightly apprehensive. Thankfully, there have been great strides in hygienics during the last 20 years, so the the class was nothing like that at all. In fact, we had a very good instructor who made the material interesting and fun (Well, as fun as cardiac arrest and amputations can be.). I honestly don't know if I would be up to the task if put in the life threatening situation, but it is comforting to know that at least I have some clue as to what to do.

Now I'm off to clean the yogurt Lauren smeared all over the desk, keyboard and computer screen. Oh the glamorous life I lead!

Right now.

Right now, I...

...should be wearing this dress.
...should be getting a formal portrait taken with my cute husband in his new suit.
...should be enjoying all kinds of yummy food, like bananas foster and creme brule.
...should be listening to the vocal stylings of Kenny Loggins (Yes, Kenny Loggins.).
...should be celebrating my 10th year with my company at a big party at the Carnegie Museum.

But instead, I am at home. With the stomach flu.

Dutch wonderland?!

I'm writing to you from the "comforts" (And I use that term loosely) of the Red Roof Inn at Lancaster, PA. Lauren is taking a nap while Mark and I are sitting in the dark motel room taking advantage of the free wireless internet service.

So far, our little roadtrip (I would not call this a vacation, since vacations actually involve relaxing. There's nothing relaxing about traveling with a very strong willed two-year old.), has been very educational. For example, we have learned that the Pennsylania Dutch of Lancaster have to be one of the nation's most exploited people. Hopefully, there is a big Amish syndicate behind all the giftshops and tours that is making a few bucks off of this tourist trap. They deserve it as pay back for all the strip malls running through their farm land.

But we're not completely cynical. Yesterday, we stopped at Hershey to do the requisite Chocolate Factory Tour (While it has been updated to bring it into the 21st century, it remains much to my delight as I remember it, complete with simulated roasting oven and pumped in chocolate fragrance.). The tour exits into a enclave of gift shops, where Lauren immediately honed in on a little black and pink plastic Good and Plenty purse (Only $10!). I myself picked out a cute York Peppermint Patty t-shirt and a pretty mug. Mark got some free trial size Kissables.

Next, we stopped at Hershey Gardens. This was the pleasant surprise of our trip. Although it's probably not high on the list of spots to visit here, it should be. The sprawling gardens were the just the place to let loose an antsy two year old who had been in the car too long. Oh, and the flowers were darn pretty too.

Today, we visited Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park, which is basically one giant Kiddieland. Ironically, although I have ridden the major coasters at Cedar Point, I have never come as close as to getting sick on a ride as I have at Dutch Wonderland. The Turtle Whirl is sheer evil. Stay away from it.

After Lauren's nap, we're heading back to DW. I'll share photos of our when we return!

Pirate game redux.

So for the second time in a month, I went to a Pirate game. This time, I went with my co-workers and sat in our company's luxury box.

The evening didn't start out so great, as just when we left for the game, a massive thunderstorm rolled through the area. We ended up hanging out for about forty minutes on the first floor of a parking garage until we got up enough courage to trek across the Roberto Clemente bridge.

Most of the photos that I took aren't very exciting - just of a bunch of men standing around drinking free beer. Here are a couple of the more interesting shots:



There's a story behind this photo, but I'll leave it to the imagination.



Apparently, when you occupy the luxury boxes, the Pirate Parrot comes to you.

Caution: Tourist Photos Ahead.

By most standards, my visit to Boston went as well as one can expect from a business trip. We flew up on Jetblue, which despite its recent problems, was actually quite awesome. Yes, I flew coach in the last row of the plane next to a set of one year old twins, but I had a window seat, my choice of snacks (I opted for the Blue Potato chips - must find these at the store), and 40 plus channels of Direct TV to enjoy.

And as always with traveling on business, we ate like kings. The first night I had lump crab cakes at Legal Seafoods; the second night we ate at Venezia where I had filet, very tasty risotto, and cannoli for dessert. For lunch on the last day, we slummed it and ate burgers at Henry's Root Beer Stand.

I won't bore everyone with the details of the business that was conducted. Most of our time was spent in Quincy, but luckily, we were able to wrap things up early and catch some sights in the city before flying home.

Here are just a few highlights. All of the photos taken on my 2 hour or so visit can be seen here. If you know Boston, I can assure you that no new territory is covered. However, as a holder of a BA in Political Science, I found Boston absolutely thrilling. It must be awesome to go to work everyday surrounded by so much history.

We actually started from the middle of the Freedom Trail at Faneuil Hall and went backwards towards Boston Common. I have to say that I just loved the concept of the Freedom Trail and feel that every city should have one. Although we had no idea where we were going, we never worried about getting lost because we could just follow the red line back to where we came from. It was sure better than leaving a trail of popcorn.





I took this photo of the Old State House while standing on the site of the Boston Massacre. Very awe inspiring, despite the fact that traffic is whizzing around the divider where the site is marked.



Anyone who knows me will understand why I took these photos. My new goal in life is to own a Thomas Pink shirt.



Cool sandwich board stationed in front of the Old South Meeting House.



The co-workers that I was traveling with were probably a little disturbed my display of glee at the burying grounds. I couldn't help it - it was fascinating! I have never smelled something as old as the King's Chapel Burying Grounds. And I must have good taste in tomb stones because I found out after the fact that this one depicting Father Time battling the Grim Reaper is noted as the most beautiful found at King's Chapel:






Our last and my favorite stop was the Granary Burying Ground, where most of the notables of the American Revolution, such as Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams are laid to rest. What's especially interesting is that such hallowed ground is surrounded by office buildings. You could literally look out a window and be facing someone's head stone. All I see from my office building is a parking lot.

And that concludes the tour. As for souvenirs, I only brought back these photos for myself. Lauren received the most adorable pink Boston Red Sox cap (which she refuses to wear), while Mark received some Boston Nut Roaster nuts, which he devoured upon my return. Hopefully, all three of us will get to enjoy Boston together some day.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Although I've been back from Boston since late Wednesday night, it's taking me a couple of days to get settled back into my routine. I have many more photos from my trip to share, but my focus right now is my sister-in-law Beth's baby shower, which is tomorrow. Expect more about that event this weekend, and then the run down of the Boston visit at the beginning of next week. And after that, we'll be back to our usual sturm and drang of daily life.

It's about time.

There is nothing that Mark wants more right now than an antique Grandfather clock. He's been searching for months for just the right one. So until he finds one, he is in the meantime tied over by this Seth Thomas mantle clock that he received yesterday. This is good, because with the exception of Christmas decorations, our giant fireplace mantle has been bare since we moved in back in July.

We're all suffering from snow fever today. I went into work, but was dismissed around two o'clock. Mark dropped Lauren off at Grandma's and then attempted to go into work, but ended up turning back home because traffic was atrocious. Symptoms of snow fever may continue into tomorrow, as weather conditions are predicted to become progressively worse. We will wait and see.