Biking, grilling, eating

Elliot and I attended a reception for Team Rialto at Ride Studio Cafe in May. The event included a raffle to raise money for the Pan Mass Challenge, and I was lucky enough to win a copy of a cookbook by Jody Adams, the chef/owner of Rialto, and two spots at an upcoming cooking class. Elliot's Grammie came from CT to spend the day with him so Ed and I could attend the class. It was so fun -- Jody is a great teacher and the food was, of course, amazing.

We started the day with a short bike ride to the Cambridgeport Farmers Market.



Rialto kindly provided us with sparkling water, coffee, and scones to enjoy while at the farmers market.



There was no shortage of beautiful produce and flowers. Ed bought fruit and cheese to take home.









Jody picked out some fruits and veggies for the class members to enjoy later that afternoon.



Once we were back at Rialto, Jody and her sous chef, Cory (?), began demonstrating/preparing a meal of grilled summer vegetables with romesco sauce, grilled lobster with an avocado/tomato/corn salad, and grilled fruit with summer sorbet.



I'm not much of a cook and so was relying on Ed to listen to the lesson while I snapped photos (around 300 for the day!). But one thing I learned is that everything tastes better with olive oil and salt.



Peppers on the grill.



Did I already mention that olive oil makes everything taste better?



The grilled veggies:



The lobster:



The dessert:



Thank you so much to Rialto and Ride Studio Cafe for this great raffle prize. Ed and I had a great time. It's been a while since we've gotten to go out for a classy meal without Elliot and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Awesome weekend

We started off Saturday meeting my teammate Chip for snowshoeing in Needham.



Elliot was a good sport and enjoyed the view from the big baby backpack (hand-me-down from our wonderful ex-neighbors). Afterwards, we were famished and stopped at Bickfords for brunch. Once we got home, Elliot took such an unusually long afternoon nap that I ran out of little projects to do. :)

On Sunday, brunch again! We met our friends Julius and Sara at Masa. So yummy. We all went to Barisimo for coffee after that. Ed loved the Colombian coffee that we got so much that I'm concerned that the entire pound will be gone by tonight.

Finally, Ed and Elliot watched the Superbowl while I finished up a big project, a web site (which I put together using a pre-built template) for Elliot's small, non-profit day care.

So... perfect mix of exercise, brunch, family time, and productivity. I wish all weekends could be so awesome.

Wintry mix

This is my favorite weather condition from a logophile point of view, but my least favorite from a practical point of view. It's raining/sleeting/snowing now; we're all home safe, but I think the streets will be covered in ice tomorrow (and already are west of here).



We call this temperature (right around freezing, with precipitation) the Stevens temperature. Many years ago, I did the 'cross race at Farmington, and 'cross legend Tom Stevens delivered a disquisition to Ed in the pit on which bike parts, based on metal type, attract snow at various temperatures just around freezing.

I miss that course.

Pumpkin by Ed, photo by Michele

Best birthday ever

Ed made a lovely birthday dinner and we celebrated with our friends Cara, Euge, Rachel, and Brad (my BIL). We had two kinds of pie and cupcakes. :) And Elliot got to see his friend Eva, Cara and Euge's lovely 5-week-old daughter. So fun.

Thankful

I'm thankful for an uneventful pregnancy and access to excellent pre-natal care. I'm thankful for how our little guy has been showered with love and affection (and mountains of gear) before he's even arrived.

I'm thankful for snuggly and/or entertaining pets.

I'm thankful that we ordered our Thanksgiving meal from Whole Foods and now we (Ed, Brad, Kris) can all relax instead of cooking.

I'm thankful for Minuteman Masters Swimming, without which I would be pretty out-of-shape (and even more grumpy) right now. I barely feel pregnant when I'm in the pool. However, riding a bike (even on the trainer) has been a no-go for weeks.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, family, friends, and colleagues. And I'm thankful for Facebook and blogs, which help me keep track of what they're all up to. :)

I hope you're all having an excellent Thanksgiving!

Congratulations, Robin and Cyndi!

My good friend Robin (with whom I worked closely for many years) and his girlfriend of 23 years, Cyndi, tied the knot on Oct. 31. We're absolutely thrilled for them! I saw some photos from the event and Robin's vintage fedora was quite excellent.

Bev (who has known Robin since college) organized a celebration today. Ed and I joined Bev, Robin, Cyndi, and Jennifer for an afternoon of indulgence at the Chocolate Bar (Langham Hotel, Boston). I think I must have sampled a couple dozen desserts. The cinnamon sugar beignets were my favorite, as they were reminiscent of Hawaii-style malasadas. A great time was had by all!



Later, Ed and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items. The smell of sugar near the bakery made me feel just a little sick. :)

Lucky Number Seven

Today's our 7th anniversary! This is an especially exciting one since it's the last one we'll spend as a family of two (humans).

Here's a photo from our wedding in Stage Fort Park in Gloucester.



And here's another one we took a few days ago after we watched the second day of racing at the Gran Prix of Gloucester. It's nice to get to visit "our" wedding beach every year at the race.



I can't wait to get started on our next adventure!

August

This month has gone by in a blaze of humid discomfort. Here are a few things we did.

I made myself a Mad Men-atar and have been enjoying season 3! I made one for Ed too.





Ed bonded with his sister Liz's dog, Micah, during a quick visit to the in-laws in CT. I knew that pocket was good for something.



A couple of weeks ago, we watched the Gran Prix of Beverly crit. It was fun to see some friends from racing and we scored a bunch of great deals at the Craft sample sale.



I got to see Matty B at the crit!



We've been riding together a bit. This was taken after a short ride around our town last weekend. And we've been swimming with Minuteman Masters. The bump is really slowing down my freestyle (Ed is faster than me now), but my fly, breaststroke, and backstroke seem thus far unaffected.



And of course, we've been trying to keep Miss Betty in fresh cardboard. Nom nom nom!

Two milestones for Ed

It's been a big couple of weeks for Ed. He graduated! I'm so excited that there's no more homework, for either of us, ever again. Ed's mom came out from CT for the big event. Of course we're very proud of him. :)



And he celebrated his birthday -- he can officially race the real masters' races this year. We had a dinner for him on Saturday with a few friends. Here he is with a spectacular cake made by Neilie and binary candles (of course).

What we've been up to

Snuggling Miss Betty.



More snuggling. (We try to provide equal snuggling opportunities for Lola, but she usually prefers to supervise from afar.)



Hosting Brad en route from Reykjavik to DC. The kittehs, they flock to him.



Being disappointed by Law & Order. You're on national TV. Get a copy-editor!



Finishing up the kitchen. The kitchen is almost done -- pics to come later!

Volunteering at the Children's Room, an organization that helps grieving families, for the National Day of Service. There was a great post about this on EmilyStyle, which is where I found the USA Service web site and signed us up. It ended up being perfect for us. We worked with a team to assemble IKEA Billy bookcases (which I can almost do blindfolded) and secure them to the walls. We loaded them up with books. The bookcases needed to be shimmed, so someone bought a package at the hardware store and Ed used a butter knife to score them. We had a few tools with us, but we should have brought more. :)



Afterward, Ed and I sealed an outdoor bench with tung oil. He noticed some areas in the basement that needed a professional's attention, so he wrote up a brief report with some recommendations. All in all, it was very satisfying. We were really impressed with the work that the Children's Room is doing. I'm sure we'll be involved with them in the future.

Christmas

I haven't been so much in the Christmas spirit this year, but we have really enjoyed the wonderful Christmas cards, text messages, gifts, SuperPokes, and phone calls from friends and family, as well as the opportunity to visit our CT family. Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou to all of you!

When we saw Whit and Jen in November, we got to try out their fancy German vacuum. It was objectively awesome and fortunately Santa brought us one to help deal with the fur that Lola and Betty leave around (and the construction dust). Ed immediately vacuumed a few rooms. I haven't seen him this happy since our wedding day. ;)



Ed's also been hard at work in the kitchen. He's done tiling the floor and spent today working on the toe-kicks and baseboards. I'll post photos this weekend.

Requiescat in pace

When I left last week to go on vacation, it was still fall in New England and Aimee was sick.

When I returned today, it had become winter in New England and Aimee was gone.

Aimee was one of the first and best friends I made at Tufts and we were roommates for two years. She fought so hard to beat melanoma. It still hasn't really hit me yet. You can read her story at the Cowan family blog.

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me

Ed and I went to see the Boston taping of "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" last Thursday. It was sooo much fun. The crowd was especially pumped about the election. Peter Sagal joked about how he used the spend summers in Boston when he was growing up and this was the first time he'd seen Bostonians really happy and making eye contact with strangers. Ed is not the "Wait Wait" fan that I am, but he found the taping to be much more funny than he was expecting. Barney Frank was particularly quick-witted as the "Not My Job" guest.

A picture of the stage from Flickr.

Listen to the Boston show online.

Hibernation

I'm sure Bubba, the groundhog who lives under the little deck attached to our shed, is down for his long winter's nap. Summer is definitely over. We got to see a lot more of him this summer than usual. He was in rare form: doing yoga on the deck, scaring the squirrels, and entertaining a friend (a lady friend?). He also seemed a lot less scared of us, so Ed was able to get some better pictures than in previous years.

Hodgmania

I saw John Hodgman do a reading at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Wednesday and got a book signed. He was excellent!!



Great recap from Bostonist.

A Flickr set from the talk.

Thank You, Brookline, from John Hodgman's blog.

John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost time, from TED.

Bingo!

Ed won Palin bingo tonight. Here he is in his Colbert Nation t-shirt with his yuppie computer.

What next?

The track season wrapped up with a Sunday full of racing (Sept. 7) and one final Wednesday night (Sept. 10). The Sunday races in particular were so much fun. I had a great day and posted the fastest flying 200m time for the women. I had some decent results in the many events of the day: 500m, scratch race, points race, team pursuit, match sprints, and keirin. It was pretty tiring and many days later I still did not feel recovered.

Below is a video of one of my first attempts at keirin a couple weeks ago. It took me a little while to warm up to it but it's actually pretty fun. (Thanks for the video, Mark Bowen.)

Last week I did what was probably my final group ride of the year. Even though the CRW groups started at 5:30 p.m., we barely finished before dark, and the crowd was pretty small. This Sunday will be my final crit of the season.

Up next, of course, is cyclocross. I was registered for my second race of the season last weekend but wimped out because I hate riding in rain and mud. So we'll see how long my 'cross season lasts. ;) Obviously I'm not really committed. True 'crossers love the mud.

I've been trying to think of other things to do to keep myself busy in the off-season. I've picked up a knitting project (finally, my sister will be so pleased) and have been devouring books. Two recent faves are Heat and Sweet and Low: A Family Story. I'm looking into joining a swim team (I tore the house apart last night trying to find a swimsuit I purchased in 1998) and I even bought a cheap compass so I can try out orienteering. Sadly, I'm not so great at self-directed exercise; I'm hoping that having a plan to be someplace for a specific event will spur me on.

My husband, the coffee snob

As we walked back during low tide from Salt Island to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, we walked past some Dunkin' Donuts cups. I stopped and turned around to pick them up. It was disgusting, but I am still the person who did a project on plastics killing marine mammals for the science fair in 7th grade.

me: I was going to leave them, but then I thought they might wash out to sea and I felt bad.

Ed: Yes, that's a tough call.

me: Really?

Ed: Does saving the planet outweigh the risk of being mistaken for someone who drinks Dunkin' Donuts coffee?

July 4th weekend

We didn't do much to celebrate July 4th -- we had planned on going to a Sloan Fellows event but were both feeling icky (bronchitis) and so stayed in. The first season of Mad Men was so entrancing that I couldn't even be distracted long enough to check out the Boston Pops on TV.

We spent all day yesterday on Cape Ann with our friends Craig and Neilie. After a very hearty breakfast at Sugar Magnolia's, we wandered around downtown Gloucester and Rockport, including Bearskin Neck. Halibut Point was a lot of fun.





It ended up being so warm (and non-rainy!) that we almost could have gone to a beach, which was our original plan. We joked about a junk food stage race with fried clams as the third stage (after stage 1's brunch and stage 2's ice cream), but it was just too much.

Today, feeling nearly recovered from the bronchitis, Ed and I headed to Wells Ave. He got to wear his new NEBC kit for the first time and I felt surprisingly good considering that the only ride I've been able to do in the past two weeks was the MS Ride. So I've registered for a couple of crits next weekend and hope to make it up to the track on Wednesday before heading to McLean for work on Thursday and Friday.



I'm taking tomorrow off and am looking forward to sleeping in. I hope you all had a great weekend as well!