Desert camel

After spending the previous weekend traveling up-and-down the mid-Atlantic coast, Roger and I spent this weekend at home, occupying ourselves with some domestic projects.

Our primary task was to paint the mudroom. The previous owner had hurriedly painted the yellow room white, but there were still unfinished edges and dog scratches on the door.

Although we contemplated greens and yellows for the room, we settled on the warm coffee-colored Behr Desert Camel. It actually works really well with the white trim and the mudroom tiles.

The painting went fairly quickly, and with great results. The new color makes the little room look more important, grown-up and a sweet entrance to our home.

Philadelphia and New York, bite by bite, part 2

Genevieve and John enjoy a couple bowls of rice pudding at Rice to Riches in New York. One of the many places we stopped at over our long weekend.

We had a quick bus trip up to New York City. Roger especially enjoyed the showing of "Starsky & Hutch" on the bus. When we arrived at Port Authority, we were met by my brother Jeremy and our friend John Kim. The two were ready to walk with us through Midtown, so we took the train up near 50th Street. Jeremy treated us with free passes to the MOMA, where we got to walk through the new Cezanne-Pisarro exhibit.


Roger, me, and Jeremy re-enacting my favorite photo of my parents in New York, before GeJeJer (Genevieve-Jeffrey-Jeremy).

We had dinner at The Red Cat, which had very good fries! The atmosphere, the food, and the people reminded us very much of our old favorite Chicago haunt, Bistro Campagne. Stuffed, we caught the PATH train to New Jersey and called it a night.

The next day, Monday, John took the day off to go traipsing around the city with us. We headed straight to Katz Deli for some hearty corned beef sandwiches. Yummy! We then made our way to NoLiTa and SoHo to do some shopping, despite the oppressive humidity. Some of us bought girly things, some of us bought shoes. We were all sweating heavily by the end of the day, but we did get to walk quite a lot.

After a snack of rice pudding (Jeremy's recommendation), John headed back to Hoboken. Roger and I walked to Greenwich Village and enjoyed some iced tea at Joe, the Art of Coffee, near NYU.

We called up one more friend that we really wanted to visit, Najm and his wife Huma, and their little girl Ayla. We caught the L train east to Peter Cooper Village, where Najm and Huma lived. Najm and Roger met as residents at Rush, and we used to hang out at Najm's apartment near the Mag Mile, watching movies on Najm's large pull-down screen and playing with baby Ayla. After getting reacquainted, we walked down Avenue A and settled on dinner at one of their favorite pizza places, Adriatic Italian Restaurant on 1st Street. Mm, thin crust pizza!


Fully sated, here we are with Najm and Ayla. Ayla's a big girl now!

The next day, our final day, we took the ferry out from Hoboken to Manhattan, a very nice ride, and caught brunch at Cafe Metro. We said good-bye to John and took the bus back to Philly. No movie this time, although we needed the time to nap.

With our flight back to Manchester leaving around 4 o'clock, we spent our last hour in Philly walking up and down South Street. Although we didn't buy anything, we made note of Ishkabibble's, which came highly recommended by another friend, Jon Webb. Next time, we'll be sure to take more time to visit this trendy area.

Philadelphia and New York, bite by bite, part 1

Philadelphia, the Cradle of the Revolution

Our long two-city weekend began with a two-hour wait in Manchester Airport as our Southwest flight to Philadelphia was delayed due to heavy rains. The wait wasn't too bad, though, because the airport conveniently featured broadcasts of the Yankees-Red Sox game in which the Olde Towne Team beat the Yankees, 17-1.

We finally got into Philly around midnight and took a cab to Avi's place in West Philly. Anita and Avi were still up, so we helped put together a pasta salad for the next day's house BBQ.


Roger planning on where we should go and what we should do for the weekend.

The next day we had a hearty brunch at The White Dog Cafe. Anita took us next door to The Black Cat Shop where I bought earrings that featured a picture of a terrier and a collie.

As Avi and his roommate left to prepare for the BBQ, we wandered around Walnut Street, biding our time before we went to the bus stop to pick up Anita's good friends, Elaine, Anna, and Brandon. The six of us then had a snack at Rising Tide in Chinatown, including yummy bubble teas, and did some last minute grocery shopping at the famed Reading Terminal Market.

We took two cabs back for a lively dinner of homemade BBQ chicken, lemongrass and jerk dressings, along with plenty of lamb and corn and ice cream. We caught up with everyone, including Anna and Brandon, who are expecting their first baby, a boy, in August.

The next day, we got ready for our trip up to New York City. Anita, Anna, Brandon, and Elaine accompanied us to Chinatown where we had dim sum at H. K. Golden Phoenix. Before the gang headed out to Camden to see the aquarium, and before we caught our bus, we stopped by Rising Tide one more time for shakes and teas. I especially enjoyed my Honeydew Melon Shake, sans tapioca!


Good shakes had by all! Anna, Elaine, Anita, Genevieve, and Roger.

Fireworks!

Fenway, the Fourth, and the Fittses

The view from the Upper Bleacher seats at Fenway, on Friday, July 1. Right underneath the scoreboard.

We opened our Fourth of July weekend with a trip to Boston to enjoy a little baseball. Armed with Italian sausages and sodas, we treked all the way up to the Upper Bleacher seats, where Roger had sat just two days before with our friend Jim Fitts (they won that game and we were hoping for a repeat performance). The view was great - the score was not so much. Toronto beat Boston on Canada Day, 15-2. That Ted Lilly can pitch.

After our post-game walk up to Cambridge via Mass Ave, we retired to our room at the Hotel@Mit.


Hotel@MIT. Pretty nice digs, including free WiFi, and at a great price - Roger scored us a good deal via Priceline.

The room and its bedding inspired me to go shopping for a light summer blanket later that weekend.

After brunch at S&S Deli, we drove back up to Vermont with plans to attend an all-house staff BBQ in White River later that evening.

Although we were only planning to stay at the BBQ for an hour, we ended staying for 3 or 4 hours. We saw a lot of people from the DHMC Partners Orientation, which was really cool. And our friends Jim and Sherry Fitts were there, with their twin girls, Ava and Emily.

Roger was on call Sunday, but we met up with the Fittses again on Monday for a parade in Hanover, and small town festivities on the Dartmouth Green.


Jim, Ava, Sherry, and Emily Fitts, on a bench outside The Wrap.

Monday night, Roger and I grabbed some chips and sodas and trekked out to the Wilder Dam to watch the fireworks with the good people of White River J. I'll post Roger's pictures of the fireworks in a different post.

It was a great weekend overall - lots of fun and sunshine and friends.

Coffee Is for Closers

Washington Nationals closer Chad Cordero is on fire!

From ESPN:

Cordero earned his 15th save in June to tie a major league record set by Lee Smith in 1993 and matched by John Wetteland in 1996. Cordero wiggled out of a second-and-third, no-outs jam in the ninth inning for his 25th straight save and major league-leading 28th overall. He retired Ryan Doumit on a routine fly with the bases loaded for the final out.

Now, my admiration for Boston Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield has been well-documented in this blog, including here and here. But I gotta say that Cordero, a Cal State Fullerton grad, has been mighty impressive. Roger and I caught a recent save that was "typical Cordero".

According to the Washington Post's Tom Boswell:

[With last night's save against the Pirates,] Cordero completed a perfect and amazing month of June in which he had an ERA of 0.00, walked only one batter unintentionally and tied the major league record for saves in one month with 15. Only Lee Smith, the all-time saves leader, and former Yankee John Wetteland ever saved 15 in a month.

... Right now, the only thing in baseball more unexpected than Cordero's sudden stardom may be his team's first-place play. ... In the past 32 days, the Nats have gone 23-6, transforming themselves from a losing team (24-25) into the talk of the sport. In that span, Cordero has saved 18 games, including 11 by one run: 3-2, 3-2, 3-2, 2-1, 4-3, 2-1, 3-2, 1-0, 5-4, 2-1, 3-2.

Read that again: June ERA 0.00

Here is my favorite part of the Boswell article:

... Back in May the Nationals were invisible nationally. ... [Now] the odds on the Nats to win the NL East - perhaps the toughest division in the sport - are down to 3 to 1. Chew on that with breakfast.

I don't know if it's the toughest division in the sport, but I like the way that man writes. And he certainly has a lot to write about these days with that little team that plays at RFK.