Oh boy, lots to catch up on! We went on a quick East Coast visit at the beginning of the week, and when we got home there were just tons of things to do! Our vacation included (1) a day in Boston, (2) a visit to Tree's summer farm in Ridgefield, CT, and (3) Matt and Colleen's wedding! If you want to know the details, read on. If you want to look at all the pictures from our trip, click the evil chicken below (Patrick took a lot of the pictures because he's awesome).

Boston

We took a red-eye flight to Boston on Thursday night, which wasn't very restful, but at least we got a whole day in Boston. Thanks to Patrick, we were able to leave our bags at the Logan Hilton for only $5/bag. So much better than having to carry them around with us all day!

We were able to fit in a whole lot of favorite Boston activities, luckily. First we took the T to Downtown Crossing and finagled a bagel (the bagels aren't anything special, but they have the cool bagel guillotine/conveyer belt that is plenty entertaining). We ate our bagels in Boston Common at the Frog Pond.

Next, we walked down to the South End to Flour for lunch! Unfortunately, my shoes weren't up to the challenge (they're pretty comfy, but I was wearing them without socks because my socks were buried in my luggage, and that didn't work too well). Luckily, I remembered that there is a Walgreens next door to Flour, and they had a nice selection of socks. So my feet were saved. Phew!

We got to Flour right before the lunch rush and ordered a Tomato and Mozzarella sandwich for each of us, plus a Tall, Cold Glass of Milk (that's how it's described on the menu) to share. The sandwiches were good, but not as awesome as I'd remembered. That's how it goes. I think the sandwiches used to have basil leaves on them, but they had baby spinach this time. I could be remembering incorrectly though. Also, the bread wasn't as wonderful as it used to be. Ah, the good old days.

We wanted to get some dessert, but it was really crowded, so we left and walked around the community garden across the street. A nice old lady talked to us, and there were lots of plants to look at. Then we went back to Flour and got two cookies: chocolate chip and ginger molasses, both tasty.

Next, we walked down to the beginning of Newbury Street and walked along most of it. Lots of walking! We stopped at Fresh and got some nicely-wrapped soaps for Tree, since she was putting us up on the next leg of our trip. The lady at the counter was discussing plastic surgery with a customer who'd had a nose job when she was 21 and was now going to get a breast augmentation. Not a conversation I could really participate in.

Then we stopped at a bench on the Esplanade and rested our feet for awhile. After that, we crossed the Harvard bridge and entered MIT to use the bathrooms. I was afraid going back to MIT would bring back traumatic memories, but it was fine :) Afterwards, we walked up Mass. Ave. to Toscanini's and got some delicious ice cream (cocoa pudding and caramello crunch). We were going to eat it outside, but it was too hot, so we just sat inside Toscanini's and enjoyed the air conditioning.

We visited Cambridge Bicycles down the street (fixed gear bikes are big in Boston!) and then walked to the little park near my old dorm, Sidney Pacific, and laid around trying not to fall asleep. Finally, we walked to Inman Square to eat dinner at Magnolia's, our favorite Southern restaurant in the area (well, the only Southern restaurant we know of in the area). We had delicious dinners, as anticipated. I had blackened scallops and prawns, and Patrick had some sort of pork loin with all the wonderful sides we love--mashed sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, and collard greens. And I got their mixed vegetables with my dinner. I don't know what they do to them, but those vegetables are delicious. I love their lima beans, for real! Mmm, Magnolia's!

After dinner, it was time to leave Boston, so we made the trek back to the airport and picked up the rental car. Since Patrick isn't 25 yet, I was obliged to drive the car during the whole trip, which was unpleasant at times. But I'm proud of myself for doing it. Usually Patrick is the one who drives us everwhere.

On the Farm with Tree

We drove from Boston to Ridgefield, CT, where Tree is staying for the summer. It was a pretty long drive, but uneventful. Ridgefield is rural, and when we got there, it was around midnight and foggy, and it just felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, we found Tree's place without problems (although we were worried we'd gotten lost a few times), and she let us in and showed us to our air mattress (way better than sleeping on a plane!). She made the mistake of telling us about Scampy, the gargantuan bug that scuttles around her floor at night, so that got me a little worried, but I still slept well, and Scampy didn't make an appearance.

The next morning (Saturday), we woke up at a decent time, and Tree showed us around the farm (she's renting a room from the owner). There were so many animals to look at! Two birds inside, two sad outside cats (poor kitties), a bunch of chickens, ugly turkeys, loud geese, bunnies, guinea pigs, a horse, a pony, a pygmy goat, 2 full-size goats, and more cats (who weren't sad)! Oh, and there was a dog, but he wasn't around much. As you might imagine, there was a lot of poop around the farm, but it was still fun to walk around. Daisy the pygmy goat was the cutest--Tree was so right!

Tree made us eggs for breakfast. She couldn't find the spot where the chickens lay their eggs, but luckily there were a few eggs in the fridge. We also had toast with marionberry jam and juice. Tree's a good hostess!

After breakfast, we headed to downtown Ridgefield, which was pretty small but had some good stuff to see, like a tiny bike shop and the gourmet hot dog cart, Chez Leonard. Leonard was very friendly, and the hot dogs were tasty! It was a good choice for lunch. After lunch, we walked around a nearby park and then got ice cream at Ridgefield Ice Cream Shop, which apparently is one of the top 10 ice cream parlors in America (we still haven't made it to Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream in Palo Alto, which must be remedied soon!). Apparently Toscanini's is in the top 10 too--whoa! The ice cream was indeed good, though the flavors were pretty standard, and it was a very cute little shop.

Next we went to the lake near Tree's farm. Patrick and Tree went swimming, but I stayed on the shore and read a book. There was a group of families and obnoxious pre-teen boys nearby, and they made it less enjoyable. As various people said during our visit, Ridgefield is very Stepford. I hear tell when they were making The Stepford Wives, they went to Ridgefield to find extras for the movie. There just seem to be a lot of rich beautiful people there, and it didn't seem like a very welcoming place at times. But it sure is pretty there! I shouldn't judge though; we weren't there for very long.

A while later, we went back to downtown Ridgefield to have dinner at Upstream, a hip restaurant/lounge that Tree had been to before. It was nice--Patrick and I shared three small plates. Their sweet potato fries are tasty! If you ever go there, you should check out their bathroom. Tree told me to visit it, and it was sound advice.

After dinner, we hung out with some of the other interns from Tree's summer job, which was a good time. And then bedtime, this time with Patrick on the Scampy side of the mattress. The next morning, we had some breakfast and bade farewell to Tree and the animals and were on our way. I wish she could've come with us to New York, but she had her own fun activities planned for the weekend, including a trip to New York City!

Matt and Colleen's Wedding!

We drove from Ridgefield to Binghamton, NY, and passed through Pennsylvania on the way. Bonus state! It was a long but scenic drive. We arrived in Binghamton around 3pm and met up with Erin in the lobby of our hotel there. I'm glad we got to see both Erin and Tree on this trip!

We got ready for the wedding and then headed to the Silo for Matt and Colleen's wedding and reception. It was beautiful. I think my favorite part of the ceremony was when Colleen walked down the aisle. She looked so happy, and so did Matt. It made me cry :) The ceremony itself was nice--they had a rabbi and a minister, and they both had good, insightful and realistic things to say. Good stuff!

The reception was in the restaurant right next to the ceremony site. The DJ was cool--he had a shaved head and sunglasses and was pretty much orchestrating the whole thing. We were at a table with a some friends from high school and Virginia Tech. It turned out we had a lot in common with them, so that was good! Dinner was tasty (as were the pre-dinner pigs in blankets--yum!), and the Shirley Temples were flowing freely (it's my drink of choice because it comes with a cherry!). There was a cool Jewish bread-breaking ceremony before dinner, and there were some other fun wedding traditions, including the hora (Patrick helped hold Colleen's chair after some hora tips from our tablemates) and throwing of the bouquet and garter. Erin caught the bouquet--ooh!

The evening ended with some drunken karaoke by Drew and the boys. A good time was had by all. We're so happy for Matt and Colleen :)

The next day, we went to a picnic hosted by Matt's family. The weather was beautiful, and there was a good-sized contingent of Mudd alumni. There was some croquet-playing and spiedie-eating. I'd never heard of spiedies before, but I've been educated now. I like picnics!

That evening, we all went to a AA league baseball game (the Binghamton Mets versus the New Hampshire Fishercats). The stadium was really nice, and we got to eat nachos and funnel cakes! The Mets lost, but just barely. The only downside of the evening was that around dusk, we were besieged by mayflies, attracted by the stadium lights. Apparently they're standard in that area, but I'd never run across them before. It was unpleasant. They kept landing everywhere, and I kept freaking out because I'm a wuss. But it was still a fun outing, and I'm glad we got to spend more time with Matt and Colleen. There were fireworks after the game, which was convenient. I'm glad we didn't have to go somewhere else to see them!

The next day, we drove up to Syracuse and flew home. It was a good trip, and we got to see a lot of familiar people and places. I wish we could've visited Ithaca as well (I spent a summer at Cornell when I was in college), but there just wasn't time. Oh well, I'm sure we'll visit the East Coast again within the next year or two.

This weekend gets its own entry, coming soon!

So, this weekend. On Saturday, I drove down to Carmel for my trial wedding hair and makeup appointment with Rebecca, who was recommended by her sister-in-law, Freya, Ventana's recommended hair and makeup person (who is already doing hair and makeup for the other girl getting married at Ventana on the same day as us). I walked around Carmel for a few hours beforehand, which is always enjoyable, even though Carmel's shopping options aren't really targeted at people my age. However, there is a new Lush store on Ocean Avenue! Exciting!

My trial appointment went really well. Rebecca knows what she's doing, and she'll definitely do a better job than I could ever do. I'm glad I found somebody reliable so I won't have to worry about how I look on the day of the wedding (I know, Patrick loves me no matter how I look, but I'd prefer to look extra nice for the wedding). The appointment took about 2 hours, but it should take less time on the actual day of the wedding now that she knows what looks best on me. She'll still have to start at 7 am, since she's also doing Tree and Erin's hair. I feel bad that she has to wake up so early, but I guess that comes with the job.

Patrick doesn't want to see my hair and makeup before the wedding, so I'll put the pictures in pop up windows. Click if you're interested...I think it turned out well. I look fancier than usual but still like me. Exactly what we were aiming for!

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

The only thing that will be different on the wedding day is that there will be stephanotis in my hair too. The logistics of keeping them in a fridge overnight are still being worked out, since us girls will be staying at the Big Sur Lodge the night before the wedding, and they don't have any phones, TVs, etc. We'll figure something out.

I'm really pleased with how the trial went, and my hair and makeup held up during the drive back home (yeah, I let my fancy hairdo go to waste!). Patrick was off doing the Death Ride (Erin and her dad were there too, so hopefully she'll write about it sometime), so we couldn't go out to dinner or anything. I think it's pretty amusing that while Patrick was riding up 5 mountains, I was having my hair done :) Incidentally, he completed the Death Ride, and I'm very proud of him and Erin and Erin's dad for even attempting something so hard!

On Sunday, I took 1 month pictures of our garden. Click the picture if you'd like to see them all. Our tomato plants are growing crazy big (but only Patio Hybrid F is actually making tomatoes for some reason). Nat must have the magic touch; he took care of the garden while we were on the East Coast.

Some bug has been nibbling holes out of our collard green leaves. I do not like that. It needs to leave enough for us to eat too!

I also went school supply shopping on Sunday. See, my company is participating in a program that provides backpacks full of school supplies to low-income students. I chose to fill one for a 2nd to 5th grade girl, which seems like the most fun of the categories (except maybe K-2 girl). It was fun picking out all sorts of pretty school supplies, and I love the backpack I got her. So many pockets! Staples wasn't really in back to school mode yet, but they still had a decent selection (except they were very lacking in protractor choices, so I just didn't get one, since it's unlikely she'd actually need one at that age). Here's all the stuff I bought:

I'm glad I was able to buy stuff without any cartoon characters or Barbie or whatever on it. Maybe she'll be disappointed about the non-commerciality of her school supplies (I know I would've loved a My Little Pony pencil box when I was a kid), but I wanted to buy her quality stuff instead that would last a while.

In addition to the school stuff, I also threw in some stickers and Charlotte's Web and The Secret Garden because those were two of my favorites when I was a little girl. There were tons of other books that I also loved, but there wasn't enough room in the backpack for all of them :) I'm a little worried that the book choices might offend the parents in some way (like the fact that both books have a white protagonist or that Charlotte's Web has a sad ending), but I think they're pretty benign. Hopefully the backpack will make a little girl really happy!

In unrelated news, I had an awesome basil, tomato, and mozzarella melt at Borrone Cafe (one of our favorite weekend lunch places, ignoring the fact that it's always super-crowded) on Sunday. Poor Patrick had to have soup because his throat was irritated from the Death Ride. Normally he gets their Pastrami Melt, which is delicious because it uses Niman Ranch pastrami. Mmmm....

You know how there were some holes in our collard greens? Well, they got much worse, and we also found holes in our tomato leaves, pea leaves, and radish leaves. No good!

I got up close and personal with our garden today to try and figure out what was eating everything, and it turned out to be not one but two kinds of cabbage worms--cabbage loopers on the righthand side and imported cabbage worms on the lefthand side (they exhibited markedly different behavior when I poked them and when crawling, as the webpage said they would). Here's a picture of a cabbage looper; the imported cabbage worm looks pretty similar, but it has legs all along its body.

One option for combating them was using Knock Out Gnats (the container of which I still haven't opened even though we still have fungus gnats in our herb garden), which is a strain of Bacillus thuringiensis and is supposed to kill cabbage worms. However, I'd rather not apply it to plants we're going to eat someday, since the package isn't clear on whether it's safe for vegetable and herb gardens. So instead Patrick brought me some pliers, and I spent about an hour pulling the worms off the bottoms of all our plant leaves. I doubt that I got them all, but I'll keep checking, and hopefully that'll solve the problem for the most part. I also pulled out all of our radishes because they were a good hiding place for the worms, since they're all obscured by our tomato plants now. They weren't doing a good job of making radishes anyway (not enough sunlight?). It's not a big loss, although I wouldn't have minded having radishes to eat.

One of our apartment complex's outdoor cats joined me during my cabbage worm safari, which made it a more entertaining experience. She's white and fluffy, and she seems to be the friendliest of them all. She has come to visit me before (and always tries really hard to sneak inside our apartment when I go in). She was really interested in the container with all the cabbage worms in it, but not the worms themselves. She did try to attack our one ripening strawberry, which was cute despite being very unwelcome behavior. She also kept getting in my way, but it didn't matter because I got to pet her tummy and she purred and everything. What a nice kitty :) I hope someday we can have our own cat.

Last game of the softball season was tonight. Our team ended up last out of all 7 teams. But we were the nicest and had the best sportsmanship, so there! It was a fun season; I'm sad it had to end. I'm glad Patrick got to play on our team and got to know my coworkers. They're a good group of people.

In other news, we went camping with my stepdad's extended family last weekend, and I actually enjoyed myself! (Previous camping trips have not worked out so well, despite the good company) I plan on writing a more involved entry later, but who knows when that'll happen...

As I said earlier, camping last weekend was fun. Every year, my stepdad's family goes camping for a week in Shaver Lake, CA, at Dinkey Creek campground. Patrick and I joined them (and my mom) for the weekend, and I'm glad we did. There were maybe 50 people there (it's a big family), and I'd met a few of them before. They were all so nice and welcoming to Patrick and me! I think we'd almost figured out how they were all related by the end of the weekend :)

There were a bunch of good meals; they've gotten really good at orchestrating everything after 30-odd years. There is a huge 20-inch Lodge skillet used for cooking bacon and eggs every morning (apparently they no longer make them that big, which made us sad). And a bunch of the siblings contributed delicious food for dinners. Both nights, after it was dark, everybody sat around a bonfire and sang songs (they're a very musical family). And there were way fewer bugs than at our last camping trip. It was a good camping experience (we certainly weren't roughing it at any point!).

The family has a bunch of favorite hikes and special spots around Dinkey. My mom and stepdad took us to the falls (pictures of me after the hike and Patrick swimming) and to Heavenly Pool. Patrick swam three different times, but I just dipped my feet in the water. Patrick also jumped off some cliffs (maybe 5 meters above the water) along with my stepbrother and other younger, more daring members of the family. Apparently they do it all the time, and Patrick waited until a bunch of people had done it safely before trying it himself. I'm glad he didn't get hurt!

We were sad we only got to spend two days there (although it was nice to get home to a real bed and a shower). I hope we can go again next year and see more of Dinkey Creek and my extended step-family.

I was worried about leaving our garden unwatered for a whole weekend, but it did just fine. However, it has other problems. I've been pulling cabbage worms off of our plants twice a day all week, and I thought I'd almost gotten all of them, but now there are baby cabbage worms all over the place again--the second generation, I guess. It feels like a losing battle. Especially since ants also invaded the garden a few days ago and are swarming all over the tomato plants. They don't seem to be eating the plants, so I'm hoping they're either eating the cabbage worm eggs/babies or the cabbage worm poop (there's a lot of it!). I guess as long as our tomatoes keep growing I shouldn't let it bother me, but it's unpleasant all the same.

The good news is that both our indoor and outdoor herb gardens are doing well (I've just ignored the fungus gnats, and somehow there are less of them than there were intially), and none of our garden plants are dead because of the pests; just sad-looking. Patio Hybrid F is still pumping out tomatoes (none ripe yet), despite being assaulted by creepy crawlies.

In wedding news, Patrick is making good progress on planning our honeymoon, which is very exciting! We have our tickets, and we have a rough schedule. We're leaving the day after our wedding, and we'll spend 2 days in Rome, 3 in Montepulciano (in Tuscany), 1 in Florence, and then 1 more in Rome. We're hoping to split our time between seeing lots of stuff (in Rome and Florence) and relaxing (in Montepulciano). We will eat plenty of good food everywhere we go! I think this will be a great vacation, and I'm so happy I get to spend a whole week of quality time with Patrick :) Honeymoons are a good idea!

Also, I bought two potential wedding necklaces from Hovey Lee (I first found out about her from Tree when she was planning her wedding). Normally I wouldn't buy such nice jewelry for myself, but it's nice to have a good excuse to do so. The two necklaces are Nirvana III and Japon. I'm going to wait until my dress arrives (it should be here in a few weeks) to decide which one to wear at the wedding. I love them both! The question is whether I want a striking necklace or something a little more subtle.

I'm working on designing our wedding invitations every so often, when I'm not busy prying cabbage worms off our plants. Since we have fewer than 10 invitations to send out (many of our 15 guests live at the same addresses), I'm making them myself. I want to do a good job, but I also need to have them ready sometime soon so we can send them out! It'll all come together...

I'm excited for our wedding! It's almost all planned, except for the ceremony (which is the most important part, but also the part we can put off until the last minute because there aren't any vendors involved). We're going down to Big Sur on Sunday to meet with Ventana's wedding coordinator to get some questions answered and hopefully to pick out our wedding menu (we probably won't get to sample all the choices though--that has to be requested ahead of time and costs extra). After that, we're going to have a quick meeting with our photographer. She likes meeting her clients before their wedding day, and it seems good to discuss things a little bit beforehand. We don't have a big list of photos we want her to take though. I just want lots of pretty candid pictures.

Tomorrow we get to visit my grandma, mom, and two aunts! We also visited them (minus one aunt) last night, and it was so much fun! I like my family. I'm glad they like Patrick :)