Once a Maid of Honor, Never a Bride

Since my sister’s engagement I’ve learned way more about weddings than I ever thought there was to even learn. I’ve seen hundreds of wedding cake toppers. I’ve spent evenings searching for my sister’s perfect blue bridal shoes online. I received three (THREE) Maid of Honor books for Christmas. I have to buy my dress soon. [...]

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odd family recipes

Tonight for dinner I made Josephines. My Dad has made them for as long as I can remember. I always thought they were an old family recipe– like most of the other stuff Dad cooks (potato stuffing, spinach balls etc.) comes from his mother. Well, I found out tonight the recipe comes from some friends [...]

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Maine: a lovely refuge for the weary grad student (part 2)

One of my favorite things to do in Maine is go to the Montsweag Flea Market. My grandmother had a table at the flea market forever, and I remember going and spending long summer days there helping her count the money she kept in a kool whip tub and wandering around to look at what [...]

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the expected and the unexpected

As you can see below, I’ve been working on my to do list slowly. Of course, the presentations are winding up to be the last things I do. My goal at this point is to just not write them on the airplane. That gets old after a while.
So today I give you some randomness:
The expected:

I [...]

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exciting family news!

So my Amazing Sister is engaged!
Holy crap! The baby is getting married.
And to a very nice guy that my family loves! Notably, he has a very normal name, and as I advised my sister, she needed to find a guy with a normal name after a string of drama-filled relationships with strange guys named hippie-dippy [...]

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Yet another reason why Maine is clearly the best state…

I’m still in Maine. Sadly, I leave to head back to Cowtown tomorrow. But despite the yucky rainy weather we had here last week, Maine pulled through for me just in time– we’re having a beautiful nor’easter today.
So I’m spending the day next to the woodstove, hanging out with mom and dad, looking out at [...]

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seven random things you probably don’t know about me

I love collecting Vintage Pyrex bowls (particularly the “crazy daisy/spring blossom green” pattern– I have a butter dish and salt and petter shakers in that pattern, along with a great set of bowls). Someday I’m going to have a completely retro kitchen for my vintage kitchen table and my pyrex.
I also collect old, abandoned photographs. [...]

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a highly recommended Halloween costume

My dad has always been slightly obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. He has countless books about Lincoln, little statue busts of Lincoln, and numerous drawings of Lincoln. Shockingly, he also drives a Lincoln, and my parents live at the corner of Lincoln and another street (although the house’s front door is not on the Lincoln street [...]

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you most likely will not find any of this funny

Right now I’m talking online with my mom. We chat online a lot, and now we’re having a very important conversation about who, out of my sister and I, is weirder. She’s not sure. Neither am I.
This all came up because I just got an outbid notice from an ebay auction that I only bid [...]

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on this day

22 years ago, my Amazing Sister was born at (appropriately) Odd Stock Hospital in Salisbury, England.
Happy birthday Maryann!
Actually while writing this, I googled Odd Stock Hospital. It turns out it is actually “Odstock” and it has an interesting history. The wikipedia article omits my sister’s birth however. How odd.

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old fashioned fun

So my sister is here visiting until Tuesday. So far we’ve done a lot of shopping, watched movies, and cooked. Last night we watched Maryann’s pageant DVD and drank Mint Julips (we were going for a southern theme but I’m not sure how the Miss Maine pageant fit into that). We’ve also played tons of [...]

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Guest Post: Amazing Sister: amazing motivation

My big sis is in the last few hours of stress, so the Amazing Sister that I am will blog for her and all of you! Very exciting! But… she is starting to get, well, a little crazy. So to help her i have been very inspirational. (I could make a living at [...]

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guest post by Amazing Sister

So my sister asked me to guest blog. What should I guest blog about? As you all know, I graduated from Clark University this May and am going to graduate school there next year. One thing my sister didn’’t mention was I had the stomach flu for graduation, and my family had to pack [...]

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pageantry

As I mentioned before, my sister is in the Miss-State-that-I’m-from pageant. This is a another measure of how different we are– she’s in pageant wearing evening gowns, modeling bathing suits, singing broadway show tunes, and I am not (and I’m sure the world is breathing a collective sigh of relief).
It is “pageant week” right now [...]

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oops I forgot…

I forgot to give a shout out to the Fosters who read my blog in the last posting about Northern Maine. So hey there Northern Maine relatives!

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the suspense is finally over…

Well, I am really back into the swing of things now. I spent the last 3 days working (not on my own stuff, working at the day job for what seems like a very long 40 hour week packed into 3 days). I’m planning on doing nothing this weekend. Not a single academic-related thing. I [...]

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Eureka!

The mystery is solved! Finally, after more than a year of searching every time I come and visit Maine, I found the Preble Massacre Monument!
Last summer I drove around all over Arrowsic looking for it, and succeeded only in finding a really old family cemetery (some of the people buried there were born in England [...]

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Tumbledown

Now I’m in Northern Maine, finally catching up on some long overdue blogging! I’m so busy doing nothing here, I can’t seem to find the time to upload photos and write!
Tumbledown Mountain started out as a nice easy hike, through woods filled with birch and pine trees. We took the Loop Trail (described here). We [...]

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I’m off to climb a mountain…

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I guess Bath hasn’t been as interesting as my sister and I thought we could make it. Yesterday we drove around dirt roads in Arrowsic looking for the illusive Preble Indian Massacre monument. Despite also looking last year, we’ve had no luck yet. I’ll try another couple roads tomorrow.
Today [...]

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a place called home

My sister and I have made it our mission to blog something interesting every day I’m in Maine. It gives us something to do, and an excuse to drive around and take pictures of otherwise boring stuff. Today, we’re bringing you a photo of every house we ever lived in in Bath, Maine (all 8 [...]

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ceremony

Yesterday was my sister’s graduation from Clark University. I’m kind of a sucker for ceremonies– especially of the academic kind. I love all the fanfare, music, speeches, and academic garb.
The day started out rainy. Very rainy, and miserable. And the graduation was outdoors no matter the weather. The graduates and faculty were under tents, but [...]

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welcome home!

Well I’m on the East Coast! In Worcester, Mass right now, actually, instead of Maine.
But I flew into Maine yesterday. Here’s my favorite sight when I get off the airplane in Portland, Maine.

I’ve always wanted to take a photo of this sign, but never got the nerve to actually stop among the deplaning passengers, to [...]

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one of those days…

I gather it was a beautiful weekend here– finally warm, and spring-like. It would have been a great weekend for some canoeing, or for riding my bike over to the shop for a tune-up, or at least for some spring photography– but, instead I spent most of the weekend inside, frantically crunching numbers and writing. [...]

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lineage

I’ve been thinking a lot in the past day or so about my lineage– my roots.
My fafa (grandfather) died yesterday at the age of 91. I’ve mentioned him here before. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep– I kept thinking about the things we used to do with fafa when I was a kid. I remembered [...]

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news

It’s Monday morning and I am exhausted. I worked way too much this weekend, and while I got so much accomplished, there is still so much to do. Sigh.
Anyway, here’s some news for you.

According to a Trader Joe’s employee on this site, the store is slated to open October 20th!!
Sadly, I’ll be presenting at a [...]

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happy birthday!

Today is my sister’s 21st birthday! She’s already had quite the birthday, it seems. Her friends at college threw her a huge party Friday night, and last night she went out to buy her first after-midnight drinks.
I was trying to find some embarrassing picture of her as a baby, but I don’t seem to have [...]

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a thousand words II

Here is a follow-up to last summer’s picture illustrating the differences between my sister and I.
Can you guess which bag is mine?

It really shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out…

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nearly eaten alive

Yesterday mom and I ventured to the aforementioned family cemetery in Bowdoinham. The woman who now lives in what used to be my great uncle Charlie’s house, let us come inside and see the old place. It is totally like the kind of old house I would want to own some day, complete with exposed [...]

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family history

I’ve been on another family history kick since being back in Maine. A couple things started this- (1) my dad showed me what must be silver casket plates, engraved with the birth/death info of a couple of very old 18th century relatives. I asked my aunt for info about them, and she gave me the [...]

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catching up

I finally got around to loading some photos online. So here is a little recap of my trip so far…
Here is my brother, in front of the amazing view on the roof of his new apartment in Chelsea. This is definitely a big improvement from where he used to live!

The whole entire packing and moving [...]

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