First Snow!

Of my life really. First for Boston this winter... Stepped outside and heard a crunch below my feet!

Mighty Ducks and Mighty Winds

This past weekend, John David was in town, and to show him around Boston properly, as it was his first time in the city (and my first year), we took a duck tour! Essentially, one rides around in an old WWII vehicle/boat, while a witty guide spouts off copious mouth-fulls of info about Boston. Normally, the duck tours are not given during December, but in the name of good profit, they decided to experiment with the weekend tours during this frosty month. We, being the touristy suckers that we are, enlisted for the hour and a half ride and dared to bare the sinking temperatures and the chilly winds.

We drove around town for a bit, learning about the city's roots, but before long, we headed over to the Charles river and plunged straight in. John David and I, huddled in the back of the boat, tried to maintain our own body temperatures while the icy river flowed beneath our feet. While listening to the life stories of all fellow passengers, my toes became completely frozen , but before too long, we emerged onto the streets of Boston once again. We quacked a few times along the road back to the boat's origin, waved at a few passing cars, and thanked the guide for his entertaining performance. A successful duck tour, if there ever was one!

We also made it over to the Harvard Natural History Museum to see their amazing animal and glass flower collections, as well as the famous Haymarket farmer's market, where we purchased...get ready: a mango, a cantaloupe, three broccoli crowns, a bunch of asparagus, 6 tangerines, and 5 bulbs of garlic for a grand total of...$4.75. Yes, it is amazing, and now I can sleep better at night knowing that poor folks like myself can eat well with meager wages. Between all this excitement, we spent a lot of time trying to stay warm and withstand the forceful winds blowing throughout the city... Truly, my first encounter with a Northern wintery weekend. I am enjoying it while it is still fun...

Checkkkkk it out.

I have developed a love for a song on a commercial--a very bad diamond jewelry commercial, at that, but the song is truly good. I looked the artist up and found his website, which automatically launches the song when you open the page/click on the link to "new song." Enjoy, it will warm your heart.


I'm a Hindu Goddess! and all my love to Marco...

Skylight at the Hollow

My roommate's wonderful artistic skill...now we have a nice skylight over our heads as we cook!

A Capitol Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving holiday, I traveled to my sister and brother-in-law's home in Washington, D.C. I arrived on Tuesday and stayed until Saturday. Shopping for all the food consumed Tuesday and part of Wednesday. The most important part, the turkey, was purchased from a nearby free-range farm and was huge and incredibly fresh. We also bought our potatoes from the same farm, with dirt still caked on the skin, as well as some fresh apples, apple sauce, and eggs. The rest was purchased from a combination of 12 million different stores (a hectic day of shopping if you can imagine but worth the trips). We cooked up a storm and ate well! Here is our Thanksgiving table, with Jennie and her husband, Kevin, ready to eat.







Oh, and did I mention the cranberry sauce was also made fresh?













Kevin and Jennie's babies were around to partake in the feast (and later on they were all sick because of it). This is Dax, Kevin's working partner...wanting some love...









The day after Thanksgiving, we all trekked out to the museums at the National Mall and then went ice skating at the sculpture gardens. Pictures to come soon of my figure skating moves....!

A New England Fall

Every time I step outside, I can hardly believe my eyes...what a beautiful fall!

Blast from the Past

This past weekend, a friend I've known since ballet class at 4 years old, Rachel, came to visit me in Boston! Because she had never been to Boston, we crammed in a load of local, New England/Boston-esque things to partake in, all great ways to see the city.



First, we started with a big breakfast in Cambridge. Then, to make most of the day we concocted a walking tour of the downtown area, and wandered over towards the Prudential Tower, where we relaxed with a round of cappucinos. With the price of our coffees, we also got to experience the best view in town, as seen in the photos.












Later that night, after a big dinner in the North End at Pizzeria Regina's, we engaged in a little sport. We decided that candlepin bowling was a great way to introduce Rachel to the quirkiness of the North East. It is a fun game, with smaller balls and skinny cylindrical pins...but it is much harder than regular bowling! Lots of pictures ensued once we all realized that the game was not so competitive. I think I walked out with a final score of 38?










Before we left, however, Rachel scored us a behind-the-scenes tour of the bowling alley by flirting it up with an employee. This thing has been running for decades and much of it is all the same. No computers behind this puppy, just duct tape and love.






















The next morning, we woke bright and early at the noon hour and headed out to the museum of science. Originally, we had high hopes to catch a Duck Tour, but they were sadly sold out, so we made the most of our location and took in a bit of educational museum time. The museum sits on the river, and throughout the museum, there were lots of opportunities to catch some beautiful views of the Charles. This shows one of the big curtain walls that allows such a sight, as well as a kinetic sculpture on display.




Below, you can also see that we encountered some man-made lightning in the lightning theatre, and a giant grasshopper to boot!





We stayed until the museum closed, and caught the sunset over the river. Immediately afterwards, we ate a lovely meal at Legals seafood. Clam chowder was abound...

Hope you had a great time, Rach!

In loving memory...

Bewitchy Halloween and a visit from Philly!

This past week was Halloween, as you all may know, and to celebrate, my lovely friend, Jossie, and I traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to partake in their witchy festivities. Home to the infamous Salem Witch Trials of the late 17th century, the town goes all out to honor their interesting heritage. From witches to devils to religious crazies, we saw a lot of characters, and even took a little trip down memory lane at the Witch Museum. There, wax figurines and low-rent dioramas retold the story of the witch trials. We also found an amazing book store stacked with books floor to ceiling, literally, as well as a couple of terribly offensive and "fantasty-driven" art shows. I will spare you the details, though.

Below, photos from witch museum and with the Bewitched Statue!









Besides our visit to Salem, Jossie and I made the typical round of Boston proper, including a visit to the Boston Commons and Public Gardens, as well as the North End, where we grabbed pizza and dessert in Little Italy. We caught up with one of Jossie's friends, Caitlin, as well as a mutual friend that once attended school with us and then moved on to bigger and better things, aka RISD freeflowlivin. Oh, Jossie also finagled free facials for us at Origins...well, technically they were free, but we both spent more money than we'd planned to once they were done guilting us into buying there fancy products...

Public Garden moments...

Oooohhhh. Aaaaaahhh.

My favorite yard and tree in Cambridge.

Head of the Charles

This weekend was very exciting for my neck of the woods. Right here in Cambridge/Boston, the Head of the Charles, or Charles Regatta was held right on the river that divides the two cities. Tons upon tons of people poured down to the river banks to watch the boats race against the clock.

I caught the first days events during a morning run and stopped on a few bridges to watch a couple heats pass underway. Age groups from youth to 70+, teams from all over the world, and former olympians all participated in the event. The pure numbers and stats are enough to get you excited, but watching the boats stealthily glide over the water, the teams moving in unison with one another and the coxswain yelling with all they've got from the front of the boat will make you cheer and scream with the best of em

Museum of Fuiiiine Art, Baybay

At last, I finally made it over to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I wasn't sure what to expect. You don't hear people talk about the MFAB as something spectacular, or rather you don't really hear them talk about it at all. But I had made it a point to go, so with a free ticket from Rodolpho Machado, I coerced myself to take a little trip over to West Boston.

The museum is huge, not well laid out, but full of good art, apart from the building. The museum is located within its original structure, opened in 1876. There are lots of walls and columns and stairways, and really no visibility of the plan. Sir Norman and Foster have just designed a new wing for it that is to be built within the next few years, so perhaps that will modernize the museum a bit. For now, however, it is pretty closed in and lacks a lot of natural light.

I had a chance to run through an exhibit on Napoleon and 19th century French era art/clothing/design. I did literally run. What was more interesting were a couple of exhibits on Japanese art, one entitled the Art of Drama and Desire. This had a lot of the kiyok-e(?) art most associate with Japan. Lots of scenes depicting the brothels and geishas of the "floating districts," home to women of such work. The art was really delicate, for the most part, although there were a couple of pornographic scrolls placed along the back of the show room that were quite unexpected. Apparently, these were shown only at private house gatherings of the artist. Ha, I guess things never change.

Pick a Peck of Apples

"Let's go apple picking!" she said. And so they did. Or rather, we did. The skies were blue, the sun high, the weather just right; how could a group of happy kids not partake in the New England tradition of picking apples, straight from the orchards of the land??

Because one simply cannot resist, today, my roommate, Catie, and two friends, Doug and Kelly, and myself all journeyed to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire to do just that. With a reservation for a zipcar and directions northward, we set out to gather freshly grown apples at the orchards of Apple Crest Farms. A nice little fact about the place: it is actually the place that Cider House Rules is based on, too. A bit of history with a bit of seasonal fruit.



The drive there was lovely, lots of color bursting from the trees. From vibrant orange to golden yellow, the landscapes were exuberant.












With some loose navigating and a couple of costly mistakes, we finally made it to the orchard, with exactly 30 minutes to pick a full bushel/peck/whatever one would call a bag full of apples. We ran through the rows of trees, gathering the choice fruits and before long we had a huge bag full of the delicious things (cortland apples to be exact). Along the way we sampled a few dangling from the tree, and Catie claims to have had one of the best apples of her life, reason enough to make the journey...














There was also a festival taking place at the farm, but because of our limited time, we had to pass by quickly. Pumpkins, music, apple cider donuts, you name it--this place was fabulous. If only we had booked a bit longer with our honda element. Alas, we returned to Boston, apples in hand, a few rolling around in the car, and enjoyed the colors lining the highways once again...Ah, autumn in New England.



Above: Kelly with some corn; Pumpkins!

Summers at the Cape...

Because no summer would be the same without a trip to the cape (as Bostonians always like to hautily say), my mom and I had to catch a ferry to Provincetown to really make her trip to Boston worthwhile and lasting. Just an hour and a half ride from Boston, across the Atlantic Ocean, is the town which first greeted the pilgrims on their maiden voyage to the Americas. We woke up early Saturday morning and hopped on the P-town Fast Ferry, and arrived to a bright and sunny day, hanging over the small, quaint community of Provincetown. Photo: our hair goin crazy in the fast ferry's fury across the water.


Photos: Buoys!; Cape Cod, fresh off the boat.




As soon as we stepped off the ferry, we made our way towards Pilgrim's Monument, a tall obelisk-type building built at the turn of the century to commemorate the landing of the mayflower. We climbed to the top of the hill it sits upon, and then climbed all 252 feet to the very top of the monument. Out of the small windows we were able to look down below at the small town, a perfect bird's eye view of all we had left to explore during the remainder of the day.




Photos: Taking a break in some nice wooden chairs; Emerging fall colors.




After walking around the town for a bite to eat, we headed toward the western edge of town to rent some bikes and further explore the beaches and nearby terrain. After a bit of negotiating and a reluctant agreement to wear helmets, my mom and I were both situated on a couple of comfort 18-speed bikes, and headed down the 8 miles of bike path, winding in and out of the sand dunes which run along the coast line. We had a lot of up and downs, hill after hill we combated gravity, but we peddled along pretty well, only having to stop once and accept defeat as we walked our bikes up a hill.




The terrain was beautiful, much like parts of Texas with juniper-like pine trees, except the ground was covered by a nice and gritty sand. As our energy waned and the beach called out to us, we took an hour to lay on the beach and sleep in the sun. Photos above and below: the beaches of Provincetown.







After biking, we just kept on keeping on and headed over the rather fortuitously located Provincetown museum, designed by my firm, Machado & Silvetti. 5 minutes til closing, we scurried inside and explained our point of visiting. A rather enthusiastic museum employee shared with us his love of the building and eagerly invited us inside to view the building. We didn't stay too long, as they were about to open their doors for their annual fancy-schmancy fundraising event, but we had just enough time to take a couple snapshots and admire the building up-close. Photos below: exterior of the museum--lots of beautiful wood-cladding; a wonderful detail on the lower half of the building--essentially concrete poured to resemble wood, which was incredibly delicate (not overdone or cheesy).






A really beautiful painting in the museum that looked amazing against the avocado green wall.










After visiting the museum we grabbed a delicious dinner at a waterside restaurant, Fanizzi's, and indulged in some seafood fare, including but not excluded to clam chowder and fish and chips. The day quickly came to a close, and we had to say our goodbyes to the Cape. A beautiful day, one that we can hopefully relive once again, if not in this lifetime, perhaps the next...