home-work day

We're back to the blog, briefly. Life has been soo busy with work and school (mid-term time, no tests, just assignments), but we have been thankful. Last night Tim and I got to attend our church's bicentennial gala at the Westin. 200 years Park Street Church has been alive in Boston - in the same building even! What a crazy thing. Most churches in the centers of quaint New England towns today are dead or transformed into museums or coffee shops - it's a rarity to find such a vibrant and growing body in the center of Boston. We are loving being a part of it. Anyone can listen to Gordon's sermons online if interested!

We got to reconnect with our friends, Mitch and Rebekah, who so graciously invited us over on Christmas to share a meal. Again last night we were dined with a great menu, finished with this chocolate opera torte topped with edible gold!

Today is a much needed free day to catch up homework in the literal and academic sense. It will consist of muddling through my assignments, cleaning the apartment, running on the Charles River, a haircut, and a much-needed trip to the grocery store. Gotta love the end/beginning of the month! I'm tempted to move into the library today, but I'm actually going to enjoy a day at home and a day of sunshine through the windows before a small snowstorm arrives tomorrow:) Miss you all!

weekend of love...and graves

Lots of this weekend was filled with love, hearts shooting out of heads, chocolate and quality together time for me and Tim. I decorated our apartment with paper hearts for festivity.
Then we went on a dinner date near our apartment and tried (among other things) an earl grey vodka martini with lemon and egg whites (which was actually really yummy!).

We also ventured to the Harvard Natural History museum to see glass flowers sculpted in the late 1800's by a German vater-sonn duo. These things looked REAL! Not at all like glass. The artists were commissioned by Harvard back in the day to create 3-D life-like botanical specimens for science study. The pressed, discolored 2-D real life versions just weren't cutting it.

Yep, it's glass. Take THAT, Chihuly! 100 years ago!

This one's for Roxie and other desert-dwellers

This one's for Abbie and those other biology invertebrate lovers (it's not flora, but the artists started by making glass invertebrate specimens and then moved to botany).

Outside the museum we enjoyed sights of Harvard. Our highlight:

We finally learned where Pooh lives! He must be way smarter than he looks.

The other half of our Valentine weekend was a little creepier. We visited a huge cemetery for our winter hike fix. We didn't make it to our original destination because of a mishap with the bus schedules, so the alternative was Forest Hills Cemetery. e.e. cummings is buried there, and he was our token valentine's day author (see previous post).
We liked this creepy tree,

but weren't sure what to think of this one dressed in its night gown (way creepier),

or this family of trees sleep walking or something??

Actually, there is an art exhibit throughout the cemetery, and these nightgown-dressed trees are supposed to be celebrating the spirit of trees...which just end up looking really weird. You'd think if you were going to add art to a cemetery, you wouldn't play on the morbidity theme. Maybe we should have added some of the German guys' glass flowers for a happier atmosphere.

There were nicer parts, like the main entrance:

And some tombstones:

Kind of a nice way to spend a sunny, crisp winter day wandering, hand in hand. A realization to seize the day if nothing else. We are blessed to have a coming and advancing Kingdom and the grip of eternal love on our hearts.

And we got to take this cool old-fashioned trolley as part of the journey.

We hope you all enjoyed your weekends, too.

valentine poem

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
-e.e. cummings
















(we made an unplanned visit to e.e. cummings' grave on v-day.
he's buried in boston of all places!)

happy vday to our loving friends and fam. we love and miss you!

my new friend, Walgreens

I have an embarrassing, tiny affection for our nearest convenience store, Walgreens. Partly because it's just that - the nearest place to get anything (besides the corner store on our street at which I can buy overpriced rarities and things middle schoolers get for $1). And yet I, too, rejoice in finding Haribo gummy bears for 99 cents! I feel I have come closer to understanding Steph's affinity for Bartell's Drugs in Tacoma, something I never fully took advantage of. Now I even love Bartell's! In fact I know it's better than Walgreens, so hypothetically I love it more.

The latest confirmations of this affair involve mostly milk and cereal deals (which everyone knows are staples for the Eyes). I can get a gallon of milk at Walgreens for 90 cents cheaper than at the grocery store, and I only have to carry it a block! I was happy with my $1.99 2009 Massachusetts calendar. What a convenient steal! I'm also fond of the overall randomness of the store. I still don't really know what they specialize in carrying, and I discover weird new commodities there every time I explore. Today it was fascination with the Valentine's Day gift aisle. I must have spent 15 solid minutes analyzing the goofy pez dispensers, doggy valentines, mini m&m figurines, pirate hearts and BFF chocolate heart boxes. And our neighborhood store is a small one; they don't even recycle printer cartridges. You should see the store near Tim's work!

Nevertheless, I am held back by whole ring of 'quality' in the back of my mind, and so I doubt this warmth will escalate too much. Especially if the only gallons of milk available continue to be those that expire TOMORROW. Maybe there's a reason they're so cheap.