Mean Irene threw minor snafoos in the original plans for the big wedding this past weekend, but she couldn't rain on our "parade." She did rain on the wedding, however. As Sarah pointed out in her excellent speech, rain on a wedding day brings happiness, so we found the bright side in all those dark clouds. Celebration ensued :)
Check out these photos of downed trees all around us in ze lovely Quincy (pronouned Kwinzee for all of you non-Massachusetts natives). Fortunately, no one has been hurt or houses damaged for the most part. If anything, it's been an excuse to use our grills, clean our freezers and refrigerators, live by candlelight and play board games for a few days. That's pretty lucky, if you ask me.
And just for the record, even with its tempting lights and outlets and TVs, we happily avoided the Sly Fox!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
First top ten list!
Top ten ways you know fall is on its way (in no particular order):
1. My first school book, Designing Health Messages (no, not "massages" - don't get too excited), arrived in the mail yesterday. Expect enthralling blog entries in the future on said topic. I know you're pumped.
2. I saw very early foliage in the Berkshires this weekend. None hath been spotted in Boston yet, but I'm planning to photo-document the Charles starting September 1, at least weekly, inspired by those who kept track of the massive pile of snow in Framingham that survived into June... and also because walking over the river is awesome.
3. Teachers are being sillier as their vacations wind down.
- Exhibit A: My father has been making more of his special jokes than usual, and laughing more than usual at his own sense of humor... eliciting eye rolls from us, and more laughter from him.
- Exhibit B: A certain music teacher devilishly swapped my salad for the food trash (not as obvious as one might think since the two were in the exact same tupperware container) as a practical joke. I did not notice as I quickly packed my bag, but lucky for both of us, he remembered to switch them back.
5. The air conditioner is no longer vital to attaining sleep.
6. I can walk to work in my work clothes without arriving here drenched in sweat... and have luckily dodged all of the birds thus far.
7. As a former vegetarian and general fruit/vegetable junkie, I can't help but notice that apple prices have "fall"en* = it's apple season(ish). Mmm homemade apple crisp.
8. The sun sets much earlier. Boo for shorter days to come!
9. The "School" filter on my Gmail has come back to life after summer doldrums. Orientation is fast approaching, Jessica - sharpen those pencils!
10. Back to school sales are on. Ain't nothing like a new notebook.
*Note: Dad's sense of humor didn't fall far from the (apple) tree. Oh God, someone stop me!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
An unfortunate throwback to Civil Rights era
I am having trouble starting this post because what we witnessed was so discouraging and mind boggling and there is so much to say. Much like the blank note book page from school, I'm letting the blank computer screen be intimidating. Let's just start at the beginning.
Viernes Taco Night in Quincy was accompanied by some lovely guests, tasty beers, and not so tasty margaritas - lesson learned: no need to mess with the recipe you know and love. After filling up on tacos and Funfetti cake, we walked a whopping three minutes to The Sly Fox, the closest watering hole we had yet to try.
Upon walking in, we observed what seemed to be a scuffle between two patrons and the two bartenders. There were many people around, none of whom seemed to be concerned with said scuffle, which was difficult to really understand with music playing loudly. I also was distracted due to being baffled by how small the inside was, based on the size of the whole building, and mildly disappointed by the lack of live music their sign advertised.
After ordering drinks, Jessica said something about having walked into the Civil Rights era, which I thought was a nod to the building's age. I'm not sure when, but at some point, I caught on to what she meant.
We had narrowly missed witnessing the patrons, two women married to each other, pecking (slang for "quick kiss" just in case my grandparents - Hi Doris and John! - read this post) at the bar, as many married and unmarried couples often do. One of the bartenders responded by asking them to stop, which the couple questioned. The bartender said, "We're trying to keep it country in here." and then refused to serve them. The women called the police, and unfortunately we are unaware of the final outcome of this event.
Though rather difficult to restrain, we did not dump out or throw our drinks in the faces of the bartenders or ask the clientele if they even agreed with what the bartenders did. Instead... we eavesdropped (or at least I did!) on the nearby conversations. While outside to make a phone call, Jessica heard the above outlined by the two women customers and while inside with Ben and Amanda, I heard the bartenders defending their actions and confirming that their reason for refusing service was based on the fact that these two women had kissed and not on the fact that they were excessively drunk or rude, which could certainly not be said about all of their patrons. Sad to say, after the customers had stepped out to talk with the police, some of the clientele had voiced their approval of the bartenders' actions.
Now, refusal of service is a sticky issue. Our country has a rather recent and shameful history of refusing service to lots of different people and most notably based on skin color. The Federal Civil Rights Act protects customers based on race, color, religion, or national origin and does not include sexual preference. Most states have drafted additional laws, all similar in that they more or less support businesses in refusing services for legitimate business reasons only, meaning business owners can, for instance, ask customers damaging their property to stop and leave. The other common thread is that businesses must apply their policies equally to all of their customers... not for nothing, but these two weren't the only ones kissing in the bar and no one else was asked to leave for their displays of affection.
Firstly, these bartenders need to watch George Carlin's educational stand-up about how we're all the same. Because no one likes to be ostracized or excluded for their choices and we all share much more than we realize. Secondly, these women have money and - SURPRISE - it works just like everyone else's! Not only were the bartenders bigoted, but that's just bad business sense. Not only does their money work like everyone else's, but so does mine. And it won't be spent there again.
Viernes Taco Night in Quincy was accompanied by some lovely guests, tasty beers, and not so tasty margaritas - lesson learned: no need to mess with the recipe you know and love. After filling up on tacos and Funfetti cake, we walked a whopping three minutes to The Sly Fox, the closest watering hole we had yet to try.
Upon walking in, we observed what seemed to be a scuffle between two patrons and the two bartenders. There were many people around, none of whom seemed to be concerned with said scuffle, which was difficult to really understand with music playing loudly. I also was distracted due to being baffled by how small the inside was, based on the size of the whole building, and mildly disappointed by the lack of live music their sign advertised.
After ordering drinks, Jessica said something about having walked into the Civil Rights era, which I thought was a nod to the building's age. I'm not sure when, but at some point, I caught on to what she meant.
We had narrowly missed witnessing the patrons, two women married to each other, pecking (slang for "quick kiss" just in case my grandparents - Hi Doris and John! - read this post) at the bar, as many married and unmarried couples often do. One of the bartenders responded by asking them to stop, which the couple questioned. The bartender said, "We're trying to keep it country in here." and then refused to serve them. The women called the police, and unfortunately we are unaware of the final outcome of this event.
Though rather difficult to restrain, we did not dump out or throw our drinks in the faces of the bartenders or ask the clientele if they even agreed with what the bartenders did. Instead... we eavesdropped (or at least I did!) on the nearby conversations. While outside to make a phone call, Jessica heard the above outlined by the two women customers and while inside with Ben and Amanda, I heard the bartenders defending their actions and confirming that their reason for refusing service was based on the fact that these two women had kissed and not on the fact that they were excessively drunk or rude, which could certainly not be said about all of their patrons. Sad to say, after the customers had stepped out to talk with the police, some of the clientele had voiced their approval of the bartenders' actions.
Now, refusal of service is a sticky issue. Our country has a rather recent and shameful history of refusing service to lots of different people and most notably based on skin color. The Federal Civil Rights Act protects customers based on race, color, religion, or national origin and does not include sexual preference. Most states have drafted additional laws, all similar in that they more or less support businesses in refusing services for legitimate business reasons only, meaning business owners can, for instance, ask customers damaging their property to stop and leave. The other common thread is that businesses must apply their policies equally to all of their customers... not for nothing, but these two weren't the only ones kissing in the bar and no one else was asked to leave for their displays of affection.
Firstly, these bartenders need to watch George Carlin's educational stand-up about how we're all the same. Because no one likes to be ostracized or excluded for their choices and we all share much more than we realize. Secondly, these women have money and - SURPRISE - it works just like everyone else's! Not only were the bartenders bigoted, but that's just bad business sense. Not only does their money work like everyone else's, but so does mine. And it won't be spent there again.
Boycott The Sly Fox.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Treats and Heats
One of my oldest friends, Danielle, is also one of my perfect running matches in the world. I have yet to find another, so at this point, it's a monogamous relationship, at least on my end. Running soul mates? What a silly idea... anyway, moving on. We have identical strides and also, seemingly, levels of motivation. There are the exceptions when we have to drag each other up the last (or first) hill, but it's generally an ideal little match. We have established a pattern of running, showering, and heading out to eat for what Danielle calls a "big, fat salad" and now that we're older, usually a margarita/glass of wine or several.
When we were younger, however, Danielle would laugh at me, still out of breath and drenched in sweat from our jaunt around town, inhaling a cookie or brownie, lovingly supplied by our parents. Turns out, I was probably just fueling mitochondrial growth, or, in real world terms, preventing muscle fatigue. In this exciting article found by Amanda, mice who were fed flavanols from chocolate ran longer on the treadmills and had more mitochondria in their little biopsied mouse muscles than other mice fed only water. Obviously, there are lots of question marks - is the effect the same in people, does it work with the delicious chocolate we all love or only the flavanols extracted from the chocolate, etc. If these results do translate over to people and entire chocolates, the researchers say it means eating roughly one Hershey Kiss (or half square) of dark chocolate per day to maximize efficiency, rather than the "more is better" mentality we were hoping for. Boo. I had imagined a chocolate only diet and let me tell you, it was divine.
Either way, chocolate and running are both awesome, and this had to be shared.
When we were younger, however, Danielle would laugh at me, still out of breath and drenched in sweat from our jaunt around town, inhaling a cookie or brownie, lovingly supplied by our parents. Turns out, I was probably just fueling mitochondrial growth, or, in real world terms, preventing muscle fatigue. In this exciting article found by Amanda, mice who were fed flavanols from chocolate ran longer on the treadmills and had more mitochondria in their little biopsied mouse muscles than other mice fed only water. Obviously, there are lots of question marks - is the effect the same in people, does it work with the delicious chocolate we all love or only the flavanols extracted from the chocolate, etc. If these results do translate over to people and entire chocolates, the researchers say it means eating roughly one Hershey Kiss (or half square) of dark chocolate per day to maximize efficiency, rather than the "more is better" mentality we were hoping for. Boo. I had imagined a chocolate only diet and let me tell you, it was divine.
Either way, chocolate and running are both awesome, and this had to be shared.
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