Overstuffed car

I've been in-between hibernation, holidays and an attempt to clear out a room upstairs to become a nursery (speaking of which, anyone want a free tv? from 1985ish and has a nifty row of buttons down the front). In addition to seeing family and eating turkey over Thanksgiving, we were given just about every baby item that hasn't yet been deemed unsafe by the FDA from Josh's sister, Jennifer. My poor car was just a bit loaded down, but despite a day of drizzle, the packing was superb and all stayed dry and attached.

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Worms and Coffee

A couple more pics from NC. The worms and coffee thing in a way was a refreshing reminder that the world isn't yet completely covered with strip malls - but in reality just a low-grade gas station convenience store that sells, well worms.




And a pier.

Feet, shoes, sandy dog

Josh and I were in North Carolina on the beach this weekend for a reunion of some of his ex-co-workers who have now scattered themselves around the eastern seaboard - I'd say where, but the geographic details are pretty fuzzy. Somewhere near Wilmington? I personally wasn't able to partake in his 2 gallons of Long Island iced teas, so I'll skip the 3-man photos with lampshade hats, as I napped on the floor with the dog. (Zeth got hold of my camera and left me with about 30 out-of-focus pics of dice, thanks.)

Anyhow, here are a couple pic from the beach. Kevin's flip flops, at eye level:

Feet, in the disturbingly warm surf:

And Kuma, Kevin and Kim's dog, after rolling around in the sand:

Couple more trees

Just a couple more pix from our weekend in Lincoln, NH - trees this time.

Looking up:

and out:

River rocks and, er, little feet

In Woodstock NH, we stumbled on a lovely river park - just after buying a lot of chocolate. I was a bit fixated on the rocks.

And here's Josh, with disproportionately little feet.

(No disparaging foot size comments, please - it's just a perspective thing)

Stream with fall leaves

These are my fake fall leaf + water shots. Well, the leaves and water are real, but they did not meet in this manner naturally. I actually did go to the effort of picking up a few leaves elsewhere, then seeing if I could shoot them before they drifted too far downstream.

I see pregnant people...

It's not just me - it's going around. In fact, compared to Stef, Saru and Sharona, I hardly look pregnant at all. And baby showers abound. I don't really mean to harp on it, but it has permeated my social life.

Even though this 2nd one is not so great a picture (well, at least of me) the front-on view just doesn't show off the contours as can be seen here:

And, there's Heather, who beat us all by a few months. Jace is now happily on the outside.

Trails

In and over the Plum Island sand.

Saugus

Josh and I took a thrilling tour of Saugus this weekend. We must have run out of more exciting options, since a trip to Karl's Sausage Kitchen seemed like entertainment. I'd say it's sad, except that Karl's is totally awesome. The place smells like pork heaven. (And, yes, a sign that's at least as old as its neighbor's, the Fern Motel - almost, er, timeless.)

Turns out there actually is a bit more to Saugus than just Rt. 1's strip malls. The Breakheart Reservation - is actually pretty nice for walking around. The dorky the picture below, taken overlooking Silver Lake, is mainly here for the benefit of my sister, who keeps asking to see pictures of me rounding out. Scary, no?

Maybe later I'll convince Josh to let me post those pics of him trying out my maternity pants.

Jeni's unruly hair

I haven't really been taking many new pics lately...working till 7 and falling asleep at 10:30 due to my "condition" isn't exactly helping any. So, I've dug back into the archives, to July, to this picture of Jeni (my niece), and her fantastic 4-year old hair.

Potholes, puddles and trucks

The nice thing here is to see that it has rained. The trees in my back yard were wilting it had been so dry.

Portland Lighthouse

So, I'm still alive. Just had a rough couple weeks of work, mostly, punctuated by a weekend visit to Portland (ME) for a wedding of family friends of Josh's. While up there, we stopped briefly to check out this lighthouse, which I've mostly obscured in these pictures, for better or worse.

Butterfly bush

Notes and Observations:

- Butterfly bushes are everything they're cracked up to be

- Butterflies move rapidly and often

# of attempts to get an in-focus/decently-framed shot: about 30

While finally succeeding at an in-focus shot in itself was somewhat gratifying, I realized that this looked like the dumb test picture on the printer paper boxes, except with a broken-winged specimen, poor thing. Oh well.

Sarah takes on cream chesse

Mm. Cream cheese.

Silverware in Concrete

Seen on Rt. 60 in Medford, in the entrance to a closed restaurant. No other explanation.

F'chicken + beak

Succulent and chicken-y, but completely boneless, despited the molded-on beak and cockscomb (ok, yeah, I had to look that up to figure out what it's called - it's the jiggly flap of skin on top of a rooster's head). But 100% chicken-free. What will they think of next?

Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good, after sitting up on the top rack of the grill for about 30 minutes, with peanut sauce.

Shorty Goes Public

Yes, these pictures are what they appear to be, and are of my own innards. I'm not sure which exactly is stranger - the formation of a new person in there, or the fact that they can photograph it. Anyhow, Shorty should be joining us in person in late February, when (s)he will be given a real name. Wish us luck...!

This is the fancy 3-d pic, at about 8 weeks. The head is the smaller sphere up top, and the long thing is the start of an umbilical cord.

Comment from my mom: "I can't tell if (s)he looks more like you or like Josh"

Also at 8 weeks, the normal alien view.

And this is a lower-fidelity view, at 11 weeks. The head is slightly visible on top, along with a small and hard-to-see hand. I bit reassured to see the slightly more humanoid form in just those 3 weeks.

Campfire heat

Spent the last few days in upstate NY with my in-laws. Aside from the excitement of tossing my glasses into lake water that resembled pea soup (they were not recovered, no), it was a relaxing few days.

The owners of the house had brilliantly decided to build a fire pit out on the back lawn. Sydney had her first s'more - though seemed to prefer the items unmelted.


And, when the fire became overly warm, Justin devised this fashionable heat shield. Perhaps everyone will be wearing them soon.

Jeni turns 4

Her actual birthday was yesterday, but I was there on the weekend. Saturday involved copious quantities of cake, which must be eaten with ice cream, if you're under 10 (why is that??). Jeni likes her cake.

...with the added bonus of getting to "help" Grandma with the baking:

And, what better follows cake than some Chinese food? Too bad nobody was hungry. Mom takes the opportunity to demonstrate how to make noodle fangs.

Purple Lily

Once again, I've gotten a bit intimate with the flora of my front yard.

Pilings

In an inlet in Annapolis.

Gyro-tini

And now, for something truly disgusting - or is it a tasty Greek-inspired cocktail?



Featuring: 1 slice gyro meat, a dash of ketchup, 1 finger any leftover hard alcohol and a lemon chaser, served in a Splenda-rimmed shot glass. Mmmm.

Green muck

Happy July 4! This pic has nothing to to with the holiday, sorry.

This is one of the more odd manifestations of tidal seaweed. Kind of looked like the set from a low budget sci-fi movie, in an otherwise picturesque spot on the Maine coast.

Baby Mango

The mangoes were ripe and runny a few weeks ago, so I planted a bunch of the pits. Three of them sprouted, giving me a summer project: keeping these mini trees alive.

Yeah, I probably need more excitement in my life.

Stamen

I have no idea what this thing is. It was one of the plants that came with the house and blooms for about a day before showering its pink petals.

Bald-off

When nature falls short, it's good to have both a sense of humor...and company (Joshua and his friend, Josh, compare domes)

Lobster Trap + Boats

The harbor of Manchester-by-the-Sea, as seen by a hypothetical dead lobster.

Sarah - again

It's my youngest neice, Sarah, again. She's now up and about, at 16 months.

I'm somewhat fascinated by how oblivious babies and toddlers are to being photographed - that you can practically get up in their nostrils and if they care it has nothing to do with the camera, usually.


And at how rapidly the facial expressions dissolve and change.

Iris

Wet plants. I'm there.

2 Summerses + hand gestures

Josh and his dad, Andy, pose on a short - but bumpy! - boat jaunt around Annapolis.

Paz Wedding

I'm back from a 2-week hiatus. Have been bogged down by work, travel to Maryland for a wedding, yardwork, minor illness and other distractions (wait, this is a distraction).

So, the wedding: Getting married was Josh's high school friend, Mike, and Gwen - who had made her first wedding cake for our wedding almost 4 years ago. She's been honing her skills and made her own cake without even breaking a sweat in the process, it seemed. All those flowers are made of sugar - they're not real.


Most of the rest of the pictures I took are pretty silly snapshots. Here's just one of the now-tradition of serenading the groom - if you were at our wedding, you may recall... Check it out - they remembered to print lyrics this time!