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.