end of an era

onwards and upwards - tweetingtotellyouiblogged.blogspot.com

midweek notes

This week is flying by which is sort of funny since they usually drag the week before a holiday. But I'm not complaining - it's almost the weekend again! :)

I spent a few weekends down on the Cape recently while my grandparents were staying at their house in Falmouth. The house has been 'Craigicized' - our family term for when my Uncle Craig comes in and turns an old rundown house in to a luxury retreat. 

He did a great job with this one - it's right on the edge of a small cove off Buzzard's Bay with gorgeous views and light and comfortably apportioned for large house parties,  particularly sports fans who want huge TVs and surround sound when their teams are playing. Most of the year it's rented out and he's pushing to add a hot tub to the patio - apparently all the rental people ask about it . he also wants to turn the garage in to a bed/bath suite b/c 'garages don't make money'. Words to live by. He's a pretty unique character. :)

Anyway he's outfitted this house incredibly well and one of the highlights is the beds. SO comfortable and cozy! I took this pic of the room Chris and I stayed in one visit as a happy place to return to as necessary. And decided we needed to up our bed game in Cambridge too. 

take me back

 Macy's has been having crazy pre holiday sales so I got an alternative down comforter, feather topper, new regular pillows and two Euro shams to complete the look for extremely cheap. Highly recommend checking them out and they even honored a further reduction when they dropped the price a few days after I bought them. #winning! Sammy's loving the new bedding too. :)

I also tried my first yoga class earlier this week. I've been wanting to try yoga for awhile now and my knee issues have just highlighted that low impact strengthening exercise might be more appropriate now that I don't recover like I used to (#glorydays). 

Went w a coworker to a studio in the North End and had a pretty good experience. Liked the space and a lot of the poses were familiar from other classes I've done and movies and such (thinking of this scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in particular). 

Only fly in the ointment was that I'd been feeling nauseous all day and threw up right before the class started. Should have been my sign to call it but I wanted to give it a shot so I started the class with everyone else. Halfway through I was breaking out in cold sweats and feeling like I was about to pass out so I erred on the side of consciousness and tapped out. Will go back and give it another shot though - I can see how it would be very beneficial for everyday wellness. :)

i read the news today oh boy

have had this song stuck in my head since hearing about the paris bombings yesterday. i'm pretty bummed about it (as i'm sure everyone is). my company is a french company, headquartered in paris, with 800 employees. it feels personal on a lot of levels.

it also just seems so useless sometimes - we work hard and try and be good people and for what - to have it all blown up and gone to hell? it's hard not to think about how this could lead to WW 3 in a very real sense. in the words of batman 'some people just want to watch the world burn'. and in the words of desiderata

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

came home after dinner and some drinks and watched love actually with some wine, ben and jerry's and the kitty. it was a good antidote. and had two nice people interactions in recent weeks to remind me that the world isn't all that bad. a few weeks ago i went to potbelly sandwich to grab lunch and it wasn't until i got up to to the register that i realized i had put my wallet in my jacket instead of my bag and i wasn't wearing my jacket b/c it was unseasonably warm in boston. the lady at the register comped it for me - it was much appreciated. and earlier this week i dropped my umbrella sleeve in the lobby of my building and security tracked me down and let me know they had it. it's my cath kidston umbrella from london (in a buckingham palace guard print!) so that was much appreciated too. :)

heading up to exeter today for exeter/andover weekend. meeting jill and my parents on campus for some glory days reminiscing and visiting. zip zip zipcaring up in a mini VW golf - it's only an hour from north cambridge. it's glorious to be so close!

we're loving blue apron btw - so nice not to have to think about what to make or battling crowds at the grocery store after work to pick up ingredients. most recipes take about 20 - 30 minutes to make (beats waiting for take out delivery in cambridge!), ends up being about $10 per person per meal so lots cheaper than eating out and we've made some foods i never would have considered before. earlier this week we had crispy pan fried cod with spiced couscous, roasted acorn squash and swiss chard. delicious!

in other delicious food news have you ever had portuguese muffins? they're thicker, sweeter and less crumbly than english muffins and delicious toasted with jam. my grandmother introduced us to them - christmas tree shop often has them at v reasonable prices. highly recommend them.

in knee news unfortunately the MRI i had a few weeks didn't turn up anything, but the ortho diagnosed a posteolateral corner (PCL) injury. essentially and LCL stretched ligament issue that isn't fully supporting my knee. i have a snazzy leg brace that's supposed to provide support where i don't have any and i've been wearing it to run laps around the block. so far so good though i can't help but think about my brother running laps around our house growing up to burn off excess energy. i've also been attempting to rehab my leg with spinning classes and going to classes at b/spoke - a soul cycle type gym in downtown boston. classes aren't cheap but for the cardio, toning and core work it can't be beat, especially since spinning is about the only thing i can do at intensity at the moment. plus they have killer soundtracks. my hope is that building up my quad and hip muscles, plus my endurance, will help my knee overall and make it that much likely that i can ski (when it eventually gets cold) this year.

lastly i've been reading a lot lately - mostly agatha christie novels - but also 'dead wake - the sinking of the lusitania' by erik larsen. dead wake wasn't as good as 'devil in the white city' or 'in the garden of beasts' (which i LOVED) but a good read about the sinking itself and also about the political climate at that time. lots of parallels to modern times actually (see WW3 comment above) and it's inspired me to start reading a biography of winston churchill.

but back to agatha christie - if you like mysteries she is fantastic. my favorite are miss marple mysteries and i put the miss marple anthology on my kindle and couldn't put it down (like reading during lunch at work). she is just so good.