Update Time!!!

Things I haven't blogged about in the past month and a half. (I apologize, I'm lazy.)
- Cupcake tour of Boston (so far we've visited 4 different places and luckily the closest one to home is best.
- D came to visit!! (Photos available on FB.) We toured Plimoth Plantation and all of Boston.
- P's birthday and a fabulous celebratory dinner at P.F. Chang's downtown. (Try the eggplant!)
- Life is Good Festival downtown where I got my butt kicked in a sack race, won at bocce and got free Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
- J went to VA and presented his paper and got TONS of compliments and some interest from a publisher for his future works.
- First 5K race. (3.1 miles, didn't do so hot)
- Harborfest downtown.
- Boston 4th of July, including party on the 15th floor of an apartment building with decent views of fireworks.
- Second 5K race. (Better time.)

But every so often something comes along that cannot be overlooked. This most recent event came around the Sail Boston 2009 event at the Charlestown Naval Yard here in Boston.

Tall Ships and the naval yard's own ships were open for the public to tour so J was called away form his usual posting at Faneuil Hall to help deal with the crowds.

Here's the ships...

And here's the big news!!!! J finally got his uniform.
Doesn't he look HOT!?

Being outside all day in the uniform did result in some really interesting sunburn lines however. I'm off to help him aloe-up!

You've Got To Be Joking

D's visit stateside was good and not so good... blog entry to follow shortly.

This entry is a short rant about rain. Since the beginning of June I can count on one hand the number of nice days we've had here in Boston. I've never seen this much cloudy, rainy, humid, generally crappy weather in my whole life.

I have decided that this weekend I'm either building an ark or making plans to move somewhere else. Does anyone have recommendations for somewhere that isn't horrible and rainy and disgusting?

And by the way, where the *&$%@ is summer? I thought we had a global warming crisis on our hands, not a global raining crisis. This is crap. If I don't get to see summer this year I'm going to be one very angry person.

Long Time No See

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I wish I could say it's because I've been so busy doing so many amazing things, but actually it's because my life is horribly boring to me so I'm sure no one else wants to read about it.

I'm going to try and find things that are mildly fun to do so that I can post about them, but I can't make any promises. We're not in Europe anymore Toto. We haven't been for almost an entire year.

However, for your enjoyment I have my new favorite website to offer:

www.notalwaysright.com

It's all ridiculous stories of customer service. I have plenty of my own, but due to the confidential nature of the place I work I can't share them. Such a pity too... it's amazing how dumb people are sometimes, especially for people who managed to make it to college.

But here's one of my favorite stories so far from the website:

Customer Service | Florida, USA

Customer: “I need some help locating the item that this coupon advertises. I’ve looked everywhere and just can’t find it.”

Me: “Let’s see if I can help you here…” *looks at the coupon* “I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t sell this item anymore.”

Customer: “Why not? I have a coupon for it. I wanted to get it for my husband for his birthday next week.”

Me: “Ma’am, this coupon was expired fifteen years ago. They no longer make this product.”

Customer: “Can’t you go look for one? I really need it, it would be perfect for him.”

Me: “…sure! It just so happens that I developed a machine that can warp the space/time continuum. Would you like to accompany me on the trip or would you like to stay here?”

Customer: “REALLY? Thank you so much! I’ll stay here and wait for you.”

(I go into the back room for a couple of minutes to let my manager know what I’m about to do, then come back out running.)

Me: “MA’AM! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! I MESSED UP AND WENT BACK TOO FAR! I ENDED UP GOING BACK TO THE AGE OF THE DINOSAURS AND THERE’S A PISSED-OFF VELOCIRAPTOR RIGHT BEHIND ME!”

Customer: “OH NO! I’LL GO CALL THE POLICE!” *runs out of the store*

(I went back to my manager after the customer ran off, and he was literally rolling on the ground laughing.)

Have a fabulous weekend!

WOW!

This is the transcript of an ACTUAL voicemail left on my phone at work yesterday:

Hi my name is _____ and I'm gonna be a attending _____ next year for _____ and I just realized that the student questionnaire was due May 22nd and I didn't know about that and I was just wonderin' if it's possible if I could still fill that you 'cuz if would sorta suck if I didn't fill that out. Yeah. Call me back.

And the person leaving the message sounded like they had either just woken up or had just smoked a significant amount of marijuana. This is what I work with. Wow!

So this morning I woke up to a long, loud clap of thunder followed by some lovely lightning. What a way to start a race Sunday. After long deliberation and careful consult of no less than 5 different weather websites I decided to still go downtown for the race (about a 45 minute trip) and of course that meant J got to come with me.

Boston's Run to Remember honors fallen law enforcement officers and raises funds for a local kids at risk program. There's a half marathon and a 5 mile race. I was registered for the 5 mile. I may have forgotten about the race due to some craziness at work until about two weeks ago, and I wasn't really prepared for the humidity... but here's how it went.

The half marathon, the larger of the two races, took off at 8am.

The race was timed with these new-fangled computer chips you wear in your shoes. Pretty cool, no? It was fun to take public transportation from home and check out everyone's shoes to see who else was headed to the race.

J was so happy to be awake and all the way at the harbor at 8am.

After the half marathon took off we short-distance losers lined up according to our projected pace. This put me pretty far back on the line.

The air horn went off and we headed for downtown...

... about 50 minutes later this is the photo J got of me crossing the finish line. Does it look like I want to die? Because I did. I actually picked up my pace the last half mile for the SOLE purpose of being done sooner. I only came in behind the first 2 half-marathoners.
This is where J found me after I crossed the finish line. Still wanting to pass out. Or lay down and sleep for several hours. Or days.
But give me 15 minutes, a medal, a bagel and some water and I'm all set!

I finished 2 minutes faster than the last 5 mile race, just a month ago! I think that's pretty darn good! I don't have any races planned for June at the moment, but if you know of a good one in the area let me know!

Have a fantastic Memorial Day holiday! Yay for 3-day weekends!!!!

Lilac Sunday

The Arnold Arboretum here in Boston is perhaps best-known for lilac Sunday. For the last century Boston newspapers have published the prediction for when the most plants will be in best bloom and the tradition has been to visit the arboretum on that Sunday to enjoy the 400+ lilac plants on the property. This annual event brings an estimated 20,000 - 30,000 people in... so J and I decided to visit on Saturday instead of Sunday.

It took a long time to get there, but was well worth it. We only toured about 1/3 of the grounds, but plan on going back this summer to see more. The lilacs (and other plants) looked and smelled wonderful! Here are some photos for your visual enjoyment... unfortunately the smell-o-vision on my blog isn't working right now so you'll just have to imagine the fragrance!

New Glasses!

J got new glasses. He's been needing them for a while.

Can you tell which is the new pair? Vote for A (to the left) or B (to the right) in comments and I'll tell you soon!




UPDATE: CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO PICKED "B". YOU'RE RIGHT, THE PHOTO ON THE RIGHT IS J IN HIS NEW GLASSES.