Green Shirt Day

So this girl checked me out today, but I don't really think so. Amanda keeps telling me it was the case, but I only looked over at her because she was talking to herself and I found that rather strange. If she was it was probably because I had on the famouse bright green shirt, if you haven't seen it think Kermit green. I wore it for Julie who says it is her favourite shirt I own. I could think of some other shirts I like better, but its all about pleasing the ladies isn't it folks.

I watched the VMA's (Video Music Awards) with Britt last night and it was hilarious, well at least watching with Britt and the commercials were, as for the show itself I thought it was rather lame. They should call it the Random Outrageous Act and Rap Award show for videos based on star power as opposed to actually video content. First of all as much as I enjoyed Britney and Madonna kissing, why did they need to do that. The every award seemed to be for a rapper and they definitely did their share of performing. I have had enough of 50 cent, go away now you boring rapper. Finally why does MTV have a video music award show its not like they actually play videos anymore.

I found this Maddox Like Web Site today while searching for pictures of Kermit the Frog. He is a pretty cool character, I mean beside the fact that he dates Miss Piggy. Why the hell is that anyway? She is fat, mean and annoying, while he is so nice, quiet and super skinny. Somebody should talk to that frog about her and that silly collar thing he wears around his neck. You know the spiky looking thing, I don't really know what it is. Most frogs don't seem to have them in real life.

A Perfect Finale

Another good old BoCaNO night at the Barking Crab, but first I had to get through my day at work sans Scottie. My first task was to send out a new policy for the support of our group. It was very to the point and many people decided to give me grief about it but IHTBD. I then went to help out on an interview and successfully caused a the guy to change his mind after taking a test I created for him. Oh well at least he didn't waste his time in a job he wouldn't have liked doing. Next on the chopping block was setting up my desk, which while fun took forever. It is almost identical kind of like when the Peabody-Essex museum moved a Chinese house here and put it back together piece by piece. My new PC is great now, but at first I had some issues with permissions and I couldn't install anything. Once things were straightened out I left and went to BoCaNO.

It was an average BoCaNO, well except for the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell showed up. They were extremely cool and even ordered buffalo wings, unfortunately the Boc's weren't into the wings, which was good for me because I basically got my own basket. To think a year ago I wouldn't even eat those things if you paid me.

I do have a great story about how small of a world it really is out there. I was invited to chat yesterday and upon joining the room noticed Noelle was in there as well as Mark and Kate. So she told a story about how she was at her high school reunion and was talking to her friend Amy and somehow my name came up. Since it is such a rare name, Amy inquired further and they determined that Amy had been roommates with Aimee, the girl I went out with a few times at the beginning of the summer. I never actually met Amy, but heard a lot about her. What a strange coincidence?

After BoCaNO I called Vanessa up to see what she was doing and then had the brilliant idea of going to Finale for some dessert since I have heard so much about the place. We met halfway and then it was on to the restaurant where I was seated with a great view of the preparation counter. I order the Caramel Carnivale, which was okay though a little bitter and Vanessa ordered the Molten Chocolate, I will be ordering that next time. When the food came I thought it funny how the waiter told us how to eat our desserts, but listened intently. However, Vanessa and I either misunderstood him or he lied to us with regards to her almond cluster. We thought he said "Don't eat it with your hands", but it turns out he must have said ,"You might want to eat it with your hands, because they have been known to shoot across the room." So Vanessa tried eating it with her fork and chocolate splattered all over the place. I was like you have some under your eye and on your nose also your cheek and shoulder. It was everywhere, haha, I wish I had taken a picture. Oh Man!! Good Times!! Got home late only to come in to a disaster at work this morning and that is where I leave you now.

K.Willis

Scottie's Last Day

Well August 26th is now upon us and that means only one thing, Scottie's last day here at State Street. It will be a very sad occasion for us all. It seems my lunch group curse continues, you see every person I have ever gone to lunch with has left the company at some point, starting with Krystie then Jon Homan, Niamh, Veronica, Jurate, Emily, Martha and now Scott. I would have to say Scott was by far the best boss I have ever had even better then Ron Drouin my Produce Manager in Salem. If it wasn't for him my shy nature would have me still as PC Specialist with no recognition, but he always stuck his neck out for me and I appreciate it. He was a great mentor of sorts maybe not always with the computer stuff, but with life in general, I learned how to relax and enjoy life and not be such a social misfit. Thanks to Scottie I went to the Avalon, got drunk for the first time, took my first cab ride, learned how to take a long lunch, gained politeness by waiting for everybody to get their food before eating, tried countless types of food, emailed Kelly Malone from Mix985 even though that didn't turn out so well, and received the book "How To Succeed with Women."(which I should read again). I could go on and on, but the bottom line is I learned and experienced a lot. So I have dedicated today's entry to his departure and would like to wish him good luck.


Last night I went to a dinner party Clemence was throwing and here is the French Dinner in Wollaston Slideshow

Enjoy,
K. Willis

2nd Annual BBQ

My weekend started out at Amy's roofdeck party. It was a great time and I met some fun people. There is quite an amazing view from up there.

Saturday started with a trip to the Whistling Kettle with Vanessa, Emily and Britt, to prepare for the BBQ. We then did the shopping and went home and made the fruit salad. Okay I am going to avoid getting into too much detail and let the pictures do the talking. I hope everybody had a good time and hope next year everybody will return and make it even better.

Yesterday we had to bring Vanessa back in to Boston for the start of the semester, so Britt, Ry, Vanessa and I loaded the car and headed for the big city. After some illegal parking and lugging bags and small appliances all over town she was finally moved in to her new room. It was then time for dinner at Fajitas and Ritas, which as always was very good. The only bad part of the trip was when Ry's bag opened up and all of his stuff almost fell down between the elevator and the floor. I reached down to help pick the stuff up and my new sunglasses shot out of my pocket and into the abyss below. The pictures from yesterday can be seen at the Sunday Trip to Boston Slideshow

Outback

I don't have much time for an entry, but here is how yesterday went. Beach was great, it was fun to watch Vanessa experience our chilly waters for the first time. After the beach we went back to the house and ended up watching the video Britt and I shot while on the drive home from Florida. We were going to go to Prince Restaurant, but instead went to the Hilltop Steakhouse. It was a really Ryot there, with several fun pictures. It is one of the few remaining restaurants where they actually serve you bread and butter. They gave me a whole cows worth of steak tips, but they were very yummy. The day was concluded with a stop at Putnam Pantry for some create-your-own sundaes. Haha, so much laughing going on there. Especially from the discreet theft of soda.

Haha, well it looks like I am going to the Mixfest this year. Well actually let me say I have tickets to Mixfest, since the last two times I had tickets I didn't use them (9/11 and hiking). However I think I will make it this year. The artists so far include: Jason Mraz, Train, Vertical Horizon, Dido, Tori Amos, Michelle Branch and BNL. I have a feeling that one of my three fav's will also be added to the bill (John, David, or Dave) we'll have to see though.

Time to do some work.

Keeg

Good day yesterday I worked and nearly fell asleep while I was there. Afterwards I went home to see the doctor again and he said to keep up the good work and everything will be okay. I then hopped back in the car and headed to Cambridge for BoCaNO. We had a small turn out with Mark, Kate and Jennie, but it was very intimate. After sitting down for dinner we noticed a bunch of people in the restaurant next door shuffling about and finally realized it was an 8 minute dating thing, but with older people like 45-55. It was funny the guys were trying to be cool, but were old so it really didn't fly, but perhaps the women thought they were cool.

After BoCaNO I picked Vanessa up at the airport. I have to hand it to the developers in the parking garage, because there is no way a terrorist could bomb that place. It is too damn hard to find your way around the parking garage, it took me ten minutes just to find Terminal C. After finally finding the terminal I met Vanessa as can be seen on the picture above. It was great to see her and we are all glad to have her staying with us for the next couple of days.

We are now heading to the beach talk to you all later.

Burning My Life Away

I have been quite busy over the past few nights making CD's. As some of you might know I recently found a web site of Dave Matthews Band concerts and have since been attempting to compile a collection of all of the shows I have been too. Since my CD burner is super slow it takes a super long time, but I am really beginning to make a dent. Of the 35 shows I have been too I now have 20 shows on CD. I am psyched, now I just have to find time to listen to them.

A thought came to me the other morning after I got out of the shower. Don't worry its not related to the shower that just happens to be when I thought of it. I remembered that I had clothes at the dry cleaner's and wondered how many of the clothes you seen when you go there are only there because somebody forgot to pick them up. I bet there are probably clothes that have been there for years and have just been forgotten. The funny thing is despite my writing this I am probably going to forget my dry cleaning anyway.

Vanessa comes back tonight, I have to pick her up after BoCaNO and in honor of her arrival I am taking tomorrow off. It will be my first beach day in over a month, its about time the weather improved.

Long Pond Triathlon

I had a busy Saturday in Plymouth at the Long Pond Triathlon. My day started at 6:15 and I drove to pick Clemence up in Wollaston. We then made our way to Plymouth. Unfortunately I wasn't able to compete and was forced to sit on the sidelines and take pictures. Mark ended up winning the race by beating the other guy who did all three legs. It was a bunch of fun and everybody was great. We then went swimming as a cool down for the very warm day. Noelle showed up while Mark and Kate were out racing and we took the boat out to watch them.
After sailing we went to the Warren's for some good old fashioned baseball. We got there in the middle of a game and just joined in on the fun. I had a great game, started off with a single which I ran out despite wearing sandals. I came up to bat again and hit a shot deep into the trees over centerfield and came around toward second base and dove into second base for a double. Finally in the bottom of the ninth we were down 15-5, but staged a rally started by Mark with his two run homerun, I followed his at bat with a solo homer of my own. We still came up short the final score was 15-11. We hung out after the game and saw some crazy lightning. Once back at Kate's we realized Noelle had locked her keys in the car. I went over and checked out the situation and noticed the back window wasn't completely closed into the housing and it could be pulled to show some space. I got my flashlight out and tried using a bamboo shoot, but couldn't get leverage. We found a metal ruler and unlocked it in a matter of seconds. It was such a great feeling. Afterwards we hung out and played some ring game and just hung out.

Okay one more thing before I go. Did anybody see or hear the story about the family who had an event on their front lawn yesterday trying to find a boyfriend for their daughter? Here is the story.. The girl is 22 years old and has a four year old daughter and her mom is fed up with the boys she has been on dates with so after watching "Who Wants to Marry Our Dad?" decided to have a contest for their daughter. I saw the footage of it last night and believe me the real winners came out of the woodworks. My favorite was a guy with a mullet who said he hadn't been on a date in seven years, hmm, Mr. Mullet I wonder why. I should have shown up I would have taken the field and would be on my way to marriage. Perhaps I should convince my parents to get involved and have a "Who Wants to Marry My Son?" Perhaps if it gets as bad as not dating somebody for seven years I may resort to that, but for now I am going to leave contests out of it.

Keeg

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Jesus, God and Dave Matthews

I have heard a lot of discussion lately about what songs Dave Matthews has written with religious references. So being the dedicated fan I am, here is a list of songs I have found with some sort of reference to a higher power.
Grouped by Album:
Remember Two Things
Minarets
Seek Up
Christmas Song+
Crash
Too Much
Drive In, Drive Out
Before These Crowded Streets
Last Stop+
Spoon+
Everyday
What You Are
Mother Father
Busted Stuff
Grey Street
You Never Know
Raven+
Big Eyed Fish
Bartender+
Unreleased Songs
JTR
Dreamed I Killed God
Deed Is Done

+ - Direct Jesus or cross reference.
As you can see the most recent stuff has more references, just take a listen to the Busted Stuff album and you are blasted with it. A couple of songs while very spiritual in nature were left off the list i.e. Lie In Our Graves and The Stone. Maybe he is making his move towards Christian Rock. Well there you have it.

There�s no God above
No Hell below
It�s here with us
It�s up to us
-David John Matthews (Mother, Father)

Last night I had quite the discussion with Britt about jeans. It all started by my telling her about my lunch with Dale and Scott the other day and how Dale had to return some jeans because they didn't fit properly. He said it gets so confusing in the stores because the names of the different styles are basically all synonymns of each other. Maybe its just me, but relaxed, easy, baggy and loose all seem like comfortable jeans that aren't tight period. Ask me the difference between them and I could never tell you. Britt and I decided to go online and see what the official definition is for each style (source Gap.com):
Relaxed Boot Fit - Sits just below the waist, full fit through leg, boot cut opening.
Relaxed Fit - Sits just below waist, full through the leg, straight opening.
Easy Fit - Sits at the waist, slightly loose through the leg, straight opening.
Baggy Fit - Sits at the waist, full through the leg, slightly tapered opening.
Loose Fit - Sits just below waist, loose through the leg, straight opening.
Standard Fit - Sits just below the waist, slightly loose through leg, straight opening.

Consider yourselves informed, I still don't see a difference between loose through leg and full through leg. I guess I am not hip enough. The jeans discussion then reminded Britt of some jeans she saw at Abercrombie and Fitch. We hopped on the information superhighway and headed to Abercrombie. After a little searching we found some rather interesting jeans. First were the women's jeans called Painted Destroyed Flare, click the picture to go to the site.
The description was: 100% cotton, paint/grass/dirt stains, Destroyed Denim Wash, Super Low Rise, Imported, $98.00
We figured maybe the men's would be different, but then we saw the Destroyed Vintage Chugger Boot Jeansclick the picture to go to the site.
The description was: 100% cotton, zipper fly, blown out knee, oil and bleach stains, wallet mark on back pocket, blasted and whiskered, walked on hem, sits just below waist, relaxed leg opening with boot slit, Made in the USA, $98.00
Can you believe they sell those things? Grass stains, wallet marks, oil and bleach stains, walked on hem, are they serious, all for the low price of $98. Hahaha. We laughed for a bit and then it hit me, if people will pay extra money for worn pants, perhaps they will pay more for pants with a storyline. I mean these jeans are cool, but they were manufactured this way, what if I actually wore pants and they became that way naturally. I could sell pants for hundreds of dollars. The name Britt and I came up with was Experience Pants or X-Pants for short. The idea is to go out buy jeans and hike Mount Washington, get them ripped up and sell them as pants destroyed while hiking the highest mountain in the Northeast. I actually have a pair of khakis, which were ruined will canoeing the Agawam River and a pair of cargo pants ruined while hiking the Flume Slide trail, to think I almost threw them out. Anybody want to invest or help out in the experience? I figure I need to get people of various pant sizes to create a full line.

In other news: I found a cool website, Antsmarching.org. After registering you can enter all of the shows you have been to and it will tell you detailed information on your Dave Matthews history. Some of my stats:
35 shows attended
647 songs played at those shows
95 different songs played
23 times I have heard Too Much
8 times I have heard Ants Marching as an Encore song
Cool huh!!!
Lunch time walk slideshow

Lights Out!!

We went old skool at home last night as in mid 1800's old skool, because we were without power. A big storm passed through the 'Bury last night around 7:30 and knocked out power for almost five hours. I came home from my gym and Brendan was using his laptop at the counter with three candles of various shapes burning. I quickly ran upstairs to grab my headlamp and came back downstairs to find something to do. I narrowed it down to reading or playing the guitar and of course chose the latter. The power finally came back up at midnight, but I just slept through it. You never realize how important power is until you don't have it.

Funny commuter observations:
X-Terra obsessed guy - I see him almost everyday and if I don't see him is X-Terra is there. He usually sits in the car for a half hour and then the obsessive compulsive disorder kicks in. He gets out of the car and checks every door, not only whether they are locked but also whether the windows are closed. He puts the sun shield in the windshield and also folds in the mirrors. Wow, and I thought I was bad.

Security guy with Mag-Lite On - I was standing on the platform and noticed a security guard, not working, but on his way to work. He had a uniform with the "Security" logo printed on it, but the funny part was that he had somehow turned the flashlight attached to his belt on. I decided to keep my mouth shut, but seriously if he can't even use his flashlight correctly, how can he make a place secure.

Loud Music Listener - Everybody has seen or rather heard them on the T, they are the people with their headphones turned up to maximum volume so the entire car can hear. One guy was actually on the train last night and again this morning, both times he was listening to the same Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Dude try listening to a different artist on a different day, what a dork!

Have a good one. Only one more day of humidity and then we will be blessed with some nice dry heat, as in 90 degrees hot. Out of the steam room and into the sauna. Change is good, right?

Off to the Races

I had a busy weekend, starting with a Friday night at Fuddruckers, The Loop, Krispy Kreme and finally Urban Outfitters in Boston. Saturday I went to Plymouth to visit Mark and Kate. We went swimming in Long Pond, for fun we threw a hockey puck in the water and tried to find it. The sailboat races started after swimming and we watched Mark sail around Long Pond.

I gotta stop for some reason I feel like the words just aren't flowing correctly. It is the same feeling I get when I am trying to sleep in this humid weather and I just toss and turn for hours. I guess I have LJ block. Whatever shall I do?

Ah fcuk it I give up for today. Saw S.W.A.T. it was good. Go see it.

Did you hear about the contest on WBCN, where the winners get to see the last showing of Gigli ever? Now that is a great idea, they should have sarcastic contests like that more often. Talk about clever.

Peace,
K. Willis Sands

Longing for work

I guess I have to do some catsup here since I missed a day. Quick recap of BoCaNO. We went to The Field in Cambridge and I must say it was rather disappointing for just two reasons:
1) There are no tabs, you pay as you go, which is fine by yourself or with a couple of people, but when ordering in a large group it gets confusing.
2) No food is served after 2:30, so you can't eat there, apparently the food is good, but I may never know.
We made the most of it and afterwards a few of us went for dinner at the Phoenix Landing. The food was great, with many things to choose from and rather reasonable prices. I would indulge more, but we need to keep focused, click on the picture for a BoCaNO slideshow.

Yesterday, I had to take the day off for a doctor's appointment to finally get the lowdown on exactly what is up with my knee. I went to the doctor around 11:35 for my 11:45 appointment and finally saw him at 12:25, but thats okay. He started off by reading a technical document to me, which meant absolutely nothing, similar to when the auto mechanic tells you the exact problem with your car and you just nod and say okay do whatever you need to do to make it work. Some of you may know that at the sight of my own blood I get light headed and have been known to nearly pass out. I learned yesterday the same symptoms occur when looking at MRI's of my knee. As the doctor started showing me the MRI scans gradually became more and more light headed, to make it worse he had about ten of the damn things. Halfway through I had to sit down and breathe, I didn't mention anything to the doctor though it was probably obvious to him, I am sure I was as pale as a ghost. He then asked me to sit down and I misinterpreted that as lie down, which I would have been all to happy to do. At some point I got a nice cold sweat and became relaxed, very strange. The bottom line was I severely bruised the bones in my knee, and was lucky not to have broken it. My ACL and MCL are just fine (PHEW!!) and my treatment is to go easy on my leg for the next couple months. Thank goodness, skiing crisis diverted!!

The doctor was certainly the only good thing to come from yesterday, at one point I wished I had just gone to work. Here are the top five things that annoyed me yesterday:
5) The humid weather, it is just annoying and makes me feel so uncomfortable and depressed.
4) I realized I lost my sunglasses, which I have owned for four years. Not so much upset because of sentimental value, but because I HATE when I lose something. Because if I lost something I made a mistake, which is UNACCEPTABLE.
3) The internet not working on my laptop and the fact that I have to wait in line to use the computer on the counter. I love wireless networks, but keep coming to the same damn problem of Disconnected Network Cable, its wireless there isn't a cable.
2) I can't stand buying new clothing items for myself because I hate determining if it looks good on me or not. i.e. Hat shopping at lids and sunglasses. If there is some sort of list on why to have a girlfriend, help with shopping should be on it.
1) Lack of a life on weeknights or any night for that matter, after dinner I couldn't find a thing to do, since I had been to the movies by myself (Finding Nemo, good film) already. Instead I sat in my room trying to get my internet to work, finally giving up and just lying there listening to music. How lame is that?
This summer sucks, I hate it!!

Bull in a China Shop

I have to add one more thing about the humid weather, I noticed it the other night while coming back from the gym. The humidity somehow causes the smell of the river and ocean to spread freely. All you have to do is come within ten miles of the ocean and you can smell it. Just an interesting fact, depending on the river and the tides it can be good or bad.

Last night I had to bring my car in for its 30,000 mile service, I know, I know, 32,000 miles in nine months is crazy, hey so I like to drive. I pulled into the dealership and immediately noticed a lack of Volkswagens. Could they possibly have sold all of them or did they just decide to only sell Mazdas? My question was quickly answered when I saw the sign saying the VW part of the dealership had moved. I jumped in the car and found the new place, but seriously who it would have been nice if they told me when I made my appointment. Bottom line the car is all set to go.

Oh by the way I did shave today, I am sure that will please many people. Apparently I am just not meant to have facial hair. You know it is bad when people actually comment on it before you get rid of it. The honesty is great, because there is nothing worse than getting a haircut and then your friends say how glad they are you finally changed your hair style. I guess I really didn't give it a chance and maybe should have waited another week or so, but I think it is easier this way.

Have a great day,
Keeg

Hurt Seagull

I was strolling by the window at work yesterday and noticed a gull sitting out on the patio. I ran back to get my camera, because it seemed like a great photo opportunity. Apparently I didn't need rush since the gull appeared to be injured and could not fly away. After a few more hours of hard work, I checked and he was still there, he would run along the ground attempt to fly and then just land. Now I was left with a dilemma, who do I call to help out this bird, building management, the police, animal control? We went to lunch and upon returning found the bird had somehow left our third floor patio. I don't know how he flew or where he went, but hopefully he is now back with his family.

No entry would be complete without mentioning the weather, I have just had enough of this tropical stuff.
Top five reason why tropical weather is annoying:
5) Wet hiking boots won't dry when left outside.
4) Getting stuck in the rain without a rain coat or umbrella (which btw I think are useless)
3) Tossing and turning on nights when the family decides to leave the AC off.
2) The climate of the car gets messed up i.e. windows fogging up, actually seeing the air coming out of the vents from the cold AC hitting the saturated air.
1) The meteorologists try to make light of it by cracking jokes or placing the individual letters H-U-M-I-D across each day of the forecast.

Ooh a very old skool entry today, now I am off to listen to the 37 versions of the Dave Matthews song #40, I just downloaded online.

Welcome to Floridachusetts!!

The weather over the past few days has been very tropical and humid, YUCK!! I feel like I am back in Florida with the daily rain storms, except we don't have AC like those lucky people. Its okay though because apparently it is only going to be like this for another week, Yippee!! Keep those umbrellas and rain jackets handy. Whats with people who accuse other people (generally visitors) of bringing bad weather with them? Like its their fault, seriously.

Now for the weekend, because I am sure you are all curious. Friday night I saw American Wedding, which was okay. Certainly not as funny as the other two, but a good laugh and worth the price of a ticket.


On Saturday Emily and I went up to the mountains of New Hampshire and had quite an adventure. After considering advice from some friends I decided hiking Mount Washington was a bad idea and instead we should do some touristy stuff, but upon seeing the mountains I couldn't fight the urge to climb a 4000 footer. I broke out my maps and picked a nice three hour climb of Mount Liberty. My leg had been feeling better, so I thought I could do such a small hill. We packed our bags and set out at 10:30. After a few hours of hiking we made it to what we thought was the summit, but after five minutes of looking into the fog(clouds) found the actual summit one feet away. We couldn't see anything, but it was nice to be up there. I then suggested we hike across the ridge to Mount Flume another 4000 footer, it was only a 30-45 minute hike and we made it across in a timely manner.

Now this is where things got interesting. In my constant obsession for doing loop trails and not back tracking I suggested we hike down the Flume Slide trail. The mountain guide describes the trail as being steep and rocky with slippery granite slopes especially in the rain, oh yeah and descents are not recommended. I took this as a challenge and we foolishly headed down the treacherous Flume Slide trail. It was slow going, but we made it down first through the baseball to grapefruit sized loose rocks then on to the slippery granite faces and finally into the forest. We were supposed to find a trail after the granite faces, but could not find it at all. I am not sure if we even went down the right slide and this is probably why we couldn't find the trail. It was now around four o'clock and we were encountering thick forest with the GPS reading 2.5 miles to the car. After a bit of discussion we decided it best to go back up to the top and just retrace our steps. If we didn't, we would probably still be out there right now. We struggled back up the mountain and finally after an hour made it to the top of Mount Flume again. We finished the rest of our water and got psyched up for the hike back down. On the bright side the clouds from earlier had burned off and we could actually see the mountains around us.

At five thirty we began our second descent and made it back to Mount Liberty by six thirty. At this point we were both completely exhausted and drained of energy from hiking for eight hours. We continued down and were quite thirsty and even re-enacted the Old Mount Speck water puddle scene. Finally at eight thirty we made it back to the car and the two nalgenes full of water. We had a few scrapes, bruises, and a bunch of bug bites but were okay and still in good spirits. My knee was fine throughout the entire hike and my right knee was actually sore, but probably because I hit it on a rock at some point. We cleaned off using some water from one of the streams we came across and made our way back to Lincoln. We went to eat at Gordie's and ate a ton of food, it was so good. After a little nap in the car we made it back to Amesbury just before one in the morning.

It was certainly a memorable day and I will probably refer to this story everytime I hike for the rest of my life. I want to thank Emily for being such a good hiking partner, even when we were completely lost she didn't get upset and remained calm through the entire Flume Slide trail fiasco. Not to mention the fact that she was still able to walk after ten hours and didn't complain once. Not a once!! Hiking Slideshow

Sunday I woke up a little late and dealt with the power going on and off, wreaking havoc on my internet usage. Britt asked me if I wanted to go to the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem (go figure). Nissa and Andy came over and we piled into my car and picked Ry up before making our way southward. The museum was rather interesting and well worth the twelve dollars. My favorite item on display was the childrearer (see the slideshow), it is a wooden receptacle the Chinese would place their children in to keep them from running around, it seems like a perfect invention, crude but perfect. After the museum we were caught in the rain looking for a record store and eventually drove to find it. Dinner at Salem Beer Works was great, especially because of the waitress. We went back home and reconvened later for Sex and the City. It was a very busy day and I am now quite exhausted. Salem slideshow

I did get an update on my knee, the good news is my ACL is apparently not torn, the bad news is I may have fractured my patella. I will find out what the treatment is on Thursday, but apparently the doctor who talked to my mom about the MRI says I shouldn't be walking on it. I guess a ten hour hike would be considered walking, OOPS!!!

Sushi with Sushi

Yesterday was Suha's last day, we went to lunch at a Japanese restaurant called Ginza. I tried some sushi with tuna in it, the video of it is quite amusing since Suha kept make nauseating sounds while I tried to eat it. The afternoon was uneventful except for the floppy disk fun we had while going through some boxes under my desk. I have a bunch of boxes under my desk with papers and software in them from the early 90's. I decided if nobody would even know to come to me for this stuff I can throw it away, so that is exactly what I did. It is just impossible for me to throw stuff away.

After work I went home and then to Newburyport for the gym. Brendan saw me carrying my camera and asked me to take some pictures of the Newburyport waterfront and I did, taking at least fifty pictures. I haven't put them online, but they did turn out great.

I looked for some apartments online yesterday and today. I can't quite decide where I want to live, it changes from day to day. Melrose-Malden OR Amesbury-Newburyport? Ah I can't decide.

Have a great weekend!!!
K. Willis