Oh, sheet

This guy must be really excited to be a ghost, seeing that it's about 2:30 in the afternoon, and we're waiting for an inbound train at Brookline Village. Kids in costumes during the day are sweet; grown men, kind of spooky (but I guess that's the point.)
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Costumes of Halloween Past

The earliest Halloween costume I can remember having is a little clown suit with pom-poms on the front made out of green yarn. My grandma made it for me, and it's pretty cute, although I am terrified of clowns now, so I don't think I'll be passing that one on to any future children we may have. Other costumes include Madonna (maybe 3rd grade?), a hobo (complete with a coffee ground beard), and the Phantom of the Opera.

In 9th grade, we hosted an exchange student from St. Petersburg, Russia who happened to arrive on October 30th. At that point, I was only in my 3rd year studying Russian, and my language skills were limited to introducing myself and explaining how my fictional Russian friend, Tatiana, and I purchased sweaters and books on our recent trip to GUM. Our exchange student, Ekaterina, had never trick or treated before and I did my best to explain the process to her as I handed her a mask and an empty pillow case. What I explained to her in Russian (her English was no better than my Russian) probably translated back into English as, "We get candy. We are walking to many houses and say please give me some candy and then say thank-you."

My junior year at Boston College, I wore a full suit Winnie-the-Pooh costume that I bought at the Disney Store. I purchased it then reasoning that it would come in handy when I had to walk my own children around the neighborhood on Halloween in the freezing cold. My roommates and I went to an off-campus party that year, and after several beers and jello shots in a packed house, I realized the Pooh costume was like wearing a fuzzy sauna. I passed out in the middle of the party to enthusiastic shouts of "Pooh's down!" (or so I'm told.)

I am driving to CT today in order to attend a baby shower early tomorrow afternoon with my mom, but hopefully I'll be back in time to help pass out some candy. My Pooh costume is in CT, and I'll break it out for the first time since college to answer the door, but will be extra careful to stay hydrated this time.

Looking for a Boston Marathon number?

My awesome marathon charity, Team Eye and Ear, has a few spots left on the 2009 team. If you're interested in learning more about becoming a team member, please check out the link on Mass Eye and Ear's website: http://www.meei.harvard.edu/what/events.php

If anyone is thinking about running and has any questions about the training or fundraising experience, please feel free to send me an email or leave me a comment.

Year old cake better than expected!

Despite the fact that our cake was a year old, it tasted pretty fresh. It was still nice and moist; in fact, the only indication that it was celebrating a birthday while we were celebrating an anniversary was that the foundant was looking a little worse for the wear. I think the key factor in keeping the top layer so fresh was that my mom wrapped it in about 6 layers of tin foil, which was then wrapped in a final layer of Saran wrap. Go Mom!
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I'll have a tall skinny Amoxicillin, no whip

Through his work, Nick received a gift certificate to Starbucks, which he gave to me since he doesn't drink coffee. Normally I avoid Starbucks, because their ordering system and staff intimidate me. I feel like most of Starbucks' employees act as if they're fulfilling their destiny to work there; or, perhaps because I don't have their small/medium/large equivalents memorized yet it's just that I am an annoying patron. Anyway, on Friday I went to the Quincy Market store and saw that they had a new smoothie called Vivanno. I decided to try the orange, mango and banana version and threw in the optional matcha for an extra $0.50. Matcha is apparently made from green tea and functions as a healthy add-in and a sweetener. It also turned my smoothie a pleasant green color.

Behold, the Vivanno

The smoothie had a unique taste to it; it definitely didn't taste like oranges, mangoes and/or bananas, but it was sweet and I became slightly nostalgic drinking it. About halfway through the drink, I realized what it tasted exactly like: amoxicillin! Amoxicillin is the pink bubblegum flavored medicine I used to take for ear infections, and it was delicious (for a medicine.) I'm not sure if drinking Vivannos will cure a bacterial infection, but they sure taste like they will.

"Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?"

Nick enthusiastically removed my garter- the guy who caught it is now engaged!

Today is our 1 year anniversary! I can't believe a year has gone by so quickly! It seems like just yesterday I was writing about our 6 month anniversary... Everyone likes to say that marriage is full of surprises and it's been no different for us. For example, in the past year, I have learned 2 things about Nick that I didn't know prior to marrying him:

1. He has "the Monster Mash" on his iPod. (I learned this when I heard him singing along to the background ahhh-ohhhhhhs.)

2. He pronounces "Tootsie Roll" like toot-sie. As in, you "toot" a horn.

Happy Anniversary, Nick! I love you, and am looking forward to many more years!

Blogging in the Dark

When I got home tonight, I noticed there was a work crew in the road. Then I got to my building, I realized why- there's no power on our section of Broadway. Dwayne and I are just hanging out in the dark, and I've been trying to think of where we should go to dinner when Nick gets home. That's one advantage of not having power; you can't cook.
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