The Cavalier and His Christmas Crabs

After Seth’s final exam on Wednesday (the end of his first semester teaching), we spent the following day hanging out in downtown Boston. We first walked through Chinatown and then heckled the squirrels in Boston Common before catching a show, Dinosaurs Alive!, at the Omni (IMAX) Theater at the Museum of Science. Considering we hadn’t seen a movie together in the theaters in about a year and a half (Tales from Earthsea, in Perth, Australia), it was a particular treat to go to the IMAX.

After the movie, we killed time (and froze!) in Downtown Crossing before buying student rush tickets to see the Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker. For dinner we then headed to Chinatown to eat at the Gourmet Dumpling House, which was totally packed even though it was earlier than 6pm. We noticed that most of the people in the restaurant had ordered these gorgeous, gigantic hot pots and bowls of soup. Being a chilly night, we were very, very interested in getting one of these soups, but the menu was long and confusing, and the waiters spoke little English, so we got two “safe” dishes (noodles and dumplings), and went for one unfamiliar dish we hoped might be a soup. It turned out to be a plate of smallish whole crabs, with no utensils or hints on how to eat them. We spent an hour wrestling with the little buggers, navigating through lots and lots of shell, trying to find little morsels of meat (which, of course involved crunching on tiny pieces of additional shell). We are still puzzled over several pieces of crab anatomy, including the orange blob in the body, the green paste in the shoulders, and the random spots of yellow goo, and are still wondering if they truly were edible. We didn’t get terribly bad stomach aches afterwards, so they must have been ok.

After dinner, we went to the Opera House to see The Nutcracker. I love the Christmassy-ness of this ballet, and Seth had danced the leading male role for multiple years with the Triangle Youth Ballet, so it was fantastic to see it. The only bad thing was that the seats in the theatre were poorly laid out and it was hard to see much of the stage, but we eventually moved to good seats about halfway through the second act.

The rest of the night involved getting a Dunkin Donuts coffee while waiting for the bus, then falling asleep on the bus and nearly dropping that same beloved coffee. The perfect end to the day.

The squirrels of Boston Common

Frog Pond

Perhaps not as big as the tree in NY City, but far more majestic.

So what are we supposed to do with these??

Building a gingerbread house Seth's parents brought for us. Notice Seth's house-nipples.

Somehow this gingerbread tree transformed into a gingerbread man.

Just like the picture on the box!! (Well, not quite.)

Seth out running in the first snow storm of the year. I decided to do yoga indoors, instead :o)

Bush gets a fond farewell

Watch as Bush exercises his ducking skills (he seems quite good at it by now!)

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Last weekend Mom and Dad came up for their first visit--Dad was brave and drove all 13 hours from Raleigh, NC (in one go) to bring up a car-load of my stuff from home. This was mostly composed of books, CDs, Seth's chair and stool, and six gigantic plants Mom and Dad took care of for two years while we were abroad (one of the plants, a spider, Seth has had for about 11 years!!). While my parents were here we ran a few errands (Costco and Ikea, wooo!), walked up to the summit of Prospect Hill, and drove out to Lexington and Concord. We unfortunately had to save going to downtown Boston for a longer visit.

The morning they left was the first snow of the season--it was pretty light and didn't stick around for too long, but it was just enough to make everything look white and pretty. The next day, however, the weather dropped, and Seth and I went for a run while the temperature was about 8 degrees (Fahrenheit)--we had to wear ski masks to keep our faces from freezing off! Two days later the sky clouded up and the morning low was in the mid 50s! After that was two days of steady rain with lots of ice and power outages further west. I think it is supposed to get really cold again tomorrow... ergh...

On a different topic, today (well, I guess yesterday) was my official graduation ceremony at The ANU. Although I submitted my thesis in May and it was accepted in early July, I didn't quite make the deadline for the Winter graduation. It doesn't really matter to me, just as long as I didn't have to pay tuition those past few months! Even though it is exciting to officially have my degree, I am reminded of how long it has been since finishing my thesis, and I still have not written any papers for publishing! Shameful! :o(

Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks:

Thanksgiving dinner at Seth's uncle's house near Cape Cod. This doubled as a small birthday party for three of the kids.

Seth and Princess Adah helping Gina with the cranberries

Mom and Dad on Lexington's Battle Green (the first battle of the American Revolution was fought here)

Busy and bustling Concord

OK, time to work on those papers now!

The Big Apple

This weekend I took the very neat Chinatown Bus down to New York City to visit Bo, who is in her third year of law school at NYU. I had only been to NYC one other time, nine years ago, so it was pretty cool to have another look around.

To our disappointment, it was the coldest weekend yet (particularly cold for a southerner), so we didn't spend too much time outside. This was an annoyance because my favorite thing to do in a new city is walk around and explore for hours and hours. I even slipped on ice during a morning stroll :o( That aside, of course, it was really great to catch up with Bo and meet Natalie! I can't wait to go back with Seth for a closer look at Greenwich Village and sample some music and coffee!

Bo and Natalie

Me and Bo

The view from the top of Bo's apartment

A really skinny cafe and Mexican place

We had the Mexican for lunch

One of the many chess shops

View of the Escher-inspired floor of the law library (apparently the illusion of the spikes did not successfully deter students from jumping)

Obama!

It's so wonderful Barack Obama will be our next president, someone American's can be proud of. After eight long years of being the laughing-stock of the world, I am confident he will help reverse some of Bush's wrong-doings--or at least not make us any worse-off. We are finally facing the right direction, and I hope the new Administration and the Democrats can act accordingly to get us out of trouble.

It's been a breath of fresh air to have Bush take the back seat the past couple months, though I am sure he is hiding away and thinking up new and innovative ways to screw us over in the final two months of his 'presidency'. It would be a good thing for everyone if he just goes on permanent holiday to his ranch and is never heard from again. Out with the old and in with the new!

Watching the elections from the Student Union. Notice the person sitting in the middle (wearing green), grading papers.

Happy American Halloween

It is nice to be back in the US, where holidays are celebrated. Granted, most holidays are overly marketed in order for retailers to exploit them and cash in, but at least most people get into the spirit and the resulting festivities can be really fun. And now that the seasons and holidays are synchronized the way I am used to them being (i.e. Halloween being in spooky Fall and NOT happy Spring, as it was for Seth and me the past two years) it makes the experience that much more complete feeling!

For Halloween Seth and I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and go out to Salem. Not only would we be able to celebrate in the nearby city famous for its witchy past, but we also hoped to do a little sightseeing while we were there. We unfortunately got off to a late start and didn't have enough daylight for typical 'tourist' activities, but we got there just in time to find a great parking spot and walk into town to witness the mass-hysteria that Salem brings out on the most magical night of the year.

Salem celebrates Halloween BIG. For starters, the entire month of October is dedicated to festivities, including a huge month-long psychic fair. For some reason, the city is also now home to hundreds of wiccans, and its streets are dotted with dozens of metaphysical shops. Not surprisingly, when we were there they were all open and offering discounted spiritual readings.

Around 6 or 7pm people started to really pour in, many in costume, and roam up and down the streets. It was like a big Franklin St, only not as drunken and sloppy, as only a college town could offer. Many of the costumes were extremely elaborate, with a fair few gothic witches, of course. Somewhat unsettlingly, I am pretty sure some of them weren't costumes at all.

Carving pumpkins grown from the compost plant in NY

Salem, MA celebrating Halloween

There were some really great costumes!

Of course, there had to be the bible-thumping Fun Police

...and I don't know if these were costumes or people actually being serious, but it was funny either way

The Salem Witch Museum, downtown

This guy had lots of fun with his house!

Australia outweighs the United States

This may be a few months old, but a study from the Baker Heart Research Institute found that Australia in fact exceeds the United States in its percentage of overweight individuals. But of course, Australia can't honestly blame the spread of American culture for their recently adopted unhealthy lifestyle. Ask any Aussie, and they will never admit to indulging in one of their very many "Macca's" (i.e., McDonald's). Maybe they should instead blame the meat pies and snags? Or beer?

Lots of cooking

Running in Prospect Hill has been really great. Even though it is sometimes a little repetitive trying to milk enough distance out of the small-ish park, there are still lots of trails and hills to choose from. Lately, however, it has been a little harder to run because of all the fallen leaves, which conceal potentially irritating (and painful) rocks and dips in the trails. Nonetheless, it is great to be on dirt and away from traffic!


Having a nice kitchen and a little extra time, I have been able to practice my cooking. Here are a few of the things we've had the past couple weeks.


Apple pie made with Northern Spy apples from Seth's yard in NY. Seth's mom showed me her pie baking tricks and when I returned to MA I was able to try making one for myself. This pie won't win any beauty contests, but hey, it was my first one.

Veggie dumplings (potstickers). Ignore Seth's face--they were delicious.

Butternut squash pizza with rosemary and spinach.

Very quick no-boil veggie lasagnas (they came out a little flat).