Let's go shroomin'!

This particular Fall in New England is THE TIME for mushrooms. The semi-cool weather, persistent rainfall, and I am sure numerous other factors have combined to produce the perfect conditions for an unusually fantastic mushroom season. This past week Seth and I have seen the entire Prospect Hill forest floor bloom with 'shrooms. They aren't especially unusual and deadly looking (like the ones we saw in Australia), and not quite as bizarre as what we saw sold in Sant'Ambrogio market in Florence, but they are numerous. According to Yulia--who used to go mushroom picking before she moved to the US--most of them, especially in Cape Cod, are edible. I told Seth to go out with her husband and pick a few but he said he wouldn't trust a Russian in identifying American mushrooms, haha.

Since the mushrooms change almost daily (they seem to burst out of the ground in a matter of minutes only to die off within a couple days, if they manage to escape being gobbled up by a squirrel), you never know who to expect out in the park. Finally this morning I remembered to grab my camera to document some of our favorites, before they disappear.

A great morning with the fungi! Now time for some muffins ;o)

The time for birthdays

Besides school, the past couple weeks have been dotted with birthdays. Two weeks ago Seth and I went the Cambridge to check out an exhibit on depictions of scientific observations in Renaissance Art at the Harvard Art Museum. We then stuffed ourselves with Ben & Jerry's before heading to the North End for an AWESOME dinner at Giacomo's. The seafood pasta was totally worth the hour-long wait in line outside, especially since we had the company of Bo and Song. A fantastic birthday of art, science, food, and friends :o)

Waiting in the line that wrapped around the block. (Thankfully we got there when it was a little shorter.)

Bo and Song, looking apprehensive about their meal...

Having cake with Bo in Verona

Seth celebrated his big day last weekend with a trip to Lowell. Yes, Lowell. Though it may appear sleepy, it is shameless in promoting itself as the 'Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution'. There was a nice National Historical Park visitor center smack-dab downtown, complete with a continuously running 20min film about the history of the mill town, so you know it is the 'real deal'. Lowell is also famous as the hometown of the famous beat generation writer Jack Kerouac, but we bypassed the pilgrimage to his home and burial site. We did, however, treat ourselves to one of the numerous coffee shops--each very colorful and cozy. This was the coziest, and a great way to spend a little time. I wish Waltham (or even downtown Boston) had a coffee shop as cute as this!

One of the Merrimack River canals flowing through Lowell. Doesn't take a big imagination to see why this city is called the Venice of America ;o)

Birthday wishes

Also, since this is the time for birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Dad today! And to Seth's mother on Thursday :o)

Survived the first week!

I can finally say, without guilt, that I am happy the weekend is here! I made it through my first week after re-entering the world of full-time students. I am only taking 3 classes, nothing too crazy, but two are each 4 hours a week (one is only 2), and they all have 3-hour labs. So that is 19 hours of classroom time per week... for only three classes... However, one class I took twice before (anatomy and physiology), one class is devoted to healthy cooking, and the other will be just a pain in the butt, but at least the professor seems nice (microbiology). Not too shabby. As a total surprise and bonus, the nutrition lab is a cooking lab! We modify recipes, learn cooking and baking techniques, look at ethnic cuisine, etc. Next week we will be making cocoa meringues and vinaigrettes. This is where being an 'older student' comes in handy--I have probably 7 years of recipe modification experience on most of the other students. Joke's on them!

The worst part of this week really was just dealing with the Registrar, IT, and Student Accounts, and also getting used to commuting. After stressing for months over the drive, I am quite proud that after just four days of practice I have gotten my driving time down from about 40min to 30min. This is assuming the traffic isn't too terrible, which it usually is, but I have been driving at strange hours and avoiding peak traffic, leaving the house as early as 6:45am and driving home as late as 8:15pm. In the following weeks I will be having even longer days, and will be getting home at 8:00pm two nights a week, and at 10:00pm once a week. UGH.

Today was tricky with a morning class. Too early to go running with Seth, I instead went after class and explored the neighborhood around the university. It wasn't a great outing (lots of traffic, often without shoulders, lots of poison ivy on the roadside, etc), but at least I was able to sneak it in and keep up with my streak. As of today, I have been able to run every day for the past 13 months! This of course includes days traveling--Seth and I went running at the Iceland airport, and I had to run at 2:30am two days this summer due to early flights. Somehow I have been able to fend off illness and injury, too, and have not come up with a health reason to take a day off. Slowly I am learning Seth's secrets to fulfilling this addiction ;o)

Getting ready to hit the classroom!

Today was the graduate student orientation at FSU. Besides hearing about Campus Police, Blackboard, and Career Services, it was nice to have a second look at the campus--it is fairly compact and well maintained. The main student center seems to house about 80% of the admin offices, which is convenient, and the library and fitness center are decent-sized. It was also exciting to start looking at the books for my (2) classes. The nice thing is that I am super thrilled to be back in a classroom, even though I really haven't left since being an undergraduate. It will be fun to take notes, be inundated with homework, and after several stressful exams, actually earn credits towards a degree. So far, hands down the biggest stress for me in starting on September 6th is the commute. It took 40 minutes to get to campus today, and I even had Seth to help navigate. I can't imagine driving those CRAZY roads without someone telling me where to go. Oh my god, I am so worried about the driving out there 4 or 5 days a week for the next three or four years.... :o(

Unpacking with a new friend

Heading back to Waltham in a great full car

So, after nearly two fulls days of nonstop cleaning and unpacking, Seth and I are finally making some progress getting re-settled in the old apartment in Waltham. We sublet the place and were welcomed home to a dirty apartment, which was a pleasant surprise. Actually, it could have been much worse, but when you have been traveling for over a year, the last thing you want to do when you finally come home is immediately begin sweeping balls of cat hair, scrubbing a moldy shower curtain, and re-washing scuzzy silverware.

The next thing you don't want to do is go into your storage area (in our case, a densely-packed walk-in closet) and pull out box after box of crap that you never knew you had and obviously did not miss. This is yet another lesson for why it is good to only keep those things that you really need and actually use. By now I am trained to have the urge to clear out as much stuff as possible ASAP because, according to the trend, I am sure we will be moving again soon... Finally, after being away, you really, really, don't want to go through storage and find mouse poos and pea spots EVERYWHERE, along with moths hiding in a storage tub full of food. While this is totally disgusting, I was slightly charmed to find the mouse nest cozily built inside one of my hiking shoes. At least it was no longer occupied.

The mouse nest in my boot was kinda sweet

It has been a little weird but nice to be back in Waltham, particularly since we have never returned to a town (or state) we moved away from. Of course it feels like we never left! All our neighbors are still around, and so far we have seen a couple of the old 'usuals' in Prospect Hill, as well as a few new joggers. It is so much the same that unfortunately the Dosa Factory across from Patel Brothers on Moody Street is still 'Coming Soon'. They started working on it about two years ago and it seems like not much progress has been made. I hope I can get my hands on some nice Indian desserts before we have to move again :P

With all this excitement moving back, we were sure to make a trip across town to pick up a new addition--we adopted an older female gerbil friend for Lorenzo. She is just a month or two older than Lorenzo (so she is near post-breeding age), but she has never had a litter before so she is believed to be infertile. Her name is Ariadne, but Arianna is the Italian form, so we might change it to match with our theme. :o) Unfortunately she is a nipper, so neither of us has been able to hold her, but hopefully with some patience she will warm up to us. For now she has to be in a split-cage with Lorenzo so they can get used to each other without fighting, but after a few days we can let them try to be together. Lorenzo is not pleased to be downgraded to a tiny little cage, but we still let him run free for a couple hours in the evening, and once he can move back into his palace with his new lady friend I think he will be much happier. *The idea behind adopting another (adult) gerbil was to have a companion for Lorenzo. Seth and I can't always play with him, and being naturally social critters, gerbils are happiest when they are in the company of other clan-mates. I hope Arianna works out!

10 gallon slit-cage. Ariana on the left, Lorenzo on the right.

Lorenzo was not a happy camper in his mini cage, but at least he is a little more calm now

One last move

So tomorrow the three of us hit the road one last time to move back to Waltham. This will be my 5th move in a month and a half, and each time it becomes less and less fun. Not only that, but we have to move everything back into our gutted apartment in Waltham, which means the poor car is loaded to its eyebrows with suitcases, bags, bedding and linens, the massive gerbil house, etc. to bring back. There are also boxes and books stashed in Seth's office at Brandeis as well as our storage closet in the apartment that we will have to unload, and a great big pantry and refrigerator to refill. It will be a long next few days...