Weekend in NYC, part 2

We got a late start on Saturday. I had to check rugby world cup scores before I could go anywhere. A few key games in the pools that determined who moved forward in to the quarterfinals were being played. CH tolerated my obsession fairly well, although dishing out a substantial amount of grief while I cursed at my computer.

For lunch we returned to the Cozy Soup & Burger. Last time I got a good diner breakfast with a huge pile (mountain?) of pancakes. This time I wanted to try their burgers. I chose the blue cheese burger. And it was so good. The blue cheese was very sharp, and the patty was huge. I foolishly thought I'd want fries as well, so I opted to get the "deluxe" platter with fries and a pickle. I finished the burger, but not the fries. I must learn that at the Cozy Soup & Burger to always get about 1/2 of what I think I might eat as everything there is on the very large side. CH got a patty melt with grilled onions and peppers (also "deluxe"), but he did manage to eat his fries (and a few of mine).

Our plan for the afternoon was to head down to the South Street Seaport Historic District. The area was a mercantile and shipping area, and the 19th century buildings have been refurbished and re-purposed into a shopping and restaurant area. Generally more of a "high-end" shopping area, including a Godiva store. They also have a Museum and a fleet of historic ships, including a Coast Guard ship you can tour. There was some kind of event going on down on the pier called an Urbanathon with a band and a half pipe and people everywhere. The funniest thing we saw was the Seattle's Best Coffee shop that also sold beer and cigars!

Our goal was Bodies: the Exhibition at the Exhibition Centre. This exhibit is all over the world, and both CH and I have wanted to see it for awhile. Lucky for us, the New York exhibition was extended, giving us the opportunity to get to it before it left. It was awesome! Since they used actual bodies that had been specially preserved, going in I figured it would be either really cool or it would be creepy, but either way interesting. It was so not creepy, just really fascinating and very cool, and we learned a lot! You get to actually see how the body works. How our bodies function is so incredible as it is (we are an incredibly complicated piece of organic machinery), and this exhibition illustrated that and broke it down into manageable chunks, while still showing how it all fits together. Different rooms focused on different elements, like bones, muscles, digestion, and the nervous system to name just a few. It was really neat to actually be able to see the nerves in my left arm that were injured in the car accident a few years ago, and see how they connected between my shoulder and my hand. I could feel how they connected, but seeing it and being able to see the "path" they take down my arm helped it all make more sense in my head as to how they were injured and why it hurt where it did as they healed. I hadn't visualized my nerves as being so thick...in my mind I saw them as threads, but they are much thicker than that. We were in there for 2 hours, and I think if I went again I'd learn things I didn't absorb the first time. So much information, and so well presented.

After the exhibit, we headed back to apartment for some coffee and to watch the Stargate Atlantis season premiere (which we had recorded on Friday night...we had gone in search of food when it aired). After walking all afternoon, it was nice to just sit on the couch like a lump and be entertained for a bit. And it gave me a chance to check the last rugby scores of the day (yes, I'm a rugby addict, and I am not ashamed).

Before picking up some slices of pizza for dinner, we took the dog to the nearby dog run in the park. Aussie showed a bit more interest this time, and barked at the dogs running around chasing each other in play, but still wasn't all that into getting involved beyond the initial greeting. So we left the park and walked her over to pick up the pizza. Just like the previous night, she attracted a fair amount of attention. The West Village is a bit busy on Saturday nights (that's the understatement of the year), so there were lots of people and Aussie was feeling quite tolerant about people petting her.

As an example of the kind of attention she gets, I offer the following conversation:
Dude w/girlfriend runs up behind us: "Hey! Can we meet your dog?"
Me: "Sure."
[lots of dog petting and the dude cooing over my dog, his girlfriend was much less interested]
As we are walking away, the following comment:
Dude: "She takes up a whole [sidewalk] square!!"

I do like CH's response to the "can I pet your dog" question: "If she lets you." She'll bark at the person if she's not comfortable with them (she's never bitten anyone, she just barks at them to back off). But I was still amazed at just how tolerant Aussie was on this trip...often she can be quite wary when there's lots of people around, especially in an unfamiliar environment. She must be mellowing in her old age.

Weekend in NYC, part 1

This past weekend I went north to New York City with the dog to visit my friend CH again. I needed to escape Philly for a bit.

My trip up Thursday night was fairly uneventful. Not a whole lot of traffic, other than the expected right around the Holland Tunnel (is there ever *not* traffic??). And bonus! I found street parking about 1/2 a block from CH's apartment on my first trip around the block. Now, the reason I had to make this trip was because I missed the entrance to the apartment complex, but when I looped around to try again lo and behold there was parking. Miracles do happen. We attempted to get Indian food from Indian Bread Company, but the place had a "rush" and they were forced to close early! Bummer. No naaninis tonight. Instead we opted for falafel and hummus pitas and split a spinach pie.

On Friday CH had to work in the morning so we knew the day was half gone from the start. We got up and took the dog for a quick walk and got coffee from Think before CH heads into the office. The dog and I hung out at the apartment getting some work done as well (ok, I worked and she slept).

We were both starving by the time we were done with work (for the weekend, mind you). We opted to get sushi for lunch at Marumi (546 LaGuardia Place). OMG so good...good prices, and excellent fresh sushi. They offer lunch plates that come with set sushi and the choice of soup or salad. You can substitute one option for an extra $1. I had 3 rolls (California, salmon and avocado, spicy tuna) and a salad, all for about $12. My spicy tuna roll was a bit loose, but still tasty. It had been far too long since I had sushi. So good.

After lunch we caught the subway uptown to possibly go to a museum. We head for MoMA, only to discover a very long line. Apparently Target was sponsoring a "free Friday" event where admission was, well, free. We asked one of the MoMA people what the latest exhibit was, and he told us they were "in transition." Meaning nothing special going on, just their permanent collection. As much as we both want to see that (it is the MoMA), standing in line for an hour and then fighting massive crowds inside is not something either one of us was particularly interested in. I'd rather spend the money to go sometime when I can actually see the art without peering through and over people and fighting crowds.

So we opted to wander around Central Park instead. The weather was perfect! A beautiful fall day. I have no regrets about deciding to spend it outside rather than inside MoMA. We started at the south end of the park and wandered up to the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace and eventually up to the Great Lawn before looping back around again. It was a great day for people watching. Lots of families out, a couple of groups having wedding photos taken, baseball games on the Great Lawn, all kinds of activities.

On our way back from Central Park, Tonnie's Minis cupcakes just happened to be between the subway stop and CH's apartment, so we just had to stop and pick some up (you all know my love of cupcakes). We chose a selection of 4 varieties to try (yes, we did split each one like good little children). And they were all delicious (lemon, coconut, red-velvet heart, carrot cake). Mom, don't worry, we didn't eat all four of them at once. We spaced it out over the next 2 days, I promise.

For dinner we decided to go for Indian Bread Company again. Yay! Success! We opted for the Vegetable Tandoori naanini, Chicken paneer naanini, and a Lamb paratha. I don't think I can explain just how good the food there is.

We took Aussie with us on the walk to pick up dinner. She'd been napping on the couch all day and needed the exercise. But taking the dog on a walk through a busy are means random people talk to you. I'm used to this, as it's been happening for years. People always want to know what she's mixed with, if they can pet her, where I got her, how old she is, etc. And they'll comment at random about her to whomever they are with, which I hear when walking past. Grown men tend to "coo" at my dog (yes, coo). CH found this an infinite source of amusement, as he had never really experienced it before. While we were waiting for our food (we got it to go as Indian Bread Company has no outdoor tables), the following conversation occurred:
Dude: "What is your dog mixed with?"
Me: "Basset Hound and something." (my usual reply, and it's the truth, I don't know)
Dude: "And AWESOME!"
Me: !!

No joke, people. No joke. This is now my stock reply to the "what is your dog" question. She's Basset Hound and awesome!

Rugby news update

Stop the presses!! Team USA actually earned a point! We no longer have zero points in our pool...now we have: ONE. Yes, one. One point because while we lost the match against Samoa 25-21, we lost by "7 points or less" which results in a "bonus point" for not being total losers. Whoopee. Not that we have a chance in hell of making it to the next round, but at least we no longer have zero points. Only Namibia has that dubious honor now, and since they aren't scheduled to play this weekend, have no chance of earning any points and have ended their 2007 Rugby World Cup experience at the bottom of the barrel. Sucks to be them.

This coming weekend is the last weekend of the pool phase. Whomever is in first and second place in their respective pools at the end of play on September 30th moves to the quarterfinals. Currently three teams have already been declared winners in their pools, basically because there's no way anyone can earn enough points to beat them. Tie them, maybe, but beat them, no. Australia (pool B), South Africa (pool A), and New Zealand (pool C) have all emerged victorious from their respective pools. For anyone that knows anything about rugby, this is not surprising. The Tri-Nations teams tend to kick butt. Now the race for second place is in full swing.

In pool A, England and Tonga are vying for second place. Their match on Friday will determine which one of them moves on in the tournament. Should be a good game. In pool B, Wales and Fiji are tied for second. Their match is Saturday. In pool C, it's a tight race, with Scotland having a slight edge over Italy. Which could change when they play each other on Saturday as well. A lot at stake for these teams, which always makes for good rugby.

Pool D is up for grabs. Argentina, France, and Ireland all have a chance. Argentina is currently in first. All three play on Sunday, along with Georgia, who's trailing a bit too much to have a shot but could make life difficult for France if they play well. I say, this is quite the Rugby World Cup this time around. [now imagine that sentence with a very bad British accent...]

Should be an exciting weekend!

Monotony

Yes, more radio silence. But this past week has really been quite monotonous. Students are back. I'm in the midst of several projects, project proposals, and daily work. Most of my week was spent trying to come up with a way to normalize edits to records in a set across different sets so we wouldn't have to re-write the script to edit each different set. The frustrating part is that try as I might, I had exceptions for just about every set of records. Dammit. Ah well, it's the exceptions that make the rules, right? In good news, my work is no longer being reviewed by another librarian. I've been granted "independence." If you ask my parents, they'll tell you I've been independent since I was an infant...but that's another story.

Most of my free time has been spent watching the Rugby World Cup. I'd post regular updates about it, but I realize that most of you probably don't care, but for a moment please just pretend. It will all be over the end of October, I promise. Suffice to say, the US team sucks. Royally. We're in last place in our pool and have zero points. The most exciting thing about this World Cup is that Argentina is still doing well. They've won all their games and are in first place in their pool! Go Argentina!! Per usual, Australia is doing excellently and is comfortably in first place in their pool as well, serving match after match of beat-downs to their opponents. In general, there's been some good games, and some surprising upsets in matches.

Next weekend is the last weekend of the pool phase, so the matches this week and into the weekend will determine who moves forward. I can comfortably predict that the US team will NOT be moving on. This is not a surprise. If things keep going well for Argentina, they should make it to the quarterfinals, which would rock.

So that's what's up. Rugby. Work. More rugby. More work. Etc. Etc. Monotony. But in a good way. I'm certainly not complaining.

Waiting...

It didn't rain today. But I wasn't out enjoying the weather. Nor was I inside watching rugby matches. Instead, I spent the day waiting.

I got up this morning and made the decision to just go an take care of getting Pennsylvania plates on my vehicle. Yes, I still had plates from my previous state until today. I was all set to take care of that, and then, well, the identity theft happened. First it was that you can't get state plates without a state driver's license, and I had to wait to do that. Since they used a fraudulent license, I had to keep my old license until I had submitted all the necessary paperwork regarding my identity theft considering I had to include copies of my license as part of the process. And since the person, or, rather, people (I learned recently there are actually two people that plead guilty) bought several cars with the loans they obtained using my identity, messing with my car's title and whatnot was not something I could do for a bit either. So I waited. I waited until the identity theft had been proven so there wouldn't be any question that the car belonged to me. Now that the people have been caught and plead guilty, I no longer had to wait.

Getting plates in this state is an, um, interesting experience. You don't actually submit paperwork to a state office. Yes, you get your driver's license from an official sate PennDOT office, but not your car plates. For your car plates and title, you go to an authorized third party office. These frequently not only offer vehicle licensing services, but also offer bail bonds, cheap car insurance (since insurance is required for license plates), check cashing, and/or pay-day loans. I'm not joking. And you write them two checks. One to the third party office for processing, and one that they submit to the state with your paperwork. That was the easy part. I walked into an authorized office (conveniently identified by the big sign saying "CAR TAGS HERE"), showed proof of insurance, they verified the VIN on my vehicle, I handed over my title and checks, and walked out with a registration certificate and PA license plate in my hand. I now had 10 days to get my state inspection and my emissions inspection. Simple enough.

Little did I know that would take pretty much the rest of the day.

The first thing I did after walking out of the office was remove my old plates and put the PA plate on my car. My previous state had both front and rear plates, and PA only has rear. It's pretty funny, you can still see the outline where my front plate was...the bumper around the plate faded a bit over the past 6 years. I did make a stop to buy coffee and a snack (Wawa, I heart you) and drove into a service place that had the nice little sign indicating they were an official inspection station for the state. I handed over my paperwork and keys and sat down with my book to wait. That was at 1pm. I foolishly assumed that this would take no more than a couple of hours tops. I was wrong. So very very wrong.

I didn't leave the service place until almost 5:30pm. Over FOUR hours. Oh. My. God. What was worse is that there wasn't really any place I could go...and I had no way to get anywhere anyway seeing that, well, they obviously had my car. So I sat. And waited. I read my book for a good long while (got through over 100 pages of it). And then waited some more. I walked a block or so to a drugstore to get something to drink (the coffee long gone), came back and waited even more. I sat outside on the curb talking to a friend on the phone for an hour. I went back inside and sat in the typically uncomfortable chairs in the service waiting area for some more waiting. I started to feel like I was losing my mind. Finally, my car was done. I passed both inspections, got the oil changed, paid them an obscene amount of money, they returned my keys, and I was outta there. Ironically, I got out to the parking lot to retrieve my vehicle and had to wait yet a little bit more while they stuck the inspection stickers on my car.

I leave the service station, only to get home and realize that they had not reattached the plastic undercarriage shield properly and it was rubbing against my wheels and hanging a bit haphazardly. So I had to go back. By the time I got back I was so not in a good mood. I had waited for over four hours, only to have to go back and wait even more for them to fix their screw up and actually finish the job properly. I admit to being a bit less than polite when I was explaining that they had neglected to reattach my undercarriage shield.

And to think that the inspections have to happen on an annual basis. I think I'll try a different service station next time. I never want to see that particular service station waiting are again.

Rugby World Cup update

Indulge me here, people. It is only for 2 months once every four years. And since we in the United States just don't have non-collegiate national-level rugby (i.e. the equivalent of the NHL or NFL or any of the other national sports leagues) outside of the World Cup, I go a bit nuts during World Cup time. So just indulge me and pretend like you care.

The USA rugby team is, per usual, doing abysmally. Not as bad as some other teams (poor Japan got their butts kicked by Australia...I felt sorry for them as they had a distinct disadvantage to begin with just due to the physical size of their players), but still doing badly. Truly. Truly. Badly. At this point I would be surprised if they could bounce back and make it out of the pool phase. So I've given up on them. Watching them play is almost painful at times and I just can't stand it.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other teams to cheer for. Obviously, as I stated before, I will be cheering for Australia. But this World Cup there is a new "dark horse" team: Argentina. They are continuing their winning streak, surprising everyone. Currently they're first in their pool, but they aren't slated to play this weekend, so we'll see how the points stack up at the end of the matches between the other teams in their pool (remember, the pool phase is all about number of points earned for each match). Hopefully they'll still be in first or second place.

In other surprises, England, the defending champions from 2003, got served. South Africa gave them a beat down, winning 36 to zero. That's right, zero. England didn't even manage to score a goal on a kick, much less a single try. Ouch.

This weekend promises some good matches, with Australia playing on Saturday. So I'll be ticking things off my personal to-do list while watching games. And it's supposed to rain on Saturday, which means I won't have to feel guilty for spending the whole day inside with the TV on. Bonus!

[Caution, the following links may be offensive to some people] To get you all in the mood, here's a couple of websites of rugby drinking songs: http://www.rugbysongs.net/ , MIT Women's Rugby, the San Francisco Fog RFC (explains the song singing traditions/procedures at the after match party) and the Idaho Women's RFC the Black Widows (used to play with them sometimes as a sub, and frequently played against them in college). And no, I'm not going to publish the words to my college women's team song (the Motherruckers!!). Caution,the words to these songs are not exactly safe for work and are certainly not safe for small children. Everyone together now!: If I were the marrying kind... or, if you prefer, So...drink a little bit... (from the song known as Follow the Band)

Thoughts on the diversity of librarianship and finding you niche

I have a niche in librarianship. A specialty, if you will. I'm a cataloger, with a focus on specific formats (serials and electronic/online resources). My expertise is what got me hired by my current institution. They needed someone with my skills. Boy howdy did they need someone with my specific format skills after several years of position vacancy. I have lots of cataloging clean up to work on. It can be almost overwhelming at times. In a positive light, it is job security. And I love what I do.

I participate in several cooperative programs, including CONSER. In these cooperative programs we all agree to work together with a common goal. Typically within cooperative programs people have the same or similar specialties within librarianship, so we all speak the same "language." But working together still creates challenges at times, because everyone brings something different to the table. Every institution is different and has different needs. But ultimately these differences enrich the program and provide the variety of perspectives needed for us to truly be responsive to the needs of the users. All the users, not just one subset of users. After all, aren't the users supposed to be why we do what we do?? I think sometimes we forget that...

But librarianship is very very diverse, and it's important to find your niche. Groups focus on what's relevant to their jobs. Cataloging makes sense to me. From day one it just clicked and made sense. I understood exactly what I was doing and what the big picture was. I could never really truly understand what the issues are in reference. Intellectually, yes. But I'm not a reference librarian, and I've never been a reference librarian (if you don't count the time I was an intern and "back up" reference/circulation help), and the issues they face don't apply to what I do directly. Indirectly, often, yes, but not usually directly...as in I don't worry about how to make the reference desk more inviting to users, or how to be more accessible via chat or IM reference, etc. Catalog issues and accessibility/findability of items, on the other hand, directly relates to what I do. I have no expertise in reference, but I have lots of expertise related to findability. So I gravitate towards what I know and where I can make the most impact. And I try to figure out how to work with reference to make sure we're ultimately serving the users. I rely on them, on their expertise, to help me do my job. They, in turn, rely on me for the very same thing, to help them do their job. We're all approaching the same goal from different angles depending on our expertise. That's what ultimately happens...people follow their expertise because it's where they can make the most impact. There are those groups that cross boundaries, but the people that participate in those groups have a passion for the focus of that group. And they find a way to utilize their expertise for the good of the group.

Finding your niche is not always easy. My intern right now (yay! for extra help) is learning. Sometimes you have to do different aspects of librarianship before you figure out where you fit. She's figured out she really does like cataloging, and wants to make that a career, because it makes sense to her. [I swear, she came to that conclusion on her own...I did not torture her and force her to decide that! but I am very happy to have another cataloger in the world.] My bestest friend is in library school and is finding her niche, too. She's figured out she doesn't want to be an academic librarian, so she's now focusing on public librarianship. She's also figured out that she wants to work directly with the users and that coding anything (which includes cataloging) is not how her brain works. So she won't be going into cataloging. Oh well, we can't all be perfect (a joke, people, a joke), and I love her anyway. After all, we can't all have the same expertise now can we? It's the diversity that makes our profession strong.

Personal DNA

This was really interesting. And quite detailed. Like all personality tests, I agree with some, but not all. But this one seems to be more accurate in more categories than others have been.

Advocating Leader

What are you? Click on "Advocating Leader" to find out.

Rugby rugby rugby!

So the official NFL season kicked off this past week. I have but one thing to say about that: who cares? The football season is long, and right now there are much more important sports events going on.

It's the 2007 IRB Rugby World Cup!!

I played rugby union in college and grad school. I eventually had to quit after a car accident (I was a passenger) injured the nerves in my left arm. If I get hit wrong, I can permanently lose function. Being a lefty, this is not an option for me, so no more rugby playing. But I love the game. It's a rough sport, but I do love it so.

Needless to say, I'm quite excited about the Rugby World Cup. It's only every 4 years, so the last one was in 2003. Back in 2003, I had no option to see any games on TV. The cable company I was with didn't offer any international sports channels. Fortunately, things have changed. I get to watch a whole bunch of Rugby World Cup games LIVE. Yes, live. W00T!!

Last night was the opening ceremonies (live!) from France and the first match of the round robin in the pool phase. Quick lesson: the first phase is the pool phase, with 4 pools of 5 teams each. For each match, teams earn points that ultimately determine their ranking in the pool. This phase will last the entire month of September. Next are the quarter finals, where the winner and runner up from each pool compete. The quarter finals are knock-out rounds, so if you lose, that's it. The semifinals determine who plays for the actual Webb Ellis Cup. The winners of the semis play in the championship match, and the losers play in the Bronze Final. The championship Final match is scheduled for October 20th. Got all that? Good. Moving on.

The first match last night was France, the host team, versus Argentina. Back when I lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a few months as an intern after college, I had the opportunity to see Argentina play Wales. I was not all that impressed. But that was 1999. Since then, Argentina has stepped it up and become an international powerhouse of a team, but they've never made it past the pool phase of the tournament. France has always been strong. They're often in the quarter finals. So imagine the surprise when Argentina won!! What an upset. It was a big win for Argentina. They essentially dominated the game, helped considerably by the errors made by France that resulted in turnovers in Argentina's favor. But the score was still close (12 to 17) so wow was it an exciting game.

Today I watched the USA Eagles lose to England. OK, they didn't just lose, they got pounded and lost 28 to 10. This is not surprising. One, because England is the defending World Cup champions (a big deal...first Northern Hemisphere team to win...usually the Southern Hemisphere teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand dominate). Two, team USA kind of sucks. Rugby is not a big US sport at all, so our national team is a bit neglected. We just don't have the depth or breadth of players to pull together a powerhouse team. It's sad. But as a nation we tend to focus on football (that's "gridiron" for the rest of the world), and we're starting to focus a bit on soccer, too. Rugby just doesn't get enough interest from us as a nation for us to really compete in the international arena. That's too bad.

Ultimately, my favorite team is the Australian Wallabies. So GO AUSTRALIA!! Redeem thyself after your disappointing loss to England in the finals in 2003. I have faith in you.

Rest in peace, Madeleine L'Engle

The passing of yet another of the fantastic authors from my childhood.

From the NYT Books article: "Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88."

She's best known for the A Wrinkle in Time series. I remember reading her books over and over. Her books were always the type to be enjoyed by adults and children alike. They still have a spot on my bookshelf right next to some of her adult fiction like her Crosswicks Journal series and Certain Women (about a father-daughter relationship). The pages are starting to fall out in at least a few of the volumes. She had such amazing talent and gave us such beautiful stories.

May she rest in peace.

Where have I been, you ask?

I know I've been silent for more than a few days now. What can I say...it was a holiday weekend, I left town, and I had no internet connection for 3 whole days. Really. Three. Whole. Days. And I survived. And then I came home and logged on and was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of email and spam in my inboxes. I finally finished digging myself out almost 36 hours later.

For Labor Day weekend I headed up north to Hanover, New Hampshire. Some good family friends (we consider them extended family) live up there and were having a big celebration on Sunday. So I went as the family representative. My dad and DH went to law school together, and DH literally has known me my entire life (he sneaked into the hospital after visiting hours the day I was born). His partner JF entered the picture a year later. Here we are 30 years later and I'm amazed a just how lucky I am to have two such incredible people in my life. I'm even more amazed that they are still together after all these years, despite society (for the most part) not accepting them for who they are and who they love. But they made it. And as different as they are (and oh boy are they different), there is so much love there it's humbling. And knowing that they love me and that I always have a place in their home and in their lives is so priceless I don't know how to describe it.

Enough sappiness...they also throw a great party. JF arranged for my dog and I to stay with a very nice woman, ED, who lived nearby. ED was more than happy to have a dog in her house again for a few days, and lucky for me Aussie was on her best behavior (she always behaves well in other people's homes...hm...). I got up nice and early on Saturday and hit the road, arriving into Hanover by early afternoon without incident and without encountering any traffic to speak of (can we say miracle?!). ED and I had a nice visit and Aussie made a thorough inspection of ED's very beautiful and fenced in yard (it's been awhile since the dog and I have had one of those and Aussie was in heaven) before ED and I headed over to DH and JF's for a delicious spaghetti dinner. As always, DH and JF pulled together a very eclectic, intelligent, entertaining, and generally wonderful group of people. The conversation was fun and overall just fantastic. So many interesting people to talk to. And the spaghetti sauce that JF made was so good. As was the garlic bread with chunks of garlic sitting on each crusty piece. Delicious. And then there was raspberry or strawberry-rhubarb pie and various ice cream flavors for dessert. It was a feast! After dinner ED and I headed back to her place to let the dog out and get a nice long night's sleep.

Sunday we got up and read the paper for a bit. ED told me that there's a craft fair on Sundays in the same place there's a farmers market on Saturdays just across the state line into Vermont. I had obviously missed the farmers market, but the craft fair sounded like a lovely way to pass the day until the big celebration for DH and JF that afternoon. So we said goodbye to the dog (Aussie made herself right at home and was decidedly unconcerned about our departure and immediately laid down on the couch for a nap) and headed over to Vermont. The craft fair was full of local artists from nearby towns in New Hampshire and Vermont. Woodcarvers, lots of jewelry makers, an incredible glass blower, and all sorts of fabric crafts including silk screened t-shirts, things made from recycled fabrics, hand-spun wool yarn, and various knitted and crocheted things. So much talent in a rather small space. The crafts were beautiful. I even found a belated birthday gift for my friend Catechresis (surprise!) that I will put in the mail soon. And ED and I got a gift for DH and JF that was just perfect (they thought so too when they opened it!).

After wandering and admiring everything, we made a quick stop at the local Co-Op for some local maple syrup for me (grade B, nice and dark and thick, and you can't usually find that grade in the supermarket) and some pure maple sugar candy to share back at work. Then we headed to the house to change (the day had warmed up into a beautiful and sunny day that wasn't too hot...absolutely perfect weather) and take care of the dog before heading to the party site.

We arrived at the Storrs Pond Recreation Area and were immediately put to work by JF (he has a habit of doing this). They had a collection of pictures of the two of them through the years to be hung for people to look through. These included everything from their class photos from elementary school and other childhood photos, photos from around the time that they met, various photos of them individually, photos of them with friends and family, to photos of them together from the past 30 years. So much fun to look through. It was hard to stay focused on the task of hanging them because we kept stopping to look and laugh and ask questions (when? where? who's this? OMG so young!)!

They also had the friendship quilt that was made for them for their 20 year celebration. A friend sneaked into their house and stole their address book and sent the information to another friend. She in turn sent each person on that contact list a quilting square and a request to put something personal on it. She then incorporated all those squares from everyone into a beautiful hand stitched quilt for DH and JF to treasure. Such amazing handiwork! It's incredible to see how the two of them have touched so many lives. And it's held up beautifully through the past 10 years.

Other guests started arriving, and tickets were handed out for the raffle. Now, the door prizes were really more of an opportunity for DH and JF to give away some of the massive amounts of stuff they've gathered (few people leave their house empty handed). And it included some really nice prizes: like books (with the authors present to sign them, no less!) and some of JF's amazing photographs (including copies of HIS new book!). Oh, and JF had fun telling a story about each person that won. I was drawing numbers (see? he gives out jobs!) and I made sure I did not draw mine...god only knows what embarrassing story from one of the many visits made during my childhood he would have come up with!

The afternoon was full of much feasting, an opportunity for guests to turn the tables and tell stories about JF and DH (such fun!), a surprise serenade by an excellent Elvis impersonator from JF to DH, there was a DJ, a little dancing, and lots of excellent conversation with all the interesting people in attendance.

They had the celebration catered by a local barbecue restaurant. OMG it was so incredibly delicious. I must get the name of the restaurant from them to see if they ship the sauce! They had hand pulled roast pork with a whiskey-molasses sauce. I just had to go back for seconds and was so full but it was so good! Add to that cornbread, salad, coleslaw, and some amazing sweet and spicy baked beans and wow. Just wow. They sent me home with some of the leftover pulled pork and I think it got even better. It was that good.

On Monday I thanked ED profusely for her hospitality (I must mail a thank you gift soon!), and popped over for a quick visit to DH and JF before hitting the road. Despite the fact that it was Labor Day, I once again had a nearly traffic free drive. Unbelievable. And Aussie slept all the way home. She wore herself out with all her yard explorations. Old dogs need their naps and she was just too busy smelling everything to sleep.

I had a wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect. The company was great. And New Hampshire/Vermont is just beautiful. I really wanted the weekend to last longer, but alas, I had work to get back to and massive amounts of email to deal with. Next time I go up for a visit it will definitely be for longer than 3 days.