Last week highlights:

One night Andrew & I went to JP for dinner and socializing with Andrew's brother and Jen. It was really fun and relaxing (although we got home a bit late). Kind of made it feel like it wasn't a weekday. We brought back yet more of Andrew's stuff.

Friday night we rented 50 First Dates which was surprisingly entertaining. I think that was due to Drew. I made some perfect popcorn. (As opposed to the last time Andrew tried, and it got completely burnt.)

Saturday I woke up pretty late -- recuperating from a crazy week. Then I did some more vocab words. Oh at some point I finished Madame Bovary. Started the Sound and the Fury. That's slower going. D. Becky came to pick me up and we went on a crazy adventure up to the North Shore -- it was good that she saw Greg again before he goes abroad! I saw tons and tons of beach, fog and mist, marshes, an idyllic path that let out onto a quarry (with lots of mosquitoes), and we went to a restaurant with amazing onion rings (that look like how I make them, as in, not frozen and dipped in oil). We got back pretty late, after going through Salem (satanic church), Rockport, Nahat, etc. etc. Then we got Andrew out of the apartment. I wore the perfect outfit that D. Becky picked out! We went to this cool bar that we can walk to in about 5 minutes, and I had a beer that I actually liked the taste of (belgian white or something? Andrew ordered it). Live music, it was good. D. Becky headed off and I was a bit tipsy so we ate buffalo wings and then I fell right asleep.

Sunday we somehow got up early, after a late night (2ish I think?). But it was so pretty out we HAD to wake up early. Brunch and then last minute items from the supermarket (including poisonous deet repellent). We got out of the apartment early though, and headed up to Ipswich River. We had the most amazing canoe trip. The Foote Brothers canoe rental place dropped us off upstream (but it's such a very very weak current the stream means nothing except for which way the weeds grow underwater). We had a 4 hour paddle at least, and a quick stop at the island the rental place owns. We saw many cool water turtles (and we tried to pick them up with our paddles). I saw one big frog. We saw multiple egrets and herons. I was constantly taking pictures. The geese and ducks had goslings and ducklings, respectively. Andrew spotted a beaver carting some vegetation around. A tail splashed so we're assuming beaver (Andrew insists it was the tail of a beaver). Merrie, any advice?

It was completely gorgeous, the sun was back and forth behind clouds and it wasn't terribly hot. We often had trouble paddling around between obstacles. My arms were sore by the end of the run. It was kind of like the old computer game Oregon Trail. Luckily neither Andrew nor Becky fell off the canoe or caught typhoid fever.

We were so hungry by the time we got home!! I tried the saute sauce (or however you spell it) that Andrew brought back from Amsterdam. It's like thick peanut butter, basically. It was good on chicken, surprisingly. Not the sort of things you'd normally put together. Andrew insists that in Amsterdam people eat french fries with peanut butter and mayo on them. I think that's disgusting, by the way.

Today at work we had Blue Cross Blue Shield come in, so I was at the front desk playing receptionist. It was an out of the ordinary day (which made it exciting). Plus, I ate a leftover veggie sandwich with good hummus (as opposed to MHC hummus (except the black bean, which is good)). And, I took some of the sweets -- cheesecake bites. Should have taken more of the sweets before other people got them =/ Poor me!!

Last night we started an off-beat movie, Human Nature.

Dinner was good tonight -- Mum would be proud -- shrimp and linguini and a white wine sauce and tomatoes...

That's enough rambling for now, I'm so tired!