Saturday: Andrew left work early so we could attend his friend Carlo's barbeque. Reunion with Kiwi the pug, who was very preoccupied with Shelley's dog. Weird uncomfortable conversation with Shelley (who lives in the apartment beneath Carlo's). At one point Andrew pointed out that I was the only female in the room besides Kiwi. The other end of the gender spectrum from MHC...

I also had a little American Eagle clearance saling to do -- thank God for AE clearance sales, because W2K isn't paying me much more than my bills cost (and whatever extra I'm sure will end up going to taxes. Ugh).

It was a good day for a barbeque, except for the ever-present mosquitoes.

Sunday: We slept in, because we knew we weren't into the whole extreme firework viewing (ie, get up at 5 am to claim a spot for the Boston Pops concert). Brunch was leisurely, I finally painted my toenails a bright red, and we sat about doing some work. In the afternoon we headed out wandering around Boston -- we had an "embryonic" plan to follow the Freedom Trail, eat somewhere in the North End, and see the fireworks. [Side note: I have reached G in my alphabetical quest to learn GRE vocab words. Watch out, I will be attempting to use these words in blogs as well as everyday speech. Luckily most of you do not have to live with me over the summer!] This plan "felled" as we became hungry almost as soon as we started walking. We had pad thai, and an interesting curry mango fried rice. An ideal setting -- we ate in a sort of park by the ocean.

Andrew & I then headed through Boston Common and the public gardens -- a rather "desultory" path toward the fireworks. I finally saw the Make Way for Ducklings statues. Mer, you would have liked them. I would have taken a picture except for the toddlers "gamboling" about and pretending to ride the ducks. We finally reached the esplanade, and after much walking about in the crowd, we found a place to put a towel and sit down. We were "quiescent" and read our books -- consumed some slush -- and basically waited for evening. A group of "loquacious" BU students were in front of us. We finally heard music off in the distance, and everyone stood for the national anthem. Some crazy woman knocked off a BU student's cap, spoke to him in "invective" (one might even say "vituperative") language, and stormed off with her off-kilter male-counterpart in tow. The BU students began to leave after the first round of fireworks that went with the 1812 Overture. They had "recondite" reasons for leaving so close to the show, esp. since the wait to leave after the fireworks was much less severe than we had expected...

The show was great, once it FINALLY got started at around 10:30 PM. Entire field of vision was filled with fireworks. Odd splotchy batches that kept flickering after detonating like big bulbous fireflies. Others that looked like gold rain. Some were even set off to look like smileys (Andrew got an excellent picture of this!) The show wasn't as long as I had thought it would be, though. Afterwards we were crushed together "like sardines" as Mum would say. After getting past one of the walkways that cross the highway at intervals, we headed for the T. The first leg of the journey was crowded, the second was not. Andrew found a seat for me on the first one though (miraculously). Very tired!

Luckily I didn't have work Monday -- wasn't feeling so great -- so I got a lot of GRE words onto flashcards, took a couple of practice verbal tests (I still suck), and finished off the Lit. GRE review. My head cannot hold all these words! Evening event: pad thai followed up by Jello cheesecake and frozen fruit. Food makes me happy =)

Most bizarre encounter with a CVS employee ever. And, he gave me $10.18 in the form of 2 5's, 3 nickels, and three pennies. I found that strange. The fives can be explained, but why would you give someone three nickels instead of a dime and a nickel? Any insight into this "abstruse" "conundrum" is much appreciated.

Being at work again -- a little disconcerting after 4 days off.

Merrie, how do I put pictures in my blog?