And today's secret ingredient is..... ZUCCHINI!!

This weekend turned out to be very different than what we had planned. We were originally supposed to go down to MA - APO event for Erik, visiting Andrea for me. However, because of the fact that Erik wasn't feeling well on Thursday and didn't go to work, the mow crew got behind and had to work Saturday morning to make up what they hadn't finished. Well, they were at least SUPPOSE to work Saturday morning. Erik got in at 7:30am and started to get the mowers ready for travel to their first destination. By 8:30am or so, he was the only one there, aside from one of his bosses. Both of the guys he works with totally did not show up NOR did they call to say they weren't coming. And the ironic thing is, one of the guys literally just got a talking to for several no calls, no shows. What happens on Monday is yet to be determined, but what is definite is that both Erik and his other boss will probably be ripping them new, well deserved assholes.

But the weekend was good regardless. Friday after work, Dos and I went to a free gallery opening. Of course, it wasn't without an adventure. Dos could have sworn it was being held at Portland Pie Company. Well, we went to the only location of that place we knew, and there was nothing going on. So we then consulted The Phoenix which is where Dos saw it in the first place. She noticed that it said "151 Newbury Street." We thought it was odd that there would be a Portland Pie Company in that area, but we started walking in that direction anyway. To give you perspective, Newbury street is outside of the Old Port, heading in the direction of the East End which is sort of going toward our end of Portland (sort of). So we ended up walking around like idiots until Dos realized - it wasn't being held at Portland Pie Company. The FOOD was being PROVIDED by Portland Pie Company! I decided to spare her life, and we located 151 Newbury, which was actually the address of the artist's studio.

All I have to say is, this guy must make big bucks off of his photography. Since it was listed in The Phoenix, ANYONE was allowed to just show up. And it was free pizza, food, wine, AND beer! The guy even had his own beer taps, with good beer to boot! Apparently he does this every year and uses it as a time to celebrate his work, which focuses on photographs he's taken in Mexico. And the gallery was gorgeous and very unique - brick walls with mirrors hanging from the ceiling, windows that open out onto a sizable, city-fied courtyard (as I like to call it since, like in other cities such as Boston, the courtyard is essentially open space located between several buildings). He even had a band! So Dos and I had a really, really good time. We even bumped into a woman we used to work with at MPA who is also an artist. Her daughter was in town, so she didn't stay very long.

On Saturday, Erik and I went to the 40th annual WCSH6 art show that was held on Congress Street in Portland. We weren't able to go to it last year because we were in PA for Nick and Tat's wedding party. So we were quite surprised by the shear size of it! And it wasn't just Maine artists - we saw people from New Mexico! And then that evening we had Dos over for dinner. I made a cold zucchini soup (yes, I actually cooked something) with tabouli and bread, and Erik made an olive tampanade spread that we saw Tyler Florence use on How to Boil Water on the Food Network. It was all very tasty.

And getting something free from BU is like a comet, you better take advantage because it could be awhile before it comes around again!

I'd like to thank Ms. Rebecca Fachner for the above quote. It is so true, and boy did Erik and I take advantage! Wednesday evening we went to Sebago Brewing Company in Portland for a BU alumni event. It's the first time I've ever actually been sent anything in the mail about anything related to BU alumnis. And the word "free" on the letter was definitely the deciding factor of whether or not we were going to go :-)

As predicted, the majority of the people who showed up were older, but I guess that is to be expected. We ended up chatting with a couple from CT actually. They are both graduate students at Wesleyan, so of course we had to chat up Middletown and how it's a good place for food, but that's about it :-) The female half of the couple actually graduated from the music program at BU in 1999. Even though she's older, SFA is so small and you pretty much know everyone, but I didn't recognize her at all. We also ended up chatting with this guy who works for a construction company that is, surprise surprise, affiliated with my second job, Maine Preservation. He admitted that they aren't corporate members of the organization, so I of course told him that he should be. We'll see what happens with that :-)

Oh, and I guess I should talk about the freeness - open bar and a buffet of various appetizers. We have obviously partaken in Sebago's food and beer before, so we were psyched that this time, we actually didn't have to pay for it! And they had my favorite appetizer as part of the buffet - potato nachos. Yum, yum, yum! This is the first time they've had an alumni event in Portland for 30 years, so let's hope they keep on doing it!

Who you calling a fellow!

No, it's not a mirage - I'm actually posting something DURING THE WEEK! Ooooh! Unlike Erik, I actually went to something interesting this evening, so I thought I would share it. Oh, and I apologize for the crappy graphic. Best I could do. Anyway, since the first week of June, the Old York Historical Society has had four fellows, who are essentially interns except they actually live in one of the old buildings and do more indepth research. It's apparently one of the most prestigious fellowship programs around. Anyway, they had their symposium tonight in the old boathouse along the York River - gorgeous, gorgeous area, right next to the Elizabeth Perkins House, who was the founder of the Society. They presented their research and it was TOTALLY everything I learned through my classes at Tufts, so it was nice to see actual classwork being applied to a real life museum. In fact, one of the fellows just completed her certificate at Tufts, just like I did.

To sum it up (and if this is boring, too bad), one of the fellows developed an outreach program with York Middle School that brings the museum to the classroom, and it's apparently going to be implemented next school year. Another fellow made two of the buildings more "family friendly" to get kids involved in the more decorative buildings where the temptation to touch is very high, and where the adult tours are enough to put kids asleep. The other two fellows developed new signage and graphics for the Old Gaol (yes, that's spelled correctly) to make the building more interactive and draw visitors into the rooms that are rarely visited due to poor signage and lack of interest. I thought it was very interesting, and makes me almost want to go back to school again! Afterwards there was a small reception at the Elizabeth Perkins House.

Elizabeth Perkins House

Chillaxin'

This weekend was definitely a time to just kick back and be relatively lazy. I met up with Erik after work at his boss' place for the second half of the company BBQ. All of the other employees had left around 4:30pm or so, but Erik stuck around until I got there around 5:30pm. Other friends started showing up around that time for burgers and other assorted foods. I left Erik around 7:00pm because I had made plans to hang out with Dos.

Saturday we took advantage of the fact that it was icky outside and hung around in our pj's until 7:00pm or so. We then decided that it was probably time to at least be sort of active, so we went to the mall and walked around. I got a shirt at the Gap. After the mall we hit Beal's since I hadn't had any ice cream at all this summer, and neither one of us had ever been to their location that's about 2 blocks from our apartment.

Sunday we got up at a decent hour. Erik went and got his haircut (he needed it done BADLY) and we then headed out to my favorite flea market which is just over the border into Westbrook. I bought an old chair that needs to have the cane seat repaired, but I'm psyched about having a project to do :-) I didn't notice until we got it into the car that it actually has two claw feet in the front. We then headed into downtown Portland to the MS Society's Harborfest. They had a whole bunch of tugboats there who apparently paid money to the MS Society to be a part of the day's festivities. I was wondering how the Society was making any money since it was free for anyone to just walk in, but Erik then told me how it works. Anyway, around 3pm they had a muster and it was so funny to see these huge tugboats race each other. It looked like they were barely moving! They had a helicopter flying very close to them, so they must have been taping for the news or for the Press Herald or something. It was pretty cool. Now we're just chilling out, waiting for the work week to begin.......

Sharon the Zombie!

Okay, I know this has NOTHING to do with us, but for some reason, I thought it was friggin' hysterical. El is going to kill me, but oh well! Anyway, so the game is "Name That Caption." Click the comments button below the posting and come up with your best caption for this picture. The one who comes up with the best caption wins, uh......a beer or something!

Like a kid in a candy store...

We had an action packed weekend which included art, rednecks, pasta e fagioli, and microbrews. Friday evening after battling the Massholes and Connectishits to get home from Old York, we went out with Sarah Numero Dos (to be referred to as Dos from here out) to the Portland Museum of Art for their free Friday evening. We saw a really, really good temporary exhibit on Rockwell Kent. Of course, Dos was like a kid in a candy store and insisted on pushing elevator buttons and looking behind closed doors that were obviously not meant to be open. I told her that there is no way in hell I am ever bringing her to Old York :-) After we dropped Dos off at home, we went back into the city and enjoyed a few microbrews at Sebago Brewing Company.

On Saturday, despite the oppressive heat and high gas prices, we drove out to Oxford, Maine, which is about 45 minutes or so north of Portland. I had seen an ad for a flea market up there, plus Dos had told me about a flea market store up there called the Undercover Flea Market that she thought we'd enjoy. Well, the flea market ended up being really, really small, although they had some good things, and we bought a small glass bottle that we thought was cute. We also picked up another glass bottle at the Undercover Flea Market and a small print which we guess is technically a trading card from back in the day (see pic). After taking our time driving back to Portland (gorgeous, gorgeous countryside on the way to Oxford and back), we hung out at home for a bit, in the sweltering heat (ugh), then headed into the city for the St. Peter's Festival that they have every year. You pretty much just go there for the food, although we have to say, watching some poor fool trying to climb up a greased pole is definitely the main attraction ;-) We both got pasta e fagioli, and we could have sworn the sauce was homemade, it was that good. Then we walked around a bit and ended up at Three Dollar Dewey's for more microbrews. Boy did we meet a lot of people that night! We seemed to have attracted all of the tourists in the place. We met a really nice couple from Los Angeles and talked to them for the majority of the evening. They had never been to Portland before, so we gave them ideas of places to go and what not. And it's always great to find other people who like to make fun of the slutty girls who always seem to show up at beer places, and then order a Mike's Lemonade or a gin and tonic ;-) After they left, we started talking to some people from CT who were visiting their cousin who lives in Saco.

And that brings us to Sunday. Our big plans? Doing nothing but housework, fun, fun, fun!

Dude, where's my fiddle!

We just bought the new Nickel Creek CD and it's SOOOO GOOD! Figured that I can also use this blog as my soapbox for cool things you should know about ;-) Anyway, for those of you who know nada about them, they are a REALLY good bluegrass band. Now, don't let the word "bluegrass" turn you off. We're not talking about old men in overalls with a piece of grass in their teeth plucking a banjo. Nickel Creek is more of a bluegrass/folk/pop group. Check them out at www.nickelcreek.com. I think they even have music samples right on their website. GO NOW! BTW, we'll actually be seeing them in Portland October 2nd!

Testing, 1, 2, 3......

Well, Erik always said that he wanted a website so we could keep people up-to-date as to what we have been up to. Since we're both dysfunctional when it comes to trying to setup the website we got for free through our Time Warner Roadrunner internet service, I figured this would be the next best thing. Stay tuned for more!