Celtics vs. Toronto

Another slow week this week, although I went to the Celtics/Raptors game Monday, and it was my sister's birthday on Wednesday. Amanda came with me to the Celtics game, and that's always a good time. The Celtics as an organization put on a wicked entertaining show. The basketball is obviously good, but the clips they play on the big screen, the music, and everything else they do works really well together. I like watching basketball about as much as I like watching hockey, but going to Celtics games is a lot more fun than going to Bruins games.

We didn't do anything for my sister's birthday, although everyone sent her cards. Mine was an e-card, and she hadn't checked her e-mail for most of the day so she was pretty peeved when she thought I had just been lazy or forgotten. I gotta remember to follow that up with a phone call or something next year.

New Years, etc.

Amanda and I had our two year anniversary this past week, along with New Year's Eve. For our anniversary we went to one of our favorite restaurants in the North End, The Florentine Cafe. We had our third date there, and for some reason we always seem to have really good luck walking in and getting a table without much of a wait.

A few days later for New Year's Eve we went to our friends' house in Mansfield. We knew it would be a  good time, but the drive was a challenge. The highway was mainly wet, but there was a lot of salt, which kept coating the windshield. Of course it was about 15 degrees outside, so my windshield washer sprayers were frozen. I'm always amazed when that happens; it seems like something we would have figured out how to prevent a while ago. We actually had to stop a few times on the way to scrub the windshield with snow so I could see.

Once there we had a great time. Equipped with the safety net that is Alka-Seltzer Wake-up Call, we downed several bottles of champagne, vodka, and High Life. We ran out of champagne flutes, so I was using a Sam Adams beer glass instead. The next morning we hit up Percy's to sample New England's Largest Breakfast menu, and it was absolutely delicious.

This about sums it up:

Note that is a bottle of High Life, and a glass of champagne. Happy New Year.

Colgate

This past weekend, Amanda and I drove out to Hamilton, NY to visit Colgate University where she got her undergrad degree. I don't think I've ever been out to that part of New York, so it was interesting to see. Amanda drove for sentimental reasons, and I was actually pretty nice to just hang out for a few hours.
As scenic as it is, there isn't a heck of a lot to do out there, so most of the weekend was checking out parts of campus and checking out the bars. The campus buildings are mostly pretty new, although they're all built to look old. A new science building was put up since Amanda graduated, so we spent an extra few minutes walking around in it, and it was damn impressive, especially for a primarily liberal arts school. Plus, any building with a planetarium gets extra marks in my book.
The bars in Hamilton are all predictably small and crowded, but they also all have plenty of cheap beer. One, Risky Business, had the two scariest bar tenders I have ever seen. Both women, one looked like she must have been 60+ but was dressed like a 13-year-old, and the other was probably late 30s but looked like she had literally just gotten out of bed. A huge selling point, aside from the cheap beer, was the most badass Miller Lite sign I have ever seen. I can't even find a picture on the Internet, such is the awesomeness. It looked like it was from the 70's, and was an animated, scrolling city/mountain/beach panorama.
We had driven out to Hamilton on Friday night, so our drive home on Sunday afternoon gave us a chance to actually check out the scenery, which was pretty nice. There were a couple of wind farms just outside of Hamilton and as scared as I am of huge windmills, they really do look awesome. The ride home took us about four and a half hours, and despite my hangover it made for a nice end to a nice weekend.

Wedding in the Poconos

Early in August, two of Amanda’s best friends got married in the Poconos. The wedding itself was on a Saturday, but we headed down Thursday night. Amanda was a bridesmaid and the associated brunches, lunches, and parties started Friday.

I’d never driven through the Poconos before, but it was about what I expected: lots of hills, lots of trees, some deer, and not really much else.

We stayed at a cottage complex in the area. We arrived at about 11pm Thursday night, and there were virtually no lights at all near our cottage, so it felt a little like we were sneaking through a neighborhood as we unpacked the car.

The rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception were at the SkyTop country club (which has a well equipped bar, and a well equipped lawn bowling court), but the brunches, lunches, etc. were at the Maid of Honor’s parent’s house on a nearby lake. The house was on a “preserve,” which I found meant an elaborate gated neighborhood surrounding a huge lake, with nothing but muddy dirt roads. Miles of muddy dirt roads. It was one of the few times since I’ve had the Mustang that I actually missed my old Bronco II.

Despite the terrain, all of the events were fun and it was fun hanging out with everyone, none of which we get to see very often.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Last month Amanda and I went to Walking with Dinosaurs at the Garden. I didn't know anything about it other than a vague promise of animatronics, and I was not disappointed. The show was actually pretty awesome. We were guided through a history of dinosaurs and their evolution by a nearly fearless human guide, who was dwarfed by the massive dinos walking around him.
The show was immersive, with elaborate and clever backgrounds and environments for the dinos to lumber around in. The lone flying dino required some slight imagination, but the effect came off well.
The dinosaurs themselves were surprisingly lifelike, and it required as much imagination to figure out how they worked as to think of them as real.
It was definitely worth the price of admission, and not nearly as campy as I would have thought.

July 4th on the Cape

This year Amanda and I spent 4th of July weekend at her parents' Cape house. Her parents were in Chicago for a wedding, so there was plenty of room for three of our friends, too.
The weather was not great, although it was warm the entire time. There was a period of good sun on Friday afternoon, which we took full advantage of by playing bocce in the immaculately-maintained yard. Saturday was a total rain-out, but we got to the beach on Sunday.
Most of the weekend was split between sleeping, eating, and drinking, but we managed to get some bowling in as well.
Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere for us to go to see fireworks, although there were enough backyard shows going on to remind us what day it was. Other than that, it was a great weekend, and a nice follow-up to the Jersey vacation.

Stone Harbor

Towards the end of June, I went with Amanda and my family to the south shore of New Jersey. If you've never been to the beach there, it's a lot nicer than you think. The sand is really fine, almost like a powder, and the beach itself is very well maintained. We stay in a cottage a few blocks away and for the most part it is completely awesome. Amanda came down with us last year, too, so everything was pretty routine. We've gone down there basically every year since about 1981, and I'm definitely looking forward to next year already.

Baltimore

Two weekends ago, Amanda's parents brought us down to Baltimore to catch some Sox games. The trip has been planned for months, and none of us really thought too much about it other than to be excited to finally get to Camden Yards.
First, the bad news. Shortly before the trip, we learned that one of Amanda's relatives passed away as a result of complications from a recent, and extremely unexpected, heart attack. Everyone took the news hard, although in some weird coincidence all of the proceedings happened in North Carolina that Sunday, so essentially Amanda and her parents were halfway there already and headed south after the games.
Being huge Sox fans, and somewhat in need of a distraction, the trip to The Yards was still on. Of course, we get down there only to realize that Manny Ramirez is sitting on 499 career home runs. Friday night's game was great, as it was the first time we had been to the park, and our seats were good. The crew directing people to their seats even escorted us (and everyone else, of course) right to our seats before Windexing and wiping them down for us to make sure we didn't have to sit on Oriole poop. No Ramirez home runs that night despite the game going 13 innings, but the Celtics booted the Pistons out of the playoffs and there were numerous Celtics banners getting run through the stands. Remember, this is in Baltimore.
Saturday night's game was incredible. We were sitting in left field, just beyond third base. Watching Jacoby Ellsbury steal absolutely everything was wicked fun, but then the 7th inning happened. Manny absolutely cranked the first pitch he saw into the right field seats, and the place went berserk.

The rest of the trip, Sunday's game, the Harborside area of Baltimore, Babe Ruth's house, Annapolis, seeing the Sox in the lobby of their hotel, was all great. Seriously though, 500 home runs.
Wow

Birthday

A couple of weeks ago, Amanda and my sister took me to a Sox game for my birthday. The weather was awesome, which was good because we were out in the open; it just started to sprinkle as the game ended, but otherwise it was sunny and warm.
The Sox won, and I had a great time.
Afterwards, we went to a bar to watch the Celtics knock the Cavs out of the playoffs. It was an absolutely awesome day.

Westford Road Race

Earlier this month Amanda ran the 5k part of the Westford Road Race. Almost, but not quite a coincidence, she ran with a friend of ours who is dating another friend of ours who went to High School with me there. Amanda kicked it out in 36:40, which is probably about twice as fast as I could do it.
I have basically no desire to run for distance, but I definitely think it's impressive.

Good work, babe!

Philly

Last month, Amanda and I headed down to Philly to see a few friends of hers from college. Philadelphia is a pretty bi-polar city, with all of the crappy parts on one side, all of the nice parts on the other, and Broad St. running right up the middle. It seems like anyone who has been on the wrong side of Broad street looks at me like I have two heads when I tell them I like it there.
I do feel pretty badass heading down to Philly just to hang out for the weekend, and Amanda's friends are absolutely awesome. Aside from them, and the obvious draw of cheese steak, Philly is packed with stores, bars, and parks. It reminds me a little of parts of Boston, and that's definitely a good thing.
While I was there I learned about the Curse of William Penn, which essentially blames the lack of success of Philly pro sports teams (no championships in any sport since 1983) on someone constructing a building taller than the statue of William Penn which sits atop City Hall. Apparently the contractor who oversaw the construction has died, leaving his son (a friend of Amanda's friends) with the blame.

Celtics Playoffs

Last Thursday I took Amanda to the Celtics game (second round against the Cleveland Cavaliers). I went to a few games during the regular season, and this was way more intense. The crowd was going absolutely nuts from about the middle of the first (when we started scoring) until about the middle of the fourth (when we were up by 20 and everyone started going home). The show put on by the Celtics as an organization is incredible. They always have something going on when there's a break in the action, and the combination of the announcing, music, and scoreboard is a great compliment to the game.
Of course it helps that the Celts are motoring through the playoffs, although their inability to win on the road is a serious cause for concern. Keep your fingers crossed.

Back to Cali

Amanda and I are taking a vacation to SoCal this summer, and I'm wicked excited about it! I haven't been back to Cali since I left almost two years ago. She's never hung around the LA/San Diego area so it should be fun to show her around. I never really got a chance to do all of the touristy things while I was out there, so that will be fun too.

Easter

Easter weekend, Amanda came out to Longmeadow with us to spend the day with my family. My cousin brought Rock Band for his XBox 360 and it was an absolute blast. I was shocked to see not only my cousins but my aunt and uncle all playing. Amanda even sang a few and gave the drums a shot. I don't think that many family members have ever had so much fun doing something non-competitive.
Dinner was delicious as usual, and it was great to see the family since I haven't seen most of them since Thanksgiving.

Furniture Shopping

Last weekend, Amanda and I headed to Bob's to browse for a couch. We already have a donor couch from my parents, but we really need something else to sit on in the living room. Our plan was to check out prices and colors and see if there was anything interesting in there, and of course we ended up buying one. This was hussled along by the fact that we both liked the same couch the best, and the price was right where we were thinking.

The old couch is a deep red with stripes of green and beige, and the new couch matches the green. It's pretty huge and comes with a "movable" chaise cushion which is way more comfortable than I would have thought.

We had a pack of people over on Sunday and at one point we had six people on the couch without much discomfort, so it seems to have done the trick.

Cambridge

On January 26th, Amanda and I moved in to our new apartment in Cambridge, and we love it! Thanks to the help of a great pack of friends, the move went incredibly well. Everything was moved quickly and not a single thing (that I know of, yet) was damaged at all. There is no way we could have done it without the help of our friends. Even the offers to help by those that couldn't make it that day were greatly appreciated!
The weather was the best I've ever had for a move, as it was in the mid-40s and nothing was falling from the sky. Amanda and I had all of our "big stuff" ready to be loaded onto a truck by Saturday, and the rest we moved in by car. The only negative of the day was when I almost made it on the news for shearing the top off of the U-Haul. Only a quick exit from Storrow Drive by Tom in the Mustang saved me from that fate.
Amanda is basically unpacked and is patiently waiting for me to get all of my stuff out of our Reading Parlor. I've been plugging away at it but I've been recently distracted by the installation of our cable and Internet connection. As soon as we get the place looking presentable, we'll have a housewarming party.

Christmas

My Christmas plans were a little different this year as Amanda and I tried to split our time between our families. We did a pretty decent job and basically just picked up where our Thanksgiving plans left off.
The Camelios had a Patriots/holiday party on Sunday which included us and some of their family friends. I held up the Cope tradition by falling asleep on the couch during the third quarter, but I don't think anyone minded too much. Monday night Amanda, Frank, and I did our own Christmas at our place, then Tuesday Amanda and I headed up to Westford. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning there, then went to her Aunt and Uncle's place where a lot of her extended family was.
Everywhere we went was a good time, and I think we did a decent job of seeing everyone over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Snow

It snowed again this morning, and there was at least as much snow to clear out as earlier this week. Frank is out of town, so Amanda and I tackled the driveway and cars. No snow fort this time, although the snow was a lot wetter and heavier so we probably would have had an easier time. Amanda was a hell of a trooper and cleared out a lot of snow. Shoveling snow is something I can do basically all day, but I'll definitely be laying down some Advil before I go to sleep tonight after heaving that heavy friggin' snow for a few hours.

Christmas Carol

Every year, my family heads up to the North Shore Music Theatre to catch their production of A Christmas Carol. Fortunately, Amanda was able to join us this year. Of course the story never changes, but every year the production itself is slightly different. This year's was not my favorite, although it certainly wasn't bad.
Amanda being there was a bigger deal than it sounds, and it's pretty awesome that everyone is comfortable with everyone else.

Found an Apartment!

Amanda and I found an apartment!
It's right up the street from my current place, which is really convenient for me. It's also only slightly farther from her school than her current place, so it's pretty convenient for her as well.
We're both pretty psyched about it, and we move in officially in February. Nobody is living in it now, so as soon as the landlord is done refinishing the floors and cleaning the place up, she'll let us start moving our stuff in.
Offers to help moving stuff in are gratefully considered.