Whales

Our house has been obsessed with maritime mammals for the past couple of weeks. This could have something to do with the amazing whale watching trip we took though the New England Aquarium. The trip was organized though Jason's school and had the benefit of a chartered bus, so we didn't even have to drive to Boston.

We spent about 4.5 hours on the boat. Fortunately, Nora and I loved it, unfortunately, Jason got a little seasick. Both Jason and Nora were wearing sea bands, so I'm not really sure if they work or not, but given that Nora usually vomits at the drop of a hat, I suspect that they worked for her.

We saw a lot of whales. In the middle of Jason's worse moments, Nora decided we needed to climb up to the top deck. I was more than happy to desert Jason since he looked pretty green, but I wasn't thrilled about climbing up three decks with Nora since the sea was pretty rough. She must have some sort of whale sonar though, since just after we got up there the first whale was spotted. It breached and we got a very clear look since the top deck was a little less populated. I was pretty much amazed and Nora was super excited. I thought that would be as good as it got, but a little while later we slowed down and stopped in the middle of a pod of about 8-10 humpback whales. It included a calf that gave us a big show with lots of diving and tail flipping.

I don't have great pictures - holding on to Nora in the middle of some largish whales while operating a camera was sort of challenging. But I do have a short video. Despite Jason's illness, he did rally around the time we reached the pod and got to join in all the sightings. We had a wonderful trip and we would love to do it again sometime, should any of you want to join us. Be sure to bring Dramamine!

This was taken out in front of the aquarium, they were had an educational fair on whales and it included this inflatable of a right whale.


This was on our way back to Boston, we were in the harbor so Jason was feeling much better.

From whale watch

Click on the Thumbnail to watch the video of the humpback whale calf!

Today's Project

There's something about assembling furniture that makes my back hurt. I'm pretty happy with the outcome though. Tomorrow's project is filling these bad boys up with the contents of the 30 boxes on the sunporch. Do you think they will all fit?

Here's the final on that pear cake from earlier this week. I will be making this again, it just kept getting better as it aged. Very spicy. Not sure it was a Nora favorite, but I really liked it, I think it would make good muffins too.

Pears

I've had these pears sitting on my counter for a couple of days and while we've been enjoying them fresh, I thought I might do something else with them. I'm tempted to try a pear butter or pear honey, since Natascha made some last weekend with her mother-in-law, and having tried last years batch, I'd like to make an attempt. But, I'm not really up to the whole canning thing right now. So, I thought I'd make a pear cake, especially since today is Jason's first day of school and well, I'm all out of inspiration on tackling those boxes of stuff that I don't know where to put right now. I've adapted this fresh pear cake from allrecipes, with some Nora -friendly additions: ground flax seed and water for the eggs and omitting the pecans. I also added a tsp of vanilla and about a Tbs of peach brandy that we had around here. I thought it was pear, but then it wasn't but I still thought it would work. The pears are sitting in the sugar/brandy/vanilla mixture now, so I'll let you know how this goes. I left the skins on, I hope that isn't a mistake....

Tune in later to see how this goes!

Foray Into Boston

This weekend, we went to see Kendra in Boston and check out the New England Aquarium. It was great to see K again and meet her dog Ripley and cats, Eli and Lottie. As you might imagine the cats stayed mostly hidden and Ripley stole the show. After riding the train into downtown, Nora decided that living with Kendra and Ripley might be preferable to staying with her boring parents who just open boxes all day and won't get her a dog.

We had a wonderful time exploring Jamaica Plain (Kendra's neighborhood), riding the train, learning about the Big Dig, tramping around Faneiul Hall, and most of all the aquarium. Nora's favorite part was the sharks and my favorite part was the hands-on tidal pool area where we could touch the starfish and sea urchins.




Thanks Kendra!

Settling In

Yesterday we made a massive trip to Ikea which resulted in two full cars. I wish I had taken pictures. We assembled our Karlstad sofa last night without incident, so we are now making full use of the tv. The four bookcases will have to wait a day or two because next up is Nora's little wardrobe/dresser combo, which I bowed to pressure and agreed to 1 PINK drawer. It is a big one though. I'll post pictures if we get it together.

Jason is on campus again today. He went in on Tuesday and got his ID card and unpacked boxes there. Today he's dealing with insurance crap and attending the grand opening of the new cafeteria. I know he's anxious since classes still haven't started and won't until the 8th, which is I guess, a week away. We've lost track of time.

Nora is missing little people to play with. It has been ungodly hot so we've been avoiding the playground, and we've been sluggish with no A/C. I hope that this will be the last day this year in the 90's. With Earl heading our direction, we are expecting lots of rain and I think it should cool down a bit too. Today though, we are going to the Chicopee Public Library to get library cards! Then, probably more furniture assembly.

I'll post pictures once we get the house cleaned up a bit. Still plenty of boxes to unload!

Return to the Blog

Two months and one cross country move later, I return to my blog. If you are on facebook, you've probably already seen these, but I thought I'd share Pancake Day here, too, since it was such a wonderful morning. Nora had literally been dreaming of Jason making pancakes so she decided that he would become the pancake chef, and he did. His first batch was pretty great and I'm looking forward to future pancake days. Part of Nora's decree included wearing these Daughter and Daddy matching Steak and Shake hats. It's Nora's favorite restaurant, but really, there's not much for Jason there.




This is the pantry, or what Nora calls the Little Kitchen, and right now it' s my favorite part of the house. That could have something to do with there being no boxes there.

Jason's reptilian like pattern on his arm is from Nora playing tattoo parlor. We've tried to discourage this since it is difficult to wash off (Crayola lies about the washable nature of their washable crayons).



We are settling in okay. Nora is having the hardest time, since we just want to unpack boxes and run to Ikea and do other boring things. She's seen a lot of TV the past couple of weeks. We have tried to get across the street to the park everyday (we didn't make it today) or out someplace at least. Unfortunately, the Dinosaur Footprints park was not as exciting as we hyped it to be. Fossilized dino footprints aren't that obvious to the untrained eye and there was no dinosaur recreation which would have made her happy. I think we've got to spend a day this week, doing everything she wants to do to balance it out. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh have I mentioned that it's been hot here this week? 90+ degrees. And we have no AC.

Travels

I've been traveling so much this spring (and it doesn't seem to let up this summer) that the blog has really suffered. Maybe when we get settled in MA, it will become a priority again. Well, I'm pretty sure it will, since some of you actually seem to care what we do with ourselves. Anyway, we have been on the road this past week, visiting family and friends in AR. Unfortunately, while we took many photos of family, we somehow managed to forget to pull out the camera while catching up with old friends, something I regret. I am also regretting the number of times we've past through this state over the past few years and did not make an attempt to visit so many of you who are here year round. One of the many things I love about Facebook is that it's given me the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and better keep up with those that we've remained in touch with over the years. And it made it possible to actually see IRL several of you during this trip. Despite poor planning we managed to catch up with Bob & Sarah, Cindy and Eric, Jennifer & Ilya, and Trent & Sarah Beth and their respective families as well as Elise and Neil. Jason, Nora and I had a wonderful time seeing you all again! Here's a few pics from the first half of our journey:






On the way home, we're hoping to squeeze in a quick visit to the Ozark Folk Center - another crying shame that we haven't made it there in all these years of going back and forth.