Emma’s Fantabulous Blog

This made me totally crack up in giggles. From a Facebook group called “I hate when people say they’re from Boston, but really aren’t”, a tongue in cheek post:

Newsflash!

The city of Boston is extending residency to all citizens of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Also included in this inundation of newly christened Bostonians will be all members of the “Nation” which of course is all fans, coast to coast, of Boston’s sports teams. This decision handed down by Mayor Thomas M. Menino is somewhat controversial, but it is something that Menino felt “had to be done.” Menino, Maureen Feeney, and Ted Kennedy have been under immense pressure from the “wanna-be-Bostonians” to bestow citizenship upon them. And after months of “careful” debate and deliberation, Menino and his state associates have succumbed to this mounting pressure and will implement this plan effective January 2009.

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Yeay! It’s my weekend!!!

Today I spent my day off cleaning the house, doing laundry, house hunting online & running errands such as going to the dentist. (BTW, I have a chipped bond, a cracked super-old filling & the tiniest beginning of a new cavity, all of which need to be repaired.) I need to start chugging fluoride. God, this day has been lame so far.

I just made a pitcher of Sangria with white wine, peaches & mango, so hopefully my weekend should start improving shortly.

I finally finished uploading pics from My brother & I’s back packing adventure. Final 2 cities: Bologna & Rome.  Check out the galleries here:

Bologna: We braved hiking up terrifying ancient towers and surly men at the train station to eat some the most amazing Italian food we’d had in our lives & to see some beautiful art work in a practically “untouched by tourism” city.

Rome: Seeing all of the ancient ruins of Rome, that I had read about all through high school was priceless, and something I never would have really “got”, without actually seeing it all for myself. The food was mediocre, but the historic value & shit-shops were all A+++. 

So this completes all of my travel photos from My European backpacking adventure. To view all of the pictures, check them all out here. 

Today at work, I saw my first aborted (miscarried) bat fetus. Extremely fascinating in a way. Only the size of a large ant, you could even see it’s miniature large ears.

But, oh my goodness. It was at the same time insanely traumatizing. I’m so depressed.

So I’m in Canadia for a short holiday. We took Amtrak up to Vancouver this morning. It was a bit rainy, but it’s still possibly the most scenic train ride ever. It goes right along the Puget Sound coast. Lots of beaches, seaweed & wildlife. Tons of Crows, Gulls,  Green Herons and Blue Herons. And the highlight: We saw at least 7 Bald Eagles hanging out & flying around. They are such gorgeous creatures! I guess the rainy days make it easier for them to find meals at the beach. It was pretty cool. I kept interrupting Devon, who was working on his laptop, to say: “Holy crap, there’s another Bald Eagle hunting for his lunch!!!!” or “Look it’s another Great Blue Heron. Don’t they look rediculous???”.

But yeah. I’m in Vancouver. Vancouver rocks. And I’m looking forward to eating at some fantastic restaurants in Yaletown district. We’ve been here 3 times so far & have never been disappointed by just wandering into a random joint.  It seems like everything here is made with local ingredients & lots of passion.

Love it! 

Today there has been tons of wildlife flying and poking around our yard. With my madd (but still growing) bird identification skillz I’ve been able name most of them. Just today Devon and I have seen:

A couple fledgeling Northern Flickers (members of the woodpecker family)

Some hungry Eastern Gray Squirrels

Clumsy and playful American Robins, including one momma bird w/some worms in her mouth….

A pointy tailed Bewick’s Wren

A shockingly colorful male Western Tanager

Uber noisy American Crows

A perching Black-Capped Chickadee

And a bunch of other birds swooping too fast for me to id.

But yeah. Pretty crazy. Lots of happy critters in our neighborhood. Yeah! It must mean that spring/summer is here!!!

Devon & I are starting out on the long road of buying a home. Currently we have been preapproved for a mortgage and as of today, we just started working with a buyer’s broker, who Devon has worked with before, and who I already like. So this whole “buying a home” thing (which I always thought of as one of the most adult of actions) is something that we’re actually going to do. Scary.

When I talked to our broker today, he told me that D & I should make a list separately of things that we need and want in a house. In all reality, all we really need is 4 walls & a roof that enclose a space big enough for me, Devon & Fifi to sleep in, but we’re decided to sell out and become a little bit less punk rock. So I made my list.

Must Haves:

Single family home. 1 bedroom & 1 office. 2 full baths (or room to add a 2nd full bath). 2 car garage (or enough land to build one). A yard big enough for having a dog (although we don’t have one yet) and planting a little garden. Laundry area is not in kitchen. Gas stove hookups. 1400 sq ft +. A wall in a living room or family room that’s big enough for a 13 ft retractable projector screen.

Would really love:

A guest room. Lots of light. Exposed wood ceilings. A house w/ some personality/character/unique-ness. Nearish public transit: Bus, Subway and/or Commuter rail. In the city of Boston. Preferably has a patio, or deck. Not in a development. A fireplace or woodstove. A front porch, an open one preferred. An open floor plan. A BIG kitchen. Big closets in master bedroom. A hallway or front entryway coat closet. High ceilings.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt if it looked like either of these:

So, what would your “needs & wants” list look like?

fawn

Originally uploaded by Ian Riley

Today at work, I carried my first fawn. So amazing. Like a cute little knobbley, leggy dog… That has hoofs and kicks you repeatedly. It was a black tailed deer fawn (a bit different from the one in this pic) brought in from Pacific county, WA that was found wandering in the middle of the road, showing some neuro signs. I was able to carry him, or her? into the exam room, and set it up in one of the bank cages, and just behold it’s beauty.

And just as a fyi, if you ever come across a little fawn sitting in a clearing, or in some brush…. LEAVE IT ALONE! Deer moms will leave their babies alone for the vast majority of the day, with the intention of not bringing the attention of predators to their baby…. So leave the little knobbley-cuteness alone. Mom is probably watching you both from a distance.

Anyways. Fawns are gorgeous, and today was a really great day at my wildlife center that I’ll remember for a long time to come.

In totally unrelated news, I totally have a horribly pinched nerve in my neck and shoulder that’s making my life miserable.

So with the whole being sick thing I’ve had alot of downtime & I’ve uploaded & labeled my pics from Amsterdam & Switzerland, as well as our wonderful hostess’s pics from Switzerland.

My favorite part of Amsterdam was the Anne Frank house. I was in tears and sobbing by the time we finished walking through the museum.  My least favorite part about Amsterdam was the plethora of bike paths and the utter lack of walking paths.  As for Switzerland: I think that this country might be the most beautiful place on earth.

My pictures from Amsterdam:

My pictures from Switzerland:

Nina’s Pictures in Switzerland:

As always, click on the big pics to bring you to each album. Also, sign in to Gallery once you go there (or create an account easily), if you want to comment on the pictures.

I’m sick & sniffley. I started coming down with a cold on sunday. I came home early from work yesterday, and took today off. Stupid colds. I’m been nestled up in bed since I came home yesterday, and D made me chicken soup that was yummy…(I think, although I can’t taste or smell anything.)

I had a really awesome birthday, as I wasn’t sick yet, and Devon had some amazing surprises planned. He took us paragliding, which was totally amazing, although I still need to brush up on my take-offs and landings. For dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Seattle, and for dessert he ordered a custom cake from Central Market that featured a jungle scene with Fifi & the Lemur swinging from vines. You can check out the video of me starting my paraglide adventure and pictures of the cake at Devon’s blog post here.

Sorry I’ve been all MIA recently. A full time job kinda sucks the life outta me. All I want to do when i come home is eat dinner, unwind for an hour or so and then go to bed so I can wake up again and do it all over.

On the upside, and just to make this a completely discombobulated post(although I’m all hopped up on DayQuil, so that kinda explains it), we just got pre-approved for a home mortgage at a nice rate, so we’re happy and finally starting the “moving back to the east coast” process, which is really exciting.

Alright I’m gonna go back to drinking tea and juice and hovering over my Vick’s vaporizing humidifier thingie while watching Tivo’ed episodes of Lost and Battlestar Galactica….. <<sneeze>>.