If you have a cat...

...you will find this funny. I have had this video emailed to me several times and just think it is hilarious!

A Visit from The Bunny

About 8 months after we started dating, Ryan convinced me to get up at some ridiculous time like 4am to drive to Connecticut and pick up his new "toy"...a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit. It was pretty mint at the time, only had about 60k miles and had the original paint, seats, everything. There was not a tear in the seats and the carpet even looked brand new. To be perfectly honest, I was not terribly thrilled with the new purchase because even though he got a great deal on it, I knew he was going to be pouring money into it in short order. Soon enough, the bunny had new paint, exhaust, rims, luggage rack, etc etc. I even chipped in and got custom floor mats for Christmas one year. Soon enough, we decided to sell my Toyota (still kicking with my brother in law on daily trips to Mass!) and the bunny became Ryan's daily driver. It was a small car, but solid.



We ended up buying a townhouse in 2006 and it came with an uphill "s" shaped driveway. Nearly impossible to get up in the Jetta, which I was now driving. In fact, my poor neighbors had to bail me out and push me up the remainder of the hill that I couldn't climb several times last year. So, a few days before Christmas '07, we decided to buy a car with all wheel drive. This way, when it was snowing I could drop Ryan at work 5 minutes away and continue down to Lowell, MA for my job. Our little parking lot did not have enough room for 3 cars, so the time came when Ryan decided to part with the bunny.

He posted it on eBay and immediately had a buyer...a kid in college in Rhode Island. He and his friend drove up with a banker's check and picked up. We were initially weary...would this kid really take care of the bunny like Ryan did? Needless to say, it was a sad moment when the bun drove out of our driveway for the last time last February '08.

I got home from work this past Friday to find Ryan in the garage with a pile of car stuff. Apparently, the new owner had called and was stopping by on the way back from Vermont to pick up some extra stuff (accessories for the bunny) he didn't take when he bought it.

I asked Ryan, "Are you going to be sad?"

He said, "Jeez, Kendra. I hadn't even thought of that." Oops.

Soon after, the unmistakeable sound of the exhaust came up over the hill. The bunny looked great! The new owner loves it and has driven it over 20k miles in the last year... it is now pushing 100k and still running strong. The best thing was that he kept everything the same as Ryan had it, all his stickers, everything. Other than a funky front left wheel, the bunny looked fantastic...thankfully! It was a great hobby for several years, Ryan poured a lot of energy into that little car. It is nice to see that it lives on and is being enjoyed as a "daily driver" 24 years after it was made.

Here is a photo of the bunny (with Ryan and his Dad) in it's glory days....winner of the local VW show for "Best Daily Driver".

So, all in all...good stuff. What a cool visit!

A Visit from Wilbur

My dear friend, Wilbur, surprised us with a call Saturday morning. We were expecting snow that night and had planned to stay inside and wait it out (there seems to be a lot of that lately). So, Ryan and I were out for a walk Saturday morning when the phone rang in his pocket....Wilbur. "Listen, what are you doing because I want to come and see you guys..." We haven't been blessed by a visit from Wilbur in over a year, even though he lives right in Boston. (Oh, his real name is Will, by the way, but I have never called him anything else...it suits him and he loves it).


Wilbur and I worked at Old Navy together eons ago when I was a manager there. The job was dreadful but the people were a lot of fun. So, we forged a quick friendship and haven't looked back since. So, Saturday night we went to Ryan's and my favorite local place... Strange Brew, picked up some Chinese food and headed home to wait out the storm. Wilbur and I played some Bananagrams (kind of like Scrabble but more fun) and watched old episodes of Will & Grace...which is what we always end up doing when we are together. No one appreciates that show more than us!

A brutal game of Bananagrams. We also can't miss a photo opp with Coodie (or at least his paw). And, how flippin' cute is Wilbur in that pic?

I'm not sure what I was reacting to, but this picture cracks me up. This was supposed to be our "sad face".... no reason just for a fun photo.

And the next day....we slept in a bit. Ryan cleaned the 8 inches or more of snow off the cars, shoveled the back deck and the walkway while Wilbur and I made a huge brunch. Blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs. It was delish!

What a great surprise visit! Thanks for coming, Wilbur - we can't wait to see you again!

And so it goes...

Back to work after consecutive long weekends. Brutal.

We had the most relaxing New Year's weekend ever. No, we didn't go out for New Year's Eve...did anyone? It was freezing cold, the snow had just stopped and we were in no mood. We had a nice dinner out and came back to chillax at home. I fell asleep on the couch to have Ryan wake me up for midnight...just barely made it!


Skip to yesterday (Sunday), we slept in and went for a long walk (see above for my super creative photography skills). It was nice to get some fresh air after being cooped up all weekend. Then, we had our best buds over for a nice lasagna dinner. What a way to kick off the week! We had to do something fun...we both had that dreaded "Sunday night and I have to go back to school" feeling. Remember that?

Brrrr...it was cold. At least the sun was shining.Dinner with Scoop, Kate and Chris. Yes, I baked a lasagna! Thanks to Kate for the salad and yummy dessert.

Here we go....into 2009!

Christmas

Wow, Christmas is already over!


I had a 5 day weekend while Ryan had a semi-4 day weekend. (It is always hard to tell with Ryan since his BlackBerry is omnipresent). On Christmas Eve, I read a book which is the ultimate relaxation for me...I read David Sedaris' book "Holidays on Ice" which made me laugh out loud...I love his stuff. Ryan and I stayed in, watched some Christmas specials and ate a nice spaghetti dinner. On Christmas Day, we went to my sister and brother-in-law's house (Jodi and Jon). Jodi made a fantastic turkey dinner with squash, potatoes, broccoli, rolls, etc. etc. We couldn't even eat dessert, we were so full! My mom and dad came down from Maine as well. My mom, Jodi and I all worked on a few puzzles in the afternoon...I haven't done a puzzle in forever and it was actually really fun! Ryan had a great time playing a Lego Indiana Jones video game with Aaron, it was one of his Christmas gifts. So, they spent most of the afternoon figuring out how to "get to the next level" or something.


We exchanged gifts, too (we got a sweet gift card to Pottery Barn AND to an Inn in New England....we are so going to Vermont!). It's always fun to see the kids rip open their gifts and then try to help them put them all together. Well, I have to say putting them together can be a bit frustrating... my gosh - do they need to secure every small piece with industrial strength ties??? Reminiscent of "A Christmas Story", Ethan got a pellet gun. We asked if it was "Red Rider"? No, even better, a "Remington" that shoots pellets not just BB's. Super cool.

Here are a few photos:


This is one of the puzzles my mom, Jodi and I completed:

Ryan, Ethan and Aaron watching the tube. They always love to cuddle up to Uncle Ry:

And, let's not forget Coodie! Of course the spoiled cat received the ultimate gift, a "Fling-Ama-String" motorized toy. He hates most of his toys after a day and catnip just makes him sleepy, but this hit the jackpot. Ryan came home with this after going out for food and litter...he couldn't resist. And, Cood has been SO happy since he brought it home. The string is on a pulley (as you see below) and he just can't quite figure out why it keeps coming and going away....hilarious.


Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all have a restful and happy holiday!

Ice Storm '08

When I was in college in Orono, Maine over 10 years ago, we had this CRAZY ice storm at the beginning of the second semester of my senior year. My roommates and I had come back to our house after Christmas break to only lose power after a day of being back. We survived the first night with beer, Scrabble and LL Bean sleeping bags only to run for cover the next day at any house with a wood stove (no one had any power for DAYS in the state). It was kind of fun because our classes were cancelled for a week and we went from home to home visiting whoever had a woodstove. (At least in retrospect it was fun...I may have been totally miserable at the time - but the story is better told as a *fun* story).


Fast forward to 2008. Ryan and I went to dinner last Thursday with our best buds, Scoop (real name: Scott) and Kate. We hadn't seen them in a few months which is rare for us, so it was nice to catch up. It was starting to get a bit icy outside so Ryan and I headed home. At 4am, some trees fell right outside our bedroom window onto the power lines causing a transformer to explode and scaring the heck out of us. Consequently, our power and the traffic outside came to a dead stop. Then the chainsaws started because they had to cut those trees up and get traffic through for the morning commute. We thought we would only be out of power for a few hours because we live in the state's biggest city and we NEVER lose power. (Not like when I was growing up and we would lose power if the wind went the wrong way... and off the topic but ....we had a well...which meant we couldn't use the water either..) So, anyhoo, although we never lose power...this time we were very wrong.


Luckily, I had a casual day and the company Christmas party on Friday and I wore a baseball cap to work. We didn't have enough hot water for a hair wash so I went for the body wash only. So, I get to work and come to find out - EVERYONE has lost their power and there are a heck of a lot of baseball caps around. Don't you just LOVE hearty New Englanders? Where else could you have an ice storm with over 800,000 people out of power and still everyone shows up for work?


While coming home from work, I called Ryan who advised we were still out of power and it wasn't looking good. We thought maybe we could make it through the night with some wine, games and lots of blankets when Kate and Scoop called and said they had power!!! They graciously invited us over and also welcomed Coodie with open arms... We packed up our stuff, headed over and had SO much fun with our best buds! Kate usually takes care of Coodie when we are gone anyway, so he already loves her. This made his transition a lot easier. (I know, he is spoiled rotten!)

Here are some photos of the weekend...

One of the causes of our power loss...this tree remained perched precariously over the road for several days:

A view of Route 93 South on Saturday...keep in mind that all of the white you see is ice as we had not yet had any snow:

Here is Cood with one of his (and our) favorite people, Kate:

Coodie is totally freaked out by the lobsters:

He loved hanging out on their fridge while we played games:

And, here is Coodie..so excited to see Dad!

He also loved relaxing under their Christmas tree:

We had some great meals (Thank you, Kate!), played some super fun games and overall had such a great weekend even tough we were bummed about our power being off. We will always remember that weekend!

We did get our power back after several nights and had brother and sister-in-law Mark and Allison and kids Chelsea and Hunter over for a few nights as they still didn't have power. Allison and I were able to relax and catch up while Mark and Ryan played some PS2 and Chelsea and Hunter played with the Wii.

Overall, although I realized how dependent we are for power, I also realized how much fun it can be to hang out with family and friends when we least expect it. Also, it is nice to remember how many people we have there for us when we need it.

Happy Holidays!

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