Yoga & Baseball

I started a new job this week! I am now a Program Coordinator for an after-school program in Newton, MA and it's full time and salaried and legit and I'm super stoked. I spent some time getting to know and working with the director and two other program coordinators this week and they seem like they will all be great to work with, which bodes well. Anyway, I'm sure I will have more to tell about this new position in forthcoming weeks and months, but for now I'll just mention how Jeff surprised me on my first day home from the job.

I hadn't seen Jeff all day since I went to a yoga class by the Charles River right after work. My friends Mary and Danielle suggested we try it out and I was all for it! Yoga outdoors on a beautiful summer evening with views of the Boston skyline and river?? Yes, please! The class was awesome and it couldn't have been a better yoga venue. 

So I finally got home later in the evening and Jeff says he has a surprise for completing my first day at the new job. He pulled out an envelope and inside it were two tickets to Saturday's Red Sox game! Earlier that day he had won a triva contest at work and earned these sweet tickets, loge box seats right behind the first-base dugout. What a champ! I can't believe he was able to keep that a secret all day. 

So to the ballpark we went on a fine saturday afternoon; we discovered that day games are really just the best in late summer. Our seats were great, the weather was great, and although the Red Sox didn't play so great after the 4th inning we had a lovely time enjoying the sites and sounds of the ballgame and spending the afternoon together. 

Brought my mitt just in case. Didn't catch a ball today, but we got a few foul balls in our section!

Great seats

After the game we took our time leaving Fenway and decided to walk through the city rather than getting on a stuffy subway car for an extra five stops. We walked all the way down Commonwealth Ave and through the public garden before hopping on the train at Park Street. What a way to take in the city. I want to stroll down Comm Ave every day; can't wait to walk it during the fall months. 

Love this place.

Summer Sunset Soirée

We had a fun time saturday venturing into the city for an evening on the town. Or rather above the town! One of Jeff's friends from work threw a party for all the people who play on the KPMG soccer team and it was on the roofdeck of his posh apartment right in the middle of Beacon Hill. The view from the rooftop was gorgeous.

Overlooking the gold dome of the State House

Just can't get enough of this Boston town.

Blueberry Pickin'

Jeff was recently pulled onto a 6/30 year-end client (aka a client that has its busy season in the summer), just for a week luckily, but he had to work saturday. In his absence I opted to drive out to Tyngsboro, MA with Mary and Dean for early morning blueberry picking at Parlee Farms! We chose a great weekend to go because the blueberries were big, and plump, and ripe, and super tasty! The deal was 2.99/lb if you picked at least 5 pounds so I filled my so called "5 pound bucket" to the brim and ended up with 6.7 lbs of blueberries. Woops. But they were the best blueberries ever so what's a couple extra pounds in the freezer?

Mary was the first to fill her bucket. She's a quick picker!

Full to the brim. I kept thinking of the line from Fantastic Mr. Fox, "Beagles-love-blueberries".

The following sunday we had a nice meal with friends and I made a blueberry crisp for dessert. It was DELISH. Can't wait to make it again. Although I might need to put the blueberries to use in a few other goodies first. Blueberry pancakes, cobbler, and muffins look out! Thank you Parlee farms : )

Harry Potter and the Boston Book Club

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Harry Potter. Ever since I was eleven years old and discovered my first copy of Harry Potter at a scholastic book fair, I have been Harry Potter's #1 fan. One of my friends from my study abroad in Wales started a book club specifically for re-reading the Harry Potter series and has been throwing totally awesome Potter book club discussions/parties for the past year. Unfortunately this friend lives in Utah and I have enviously eyed pictures of these events on facebook wishing that I could be part of such awesomeness. Sigh.

For a long time I thought, why don't I start my own Harry Potter book club? And for a long time it was just a thought. BUT, Jeff and I finally reached the point where we knew enough people on this side of the country to invite to participate in such a venture, and I finally got the gumption to do it. I sent out some emails, and got a good enough response to start a reading group. Thus was born the Harry Potter Boston Book Club!

July was our trial month. I put together a reading guide and everyone in the group read Sorcerer's Stone. We had our very first meeting on July 31st (in honor of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling's birthdays) and had a magical time. We dug into the book and discussed deep topics such as:

• "How do Harry's Aunt and Uncle live with themselves?"
• "How did you pronounce character names the first time you read Harry Potter? Hermy-own anyone?
• "How does the Ministry of Magic track who is magical and know who to admit to Hogwarts even if they don't come from wizarding families (like Hermione or Lily Potter)?"
• "What's up with the points system at Hogwarts?! It's so subjective and the Hogwarts teachers can totally rig the system."
• "Which Hogwarts House best represents each "Big Four" Accounting Firm?"

It was fun to get different insights into various parts of the book and to hear everyone's favorite parts of the story. It totally took me back to the days when the books and movies were being released for the first time and my excitement and passion for Harry Potter was rekindled. Glad I have an awesome husband and good friends who are willing to share in this kind of fun : )

Our first meeting was a success!

By the way, everyone is welcome to join the Harry Potter Boston Book Club, even if you don't live nearby. We are now moving on to Chamber of Secrets and will be holding another meeting at the end of August! Let me know if you're interested. Here's to many months of happy Harry Potter reading! Let the Magic begin!

Scores Cup 2014

This month Jeff was able to participate in a corporate charity event which involved playing soccer at GILLETTE STADIUM! 

The company Jeff works for was one of 36 teams to enter the Scores Cup tournament this year, and he and his team represented KPMG well. They made it passed group play and all the way to the semi-finals! It was a fun event that was made even cooler because it took place at Gillette Stadium. Jeff's pretty sure he peed in the same urinal as Tom Brady.

A couple of the matches were played in the Patriots' indoor facility.

Fun tournament, fun day. And I got my tan on while photo-ing all the action. 

Sunny Saturday

This particular saturday we were debating what to do with our summer's day. Jeff had a few things he needed to pick up from his office so we decided to drive downtown, and then spend a little time in the city. We found a prime parking spot right in front of his office that already had money in the meter, and we were able to have a lazy afternoon strolling through town à pied. We walked from the financial district along the greenway into the heart of the city. Everyone was outside enjoying the summer heat. We passed families having picnics on grassy knolls, book readers nestled into quiet corners of the park, and kids running through the city splash pads. There were even some nice water misters along our pathway that cooled us off from our toasty promenade.

Such a beautiful city. How lucky we are to live here.

Water misters along the Greenway

Boston's really got the whole city/park balance nailed.

We strolled right into the Greenway Open Market where vendors were selling everything from scentsy soap bars and dog-ware to hand crafted dish towels and t-shirts.

The best part of our little jaunt was stopping to watch the kids playing on the splash pad. So fun on a hot summer day! It made me wish we had nieces or nephews closer who we could take here.

Caught unaware and asking, "are you taking a picture?"

We came across a vendor that was selling some neat Boston artwork and picked out a few of our favorite prints. I've been wanting to spruce up some of the bare walls in our apartment and these seemed just the thing!

Showing some Boston love in the Manning home.

Added a little flavor to the room.

Happy 4th of July, on the 3rd of July

Boston is an amazing place to celebrate the 4th of July. This year Hurricane Arthur was brewing on the southern portion of the east coast and to avoid the heavy thunderstorms that were forecast to hit Boston on the fourth the city decided to move the show to the third. Good thing they did too, because the 4th turned out to be the rainiest, most non-outdoor compliant day ever. So we headed into the city after work on Thursday the 3rd of July with some friends to view the fireworks from Memorial Drive in Cambridge with a great view of the city skyline across the Charles River.

Celebrating the 4th with Dan and Olga Almeida and Mary Egan

This picture gives you a sense of how many people turn out for the fireworks. And this is only one side of the river!

This was our second year seeing the Boston fireworks and they were amazing again! We regret not having our tripod with us, our pictures of the fireworks would have turned out better. But you get the gist of how awesome they are shooting over the water and the city.

After a grand yet shortened finale, the fireworks came to an abrupt end. A public announcer said that the state police were ordering an evacuation of the area (which we later found out was weather related). We weren't in a hurry to wait in line at the train station so we took our time packing up. As we started walking to the subway station the winds picked up and within a ten second time period it went from no rain to full on downpour. Picture the scene from Jumanji where the house turns into a typhoon and that's pretty much us on the streets of Cambridge. We were SOAKED within seconds and scrambling to cover our cameras and phones. At some point Jeff said, "the hurricane is here!" and it really felt like it. We passed people huddling under every awning or doorway in sight and there was nowhere to take cover. When we made it to the subway people were lined up all the way out of the station doors and not moving at all. We just had to laugh with the dripping strangers around us as we all said, "well we can't get any wetter, might as well walk home".

So that makes us two for two on getting rained on at the Boston fireworks. But it's been fun both times! We didn't get struck by lightning or falling trees luckily and we made it home safely. I mean if you're going to get wet, you might as well get hurricaned on. Makes for a better story.