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November 29, 2007
Boston
At the beginning of the month, Brent and I went to Boston for a job fair and a handful of job interviews each. Brent had just gotten his kitten and we ended up with no other option but to bring her with us. Brent's parents were so nice to get us a hotel for the weekend, and luckily it was pet-friendly!
I guess I'm sort of skipping over the whole "job" part of the weekend, but that's boring. Except for my outfit which was really cute. I got a black J-Crew skirt suit with a pink striped shirt and black Kate Spade heels. Work clothes are fun!
Anyway, let's get back to the kitty because she's so cute. Before leaving for Boston, I took this picture of her in Brent's laundry basket (one of her favorite places to take catnaps):
At the hotel, we forgot her food bowl so we asked the hotel services desk if we could borrow one (they said right on the website they have them). Clearly they mistook our tiny kitten for a Great Dane:
Brent and I were nervous about leaving her in the room but she was very good! She spent the entire time we were gone sleeping on top of a mound of pillows and burying herself in Brent's clothes. She loves Brent so much, she always wants to be in or near something that smells like him:
Beautiful sunset:
It was a very long day and when Brent fell asleep, his little Shadow curled right up in his arms to be with him:
When we got back to Hartford, it was right at the tail-end of Hurricane Noel (certainly not a hurricane when it hit us). Hartford always has beautiful sunsets (thanks, pollution!) but it was especially spectacular that night. I took these pictures while driving somewhere with Brent so most of them are taken while driving and are therefore not the best quality. By the way, I have NOT touched these with Photoshop, the colors were truly this brilliant. I've never seen anything like this:
I love this picture:
And last but not least, Shadow in her cat tree/perch/playground... whatever you want to call it:
After today it's the weekend for me, so hopefully I'll be able to get caught up (or at least a little closer to being caught up) so come back for more soon!
Posted by lauren at 09:06 AM | Comments (4)
November 28, 2007
Christmas Season
Now that we're past Thanksgiving and Black Friday and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is lit, it's officially Christmas season!
I don't have any new pictures ready quite yet, but I thought I'd re-post one of my videos from last Christmas.
There's a house in Greenwich, CT that has an amazing Christmas light show that I was able to get on video last December.
Enjoy!
Posted by lauren at 11:11 PM | Comments (3)
November 27, 2007
And The Winner Is...
Christine! Congratulations Christine, you won The Blonde Excuse Challenge!! I really enjoyed everyone's entries and I wish you all could win, but the votes are in and the winner is Christine:
To check out Christine's entry again, click HERE.
No more votes will be counted, obviously, so don't bother taking the survey at this point if you haven't already.
Great job Christine! Fun prizes will be arriving soon!
Posted by lauren at 12:08 AM | Comments (4)
Don't Forget!
Don't forget, this is your last day to vote for The Blonde Excuse Challenge! Also, I just want to make sure you all remember that new entries are BELOW Voting Time! up until midnight tonight when new entries will be back on top.
So for those of you who are wondering why I haven't posted in so long... just scroll down.
So vote now! It's your last chance!
Posted by lauren at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
Voting Time!
It's time to vote for The Blonde Excuse Challenge! First of all, I really enjoyed everyone's entries. Jocelyn, your slideshow was a lot of fun and it definitely made me wish I had more time to check out new bands and go out to more concerts. Tree, I loved the "Hi Lauren" written in rocks! Also, your pictures are so beautiful, you definitely made me want to visit wherever you live. Christine, it looked like you guys all had so much fun! I'm definitely going out with you girls if I'm ever up in Canada. Cupcakes, sorry your pictures weren't working but I absolutely loved the video you made of Brent and me, I watched it over and over and couldn't stop laughing.
Unfortunately, there can only be one winner. I have set up a survey and you all have to choose who you think should win The Blonde Excuse Challenge. Before making your decision, please re-read everyone's entries, linked here:
Tree's Entry -- addition to Tree's entry HERE
Christine's Entry
Cupcakes' Entry
Once you've made your decision, click on this link to vote: Click Here to take survey
I'm going to leave this up for a week and next Monday night at midnight a winner will be chosen and prizes will be sent!
Remember, this will be at the TOP of my site for a week, so make sure to scroll down for new entries (which will be coming soon, I've just been swamped with work lately).
Good luck everyone!
Posted by lauren at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
November 24, 2007
Brent Meets World
For those of you who read one or both of Brent's blogs (yes. considerably and karmicomics) well... he's changed it once again. I make fun of him a lot for how often he creates a new blog, so let's all encourage him to stick with this one!
His new blog is Brent Meets World (www.brentmeetsworld.blogspot.com). So forget about the old blogs, check this one out, and update your links!!
Oh, and if you recognize a bunch of the entries on it, it's because he went through his old blogs (this is actually number 4) and compiled all his favorite entries in the archives of Brent Meets World.
Enjoy!
Posted by lauren at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
Damn the Torpedoes
As I recently posted on Jocelyn's blog, Brent and I went to our friend Jon's concerts at school. Jon is in two bands, Late Night Uproar and Damn the Torpedoes. Damn the Torpedoes is his college band and they play at frats and parties covering everyone's favorite songs.
Here's a slideshow I made for Rock Star Diary of Damn the Torpedoes playing at school:
Also, here's the video I took of Damn the Torpedoes covering Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" (who didn't love that song?):
Make sure you check out LNU's Myspace Page before you leave and download their 2006 album Say Hello To The Uproars on iTunes!
Posted by lauren at 04:21 PM | Comments (1)
November 22, 2007
The Incredible Journey... To Ali and Greg's Birthday
So back in October, my friend Ali and her boyfriend Greg had a joint 21st birthday party up at a bar near Hamilton College where they go to school together. Cathy, Molly, Tony, Brent, and I took a little road trip up to Clinton, NY where Hamilton is to help them celebrate turning 21. It ended up not being such a "little" road trip because we took a wrong turn (Google maps are AWFUL) and ended up at the Canadian border, lost in the Adirondack Mountains and had to take back roads through the mountains to get to Hamilton. It was quite an adventure.
Here we are at the beginning of our trip looking so happy thinking we had a 3 and a half hour drive ahead of us:
Brent and his snacks:
Everything was going great. Molly, Cathy, and I were singing Spice Girls in the back, Brent and Tony were eating junk food in the front seat, and we knew that soon we'd be at Hamilton going out for Ali and Greg's birthday dinner and then off to the bar Ali and Greg had rented out at 9pm.
Molly and Me napping (Molly and Tony's picture):
We were a few hours into the drive when we noticed the beautiful foliage. It hardly looked real, it looked more like a painting:
Beautiful scenery all around us:
Here are some pictures of the Adirondacks (even though we didn't realize that's what they were at the time):
This is my favorite part of the picture. I love how if you look in the background at the mountains, they still have the last few rays of sunlight hitting them. When you look to either side of the highway, it's literally endless miles of mountains and absolutely gorgeous:
We were already quite late at this point (we were supposed to be at Hamilton in mid-afternoon) but we figured that the little bit of traffic we had hit coming out of Hartford must have held us up more than we realized. We stopped at a gas station to fuel up, but of course it didn't occur to us to ask directions since we had them so nicely printed out from Google Maps which I will NEVER use again:
By this point it was getting a little dark and a big storm was rolling in. We finally got to our exit (haha...) and were completely perplexed when the road we were supposed to turn onto didn't exist. Even better, we were in the middle of nowhere in what seemed to be a deserted mountain town. How fun!
Hmm... where's Hamilton College?
"This feels like the beginning of a horror movie...." one of us mused. "No no, the road must be up ahead somewhere, it's probably just called something different."
Well, the road was not up ahead somewhere and it was not just called something different. We were completely and totally lost, not to mention WAY out of our element.
We drove down a little mountain road for about a mile and saw a house with a tin roof and... cats? For some reason there were cats on the roof. There was also a man outside with an ax chopping wood but we decided to keep on driving. After the "start of a horror movie" observation we weren't about to take our chances with ax-wielding mountain folk.
We turned around and drove in the opposite direction trying to find a gas station where we could ask where we were. Everything was absolutely deserted, so we turned into the one building that looked like a real building.
Whoops! It was a prison!
And an empty one at that:
The whole "empty prison" thing was making us even more nervous about the deserted town save a few crazy looking mountain folk. When I say the town was deserted, I really mean it. There was nothing there except this half of a hill:
And the empty highway:
Despite being completely terrified, we took our chances on the one ax-less person we saw:
This guy had one of the craziest accents I've ever heard and doubt I will ever hear again. He wasn't able to tell us much except that we weren't anywhere near Hamilton College. I handed him our map and asked him to point to where we were and he just pointed in the general direction of Canada. Great.
We decided to get out of there ASAP and head in the opposite direction. On the way out, we saw this beautiful rainbow:
Clouds:
We stopped at the first legitimate rest stop we could find to try to figure out a way to get to Hamilton in time for Ali's party:
The rest stop was, of course, deserted. Fortunately, they left some "Send Help" signs for people to take with them. Is it really that dangerous out there? We figured we better grab one and document ourselves on my camera with it so that if anyone found our bodies on the side of the road somewhere, they'd at least know to "send help":
We examined the map for a few minutes and found a route to Hamilton that took us directly through the Adirondack Mountains:
How did this happen?
Bear-proof trash cans, of course:
We drove and drove and drove on mountain roads following our own directions we made up based on the map we saw at the rest stop but with no map of our own to keep track of our trip on. We got a little worried after a while because it was dark and rainy and we weren't coming up to the streets we thought we were going to so we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. This wasn't like any of the gas stations around home, this one sold knives, camping equipment, and many varieties of jerky:
No one ever showed up inside the gas station, so we just looked at one of the maps they were selling and saw that we were headed in the right direction. We got back in the car and tried to find new ways of entertaining ourselves (we had been in the car for about 9 hours at this point and were pretty bored). I told a true story I had read about this creepy cannibal family that lived in Scotland a long time ago (The Sawney Beane Story).
Tony responded with "Wow, that's such a scary story. Does anyone else have any scary stories to tell? Well, I have one. This one time, one of my friends got called up by this really rich guy he knew, and the guy was like 'Listen, I need you to come see something, it's really amazing.' And he took him off in his helicopter to this island. There were all these weird crazy animals on the island... let's call them 'dinosaurs,' and they all got loose and.... COME ON YOU GUYS!!" Brent had caught on right away but Molly, Cathy, and I being the smart girls we are were completely sold on Tony's Jurrassic Park story. Isn't it sad that we totally believed him that his friend visited a dinosaur island? Anyway, Tony's little joke turned into car game (we were desperate) and we all went around in a circle telling "personal stories" that were actually movies to see who would come up with what movie it was first. Cathy was really good at it. She started her first story as "Once there was this guy Rudy..." "Rudy?" "Yeah that's it.
This went on for at least another hour until we were all starving and had to stop for dinner. We stopped at the oh-so-cleverly named steak house, Steak House:
Tony and Molly in Steak House:
Cathy and Me reenacting the heated conversation one table over about Jesus:
Check out the locals in the background:
After our $5 Steak House dinner (that wasn't even worth the $5) we continued on until we finally made it to Clinton, NY!!
At this point it was 11pm putting us at an 11 hour road trip. How fun! We were all completely disgusting from sitting in the car for so long and not in any shape to go to a party. We stopped at a gas station before getting to the bar where Cathy, Molly, and I got into single stall men's bathroom to do hair, makeup, and get dressed. Eww!!
Considering the circumstances, I think we did a pretty good job! 11 hours in a car and then a wardrobe change, hair, and makeup in a men's bathroom stall?
Our very late arrival (Ali's picture):
Cathy, Molly, Me, and Vanessa:
Take 2:
Molly and Ali (the birthday girl!):
Ali, Me, and Molly:
Wow, what a great picture of everyone:
Tony and Brent, happy to be out of the bar and downing Jack & Cokes:
By the time we got there, everyone else was already drunk from the open bar. I love Tony's eye in the middle of Vanessa and Jason here:
The following are some of Vanessa's pictures from the night.
Tony, Molly, Brent, and Me:
Ali and Vanessa:
Tony and Molly:
Greg with a friend from school:
Ali and Greg:
Tony and Molly:
Jason and Molly:
Molly and Me:
Tony, Brent, and Jason:
The next few pictures are from Ali's camera.
Here's Brent, Cathy and Me trying to take a shot. Cathy was being really mean because every time I'd try to take it, she'd wave her hands in my face and scream. What an amazing friend:
Ali, Jason, and Vanessa:
Ali:
Ali with a friend from school (and me forcing alcohol on Brent in the background):
The next few pictures are from Molly and Tony.
Happy Birthday Greg!
Molly and Me:
Who knows what's going on here, it looks like I'm going to bite him or something:
Ali and Greg about to blow out their candles:
Now we're back to pictures from my camera.
Cutting the cakes:
Yum:
Cheers!
Brent, Me, Tony, and Molly:
Vanessa and Jason:
Cathy with one of Greg's roommates:
Tony at the keg:
Brent and Molly:
Molly had been playing "catch up" a little too fast, as evidenced by the coming pictures of her.
Group hug:
Molly insisted on crouching down on the floor, so I got down there to keep her company:
Brent, Ali, and Tony:
Ali, Vanessa, Me, and Molly:
Brent and Me:
Cathy, guy whose name I forgot, and Brent:
Eww! I made her put her shoes back on:
Tony, Brent, and Jason:
Ali had a lot of fun at her birthday (which we've all helped her piece together) and took an early ride home to pass out (from Ali's camera):
At this point, Molly and I went to the bathroom together where Molly had a little problem... It's ok Molly, it's really hard to pee standing up in heels:
We had to take her outside and get her changed. Molly decided a good place for that would be on the sidewalk:
Molly decided the sidewalk was a good place for a lot of things, but that's why we love her. Let's just say that this particular blog entry has the most "too inappropriate to post" pictures.
He looks so happy! What a catch, right Brent?
Brent and Molly after we got her changed and back in the bar:
Cathy and Me:
Tony and Molly (making her sexy face):
Tony keeping his hands to himself:
Out at the car trying to get Molly in:
It was a really long (but really fun!) night and we all had an amazing time (even on our crazy road trip).
Here we are the next morning looking so hot (Molly's picture):
After breakfast the next morning, we all headed home for a long (but much shorter) drive. We kept ourselves occupied by sleeping:
And comparing Molly's toe-thumb with her thumb-toe:
Would I do it all over again? The car ride, the crazy mountain folk, the gas station men's bathroom, changing Molly in the street? Absolutely.
Posted by lauren at 09:48 PM | Comments (8)
Jon's Bands
Just to keep you all entertained until I can get some fun party pictures up for you, I just guest blogged for Jocelyn while she's away in Mexico. I posted a bunch of pictures from my friend Jon's concerts at Trinity College along with a lot of info. about his two bands he's in.
Check it out HERE!
Posted by lauren at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2007
George's Grand Disapproval
There's a website, Disapproving Rabbits, that takes picture submissions of rabbits giving their best looks of disapproval that I've been trying to get Winston and George on forever and George made it!
Click to check out George's 15 minutes of fame!
There's a book of Disapproving Rabbits at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com now and I'm hoping that there will be a Disapproving Rabbits Volume 2 with little George in it!
Posted by lauren at 03:01 PM | Comments (2)
November 19, 2007
Tree's Hike (The Blonde Excuse Challenge)
So I made a bit of a mistake. When I said that the end of The Blonde Excuse Challenge would be at midnight on Monday night, I never specified that I meant midnight Eastern time, and I received one last-minute addition to Tree's submission before midnight Tree's time (Pacific time). Since this was clearly my mistake in not specifying, I'm adding Tree's pictures right here for you to all view as a slideshow. Please take these into consideration as part of Tree's original submission when voting!
Tree's hike with her husband Darin on Washington's Olympic Peninsula:
VIEW SLIDESHOW HERE
Great pictures Tree!
Posted by lauren at 08:10 AM | Comments (2)
November 18, 2007
The Blonde Excuse Challenge Deadline Approaching!
Don't forget, Monday is your last day to submit an entry for The Blonde Excuse Challenge! I've had four really fun submissions so far and would love more from anyone! This has been going on for exactly one month and I know that more of you have stories to share! I think submissions are the most fun when you include pictures, but that is certainly not a requirement. Even if you just want to share a funny story, talk about who you are and what you do, write about a trip you took, your favorite pet... anything!
If you have an entry, please SEND IT HERE! There are enough of you out there that I know it's impossible that nobody has a life to talk about and/or pictures she wants to share.
It's your last chance so get to it!
Posted by lauren at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Off To Colonial Times We Go
I'm sorry for not posting much lately, but Brent and I have been SO busy with schoolwork. We're in a bunch of classes together (we have the same major - Political Science) and we have not one, not two, but THREE final exam essays due soon! We have one due tomorrow and two on Tuesday (not to mention our other homework from the dreaded 8:30am class that also appears to be due on Tuesday).
Luckily we have some big exciting plans for this weekend to get us pumped for at least three consecutive all-nighters! We're going to be colonial people at Colonial Day at Putnam Cottage! We're getting dressed right now, Brent in his tri-corner hat and me in my bonnet. I hope Grandma knows how much we all love her and also that this means no more complaints about me not attending DAR meetings!
Anyway, we're so excited (actually, not sarcastically). Watch for us on the news!
Posted by lauren at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2007
Probably Not Going To Help My Grades
Brent and I just discovered a site where you can play Super Mario, Sonic, and so much more online.....
I'll probably never do homework again.
Posted by lauren at 01:29 AM | Comments (2)
November 13, 2007
The Animal Rescue Site
For those of you who keep up with my blog, you know that my family recently rescued little Rocky who had been abused as a baby and was going to be put down. Now Rocky is living an amazing life with us where he gets lots of love, attention, and room to run and play all day long:
You may have noticed a big link on the right hand side of my blog for The Animal Rescue Site. For every click the site gets every day, food and care is donated to shelter animals in need across the country. This is a great way to help out if you are not able to adopt or foster a shelter pet of your own.
Anyway, I know a lot of you are here every day (or nearly every day) reading about my life and the stupid things I do, so please take the time to click every time you visit! I'll leave the link there so that it will be easy for you.
Please click to help!
Posted by lauren at 03:41 PM | Comments (3)
Hazy Day On Talcott Mountain
As you may have seen in Take A Hike, Brent and I sometimes go hiking on Talcott Mountain in Bloomfield, CT. I've been meaning to take a picture from the bottom of the mountain to give my pictures a little perspective and finally remembered (that's Heublein Tower on the right!):
On the way to the mountain, we passed the oldest tree in either CT or the Hartford area or something... Brent can never remember which when I ask him.
(Picture taken by Brent):
(Picture taken by Brent):
When we went on our hike (sometime mid-October) the leaves were already starting to fall:
Some were still green and holding on, of course:
I wish I could have gotten a good picture of it, but every time the wind blew, the leaves would slowly fall to the ground all around us which actually looked a lot like snow. Have you ever had one of those really "wet" snowstorms where the snowflakes are the size of big feathers? It was like one of those. No pictures though... maybe next year.
Here's one of the trail we were following:
Hazy day:
(Picture taken by Brent):
(Picture taken by Brent):
It's hard to see, but looking out at the landscape, everything was so hazy but the little rivers and lakes were reflecting the sun so brightly they looked like newly polished silver:
Cliff:
I love this tree:
It's fun looking down on trees from above and noticing the shapes they make:
My favorite trees on the whole mountain:
This was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. A chipmunk mom was leading her two babies all through the woods. I got this one quick picture of them when they held still on a log for a minute:
End of our hike:
Driving back:
I think sometimes I underappreciate how much farmland Connecticut has and how beautiful it is:
After our hike (I don't know how long after, it could have been 5 minutes, 5 days... who knows) Brent and I stopped at his house for something. I really should try to keep up with my blog better so that I can remember these things, but here's a pretty sunset picture taken from Brent's street:
The sun was bright red but for some reason the camera wouldn't pick up the color... oh well.
Soon after (again, I don't know how soon after) Brent and I were driving down to my house (probably to drop off the bunnies to be babysat by my parents for some reason). There was an amazing amount of fog along the Merritt Parkway:
At my house we saw my beautiful cat Frisky who is getting very fat:
Frisky had gotten down to 5.5lbs when she was at her sickest so we're very happy to see her plumping up.
Pumpkins:
I guess that's it! Don't forget, you have the rest of this week and this weekend to get your Blonde Excuse Challenge submissions in!
Posted by lauren at 01:44 PM | Comments (2)
November 12, 2007
80s Party
Trinity College has an 80s party every year and, as could be expected, it always gets a little crazy. It's one of our biggest parties here and people definitely go all out. Brent and I pregamed together in his room before heading over to the party (for those of you who don't know--because someone always asks--"pregame" means drinking before going out to a party, I think it's originally a tailgating term).
Let this particular entry be a warning to all girls out there NOT to try to keep up with your boyfriend because you WILL drink too much and he WILL NOT refrain from taking embarrassing photos of you dancing, singing, and making a complete fool of yourself. That being said, here we are before things got carried away:
To give you an idea of where the night was going, I was making homemade Long Island Iced Teas (bad idea) and Brent was chasing shots of Jager with....Frosted Mini Wheats:
Action shot of us dancing:
I guess I was just as bad about taking pictures of Brent doing stupid stuff....
Brent for some reason took a picture of me trying to do my hair:
Poor George didn't know what to make of all this so he crawled up in his little nest and watched from a safe distance:
Nice guitar:
If you didn't read what I said about about boyfriends getting girlfriends drunk and taking dumb pictures of them....
Napping:
Dancing:
Clearly I could not be Gene Simmons from the band Kiss. I assume that's what I was going for with my tongue... or I had had a too much to drink:
We finally made it over to the party where the average BAC was probably 4x the legal limit:
Katie and Matt (our roommates from Rome!):
Singing:
Party-goers:
Why so grumpy:
Brent and Jordan (someone we knew from Freshman year):
Me, Kara, and Julie:
Michelle and Julie:
I have no idea who this guy is, but he kept posing for my pictures. Doesn't that look like my move from earlier in the night?
Brent:
After the party, we found our adorable little bunnies sleeping nose to nose:
That was our last 80s party... at least our last one at Trinity. It's definitely weird being a senior and doing our "last" everything. That's all right though because next year will be a whole new year of firsts!
Posted by lauren at 10:32 PM | Comments (5)
November 09, 2007
The Blonde Excuse challenge Submission 4
So Cupcakes unfortunately was not able to access her Halloween pictures right now, so she sent in this amazing video she put together as her challenge submission. When Brent and I saw it, we absolutely could not stop laughing.
Watch!
Thanks Cupcakes! Anytime you get your Halloween pictures, feel free to write up a guest blogging entry if you'd like!
Just so everyone knows, I'm going to set the deadline for The Blonde Excuse Challenge submissions as November 19th (next Monday-- and my half birthday!). That gives you this weekend and next to go out, take pictures, and send me a quick entry of what you did. Thanks everyone!
Posted by lauren at 10:01 PM | Comments (5)
November 08, 2007
Mohegan Sun
A little while ago, a bunch of my friends and I went to Mohegan Sun to go to one of the bars there and gamble a little. I met up with Sarah, Nicole, Cathy, and Hayley, all of whom I haven't seen in far too long. Mohegan Sun is a lot of fun so if you're in Connecticut you should definitely go. It's just as big as the casinos I went to in Vegas this summer with Jocelyn and while it clearly is not Las Vegas, it's still a lot of fun.
Me, Cathy, Hayley, and Nicole at one of the bars:
Cathy, Hayley, Sarah, and Nicole:
Nicole and Sarah:
Great picture of Cathy and Hayley:
Inside Mohegan Sun:
Not a great picture, but this was a really cool glass sculpture thing:
And last but not least, I was very impressed by the bathrooms. There's a button on the toilets that covers the seat with clean plastic every time a new person comes in! Not that I would ever sit on a public toilet seat, but it was still pretty cool:
Anyway, I won $40 on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine and cashed out right away. I'm so responsible.
It's always fun to see my friends from high school and hopefully we can all meet up again soon!
Posted by lauren at 02:26 PM | Comments (3)
The Shoppes At Farmington Valley
Before I start the "nice fall day in Connecticut" part of this entry, I have a really embarrassing picture of Brent to share. I'm not really sure why he was wearing this outfit. I'd like to say it was for a costume party but I'm afraid it wasn't.
Brent being silly:
Anyway, once Brent had changed into real person clothes (obviously still including one of his signature flannel shirts) we went to the reservoir where we saw this flock of birds:
Isn't this a pretty place to go for a walk?
Brent:
After a brief walk at the reservoir, Brent and I went to The Shoppes At Farmington Valley to get coffee, look around at the giant Barnes & Noble there, and enjoy the beautiful day we were having. We actually ran into my Uncle David at Barnes & Noble so it was really nice getting to see him (Uncle David, Aunt Sarah, and my cousin Mikael live in Simsbury, CT right near Brent in Avon and Trinity in Hartford).
If you ever get a chance to go to The Shoppes At Farmington Valley in Canton, CT you'll definitely enjoy it. There are lots of nice restaurants and stores in a brand new shopping complex that's very outdoorsey and beautiful.
Not a great picture, but I was too lazy to go around front to take one:
Brent:
I absolutely loved this barn by the parking lot:
And the way the sun was setting behind it (this is a separate picture I took in B&W, not just a colorless version of the above picture):
Brent and his shadow:
Anyway, if you have a chance and are ever in the area, check it out!
Posted by lauren at 01:41 PM | Comments (4)
Rest In Peace Squeaks
A few weeks ago, Brent and I were at Petco getting supplies for our bunnies when we saw two beautiful little pet mice who had been put in the "feeder tank" to get sold to horrible snake owners. We obviously couldn't allow this, so we took them home with us to live in the bunnies' old cage that they used while litter training as babies. We bought them all their food, bowls, a house to sleep in, toys, and chew sticks. They had the best setup of any mice I've ever seen, and Brent and I gave them the happiest lives we possibly could. Brent named his mouse Squeaky (Squeaks for short) and I named mine Minnie.
Me holding Minnie:
Brent with his little Squeaks:
Isnn't she beautiful?
Well, as I'm sure you can tell by the title of this entry, little Squeaks has passed away. Right after getting our mice, they started sneezing and sniffling so I took them to the local emergency vet where they were diagnosed with $120 colds. Brent and I gave them all their medicine but I guess it just wasn't enough. Apparently any sort of respiratory illness in creatures as small as mice is usually fatal. We're also looking into the possibility that their bedding, Carefresh, might have had something to do with it. Carefresh is supposed to be the safest (and most expensive, of course) bedding to use for little critters so we thought we were giving them the very best of the best, however, now that we've lost Squeaks and I've been doing more directed research on Carefresh bedding and the negative side-effects on small animals, it seems that a number of people have lost their pets to this stuff. Apparently it can scar the lungs with its "dust" and, if ingested, almost definitely kills the pet. If only we had known this beforehand...
Needless to say, Minnie is no longer using Carefresh bedding and we're hoping that her cold symptoms will go away quickly.
Brent and I are taking Squeaks in her coffin to one of our favorite hiking spots today to find a good resting place for her.
Goodbye Squeaks, we'll miss you!
Posted by lauren at 09:39 AM | Comments (9)
November 07, 2007
Princeton, NJ
Trinity Days Day 3
So this will complete my Trinity Days Weekend Series. Brent used to live in Princeton, NJ before he moved to Avon, CT where he lives now and he wanted to show me around the town where he spent a couple years of his life. We drove down from Greenwich and got to Princeton around lunchtime. We ate at The Alchemist and Barrister, one of Brent's favorite restaurants in the area. Brent ordered burgers for both of us and they were fantastic.
After lunch, we wandered around for a while and got ice cream. I did a really terrible job of taking pictures somehow, but still got a couple good ones. I especially liked this:
Brent walking into the record store:
After finishing our ice cream cones, we drove to Brent's old house:
And around the Princeton area:
We left to go back home after a couple hours and got stuck in one of the worst traffic jams EVER. We were literally in bumper to bumper traffic for hours and hours not even moving. We decided to put on a concert for all our fellow drivers and rolled down the windows, turned up the radio, and sang at the top of our lungs to "Bohemian Rhapsody," "I Believe In A Thing Called Love," and other favorites that can only be sung by amateurs in one way, high pitched and terrible. One old guy applauded us and tried to join in but his concerts weren't nearly as popular as ours. There's nothing like a captive audience...
Scenes from the long drive home:
When we finally got home, we got to spend some quality time with my Frisky who is doing very well despite her cancer:
So much for the two weeks her old vet gave her over six months ago!
And lastly, Jocelyn with Rocky:
Sorry for how long it's been since my last post but I've been sick for 2 straight weeks and had a weekend of job interviews in Boston so I've been really busy getting everything together. Lastly, who else is planning on entering The Blonde Excuse Challenge? Cupcakes hasn't gotten back to me yet but hopefully will soon, but anyone else? I want to set a deadline soon but need to get an idea of how many of you there are left before I can pick an end date. Please enter!!
Posted by lauren at 03:00 AM | Comments (2)
November 01, 2007
Something To Worry About
If you need something new to worry about like a supervolcano under Yellowstone Park or the possibility of Earth switching poles and killing us all....
Posted by lauren at 03:39 PM | Comments (3)