New England in Autumn

My Hills! Real Hills!

I combined a trip home for Neecy's birthday with a day in the old office for a small project, so I was actually back for several days. But the extra time also afforded me some flexibility, so when there was some fairly urgent family stuff going on, I was able to rent a car and go to Western Mass. for a day. With perfect weather, in the fall, in New England. (And there may have been some popovers from Judie's in there, too...) And then the drive back east to my brother's new house avoided the Pike, so it was all scenic, all the time.

Just what I needed! I don't like driving in general (one of the reasons Michigan and its car culture disagrees with me), but I love driving along through these hills. I would like to thank Neecy for being so considerate as to have a birthday that means I have an excuse to come home to a New England fall every year.

Weird-ass rental car, though. Definitely don't want to buy a whatever it was.

Speaking of Nourishing the Soul...

For me, it's the mountains. For Arthur, it's the ocean. He had class all week so didn't fly into Boston until Friday afternoon, but as soon as he was off the plane, he headed off to the Harbor with his parents. Another beautiful, sunny, warm, perfect fall day. Thank you, Sim, for the amazing weather!

Big City Adventures

My brother moved to a new house since we were last in town, so the kids got to show me all around. Neffie feels that rooms are what you have to walk through to get to the closets. He also used to run straight for our pantry in J.P., so he loves mini-rooms.

Anyway, I got my great big squeezy hug from Neffie. And Neecy has decided that maybe she'll consider not disliking me sometime maybe. I even got a high-five :) Quite an accomplishment.

The next day was going to be my adventure in the city with Neffie. Since Saturday was going to be all about the birthday girl and her party, Friday was going to be my time with Neffie. We took the big train (he doesn't live on the Red Train anymore); went to the Science Museum and met Arthur's parents, posed with the T-Rex, and discussed how duck boats could ride on the street AND in the water(!); went to the Planetarium and saw the Sesame Street show (very good and age appropriate); and then to the Burdick's in Back Bay where he passed the test and is worthy of being my nephew. He consumed a full cup of hot chocolate (not the dark chocolate; that was for Auntie ;). I think he enjoyed sipping out of the top like Mommy and Daddy sip their coffee. (I still haven't found a suitable soy hot chocolate out here that comes close to Burdick's. Even the Zingerman's was... meh.)

Ursamajor met us at Burdick's, and after we all obtained our hot chocolates, we walked over to Copley Square. Neffie continues to adore Ursamajor, so between the statues, the piano project, and the people watching (it was farmers market day and we bought flowers for Nana), he had a serious case of the giggles.



It will surprise no one that as soon as the train home pulled out of North Station, he fell fast asleep. On the morning ride, we'd passed through the town where Nana grew up, so we talked a little bit about Nana as a little girl, and her family. The lake we could see out our window is where my and Daddy's Auntie brought us ice skating when we were little. Yes, Daddy has an Auntie of his own! Auntie has an Auntie! In fact, our Auntie posted a photo to FB a while ago of Daddy on that lake when he was little - see, here it is. Yes! that was Daddy right there on that lake a long time ago when it was frozen. Neffie said "that's awesome!"


One thing that happened several times throughout the weekend was perfect strangers not only saying hello (he's cute, so that's not out of the ordinary), but all of them able to identify me as the Auntie without me saying anything. I dunno' - was there an "Auntie" sign on my back that I forgot about? Kinda' neat, though, that the auntie-nephew dynamic is recognizable :)

Birthday Girl

I am not afraid to use my Auntie Powers for good. Trying to get the kids to pick up some of their toys, and not making more of a mess after Daddy cleans. At one point I had both kids and Arthur all sweeping together. Muahahahahahaha. I will work it while I can. They'll soon be old enough to catch on.

Neecy loved helping Mama make the party favors. She's also becoming chatty. I figured out a few of her words before we left. ("Cheese" means food in general, for instance.) She was willing to show me patience while I figured out which item she wanted. A complete change from the last time we visited. She was even comfortable enough with me to walk right up and steal dinner off of my plate :)


The new yard is a great space for a party. Lots of kids zipping around. And a puppy - always a popular attraction. Plus pizza, and birthday cake. And presents! Neecy has definitely reached the point where she enjoys presents. (And Neffie has reached the sulky jealous stage. This is why I brought enough pom poms for both of them.)


Note to any Arthurs who may be reading this: I fully support the notion that birthday girls shouldn't have to choose, and can have waffles AND pancakes for breakfast. Hint hint.

A taste of what we've been up to

We've been here long enough to have a semblance of a life now, and the biggest obstacle is Arthur having too much homework to be sociable. But! for those curious at home, here's a sampling of our current lives.

• We went to the local food festival again. We didn't get any auction items this time, but we did run into a variety of Northwood folks, and that was fun. Very different from last year when we knew NO ONE. Arthur was sampling the raw garlics. So I know he's not a vampire.
  
• The garden continues. The lettuce and peas are in their second plantings. The cucumbers up and died during a dry spell, which is very sad. The chillies continue to outpace me, but! tonight I wandered outside and started handing them out to neighbors, and conveniently one of them had just been given a bunch of tomatillos by a neighbor and was on his way to the store to buy hot peppers. WELL, I thought. I can take care of that! So I went to the garden and picked him a whole bunch more. Now maybe the peppers are possibly manageable. Maybe. In the meantime, I enjoy these little Northwood moments. I really wish there was some sort of semi-formal garden produce swap. I have too many jalapeños, you have too many tomatillos... well, let's share and wind up with a mountain of salsa verde!
  
• Checking out local parks. Most of them are along the river. One of them even has *gasp* "bluffs" that can almost be seen as real bluffs! It was wonderful. We've been slowly working through the parks that are a quick drive away and have a range of walking path lengths, so Arthur still has time for homework.
  
• Lots of volunteering. Habitat for Humanity (they really like Arthur who comes all pre-packaged with l33t skillz), Alpha House, trail maintenance, social media, bookstore table, rovering, and much more. If money weren't a problem, I could really enjoy volunteering all the time. I really need to win the lottery.
  
• Potlucks, potlucks, potlucks. I generally like potlucks. Potluck culture is a good thing. But sometimes three in a week is a bit overwhelming for my kitchen...
  
• Gaming! We've finally found a couple of outlets for gaming once or twice a month. (Arthur has even found fellow students who game, at last.) Trying not to buy any new games... And I'm playing bridge again.
  
• Assorted random things, like Art Fair (really that big!), the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, Dancing in the Streets, Happy Hour (it's a *very* Happy Hour sort of town), Meetups, etc.
  

Of course, not everything's been fun and games. We're dealing with the disaster that is the health insurance market (it is not yet January 2014). And the car troubles. And other stuff.

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So we're finding stuff to do, and sometimes even people to go with. Often the biggest impediment is cashflow. Now we're really feeling like students!

Car culture driven home

When we moved here, we brought our car thinking it had about 2 years left in her. Which was all we needed.


Well, we've been here one year, and now we're not so sure. Twice we've broken down on a long road trip (although to be fair, the second time was something unrelated to the age of the car and could happen to a brand-spanking-new car) and needed a tow. And now the car has been in the shop twice in the past month (three times, actually, but the first two were related), seriously hampering our ability to get anywhere.


The first time was annoying. It wasn't anything major; it was a little bit of work (the normal, expected sort) that got drawn out because the parts were the wrong size. Which is only a problem because it wound up stretching out over the weekend. It's difficult to get places here without a car - especially on weekends. But we made it work. It was a minor inconvenience, but thankfully the one big thing we really really had to get done offered us a ride so we could make the deadline.


This week was a major inconvenience, however. AND purely a result of the age of the car - its insides are slowly rusting out. In this case, turns out the steering something or other had rusted through and sprung a leak and blah blah blah. And again, the estimate for being ready kept getting pushed later as they had trouble procuring the correct part (did I mention the car is old?).

Which left us with a dilemma on Friday afternoon.

We are overrun by chillies

Tonight was the welcome social at NW IV. And what a difference from last year, when we were brand new! This year we really enjoyed ourselves.

Salsas 3 and 4

One of the differences is that instead of just being an ice cream social, there was also a potluck. So we used it as an opportunity to harvest More Endless Hot Peppers from the garden. We made a salsa verde and an ancho chili sauce (both from The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook) and made Christmas-colored enchiladas.



We liked the salsa verde, although I'm not sure how often we'll make it given the tomatillos (not great quality at Kroger) and effort. But we really liked having a non-tomato salsa. Pity there wasn't any leftover (it all went onto the enchiladas); it works really well with chips.

The ancho sauce was, unsurprisingly, MUCH hotter. It's a great way to use up garden ingredients, and I'll make it again, but only for specific dishes where the heat can be countered or baked mellower.

The social aspect

Last year we didn't know anyone, and appeared to be two of only a handful of attendees without kids. This year, there were several people without kids, and we all gravitated towards each other. AND most of them belonged to SNRE or public policy, so even more of a win - they're our nonprofitty-type people :) At least one is even a sci-fi fan, so you know I was relieved to find kin.

So we had a much better time. The circle we were in kept growing. We kept meeting new people. We were social. There was even sorbet, so I could enjoy the ice cream part of the event.


It's definitely interesting how one change in the dynamic completely changes our experience. It is really difficult to insert ourselves into a group of parents who all know each other and are hanging out while their kids play. It's much easier when there are other people with the same obstacle, so we all wind up together instead.

Another thing we've been here long enough to go to again

This year we were at Dancing In The Streets with a couple of other people, and that made a big difference. (It also helped that there were attendees this year, and that they were dancing.) So Arthur got to dance for a while, and he was also a volunteer. He's now a member of the community, rather than a newcomer peering in.