First evening in Boston

Once I finally arrived at my hotel I met up with G to check in. G had spent the afternoon touring around Harvard as something to do while I was stuck at BWI.

We stayed at the Park Plaza hotel, which was nice, but very old. In being an old building the bathroom was TINY and the air conditioning wasn't the strongest. Thank goodness it wasn't as hot as it is in Tampa right now.

I found my two classmates, Ashley and Erin fairly easily since we were all in the same hotel. By the time we all got settled it was dinner time so we picked a place to meet up for dinner. When in Boston, it's time for seafood! We ate at Legal Seafood which was FABULOUS!! I had a wood grilled seafood sampler with four different kinds of fish and scallops. I also had lobster bisque. Mmmmm

After dinner we decided to tour Boston Common and the Public Gardens. There was a 5k race going on in the park, so that was rather fun to watch. The lead runner came in around 17 minutes, which actually isn't that fast for the lead runner. Granted, it's way faster than I can haul my ass 3.1 miles, but still.

Then came the long walk around the park hunt for Cheers. We knew it was around the park somewhere, I couldn't remember what street it was on, and non of us had brought a map. We were relying totally on G's sense of direction. Eventually, we did get there. It was entirely too crowded to go in, but we took the prerequisite pictures. You could only go in and sit down if you were ordering food. Since we were all still completely full of seafood we decided to skip it. G did pick downstairs to see if it looks the same as the TV show... it doesn't. (told ya)

Getting to Boston

Getting to AOA was definitely an adventure. My flight left at 8am connecting through Baltimore (BWI) to Boston. I was SUPPOSED to arrive in Boston at 1:15pm. G was arriving ten minutes before me. Let's just say G made it, had time to tour Harvard, have lunch, and head back on the T to the hotel before I even landed in Boston.

Getting to BWI was no problem. I run to the board to check my connection since I only had 45 minutes. (supposedly) Flight delayed until 12:30. Oh, well, maybe there's rain in Boston or something all the other Boston flights are delayed too. I get a bite to eat, pull out a magazine, and plug in the iPod to drown out everyone else. An hour later I check the board again. Flight delayed until 2pm. WTF !!?? I'm now at a 3.5 hour delay getting in. I'm less than pleased. The gate agent tells me and the other 10 angry Air Tran customers that the airplane has a part that's malfunctioning and they have to fly the part in from Orlando. There are no other planes available to take us to Boston, they're all booked, trust me I check. I've seen way to many episodes of the Amazing Race to not check for earlier flights. FINALLY at 2pm we get to the plane, the plane taxis back.. and for some reason we're sitting on the tarmac half way to the runway. Water starts to pour out of the overhead cabin in first class onto the first class passengers. (hee) The plane then turns around and goes, you guessed it, BACK TO THE GATE!! Five guys from maintenance are now on my plane. They spend 30 minutes tinkering, the pilot comes out and assures us it's just the condensation from the air conditioning, there is nothing wrong the plane, we're all just fine but at this point he understands if anyone wants to get off. Every starts screaming LET'S JUST GO !! After a three and a half hour delay at this point everyone is so frustrated we'll take our chances. At 3:15pm we FINALLY take off for Boston. I'm in a cab to the hotel at 4:30pm just in time for rush hour getting out of Logan. Fortunately, the taxi line in Boston is amazing and I'm at the hotel in less than 20 minutes.

The rest of my day was so much nicer once I was settled.

Yipppeee !!

I just put on shorts at J.Crew in a size I didn't even wear in high school. (don't hate me) I have to call my trainer and tell her how happy I am. This is the kind of thing where if you called one of your girlfriends about how happy you were in a dressing room... they'd probably hang up on you.

So long, farewell ... you know how the rest goes don't make me try to spell it

Now again comes the time in Tampa where I have to say good-bye to yet another friend(s). Kate and Jared are moving to the frozen north of Michigan. To Jared it's moving back to the motherland, to Kate it's a new adventure.

We had a going away shin-dig for them Friday night and much fun was had. Beer was partaken in, cigars were smoked, food was eaten, the dripping rain from the soaked awning was avoided (the skies decided to open up in true summer Florida weather glory), and I realized how much I'm going to miss them.


If there's ever a Texas / Michigan game you know I'm flying up to check out the Big House !

Behold !!

Pretty shiny hardwood floors !! Finished on Friday at 4pm. (half a day on Friday my boo-tay)

maybe not

Okay, so maybe they're NOT finishing our floors today. In a G update, it got to be 530 and the workers had to stop due to the noise restrictions of our condo complex. They'll be coming back to work about half a day tomorrow to truly finish. G will be on day 5 of being confined to the house. Poor G. He's getting really bored.

Owwie

My trainer kicked my ass yesterday afternoon. LOTS of arm stuff, which she knew I needed. My arms are definitely my weakest area. I can do crunches and squats all day, but arm stuff... no thanks. So, she killed me with it.

They're finishing our floors today !!!

We almost have hardwood floors.

The painting of the house is finished. G finished it up last night. After all that work we moved all the furniture into our two bedrooms so the works have room to do our hardwood floors today.

We were told to expect the floor guys between 8-12pm. (thanks for the nice HUGE window guys) The SINGLE worker showed up around 845. He took one look around our place and said, "wow, they didn't tell me y'all had stairs.. and that I'd have to rip up some tile. I'm going to need more men". Well, duh. We're asking you to lay 800 sq ft of hardwood. And, we're paying you well for it, thankyouverymuch. He heads back to his office and says he'll be back by 10am at the latest with a crew.

G finally calls the office at 1145 because no one had shown up yet. The girl answering the phone goes, "oh .. yeah.. they'll be out tomorrow morning". Say what now??!! I'm paying y'all to install it TODAY! Why did no one call to tell G they weren't coming back??!! It's not like G doesn't have anything else to do other than sit around the house and wait for the workers. Good lord. So, they got an ear full from G.

Floor instillation apparently will be starting tomorrow. Pictures when it's done!

Dear girl behind me on the recumbent bike at the gym:

I come to the gym to escape and get in a good workout. I do NOT come to the gym to listen to you prattle away on your cell phone. Granted, you were not alone, there were two other people RUNNING on treadmills talking on the cell phone... but you were by far the loudest. I did, however, get to practice my Spanish as I had to actively translate your conversation in order to eavesdrop. But, if you didn't want me to eavesdrop you would not be holding your conversation on the recumbent bike at the gym. You do realize you're not working out very hard if you can have a 30 minute conversation about your love life and your latest shoe shopping excursion whilst peddling your bike and not even breathing hard.

No love.
Me

Up Up and Away !!

I booked my hot air balloon trip, yesterday. G and I are taking off July 14th for a hot air balloon ride and champagne brunch. I'm so excited. There will be MANY pictures taken. I just hope weather conditions hold out since I had to ask for a special Saturday off work to go!!

G and I also finished the living room this Sunday. I'm waiting for the lighting to be right in the house to take pictures of it. In some lights it looks baby blue instead of the sage green it is. It does make the room look so much bigger and I think it'll look great once we get our floors in.

I've been so busy with work the last week and a half I've been a very lazy blogger. I have pictures from our trip to the Picnic Island dog park. I'll post those when I get home. I have tomorrow off so I'm going to try to catch up on the blog !! Promise!