All posts in category self portraits

Molly, Burgers, and Baseball

How cute is Molly? She was pretty excited about this awesome “retro” “vintage” “other trendy word that means old” phone toy. Molly has never laid eyes on a phone shaped like this – either the base or the handset – but she immediately knew it was a phone and how to hold it to her ear. How do kids know stuff like that?! This boggled our minds.

Pete and I flew to DC to celebrate visit Becky, Pat, and Molly (and celebrate Pete and Pat’s birthday a few days early!) as well as to celebrate Adele’s first birthday with her, meet our newest niece Jackie, visit the rest of the fam, and have photos shot as a 40th anniversary gift for my parents. Definitely not too much to cram into one weekend!

But let’s start at the beginning, which is visiting Becky, Pat, and Molly. I have this super awesome special talent that not many people know about it. I can book a trip to DC, call Pat or Becky to tell them I’m coming and see if they are around, and without fail one or more of their relatives will also be visiting DC that weekend. Apparently I have a strong connection with their families and need to see them constantly, so the universe sends us to visit DC at the same time. Now I don’t even wait for them to tell me that some family member will be in town, I just ask who it is that I also get to catch up with. Unfortunately this time, our timing wasn’t quite as perfect as usual and I missed catching up with one of Pat’s sisters and her adorable family by hours.

I digress. We spent our Friday hanging out in PJs, chatting and playing with Molly, and then walking over to Barracks Row to get lunch at Ted’s Bulletin. I spied a family opening a pastry box on the sidewalk out front and then pulling out giant, homemade pop tarts…not appealing to me, but pretty sure it’s a sign that the place is going to be fun! Next clue: awesomely attired bartender. Followed by some really good looking art deco hanging lamps and decor. I’m pretty sure that the further I walked into the restaurant, the more I fell in love. L O V E.

The menu didn’t hurt, either. I’ve been hankering for a good cheeseburger with an egg on top ever since I passed up the opportunity a few weeks back at a friend’s birthday party, and guess what Ted’s had on the menu? Yeah, a burger with an egg on top. Yes, please! I don’t think I’ve made a menu-related decision that easily in months. The egg didn’t have as runny a yolk as I would have liked, but it was still a very tasty burger that I’m sure I’ll eat again. What can I say? When I find something I like, I stick with it. My next visit is going to include one of the adult milkshakes that I didn’t try this time, too.

After lunch it was nap time for Molly and me, and then we were off to see the Nationals/Phillies game…where they played two outs of baseball and then ended up in a two hour rain delay before we even made it to our seats. Seriously, why play those two outs? Couldn’t they have announced a delayed start before we got to the stadium so that we could have stayed home and not paid $8/beverage for two hours?? Oh well…we managed to stay almost entirely dry…and maybe we had a little fun, too.

1 Comment

by Sarah G on August 20, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in DC, friends, Nationals Park, pete, self portraits

Posted by Sarah G on August 20, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/08/20/molly-burgers-and-baseball/

Number 3: Kayak on the Charles

It may have taken me a year to actually use the voucher I bought from Living Social, but I did it! And it was awesome.

We were on the Charles just west of the city, in Needham (and Newton and West Roxbury, I think?), and it was beautiful. I know that the river runs parallel to 95 for most of this stretch, but unless you stop and listen carefully to hear the sound of traffic you wouldn’t know. It’s kind of nice listening to just the sound of your paddles and the wind blowing through the trees.

I also managed to not get a sunburn, woohoo!

Leave a comment

by Sarah G on July 31, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Summer 2011, boston, self portraits

Posted by Sarah G on July 31, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/07/31/number-3-kayak-on-the-charles/

Number 9: 2011 Harborthon 5k

I have been running consistently lately, and it is in large part due to the folks in the photo below. I found a local running club on Meetup last fall, but it was mostly inactive. I emailed the organizer about allowing me to post some runs because, well, I was going to be running anyway, I might as well see if anyone wanted to go with me. There were about five of us who got together semi-regularly in the fall to run (or have drinks…kinda the same thing, right?), and a few who stuck it out during the cold and very, very snowy winter. Spring time came, and suddenly I was getting half a dozen emails each week from new folks asking to join our running club, The Quincy Running Dawgs.

Our numbers are growing slowly, and we now have about a dozen folks that run with us on a regular basis, a few of whom have quickly moved from running buddy to friend. I keep telling people that my favorite thing about my running peeps are that they meet me at my grossest – struggling through runs and sweating up a storm – and they like me anyway. They also seem to think I’m funny, which doesn’t hurt! ;)

I have two friends (both runners, but not from the running club) who run the Harborthon 5k on Long Island together each summer (I say that like this year wasn’t only the 3rd annual race…it’s a new tradition, but it’s a tradition all the same), and they convinced me to sign up this year. Then, of course, I posted it on the calendar for the Running Dawgs and convinced some of my running peeps to do it, too! Come on – great race location followed by free b.good burgers, free Sam Adams, and an 80’s tribute band? If that’s not the perfect recipe for a super fun race night, I don’t know what is! Bonus: this also checks off number 9 on my Summer To Do List – visit a new-to-me Boston Harbor Island (even if I didn’t realize that until three and a half days after the fact). Double bonus: it’s an island that isn’t regularly open to the public!

The Harborthon was Matt (in yellow) and Carla’s (in white) first race ever, and they both kicked butt, despite a nagging injury of Matt’s. Post race, we had an awesome time watching the sunset, eating tasty food, and listening to awesome music. If only we didn’t have to wait another year to do it all again!

Leave a comment

by Sarah G on July 29, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Summer 2011, boston, Boston Harbor Islands, Running, self portraits

Posted by Sarah G on July 29, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/07/29/number-9-2011-harborthon-5k/

Number 10: Ride Carousels, Part I

You know what isn’t flattering? Photos taken of me riding a carousel.

Also, I need to give Pete a crash course on the point and shoot.

But who cares! I love carousels! Let the riding begin.

Leave a comment

by Sarah G on July 24, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Summer 2011, Cape Cod, self portraits

Posted by Sarah G on July 24, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/07/24/number-10-ride-carousels-part-i/

Number Six: Go to a Paw Sox Game

To be fair, this item on the Summer To Do List actually came from Pete. I was pretty sure it would be fun for me, too, so I stole it. I say that like Pete actually makes a list of things he wants to do each season, and I took this off his list and put it on mine instead. ;)

At some point in the spring, probably when the baseball season was still young and Pete was in the midst of his annual baseball fever, he told me he thought it might be fun to go to a Paw Sox game. Sometime in May, I received the quarterly email at work that details any free museum admissions or discounted tickets we can get by showing our work ID or calling the listed contact, and surprisingly there were two Paw Sox games on the list of discounted events. In the end we only saved $2/ticket, but that’s $4 we could use towards my $10 ballpark dinner, right?! I don’t think I looked to see if they were “good” seats – McCoy Stadium isn’t big enough that you need to be concerned about where your seats are. But for $9 each (plus a $2 ticketing fee), it’s cheap night out.

Bonus: the tickets we bought were for a game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (awesomest team name is baseball, if you ask me!). The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are coached by Ryne Sandberg. Ryne Sandberg was Pete’s favorite player back when Pete was a wee boy. Probably right around when this photo was taken (thanks for sending the photos, Judy! We had a blast looking through them all!).

Barely related: when Pete was playing Little League, he was so much taller than the other players that his mom had to carry a birth certificate with her to his games to prove that he was the right age for the team and not some older ringer that they brought in to pitch for them! And then somehow he stopped growing…

He was cute then, huh? If you’re lucky, when (if?) football season rolls around, I’ll share the crazy adorable football-themed baby photos. But let’s not start the football torture early.

We had a really fun time at the game. For one thing, there was plenty of good people watching for me. The awesome commentary from the two older couples behind us (“COME ON! They need to pick it up! They didn’t use to take this long to play!”, “oh – the guy at bat is so-and-so’s ex-husband”) who then left after the 6th inning and we later saw eating dinner in their motor home kept me chuckling for half the game. There was a young couple in front of us where the husband was keeping score on his scorecard until about the third inning. I’m pretty sure they are at the park frequently, because he was cheering for all the players and may have been the fan most interested in the game in our section. There was a family with three young kids who came prepared: They each had a sharpie, a ball, and a small bucket with a rope attached so that they could hang it over the railing to dangle in front of the Paw Sox dugout below us. And then there was the guy next to Pete, who leaned over somewhere around the fifth inning and asked Pete how long they played for. Pete was confused and asked him to repeat the question before telling him the game is nine innings long.

The Paw Sox won, which was nice, and we fun providing our own interpretation for Sandberg’s signs when he was doing his duty as third base coach. “I’m hungry. I will get on my motorcycle and go to the grocery store!” I mean, I’m not a baseball expert, but I’m 90% sure that’s the point he was trying to get across. It was a smaller crowd, but there was a little league team who was doing a good job of cheering for a few innings (and it was a good thing, the organ player/sound guy was horrible and needs some lessons on how to get the crowd going). Pete was not into any of the cheering/chanting/clapping, even when his (not) relative Matt Sheely was at the plate! I mean, dude has your name and is on your home team, but you don’t want to cheer for him?! What kind of fan are you?

I’m pretty sure there will be some more Paw Sox games in our future, and I think all of you that have little kiddos who are into baseball should check them out! $11 for seats directly above the dugout on the third base line? You definitely can’t get that at Fenway.

Leave a comment

by Sarah G on July 19, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Summer 2011, pete, self portraits

Posted by Sarah G on July 19, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/07/19/number-six-go-to-a-paw-sox-game/