Earthquake!

As many of you may have heard, there was an earthquake in Virginia yesterday.  Ironically I also saw there was one in Colorado.  Most of the time I don't pay much attention to these unless they cause significant damage and are covered by the news.  However, this one was different in that we felt the after shock all the way up in Boston.  I have to say, I never thought I'd be saying I experience an earthquake especially where we live.  I was working at a computer and then felt this odd high fequency vibration.  I thought someone was either hitting my chair from behind or I was really needed to eat my lunch because I had low blood suger (this was ~2pm).  When I turned around, no one was there and then I thought I'm hallucinating.  Once it was over and everyone started to talk about what just happened, I knew that there was nothing wrong with me.  Luckily nothing serious happened up here.  I can only imagine how scary a larger event might be.

How to eat a tomato… by Izzy

Step 2:  Decide which tomato you want to eat and pull him off.

Step 3:  Hold your tomato trying to contain the excitement of eating it.

Step 4:  Forget about the knife & plate… just take a bite out of it.

Step 1:  While daddy goes & gets the camera to document this story, pull off two small green tomatoes because you want several to eat.

Izzy's Tomato Plant

We decided to actually plant some flowers in our balcony pots instead of letting them go to the weeds.  Our weather has been so nice this summer and with plenty of rain our plants have been going crazy.  One of our plants drapes over the edge and is already down to our neighbors balcony.  We also found a 'patio tomato plant'.  The card said it should only provide 2-4 tomatoes.  We purchased it with 2 already growing.  One of them was ripe so Izzy & Abe ate it.  You can see it's neighbor still needs to ripen.  However, I've gotten a kick out of how many other tiny tomatoes are appearing.  There are 6 other smalls ones growing and at least that many blooms that could turn into tomatoes.  Not to bad for the city!

Izzy, the patient

Today was Izzy's big day… surgery!  For as long as we remember, she has always had constant drainage from only one nostril.  We always thought it was from the whole daycare thing.  But, it was odd that it was only one nostril.  She also mouth breaths and is a restless sleeper.  So we finally had her seen by an ENT physician.  Yep… those adenoids were whopping.  The scope in the office said they were almost 100% occluding her nasal passageway.  Today, I was told they were so bid they couldn't use some of the tools typically in this type of surgery and they had to be 'creative'.  All went well and we were home 4.5 hours after arriving.  Thank you for everyone who prayed for a safe procedure.

Rowing

 One of the reasons why we live in JP is because it is close to JP Pond.  This is part of the Emerald Necklace up her in Boston designed by Olmstead (designer of Central Park in NYC).  We typically walk  or run around the pond.  This is also where we go sledding.  One thing we have not done though it rent a boat.  Because we had Izzy, we had to settle for a row boat.  She did pretty good enjoying skimming her hands in the water.  We'll have to do this again just to practice rowing… we were pretty rusty.

Home Improvements

 As previously mentioned, we asked Oma & Opa if they would help do some home improvements around here while they visited.  Oma stayed for some extra time which has allowed a lot of objects to get a good coat of paint.  One of the projects involved bringing their old bookshelf back to life.  This was a piece they bought after great-grandpa Beran died in 1974 while they lived in California.  Not only has it made the numerous moves for them, it has made all my moves as well.  It also was modified to fit a TV (big hole cut in the back).  To bring it back to life, Opa added some crown molding and uses wainscoting to cover the existing hole.  Oma then painted it black and gave it some new hardware.  This turned out much better than expected.

 The biggest project was transforming Izzy's room into a big girl room.  When we first moved here, there was not storage.  So we separated her room from all the boxes by a big drape (see above).  In the interim, we have acquired storage in the basement allowing her room to be transformed.  Oma & Opa brought up my childhood bed for Izzy.  Several painting jobs (the walls and my old childhood furniture turned a pretty blue), and Izzy is happy to be sleeping in her 'big girl' bed.  You wouldn't know if from this picture however.

The British Are Coming!

 Fourth of July is one of the more popular holiday's in Boston as this was where it all started.  The celebration usually is week long with the days leading up to the 4th packed with various activities to enjoy.  We decided to try the 'Red Coat Invasion Sail' this year.  Our journey started by loading up on the Liberty clipper.

 Izzy & I waiting our turn to board the ship.

 We sailed around Boston Harbor until we came to the place that we picked up the British troops… or should I say they confiscated the ship in 'the name of the King'.

 Getting ready to invade Boston.

 Music was played at the time of invasion which was close to where we sat.  Izzy especially enjoyed the tunes.

 Firing upon Boston.

 We had the chance to pose with some of the soldiers on board.

This picture was 'borrowed' from the internet.  However, since we were all on board we couldn't take it ourselves.  Once we picked up the troops, the engines were cut off and we set sail into the harbor to invade Boston.  What a pleasurable ride it turned out to be.  Sailing with just wind was so calming.