Used Furniture Grosses me out

So, I'm in Pittsburgh (which many of you already know).  I'm only here for 6 months so I do not want to

1.  Move all my stuff here.
2.  Buy all new expensive stuff.

So I had a few options.  Try to find a furnished apartment (they are as much as $500 more than what I'm paying now, btw it was CRAPPY furniture), Try to rent Furniture (as much as $600 a month on TOP of rent), OR stay in a hotel (as much as $800 a month more than I'm paying now).  So I decided that I could furnish an apartment for less than 3k ($500 times 6 months...)

So far I've spent ~ $200.  I bought a blow up mattress that I plan on sleeping in until I find a cheap bed ($60), sheets and a comforter ($100), and miscellaneous items around the apt.  I "splurged" on the sheets and comforter because I think I am going to keep them and use them in the guest bedroom at the house.  The blow up mattress was also a splurge, but I have to sleep on this for at LEAST 1 week (perhaps as much as 6 months) so I wanted it to be nice.  BTW - this air mattress is "a Queen" and all I have to say is BS.  This is NOT a queen while fully blown up.  Its a full.... at MOST.  So, Coleman, liar, liar pants on fire.

Anyway, since I have nothing better to do (and goodwill failed me) I've been scouring Craigslist looking for cheap items.  I have to say most of the furniture grosses me out.  Basically anything with cloth gives me the heebie-jeebies. All I keep imagining is people peeing or puking or having S*X or doing other gross things on the furniture.  I mean lets face it, some people are NASTY. And it just grosses me out.  With a kitchen table, I can clean 99.9% of the germs off of it.  (According to Lysol or whoever).  Which means if I clean it twice with Lysol (or whatever) 99.9% x 2 leaves VERY FEW germs on it.  So stranger's puke or whatever germs are virtually gone.

BUT, I can't very easily bleach an entire sofa.  I may be able to clean the surface of the couch, but I can NOT clean the stuffing or whatever is under the cloth surface.  And liquid can penetrate stuff REAL deep... Ewwwww.

And, even though I can put a slip cover over the sofa, put a mattress cover and sheets over the bed, I still can't get over the grossness.... I know this is a "me" thing, but I can't get past it. :(

Week 1 DONE!

Week 1 in Pittsburgh down, 27 more to go.  In those 27 weeks I have almost a week off for Disney World with C, My first bachelorette party, and my MOH (Maid of Honor) coming to Pittsburgh to see the MU/Pitt game.  Unfortunately, right now, that's all I have scheduled.  (While I'm reading what I write I realize it may  be slightly confusing why I am having a "first bachelorette" party.  The first one is a destination party, while the 2nd one will be in Chicago.)

So everyone should come visit me. :D

Icey Windshield in a Rental

Honestly, I've been pretty lucky.  Today (Wednesday) was the first real cold day here in Pittsburgh.  However, last night was REAL cold.  Cold enough to make all the car windows frosty.  And that is the start of my problem.

But back to the beginning of the story.  I woke up and got ready for work.  I went to the cafe area (like I have been every morning) in my hotel and got my complimentary coffee.  As I went outside to get to my car I realized I could see my breath and there was a TON of frost on every single car in the lot.  I began to wonder if my rental car came with an ice scraper.

Even though I may not be able to drive well in the snow, I have dealt with frost quite often and I know what to do.  So I immediately turn on the car, blast the defroster (including the rear defroster) and start searching for the ice scraper I'm praying the car has.

Of course I can not find an ice scraper, so I got back into the car and sat there until the defroster began to work.

About 30 minutes go by until I finally admitted to myself that the defrosters and heaters in the car do not work.  I can still see my breath in the car, and there has been NO progress on defrosting my windshield.

So I went outside and try to find someone who does not look like they are in a hurry.  I see this gentleman and I walk up to him and explain my situation and ask if he has an ice scraper.  He explains that he does and he'll bring it right over.

Of course he managers to scrape off all the ice in about 3 minutes and I thank him profusely.  Unfortunately the entire endeavor made me about 45 minutes late for work and when I finally did arrive I was frozen to the bone.

I'm calling Avis in a little bit... we will see how that goes.

First day in Pittsburgh

They don't have a computer for me yet, which means I can not do any training.  Therefore, I have nothing to do.  I have already attempted to go to several banned websites including - Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and Pinterest.  For some reason they do not allow Pinterest, but they do allow Facebook.  And thankfully gmail is also on the "allowed list."  However, I'm bored of facebook.

So, I decided to waste some of my time writing C's brother (Navy) a letter.  He started basic last Tuesday and we got his address over the weekend.  In the letter, I told Navy how I was bored and tired.  Then I started to feel a bit guilty because I can only imagine how difficult it has been with doing PT and everything.  After 5 minutes of doing that, I ran out of things to say.  Nothing is really that exciting here.

I have explored the bathroom (they are very nice and new).  The cafeteria looks really nice too!  I've heard that there is a gym here, but I have yet to venture there.  And the rest of the 4 hours I've been here has been extremely boring.

*sigh*

Let me know if you want to send Navy a letter, I can email you his address.  If I figure out something interested to write about I will... until then.

Pinterest - Guest Bathroom Towel Rack

I'm addicted to pinterest.  With a new (to me) house, I have a lot of decorating and projects I want to do.  One of the biggest challenges in the house is storage.  There is no pantry, very few closets, and no linen closet.

So when I saw a pin on pinterest where you can store towels on a wine rack that hung on the wall I was intrigued.

The first challenge was locating the wine rack.  I found it at wayfair.com.  Here is the link to the wine/towel rack.  Right now the price is listed at $30.99, but I bought the rack at $19.80.  So I would watch the price, $31 is a little pricey to me.  I had never used or even heard of Wayfair before this purchase, but there were no problems with the purchase.

As a warning.  This rack did not come with any hardware.  We had screws laying around so we used those.

I plan on having navy and tan towels in the bathroom, I just need to buy some tan towels.  I also plan on painting the walls, although I'm not sure what color to paint the walls.  

Anyway, its just a small step to decorating, but it was fairly easy.  First project down, 1,000 to go.

Pinterest - Will you be my ...

Everyone knows I recently got engaged.  I knew who I wanted to be my bridesmaids since before I was even engaged.  One time, I almost slipped and asked my Maid of Honor to be my Maid of Honor before I was even engaged!  But I wanted to do it right, so I made sure to hold my tongue.  

However, as soon as I got engaged I went over to Michaels to mimic a pin I saw on Pinterest.  Below is the inspiration and the final product.  

The boxes included:

• Memories Picture Frame - For a picture of us at my wedding
• A scented candle in my wedding colors - Purple and Green. :)
• Chocolate - Because what girl doesn't like chocolate
• A Bridesmaid tank top - Unfortunately, I couldn't find one for my maid of honor, so she also has a bridesmaid tank also.  I wish I could have found one that matched and said Maid of Honor, but ... I didn't have enough patience to wait for it to arrive if I ordered it online. haha.  
• A cocktail - I went to Target and bought a Champagne cocktail bottle.  It was either that, or a mini bottle of Champagne, and I chose the Champagne cocktail since I feel like Champagne can be hit or miss. One of my bridesmaids is only 17, so I gave her sparkling juice instead.  

Honestly, the most difficult thing was finding the box to put everything in.  Michaels and Target did not have any appropriate boxes.  Either they couldn't fit the frame or they were T-Shirt boxes.  My mom had some boxes laying around and so I used those.  They were a bit large, but that just meant that I could display everything so nothing was covered up.

Unfortunately, because the boxes were so gigantic, the stamps looked really tiny.  I wrote "Will you be my" on the front in stamps so that when my friends opened the box they would read "bridesmaid" on the tank top. :)

I think my bridesmaid liked the boxes.  But like I said... nice boxes were really hard to find.  

Amazing App - Android Lost

A few weeks ago someone stole my phone.  Unfortunately, the person who stole my phone didn't return it so I had to get a new phone.  So I decided to research lost phone apps.

Android Lost is AMAZING.  Its still in Beta so it may have bugs, but so far I have tested out a bunch of features and they have worked.

Some of the amazing features -

Alarm

Will ignore silent mode. Turns up the volume, sound a siren and sets the volume back to normal level. It also makes the screen flash so you can see it in a loud or dark environment. Select seconds for alarm:

310203060120

I can't tell you how many times I misplace my phone.  Then I have C or Navy call my phone and my phone is on silent.  Problem solved with this app!

Overlay message

Puts a red overlay message on top of the keyguard or lockscreen. Useful in case a friendly guy finds the phone and starts using it in order to find out who owns it. Will use a tiny bit of power during unlock since it runs as a service. Send an empty string to disable the overlay message.

This is pretty self-explanatory.  There is also a way to send a text if you don't lock your screen.

SIM card owner

When the app detects that an unknown SIM card has been inserted it will send a warning to the SMS notification number and start a polling service. That way you can still use both the SMS commands and web controls even if the google account on the phone has been blocked and google cannot send push messages.

Lock phone

If you are already using another type of lock on your phone there will be no point in using this feature.

Click the button and the phone will lock the screen with the 4 digit pincode. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote). If you leaves the pincode empty the phone will be unlocked.

Erase SD Card This will erase your SD card. No further warning will be given.

Wipe phone Dont use this feature unless you REALLY mean it. It will wipe your phone. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote).  Also wipe external storage (requires android 2.3)

I wish I knew about this app before I got my phone stolen.  I ended up changing all my passwords because I was terrified.  Granted I would have had to have admin rights on my phone before I wiped it and put a lock on it, but I can guarantee I will be using these features if my phone ever gets lost/stolen.

Text to speech

Click the button and the phone will speak your message out loud. It will use the default installed TTS language.

EnglishDefault language

I think this is a really neat feature. :) I would want to enter "Find me please!!" hahaha.

Hangup phone Will hangup the phone. Not part of the official API so it may not work on all phones.

Call List Here you can fetch your call list. It will send the last 20 items to the server.

Sound Recording Will record a sound file from the microphone for the selected amount of time. You must have a sound player that supports 3gpp files - for instance the VLC player. If recording is longer than two minutes it will NOT be sent to the server. You will have to fetch it from the phone yourself. 10 seconds20 seconds30 seconds1 minute2 minutes5 minutes10 minuteshalf an hour1 hour

Front Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the front camera and send it to your mail. Requires android 2.3. If you have an older version of android it will default to the rear camera.  Still not perfect. Yes I know that there is a quick popup and yes the mail attachment is not yet perfect.

Rear Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the rear camera and send it to your mail. The phone will take the picture in the lowest possible quality which is 640x480 and around 100k on my phone.

All of these are really neat too!  You can find out if you have had any missed calls or if the person who found your phone has dialed India or some crazy expensive phone call.  I also like the camera information so you can try to figure out where you left your phone.

However the best feature is -

GPS

Click the button and the phone will send the location to your email account. If gps fix is not found in 60 seconds or gps is disabled, network location will be sent. If both GPS and network are disabled the last known location will be sent.

Auto switch on GPS if deactivated

You can see exactly where your phone is located!!!  I tried it out and I got the EXACT location where I am right now.  Kinda crazy, but SOO cool!

Engaged

Well, if official.  I'm engaged to C.  :) But I'm not going to blog about how he did it or any of that stuff, when the wedding website gets up anyone can read our story on there.  I'm going to blog about what its been like since I've gotten engaged.  

I may sound a bit conceited, but my ring is gorgeous!  And when I first called and texted all my friends, everyone asked for pictures of the ring.  I think I ended up taking ~ 30 pictures of my ring before I found ones that were acceptable.  At first I thought my fingers looked ugly.  Then when I made a fist I thought my fingers looked like toes (See picture)

And then when I tried to just take pictures of the ring people asked for pictures of the ring ON my finger.

I mean, no one ever talks about the challenges of taking a ring picture.  I just felt that every picture I took did not live up to the beauty of my ring.  (God, I sound so stuck up!! sorry!)


So, ladies, if you think your going to get engaged soon get a manicure every few weeks leading up to when you think its the big day.  Seriously... I'm not kidding.

The other gigantic surprise was how many people asked me the night or the day after we got engaged if we set a date yet.  Seriously, If I had $10 for every person who asked me if we set a date I think I would have enough for a gorgeous wedding dress.  I was shocked!  I honestly didn't expect anyone to ask if I set a date and when the first person asked I was speechless.  All I wanted to say was we got engaged like 10 minutes ago!  I ended up saying I think we want to get married in Fall, but I don't know if we will get married in 2013 or 2014.

I guess the one good thing about everyone asking me questions is it got me into wedding mode.  I've already started planning.  I've talked to my parents and C's parents to get a rough guest list together.  So far, I think the guest list is going to be gigantic and extremely difficult to narrow down.  Oh well, let the wedding planning begin!

Disappointing Pizza

I have to say, I was not impressed with Giordanos pizza tonight.  We ordered sausage stuffed pizza and it was soggy. :( I don't know if I've been spoiled with Lou Malnati's pizza, but I don't think I will be going back to Giordanos. 

It sort of makes me sad.  I grew up on Giordano's pizza.  The restaurant is down the street from our house.  I have probably had hundreds of pizzas from that restaurant, it used to be my favorite pizza!  And then I moved out to Palatine, and someone introduced me to Lou Malnati's. Lou Malnati has a butter crust.  I don't know how they do it but the crust is AMAZING.  Lou Malnati also makes its own sausage and seriously, its to die for. 

Needless to say, I haven't had anyone's stuffed pizza other than Lou Malnati's for a few years. Until tonight.

Personally, I think Ginos East has amazing thin crust, but Lou Malnatis takes the cake with stuffed. 

Its been a week, negotiate already!

Chicago Public School (CPS) are on strike right now.  And they have been for a week.  All I have to say is I'm going to get a LOT of flack for this post, and I'm sorry, but this is the way I feel.

My cousin, my friends, and several of my Aunts and Uncles are teachers. but COME on!!

What are the teachers striking over?? CPS wants to increase the school day.  A 7 hour school day for elementary students (increase of 75 minutes), and a 7.5 hour day (increase of 30 min)  for high school students.  All I have to say is omg... these elementary students only had a school day of 5.5 hours?!?!?   That's crazy!  When I was in elementary school (A LONG time ago) I had a 6.5 hour day.  So personally I think 5.5 hours is WAAAAAY too short.  And yes, that NEEDS to be increased. And yeah. highschool should be 7.5 hours!  I mean wow... Just crazy.

Unfortunately, the teachers want a pay increase for this time.  But honestly, the state and city are BROKE!  I think that's pretty selfish to demand more money.  My father works for the state of Illinois and they are doing layoffs.

Personally I think teachers are spoiled because they do not need to worry about getting laid off or anything after they get tenure.  I knew SOOO many High school teachers that would just get lazy in their tenure years because they didn't have to try.  Normal people constantly have to worry about job performance and getting fired/laid off.  I am very grateful for my aunts and uncles and cousins and friends who get tenure, but there are MANY people who don't deserve it.  Personally, I think teachers Tenure should get re-evaluated every 5 years.  If a teacher starts to slack, I would put that teacher on "probation" for tenure removal for 3 school year.  If they didn't turn it around that first year, they would get tenure removed.

The CPS school system also wants to tie teachers evaluations to performance.  Personally this just makes me laugh.  I mean seriously, shouldn't this be like a no brainer? lol!  But I do understand why the CPS teachers don't want this to pass.  The CPS teachers think that student performance is directly linked to home conditions.  So, alright.  I take the CPS teachers side on this one.

One of the problems is... CPS teachers are among the highest paid in the country.  According to CNN "The median base salary for teachers in the Chicago public schools in 2011 was $67,974."  I mean that's a pretty good salary!  These teachers have 3 weeks of June, all of July, and 3 weeks of August off of work.  So... lets do the math.  A typical man year is 2088 hours, or approximately 261 work days (including paid holidays)  However, teachers have 3 weeks off in June (15 days), All of July (20 days), and 3 weeks in August (15 days).  A total of 50 days they have off.  (This is conservative considering July this year had 22 work days).  So teachers work 211 days.

An elementary teacher has a 7 hour day at school.  But they should get at least 30 minutes for lunch off.  So that really means they work a 6.5 hour day, because I mean I don't get paid for lunch, do You?

So... lets assume each day the teachers spend 1.5 hours after classes grading papers or preparing for the next day.  That's EVERY day some days its more, some days its less.  I'm NOT taking into account that teachers get Spring Break and Christmas break off.  That's a total of 120 hours they don't work (or approximately an extra half hour of over time a day), so any teacher that argues with me saying they work more than 40 hours a week, please take that into consideration.  I'm also taking into consideration that teachers work 1.5 hours on the days they have off for holidays.  So, please, on average lets assume that these teachers work 8 hour days.

That means that, if teachers only work 211 days or 1688 man hours, the median hourly rate is $40.27 per hour!!! If you take into account that these teachers used to work 75 minutes per day less, that means they used to get paid - $47.70 / hour... That hourly wage translates to just under a 6 figure salary!!!

All I'm saying is teachers... take the increase in your day and stop arguing.

More landscaping

This weekend we (with the help of my Dad and C's brother) cut down 2 more trees and pulled a bunch of weeds.  C's brother, lets call him Navy (he is leaving for Navy boot camp in a few months) lives with us.  So he helped me with my house today.  He didn't really get a choice, he just got a come on, we are all leaving now.  My parents did get a choice, they volunteered, although I'm not sure if they will be volunteering next week due to the amount of work we did.

Below are some before and after pictures. To the left is the house the day we closed on it. :)  In my opinion, its really cute, but I never really liked how secluded the front door was.  Its behind the bushes and trees.  I always thought the front door was a burglers dream.  And, a few months ago we actually had an attempted break in.  The house is currently undergoing remodeling and so when the contractors arrived at the house they immediately called the cops.  A police report was filed and everything.  The cops then called me and told me what happened.

A few days ago I found out that my general contractor thinks they know who did it.  We have had a few plumbers working on the house.  The first plumber had no idea what he was doing and was fired from the job, the second plumber was not licensed in our town so he was let go, and now I think we are on the 3rd plumber.  I met the first and second plumber.  The first plumber was .... interesting.  He had a ton of empty cigarette cases laying around in the house but the house didn't smell like smoke so it didn't really bother me.  I knew eventually the house would be cleaned up.

While the 1st plumber and I were talking, I noticed he had the shakes.  I assumed he was just an alch-y and hadn't had a drink for a while.  He tried to explain plumbing stuff to me; he was all excited about how he found this connection they don't make anymore and I told him I didn't really follow everything because this is my first house.  He said "This is my first house too!."  I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped.  He went on to explain that he normally does flood control and doesn't normally do indoor plumbing.

In hind sight, I probably should have called my GC and told him what I just heard.  But I thought was that my general contractor knew what he was doing!  It wasn't until my project manager went to the house and saw the plumber smoking INSIDE my house that they fired him.  All I have to say is had I seen that, I would have been PISSED.  To make things even more amusing, the plumber started telling my PM that he knew me from high school, and me and him go way back.  The plumber claimed that I allowed him to smoke in the house, ALL lies!   
 
Turns out, the plumber had no idea what he was doing and my 2nd plumber had to come in and fix everything.  Apparently the 1st plumber hadn't vented anything.  (I have since learned that venting is a MUST)

Well,  unfortunately the first plumber got paid, but not by me.  I pay my GC a flat fee, thankfully, except for change orders.  So if the plumbing or framing or whatever has to be done 3 different times it still costs the same for me.

But a few weeks/months after the first plumber was fired from the job my house was broken into.  I guess the GC, PM and some other guys who met him think he is the one that tried to break in.  The house was dead-bolted so the door frame held.  But it was pretty much 1 more good kick from yielding.  The GC thinks the plumber was a coke-head and was trying to break into the house to steal the copper pipes.  Thankfully, the GC also thinks the plumber is currently in jail so we shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

Anyway, even though the plumber is probably in jail, I still wanted to make the front door less secluded so we cut down two trees. The one tree was pretty much dead already because of the drought we have been having. 

While Navy and my Dad were cutting down the trees, my mom and I were working on the back yard.  There are TONS of weeds and rocks everywhere.  Not to mention the fact that the former owner buried clay pots in the ground.  At first I suspected she just got angry one day and smashed all the clay pots against the fence, but I think she just buried them.  I think I found about 5 different clay pots buried.  Below are some more pictures of the day. 

Dublin enjoying his backyard.

Maggie - My parents Dog

The after picture.  : ) Now we need new lights by the garage

My Labor Day Weekend

As soon as C left to go to New Jersey for an undetermined amount of time (I'm thinking he may be home by Thanksgiving) I felt like my social life went down the tubes.   Originally we were going to go camping in Wisconsin this past labor day, but a $300 plane ticket is pretty expensive just to go camping.  So we cancelled and I was left at home with no plans.  Since my house is under construction, and has been since June 6th, I've been living with my dog in my parents house.  I should have moved into my house 3 weeks ago (I hate village inspectors), and I had reserved most of my fall weekends for getting the house livable and doing projects.  Since I am not living in the house my weekends are WIDE open. Which is another way of saying I'm spending a lot of Friday's at home.  Normally when I decide I want to stay at home on Friday and watch movies its not lame, however if I were to tell you I am staying at home on Friday with my dog and watching movies with my parents the lame factor SKYROCKETS.  All I picture when I hear that sentence is a spinster.  The story would only be better if it was a cat instead of a dog.   So I decided to tackle some of the landscaping at my house to at least be lame and productive this past weekend.   

A few months ago, I made a comment to one of my friends about how many weeds we have.  They said "Why should you pull them if you wont get in the house until winter anyway?" I thought over that response and decided it was logical, why should I pull them? 

I'll tell you why you should pull them, you should pull them because they will grow to be ~ 3 feet tall!  The picture to the left shows a small portion of my "garden."  Basically just weeds.  And that was after my mom pulled the entire pile of weeds in the picture below.  

Now, I will bet you $100 (figuratively, I don't have that kind of cash laying around now that I bought a house) that the old lady who lived here had gardeners at one point and then just stopped caring.  There is no other logical reason why on earth she would have gardened the way she did.  She had bushes in the middle of the yard (which makes mowing the lawn a pain in the butt), a garden walk way that you have to use to get to the ally where you put the garbage can that you couldn't actually walk through because the bushes were placed too close together, random rock gardens... its nuts.  I'm pretty sure she was also a pack rat because there were old broken clay planters she had in her rock garden... it didn't look pretty at all.  But we didn't buy the house for the gorgeous landscaping, we bought it for the potential.

But by far the most annoying thing (related to landscaping) was this 4 foot tall evergreen tree in the middle of the yard with 2 more evergreen trees next to it.  I don't know what she was thinking except for the fact that having a shade tree in the middle of the yard would be nice.  Why she would plant an evergreen, I have no idea.  I mean I know nothing about gardening and even I know that evergreens take forever to grow.  If you want a nice shade tree plant a maple!  Anyway, C and I did not like this random tree in our backyard so we planned on removing it as soon as we moved in.  

Well, thanks to the drought, the tree died. :) So I didn't feel like a bad person cutting down a perfectly healthy tree.  

And I spent my labor day eve (Sunday) cutting down the tree.  I didn't trust myself to use a chain saw, so I used a hand saw.  It wasn't really all that bad.  My arms got a good workout.  

But it would have been a lot easier if I trusted myself to use the chain saw.  I even used my brand new shovel to remove the stump! :) The picture to the right shows the other 2 trees smack dab in the middle of the yard, and you can see where the evergreen used to be.  

I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but personally, I think I did a pretty good job. :) 

Last day in Boston

On our last day in Boston we decided to go to George's Island.  We took a ferry to the island.  To the left are two views from the Ferry.  As soon as we got on the island we took a tour with a park ranger.  Turns out that since this is a historic landmark the park rangers are federal employees, opposed to regular park rangers are state employees. 

They don't actually know how George's Island got its name.  The original founder of the island named it after himself, and then a few years later it was randomly called George's Island.  They don't know if it was named after King George, or the founder's middle name was George, or George some random guy... But that's the name that stuck.

George's Island is home to Fort Warren.  Fort Warren is a well defended fort that has never fired a shot in anger nor has been fired upon in anger.  It seems like it was more of a cold war type thing.  The fort was built so well that no one wanted to try to break in.  Back in the 1800's when the fort was built it was next to the only way into the Boston Harbor.  Since then more channels have been dug (?? Perhaps?  Actually I don't know if I understand how there are more channels)  and there are more ways into the Boston Harbor, but everyone was afraid that if this Island fell to the British (or whomever) Boston would not be able to get any imports.  So they built the fort as strong as possible.  To the upper right is where soldiers would sit with guns if an intruder was coming. Basically the fort was built so you can see an intruder come from every direction.  And then the picture to the right that shows where the draw bridge used to be. 

 More pictures of the fort

After the fort we went to The JFK Library and Museum.  The museum was about his life and Jackie O's life.  It was a pretty neat museum.  We saw a bunch of items Jackie was given (purses and jeweler and whatnot) by other diplomats.  We also saw some famous dresses of Jackie's.  And then we saw a lot about JFK.  I didn't realize he almost lost the election!  If I remember correctly, JFK won in the electoral college, but lost in the popular vote. 

More about Boston

I've been lazy the past few days.  Sorry for not posting. 

The  morning after my cousin's wedding we slept in and ate at Atlantic Fish Company.  The restaurant was very good.  We ordered crab cakes as an appetizer, clam chowder soup, I had the halibut  and C had the sashimi grade tuna.  Everyone, including my Aunt, Uncle and cousins were thrilled with the food.  While we were ordering the waiter brought out a 40 year old lobster.  It was 7.5 lbs.  I would have thought this would cost around $500.  But it was only $127 and could feed 4 people easily.  My aunt felt bad for the lobster and she said she wanted to buy it only so she could set it free.  Personally, I wanted to see how it tasted. :) haha.

After we left the restaurant we stumbled upon two REAL old churches.   We saw Old South Church which is an Epispical church or something like that.  We were able to go inside this church and it was gorgeous.  While we were inside we heard someone playing the organ.  It was pretty neat.  However, since I'm Catholic, I was more interested in seeing Catholic Churches.  We didn't stay that long at this church since the server at the Atlantic Fish Co thought the Trinity Church was Catholic.  We make our way to the Trinity Church and The Church is gorgeous.  We walk inside to see that you have to purchase TICKETS to see the church.  Needless to say, we did not go inside.  We just admired the church from the outside.  Below is a picture I took of the church in the facade of a nearby building.  I thought it was a very cool picture, sort of old world meets current world. 

We didn't really have any more plans for what we wanted to do while we were in Boston, so we went on Super Duck Tours.  If anyone has been to the Wisconsin Dells they know what the Ducks are.  Basically they are tour buses that can go on land AND water!  As a child, I thought that was SO cool. :)  The Super Ducks are the only ducks that can go in the Boston Harbor.  Apparently, the other Ducks can only go in the river or something.  First we went on a land tour.  The picture to the right is the "Ellis Island" of Boston.  Apparently if you immigrated to Boston, the chances are, you came through this building.  (Obviously it has been remodeled since the days of my ancestors)

We also were able to see the Old South Meeting Hall (Left) and the last remaining piece of the highway that used to run above ground (Right).  I guess this long ugly highway used to run along the harbor front, and it had a TON of traffic.  In order to solve the problem, Boston decided to go below ground.  So the "Big Dig" happened, and they created a highway that goes under the harbor.

After about 45 minutes of a land tour, we went to the water.  The below picture is what it looks like going into the water.  Its pretty neat.  C and I had a great view since we were in the front seats.

The picture above is the Boston Skyline from the Ducts.  

I'm a huge fan of Bridges, and I really liked this bridge.  The architect modeled the bridge off the bunker hill monument.  If you look at the below picture you can compare these towers with the bunker hill monument (which looks a lot like the Washington Monument)

 


The picture to the left shows the USS Constitution with the bunker hill monument. 







When we were done with the Super Duct tour we decided to go back to "The North End."  We had heard wonderful things about an Italian restaurant "Giacomos" and we just couldn't leave Boston without trying it.  We unknowingly walked through the St Anthony Festival. To the left is a statue of St Anthony.  For the non-Catholics, St Anthony is the Patron Saint of all things Lost.  We learned that you can put your dollar (or $20 dollars if you so chose) on St Anthony's  statue and pray to him to ask God to help you find whatever you need.  Basically since St Anothony is an expect at finding things you are asking him to talk to God on your behalf.  The festival was a dry festival (no booze) and all I have to say is Thank God!!  The festival was so crazy that I could not have imagined what it would have been like if liquor was involved.  Since everyone really wanted to try Giacomos, we did not have any of the festival food.  We pretty much just walked through the streets to get to the restaurant.  Then when we got to Giacomos we had to wait in line.  See, Giacomos is such a well known, good restaurant that they do not take reservations.  They also do not take your name down.  They just make everyone stand in line and you get seated when a table opens up. 

Since the line was like 20 people deep (I may be exaggerating) my cousin and I decided to walk to Modern Pastry (another recommendation) to get Italian Cookies.  We were not very impressed with Mike's Pastry, and all the locals said Modern was 10 times better.  Once again, we had to wait in line.  And while we were waiting in line we saw St Anthony being escorted by a marching band down the street.  (See photo to the left)  It was crazy!  We learned (from a local) that a second St Anthony statue is paraded down the streets and people can also attach money and pray for help.  We also asked the local what happens to the money.  And this is what he said "At the end of every block they take all the money off the statue.  Then a guy runs... Not walks, RUNS to the nearest bank to deposit it." I asked what they do with the money and the guy gives air quotes and says "charitable things."  When he said that, all I could think of was "Great... I just paid the Boston Mob..."  Thankfully I just gave $1, and I don't know how far that money will go now adays, I mean you can't even buy a pack of gum for that. 

Anyway, Modern Pastry did NOT disappoint.  Even though we had to deal with a rude man, (who yelled at my cousin who was holding the door open for him) it was worth the way.  We found out Local Boston-ians think Chicago is ... well... tough.  Lol.  The local Boston-ians said since we are from Chicago that guy who yelled at my cousin is lucky we didn't shoot him.  We didn't quite know what to say to that so we just laughed. 

We got back to the line at Giacomos and only had to wait like 30 more min.  But the wait, again, was worth it.  I ordered the pumpkin tortellinis.  Everyone in our group tasted the tortellinis (except for C since they were in a cream sauce and he is allergic to dairy) and they ALL loved them.  Overall, the 1 hour wait was more than worth it. 

Since we ate a ton of food, we decided to walk back to the car.  Along the way we stumbled onto some historic sights.  Including Paul Revers House (right) and the site of the Boston Massacre (bottom).  
 

After we got in the car, we drove past Fenway Park.  It wouldn't really be a trip to Boston if we didn't see Fenway Park.  We only saw it from the outside, and we never actually got out of the car, but we will see the park in more detail on the next trip.  

Haaarvard and the wedding - Boston

On Saturday we went to Harvard.  To be 100% honest, I was NOT impressed with the campus.  I imagined an oasis campus in the middle of the city, similar to Marquette University (where I went to college.  Instead I saw a quad, and a campus that was intertwined with the town. 

To the left is Mr Harvard. 

Below are gates at Harvard that say "Enter To Grow in Wisdom"  Dad needed some Wisdom, so he went through the gates. 





















Possibly the coolest thing I saw was at the Harvard was the Book on Demand Printer.  We got lucky and they were printing a book as we speak.  It was really cool!  Basically if you have a book, recipe book, or whatever that you want bound, you can send it to Harvard and they will bind it.  Its not even that expensive!  You can go here for prices.
 

After Harvard, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the main event.  My cousin getting married. :) Here you can see the new Mr and Mrs. 

Boston Day 2

Boston Day 2 has much more pictures. :) The first thing we did was go to Warren Tavern.  Warren Tavern is one of the oldest Taverns in Massachusetts.  George Washington's funeral speech was given here and both George Washing and Paul Revere frequently visited here. 



After that we followed the Freedom Trail to the Bunker Hill Monument.   I wrote about some of this day in a previous blog post - here.  I mistakenly said this was the Washington monument, but that is not correct.  This is the Bunker Hill Monument.  The Washington Monument is in DC.  This monument was 294 stops to the top, and we never ended up going to the top.  We got side tracked with the USS Constitution and a family dinner later that night. 

The USS Constitution was very cool.  It sailed on the 24th for the first time since 1998 (at least that's what the sailor told us)  It is the oldest navy vessel that still sails.  It got its nick-name "old iron-sides" because during the war of 1812 soldiers said that cannons would "bounce" off the ships sides.  

At one point we went down below deck to see the other levels of the ship.  Above is the barracks.  Pretty small if you ask me.  The ceiling was real low.  I would have to duck almost the entire time so I wouldn't hit my dead.  After a few minutes one of the sailors said everyone had to go upstairs because a VIP was coming aboard.  Later we found out it was the governor that was coming.

C's brother joined the Navy.  He leaves for basic in December.  So I was very confused as to how and why these sailors got the job of manning this ship.  So I asked one of them.  The conversation went like this.               ~Me - Excuse me. Do you have a minute?

~Sailor - Yes

~Me - Can you tell me what job you have in the Navy?

~Sailor - Missile Launcher (or something like that) 

~Me - But the USS Constitution doesn't have missles?

~Sailor - There's a long story that goes along with it, and I came here by choice.  *Sailor turns and then walks away*

I think I may have annoyed him.  It wasn't my intention.  I just was curious since C's brother is joining as a Corpsman.   I didn't really understand how a military man could have ended up on the USS Constitution.  C told me that I asked the sailor for a minute, and he gave me a minute and at that point I was asking for more of his time. Oh well.  If that sailor reads this - I'm sorry. 

This is another ship that was in the harbor for repair.  Unfortunately I can not remember the name of the ship.