Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

So Clementine and I had a very nice birthday date yesterday but all the forces of the universe were working against us!

First I was running late, then I couldn't get ahold of Clementine. Then I got to the Public Garden where we were meeting and still hadn't heard from her. Had to text robreed and ask him to check and see if there was a problem with the red line because she was coming from Harvard Square. No red line advisories.

I waited for a bit and I think tried calling a couple more times. It's very very unlike Clementine to just go missing like this so I started to get kind of worried. I debated calling Hashbrown for a while because I didn't want to worry her but then I did just in case she knew something I didn't or Clementine had left behind her cell phone or something. Hashbrown didn't know either so she said she'd call her.

A few minutes later I got a call from Clementine - she had just stepped out of her coffee date and happened to notice her phone ringing when Hashbrown called her - she was shocked at what time it was and could barely get the story out for all her apologizing. I know she felt really bad but I wasn't mad, just glad she wasn't in a ditch somewhere or something!

Turns out her watch had very recently died (on her birthday!) and although she had her cell phone on a very loud setting and was listening for it, never heard any of my calls and lost track of the time.

Anyway, after all that insanity was over we met up at DeLuca's market but it was too crowded so we walked to Bella Vita Cafe where she bought a sandwich for us to split (she was originally going to bring cheese and crackers but didn't have time after being so late). Then we got delicious Starbucks drinks and walked over to the park to have our birthday picnic.

She had brought Rosie's chocolate cake and I had brought spinach salad with raspberries and blueberries and balsamic dressing, as well as two cupcakes from Sweet, which robreed and I had just walked by in the morning - it had just opened very recently. See his weblog for a review of the cupcakes. Let's just say "Sweet" is a good description for them!

The weather was nice - not too hot or cold, the clouds came and went a bit, but no real threat of rain. There were tons of people out and about in the garden and there was lots of good people and pet watching to be had. We saw some really cute puppies and babies.

Thanks for a great birthday date, Clementine! AND for not being kidnapped.

I had a date w/Clementine, Hester, and Hashbrown today. Please note that we went to Pad Thai and the result is that even though I ate my food there around 4pm I'm still not hungry at all and it's almost 11pm.

I met Clementine in Kenmore Square and we walked over to our new apt in Fenway where she got to check out the place, and we took Billy the dog out. He was real sweet to Amy, just like last time he saw her a couple years ago on Beacon Hill. Good thing because the first couple times he was around her years ago in Brighton he scared the crap out of her as he was in his "fake friendly with snapping at people" phase and snapped at her badly at least 2 times.

Anyway, we went on a little walk with Billy where he was feeling his oats because he likes to show off for visitors so he was prancing around like he was a spring chicken instead of a grumpy old man.

Then we took him home and headed to Pad Thai. I got crispy chicken pad thai. Mmmmm. Clementine got spicy bamboo chicken rice plate. After a while we heard from Hashbrown that Hester had woken up from her nap and they came and joined us.

From that point on it was all about Hester, as it should be with a almost 15 month old! She was having none of sitting in her stroller or in our booth so I followed her around the restaurant a few times as she explored everything, often pointing things out and asking "What's that?" (more like, "Dat?") We went to the window and looked at birds, people walking, and buses and cars. She also enjoyed playing with Hashbrown's cell phone and my cell phone.

It was great to see everyone - I haven't seen Hester Willa since January and she's really getting to be such a big girl! She was wearing the gift my parents gave her for Christmas and it was the official last wearing because it's a little too small for her now. Thanks for letting her wear it one more time for me!

I was listening to Cornflake Girl on my iPod this morning and it reminded me of Clementine. I don't even remember which of us is supposed to be "Raisin Girl" anymore but it's all because of a story of how when she was a little girl in Hawaii she or her mom once opened a container of raisins to find it full of maggots, so she for years and years referred to raisins as "raisin worms". In fact, I'm thinking now the nickname was probably not Raisin Girl but Worm Girl.

Anyway, I just wanted to dedicate a post to my psychic twin Clementine, as it is our co-birthday month.

We have known each other for almost 14 years now, since becoming fast friends our first year at Smith, bonding over our love for Miss Saigon, Indigo Girls and our propensity to sit in our pajamas folding laundry and watching 90210 rather than partying at the Quad. (Oh yeah, we were that cool.)

We've been through lots of things together from literally sharing a dorm with crack-smokers to moving to Somerville after college and now Clementine and Hashbrown are moms and I am a doting Auntie to Hester Willa.

Happy Birthday month, Clementine! I love you and I'm so glad we were lucky enough to land in the same house first year.... god knows we may never have met each other otherwise (what with the whole staying in doing laundry thing and all)!

Last night I got to visit with my sweet Julls, who I haven't seen in nine years, which we both decided is unacceptable. (Of course, I also haven't seen Jozwik in about 5 years, Emily in 9, Ani in 9, Joy R. in about 5 I think, and it's been at least that long for a lot of other people too...)

We met at Faneuil Hall and walked over to Boston Beer Works on Canal Street for dinner. I actually got a beer too because although I'm not the biggest beer fan in the world, they have some really good ones. I got the Baker's Island Blond.

Anyway, it was great to see Julie, we agreed that each of us looks the same which must mean we don't look old. ;) Hooray for not looking old!

We had good times reminiscing about our days in Tazewell, VA with ASP including the following gems which, in some cases, one or the other of us had forgotten about:

1. The trip to the hospital when one of our volunteers had a miscarriage. Yikes.
2. The Group Leader that Julie had a little thing for who someone, probably Jozwik, declared looked like he might have heads in his freezer at home. (Actually now that I think about it it could have been Ermer or Mark Pie, both of whom I think were around that week.)
3. Our new composition to the tune of "Foolish Games" about foolish questions from one particularly difficult volunteer group.
4. Crazy Craig.
5. Electric Rick.
6. Various upsetting ASP-staff hookups.
7. The site we sent one group to where the guy living there liked to show his junk to people and invite the young girl on the crew to take a shower if she'd like. Oops. Yeah, we only sent guys there after that and only till the first project was done, then we said goodbye. He also showed his junk to Julie. Awesome.
8. The house we went to visit to see if we could do some work for them, and Julie insisting to be let into a room to find the source of a leak only to discover a room o'porn that she wished she could erase from her brain. Um, yeah, we didn't work on that house.

Here are a couple more I forgot about until later:

1. Someone, I believe possibly Crazy Craig walking into our staff quarters and accidentally seeing Julie changing! (We had a mirror set up in a stupid location for a while.)
2. The "boyfriend" Julie made in the grocery store parking lot. For a while she had a running boyfriend count on our whiteboard in the office but we lost track.
3. Our whole closeout week together in Mingo County! That was rife with crazy times and fun stuff. Like scraping gum off the gym floor.
4. The week when we found out with something like 2 days advance notice that one whole volunteer group of about 40 people wasn't coming. Oops - scramble to figure out where to sent the remaining crews!
5. When we had to re-plumb a house after a volunteer specified the wrong type of pipe (PVC instead of CPVC which is suitable for both hot and cold water - PVC is only for cold). Yeah, we should have known that. Also, we made Jozwik do that. I think with Jason Kennedy's help when he came back to be an extra staff member week 7.

Everybody wish Julls good luck as she has a few more interviews coming up.

Good luck, Julls, I'm thinking of you!

"It's just an online article," he'll say, but still.

Good job Rob Reed!

Check out his article about working with Google Earth to map your digital photos so you can share them with other people, etc. It's really cool actually. He also wrote a second article about doing the same thing with Google Maps. I don't think that one is up yet.

Anyway, I think it's pretty cool.

I hope you had a great day!

First I'll be nice. This little lady is on my hooray list, Clementine!

It's a certain someone's 30th Birthday today! Happy Birthday!

I hope you get to relax this evening and that Petunia treats you to a lovely dinner and that you get to have yummy birthday goodies!

It will be so nice to see you this weekend!

Have a really awesome day! The weather is perfect.

Dude, it's so crazy!!! I can't believe Clementine and Hashbrown are parents first of all, and secondly that they will have their little one with them! It's awesome! Congrats, ladies!

My friend T. has started a blog. Let's encourage her to post a lot by reading it often, and, once she fixes her commenting to allow non-blogger people to post, posting comments. :)