Je me souviens

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fff|ppp|The Olympic Tower

The Olympic Tower

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This past weekend, Becky and I took a trip up to [Montreal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal). Becky’s parents had given us [Marriott](http://www.marriott.com/) gift certificates for Christmas so that we could have one last getaway before our baby was born. Neither of us had visited Montreal before, and it was a place we both wanted to go, so even though it’s a bit cold this time of year, up we went!

Highlights of the trip:

– Discovering that rural Quebec is much like rural Ohio.
– [SpringHill Suites Old Montreal](http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/YULSH), our hotel. Great location, cozy suites, nice free breakfast. A much fancier hotel than we would normally stay in, but since we didn’t have to pay for it… 🙂
– Dinner at [Restaurant du Vieux Port](http://www.restaurantduvieuxport.com/). Delicious peppercorn steak, cozy atmosphere, right around the corner from our hotel.
– [Montreal High Lights](http://www.montrealenlumiere.com/), a festival designed to light up the cold dreary nights of February in Montreal. We did the [Ice Slide](http://www.montrealenlumiere.ca/english/action.lasso?&-response=DetailsImpression.lasso&-Token.NoTitre=1581) and saw [Choreography for Snowplows](http://www.montrealenlumiere.ca/english/action.lasso?&-response=DetailsImpression.lasso&-Token.NoTitre=1514) (like [Blue Man Group](http://www.blueman.com/) with snowplows).
– The [Underground City](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_city%2C_Montreal).
– The [McCord Museum](http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/) of Canadian History.
– [Parc Jean-Drapeau](http://www.parcjeandrapeau.com/accueil.asp).
– The [Montreal Biosphère](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Biosph%C3%A8re).
– [Casino Montreal](http://www.casino-de-montreal.com/montreal/nav/en/home). We didn’t gamble, but we did enjoy their buffet!
– [Parc Olympique](http://www.rio.gouv.qc.ca/), site of the 1976 Summer Olympics. We took a ride up the funicular to the Montreal [Tower Observatory](http://www.rio.gouv.qc.ca/pub/visiter/accueil.jsp), as well as a guided tour of the stadium. Very cool!
– [Poutine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine). Not a dish I would regularly want to eat, but an interesting regional delicacy nonetheless.
– [St. Joseph’s Oratory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph%27s_Oratory). Second largest basilica dome next to St. Peter’s.

We’d definitely like to visit Montreal again, but next time we’ll do it when the weather is a bit warmer!

You can see all of our photos from the trip [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/montreal/).

Birthday. Birthday.

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Today is a day of Birthdays. Well, two birthdays. I was going to post them in ‘date’ order, but then I realized that both ladies were not only born on the same day…but the same year! So I’ll post in the order in which we met.

ppp|Melanie and Rebecca in Chicago|ppp

Happy Birthday to Melanie! We hope your first birthday BACK in Mentor is just as memorable as your FIRST birthday in Mentor. Did that make sense? 🙂

ppp|Jenny's Glamour Shot|ppp

and Happy Birthday to Jenny… Living it up and celebrating during school vacation week!

Kudos to Town Fair Tire!

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I’ve been having some issues with the left tires on the Corolla recently, and this culminated yesterday when one of them went entirely flat while I was at work. Luckily, I had a compact spare tire, so I was able to get home. Today I drove over to [Town Fair Tire](http://www.townfair.com/) in Danvers on the recommendation of a co-worker. They checked the flat tire in front, as well as the tire in back that had been slowly leaking air for a while. Turns out that the front tire had a bad valve, which they fixed, and the rear tire had … a NAIL stuck in it. They removed the nail and patched the tire. I’d say they spent about a half hour or 45 minutes working on my car. How much did all of this cost me? Not one cent. I was incredulous when they told me I was “all set”, but it’s true. I had seen on their website and store signs that they did free flat repairs, but I assumed that was for existing customers. Nope! They’ll do it for anyone. I guess the idea is that you’ll be impressed by their service level and come back when you actually need to purchase new tires. Well, it certainly worked for me! I’ll definitely be heading back to [Town Fair Tire](http://www.townfair.com/) for my next tire purchase. Their tire prices are very good, and they offer some very nice services.

Kudos to Town Fair Tire! Highly recommended!

where’s his super suit?

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Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the glaring similarities between American speed skater, Shani Davis and “Incredibles” character Frozone?

ppp|Shani Davis Frozone|ppp

Davis is a fine skater, but all I can think about when he skates is Samuel Jackson’s voice yelling “where’s MY super suit?!?” Teehee.

Frozone Image © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios. Shani Davis Photo Copyright © Meijco van Velzen.

It’s official…

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fff|ppp|Car Seat and Stroller

Car Seat and Stroller

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we can now legally bring our baby home from the hospital. Once it’s born, that is.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of an acquaintance of mine, we now have an infant car seat and the fancy stroller that it snaps into. Her youngest, and last, of three kids has grown out of it and it was looking for a good home. We will treat it right.

The car seat had only been used for 5 months (bought new for her youngest last summer) and the stroller is a few years old. They are both in fantastic condition.

More pictures can be found here.

Apple Store Derby Street

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fff|ppp|The Facade

The Facade

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On Saturday, I attended the opening of the seventh [Apple Store](http://www.apple.com/retail/) in the Greater Boston area. The first six were [Northshore](http://www.apple.com/retail/northshore/) (our “home” store), [CambridgeSide](http://www.apple.com/retail/cambridgeside/), [Chestnut Hill](http://www.apple.com/retail/chestnuthill/), [Rockingham Park](http://www.apple.com/retail/rockinghampark/), [South Shore](http://www.apple.com/retail/southshore/), and [Burlington](http://www.apple.com/retail/burlington/). Saturday’s grand opening was the [Derby Street](http://www.apple.com/retail/derbystreet/) Apple Store, at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, MA.

The Derby Street Shoppes is a ‘lifestyle center’, a new and growing breed of shopping establishment. This is an arrangement with various stores of the type you’d find in a mall, only the store fronts are outside. I call it an overgrown strip mall. In any case, the Apple Store is located in between The Children’s Place and Burton’s Grill. It’s an average size Apple Store, with all of the features one would expect – lots of Apple and third party hardware and software, plenty of things to play with, and technical help at the Genius Bar.

I arrived at about 8:30 a.m., and at that point nobody was in line. A bunch of people were waiting around in their cars – a wise move, considering how cold it was. At about 9 a.m., the management came out and set up the velvet ropes. After that, people started getting in line. I ended up being about #20 in line after taking some photos. Once I was in line, I shot some more photos from my spot, and shot some video as well.

Since I’ve already been to many other Apple Stores, I wasn’t entralled as much by the store and its contents, but rather by the grand opening event, and all of the hoopla and crowds surrounding it. To that effect, you can check out my [photo gallery](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/geekiness/apple_store_derby_street/) of the event, as well as a [movie](http://prwdot.org/movies/apple-store-derby-street/) that I shot with our new camcorder and edited in iMovie.

Enjoy!

Update

Here’s some other coverage from around the Interweb.

– [Cape Cod Cyclist made a day of it](http://www.capecodcyclist.8k.com/weblog/archives/2006/02/apple_store_der.html)
– [V1Beta showed up to get a t-shirt](http://www.v1beta.com/social-experiment/the-kentucky-derby/136/)
– [Jishman goes to see yet another Apple Store](http://www.riddlemethisjishman.com/?p=258)
– [TUAW has their call out for reports](http://www.tuaw.com/2006/02/18/apple-store-derby-street-your-reports/)
– [IFOAppleStore noted V1Beta’s photos of the grey-stone facade](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2006/02/18/derby-street-shoppes-photos/)

She speaks!

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Yeah, yeah. It’s been a while. I know!  Here’s a post that catches you up on what I’ve had on my mind lately.

My very, very dear friend Jennifer is engaged!  WooHoo! Mosey on over to her site and wish her well!

Don’t you think the Olympics are awesome?  I’ve been watching as much as my little eyes can handle. Personal favorites at the moment include Curling and the new Snowboard-cross event. I wish that NBC would do more coverage of some of the ‘lesser known’ American athletes as well as features on athletes from other countries. For me the Olympics are as much a learning experience as they are sporting events.

BabyWood is doing quite well. I had a check-up this past Monday and the doctor is happy with our progress.  Monday was also the day of the famous ‘Glucose Tolerance Test’; wherin you drink an orange soda-y drink and then they test your blood.  We passed with flying colors, which means that I’m not in danger of gestational diabetes. phew!  This morning I was treated to a large and painful needle administering the first of two rhogam shots. Thank you very much RH- blood!  I know it is for a good cause, though, so it is easier to bear.

I’ve been doing some good reading lately.  I don’t think I’ll do big reviews for you, but let me know what you thought (if you’ve read them)!  Empire Falls by Richard Russo, The World According to Garp by John Irving and Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.  As always, feel free to pass on any recommendations. I’m always on the lookout for something good to read!

A Cheese ‘n’ Taters Valentine

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fff|ppp|Mmm, cheese!

Mmm, cheese!

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Tonight, Becky and I had a Valentine’s dinner, sharing some foods that we love. I made Becky a plate o’ cheese, with five kinds of cheese (gouda, gruyere, muenster, monterey jack, and cheddar) and cheese-flavored Ritz crackers. There are few things in this world that Becky loves more than cheese. Luckily, I’m one of them. 🙂 Becky made me tater tot casserole, one of our favorite dishes. She also made some cute Valentine’s decorations, and I got *two* cards – one from Becky, and one from the baby! I’m not quite sure how the baby was able to write a card… maybe it was dictated to Becky telepathically?

Anyway, it was all good. Hope everyone out there had a great Valentine’s Day!

Finally, some snow

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fff|ppp|Out the front window

Out the front window

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So we’re having a bit of a snow storm today. It’s not going to compare with any of the really huge storms we’ve had in the past few years, but it’s certainly more than we’ve had this season so far. We might take a step outside later today, but for now, we just have a few shots from inside the apartment. 🙂

Update @ 6:38 p.m.
We did venture out a bit this afternoon for a walk down Cabot Street. We took some photos for [Michelle](http://mikao.blogspot.com/)’s [Hometown Six](http://mikao.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_mikao_archive.html#113926251616343914) project, and we also shot some video using our [new camcorder](http://prwdot.org/2006/02/12/video-killed-the-photography-star/). The streets were pretty quiet, though we did greet a few adventurous walkers and snowplow drivers. Dunkin Donuts was open, and quite busy. Bell Market and Family Dollar were open as well.

I added a photo of Cabot Street to today’s [photo album](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/snowstorm_february_12/), but the video will have to wait – we had to order a FireWire cable so that we could transfer digital video from the camcorder to our Mac. It should be arriving in the next day or so, and we’ll upload the video as soon as we have a chance. We did play back the video on our television, and although I can’t say much for my videography skills, the audio and video produced by the camcorder were quite good.