It's still really muggy and I am still in a funk.

Sara and I went exploring around the local neighborhood - despite the humidity. It was fun - despite the humidity. We went to an Italian deli where I spoke with the owner in Italian. I think he was happy to speak his mother tongue. We also bought some great pita bread at a Syrian/Lebanese store. We also discovered some nice little restaurants we will have to try out.

Sara got her haircut yesterday and it looks great. While she was at the salon, I went to explore my future place of employment. It is a lovely campus. The commute is going to be tough, though.

The air is supposed to dry out this weekend - I can't wait.

I have been in a muggies-induced funk.

There is much to do, but no enthusiasm to do it.

Sara and I went to see the last instalment of Star Wars today. We both liked it. I guess I need to grow up now that the saga is over. Hmmm...

Will be back when the power to my brain returns...

Sara's birthday was nice. More on that later...

I have been busy today putting in our window a/c units. It is supposed to be dreadfully hot and humid tomorrow and the day after and the day after and ... you get the point. Too bad. Today was delightful - the perfect weather. I did get out for a while to partake of the day. The dog and I went for a nice long walk.

I have also been trying to make room to set up my computer. We went from a spacious three bedroom apartment in Providence to a smaller 2 bedroom (I would say it is 1 1/2 - really) one here. Moreover, since I was away, Sara has claimed most of the space already. So I need to squeeze in and claim some for myself without stepping on any toes. Right now we have our bedroom in the 1/2 room, but we want to move it to the bigger room which will also function as my office. The other room will be the large closet and Sara's office. Maybe...

In any case, I was over at Sherri's and she mentioned the idea of the Evil Dog Totem. While I like the idea, I also think it would be a good name for a band. Another good name I came across recently was Splicing Unit Number 9. I should keep a list of these should I ever find myself in a band. However, this is highly unlikely because I do not play an instrument and my singing is dreadful. Perhaps I could sell the names to up and coming bands.

I should get back to work.

It's Sara's birthday!!!

Go wish her a happy one!

Stepping into the shower in our apartment is like sitting at a table at IHOP (the International House of Pancakes). The variety of body soaps, shampoos, and conditioners is astonishing and they all have some tasty ingredient: cranberry, apple, ginger, coffee, blueberry, and so on. As in picking a syrup for my pancakes at IHOP, I can never decide which luscious soapy substance to indulge in as I stand naked in our claw-foot bathtub with the water flowing down by body.

I am sure you didn't need to picture that. Nonetheless, every shower has become a sensory exploration.

As if the dog has not had enough trauma in the past couple of weeks (roommate moving out, packing up, driving cross-country, adapting to a mostly indoor lifestyle, having a pair of dogs living upstairs), I took him to the vet today. Since we still have not established a vet for him in Boston yet, I drove down to Providence to take him to his old vet there. He used to not care about going to vet. In fact, he seemed to like it. There were so many intersting smells there and if he was lucky he might even get a treat. Today he was fairly nervous, but not like some dogs I have seen that try to run in the opposite direction as soon as you get them out of the car. He was due for his shots, so it was not a fun visit. He behaved though. He also got a clean bill of health. He does have some excess tartar on his teeth, but nothing serious.

My computer finally made it - although I am still writing on Sara's laptop. It might take a while to make some space for it and get it hooked up. I do think Sara is ready for me to stop using her computer, so she might have some incentive to make space and set it up. So stay tuned for some pictures....

Today:

Picked up our ART.
Bought a trash can.
Had Vietnamese for lunch.
Bought too many CDs.
Found a store with an assortment of products from Latin America (bought some huitlacotche - remember Corn Smut?).
Found a good Mexican restaurant and had dinner there (Los Charros in Jamaica Plain - a neighborhood in Boston).
Had a nice evening walk with Sara and the dog.

Tomorrow I get to go back to Providence. I am taking the dog to the vet for his annual barrage of shots.

I am still waiting on my computer.

We are going to a bbq even though it is about 58 degrees outside. Not that I am complaining. I will take this cool weather over the hot and humid weather of last weekend any day.

The bbq is with some of Sara's online friends. I have never met them so this will be something new. I do need to meet some people here in Boston. Hmmmm...being social, what a bizarre concept.

We went to lunch at a taqueria near Fenway Park today. Even though the people there were from Mexico, the food was not really right. It was good, but not quite right. I was spoiled with my paisanos over there in Washington. Those tacos were so good! I am sure there is a good taco to be had in Boston, I just need to find it. The mission is on!

We joined Netflicks this past week and we have seen our first two films: Close Encounters and The Life Aquatic. I had to watch CE again after our visit to Devil's Tower. I had been wanting to watch TLA for a while. I really enjoyed the first, while I was a bit disappointed with the second. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I did enjoy the Portuguese covers of David Bowie.

Ok, time to go.

Even though Sara will claim contrariwise, I believe that CSI (the show on CBS) is Scooby Doo for grown ups (not that they can't continue to enjoy the animated version).

My computer is now in transit from Illinois to Rhode Island - so pictures maybe up soon. If you are like Sara and lack patience, you can go over to her new blog and take a peek at some of them.

We bought some art today. I guess we are official art collectors now.

I just enrolled for one of those city directory services where you can review/read reviews of restaurants, clubs, cafes, etc. Being relatively new to the city of Boston, I will be exploring a lot. But that is not my story.

As I was filling out all the fields to enroll, I got one of those boxes where there is a distorted word that you need to retype to verify that you are a real person. The word was quite disturbing: RAPED.

Call me strange, but I could not bring myself to type that word. I reloaded the screen, refilled the fields, and typed in the new word: OPERA. That was much better.

I kicked a chair today.

It hurt me more than the chair.

In fact, I may have broken my little toe on my right foot. I'll have to see its condition in the morning.

I am not sure why I did it. I was walking across the kitchen to feed the dog when - POW! - my foot made contact with the steel leg of the lonely ugly orange chair that sits in the kitchen. The chair barely moved. My toe definitely did and now it is swollen and thobbing.

Sara also hit her toe. She attributes the toe mishaps on bad feng shui. That is quite possible.

In other news, I am not sure what is going on with the weather here. Two days ago it was summer - 90 degrees and humid. Yesterday morning it was still summerlike, then around noon we went back to spring. Today it was almost winter-like: we barely made it over 50 degrees. What's up with that? I am not complaining, though. I prefer the cooler weather. I just put on a sweatshirt and I am ready to go. Well, actually, with the throbbing toe, I am not going anywhere.

I am also dealing with the infamous moths that Sara has mentioned before. I am not sure where they are breeding. They seem to come from the pantry, but I can't find where they are shacking up. Maybe the moths are a result of bad feng shui too. It seems as plausible of a reason as any.

Still waiting for my computer to arrive. All my other boxes with books made it. The computer box went to Spokane then to some place in Illinois and then back to Spokane. Hmmm...maybe bad feng shui to blame there too.

Time to deal with the bad feng shui. Sara is the expert at that, though, and she is quite busy at the moment.

Little has been written here because:

- It has been too hot/humid to do ANYTHING!
- If something has been done, it has been spending time with Sara, unpacking, and settling in.
- Sara's computer has been the one used by me and writers block is gotten by me when I am away from my computer.
- The trip has rendered me tired.

As you can tell, I have been living in the passive voice over the past couple of days. With cooler weather, better sleep, and a healthier diet, maybe the active voice will return.

Oh, and pictures of the trip have to wait until I get my computer to upload them. Sorry.

Now that was a long drive...

Yes, we made it. We tired, we are smelly, and happy to be together.

It is hot and humid here! Lots to tell and pictures to post, but that will come later.

Sara's Here!

She finally made it. Today is a busy day and tomorrow we set off.

Our itinerary will take us to Montana tomorrow. Then it is on to Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, and finally Boston!

Highlights will include:

• Sara will complete her mission to have set foot in all fifty states (she is missing Idaho, South Dakota, and Wisconsin).
• A stay in a log cabin.
• We will see Devil's Tower, which I have wanted to visit ever since I first watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind back in the 70s.
• A stop at the Crazy Horse Monument, Mt. Rushmore, and the Badlands in South Dakota.
• A walk around Madison where Sara's parents lived before she was born.

Lowlights will include:

• Lots of bad food.
• High gas prices.
• A restless, nervous dog that whines a lot.

We won't be able to post from the road because we won't have a computer with us nor the time to find internet cafes. I will have a digital camera with me, so I will take pictures and post them when I get to Boston.

So this is it for a while. Remember to come back and visit in a week or so!

Waiting for Sara

Sara has the worst luck flying. She was scheduled to fly out here via Washington National and Salt Lake City (it is a free ticket), but she got to the airport early enough that they could route her through Atlanta and SLC, but she would arrive 2 and a half hours earlier.

That was great news, although I know that at this time of the year Atlanta can have some nasty thunderstorms and I was worried she would get delayed because of one of those. Indeed, as I looked at the weather map, I saw a sting of nasty looking storms headed to the Atlanta area. She was able to get out of there before they hit. Problems over, right?

Wrong. I like checking in every now and then at RLM Software where you can enter the flight number and it shows you where the flight is. As I checked in, suddenly I got the map saying the flight from Atlanta to SLC was diverted to Kansas City. Now this freaked me out because there was no obvious reason for this.

When the plane landed in KC, Sara called me. It turns out that there was a kid traveling alone who got put on the wrong flight. So they had to stop in KC, get him off the plane, and put him on plane to wherever he was supposed to be. Now how does that happen? Everytime I see unaccompanied minors traveling, the gate agents are so annal about it. I guess they weren't this time. Of course, it had to be the time Sara was flying.

Having to land in KC delayed her flight enought that she missed her connection in SLC. Now she will connect with the flight she originally was going to take. Easy come, easy go. I was excited about seeing her earlier. And I feel bad for Sara. She has the worst luck flying, I don't know why. When we were in New Mexico we bought an airplane milagro for her. It seemed to work for her when we went to Yucatan. Maybe she did not bring it with her this time around. Or perhaps she did not keep it in an appropriate place.

So here I sit at home when I should have been driving to pick her up. Most of the packing is done, so the house feels quite empty. There is still some cleaning to do, but at this point I don't feel like doing it.

Packing and Cleaning

Yes, that about sums up my last couple of days. I hate packing. I usually don't mind cleaning, but I don't like having to do the move out cleaning.

Other things I don't like about moving:

• Having to throw away food.
• Always having the feeling that you are forgetting something important.
• Realizing you need something and not remembering where it is.

I am also really tired, yet I am usually up at six in the morning. I get this way when I am stressed and moving stresses me out.

Whenever I move, I also go through a strange nostalgic phase, even when I hated living in a particular place. That phase has been hitting me recently.

On the good side, Sara flies in tomorrow.

It has not hit me yet that on Saturday we will be starting our cross-country drive, though. Geez, seven days on the road.