• Enjoyed the first weekend of Spring-like weather with lots of time outside, firing up the grill for the first time this year, and taking the Lovely Tess on her first bus ride down to Harvard Square. Despite the lack of serious snow this Winter, it’s been a long one and I’m dying for some sunshine and warm weather.
• As if the bus ride wasn’t exciting enough, we’ll be taking the Lovely Tess on her first airplane ride this weekend. After a three year hiatus, we’ll be reinstating our yearly visit to Phoenix and Pizzeria Bianco. Oh how I’ve missed it. And this forecast is looking mighty fine.
• I really need to upgrade my camera, but in the meantime, I’ve been having a lot of fun with Hipstamatic, and app for the iPhone. The camera on the iPhone leaves a lot to be desired, so instead of hoping that it looks as good as a decent digital camera, let it mimic older analog cameras. You can swap out different lenses, film, and flashes to create very cool photos. I’m loving it right now. The only downside is that it’s pretty slow to process each shot, but in this age of instant digital photography, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have to slow down every now and then. The Lovely Suse got me a Holga for Christmas, but until I figure out the ins and outs of devloping and printing those affordably, this will do for now. You can see some examples on Flickr.
• My suits suddenly feel naked with out a pocket square. I’ll be honest. Before I wore one for the first time, I had to look up how to properly fold one. They’re not just for Mad Men wannabees.
• I’ve been done with school for a week, and I think that I visibly look more relaxed. That nagging voice in the back of my head is now gone, and I am definitely enjoying my guilt-free relaxation time. And I finally had time to give my car the cleaning that it desperately needed after far too long. It was pretty shameful. Note to parents who let their kids eat snacks in the car: vacuum often. Even the Lovely Tess had started scolding me for how dirty the outside of my car was. That’s when you know that it’s really bad.
• We finally got to check out Coppa last weekend, and it was fan-frigging-tastic. Our favorite type of place with lots of small plates to order, and we literally wanted to order everything on the menu. Tons of hot and cold antipasti, stuzzi, salumi, pasta, and pizzas, great energy in the room, and reasonably priced. The wait can be pretty long (2+ hours), but we managed to go early (one of the benefits of having a toddler: you can eat dinner very, very early) and had only an hour wait. Smartly, they take your cell phone number and call you 20 minutes before your table is ready, so killing time in the South End is very easy. We will go back soon, hopefully. And I think that we can probably pull off bringing the Lovely Tess with us, provided that we get there when they open to avoid the wait. We’ll give it a shot.
• You know what makes for a really productive work environment? The sound of drywall being put up inches from your head.
• I’ve been a subscriber to Sirius for the past four years, and this will undoubtedly be my last one. I appreciate all of the stations and the lack of commercials, but they now nickel and dime their subscribers (royalty fees, streaming fees, etc.) to the point of feeling like I can’t justify the cost of it anymore. More often than not, I’m either on the phone, listening to NPR or podcasts, or obliging the Lovely Tess’s requests for The Ting Tings or the Roots. Add to that the ability to stream Pandora and other music services makes the subscription model unecessary. Your days are numbered, Sirius.
• I am a bit shamed to admit it, but I had my first bibimbap last week. With all of the Asian food that we eat, it’s a bit shocking that we never eat Korean food. I attribute it to a bad experience we had a number of years ago, but since then, it’s just fallen completely off our radar. Our usual Friday night “What do you want to do for dinner?” discussion suddenly took on new excitement when the idea of Korean food popped into my head, and we hit up a place nearby. What can I say? I’m a dummy. I suspect that it will go into heavy rotation ASAP.

So now what? That’s the question that obviously comes next. What the hell are you going to do with yourself now that you have this fancy-pants degree? Well, let’s take a few steps back and talk about why I chose to put myself through this in the first place. I don’t think it should come as a surprise to those of you who know me that I was not exactly content with the career path that I was on. After realizing for a number of years that I was on a path towards boredom and dissatisfaction without any idea of how to change that, I also realized that I didn’t have the skills to do much else. Business school would be an opportunity to gain some important and marketable skills that would hopefully give me a chance to take a new direction. I’ve never been one of those people who completely loved their job and couldn’t wait to get started every morning, but I’m also realistic enough to know that very few people experience that. I just want to be proud of what I do on a daily basis. Whether it’s a company or a technology or a group of people that I get to work with every day, I want to be excited, challenged, and motivated to perform every day. I know that my next job will not likely be my dream job, but it will be a step in that direction. What do I want to be when I grow up? I’ve got some ideas.

Thanks to my fellow classmates who have made this experience as great as it was and whom I realistically would not have made it through without. And of course, to the Lovely Suse and the Lovely Tess: Thank you for putting up with me for the past two years. Never once did you question me having a Friday night conference call (ok, maybe once or twice) or having to spend every weekday night doing homework or taking my computer on vacations or being away at school every month. I couldn’t have done it without your love, support and encouragement.

Now, it’s back to reality a bit. I’ve got some catching up to do. Books, movies, TV shows, sleep, family, friends, and some projects. I’ll hopefully finally have some time live a normal life and take some vacation in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait. I think we’ve earned it.

• I always did have a thing for girls with glasses (it is a little known fact that the Lovely Suse wears glasses, but only at home). So the Lovely Tess has glasses. We had noticed over the past month+ that her left eye had started turning in every once in a while. We got it checked out, and it turns out that she has a not-uncommon condition that will necessitate glasses and other treatment over the coming years. Luckily we caught it early, and she’ll be just fine. Luckily, the girl knows how to rock a pair of specs. And yes, she will have multiple pairs to suit her mood and outfit, because, well, that’s just how she rolls. She’s had them for all of three days, and so far so good. She keeps them on, claims that she can see better, and frankly, I think she just likes looking a little different than everyone else. We’ll see how long this lasts for. I expect multiple pairs of broken glasses, complete meltdowns, and numerous glasses-related accidents.
• Our sauce making is done for the year. We made 40 jars of tomato sauce, which should keep us and friends and family stocked up for a little while. We hardly made a dent in last year’s supply, so we might be a little more generous this year. Or, we just might using a lot more sauce.
• Our friends Robert and Margaret joined us for our sauce making extravaganza, and they were kind enough to bring over the New Super Mario Bros. Wii for us to play while the sauce bubbled away. Holy crap this game is fun. I spent more hours than I care to admit of my youth conquering the first three Super Mario Bros. games on the original Nintendo, and this brought me right back to the those days. The greatest thing about this one is the ability to have FOUR people playing at the same time, and we did just that. You haven’t seen fun until you’re seen four 30-somethings playing Mario on a Friday night.
• Our holiday card is out, and hopefully people have gotten them by now. I’ll post it here later this week. Don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t gotten it yet. We’re happy with the way it came out, and I guess we’ll have to start thinking about next year’s card soon. The expectations are getting to be a little ridiculous.
• I am currently enjoying my first week off from school since July. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. I believe my current pace could best be described as “burning the candle at both ends”. I will spend the next week sitting on my ass, watching bad TV (Jersey Shore, I’m looking at you), enjoying the holidays, and actually spending time with my family. I can feel my blood pressure dropping as we speak.
• Speaking of TV, I discovered last week that a third season of Everst: Beyond the Limit was filmed this past year and should be appearing soon. This may be one of my favorite shows ever, and I can’t wait for it to appear. Oh, why can’t it be ready for a New Year’s Eve marathon, just like I watched the first season?

• Less than three months of school left. That light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer, and I’m very much looking forward to things getting back to normalish. To be honest, I don’t even remember what that feels like. You mean I’ll actually get to watch TV and movies and read books and take naps and have “free time”. I think it’s going to take a while to get used to it. I know that I bitch about it a lot, and it’s not that I dislike it, but I’m just tired. I can speak for the Lovely Suse and Lovely Tess that it’s been a very long two years, and I know that we all deserve a nice long vacation when it’s all done.
• After being unhappy with my suits for a while, I finally bought myself a new one. And it is custom-made. And it was very reasonbly priced. And feels very nice. And fits perfectly. And I want to wear it every day. And I ordered it online. And it got to my door in 7 days. Seriously. I found Indochino.com a couple of month ago, and after reading glowing reviews, bit the bullet, had the Lovely Suse take my measurements, and placed my order. I ordered it on a Monday, and it arrived at my door the following Tuesday. It needed some minor adjustments, but the company reimburses you for the alterations, and if the fit is really off, will remake it from scratch. A 100% fit guarantee is hard to argue with. Once my local tailor was done with it, it was pretty much perfect. I think I will have to make another order soon. A man can never have enough suits, right?
• For any of you who enjoy your DVR, I highly recommend picking up a Tivo HD. They recently dropped the prices on them, video quality is superb, and they do Netflix streaming. Oh, and you can replace your cable box with a CableCard (which your cable company provides at a lower cost than a HD box, although I do sort of miss having the clock on the box). They make an excellent holiday gift!
• Have I told you how much I love my cast-iron pans? We replaced all of our sketchy non-stock pans with cast-iron, and we haven’t looked back. It takes a little while to get them seasoned well enough to be truly non-stick, but it is so worth the effort. They retain heat amazingly well, they give food a fantastic crust, and they make an excellent weapon. Seriously, these things weight about 10-15 pounds apiece. It’s only a matter of time before I seriously hurt myself with one of them. I also discovered that they can be cleaned with only salt. Shake a bunch of kosher salt into the pan while still warm, scrub it with a brush or paper towels, and all of the gunk comes up. Rub it with a little canola oil and it’s good to go. These pans will outlive me, guaranteed.
• I have multiple implements to sharpen my knives, but none of them do a great job. I feel like a whetstone is the next progression. There seems to be something zen-like about sharpening by hand.
• We’ve hit up Chinatown twice in the past month. I have no idea what we don’t go there more often, but Taiwan Cafe deserves much more frequent visits from us. ASAP. Steamed vegetarian dumplings, braised eggplant, sauteed watercress, and a cold Tsingtao is one of my favorite meals of all time.
• It finally snowed over the weekend, which I highly disapprove of. However, I am now ready for the holidays due to the change in weather. I just wasn’t feeling it with the 70 degree weather. We picked up our tree yesterday, and ee tried replacing our incandescant lights on our tree with shiny new energy-efficient LED lights. When we finished decorating it, we came to the conclusion that the lights suck. They’re harsh, too white, and they blind you if they catch you at the wrong angle. An epic failure. We’ll look for better LED’s, but if we can’t find ones that give that same warm glow, the incandescants are going back up. Sorry environment. I have my limits.
• We get along with our upstairs neighbors very well, but let me say this: I can’t wait until their son goes back to college. These are going to be a long six weeks. I guess we took the peace and quiet for granted.
• Why is it perfectly acceptable to talk publicly about kids pooping but not adults? Because let me tell you, what the Lovely Tess did yesterday made me very proud. Chip off the old block, that one.
• It’s becoming a Sunday tradition making these pancakes. While we don’t always have buttermilk on hand, they are pretty damn tasty made with regular milk. It’s taken me years to find a recipe that didn’t come out like lead plates, and these are light and fluffy and just the way I like them. I went so far as to mix up a huge batch of the dry ingredients so now any time the hankering hits, we can quickly whip up a batch. Give ‘em a try.

• Geez, it’s been a while, huh? I guess I’ve been busy for a change.
• 144 days, 10 hours, 23 minutes, 31 seconds until I’m done with school. Not that I’m counting or anything.
• We made our annual visit to Shelburne Farm for apple picking, jumping on a big pile of hay, riding tractors, and eating cider donuts. And luckily the macouns just opened for picking, so the trees were full and I didn’t have to wound myself trying to jump up for them.
• My Sirius radio died a week ago, and my local NPR station has been on their Fall Pledge Drive for the past week. That would be a recipe for a very painful commute. Luckily, I decided to pick up one of these to hook up my iPhone in my car. Between my own music, Pandora, and various podcasts, I really haven’t missed it at all.
• Have you ever sat in a car and listened to a toddler sing the second verse of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 30 times in a row? “Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky…” The first 5 times are pretty funny. The next 10, you’re just waiting for her to get bored and move onto a new song, and for the next 15 you’re just wondering if her brain short-circuited and she needs a reboot.
• The Lovely Suse’s birthday dinner at Craigie on Main was outstanding as expected. Yes, we went there again. We can’t help it. It’s by far our favorite restaurant around, it’s always amazing, it’s always different, and I always know that there will be some sort of braised pork belly on the menu. Oh, and the cocktails are interesting and go down very nicely. What more could we ask for? Now, where to go for our anniversary?
• We ordered up a big batch of stuff from Rancho Gordo, and after trying those beans, we’re converts. Damn, they’re good. So much better than any other’s we’ve had before. All sorts of heirloom varieties that I’ve never heard of, they’re creamy, flavorful, and have become a weekly staple. Give ‘em a try.
• Thanks to the Lovely Suse for fixing my hair after the scary Lebanese salon owner butchered it a bit. She doesn’t ask how I want it, just starts in on it, finishes in about 5 minutes, and then sends me on my way. I’m too afraid to ask her to fix it because last time, I told her to leave it a little long, and she said “You look 7 years younger with it short.” So she cut it short. Oh, and she cut off my sideburns without asking, which I am slowly growing back. Why do I continue going there? It’s a minute from my house, I never have to wait more than a few minutes, and it’s cheap. And as long as the scary owner doesn’t cut it, it’s great. But apparently, she “likes to cut the hair because I know that people will come back.” Yes, because they’re afraid that you’ll hunt them down if they don’t.

• We finally joined the rest of the world and signed up for Netflix. The Watch Instantly feature is pretty sweet as we can stream movies through our Tivo, and the turnaround time on DVD’s is about a day. Now, if we only had enough time to watch stuff.
• To facilitate that streaming, we upgraded our FIOS service to a pretty ridiculous speed for not a whole lot more per month. And luckily, we’re getting even higher speeds than we’re paying for.
• We are currently drowning in tomatoes. Not only are our own plants producing more than we can handle, our CSA is dumping a giant bag of them on us every week. I can’t really complain too much as I’ll be pining away for these days once the winter comes. Tomato soup, tomato salad, tomato sauce, anyone?
• Almost every hinge on our kitchen cabinets has broken over the past two years. They have these stupid pieces of plastic in them that make them stay closed, so as soon as those break, the doors won’t stay closed. Brilliant design, right? I’ve slowly been replacing them with new ones, and what a difference it makes. Doors that actually stay closed! What a novelty.
• It took us all summer, but we finally made it down to Duxbury Beach this past weekend. Man, I love that beach. Easy to get to, easy to park, it’s never crowded, clean bathrooms, ice cream, and wide sandy beaches.
• Continuing with our action-packed weekend, we hit up Drumlin Farm on Sunday. Sheep and chickens and goats and pigs and horses and cows and gardens and hayrides and mice and birds and deer. And a cow named Tess. Great place.
• I finally cashed in my birthday gift of a custom-fit dress shirt from ProperCloth. No shirts seem to fit me right, so I hope to slowly start collecting custom-made shirts that will last me a long time.
• A ginormous new Whole Foods opened up near work, which I am very happy about. Not only does it make it very convenient to pick up stuff during the week, but it gives me some nice new lunch options. I could care less about the CEO’s political views. I love me some Whole Foods.
• As much as I love GMail and my iPhone, the two don’t always play so well together. The biggest thing that it’s lacking is mail that is immediately pushed to your phone, but GPush solves that. It works beautifully (at least for me), and it was $0.99 well spent.

• Ah summertime. Where have you been all my life?
• I am the happy owner of a shiny new MacBook Pro after selling my black MacBook on Craigslist last week. It was a bit unexpected, but after seeing what people were paying for them and then realizing that the new MBP’s had come way down in price along with my student discount and the fact that Apple was also giving away a free iPod Touch to students with the purchase, and it was a little too good to pass up. So I have a new computer and the Lovely Tess has a new iPod Touch. Seriously, we gave our two year old a sophisticated piece of electronics to watch episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba on. Hey, it was free. If she breaks it, no big deal. Better than breaking our iPhones.
• Hey, the girl deserves a little treat. It’s been a big week for her. It started out with her throwing herself out of her crib in a fit of typical Tess rage when she couldn’t get exactly what she wanted. We wouldn’t let her sleep with a bag full of stuffed Sesame Street characters (the characters were fine, but the bag not so much). As she screamed her disapproval, we kissed her goodnight and walked out of her room. Thirty seconds later came a big giant “Thud” followed by stunned silence. We ran in to see her lying on the floor, completely shocked, but physically fine. Yeah, she’s determined. So the next night, we took the side of her crib off, put the toddler rail on, and said hello to her big girl bed. It’s been a week and she hasn’t gotten out of it or rolled out of it once. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.
• She managed to top herself last night by unexpectedly announcing that she had to use the potty, went into the bathroom, and took care of business. Seriously, who is this kid? Completely unprovoked and with no real potty training attempted so far, this was a complete surprise to us. Needless to say, there was much celebrating in the Carpenter household. Let’s see if we can keep this going. Somehow, I don’t expect it to be this easy. Yes, I’m at the point in my life where I celebrate peeing.
• Thanks to a visit from the Lovely Suse’s parents, we got to enjoy a nice date night on Saturday. It started off with our first visit to Dorado Tacos, a spot we’ve been meaning to get to since they opened a few weeks ago. As you know, we have high taco standards, and this place was great. Nice fish tacos, fantastic cemitas (sandwiches), great elote (grilled corn slathered in mayo, chili powder, mexican cheese, and lime), and black beans and rice that I could have eaten an entire plate of. Oh, and watermelon agua fresca, which is just pureed watermelon diluted with ice water that makes the most refreshing drink you can imagine. Well, maybe a little booze in there would make it even better. All in all, a solid place that we will be returning to frequently. We finished off the night by catching (500) Days of Summer, the type of hipster romantic comedy with a killer soundtrack that I am a complete sucker for.
• The Lovely Suse has taken to making smoothies for breakfast that involve all sorts of frozen fruit and, get this, kale. Yes, kale. And it’s delicious. Is there anything that this magical vegetable can’t do? This girl is in need of a juicer.
• I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I’m sick of Clif Bars. I’ve eaten one every workday for about the last 7 years, and I need something new. Any ideas? I have all sorts of other snacks in my office, but nothing particularly chocolate-y or sweet like that. And most other bars that I’ve tried are either too tiny or taste like poop. Hmm, maybe they’ll introduce some new flavors to get me back into them.
• Yes, I am happy that Mad Men is back. I’m just not so happy that I feel like I have to stay up at watch it on Sunday nights so that I don’t accidentally read about it on Monday morning. Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for the best show on TV.
• The most common response to my seersucker pants: “You look like you just got off a boat.”

• We just finished up almost two full weeks of vacation, and let me be honest with you, we’re pretty good at vacationing. If only we could figure out how to do it full time…
• We started things off with a child-(and dog) free few days up in Portland. It was a city we’ve been meaning to get to for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. Lots of great food, cool city, excellent beer, and luckily, sun. We stayed at the West End Inn, a very nice B&B. Now I’m not sure if we’re really “B&B people” (i.e. forced socializing, no choice what to eat for breakfast, actually having to get up in time for breakfast, etc.), but we had a good time and the place was great. Unfortunately, we made the wrong decision and should have stayed at the other inn we had considered, because Martha Stewart was staying there at the same time. That would be an interesting breakfast companion. Oh well. Her loss.
• Within minutes of arriving in Portland, we made our first stop at Duckfat. Oh how I wish this was closer to us. Nice panini, salads, and killer Belgian-style frites fried in, you guessed it, duckfat. Awesome. On second thought, maybe it’s better that it’s not too close.
• If you like beer, and yes, we do, then a stop at the Allagash brewery is well worth your while. They do daily tours and free tastings. You know that the beer is handmade when you see a bunch of guys sitting around, putting cherries, one at a time, into wooden barrels of beer.
• Our first dinner out was at Hugo’s. While the food was pretty fantastic (there was pork belly involved, so that’s always a plus), our stick-up-her-ass server sullied the experience a bit. Or at least gave us a good story to tell. The menu is broken up into different categories, which aren’t entirely straightforward. It also claims that all dishes are the same size, which is completely untrue, and suggests that people order three courses apiece. It was obvious that the entrees were in no way the same size as the early courses, and as the Lovely Suse and I always share everything that we order, we ended up ordering a total of five dishes. We have pretty small appetites in general, so we weren’t worried about leaving hungry. But when the server took our order, she repeatedly requested that the Lovely Suse order a “mid-course”. She got all huffy when we declined, and then when repeating back our order, she went course by course. And when she got to the mid-course, she said mine, and then looked at the Lovely Suse and said “And you’ll have nothing” with a sneer on her face. We both just started laughing. We’re in Maine for crissakes. You’re lucky I was even wearing pants. Chill out. That being said, even without her precious midcourse (I gallantly shared mine), we ate well and had plenty to eat.
• The next night we hit 555, and had a much friendlier experience. One thing to note is that both places served amazing biscuits with fantastic soft herb butter. I hope that this is a new trend, because I could eat about 50 of these and call it a night. If you do need more, I highly recommend the mussels, which multiple people suggested that we order. They were right to do so. I might say that these were the best mussels I’ve ever had, with pickled cherry peppers, chive butter, oh, and did I mention more butter. Yeah, these things were super-rich, and yes, they gave you a spoon to eat the rest of the buttery broth in the bottom of the bowl, and yes, I used said spoon. After that, we were almost too stuffed to eat much of our entrees, but that’s the price you pay.
• Since we were in the neighborhood, we had to grab lobster rolls at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster. Seriously, if a place in Maine screws up a lobster roll, they need to leave the state. Lobster, mayo, celery, toasted bun, stop. These were nice.
• We were in a JCrew store and one of the sales associates was dressed exactly the same as the Lovely Suse. I really wanted to take a picture, but I think she was sort of pissed because she didn’t look as good as the Lovely Suse. That’s a losing battle, honey.
• I broke yet another pair of $15 sunglasses, so I decided to decrease my spending limit to $10. I managed to pick up 2 pairs, one a pair of aviators for $5.80. They actually look pretty decent, and I think that they’ve grown on me. Never figured me an aviators guy, but I’ll go with it. With my vacation beard going, I almost looked like some one famous or something.
• The second leg of our vacation was our annual trip to Nantucket. She graced us with 3 days of sunny weather (minus the rain storm that we got caught in one day), beaches, beers, and fun. As an added bonus, the friends who we stay with gave us one of their cars to use, which was excellent. We took full advantage of that freedom, which made everyone a happy camper.
• One of our consistently favorite spots to hit is the Cisco Brewery. What used to be a little shack with a couple of bar stools has turned into a full-on party zone with 3 different bars, live music, and hot dogs. Loads of parents with kids make it a family-friendly spot (not to mention all of the dogs roaming around), and the Lovely Tess had so much fun there. It was like the music just got down into her soul and she couldn’t stop dancing. I happily volunteered to be her dance partner.
• The Lovely Tess sure is growing up fast. Some choice nuggets out of her mouth while on Nantucket: “I want coffee!”, “I want a beer!”, and our favorite “I want money!”. Don’t we all?
• Our favorite local (a minute from our house) farm has gotten even better. Sergi Farms, home to the greatest corn in the history of the world, now has chickens! The Lovely Tess couldn’t get enough of them, and when we finally left to go buy veggies, she demanded “I want to see cows!”. Maybe next year?
• My MacBook has been having a few minor design issues lately and the edge of the keyboard was starting crack. I made an appointment at my local Genius Bar, showed them the problem, and within 45 minutes, I had a new case, keyboard, and trackpad, all done for free (thanks to my AppleCare protection). Just amazing service all around.