Happy New Year (more or less)! Patrick and I worked out this morning, then we went to Loew's near Boston Common and saw *two* movies: Adaptation and Two Weeks Notice (both of us wanted to see the former; he graciously agreed to see the latter). Adaptation was pretty crazy, but I enjoyed it. It made me wonder how much it was making fun of itself (I won't go into detail in case you haven't seen it). So it was nice having a mental break and watching a romantic comedy afterwards. Two Weeks Notice wasn't all that great--a rent-it-on-video kind of movie. Oh well!

We're staying in for the rest of the night. We saw lots of revelers in Boston Common when we came out of the theater. There was a pretty ice castle and live music, and lots of other stuff, I'm sure, but I'm not really big on crowds of people. And it smelled like sulfur for some reason. It's nice and foggy out now--a good night for staying inside :)

Patrick's here! I made him pancakes for breakfast, then we went grocery shopping, then watched Almost Famous (my dorm has a small DVD library, where we can check out DVDs for free). Just now, Patrick made us Erin's fancy pork chops, and they were good! I made cous cous out of a box to go with them. I'm hoping tomorrow we'll do something Boston-y (maybe a First Night event). Today was nice and relaxed though :)

I'm back in Cambridge, safe and sound. My flight got in after the T stopped running last night, so I took a cab home. I hate to take cabs because they're so expensive, but it sure was nice not to have to walk through the snow, like I do when I take the T.

Anyway, most of my pictures weren't worth putting online, but here's one of Patrick decorating his family's Christmas tree. I know, it's blurry, but I think it looks okay!

And I made a page in my Crafts section for the first two sweaters I ever made (which have been languishing in my mom's basement for many years).

Patrick arrives in Boston tonight, so I'm hoping to clean up my apartment a little and maybe bake cookies before he arrives. I'm trying to pack as much interaction with loved ones as possible into this vacation!

I just got back from a community dinner. For those of you not in the know, my mom and stepdad live in a cohousing community. Every Friday, a few people volunteer to cook/clean, and others who want dinner pay $3 to come eat the food. So anyway, my mom was signed up to cook for tonight's dinner, and I got to come along and make dessert! I made Orange Chocolate Mousse (from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs, a great book that I bought for my mom a few years back), and ignoring a few errant chunks of chocolate, it came out really well! So I may not be pastry chef material yet, but I'm not an utter failure either :) Incidentally, I've gotten a lot of input from family about my career qualms during my visit. All of it has been helpful, but I still don't know what I'm doing. It's still good to talk about it with people who know me and care about me.

Also, last night I went through my mom's yarn stash (which takes up a few garbage cans in the basement, a little too near the cat's litter box) and found a bunch of balls of acrylic yarn that she was willing to give up. I've been itching to make something with stripes for awhile now, so maybe I'll start a new project with all my free yarn when I get back to Boston. I won't be starting right away though, because Patrick's visiting me from Sunday until January 6. What a great vacation!

Oh, and I found the first two sweaters I ever made, also in the basement, and I took pictures. I'll share those once I get back to my normal computer. Both sweaters needed a little finishing, so I finished the better of the two, which was kid-sized, and gave it to one of the cohousing families, which has two children. I like knowing who the sweater ended up with instead of giving it to Goodwill.

I made this blanket in early 2001 from yellow Jiffy baby yarn using this pattern, as a present for one of my chemistry professors who was a little nervous about being a father. Too bad I didn't get a close-up shot of it.

Professor Johnson holding up the blanket