Somewhere Over the...

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Weather reports predicted rain would begin around lunchtime, but nothing came. The sun kept shining. Clouds never darkened. Then, the storm rolled in. It was close to five when the first drops fell. They fell hard and fast, but the sun kept shining. A rainbow had to be in the sky. Somewhere. We checked behind the restaurant and saw only ominous clouds, carrying more buckets of water. We returned to our work certain we missed it. A customer entered, dripping, and mentioned the amazing rainbow she saw on her drive. With returned determination, we ran to the front of the building hoping for a similar view. We found better. The storm painted two complete rainbows across the Mattapoisett sky and into the harbor. Fortunately, I carry my camera with me everywhere...

One end over land...

...the other end over sea.

Phantom Phest

Local-area restaurants and vineyards stockpiled the Bayside Expo Center with culinary delights and wine bottles galore for the Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Phest Sarurday. A bunch of us took in as much as we possibly could. True, we rolled and floated out of there, but we were able to munch away the afternoon and sample over 25 wines. Yum! My favorite wine turned out to be one I had already had, Relax Reisling. Ed Hardy's sangria came in a close second. (I suppose I like it cold and sweet!) We all had such a great time, but it's probably for the best that the fest only comes around once a year.

Sorry for the blurriness... perhaps the camera was a little tipsy as well? (Jill, Juliana, me, Adam, and Jilly; Dan and Erin were playing photographers for this one)

Opening Night

Thanks to my Uncle Joey, I had tickets to opening night at McCoy Stadium. Dad, Heather, and Matt helped me cheer on the PawSox as they won the first game of the season 11-3, beating the Rochester Redwings. It was a great opportunity to see the up-and-coming Sox players firsthand. A couple of guys to keep in mind are Darnell McDonald, who already batted in 5 runs, and Tug Hulett (great name!). It was the perfect start to the Pawtucket season!

Dad and me :)

It's not too often that you see a 1.000 batting average!

Turtles Again!

It was another beautiful day, which meant that the turtles were out again on Sarah Sherman Rd. As I walked to the car to head out for the night, I stumbled upon a newly hatched turtle in the driveway. After showing the family inside, I was back on my way to the car and found a second! Before putting them by the creek next to the house, I snapped a few photos of the teeny painted turtles. I hope they survived their first night in the wild!

They were adorable!

This little guy was feisty.

Turtle, Turtle

Extra! Extra! New England skipped spring! Today, we leapt straight to summer. It hit 90. Yes, you read correctly. Ninety bloody degrees. Crazy! Mother Nature has kept us on our toes this year. I loved every minute of it. :) I'm ready for beautiful summer weather. Bring it on! I made sure to spend time reading in the shade (I was not prepared to reach any degree of crispy) and later put on my sneakers for a gorgeous run through the mean streets of Rochester. The turtles in the swamp next door made their appearance with the sun, too.

I wasn't fast enough with the camera when it read 90 degrees... but 86 isn't too shabby!

The upper-left arrow points to a turtle's head bobbing out of the swamp while the bottom one points to the fully surfaced one.

Pile-o-turtles catching some rays

Sox:Yankees :: Oil:Water

The Red Sox opened their season at home Easter Sunday against the Yankees. They came out on top that night. Too bad this wasn't the case during game two. I joined a caravan from the Inn to cheer on the Sox Tuesday night, my first Red Sox-Yankees game! Lester vs. Burnett. Good vs. Evil. Boston vs. New York. Eight of us bought tickets in the bleachers and hunkered down for the long nine innings ahead. In the end, only three of us were left after a few unfortunate ejections (gotta love the bleachers). The game was intense and tied at 4 in the 8th. Scutaro made a throwing error to Youk which loaded the bases. Okajima walked the next batter to give the Yanks the go-ahead run. The Sox bats were silent in the bottom of the inning, while the Yankees added to their lead in the 9th when Cano soloed. Again, the Sox bats were silent in the 9th and we left deflated from a 6-4 loss. Blah. The evening was not in our favor in many ways that night. I guess you could say it was fun while it lasted and, at the very least, a memorable game. Better luck next time...

I love that dirty water...

Part one of our group (Carla, Leily, and Matt)

And part two(Cristina, Jeremy, me, and Cory)... Amy is the only one missing from the photos, but she was there I promise!

For some reason, I love this photo of a father and son cheering together (in matching shirts!).

Mr. Lyon

On this first day of April, I tended bar during the afternoon shift. The general manager left to run an errand before we opened the doors. As he left, he instructed me to answer the phone (because normally I'd let it ring off the hook... right). I wrote down a message. When he got back to work, he grabbed the note and I anxiously waited for him to return it. And I waited... and waited... and waited. I had practically forgotten about my message when he stomped downstairs six hours later.

"Did you know the number you gave me was to the Buttonwood Park Zoo?" he asked. I burst into laughter. The message I had written down earlier told him that a Mr. Lyon called wanting to plan an event and to call him back at the number provided. The number was to the zoo. I figured spelling the name with a y would throw him off the trail. Success!

"I called the zoo and asked for a Mr. Lyon!" he practically shrieked. I simply kept laughing. I could not have been happier that my April Fool's Day joke worked! The general manager was not so thrilled. All he could say was, "Like I have time for this!" Everyone has time for a joke or two on April 1st.

It's a picture I took during my time in London, but it gets the point across. I love those Trafalgar Square lions. Roar!