Gentlesness corrects whatever is offensive in our manner.

 

This is the finest item I've ever purchased for $3.77. This book contains over 1,300 proverbs and I am already ten times wiser after having skimmed this. It is very hard to resist listing 100 of my top favorites, but I'm going to try to have a 'proverb of the day' on facebook (I know.) to curb this.

So, the beginning of this blog entry is what journalists call burying the lead. That is, I have entirely failed to discuss what is to be the highlight--actually, topic--of this blog entry. One day roadtrip to Scranton, Pennsylvania. There. Second paragraph. Not so buried.

Adam wanted to plan a manageable trip over one of our rare 'free' weekends. After he attempted to plan this without my input, I informed him that I had neglected to put two important events on our google calendar for both Friday and Sunday. Rather than cancel the plan, we just decided to condense it to Saturday.

Why Scranton? Because we're fans of The Office? No. Because it met the following criteria: a) Within 5 hours b) has funny local sites to go to. Okay, so we had countless options if that were our only criteria so I guess it's because we are aware of the town's existence due to The Office....And we didn't want to go to New York.

These pictures came after I missed the sign for "Welcome to Pennsylvania". Scenic, yes?





We left Massachusetts at dawn with snacks, audio books and giggles in tow. First stop (aside from the potty at McDonalds) was the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. The tour entailed going in a big cart into an actual (non-functioning) coal mine and walking around underneath the ground through some of the 'veins' of the mine. The coal mine opened in 1860 and stopped operation in November 1966 because other sources of energy were much more easily harnessed. Our tour guide, Tony, was very knowledgeable and I think not-so-secretly angry at The Man. He made it a point to stick it to the Federal government for secretly being responsible for pollution, coal miners deaths, child labor, and creating the lazy youth of America that we have today.

 

 

Oh...As a side note, and by that I mean as the highlight: I bought the proverb book and Adam got a sick T-shirt in the gift shop.

Our next attempted stop was at the Houdini Museum...I dare you to go to the website--It will help you understand how insane this place is SLASH why we weren't surprised that the door was locked and had a hand-written note about needing a reservation. Fail. But, a predicted fail.

We had a back-up site because we knew the Houdini Museum was either non-existent or was not going to work out as planned. We went to the Everhart Museum which had natural history (dinos), art (folk, contemporary and local) and STUFFED BIRDS OF EVERY VARIETY.

 

 

Last, and finally not least, we chose a nice restaurant in Moosic, PA that got 4-5 stars across the board on yelp.com: AV. There was no menu online, but the reviews raved of the food and the prices. The other main point that the reviews made was that the outside is a shit hole and to not be discouraged. When we arrived, we noticed that the outside was a shit hole. To be fair that picture isn't the worst ever, but the building looked like a one-story warehouse with a sign that looked like it should belong to a condemned discotech.

The food and price were perfect. We got the bruschetta with olive tapenade, parmesan and tomatoes, the spinach salad with bosc pears and walnuts; I got the roasted chicken with veal and sage stuffing and lyonnaise potatoes and Adam go the pork chop with chive butter and frites. Boom goes the dynamite.

After, we went back to our $77 hotwire.com hotel and rested up for our return-trip at dawn.

Thank this

I have been utterly absent from my blog, but not for lack of amazing things to blog about. I go into every experience and take pictures as if I plan on blogging, but end up "failing" to do so. However, the excellent excuse that I have been providing to my clambering public is that my hunger for creativity that resulted in the formation of this blog has been so fulfilled by the blog itself as well as the one million other things that I have been busy with.

That being said, today is a good day to do a thankful-for-slash-two-month recap of the things that I love and appreciate.

1) Book Club: In October, I organized a book club (Jeal?). It has since been dubbed sexy lady book club (I think), and us sexy ladies get together every 4-6 weeks to discuss the latest book, eat some snacks and drink wine. This is my greatest joy. So far, we have read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken. I will not comment here on my actual opinions of these books, other than to say that the discussion that they have and will provide is rich, touchy, and entertaining.

2) The marriage of my two lovely and in-love friends

 

Mary and Carl had their wedding at the Fuller Craft Museum; handmade all of the center pieces and wedding favors; tied their rings inside a Harry Potter book; were married by our good friend Matt (son of a preacher man);...on top of a home base plate; Mary had a m-f'ing rainbow dress; and Carl is the man of her dreams. Best day ever.

3) Seeing my lady friends all the time. This includes and is not limited to: going to see The Donkey Show; going to Drink; having joint birthday parties.

 

 3a) Okay, to be fair, Drink deserves its own category

Drink in the seaport area of Boston is the shit. I'm a late-comer to this fine establishment. They have no drink menu besides wine and beer so you say things like: "I like gin gimlets, can you make me something more exciting?", and voila

Then other lady friends said, "I like sexy rum drinks"...Or, "Put anything in any sexy glass and I will be sure to put it down my gullet". That's pretty much happen, so it's a shock and happy surprise that I have any documentation of this evening. Because, no only did we drink, but we ate. Oh how we ate. Amazing Babara Lynch food.....Including, but obvs not limited to: falafel

 cauliflower

4) Finding hikes in Waltham with my husborg. We lovvve nature.

 

Oh and going to Sweet Tomatoes afterward...

 

7) ALL THINGS HALLOWEEN

Adam and I were Ms. Pac Man and Clyde. Clearly.

Carving pumpkins with friends and playing "guess what time of wine this is" with friends is where its at.

7a) and again, to be fair,  The Paint Bar in Newton, MA deserves its own category.

For $35 (And with a groupon $17!), you get a canvas, paints, brushes and instruction on how to paint the painting of the day. You sit around with a bunch of friends and ladies AND there's a bar with beer and wine. We happened to go on their halloween party day so there was also gallons of free candy. Win.

8) Fall things: Adam joining a softball league and going apple picking with friends

9) and last, but not least...(As you know, since they are in every blog post), the daily joys and giggles that my Nuni and Beatrix bring to me

10) Okay fine, one more, from the immediate present: THE MACY'S DAY PARADE at 9am, THE DOG SHOW, AND MY MOTHER'S STUFFING.