Hangin' With the Globetrotters

A week has passed since we arrived at the house. So far, we've mostly been hanging with the pets and doing lots of cooking. Michael's been sick, so we've taken it easy, but now we're going explore the snow more, there's a mountain nearby for skiing and snow tubing.

A couple of days ago, Michael and I we were hired to photograph a Harlem Globetrotters game in Worcester. It was pretty easy work, and I got to meet Tiny, who is the tallest player (7 ft). I had forgotten how corny the shows are. Lots of fart sounds.



We've explored the town a bit, found a cool video store, a really delicious Indian restaurant and one not so delicious. The Mexican restaurants up here are not so impressive, all run by whities. I am in awe of the grocery stores nearby, such fresh and exotic produce at reasonable prices. I don't know why we don't have stores this good in Nashville. We've been trying lots of new dishes since we can now easily find all the ingredients that they call for. Except, we have been to three places looking for a pomegranate. Where the hell are they?!


Michael's roasted vegs

I made guacamole for the first time. Michael made a wonderful white chili. Tonight, I made a leek-and-gnocchi bake with three cheeses and crispy prosciutto (pictured below). Next, I'm going to attempt a caramel pie, since we never found one in New York.



Enough about food. I will post pictures of the animals and the house soon. The owners have an interesting decorating taste.

Quarter of a Century Old in Salem

We stayed for two nights in The Salem Inn, a historic home with haunted rooms. I guess there are lots of ghost stories in New England because it's the oldest part of the country.



The building we stayed in was erected in 1834. Our room was nice and cozy; it had a fireplace and a photo on the wall that showed that the room was originally a library (below).



The 17th was my birthday! In the morning, Michael brought me a mini chocolate cake with a big number "25" on top.

Salem is a very neat little town, the site of the witch trials of 1692. We went to the Salem Witch Museum, where we learned more about the witch trials via stage sets with life-size figures, lighting and a narration. A bit cheesy yet interesting.



We drove into Boston the last night. We've never been to Boston before and had no idea where to go, so we typed "Cheers" into the GPS. On the way, we saw people ice skating on Frog Pond at sunset, so we joined them. We are horrible ice skaters. We held onto the walls, jutting around with wobbly ankles as we were asked "First time?"




We made it to Cheers afterwards, where we sat next to a guy with a Cheers t-shirt on, who asked questions about the show and asked the waitress, "Do you guys make these pickles here?"



After our mandatory tourist experience, we found a bar that claimed to be the oldest tavern in the U.S. Before heading back to Salem, we got dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where I sampled many of their tasty brews.


The Bell in Hand Tavern, the oldest in America


Rock Bottom Brewery

Then, back to our inn, I finally got to dig into my birthday cake.

Midnight Mary

We continued our northern journey the next day and ended up in New Haven, CT. We saw Friday the 13th and then went out to a cemetery to find Midnight Mary's grave. In 1872, she fainted, was presumed dead and was buried alive. When her aunt had a dream that she was writhing in her coffin, she demanded they dig her up. When they did, they found claw marks in the coffin and other evidence that she had struggled to escape. Legend goes, that those who visit her grave at midnight will die at the stroke of midnight.

Unfortunately, we could not find her grave in the dark, so we returned the next day. The inscription is very odd, it reads "The People Shall Be Troubled at Midnight and Pass Away."


the first frozen pond we saw


a hooker school?

We drove around the campus of Yale, which I had forgotten was in New Haven, before we headed up to Salem, MA.

Movin' On Up to the Northeast Side

We finally got a piece of the pie.

Last week we began our east coast road trip! A little earlier than planned because I got last-minute tickets to Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Our first stop was Gettysburg, PA, but we have no photos to prove this. Decent hotel. Cool-looking downtown. We were going to stop by the battlefield but ran out of time.

On Friday the 13th, we cruised on up to NYC and met up with Asa! He let us stay at his apartment in Brooklyn for a couple nights. We went to Rockefeller Center to watch the taping of Conan.



The show was a lot of fun. This week was Conan's last week before moving to CA to take over The Tonight Show! The studio is way smaller than it looks on TV. The Jonas Brothers were guests, which caused lots of teenage girls to line up outside the studio and flail and scream when they entered the building. We were not as impressed. Also on the show were Isla Fisher and Dan Auerbach.

Afterwards, we met up with Asa and his friend Bridget and ate at a pretty good soul food restaurant called Mama's in East Village. Then we went out to some bars, where I eventually had too many lemon drops and danced, danced the night away.



On Valentine's Day, we all went to brunch at Diner. Later, I was bitten on the wrist by a fat cat with a bowtie. That night, Michael and I went on a search for caramel pie and settled for Tiramisu at a cute little Italian restuarant decorated for V-Day. We all met up again, along with Michael's friend Andrew, at a nearby bar where angsty acoustic females sang about the male whores of Bushwick.