Why Am I So Happy?

Because Mat is done taking the Oral Boards, that's why.

He's endured night after night preparing for his test. We often ran him dinner around 5:30PM and he would work late into the night. It also didn't help that all of this time-sensitive job credentialing and loan applications for his new job have piled up on top of this too. Oh the woes! But, I was really excited to be heading to Boston to get this darn thing over with, it was one thing out of the way. The test was offered in two locations, San Fran or Boston. Luckily, I have a brosef in Boston, so it was the perfect excuse to go and see him and his lovely wife, Cassandra.

Of course, a drive to Boston does include traffic and carsickness. It usually is Gretchen and I feeling the queasies, but this time it was Beck. Oh, and we had to take Gretchen's stitches out before we headed out. I know, I know, poor dear, but this time her minor operations were during business hours so everyone could hear the agony she was going through. EVERYONE. She sounds like a siren, not kidding, and Mat said he only touched the stitch, not her wound.



To break up the trip, we always take our mini detours to some unique land. This time it was Stew Leonard's World's Largest Dairy Mart (i.e. tourist trap, but fun for kids). Knowing ahead of time that is was nothing like an actual dairy, but more like a grocery store, I thought the animated produce and free samples would be a good stop for our legs and stomachs. We even saw Ducky Mo Mo, which is off of an episode of Phineas and Ferb that the whole family finds utterly hilarious. The kids also learned the Chiquita banana song too and have been singing it ever since.



We also took a mini tour of Avery's old fashioned soda. It is one of the few that is still operating in it's meager setting. You can watch them bottle the soda right off the line. It was fun to see them shake the qt size glass bottles. Very old fashioned, very cool. I fell in love with the crates they used to store their sodas, so I "American Picked it" and thankfully he was willing to sell it to me. I like to use them to store my piano books, reading books, mags, candy, etc. I like having these functional sou-vies around my house




And meet Brian, my eldest brother, enjoying some pancakes on his lovely urban balcony. He's working at Northeastern University and Cassandra just started a new job with a start up company called Rue la la working on high end discounted packages.