Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Hubs friends gave him tickets to the Red Sox Yankees game last Thursday and he wanted to go with me! I am not particularly into sporting events so I thought he'd prefer to go with someone who'd care more and would be more involved in the game. But no, he wanted to go with his wife.

It was spring in Boston and there were flowers
and pollen. Spring has not yet come to Maine.

We headed down to Boston that afternoon. (I planned on street parking and I found some! But Hubs doesn't keep quarters in the car for meters. So I sat in the car while he found some change and a meter maid came by but I didn't have to move and Hubs came back with some quarters.) We met up with one of my high school friends at Algiers Cafe in Harvard Square. I ate some delicious fries and she told me about how her life's been going. It was good to see her since I hadn't seen her since my wedding and we didn't really get to talk then.

We sent a snapchat selfie to a friend who
just found out he passed the Bar!

After catching up we headed over to Fenway and got stuck in a tunnel in traffic. One of my law school exams involved a traffic accident in Boston's big dig that turned into a disaster with explosions and collapsing tunnels. Ever since that exam I've been so afraid of all the tunnels under Boston and I was so nervous sitting there in traffic.

It was all okay though! Nothing happened that would give rise to a law suit and we got to the game an hour and twenty minutes before it started.

My OOTN

We found our seats and got our dinner. Always one for novelty food items, I could not resist the foot long hot dog. Where else can you get them? Not at your average grocery store. FYI the Fenway franks are delicious and they're a close second to my beloved Vienna Beef hot dogs. I also got cotton candy to save for later (I managed to wait to eat it until the game started). There was a cute baby at the game near us who kept giving her cotton candy to her parents. She had no idea what she had apparently.

I beg to differ. America's most beloved ballpark has ivy in the outfield.
#WrigleyPark #LetsGoCubbies

I got hungry again during the second inning so I went to get more foods. While looking for the pizza Hubs requested, my coat and I got hit on a man who asked if there was room for him to warm up in my coat. I gave him an honest answer of "no" and he politely ambled on.

We could have gotten Clam Chowdah from a vendor. I guess only in
Boston. We didn't indulge because I have bad memories involving
Yosemite National Park, carsickness, and clam chowder.

After that encounter I waited in line and got Hubs a pizza slice. The line at the hot dog place was so long I just went back to my seat. So between the next inning I went to go get myself another foot of hot dog. It was also delicious.

The game went horribly for the Red Sox. I tried to give them pep talks from my seat but I wasn't terribly good at it. Going into the 8th or 9th inning I observed that they'd need more than two grand slams just to tie up the game. I also enjoyed booing at Ellsbury. I used to like him but not anymore.

It kind of reads like a Menu, "Carp Tonight."

But, since the game went so horribly, a wonderfully horrible thing happened. Mike Carp, a position player, pitched to close the game. I love novelty so I was happy to see something so unusually occur. We were trying to figure out what was going on with the score board while he was pitching. Carp threw a variety of pitches including knuckleballs and we weren't sure if the person naming the pitches was just making things up or if Carp was actually trying out every type of pitch possible. I wish we could have listened to Don and Remy's commentary during that last inning!

It wasn't very cold but we were sitting in the dark for hours and it was
so windy. I needed to fasten my hood to keep it from blowing off.

The game ended well after ten. We stopped at Dunkin to get coffee before heading home (Starbucks was closed). We got to our car a little before midnight and I got us home by 2 AM. There was a package on our front step. Hubs had ordered a birthday present for his friend. The mailman left it there around 2 PM and it was still there 12 hours later. Maine where people don't steal packages off your front porch even if they sit there ALL day. We slept in so late the next day.

Seven Year Itch

Mr. Handome and I have been together for seven years as of this November. To celebrate our date-iversary we celebrated two weekends in a row! Our date-iversary is November 11, 2006. (I think it should probably be the 12th since we didn't really decide to start dating until the 12th.)

Mr. H got us tickets to go see John Oliver in Boston the week following our date-iversary using a ticket master gift card that was a wedding present. So our actual date-iversary was relatively low key. I made us a nice breakfast, we went to see Thor: The Dark World, and ate dinner at Arby's.

I made pancakes with all white flour, butter, and sugar.
So delicious and so special.

Thor 2 was the absolute best! It has everything you could want in a movie--space vikings and a lead actor that looks like my husband if he were taller, blonder, and on steroids. (Every husband would be better if he were taller, blonder, and stronger.) The pacing was perfect and it wasn't too mushy. It was funny at all the right points too. We also got to see the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I am so excited for that! (My two favorite Avengers are Thor and Captain America.)

Also, just a thought, since Disney now owns the rights to Star Wars and the Marvel Universe, I am looking forward to a Star Wars/Avengers mashup! How cool would that be to have Han Solo and Thor hanging out and fighting crime and Sith?!?

We had a gift card from our Health Insurance Company because
we've been using Pedometers. We can only use it at certain places,
like this movie theater, so we went a bit wild at the concession stand.

In college we used to go to Arby's for Valentine's Day every year so we went to Arby's for dinner and they had bottles of Arby's Sauce for sale! I tried to play it cool so I could go back the next day and get Mr. H some for Christmas but we talked about it too much so the element of surprise was ruined and we bought a bottle. (I forgot my phone so I didn't get a picture of my sad looking but delicious roast beef sandwich.)

After dinner, we wandered around Target and Mr. H took advantage of their video game sale to get Christmas presents for his siblings. We had a really great day spending time with each other. We'd been very busy and it was so nice to just relax and hang out together by ourselves.


The next weekend we headed into Boston. We ate lunch at home and Mr. H drove all the into the city with me providing directions. (Pro Tip: Your navigation system will fail in the Big Dig because there's no signal underground so make sure you know your exit number before you go in. Super Pro Tip: Don't drive in Boston.)

In the Public Gardens

We parked near the theater in Chinatown and walked through the Commons and the Public Garden. We got into the city around two but it felt much later--I blame daylight savings time.

www.professorworldband.com
on Twitter @ProfWorldBand

We saw a wonderful one man band in the Public Garden.

Then we walked down Newberry Street. My husband humored me as I browsed through the Kate Spade store, In the Pink (Lilly Pulitzer), Anthropology, and Britt Ryan. We also stopped in the wonderful needlepoint store. As soon as I finish a project I will have to call and order the Red Sox snowman canvas to make into a new Christmas tree ornament. If I felt like taking on a challenge, I would order a Fenway Park canvas to make a pillow but I am easily distracted.

We stopped into Robin's Candy and bought some delicious chocolates. Mr. H got some chocolate truffles and I got a milk chocolate pecan tortoise the size of my palm. It was delicious.

I had to Instagram my beverage
even thought it wasn't in a red cup.

As we got to the end of Newberry Street we started looking for a place to sit down and have a warm drink. All the Starbucks were packed! We passed three that were far to busy for us to go into. We passed several busy Dunkin Dounut and we finally found one that wasn't packed.

We took selfies while waiting for a table.

I had a salted caramel hot chocolate and it was the best. It was only 4 o'clock but we were almost at the place where we had planned on having dinner--Boston Burger Company. When we walked by they were packed with people so we decided to put our name in. Mr. H found this place while we were in Boston last summer for the most horrible thing that ever happened to me so that I could sit for the Massachusetts Bar Exam. He was so excited to go back I could barley remember the place.

The Fried Pickles

We were seated. We ordered fried pickles as an appetizer. They were very fried and far too crunchy and dried out. I could not taste any pickle. I was not a fan though I did like that they were served with thousand island dressing.

Staring Down the Killer Bee

I loved my burger--the All American hold the blue cheese dressing (cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce). My husband had the Killer Bee (american cheese, bacon, onion rings, and honey BBQ sauce) and he loved it. We both had baked beans as a side (delicious) and I ordered classic french fries for us. I was not a fan of the fries and I need to remember not to order them if we go again. I order french fries everywhere and I keep a mental list of which places have good french fries and I think Boston Burger Company ranks last place in this category.

The All American

We were done with dinner by five but it was already pitch black out and it felt so late I was worried we wouldn't get to the show on time. So we started walking back along Boylston Street and stopped by the Shops at Prudential Center. I stopped into Vineyard Vines, Club Monoco, and the Lacoste Boutique. On our way out, we bought pistachio nougat at Truffles Fine Confections. I love nougat and it's so hard to find so when I'm in Boston I always stop there and get some or sometimes I need to have my parking validated so I need to buy $10 worth of nougat.

We stopped by our car to drop off our purchases and left over french fries and headed to the theater. We got there so early but were able to go in and sit.

I loved the venue. It was a lovely old theater and we were in the front row of the highest balcony so we had a great view. The local comedian who opened for John Oliver was very funny and John Oliver was hilarious. I was so happy that he did he Carlos Danger dance (briefly). He also broke the microphone which was funny because he hadn't realized that he could break it by dropping in.

Inside the Theater

I drove us home so I stopped by the Sonic on Route 1 and got a milkshake. We were in bed by midnight. We had been planning on staying in a hotel in Boston but it would have been expensive and Mr. H is very frugal (sometimes cheap) and much happier when we aren't spending too much money. I was also overwhelmed by the options and trying to choose the best place.

Have you ever drove in Boston? Did you survive the experience?