62. April 3rd, 2011 Picture.

The view of our new apartment!  That's our future front door - 460B!

On April 3rd, Ratty, his mom and I went out to brunch at Union in the South End and showed her around our brand new neighborhood!  We took her passed our new apartment building, through Union Park, up to Flour Bakery for some cookies and back again.  She absolutely loved everything about the South End and really liked how adorable our little street is.  It's a cobblestone walkway, lined with galleries, gas lamps, shops and cafes.  In the summer it's packed with people since the SoWa open market is legitimately right outside our door on Sundays.  I absolutely love it!  I can't wait to move in!  [Spoken in past blog voice because I've obviously since moved in!]

62. April 2nd, 2011 Picture.

Saturday afternoon was the Gamma Phi Beta Boston Alumnae Chapter Annual Meeting.  It's a potluck event where we vote on next year's officers, talk about the upcoming year's events, meet new members and catch up with old ones.  It's typically held at Boston University, which makes it nice and convenient for most area sisters to attend, like me.  This year I was running for Collegiate/Alumnae Relations, which I won by a landslide, did I forget to mention I ran unopposed?  


The event was only 2 hours long, but it was definitely nice to see some fellow Alumnae.  It's really great knowing that we're all invested in being sisters for life, which is one of the many benefits of Gamma Phi Beta.


Here are some awesome cookies made by fellow Epsilon Eta alumna Maribeth.  I LOVE that she had GPhiB cookie cutters!  Mental note: buy GPhiB cookie cutters!

62. April 1st, 2011 Picture.

Here is the now infamous [at least in my mind] tasting of the world famous Harman's cheese! Ratty and I planned to hang out on Friday night, have some wine and watch a few movies.  Harman's was obviously the star of the evening!

I made sure to buy the oldest, sharpest cheddar they had.  I love a super sharp cheddar!

Just look at those yummy slices!  Have you ordered any cheese from Harman's online yet?  I might have just spent an irrational amount of time on their website mapping out my order.

I've recently become obsessed with Cracked Black Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuts, they are absolutely delicious.  Totally drool worthy.  I think Triscuts in general are the perfect cracker to eat cheese with, because the cheese square and the cracker are exactly the same size, meaning that you get the perfect ratio in each bite.  Yes, I have thought about this at length.  It's a delicate science!  Yay Harman's!

62. March 31st, 2011 Picture.

How many people out there can say that they are friends with their Kindergarten teacher?  I'm guessing not many, but I can!  The lovely lady in pink is my very own Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, who I have been friends with for over 20 years.  

It all started on that fateful day of my grammar school's open house, where I put on my most adorable little sailor dress and begged my brother Eddie to take me to see my new classroom.  I was a very persuasive 5 year old.  I was so beside myself with excitement, I made my brother take me THREE hours early.  Mrs. Goodwin was still setting up the room and in I walked totally expecting to meet all my new kindergarten friends.  I don't specifically remember Mrs. Goodwin's reaction to my showing up hours before everyone else, but as she tells the story now, she knew we were going to be friends.  She loves to tell me about 'Little Amy', how I haven't changed at all from the super excited 5 year old she met at the Peabody School.  I refused to take naps and would always say 'But Mrs. Goodwin, what if I miss something?!'  I'm pretty much the exact same, always busy, running from here to there, making sure to do absolutely everything that I can, you know, so I don't miss anything!

Mrs. Goodwin, her husband Ed [yes I address mail to Mrs. Goodwin + Ed], my mom and myself met for dinner at Bertucci's.  We were seriously overdue for dinner, so I was really happy that we found a date where all 4 of us could get together.  Thanks to Ed for snapping this picture!

62. March 30th, 2011 Picture.

Now that Jamie has a brand new office job, where she doesn't do a whole lot besides answering phones [ah the glamorous life of a receptionist], she had been looking for blog suggestions to add her her Google Reader.  Being new to the office front, Jamie had completely forgotten that she'd subscribed to my blog, meaning that there were months of posts stacked in her Reader, which she spent all day catching up on.  I had just posted my most recent update on #32: Collect All the Nantucket Nectars Caps, so Jamie brought me one!  She'd had a Nantucket Nectars during lunch and literally scanned my list to make sure that I didn't have this particular cap.  She was so excited that she contributed to something on my blog - Hi Jamie, thanks!

62. March 29th, 2011 Picture.

So I've gotten in the habit of sharing some of the more interesting books I've read, and this is one of them.  It's called 'The Bucolic Plague' by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and it's about a gay couple who work and live in NYC.  Josh is in Marketing, a pretty important VP at an agency, and Brent is a doctor who works for Martha Stewart.  Both are extremely high profile, as you can imagine, and lead uber stressful lives.  

On a weekend trip to northern New York state, they drive through this rundown yet adorable little town of Sharon Springs and see the most spectacular home for sale.  They decided to act on a whim and put in a low ball offer, which was accepted.  The book chronicles the first year of them owning the Beekman Estate and just how tough it really was.  They struggled to pay bills, commuted back and forth from NYC to Sharon Springs, oh yes they had to KEEP their jobs and their apartment in the city, so you can only imagine how more stressful their lives became.  I want to share more about their story, because the book is great, but I want you to read it, so I won't say any more.

As someone who loves the idea of farming, notice I say the idea, though I'm absolutely obsessed with having chickens and I really want a huge garden someday, I really loved this book.  The self dubbed 'Beekman Boys' have actually being doing REALLY well for themselves since the book came out, they have a show on Planet Green called 'The Fabulous Beekman Boys' and have a line of goat milk soaps called Beekman 1802.  You know, since they have lots goats on their property.

So yea, if you're into any of the things I mentioned above, you'll like this book.  Please take note, I cried a little bit, so you might too.

62. March 28th, 2011 Picture.

So, as I'm sure you all already know, while up in New Hampshire, every single [female] cousin there had one requirement of the weekend, to make a stop at Garnet Hill.  Like I said before, here is not much in downtown Franconia, a general store, small supermarket, a quaint organic sandwich shop [WENDLE'S!], a gas station, but Garnet Hill is a full on destination.  It's teeny, not much bigger than a city apartment, but it is full of all this fabulous merchandise.  At times it's still really expensive [oh you want to charge me $65 to TWO shams?  On a discontinued print and you don't even have the matching duvet cover?!  Nothankyou.]  But sometimes, you can get really fab deals, far beyond their regular sales.  On Thursdays, you can get a pass from an employee which offers absolutely insane discounts.  My sister in law Christine went once and got a skirt for a DOLLAR.  She went back the next day and it was listed for $70.  It's impossible to wrap your head around how they work, but all I know is that I really like when it works in my favor.

On our way into the store, we bumped into my aunt and two cousins who came out with bags of goodies.  After hearing about their take, I knew exactly what I wanted.  Once in the store, I made a bee line for the goose down jackets, and snagged this amazing plum colored knee length coat for $19.  NINETEEN BUCKS!  Score.  It was originally priced at $228, and even on the website it's still listed as $70+.  Ratty spent the entire time in the back of the store, sitting at a set of mini tables and chairs, watching my bag and jacket, playing with Cassie and Abigail while we all shopped.  He's so good.

62. March 27th, 2011 Picture.

I woke up on Sunday morning pretty exhausted yet sad the weekend was coming to an end.  It was an awesome 'vacation' and I really wanted to stay indefinitely.  I made it a point to get ready and pack up all my things right when I woke up so that I could relax and enjoy the last few hours of our trip.  

I was really excited when I went to the kitchen after packing up the car and found Sue making Bloody Mary's.  The weekend was not over yet!

Note: I don't even LIKE Bloody Mary's, though I wish I did.  My family apparently has an amazing family recipe, so gallons and gallons of it are consumed at every family party.  I am more of a mimosa gal, which also classifies me as a black sheep.

After helping clean up the house and throwing our sheets in the laundry, we headed outside with the mounds and mounds of children to go sledding down a hill on the property.  Who am I kidding, we were on a mountain, the WHOLE thing is a giant hill.

Ratty giving Sue and Cora a push down the hill.

Races!

Okay seriously, that green plastic one absolutely FLEW down the hill.  I was borderline scared because at the bottom of the hill was a barbed wire fence that gingerly protected us from flying into the street.  You know those crazy busy mountain roads!

The only way to stop yourself completely was to pretty much throw yourself onto the ground.  Not the most graceful way of disembarking.

Then Ratty got brave and tried to surf on the sled like the little kids were doing.  This ended poorly.

But I still had to try it too.  I moved all of 3 inches and thought that I was going to plunge to my death.  As if that was even possible.

Ratty was flying down the hill on this little sled.  If you could zoom in on his face it would be hilarious.  I'd do it but it will get all pixelated.  Trust me, I already tried.

After sledding, most people started backing up and heading home before it got too late, it is a 3 hour drive back to the city after all.  This was about the time that me, Sue and Timmy went off to learn how to fire guns.  Read all about that awesome time HERE!

After that it was REALLY time to go, so we all said our goodbyes and packed ourselves back into the car.  My mom and I had plans to take Sue and Ratty around Mittersill, the small village where my Uncle Bill lives that is on the side of Cannon Mountain.  I love Mittersill, though I've always thought that I slightly missed it's heyday.  It's still beautiful and awesome, don't get me wrong, but when my brothers and sister were growing up the slope behind my uncle's house was an active run for Cannon.  There is still the old chair lift base at the bottom of the mountain, and last I heard Cannon was going to reopen the trail.  I hear stories of how the adults would sit in the restaurant of the hotel at the base of the mountain, having drinks and watching all the kids ski.  My uncle could also ski right from the slope onto his back porch and in the back door.  It just sounds so picture perfect, I wish I could have been there for some of that!  Maybe I'll be around for it's second coming...  

My Uncle Bill drew the plans and built this chalet when my mom was my age, actually probably younger!  In order to build a home in Mittersill, which I don't think you can do anymore, the house has to be a certified Swiss Chalet.  In order to submit the plans for the house, my uncle needed to have the architect sign them.  Thing was, my uncle was the architect [even though he had no real formal training], so as to not create suspicion, he signed my brother's name, Ronald A. Fetter Jr.  Ronny was only 1 at the time.  Isn't that awesome?  I love that Ronny's name is on the official blueprints, filed away somewhere in Europe.  Pretty cool.

The view from the front door.

View from the upstairs landing, overlooking the living room fireplace.  That is a massive Downey family coat of arms hanging on the wall along with my uncle's collection of steins.  Ugh, I love this place.

I think it's funny how much I love it now, though when I was 11 and visiting with my parents I still loved it up there, but would find myself fidgety.  No TV, no radio reception, well that's not true, we could get the oldies country station, which back then was my nightmare.  In the summer we'd swim in the pool at the inn at the base of the hill or go to their game room and play ping pong.  What seemed kinda boring back then is exactly what I'd love to do right now.  Does that mean I'm getting old?

This was the first time that either Ratty or Sue had ever seen the house, so we spent a good while look at all the things my uncle has displayed.  He collects ski resort pins, and has scarves hanging on the wall with hundreds of pins on them.  Most are places he's skied, places in Europe and the US, and some pins are gifts that people have brought him.

He also has all the pencils from each golf course he's ever golfed at.  Isn't he so cute?  They are glued to a ribbon and hang in the front room of his house.  Hm, I'm starting to wonder if this whole 'I save everything' thing runs in our family.  Both my mother and I 'suffer' from it too!  It's not a bad way to be, if you ask me.

See all those slats/spindles/balusters in the deck?  My mom and her sister carved each one by hand.  They are all curved and each one is exactly the same, or rather, designed exactly the same - they're all obviously a little different since they weren't cut outs from a machine. There is some pretty awesome character in this chalet - like the carved lion Downey sign that matches the family crest hanging above the fireplace.  And the birdhouse!  Everything is just so awesome.

Before you turn into Mittersill this is the sign that you see.  The whole village has so much character!  I highly recommend driving through if you're ever in the area!

62. March 26th, 2011 Picture.

On to day 2!  Saturday morning I woke up relatively well rested all things considered, but in desperate need of some coffee.  I was definitely not alone, as multiple pots worth of coffee had already been consumed and Sue and I were a tad late getting up and claiming our mugs.  I feel like we spent the majority of the weekend cleaning out cups and washing silverware, mainly because there wasn't enough to go around for everyone when they needed it.  This is  why Sue drank her coffee out of a wine glass.  Please see below.

Since Sue and Ratty had never been up to Franconia, my mom and I took them on a tour of our favorite places around town.  We stopped off at a little cafe, Wendle's which makes pretty awesome sandwiches and really strong coffee.  Franconia is kind of a one stop light town, it has a grocery store, general store and a bar, so the recent addition of Wendle's is a pretty great one.  They use local ingredients and make really yummy sandwiches. There have been times that I've eaten almost every meal over the course of a weekend at this place, which says alot.  Another awesome quality of this restaurant is that it is right next to the Garnet Hill factory store, which was our very next stop!  Garnet Hill is a J. Jill-esque type catalog store that is based in Franconia and they have a uber small factory shop where they'll sell extra inventory, discontinued items and just great stuff.  This is where we bumped into another group of cousins, Katy, Maria, Becky and my Aunt Lisa who were just leaving the store with bags full of goodies.  When the Downey's invade, we're impossible to miss - we even met up with Eddie, Christine and the girls while eating our sandwiches.  Franconia is a small place!

Next up on our list of places to visit, HARMAN'S!

Harman's is a legitimately world famous country store that sells, hands down, the ABSOLUTE BEST CHEDDAR CHEESE I'VE EVER HAD!  Seriously, it is the most amazing cheese on the planet.  It is super sharp, but creamy and almost crumbly, like you need to press your finger into the cutting board to pick up all the scraps - yes that good!  I could go for a block right now, with some cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuts and a glass of champagne.  That could possibly be my favorite meal ever.  Imma gonna need that immediately, kthanksbye.

This was actually my first trip to Harman's, at least that I can remember, but it definitely won't be my last.  I knew what the were famous for and went there with the mission of buying at least a pound of cheddar cheese to take home.  On our way to the Sugar Hill Sampler, which just happened to be closed [I mean how did we not know the building wasn't even winterized?!] I made my family stop so I could do some damage.  I ended up being the only one to buy anything, but Ratty sure regretted it a few days later when we finally sampled the cheese.  It was fantastic, and I think it is definitely worth the 3 hour drive up to Sugar Hill alone.  I'd go up there and turn right around after buying 20 pounds of cheese.  And an industrial freezer.  But thankfully, they do an online business and ship all over the country, so that is my go-to move.

Doesn't this place look so adorable and so quant?  I love it.

The only thing across the street from Harman's is the post office.  Sugar Hill is an extremely small town, but it's awesome.  In the 50's a lot of famous actors and actresses had houses up there, Lucielle Ball and Betty Davis, just to name a few.

Is it any surprise that Sugar Hill's population is between 500-600 people?  Yes, I looked it up on Wikipedia.  Quickly followed by homes for sale on Trulia and Zillow.

I could own a vacation home up here [hi Amy, maybe you should start with owning ONE home before you start dreaming of vacation properties].  Whatever, I could most definitely own a little cabin and just unplug.  I'd be really good at that.

Snapping out of a day dream and back to reality.  Ratty didn't really like the s'mores on a stick that I bought him at Harman's.  In fact, he hated it.  He hates marshmallow, something I recently discovered, say like, at the moment this picture was taken, and he really struggled with the sticky, crumbly, chocolate mess it made.  He wanted to go home immediately.

We tried to pop into a few antique stores along the way home, one notable favorite where I found the most awesome peridot ring a few years ago, but it was closed.  Stupid mud season.

We made it home JUST in time for drinks by the fire.  Who am I kidding, when you're vacationing in New Hampshire in March, any time is drinks by the fire time!

It just so happened to also be my cousin Timmy's birthday, that Monday, so we celebrated after dinner on Saturday night.  There was some elaborate ruse created, and Tim left the house for about 15 minutes so we could set up the party.

All the cute kids keeping an eye out for Timmy!  If he did see all those faces pressed up against the glass he definitely didn't show it.  He acted like it was a total surprise!

Now on to celebrating!

My mom, Christine, me, my Aunt lisa, Timmy, Uncle Phil, Becky and Maria.

Isn't this photo so cute?!  It's my mom and my Uncle Phil chatting by the fire.  It's totally frame worthy!

Uncle Phil is a phenomenal drink maker, and he brought all the ingredients to make Manhattan's for everyone.  He mixed up a huge batch and passed them out in little dixie cups.  Trust me, a dixie cup was PLENTY, for me at least.

Hey, at least it was 9:46pm!  We could have easily cracked these babies out for breakfast.  Does that sound bad?  Hey, it's V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

Everyone in my family is super creative, and we can pretty much have a great time without anything to keep us occupied, we can totally entertain ourselves.  Phil started a piece of paper and folded it into three sections, and then drew a face and neck on the top section, then folded it down and handed the blank middle section to the next person.  Then that person draws the torso of something and folds it down and hands the blank 3rd section to the final person.  Since we're all a little crazy, when you opened the paper it looked something like this:

Maybe the cabin fever/mountain air was getting to us, but we seriously laughed over this for about an hour.  It also might have been because of those Manhattan's...

Next up we broke out our FAVORITE game, Apples to Apples, and sat around the dining room table and played for almost 5 hours.  We sat around cackling and practically falling out of our chairs while the rest of our family looked on like we had 4 heads.  My mom said it was infectious, that when we all started laughing the rest of the room couldn't help but laugh, even though they had no idea what was so funny!  Again, those Manhattans...

Speedy was the name of Tim and Phil's dog growing up, so when I got this card I knew I had to hold onto it until it was one of their turns to judge.  Totally preying on their nostalgia. 

It was obviously his favorite and I won that round.

So, I will fully admit, that this is where things got weird.  On top of drinking beer after beer, mixed with scotch and Manhattan's, we were getting just plain ol' goofy, which gets funnier with each sip you take.

Someone, I think it was Maria's husband Scott, starting what he referred to as Jowlin'.  It's when you would shake your head back and forth so fast that your cheeks would start flapping.  Whenever anyone tried this, hilarity ensued.  Go ahead, try it.  I bet you think you look pretty silly.  Either that or you'll give yourself a headache.  I always hurt my head trying.

I had photos of people trying to Jowl, or trying Jowlin', whichever is grammatically correct, and no matter how funny they are, I can't bring myself to post them.  I love my family and I would LIKE them to continue loving me, so those miserable yet amazingly hilarious photos must stay tucked away.

Until the next family party.

I can however post this.  And say that watching Phil try to Jowl with this paper mask on might have been the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.  Maybe tied with him trying to drink beer through the eye of the mask and having it spill all over him.  I have videos of both but again, unless I want to be excommunicated from this family, they are staying on my laptop.

Again, until the next family party.

This was the night that I dragged my mattress down the stairs from the loft, through a bathroom and into my mom's room, where Ratty and I slept on the floor.  I stayed up wayyy later than both him and my mom, finally heading to bed around 4am.  

Phew, this day was INSANITY.  Pure, awesome insanity.

62. March 25th, 2011 Picture.

 I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly overwhelmed about getting these next few days up on the blog.  A big group of us headed up to New Hampshire, you might remember this detail from my post about learning how to fire a gun, and all stayed at my cousin's Billy's in-law's house.  Lots happened, hilarity ensued and I will never be able to capture absolutely everything that happened that weekend, but I'll do my best!  Now the house is massive, up on a mountain in Sugar Hill and it's seriously amazing.  There were 15 adults and 9 children staying for the weekend, and as you can imagine, it was absolute, pure, insane chaos.  No seriously, Chaos, with a capital C.  Literally.  But still totally awesome.


I was driving up with my mom, Ratty and my cousin Sue, so we all got out of work early on Friday afternoon and packed up my mom's car before hitting the road.  There was so much stuff I thought we might have to leave some things behind, but we managed to smush it all in the trunk.  And on Ratty's lap.  And at my feet.

We got up to Franconia around 6pm, thankfully missing most of the Friday rush hour traffic, and got right down to exploring this awesome house.  Here's the view from one of the many picture window's in the living room:

And the huge stone fireplace, leather couches and vaulted ceilings in the main house's living room.  Oh yes, there were 2 houses connected by a breezeway and both had separate living rooms and kitchens.  As you can imagine, this is where most people congregated through the weekend, until I locked myself in the other house to get away from all the children.  I gave myself a 2 minute time out and it was awesome.  You'll see why. Like I've said before, I LOVE kids, but en masse they are super intense.  SUPER.

We weren't the first ones to arrive and definitely weren't the last.  Not even 30 minutes after we arrived, my cousin Timmy and his wife Becky got there.  Let's get this party started!

Tim had aggressive plans for the weekend.  Almost all of them included scotch.  No one complained.  In fact, Ratty might have shed a small tear out of sheer excitement.  Honestly, 3 days with some of my cousins, Aunts and Uncles in a house in New Hampshire is pretty much the best thing ever.  

I do want to make a note here that although I was pretty excited and couldn't wait to spend time with everyone, I was panicked with anxiety.  There were so many kids, running, jumping, screaming, running outside, running INSIDE, going to one of the bedrooms downstairs, dubbed 'The Silly Room' and just going batshit crazy jumping from one mattress to another and back again.  I get it, the kids were excited too.  When you get lots of kids together there is bound to be some insanity.  All the parents tuned it out and were able to relax, knowing that the kids were safe, blowing off steam in the playroom, while I was totally on edge.  I guess when you aren't around a lot of kids, mostly boys, you cannot handle going from 0-1,000 so quickly.  Also, Ratty and I were sleeping in the open loft, right above the kitchen, so I was also on edge about being woken up at 5am every morning.  The first night we borrowed ear plugs and I slept with a pillow and a sweatshirt over my head, and the second night I dragged my mattress downstairs and slept on the floor of my mothers room.  No seriously.  I take my sleep very, very, seriously.

Right, back to the weekend!  No more talk of my rational/irrational anxiety.  Promise.

So yea, scotch.  Though I didn't partake, it's amazing how quickly this stuff disappeared.  Just like the good ol' Irish family we are. 

Ain't no time like the present, am I right?!

Using the first photo of this blog as a benchmark, comparing the amount of stuff 4 people packed for 3 lousy days, really only 1 full day when you break it down, you can only imagine how much stuff/beers/food everyone showed up with!  Thank goodness there was still a ton of snow on the ground and the temperatures were pretty much freezing, the porch acted as our beer fridge.  It was awesome.

Eddie and Christine have a house about 20 minutes away from Sugar Hill, in Bath, New Hampshire, so they were also up for the weekend.  They came by later in the night but headed back to their house once the wheels started to come off.  They were back bright and early the next morning though to hang out with all of us.  Isn't Abby such a teeny cutie pie?!

Can I wrap up that circular picture window and take it AND the view home with me?!  Ugh, so awesome.  I want this house!

Cassie looked seriously concerned that her ice cream cone was smaller than Jackson's.

All the kids sitting around the dining room table.  The next morning when we are retelling stories of the night before and I say that there were only 8 kids there, no one believed it.  My mom went as far as to count all the kids on her fingers FIVE times before finally believing that only 8 kids, 6 really once Cassie and Abs left, were staying in the house.  It seemed totally wrong because we felt absolutely outnumbered.

Eddie, Lucy, Phil, Uncle Phil, Sue and Maria with Henry.  What a good lookin' family!

And ending the night with some cheers and some scotch.  Gotta rest up because we had a big day planned for tomorrow.  Ratty and I headed to bed around 2am, wrapped in blankets and hoodies, with ear plugs and pillows over our faces - this was surprisingly comfortable, for me at least.  This may be surprising to some, but my mom stayed up WAY passed 2am, like hours past.  So THIS is where I get it from!  Once everyone get's gabbing it hard to pull yourself away.  My mom's a party animal!