The past few days have been crazy fast.

Thursday morning marked the first day of school *yawn*. I really hate when I have to buy textbooks for class. I hate even more when the teacher "forgot" to tell the school bookstore that she will be requiring us to have textbooks, so we are stuck having to scramble to get one as we are naturally to have the first three chapters read by now. I made the discovery on Barnes and Noble.com that I no longer need to order and ship or go pick up a much too expensive textbook for which I will only get a small fraction of my money back, if that, because, heaven's knows, a new edition will probably be out by then anyways. Instead, they now allow you to rent an electronic version of the textbook for a much smaller price for 180 days. The only drawback is that you can't return anything to get some money back, but in the end, you are losing a lot less money this way than you would if you bought the textbook. Plus, it is environmentally friendly. It is also available on my Netbook instantly, which happens to be lighter than most textbooks. Crisis averted!

Also on Thursday, my parents arrived for a visit. I didn't get to see them until after class and work, but Benny kept them entertained until then by giving them a walking tour of the city. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and playing games at our apartment.

On Friday, we went to Bruegger's for breakfast. Benny had to work and I had to put in a few hours myself, so my parents spent the time at Harvard Square and then at Bleacher Bar at Fenway. I joined them for a little bit after work and then we headed back to the apartment. Just as we were entering the apartment building, the skies, err, Earl opened up and let it pour. So instead of doing anything outside, we decided to spend a few hours at Cornwall's playing pool. My mom's birthday was August 10, so I had decided to take her (and now my dad) out for dinner while they were here to celebrate. We went to the Chart House on Long Wharf. Dinner took a while as our server seemed a little scattered, but the food was really delicious. I had crab stuffed scrod and coconut ginger rice. We all shared a molten lava cake for dessert. We were supposed to have two, but one "caved in on itself" and they offered to replace it with a piece of Boston creme pie as it would take 30 minutes to make another. We all agreed that that would be a bit of a downgrade and decided to just share one. Benny wanted ice cream instead, so we headed over to Faniuel Hall. It normally closes at 9PM each night, but with Earl potentially closing in on Boston, all of the shops closed early. In the end, it turned out that all of the Earl hype was just that, hype. I have noticed that weather here can really be at either end of the extreme, so the weathermen always predict the worst. It always turns out that the best case scenario always ends up happening anyways. It rained for a while Friday night, but that was all. No wind, no lightning, no death and destruction.

On Saturday morning, I had to assist at work with freshmen and transfer student-athlete physicals until 12:30PM. Afterwards, Benny and I took my parents to the Cape. We spent some time in Hyannis looking at the shops. We also went to Chatham where we walked along the beach, splashed in the waves, and admired the far too expensive vacation homes. On the way back, we stopped to go go karting and got gelato. I asked for a scoop of peanut butter and a scoop of Snicker's which ended up being a lot of gelato, but I finished it. When we arrived back in town, Benny talked me into going back to Cornwall's to get a few drinks. I highly recommend Absolut Boston and lemonade if you haven't tried it yet. We got a late night snack and then hit the hay at about 1AM. Its been a while since I was up that late.

Two Peas in a Pod

Chatham

Washed Ashore Buoy Enjoying the Sunset

My mom wanted to go to Salem to see where her ancestors lived. Actually, I don't know how it got started, but sometime somewhere somebody started calling her the wicked witch of the west, so its kinda been an ongoing joke. We decided to go to Salem today, but we had to make a pit stop on the way at Mike's Pastry's. Benny and my dad got cannolis, my mom got a black and white and I got the lobster tail which I've been wanting to try for a while now. In Salem, we looked at a few shops, walked along the wharfs and then visited the Witch Hunt Memorial. For lunch, we stopped at Santorini (sp?) by Revere Beach for lobster rolls. I also showed my parents where I want to live if Ben and I end  up staying here longer than the two years years that I have to put in for my graduate assistantship. Before dropping them off at the airport, my parents wanted to go back to Hotel Chocolat because the chocolates that they had bought there melted. Then away my parents went.

"Broom" Lane

I love how creepy this door is

The weekend went by way too fast, but we had lots of fun. We definitely don't get to see either one of our families anywhere near enough. If my next job doesn't have us staying in Boston, it would definitely be nice to live somewhere near our parents. Anywhere in between would be nice too to make it easier to visit.