Georgia on my mind...

Meet Domino. She is scheduled to arrive in New England on October 12. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and she'll be in our arms that day, to join us in her forever home!

Until then, we need your help! We like the name Domino, but aren't sure it's the right one for this little gal. We're looking for something short and sweet (preferably two syllables). Thanks!

Hub on Wheels

This morning, Louis and I participated in the Hub on Wheels ride benefiting Technology Goes Home. The ride began at 8:00 on a brisk 55 degree morning. We rode the first 10 miles on a car-free Storrow Drive. Someday, when I'm mayor of Boston, Storrow Drive will always be car-free...

Here we are, excited to get on our way.

5,000 riders signed up for this year's race. Today's beautiful weather probably convinced all who signed up (plus a few extra) to turn out for the ride. Louis took this photo while we waited to begin.










Several well-staffed and food-filled rest stops powered us through the morning (you may notice bagels and bananas in this picture taken at the Carson Beach rest stop in Dorchester).












We really enjoyed the opportunity to ride through the streets of Boston with other eager riders and hope that you will come out to join us next year! We want to thank all who gave generously to our fundraising efforts - we raised $398 for Technology Goes Home, so just a few more donations will help us fulfill our goal. Thank you!

Kitchen Daydream

Louis' return was celebrated with a christening of the most recent addition to our kitchen: a cast-iron skillet. The image shown here demonstrates our brilliant ingenuity and creativity. We found a recipe for Brick Chicken - a whole chicken cooked in a skillet under a foil-wrapped brick. I recently de-cluttered and must have gotten rid of our stash of bricks... unfortunately, our free-range chicken was not going to take this one lying down; we needed something heavy to keep her freshly herbed skin nestled deep in the extra virgin olive oil. One foil-wrapped skillet didn't seem to do the trick - Louis sealed the chicken's fate by filling a kettle with (heavy) water (boy, do I miss heavy water jokes).

The chicken was quite tasty. Thank you, Louis, for such a useful, beautiful, and eco-friendly birthday present. And, please, send me your cast-iron skillet recipes!

My other half

I am thrilled to report that Louis will return to Somerville tomorrow afternoon. For those of you who haven't heard, Louis' father passed away due to complications from surgery. He's been at his mom's house in South Jersey for the past couple weeks taking care of things. I was lucky enough to be with him for the funeral and the week after, but then I had to come back to Somerville to go back to work. We are eager to reunite and look forward to spending time with friends.

Next weekend Louis and I will be riding in the Hub on Wheels ride for Technology Goes Home, a program that provides technology training for Boston Public School students and their parents. We're near our goal of raising $500 for the ride, but we need you to contribute just a little bit more.

Donate $5.00 or $10.00 and help us help young people in Boston. Enter my last name at the donation page and give what you can. There's also still time to join us in the ride! Consider trying the completely car-free 10-mile route!

Thank you.

A tomato explosion!

Two of my favorite things: technology and global education

With the help of my colleagues, I wrote a post for The Public Humanist (a group blog from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities).

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/blogs/home.cfm?aid=8202

Enjoy!

An introduction to me

A list of things you may or may not know I like:

Animals
Bicycles
Car-free living
Dogs
Edamame
France
Gardens
HGTV
Intuition
Jam
Kale
Locally owned businesses
Music
Netflix
Open windows
Photography
Q-tips
Reading
Somerville
Trivia night
Usefulness
Violin solos
Wisconsin
Xkcd.com
You
Za

A quick update for those far away: I'm living in Somerville, MA and working at a nonprofit professional development provider for K-12 teachers. My boyfriend Louis and I live high on a hill near many wonderful friends. In our free time, we enjoy competing for prizes at a local trivia night, taking in the sweet sounds of Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, and riding our bikes all around town.

Check back for more news and views - I'm excited that you're here.