Wrapped up

its late and i dont have my own laptop right now... so i was going through tims pics and couldnt decide... then i saw this one of me he took in february. hahahha, i look weird!! it was so cold that day, but sunny so i hadnt really expected HOW cold. then the gloves and the jacket and the trousers and the hat were not really fitting each other.... but at least i was less cold :)

now its really getting warm here. the pool also finally opened and last night we had our first swim. it was soo nice!! 

More desert

this was close to las vegas. from afar this looked like a giant stretch of water, glistening in the sun. almost, but not entirely. and indeed, when we got closer it was just this... we saw a photoshoot going on (it was right next to the highway), and then decided we wanted to see it from closeby as well! i think this place is used for many photoshoots, doesnt it somehow look familiar? the ground cracked, nothing nearby, just the mountains in the background and the hot sun above you.

i found it a little scary to drive there, somehow i expected it to end at some point. or that we would disappear into the ground as it could not hold us... but that all didnt happen!! :)

im just very amazed by the desert and the numerous forms it can take on..... wouldnt mind to go again and explore a little more...

Dying thirsty

when we were in las vegas, i wanted to go see a cemetery there. i found one relatively close to the strip that has been listed on the national register of historic places since 2006. it opened in 1914. but, when we arrived there we both find it a rather sad and ugly cemetery, with lots of fake flowers... i didnt even want to take a picture...

instead, i show you the grave of sergeant clark, born in canada in 1844. in 1862, he joined the new york infantry, actively serving in, and surviving, the civil war. after being shot in the hand and contracting typhoid fever, he was honorably discharged on march 6, 1863 as a sergeant of the new york calvary. he then emigrated to southern california. years later, while traveling from bakersfield to salt lake city on a buckboard (a carriage), he stopped in the valley of fire, tied his horse to the back of the wagon and wandered around, possibly looking for water.  eventually, he crawled under his buckboard and died, presumably from thirst, several days before his body was found on june 30, 1915. his grave is at the spot where his body was found, and simply says "clark". i got the information from the marker that is on the parking spot next to the road. to be honest, i did not walk up to his grave. it was so immensely hot, we had gotten out of the car for various photo opportunities already and at this point i was just too lazy....! but just imagine, we crossed the desert in an air conditioned car, with 2 gallons of water and even some ice (from the ice machine in the hotel), on a paved road. with enough food, directions and whatnot.... while sergeant clark survived war, being shot and typhoid, was brave enough to cross the desert without any of that and then died of dehydration....

for other taphophiles, go here!

LA sunset

we enjoyed the sunset on venice beach in los angeles, on saturday......

now its monday and we spent the entire day getting back home again.... we had a great time and im not done with showing you pictures of it just yet.. :)

at the airport i could not take our spray bottle of deodorant. it was too big. aarrrghhhh!! at boston airport the officer was very nice. i had not even taken out the toiletries. he did that for me and deemed it all harmless. in san diego the lady did not like the bottle. it was too big. "oh, they allowed it in boston? they shouldnt have. its too big." "but we imported it from europe, and its a brand new bottle!!" (deodorant is one of the things i have not been able to find a good american subsitute. i think there is none and thus we get it from the netherlands, haha) "well, its too big". and there it went, into the trash.... :( had it been 2 smaller spray bottles; no problem. really. grrrr....

ever since a recent south park episode where they install "toilet security", which they call the TSA, i think of them like the toilet security administration (instead of transportation). my goodness, they can be so anal!! (pardon my language). once an officer complained because the plastic bag i had my toiletries in was double the allowed size; even though i had filled it only halfway and had folded it. "but im not taking too much, right?" "thats right, but the bag is too big". "i folded it, essentially its half a bag". "the bag is too big, next time bring the right size bag". problem ofcourse starts with the stupid airlines that ask for a fee for checking bags; ofcourse now most people only bring carry-on, leading to all this nonsense. then at the gate its always the same story: "this flight is fully booked, space is limited, we will not to check-in bags, it wont fit, but now its free of charge". blablablabla... flying is becoming more and more complicated...

enough ranting, we had a great time! :)

Getty center

yesterday, saturday, we drove from san diego to los angeles to visit the getty center. sylvia and me had gone there last year already, but i was so impressed that tim had to see it too! it was very bright and sunny, a perfect day for some more hours in the car... ;) 

the getty center is situated on a hill and from many balconies from the 4 (or 3?) floor building you have an incredible view of los angeles and the ocean. it was built in 1997 and cost only 1.3 billion dollars.... it is a huge museum with lots of art, but just the building itself is already very impressive. the entrance fee is just 15 dollars per car regardless of the number of people... but well... mister getty owned 2 billion dollars at the time of his death, in 1976. we went to a photo exhibition of the work from herb ritts, an american fashion photographer who often shot in black and white. his photos really made an impression on me. you can take pictures of the human body, or you can make art of it.... and that is what he did.....so, if you are around los angeles; definitely go see the museum itself, as well as the exhibition! other than that, we walked around a bit aimlessly, which is not bad at all in this museum (just frustrating that we always seem to get lost in any museum...)

above, to the right you can see tim and sylvia enjoying the view.... the view from the terrace was endless yesterday, the sky was so clear, as opposed to last year when we were there.

Scary part....

this is from friday, when driving from las vegas to san diego. many parts were through the desert, and we didnt see that many other cars. it was very windy. very windy! what you see here is sand!! at first it was kind of funny, all that sand blowing around. we first saw it from a distance, huge clouds of sand.... but suddenly we were in the middle of it. at one point we literally could not see anything anymore, like sudden heavy fog.... but then of sand. i was really scared! perhaps the scenery was beautiful, but we could see only a few meters, at most. i think i took this picture while driving, but we also got out of the car, because tim "wanted to expeience it". result; sand everywhere. the car got a fine layer too (on the inside), and even after a thorough shower i still feel not all the sand is gone.

but aside from the 2 or 3 times that the sand was taking literally all sight, it was pretty cool, and something i never experienced before!

Driving.... driving...

today we got up early. and then drove. and drove some more. and even more... 

it was amazing. beautiful, ugly, sad, abandoned, funny, scary, impressive..... and then we arrived in san diego and are staying for the weekend with our friend sylvia!!

i guess i have a picture (many, actually) going with each adjective. but not now... time for bed!

Endless desert

on wednesday we drove to the valley of fire, a state park, some 50 miles from las vegas in the mojave desert. red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs gave the park its name. from endless rows of lot machines we drove into an everchanging, endless landscape that was just stunning... i took so many pictures! both while driving and when walking around. all were not as good as seeing it in reality....  :( i had a hard time choosing a picture, but settled for one that shows the red sandstones and the wideness/endlessness of the park... we spent many hours here and stopped at all the "photogenic points" (nicely indicated with signs, hahahaha). it was sooo hot! i guess we both drank 2 liters of water and still could drink some more..

its really funny to see things in real that, upon seeing them, you realize you have seen several times before, in pictures, advertisements or movies.... yet all those things, also vegas itself, are different, no matter how often you saw them portrayed on tv or described in novels, as you need to see them for yourselves!!

What happens...

... in vegas (yes, it seemed not too difficult to figure out where we are!), of course needs to be reported here!

we decided after nearly 5 months it was time for another little trip. we came to realize that we are now in the us, and better make sure we see something of it while we are there! on tuesday we wandered around a bit on the strip. there are many escalators which i found ridiculous at first, but proved to be nice when your feet are sore and the heat is driving you mad... wiki just tells me that the strip is 4.2 miles (6.8 km) long, and houses 15 (!!) of the 25 most largest hotels in the world, with a total of more than 62,000 rooms..... as everyone knows, all those hotels are in ridiculous themes, so there is venice, new york, a pyramid, the eiffel tower.... (i was just missing something dutch, but a windmill is probably not "classy" enough to make it unclassy in las vegas). above is the lobby in ceasar's palace (guess what the theme is there!), and in the back you see its casino. its all huge, and the gambling halls are all even bigger, and kind of dark. without clocks, but with many ashtrays. beeehhhh. the smell of cigarettes everywhere is mixed with the smell of fried food and perfume. yes, perfume. every place we wandered through smelled different. but all awful attacks on my nose. our hotel does not have a casino, but its lobby is probably the smelliest of all, it made me feel a little nauseous and my nose hurt when we had to wait some minutes before check-in (im very curious how much and how they spray their "scent" around everyday).

i have been thinking about "las vegas" since we got here. i have some simple rudimentary theories as to why it is here, haha. maybe i will share those thoughts. maybe not... its not for me, but interesting to see! a little depressing at times too, i think. seeing endless rows of slot machines, and mostly somewhat older people behind them. just you and the machine. is it really that much fun...?
 (we tried one "game". 10 dollars. somehow we made 11 of it. then on to another machine, and it was all gone in less than 5 minutes. more than enough money wasted for a real dutch person... :D !)

Guess where....

... we currently are!

yesterday, tuesday, we got up real early, to goto the airport at 6, and then flew to a place where its really very hot.... :)

more tomorrow!

Expressing emotions...

guess at what kind of cemetery this picture was taken....... this stone belongs to Iko, who lived from 1991 till 2004.

yes, at a pet cemetery! this is the pine ridge pet cemetery in dedham, a little south of boston. i found it accidentally, while searching for cemeteries in the neighborhood. no clue what to expect we went there. all stones were alike, but their texts differed greatly. what most of them had in common, was a great display of emotions. tim said he was deeply moved. he was laughing, too. but then i realized he really was. and he was right. there was sooo much more emotion expressed about these lost pets than i ever saw on any cemetery for people!! something i am always looking for, but hardly ever find.

why is it that it is so much easier to say something sweet about your pet than about your husband? wife? father, mother? etc...? 

it really made me wonder..... let me think a little more before i pose a conlcusion! :)

here some more pictures of this cemetery. unfortunately we could only visit the new section. there is also an old section (with graves from the early 1900s!!) further up the hill (thats probably prettier), but the cemetery was right next to an animal shelter that just started renovation and the old part was not accessible.

and here are my fellow taphophiles!!

Officer cupcake

whenever something, whatever work has to be done on a public street (or on the road) that disturbs (or could potentially disturb) traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrians), a policeman is placed there to oversee it all. always. no exception. and often its completely useless! they just watch the workers do their job. or stare at their shoes. or their phone. or pretend to regulate the traffic. or they are just chatting with the workers. almost never it seems useful that they are standing there. even, they take up space and make it even harder to pass the work area! (or sometimes its really no problem that some work is being done, if it hadnt been for the police car thats taking up a lot of space on the road). 

i thought this useless use of officers happened everywhere in the us, but i recently learned that thats not the case! pfew! it differs per state....

(and im amazed i could spend so many words on that. i actually wanted to post about something else, but i couldnt find the words and thus settled for this older picture)

A message...

... on the outside of an abandoned building we visited this weekend. the place was really abandoned and nature had done a very good job at taking over. the buildings almost seemed part of the green grass and trees.... and then suddenly i saw this message somewhere stuck onto a window, which reminded me that someday there were many people there. 

currently i have a huge amount of photos i want to post. but its all so unorganized, and i dont know where to start...! problem right there; i should just start organizing. but theres always something else to do... (like going to yet another great location to increase my photo collection even more, or baking a typical dutch pie i suddenly craved, but took hours to complete (it was something like this; something you will never find around here!!)).

and i do agree; lets make smoking history! i really, really hate for example that most people who smoke dont like to do it in their own home. fine. but then they do it outside, underneath our window. so that it enters our apartment. beeehh. or the person that smokes cigars in the garage underneath the apartments. really, why?! if you dont want it in your own house, why bother other people with it?!

Beach ball

today was such a nice day! very sunny, not too warm.... but i was mostly inside.

lets see about tomorrow!, its supposed to be very good! one more week and the pool at our apartment complex will be opened again... somehow all apartment complexes around here open their pools during memorial day weekend, and they ALL say that right now "they are still figuring out the chemicals and stuff.."

Ugly building

i pass by this building very often. its in boston (here), and its extremely ugly, creepy, neglected, fenced, huge and seemingly empty. it is in the same style as the city hall of boston, built in the brutalist style that i showed you earlier. i have tried several times now to capture its ugliness in its entirety, but didnt manage, its just too big! so, just a detail for this time..... it is still in use, although you wouldnt say that, as many of the stairs etc are fenced off.... the department of unemployment assistance is housed there (a reason to try to never become unemployed right there), as well as various other government services. 

it has many creepy corners and stairs and what not, so homeless people often use it (especially in winter) to sleep/sit/do whatever there. and now i just read on wikipedia that, although constructed in the beginning of the 70s, it was never completed...

Rain, rain...

...& rain. the past 3 days we had quite some rain. its not too cold, during the night its even too warm, sometimes. ah well, the weekend was really warm, with no rain at all!

above is in new york, a while back already (i think it was in october?), when it suddenly started raining during a protest (it  was the slut walk protest, actually). real new yorkers often tell everyone, whether you want to hear it or not, that new yorkers wear black, black and nothing but black. even their umbrellas. i think thats just bullcrap.... just like any other place, there are people who are dressed in all black, but there are also some that like colors, as you can see here. besides, dont most people have a black coat, just because its easiest and fits with anything else you wear.. ?

Person P46

yesterday i showed you a picture of the last remaining building of the metropolitan state hospital in waltham, which closed in 1992. we were there the last weekend of april. one evening, when i planned to post a picture of it here, and i was looking up some info on the history of the hospital, i stumbled upon a blog that showed its cemetery! cemetery?! we had walked around the grounds quite a bit, but we didnt see a cemetery.... but the mere fact that there was a cemetery associated with the hospital meant that we had to go back and find it, which is what we did last saturday.... even with the directions printed, we had a hard time finding it, we went wrong twice (really, really wrong), before we finally found it; the metfern cemetery. its almost 3/4 of a mile away from the hospital grounds, in the middle of the woods...
above you see one of the "gravestones". P 46. thats it. thats the grave for a person. no name. just a number, and either a P or a C in front of it. P meaning the person was protestant, and a C for Catholic. they were separated on either side of the grassy field (more pics here on my flickr account). some of the markers were toppled over, some were overgrown and others were unreadable. imagine that. you die in a psychiatric hospital, and then you are buried as a number. in fact, between 1880 and 1946 people from the metropolitan state hospital and the fernald school (an institution for people with developmental disabilities) were buried at the mount feake cemetery without ANY individual marker, so this individual number can be seen as an "improvement", which is how they buried their patients from 1949-1979; approximately 300 patients are buried here like this. my questions; why did this occur at another, their own, cemetery? and what happened after 1979? are there any records of the names of the people belonging to these numbers?! 1979 is not that long ago; did they really think this was the way to do it, even just 30 years ago?!! (this is just a subset of my questions...)

as you can see in my set on flickr, it is now sort of clear that that open spot in the middle of the woods is a cemetery, but that didnt seem to be the case originally as you can see here in a picture taken in 2004. moreover, when construction began for the fancy apartments that replaced the hospital, workers were unaware of the cemetery and made part of it a road to be used for heavy construction equipment.... 

im glad there are many blogs etc swimming around on the internet, telling us about these cemeteries (there are more, and i will use another tuesday to show you), so that they still will be visited from time to time.....

for more taphophilia, go here!

Psychiatric hospital

2 weeks back we went to waltham. for a certain supermarket. as i thought it was too much of a drive for just a supermarket (some 30 minutes), i googled around a bit to see whether there is anything interesting to see in waltham. i then found that the above building is on the "national register of historic places" AND is abandoned... so i had to check that out. well... it used to be the administration building of the metropolitan state hospital, built in 1927. built as an enormous complex, with many different buildings on 330 acres of land, it housed the mentally ill. in 1992, it closed, in line with the state's policy to close mental hospitals to cut costs and to move patients into private care. this hospital is located in a rural area, with lots of woods around it. there is not much to be found on wikipedia about it, aside from the sad story that one patient murdered another in 1978, and kept several of her teeth as a souvenir. some other sites mention the place is haunted, since the patients were treated very badly, often.

here you can see how huge the complex was. underground all those buildings were connected by tunnels, so that staff and patients could get to other buildings easily during winter, etc. in 2007, all those buildings were demolished and an apartment complex was built. i think i read somewhere that they did use the foundations for some of the buildings. now you can live on the grounds of a former psychiatric hospital for "just" 1800 dollars a month (1-bedroom). 

i dont understand why they left the building like this. if it is a building of "historic interest", why do they leave it all boarded up? the entrance full of graffiti? it makes its sad past even worse, i think...

if interested in some pictures from the insides of the buildings in abandoned state, click here, and tomorrow i will show you some more pictures of this place.

Abandoned swings

as you can see, these swings have not been used in a long time.... yesterday we saw many of them.... the grass so high around them. i also learned something; when exploring in such high weeds with bare legs, they get itchy... but it was soooo hot this weekend!!

i will tell you more about the place where we saw these swings another time; im still reading about it and trying to figure it all out.... now first some sleep!

Out exploring

today we did a lot! it started actually last night with a movie, and then today we went to the place where that movie was filmed. we also pretended to be interested in an apartment, just so we could see the inside of a building. which turned out to be so impressive that we would really move there had it been closer to boston... (and our lease really expired sometime soon, and not in a year). after that, we went to 2 cemeteries i really wanted to see. one was quite hard to find (we went the wrong direction 2 times before we were on the right path, somewhere in the woods). when driving to our next destination just the supermarket, haha), we ended up at a place that seemed to be entirely abandoned (and had many buildings!), but upon closer inspection it seemed not to be abandoned entirely. that was just soooo weird, and a little scary. after that (still on our way to the supermarket) we suddenly saw a lot of people dressed in medieval outfits, or something like that. there was food, music, some dancing and what not. we had no clue what it was but it was great people watch (see above. im just frustrated this particular pic did not turn out better), and then it was time to go home again (after the overcrowded supermarket). a very interesting, although sometimes confusing, day, haha. now i have many pics to sort out and background information to find, but surely i will post more pics in the coming days!

My muscles...

....can you see them? have you heard about them? does it help if i just straighten my back and flap my arms around like a monkey? do you see them now??! perhaps you understand what i mean...

sometimes here in the gym at our apartment you see guys like this as well. sometimes, when im trying to lift some weights or biking really hard, tim is walking around like that. or pretending to lift some very heavy weights while maintaining the "real cool guy with huge muscles" posture. what else can i do than laugh? well, sometimes it annoys me, or i am embarrassed and/or afraid that the guys who seriously walk around like this are offended... one of them even runs like this on the treadmill, haha... sure, im not used to anything. before coming to the us, i had never been in a "gym", and surely didnt work out there myself... nowadays i dare to go alone (in the beginning i would only go when tim went).

yep, another with the blossom trees. were they working out or just showing off..?

Blossom roof

im still not done with the brooklyn botanic garden. here another picture... as you can see, it was really crowded. everyone brought children and cameras, it seemed.... 

my computer is soooo slow at the moment.. :( it takes forever to do something. anything. viewing my photos, etc. perhaps its time for a new one, but spending nearly a month of salary on an apple computer is just SO much...! (today i read that a qualified car mechanic makes 100,000 dollars a year, before taxes, which really makes me wonder whether that could be an alternative career path for me....? do you need to be able to drive a car for that? :)

Harvard yard

this is harvard yard; the oldest part and center of the campus of harvard university. the oldest building still standing dates back from 1720. harvard yard was locked down for several weeks last year, when some students played "occupy boston" and had tents in the grassy area behind the people you see in the pic (as you can see in my old post here). it was then only accessible to those with a harvard id, and thus rather empty, while normally its a very touristy area! it is also the home of harvard freshmen (first year students); 13 of the 17 freshman dormitories are located in harvard yard (you see 2 of them in the pic). must be weird living in a tourist hotspot, although i think most harvard students actually enjoy this attention....

as you can see, also here the grass turned freshly green; it really makes everything around here very pretty (only now you are not allowed to walk on it anymore).

Caged Gracie

this is a life-like statue of grace sherwood allen. she died before turning 5 years old, of the whooping cough (an awful bacterial infection still affecting nearly 50 million people each year, killing nearly 300,000), in 1880. the statue is made of marble, by sidney h morse. without the glass vitrine, it would not have been white like this, being exposed to harsh winters and hot summers for over 100 years. it would have been greenish from algae and what not, like all the other stones and statues. but.. to me it was a little eerie. poor little gracie. caged forever. even worse; during winter this glass cage is covered by a metal one to further protect this "historical object" that it now became.

this is at the forest hills cemetery, of which i showed you pictures earlier. early march, the trees were still bare and the grass was yellowish (normally covered by snow, or just recovering from snow during that time of the year). we had visitors this weekend (from texas), and they themselves wanted to see a cemetery! jeejjj! so we drove to this one, as i have decided it probably is the most beautiful/interesting cemetery in boston. had it been beautiful last time, it was even more amazing this saturday, with the grass so green and blossom trees full in bloom. that time i sort of searched for gracie, but could not find her. we did see some metal thing that we joked could be a rocket of some sort; she then was still caged! and we just had walked around and around and had no clue that gracie was patiently standing underneath. poor little girl. 

her dress is very pretty, also from the back, but i now see i did not really take pictures of that side..... next time, as we will surely return to see how this cemetery looks like in summer.... (if i have the patience to wait till summer).

for more taphophilia, go here..., and here are some more pics of little gracie.

From afar...

... you can still faintly see the boston skyline! just compare it to this picture...
above we were in gloucester, rockport, or somewhere in between.

Whats there...

... to see?! 

this is an old pic, taken during the st patricks day parade. it was funny to see the kids all like above, suddenly. something interesting surely was coming! (it turned out to be a big red elmo....).

this weekend was busy, we had friends over and did "boston sightseeing". even so we do that almost every week by ourselves, im somehow quite tired now!! but it was nice (and i ate too much. beehh. tomorrow i have togoto the gym)! we even went bowling, saw some cemeteries, a museum and whatnot....

Some sightseeing

here you see the boston skyline from the cambridge side, close to MIT.

Wedding shoot

whenever i see a wedding shoot going on i get excited. i like to take some pics too. but not the standard ones the real, professional photographer is taking.... this one seemed like a real fancy one! i have often wondered about the clothes for the bridesmaids. who pays that? who chooses the dresses? so i asked some real americans and they told me that sometimes the bride let them decide, "just" tells them the kind of fabric and/or color. or she chooses, or all of them together. often all the dresses are the same, as above. but the bridesmaids themselves pay for them...

when we were wathing (and photographing) the wedding spectacle a security guard ask everyone not to do so. "since they paid for their privacy". they were in the brooklyn botanic garden. on a saturday. while the blossom trees were in full bloom. so... what privacy?! i just looked up, a shoot, for up to 20 people, costs 300 dollars (thats for the botanic garden, and ofcourse does not include the costs of the photographer and so on...), is 45 minutes and comes with a security guard to enforce time limit and to make sure the session is not "disrupted". ah well, by then i had taken my shots... :)

Spot the...

.... deer!

do you see them? we saw them when having a walk in the woods in lynn, 2 weeks back. 1 was actually on the main road, but ran away upon hearing/seeing us. they were not very scared and just did their grazing a little further away from us. amazing how they just blend in... i guess thats how they were designed... :)

Happy feet

just a quick post. we were so busy cooking/baking various homemade things (bread, dutch apple pie..) this evening, that we didnt have time to eat... or almost. it was almost tempting to go to the mc donalds to have something quick, which we both found very funny. then we did make some dinner...

above stone i found at the local cemetery. i expected somehow that it belonged to a young(er) person, but he was quite old. i only took pics of this side of the stone, and dont remember the name anymore. there was no reference as to why this was on the back. i found it a little odd!

for other taphophiles, that probably did a lot more effort for their posts, go here... :)

Dutch baby!

it is theme day again, and this time its "bakeries". this evening we spent quite some time making bread.... tomorrow we will bake it, so no picture of that.. anyways, as i wrote before, im not that good at taking pictures of food..

above a dutch baby we now sometimes make during weekends. its so good! i had never heard of a dutch baby before, and it has nothing to do with the netherlands, as far as i know. there is a wikipedia-entry about it (here), if you would like to read more about its origin; apparently it was introduced during the first half of the 1900s somewhere in seatlle. wikipedia also says that its similar to the dutch "poffertje", but its not!!

how to make one? preheat the oven to 400F. then mix 3 eggs, 2T sugar, 2/3 cup milk (buttermilk is ok-ish too, if you dont have milk, but it wont puff up as much), 1/2 cup + 2T flour, 1/4t vanilla, 1/4t salt and 1/2t cinnamon. while doing that, also put an ovensafe dish into the oven (like a round pyrexdish) with 1 to 2T butter. the dish should get hot and the butter melted, then spread it evenly over the pan. dump in above mixture and put it back into the oven until it puffs up. it really puffs up, thats so funny to see! then sprinkle some lemonjuice onto it and some powdered sugar and enjoy!! (i like to add a lot of lemonjuice, it tastes soooo good with the pancake and the sugar). above we went a little crazy, and added sliced strawberries. we got 3 entire boxes for only 5 dollars, but their taste was not the best. to get it better, i incubated them for a while with some liquor (like rum, or whatever you like), sugar and lemonjuice. when the dutch baby was done, we put the strawberries on and put it back in the oven just until the strawberries were nicely warm. hmmmmmm......!! the recipe i got from here, i just reduced the butter as it is far too much and upped the cinnamon... now i just hope our bread tomorrow morning will turn out good...

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

While driving...

... dogs like to stick their head out of the window. i always find it so funny, even cute, sometimes... :)

this was taken when the weather was a bit better. now we have heavy rain, and its a little chilly. but it makes boston very green, trees are getting leafs again and grass is coming back. pretty! 

(this should have been posted last night, but somehow i fell asleep on the couch. that usually doesnt happen to me on a monday.... grrr!)