Maya

Maya and I had our first snowfall last night.  I'm not sure what she makes of the white stuff except that it is cold. It was nice to see the white landing on her black coat.  This morning taking her out and she wasn't quite sure where to 'do her jobs' until necessity called for it and she realised she could!  She's pretty prim and proper so I'd say she didn't want to mess up the white stuff.  Had a play date with a Vischla named Isabella.  Now I'm sure she'll sleep it all off. 

Had a fantastic American Thanksgiving with the friends in Newburyport.  Maya travelled up with us for the night and semi-met/traumatized Jack and Stewart, Lisa's black cats.  The dinner was fantastic and I tried sweet potatoes for the first time.  Of note is Susan's gravy & french beans, Steph's french salad, Jake's fabulous wine, Trevor's perfect pumpkin pie, and Lisa & Julien's gorgeous and moist turkey.  I contributed the usual lemon squares and brownies, feeling a bit intimidated to finally be having the REAL thing (not that our thanksgivings in Toronto have been fake, but they're definitely with an Sri Lankan twist!).

This morning we entertained our neighbors for a breakfast of crepes.  Have been lent a small guitar for my practising pleasure and I think Richie will be happy to know I haven't lost anything yet. 

The other new news is that I've found a choir to check out in Somerville - fingers crossed!

Highlights and then some...

I know the last post was "How dirty is your dog?" but I didn't expect Maya to take it literally and personally!  She's just after eating 2/3 of a bar of Dove soap.  I didn't catch her because I thought she was chewing on her kong. 

She's not as bad as she used to be - at least the furniture is still intact.  But I suppose it's the labrador in her that is constantly hungry.  Do dog treats come in soap flavour?

Two nights, three guests, and one dirty dog.  Had the pleasure of meeting and dining with Lin Clark, Steph's future replacement at DERI.  Last night entertained some French friends visiting from Paris and so this morning was a nice affair with American style pancakes and maple syrup.  Once everyone left it was time to clean the house.  Floors mopped, doggie beds and assorted accessories thrown in the washing machine - the doggie herself was carried and promptly dumped in the tub for a royal scrubbing.

And was she dirty!  I never imagined so much muddy water would come off her in one go and that's having given her a bath every week or two since we got her!  I had to shampoo her twice before she was squeeky clean and ready to go romp around the house.  (Shaking by a Lab-Pointer results in way less fur and water than that done by a Husky-German Sheppard).  She's currently sunning herself while I get on with my day.

We finally have cable!  Tired of our miserable T-Mobile Webconnect usb key and its terribly slow service, we've finally hooked into the unlimited high-speed internet.  TV wasn't all I hoped it would be, but that said, something is always or generally better than nothing!  Now if only I knew when my favourite shows were on!

As for Nanowrimo... I'm up to 2,761 words as of last night.  Hoping to spend the most part of the afternoon writing away. 

Its not the easiest thing to be in a new town without the company of your nearest and dearest. Steph is off in Washington at the 8th Int. Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2009).  I'm very proud of his work and support him as I can.  The coolest thing is that RDFa is now a part of Drupal7 core - which makes Drupal that much more competitive in the market at large as it takes its first steps into the next generation of the web. 

In the meantime, I attended Dries Buytaert's talk at MIT last night with all the Drupalgangers in the Boston area and a few who came from as far away as Montreal!  Granted, they were already in town on business - but was very happy to make new acquaintances.  Drupal is now the CMS of choice for the white house website - again, showing this is no small thing to be a part of!

In other news, Maya succeeded in staying home alone for 45 minutes without destroying anything.  That said, when I left her alone later that night for several hours - I came home to find one or two things chewed up and a tissue box in ruins.  Today, she was back to being crated.  Slowly but surely I hope she'll overcome her separation anxiety. 

Lisa was great company to me last night and this morning as we traded advice over crépes - I'm yet to improve my recent blog entries on patching.  We also made a visit to Charleston & Bunker Hill via bus.  My first time doing any type of sight-seeing in Boston! 

Its hard to keep inspired and motivated - but as Scarlett would say, Tomorrow is another day!

Highlights c/o Flickr