a fabulous day in Boston

On Saturday, Ryan was working his fabulous photography skills in the Back Bay area of Boston. It is a nice area and great for shopping. Plus, we could park for free behind the store. Needless to say, we drove in together. I wandered down the street, going in and out of shops as I pleased. I bought a few things for the kitchen as well as a few tops. Then it was Aquarium time! If you are ever in the Boston area, I highly recommend the Aquarium; it is so unbelievable to look at all the species they have in there. I met Ryan's/my friend Lindsey there. Below are just a few of the photos:




The jellyfish were my favorite! If you want to see more photos, you can go to my Flickr site here. After three hours of pleasurable viewing, we walked over to Faneuil Hall to have dinner at Wagamama. There was so much food that we both took home leftovers. Lindsey joined me for a walk back to Back Bay and then we bid farewell.

hair cut

It had been four months and I decided I could finally afford a haircut since a week or two after arriving here.



I like to go to Salon City, since it is a local Aveda place which promotes a healthy earth, no animal products and no animal testing. If you are in the area, ask for Nimol to cut your hair. She is an excellent stylist and easy to talk to.

new-to-me car

I bought my new-to-me car this week! I have liked the Prius for a long time and so looked at it more closely once I knew I was in the market for a car. This one seemed like a pretty good deal and after writing with some friends who own Prii, I decided to go for it.

bar soap, continued

I do like the chamomile orange blossom bar soap on my hair as well as my body. I think I will continue to use it for the time being. I only bought a sample size bar, so I may have to buy more once I have used the other soaps purchased from my Groupon and Heartsy splurges.

bar soap dilemma

I want to like bar soap; I really do. And not just any bar soap: natural bar soap. I had bought some a while back when I had a coupon code to get a percentage off from purchasing from Apple Valley Natural Soap...and subsequently got into a buying frenzy of Groupon and Heartsy to obtain other kinds of bar soap as well. Not only did I want a product that was healthy for the environment, but also did not use containers to store itself in (like the shampoo and conditioner I was using previously).

Finally, I ran out of my old shampoo (Nature's Gate Tea Tree Oil Shampoo, which I do recommend and has been my favorite) and was excited to delve into my bars of natural soap. The first was a tea tree oil one, which I thought would be similar to the liquid shampoo I had previously. After using it the first time, I felt like it left a residue on my hair that I could not get rid of. My hair wasn't as soft and would tangle more easily. However, I did like the bar on my skin. It left it soft, smooth and I didn't need to apply lotion after the shower. Nevertheless, I persevered and continued to use the bar soap as shampoo.

After going home this previous weekend, I used what was available to me at my parents' house. This included Lever 2000 bar soap and Aussie Volumizing Shampoo. As hard as it was to admit, I liked using those products. My hair was soft and full of volume. The bar soap did a good job cleaning as well, although left my skin a little drier.

Today I pulled out the tea tree oil bar and tried it again; same result as before. Tonight I decided to pull out a different one, chamomile and orange blossom. Again, it was nice on the body; lathered nicely, and left my skin soft and clean. In the morning I will be washing my hair and then I will see if I like it better for my hair. I don't want to write off bar soap completely and will try the others I have purchased. If it leaves me feeling gross like the tea tree bar, though, I am going to have to switch back to liquid shampoo.

home for Easter

A reason to come home. Sure, there were other people to see, too, but my cousin and her husband had their first baby in February and I wanted to meet her! Isn't she sweet?



Here is the happy couple.

I also was able to have drinks with my cousin and his girlfriend on Friday night, as well as see neighborhood folk, Ursula and church friends. All in all, a very relaxing four days away from work.

spring is here

Besides the longer days of light, we found some buds on the trees today. We wandered through Mine Falls Park in New Hampshire.