august 17th - 23rd

i've done some walking recently to get some exercise and get to know the area. i took pictures while walking. walking adventures.


flowers by the local high school.


one of the church doors on the green.


branford sign on the green.


stairs up to my place. i'm working the legs every day. maybe i should start running them. we'll see...


little church building by the yale site. it's where ministers got together to donate books to open yale.



trolly tracks out by some hiking trails.



the trolly yard. this one is actually a streetcar from nola.



i believe this is a river. i came across it on a hike one day.



stop sign in north madison area.



a house on the same road at the stop sign. i thought it was amazing but the picture just doesn't show that.



i found the train station here in town. one ticket to the city.



boat yard in branford.



flowers outside a corner store.



i loved this garden with the umbrellas.



and this fence color.



shoreline from short beach area. this was the halfway point on a long day of walking.

NOTE: i put this together a while ago but never posted it. enjoy some pictures.

*i'm an early bird... and, i'm a night owl. so i'm wise, and, i have worms... um...*

we've settled in and i've started work. i got me a bureau on wednesday and did some priming and painting on thursday. i'm going to start taking pictures of the apartment and town so people can see what it looks like. sarah j. stopped in on her way through today and agreed it looks like a town you'd see on tv or in a movie. 'gilmore girls' all the way.

for lunch today we went to a place called foe: an american bistro. mmmmm. we sat at our little table eating our lovely upscale-esque yet inexpensive food. the table was in front of a big restaurant front window that overlooks the green. oh, how great. next time we'll go for some ice cream.

the ladies that lunch are coming in september. rad!

ask for the address. come visit!
*jp

welcome north. where it rains. a lot.

the breakdown of the move....

we didn't take pictures of us moving stuff in wetumpka. it was too hot to think of things like that. h, michael and h's mother helped out. it was wonderful. we ate subway on the floor of the empty apartment prior to locking up and leaving. i can't wait for h and michael to come up for new years! happy birthday h!



dad took this part way through the trip. i'm not sure where it was but he felt that we needed proof of our 24 foot caravan. but the truck was attached... anyway. the car carrier was broken and we didn't have a left blinker.


August 2nd:
i actually didn't take many pictures the first day. other than the confederate park sign outside clanton, al; annabelle in the truck and two of flowers in the highway in north alabama. we ended up driving to knoxville and staying with the kitchin's for the night. dinner, shopping, wii and waffles. i need to get me a wii so i can practice before taking on pam (rachael's mum) again.



greeneville, tennessee. from the on ramp by the davy crockett travel center. east tennessee is pretty.


August 3rd:

some where in virginia.



dad driving. i didn't drive it at all after picking up the truck last friday. i couldn't really see over the steering wheel anyway.



around harrisburg, pa. we stayed in breinigville, pa the second night. the holiday inn there has a crazy obsession with america. everything was themed in that way and they said 'have a great day in america' when i checked out. we stayed on the presidential floor(3rd) but i think it was like the other floors. crazy people.



hersey, pa. it looks less dark out in this one than the last one... that's just weird.


August 4th:

the morning of the 4th. jersey. such a familiar smell... ha. i don't know how h missed that one when she was up.



when we got to the toll for the george washington bridge the woman told us the toll amount changed 2 months ago and it's now $8 per axle. we owed $32. wtf! i told her we had $22 in cash. dad asked if there was another way we could pay and she kind of acted surprised as if we should have known to take out a small loan prior to stopping at her toll. she let us go through without paying. i think it's cheaper to take the train to see jocelyn in philly.



i was already on my way to new england and didn't even know it.



we showered and went to ruby's for dinner. we ordered way more food than we could handle but it gave us lunch the next day.



nate and grandpap pushing the shopping cart at target. we were trying to get nate's energy out. nater loves his grandpap.



the running around target worked. lovely.


August 5th:

this was the morning after moving all that crap up to the 3rd floor. it was hot up here (in the apartment) and just all around tiring.



nate was put down for a nap and apparently he wasn't having it. he pulled the tool box into his pack 'n play and dumped it. watch out for this one...



dad really wanted nate to have a chance to ride in the rental truck before returning it. this was while cris put his seat in the truck. nate loves him some trucks and jennt loves her some pictures.



nater likes his ice cream.



he also likes sharing. which is good...



we indulged in some ice cream. i think cris was most excited seeing that she had been talking about ice cream since she got to ct.


August 6th and on:
Dad left on the train that morning heading to newark airport. cris, nate and jennt stayed until about noon before heading back to maine. my phone and jeep ended up dying that afternoon. i got a new phone, same phone number and got the jeep to a little shop down the road. everything is close enough to walk to. i've found my bank, auto shop, grocer's and post office all within a mile walk. there's also the assortment of doctors and churches right here. it's weird to see so many people around after living in wetumpka but the weather allows for it and its summer tourist season. only 3 more weeks of crazy weekend traffic. or at least i hope that's the case. i've been trying to unpack and organize things. i need to buy a few book shelves and other random things. i'm way better than i've been in the past and actually have a few things on the walls already. last time it took me 8 or 9 months before considering it.

i start work on monday. i'm sure there will be updates then.
*jp

goodbye, dirty dirty.

i'm moving in the morning. h and i picked up the truck today and started packing it. there isn't much left to load and just some light cleaning to do before taking off tomorrow. today.

i'm not quite excited about working where i'm going. i get anxious about working with new people. i'm also not fully excited about just living in ct. i do get those little bursts of happiness when thinking about seeing people more often. anything beats just seeing people in february and praying i can get back in june/ july. not to mention those i wasn't able to see this february... or jocelyn who no one has seen since christmas 2005. i just hope people will visit me as much as i'll visit/ want to visit/ try to visit them. that's the part that gets hard.

the new part starts again. so weird. i think i'm ready. part of me can't believe i've lived in random alabama for 3 years... as of this weekend.

i should be sleeping... but we know how that goes.
*jp