Boston Baby Activities at Examiner.com

Hey everyone! I’m writing a column for Examiner.com about baby activities around Greater Boston. I’ve only written one article so far, but please check it out. http://www.examiner.com/x-53458-Boston-Baby-Activities-Examiner

Old Man in ClassesUSA and LowerMyBills.com Ads

This grotesque old dude is all over the internet:

I see ads with him sometimes several times a day, for both ClassesUSA and LowerMyBills.com. (Both, I believe, are owned by Experian) I see it when I check my Yahoo mail, news website, Facebook…you name it.

I can’t imagine how they came up with the idea that the mug of a crotchety-looking old man would work for their online ad campaigns. I guess it must yield some website traffic, right? Otherwise why would they use that photo so frequently?

I think he’s scary.

Baby-Friendly Restaurants in Greater Boston

As many of you know, Matt and I love to dine out. I didn’t want to stop dining out after having a baby, so I’m putting together a list of baby-friendly restaurants around Boston. Feel free to add any.

Boston Beer Works in Fenway for lunch. I probably wouldn’t bring a baby there in the evening (we only go out for lunch now, anyway) but there were plenty of babies/toddlers/kids there when we went during lunchtime.

Want to enjoy some live jazz with your baby while having some yummy brunch? Ryles Jazz brunch is definitely baby friendly. Beware, though, there are no changing tables in the restrooms. After a major poop blow-out I had to do the full body change on the floor.

La Casa de Pedro in Watertown is yummy and baby friendly. Nice changing table in the ladies’ room (not sure if there is one in the men’s room), and the waiter happily brought us water for our baby’s bottle. Lots of space if you need to bring a stroller, and my baby loved the colorful decor and the huge fish tank. (It distracted him when he was ravenous and waiting for his bottle)

Grab a beer and some chow at Watch City Brewing in Waltham. Baby friendly, spacious if you want to bring the stroller, and there’s even a little play area in the back with trains and stuff. No changing tables, though.

Bugaboo Creek is super baby friendly. I’ve only been to the one in Watertown but it’s loud with kids and families and there’s a changing table in the ladies room.

Not Your Average Joe’s is baby friendly as well. They’ve always been very accommodating when we’ve needed to heat a bottle, and they’re also stroller friendly if they’re not busy.

Another baby-friendly place, but one I’d recommend going to during an “off” time if you’re bringing a stroller: Zaftigs in Brookline. Just writing this is making me crave their challah french toast.

Bertucci’s is baby friendly, and I recommend the Chestnut Hill Mall location because it’s extra roomy if you’re bringing the stroller. Chestnut Hill Mall also has a really nice changing table on the 4th floor as well as a nursing area.

I’ll add to this as I think of more and would love to hear other people’s suggestions.

Oh, bloggy blog!

I haven’t logged into my blog in 2 months. Oops.

I’m going to try to do Project 365 again (lots of pictures of Isaac can be expected) so I’ll be bloggy again. I need to play catch-up first!

My Creepy Ice Cream Incident

Yesterday, before going to Toscanini’s, I Tweeted: “Can’t wait for ice cream tonight! Going to @tosci and thinking about the Hydrox.” And later, while sitting at Toscanini’s, sipping on a delicious chocolate frappe (they didn’t have the Hydrox flavor this time!), my friend pointed out that my Tweet (and profile picture) popped up on a TV screen.

It was sort of weird seeing my mug show up on a TV screen in public!

ARGH!!

Last month, National Grid called and said they needed to replace our gas meter. They said they’d come on June 19, between 12 and 6. I stayed home all afternoon, and no National Grid.

Then last week, we made another appointment with them. They said they’d come (today) July 31, between 12 and 6. Again, I stayed home all afternoon, and no National Grid.

They’ve had 2 opportunities and 12 hours to come and replace our gas meter. They’ll probably claim that I wasn’t home (even though I spent the time in the living room with the front door open so there was no way I could miss them) and then they’ll want me to block another 6 hours off for them to come.

How to bypass stupid voicemail instructions

From NYT

Useful article!

Time to garden!

Yesterday Matt and I started gardening. It felt great to be gardening after 6 months of not gardening!

This year we planted seeds for many different types of squash (including pumpkins), green beans, watermelon, carrots, and lots of flowers! I also went to Russo’s and got some tomato and lettuce plants. We had seeds for lettuce but apparently they take 70 days to harvest. At that point it will be July and the lettuce wilts from the heat, so we’ll be planting lettuce seeds in a few months for a fall harvest. Last year the tomato plants from Russo’s yielded in MANY luscious tomatoes, so we decided to go that route again instead of starting from seeds.

We’re also doing some container gardening this time. Our yard space is limited, so we bought a few barrels from Christmas Tree Shops and put them on the other side of the house. Hope they do well.

Matt’s hops are also doing really well. They’re growing so fast…hopefully this year he’ll be able to harvest enough to make some good beer with it!

The raspberry plant is growing like a weed, as usual. Can’t wait to pick some berries

We planted lots of flowers, especially many marigolds because they repel bugs. I got a few flowers from Russo’s to plant in the front…mostly petunias as we wait for the seeds to sprout for the other flowers!

Hooray for spring! We’re (trying) to grow a lot of things we’ve never grown before. Last year we just did pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce, hops, and raspberries. So let’s see how the rest turn out!

Another thing about Twitter…

I can’t stand these mass Twitter adders. I get these random people adding me and they have thousands of followers.

Twice I’ve added mass adders back. The first one I added back sent me a direct message saying, “Thanks for the add! How did you find out about us?” How did I find out about you? YOU added ME first, remember? The second time, the mass adder sent me a direct message back saying, “Thanks for the following. I’ll follow you back.” YOU’RE ALREADY FOLLOWING ME! That’s why I followed you back!!!

Recently someone added me and in their bio they said that they are a “freelance writter.” And then their updates were all about being a “writter” and “writting”…oh the humanity!!!

OK, I’ll admit it…I don’t like Twitter

I’ve tried, I really have. I’ve tried on multiple occasions over the past year or so, and I just don’t like it.

I don’t like all the @replies…I think it’s hard to follow a conversation. (How do these people with 1000 friends do it?)

I don’t like how if I don’t log in regularly, it’s hard to follow what people are talking about.

I don’t like how the site is down half the time.

I don’t like how people link their Facebook status with their Twitter updates so I have to see the same updates twice.

I don’t like how hard it is to find old Twitter updates. (I wanted to see when I first started Twittering, but I keep getting errors when I click on the “more” button)

I don’t like how there are mass-adders; people trying to add everyone.

I usually am a pretty big bandwagon-jumper when it comes to internet trends. I was on Friendster and MySpace before most people I knew, I’ve been blogging for 9 years, and I’m on Facebook far too often (although less since they did the redesign) But, Twitter? I just don’t dig it.