UMass Insiders Tour (almost earned the acronym MIT)

Drove these three lovelies to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for an official university tour. We're so comfortable and familiar on the UMass campus that I never thought to take pictures. The two who toured MIT the day before unanimously agreed that the UMass tour was MUCH more enjoyable (take note, MIT tour officials) and that they would be much more likely to want to attend here. We enjoyed a delicious (free!) lunch in their award-winning dining facilities courtesy of Enrique the employee alum,

Fun Fact: Families of UMass students eat FREE! at any and all visits

and just as we were leaving town, I pulled over for this 

"if-there's-no-photo-did-it-really-happen?" picture.

MIT means More Impressive Tuition

I took a couple of our future college students on an official tour of MIT in Cambridge. It's a pretty imposing place.

 Fun fact about MIT: every student who enrolls MUST pass a swim test. Has something to do with the founder and being on the banks of the Charles River. I doubt there are very many universities/colleges that require passing a swimming test to graduate. Another fun fact: If an enrolled student takes a swimming class, an archery class and a sailing class, they are eligible to earn the official MIT Pirate's License. 

My maternal grandfather went to MIT in the 1930s. We still have his report cards. Now I want to dig them up and see if the Pirate's License was a thing almost 100 years ago.

 Fun for US? We met our BFF Ellen across the street for lunch after the tour. She works in the office of the President, and hooked us up with some fine MIT yo-yo's. She also took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the library, where we saw the very impressive dome. It's a beautiful campus and we heard some imposing statistics about accepted students' average GPAs and exam scores.

 It was fun to walk the halls and grounds of MIT and learn about this fine institution of higher learning. Another Fun Fact: After the tour, no one in my little group raised their hand when I asked 

"Now who wants to go to MIT?"

Already done that.

You trip to Western Mass and find a piece of (art) work.

I took Leeli and Rooney to UMass for some after-church lunch-ing.

For the first time in the four + years we've been dining as ("family eats for free!") Enrique's guests at the University, the cashier did NOT want to believe that the two beauties at my side were all family. I'm pretty sure she thought they were just students masquerading as family to get a free meal.

Whatever.

We WERE in it for the free meal.

And time with Enrique, of course.

He's the real deal.

He wanted to showcase the artwork he found in an abandoned building on campus. He had plans to decorate a friend's room when they weren't looking.

Fine art. Both the painting and the guy.

It's OFFICIAL: He's a college GRADUATE!

back to work

Spring break wasn't over, but I had to take Enrique back to work. I packed his lunch and dropped him off at the library on a very quiet campus.

 The temps were cold, the air was crisp and the sky was BLUE. I stopped a few times on what has become my very favorite scenic route home.

 No photographic regrets.

visiting Enrique

Enrique played his last gig in the UMass hoops band as an undergraduate.

(unless they are selected to play in the NCAA tournament)

in case you think you're missing something

It's been about a week and a half since I discovered the dryer wasn't working. Actually, it seemed to work, it just wasn't DRYing anything. The heating element has died, I have deduced, and, in a laundry-dependent household such as ours, I celebrate the hard-working longevity of such a thing.

Since we're still living life at a minimum of 65 mph, we are currently adorning our mantel with cool patterned socks and color coordinated buntings made of the laundry variety, instead of researching our future dryer options.

(your strong and biased dryer testimonials welcome in the comments section below)

Morning Boy is starting to perk up enough to have moments when he claims to be bored. I'm grateful. He still sounds like a smoker when he coughs and is found resting on the couch when he thinks no one is paying attention.

Enrique has been pronounced flu-FREE and has flown off to UMass to jump both feet into his final semester as an undergrad.

I miss him already.

MICCA Exhibition Performance by UMass at Lowell

This is the full field show the UMass Minuteman Marching Band performed in Lowell. They are top of their class.  ALL class.  They have two performances left in the season, and then Enrique's marching band career will be over. It has been fun, exhausting, fulfilling and AMAZING.

If you've never seen a performance, this is a good representation of their contemporary style and great talent and variety of song styles. If you only have a few minutes to look, skip to minute 22 and watch the way they end a show; their traditional "My Way."  I'm going to miss this when it's over for us.

GO*U*MASS!!

UMass football is the warm-up band for the Pride and Class of New England

Before we talk football, let's just make clear the REAL reason we attended the game at Gillette Stadium on Saturday afternoon:

We happen to be this trumpet player's biggest fans.

This is his Senior year!

We've been watching this guy in this group for four years.

 We skipped the homecoming football game at home to be at the last UMass game at Gillette this season.

 I can't say enough impressive things about the marching band at the University of Massachusetts. At 400 strong they truly are the pride and class of New England.

They put on an amazing show.

But hey!

The football team gave us something to cheer about, too!

 

Here's one of their half-time numbers:

This one was performed at the Penn State game last month.

They are mesmerizing.

 AND...

the football team WON their game against Eastern Michigan!

They're on a two-game winning streak.

Woo-hoo!

 The fans went crazy.

 And then we settled in for the fifth quarter.

We love a good college football game.

 And we love a good marching band even more.

Thank you, Columbus.

Columbus Day is that holiday Monday in October that just cannot be ignored in Massachusetts. Even if it's cloudy. 

Mid October = PEAK foliage.

On Columbus Day, there's NO excuse for staying put.

You must drive. And LOOK all around you.

But, as the woman who said the prayer at church this week put it when she sent her words Heavenward, "Thank you, God, for this beautiful Fall Foliage. BUT. I would ask all the drivers: PLEASE. Keep your eyes on the road. AMEN."

Yes. AMEN. But DO look. Safely.

If you haven't visited our neck of the woods this time of year, put it on your bucket list. NOW. And call ahead for reservations. Or you might have to settle for the overflow guest accommodations in the basement. I'll be HAPPY to host a Fall foliage tour!

As we were running errands (ALL.DAY.), I would look out the window and gasp, and point, and find myself saying things like "Who gets to drive around in this colorful place doing mundane things?--Oh right.  WE DO."

And so we did.

Taxiing students, shopping for wedding apparel, repairing eye glasses, picking up contacts, visiting the barber shop and BEST of all, delivering our UMass student Enrique, back to his place in Amherst; with clean laundry, some honey crisp apples and a few tupperware containers of food.

He hadn't been home since this summer.

We love him!

 And we love his wheels.

We also love his taste in food...

He introduced us to some Syrian Falafel sandwiches.

Falafels are a traditional Middle Eastern food--they looked like mini donuts, but are deep fried balls of ground chick peas.  The man who ran the shop gave us the FULL verbal history of the Falafel, and insisted that the Syrian version is the best. He kept giving us samples with his signature cucumber yogurt dressing (with mint) that was DELICIOUS.  The Falafels were then wrapped in Syrian bread (YUM) with a choice of fresh ingredients inside.  DOUBLE YUM. If you haven't tried a Falafel, I am happy to heartily recommend the Syrian version.

 I am also happy to heartily recommend the drive home from Amherst. We stopped no less than six times to take pictures.

 And, as a reward for his patience, I took my traveling companion to Kimball's, where we purchased our LAST ice creams of the season. They always close up shop on Columbus Day. For that one tiny thing I am not so grateful, however, the whole Columbus Day package in this area is pretty fantastic.

Come SEE!!