I Suck At Pinkberry

For a day in which neither Karen nor I had any set plans (which is a rarity in itself these days), today turned out to be quite fun. With the nice weather, we decided to do a few projects around the house that involved being outside.

Karen was going to rake some leaves while I was going to cut a few tree branches. Cutting branches may seem like an odd project. The electrical wires, however, that lead from the outside transformer into our house are near a tree. The branches of this tree are intertwined with these electrical wires. For the past winters, Karen and I have always worried that with the accumulation of snow during the winter the branches will break and take down the electrical wires with them.

Sure, it may be paranoia. But since it's better to be safe than sorry, I figured that now is as good a time as any to trim the branches before the winter season started this year. The only problem, of course, was getting the proper tool to cut the branches because I did not own one. For anyone curious, I needed a pole saw. Luckily for me, my favorite brother-in-law (PJ) had the tool.

Anyway, I was able to borrow the pole saw. As I was picking up the saw, my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine) BFF (Gretchen) asked if Karen wanted to go for a walk with her, my niece (Kaleigh) and my nephew (PJ). It being a beautiful day out, Karen opted to go for the walk instead.

So while Karen and our baby daughter (Briana) were out for their walk, I worked on removing the tree branches near our electrical wires. Sadly, my pruning skills may need a little work. When all was said and done, the tree looked a little oddly shaped with a bunch of missing branches.

As I was still feeling productive, I figured I would tackle another project while Karen and Briana were out. That project: going through more crap that my mother brought over. Recently, my mother has been cleaning her attic. As my brother and I had load of junk stored in her attic, my mother started delivering my crap every time she visited.

Today, I went through my fourth box. Contained within this box were more of my college notes. In particular, the box had notes and items leading to my final year of college. As usual, it was quite interesting traveling down memory lane. I almost forgot some of the things I did.

Among the things I forgot was the fact that I took an anthropology class about nutrition. Speaking of anthropology, there were notes from my favorite anthropology course: forensic osteology. Being able to piece together information about a person from their bones was cool. My friends (Marc and Kelley) at one time thought I should have worked in forensics.

Anyway, there were other random classes that brought back memories. There was a course on women in Greek literature, a group dynamics psychology course, a philosophy course about law. I thought the range of courses was definitely varied. And after looking at my graded assignments, to say that I threw off the class curve is an understatement.

But I think without a doubt, the most fun I ever had in a class was my screenwriting course. It was fun simply because it involved something I enjoy: writing. Truth be told, were it not for my enjoyment of writing, I probably would not have kept up with this blog. At one time, this blog served as an outlet while I dealt with the passing of my son (Braden). And now with time being so limited while raising Briana, I considered stopping my blog altogether. Yet for some reason, I still feel compelled to post this blog simply because I enjoy writing.

So you can only imagine how much enjoyment I get from writing screenplays which also involve my personal addiction: movies. Needless to say, it was great looking at the scripts I wrote for the class. Typical of what I write, I had based some assignments on friends. Had I time now, I would write a script involving my friends and zombies.

Regardless, I had a great time reviewing the scripts. I think what also made the screenwriting class so enjoyable was that the course was taught by local comedian, Steve Sweeney (of Back to School and There's Something About Mary fame).

Anyway, I had a lot of fun going through the box. There was also a picture taken at my commencement that featured Karen, my friends (Cass and Aimee) and I. All of us looked so young. Apparently, I even had a yearbook from my college. I totally forgot about that. And if anyone is curious, I did look to find my friend (Andrea) who apparently graduated the same year as I did, which was fact that I did not realize until many years later. For anyone curious, she graduated from the College of Management.

As I was recycling most, if not all, of the junk from the box, Karen contacted me about meeting them at Pinkberry at the Derby Shoppes. Now, I suck at Pinkberry. For anyone curious, Pinkberry is a frozen dessert restaurant. I have never actually been to Pinkberry... until today.

After today's visit, I would have to say that Pinkberry is very delicious. (Cue Rachael Ray's "Yum-O" sound.) I loved it. I ordered the fruit parfait. It was so good that I would eat another if I could.

Karen thought it was funny that my parfait had a plethora of fruit, while she was told that she could only have three types of fruit. With the server being Asian, I attributed to our genetic solidarity. After all, Pinkberry was started by two Korean Americans: Shelly Hwang and Young Lee. I actually did not know there was a three fruit limit. I simply inquired if I could have all of the fruits in the parfait and the server did her best to accommodate the request. Plus, I gave her a wink wink too. I'm just kidding.

Anyway, Pinkberry was very delicious. I enjoyed the dessert a lot. Following Pinkberry, Karen, Briana, and I headed over to our friends' (Cass and Ellen) place. The get together was actually quite spontaneous. With my friend (Kelley) flying off to San Diego for a conference, I inquired if my friend (Marc) wanted to do something. As he had no plans for the night, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go out. So, I contacted Cass and eventually all of us ended up over at his place.

And as usual, it was good to hang out with everyone. For dinner, we actually grabbed some fast food which was something Karen and I have not done in a long while because we don't generally eat fast food. We actually hit McDonald's and Wendy's because some where interested in the infamous McRib, while others were interested in Frosties. For anyone curious, Karen and I ordered from Wendy's. I must say, however, that the McDonald's location in Quincy has changed a lot since I was last there, which was definitely ages ago. The place actually looks great.

Needless to say, the night was very entertaining. We simply hung out and watched some of the Celtics game. Briana, of course, highlighted the night by pooping all over her clothes. It was fun.