Great Scott, it's MUTEMATH!

We've been MUTEMATH fans for a long, long time. The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I went to church camp in Nebraska, where I heard "One Time" by Earthsuit. I loved it. I bought a CD so I could listen to it over and over. But this was before the internet was really a thing you could use to find the answers to life, the universe, and everything, and they eventually fell off my radar. Until a few years later, when Ian shared a band called MUTEMATH, a new project from a couple former Earthsuit members. I was hooked.

When we lived in Philadelphia, MUTEMATH was my soundtrack as I walked to work at Reading Terminal Market. And after we caught them opening for 30 Seconds to Mars in Boston, I couldn't get enough. We saw them open for Matt & Kim, and headline on their Odd Soul tour. They were meant to make music, and their passion is palpable.

When we heard they were coming back to Boston this September, we bought tickets the moment they went on sale. The show sold out in hours. They added a second night. It sold out the same day. We soon learned the venue, Great Scott, is tiny. Surprising, knowing they can fill the House of Blues. But also amazing, knowing we'd be up close and personal with the band and music we love so much.

We grabbed dinner at our beloved Roxy's, then jumped in line at the venue. While waiting, we saw Paul walk out the front doors on his way somewhere before the show, saying hi on his way. The doors finally opened, and we hustled in. Quiet Entertainer kicked things off fantastically, and then it was on to the main event. We were front and center, so close I couldn't fit the whole band in one shot (sorry I only got part of your guitar, Todd!). This was a tour to say thanks to all their longtime fans, before the new album came out. They played their big hits, crowdsourced, which resulted in "Peculiar People, and shared music from their (at the time) upcoming album, Vitals.

Vitals, like all of their previous albums, feels like it was written specifically for me, right now. Stacia Brown puts it best in her Washington Post article: "Sometimes it isn’t the music a band produces that most endears us to it. It’s how precisely its albums can be synced to our lives; it’s the notion that the band is evolving in tandem with us." The song "Light Up" especially hits me. After eight years of marriage, I know exactly what the lyrics mean when Paul sings "Sometimes we just have to walk through the fire / Just to see once more what has never shined brighter."

Paul, Darren, Roy, and Todd, thank you so much for sharing your talents and passions with the world. We'll be listening as long as you keep making music.

a year of Cape Cod

Before Ian's parents and grandma moved to Cape Cod last October, we'd made just a few short trips to the Cape and islands, and had the general impression it was a fancy place full of wealthy people and summer tourists, with unbearable summer weekend traffic. While that perception isn't entirely off the mark (their cozy home is a short drive away from the expansive Kennedy compound), we discovered it is so much more.

Given the timing of their move, we experienced the off season first. I've been enamored with the image of the beach in winter ever since I read Hattie and the Wild Waves when I was little. It was so lovely to spend Thanksgiving and a belated Christmas strolling on the beach, with a roaring fire waiting for our return. The ocean was expansive and beautiful, and we had it all to ourselves. One of their amazing neighbors took us oystering and clamming, and we felt like locals in our waders, clam rakes slung over our shoulders, filling up wire baskets then slurping down oysters with homemade hot sauce, the smell of ocean filling all our senses.



And then summer came. After our eternal Narnian winter, I didn't care how bad the traffic was, as long as we could soak in the hot summer sun, feel sand between our toes, and eat all the ice cream we wanted (Grandma Judy is a connoisseur, and her favorite is Katie's). It was glorious.



While we'll miss the sunshine and ice cream, we're looking forward to once again bundling up and enjoying quiet winter weekends on the Cape, watching the wild waves. You can call me Hattie.



See more of our Cape Cod photos on Flickr.

Color Us Rad, the snowpocalypse homebuyer edition

Shortly after last year's Color Me Rad, I got an email offer for a big discount on registration for the 2015 race. I made sure we didn't have other plans for April 11, 2015, then signed us up. Since it was still months away, I marked it on our calendar, then didn't give it another thought.

The night before the race, with our car reserved and white shirts and running gear waiting by the door, I pulled up our tickets on EventBrite, and panicked. The tickets said August 1.



Stomach sinking, I did an email search and discovered I had missed seeing a race update with the subject line: "Color Me Rad Boston changed to August 1st due to record snowfall." #fail. I looked at our calendar. We would be in the Dominican Republic on August 1. The next morning I sent a quick email asking for our options, and thankfully was assured we could transfer our registrations to the August 29 Providence race.

But what to do with the rental car and our now wide-open Saturday? Ian suggested we stop by some open houses. We were close to our down payment savings target, and it would be a great opportunity to see if that target number could get us into a home we loved. We spent Saturday morning driving to a few homes Ian had scoped out on Trulia, and Saturday afternoon crunching numbers and charting our plan.

We connected with a highly recommended realtor (a fellow REUNIONer), who ran through the process with us — a mini first-time homebuyers class — and recommended a mortgage broker. By the end of May, we had a concrete budget, and by mid-August, we were closing on our first home. I'll share more of that story soon, but suffice to say, it was a busy summer. Over the next two weeks, we spent our evenings moving all our worldly possessions and said goodbye to our Brookline apartment.



Move completed, we headed to the Cape to avoid the chaos that is Boston on unofficial moving weekend (most leases start on September 1, when the city plays a giant game of upset the fruit basket). We were ready to relax and to relieve some stress by chucking colored cornstarch at each other (after a short drive to Providence). The race that prodded us along on our homebuying journey was also our finish line — one we were thrilled to cross.

See more of our 2015 race photos on Flickr. Official race photos are marked with the Color Me Rad logo. Curious about our past races? Color Me Rad 2013 | 2014

The Science Behind Pixar, or that time I hugged WALL-E

I love Pixar. We own every single movie (except Cars 2, which is on the wish list). I quote them all the time. In fact, Ian quizzed me on random Pixar quotes he pulled from our Pixarpedia (yes, I know), and I was able to correctly identify almost every single one. So it was only appropriate that for my birthday we went to the Science Behind Pixar exhibit at the Museum of Science.

We arrived a little early for our timed ticket, just to make sure we weren't late. Promptly at 1:30 p.m., everyone in our time slot was ushered into a small room to watch a short introduction video hosted by Pixar characters, and then the doors opened and we were released to explore the giant interactive exhibition space.

We got to meet our favorite characters as we slowly worked and played our way through the process of creating an animated movie. Eight areas highlight modeling, rigging, surfaces, sets and cameras, animation, simulation, lighting, and rendering, each illustrated with a different movie set. Everything is interactive, allowing visitors to experiment with the process: we played with the lights on a miniature set from UP! and adjusted camera focus with Wall-E. And the exhibit was sprinkled with plenty of videos interviewing Pixar employees about their jobs and how what they do fits into the big picture.

We spent 2+ hours wandering around and learning about the complex science that goes into creating Pixar's incredible and beautiful stories, and loved every minute. In fact, we spent so much time there we weren't able to use our tickets to the museum proper (but we've got six months to squeeze in another visit). We highly recommend catching this special exhibit before it closes on January 10!

See more of our photos from the exhibit on Flickr.

thankful list | September + October 2015

01. a good first condo association meeting.
02. Dinner and ice cream with Grant, visiting from SF (we miss you!).
03. an interesting project a work.
04. a DR trip barbecue, to catch up with friends.
05. a Skype call with the Vargas family.
06. Dane and Ian turning an old broom closet into a shiny (tiny) pantry.
07. Super Cluckin' Sunday.
08. a great phone call with Grandma.
09. a fancy event at the office.
10. catching up with the Oaks after the first half of their global adventure.
11. a walk through Mount Auburn Cemetery.
12. the REUNION Viva La Picnic!
13. a leisurely breakfast with our house guests before heading to work.
14. the Oaks knocking out some painting for us.
15. cozy sweaters.
16. pizza in the fridge.
17. Sherlock.
18. catching up with Drew.
19. dinner with the Drs. Hu.
20. Roxy's for dinner.
21. a date to see MUTEMATH, front and center, with my favorite person.
22. REUNION friends, who totally understood our late night, despite the early morning.
23. my favorite TV shows to keep me company when Ian travels for work.
24. an overall good report from our Mass Save energy audit.
25. the energy companies covering a big chunk of the only thing we need: exterior insulation.
26. a trip to Wilson Farm with good friends for decorative gourds and cider doughnuts.
27. Super Cluckin' Sunday with new friends (and a five-loaves-two-fish moment).
28. successful completion of operation paint the dining room phase one.
29. a visit from mom and dad.
30. rambutan.
31. a trip to the Cape with mom and dad (their first).
32. the cranberry harvest celebration.
33. beach time with double the family.
34. taking dad to Russo's.
35. mom's chicken adobo.
36. community group.
37. installation of our Nest thermostat (dreams really do come true; also, yay rebates!).
38. the third annual chili and pumpkin carving event.
39. Grey's excitement for gutting pumpkins.
40. lunch with an awesome coworker.
41. dinner at Alden & Harlow with a couple of my favorite ladies.
42. a super productive weekend in putting the house together.
43. our new bed frame.
44. a dining table.
45. Swedish meatballs (thanks, IKEA).
46. finally finishing the paint job in the dining room.
47. FaceTime, so Ian and I could watch the Royals game together, 300+ miles apart.
48. holding down the community group fort in the absence of our fearless leaders.
49. celebrating Micki's birthday while watching the Royals.
50. awesome sushi costumes for a Halloween party.
51. a husband who was excited to make my sushi costume dream come true.
52. a fun Halloween party.
53. a Royals win (#takethecrown): just one more to make Grandma Judy pop champagne.
54. Ian, always.