Good Luck Ed (and sorry to everyone else who's been following our postless blog)

Well guys, so as to not sound like a broken record (see post below), I promise to keep this short.

So much has happened since we last posted about 4 months ago?!? Meredith's business has been doing incredible - her work was featured in a local perfumery, she recently spent a day at a workshop in New Haven, CT, and it seems that she can barely find a moment to relax between all of her shoots. I have been trucking along in my web work, sadly geeky, enjoying some new programming I've been doing for a client login system and a content management system (I can't believe I just said that).

At the beginning of July, Meredith, Orvis, and I moved into a new house in South Portland, where Orvis is now the proud master of his own, exceptionally large, fenced in backyard (pictures to come). The new place is only 3 doors away from Mere's studio, and sadly for my waistline and wallet, 4 doors down from the new neighborhood ice cream shop and bakery!

I want to take the proper time to post about the new place and our work (I promise soon), but before I go, I wanted to wish my fraternity brother Ed Ivey, the best of luck on his New York Bar exam tomorrow morning. Unfortunately for Ed, his trip today from NC to NY has been a complete disaster, and if I'm right, he's probably somewhere between Connecticut and New York right now - when he should be sleeping. Anyways, Ed, good luck tomorrow. Do well so that you can move within 5 hours of yours truly and one day become a big city lawyer like in The Devil's Advocate (bad allusion, I know).

Breathe Easy guys, and thanks for the interest... I promise I'll be better about keeping ya'll up to date.

Our Faithful Followers

So it's almost inexcusable how long it's been since we've done a legitimate blog post. In reality, we had pretty much given-up on the blog, since we thought that our only readers were our parents and siblings, and it turns out that not even they were following Cain From Away. Little did we know that once the posts disappeared completely, our truly loyal followers would come pouring out of the woodwork... and by pouring, we mean thank you Matt, Courtney, Uncle Mark, and Ed (not Meredith's stepfather who we're pretty sure doesn't know this blog exists) for filing the proper complaints to the authors of this blog and getting it rolling again. We'll even try and do a catch-up post after this one to cover The Maine Winter... which we pretty much skipped in its entirety.

First, we've got an update on Orvis's pad. He pulled some strings and had his main room redecorated with the help of his grandparents (who were in town to assist with Meredith's studio preparation - more on that in another post). We now have even nicer furniture than I ever thought I'd own in my life with the addition of a comfy green couch and a sa-weet leather chair.


What's more, Orvis can now watch his weekly soaps and trash reality shows in beautiful HD glory on his new flatty. Sometimes we wrestle the remote away from him and even get to watch some of our own shows.


But more often than not, he makes us stick to the old tv...


Winter's almost over here and as the snow melts, Meredith and I are looking forward to enjoying some warmer weather and great Maine places. I promise we'll keep our avid followers posted, and even attempt to catch them up, in the next few weeks. Breathe Easy, you four (or maybe even more)!

OOPS!

Okay, clearly we've been neglecting this blog.  Here are a few pictures to keep you all entertained while we find the time to catch you all up.  So far, we're loving Maine in the winter!





Busy Busy Busy

Happy 2009! I hope this post finds each one of you well and that your new year is getting off to a fantastic start! Michael and I have sadly neglected our duties to keep you all up to date, but I promise that an update is coming this weekend when we have some time on our hands.

In the meantime, please feel free to look at our websites to see how we've been spending our time!






More to come soon!  

Breathe easy!

Windows

The main purpose of this blog is still to give our family and friends an idea of the new experiences Meredith and I are picking up in Maine, and this one definitely qualifies as one of those.

In an attempt to trim a few dollars off of our energy expenses and prevent the house from seeming so drafty as the temperatures begin to drop, I decided to try my hand at adding plastic to the windows of our home.

Equipped with a pair of scissors, a hair dryer, a few window kits (plastic and double-sided tape), and 3 weeks time, I made semi-quick work of this daunting task for anyone from away.





Surprisingly, it's not as tough as my time table makes it out to be, and in reality, it was nothing more than some excessive procrastination that took so long (surprise, surprise!). It works though, and now I'm typing to you from the cozy comfort of our living room.

Kitchenaid

A perk of being self-employed in a computer-related field is the excessive time one can devote to online shopping. Finding a deal that would make even the greatest of bargain hunters jealous, I picked-up a gift for Meredith and my Christmas this year: a brand new Professional 600 Series KitchenAid stand mixer. . . for $65!

This beautiful piece of machinery makes even the toughest baking jobs. . . easy as pie. Speaking in cookie terms, this item from Meredith and my "28 by 28" list can power through the batter of 13 1/2 dozen cookies in a single bowl!

And it even comes with a bread hook! (too bad I have no idea how to use it)



Orvis wanted to give it a shot too.

To justify its presence in our kitchen, Meredith and I immediately began brainstorming baking ideas. So far, beer bread and brownies have been our first success stories. . .



. . .and tonight, we're going to try our hands at some German chocolate cake. If you guys have any ideas of more mixer-based recipes for us to try, please let us know!

Boston Bound

This year for our anniversary Meredith decided to try something that normally she's not too good at- keeping a surprise. She loves to try and attempt this, but it's just her personality to not let a good thing go unsaid. So a month ago when she informed me that she had a surprise for our anniversary, I figured it would be a matter of days before I knew exactly what we'd be doing. To my surprise, however, Meredith kept this one quiet all the way down to the end, and on the Sunday after our anniversary (once Meredith got back from a trip to NC) we found ourselves on our way to Boston to celebrate our third year together.

Meredith had been to Boston on a number of occasions, but I had not made the two hour trip south to check the big city out for myself, so Meredith thought that our anniversary would be a great time to do so. Taking advantage of off-season prices, Meredith booked us a reservation at The Taj, an absolutely amazing hotel overlooking Boston Common. And in trying to do as many Bostonian things in the short time we had in the city, Meredith and I immediately hit the town after checking in.





At first, our sightseeing expedition took us down brownstone-clad Newbury Street, where we grabbed a quick snack from one of many restaurants and shops before heading across the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common to find the Freedom Trail. The public garden and common were gorgeous spots of green in an otherwise sprawling concrete big city. Being a wildly historic town, there were numerous statues and landmarks lacing the common and garden, giving a magnificently historic feel, to an already beautiful city.








On the other end of the Common, the Freedom Trail only magnified this historic feeling, as you're given the opportunity to stroll the same streets and see many of the same buildings, as many of the original leaders of our nation. Since we had dinner plans with an old friend from UNC, we set our bearings on Faneuil Hall & Quincy Market, with the intention of returning to see the rest of the trail the next morning. Getting to our destination shortly after sunset, we were lucky enough to see the awesome sights of Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market in a lit-up display over the brick-laid streets. We even popped in to the Orvis store to pay homage to our furry friend back home!










For dinner, we met our old friend, Lauren, and our new friend, Ryan (her boyfriend), at Addis Red Sea for a new dining experience of Ethiopian cuisine. The food was delicious, our company was delightful, and on our way back into the city from Cambridge we even got to see the extraordinary Boston skyline.

Possibly the greatest gem of our excursion was our journey to Flour Bakery the following morning. Rumored to have the best sticky buns in New England, Meredith and I decided to test them out for ourselves. So far, they're right! Don't let word get back to Orvis, but there was even an exceptionally cute Bernese Mountain Dog waiting outside for some of Flour's homemade dog treats. Good news: Flour allows you to order its sticky buns online.

After breakfast, Meredith and I headed back up Dartmouth street past the public library and Trinity Church to explore Commonwealth Ave. and the rest of the back bay. Commonwealth is a grassy pathway lined with historic brownstones and beautiful trees. Next, our walk took us briefly through Beacon Hill, past the Massachusetts state house (John Hancock's old residence), and then back through the Public Garden on our way to check out from our Hotel.





After checkout, Meredith and I found parking in the North End, where we picked the Freedom Trail back up and eventually found our way to the Old North Church - where Paul Revere warned the city of the impending British Troop invasion over 230 years ago. Heading through the predominately Italian neighborhoods of the North End, Meredith felt taken back to her time in Florence, as we passed numerous Italian restaurants and stores, and even people speaking Italian in the streets. Luckily, our trip through the Italian neighborhoods coincided with lunchtime, and we were lucky enough to enjoy an excellent Italian lunch, gelato, and even a little bakery trip for the trip home. The almond cookies from the bakery were so delicious, that Meredith and I quickly returned after trying them to triple the original order!



Unfortunately, I don't believe that even blogspot.com has enough server space to hold all of the sights, stories, tastes, and adventure of our quick expedition, but Meredith and I will certainly cherish those memories for years to come - and hopefully return to Boston soon to see all that we missed our first time. I just want to say thank you to Meredith for keeping her first surprise, and making it an absolutely perfect one!

Breathe Easy!