Week of February 22nd

When we started planning our Massachusetts celebration so much came to mind:

We thought about throwing mass quantities of tea into the Mississippi River, but we figured the Dept. of Natural Resources would frown on it.

We thought about reenacting the Salem Witch Trials but I couldn’t get our friends to put the costumes on. (I still can’t figure out why.)

We thought about fish chowder and cranberries……..Been there, done that.

We thought about lacing up our Nikes and running 26 miles but none of us had the next 2 weeks free.

We thought about making Toll House cookies but I haven’t made cookies from scratch in my life and I’m not about to start now. But making something by mistake, now that’s a whole different story. (If you don’t know the story behind Toll House cookies you should look it up.) Besides we didn’t want to make the Fig Newtons jealous. Although I did mean to buy my husband a bag of Fig Newtons (named after Newton, MA) but I forgot.

We thought about getting t-shirts from MIT, Amherst, and Harvard and walk around acting smart but we knew we would never be able to pull that off.

I thought about going shopping at TJ Maxx (headquartered in Framingham, MA) but you know how that shopping thing goes over with these guys.

Anyway our friends had planed a little potluck dinner/game night so we decided to piggyback on that. I know you won’t believe this, but you can’t find a single Boston Cream Pie (the official state dessert of Massachusetts) anywhere in the city of St. Louis and I couldn’t get my friend to make one.

So we packed our vodka, limes and cranberry juice (to make Cape Codders), our Sam Adams beer and our Cape Cod popcorn & chips and headed out for the evening. Of course, we listened to James Taylor on the way. His songs still make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Once the Cape Codders were created (and I mean created) we raised our glasses and drank a toast to the “Bay State” before sitting down to a wild game of Scattergories (Milton Bradley – headquartered in Springfield, MA) to be followed by an even wilder game of Pictionary Man (I believe he’s a Harvard man.).

Color in the “Bay State” with a bright green shamrock and travel south down the coast to the “Palmetto State” – South Carolina. 18 down - 34 to go.