Preliminary Report From Our Maine Planning Trip

Note to DJs -- when interviewing with a potential client, try to avoid the following two words/phrases: "nipple" and "the dog farts a lot"

In general, the weekend went pretty well. We met a ton of interesting people (including the DJ referred to above) and learned a lot of useful information about the various services/vendors we will be employing. And we also were reminded of how awesome the Maine Department of Transportation is. There were two snowstorms which dropped almost a foot of snow combined while we were up there. Either one would have crippled DC for 24 to 36 hours. Yet the roads around Portland and Brunswick were always passable and our plans were never affected.

And speaking of weather and sky-related things, we were treated to a nice bookend effect on Friday. We woke up to the scene pictured below and then later that night, we spotted the northern lights while driving passed Yarmouth, Maine. Unfortunately, some clouds rolled in by the time we got back to my grandparents and away from lights, but it was still a pretty cool morning/evening combo.


the picture Mary took from our second floor bedroom window

Anyway, tomorrow is the first day of my last academic semester ever. Should be pretty interesting. Or at least more interesting than the crapfest that was Fall 2004.

[1/11/05 EDIT - I should have also noted that there was one brief moment when the road crews did not plow one road: when we arrived in a snowstorm on Thursday night, our taxi could not make it up the hill at the end of my grandparent's road, so Mary and I had to carry our bags and trudge about a quarter of a mile in our sneakers through deep snow. The scene was actually pretty hilarious.]