A lot of fruit has come into this house.

This summer has been positively flying by. E and I have each been very busy with our summer jobs, and we've also spent many weekends trekking to Connecticut for various events and goings-on.

We've also been perfecting our jam-making skills, as mentioned previously.  My best friend is getting married next weekend (!!!) and I offered to make jam for her favors.  Once they're done and wrapped up looking pretty, I'll take a picture of the jars, which are little and adorable.  In this photo, Tessie is supervising E's strawberry-slicing. 

The bride came down last weekend, and even though our original plans to work together on the jam fell through due to some logistics issues, we finally got to bring her to the Beer Garden, and she agreed that it was magical. Luckily the weather was basically perfect, unlike today, when it is hot and humid and our air conditioner conveniently decided to DIE overnight. I am so upset, and don't anticipate sleeping much over the next few days as the mercury creeps higher...

In other news most people don't care about, I found the most amazing nail polish at CVS the other day!  This photo below, of my nails with Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro nail polish  on them, was taken a full EIGHT DAYS after I applied it. Minimal damage, despite my marathon jam-making and doing dishes and type-type-typing at work and home!  And for only 3.99?  I'll take it.

We interrupt this paper writing...

I have 2 papers standing between me and the end of the semester, and they're both due in like the next 3 days, so then I'll be done!  Huzzah!  The return of warm weather round these parts has meant several things:

1. The return of floral dresses without tights.
2. The return of Dunkin Donuts iced coffee.
3. The return of ice cream trucks.
4. Bright Ass Nail Polish.

1. The return of floral dresses without tights.  I love dresses. Especially floral dresses. Especially with bare legs and sandals.  Especially on sunshiney days, in grassy parks, alongside rivers, at the seashore, while visiting museums and going to concerts and having fun times. I have broken out the dress collection in a big way lately, and I am really enjoying only having to put on one item of clothing in the morning and looking put together. Faaantastic.

2. The return of Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. I am a New Englander. We live by Dunkin Donuts.  Not Starbucks.  Dunkin Donuts. Tourists in Boston used to ask if we gave directions based on Dunkin Donuts stores, to which we sweetly replied that there were too many, and stupid tourists would get confused if we tried to do that.  Iced coffee never really goes away for me -- I'm about as likely to order it in January as in July.  But something about a warm morning and a cold cup of DD iced coffee -- Medium, French Vanilla, Light, 2 sugars -- is pretty awesome. And caffeinated.

3. The return of ice cream trucks.  New York (and I'm sure other places) has ice cream trucks we never in my home city.  Instead of just selling prepackaged frozen novelties hawked by your friendly neighborhood presumed pedophile, they also have soft serve ice cream! Genius!  It's usually rather melty and the sprinkles are always stale, but it's still pretty fantastic that there are mobile soft serve makers wheeling around (and playing something other than pop goes the weasel).

4. Bright Ass Nail Polish.  I keep my nails painted most of the time, and usually it's not a fancy-grown-up-job acceptable color.  Spring, though, has inspired me to step it up a notch on the fingernail front, and here are my current favorites in heavy rotation:

The best part is, 3 of these bottles cost only 2 bucks a piece!  The Sinful Colors and Wet n Wild ones are cheap, and the Sinful Colors polishes in particular are ridiculously long wearing. Like, I can go a week without any real chips.  Pretty fantastic.  The light blue is Essie brand (which, little did I know, is based out of my neighborhood!) and more expensive -- about 6-8 dollars a bottle -- and I love the color, but the wear isn't quite as great.  If you're looking for a pop of color on your fingers (or toes, for those of you in conservative professions), a lot of polish lines are coming out with great brights for spring and summer.

Unfortunately, though, I can't quite bask in the summertime glow for a couple more days.  About that paper...

Happy Nails!

In case you don't have panicked Northeasterners anywhere in the far reaches of your social circle, we're expecting a bit of snow around these parts. Last I checked the forecast, they were promising 10-18 inches over the course of tomorrow, which is fun. I was really not looking forward to heading out in the snow tomorrow, especially since my last good pair of boots apparently got destroyed when I tripped over my feet and fell in the middle of Union Square the other weekend. Holes in the toes, yes.

Lucky for me, my internship supervisor emailed me a couple hours ago to let me know that everyone in the office has the option of working from home tomorrow, and she's taking advantage of it, so I didn't have to go in if I didn't want to! And, given that she is going to be home, I'm not going in. Instead, I am sitting here watching The Little Couple and painting my nails.

In the last year or 2, I have gotten really into doing my nails, and keep them painted more often than not. I also have come to hate having chipped or damaged nail polish, so I repaint my nails about twice a week most weeks. Yeah, it's kind of an addiction. Coupled with my recent forays into "fancy" nail polish, it's become a pretty serious investment, too. Nine or ten or fifteen bucks a bottle is srs bzns.

I've also become very picky about what nail polish I wear. In fact, a couple months ago I started documenting my nail polishing exploits with my webcam.

Now, I have an archive of what every color looks like on my hand. My nerd side is completely stoked about this, and when I am wondering what color to use next, I can just scroll through photos of my nails in the past. It's like having paint swatches for my fingers. I kind of love it.

And so, I will sit here and allow my nails to dry before I go to sleep and get up to apply to a bunch of jobs. Huuuuuzzahhhh.