Rainy day

My next door neighbor and I both work in the same building at 100 University Drive, about two minutes from our house and these trees outside the building swam into both our consciousnesses about a week ago. Showed these photos to AboutAmherst's environmental consultant who thinks they're crabapples.

Besides the newspaper bureau, there's a construction company, doctors group, women's health club, Shaolin kung fu studio, bellydancing studio (maybe they're related) and I don't know what else. Perhaps a building holiday party is in order.

I was going to make dinner but Brian wanted to go somewhere warm, as I'm trying to stint on the heat around here. We were going to get something quick but were somehow sucked into our favorite Windowed Hearth at the Lord Jeffery Inn.
Brian is famous for asking waiters, "What do you have with rum in it?" If it's got Rose's lime juice, it's a non-starter. No complaints about this blue drink with a bright red cherry, though.

The windowed hearth. I learned this week that the Lord Jeff was built in the 1920's and the signature hearth is a replica of fireplaces in old New England inns with strategically placed windows aimed at seducing passersby in coaches to stop in.