My Boston

Friday, October 22, 2004

#20 Boston - Hell Froze Over - October 22, 2004

Well, wouldn't you know it!

Hell froze over and pigs did fly! The fat lady has sung! The Red Sox Nation is in a state of blessed delirium - the Sox are in the World Series!!! This was baseball excitement and drama at its finest, and Boston experienced a week of sleep deprivation and diminutive levels of productivity! Even if you did not watch or listen to the game, the carousing and rejoicing at night would wake you up, and once again, you would know, all was good!
The Sox are meeting the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, and for once, there are actually two teams we can cheer for - tomorrow I will be enjoying Game 1 at my friend Elaine's place in Charlestown, she has the beer chilling as we speak! Go Sox!

The Boston Globe today had a city-by-city comparison of St. Louis and Boston which was very interesting, in particular because of the tidbits it provided. I learned that St. Louis is a much roomier place, its residents consume more barbecue sauce per capita than any other city in America, and that a demonic possession incident inspired the book and movie "The Exorcist." Boston counters of course with a multitude of interesting idiosyncrasies: The Boston University Bridge for example is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Boston is the place that first featured a subway system, the Morse code, street lights, telephones, anesthesia (yessss!), drinkable tap water (again, yesssss!), Polaroid cameras and email. Did you know that the first two names of the now Atlanta Braves were Boston Red Stockings and Beaneaters?

So, aside from baseball mania, life still went on in Boston and I actually managed to get out of town and enjoy some more of the exquisite splendors of autumn in New England. Saturday last, I headed for New Hampshire and the White Mountains with a merry group from the Appalachian Mountain Club - we headed for Mt. Hale (4054 feet) [http://www.netway.com/~theway/hiking/2003/hale.htm]. Our adventure took us up the Hale Brook Trail, continued on the Lend-a-Hand Trail to our lunch spot at the Zealand Hut of the AMC, where we admired Zealand Falls. Mt Hale is located in the Franconia-Pemigewasset Wilderness. We had picked the perfect weekend to experience fall in New Hampshire, the hills were like an impressionist painting, mountains dipped in orange and red colors, it was absolutely spectacular!! I am still blown away on how beautiful it was.
Of course, this being the White Mountains, I took my obligatory spill along the way, landing sideways on a some swampy, mossy patch of forest - no head injury this time, but I got soaked!

Sunday, I headed out to see my friend Linda (#1) and we proceeded on to Wachusett Meadow Sanctuary (http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Wachusett_Meadow/index.php) for a nice fall hike. Once again it was spectacular! No beavers in sight, and I will continue my quest to see any of MA's 65,000 beavers and/or 700 moose (Thanks Roger!), but we met up with two very nice kittens who were staffing the Mass Audubon Society Office. [Visit my blog for pictures from our adventure soon - http://myboston.blogspot.com/] We continued on with some more autumny endeavors and visited Sagatabscot Orchards where we had some fresh hot apple cider, grabbed a whole apple pie and sat outside watching the scenery. Sagatabscot means "Rocky Hill in Alonquin" (I don't know what you are going to do with this bit of information, but there you have it!).

This week immediately went into overdrive, with work being madly busy, and the evenings taken up by baseball (even if it meant being on the stairmaster in the gym watching the Sox while working out ). The book club finally met on Wednesday at Harvard Gardens Restaurant and last night after class at Harvard, my colleague Renee and I headed for my favorite Irish Pub "The Burren" in Somerville, to commence celebration of her birthday. I had my dish-of-choice, the Guinness Beef Stew, my first Black and Tan beer, and learned what PBR is (not that you should in an Irish pub!). Needless to say, I fell asleep on the couch last night with Time Magazine resting comfortably on my face.

Tidbits:
*I went to a bar called the 21st Amendment (which is located right next to the Massachusetts State House) only to discover a place called "Fill-a-Buster" (for my German friends filibuster is a political term = "Verschleppungstaktik"). At the Amendment I had a nice beer from Vermont called "Magic Hat #9". Also definitely some of the best pub grub!
*What I thought was Red Sox insanity on the evening of game 7 was not just that, but I was also informed that there were fireworks on the occasion of the 1-year anniversary of Dunkin Donuts' Introduction of the latte! Any reason to start a firework! Any reason!
*I was rejected today from donating blood at the hospital, not on account of the Black and Tan, but because I lived in Germany for more than 5 years after 1980. Apparently this is because of the Mad Cow Disease scare, and even though my boss is convinced that I am not afflicted, doubts crossed his mind today at lunch when I could not remember the English word for teapot.

It is Friday night, and I wanted to head over to the Museum of Science to see the "Lord of the Rings" exhibit, with features all the props from the movie trilogy. The weekend will hopefully afford some R&R, but you know how it is. Saturday and Sunday is the famous "Head of the Charles" Regatta, now in its 40th year, where top athletes from all cross the US and 15 countries compete against each other rowing on the Charles River all the way up to Brighton. I also wanted to stop by The Boston Common for the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival which will attempt to break the Guinness World Record entry for the most lit jack-o-lanterns in one place. The current world record of 28,952 lit pumpkins. You have to see this!
(Who will do my laundry, I ask?)

As for my final morsel, it is my most recent favorite quote - about the geography of Boston:

"The geographical center of Boston is in Roxbury. Due north of the center we find the South End. This is not to be confused with South Boston, which lies directly east from the South End. North of the South End is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End. Back Bay was filled in years ago. "

And with that I bid you good bye, may the baseball gods continue to smile down on us! Believe!

pet:)





Monday, October 18, 2004

#19 Boston Fall Splendor - October 15, 2004

My dears!

It has been an exhausting week at work, but thanks to the holiday last Monday a short one, so Friday came mercifully quick. Boston and the New England states have definitely committed to the season of autumn and are putting forth the most magnificent display of colorful foliage.

Last weekend, after using a day to recuperate from my travels and straighten out my apartment, Linda #3 and I decided to head for Walden Pond in Concord, MA – made famous by American naturalist author David Henry Thoreau. (http://nanosft.com/walden/october/index.html) Thoreau moved there in 1845 to live in simplicity and later published his book "Walden" in 1854. I certainly understand his fascination with the area, and visiting New England in the fall is certainly an unbelievable experience - having been in California for sixteen year with only a rainy and a sunny season, I was absolutely stunned by the display of color happening here. The display of oranges, reds and yellows and their radiance - absolutely beautiful. I felt as if I discovered certain colors for the first time, and to look at a stretch of forest who is bright red in color is just sooo worth it. We had a nice walk along the pond, and visited the site of Thoreau's cabin. Right at the site, as a tribute to the writer and philosopher, Mrs. Mary Newbury Adams started a rock cairn, where visitors to the pond began placing rocks, flowers and twigs. People from all over the world have continued this tradition and to this date add to the pile of rocks. Visiting the area definitely puts you in a contemplative mood, and it was nice to remember some of the wonderful words Thoreau wrote. Here is one of my favorites: "Live in each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influence of each." (For Thoreau's writing see - http://www.thoreau.niu.edu/thoreau_walden.html).

Afterwards (it is tradition whenever you go anywhere near Concord) we had to visit Kimball Farms for a kilo of ice cream (per person). Their frappes are to die for! We ended the day with stocking up on fall supplies (pumpkins, gourds, bittersweet,decor for the house) and going to the movies ("Vanity Fair").

On Monday I absolutely enjoyed the fact that I had the day off, Columbus Day! After lolling around all morning, I decided to go on a bike ride along the Minuteman Bikeway (http://www.minutemanbikeway.org/Pages/intro.html( an 11-mile bike path which leads from Cambridge to Arlington, Lexington all the way out to Bedford, MA). Aside from the fact that it might have not been such a great idea to test out my new bike seat on a long ride, and considering that it took me a while to weasel my way through Cambridge, it was a beautiful day and once again, fall splendor all about. Since not everyone had the day off, the trail was not overly crowded and it was a very pleasant adventure.

Tuesday brought some excitement with it as the series between the Red Sox and the Yankees started up, so I went to one of my hangouts, Harvard Gardens, to watch a bit. So far the baseball gods have not been kind to us (This was supposed to be the year, remember!), and we hope that some divine intervention and a better pitching performance will turn this around for us.

Wednesday my friend Stephanie and I made the best out of a canceled book club night, and headed for the Paramount Restaurant in Beacon Hill on Beautiful Charles Street. Reviewed in the Boston Globe as having "status without being pretentious" it is a very classy dinner spot, which during daytime is a made-to-order cafeteria-style breakfast and lunch place. Good food and nice ambience.

The hospital has been having all kinds of events as well, yesterday was POPS Day, an event from the Police and Security Department, and today is Ether Day (yes, yes,I expected free ether as well - did not happen) - an event that celebrates the fact that at MGH on October 16, 1846 the first ever use of ether as an anesthetic took place. From the MGH Web site: "William T.G. Morton, a Boston dentist, administered the anesthetic to patient Gilbert Abbott. Abbott then was rendered unconscious in the operating theater on the top floor of the Bulfinch Building. MGH co-founder John Collins Warren, MD, surgically removed the vascular tumor from Abbott's jaw in a pain-free procedure and made his famous statement: "Gentlemen, this is no humbug." It is also the day when MGH employees with milestone years of employment get honored and the whole hospital drops by for cheese, fruit and cupcakes. I saw on the list of employees that there were five people who have worked here for 60 years! (Scary, I really do not want to work that long....)

Well, the weekend is upon us, and as usual it is packed! Tonight I am meeting friends at a place called The 21st Amendment, which is an English style bar, located on Beacon Hill near the State House. If features a large copper fireplace, a jukebox and lots of dark wood and brick walls. The original 21st Amendment repealed prohibition and allowed the nation to drink, according to a web site I consulted. My kind of place! I am heading to New Hampshire tomorrow to hike Mt. Zealand with a group from the Appalachian Mountain Club. I will have to leave the house at 5:30 AM! Some tentative plans for Sunday to either head for the Berkshires or somewhere else for a nice hike with Linda #1, and we'll take it from there.

Wishing you all a nice nice nice nice weekend.

LOL,

Pet:)

#18 Boston and the Hypnotizing Dermatologist - October 8, 2004

Salut mes amis,

I am back in the lovely city of Boston, enjoying the Red Sox- Anaheim Angels on MLB.com on my computer and finishing up my weekly write-up to all of you. Last time I wrote, I was about to head from the beautiful, but pricy city of Geneva to my less expensive hometown of Neuenburg, Germany. I took the train, and in between naps caused by extreme sleep deprivation (jet lag, the conference, you know....) I enjoyed a wonderful ride along Switzerland's amazing landscape.

As soon as I hit home turf, the hectic commenced, starting with a Raclette dinner at our friend Birgit'shome. For those of you who don't know, Raclette along with Fondue is one of the hallmark dishes of the Swiss cuisine. In both of them you melt cheese, but it isdone differently, and with Raclette, you can add a whole bunch of stuff. (http://www.jill.net/recipes/recipes/raclette.html)
It was women's night and we lived it up big time. Entertainment was provided in part by the three parrots who reside in the living room of Birgit's home. As a resultof this feast, I had to start off Saturday with a 4 K jogging run, in order to workoff the pound of cheese that still seemed to reside in my stomach (along with someother unhealthy stuff). Lunch at my aunt and uncle's house featured another favorite "Kalbspastete" where you fill a ragout of veal into puff pastry rounds,very tasty, a staple of every German menu.

And then it happened, I got the cheapest and best haircut ever! Not only did I payonly 16 Euros, the hair dresser comes to your house as well! I was so stunned bythe whole experience that I gave her a 6 Euro tip! I already made an appointment for my visit around Christmas time.

Saturday was also my brother's birthday, and the rest of the day was packed with activities to celebrate, people came in and out of the house all day. After stuffing ourselves with cake in the afternoon, and deciding to better not walk it off, but rather loll around on the couch and pretty much do nothing, we continued immediately with dinner, which featured "Schaeufele" (a pork ham) and potato salad.
We drank the "Neuer Suesser", also called "Federweisser", the new "sweet wine", which is cloudy, and slightly fermented. Very sweet, however you can easily get sloshed by drinking a few glasses too many. It is tradition during this time of the year in Germany to go to "Straussenwirtschaften", make-shift restaurants, that are put up in someone's garage or barn, where you can drink the new wine and eat "Zwiebelkuchen", a type of onion quiche. Needless to say it was a lively evening, which ended with the hard core group staying up late and watching the Red Sox- Baltimore Orioles game at 1 AM.

Sunday as a result was a bit slow, and was spent with family activities and a nice evening with my friends Gitta, Gisela, Romy and Sylvia.

I returned to Boston on Monday, after a three-hour train ride back to Geneva, (with screaming children the whole way, and a car full of Swiss Soldiers on their way to wherever they go (I thought the country was neutral? At least I felt safe just in case if some terrorists decide to blow up a Swiss train.) - all of them with their rifles casually slung across their shoulders. This was followed by a flight from Geneva to Frankfurt and then on to Beantown.
I don't know how I find these people, but I always meet the strangest people at Frankfurt Airport. This time it was a former helicopter pilot -don't know what he does now but he just returned from Lithuania - who (along with a group of other losers) made a new hobby out of taken the airlines' offers to give you a night in a hotel when you get booted off one of their overbooked flights. They were as giddy as children on Christmas morning. I made the mistake though to get into a discussion with him about politics, and taking into account that he considered himself to the right of Attila the Hun, this might have not been the wisest of choices.

The flight to Boston did not go any better. The whole back section of the plane was taken over by a bus load of very unruly Russians, who apparently stocked up on drinking supplies in the Moscow Airport Duty Free Store. Needless to say that did not make the flight attendants too happy, some of them lost their cool and screamed at the crowd "to just sit down, for crying out loud". A couple of them were particularly ornery, with the ringleader being a guy who kind of looked like Nicolas Cage with really bad teeth and his drinking buddy, who in his alcohol-induced erraticness, flung vodka onto one of the passengers heads. Eventually the spastic guy passed out back in the Delirium tremens section of the plane - to the point, that the flight attendants were considering having an ambulance come and meet us at Logan airport. The whole flight had the feel of a crowded railway station to it, no one sat down despite the fact that the seat belt signs were on pretty much the whole time. The crew was pretty relieved when we landed in Boston - that is for sure.

Well, since my return I have been extremely busy at work, including an all-day seminar at the new Merck Research Lab in Boston on Tuesday, and lots of catching up. Jet lag of course knocked me out early in the evenings only to wake me up before I go-goat 4 or 5 AM in the morning.

I am sure that by now you are wondering what is up with the "hypnotizing dermatologist" headline - alright, alright, I am getting to it. Yesterday I had an appointment with a dermatologist to get rid of a wart that I have on one of my fingers. The dermatologist seemed normal at first, and treated the wart with some lotion and liquid nitrogen. Then he proceeded to tell me that the healing process can be sped up by using self-hypnosis and that he was going to teach me how to do it. He made me look over my left shoulder, and put my right hand over my heart as if I was going to pledge allegiance. I was then supposed to close my eyes and imagine the face of the Statue of Liberty (at this point I was ready to say "Am I on Candid Camera?"). He told me then I was already hypnotized (yeah right), and that he was going to make me forget my name. I did remember my name, but not too disappoint the man, I pretended to have forgotten it. He told me then to focus on the wart and that it will heal. (Yeah right). At this point, I did not want to say anything to upset the guy (like "you are a total nut job" for example), but he told me that every time I say the word "Blue Rose" I can put myself into a deeper state of hypnosis, and to get out of it, I will have to say, A, B, C, D.
I have since mumbled "Blue Rose" several times just to ascertain that
I will not start doing stupid things such as clucking like a chicken or steal people's wallets. But I seem to be fine.

Alrighty, folks, I am heading home, the Red Sox are leading Anaheim 6:1, and I am looking forward to a long weekend. Monday is Columbus Day, and I just learned today that I do have the day off!!

Have a great week, until next time.

pet:)


#17 From Boston to Geneva and the Psychedelic Toilet - October 1, 2004

Curious now, after that headline, eh?

I thought so. Well you have to wait a little, we are starting this week's report in Boston where I spend a busy weekend prior to my departure to Europe. This past Friday I attended, once again, the Beacon Hill vs. Back Bay baseball game at the Boston Common - this time Beacon Hill barely squeezed out a win, with a 1-point difference. I met up with my former Chiron colleague Allen Izu and his daughter Alane, who is attending Harvard, after the game, and we had a nice get-together at the Cheers Bar (http://www.cheersboston.com/).

On Saturday, I headed down to Cape Cod to Yarmouthport to see my cousins who were visiting from upstate New York. I got to meet the newest member of the family, an absolutely cute little guy named William Henry, also known as Liam, and I got to see my favorite dog Stanley - we renewed our friendship with a nice walk around the local cranberry bog (For a nice photo of a bog see this website (http://gonewengland.about.com/library/users/uccranbog.htm). My cousin Barbara and I headed for the Edward Gorey Museum, which celebrates the life and works of American author, illustrator, playwright, set and costume designer Edward Gorey. The man was a truly prodigious and original artist, but also a packrat, which makes for an nice museum (http://www.goreyography.com/west/west.htm). We had to rinse the dust off afterwards by going for a frappe at famous Captain Frosty's. Yumm!!

Sunday morning, I participated yet in another race, this time the Four Seasons Run for Hope, which benefited the Massachusetts Cancer Center Pediatric Unit. Thanks to many of you I raised $500 (exactly my fundraising goal). Merci Bien!! I also put on, as promised, a stunningly stellar performance with a solid 27.4 minutes for 3 Miles. In addition, I also won a lobster dinner from Legal Seafoods at the raffle (they are going to ship some live lobster to me - I generally prefer my food dead, I am not certain how to deal with this.......). And then off I went to Geneva on Sunday. I slept on the plane, wonder why....

What can I say about Geneva - absolutely stunning city! Overlooking a lake, with the Mont Blanc in the background (http://www.geneve-tourisme.ch/), home of the United Nations, very international, everyone speaks English (phew! my French is rather rusty at this point). My hotel is brandnew (actually they had their open house this week - I had to prevent folks from trying to see my room...) and is located two short blocks from the lake front. Very modern, the Swiss love modern designs, and it took me some time to figure out all the conveniences in my little suite. As stunning as the city is, so are its prices - dinners on average run at least 30-35$ a person, and I am not talking about a swanky place. Of course the first thing I had to do is to visit the chocolatiers, and sample the absolutely phenomenal chocolates. After I recovered from the diabetic coma that followed, I decided to explore the old city with its wonderful cobblestone streets, quaint restaurants, galleries, antique shops and the Cathedrale St. Pierre (interestingly enough there is a porn store right next to it). The cathedral was built in 1160, and affords a stunning view of the lake and surrounding mountains (Jean Calvin preached here!)(http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/pictures/geneva-cathedral.html).
I ended up meeting my new friend Matt Leese, a chemist from Bath, UK and fellow conference attendee, on top of the cathedral, and together we did explore the Old Town (http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/pictures/geneva-old-town.html), had some fondue and had a look at the flower clock (http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/pictures/geneva-flower-clock.html), as well as the famous 140-meter-tall "Jet D'Eau" (http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/pictures/geneva-jet.html).

Tuesday I had to show up for the conference at the PalExpo, where 2200 cancer specialist congregated - I quickly made some new friends, and we braved the event together. Generally the conference is well organized, our conference badges allow us to take buses and trains in and around Geneva for free (which is good considering that a cab from my hotel to the conference center would go for about 30$ one way (not because it is far, mind you). The bus ride every day interestingly enough goes by the United Nations with its famous "Broken Chair" - a massive sculpture of a chair that is missing a leg, which is a strangely poignant memorial to the victims of landmines that was erected to mark the banning of those horribly indiscriminate weapons. Interestingly one of my stops along the way is "Vermont". The conference has been great, but exhausting - 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, plus lots of networking.

The weather has been very pleasant and sunny all week - today I ended up having the first roasted chestnuts, fall is in the air here as well!

With a whole set of new friends, among them Rashmi, who has for the first time in her life left India and got on a plane, we have been exploring the city in the evenings. Tuesday night was quite exciting, as the whole conference posse descended on the Old Town to find something to eat. We ended up inviting a group of folks to join us at a place called "Mortimer" - we assumed they were fellow oncologists - only to discover that they were all Canadian diplomats (each one lived in a different EU city) attending a migration conference. They were quite a funny bunch, and it was an unforgettable evening. The best thing though that Mortimer had to offer was the "psychedelic toilet". After several people emerged from the restrooms giggling, I decided to explore the place myself. At first the restroom appeared quite normal, and matched the French feel of the place, however the water tank featured a panel with flashing lights and "options". After I curiously pressed "veuillez rinser" or maybe it was the disinfection button, the toilet got psychedelic on me. I swear, I had only one beer and nothing else, but the toilet began to shift shapes - the seat went from round to oval to round, kept moving around and making noise. I just about fell over laughing - I have never seen anything like it! I was too afraid to push any other buttons fearing the whole thing might do even weirder stuff. If you ever come to Geneva, you have to stop by Mortimer. Their food is not too shabby either.

Well, the conference will end tomorrow, I just got back from a reception at the very futuristically designed Crowne Plaza Hotel next to the Conference Center, had dinner, and now am heading for a few hours of sleep. Tomorrow I will catch a train to Germany to visit my brother, and celebrate his birthday with him on Saturday.
Return to Boston on Monday.

Au revoir mes amis, je vais retourner la prochaine semaine!

Amicalement,

Pet:)

#16 Boston Days With Races - September 24, 2004

No, not what you guys think, I have not yet succumbed to seeking out shady betting parlors and racetracks for my after-hours and weekend entertainment. Not yet, at least. So far Boston and its surroundings are still offering an amazing medley of ways to self-indulge, let loose, get stimulated and have fun.

Last Wednesday, my friend Deborah, a Boston native, came into town, and I met her and her brother Allan at the S&S Deli Restaurant, a Cambridge favorite near Inman Square, that has been around since 1919. According to one restaurant review "families, couples and hung-over college students flock here for the all-day breakfast and deli food. The lox will cure what ails you." I decided to go for the Matzo Ball Soup in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which was the next day, great choice.
Thursday was race day, again, this time in form of the "Blues Run" - organized by the Somerville Striders Athletic Club. The race was 4.2 miles and went along the Charles River in Cambridge, followed by the "Big Pig BBQ" and tunes by the Cat Sass Band (I know, I know, try to pronounce this one fast a few times, and after a couple of beers). Important things first though, I put on a somewhat stellar performance with an astonishing time of 9:41 Minutes per Mile (this is compared to 11 Minutes per Mile during last week's run - for those of you fast runners, who are laughing at my pitiable efforts). I was so excited about my time! The BBQ was impressive and the band livened up the crowd with some nice tunes. Mosquitoes also enjoyed this muggy night out and after they had me for dinner, I walked around in a Benadryl-induced daze for the next few days (not that that's a bad thing!).
The Striders run every Thursday, and have a nice and relaxed approach to their runs except for when it comes to punctuality maybe: "Every Thursday Night 7:10PM sharp and I mean sharp as a pencil!!")Their Web site is equally carefree and loose - here are some instructions on the races: "How Far - 3.223657890 miles and all flat. Blizzards, locusts, spider invasion, thunder & lightning, power failures, they run out of the Harpooooon, nothing will stop us from running or walking!!! And we have all shapes and sizes - no ability denied here or snickered at!!! The course is primarily flat with a few gentle rolls - one hill up Holland Street - it is reasonably marked but if you get lost we will send out the Massachusetts National Guard to get you - they will bill you for this! The highlights of the course are Powderhouse Blvd and the Minute Man Bike Path both part of the course - it is urban terrain so be ready for traffic - red lights & a few bums in Davis Square trying to squeeze a few bucks off of you."

Friday I visited the Red Hat Cafe on Bowdoin and Cambridge Street to see a little of the Red Sox - Yankees game, which got interrupted by rain several times, and as soon as the Boston players consulted a higher power and delighted audiences with a rain dance, those Yankees were toast! This is how we win ball games, people! Baseball and Boston are traumatically intertwined, and you can't help but get emotional around this time of the year. "Anti-Yankee" garb pops up all over the place, and you better don some Sox outfit or else. The newspapers feature headlines such as "Bring on those Bronx Bums," and "This is where the rubber hits the road!"

The Red Hat is one of my favorite pubs here in Boston, full of history too, the pictures on the walls depict the original Scollay Square (http://www.bambinomusical.com/Scollay/History.htm). The Red Hat is a comfy bar with friendly folks, and it is also easy on the pocket book. Mondays and Tuesdays are best, when the price of chicken wings drops to 10 cents each!

Saturday, once again, brought rain, the effects of yet another hurricane hitting the East Coast, and that was pretty much all there was - rain, rain, rain and rain. Good time to read an entire book I thought, and retired to my couch for the day. In the evening though, I did get stir-crazy and headed out to Charlestown with my friend Elaine to visit the Warren Tavern, not only a place for good beer, but once again, you guessed right, history!! (http://www.warrentavern.com/history.htm). Apparently, after the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 (http://www.masshist.org/bh/), this was the first place to be rebuilt! Those people had their priorities straight, I say. The Warren Tavern was the place where several historical celebs came for "refreshments", among them Paul Revere and George Washington.

The weather improved drastically for Sunday, and I headed out to Shrewsbury to see Linda #1 and do some hiking. We drove to Callahan State Park near Framingham, Massachusetts (http://www.mass.gov/dem/parks/call.htm), where we enjoyed some very nice and not too crowded trails, met horseback riders, one snake, a grasshopper and some very nice dogs. We ended the day with some retail therapy at the Natick Mall and a delicious dinner at Linda and Roger's house.

This week has been zipping by, Monday and Wednesday night with some running along the Charles River Esplanade, and on Tuesday night, Linda #3 and I went to the Comedy Connection (http://www.comedyconnectionboston.com/). I had a couple of free tickets, and we enjoyed a night of stand-up comedy, most of it pretty funny - Robbie Prinze was the host for the night, and he is an absolute natural! There are some great comedians coming to the Connection in the near future, Dom Irera, Tommy Davidson, Colin Quinn and Kevin Nealon are on the list.

I just returned tonight from my first class at Harvard Extension - I am taking a class on the biology of cancer, and I am now a bona fide student!! The campus is beautiful, of course, and I don't know what possessed me to drive to Cambridge to the class, but I ended up getting a parking spot right in front of the building where my class was (which means that I pahked the caah in Haav'd Yahd!). I am not taking the course for any credits, so I will not have to take exams, which is giving me some free Thursday nights!(http://www.harvard.edu/).

My weekend plans include a softball game (just watching at a safe distance, maybe I will hide under the bleachers) - hoping the Beacon Hill Civic Association can do a three-peat and clobber the Back Bay Team again; a race on Sunday - Run of Hope, a fundraiser for the MGH cancer center (Thanks to those of you who have sponsored me!! - Still can use donations, there is time for those of you who want to donate). Sunday night I am heading to Switzerland for a cancer conference and a couple of days with my family, and will return on October 4th.

I wanted to add a little unconventional sapience, but will abstain from it this time. There are always some funny bits in the Beacon Hill Times provided by "Answer Man" - he does have all the answers and none of the facts. Having no more facts or answers, I am signing off!

Au revoir my friends, I will hail from Geneve!

Pet:)


#15 Boston All About My Head - September 17, 2004

Well, people - it's all about my head. One week it's the expensive hair cut, the next week I am getting dinged by a baseball. Thank you so much for all your concern about my mental stability and well-being - even though those of you who know me well have brought up this issue before and figured there is not much that can and should be done about it. As to the haircut, for my next adventure, I have decided to take this out of the city of Boston, and made an appointment in Germany in early October. I know this sounds drastic, but I need a financial breather from the last expensive endeavor in this regard, and a 30 Euro haircut sounds just fine to me. Aside from some remaining vertigo, my head seems to have recuperated fine - yesterday's five-hour ordeal in MGH's emergency room where they did a CAT scan showed that I was doing ok. On the plus side, I saw the season premiere of "Oprah" and formed some lasting friendships with about 100 people waiting beside me. Still, this was not fun in my book.

So - what happened? Once I got over my jet lag, I switched into high gear again - starting on Friday with a trip to the cinema to see "The Bourne Supremacy". Liked the movie, but then again I would watch Matt Damon read the phone book.

Saturday morning I volunteered with Boston Cares, this time at the St. Mary's Women and Infant Center in Dorchester. Their Bridge Home provides a temporary facility for children that were removed from abusive and violent homes. We did arts and crafts with the kids (those of you who know my craft skills should be scared...) - making totem poles out of poster tubes, and we actually got quite some interesting and slightly disturbing variations on the theme. The kids were great - some of them quite lively, but a good time was had by all.

In the afternoon I headed toward Cambridge where I attended the Cambridgeport Artists Open Studios (CAOS) in the area around Central Square. It was really nice to walk around Cambridge to different artist studios and see some interesting art, meet the artists in person, and at the same token discover Cambridge a little more (in particular get some ice cream at Toscanini's -ohmygod! Their burnt caramel ice cream is to die for! I was particularly intrigued by Amy Senner, who does Polaroid transfers and produces some amazing photos of Boston, in particular of Beacon Hill.

Sunday my running buddy Elaine and I participated in our first ever race, a 5 K run, to benefit the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. This was so cool! I was so excited to run with so many people (the course led all around the U Mass Boston Campus) and I did fairly well. My time was 32 Minutes, and there is nothing like seeing the goal line that makes you speed up for the last quarter of a mile. I was passing people left and right with a huge smile on my face! The cool thing is you get these chips to tie on your shoelaces and they will mail your exact race time to you.

The rest of the weekend was taken up by activities relating to the Beacon Hill Civic Association's Neighborhood Block Party that kicked off with a dog show at the Boston Common, a bit informal, but done with lots of love (this is a volunteer organization). The dogs arrived en masse and in style, featuring accessories like boots and beaded collars, firemen's outfits and most of them were accompanied by an entourage of sorts. The neighborhood block party featured lots of family activities, and in the evening some tunes right in front of the Hill House. In the evening I watched a Robert Altman movie "The Company", which describes the life behind the scenes of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. Very nice - and definitely very Altman.

This week is proving equally busy, with our Tuesday night book club meeting at "Fajitas and Ritas" for lively discussion and good Mexican food. Tonight I am meeting up with my Bay Area-residing, Boston-native friend Deborah Carvalho, and Thursday night is the "Blues Run" a 4.2 mile race, followed by the Big Pig BBQ with a concert by the Cat Sass Blues Band.

The signs of fall are appearing here in Boston, the air is a little crisper every day, and I am looking forward to experiencing New England in its colorful autumn splendor (right before the big freeze...).

Speaking of other things appearing, according to my house and pet sitters Steph and Dan, I have cable TV, which I did not ask for but which apparently is working. As I have sworn off the tube except for movies, I will not (I swear publicly!) give in to temptation. I have signed on to a class at Harvard Extension on the biology of cancer, and I have no time for such nonsense!

The Improper Bostonian (a free monthly news magazine that tells you what is happening in Boston) had an interesting article on eight simple steps to become a Bostonian - here are a few excerpts:

1. "Drive like no one is watching: You need to drive like Superman - able to go from zero to 60 in a 25 mph zone, with the power to leap small imported hatchbacks in a single bound. For Boston drivers, there is no passing lane, just the driving lane."
2. "Become accustomed to despair - Bostonians know pain like no other. Every spring, hope surges to life again, and in the heart of every real Bostonian there is the undeniable knowledge that this will be The Year. The pain that Bostonians know only too well, though, is caused by an equally powerful certainty, that in fact, this will not be The Year."
3. "Learn the Lingo - There is no R in the Boston Alphabet. Ha, ha very funny. But to become a Bostonian, you have to develop that sophisticated "eah" for that elusive R. "
4. "Develop Selective Amnesia - To become Bostonian, you have be able to complain convincingly and know whom to complain to. For example, when the thermometer drops to 59.9 in mid-September you want to start griping about "this frickin' freezing weather". But only to neighbors and co-workers. To out-of-towners, you'll just chortle gleefully about "owwah chilly New England weather."

As you can see folks, I am enjoying myself. Work is going well also - I am still amazed at the MGH community, its people and opportunities involved. Living next to the hospital makes it seem as if as if MGH is its own city right in the heart of Boston. My work itself is pretty varied, full of learning opportunities, some challenges, but extremely interesting. I will be heading to Geneva, Switzerland on the 26th of September for a conference on molecular targets and cancer therapeutics, add on a couple of days to visit family and friends, and join my brother for his birthday celebration. Return into Boston is October 4th.

Until next week, be kind to each other, watch for out for stray baseballs and keep writing - I am enjoying all your updates and I am happy to hear that you appreciate my musings!

LOL,

Petra


#14 Boston Times Neuenburg Edition - September 10, 2004

Let me tell you my friends, being hit in the head with a baseball is not as much fun as it seems! It happened in the second inning of the game between the Neuenburg Atomics and the Baltham Boars with my home team leading with a smashing score already, when a hitter from the opposing team did not meet the ball quite right, and said ball in a freak trajectory came at me like a projectile. Thanks to the interceptive action of my bench neighbor the ball struck only the side of my head and I was spared a serious concussion. Ouch - is all I can say, that was pretty painful. I sat there for the rest of the day with a cold coke bottle against the left side of my head, and fortunately I did not have any major headaches or other signs of serious mental damage. My equilibrium is not quite there and I feel somewhat off kilter, but I am doing o.k. now and the stuttering has subsided (just kidding...).

Back in Boston, I can report that I had a nice visit to Germany - I was a courier for the National Bone Marrow Program and had to go to the university clinic in the town of Homburg/ Saar (http://www.cityalbum.de/germany/homburg.htm). Unfortunately I was too tired from an overnight flight and two train rides so that I did not have time to enjoy the city - the train ride was fun nevertheless past some very scenic landscape (I also discovered that German trains are not only super comfortable, but some of them have specific compartments for bike riders, pretty cool!). The train stations in Germany are filled with cafes, and very futuristic rest rooms (50 cents please) that look amazingly like a space pod of sorts. Only had one somewhat unpleasant encounter with a public phone whose receiver was covered in gum!

I flew into Munich airport, which is quite new and modern - interestingly enough when you wait at the gate there is free coffee, tea and newspapers for the passengers. A little excitement was added to the morning when someone discovered an abandoned plastic bag with "stuff" which was immediately surrounded by four very zealous airport cops and we all had to leave the area while they were trying to figure out if they should get the bomb squad. The landing in MUC was the smoothest landing ever with a big plane, however the landing in Frankfurt was not so good, which made the pilot apologize on behalf of his co-pilot, who he said "usually lands the bird as smooth as butter, but we all have our bad days!"

My time in Germany was filled with sleeping, eating (the German anti-Atkins diet which consists of bread, meat, cake and chocolate accompanied by beer) and having a great time with friends and family. Each day during my visit featured hot temperatures in the 90s, BBQs in the evening with some late night feather ball activities and lots of mosquitoes and wasps. The days were also spent having lunch with my relatives, enjoying some German food favorites such as white asparagus, Rouladen, Sauerkraut and Kasseler Ham, and sitting on the balcony watching my aunt's Turkish neighbors, who she is convinced are selling hashish. I managed to visit my friends Frank and Ingrid and their kids, who until last year lived in California, for a champagne breakfast and had a most wonderful evening with my girlfriends Gitta, Mimi, Gisela, Romy and Silvia, all of whom I have known since Kindergarten. I also went on a shopping spree with some other girlfriends, only to discover a grocery store with Siberian specialties right near the Swiss border. I tried to get in some jogging every day in order to counteract the heavy duty food, and that was a first for me (the jogging....).

For some information on the area where I grew up, the Markgraeflerland (also known as the Toscana of Germany) go to: http://www.tourismus-markgraeflerland.de/

It is always quite amazing and interesting for me to go back to Germany, experiencing the changes the country goes through, and seeing myself more and more removed from the culture I grew up in. It is good to re-connect with friends and family, hear what issues they have to grapple with and get an up-to-date picture on what life is like there. The news during my visit was dominated by the very sad and unfortunate development during the Russian hostage crisis.

In another strange encounter at a local train station I had just gotten into an unsolicited conversation with a Sri Lankan representative of the Jehova's Witnesses when a crazy lady started yelling at the both of us, in both English and German. Apparently the kind man from Sri Lanka had offered her something to eat earlier assuming she was in dire need, and to be honest, that conclusion was not that far off. Her hair looked as if a bird couple was nesting in it, and her clothes were torn, barely held together and looked as if they would fall off any moment. She started yelling at him saying that it was the fault of people like him that she was in this condition, and yadayadayada.... I eventually told her to buzz off and that I would get security, which made her keep her distance, but she kept a watchful eye on us for quite some time.

On my return trip to Boston via Frankfurt I stopped in Freiburg, my college town for a brief visit (http://www.freiburg.de/) only to run into an old college roommate of mine that I had not seen or heard from in almost 20 years! Freiburg is just a wonderful city, lots of German history there. At the airport in Frankfurt, I enjoyed the company and some spirited discussion with a young Englishman who lives in Russia, a US soldier on leave from Afghanistan and a tattooed guy from Canada.

Back here in Boston, we are experiencing some rainy days as a result of the recent Florida weather debacle, and I am hoping for improvement. I have been laying low as a consequence of jet lag and the bruise on my head, but this Sunday I will be attending my first race, and I would like to get a little more practice in. Sunday is the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's "Race for the Cure", which I will participate in. Also coming up for the weekend is some volunteering with Boston Cares, Open Art Studios in Cambridge and the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Block Party on Sunday.

Thanks my many friends for replying to my emails, but here is the question - do you read the damn thing or do you use it to line your hamster cages? No one gave me a hard time for writing the "insane humanity" comment in last week's edition.... Just kidding.... Love you all.


Talk to you soon.

Pet:)








#13 Boston Via Germany - September 3, 2004

Guten Tag meine Freunde!

I am hailing from Germany, where I am trying to adjust to a German keyboard (z and y are in different locations, and it is littered with Umlauts - the only good thing is that Oscar is not here to run around on the keyboard while I type). I arrived here yesterday after a circuitous jouney that involved two airplane rides, several types of trains and taxis. More on that later.

The past week had been extremely busy, Boston experienced a scorcher of a weekend, hot temperatures combined with insane humidity (my guess is around 300 percent). Friday night I met up with my friends for Linda and Roger for a late night drink at the Sheraton Hotel where we were surrounded by a convention contingent of postal workers (ooiiiiee, men in uniform!). On Saturday I hung around Quincy Market, Boston's prime tourist hangout - I attended a movie festival called "Zoink" which featured experimental films, shorts and documentaries. Pretty interesting and strangely weird work, among them a film "Dinner" where the hostess kept inviting men for a meal only to devour them later (not the way you are thinking now - mind out of the gutter please!), and a moody picture called "The Winter People" by John Stimpson, which was a story about a haunted house on Cape Cod. I won two tickets for The Comedy Connection in their raffle - Boston friends if you want to go with me - now is the time to suck up!

I explored Quincy Market some more to hunt for gifts for my relative - it is also featuring every sort of food you can imagine, from a nice cup of Chowda to oysters and any kind of pizza imaginable. Only in the US can you go to a food stand in Boston and eat a Philly Steak from an Algerian guy who speaks fluent German. In a moment of culinary uncertainty (which proved to be fatal) I also tried Bubble Tea - an Asian concoction with giant black Tapioca pearls in them. My particular choice also had Taro root in it. To say it bluntly - the stuff was gross - the Tapioca pearls kept coming up through the straw (too big) and the whole drink just tasted awful. Yowza! I headed home to cool off (not without buying some bottled water from a very business-savvy kid named Max who sits out there every weekend on the corner of Merrimack and New Chardon street).

Saturday evening I met my friends Stephanie and her husband Dan in the North End for yet another Italian feast, this time to honor St. Anthony, who is apparently not only the patron of the poor but also the finder of lost things. This particular feast was begun by Italian immigrants from Montefalcione, Italy in 1919 and has become the largest Italian religious festival in New England. Food booths line the streets in the very Italian North End and the streets are chock full of people. The booths sell great gnocchi and pasta dishes, fried calamari, and another East Coast favorite, Fried Dough, also known as the triple bypass special. You can also buy a t-shirt that says "Kiss me, I am Italian". St. Anthony himself resides in a shrine where you can pin money on him and you receive a button with his picture. I pinned a dollar on him in the hope to find my lost make-up bag, but so far Antonio here has not come through for me. Interestingly enough, if you do not have a dollar, they use the money on the statue to make change. Meanwhile two marching bands and a whole bunch of strapping Italian guys, who have some sort of medal ribbon pinned to their chest, roam the streets, play music and are fronted by a boy dressed in a brown monk robe carrying a miniature St. Anthony statue.

The North End is unbelievable with its great food, very Italian stores, and old ladies sitting in front of their houses chatting, and Saturday night I felt as if I were in a Soprano's episode. An Italian guy standing on a street corner was talking on a cell phone in an agitated fashion, when all of a sudden a car with three other young Italians pulled up, and they opened the trunk, which had about 12 boxes (brand new, unopened) with garbage disposals just as if they "had fallen off the truck" – hmmmmh? We finally escaped from the heat into a pub called "Clarke's" and ended the day on a cool note.

On Sunday I met up with Linda and Roger and we headed toward Quabbin Reservoir (http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_quabbin.htm), where you drive past Garner, the furniture capital of New England (I knew that would be of interest to all of you) and signs pointing to the Jonny Appleseed trail (most of you know the tale of Jonny Appleseed, whose real name was John Chapman and who is also known as the Apple Tree Man http://www.millville.org/Workshops_f/Dich_FOLKLORE/WACKED/story.html). We hiked along the reservoir, saw a loon in the water and were keeping our eye out for porcupines (did you know that they eat pine needles, even tree bark in winter?). We also met up with a snake and giant ants! Quabbin Reservoir provides the water supply for Boston a large part of Eastern Massachusetts.

We then headed to the quaint and cute college town of Amherst, which has the homestead of poet Emily Dickinson (http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C07000F)and also features the motto "Amherst, where reality is an option". We stopped at the Amherst brewing company for some grub, and I can highly recommend this place. Their "Uncle John's homemade root beer" is absolutely phenomenal and has a real nice peppery kick at the end - they sell it in a "growler". Their German-style Monster Pretzel really is huge and comes with Massaatuky Brown Ale Mustard. The interior features some interesting decor with wrought-iron arms holding out lamps and some sort of disco equipment.

And now I am here in my hometown of Neuenburg, Germany (www.neuenburg.de), where my brother is firing up the BBQ as we speak. The trip over here was exhausting, but I had nice company on the plane by Barry, a New Hampshire college student who was heading for a semester abroad in Florence. The Lufthansa entertainment program (while high-tech) did not feature the greatest selection of movies (some of them quite old actually, maybe it was 70s week with the airline), so we amused ourselves by doing play-by-play with a Wallace and Gromit-like movie that encouraged people to stretch during flying. In our version, the little man in the movie was definitely on drugs, having seizures and in the end got abducted by an Alien spaceship. Some other movies from a German film school showed documentaries on warthogs - go figure.

More on my Germany experience in next week's update. The BBQ awaits!

Mixed Bag:

While the Bostonians are great with picking restaurant names, the variety does not extend to people's names - as mentioned I have three friends named Linda, two Karas, two Taras, and at work everyone is named Bob. Found some more restaurant names though: The Salty Dog, and the Pushcart Pub in Boston, the Loose Goose in Amherst.

Last week also was Restaurant Week in Boston, where you can go to a selection of absolutely great restaurants and for 30 dollars get a stellar five-course meal (lunch is 20 for 3 courses).

Traffic Signs that say "Squeeze" mean that the road is narrowing, you are not required to squeeze anything while driving by.

New food experience: Pulled Pork.

Contest Announcement: Karli Grigsby wins the big prize! She came closest to guessing the exorbitant fee for my hair-coloring job. Congrats! Gift is on the way!

All my love to you from a nice warm summer night in Southern Germany.

Auf Wiedersehn!

Petra

#12 Boston by the Sea - August 27, 2004

Oh thank you, makers of Dramamine and anti-emetic wristbands!!! Petra went on a boat and did not get sick!! For those of you who have ever witnessed my motion sickness, you will be able to attest on what an important moment this was! I visited the Boston Harbor Islands this weekend with my (re-discovered) friend Elizabeth and survived the ferry from Boston to the islands, and what is even better, the inter-island shuttles (less sturdy than the main ferry and definitely more on the jalopy side)!! It was a beautiful day here in Massachusetts, just great, and we visited George’s Island and Paddock’s Island, with a quick stop at Lovell’s (http://www.bostonislands.com/default.asp) Every one of the islands has its own unique features, Lovell’s with trails past dunes, woods and the remains of Fort Standish (used during the Spanish American War and WWI – 62 acres), Paddock’s with Fort Andrews, a pond and a salt marsh (188 acres). On the way back to Boston’s Long Wharf you can watch the planes land up close and personal at Logan airport, it is quite a sight!

We had a great time and ended the day at Faneuil Hall, where “Lucky Bob” or “Lucky Dave” (I believe he changes his name every week) again delighted audiences with his riffs and juggling routines. We waved our way through the maze of food stands at Quincy market, and learned that there is a Boston Pretzel – “2 holes, salt on one side, sesame on the other.” Tasty!

Saturday I had Tunisian food for the first time, on a quaint little side street in Cambridge near Central Square, where my colleague Cara and I enjoyed a Cassantina salad with black caraway olive oil, Cherbat (an Algerian lemonade with rose petals and North African spices) and a dish called Lantacharba Coca (a black olive tapenade with anchovies and smoky tomato jam on a flat Bedouin galette (Baraka is the name of the restaurant for the locals - 80 ½ Pearl Street).

Other culinary highlights of the week included Uncle Pete’s Hickory Ribs, which we sometimes get delivered for meetings at the hospital – if you like BBQ, you’ll love this stuff.

It has been an interesting week - I am getting more and more settled, meeting all my new doctors, the new dentist and once again, visiting my hairdresser for a coloring job that costs as much as…… well, let’s see – let’s have a little contest!! Whoever gets the amount right that I paid for coloring this week, will receive a little gift from Boston. What the heck! For all you local folks, it will be a dinner, for the Californians, out-of-staters and Europeans, I’ll think of something nice…. Now remember this is Newbury Street, and all I am saying is “what’s wrong with eating Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches for the rest of the year?”

Maybe the hospital can help – on Monday, I donated blood and got quite a few benefits out of it, a massage, cookies, coupons for the cafeteria….. Then again, they only let you donate every 8 weeks, so that might not be the best money-saving strategy. I had not given blood in a while though (they take a whole freakin’ pint!), and for the next day felt a little light in the head (not that this is a bad thing).

It has been quite a rainy summer here in the hub (I actually got caught in a thunderstorm on Friday with a jogging group), but on the plus side, when the sun shines, it has not been too hot or too humid, so all is good. The rainy days afforded some catching up with watching movies, and the guys at my local video store “Mike’s Movies” on Cambridge Street are certainly glad I moved here. I definitely recommend two of the flicks I saw – “21 Grams” and “Touching the Void.” The latter is a story of two mountain climbers who attempted to scale the west face of the Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes in 1985, and who overcame unbelievable odds to survive the climb. If you like suspense, you have to see this movie!

The fall will be busy, I am heading to Germany next week as a courier for the National Bone Marrow Program – I will add a couple of days to spend with my family and return on Labor Day. At the end of September I will be heading over to Europe again to go to Geneva for a cancer conference.

This upcoming weekend, plans include another Italian feast in the North End (apparently this is the biggest of them all!), an evening of dancing to big band sounds at the Ritz (on the roof! The event is called “Puttin’ on the Ritz”) and a hike at Mount Holyoke in Western Massachusetts with a visit to Amherst.

As to the more unusual news, the Metro newspaper reports that at the World Lobster Eating Contest in Kennebunk, Maine, a woman from Virginia won by downing 9.76 pounds of lobster meat. I am thinking of heading up there this fall myself, but certainly not for a food experience of that kind.

For all of you (especially my friends in California) who prior to my moving here, kept teasing me with the Phrase “paaakh the caah in Haavad yaaad”, here is a little write-up by Nancy McCollough Weir in the Beacon Hill Times:

“Most people think the phrase “Park the car in Harvard Yard” is a clever way to hear the Boston accent. This is not true. It is an exhortation, meant to mislead and to get your car out of Boston. We don’t want cars in our city because there is no place to put them. (Of course, once you follow this advice and arrive in Cambridge, you will find there is no parking in Harvard Yard either.).”

That’s it folks – until next time (from Germany)!


Pet:)

#11 Boston Do-Si-Do - August 20, 2004

Alrighty then - I did my civic duty and showed up for contra dancing! Upfront, I had a great time at the event, aside from the nausea caused by being swung around in any which way the gentlemen saw fit to swing me. The crowd was definitely very granola - Berkeley meets Cambridge - with interesting fashion choices and varying degrees of personal hygiene. A more drastic moment occurred when one foul-smelling specimen with a long braided ponytail and a flowery skirt literally pushed me. There was a strong contingent of contra dancers from India, who were very light on their feet, and a congeries of other characters, most of them very friendly and eager to dance to whatever the guy on stage told them to. Good thing I had some solid food in me, my friend Lynda and I (just to clear up, I have three friends named Linda) had gone to Magnolia's near Inman Square earlier that evening for some good Southern Cuisine. After tasting my first "fried green tomatoes" ever and some blackened shrimp and scallops on West Indian Calabaza pumpkin in a maple rum glaze, we were quite the happy campers.

And this is only Thursday! After exhausting myself with a 5.5 mile run on Friday, I went to the Boston Common to once again cheer on Beacon Hill against Back Bay in a softball match. Beacon Hill emerged victorious, again (22:13) and a good time was had by all!!

On Saturday morning, I had scheduled a session with a personal fitness trainer in my gym, where I discovered that I literally am devoid of any stomach muscles. It is a miracle that I can stand up straight, people! My fitness trainer Sandy is promising draconian measures to fix it. I am scared.

That morning I discovered a new part of the Boston area, Belmont, when I was dropping off my bike for a tune up at Wheel Works (http://www.wheelworks.com/). 75AH16 also got a treat when I drove her through a car wash - the dust from being transported across the country was not a pretty sight. I returned home, only to do my best for a Buster Keaton impression by trying to hammer a nail, actually make that several nails, into a concrete wall. Being the pervicacious, thick-headed person that I am, I was not deterred a bit, and did not stop until there was a gaping hole in the wall, white spackle all over my dark blue sofa, and light brown paint on the bathroom tiles. Do me a favor, never ask me to help you with home improvement projects; it might be the end of a friendship.

Saturday evening my friend Elaine from the Partners Running Group and I headed to the North End, the Italian part of town, to check out "the feast". I swear there is one every weekend, always celebrating one saint or another - this time it was the Fisherman's Feast of the Madonna del Soccorso di Sciacca. The Madonna herself was displayed in some kind of a shrine in a garage, where people pinned money on her and got a blessed button of some sort. Right next to her was a very Italian lounge singer, Arturo Coppola (http://www.arturocoppola.com)- "a voice for romance and charm". He was working the crowd like you would not believe. Despite the appeal his performance held for us ladies, we decided to run for the next Italian pastry shop and load up on some good gelato. The North End is just wonderful (http://www.northendboston.com/) - check out the description of the North End on Boston Online's website: http://www.boston-online.com/cityviews/north_end.html.

On Sunday, Hurricane Charley caught up with Massachusetts, and it rained buckets when I got up. This did not bode well for my planned trip to Cape Cod that day, but what the heck! The drive to the Cape was amazing with the sky displaying an array of shades of gray, cloud formations, some whimsy, some cotton balls, zipping by at an incredible speed. I passed the Sagamore bridge (http://www.freefoto.com/preview.jsp?id=1212-16-1) over the Cape Cod Canal, which is the widest sea-level canal in the world. Immediately after, you can find the towns of Sandwich (http://www.sandwichma.org/) and Mashpee. My final destination was Harwichport, a beautiful East Coast beach community, where I met up with my friend Joe, who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, but was in town to see his family. I was welcomed with "Meltaways" from Bonatt’s Bakery - the most gigantic pastry I have ever eaten, and definitely one of the best. Apparently people line up around the block to get their hands on those tasty suckers! We hung out at the beach, and the weather improved drastically, the sun came out and we celebrated by eating pizza (my first ever Hamburger Pizza) and by watching the wildlife (wild rabbits, bees, seagulls). The seagulls were the feistiest animals I have ever seen, landing right on the pizza boxes; the bees definitely gave a demonstration of why parents have used them to explain you-know-what to their kids (or as Joe’s aunt said ... "yeah, pollinating my foot!").
On the way home, the weather changed yet again, and this time to fog - Massachusetts is definitely the Baskin Robbins of weather flavors, or as the locals say "If you don’t like the weather in Massachusetts, wait a minute!"

This week my colleague Linda and I (yes, Linda #3) went to see "The Control Room", a documentary about the Arab news station Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq. A well-made movie - lots of food for thought! We had dinner at a typical American diner, this time in Arlington ("Aahlington") - the owners are Greek, and the menu featured favorites like Moussaka and Souflaki, and in typical diner fashion "bottomless" coffee.

Homestretch:
*Cool bar name: "Joe Sent Me" (http://www.joe-sent-me.com/)
*Learned about a game named "mumblety-peg " - a game in which players throw or flip a jackknife in various ways so that the knife sticks in the ground. (The dictionary said that this is a game enjoyed by children!)
*In a meeting this week, a colleague told us that their office was right below a Dunkin' Donuts, and that they had a problem with coffee leaking down, to which my colleague Jeff replied “Regular or Decaf?”
*Not to misprize the quality of the vegetables here, but when I left my apartment yesterday morning they seemed fine, and when I retuned home later, they all seemed to have imploded. It was not a pretty sight.
*From the Boston Metro Newspaper: "Humpty Dumpty Research - New research on how shell-like structures like satellites and spaceships break up has been carried out using eggs. Ferenc Kun of the University of Debrecen in Hungary and colleagues made small holes in eggs, blew out the contents, and either filled them with hydrogen and exploded them or smashed them on the floor. Studies of the fragment sizes may lead to a better understanding not only of space debris, but also of supernovae." Who woulda thunk? Well, I am definitely in the wrong profession. Even though I might think that after a while smashing eggs might lose its appeal.

On that note, folks, be well. You da man!

Pet:)

#10 Boston Alert - August 13, 2004

Aloha folks!



What is up? It has been once again an exciting week for yours truly - I love Massachusetts!!! (Did you know that the name stems from Native Americans who referred to themselves as Massachuset = "People of the Great Hills"?) This place is great!

On Thursday of last week I joined the AMC for an evening hike in the Blue Hills near Quincy (http://www.mass.gov/mdc/BLUE.HTM). After struggling on the freeway for 1 1/2 hours to get there, and a self-inflicted detour along a road called Chickatawbut (believe me it is not pronounced the way you think), we started out near Houghton Pond, hiked the Skyline trail and ended up looking down toward Ponkapoag Pond (http://www.mass.gov/mdc/maps/BLUE.GIF). What did I tell you about the names around here? Once the hiking troupe figured out that I was searching for local tidbits and interesting things to tell, there was no stopping them. I learned that a "bubbler" (pronounce: bubbla) is a drinking fountain, and a carriage is a shopping cart. People here eat "stuffed quahogs" which are hard-shelled round clams (pronounced ko-hog). A residential area where you have to reduce your speed, features signs saying "thickly settled."

Saturday morning I once again volunteered through Boston Cares, this time at the Greater Boston Food Bank - sorting groceries destined to go to food programs. That was so much fun! What a great group! Interestingly enough, through the Boston Cares newsletter, I also recently found an old friend from California who has been living in Boston for the past three years. Hi Elizabeth Carpino!

On Sunday, I was once again on the road with the AMC, this time for a bike ride, starting at Wompatuck State Park, and riding along the South Shore through Hingham, Scituate, and Cohasset. All beautiful Massachusetts coastal towns, with beautiful cliffs, beaches and great weather! Scituate featured quite a few historic sites, among them the Lawson Watertower (http://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.org/sites_tower.html). Just outside the town we stopped at the Third Cliff where an inscription read "The first plantations at "Satuit" were laid out by the men of Kent in 1628 on this cliff, which was then more extensive." After lunch in the harbor we headed to the Scituate Lighthouse (http://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.org/sites_lighthouse.html), where the two daughters of light house keeper Simeon Bates, Abigail and Rebecca, rose to fame as the so-called "army of two" - "Noting the approach of two redcoat-filled barges from a British ship of war, the girls snatched fife and drum and hiding behind a thick cluster of cedar trees made such a din that the British mistook them for an entire regiment and made a hasty retreat. "

After riding through the more affluent community of Cohasset (http://www.key-biz.com/ssn/Cohasset/history.html), a section of our group (the sane people) decided to stick to the original 33-mile route, whereas I joined the crazed bike riders and decided to add 15 miles. We biked along the seaside town of Hull and Nantasket Beach. (http://www.nantasketbeach.com/pictures.php/1) The beach used to feature a honky-tonk kind of strip with rides of which only the Paragon Carousel is left. Across the street, on a balmy Sunday night, we saw a jazz band playing at a beachside gazebo with couple dancing.....

We ended up at Fort Revere, a 1775 revolutionary war fort, with a great view of some of the Boston Harbor Islands, in particular the Brewster Islands, named by members of a pilgrim expedition after the Elder William Brewster (http://www.nps.gov/boha/pphtml/nature.html). Just beautiful!

I managed to get back to the parking lot in one piece, even though I felt as if my legs would disassociate from my body at any moment. We ended up riding 50 Miles, and despite some soreness the next day, it was an absolutely wonderful ride.

I have been running still with the hospital's running group (now with new shoes!) - I signed on for my first race, on September 16th, a 4.2-miler called "The Blues Run" followed by the "Big Pig Roast." (With the races, the Bostonians are equally creative in their names - I just discovered a race called "Run for the Woods").

I have been exploring Newbury Street, one of Boston's prime shopping avenues, where pretty much everything is expensive (e.g. my haircut, and the all-white-sparse-design-we-serve-you-Pellegrino-and-show-models-on-TV salon Umi. -http://www.umisite.com/ - they were just voted best hair salon in Boston Magazine). On Tuesday one of my colleagues and I headed for Louis Boston, which is an (expensive of course) Clothing Store and it has a restaurant (also snazzy, the guy ordering the wine, whose name was Brick (I swear) introduced himself and glanced at me suspiciously as I was drinking my beer). [http://www.louisboston.com/] The beers were excellent(Hitachino White, a Japanese wheat beer and a Belgian Duvel).

I also joined the Boston Ski and Sports Club, they have a tremendous amount of activities going on, so don't be surprised if you find me rock climbing or playing kickball.

My favorite topic, as always are the restaurant and bar names:

-Barefoot Bob's in Hull

-Upper Crust (a pizza place in Beacon Hill)

-The Foggy Goggle

The weekend will hopefully allow some nice activities - the weather forecast is not too promising - heading out for a hike on Saturday and a drive down to Cape Cod on Sunday.

Now I am off to go contra dancing in Cambridge! (http://www.neffa.org/Thurs_hist.html).

pet:)

#9 Boston Times - The New York Edition - August 6, 2004

Friends!

I have emerged from the ghastly state the dreaded lurgy of the past week had put me in and have attacked this past week with somewhat increased pep and oomph. This past Saturday my friend Linda and I decided to take a day trip to New York City. We left on Saturday at an ungodly hour from Worcester, MA and found ourselves in the Big Apple 4 hours later. I am dedicating this trip to the quintessential white trash family that happened to occupy the seats behind us, and needless to say provided entertainment of a special sort with quotes that will stay with me for quite some time. Let us call them the "Dans", as the only identifier we had was the wife, who called on her beloved "Dan" more often than we thought necessary. We will return to them later.

The bus dropped us off at 42nd near Fifth Avenue, and we headed first toward the Upper West Side, where we visited the farmer's market near the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (http://www.lincolncenter.org/index2.asp) and then headed up Columbus Avenue in search of some more food. The Upper West Side has a tremendous amount of restaurants, and you see more locals there than tourists - we opted for Hunan Park, a great Chinese place with fast service and excellent food. We then headed toward Central Park, visited Bethesda Fountain - listed as the "crown jewel" of Central Park (http://www.centralpark2000.com/database/bethesda_fountain.html. Definitely a good place to hang out, see jugglers and musicians, and some dude dressed as the wizard "Dragonlord", but in typical NYC fashion, we enjoyed a 85 degree, 200 percent humidity summer day, and so we headed for the shade. Central Park is just so amazing, we saw every type of musician known to mankind from New Orleans Dixie Jazz, to one man-bands with homemade unidentifiable instruments. (http://www.centralparknyc.org/) We also decided to ride the Central Park Carousel, which was built in 1871 and initially operated by a blind horse and a mule. It features the "largest handcarved figures ever constructed" (http://www.centralparkcarousel.com/). After the nausea from the ride subsided we headed out of the park to explore the city, and visit important landmarks such as Tiffany's, Trump Tower with its glitzy charm, St. Patrick's Cathedral (crashed a wedding in there), and made our way along the entire length of Manhattan, past Union Square (greatest farmer's market ever), through Soho and Chinatown (too many people) past the Brooklyn Bridge and all the way to Ground Zero. (http://groundzero.nyc.ny.us/). Beautifully restored Grand Central Terminal in New York is also a must see - http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/ Our final stop was Bryant Park, where we enjoyed some free jazz and watching people play speed chess, and here we rested our weary feet from the 10 miles we walked all day.

Little tidbits you gotta love about New York (some old, some new):
*Hot dog vendors, pretzels, roasted chestnuts
*Mango on a Stick - the ultimate snack. The mangoes are peeled to look like a blossom and put on a stick. Costs 2 bucks and is my new favorite snack.
*Central Park has 26,000 trees and runs for more than 50 city blocks. The tree trust of the Central Park Conservancy Women's Committee should be thanked.
*New York can't hold a candle to Boston when it comes to restaurant names, but one Mexican restaurant named "Senor Swanky's" will definitely make the list.
*Coming into New York, the bus took the scenic route right through East Harlem and the Bronx - reality check.

Now, let's come back to our new favorite family, the Dans. I will simply let you enjoy a couple of the same wonderful conversations we were privileged to hear:
"Dan, I am sitting here with my knees up in the air." Dan, I can't hear you, I have waxy built up".
"Dan, I am not fat, I am just a big water balloon." (Mrs. Dan was by conservative estimates a mere 100 pounds overweight).
"I am not going on a death ride in one of those yellow cabs."

Meanwhile, back in Boston, we have recuperated from DNC week, Boston's businesses are all disappointed that the Democrats did not shop until they dropped, and the weather has been simply wonderful. Today was Carrot Day at Copley Square, where "The Food Project" was distributing carrots in order to encourage people to eat locally grown food.

I am heading for an AMC hike Thursday evening to the Blue Hills near Quincy and more adventures are planned for the weekend, among them a 33-mile bike ride near Cohassset, MA, along the South Shore in Wompatuck State Park.

As for my closing tidbits -

*The Beacon Hill Times reports that the "Cat Lady", a woman in whose apartment city officials found 60 dead cats, has been putting up leaflets in the neighborhood accusing the police, the prosecution and the judge of misconduct.
*On the baseball front, Nomar Garciaparra was traded to the Cubs (Nomaahh!!) and among other benefits the Red Sox got Doug Mientkiewicz, who played for his old team, the Minnesota Twins one afternoon against the Red Sox, and found himself a Red Sox member the next day playing against the Minnesota Twins. The amazing thing was that he had a Sox uniform with his name stitched on there the next afternoon. As the TV announcer said "Someone in that clubhouse must have been doing some fast stitching."

*Upon researching a cancer medication today I discovered among the side effects "aesthetic dissatisfaction" - let's just say, I don't need medication for that to happen - a look in the mirror will suffice on occasion.

Toodles,

pet:)

#8 Boston Update - July 30, 2004

News from Boston!

Well, what can I tell you?

Something curious has been happening here in Boston, Massachusetts - I call it the invasion of the quilt bags (no I don't mean the Democrats!). Some clever, but taste-lacking clothing manufacturer out here must have brainwashed thousands of women into believing that these flowery-pattern-quilted bags are actually a fashion statement. You can see them everywhere -my friend Linda thinks that it is all Jessica Simpson's fault, and that those of us with a decent measure of taste have to suffer for it. We do, we do!!

The weekend for me started off with a free jazz concert last Thursday at the Back Bay Fens. The Berklee School of Music and the Fenway Civic Association put on concerts at a place called "Mother's Rest" (even though the playground next to it sounded more like "mothers-this-is-where-your-kids-fall-off-the-monkey-bars"). The event was very low-key, and the sound technicians not up to par, but the featured artist, Russian jazz pianist Mikhail Tarasov, was definitely worth the trip out there. I walked back home along beautiful Marlboro street in Back Bay, one of the most wonderful streets in Boston!

On Friday, yet another inspection for the car - this time the insurance inspection. And as usual, it had to be done in 7 days!! Now I am fully insured, the car has MA license plates and I received my driver's license in the mail. Life is good.

On Saturday, I headed out to visit my friends Linda and Roger in Shrewsbury, about a 45 minute drive outside of Boston. After a brief three-mile stroll around the neighborhood, we head toward Ayer, Massachusetts, to hit the Nashua River Rail Trail (Frank, this one is for you!) - check it out at http://www.mass.gov/dem/parks/nash.htm
The trail is round-trip about 22 miles, is just beautiful, and is built along the site of the former Hollis branch of the Boston and Maine Corp. Railroad. On occasion you could still see some of the old milestones. Another cool fact: when you bike along this trail, you bike from Massachusetts into New Hampshire!! We stopped along the way a few times, to seek out some wildlife - Linda and Roger said that they have seen ospreys, snakes, moose, etc. We waited to see if one of Massachusetts' 65,000 beavers would make an appearance, but no can do. The beavers are also the reason why there are no wooden benches along the trail, but lovely green and yellow plastic ones....

Driving out to the trail was wonderful along scenic Massachusetts towns with their squares, and some interesting histories. The town of Clinton, Mass is where Erastus Brigham Bigelow, a 19th century inventor, created the loom for the weaving of wire cloth - we can thank him for the mosquito screens on our windows. Farm stands along the road advertised "cukes, zukes and squash". After the bike ride, we headed to the O'Hanlon Pub in Ayer, where I ordered a steak called "The Druid" and had Wachusset Blueberry Beer.

On Sunday morning, we headed for breakfast to the Boulevard diner in Worcester (pronounced Wooster) - a National Landmark, a typical railroad-car type breakfast place. It is also known as Worcester Lunch Car #730 -http://www.roadway.com/offroad/diners_11.html . This is a classic - you expect John Belushi going behind the counter: "No coke, no coke, Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger." Here are some tidbits from the conversation between the staff: "Toast, No Toast, Toast!" "He's trying to confuse me, I am blond and that's bad" (The waitress about the boss). "Got any sliced bread? I need sliced bread! We have three buckets! Why do we have three buckets?" It was like being on Saturday Night Life. Excellent breakfast too. Roger took us on a quick spin through Worcester, the third largest city in New England. Union Station, built in 1911, is certainly one of the United States' most beautiful train stations. (http://www.worcestermass.org/guide/unionstation.html)

I headed home on Sunday as the pace of the last few weeks finally caught up with me, and I was attacked by some virus of sorts, which demanded that I retreat to my couch and watch all six tapes of Pride and Prejudice. This dreaded lurgy has left me indisposed for most of the week, in a fairly feeble state of body and mind. No running club, no Salsa dancing (as was planned for tonight) - attacking the virus with a combo of good old pharmaceutical hard stuff (yeah, Vicodin!) and grandma's remedies (ah, the pleasures of vinegar wraps - don't ask!) and bed rest. I have to get fit as I am heading for New York City on Saturday for a short day this weekend on a bus tour!

As for this week, Boston is eerily quiet - in expectation of the massive influx of delegates for the DNC, everyone has left town, and there are just a few of us and lots of police. The streets are empty reminiscent of the 1972 oil crisis. The demonstrators are locked up in a cage, so I heard and are disillusioned and are saving up their energy for the next convention in New York, and the MGH HazMat team is bored. Welcome signs are everywhere and the Bostonians are not leaving their houses. Aside from a couple of motorcades and lots of helicopters, I have not been impacted at all. Check out the Boston Globe website: boston.com - people are obsessed with who saw which celebrity where. No sightings on my part, even though my friend Jeannie claims to have seen Maria Shriver.

As to the some other useful or useless morsels:

*Interesting Restaurant Names (again): The Flying Rhino and the Bitch'n Kitch'n, both in Worcester; Moby Dick of Boston (a Persian restaurant - ???); and of course "The Barking Crab" (thanks Karli!)
*For those of you planing to visit - a regular coffee is always with cream and sugar, if you don't want that, you have to order it black.
*Worcester is the birthplace of the space suit, barbed wire, and the monkey wrench. The Worcester Foundation in Shrewsbury is the site of the development of the birth control pill.
*A freelance artist from Worcester named Harvey Ball designed the famous pop culture Smiley Face in 1963.
*The cod is the state fish of Massachusetts, and I learned today that the Boston Terrier is the state dog. The cod has been immortalized in the ever-so-stylish gurgling cod pitcher only available by Shreve, Crump and Low, America's oldest luxury jeweler (1796). It makes a gurgling sound when you poor out water.... hmmmhh. http://www.shrevecrumpandlow.com/giftshop/SCL_GIFT_COD.asp
*The T (subway) station Alewife is named after a fish (Alosa pseudaharengus)
*There are no freeways here- there are highways (which are free) and there are turnpikes (like the Mass Pike - also known as the world's largest parking lot) - where you pay.

Cheers to all,

Petra





#7 Boston Dispatch - July 23, 2004

Greetings!

Let me start this off by saying that last week I was in a pub called "The Squealing Pig", an Irish bar on Huntington Avenue, a hangout for locals and college kids. The running group went there, and I did not have one single beer, but I thought this place ranks pretty high up there on the list of strange names for pubs and restaurants here in Boston. It is like they are trying to outdo each other. Stay tuned for more.
Thursday I went to "Fajitas and Ritas" - a lively, but very casual Mex
Mex place with tons of Margaritas to chose from. The customers provide the décor by covering the walls with crayon graffiti. The neat thing is that you fill out the order form for the food - that way it's your own darn fault, if you get the wrong stuff... Went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 after that - lots of food for thought.
On Friday, I went rollerblading for the first time along the Charles River, which was just great! After that it was time for "Free Friday Flicks" - WBZ Radio here provides a free movie in summer every Friday eve at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade. We saw the movie "Holes" - definitely targeted toward an adolescent audience, but not a bad flick at all. It was fun to just be outside, watch a movie on a big screen and enjoy a nice warm summer night.

On Saturday, I went on my first hike with the Appalachian Mountain Club, the AMC, to the White Mountains in New Hampshire - Mount Osceola was the target for this "beginners" (yeah right) hike. The main peak has an elevation of 4340 feet - we started out at about 2200 feet, eight of us, and Molly, the dog. I was warned by my friends around here that hiking in the Whites is a bit more rugged compared to the wimpy California hiking I was accustomed to - and they were somewhat right. Rocks, boulders, roots, gaping holes - and that's on the hiking path. Try to go off and use the big green outdoors restroom! We made it up in one piece and apparently in pretty good time. The area is stunningly beautiful and the view on top simply spectacular. Check out some pix here - http://hammer.prohosting.com/~theway/hiking/osceola.htm.
The weather in the White Mountains is quite moody, and we had to bring equipment for all seasons, and I actually had to put on a winter jacket up top. Hiking down took us just about the same time, as the boulders, roots and gaping holes were still there. I managed to stumble into a couple of trees, as it seemed difficult to walk straight and not appear inebriated. Afterward we all cooled off in a local swimming hole, and then drove back to Boston (2 1/2 hr- ride).

I came home, and ran off again, as I was meeting friends for dinner and then we headed to Wally's Cafe Jazz Club (thanks Deb for the recommendation) - they have live music every day of the year! It is a smallish place, but as soon as the band shows up and crams onto the tiny little stage, the place turns into a zoo and is packed to the gills. Two beers later, and exhausted from a long day of hiking, I seemed to drift off into a soporific stupor of sorts, and Linda and Roger carted me home.

Sunday was cleaning-out-moving-boxes-and-re-assemble-furniture-day and now my place seems to resemble a decent living environment, as I was hosting my new book club here on Monday evening.

Monday and Tuesday were most insane days - going to the RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles) to get a driver's license and my caaahh registered - happened amazingly quickly and you actually leave there with your plates in hand. I am officially a Massachusetts resident now! Going to the eye doctor to get contact lenses - hosting the book club - going for State inspection (smog) with the caahh - needs to be done within 7 days of registration - driving out to my boss' house in Newton - getting lost in Newton and and and.... The caaah, formerly known as 4UGD808, is now affectionately known as 75AH16. It suits her well.
To add to the craziness, I decided to go to The Comedy Connection at Faneuil Hall on Tuesday night to see Jim Breuer, he of Saturday Night Life Fame. What a trip - this guy is like a force of nature, just amazing. Check out his website and watch the bit where he turns the "Hokey Pokey" into an AC/DC song. Very entertaining.
Last night we had running group again, and even though I am still very slow, I managed to do 4 miles!!!
Everyone here in town is getting ready for the invasion of the Democrats next week, most folks are leaving town or the continent, freeways will be closed, the hospital has been running HazMat drills, everyone is having fun. The Boston Courant's headline last week screamed that the prostitutes have arrived for the occasion, so we're all set.

A little more of conventional wisdom on Boston from the Beacon Hill times, of course, this one on baseball:

"Every spring, the day after Opening Day at Fenway, there is sure to be a newspaper headline that reads "Pennant Fever Grips Hub!" This is because every Bostonian is constitutionally sure that someday the Red Sox will win the World Series. This will never happen because every Red Sox player has been genetically programmed to never with the World Series. However, do not mention this to any Sox fans as they are known to become quite violent when this is pointed out to them."

So - back to work! Tonight is free Jazz at the Back Bay Fens, courtesy of Berklee College of Music, and it looks to be a pretty nice and balmy evening.

Have a good one, write soon, write often or call. My home phone 617.263.1408 is taking calls, even from California.

xoxoxoxoxo,

pet:)



#6 Boston Weekly - July 16, 2004

Hello All,

Time for the weekly update from the Right Coast.

To start off with the good news: I have furniture! What's even better - it is my furniture! There were a few small damages (remunerations are on the way!), but all in all, my stuff arrived in decent condition. There must have been some supernal force leading the little truck to my home, and I am happy indeed.

What can I tell you about my last week?

Last weekend you could find me at the Boston Common almost every day - Friday night I first attended the softball game between the Beacon Hill Civic Association's Young Friends and Neighbors and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. Beacon Hill came out victorious with a smashing score of 33:7. I then proceeded to another section of the Common, where the Boston Landmark Orchestra performed a free concert: Beethoven's 9th Symphony "Ode to Joy" (my favorite classical piece). It was quite a wonderful night to sit out and listen to great classical music. [http://www.landmarksorchestra.org/index.html]
On Saturday morning, I headed out to Concord, MA - my first volunteer opportunity with Boston Cares was to help out at a place called Gaining Ground, a non-profit farming organization that donates all of their produce to Boston area shelters and food programs. I got a little lost on the way there, but eventually found myself harvesting cucumbers under the watchful eye of some wild turkeys. I also assembled some dried flours and got bitten by mosquitoes. [http://www.gainingground.org/] Gaining Ground's main garden is also the property where David Henry Thoreau was born in 1817.
Saturday evening it was back to the Common, where the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company performed Shakespeare's ludic tale "Much Ado about Nothing" [http://www.freeshakespeare.org/] - it was a wonderful experience (maybe except for the part where the best seats, which were cordoned off, were released - a scene reminiscent of the Oklahoma Land Rush). The performance was beautiful and very entertaining.
Sunday was movie night, "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks, a must-see in my book.
On Tuesday, I met up with a new friend from work, and we went to a great restaurant on Charles Street, called "Figs", a place famous for its inventive pizza creations {home of the "unround" pizza), and its chef, Todd English. [http://www.toddenglish.com/index.html] English has several restaurants and is quite a celebrity around here.
Yesterday I had my first official run with the "Running Partners" and I am very proud of myself. I did 3 1/2 miles!! We ran along Jamaica Park, a park that is part of the so-called Emerald Necklace - a beautiful area to run. It has been rainy most of this week, so the weather was nice and cool for running purposes. [http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/index.cgi?page=jamaicapark].
Tonight I am heading out with some friends to see Fahrenheit 9/11 and for some Mexican food.
And as always, I have to put in a little tidbit from my favorite paper, the Beacon Hill Times:
Under the headline "Hill of Beans" there was a chapter to "explain Boston mores to our visitors": I am copying the section about Boston Driving Rules for you:
"There really aren't any, but there are some suggestions. The yellow light, for instance, is here called "Boston Green." Which means you are to respond to it as you would to a green one. Which is to stomp your accelerator and barrel ahead through the intersection. It is generally preferred that one makes a right hand turn from the far left lane and a left hand one from the far right. (Don't ask, it's just a custom.). And when changing lanes, never, never, never signal your intention with a blinking taillight. This is considered a security leak and is frowned upon as such."

The last two tidbits:
*Gas here is $1.99 (tough luck, California!)
*I am reading "The Life of Pi" and found a slightly disconcerting statement in there that I as a scientist take great offense to: "Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer-drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess and baseball when they are not pre-occupied with science." Not true, I say. I know nothing about chess.

On that note, have a great weekend, folks.

LOL,

pet:)

#5 Boston 411 - July 9, 2004

Hi All,
Time for the Boston update! Another week has gone by, and I still do not have any furniture (aside from a conference chair that the homeowners' association lent to me). Apparently my earthly belongings are in a truck in Chicago (the truck is somewhat kaputt and is being fixed). But I do have my car, it arrived in one piece (and not with 7000 new miles on it, as it did in one of my little nightmares).
I am promised that the guy from the moving company will call me now every day, and provide me with progress info and that I will get money back, and that they are so so so sorry..... yada yada yada....
With my car now here, I had my first driving experiences in Boston, and I have to say it was not that bad. With my reputation of being a bit refractory and also because
I was used to being around aggressive drivers in Germany, I fit right in and immediately honked at the electricity company truck who stood between me and my left turn. (Here you actually "bang" a left). I managed to find Trader Joe's in Cambridge, found my way to a shopping mall near the Fenway and when returning from Waltham on Saturday got only slightly lost in South Boston.

My friend Lisa Miller (hi Lisa) came into town on Saturday evening for the holiday weekend, and we certainly lived it up. Now as you know I am no teetotaler, but I might have given the impression that I do not eat any food here and live entirely off beer. So I will try to report on some good restaurants as well. Lisa and I for example went to "The King and I" on Charles Street, a very nice Thai restaurant. It is one of Boston's first Thai restaurants and opened in the early 1980s.

July 4th was quite the event here in Boston, what great place to experience it! Along with six million tourists of course! We started out at 9:00 AM with the raising of the flag and a parade of people in revolution-era garb shooting muskets in the air near the Granary Burying Ground. From there everyone headed to the Old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was being proclaimed from the balcony. Then Lisa and I embarked on the Freedom Trail and we did it almost in its entirety. We ended it in the North End, the Italian part of Boston, where we collapsed and headed for some tasty Italian food at a place called "Saraceno Ristorante"(see I told you I eat...). We then headed home and prepared for the evening on the Charles River Esplanade (along with 500,000 of our closest friends). The Boston Pops gave a concert and featured guests like Toni-winner Jennifer Holliday and –I know this would have been your next guess - David Lee Roth. I actually heard Mr. Roth practice a couple days earlier as I jogged along the Esplanade, and thought "what a good cover band, they sound just like Van Halen."
The subsequent fireworks were absolutely stunning, to say the least, they were coordinated perfectly to the music being played and lasted for quite a long time. We were very impressed (and - what a miracle - no fog!). Afterward our 500,000 friends and the two of us went in search of a bar, and we finally ended up at Harvard Gardens (http://www.harvardgardens.com/?). We celebrated into the 5th of July making new friends and learning about interesting new drinks (Kamikazes, also known as "the lemony things").
Needless to say, Monday was a little slow. It rained on the 5th and we made up for it by going to Filene's Basement and shopped until we dropped. We then headed to Harvard University, Cambridge and Somerville, where we ended up at "The Burren" for their absolutely wonderful Guinness Beef Stew (we might have had a beer or so......). We also went to the Beacon Hill Bistro for a late night desert (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html).

In a non-food related event, I attended a meeting of an organization called Boston Cares (http://www.bostoncares.org/), which is a nonprofit that registers volunteers and sends out a monthly calendar of opportunities. This way you can volunteer when you have time, and also pick different activities every month.

Work at Mass General continues to be fun and amazing, with some wonderful opportunities to learn, interesting people to meet and nice place to meet them at. This morning we attended a retreat at the Harvard Club of Boston (http://www.harvardclub.com/site/content/about/history.jsp)
- it was funded by a group of alumni in 1908.

That's my news for this week folks and I am sticking to it.

LOL to all of you, more next week (and lets all hope I have my furniture by then......).

pet:)