#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:)
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:)
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