#33 Boston - Or is it Siberia ? January 21, 2005
My eye sockets hurt - what else is there to say! Just like eating too much ice cream and getting brain freeze - try that one on your entire head! Today we reached the absolute low point of this week (in more ways than one), 3 degrees Fahrenheit, with a windchill around minus 20 (still Fahrenheit). [For my German friends minus 20 Fahrenheit is about -28 Celsius]. Friggin' cold! Even the balaclava won't help! I have eaten entire chap sticks and the hot water bottle has come out of retirement! We are promised a load of snow sometime tomorrow, and another 4 degree day - good weather for skiing, eh? I will try to head out to Weston for some cross country skiing or snowshoeing with my friend Ruth. There is a luge event out in Wachusett which might also be interesting to see (no, I am not participating! I don't think I fit the aerodynamic requirements - still working on those cookie bumps....)
This will make up for the fact that last weekend started out snowless. Snowshoeing with the Boston Ski and Sports Club got cancelled, so after a brisk morning jogging experience I headed out to visit my friends Linda and Roger in Shrewsbury. After a little walk around the neighborhood, we headed toward West Boylston to the cinema - saw the sleeper hit "Sideways". Pretty funny actually!
Sunday was the big day - my first downhill skiing experience. I had signed on with the Boston Ski and Sports Club (http://www.bssc.com/index.cfm) for a daytrip to Mount Okemo in Ludlow, Vermont (http://www.okemo.com/winterhome/index.html). Down the hill she goes, our Petra - being the graceful person that I am, I had promised to wow the New England skiing community with a stellar performance. My efforts were definitely commendable, and I was among the top students in my two classes. Toward the end of the day I went down the bunny slope without poles and even attempted one of the green trails - I fell only once, and that was coming of the chair lift. T'was a little slippery there, and the minute I got myself vertical again, one of my class mates decided to run me over. Skiing was a wonderful experience, my shins and calves hurt, a nice hematoma has formed and previously unknown muscles have started to appear. Ironically we had to ski on artificial snow (with some lovely layers of ice underneath that made for some interesting skiing maneuvers on our part) only to drive back to Boston where the real stuff was coming down from the sky! It was a very long day - left Boston at 5:30 AM and returned around 8 PM, but so worth it!! My next skiing trip will most likely lead me to Jay Peak in Northeastern Vermont next weekend (http://www.jaypeakresort.com/).
Monday was a holiday, and my friend Elaine and I headed for a most wonderful walk at the Mount Auburn Cemetery at the intersection of Cambridge and Watertown (http://www.mountauburn.org/). It is a most marvelous spot, a beautiful old place - it was America's first landscaped cemetery. In its winter wonderland coat and display of haunting light reflections it was truly magical. But still friggin' cold, so we headed to the Hi Rise Bakery on Concord Avenue for some sugar-infused nourishment and had a nice winter tea at Elaine's home in Charlestown (http://www.charlestownonline.net/visitors.htm). Hi Rise is a great place to visit, very neighborhoodish, down-to-earth place, with a huge wooden table in the middle, where everyone gathers for coffee, hot cocoa and their phenomenally tasting baked goods.
Tuesday, the book group met at Porter's Bar near North Station - another cold night, where the whole group decided to wimp out and take the cab to the bar from my place (it is less than a ten-minute walk). Yes, yes, we caved in....
Thursday night I attended another dinner of the crazy MIT Euroclub, this time at Tommy Doyle's Irish pub near Kendall Square in Cambridge. The pub, a very cozy retreat for a nippy evening like yesterday, is a popular hangout. The owner's name is Finbar Griffin and he seems to love his regular customers - he treats 80 loyal customers to Red Sox games four times a year. The food at "Doyler's" is actually pretty impressive and the MIT Euroclub gang packed an entire section (I believe there were 25 or 30 of us). Not that I have to say it, the beer was not too shabby either.
Work is still insane, the deadline is coming up quickly and other than the fact that everyone involved is lining up to jump off one of Boston's many bridges, things are going well. Not everyone values deadlines and some folks have decided that ignoring them makes them disappear somehow.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot - I have my keys back! If you recollect, during one my more bright and physically well coordinated moments, I had dropped them down the elevator shaft in my building - I finally had them retrieved from the pit and aside from a little corrosion they are looking pretty darn ok.
So my friends in warm places, I am looking forward to the weekend, with some snowshoeing or XC skiing and with our admired New England Patriots facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL championship game (we will cream them, Jimmy!). [http://www.patriots.com/]. Go Pats!
And remember, a duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why!
All my love,
pet:)
This will make up for the fact that last weekend started out snowless. Snowshoeing with the Boston Ski and Sports Club got cancelled, so after a brisk morning jogging experience I headed out to visit my friends Linda and Roger in Shrewsbury. After a little walk around the neighborhood, we headed toward West Boylston to the cinema - saw the sleeper hit "Sideways". Pretty funny actually!
Sunday was the big day - my first downhill skiing experience. I had signed on with the Boston Ski and Sports Club (http://www.bssc.com/index.cfm) for a daytrip to Mount Okemo in Ludlow, Vermont (http://www.okemo.com/winterhome/index.html). Down the hill she goes, our Petra - being the graceful person that I am, I had promised to wow the New England skiing community with a stellar performance. My efforts were definitely commendable, and I was among the top students in my two classes. Toward the end of the day I went down the bunny slope without poles and even attempted one of the green trails - I fell only once, and that was coming of the chair lift. T'was a little slippery there, and the minute I got myself vertical again, one of my class mates decided to run me over. Skiing was a wonderful experience, my shins and calves hurt, a nice hematoma has formed and previously unknown muscles have started to appear. Ironically we had to ski on artificial snow (with some lovely layers of ice underneath that made for some interesting skiing maneuvers on our part) only to drive back to Boston where the real stuff was coming down from the sky! It was a very long day - left Boston at 5:30 AM and returned around 8 PM, but so worth it!! My next skiing trip will most likely lead me to Jay Peak in Northeastern Vermont next weekend (http://www.jaypeakresort.com/).
Monday was a holiday, and my friend Elaine and I headed for a most wonderful walk at the Mount Auburn Cemetery at the intersection of Cambridge and Watertown (http://www.mountauburn.org/). It is a most marvelous spot, a beautiful old place - it was America's first landscaped cemetery. In its winter wonderland coat and display of haunting light reflections it was truly magical. But still friggin' cold, so we headed to the Hi Rise Bakery on Concord Avenue for some sugar-infused nourishment and had a nice winter tea at Elaine's home in Charlestown (http://www.charlestownonline.net/visitors.htm). Hi Rise is a great place to visit, very neighborhoodish, down-to-earth place, with a huge wooden table in the middle, where everyone gathers for coffee, hot cocoa and their phenomenally tasting baked goods.
Tuesday, the book group met at Porter's Bar near North Station - another cold night, where the whole group decided to wimp out and take the cab to the bar from my place (it is less than a ten-minute walk). Yes, yes, we caved in....
Thursday night I attended another dinner of the crazy MIT Euroclub, this time at Tommy Doyle's Irish pub near Kendall Square in Cambridge. The pub, a very cozy retreat for a nippy evening like yesterday, is a popular hangout. The owner's name is Finbar Griffin and he seems to love his regular customers - he treats 80 loyal customers to Red Sox games four times a year. The food at "Doyler's" is actually pretty impressive and the MIT Euroclub gang packed an entire section (I believe there were 25 or 30 of us). Not that I have to say it, the beer was not too shabby either.
Work is still insane, the deadline is coming up quickly and other than the fact that everyone involved is lining up to jump off one of Boston's many bridges, things are going well. Not everyone values deadlines and some folks have decided that ignoring them makes them disappear somehow.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot - I have my keys back! If you recollect, during one my more bright and physically well coordinated moments, I had dropped them down the elevator shaft in my building - I finally had them retrieved from the pit and aside from a little corrosion they are looking pretty darn ok.
So my friends in warm places, I am looking forward to the weekend, with some snowshoeing or XC skiing and with our admired New England Patriots facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL championship game (we will cream them, Jimmy!). [http://www.patriots.com/]. Go Pats!
And remember, a duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why!
All my love,
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
4:10 PM
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