To John Thomas Stuart XI the troubles of himself and Lummox seemed unique and unbearable, yet he was not alone, even around Westville. Little Mr. Ito was suffering from an always fatal disease—old age. It would kill him soon. Behind uncounted closed doors in Westville other persons suffered silently the countless forms of quiet desperation which can close in on a man, or woman, for reasons of money, family, health, or face. —Robert A. Heinlein, The Star Beast, 1954
Each of these probably should have been a full blog entry, but I was too busy doing things to blog about doing things. To catch up, here’s a quick run-through of the past few days.
Thursday:
I got to go to a wedding at Cambridge City Hall, and then dinner at a nearby Eritrean restaurant. It was a great day and much fun was had, with good company as well as good food, though several attendees had to leave early to make it to rehearsals for Iolanthe.
Friday gaming:
As one of the few people not playing Swords of Rome, I first got in a quick 3-player game of Can’t Stop while waiting for more people to arrive; once that happened, we played the hardy perennial Puerto Rico (which was lost when one of the other players had enough cash to wind up with Factory, Harbor, and Wharf…ouch). This was followed by a couple rounds on one of Carl’s designs, and the nightcap (or morningcap by that point) was Vinci, which I had not previously played.
Vinci was fun. I’d disliked History of the World for having too much dead time between turns for any given player; this fixes that by having the decline timing chosen by the player and not having the turn order done by random draws of the civilizations by epoch. Amusingly, just before my last turn my empire was cut in half; this would normally have cost me a huge chunk of points, but I declared it to be in decline–and therefore won. Heh.
Saturday:
To the Museum of Fine Arts for the Art Deco exhibition. We’d seen it in San Francisco, but the MFA’s version seemed to be less claustrophobic (better exhibit space) and had some new items (many of them from the MFA’s own collection). I still would have liked to have seen it at the original venue (London’s Victoria & Albert Museum), though.
Sunday:
The Boston By Foot tour of the month was a walk through Jamaica Plain, so we took the T down to Forest Hills, walked up through the Arnold Arboretum, then over to the Loring-Greenough House to begin the tour.
The tour was great fun, and gave us a chance to see a part of Boston we really hadn’t explored before. The weather cooperated, as well; though it was warmer than I would have expected at this time of year, there was enough shade and a cool breeze much of the time. After the tour, we took the 39 bus back into town, made a stop at Trader Joe’s for some things we needed, then off home to relax.
All in all, a good few days.
Five years ago, September 11th and 12th were Saturday and Sunday, as they are this year.
Five years ago, a random, quick weekend trip to New York seemed like a good idea.
Five years ago, the CityPass for NYC included the museum we really wanted to see (the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum), several others that when added together made the package worthwhile, and tickets for both the Empire State Building and World Trade Center observation decks.
And so, five years ago today, I took these pictures. What is notable now, of course, is not what is in them, but what isn’t–the building beneath my feet at the time. All of these were taken from the observation levels of the South Tower. These, like so many other pictures, are from an unreachable past.
I just haven’t felt like blogging, or felt like I’ve had anything really to blog. Apologies to my regular readers, if any.
It’s busy but they seem to have come up with a nice efficient system for handling the orders. Staff with clipboards are roaming the line, filling out order sheets, and running them to the back room to be put together while the customer waits in line for the register.
They’ve brought in staff from all over the country to help out, too.
Busy as all get-out but not insanity-inducing.
No real effects in this part of Cambridge as yet. There will be no parking on one side of the street starting tomorrow, but if you just think of it as a week of street cleaning it doesn’t sound so bad.
I just hope we don’t have to listen to the “no pahking on the even side of the street, you will be TAGGED and TOWED” recording every day this week. Gaah!
Between the heat, the humidity, the lines, and the obligatory overly-amplified music, by the time I finished with the Taste of Cambridge I had no energy left for hauling across town to the blog meetup. Maybe next month. Instead, I headed home and cooled off in the breeze from the air conditioner.
(I think the traditional September date for ToC is better for being outside in. Chalk it up as yet another way that the DNC has made life around here more irritating.)
There was plenty of good stuff to eat, and in small enough amounts that I didn’t feel stuffed. I definitely want to check out Brother Jimmy’s BBQ in Harvard Square some time soon; they had great Carolina-style pulled pork. Finale also had a wonderful dark chocolate dessert.
Duplication was the order of the day, though. I think there were four or five Mexican options, and it seemed like many of the high-end dinner places were serving some kind of ceviche. A bit more variety wouldn’t have hurt.
As suggested by Sooz’s comment, I’m going to split the difference and go to both events.
Is anyone else going to the Taste of Cambridge and want to get together there? I’ll probably get there around 1700-1730, and stay until at least 1800-1830. Bonus points if you’re also going to the Boston Blog Meetup of course.
On Saturday, we made it out to Waltham, stopping at the Farmer’s Market before going into The Construction Site to pick up additional Cuboro blocks to feed my new addiction.
Having the Cuboro set at work has been great; it’s forced me to keep a chunk of desk clean, given me something to do during ergonomic rest breaks that actually does force me to stretch and move around, and entertained visitors.
Today we spent the afternoon in the South End enjoying the weather, the South End Open Market, and checking out the sale at Lekker Home Furnishings. We then walked up to Boylston Street, walked across the Public Garden and the Common, spent a little time moseying around Downtown Crossing, and finally headed home to relax.
A nice quiet weekend with no big projects, nice weather, and no DNC craziness…all of which I enjoyed while it lasted. Next weekend…not sure what we’ll wind up doing.
Window blinds installed, check.
New web server and mailing list server installed, check.
House tidied up…er…well, the piles have been shoved into the more out-of-the-way corners of their various rooms.
Some days you just gotta take what you can get.
