#2 Boston - Hitting the Wall - June 16, 2006

Well, it has happened - I have officially hit the wall, there was just too much happening this week, and I am now sitting up here in Franconia, NH in the world's most dangerous swivel chair trying to keep my eyes open. Phoebe is sprawled out on the living room floor, Oscar is dining on his favorite seeds; Steph, Jay and Dan are discussing trail running and Rick is getting out his library of books to make sure that all the details of tomorrow's planned hike up Mt Lafayette are taken care of. If I would even look at a bottle of beer right now, I would pass right out I'm afraid. On the way up here, the five of us stopped at "The Barley House" in Concord, NH (http://www.thebarleyhouse.com/google367c83abe3f54245.html), a lovely brew pub across the street from the State House on North Main Street, and engaged in some serious burger eating and, get this, none of us even ordered a beer. What the heck is going on??? We almost did not make it to the pub, since Rick was seriously considering attending the jewelry convention of the New Hampshire Bead Society down the street, but we managed to avert this disaster at the last minute.

It has been a whirlwind week, craziness at work coming at me from all directions, a myriad of social engagements, all very pleasurable I might add. On Monday my 2-year anniversary in Boston was celebrated with a lovely dinner at the Helmand Restaurant (http://www.helmandrestaurantcambridge.com/) - Afghani food par excellence, and the accompanying wine put me in a very nice state of mind. It was a great occasion to celebrate - I have been very happy here in Boston, the past two years were fun-packed and it feels like I have lived here most of my life. On to the next year - thank you New England friends, you have been wonderful, love ya tons! Thank you friends in other places for staying in touch.

Alrighty, last weekend - Saturday, the rains again pounded down on the poor little Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and after my marathon training run (in the rain, yes), I joined Rick, Barbara and a few other AMC friends in Acton, to go on a nature hike with our friend and plant guru Boot Boutwell in the Acton Arboretum. Alas, Boot could not make it and so we decided to trample through the woods ourselves: http://www.town.acton.ma.us/LSCOM/DescArboretum.htm. It was wet my friends, and the black flies were having a field day, at least with me. The bug bites on my legs (guess who was wearing shorts?) developed nicely and started expanding to small plate-size welts - it kinda looked as if I was planning to grow a second knee, a very attractive feature, in particular during summer season. Just beautiful! (http://res2.agr.gc.ca/ecorc/diptera/bf11-dp11_e.htm ). My human sacrifice was rewarded by some beautiful botanical discoveries, including the carnivorous pitcher plants
(http://www.mikebaker.com/plants/Sarracenia_purpurea.html) and one of my recent favorites, "Jack in the Pulpit" aka the Indian turnip ( http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H46.htm). Not to forget of course, the Bracken Fern, which when grown to a decent size makes a nice hat, but honestly I think I would have to smoke some wacky weed before you could get me to do that.
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/bracken_fern.htm . What kind of emergency could arise in the woods that would make me grab a fern and don it on my noggin? (I will keep thinking about this one.... never say never!)

After 2 hours of rain we had enough, and our dampened trio headed to Rick's house in Windham, New Hampshire for a low-key evening with movies, Chinese food and about 50% or the ice cream section of the local Shaw's, which we had raided earlier. I also was able to use my VIP status and scan Rick's basement for furniture items in a special pre-yard sale session. My home has now some very beautiful carpets and is looking ready for attendance by friends and family.

Sunday, after breakfast in the sun(!!!!!) and an extended period of indecisiveness we headed for the Lakes Region of Southern New Hampshire (http://www.lakesregion.org/) in particular Lake Winnipesaukee. It extends over 72 square miles and has 274 habitable islands (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/ / http://www.lwhs.us/his-winnipesaukee.htm) The Mount Washington Cruise Ship delights visitors and shuttles them across the lake, and every year during the so-called "Ice-Out Contest" people try to guess the date that the ship can safely leave her port at Center Harbor and motor to four other ports. Apparently the earliest ice-out on record was March 29th and the latest has been May 12th. The lake's Native American name means ''beautiful water in a high place'' - so true. In order to see the lake in all its glory, we decided to hike one of the surrounding mountains, Mt Major. Not as major in height ( http://www.mit.edu/~einatlev/Mt_Major/index.html) - a mere 1786 feet - it provides a stunning view of Winnipesaukee at very little hiker's energy expense. I will send some pictures from our hike that day separately on Monday... This is a very big bang for your buck!

As mentioned, it has been crazy since, just to give you an idea - anniversary lunch with Stephanie (we met during orientation at MGH two years ago, yeah!); impromptu get-together on Tuesday night with Patrick, Ellen, Ulandt and Pauline at Casa Petra; Running Group, Marathon Training Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; team photographer duty at the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Road Race in Boston last night (http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=4); bird sitting with Marge (who seems to blame me for her parents absence); many trips across town for work; annual physical, and and and.......

I will now conk out and crash in my bed and get a few zzzs in before tomorrow's monster hike (two more 4000-footers), so good night my friends!

Enjoy the sun!

pet:)