#38 Boston - From Lime Green to Solid Green, Ready for Blue - Feb 24, 2007

Yes, you have guessed right, the colors indicate the substantial improvement in my skiing career, which received a major boost during yesterday’s outing in Waterville, NH (http://www.waterville.com/winter/index.asp ) - we can finally say that winter has arrived, better late than never, and the ski resorts dazzled in white and were ready for the onslaught by everyone and everything that could strap on a pair of skis. I myself had joined a large group of friends, and based in Franconia at Rick’s house, we all had different ideas on what to do with the white stuff. Stephanie, Dan, Boot, Genevieve, Rick, Karen and Denise (and I also believe several member of the Simmons clan) headed down to Waterville Valley for the cross country trails. Ginna and her son Sean decided to play in the snow, Elaine dropped her off her son, Kevin, for a solid round of knuckle-dragging (= snowboarding) and I headed off by my lonely self to engage in the suicidal activity of downhill skiing.

The weather was holding up aside from a pretty ferocious wind (which had made the drive up to Franconia an adventure in itself), but the beginner’s package I had did not let me go up to the top of the mountain, so I ended up in a fairly wind-friendly zone. Of course, I can be pretty much anywhere these days (out in the woods, swimming in a lake, hiding under a rock) and have someone call my name, which is of course what happened at the ski rental outfit, where my colleague and running buddy Katie popped up, also ready to hit the slopes in a novice capacity. We zipped over to our lessons (with about 30 seconds to spare) – I actually stumbled more than I zipped – see I was running a tad late, and was afraid that the class would start without me, so I arrived a bit disheveled, and a very nice ski instructor offered his help in adjusting my ski boots (since I had no time to do even that). We were assigned to Harold, a very nice instructor from El Paso, Texas, where skiing is a way of life as we all know, and off we went. I was a little rusty at first, this had been my first time on skis since last March, but pretty soon it all came back and I was up to my old shenanigans. I managed to sneak onto the Quadzilla lift once and was able to fly down the Valley Trail, but the second time they caught me (just when I was ready to hit a blue trail for the first time) and so it was back to the beginner’s slopes. I discovered a little side trail though, that looked blue-ish in nature, and kept barreling down that thing as often as I could, and almost got up to warp speed.

Immediately upon returning to the Simmons Condo in Waterville, where Rick’s sister Kathy and her husband Al were cooking enough chili for feed the military force of a small country, I was snatched up by Rick, Denise and Karen to go sledding, and we found a pretty evil hillside that allowed our plastic sleds to reach previously unknown velocities. Only problem was that once you were in the landing zone, the spray from the snow hit your eyes, and you were pretty much unable to see where you were going. We all came home with our bodies intact, which was a miracle, ready for the Simmons Saturday night shindig, which not only included tons of delicious food, a comfy fireplace, and some very happy children, but also a sing along, led by Rick and his dad, with some old favorites such as “Last Saturday Night” and “Grandma’s Lye Soap”. Boot also played a couple of cheeky tunes on his guitar, and the rest of us did some pretty bad singing.

Today was kind of similar, after breakfast up in Franconia everyone pretty much disbursed in different directions, Jo went down hill skiing in Waterville; Rick, Karen and Denise headed for the cross country trails; Elaine, Kevin, Dan and Steph headed home to the Bay State for miscellaneous reasons; and Boot, Genevieve, Phoebe and myself did some snowshoeing up the Lonesome Lake Trail in Franconia Notch. It was a perfect day, the ski was blue, there was not much wind (nice) and the trail was steep, but mercifully short. Phoebe blasted down the trail, snow flying everywhere, and we pretty much did the same thing. As usual life was good. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Lonesome%20Lake&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi )

Finishing up on last weekend’s story – which brings us back to the Constitution State (did you know that Yankee Doodle is the state song of Connecticut??? Just wondering…) – During my visit there, my friend Joanne and I decided to be adventurous and check out Paugussett State Forest - http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/paugussett.html . It looked like a sizable piece of forested land on the map – should be easy to find right? Not quite – you could not find this state forest with an asteroid-size magnifying glass, there were no signs whatsoever indicating how to find it, and once you do discover the sign you are pretty much in the parking lot. Not before taking a little detour though into a neighbor’s front yard, since, again, one finds oneself at a critical junction with no information on what is state and what is private property. Now the parking lot does not reveal much more either, there is a display case with a very poor copy of a topo map, no “you are here” X, nothing of value, maybe except a very long information sheet about hunting, and what to wear during hunting season, which seems to be most of the year. There were of course also no trail indicators either, and we were walking along some old logging road for the longest time, no idea where we were or where we were heading. We were told by a couple we met at some point that there were some spectacular cliffs overlooking the Housatonic River and that on a good day one might discover bald eagles in the area. Bottom line though, as far as state forests go, this one certainly was not the crème de la crème, but it got us out of the house at least.

Another thing that happened in Connecticut was the BEST EVER pedicure and manicure. For real!!! Joanne and I just stumbled into the next best nail salon on Federal Road, which turned out to be better than next best. OHMYGOD, they massaged my feet and legs for 15 minutes, and while we were waiting for the finger nails to dry, they gave us a back rub!! Let me know if you are ever in the Brookfield area, I’ll give you directions.
On the food front, all three of us fell in love with Bailey’s Backyard American Bistro, also in Brookfield, and not just because the waiter promised us hugs (friendly people down there in CT) – hi Danny!

Boston welcomed with piles of dirty snow, and ice galore, I discovered that two of my hubcaps had cracks in them, and the weather has alternated between cold and occasional snow. It is supposed to snow a bit again today and tomorrow. The week was insanely busy, and the social calendar had no gaps in it whatsoever. Tuesday dinner with my friend Lidia from Barcelona at Paramount on Charles Street (http://www.paramountboston.com/pages/home.html ), Wednesday night hospital running group followed by dinner at the Hill Tavern, and then there was Thursday.

Thursday night was ushering duty at the Lyric State Company, and let me tell you, this was sooooo worth it. “Souvenir” a play about Florence Foster Jenkins, a rich socialite in the 1940s who honestly thought she could sing. What she heard in her head was not what others did when she sang, and it is safe to say that she brought off-key singing to new heights. No pitch or rhythm whatsoever. Undeterred and because it made her happy, she started to give recitals, made a record and eventually performed at Carnegie Hall. The who’s who of Manhattan Society came to watch this car wreck, and most of them had to stuff handkerchiefs in their mouths in order to keep from laughing. My Boston friends, you must, must, must watch this!! It is so funny, tears will run down your face; it is so touching, tears will run down your face. Leigh Barrett, who played Mrs Jenkins, was spectacularly outstanding, accompanied by the melancholy, sweet, yet acerbic and sarcastic Will McGarrahan as Cosme Mc Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins). WOW!

I am signing off now my friends, tired, and in the throws of preparing for my trip to Europe this Wednesday. In between I have to meet the tax accountant, go to running practice, work three full days and live to tell about it. I am pretty sure I will sleep all the way to Zurich.

PetJ

#37 Boston - The Benefits of Antioxidants - Feb 18 07

Greetings from Brookfield, Connecticut, where you can learn all about the benefits of antioxidants, have a wine tasting and make a gynecologist appointment all in one place. Not bad, eh? Specifically, the place was the DiGrazia Vineyards located within the town of Brookfield, along the Connecticut Wine Trail. Founded in 1984 withy initially 45 acres of wine-yielding soil, it has now beefed up its operation to an annual production of 7000 cases and eighteen brands of wine (http://www.digrazia.com/). Not only is Paul DiGrazia a bona fide wine wizard, but he can also call himself an MD, PhD, and is specialized in gynecology. Yes, ladies, he is the local gyno!! His wines have no added sulfites, ergo they are headache-free, and he was certainly on a roll when he explained to us the benefits of anti-oxidants, which his wines apparently have plenty of. Quote from his brochure "As a man of science, Dr. DiGrazia brings chemistry to explain drinking wine in moderation to good health." I believe the suggestion of having a little glass with breakfast was mentioned, and we could not agree more. Joanne and I were quite charmed by this local gem, the wines were absolutely fantastic and we both left substantial amounts of credit card money there. I was delighted by their substantial selection of desert wines, and Yankee Frost (a sweet Vignoles) and Autumn Spice (white grapes fermented with sugar pumpkin and honey, lightly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves) emerged as early favorites. I must come back down here for some more - unfortunately shipping laws prevent them from sending the stuff up to that little Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

We did leave in a happy mood there, and headed straight for Stew Leonard's, the World's Largest Dairy Store - http://www.stewleonards.com/ . What a great place, not only chockfull of dairy products, but all kinds of wonderful things - with many opportunities to sample and we observed quite a few individuals who I think came to store to have dinner. Joanne and I closely followed one couple who apparently were there to "sample" the steak and chips and looked quite content by the time they reached the cash registers.

I have come to visit the lovely state of Connecticut, the southernmost state in New England, and Brookfield to check in on my friends Joanne and Marc who moved here from Boston six weeks ago. Originally called Newbury (because it took land from three surrounding towns New Milford, Newton and Danbury), the town of now 16,000 inhabitants was officially founded in 1788 and was named after the first minister of the parish's Congregational Church, Reverend Thomas Brooks. Joanne and I quickly used the chance to escape getting roped into any home projects (Marc's family had arrived and was industriously at work wiring, painting, replacing outlets, installing dryers and what not) and headed for the Williams Gurski Open Space Trail located right in the center of town. A superb place to hike around on 200 acres (http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/gurski.html), wooded wetlands, tulip tree forests, meadows, rock outcroppings, a picturesque, but frozen brook named Mervin, high ridges - everything a hiker's heart desires. The snow was packed hard and slick, and on occasion fancy footwork was required - Joanne graduated with honors from a " baby hiker" to a "toddler hiker" and learned all about marcescent trees and also saw her first Japanese Spindle Tree aka the Winged Euonymus (See attached picture). We checked out Gurski Farm, which up until 1968 was a working farm, and whose farm house and falling down barns and blacksmith sheds were just approved for restoration by the Brookfield City Council.


What else did we do? Went to Osaka Restaurant in Brookfield (v.g. as Bridget Jones would say), checked out the most quaint neighboring town of New Milford (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=New%20Milford%20CT&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) and the local running store "Road and Track Sports". Big family dinner last night with some wonderful Linguini Alfredo and the first bottle of the DiGrazia wine. Life was good. Hailey the dog, who also responds to Hailey Bailey or "roo-roo" has shown a lot of interest in Oscar and wants him to come play with her, even though her attention was diverted temporarily yesterday when Marc's sister Amanda brought in her pet gerbil.

Currently both Oscar and Hailey are taking power naps, Joanne is studying and Marc has disappeared to Loews, a dangerous place from which he may never return. Joanne and I will head off to another hike this afternoon, and maybe hit up the Brookfield Crafts Market. Another option in Brookfield are furniture stores, of which there are thousands - not sure why there is such an excessive need for interior decor, but if it is too cold and unfriendly outside, a little detour to the Lazy Boy Factory sounds like a fun place to go :):) Of course there is also Panchos and Gringos, Joanne’s favorite Mex Mex place around here - I was told there are Mariachi’s playing some decent tunes, and the food is not too shabby either. (http://www.panchosngringos.com/)

Back in Boston this week, it was a tough one. On Tuesday and Wednesday Mother Nature had it on her mind to spoil Valentine's Day a bit and not only dump some snow on us (we would have been fine with just that), but follow that with sleet, rain and freezing temperatures, and you have loads of fun. It took two of my (very helpful) neighbors Antonio Sr and his tenant Scott, and myself 45 minutes to release Ella, the caaah, from an icy embrace and we used shovels, ice picks, hammers, you name it - bone breaking labor, and I for one was glad for the help. It would have taken me at least two hours to do this on my own. The month of February has been chilly, and we have not had temperatures above 30 degrees F for the past three weeks (maybe one day...). Work has been busy with some late evening meetings. Thursday I hosted Amgen all day for a pipeline presentation, an exhaustive day, but it was highly successful, and Caroline and I had to promptly go out and celebrate at the somewhat snobby Beacon Hill Bistro (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html) which does serve some very impressive cuisine, however the cheese platter for 2 that ran $20 was just a little on the meager side.

I had running practice this week at Community Running, and learned the hard way that eating a load of Fettuccine Primavera two hours before track workout is not a good idea. I was huffin' and puffin' like a debilitated old locomotive on its last leg, and was really not impressing anyone. Next time a granola bar will do.

As you know last weekend my friend Dan plunged into the very cold (and apparently yucky) Boston Harbor water near Carson Beach in South Boston to raise awareness for the Cambridge-based Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project. Just watching Dan and his fellow dippers brave the icy waters made Caroline and myself flee real quickly to the comforts of my home and later the renowned S&S Deli near Inman Square in Cambridge for some very nice comfort food. Again, life was good. (http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/)

I will be staying here until tomorrow (President's Day Holiday) and then head back up to Boston for a nice short, but busy workweek. Next weekend I will be heading up to New Hampshire for some skiing, and the week following it is off to Europe!

It started snowing a bit here just now, but now the sun has forced her way through, so I think we will grab the hiking boots and go! (actually I take the back, the snow has just reappeared.....)

Until next week my friends,

pet :) - traveler extraordinaire

#36 Boston - Lost in Aaaaaaahlington - Feb 10 2007

Well, it was yet again a classic Petra moment, but this time in no way self-induced. I can blame the whole little disaster entirely on my friends from Evite, little weasels. Here I was, after a day of bone-breaking labor in my home, painting the common hallway and ceiling, and so ready for a little social time with my newfound friends at Community Running. In the hope of having successfully removed all the paint off my face and not look too ridiculous, I headed out toward Arlington (or as it is pronounced locally – Aaaaahlington) – a lovely community that is seemlessly attached to Boston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington,_Massachusetts). A charming place, there is Spy Pond and the beginning of the Minuteman Bikeway (http://minutemanbikeway.org/), where bike enthusiasts, joggers and cross country skiers (during those winters where we actually do have snow) can have a fun time.

So, here I was heading down Mass Ave in search for my destination, the residence of our club president Keith. While that slumbersome little brain of mine seemed to vaguely recollect that the address was 16 Lake Street, I nontheless placed all my confidence in the Evite Maplink that gave me directions to 16 Locke Street. Left the phone number at home of course, and went on my merry way, armed with a bunch of sodas and a very good looking pumpkin cheesecake. I kept driving and driving and driving down Mass Ave and must have been in the halfway to the moon, when I did manage to find Locke Street. Parked the caaah, and headed for #16. Now mind you, I was a little surprised by the lack of vehicles outside and lack of noise coming from this house, but still rang the door bell and was waiting for the fun to start. Noone answered, and when I entered the vestibule and managed to look into the lit living room, all I saw was an old lady asleep on her couch with a cat on her lap. Knowing the boisterous nature of my CR running buddies, I just did not think that this was the right place, and on tippy toes left the building, just so that I would not scare the crap out of the poor woman. I walked up and down that street (which was completely iced over by the way) and just could not figure out what had gone wrong. I approached a house with many cars, and asked the folks there about the Manning residence, but as they assured me, there was noone of that name in their street and they have lived there for 20 years. Oh boy!!

It was cold, the street was slippery as can be, and I was tired and exhausted. Seeing the desperation on my face, the nice people at 26 Locke Street, invited me into their home (despite some serious protests by their pug puppie who wanted to pounce on me), and let me look up the Evite invitation on their computer. Well, we figured out the mix-up and they were nice enough to give me directions to 16 Lake Street, which is where I should have been in the first place. I did find it alright, but then it took me at least another 15 minutes to find a parking spot near Keith’s place, and by the time I got there it was about 8:30 PM (the shindig had started at 6 PM). The pumpkin cheesecake was well received despite the late arrival and I had a great time getting to know my new fellow runners.

As mentioned, the weekend was consumed with home improvement activities, mostly painting of the hallway. Thanks to my friend Rick I managed to have a ladder, and thanks to Elaine, who was my anchorwoman, I managed to paint the ceiling standing on said ladder on a staircase. It looks beautiful (the hallway), I was sore for a few days and now it is time to do some fine tuning, cleaning off paint spatters, that sort of thing. Which is what I was going to do this weekend, but I was attacked by the dreaded lurgy, a cold of sorts that makes my nose shine like a beacon – it can be seen all the way down Cambridge Street.

Did that keep me from going out cross country skiing yesterday – no sir! Operating under the assumption that a little fresh air might do that weary body of mine some good, I headed out to meet a bunch of friends at the Weston Ski Track,located a very convenient 15 minutes outside of Boston (http://www.skiboston.com/skitrack/skitrack.php). Now mind you, we have not seen snow in a while here, except for the occasional teaser, but the good folks out there make some for those snow-hungry urbanites like myself. Amy, Pauline, Ulandt, Jo, Caroline, Kimball and yours truly had a great time out there. The track offered only about 2 kilometers, but there was plenty of variety in the routes, and some nice hills to ski down from. It was a beautiful day, and for the first time in two weeks the thermometer reached 30 degrees!! The weather in Boston has been mercilessly arctic, and it was nice for once to not have to wear a face mask outside.

The day greeted us this morning with azure blue skies and somewhat agreeable temperatures (21 degrees) and in the early afternoon I will head over to Dorchester where my friend Steph’s husband Dan will plunge into Boston Harbor in a costume. While in this kind of weather one would seriously question his sanity to do so, this act of bravery actually has a noble purpose – it is a fundraiser for the Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project (http://www.gmdvp.org/). GMDVP is a Cambridge-based nonprofit, dedicated to “provide community education and direct services to gay, bisexual and transgendered male victims and survivors of domestic violence.” Steph, Caroline, Tom and I (aka Dan’s Posse) will watch the spectacle with some hot cocoa in hand, and Patches the dog will make sure that no animals are harmed during the conduct of this event.

As for the rest of the weekend, I will sit on the couch, try to get rid of the cold of mine, read the paper, watch some movies, play with Oscar, that sort of thing. Next weekend I will hail from Brookfield, Connecticut, where I will be visiting my friends Joanne, Marc and Hailey, the dog, in their new home.

Until then, my friends, be well and go find some snow!

pet:)

#35 Boston - An Eyeopening Exploration of Expensive Eateries - Feb 2 07

Credit for this fabulous headline goes to my friend Steph, who listened to a voicemail with the sorry story of my sneaking out of a classy yet exorbitantly priced hotel after the menu was shown to me, and I could just not get myself to sign on for an afternoon tea for 45$. All the cucumber sandwiches in the world would not make up for that, no sir. This one certainly fits well under the headline of embarrassing tales from the road and even though nobody noticed this shameful act, I stilled blushed all the way back to my hotel.

Here I was, in our nation's capital, visiting the sights, when a little voice naggingly alerted me that I might be in the mood for a nice cup of tea accompanied by somethin' somethin' sweet. Up popped the Willard Hotel, a historic building also known as "The Residence of Presidents" (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Willard+Hotel) . It has hosted every president ever as a guest since Zach Taylor in 1850. Abe Lincoln paid his bill at the Willard with his first presidential paycheck. Lovely place, very classy. According to a memorial plaque at the hotel, it "was the scene of the last major effort to restore the union and prevent the Civil War. At Virginia's invitation, delegates of twenty-one of the then thirty-four states met in secret session from February 4 to 27 1861 in a vain attempt to solve the differences between the North and the South."

It is also believed that the term lobbyist was coined at the Willard - President Ulysses S Grant used to like to go there for happy hour, in his case a cigar and brandy, hang out in the lobby, decompress a little, take a load off, that sort of thing. Word got out for his fondness of hanging out there, and wouldn't you know it, many of the would-be power brokers used the opportunity to approach him during that time and peddle their cause. Grant called those folks "lobbyists" and apparently the name stuck.

Alright, alright, back to the story. Following that nagging little voice, I entered the Willard, and let me tell you, it was magical. Stunning architecture, a harpist was playing, everyone was dressed nicely and was equally well behaved, no one raised their voice, it was as if I had been miraculously transported into a Jane Austin movie. Patrons were sipping tea accompanied by cucumber sandwiches, petits fours and pastries on three-tiered serving platters and that little voice inside of me said "me too, me too, I want to be with the well-mannered people and eat triangular sandwiches". Upon inquiring, I was told that there were no empty seats, but that I shall try again in about 30 minutes. A little disappointed I left, and headed for the "Corner Bakery" (an excellent chain of cafes, with very delectable Apricot rugelach and apple tarts (yummm)) for the poor person's afternoon tea option. However, when I exited the bakery, rugelach and tarts in hand, I looked over to the Willard, and there was that voice again..... "Come on, you want to go, don't you?" The spell was cast, and I waltzed in there in eager anticipation, and after waiting for maybe another 10-15 minutes the miracle did happen and I was led to a very nice table near the harpist. I looked happier than any clam you have ever seen, but that smile flew off my face instantly when I opened the menu that was handed to me by the hostess. Holy Mother of God! Afternoon tea was priced at either $38 or 45$ a pop, and that was just a wee bit more than I wanted to spend on tea and a pastry. (I already think that a $3.50 soy steamer at Starbucks is too much.)

What to do? From my perspective, I had two embarrassing options - either talk to the hostess and tell her that this was just a tad more than what I had in mind (embarrassing) or sneak out when they were not looking (embarrassing). Yours truly went with option #2 during a very opportune moment when both the hostess and all waitresses were engaged otherwise. Needless to say this was yet another one of my great moments, and I will certainly cherish it always.

I had gone to Washington as a courier for the National Marrow Donor Program, and used the opportunity to look around DC a little for the afternoon. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hamilton, which was conveniently located about three blocks from the White House. So I had to go see it of course, and while I do not like its current inhabitants, I am fond of the building itself, it is quite a beautiful sight.

Across from the maison blanche is the Renwick Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institutions, and definitely a little gem of a place. Their permanent exhibit on american crafts (http://americanart.si.edu/renwick/highlights.cfm) featured the whole range from the stunningly crafty to the obscure, including Larry Fuente's "Game Fish", Judy Kenley McKie's "Monkey Settee", Wendell's "Ghost Clock" and my favorite, "The Bureaucracy Bureau", a very fine piece of carpentry.

George Catlin's Indian Gallery upstairs at the Renwick was impressive as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Catlin). Catlin, born in 1796, was the first major artist to record the Plains Indians in their own territory. During his five trips out west (from 1830-36) he encountered many of the Native American tribes, and documented their lives in his art. He was certain of the doom Native Americans would experience with the encroaching settlers, and proposed the idea of a national park consisting of the Great Plains and providing a safe home for buffalo, wildlife, and native tribes. The gallery features hundreds of his portraits of tribes people and the landscapes they lived in, however my favorite work of art by Catlin was painting # 603, mostly dominated by a giant Grizzly Bear and the tiniest little mousse staring at it.


After visiting the Washington Memorial, the debacle at the Willard and a little rest at the hotel, it was time for part 2 of the "let's spend money we don't have" portion of the trip - "Butterfield 9", which served my friend Sarah and I a most exquisitely scrumptious and beautifully arranged meal for a price that definitely was in the upper echelons. The two of us and maybe three other patrons were the only visitors to this establishment in downtown DC, which seemed strangely deserted on Sunday evening, and we settled for the B9 because it looked nice and we were so hungry we would have pretty much eaten anything. (http://www.butterfield9.com/). Labeled by Conde Nast Magazine as "one of the hottest 100 restaurants in the world", it does, despite its cost factor, serve ambrosial cuisine and our stomachs were quite content, and if you want to treat yourself in DC, this should be your choice.

Monday was courier duty with a quick zip back to Boston, and I can't believe the week has come and gone. It was an interesting one, since I had to endure a test ordered by my GI physician, where a tube was stuck down my throat to measure the pH level in my upper and lower esophagus (ongoing reflux story, don't ask). The tube is about the thickness of angel hair pasta, gets send down your throat, and then very aesthetically comes out your nose, gets affixed to the side of your face and then attaches to a little computer that you carry like a camera bag on your side. Pretty nifty little thing, and you can check out your pH level nonstop. 24 hours is along time for the tube du jour, but the worst part of the procedure is beforehand, when the GI nurses measure your esophagus length, so as to determine how far to push the darn thing in. The measuring tube, mind you, is more the thickness of a macaroni, and not the least bit pleasant. The technology is pretty cool, but boy I want those 45 minutes back. Of course people look at you like your the biggest freak they have ever seen and I did get a few stares, but Oscar, bless the little yellow bird (who is usually scared by pretty much everything), ignored it and gave me tons of kisses just to make me feel better.

Aside from watching yet again tons of episodes of CSI (now moving into Season 4), there was time for a little culture this week - ushering at the Huntington Theater for an adaptation of Anton Checkov's "Cherry Orchard" on Wednesday - it did not exactly knock my socks off. I actually did find it boring and way too silly, and on more than one occasion I nodded off a little. Maybe I expected too much drama from a Russian writer, and the actual story by Checkov does have it, but this version lacked oomph and even an actress of Kate Burton's caliber (daughter of Richard Burton) could not save the night for me. Ellen, Patrick, Amy and I all agreed that the best part was that there was a live animal on stage - a most adorable scruffy little dog - so at least a little pleasure was derived from an otherwise pretty bland endeavor.

Alrighty my friends, I am already at home, it was a light day at work, and I am meeting some friends for a little retail therapy at the Garment District (not that I can spend any more dough, since my beloved Ella asked for new brakes and got 'em). This weekend, I will paint up a storm, and my hallway will hopefully return to its old splendor.

In the meantime, stay warm and safe.

pet:)

#34 Boston - The Kings and Queens of Guacamole - Jan 28

They left a little while ago, the kings and queens, not only of guacamole, but also of salsa and all things Latin. Casa Petra was filled to the brim with people, delicious dishes, beers of miscellaneous origin, a self-service Margarita station, and a squawking fire alarm. All that's needed for a good party, right? Now I have enough food left in the house to feed an army - my friends, the amateur chefs, came armed with the finest guacamole and salsa creations known to mankind. Competition was fierce, but tasty. The quadruple threat of Costa Rican-Spanish-Ecuadorian-Columbian descent, Miguel and Carol, beat the competition fair and square with their Costador Guacamole, Amanda's Chunky Amazing Guac placed second. The race for the salsa crown was as close as it gets with Emily's "Half Ass Salsa" edging out a narrow win over Ellen's "Mangolicious Salsa". Chris Gibbs, as usual a top contender, took home the prize for "Best Non-Guac, Non-Salsa Dish: with his Vegetarian Taco Lasagna. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all the guests for filling my home with your cheerful presence.

It was a day for competitions - if you think I just slaved over a stove all day in preparation for the guac fest, you are mistaken. At 8 AM sharp yours truly showed up at the MIT Student Center to participate in Community Running's Amazing Race. Yes, I know I described their training practices as legalized torture, which did not stop me from going there this past Monday for another session of torment on the track. (This time I actually wised up and did not run like a crazed idiot right out of the gate, paced myself nicely, and was able to actually kick it up a notch during the last round. Plus I was able to feed myself when I got home - progress!). When I heard about the amazing race (and yes, I did join the club, what's not to like?), I signed right up.

Alrighty - back to this morning, the Amazing Race. Four teams of four runners vied for the crown, and the theme for the race was "High School". Zipping from stop to stop we had to solve puzzles, all according to classes at school - geography, history, music, nutrition, gym class, literature and chemistry. The solutions to the puzzles gave us the clue as to where we had to run next - Shakespeare's tragedies at 1369 Cafe at Central Square led us to the Period Table of Elements and Chemistry lessons at the Charles Hotel at Harvard Square, and from there we hoofed it over to Whole Foods on River Street for some musical questions (who in the world knows what a bassoon is? Huh? Cousin of the Oboe?). Between each stop we got a hall pass that qualified us for the next stop. At the halfway point at the Student Center we had Phys Ed and were doing jumping jacks, push ups and abs, at the Royal Senesta (nutrition) we had to guess the ingredients in V8, name flavors of power gels, and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. The Starbucks on the corner of Charles and Beacon required extensive knowledge of American Presidents, and at the Westin Copley Plaza (geography) one needed to be familiar with the European Union (I can't believe I forgot Greece....). Back at the MIT Student Center Amanda, Marcelo (the club's webmaster), Stephan and I placed fourth out of four, but the green team did have a good time, learned a lot (did you know there is lettuce in V-8?) and we were proud of what we had accomplished. All in all we racked up 9 miles in 11 degree weather (-12 Celsius) - nothing to be ashamed of.

Speaking of the weather - glacial!!!! Minus 15 freaking degrees on Friday ( that equals -26 degrees Celsius) - arctic, raw, biting, bitter, piercing cold (Boston Globe headline today: "The brrs are back in town"). As I walked home from work on Friday drooling into that scarf of mine, I think I was wearing pretty much my entire wardrobe, two pairs of winter gloves, and I still felt as if I was an inch away from frostbite. We have not seen any snow since Monday, when we had a very nice dusting, but as it has done so all winter, it did not stick around. Today during the trivia challenge, we did see a few flakes, but as usual not more than one could count on both hands. It is a wee bit better now and probably safe to go the grocery store without getting an aneurism, good times. On Thursday night, I was supposed to join my friend Pauline for some ice skating at Frog Pond, but the bit-too-wintry temps combined with an outrageously horrendous late-in-the-day meeting just about killed me. My nose was running, my head hurt, and I was in no shape to do anything but get reacquainted with my couch.

So, tomorrow morning I will be hoppin' a plane to Washington, DC - I am volunteering as a bone marrow courier and have to return some cells on Monday from Annandale, Virginia. This will give me a little time tomorrow to do something touristy in our nation's capital, and then have a nice and enjoyable dinner with my friend Sarah. I hear it is cold there too, probably not as bad, they are a wee bit more south.

Amigos, this very tired host and competitor must go hit the hay now. I will speak to you again next week, when the toss up is between going up to New Hampshire and (most likely and long planned) the home project weekend, the hallway will just not paint itself (as I had secretly hoped).

All my love,

pet:)

#33 Boston - Just Like Jesus, Only on a Farm - Jan 19 2007

Amazingly enough, when I said "Just like Jesus, only on a farm", my wonderful team mates at the Franconia Game Night Spectacle guessed the right word - "scarecrow", "the end of the choochoo" was correctly identified as the caboose, and even my most cryptic explanation for insomnia ("what some people cannot do during the dark hours") was detected by the word sleuths in my group. Hysterical best describes it - after a rousing game of "Celebrity" during which quite serious challenges were met (you try to act out Chelsea Clinton or better yet, Gregor Mendel), we zipped through a few rounds of Taboo - right off the bat an honorable mention must go to our Austrian friend Bernie the Biker, whose explanatory skills for someone who has lived in the US for six months were nothing shy of impressive.

By now you have probably (hopefully) explored my Franconia photo album from this past weekend - a whole bevy of outdoor enthusiasts piled into cars and headed up to Northern New Hampshire for the holiday weekend. We were hoping for snow up there, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, in a series of bone chilling cold days one could assume that she is out for revenge these days - I just returned from a 3-mile jog in 15 degree weather and compared to what we had to endure this past week, 15 feels good. Really good.

Our first hike up in New Hampshire took us the northern slopes of the White Mountains, in particular the area around Randolph - chockfull of hiking opportunities and home of the Randolph Mountain Club (http://www.randolphmountainclub.org/) - next to the Appalachian Mountain Club a key resource for hikers and outdoorsy types. The RMC has been around since 1910 and is a pretty cool group. Check it out.

We had picked as our first hike the Appalachia Waterfalls Loop, a fantastic outing, which took us past several waterfalls, made us negotiate ice and water, slippery rocks across streams and finally stopped us cold with a series of icy ascents that we decided not to navigate that day. Rick, Phoebe (the dog), Ulandt, Pauline, Emily, John, Karen, Boot, Bernie and myself had a wonderful time, and the landscape varied from wintery-dry to icy-slick to snowy. Boot provided the appropriate botany lessons and definitely found a new kindred spirit in John. Along with Rick they frequently wandered off to admire yet another spruce or fir tree, or alert the group to a herbal rarity along the way. Cold Brook Falls, Tama Fall, Salroc Falls, and Gordon Falls were among the waterfalls we visited, with Gordon winning the award for the waterfall that inspired the most antics by members of the hiking group (including a fantastic performance by a very limber Pauline, who finagled her way over sheer ice to get to the top of the waterfall).

Sunday, a majority of us headed toward the Mt Moosilauke area to hike up Tunnel Brook Trail, which after about 2.7 miles leads to a beaver pond and some first views of the north slopes of the mountain. We did not get quite that far, mostly because we stopped for a lot of botanical inquiries, and also because there were quite a few rivers to cross. In some cases we had to become beavers ourselves - so as to not get wet feet followed by excruciating frost bite, we dragged trees out of the woods and lodged them across the streams. Loads of fun that was, the more adventurous, the better. Of course, the best thing about the Sunday hike was, we had snow, and tons of it. The white stuff had started to come down early Sunday morning, and I was annoyingly excited as you may have guessed. We had lunch sitting on tree trunks, surrounded by trees, snow and not much else - simply enjoyable.

The snow did provide its challenges, and as we drove toward the trailhead on a downhill section, the fresh snow and underlying ice cover made poor Ella slip all over the place. I have to pat myself on the shoulder here for once, since my Mario Andretti style stunt driving prevented us from crashing into first Boot's car and then another vehicle, and once we were on flatter grounds, my car mates did tell me that they appreciated this very much. Counterintuitive to not step on your breaks, but it did the trick! Apparently this message has not gotten out there to everyone, as we saw during our very gingerly drive home - an SUV who had apparently done the opposite was leaning upside down against a pine tree alongside the road. Fortunately no one was hurt. Upon our return home we were welcomed by Ulandt, Pauline and Bernie who had chosen to do snow jogging that day (it was a good day for it) and then turn into the puzzle brigade, almost completing a 1000-piece work of art and feeling darn proud for it.

Monday, which was Martin Luther Kg Jr Holiday, saw a much smaller group of us still up there, as some of our friends had to return home Sunday night. Rick, Karen, Boot and myself opted to go for the local favorite, the Coppermine Trail and Bridal Veil Falls, however due to the continuing snow, I decided to go along only for half of the way (up to the Bette Davis Plaque) and then head home. The drive was challenging at time, but I did make it home much sooner than I thought and with a little time left to settle into being back. This had been such an enjoyable and relaxing weekend, the evenings were filled with laughter, great food and very pleasant company.

It has been crazy ever since here in the Boston area, mainly because work has been quite demanding. I am organizing pipeline presentations by biotech and pharma companies, and currently it seems like a revolving door with at least one of them per week. Very rewarding work, but tons of logistics to take care of and a little hustle here or there. The weekend could not come soon enough, and boy, it went just as quickly. Friday night was dinner group at Irene's place in Melrose (very tasty, especially the half cheesecake I ate). Yesterday, I was at it again, hiking of course (what did you think? Stunt Driving?). Rick, Boot, Stephanie and I headed for one of my favorite destinations near Boston, the Middlesex Fells, a 2200-acre natural area perfectly suited for running, hiking and mountain biking (http://www.fells.org/). It was fabulous, a bit windy at times, and for about five minutes we saw snow flakes, blue skies mostly though. The terrain was tricky at times, and of course, yours truly took a little spill because she was so focused on identifying plants and trees that she forgot to look at her feet and where they were going. I got a couple of nice bruises to show for it and my arms feel a little sore, but overall no major injuries.

Today is puttering-around day, and it is amazing how many errands one can come up with. I am not even close to doing all the chores I wanted to do, but there you go. Can't do it all, must prioritize. Which is what I am doing right now - Elaine is waiting for me with a home cooked stew, and the NFL playoffs are about to commence. Go Pats!! (No, I know this is not an errand.)

Until next week.

pet:)

#32 Boston - Too Tired to Eat - Jan 12

Community Running my foot - community torture was more like it. On the recommendations of my very athletic friends Ana, Ken and Camille your truly attended a trial run Monday night at the Boston Community Running track workout, looking for a much needed kick in the pants in order to improve my skills when it comes to fast feet. The evening started innocently enough with a 1.5 mile warm-up jaunt where everyone zips at more or less fast-ish speed around the MIT campus. After sweating it out a little, everyone headed upstairs to the track. There are two groups - the "insanely fast" (Brian's Group) and "the slugs" (Amy's Group) - I joined the latter of course and when our coach told us we would run 12 x 400s, I thought "No problem! I can run 12 laps, big deal!" Hah! Turns out each lap was only 200 meters, which meant we had to circle the darn thing 24 times. The goal was to learn to pace yourself for 10 Ks, 5Ks and 3Ks, and I personally have no clue as to how to do that.

I went wayyyy to fast in the first 10 400s with the result that for laps 11 and 12 I was seriously sucking wind. Not only that - my friend Ana (who did this the right way and got faster as the evening went on), passed me twice, which put a serious dent in my extremely competitive nature...

I don't know how I got home -somehow I did stumble through the streets of Cambridge and once I was home, I took an even more serious nose dive. I was literally too tired to eat and the only effort my exhausted body and mind could come up with to pour boiling water over a broth cube and supplement with crackers. Coma would have been an adequate description of the state I found myself in, but you know what - I was happy. It did feel good to push myself a bit beyond what I felt I was capable off. As I said - the right kick in the pants. Stay tuned for future speed updates.

Currently I am engaged in quite the opposite activity – lounging on the couch of Rick’s home in Franconia, New Hampshire. No snow outside, but apparently we are expecting some white stuff tomorrow. They better! On the way up here there were just a few hints of snow and ice, so not all is lost.
The week has finally shown some signs of winter, meaning bone-chilling cold weather, in particular on Wednesday when Chris and I were the only courageous joggers from the Running Partners contingent to brave the 20 degree weather. Poor Chris had only brought shorts, but as he himself stated “that’s no excuse!”

What else happened? Hopefully you enjoyed the pictures from Mt Auburn Cemetery where Elaine and I did our annual January Winter Walk – it was simply a gorgeous day, a bit cooler than the day before (T-shirt weather, 69 degrees), but still in the late-summer/ fall category. Mt Auburn Cemetery spans 175 acres and has as its claim to fame that it was America’s first landscaped or garden-like cemetery - http://www.mountauburn.org/ - dating back to 1831. It also is known as a prime bird watching area, and the last time when Rick and I were there we had spotted a red tailed hawk. This time there were no birds in sight! Dirty little buggers probably had some kind of fun in the bushes. The cemetery is littered with architectural gems, including its earliest building, an Egyptian Revival Gateway dating back to 1832, the Bigelow Chapel (1840s Gothic Revival Style) and the Washington Tower which provided us with a fabulous view of Boston. Lots of VIPs are laid to rest here as well, including famous Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, visionary Buckminster Fuller, abolitionist and US Senator Charles Sumner, and of course, Boston’s grand dame of art patronage, Isabella Stewart Gardner.

To throw in a little culture – ushering duty this week led me to the Lyric Stage Company and Michael John Lachiusa’s “See What I Wanna See”. Short Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in a sort of a jazzy musical setting. Part one was an adaptation of “In the Grove”, same as Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film “Rashomon” – despite my love for the master director’s movie, not my favorite story – and part two, “Gloryday”, the story of a scorned priest, who loses his faith after September 11th. In his bitterness he tries to expose the blind faith people show in God by promising a miracle in Central Park, only to be the only one experiencing the miracle whereas everyone else truly believes him to be a delusional liar. The audience loved it, I did not.

That pretty much sums up the week – work was busy in a good way, I did watch some nice movies (newest discovery: “Folye’s War” – wonderful British series) and life was mostly good. Have a good weekend my friends, enjoy the snow if you have some and make a snow angel for me!

Love,

Pet:)

Just a brief, but sad note at the end, one of my favorite photographers and mountaineers, Bradford Washburn (who also was the founder of the Museum of Science in Boston) passed away – the world has lost of most wonderful human being. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_Washburn

#31 Boston - 69 - Jan 6 2007

69 degrees and I am not talking degrees of separation! 69 Degrees Fahrenheit (20.5 Celsius), my friends! Forget about Christmas in April, how about surfin’ in January. Global Warming, El Nino my foot – I want winter, I want snow!! The cherry blossoms are out in the DC area I hear and the bees are having a field day with the honeysuckle blossoms at the Arnold Arboretum - this is not normal. There is no end to the warm spell in sight, I have narcissus flowering on my kitchen window. I am just hoping that next weekend up in New Hampshire there is some kind of wintry redemption and I can at least use the snow shoes or ski down the slopes of fake snow. Somethin! ANYTHING!

The Indian Summer-like conditions of course do invite outdoorsy folks like me to head out into the woods, and my friend and colleague Jane and I had to take a little walk at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, a wonderful little spot on this warm Earth. It was established in 1947, covers quite a sizeable area (3600 acres, I believe) and is a prime bird watching spot. Migratory birds stop here to nest, rest and feed on a little somethin’ somethin’. The wetlands around the Sudbury and Concord Rivers are a wonderful sight, hikers were out in full force, and a couple of resident swans were admired by all.

This morning you could have not guessed that it would turn into such a nice and amenable day – despite the warm weather, it drizzled its way through the early part of the weekend. My friend Ana and I were not deterred though, and embarked on our planned 4-mile run through Winthrop, a community slightly north of Boston, with some wonderful views (in particular of Logan Airport, which is one of my strange but guilty pleasures – I am fascinated by shipping harbors and airports – don’t ask…). The run was followed by some serious blueberry “bear” pancakes made by Ana’s husband Robert, and the monkey girls Audrey and Beatriz made sure there were no blueberries left. Yummm!

I am now at home ready for my date with Billy Petersen – yes, Season 2 of CSI has arrived and there are some crimes to be solved. I am still munching on leftover cookies, and if I continue like this I will have to go running again tomorrow.

It has been a short week with the holiday this past weekend, which is kinda nice. Last weekend -New Year’s Eve – well, let me be honest – it sucked! Big time. Partly my fault, because I could not make up my mind on what to do. So I headed into town at some point hoping to combine NY Eve activities with a little shopping. The two places where I wanted to spend my gift cards were closed of course, so I headed for Boylston Street for the New Year’s Eve parade. Tons of people, and quite a few of them rude. For some odd reason, myself and a few other sorry souls stood exactly in a spot where the “street crossers” (for lack of a better word) kept coming through. At some point, there was really no way for me to move, which did not keep some very determined individual (should I say pinhead?) to push his way through anyway. Not only that, the dunce (who was about three times my size, else this would not have not happened) picked me up, and put me to the side like a piece of discarded furniture. Rude is an understatement. What is even more appalling – the boob’s wife was standing right next to him, and did not say a word. Should have tripped her, stupid cow!!

Anyway, getting away from the anger……. Going to the Happy Place….. The parade was ok, a little short, and the motto for the evening seemed to have been a combo of nature stuff and extraterrestrials. Not quite sure what the City of Boston was trying to tell us. Hmmmh, we’ll have to think about that one for a bit.

So, after that successful part of the evening, I headed to the Public Garden and the Boston Common – not easy to get there, as the extraterrestrials followed by some Chinese dragons were trying to pile in there as well, but I did make it. I wanted to check out the Iron Guild (http://ironguild.net/) – old radiators are melted down for the project “Ferrocity” and cast as iron panels. As they cool down they get assembled – the shapes of the panels reflect a map of the City of Boston in the year 1776. I have to say I did expect a giant iron furnace that would make Peter Jackson proud, but I had overestimated the size of the whole operation. Still, a pretty cool endeavor. Well, and that pretty much wrapped up the excitement for the evening. I wanted to check out some of the ice sculptures that are usually in the Common, but because of the subtropical temps around here, most of them never made it. I think there were only three overall, and a plastic placeholder just ain’t the same. Ironically, it was pretty nippy that night, and after my toes started complaining that they were heading for frostbite, I trudged home, passed out on the couch and went to bed at 11 PM. Happy New Year!

New Year’s Day, despite an all day rain-fest, was actually pretty nice – I went to my boss’ house, where the Chabner’s annual New Year’s Brunch was in full swing. It is always such a lovely event, the house is packed with people; Lilly the dog sleeps on the couch; Owen, dog number two is hoovering the floors, and on occasion steals a bagel of the plate of someone who is not paying attention; the kids are having a field day downstairs in the playroom. I had such a fabulous time, Bruce and Davi almost had to kick me out (just kidding, I was not the last person by a long shot…).

What else? Running Group on Wednesday and volunteering at the MSPCA with the critters on Thursday - an almost ordinary week. The New Year has started off slowly so far at work, but my schedule is filling up quickly. The first half of the year will be a busy one – three conferences (Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Chicago) have been scheduled and my first trip (Feb 28 to Germany and Holland) is looming on the horizon.

Wishing all of you again a Happy New Year – may it be full of adventure and fun, new friendships, lots of love, and most of all, tons of laugher!

PetJ