#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