#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:)