#43 Boston - Appliance Honeymoon - April 1 07
It was a week of improvements, or pending improvements that is, at 10 6th Street in Cambridge. The biggest news of them all, I got a new washing machine!! The old one, for those of you who have memories like elephants, broke after doing two measly loads when I moved in last March. I’ll replace it soon, I figured, and use the Laundromat on the corner instead, just for a short while. Hmmmh, yeah right, that happened. Last week (and don’t ask me what was different the other 52 weeks before) I just marched into Sears and got myself one. Didn’t hurt a bit. Getting it down my extremely narrow staircase did though, and despite the delivery guys’ best efforts, it did get some dings in its shiny new armor. A $30 discount later and some touch up paint, I am a happy customer (Go Sears!), and have to prevent myself from running around the house, looking at things I could possibly wash in my brand spankin’ new appliance. It’s like appliance honeymoon in here, and if I don’t pull myself together, I might just go down to the basement right now and look at the new toy. Make sure it’s still there, just checking…. Thanks to all of my friends at whose residences I have visited this past year under the pretense of spending time with you, just to show up with a pile of dirty laundry. Pathetic, isn’t it? If your washing machines ever brake, come on over, I have enormous debts to repay.
Further on the home improvement front, Camille, who owns the upstairs part of the house, and I headed to the local carpet emporium and did us some shopping. The staircase in the common hallway has a carpet that is literally beyond description, and even Stanley Steamer would cry Uncle upon that unsightly floor cover. This coming Friday the carpet men will show and fix it all up nicely and then comes my job of making the wood floor all nice and sparkly. Pretty soon this will look like a decent house, I say. This summer it will be painted from the outside, and we’ll be the snazziest place in the hood.
The week has been a pleasant one, for once work did not overwhelm, and my friend Michelle stopped by one more night on her way back to California. I had to of course, introduce her to the fine Cambridge cuisine of the S&S Restaurant - as you know a true Cambridge institution (http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/ ). Their matzo ball soup is just too good not to go back for. Aside from that dinner outing all yours truly did this week was running, running and running.
The “Week of Athleticism” started out on Monday at Community Running with “Track Bingo”, a most vicious game concocted by our coaches Brian and Amy. Every runner in the group gets a sheet filled with thirty squares, each square containing a running time for a 200-meter lap on the indoor track. We were not allowed to consult our own watches, but had to run on our own assessment on how fast we were. Every time we crossed the finish line, the coach-certified running time was checked off in one of the squares. If your running time for a particular loop was not on there, tough shit. Try again. Winners were determined by whoever scored first “five-in-a-row”, a cross and whoever completed the whole sheet. Needless to say I did not win any of the contests, and at the end, when I had five squares to check off, but always fell a second or two short of my desired running time, started give my coach Amy the evil eye. Not that it helped. All in all we ran about 30 loops (after the warm-up) and it was time to go straight home, shower and start the post-practice couch session immediately.
Wednesday night I headed out for a run with my friend Jennifer (who also works at the MGH Cancer Center) – she just signed up for her first marathon (Chicago in October) and I will accompany her on some of the shorter runs. Jennifer is a remarkable person, who had her first kidney transplant when she was 13, her second kidney transplant and a bone marrow transplant in 2000 and is now ready to run her first marathon!! Thursday night my colleague Jeannine and I were the only brave souls of the Running Partners contingent to go out along the Charles River for a 3-mile jaunt. Saturday 8:30 AM – next running activity – Community Running had scheduled one of their fun runs to get to know Jamaica Plain, also known as JP, one of Boston’s most colorful and historic neighborhoods, Boston’s own little melting pot so to speak. For us runners, JP means good running trails, lots of green there, part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of green zones meandering its way through the Boston area. In the 19th century it was actually referred to as the “Eden of America”, Wikipedia says. The Emerald Necklace park system was designed by our old friend Frederic Olmsted, who was also responsible for the Arnold Arboretum, a wonderful botanical garden I have told you about previously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Necklace
The jewels on the necklace include the Boston Common, Boston Public Garden, Comm Ave Mall, Back Bay Fens, The Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond Park, the Jamaicaway, the Arnold Arboretum, The Arborway and Franklin Park, which is where we started our little outing on Saturday. There were different routes for every runner’s taste, and Maureen and I chose the 5K option as we both wanted to take it easy and also be first in line for the chair massages and pastries that were promised post run. It was a glorious day to run and chat, and the pastries were not too shabby either.
The running endeavors concluded today with a road race, of course, what else did you expect? I was not quite sure how I would fare in the Michael Dunleavy 5 K in Winchester, my legs felt a little tired, but you know what, I had signed up, so off I went. Let me tell you, this was a tough 5K mostly because the last mile or more was seriously uphill, my head resembled a tomato, my lungs wanted to jump out of my body and I thought there is no way I can do this. I actually walked two of the hills, and you know what, I still ran a PR (personal record for the non-runners among my friends)!! 26:55 overall running time with a pace of 8:39 min/mile (5:23 min/kilometer). I was so excited!! I am inching my way toward the 8:30 barrier that I wanted to break this year, let’s see what we can do on a flat surface, eh? Thanks to my friend Elaine who “proteined” me up with some nice roast beef after the competition and for Jennifer who ran the race with me and provided a serious incentive to keep up the pace. Michael Dunleavy, who gives the race its name, was a charming 8-year old boy who suffered from a rare brain cancer, and passed away in October of 2002. The Michael Dunleavy Foundation now raises funds for research on childhood and brain cancers. http://www.michaeldunleavy.com/index.htm
Hah, almost forgot the most important thing this week – SNOW PATROL CONCERT!! ( http://www.snowpatrol.com/ ) My boys were in town, and I was super excited. 6300 people squeezed into Boston University’s Agganis Arena to see their band of choice. Actually, it was quite some time until we saw the Patrol, as they had two opening acts (see Renee, I can do it….) – the Silversun Pickups (apparently they are known as “sspu”) – sort of a punkish Indie rock band, not my style, and OK Go – definitely more my style, a Chicago-bred band, which dazzled with their geeky outfits, fun and spunky music and according to lead singer Damian Kulash, the “best f…..ing videos ever”. http://www.okgo.net/news.aspx - check out “Do What you Want” or “Get Over it” - cool tunes. The Eskimos came on at about 9:30 PM, kinda late I must say, but they did play a decent 1 hr 45 minute set, with the most awesome light show ever! Just excellent! The sound, as one expects in an arena setting, left something to desired, and I did not leave the concert with the same over the top feeling as I did during the previous two concerts at the Avalon and the Pavilion. Lead singer Gary Lightbody (yes, that is his name) is still easy on the eyes, I remain a huge fan, love their music more and more, bought a nicely tight fitting Snow Patrol tee for an indecent amount of money, and look forward to “Signal Fire”, a single they wrote for the next Spiderman movie.
My friends, listen to some music, shut your eyes and sing to me!!!
Love,
Pet:)
Further on the home improvement front, Camille, who owns the upstairs part of the house, and I headed to the local carpet emporium and did us some shopping. The staircase in the common hallway has a carpet that is literally beyond description, and even Stanley Steamer would cry Uncle upon that unsightly floor cover. This coming Friday the carpet men will show and fix it all up nicely and then comes my job of making the wood floor all nice and sparkly. Pretty soon this will look like a decent house, I say. This summer it will be painted from the outside, and we’ll be the snazziest place in the hood.
The week has been a pleasant one, for once work did not overwhelm, and my friend Michelle stopped by one more night on her way back to California. I had to of course, introduce her to the fine Cambridge cuisine of the S&S Restaurant - as you know a true Cambridge institution (http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/ ). Their matzo ball soup is just too good not to go back for. Aside from that dinner outing all yours truly did this week was running, running and running.
The “Week of Athleticism” started out on Monday at Community Running with “Track Bingo”, a most vicious game concocted by our coaches Brian and Amy. Every runner in the group gets a sheet filled with thirty squares, each square containing a running time for a 200-meter lap on the indoor track. We were not allowed to consult our own watches, but had to run on our own assessment on how fast we were. Every time we crossed the finish line, the coach-certified running time was checked off in one of the squares. If your running time for a particular loop was not on there, tough shit. Try again. Winners were determined by whoever scored first “five-in-a-row”, a cross and whoever completed the whole sheet. Needless to say I did not win any of the contests, and at the end, when I had five squares to check off, but always fell a second or two short of my desired running time, started give my coach Amy the evil eye. Not that it helped. All in all we ran about 30 loops (after the warm-up) and it was time to go straight home, shower and start the post-practice couch session immediately.
Wednesday night I headed out for a run with my friend Jennifer (who also works at the MGH Cancer Center) – she just signed up for her first marathon (Chicago in October) and I will accompany her on some of the shorter runs. Jennifer is a remarkable person, who had her first kidney transplant when she was 13, her second kidney transplant and a bone marrow transplant in 2000 and is now ready to run her first marathon!! Thursday night my colleague Jeannine and I were the only brave souls of the Running Partners contingent to go out along the Charles River for a 3-mile jaunt. Saturday 8:30 AM – next running activity – Community Running had scheduled one of their fun runs to get to know Jamaica Plain, also known as JP, one of Boston’s most colorful and historic neighborhoods, Boston’s own little melting pot so to speak. For us runners, JP means good running trails, lots of green there, part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of green zones meandering its way through the Boston area. In the 19th century it was actually referred to as the “Eden of America”, Wikipedia says. The Emerald Necklace park system was designed by our old friend Frederic Olmsted, who was also responsible for the Arnold Arboretum, a wonderful botanical garden I have told you about previously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Necklace
The jewels on the necklace include the Boston Common, Boston Public Garden, Comm Ave Mall, Back Bay Fens, The Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond Park, the Jamaicaway, the Arnold Arboretum, The Arborway and Franklin Park, which is where we started our little outing on Saturday. There were different routes for every runner’s taste, and Maureen and I chose the 5K option as we both wanted to take it easy and also be first in line for the chair massages and pastries that were promised post run. It was a glorious day to run and chat, and the pastries were not too shabby either.
The running endeavors concluded today with a road race, of course, what else did you expect? I was not quite sure how I would fare in the Michael Dunleavy 5 K in Winchester, my legs felt a little tired, but you know what, I had signed up, so off I went. Let me tell you, this was a tough 5K mostly because the last mile or more was seriously uphill, my head resembled a tomato, my lungs wanted to jump out of my body and I thought there is no way I can do this. I actually walked two of the hills, and you know what, I still ran a PR (personal record for the non-runners among my friends)!! 26:55 overall running time with a pace of 8:39 min/mile (5:23 min/kilometer). I was so excited!! I am inching my way toward the 8:30 barrier that I wanted to break this year, let’s see what we can do on a flat surface, eh? Thanks to my friend Elaine who “proteined” me up with some nice roast beef after the competition and for Jennifer who ran the race with me and provided a serious incentive to keep up the pace. Michael Dunleavy, who gives the race its name, was a charming 8-year old boy who suffered from a rare brain cancer, and passed away in October of 2002. The Michael Dunleavy Foundation now raises funds for research on childhood and brain cancers. http://www.michaeldunleavy.com/index.htm
Hah, almost forgot the most important thing this week – SNOW PATROL CONCERT!! ( http://www.snowpatrol.com/ ) My boys were in town, and I was super excited. 6300 people squeezed into Boston University’s Agganis Arena to see their band of choice. Actually, it was quite some time until we saw the Patrol, as they had two opening acts (see Renee, I can do it….) – the Silversun Pickups (apparently they are known as “sspu”) – sort of a punkish Indie rock band, not my style, and OK Go – definitely more my style, a Chicago-bred band, which dazzled with their geeky outfits, fun and spunky music and according to lead singer Damian Kulash, the “best f…..ing videos ever”. http://www.okgo.net/news.aspx - check out “Do What you Want” or “Get Over it” - cool tunes. The Eskimos came on at about 9:30 PM, kinda late I must say, but they did play a decent 1 hr 45 minute set, with the most awesome light show ever! Just excellent! The sound, as one expects in an arena setting, left something to desired, and I did not leave the concert with the same over the top feeling as I did during the previous two concerts at the Avalon and the Pavilion. Lead singer Gary Lightbody (yes, that is his name) is still easy on the eyes, I remain a huge fan, love their music more and more, bought a nicely tight fitting Snow Patrol tee for an indecent amount of money, and look forward to “Signal Fire”, a single they wrote for the next Spiderman movie.
My friends, listen to some music, shut your eyes and sing to me!!!
Love,
Pet:)
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