#50 Boston - A Tour of the Squares - May 19 07

Squares we have many in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they are omnipresent, as a matter of fact every street corner in my neighborhood has one, and often there are two squares per intersection on opposite sides of the street; most of them are named after World War II veterans, and I have yet to find one that does not have this distinction. The Tour of the Squares, a Community Running event everyone was looking forward to, hosted by a certain Ms Petra Loesch at 10 6th Street in Cambridge, ignored the myriad of small squares and focused on the main landmarks – Kendall, Central, Inman, Harvard, Porter, and Davis Square. My fellow runners started out bright and early at Casa Petra and with more or less correct maps were invited to “get to know Cambridge” the athletic way. The tour of “The City of Squares” reached its farthest point at Fresh Pond, a reservoir and park area in North Cambridge with a lovely 2-mile loop for runners to enjoy. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Fresh+Pond&gbv=2) Finishers (and I do believe I accounted for all participants) were treated to a pile of bagels and other breakfast items at the yellow house on 6th Street, the mood was elevated by sufficient levels of caffeine and carbs, and Lei’s demonstration of stretching on a foam roller delighted all guests and should be counted as the highlight of the morning.

I’ll have to throw in a few tidbits about the squares of this lovely town of mine – Central Square for example is the seat of our local government, Cambridge City Hall, boasts a wonderful mix of restaurants, and a slew of music venues, including TT The Bear’s, a tiny hovel of a club which on occasion does feature class acts. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were its most famous residents, and so was John Forbes Nash, who was depicted in the movie “A Beautiful Mind” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash). Kendall Square equals MIT, and of course a whole batch of biotech companies, which seem to be sprouting there like mushrooms after a spring rain. One of my favorite movie theaters, the Kendall, is in the neighborhood, just a ten-minute walk from my house.

Inman Square, another 10 minute walk from that little house of mine, in a slightly different direction, is probably my favorite of the squares, tons of ethnic restaurants, in particular Brazilian and Portuguese, cool stores, Christina’s ice cream (and Christina’s spice shop next door), the S&S deli, Riles Jazz Club, Rosie’s Bakery….. The square (http://www.inmansquare.com/) was named after 18th century “gentleman of fortune and Boston merchant” (Wikipedia) Ralph Inman. Apparently young Ralph did quite well in business and owned himself a little mansion in Cambridge along with other well-to-do families such as the Brattles. Improv Boston, a comedy club and Boston Institution, is located right near Inman; and what is now Ole, a Mexican restaurant that does serve a killer guacamole, was once the Ding Ho restaurant, where many now famous stand-up acts such as Jimmy Tingle and Bobcat Goldthwaite earned their comedic chops.

Davis Square is in Somerville, but ranks next to Inman as one of my favorites, again, same MO – oodles of restaurants, ethnic or not, comedy clubs (Jimmy Tingle) and of course, my favorite Irish pub in Boston, The Burren – the Guinness Beef Stew there is just number one on my list of local pub grub. No contest. The Somerville Theater features concerts and offbeat movies, including Boston’s Independent Film Festival each year. As I was checking out the list of notable Somerville residents on Wikipedia, I had to giggle – not just because I did not recognize anyone, but because of the eclectic group of VIPs listed: Alex Rocco (Actor/Gangster), Archibald Query (the inventor of Marshmallow Fluff), James “Buddy” McLean (Gangster), Bobby “Boris” Picket (Composer of “Monster Mash”), Leonard Tower Jr (Software Hacker) and my favorite Thomas “Tommy Somerville” Hardy (Beer Drinker, Story Teller). Actually, I just discovered that football Hall of Famer Howie Long is from Somerville, so I do recognize someone from the list after all.

Harvard Square trumps with history, famous residents and performers such as Tracy Chapman, who was known to give street performances during her college years at Tufts University. You may have recognized parts of the square in the movie “Good Will Hunting”; a quick hop across the street gets you to Harvard Yard, the historic Harvard campus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Yard. If you like NPR’s “Car Talk” radio show with Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers, look no further, the show’s office is right here, with a plaque on the wall for Dewey, Cheatham and Howe – the not-so-real law firm often mentioned by hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi. The address given for the show’s famous “Puzzler” notes the square – Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Harvard Square, Cambridge (our fair city), MA 02138 (and that folks is the correct zip code!).

Enough Cambridge Trivia for today – what is up in Boston? Mother Nature has done a 180 turnaround and brought winter back for a while. It has been raining most of the week, miserable weather, cold with temperatures in the 40s and I swear this is true, I was wearing my winter coat yesterday. Thursday night, when I headed out for a quick 7-mile run, I was wearing a wool hat – we are heading into June and I have the heater blaring. Unbelievable!!!

What else to do but cultural activities, starting off with an advance screening of “Shrek - The Third” this past Wednesday, courtesy of my friend Chris Gibbs, who scored a couple of tickets and whose kindness of asking me along deserved some tasty Mexican food at “Fajitas and Ritas” prior to the big event.
Friday night, again food and culture – this time starting off at Jacob Wirth’s in Boston (http://www.jacobwirth.com/ ), a Bavarian-style dining hall, with good German beer, German food, and a waitress that did not understand my German pronunciation of the beer order. Jacob Wirth’s is a hoot, in particular Friday nights, when starting at 9 PM our friend Mel Stiller hits the keys on his piano, and the whole restaurant, armed with songbooks, starts a sing-along that lasts well past midnight. Renee, Jennifer and I could not wait that long (this would have led to an excessive consumption of beer as you may imagine), as the Boston Ballet awaited our attendance – Giselle, a 19th century story ballet, about a love-sick young woman, who dies after she discovers that the handsome prince she fell for was two-timing her. In the second part of the story, which plays in the woods near the grave, she re-appears to the grieve-struck young man. You see our dead little Giselle is now a Wili, which are ghosts of engaged women who die before their wedding day. They are kind of a tough gang, and their ringleader, Myrtha, wants to do away with poor prince Albrecht by making him dance until he drops. Giselle, being a tad more forgiving, drags the whole process out so that Albrecht can survive until sunrise, then the Wilis, being creatures of the night, return to their graves. Poor Albrecht now is among the living, suffering in the knowledge that even though Giselle still loves him and has forgiven him, he can never be with her. Tough luck, eh? The performance of the Boston Ballet was simply spectacular, the stage setting alternated between a Breugel-like painting dipped in fall colors in the first half, to a mysterious, ethereal setting in the second – what a simply wonderful evening!!

Time to go out for a quick run, it is not raining right now, and one has to make use of every rain-free second here. A little exercise will do me good, somehow the combo of two beers and champagne last night may have slowed me down a bit today.

Have a nice weekend my friends, stay dry!

Pet:)

#49 Boston - Earlier at the Bar - May 13 07

It was one of those weeks, where I simply decided to cut back a bit, and let tiredness get the better of me – so I canceled a few activities, mostly my running practices. I just did not want to drag my sorry butt down to the track, so simple. Monday the couch seemed much more appealing than anything else and Wednesday some questionable Chinese food did the trick and put me to bed early.

Of the events I did attend (don’t worry, there are still plenty left), the award for highlight of the week must go to my wonderfully literary cousin Rebecca, who just published her first book (“Later at the Bar”) and invited all her friends and local-based family to meet earlier at the bar for a little reading. The joint of choice was “The Public House” in Brookline (http://www.thepublickhousebrookline.com/) – a Mecca for Boston beer aficionados featuring some very delectable pub grub – and I must say their selection of beers made me quite dizzy (or it could have been the two cold ones I downed on my empty stomach). I could not make up my mind and just ordered the first beer on the menu, which was some Belgian beverage of sorts, which of course went straight to my head, so I must apologize to my friends if I talked a bit too fast or was more opinionated than usual. Anyway, quite a crowd had gathered to hear Rebecca read; it was nice to see everyone, meet family, friends, and friends of friends. You must promise me to read her book, which is a novel composed of stories, all centering around a bar in upstate New York and the lives of those who flock there for various reasons. Here is what I like about it. You have been there, we all have. The local bar at the corner, the favorite haunt, where you are known and where your life touches upon others – it offers alcohol-induced compassion from strangers just when you need it and no one else in the world would understand, provides a temporary social crutch near a new home; and to some may just be the center of their universe. Rebecca’s writing style is very accessible, with a wicked sense of humor thrown in at the appropriate places, and the book welcomes you in just as the bar would. Bottom Line for you, my friends: Extraordinary book. Buy it. Read it.

I haven’t told you about the Colin Hay concert and the day in the Berkshires yet, have I? OK, so we have to back up a bit. Sunday, Rick, Denise and I hopped in the car and drove out to the Berkshires (actually Denise and I hopped and Rick drove), a most beautiful area of foothills and mountains located in Western Massachusetts – perfect for the outdoorsy kind such as we are (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Berkshires&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2) . Some of its trails are part of the most famous Appalachian Trail; there are wilderness parks galore, one can canoe, kayak, hike and even get a little culture – The Boston Symphony Orchestra has its summer home in Tanglewood (http://www.tanglewood.org/bso), there are numerous music festivals and a series of smaller clubs. Its highest mountain is Mt Greylock at 3491 ft (1064 m) at and Bash Bish Falls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_Bish_Falls ), with 200 meters is Massachusetts’ highest waterfall. Our destination was Monument Mountain near Great Barrington (http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/monument_mountain.html) – featuring beautiful views and a couple of cool stories. Did you know that Monument Mountain is where Hermann Melville got the idea for Moby Dick? Ha! Apparently young Hermann grew up there and after a stint in the navy decided to move back to his beloved Berkshires, write books and such. From what I was told he was actually a fairly upbeat writer in his early years, but that changed quickly once he met our morose little friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. The two of them headed up the mountain one day for a picnic of sorts (don’t ask), got stuck in a thunderstorm, had to hide in a cave at a place called “Devil’s Pulpit” and apparently Nate filled Hermann’s head with all kinds of ideas about sea adventures and such. Plus Mt Greylock reminded Melville of a whale, so there you go. We even managed to actually by Melville’s house later in the day drive (it really was by accident), which is easily recognizable as it has of course a sign with a whale on it.

Story #2 has to do with American romantic poet William Cullen Bryant, who stayed in the area sometime in the 19th century and came up with the name “Monument Mountain” – it stems from a poem of his who tells the story of a love sick Mohican maiden who had the hots for her cousin, and since that was a big no-no, she leapt off a cliff. There is a monument where she is supposedly buried (her remains were never found even by grave robbers who tried quite hard), hence the name. We could not even find the monument, but we’ll trust it is somewhere around there.

We had a nice coffee break at Uncommon Grounds in Great Barrington before being chased up another hill by Rick’s uncle John, who was definitely giving us a run for our money – but the views from Lenox Mountain in Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary were definitely worth it. (http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Pleasant_Valley/index.php). I forgot my camera, so all I can give you are some written memories and Web links, so you have to do a little work yourself.

Colin Hay, former front man of the group “Men at Work” played at the Club Helsinki (http://www.clubhelsinkiweb.com/) in Great Barrington (which is a very quaint touristy little hamlet), and after an initial few disconcerting moments, during which we were not sure if there was a place to sit (“I paid 45-freaking dollars for a ticket, and you tell me there is standing room only?”) of if we would get food, we found some chairs, ate some Finnish-inspired food with plates on our laps – so it all ended well,. Colin Hay, my friends, was phenomenal, and this was one of the best club concerts I have ever seen. Armed just with a couple of acoustic guitars, his trademark voice and only occasionally supported by his wife and saucy singer Celia Noel (http://www.colinhay.com/), he was simply wonderful. In between songs he entertained the crowd with a dry-witted stand-up routine about his life and its ups and downs that had all of us rolling on the floor (“Remember the song “Who could it be now? We were so stoned when we wrote it, the original version was 4 ½ hours long”). He has been busy continuing to make music throughout the years, but his song “I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you” on the soundtrack of Zach Braff’s indie hit “Garden State” reminded us why he is such a great songwriter. My favorite song of his (and the Men at Work) is and still remains “Overkill” – just a marvelous tune.

Moving on, Thursday night, Lyric Stage Company – ushering duty to see Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” which apparently was his first commercial success. Quite a wonderful comedic story which takes place in Bulgaria, where the daughter of a wealthy family, who is engaged to a war hero, hides a Serb soldier (who is actually a Swiss guy named Bluntschli) and falls in love with him. He is her chocolate-cream solider! When her father and the “war hero” fiancée, who is more pompous than anything else (and a coward, a womanizer…. you know the type), allegiances shift, the war hero ends up with the maid, the rich girl with the Swiss solider (who turns out to be even richer) and everyone is happy. All is fair in love and war, as they say. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw)

Saturday evening – theater again, this time in the charming town of Concord with the musical “She Loves Me”, a wonderful story about love and romance staged in a perfumery in Budapest. After a busy day of exercise and outdoor activity, and the beginnings of a cold, this was perfect entertainment, and by far one of the best community theater performances I have ever seen. I had a smile on my face the whole time. The cast was spectacular, their voices trained and perfect, the acting funny, light and spirited, I can’t sing enough praise about this performance. Bravo! http://concordplayers.org/

Well, since I skipped two running practices, I felt I needed to do a little somethin’ somethin’, so I started off the latest exercise craze yesterday morning with a 8-mile run with my friends Sheila, Eliza, Peter, Stephanie, and Jim from Community Running. Not quite enough I thought and headed out to Malden to meet my friend Dana for a hike at the Middlesex Fells (pictures to follow) which was a perfect thing to do on a perfect spring day. This morning I woke up and felt like crap. The dreaded lurgy had decided to attack me and what better to try to get rid of these evil spirits that inhabited my tired body than to go to a road race. It was Mother’s Day and it was Somerville’s 5th annual Mary O’Brien Memorial 5 K for Cancer, a wonderfully organized community-based run. There were runners, walkers, dogs, Harpoon Beer and Red Bones BBQ, tons of raffle prizes and a road race of course. Considering that I had a cold and my knees had been a little unhappy yesterday, I did quite well with a finishing time of 27:11, which is a pace of 8:44 min/mile.

Now of course I am on the couch, I swear, enjoying some peace and quiet and ready to watch some movies. I hope all of you have a great Mother’s Day and get to spend with your family or your friends.

All my love to you.

Pet:)

#48 - Boston - Coincidences - May 5 07

Here is one for you – a bit of a long story, but you can take it, I am sure. You may get a beer or a cup of tea, if you like.

In what proved a very busy-body type of week, I was wheeling and dealing with six million business cards I had collected at the most recent oncology conference, when I came about a few old business cards from my personal life that I hung onto for one reason or another. Among them I found a card for Barbara Hill-Moore – soprano, distinguished music professor and voice teacher at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Now Barbara you see, I met many, many years ago, during my stint as a press spokesperson for a music festival in Germany (I just assume that you knew that, right?). During my vacation to the United States in 1988 (the one that has lasted for the past 19 years) I traveled across the country visiting family, friends – many of them musicians that I did meet during said festival (which took place in tents with lots of mud around it – I am not going to discuss this now….). So, I did stop in Dallas, and let’s just say this was definitely not the “time-of-my-life” portion of the whole trip – I stayed with some (on second sight) fairly shady characters, was stuck in an apartment somewhere in Dallas, while my hosts were up to no good and out carousing all night – not good, not good at all. Barbara, bless her, after a dinner conversation where I had a little nervous breakdown on account of the whole bad-host situation, took me under her wing, invited me to her home, showed me around and was just as kind as could be.

We had not exactly stayed in touch, so I figured, what are 15 years more or less, and decided to drop her a little email, you know the “I-am-not-sure-if-you-remember-me-I-swear-I-am-not-a-crazy-stalker” kind. After sending it off, I looked a little more at her website (http://faculty.smu.edu/bhmoore/) and discovered that not only did her daughter Leah live in Boston, but her son-in-law, Gary is a colleague of ours at Harvard School of Public Health, a very gifted young doctor who conducts studies on cancer preventions and on disparities in cancer. How cool is that? I am always amazed at such coincidences, and how life sometimes comes around in circles. What a nice story to be able to tell you. Made me smile all week!

Before I go on to the events of the week, another thought, again on the more philosophical side, and this thought comes with a thank you to my dazzling UK friend Jen Morton who told me that the Petraisms are an attest to my multi-lingual skills (not to forget superior intelligence as indicated by my math skills – see below) – which made me feel so special. In the course of that correspondence a couple of German idioms came to mind, and I just will share them now with you, if you like it or not. I really don’t care (no, I have not been drinking….). Instead of sleeping like a log, we sleep like a sand sack in the Southern German parts of the country, if you wish someone luck, you “press your thumbs” instead of keeping your fingers crossed, and if you to encourage someone in an athletic endeavor, you tell them to break their legs and their neck!

Back to the craziness that is my life – work has been a little nuts this week, but not in a bad way, just juggling too many things at the same time – which lead to a somewhat minor mental collapse yesterday afternoon where I could not for the life of me remember what 6 times 8 was, and had to pull out a calculator to figure it out. Major old-timers moment there. Sometimes you just can’t keep it together, as much as you try.

Monday – Community Running track practice – where I dragged a few of my unsuspecting friends for a “field trip” – I am not sure if they have forgiven me for the torture I exposed them to, but I think some amends were made at Ana’s Tacqueria at MIT following the workout.

Tuesday was a big day – first of all, the new bed arrived – oh it is beautiful my friends, just beautiful!! So beautiful indeed that I decided that I must, must, MUST have the dresser matching to it, drove to Jordan’s on Wednesday night after running practice at the hospital, and bought the damn expensive thing. See I had to go back on Wednesday -Jordan’s has this deal where you get free delivery if you order a second piece of furniture within a week of buying the first one. What could I do, but hoof it out there, be again mesmerized by all the shiny things they throw at you before you even have seen one piece of furniture, had a buffalo burger at Fuddruckers and made salesman Joe deliriously happy. The dresser will be arriving Tuesday and my bedroom will be snazzier than ever!!

Back to Tuesday actually – early evening led me to the Trident, one of my favorite places in Boston’s Back Bay (http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/) – combination book store and café with very decent food. Purpose of the visit was that I met with Michele Martin, who is just starting a business called Marathon Paws: she hires runners and joggers to run and walk people’s dogs for them. What a neat idea – I can get my running in, and take someone’s dog with me. Most of you know that I am a total dog nut – so this is pretty ideal for me. Two months from now, we will be ready to go and the many pooches of Cambridge will get a workout.
I then headed out to dinner with my friend Frank, who lives in my hometown in Germany, and who once in a while breezes thought Boston like a fresh breath of air. Frank wanted steak so we headed to another Back Bay haunt, Joe’s American Bar and Grill http://bbrginc.com/joes/1.html, ate tons of food, had some nice wine and even had room for desert.

Last night a whole gaggle of friends (Patrick, Ellen, Amy, Dana, Stan) and I went to Lexington to see community theater – the Lexington Players performed Stephen Sondheim’s Musical “Assassins” - http://www.sondheim.com/shows/assassins/ . Of course I had heard of Sondheim before – you know “West Side Story” “Sweeney Todd”, “A Funny Thing that Happened to the Forum”, but this show was new to me. Called by some “his most unpleasant musical” it depicts, in revue style, men and women who attempted (some of them successfully) to assassinate presidents of the United States – John Hinckley (Reagan), Leon Czolgosz (McKinley), Samuel Byck (Nixon), Charles Guiteau (Garfield), Giuseppe Zangara (FDR), Sara Jane Moore and Lynette Squeaky Fromme (Ford), Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy) and of course, last but not least, John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln). Our friend Irene, who was part of the ensemble dazzled as usual and I would have loved to see her in the role of one of the women assassins (she would have kicked butt!), and I thought Dave Leigh as Sam Byck was quite impressive. He consumingly performed two monologues as the very-off kilter Byck, who ranted about his plot to crash a plane into the White House to kill Richard Nixon in tapes he sent to Leonard Bernstein and Hank Aron (he just wanted a little attention, is all). There was a little wardrobe issue (would not call it a malfunction, maybe a misalignment) with Leigh’s costume that did delight the audience for a short bit, in particular a group of very giggly women a couple of rows behind us, but it’s all good as they say.


Today, just like most of the other days this week, Mother Nature delighted us again with a wonderful spring day, sunny, a bit on the breezy side, not too warm, but good, just good, you know. I met up with Ellen, Patrick, Amy and Dana for brunch and an introductory meeting between two dogs – you see, Ellen and Patrick recently adopted Highway Flame, a just charming greyhound, who used to earn his living at the Wonderland race track until last December, and Peanut, Amy and Dana’s new addition, a slightly portly, six-year old Chihuahua who needed a new home, and boy did he luck out with his placement at Casa Litman. The meeting went pretty well, a respectful distance was kept between the two canines with an occasional snarl by Peanut in defense of his travel bag, but we could see the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Alright, time to go to the store and get some food. My refrigerator has been officially classified as a “frat fridge” which means the only thing it contains is beer and condiments (and bird seed). Not good, gotta go.

Hope y’all have a nice weekend. We are heading to the Berkshires tomorrow for some hiking and a concert with former “Men at Work” front man Colin Hay - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Hay - tell you all about it next week.

Toodles,

PetJ

#47 Boston - My Cabin at the Cheesecake Factory

The list of Petraisms has officially received two new entries – and that in one day!! Rick, Denise, Chris and I were shown to our seats at the Cheesecake Factory yesterday and when the hostess showed us to a booth I could not help but exclaim “Oh great, we have a cabin!”. I was immediately educated by my wonderfully knowledgeable friends and Native English speakers that this kind of seating arrangement is called a booth. Only the hostess was on my side, and told me that this was indeed my cabin or whatever else I wanted it to be. Main thing I ordered lots of food and give her a big tip.

I followed this Petraism with a small twist to the classic “it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop” by making it “it was so quiet you could hear a needle drop”, so there you have it. Add them to the list of language infractions.

The second slightly off quote was in the context of my describing the evening prior, when my boss Bruce and his wife Davi took me to see a spectacular performance at the Boston Symphony – the Yale School of Music, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Yale Glee Club, accompanied by two children’s’ choirs (Trinity Church Boys and Girls Choirs and Elm City Girls Choir) and three fine soloists performed Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. The whole effort was in the hands of the very enthusiastic and superbly skilled Korean conductor Shinik Hahm. The War Requiem is not nessecarily the most accessible piece of music, and may prove difficult to appreciate at the first encounter. Composed by Benjamin Britten, a Brit (haha), who was a 20th century composer and who won three Grammys in 1963 for his work (all for the War Requiem) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten , it requires tremendous stamina on behalf of the choir and the soloists, which all handled the task with ease, in particular tenor James Taylor (the other one, not the one you know….), who we thought had the voice of an angel. The War Requiem itself is a combination of the Requiem Mass by Britten laced with words by English poet Wilfred Owen – the choir sings the mass in Latin, the soloists sing the poems in English. Wikipedia describes Owen’s work as “shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trench and gas warfare…..in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen.

I have been so busy this weekend it may make you dizzy just reading about it so hang tight. Even I was tired this morning, and pretty much comatose until after 10 AM, sleeping in - something I have not done in years. Saturday morning, Charles River Esplanade, Boston, Massachusetts: 100 exercise-hungry athletes showed up to run the 3rd Annual Back Bay 5 K. Mother Nature participated as well by giving us a wonderfully warm and sunny morning. Organized by the Chi Phi Fraternity and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, this is a very nice low-key community event. The race bibs are printed on regular paper (none of that fancy schmancy road race stuff); the markers are drawn on the pavement with chalk; the frat boys provide water, record race time and invite you to a barbeque at their place a little later if you are nice. http://backbay5k.mit.edu/. But here comes the really good news, I reached my goal of beating 8:30 min / mile in a 5 K road race. With a finishing time of 26:21 I accomplished my goal I had set at the beginning of the year (pace 8:28 min/mile). I was so excited. PR!! Now of course I need to find a new running goal for the rest of the year, and I am sure my coaches Amy and Brian will come with an achievable accomplishment I could set my sight on.

After the post-race milling about, Barbara, Chris and I headed over to Cambridge to hook up with Denise and Rick for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (http://www.cheesecakefactory.com/) – the site of the cabin incident. We opted to share a cheesecake since each one of them has enough calories that would warrant running a marathon to counterbalance the influx of fat and sugar. Zipping home after lunch, I first met up with Elaine, who was checking out the bed that she is about to inherit from me, and then headed over to Renee’s to drop off my two red IKEA sofa chairs, to the delight of her two cats, who seemed excited about new places to snooze on. Renee and I then hoofed it back to my place to get all dolled up for the Rock the Boat gala event, a fundraiser for the Mattapan Health Center, a community medical facility here in the Boston area. My boss Bruce and his charming wife Davi have been big supporters of the MHC for years, and he was one of last year’s honorees. http://www.mattapanchc.org/rtb.htm In its initial years the fundraiser took place on the cruise ship Spirit of Boston (http://www.mattapanchc.org/rtb.htm), hence the Rock the Boat theme, but the event has outgrown the ship, and I for one am glad. Many of you know how see-unworthy I am, and being green in the face just does not go well with a ball gown.

What’s all this furniture business you may ask? Hah! I have purchased a new bed – wonderful dark maple, solid wood, a bit expensive, but soooo beautiful. Now where did you buy this gem of carpentry you ask? Hah! I went to Jordan’s my friends, which for those of you who don’t know and have never experienced it, is quite something – Jordans, I am not kidding you, is Disneyland for Furniture Shoppers – this place is unbelievable. There are trapeze artists and liquid fire displays, there is Jellybean Land (entirely made from Jellybeans), there is a Fuddruckers Burger Place (where I had my first ever ostrich burger) and I had not even gotten to the furniture yet. It took Steph and me quite some time to look at all the 90-some beds on display, but the decision was a little easier once we told salesman Bob, who at that point followed us like a little puppy, that we needed a little bit of privacy and time alone. We made our decision, and sealed the deal with the help not of salesman Bob (who shot us a bit of a look and a sheepish evil eye attempt), but of salesman Jim, who was a bit more on the socially adept side and knew his furniture business inside and out. Next stop was Linens and Things, which did not feature any shiny lights or clowns, actually the place seemed devoid of sales people altogether, but Stephanie and I did find some nice bedspreads and other accoutrements for Petra’s new dazzling bedroom.


Well, you saw the pictures from last Sunday’s hike up Mount Cardigan in New Hampshire, which happened to be a very nice outing indeed. The weather was spectacular, blue skies and all, but we had ignored the fact that there might be still snow left up there, and turns out there was. Knee-deep in snow we were and at some point I got stuck and had to dig myself out again. The views were spectacular, and it was just so nice to be in the mountains again. Mt Cardigan is known as “Old Baldy” for its completely bare summit at 3121 ft – the hike covered an elevation difference of almost 2000 feet, and we definitely got our workout in.


















Spring is sort of here, with a mix of rainy and sunny days, Monday I walked down Commonwealth Avenue, enjoyed the magnolia blossoms and it was hard to believe that just the day before I was playing in snow.
























I have to go now, Elaine and I are planning to go to Kappy’s Liquor Store in Medford to fill up the wine and whiskey rack – I have never been there, but apparently the selection of alcohol they offer is dizzying. Come and visit soon, the bar is stocked.

Until then.

Pet:)