Greetings from the Cottage er Fenway

Quick post after extra-innings Red Sox victory over the Mariners at Fenway Park's Heated Rivalry night, which included game jerseys, exclusive drink cups currently selling for five times what we paid for them on eBay, author Rachel Reid throwing out the first pitch, and lots of awesome photo opportunities, plus all the usual joys of a Red Sox game (the Monster, enthusiastic fans even when losing, "Sweet Caroline" etc.). 

Before the game we went into Boston, rode the Swan Boats in Boston Public Garden, walked a bit past Boston Common, had a picnic on a bench in the park, then walked up Commonwealth Avenue to see the permanent statues and the temporary Great Elephant Migration display before we walked to Fenway Park and waited in line for over an hour with many delightful Heated Rivalry fans dressed for the occasion exchanging bracelets and cookies!

Greetings from the Franklin Park Zoo

We had a busy awesome Sunday with Cheryl, starting with a drive to the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, where we met Adam and Haley to walk around the fairy houses and see the sheep and goats brought in to trim the daffodil fields. Then we went to Panera in Leominster for lunch before going to see Coyote vs. Acme, which is a joy -- lots of Looney Tunes in jokes, lots of actors having fun, lots of swipes at Applemazon. 

We had dinner at The Friendly Toast in Chestnut Hill, then drove into Boston past the arboretum to the Franklin Park Zoo for the Boston Lights lantern exhibit, where we met Marilyn by the entrance. Inside, we saw leopards, penguins, jellyfish, horses, lemurs, and many other light animals, plus cranes, kangaroos, and camels who could be spotted sleeping in their enclosures behind the light displays. And my dad is out of the hospital!

Greetings from Connecticut

Another quick post after a day at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire with Cheryl and Kristen, who met us there late morning. We wandered through the market, heard some music, saw some jousting, ate lunch, watched an insane performance of Rats: The Musical, and came home in the late afternoon because Cheryl wasn't feeling great. We showed her the first two episodes of Lanterns because she hadn't seen them, and had soup and cheese for dinner, then we watched this week's epic disaster Silo and the return of the excellent Dark Matter. More tomorrow.

Greetings from Massachusetts

Quickie, Cheryl is here and we're watching Strange New Worlds after a crazy day during which she endured many, many hours of flight delays and rerouting (we were supposed to pick her up in Worcester, we picked her up in Boston). I have a family member out of state in the hospital, so that's upsetting, and I talked to several relatives in the morning before cleaning the bathrooms and doing laundry in preparation for guests. We picked up Thai food and ate it with Adam and Haley before heading to the airport. More tomorrow!

Greetings from Yankee Candle

My entire Thursday morning was taken up with an ophthalmologist appointment. Since I'm a new patient, there were lots of forms and questions and calling my former doctor in Redmond because the records hadn't all been faxed. But he said things looked fine, the iridotomies I had a year ago were working, and he'd see me in a year, so that was all good, and we stopped at Shaw's for food on the way home for a late lunch. 

Strange New Worlds' "Off-Hour" was excellent -- so many original series deep cuts and a great science-focused disaster story. My whole Thursday night group made it to chat, now that one is back from traveling and one is logged in from out of the US, and now we're watching an episode of My Brilliant Career after most of Thursday Night Football. Here is the Bavarian Christmas Village at Yankee Candle in South Deerfield:

Greetings from Tidepools

I did a lot of chatting on Wednesday -- with one of my high school friends in the morning, watching the second half of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with Laurie and Cel in the afternoon, and with Daniel at 10 pm when he got home from work tonight. So I will be brief! 

Kay told me to watch My Brilliant Career on Netflix, and I remember that I liked the movie a million years ago when I saw it though I barely remember it, so we're doing that now that the Orioles have won (not the Red Sox, but given the week in celebrity tragedies, that's a small thing). 

I've spent much of the night fighting to send my records to my new ophthalmologist. Here are some of the creatures we saw at Wingaersheek Beach; one of the crabs was in a clear bucket where it had been placed by kids, but the mussels, snails, swimming isopod, and barnacles were all around the tidepools:

Greetings from Wingaersheek Beach

We went out early Tuesday to drop a package off at the post office and to pick up bagels (plus I got Pokemon into four showcases, three of which I won). Then I folded and put away laundry and did some other chores, we ate lunch, I did some reading, and then I got a package containing the Oracolor deck Illuminated Paths so I read with that for a while. It was another gorgeous not-too-hot day, so perfect for walking and seeing bunnies. 

My DS9 group watched "Shakaar" (Kai Winn! Lupaza! Bajoran politics! And, fine, Shakaar, though he and Kira bother me less together since I know it doesn't last). Then we watched the end of the extra-innings Red Sox-Marlins game (grand slam!) and a bit of coverage of the Orioles blowout of the Cardinals (13-1!) before the new episode of Futurama (Taylor Swift?!). A gull and her very hungry child we met at Wingaersheek Beach seeking potato chips:

Greetings from Gloucester Harbor

My Monday was all about unexciting things like laundry, bathroom cleaning, and working on a project with a friend, though the latter was fun and involved looking up a bunch of things from old movies. I also did a little organizing of bookshelves because I bought some awesome little shelf lantern lights. When Paul got home, we took a walk up toward the woods, and though it was a gorgeous cool afternoon, we only saw a few bunnies. 

We watched most of the Red Sox game, and although they didn't lead until the very end, they won their fourth straight and I got to see a Rutschman-Stowers reunion. Now we're watching the end of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which isn't as great as it should be but is still enjoyable. Here are some of the sights around Gloucester, including the Gorton's fisherman, two lighthouses, and the site of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: