Greetings from Elm Park

It was raining when we got up on Sunday morning, so we had a slow morning reading, then we ate lunch and went to Elm Park to walk, see waterfowl and turtles, and do some Mewtwo and Mega raids for Pokemon Go Fest with the big local crowds that always gather there for Pokemon events. It drizzled a couple of times but was mostly a nice day, not too hot or cold, and after a couple of hours, we went to the nearby Tidepool Bookstore because it's nice to have an independent brick-and-mortar shop nearby! 

 

We came home late in the afternoon and took a walk around the neighborhood, then I took a shower and did a little organizing. We had French toast for dinner with veggie bacon, talked to my parents and kids on Google Meet, and saw the start of the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game. Then we watched this week's very well done Lanterns and now we're watching the start of Marble Hall Murders, the sequel to Magpie and Moonflower Murders, with a fun cast and split storyline with actors in dual roles.

Greetings from the Ecotarium

I spent a lot of Friday in the garage organizing things -- I had a bunch of papers that had been in a plastic under-bed drawer which then ended up in storage and are now in cardboard file boxes, plus I found a bunch of things I had no idea I still owned (oversize theater programs from our honeymoon, 1990s Pre-Raphaelite calendars, Princess Diana stuff my uncle collected) that need to be sorted. I also started reading The Book of Air and Shadows, a conspiracy theory around a lost Shakespeare manuscript that's kind of if Dan Brown had a great sense of humor. 

The Orioles beat the Royals with some eighth-inning heroics, then we watched Apple's excellent Friday night lineup: Sugar (a bit too violent for my film noir taste but very tightly written), Silo (I'm really enjoying the past-present split in this season's episodes, though I, like her friends, want the real Juliette back), and the season finale of Star City (still very dark and well done, and it better come back for a second season, though I did not expect the love story!). Here are some of the New England animals who live at the Ecotarium:

Greetings from the Ecotarium

We spent Saturday mostly with my parents doing local stuff -- brunch at the Miss Worcester Diner (I had Boston Cream Pie French toast and yes that is as good as it sounds), a visit to the Ecotarium to see the local wildlife, natural history, and planetarium show, then a drive to Fitchburg to see Adam and Haley and a visit with them to Kimball Farm in Lancaster for ice cream -- by then the weather was cool enough that we could sit comfortably outside and chat.

 

We came back to our house and ate our leftovers from dinner the other night at Sonoma at the Beechwood (well, I had no leftovers, but I did have grape leaves and hummus for a mezze platter). Then we dropped my parents off at their hotel and came home to watch the Boston Pops concert plus fireworks and drone show from downtown, which included a depiction of the Boston Tea Party with a drone tall ship and Paul Revere putting lights in the church window.

Greetings from Broad Meadow Brook

It was chilly Friday morning, so much so that Katniss curled up in the Hobbit bed for a while. I did some cleaning up of my social media accounts, read some more King Rat, ate half a bagel, and watched the France-Norway World Cup game being played in Boston. 

In the late afternoon we went out to a hardware store to get gardening shears, then to nearby Siam 9 for curry, drunken noodles, and Thai basil tofu. We stopped at Shaw's on the way home, then took a walk to look for evening bunnies (saw at least six) and the snapping turtle. 

We caught most of the Orioles win over the Nationals, then we watched Sugar, which I wish had more old-movie cuts but is really well done, and Star City, one of the darkest hours of television I've ever seen. Flora and fauna at Mass Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary:

Greetings from the Blackstone Canal

I had a quiet Wednesday apart from on my computer -- talked to two of my high school friends early in the afternoon and watched the last episode of the first season of Good Omens with Cel and Laurie late in the afternoon. I also folded laundry, did a bunch of freecycling (including the storm door that we got for free from the same group -- it was too small for our doorway, sigh), and did a bunch of reading. 

When Paul got home, we took a walk and saw three baby bunnies plus we finally got a glimpse of a snapping turtle in one of the neighborhood ponds, though he dove too quickly for me to get a photo. We spent some of the evening watching the beginning of the third season of Discovery before the late Orioles-Mariners game, which is ongoing. Animals and wildlife we saw by the Blackstone Canal and River: 

Greetings from Boston

We had chilly but nice weather on Saturday, so we ate lunch early and went to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. We got to see lots of animals -- giraffes and their baby, gorilla family, roaring lion, prairie dog community, kangaroos and their baby, parakeets that ate out of people's hands, kookaburras, tapirs, snakes, bats, camels, lemurs, peacocks who wander all over the zoo, and the chipmunks, mice, bunnies, sparrows, and a rat who have snuck into the zoo to live. It was World Turtle Day, so there was also a special presentation with a Blanding's turtle and African tortoise to meet the animals and their keepers. 

Since we were nearby, we went to the Arnold Arboretum to see the azalea border while the rhododendrons are in bloom. After walking up the hill to see some more flowers and the remains of a building foundation inside the garden, we came home and ate leftover Chinese food from earlier in the week. Then we watched the third and fourth episode of the second season of Rivals (Cameron is the only character I really like, because she's the only woman who doesn't identify herself only by what men think of her, so I hope she's lying to Rupert) and now we're watching more Boston Blue (good characters, meh writing). 

Greetings from Turtle Islands

I had a nice social Wednesday morning and afternoon -- phone call with Alice, chat with Hildy and Kay, with a quick lunch in the middle surrounded by meowing cats -- and I forgot to mention that I had a long video call with Chris yesterday, first time we caught up like that since I moved to the east coast. So I'm still sad and furious about the people who have really betrayed me, and every Jewish person in their lives, and everyone in the world they're willing to surrender to Hamas propaganda rather than do the tiniest bit of fact-based research, but I also know those people have not really been my friends for quite some time, certainly not since 10/7. 

Kristen, Laurie, and I watched the first episode and a half of the first season of Good Omens together before dinner, which was a balm on my soul in a couple of ways. Then Paul got home and we ate Indian food before watching the final season/long episode of Good Omens with Cheryl. I enjoyed it a lot, probably more overall than the second season, though it doesn't approach the genius of the first season and some of the fan service and theology both felt a little lazy to me (Palestinian Jesus was not an issue). Now we're watching The Boys, all the violence and twice the scatology of last season! Turtles I met at Washingtonian Lake last week:

Greetings from Potomac

I spent most of Thursday around Washingtonian Lake, which I walked around four times, and it was another lovely day. I ate breakfast with Paul before he went to work, walked to Kohl's and the new local crafts store though I didn't buy anything, and saw several cormorants as well as two big families of goslings, then I stopped back at the hotel to drop off my coat and walked around the lake again before meeting Kay at the Silver Diner for lunch. We took a walk together to see the goslings, and after she went home I made one more circle and helped a man rescue a tiny red-eared slider turtle that was trying to cross a busy footpath. 

My dad is still sick but probably not contagious, so after Paul was done for the day, we picked up Pana Thai that my parents had ordered and drove to their house. (While in Park Potomac, I managed finally to get a gold Pokemon gym badge at Founders Fountain after not being able to get to it for months!) We had dinner and dessert and chatted for a while, then came back to the hotel just in time for me to get on Thursday chat, which just finished so I'm not even sure what the final Orioles score was though I heard a rumor that it was not good. We're driving home to our cats tomorrow -- our catsitter neighbors sent photos today -- so more then!