Greetings from Washington Park Arboretum

Quick post after Thursday night chat while watching Stuart Fails To Save the Universe -- an episode that's particularly a propos tonight because I was just talking about when I worked at AnotherUniverse and the guys could argue for an hour about whether Captain Cold could beat Mr. Freeze. 

Earlier while looking down the basement for a box with cards, I found the black and white original copies of our Star Trek Tarot deck, which I had really wanted to scan but thought were lost forever, so I wound up making it a scanning afternoon with that and all the summer mail and stuff. 

I talked to my parents, took a walk, we ordered vegan Chinese for dinner and watched "Once La'an a Time" -- this week's over the top but fun Strange New Worlds -- before chat, during which we had the Red Sox win on in the background. Late summer-early fall at Washington Park Arboretum:

Greetings from Chihuly Garden and Glass

Don't look for excitement here because a lot of my day again involved laundry and chores, though I also had fun with my usual Wednesday online chat groups -- my high school friends, one of whom had an insane weekend with unplanned travel that made mine seem completely stress-free, then Kristen and Laurie, with whom I watched the first half of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. 

It was already after sunset when we took a walk, so we only saw one bunny, and we had a quick dinner, then I watched last week's Strange New Worlds with Cheryl (as usual Kirk 1, Evil Admirals 0, and it's nice having a second Kirk and Uhura being awesome). Now we're watching Sunday's Lanterns, which is extremely violent. Chihuly Nights at Garden and Glass in Seattle:

Greetings from Redmond

Spent another lovely nostalgic day in Redmond and Seattle, starting with breakfast in our hotel, after which we checked out and brought our things to Daniel's house. From there we drove to Redmond, where we met our former next door neighbors for lunch at Kitanda and a walk on the dock in our old neighborhood; we got to see one of the eagles, a great blue heron, some Canada geese, wood ducks, and grebes. 

Then we met Daniel and Cahaya at Marymoor Park with their huskies, who encountered several other huskies in the dog park. Cahaya had some stops to make on the way home, so we went to Idylwood Park to walk by the beach where we walked almost every day when we lived in Redmond. We also drove past the leaves changing color along West Lake Sammamish Parkway and the new light rail along the highway. 

In the late afternoon we drove to Seattle Center to get dinner at the Armory. Cahaya couldn't get anything she wanted, so she went to find sushi and the rest of us had Mod Pizza, then went to Chihuly Garden and Glass, which is sometimes open to the public at night when there isn't a wedding or special event. We'd never seen the gardens lit up before, and they're just as spectacular in the dark!

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 the Sea Glass Festival

It rained from before dawn till late at night on Wednesday, and I only left the house long enough to roll the garbage can back into the garage after the truck came to pick it up. Fortunately I had my Wednesday chat groups to keep me entertained: my high school friends after lunch, one of whom had her sister and niece visiting and another who had her daughter come on the call to tell us that her mom's internet had gone down, and then Laurie, Kristen, and I watched Born of Hope, the excellent fan film about Aragorn's parents, together. 

I missed most of the Orioles game, but after yesterday's atrocious 14-0 blowout loss to the Tigers, they beat Detroit 10-9 in extra innings after trailing 7-0. We ate veggie cacciatore for dinner and now we're watching Lucky, in which there are plot holes and idiotic decisions by what's supposed to be a smart FBI agent (why do they tell people they can protect them when it's one agent instead of calling for backup? why do they never leave one guy outside the house in case the suspects sneak out via the garage?) but Anya and Annette are great fun to watch. Sea glass from Mystic:

Greetings from Mystic

Sunday was another gorgeous day and we spent most of it at Mystic Seaport at the Sea Glass Festival, where we met Kristen, admired the sea glass, bought some small jewelry, and ate lunch under one of the festival tents. We also walked around the seaport and its museums -- boarded the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, talked to the shopkeeper in the nautical instruments shop about celestial navigation and the first grandfather clock, looked at the carvings and figureheads on exhibit, saw jellyfish in the river, admired the ships! 

 

We drove home from Connecticut in the late afternoon, had baked potatoes for dinner because they had those at Mystic Seaport so we got in the mood for them, and watched the rest of Pompeii: Out of Time, which has a lot of the flaws of all the National Geographic historical recreation shows but is interesting despite the clunkiness. Now we're watching the first episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, which is alternately very funny and extremely creepy, like an Irish comic I Know What You Did Last Summer with great acting.

Greetings from Worcester

Quickie, ran late tonight because we had dessert with our neighbors and played Rummikub, then watched Strange New Worlds and the last couple of episodes of Ride or Die with Cheryl (I loved the old pulp fun of the first combined with the Classic Trek dilemma, and I loved how the latter wound up until the implied cliffhanger!). Now we're watching the new Silo because I can postpone Sugar more easily than this. 

My day was quiet -- reading and computer stuff -- till afternoon, when we went for a walk, ate meatball subs early, then went to our neighbors for dessert on the deck followed by a game of Rummikub, which I hadn't played in probably 30 years (I almost won but then my neighbor put down her tiles first). I caught bits of the Orioles game while in and out, too. Pottery and glass at Worcester Center for Crafts' Hot Night in the City: