Greetings from Wor-ches-ter

We spent Sunday with my parents -- had bagels for brunch here, went to the Worcester Art Museum to see the American and European art and the armory collection, took a drive to Rota Spring Farm for ice cream, then went to Adam and Haley's house, where we hung out on their pretty patio and picked up Beyti's Mediterranean food for dinner. 

We'd hoped to see Isabel who was visiting Boston, but the timing didn't work out. We took my parents back to their hotel (they head home tomorrow) and now we're watching the end of the Mexico-England World Cup game after The Vampire Lestat. I may still be screaming about the latter tomorrow...both Reginas! Lestat/Louis! Lestat/Gabriella! Armand the 12-Step Failure!

Greetings from the Elements

Ran late on Thursday night chat, which was actually a highlight of my day, so I'll be brief. Had nice weather with a brief squall with hail, saw several bunnies on a walk, talked to my dad, kids, and their wives because it was the former's birthday. Watched a couple more episodes of Spider-Noir when not watching the Red Sox and later the Orioles lose. I've had a shitty couple of weeks friend-wise and today was the shittiest of all, so I'm not in a good mood. From the Worcester Art Museum's exhibit on weather and meteorology: 

Greetings from the Worcester Art Museum

Quick post while bingeing the first half of Spider-Noir, which thus far is excellent. I love film noir, I love the way its tropes are mashed up with Spider-verse elements, and visually it's beautifully done (I prefer the desaturated color version, which really show off how subtly the lighting works). It's also extremely well cast and Nic Cage is really throwing himself into it, when I've seen him phone in a bunch of bad horror roles; the women's roles are pretty cliched, but the performers make them interesting. 

I had a pretty typical Wednesday otherwise. Got some laundry folded and some work done, talked to only two of my high school friends because I was on another call and my computer failed to alert me in time so I missed the third, watched an episode and a half of Good Omens with Kristen and Laurie. We bumped into our neighbors headed out for a walk so we walked with them, and also saw three pairs of bunnies. Some images from Fever Dreams of a Cool-Breathed Earth at the Worcester Art Museum:

Greetings from the Worcester Art Museum

It rained all day Sunday from before we were awake until after dark, so we made indoor plans. The Worcester Art Museum, which has a superb armaments collection, had an arms and armor demonstration called Secrets of Swordplay, so we went to that -- it was like a slightly less goofy Fight School at the Maryland Renfaire, with volunteers from the audience and explanations of how sword design and combat evolved -- then we visited the armory and also the newly reopened American galleries, which are arranged by theme rather than chronologically. 

The museum also has two exhibits on weather: one that's mostly illustrations about art and early meteorology, another multimedia presentation on the response of local creators to climate change both physically and artistically. We saw those before we left as it was closing, stopped at Shaw's on the way home, had gnocchi for dinner, and watched Marty Supreme. It's not a movie about likeable people, and a lot of bad decisions are made by a lot of people, but Chalamet, A'zion, and Paltrow all give interesting, messy performances that are enjoyable to watch. 

Greetings from Art in Bloom

The major event of my Tuesday was going into Holden to get bagels at The Bagel Inn (they had sesame, huzzah, last time they'd run out). It was a little cooler and more overcast than Monday but still lovely to be outdoors -- even lovely to be in the bedroom with the windows open folding laundry under the windows on the storage ottomans. 

My DS9 group watched the not-deep-but-enjoyable "Civil Defense" and plotted running away to Canada, then Paul, Cheryl, and I watched this week's Daredevil -- I wish we got more Matt Murdock in the courtroom on the show. Some of the flowers and the art they reflect in Art in Bloom from the Fitchburg Art Museum:

Greetings from Fitchburg

Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day and we spent most of it out. First we went to Tower Hill Botanic Garden, which is deep into tulip season and still has lots of daffodils and tall snowdrops, plus Virginia bluebells, grape hyacinth, and the regional native daffodils that the gardens allow to grow wild. Then we drove to Adam's house, where Hildy and Tom were visiting Haley with Cindy's dog, and hung out for a while with them and Pepper, chatting. 

We took Adam and Haley to the Fitchburg Art Museum, which had an Art in Bloom exhibit like the one in Worcester last month in which floral artists echo museum collection pieces in flowers. When we took them home, we all chatted with my parents and Daniel, then we came home for leftovers and the rest of Rivals (UGH THOSE MEN) before tonight's Watson (so much going on and I can't believe this show is about to be over). Some pics from today:

Greetings for an Early Birthday

After spending the morning putting together a bookcase and unpacking books on it, we had a quick lunch and drove to Fitchburg to meet Adam, Haley, Hildy, Tom, Solveig, and Sagar. We went to Hollis Hills Farm's Maple Season, where the sugar experts were demonstrating the evaporator and giving out samples of maple syrup both straight from the device and poured over snow to create taffy candy. Then, since it was quite rainy, we went to the Fitchburg Art Museum, which has over 500 pieces of art from the museum's permanent collection on display as well as a couple of exhibits by local artists.

We stopped at the gourmet and garden store Mill No. 3 to get hot drinks and look at the decorations, then went back to Adam's house, where we ate some of the fabulous bread he picked up there and chatted with the extended family, who had brought Paul Red Sox-themed birthday presents. He wanted Friendly's for his birthday dinner -- as a teenager he worked at the one in Norwood -- so since Haley is performing in a concert along with Hildy on his actual birthday, Haley and Adam took us out to the one in Leominster. When we got home, we watched Mercy, which has no originality but moves quickly! 

Greetings from the Worcester Art Museum

Quick post because I had to finish putting together a cabinet for my bags and socks (quick question, how do normal people organize their socks?) because a cat would certainly have climbed into the frame and probably knocked it over if I didn't. But I had a nice day: woke to scenic snow that only stuck to previous snow, not the local roads, and it stopped early enough for us to drive into downtown Worcester to the art museum, which was hosting its annual exhibit Flora in Winter, during which local garden clubs and professional florists create and recreate famous art using floral arrangements. The displays covered a wide range of styles and it was lovely to see flowers in winter.

 

There was live music and we also got to enjoy the museum, which has a stunning collection of armor plus lovely religious and Impressionist art, in a beautiful neighborhood of old mansions. We stopped at Shaw's on the way home (so much St. Patrick's Day stuff in this area!) and Adam dropped by with a high school friend who's visiting, since they'd been in Worcester at the climbing gym. We ordered Thai since we were in the middle of putting together the aforementioned cabinet and took a break to watch the SAG Actor Awards and do stuff in the living room; I'm glad Sinners did well, the Harrison Ford retrospective was lovely, I'm happy for Keri Russell, and there were no BS speeches!