Greetings from Fenway and Kimball's

Quick post after our second Red Sox game in as many weeks -- it was both KPop Demon Hunters Day, with Huntr/x and Saja Boys jerseys for fans with special tickets and some decorations like at Heated Rivalry Night, and David Ortiz football jersey giveaway day, meaning that we went home with two new shirts apiece. We also got to see a really fun game in which Duran and Rutschman both homered, the latter hitting Pesky's Pole at over 112 mph, plus Bello pitching a good game and several other players getting hits, knocking the Angels out of postseason contention. 

We had sandwiches and fries at the stadium plus an excellent hot pretzel, and we stayed for the whole game plus the post-game hugs and high fives. Then we walked back to the car and drove to Kimball Farm in Lancaster, where we met Adam, Haley, both her sisters and their husbands, and her parents plus her father's parents to get ice cream for her father's birthday. We all had large scoops and sundaes, then we came home, fed the cats, and we're watching more of Marble Hall Murders while I sort photos of Red Sox players and Kpop fans.

Greetings from Fenway Park

I did a bunch of computer stuff on Thursday morning -- had to clear a lot of photos off my phone, catch up on some news, do a bit of research -- and I did some reading around lunch. Then in the afternoon I had my annual mammogram, which hopefully went okay; though I had double checked twice to make sure my records had been sent from the place in Redmond, they didn't have them, and they need them to interpret the new one, so hopefully they'll get there sooner rather than later but they won't tell me anything until they do. 

We took a long walk when we got home (it was a four bunny, two frog day), then met with a woman we're hoping will cat-sit when we travel in the future (Katniss and Effie appeared to approve). We watched this week's Strange New Worlds, which started goofy and fun but ended up a lovely critique of how "The Inner Light" ends. We talked to both our fathers and after dinner we watched the Red Sox-Orioles game, in which I'm not sorry Adley hit two home runs, around Thursday chat. But speaking of the Red Sox, from the weekend:

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 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 Wildfire Smoke

Thursday was another smoky day, though not as bad as Wednesday; it seemed to be clearing in the morning, then came back in the afternoon. So I was mostly indoors again, though we did get a walk in the evening and the bunnies seemed to be doing all right. I worked on setting up the Star Trek Tarot cards Paul drew me as a gift over 30 years ago for printing and I read some more of The Book of Air and Shadows. 

We had veggie burgers for dinner with cheese fries and I just got off a Thursday night chat which ran two hours, so I'm running late, but we only watched a bit of tonight's one baseball game (Phillies-Mets) and half an episode of Discovery. Here are ships and skyline in the background from Sail Boston, including Bunker Hill Monument, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and (I'm told) the building where Paul works:

Greetings from Sail Boston

Most of my Monday was the chores I didn't do over the weekend -- laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning up after the cats -- and sorting the photos I took at Sail Boston, which was really fun because I went looking for photos I took of the same ships at other seaports and festivals, some of which went back to 2004 when my kids were very young. Here are some of them, including (in order) Amerigo Vespucci & ARA Libertad, Sagres, Kalmar Nyckel, Liberty Clipper, Capitán Miranda, Mayflower II, and the ship with my favorite name because I am eleven, Gorch Fock! 

We took a walk in the evening when the rain had stopped and the temperature had dropped below 80 -- I got sunburned a bit on the waterfront yesterday -- and saw five bunnies. Then we had dinner and watched the Home Run Derby, in which I was ostensibly rooting for the Red Sox catcher and first baseman Willson Contreras, though it was okay with me if Kyle Schwarber won because I liked him on the Nats and he's been very consistent, but the Cardinals' Jordan Walker made the end so exciting that it's fine with me that he won. Now we're watching some fifth season Discovery.

Greetings from Boston Seaport

On Sunday morning we drove to Billerica to pick up Meredith, then we headed to the Seaport District for Sail Boston, where over 50 tall ships are visiting along with dozens of local ships and a festival grounds with a ferris wheel, food, and lots of other things. The only ship we toured fully was Esmeralda from Chile, but we saw most of them, including several we've been on before (Pride of Baltimore, Kalmar Nyckel, Sagres, Mircea, Lynx, Mayflower II). The USS Constitution was afloat yesterday in the parade of sail, but we didn't see it in the water today because it back at the Charlestown Navy Yard. We got lunch at Better Bagels and took them to eat at Fan Pier Park within view of many schooners, and we got fresh-squeezed lemonade when it got warm.

 

 In the late afternoon, we took Meredith home, then headed back to Worcester, where I wanted to stop in Elm Park to do a couple of Mega Mewtwo Y raids before Pokemon Go Fest ended. (I had a successful weekend with over a dozen shinys despite not spending much of Sunday playing.) We had soup with crusty bread for dinner, then we watched the end of season four of Star Trek: Discovery -- I liked how things were wrapped up and I loved Stacy Abrams as President of Earth -- around The Vampire Lestat, which was romantic and powerful, I was so happy finally to get an episode fully focused on Louis and Lestat's relationship and how scarred they both are by what Armand did to Claudia, and then it ended insanely and I have no idea where it's going!