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 Northborough

The air quality was moderate-to-fair in Worcester on Sunday, so we went out late morning to Tougas Family Farm for the blueberries we missed out on in the bad weather Saturday. We also got to see the alpaca, guineafowl, and many goats, including some of the growing babies from last time and a new one hiding in the shade in the rocks. On the way home, we stopped at Whole Foods for vegan beef strips and at Shaw's for food for the week -- they already have Halloween candy on shelves.

 

We missed most of the Orioles game (another win!) but got home for nearly the entire World Cup final, including the all-over-the-place halftime show; I was rooting for Argentina, well, for Messi, but that was an exciting game. After dinner we talked to Daniel and watched the season finale of The Vampire Lestat, which apart from way too many commercials did not disappoint! The entire cast is excellent, the abuse storylines are addressed as such more than in the books, and I'll always love the love story.

Greetings from the Beechwood

My parents are in town, so we spent a lot of Thursday getting ready for their visit -- some cleaning, stops at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Shaws -- though pretty much all the exercise we got was indoors since it was 96 degrees with a heat index over 100. When they arrived, we met them for dinner at the Beechwood Hotel's restaurant, then I came home for Thursday night chat. 

Now we're watching season four Discovery, which has gone from merely kind of silly to so, so, so stupid with the sentient emotional ship -- I mean, I guess it's the logical outgrowth of the Anti-AI Romulan Woo-Woo Women from Picard, but really, the level of ridiculous in Paramount+ Star Trek is off the scale. Is the ship going to grow boobs like the ship from Battle Beyond the Stars?

Greetings from Tougas Farm

It was hot but gorgeous out on Saturday, so after some chores and lunch, we went to Tougas Family Farm in Northborough because we had seen online that they had some animals and strawberry picking. It was hard to tell from the web site how big the farm is -- it also has a big farm store, a beer garden, hayrides to the orchard -- and there's a huge goat area that straddles the playground with an overhead walkway, goat hobbit hole enclosures, and a barn where six newborn goats were hanging out with their moms. They also have apple cider donuts, which we got in a sundae with caramel, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. 

 

We stopped at Trader Joe's and Shaw's on the way home to get various things for the week, had Mediterranean food for dinner, and watched the Orioles' not-great game against the Padres (I don't care that they lost, but there was some ugly HBP tit for tat). We took a late walk when the temperature was finally cooler, which perhaps is why we saw nine bunnies -- they've been hiding during the heat of the day -- and we've been spending the evening watching the end of Discovery season two; I thought it was just sexism making the internet say that Burnham cries every episode, but boy, they weren't kidding. I don't hate it but it feels like fan fiction.

Greetings from Fitchburg

Very quick post after a day in Fitchburg -- dropped some things off at Adam's, then lunch at 5th Street Diner (excellent egg salad), a walk around the lake at Coggshall Park, ice cream at Hollis Hills Farm (excellent almond joy), a walk through the meadow and on the boardwalk to the pond surrounded by teeny toads at Doyle Conservation Area, visits to Ollie's ($3 Tarot decks from my wish list! $2 Garth Brooks 7-CD sets!) and Market Basket, a quick dinner at Burger King, then birthday cake for Haley with her and Adam, her parents and one of her sisters and husband, plus the other sister and my parents on Zoom. I got onto my Thursday night chat on Zoom in the car and now it's late. More photos and stuff tomorrow. 

Greetings from Massachusetts

Very quick post after Thursday night chat, following very quick dinner after annual neighborhood meeting at which we met several neighbors, talked to people about various house and deck repair issues, and heard long-term road and trash plans, after having brought acai bowls to son and his wife for lunch because we had to be in their direction to get a notary to notarize a thing. We saw the end of the Cubs victory but missed the entirety of the Orioles win. It was a nice day but busy! Here are a few photos of the chipmunk who hangs out on our neighbor's front steps:

Greetings from Green Hill Memorial

My Tuesday morning was chores -- folding laundry, cleaning a bathroom -- plus we went out to pick up a screen door someone nearby was freecycling (we have to figure out how to install it, but the cats will be so happy to have glass or screen to look out once we do). I also finished reading Railsea, which I enjoyed enormously; it's a steampunk tall ship tale except set on trains, the characters are enjoyable, the language is a less abstruse than usual for Mieville. 

My DS9 group watched both parts of time travel episode "Past Tense" -- one of the best episodes of TV I've ever seen, and more relevant now than when it was made because of the things it uncannily predicted. The Orioles beat the Red Sox as it was finishing, so we watched the first episode of Star City, the interesting but violent For All Mankind spinoff, followed by an episode of Discovery. From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Green Hill Park last weekend: 

Greetings from Lake Quinsigamond

Sunday was surprisingly chilly for the last day in May and we had drizzle at times, but there are flowers blooming everywhere, so we went to Green Hill Park after an early lunch. The farm animals apparently like this weather because they were all active -- goats and sheep, pigs and alpacas, donkeys and ponies, chickens and ducks, bunnies, peacocks -- and we walked along the lake to the Vietnam Veterans memorial, which also has a pond with fountains surrounded by irises and rhododendrons. 

Then we drove to the shopping center with SuperCuts, where we got haircuts, and Trader Joe's, where we got Israeli feta and Bamba plus some other things. We also stopped at Shaw's for cat treats and a few staples. By then the Orioles had beaten the Blue Jays, so we watched the Mariners (who won in 10) around dinner. Then we saw this week's The Way Home around my latest guilty pleasure, Star Trek: Discovery, which Sonequa Martin-Green made me want to give another chance after Boston Blue.

Greetings from Assumption

Tuesday felt like a Monday, but that was fine because it started with a trio of wild turkeys walking through our cul-de-sac and we saw them two other times -- once while driving back from picking up photos at CVS and bagels at the Bagel Inn, and again while taking a walk in the late afternoon by the pond near the woods. In between I talked to Chris in WA, did some reading and did some computer stuff. 

My DS9 group watched the still-terrible-but-never-boring "Fascination" and chatted a bunch. Afterward, since I had discovered that the final season of The Way Home was on Hallmark and I hadn't realized there were already six episodes, we watched a few of those (love the music, like the scenery, appreciate all the women, ignore the sillier parts of the plot). Duck and goose babies we met at Assumption University: