My First Hurricane*

So we're waiting to see how badly we get hit here. Earlier in the week it looked like we were going to get plowed--several models had it running right over us--but now it looks like New Jersey is going to get the deep cleaning and we're just going to get the edge.

Unfortunately, Sandy's edge is pretty spectacular.  Earlier I spent some time watching a live stream from a beach in North Carolina, which really didn't get much but the very fridge and it was still pretty impressive.

This cam, located on the Statue of Liberty, could be very interesting tomorrow: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/statueofliberty/?cam=liberty_pano  The wind is already picking up now, but you can't see much because it's night.

We're seeing school closings (including the Extension School; no class for me tomorrow, which is a shame, because I'd really rather have had the distraction), ferry service is canceled, Amtrak is starting to cut service.  The subways are still planning to be open.  I'm going to be watching that closely because I'm very curious about how they keep the water out of them.  Oh, and we canceled our SEAS tours; I got to help with that, since I'm the keeper of the tour registration.  I guess I'm useful!

I've been through plenty of storms in my life (though thankfully the derecho didn't get the memo that I'd moved, so it missed me), but what intrigues me about Sandy is how much build up there is.  In Ohio you get relatively short notice that you "might" get hit with something on a given day.  Then you get VERY short notice when the dangerous stuff comes through, minutes maybe.  Sandy, on the other hand, gets national coverage and a week of tracking.

Of course, being a weather wonk I've been enjoying perusing all the maps and numbers.  Tomorrow I'll be less happy, but for now it's intriguing.

Got my drinking water, my tub full of water, a full tank of gas, my crank radio, and a stack of protein bars.  I think I'm set.

*OK, so not really.  I experienced Ike.

The New England Aquarium

First I should apologize for the space between updates.  Since the last time I posted I've been home once, finally started to really get dug in at work, animated 830-some frames for Wolf (along with random other odds and ends), worked up my notecards for a sci-fi novel with a possible Nanowrimo start, and started graduate-level classes at the Harvard extension school.  Not a whole lot of time to do much running around.

This weekend I finally did something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time, and that's head to the Aquarium.  The New England Aquarium is a biggie, well-known just about anywhere people watch fish behind glass, and home to a huge collection of salt- and fresh-water life.    The only downside to my trip was that they're in the middle of a renovation, which means I didn't quite get to see everything there was to see.  I plan to return about this time next year -- and possible go on a whale watch some time in the interim.

Anyway, I'm going to let the Aquarium tell its own story.  This is a monster post, so if you internet connection implodes, it's totally not my fault.  Totally.

They have a number of tropical tanks there, made me want to run right out to the pet store and start my own.

I couldn't get close enough to actually reach into the ray touch tank (though I have touched rays before,) but I did manage to squeeze in between a couple kids and take a photo of one that way resting--right up until I tried to take a picture of it.

 And here's a flyby.

 Jellies.  I believe this one's a local sea nettle if I remember correctly.  These are the critters that will happily sting your feet along the Atlantic coast.

 Tiny jellies.  These were exceptionally cool.

 And these were just strange.  They've got a whole room of different jellies plus a couple more types up in the main exhibits.

 I found Nemo. 

 And Gill.

And Dory.

The penguins are usually front and center, but they're basically in a glorified bathtub while they work through the renovation.  They're still crazy cute, though.

 These guys are pretty sweet -- and they're a very very old type of ray, which makes theme even more interesting.

 There's a sea dragon in there somewhere.

 Here, too.

 A starfish people-watching.  Must be incredibly dull to be a starfish.  This one stayed right where it was the whole time I was there -- I went past the tank a couple times.

 There's a fish in there.  I promise.

 If you look at center here you'll see a wading bird.  There were old birds here, including the local endangered plovers, but they were hiding out near the back and I never got a good shot at them.

 You can kind of see them up there in the window.  The sign at left is a replica of those seen all over MA's dune beaches. 

 Sea horses!

Hopefully this isn't too nausea-inducing.  I think he was showing off -- or just trying to dodge the camera.

 And electric eel.  They've got a sensor in the water and play a sound and display a visual representation whenever he zaps.

 Poison dart frogs.  These guys are really striking. 

 Om nom nom.

 Myrtle!  And a buddy.

Out front of the building they have several seals -- and they're really, really active.  

 The Aquarium is right on Boston Harbor  If you look way out there you can see sailboats.  There weren't too many out because it was a grey, miserable cold day.

Big sailing vessels.  I believe these are tour boats. 

Visitors again

So my brother and my folks came up this weekend.  Mom and Dad had been here before, of course, when I moved in, but in addition to being tired and disoriented and the weather being miserable we didn't see much.  This time we had a chance to actually go around and see things.

(Random aside: for some reason I can manage to get around without getting lost just fine when I'm alone, but as soon as Mom and Dad get here I go the wrong way, have no idea what street's which, and can't properly read a web page for some reason.  I have no idea why this is.)

Saturday we did the local rounds -- all stuff I've talked about on this blog before.  Dad was talking up Blue Fin, the Japanese restaurant we'd gone to when I moved up, and Joshua decide that was where he really wanted to go, so we ate there again, and I suspect we will continue to eat there, and often.  Joshua, Dad, and I all had the lunch sampler and it was amazing.    The plan had been to go to church, but I misread the website and we arrived as they were singing the last hymn, so we took the subway out to the Boston Commons and Public Gardens -- saw live swans this time, in addition to the swan boats!

We had a late dinner of Ohio Sweet Corn :)  Not exactly "Local first"; so sue me.

Yesterday we took a gamble and picked a park up at Cape Ann that looked promising according to its website.  This is what we got:

And this:

I can't even describe the place.  Beautiful, rugged granite cliffs and wild surf.  There were a lot of people, but it didn't matter, everyone left everyone else to enjoy themselves and the waves were so loud that you didn't hear a lot of chatter.

We stayed a long time.

The Yogurt Recipe

Not to turn this into another food blog, but since I was making it, and since I remember that some folks had asked me about the recipe, here it is.

Yogurt is one of the few things I can reliably make in my tiny kitchen (save Kombucha, and seriously, there's so much that can go wrong with that one that I'm not going to share the recipe, you're on your own there) and it's very simple.   There's only one real trick--you must be immaculately clean.  This is true of any fermented product (talk to a home-brewer some time), and yogurt's a little more tolerant, but pretend it isn't.  Learn the taste and smell of properly-made yogurt before you start -- yes, I'm recommending you go sniff some yogurt).

Before you start, go to the store and get some live-culture yogurt.  Traderspoint is my favorite by far, but there are many to choose from, including Dannon and Stonyfield.   Pick something you like, because your yogurt will pick up some flavor from what use.

What you need:
A quart canning jar
A food thermometer--ideally one that's never been used for meat
2 tbsp live culture yogurt
Just shy of a quart of milk (you need a little space in the jar)

Heat your milk to 180 degrees, stirring to make sure you don't have hotspots.   If the milk forms a skin (and it will), skim it off and discard.   Set the milk aside, covered, and let it cool to 118.  Add your yogurt, and stir gently with and up an down motion.  Cover again, and hold at temp for 6-12 hours.  Refrigerate.

A couple tips:

• Never rinse your thermometer in hot water; use cold initially.  You'll get a buildup of milkstone, which in addition to being kind of nasty can affect how things set up.
• Make sure all your utensils are free of any soap residue -- it kills the yogurt.
• Experiment with the cooling temp; it depends on your culture.  118 is what I've found is ideal for Traderspoint.
• I've found the best way to keep things at temp is to just set up a pot with water at about 130 degrees and set the jar of milk in there.  I have a very warm kitchen, though.  You might find that it's better to use hot water in a cooler so you can seal it.

Boston Commons

So if you've been wondering where I've been (and I doubt anyone was), I was home for a week.   Since this is about the city, I won't talk about the country, save to say that only this setter could have a vacation involving a poisonous snake and waiting out a violent storm in a pickup truck (not, thankfully, at the same time).

Anyhow, I came straight back and went to the EduWeb conference in... Boston.  We're cheap here at Harvard.  Luckily, lots of conferences come to us, so we kind of cheat.   It made it easy to return the rental car, at least.

To get to the wonderful Boston Plaza Hotel and Towers (another landmark worth seeing), I take the Red Line into Boston, then pick up the Green Line and hop over to the Arlington stop -- or so Google tells me.  While I did this the first morning, when I didn't have to be on the trains until 10:00, something told me not to listen to Google when it came to getting on the extremely weird and overloaded Green Line at 5:30 that afternoon.  So I decided to walk to Park Street station, which turns out to be about 15 minutes from the Arlington stop on foot, and right through the Public Gardens and Commons.

Two books familiar to most of us from our childhood take place at least partially in and around this area -- That'd be Make Way for Ducklings and Trumpet of the Swan.  Welp, below you get both ducks*, and, way in the background, the swan boats.

 

And just so you get a chance to see where I've been hanging out all week, the Imperial Ballroom at the hotel:

*Actually, after looking more closely, there are actually ducklings in that picture.  Totally missed them while I was walking by.

Seafood and Severe Storms

So I'd hoped to have this post up long before now, but between just catching up and the spectacular storms of this weekend, I kind of never got around to it.

First, the storms.  Boston got missed but the June 2012 Midwest derecho, but it squarely hit back home.  We discovered that having a setter in the city with full internet access was extremely useful.  I have spent the last 48 hours relaying information back home (in fact I JUST got off the phone again, to report severe weather moving into the county), whether it's news, additional weather alerts, or just the outage numbers.   If you haven't seen the reports, this is a spectacular mess.  We've have successively nastier storms in Ohio over the last 10 years, but everyone I've spoken to repeats the same refrain: I've never seen anything like this.  Speaking from the outside, where I get an excellent bird's-eye view, neither have I.

The last monster derecho in Ohio was in 1969 (though there was one in 1995 that I don't remember, so it must not have been so bad; I'm guessing it was dissipating by the time it got to central Ohio.)  Incidentally, so far as I can tell, the last major hurricane to affect the Boston area while it was still actually a hurricane was Donna in 1960.  Who wants to be Boston gets a cat 2+ hurricane while I'm here?


***

Anyway, the reason I was supposed to be posting this was that I had visitors last weekend.  My sister and brother-in-law came up and we ate eastern Massachusetts.  Or so it seems.

Saturday we went out to Cape Cod -- something I was really looking forward to, since it's pretty much out of reach for me unless I want to rent a car (you can get there by bus, but at some distance a bus becomes more trouble than it's worth).  The coast on Cape Cod is beautiful.  There's really no other way to say it.    What photos I got didn't do it justice.

In addition to just walking along the shore, we saw swimming seals, a working lighthouse (so New England) and three historic lighthouses (the Three Sisters).    Again, I say, I can't do them justice.  Come visit me and we'll go there and you can see it all yourself.

Since we were in the land of rich people we decided to eat well.  Stopped at the Bookstore and Restaurant and ate dinner looking over the bay.  Wow, the surf and turf.  I was in cow heaven.  And lobster... I'd never had lobster before.  And they actually cooked the damn asparagus correctly, the only time I've had edible asparagus that didn't come out of the back yard.   All this while sitting in a little town right on the edge of the water.  You feel like you're in a book.  And maybe you are.

Sunday morning we went for Dim Sum at the Winsor Dim Sum cafe -- a must for Dim Sum lovers.   This is a to-order place -- no carts -- but that means your food is fresh and hot.

Sunday afternoon at the Publick House on Beacon Street.  Beautiful area.  I was still so full of Dim Sum that I only ordered the cheese board, but it was awfully good.  That and a Kriek made for a good evening.

Sugar and Spice for dinner on Monday (I worked, so the guests took themselves to the aquarium) for Thai -- HOT Thai.  I'm glad I got something without any pepper symbols, or I'd have gone hungry that night.

The Kitchen Mouse has more on the food: http://the-kitchen-mouse.blogspot.com/2012/06/eating-cape-cod.html  She'll be picking up the eats for the rest of the weekend once she gets lights and internet again.

Urban beach

So this morning, despite being fairly well worn out, I headed out to find Revere Beach.

I'd done my reading and was ready for a dreadful beach.  What I got was something that I think you could say might require a developed taste.

Revere beach reminded me an awful lot of your typical farm pond, only on a huge scale.  This isn't Florida or California; the water's dark and full of seaweed.  I was there at low tide, so the whole place was a bit fishy until you got down to the tideline and the stranded seaweed was downwind.

That said, I really enjoyed myself.  Tangled in the seaweed were quite a few shells, mostly huge things, big clams and snails.  Then once in a while you'd come across some beached sea life, or a crab or something.  The water wasn't something I'd really want to dive into because of the silt, but it felt good on my feet.   Maybe it's because I like to go creeking and I'm more used to Ohio ponds and the Great Lakes than West Coast beaches, the water and profusion of flora and fauna didn't really bother me, but I can sure understand where some people would hate it.

The best part was just being able to listen to the ocean and feel the breeze off of it.   I don't know how often I'll go out there (and I suspect it's crowded despite the seaweed once the water warms up), but I do know that I want to go out there some time in the dead of winter because I've never seen the ocean in the winter time. 

And yeah, I came back with a sunburn again and a raw spot from my new flip flops.

Storm in the city

So we finally got weather here other than all day sunny or all day dreary.   It does thunderstorm here.

I've never liked storms.  They're loud and they're alarming and they can be really dangerous.  But I've experienced storms in the city before -- once a nasty one in downtown Pittsburgh that put on an amazing light show -- and I like them there.   The Pittsburgh storm was in a hotel, so you couldn't hear much, but here I've found out that the thunder has a much different tone to it.  It's got sharp edges, sounds like a load of metal falling down the stairs, not the rounded, rolling sound you get in the Midwest.

I had a doctor's appointment right at the end of the day today.  A large number of Harvard doctors are located in Harvard Square, in the large administrative building there.  The lower floor is given over to shops and has an inside arcade area.

Anyway, I came down from the appointment to an arcade packed with people and this:

If it's not immediately obvious what's going on there, that isn't water pouring down, it's water blasting up.  And no, I've no idea what's normally there or why it was doing that.  I assume there's a drain that couldn't handle the water.

This is all about three steps away from the subway, so I figured I'd take advantage of the fact that no one seemed inclined to go out and hopefully catch a train easily. 

Turns out that when it rains in the city, everyone packs into the subway -- outside the tolls, of course.   There's a weird sort of feeling -- Hawkeye describes war in an episode of M*A*S*H with "A war is like when it rains in New York and everybody crowds into doorways, ya know? And they all get chummy together. Perfect strangers. The only difference, of course, is in a war it's also raining on the other side of the street, and the people who are chummy over there are trying to kill the people who are over here who are chums."  It's interesting that I've got a better idea of what he means now  (sans trying to kill each other, obviously -- I was in a rainy city, not a war).  People stand watching the rain and chatting.   Some people fret over getting where they're going, but mostly they just all hang out.

I got on the subway and outran the storm, going under it up to Porter Square.  By the time I got there the storm was well out of that area and I was able to walk back to the apartment.   Things smelled surprisingly nice and there was a cold bite to the air.  I've noticed that when there were storms in the general area here -- the wind can get quite cold.

Shopping in the rain

So one thing they don't tell you when they say you can live in the big city with no car is that there's a asterisk.

The asterisk is: so long as you don't want to go anywhere when its pouring rain.*

I'd hoped to get out this morning before it starting pouring, but it moved in a little quicker than I'd expected.  I couldn't put it off after not being here at all last weekend (and after dropping my toothbrush in the toilet first thing when I got back and using my travel brush all week).   So I went out in the rain.

And got soaked. 

It wasn't too bad right off, really.  Those three years at Denison where I commuted and had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk were fairly wet.  I'm a little out of practice at being damp, though, not as tough as I used to be.   I got to the market and trust me, I wasted as much time as I could trying to dry out a little before even thinking about going back.

My clothes still aren't dry and they've been hanging in front of the fan all day. 



*OK, so you can go places, but you'll need a zipcar or a cab, both of which are expensive. 

Setter in the country

Went home this weekend -- and it was very brief, so if you didn't know about it, don't feel too bad, I still try to avoid talking about long trips on the internet, even if all anybody could steal from my apartment would be the cats. I'll try to make better, non-internet warnings when I'm going to land for more than 48 hours.

The Boston angle on this is that I finally figured out how to get to the airport without dropping $45 for a taxi. There are actually two ways on the T -- one involves switching trains twice, and the other involves the so-called "Silver Line". So far as I can tell the Silver Line was supposed to be a dedicated train to the airport, but they dug out a bunch of tunnels and then lost interest or ran out of money or something, so they put buses in them. Which works acceptably well, really (though I hear that the SL3/4, which goes to the west and doesn't seem to have much point kind of sucks). So I know yet another way to get somewhere new.

Arnold Arboretum

So the boss tipped me off to an Arboretum run by Harvard and right near the T. He's the Kenyon grad, so he's familiar with central Ohio and confirmed that it was like Dawes. Naturally I was interested.

I headed out there today -- on the way taking a ride on the Orange line, the last one I'd not been on.

The Arnold Arboretum was just what I needed in greenspace. Right on walking in I could tell I was going to enjoy it. It *is* a lot like Dawes -- the primary difference being that Dawes is better signed, so it's hard to tell where you're going up here sometimes. Also, most of the "trails" are really roads (though they don't let cars in), so they're paved, which is a little hard on the feet. There were a couple dirt, grass, and gravel trails, though. A number of these weren't on the map, so I'm not sure if they were really trails or if there were places where a lot of people just walked and killed the grass.

My favorite spot so far was in the azalea collection. There's a small dirt path, and then off that there's an area that runs down to a creek. Everything was in bloom and it was absolutely amazing. I may go back with a towel and just sit down there for hours.

Photos don't do it justice.

I had to give in and go back a little early due to a bruised heel -- which also put paid to my plans for tomorrow, which were to scout one of the urban beaches -- but it was a nice morning. The afternoon was a little less nice, because after getting back and taking an unplanned nap (I sat down to read and the next thing I knew it was two hours later) I popped up with a fairly spectacular sun burn on both shoulders. No sign of sun anywhere else, and it certainly wasn't showing before I fell asleep, so it snuck up on me. I thought I'd hugged the shade pretty good out there, but evidently not.

Anyway, that makes tomorrow a get-things-done day, which is probably what it should have been to begin with.

...

Preakness Stakes

Did anybody else see this? Well, or listen to the webcast, like me, since I don't have a TV? Just Wow. We've got this tough smallish colt, a trainer who hadn't won either race before, and a prodigy freshman jockey. If that's not a story made for a movie, I don't know what is. Will that bring the blessing of the Triple Crown gods? I don't know, but I sure hope so.

Wish I had somebody out here who knew NYC, because I'd totally get on the bus and go to the Belmont.

...

Strawberries

Yes, you can grow food in a studio apartment. Just don't expect it to be enough to live on.

...

Bucket List

So I should probably keep track of what I'd like to see out here:

• The Aquarium
• The Franklin Park Zoo
• A local beach
• Cape Cod
• North Shore beaches
• Salem

Salt marsh

So yesterday I headed down to the Belle Isle Salt Marsh down in Boston proper (and right across from the racecourse; Suffolk has money issues, though, so I'm not sure I'll go there to bet the ponies ever).

A salt marsh is... well, a big brushy field with muddy creeks and small ponds in it. I think I was a little early in the season for it to green up, but I still saw small crabs and things in the water. I will say that it sure smelled salty enough -- made me think I was right on the ocean (it's not, it's back from the ocean maybe a half or quarter mile).

I think I spent more time on the subway than I did in the park, though. But at least the result was that I have now learned how to change trains and where you get off for the airport I also discovered the oldest subway in Boston -- well, I didn't discover it, obviously somebody else knew it was there already. It's a weird line, it splits off in all directions and the trains are only two cars long compared to the other lines. Luckily, unless you're actually going somewhere on the green line, you just have to randomly jump on a car going in the general right direction and get off at the next station -- or as I found out after the fact, you can just use the orange line, which is less weird. The Green line is also the one that's had two recent wrecks, it runs with very short distances between the "trolleys."

The plan for next weekend is to find the Harvard Arboretum. Originally from Ohio, my boss tells me that it's much like Dawes, so I'll probably be very happy to visit there.

Punkin loses his ranking

So we had a vet trip this morning. Punkin took surprisingly well to being dragged around in his carrier on my cart.

I warned the vet, and he was glad that I did. They got him out of the cage OK, but as soon as he hit the table, that was it (they have their scales built into the tables there, pretty sweet). Squalling, flailing, hissing, and then onto the floor he goes. That was it, they got the cat gloves, and pinned him to the table. He got his shot and went back in the box. No bloodshed.

And that was when the vet said that he wasn't anywhere near the worst they have -- the worst have to be sedated to get their shots.

I think Punkin was disappointed. I expect him to try harder next time.

To add insult to injury, since he made a big old mess like usual, he got a bath when we got back. He's actually good about baths, but he did look like a drowned rat after.

Windy city

No, I didn't suddenly land in Chicago.

One thing I'm having trouble getting used to out here is the wind. It's not really all that windy, as such -- gusts have only been in the high 20s, which is a breeze at home. We don't get excited until they're talking gusts in the high 40s any more. And if it's windy enough, it'll get you wherever you're standing, possibly including inside.

But here the wind behaves differently. You'll be walking along and it's dead still, and suddenly you'll get blasted off your feet. Then you walk 30 yards and it happens again -- from the opposite direction. Neither direction is the one they're reporting at NOAA.

Clearly it has something to do with the buildings (and I could probably find someone to tell you exactly how it's doing it and show you a model of wind in action, perhaps without even leaving the building), but it's weird as anything. And rough on umbrellas. I'm starting to get used to where the strange winds happen, and you start to angle your umbrella without really thinking about it to a) keep it from turning inside out and b) maximize the number of drops you're keeping off your shirt. Massachusetts Ave. is about the worst spot; it really wails down through there and spills out into the side streets. This ought to be very interesting come February.

...

I guess I've officially been here a month; we rolled in with the uHaul on April 11.

...

For anyone that's reading this, you tell me what sites you'd like to see me check out. There's a lot here, almost too much to really pick what I want to see. I can only really do things on weekends that aren't close in, but I'll check out restaurants, go see museums, and report back. I know I want to go to the Aquarium and find a beach (or marine nature preserve), find the location of the Boston massacre, and go to the Boston Commons. I think they'd probably kick me out of Symphony Hall. What else would you like me to report on?

Brownies

Well, I finally fired up the oven... literally. I do not like gas ovens. I'm only now getting used to the gas stovetop, but I don't like the oven at all. There's enough of a gas smell when it starts up to put me on edge.

...

I noticed something this weekend, or, I guess, noticed over time. There's always music in the city. Whether it's impromptu, street music, or planned, it seems like everywhere you go there's somebody playing. I've seen a guitars by the dozen, banjos, harmonicas, trumpets, a trombone, a harp, and who knows what else. Kind of makes you feel like you've walked into a sitcom while the starting credits are rolling.

I haven't really dropped off the face of the earth

Between doing some contract work, general exhaustion, rain, and just trying to keep up with chores, I haven't done a whole lot else of interest.

I did go to the Arts First festival, which is, well... and arts festival. Unfortunately, since I'm still not real oriented to the campus, I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably could have. There was an incredible amount of things going on. I stuck with things that were out in the open, so I got to hear some music (a capella and some instrumental, and a few other things I can't really define), see some installation pieces, watch the students helping kids throw clay pots, and see some people spattered with paint in a conga line.

No, I have no idea what that last one was all about.

Pupcakes

Yep, pupcakes.

I headed into Harvard Square today to pick up some things from Staples and stopped at Sweet. And no, I didn't order a pupcake. They didn't have catcakes.

That and getting a business card for a free psychic reading was about it for the day.

Museum for lunch

So today was orientation -- which really isn't worth talking about unless you're planning on working at Harvard and need information on their benefits packages. Anyway, it was only a half day, which gave me a nice chance to actually get out for lunch.

So I went across the street to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, something I've been wanting to do since I interviewed.

I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time there, probably with a sketchbook. The place is packed end to end with stuffed specimens, including the most gigantic bull giraffe I've ever seen. There are bison, and elephants, and tasmanian tigers, and monkeys, and birds, and a big old moose (but no elk). There was a lion cub that reminded me a lot of Punkin. And if you're not paying attention and you suddenly look up, you're startled by full-sized whale skeletons.

Then there are fossils of prehistoric animals, including cynodonts, sloths, dinosaurs, fish, and several horse variants.

There's a whole hall full of minerals of every sort, including meteorites and a giant amethyst.

But the most famous display is the Glass Flowers. These were commissioned by the University between 1887 and 1936 and are about the weirdest things I've ever seen. You go into this room full of glass cases that appear to be full of impressively preserved flowers.

They're not.

They're glass.

There's nothing special about the technique or anything like that, they're made just like any other glass piece, but there's amazing artistry, the truly look real. Along with all the plant replicas, there are a number of magnified plant parts -- petals, fruit, and other structures. Some of the plants even show evidences of damage (meaning damage to the plants, not the glass, though there's some of that, too, there has been some damage over time and there was restoration work done. Only to be expected with glassworks that old). The one pictured above is the fig.

Anyway, they're pretty wild. If anyone comes out this way I'll take you to see them.

Next up, the Peabody Anthropological Museum.

License plate-ass

Something you notice as soon as you get out on the streets around here is that nobody bothers to pay any attention to those weird light thingies that they've got attached to the poles at all the intersections.

You know, the one with the red hand and the little sprinting guy.

Around here, all pedestrians go around like they've got a license plate pinned to their hind ends. I haven't seen anyone who actually does have one on their trousers, but I wouldn't rule it out. The little sprinting guy means cross -- this is true even if you last saw him while you were at the previous intersection. Flashing red hand means run so you can get one foot in the road before the cars start rolling forward. And a solid red hand... well, that means that you should maybe at least glance down the street before stepping into traffic.

And the people in cars, while they might be ready to cut each other off, all assume that you're going to cross in front of them. So if you don't, you feel a bit of a twit.

The scary thing is that it took all of about five minutes for me to start walking like this, too. For one thing, if you don't, don't expect to get anywhere -- you'll never get a walk signal long enough to cross a street, and if you do, it's because you waiting twenty minutes for it.

Just try not to get smushed. It's simple.

Creativity

This is why I need to go microwave-dish shopping.

I then removed the peas and heated a can of soup.

Hey, it worked.

But yeah, it's a good illustration of how I'm having to play some games to fill some gaps in housekeeping supplies. The kitchen seems to be seeing the worst of it.

Of course, the good news is that canning jars are incredibly versatile. So are paper towels. And the cats double as floor rags when necessary.

Pockets

Just have to say, the person who invented the toast-pocket-maker should be canonized. Really.

But I do need to come up with other types of pockets to make, because, frankly, mozzarella and pepperoni pockets will eventually get old.

First days

Well, there it is.

My door.

The first two days were like first days everywhere -- you meet a lot of people, go a lot of places, and immediately forget everything you did. And you don't do any real work.

I guess that's not totally true. I did write a press release and do some editing and image research. Not my usual stuff, but at least I could be helpful. That's one of the nice things about the having a position like I do, there are things that you can pick up that don't require a ton of access or specific training.

Tomorrow I get some training in Plone. Not sure when I'll actually get under the hood on that one. I'm also tracking down some info on a mobile dev product, so there may be an app in my future as well.

For the Wolf folks out there, I met up with AWolf2B (Or KitsuneWolf, elsewhere) briefly this evening. She's up here, too, and they're definitely keeping her busy.

So they have 500 sq feet to roam and this is what they do.

I guess now we're going to have an illustrated blog.

Mom and Dad had decided to stay two nights, to get a chance to see some things. Just as a heads up, one day isn't enough time to see anything up here, especially if you're already tired and not moving fast. We did walk down through Harvard Yard (where you cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, pahk your cah).

There was one place I absolutely had to take them: Cardullo's in Harvard square. It's hard to explain. It's like a deli or a market, but it's more than that. I'd scouted this place out before, and had suspected that they knew their cheeses. Boy did they. Mom and Dad ended up taking out a second mortgage to buy some Ramano, Brie, and a table cheese I'd never seen before, Piave.

Thursday evening we went out for Japanese in Porter Square. I guess no one was feeling adventurous (well, I was trying not to break the bank, or I might have ordered sushi) because we all ordered the tempura (good stuff though).

I think what I'm liking the most up here is the subways. They're kind of a $2 a pop amusement park ride to me. They certainly aren't a comfortable form of travel, and that turn coming into Harvard Square Station makes me sure we're going to start off-roading (off-railing, whatever) any time, but I thoroughly enjoy the trips anyway.

I took the train down to MIT today to go to a large mall. Nice place. It's near the Charles River, and I think the big fountain in front actually is in some sort of channel off the river -- the water certainly smelled like river water, anyway.

Well, I'm here

And here is Cambridge (no, not the one in Ohio). 

I don't know if I'll keep this up or not, but here's to trying.  The general idea here is to chronicle my time in the Boston area.  The name comes from the fact that I'm known by my Irish Setter logo/avatar around the internet and my natural habitat is the countryside... well, the setter's gone to the city.

I'm not going to be a tour guide, I'm too much a home body for that sort of thing, but I'm going to try and write something up when something interesting happens.

The trip out here from home was 13 hours, and we did it in two days.  I lucked into a hotel that took pets, or we'd have had to try it in one day, which, while possible if you're landing somewhere you can collapse at immediately, isn't exactly a good idea if you need to unload a uHaul when you get there.

The cats turned out to be excellent travelers --- though they did their best to try and convince me that the trip was going to be a disaster right off the bat.  It had been recommended that I haul them in the same box, for security.  Well, I tried that.  I can't be sure, but I think Honey sat on Punkin's head, whereupon Punkin tried to rip off Honey's rear end.  This happened in the driveway, before I even got the cage in the car.

Needless to say, they went into separate cages after that.

Two days and they didn't want food, water, or access to the facilities.  These are the same cats who just about knock me over when I go for the food bin.   Cats are weird.

The trip itself was uneventful (except for snow and rain in Cleveland) and me trying to direct Mom to the wrong exit on a traffic circle.

(Continued tomorrow.  I hope.)