Back in Boston and dealing with the aftermath of my gluttonous behavior over the month of December into the New Year. I have not touched a drink of alcohol since New Year’s Eve, and really don’t feel like it, and like so many others have embarked on a healthy eating spree, the so-called “Vegetable with Vegetable Sauce” diet. My good friend Stephanie actually came up with that one - and I for a moment may have considered it, but somehow “broccoli with broccoli sauce” is just not the world’s most enticing menu option.
Exercising is the key factor here, and for the past few days my wretched right heel has been feeling somewhat better following the purchase of some new sneakers and inserts, and maybe we - I are finally on the way to complete recovery. My friend Joo in New Zealand has invited me to run a Half Marathon later this year with her, and since it was my plan to visit New Zealand in the fall, this may just be the right goal to have in sight. For the near future a couple of skiing day trips will do the trick as I plan to head to New Hampshire next weekend for some downhill action.
So yes, I am back in the US, with a good dose of jet lag. I had spent a wonderful and relaxing two weeks in Germany and the weekend before my departure, Martin, Marion, Andrea and I decided to go for a little excursion. Our first stop was the Vitra Museum of Design in the city of Weil - http://www.design-museum.de/index.php. Sponsored by Swiss company Vitra, the museum was established in 1989 to host traveling exhibits showcasing major design and architectural trends. Pretty cool place, and on the day of our visit, the Vitra featured an extensive exhibit on Le Corbusier, the world-famous Swiss-born-turned French architect (http://www.fondationlecorbusier.asso.fr/) . His real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, his face now graces the Swiss 10 Franc note - so we can safely assume that he did do well. He was quite the talent, aside from being a pioneer of modern architecture; he also was a painter with a noticeable love of Cubism, sculptor, and furniture designer. I first learned about Le Corbusier at my college friend Birgit’s home, where I had the pleasure to rest in his most famous furniture piece, the Chaise Longue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LeCorbusierChaise.jpg). When it comes to my personal taste of décor, I am not that into modern design, but let me tell you that is the most comfortable piece of furniture ever. Ask my friend Birgit and her family – I did not want to leave the chair, and for several moments seriously contemplated asking them to bring the meals to me there. Le Corbusier was also a big shot urban planner with the goal of creating efficient housing for crowded cities; with the Unite d”Habitation in Marseille being the most recognizable example of his work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_d%27Habitation
Next on our tour for the day was the charming town of Bad Saeckingen at the Swiss border (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/) – founded in the 6th century it has several claims to fame. First, it features the longest covered wooden bridge in Europe (200 meters) (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/index.php?o=bad-saeckingen&n=5) - walking along it one crosses from Germany into Stein, Switzerland. Second is the famous story of the “Trumpeter of Saeckingen”, written in 1854 by Joseph Victor von Scheffel. A dramatic love story,of course, depicting the true tale of the romance between noble Maria Ursula von Schoenau and the castle trumpeter Franz Werner Kirchhofer. They married for love, and with their commitment broke the taboo of marrying only “within your station”. Trailblazers they were! As a result, the city is littered with references to trumpets, statues of trumpeters, trumpet repair shops, you name it.
The city itself is just wonderful – a spa town (hence the “Bad” aka “Bath” as the fist part of the name, only designated spa towns are allowed to carry this prefix)., located on the edge of the so-called Hotzenwald, it was once just a small island amidst the then-mightier Rhine River. It was first settled in the 5th century, but with the foundation of a church by Irish saint Fridolin started taking shape. Its name stems from the convent “Seckinga” established in the 9th century. The town dazzles with historic building after historic building, among them the St Fridolin’s Muenster (Dome of St Fridolin), a stunning example of gothic architecture (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Fridolingsmuenster_Saeckingen.jpg ) and Schoenau Caslte (Schloss Schoenau - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Schloss_Schoenau_Bad_Saeckingen.jpg).
The trip back to the US was uneventful, no 11 hour-layovers or other such nonsense this time. The week has gone by mercifully swift, and jet lag seems to have disappeared thanks to a few 9-hour sleep sessions. Monday night, I picked up that little housemate of mine, a yellow bird named Oscar, aka Banana Boy or Mr Meyer, and after an initial period to get reacquainted (it was pretty much him yelling at me all the way home), we are now comfortably back to our old habits (Oscar demanding food, me giving it to him just to shut him up, that sort of thing).
Tuesday night Steph and I went for a lovely dinner at Ma Soba on Cambridge Street (http://www.masobaboston.com/) for some tasty Bi Bim Bap. Wednesday, ha, following a hair cut I embarked on an involuntary two-hour odyssey hunting for my house keys all over Boston. This was Petra at her best – searching for the darn keys, making many friends along the way, including the owner of a lovely Japanese store on Charles Street. Eventually, but not before walking myself tired and almost jumping at the cabbie’s throat when he asked me “And how was your day?”, I learned of their location in the MGH Photolab, where I had deposited them mid-day for reasons yet to be explored.
I was rewarded for this obscure and tiresome experience with a lovely evening on Thursday – ushering at the Lyric State company for the off-Broadway premiere of the musical “Adrift in Macao” – written by funny man Christopher Durang, this was an absolutely histerical spoof on the Film Noir Genre (https://lyricstage.com/main_stage/adrift_in_macao/) – funny and spirited, and if you happen to have some time on you before the 3rd of February, go see it. Tons of fun!
Aside from that, I have been cooped up at home, watching episode after episode of the British spy series MI-5 (Season 2), interrupting this newfound addiction only to head out for a nice cup of hot cocoa with my good friend Elaine at Charlestown’s newest café, Zumes Coffee House on Main Street – a wonderful and cozy spot for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I am now about to head out for brunch with my dynamic and gorgeous friend Hannah – to one of my favorite places in the Boston Area - The Blue Room (http://www.theblueroom.net/main.html). Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!
Pet:)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
#31 Boston - German for Beginners, January 3, 2008
Greetings Earthlings from chilly Germany! First up, a lesson in that native tongue of mine. This may be slightly different lesson than you may be used to. This one may apply mostly to the Loesch household, and may not be used in Germany in public.
Satan (pronounce "suddun") has nothing to do with the dude with the horns and the red cape, but in my brother's house is a intentional mispronounciation of "Southern" as in "Southern Comfort", known as SoCo in my circle of friends. After my brother and his entourage discovered a somewhat abandoned bottle of the tasty stuff in my place in October, this has become one of their favorite libations to sample.
Seckel, again an intentional mispronounciation, this time deriving from "Sekt" or "Prosecco", the bubbly stuff consumed in liberal quantities around the holidays. Seckel (also Seggel) in that undecipherable Southern German dialect of mine means Idiot or bonehead and is only used to insult males. (No need to worry, we do have words for the other gender as well, no shortage here).
This could go on quite a bit - to call the Southern German dialect colorful would be an understatement, and some of the phrases even my 72-year old aunt spits out over lunch are definitely not fit to be printed. Of course, every time that very social family of mine gets together, we create our own language (no matter if there is alcohol involved or not, and new words and phrases in the Loesch Dictionary now include "pasan" (parmesan cheese), the "five-course course", "tastewise it is tasty" and my favorite "I paid for it, I'll eat it." One phrase you might find useful, in particular if you do plan to drive on our suicidal roadway known as the Autobahn, is "Gib Gas!", which is the equivalent for "Step on It!" The Autobahn, contrary to everyone's notion, does have speed limits in quite a few areas, but where there is not, things get quite scary. There are only two options- in the right lane with all the other slowpokes and the trucks (they have a speed limit wherever they go) or in the left lane with the UFOs. I try to avoid driving on the Autobahn if possible, no need to get an ulcer now.
A couple of very positive developments here in good old Germany - first, in my home state of Baden Württemberg and a few other states, smoking has been outlawed in restaurants. How great is that! Eating out has become quite a different experience and I for one am quite happy about it. Secondly more and more stores here take credit cards (they used to take only EU credit cards for a while) - again very positive.
So, let's see. I left you last week Thursday and since then vacationing and visiting friends and family was the main agenda item for my visit. I did have a chance to see an aunt of mine, who has been ill for a while, and we did spent quite a nice afternoon. In the evening, Andrea, Marion and I headed into town for a nice meal at the Restaurant Salmen, a charming place owned by a friend of ours (this used to be a dark and dingy dive and hats off to Volker for restoring it to be a nice and decent place to have a meal and a good time).
Then this past Friday, as promised, it was time to head up into the Blackforest (http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Schwarzwald&gbv=2) for some of the white stuff. "Dashing through the snow with a surgical boot on my foot, o'er the hills we go, Petra's heel still kaputt....". Accompanied by my friends Gitta, her husband Joachim and daughter Lucia, as well as my friends Gisela and Fritz, we headed up to the Wiedener Eck to see some nice snow(http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Wiedener+Eck). While Joachim, Lucia and Fritz hoofed it along the cross-country trails (known as Loipen), the girls trudged alongside the trails, watched the skiers and knuckle draggers (snowboarders) and let the sun shine in our faces. A stylish plastic bag gave the surgical boot and my toes some protection from the snow, and all was well. A brief stop at the Wiedener Eck Restaurant for a "snack" turned into a full-fledged meal which included some decadent apple fritters with vanilla ice cream and everyone was ready for a digestive nap once we got home. (http:/)/www.wiedener-eck.de/
Saturday we stayed close to home, walked around the neighborhood a bit, and then decided to head over to Basel, Switzerland (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Basel), a mere 15-minute drive from home, to check out the Grand Casino (http://www.grandcasinobasel.com/). Pretty snazzy looking from the outside, very colorful, the inside is smoky, and quite a bit more drab than I had expected. Aside from a few others that just like our little posse wanted to just test the waters, this seemed to be the playground for the serious addiction gambler, and more than once we got elbowed away from the tables. While my brother tested his luck near the Roulette tables, Andrea, Marion and I headed for the slot machines, which proved to be quite the challenge. The language on the screens for the one-armed bandits were in both German and English, but did not really explain anything, and the language on the buttons to be pushed were in French. After a more than frustrating experience hopping from machine to machine, and not really accomplishing anything I turned in my jetons and headed to the bar for some wine. Overall one of those "been there, done it" kind of experiences.
Sunday again turned out quite quiet, with a nice walk and an afternoon visit to our friends Ralf and Margit, who live just across the creek, and whose sons Joshua and David provided the entertainment alongside a lovely Kaffeeklatsch. It was my first time meeting young David, who was born in early 2007 and who is quite a little flirt. Following the coffee and Applestrudel affair I got seriously beaten by Joshua in a game of "Apple Tree" - each player had a certain supply of apples, and had to get ten in a basket, however somehow all the other players ended up emptying my basket, and Joshua for one showed no mercy, not even a hint.
The evening was spent in Auggen, a community about 7 minutes south-east of Neuenburg with a visit to my friends Fritz and Gisela. Fritz, if you must know is the Mayor of Auggen - http://www.auggen.de/ .Aside from that, he is also a trained chef and for many years ran a winery, so dinners at the Deutschmanns are always a treat (and of course, Gisela is no distant second when it comes to cooking, I have no idea how she does it all - we even had homemade Bailey's Irish Cream!). We did have Raclette that night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette), a traditional Swiss dish, where cheese is melted and browned in small little pans, and one adds all kinds of goodies such as ham, mushrooms, onions, veggies and of course, pickles. Yummm!!!!!
I thought Boston runners were tough,but the Southern German contingent are no wussies either. Monday, after shopping and first preparations for New Year's Eve (known as Silvester in these parts), Martin, Marion, Andrea and I headed to the tradi tional "Silvesterlauf" in Britzingen. This 10 K roadrace is held evey year; about 400 runners make their way through the foothills of the Blackforest, past vineyard after vineyard, and are welcomed by a very enthusiastic crowd. What I did find interesting was that not only the spectators, but also the runners stood in line to warm up with a glas of two of traditional Gluehwein (mulled wine= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluehwein). Red wine is the last thing I would drink right before a 10 K, but then again, pre-race warm up is different for everyone, eh?
New Year's Eve at my family's home is celebrated with a surprise dinner. Names are pulled out of a hat, three days prior, and each person is assigned either an appetizer, first course, main course or desert. You are not allowed to disclose which meal you are cooking and what you will prepare. This will ensure a pretty interesting combination of dishes, but you know what? We did pretty good. Aside from a snafu in the preparation of the desert (which included a couple of emergency trips to the store, involvement of a desert consultant, several exploding balloons, my brother screaming expletives and maybe a paint job in the kitchen) everything went smoothly. The menu included sesame chicken strip with a green pepper cocktail sauce (Petra), fresh pea soup (Marion), Coq au Vin (Andrea) and a Vanillamousse with Mango Purree in choclate bowls (Martin). There was lots of wine, champagne, a visit to the neighbors around 12:30 AM to ring in the New Year, card games until about 3 AM and other such things. Fireworks at midnight here are always a bit crazy, our street looked like a war zone, and it was a big surprise that the neighbor's mini van did stay intact and did not blow up.
Tuesday, the first day of the year, did start a little slow; all of use experienced some slight malaise on account of the fact that we did go to bed at 4 AM and maybe had just a wee bit too much to drink (and I have not touched anything since - time to take a break). A little fresh air and a nice stroll through the city of Muellheim and a visit to Erika (Marion and Andrea's mom) rounded out the day (http://www.muellheim.de/).
Yesterday we went to Freiburg, my old college town (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&um=1&hl=de&q=Freiburg), mainly for the purpose of retail therapy, we shopped til we dropped at a nice Italian restaurant, which did come highly recommended. While the food was definitely more than tasty, the wait staff of one was a wee bit overwhelmed, ran through the place like a tractor huffing and puffing, and I believe was pretty much ready to cry at a moment's notice.
My friends, time to go now, hope you rang in the New Year quite nicely! I will head back to Boston this Sunday, and hope to see many of you soon.
pet:)
Satan (pronounce "suddun") has nothing to do with the dude with the horns and the red cape, but in my brother's house is a intentional mispronounciation of "Southern" as in "Southern Comfort", known as SoCo in my circle of friends. After my brother and his entourage discovered a somewhat abandoned bottle of the tasty stuff in my place in October, this has become one of their favorite libations to sample.
Seckel, again an intentional mispronounciation, this time deriving from "Sekt" or "Prosecco", the bubbly stuff consumed in liberal quantities around the holidays. Seckel (also Seggel) in that undecipherable Southern German dialect of mine means Idiot or bonehead and is only used to insult males. (No need to worry, we do have words for the other gender as well, no shortage here).
This could go on quite a bit - to call the Southern German dialect colorful would be an understatement, and some of the phrases even my 72-year old aunt spits out over lunch are definitely not fit to be printed. Of course, every time that very social family of mine gets together, we create our own language (no matter if there is alcohol involved or not, and new words and phrases in the Loesch Dictionary now include "pasan" (parmesan cheese), the "five-course course", "tastewise it is tasty" and my favorite "I paid for it, I'll eat it." One phrase you might find useful, in particular if you do plan to drive on our suicidal roadway known as the Autobahn, is "Gib Gas!", which is the equivalent for "Step on It!" The Autobahn, contrary to everyone's notion, does have speed limits in quite a few areas, but where there is not, things get quite scary. There are only two options- in the right lane with all the other slowpokes and the trucks (they have a speed limit wherever they go) or in the left lane with the UFOs. I try to avoid driving on the Autobahn if possible, no need to get an ulcer now.
A couple of very positive developments here in good old Germany - first, in my home state of Baden Württemberg and a few other states, smoking has been outlawed in restaurants. How great is that! Eating out has become quite a different experience and I for one am quite happy about it. Secondly more and more stores here take credit cards (they used to take only EU credit cards for a while) - again very positive.
So, let's see. I left you last week Thursday and since then vacationing and visiting friends and family was the main agenda item for my visit. I did have a chance to see an aunt of mine, who has been ill for a while, and we did spent quite a nice afternoon. In the evening, Andrea, Marion and I headed into town for a nice meal at the Restaurant Salmen, a charming place owned by a friend of ours (this used to be a dark and dingy dive and hats off to Volker for restoring it to be a nice and decent place to have a meal and a good time).
Then this past Friday, as promised, it was time to head up into the Blackforest (http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Schwarzwald&gbv=2) for some of the white stuff. "Dashing through the snow with a surgical boot on my foot, o'er the hills we go, Petra's heel still kaputt....". Accompanied by my friends Gitta, her husband Joachim and daughter Lucia, as well as my friends Gisela and Fritz, we headed up to the Wiedener Eck to see some nice snow(http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Wiedener+Eck). While Joachim, Lucia and Fritz hoofed it along the cross-country trails (known as Loipen), the girls trudged alongside the trails, watched the skiers and knuckle draggers (snowboarders) and let the sun shine in our faces. A stylish plastic bag gave the surgical boot and my toes some protection from the snow, and all was well. A brief stop at the Wiedener Eck Restaurant for a "snack" turned into a full-fledged meal which included some decadent apple fritters with vanilla ice cream and everyone was ready for a digestive nap once we got home. (http:/)/www.wiedener-eck.de/
Saturday we stayed close to home, walked around the neighborhood a bit, and then decided to head over to Basel, Switzerland (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Basel), a mere 15-minute drive from home, to check out the Grand Casino (http://www.grandcasinobasel.com/). Pretty snazzy looking from the outside, very colorful, the inside is smoky, and quite a bit more drab than I had expected. Aside from a few others that just like our little posse wanted to just test the waters, this seemed to be the playground for the serious addiction gambler, and more than once we got elbowed away from the tables. While my brother tested his luck near the Roulette tables, Andrea, Marion and I headed for the slot machines, which proved to be quite the challenge. The language on the screens for the one-armed bandits were in both German and English, but did not really explain anything, and the language on the buttons to be pushed were in French. After a more than frustrating experience hopping from machine to machine, and not really accomplishing anything I turned in my jetons and headed to the bar for some wine. Overall one of those "been there, done it" kind of experiences.
Sunday again turned out quite quiet, with a nice walk and an afternoon visit to our friends Ralf and Margit, who live just across the creek, and whose sons Joshua and David provided the entertainment alongside a lovely Kaffeeklatsch. It was my first time meeting young David, who was born in early 2007 and who is quite a little flirt. Following the coffee and Applestrudel affair I got seriously beaten by Joshua in a game of "Apple Tree" - each player had a certain supply of apples, and had to get ten in a basket, however somehow all the other players ended up emptying my basket, and Joshua for one showed no mercy, not even a hint.
The evening was spent in Auggen, a community about 7 minutes south-east of Neuenburg with a visit to my friends Fritz and Gisela. Fritz, if you must know is the Mayor of Auggen - http://www.auggen.de/ .Aside from that, he is also a trained chef and for many years ran a winery, so dinners at the Deutschmanns are always a treat (and of course, Gisela is no distant second when it comes to cooking, I have no idea how she does it all - we even had homemade Bailey's Irish Cream!). We did have Raclette that night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette), a traditional Swiss dish, where cheese is melted and browned in small little pans, and one adds all kinds of goodies such as ham, mushrooms, onions, veggies and of course, pickles. Yummm!!!!!
I thought Boston runners were tough,but the Southern German contingent are no wussies either. Monday, after shopping and first preparations for New Year's Eve (known as Silvester in these parts), Martin, Marion, Andrea and I headed to the tradi tional "Silvesterlauf" in Britzingen. This 10 K roadrace is held evey year; about 400 runners make their way through the foothills of the Blackforest, past vineyard after vineyard, and are welcomed by a very enthusiastic crowd. What I did find interesting was that not only the spectators, but also the runners stood in line to warm up with a glas of two of traditional Gluehwein (mulled wine= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluehwein). Red wine is the last thing I would drink right before a 10 K, but then again, pre-race warm up is different for everyone, eh?
New Year's Eve at my family's home is celebrated with a surprise dinner. Names are pulled out of a hat, three days prior, and each person is assigned either an appetizer, first course, main course or desert. You are not allowed to disclose which meal you are cooking and what you will prepare. This will ensure a pretty interesting combination of dishes, but you know what? We did pretty good. Aside from a snafu in the preparation of the desert (which included a couple of emergency trips to the store, involvement of a desert consultant, several exploding balloons, my brother screaming expletives and maybe a paint job in the kitchen) everything went smoothly. The menu included sesame chicken strip with a green pepper cocktail sauce (Petra), fresh pea soup (Marion), Coq au Vin (Andrea) and a Vanillamousse with Mango Purree in choclate bowls (Martin). There was lots of wine, champagne, a visit to the neighbors around 12:30 AM to ring in the New Year, card games until about 3 AM and other such things. Fireworks at midnight here are always a bit crazy, our street looked like a war zone, and it was a big surprise that the neighbor's mini van did stay intact and did not blow up.
Tuesday, the first day of the year, did start a little slow; all of use experienced some slight malaise on account of the fact that we did go to bed at 4 AM and maybe had just a wee bit too much to drink (and I have not touched anything since - time to take a break). A little fresh air and a nice stroll through the city of Muellheim and a visit to Erika (Marion and Andrea's mom) rounded out the day (http://www.muellheim.de/).
Yesterday we went to Freiburg, my old college town (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&um=1&hl=de&q=Freiburg), mainly for the purpose of retail therapy, we shopped til we dropped at a nice Italian restaurant, which did come highly recommended. While the food was definitely more than tasty, the wait staff of one was a wee bit overwhelmed, ran through the place like a tractor huffing and puffing, and I believe was pretty much ready to cry at a moment's notice.
My friends, time to go now, hope you rang in the New Year quite nicely! I will head back to Boston this Sunday, and hope to see many of you soon.
pet:)
#30 Boston - The Other White Christmas, December 27, 2007
Germany welcomed her long lost daughter (that would be me) this past Sunday with a stunning landscape dipped in white, low-lying fog and frost painted a beautiful picture - as if it had snowed just a bit, but not quite so. The frost highlighted every tree and plant with white outlines. Red, brown and black berries littered the white landscape with their brightness. This amazing winter beauty provided a White Christmas of a different sort, and made you almost forget that it was cold as can be (upper 20s) and that your toes and fingers were just about to fall off. Nevertheless, magical it was and it set the right tone for the Christmas holiday here in Southern Germany.
I arrived this past Sunday at Frankfurt Airport after a travel odysssey that I believe has only been rivaled by Tom Hanks in the movie "Terminal". Mostly this is my own darn fault, since for reasons that cannot be explained rationally I kept postponing and postponing and postponing buying an airplane ticket, and once it was early November replaced this laziness with a masterpiece of a panic attack, which involved several hysterical phone calls to my brother in Germany and involved both of us frantically scanning the internet for last minute deals (for Christmas - hahahahaha). Well, as luck and my own stupidity would have it, I ended up finding a reasonably priced flight, but not without noticing that I would have to fly through Newark and sit there for about 9 hours. I was desperate and afraid I would have to pay more than my monthly mortgage, so decided to go for it. Now comes the really bad part - apparently I am unable to tell time, or time differences for that matter, and once I was at my designated terminal in Newark, and again looked a little closer at my itinerary noticed that it was actually an 11-hour layover. I can tell you one thing - if I am faced with this choice ever again, I will take the more expensive flight - whatever mulah you save on the cheaper flight, you will spend in the terminal in those 11 hours - food, nice things in stores (I should never be allowed near a Brookstone store with a credit card in my hands, ever!), cheesy magazines, more food - you name it.
Just like Tom Hanks, I made many nice friends, including a family with two charming boys who tried to sell me on several of Brookstone's nifty massage tools (they may have been hired by the store for a hefty commission), and who at the end of their stay in the devil's store told me exactly how much their mommy spent there. Mommy did not seem too delighted that her sons shared this kind of information with me and quickly herded the two little brats out the front door.
Another new friend was a very charming. Toronto-based Jordanian gentleman, who was on his way to his girlfriend in Berlin, and who apparently also employed the Petra Method of Travel Planning (again, not to be recommended). We chatted for quite some time, mostly about the fact that this was his first time ever leaving Canada and his first trip anyhwere, but my favorite tidbit of the day centered around the fact that he told me that his father was born on the 25th of December in Bethlehem, and that his mother's name was Mary (their last name was the Jordanian version of Jonas - enough biblical references to go around). He did say it is the family joke that his dad may be Jesus and that maybe after that many years though he (the dad) may have lost his sense of humor about it.
We only left about 1 1/2 hours late (add that to the layover time), but I popped a Benadryl and as soon as I put the spoon down after dinner (which felt like eating in slow motion), I slept almost all the way to Frankfurt. From then it was just a nice two hour train ride (after a one-hour wait in the freezing cold) to Freiburg where my family awaited me (I did have to stand up the last 20 minutes as I was in serious danger to fall asleep and continue on to Switzerland, possibly Italy) .
Aside from the ususal Christmas activities - Christmas Eve is the main event a nice meal and presents are being exchanged that night (we made it in under 2 hours, yeah); 1st Christmas Day where we have our traditional deer ragout meal at Andrea's - we explored some of the traditional Christmas faires. The day of my arrival we visited Freiburg, my college town, for the last day of their famous Weihnachtsmarkt (http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-freiburg.de/) and stuffed ourselves with some nice "Flammenkuchen" (tarte flambee fort the Francophiles among you) (http://www.badenremembered.com/flammenkucken.htm) and yesterday on the 2nd Christmas Day (St Stephan's Tag) we headed over to France to the historic town of Colmar (http://www.colmar.de/Colmar/colmar.html) for their version of this tradition. Colmar's event featured four Weihnachtsmarkets all over the center of town, and one had to stroll through the ancient streets with their beautiful Tudor Style architecture (Fachwerk http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Fachwerk&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) to get from one to the other. We ate some Alsacian sausages, drank some Gluehwein (mulled red wine) and I topped it off with some roasted chestnuts. Very Christmas-y indeed.(http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02.htm)
Time to pack it up now, tomorrow I am heading for some snow-related activities in the Blackforest. The Schauinsland Mountain I believe has a good 10 inches of snow, and armed with my new stylish gaiters and an even more fashionable plastic bag around the good old surgical boot, we'll see what we can do.
Sending you all the best wishes and a Happy New Year!
pet:)
I arrived this past Sunday at Frankfurt Airport after a travel odysssey that I believe has only been rivaled by Tom Hanks in the movie "Terminal". Mostly this is my own darn fault, since for reasons that cannot be explained rationally I kept postponing and postponing and postponing buying an airplane ticket, and once it was early November replaced this laziness with a masterpiece of a panic attack, which involved several hysterical phone calls to my brother in Germany and involved both of us frantically scanning the internet for last minute deals (for Christmas - hahahahaha). Well, as luck and my own stupidity would have it, I ended up finding a reasonably priced flight, but not without noticing that I would have to fly through Newark and sit there for about 9 hours. I was desperate and afraid I would have to pay more than my monthly mortgage, so decided to go for it. Now comes the really bad part - apparently I am unable to tell time, or time differences for that matter, and once I was at my designated terminal in Newark, and again looked a little closer at my itinerary noticed that it was actually an 11-hour layover. I can tell you one thing - if I am faced with this choice ever again, I will take the more expensive flight - whatever mulah you save on the cheaper flight, you will spend in the terminal in those 11 hours - food, nice things in stores (I should never be allowed near a Brookstone store with a credit card in my hands, ever!), cheesy magazines, more food - you name it.
Just like Tom Hanks, I made many nice friends, including a family with two charming boys who tried to sell me on several of Brookstone's nifty massage tools (they may have been hired by the store for a hefty commission), and who at the end of their stay in the devil's store told me exactly how much their mommy spent there. Mommy did not seem too delighted that her sons shared this kind of information with me and quickly herded the two little brats out the front door.
Another new friend was a very charming. Toronto-based Jordanian gentleman, who was on his way to his girlfriend in Berlin, and who apparently also employed the Petra Method of Travel Planning (again, not to be recommended). We chatted for quite some time, mostly about the fact that this was his first time ever leaving Canada and his first trip anyhwere, but my favorite tidbit of the day centered around the fact that he told me that his father was born on the 25th of December in Bethlehem, and that his mother's name was Mary (their last name was the Jordanian version of Jonas - enough biblical references to go around). He did say it is the family joke that his dad may be Jesus and that maybe after that many years though he (the dad) may have lost his sense of humor about it.
We only left about 1 1/2 hours late (add that to the layover time), but I popped a Benadryl and as soon as I put the spoon down after dinner (which felt like eating in slow motion), I slept almost all the way to Frankfurt. From then it was just a nice two hour train ride (after a one-hour wait in the freezing cold) to Freiburg where my family awaited me (I did have to stand up the last 20 minutes as I was in serious danger to fall asleep and continue on to Switzerland, possibly Italy) .
Aside from the ususal Christmas activities - Christmas Eve is the main event a nice meal and presents are being exchanged that night (we made it in under 2 hours, yeah); 1st Christmas Day where we have our traditional deer ragout meal at Andrea's - we explored some of the traditional Christmas faires. The day of my arrival we visited Freiburg, my college town, for the last day of their famous Weihnachtsmarkt (http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-freiburg.de/) and stuffed ourselves with some nice "Flammenkuchen" (tarte flambee fort the Francophiles among you) (http://www.badenremembered.com/flammenkucken.htm) and yesterday on the 2nd Christmas Day (St Stephan's Tag) we headed over to France to the historic town of Colmar (http://www.colmar.de/Colmar/colmar.html) for their version of this tradition. Colmar's event featured four Weihnachtsmarkets all over the center of town, and one had to stroll through the ancient streets with their beautiful Tudor Style architecture (Fachwerk http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Fachwerk&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) to get from one to the other. We ate some Alsacian sausages, drank some Gluehwein (mulled red wine) and I topped it off with some roasted chestnuts. Very Christmas-y indeed.(http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02.htm)
Time to pack it up now, tomorrow I am heading for some snow-related activities in the Blackforest. The Schauinsland Mountain I believe has a good 10 inches of snow, and armed with my new stylish gaiters and an even more fashionable plastic bag around the good old surgical boot, we'll see what we can do.
Sending you all the best wishes and a Happy New Year!
pet:)
#29 Boston - Still Snowing, December 21, 2007
Snow storm number three in one week hit yesterday - we were promised flurries, and we got snow, snow and snow. After the snow storms on Thursday (#1) and Sunday (#2), which left us with another foot or two of snow, Mother Nature calmed down just a wee bit, only to rev it up again today big time. Welcome to winter in Boston! The official calendar start for the winter season was today, but we started about a month or so ago, and I am pretty convinced that this will be one for the record books. Yesterday another six inches piled on in some areas; maneuvering with that fashionable surgical boot of mine has become nearly impossible, and I think it may stay home when I am heading to Germany tomorrow morning. Its rehabilitory effects seem to be minimal, and the darn thing weights a ton, so I may restrict the medical equipment I drag along to the night splint, which does seem to help. I know I am whining and should just suck it up, I saw a guy on Tuesday night at the T stop, barefoot in flip flops.....
The weather over the past ten days has led to total movie mania in my house, I rent them, buy them, and have watched every single movie I own. With the kind of weather we have been experiencing, there are only a few essential survival tools one needs - if the heater works, and there is take out food and hot cocoa, life can be nice and cozy inside, and I for one, could hang out at home for days.
This week has been filled with holiday dinners, holiday lunches, and I am seriously looking at strict dietary restrictions for the New Year. This cannot continue! Stop the Madness!! Enough with the cookies!! I am going to be one of those sad people armed with New Year's resolutions that involve going to the gym daily and eating Weight Watchers meals. Not looking forward to it.
Here is the social report:
Monday night, dinner with Darrell and Susan from the Translational Research Lab (where I spend my Wednesdays) at the Beacon Hill Bistro (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html) - one of the snazziest restaurants in Beacon Hill. The food there is just phenomenal - my choice was sauteed skate wing with spinach, acorn squash, brown butter noisette in a red wine glaze. Guess what I had for desert? Creme Brulee of course, this one of the maple-ish vanilla-y sort accompanied by roasted/ candied hazelnuts - divine, divine, divine! And I am not just saying that because I had a pomegranate margarita.
Tuesday night - 4 S Wine Group takes a field trip to North Quincy, where the lovely and designated bodacious Holly Drumm hosted us lonely souls in her new pad that overlooks the ocean. Getting there was not too easy, every sidewalk was iced over, I could not find a cab, Hannah was stuck in traffic, I had no money - you get the picture. I actually hobbled down the street, found a bank, Hannah found me and all was well. Holly wined and dined us with real Vermont cheddar cheese, authentic Chinese food, mulled and not-so mulled wines from Santa Barbara, California, and excellent, excellent, excellent German deserts courtesy of the Konditor Meister in Braintree (http://www.konditormeister.com/). Needless to day, Hannah had to roll me to the car! Discussions were spirited and we learned all about GAPs (Greek American Princesses) from our friend Christos. If you need more information, let me know, I'll give you his e-mail.
Wednesday the Cancer Center Pathology Lab Group at MGH went for lunch at the newly remodeled Ristorante Toscano on Charles Street (http://www.weseatyou.com/restaurants/701/toscano/tour.html) - again very nice food, and our hat goes off to John, the lab director, who did not mind being the only guy with 10 women yapping away excitedly. This slightly overextended lunch pretty much segued nicely into Happy Hour, where Georgiana, Susan, Anne and I visited the "Alibi" bar at the Liberty Hotel next door (http://www.alibiboston.com/). Apparently the bar used to be the "Drunk Tank" for the former jail (which now is the hotel) - which makes it a fitting choice. I have chosen to forgive the bartender for not knowing how to mix a Hurricane, and coming up with a reasonable "Dark and Stormy" (my favorite cocktail, just if anyone wants to know); and the truffle-parmesan fries helped ease the disappointment over my original choice of beverage.
My friends - vacation time is officially starting soon. My flight to Germany leaves at 7 AM, with a horrendous layover in Newark, NJ. Not quite sure yet how I am going to handle all the luggage and six million gifts, but we'll just have to give it a go. I'll get to my brother's house somehow.
Wishing all of you a happy holiday season - stay warm, dry, healthy.
pet:)
The weather over the past ten days has led to total movie mania in my house, I rent them, buy them, and have watched every single movie I own. With the kind of weather we have been experiencing, there are only a few essential survival tools one needs - if the heater works, and there is take out food and hot cocoa, life can be nice and cozy inside, and I for one, could hang out at home for days.
This week has been filled with holiday dinners, holiday lunches, and I am seriously looking at strict dietary restrictions for the New Year. This cannot continue! Stop the Madness!! Enough with the cookies!! I am going to be one of those sad people armed with New Year's resolutions that involve going to the gym daily and eating Weight Watchers meals. Not looking forward to it.
Here is the social report:
Monday night, dinner with Darrell and Susan from the Translational Research Lab (where I spend my Wednesdays) at the Beacon Hill Bistro (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html) - one of the snazziest restaurants in Beacon Hill. The food there is just phenomenal - my choice was sauteed skate wing with spinach, acorn squash, brown butter noisette in a red wine glaze. Guess what I had for desert? Creme Brulee of course, this one of the maple-ish vanilla-y sort accompanied by roasted/ candied hazelnuts - divine, divine, divine! And I am not just saying that because I had a pomegranate margarita.
Tuesday night - 4 S Wine Group takes a field trip to North Quincy, where the lovely and designated bodacious Holly Drumm hosted us lonely souls in her new pad that overlooks the ocean. Getting there was not too easy, every sidewalk was iced over, I could not find a cab, Hannah was stuck in traffic, I had no money - you get the picture. I actually hobbled down the street, found a bank, Hannah found me and all was well. Holly wined and dined us with real Vermont cheddar cheese, authentic Chinese food, mulled and not-so mulled wines from Santa Barbara, California, and excellent, excellent, excellent German deserts courtesy of the Konditor Meister in Braintree (http://www.konditormeister.com/). Needless to day, Hannah had to roll me to the car! Discussions were spirited and we learned all about GAPs (Greek American Princesses) from our friend Christos. If you need more information, let me know, I'll give you his e-mail.
Wednesday the Cancer Center Pathology Lab Group at MGH went for lunch at the newly remodeled Ristorante Toscano on Charles Street (http://www.weseatyou.com/restaurants/701/toscano/tour.html) - again very nice food, and our hat goes off to John, the lab director, who did not mind being the only guy with 10 women yapping away excitedly. This slightly overextended lunch pretty much segued nicely into Happy Hour, where Georgiana, Susan, Anne and I visited the "Alibi" bar at the Liberty Hotel next door (http://www.alibiboston.com/). Apparently the bar used to be the "Drunk Tank" for the former jail (which now is the hotel) - which makes it a fitting choice. I have chosen to forgive the bartender for not knowing how to mix a Hurricane, and coming up with a reasonable "Dark and Stormy" (my favorite cocktail, just if anyone wants to know); and the truffle-parmesan fries helped ease the disappointment over my original choice of beverage.
My friends - vacation time is officially starting soon. My flight to Germany leaves at 7 AM, with a horrendous layover in Newark, NJ. Not quite sure yet how I am going to handle all the luggage and six million gifts, but we'll just have to give it a go. I'll get to my brother's house somehow.
Wishing all of you a happy holiday season - stay warm, dry, healthy.
pet:)
Sunday, December 16, 2007
#28 Boston - Winter Wonderland - Dec 16, 2007
http://www.mybostonyear4.blogspot.com/
Well, this second snow storm was supposed to pass right by Boston, and hang out a bit more north - so the meteorologists said yesterday - and when I woke up this morning my first thought was “ Hmmh, I wonder if and when it was going to snow today.” A second later, I heard the sound of a shovel on asphalt, and I carefully peeled back the blinds to take a peek. “Holy Sh…..” was the next thing I not only thought but also loudly proclaimed into the cold morning air. This is the second snow storm in three days, just right after Thursday when Mother Nature provided an impressive display of speed-snowing. I was having a business lunch with some visiting scientists from Denmark at the Longwood Grille in Boston, and when we went in to start out lunch, things looked a little gloomy outside but no snow flake was in sight. 45 minutes later as we emerged from the lunch place, and I am not kidding you, it looked as if the mighty God of Snow had emptied a giant bucket of White over the poor city of Boston. The snow fell so hard and so quickly, that commuters did not have enough time to get out of town, and as a result the streets were chockfull of cars, the snow plows could not get anywhere, intersections were completely jammed, and horror stories of 8-hour commutes were heard the next day at water coolers all over town. Now mind you, it did not snow that much, and for cryin’ out loud, this is New England, we should be used to this kind of weather, but somehow the whole system collapsed and there were quite a few unhappy people out there, stranded, cold and grumpy.
Today’s weather calls for some more indoor time, finishing up some home-made Christmas presents, watching another video or two, right after we do some shoveling outside. Thursday night’s shoveling extravaganza took about three hours – mostly because I helped out my 84-year old neighbor Irene and her grandson, who have the driveway adjacent to my house. Irene is unbelievable and is out there armed with a shovel and tons of determination every time the snow hits.
Needless to say the snow had thwarted some of the social plans this week, and a proposed dinner this Thursday evening with Darrell and Susan at the Beacon Hill Bistro had to be moved to Monday. Good thing the Bistro is not going anywhere. This past weekend, sans snow, had afforded a bit more flexibility, and Saturday I headed off to my ushering gig at the Lyric Stage Company, where Mr One Man Show, Nick Casey, performed “This Wonderful Life”, a superb take on the Jimmy Stewart holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. This was absolutely swell – Casey plays pretty much all characters in the story and at the same time narrates it. For my non-US friends who may not know this popular Christmas flick – directed by the famed Frank Capra, it depicts the story of George Bailey, a small town banker who gets himself a bit into a pickle. Things are not going so well, and George contemplates suicide, wishing he was never born. Clarence, a down-on-his-luck bumbling angel-in-training is assigned the project of saving George Bailey showing him what life would be like in Bedford Falls if he would have never existed. If Clarence succeeds, he will get his wings, and since this is Hollywood, you bet he does. The movie is a pretty solid tearjerker, and the King of Sappy, Mr James Stewart elevates this to formerly unknown heights, but I have always liked the message displayed here – we create our own communities and we all touch the lives of others in so many positive ways, and just like George Bailey, we do make a difference. If you are in Boston, take the time and visit the Lyric Stage Company (http://lyricstage.com/) and see the show – 70 minutes of great and heartwarming fun. If you own snow shoes you could even go today.
Sunday was spent lazily and only interrupted for a brief get-together with Ellen and Pauline for the most gigantic cup of hot cocoa I have ever had. Pandera Bread at the Arsenal Mall in Watertown does quite a number on the hot cocoa, and supplemented by their pastries that I am increasingly fond of, this was a worthwhile excursion.
Monday night I became one of Santa’s aides, as my running group, Community Running (www.communityrunning.org ), sponsored 20 gifts for Christmas in the City (www.christmasinthecity.com) , an organization that provides homeless children and families with a memorable holiday experience, gifts and all. Many of my club members pitched in and here I was with a car full of fabulous gifts for all the kids on our wish list.
Tuesday night I met up with my second dinner group which consists of my former landlady Marsha and her newest tenant and fellow German Dagmar, and for the first time in my almost four years in Boston, I went to Legal Seafoods (I know I can’t believe it myself that it took me that long). Highly recommended, Boston’s premier seafood place did not disappoint a bit, and my herb-encrusted tuna on a bed of mushroom ravioli and bacon-infused collard greens was just absolutely fabulous (http://www.legalseafoods.com/) and is to be praised.
Last night dinner group( #1) met for our Christmas get-together at the Litman’s house in Malden for a fabulous evening, which included absolutely wonderful food, ornament-guessing contests (I won, I won, I won, I won a candle, I won, I won, I won….), an impressive reenactment of Michael Jackson’s video “Thriller” by the very foxy Waleed, spirited discussions (during which at least one of the husbands was socked in the stomach for a comment regarding a wife’s subservient behavior), a Secret Santa exchange with some very lovely gifts (mine included hot chocolate and marshmallows, which happen to be two of my four food groups during winter season) and of course, quality time with The Peanut, Amy and Dana’s charming Chihuahua, who has us all wrapped around his paws.
Alrighty, time to go snow shoveling for a bit, and then retreat to the couch for some R&R, maybe accompanied by the above mentioned hot cocoa.
Talk to you next week - right before I am about to embark on a two-week trip to Germany to spend time with the family and put my feet up big time.
Stay warm!
PetJ
A couple of things for you to look at:
Yesterday, as every year was the time for the annual Santa Speedo Run (http://www.santaspeedorun.com/ ), a Boston tradition, where men and women clad only in speedos and bathing suits, run through downtown Boston in icy freezing weather. I am not kidding you, and just to put it in perspective – it was 12 degrees out there (minus 10 Celsius) - http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/specials/holidays/gallery/santa_speedo_run_2007/ . Only in Boston!
Picture on the Boston.com website from Thursday’s storm - http://www.boston.com/news/weather/gallery/131207snowgallery/ - I’ll send some from today’s storm separately later!
Well, this second snow storm was supposed to pass right by Boston, and hang out a bit more north - so the meteorologists said yesterday - and when I woke up this morning my first thought was “ Hmmh, I wonder if and when it was going to snow today.” A second later, I heard the sound of a shovel on asphalt, and I carefully peeled back the blinds to take a peek. “Holy Sh…..” was the next thing I not only thought but also loudly proclaimed into the cold morning air. This is the second snow storm in three days, just right after Thursday when Mother Nature provided an impressive display of speed-snowing. I was having a business lunch with some visiting scientists from Denmark at the Longwood Grille in Boston, and when we went in to start out lunch, things looked a little gloomy outside but no snow flake was in sight. 45 minutes later as we emerged from the lunch place, and I am not kidding you, it looked as if the mighty God of Snow had emptied a giant bucket of White over the poor city of Boston. The snow fell so hard and so quickly, that commuters did not have enough time to get out of town, and as a result the streets were chockfull of cars, the snow plows could not get anywhere, intersections were completely jammed, and horror stories of 8-hour commutes were heard the next day at water coolers all over town. Now mind you, it did not snow that much, and for cryin’ out loud, this is New England, we should be used to this kind of weather, but somehow the whole system collapsed and there were quite a few unhappy people out there, stranded, cold and grumpy.
Today’s weather calls for some more indoor time, finishing up some home-made Christmas presents, watching another video or two, right after we do some shoveling outside. Thursday night’s shoveling extravaganza took about three hours – mostly because I helped out my 84-year old neighbor Irene and her grandson, who have the driveway adjacent to my house. Irene is unbelievable and is out there armed with a shovel and tons of determination every time the snow hits.
Needless to say the snow had thwarted some of the social plans this week, and a proposed dinner this Thursday evening with Darrell and Susan at the Beacon Hill Bistro had to be moved to Monday. Good thing the Bistro is not going anywhere. This past weekend, sans snow, had afforded a bit more flexibility, and Saturday I headed off to my ushering gig at the Lyric Stage Company, where Mr One Man Show, Nick Casey, performed “This Wonderful Life”, a superb take on the Jimmy Stewart holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. This was absolutely swell – Casey plays pretty much all characters in the story and at the same time narrates it. For my non-US friends who may not know this popular Christmas flick – directed by the famed Frank Capra, it depicts the story of George Bailey, a small town banker who gets himself a bit into a pickle. Things are not going so well, and George contemplates suicide, wishing he was never born. Clarence, a down-on-his-luck bumbling angel-in-training is assigned the project of saving George Bailey showing him what life would be like in Bedford Falls if he would have never existed. If Clarence succeeds, he will get his wings, and since this is Hollywood, you bet he does. The movie is a pretty solid tearjerker, and the King of Sappy, Mr James Stewart elevates this to formerly unknown heights, but I have always liked the message displayed here – we create our own communities and we all touch the lives of others in so many positive ways, and just like George Bailey, we do make a difference. If you are in Boston, take the time and visit the Lyric Stage Company (http://lyricstage.com/) and see the show – 70 minutes of great and heartwarming fun. If you own snow shoes you could even go today.
Sunday was spent lazily and only interrupted for a brief get-together with Ellen and Pauline for the most gigantic cup of hot cocoa I have ever had. Pandera Bread at the Arsenal Mall in Watertown does quite a number on the hot cocoa, and supplemented by their pastries that I am increasingly fond of, this was a worthwhile excursion.
Monday night I became one of Santa’s aides, as my running group, Community Running (www.communityrunning.org ), sponsored 20 gifts for Christmas in the City (www.christmasinthecity.com) , an organization that provides homeless children and families with a memorable holiday experience, gifts and all. Many of my club members pitched in and here I was with a car full of fabulous gifts for all the kids on our wish list.
Tuesday night I met up with my second dinner group which consists of my former landlady Marsha and her newest tenant and fellow German Dagmar, and for the first time in my almost four years in Boston, I went to Legal Seafoods (I know I can’t believe it myself that it took me that long). Highly recommended, Boston’s premier seafood place did not disappoint a bit, and my herb-encrusted tuna on a bed of mushroom ravioli and bacon-infused collard greens was just absolutely fabulous (http://www.legalseafoods.com/) and is to be praised.
Last night dinner group( #1) met for our Christmas get-together at the Litman’s house in Malden for a fabulous evening, which included absolutely wonderful food, ornament-guessing contests (I won, I won, I won, I won a candle, I won, I won, I won….), an impressive reenactment of Michael Jackson’s video “Thriller” by the very foxy Waleed, spirited discussions (during which at least one of the husbands was socked in the stomach for a comment regarding a wife’s subservient behavior), a Secret Santa exchange with some very lovely gifts (mine included hot chocolate and marshmallows, which happen to be two of my four food groups during winter season) and of course, quality time with The Peanut, Amy and Dana’s charming Chihuahua, who has us all wrapped around his paws.
Alrighty, time to go snow shoveling for a bit, and then retreat to the couch for some R&R, maybe accompanied by the above mentioned hot cocoa.
Talk to you next week - right before I am about to embark on a two-week trip to Germany to spend time with the family and put my feet up big time.
Stay warm!
PetJ
A couple of things for you to look at:
Yesterday, as every year was the time for the annual Santa Speedo Run (http://www.santaspeedorun.com/ ), a Boston tradition, where men and women clad only in speedos and bathing suits, run through downtown Boston in icy freezing weather. I am not kidding you, and just to put it in perspective – it was 12 degrees out there (minus 10 Celsius) - http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/specials/holidays/gallery/santa_speedo_run_2007/ . Only in Boston!
Picture on the Boston.com website from Thursday’s storm - http://www.boston.com/news/weather/gallery/131207snowgallery/ - I’ll send some from today’s storm separately later!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
#27 Boston - I Smell Goulash - November 8 2007
I Smell Goulash
Yes, I did smell Goulash and wouldn’t you believe it, it was at the Ritz Carlton in Boston. The Ritz is now called the Taj, but it will always stay the Ritz for us; and here we were - Hannah, Holly and I, hanging out at The Bar or the Café or whatever the place was called, and I swear to you I kept smelling goulash, beef stew or something like it. Granted we came from a wine tasting and had moved on to cocktails and bubbley, but it was all within limits and my sense of smell should have not been affected in any way; bottom line – I have no idea what’s going on in that place and why they are cooking Hungarian dishes at 11 PM at night.
The evening started out innocently enough with a Holiday Wine Affair at the College Club of Boston, a snazzy little place on Commonwealth Ave that I would just love to call my own (I think several million greenbacks would have to be involved). It is the oldest women’s college club in the US of A, and is housed in a lovely Victorian Brownstone (http://www.thecollegeclubofboston.com/). The wine event was hosted by a group called Boston Uncorked (http://www.bostonuncorked.com/) and this was our little wine group’s first foray into the uncorked zone. Two tables were loaded with wines from Portugal, California, New Zealand, and a third station was featuring ports and tawnies. It was quite the happening crowd, a bit on the yuppie-ish side, but the wine loosened everyone up sufficiently and we did have a good time. The food served was fabulous, the ambience great, and some of the wines decent enough. I am not a big friend of the ports so that effort was pretty much lost on me.
Well, once we were done with the uncorked people, the girls and I, as mentioned, headed to the Taj/Ritz, which means the evening got even better. Partly this was Holly’s fault who regaled us with stories about her recent trip to Arizona, which involved these creatures called javelinas (http://fireflyforest.net/images/firefly/2005/September/javelinas.jpg ), apparently some kind of crazy looking pig located just a step below the boar on the evolutionary ladder. Actually, I was just reading up on them and they are not really pigs, some kind of collared peccary (you following?), and they have razor-sharp tusks. Apparently they smell quite strongly (musky if you must know), breed all year like bunnies, and are quite unpredictable. You are not supposed to feed them or they will return as a posse and as one website stated “they will get into your garbage cans, dig holes in your yard, knock over your potted plants eating the entire plant AND eat your vegetable, flower and cactus gardens.” Hannah, having several moments of clarity that night, was mesmerized by this topic – “What do you mean? You can’t be trapped in your house by pigs!” “You mean, people just chill in their living room until the pigs go away?” The discussion then moved on to the topic of health spas in Arizona (makes sense), and we were particularly enticed by Holly’s story about being wrapped in wax paper during one of the beauty sessions. Hannah, to use one of her own expressions, is too freakin hahaha , one of the funniest people I have ever met. She just makes me smile – it may not always be politically correct, but hey, if it’s funny, it’s funny (“Wine in Ethiopia? They don’t even have food there….”). Hats off to you, my most spirited and exquisitely funny friend!!
It is now the pre-Christmas social crunch time, and there is pretty much an event every night. Monday night I had dinner with my friend Linda at a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood (http://www.desfina.com/), and despite the fact that it came highly recommended it was not a culinary experience I would like to repeat. Wednesday was the uncorked thingy, and Thursday I joined the Community Running gang for our first social dinner outing. Close to 20 of us squeezed into the Delux Café, right on the edge of Boston’s South End – it had a bit of the feel of a student pub to it, but it was quite cozy, filled to the brim with people and the food was pretty decent (except for the homemade cheesecake – not like any other cheesecake I have ever tasted, and I don’t mean that in a nice way). Last night, accompanied by my lab colleague and friend Susan and her sister Anne, I did engage in some retail therapy around Faneuil Hall, trying not to take any spills on the quite icy slippery streets of Boston.
This past week has been cold, chilly; we had snow, ice, sleet, you name it. This would usually not be something I would gripe about (oh, well, maybe I would), but after a visit to the sports medicine clinic to see what can be done about my continued issue with the plantar fasciitis on my right heel, I left sporting a surgical boot on my right foot (http://www.buyaircast.com/sp-walker.htm ). This, my friends, is the Hummer of boots; I think it would be possible to navigate up sand dunes with that baby. I did reasonably well limping through the icy and cobble-stoned neighborhoods here in the hub and will have to continue to do so for about the next month or so. At night I am wearing a night splint also, which seems to help quite a bit, and hopefully with some more effort there we will be able to get Petra back into fighting shape (at least walking shape is all I am asking now).
It is 1 PM now and I am sitting here in my PJs, but I am due to usher at the Lyric Stage Company this afternoon for a rendition of “This Wonderful Life” – a one-man show based on the classic holiday tear jerker “It’s a Wonderful Life”, so I think taking a shower and getting dressed would be in order. Off I go!
Pet:)
Yes, I did smell Goulash and wouldn’t you believe it, it was at the Ritz Carlton in Boston. The Ritz is now called the Taj, but it will always stay the Ritz for us; and here we were - Hannah, Holly and I, hanging out at The Bar or the Café or whatever the place was called, and I swear to you I kept smelling goulash, beef stew or something like it. Granted we came from a wine tasting and had moved on to cocktails and bubbley, but it was all within limits and my sense of smell should have not been affected in any way; bottom line – I have no idea what’s going on in that place and why they are cooking Hungarian dishes at 11 PM at night.
The evening started out innocently enough with a Holiday Wine Affair at the College Club of Boston, a snazzy little place on Commonwealth Ave that I would just love to call my own (I think several million greenbacks would have to be involved). It is the oldest women’s college club in the US of A, and is housed in a lovely Victorian Brownstone (http://www.thecollegeclubofboston.com/). The wine event was hosted by a group called Boston Uncorked (http://www.bostonuncorked.com/) and this was our little wine group’s first foray into the uncorked zone. Two tables were loaded with wines from Portugal, California, New Zealand, and a third station was featuring ports and tawnies. It was quite the happening crowd, a bit on the yuppie-ish side, but the wine loosened everyone up sufficiently and we did have a good time. The food served was fabulous, the ambience great, and some of the wines decent enough. I am not a big friend of the ports so that effort was pretty much lost on me.
Well, once we were done with the uncorked people, the girls and I, as mentioned, headed to the Taj/Ritz, which means the evening got even better. Partly this was Holly’s fault who regaled us with stories about her recent trip to Arizona, which involved these creatures called javelinas (http://fireflyforest.net/images/firefly/2005/September/javelinas.jpg ), apparently some kind of crazy looking pig located just a step below the boar on the evolutionary ladder. Actually, I was just reading up on them and they are not really pigs, some kind of collared peccary (you following?), and they have razor-sharp tusks. Apparently they smell quite strongly (musky if you must know), breed all year like bunnies, and are quite unpredictable. You are not supposed to feed them or they will return as a posse and as one website stated “they will get into your garbage cans, dig holes in your yard, knock over your potted plants eating the entire plant AND eat your vegetable, flower and cactus gardens.” Hannah, having several moments of clarity that night, was mesmerized by this topic – “What do you mean? You can’t be trapped in your house by pigs!” “You mean, people just chill in their living room until the pigs go away?” The discussion then moved on to the topic of health spas in Arizona (makes sense), and we were particularly enticed by Holly’s story about being wrapped in wax paper during one of the beauty sessions. Hannah, to use one of her own expressions, is too freakin hahaha , one of the funniest people I have ever met. She just makes me smile – it may not always be politically correct, but hey, if it’s funny, it’s funny (“Wine in Ethiopia? They don’t even have food there….”). Hats off to you, my most spirited and exquisitely funny friend!!
It is now the pre-Christmas social crunch time, and there is pretty much an event every night. Monday night I had dinner with my friend Linda at a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood (http://www.desfina.com/), and despite the fact that it came highly recommended it was not a culinary experience I would like to repeat. Wednesday was the uncorked thingy, and Thursday I joined the Community Running gang for our first social dinner outing. Close to 20 of us squeezed into the Delux Café, right on the edge of Boston’s South End – it had a bit of the feel of a student pub to it, but it was quite cozy, filled to the brim with people and the food was pretty decent (except for the homemade cheesecake – not like any other cheesecake I have ever tasted, and I don’t mean that in a nice way). Last night, accompanied by my lab colleague and friend Susan and her sister Anne, I did engage in some retail therapy around Faneuil Hall, trying not to take any spills on the quite icy slippery streets of Boston.
This past week has been cold, chilly; we had snow, ice, sleet, you name it. This would usually not be something I would gripe about (oh, well, maybe I would), but after a visit to the sports medicine clinic to see what can be done about my continued issue with the plantar fasciitis on my right heel, I left sporting a surgical boot on my right foot (http://www.buyaircast.com/sp-walker.htm ). This, my friends, is the Hummer of boots; I think it would be possible to navigate up sand dunes with that baby. I did reasonably well limping through the icy and cobble-stoned neighborhoods here in the hub and will have to continue to do so for about the next month or so. At night I am wearing a night splint also, which seems to help quite a bit, and hopefully with some more effort there we will be able to get Petra back into fighting shape (at least walking shape is all I am asking now).
It is 1 PM now and I am sitting here in my PJs, but I am due to usher at the Lyric Stage Company this afternoon for a rendition of “This Wonderful Life” – a one-man show based on the classic holiday tear jerker “It’s a Wonderful Life”, so I think taking a shower and getting dressed would be in order. Off I go!
Pet:)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
#26 Boston - Third Encounter of the Close Kind - Dec 1 2007
Third Encounter of the Close Kind
Ever had one of those? I thought I did, until Stephanie again alerted me to the fact that I stepped full-force into a Petraism. You see, what I was trying to describe at this particular moment was the scene last Sunday night in Foxboro, Massachusetts when my friend Chris and I attended the game between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. Smoke, loud music, fire pits and eerie flood lights gave the appearance of either Armageddon or the recent landing of an alien spacecraft. And this being Massachusetts, I know either scenario seemed quite possible. The football game was a first class nail-biter, and thanks to a couple of heaven-sent interceptions, the Pats prevailed and remained undefeated, and the Eagles were sent packing. Chris and I sat up in the nosebleed section wrapped in a blanket – it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit (around 0 Celsius) and up where we sat it was a bit windy. Just to illustrate the kind of fashion effort that is required to attend a professional sports event that is played outdoors in winter, here is what I wore: long underpants, winter running pants topped by my fleece-lined ski pants, long tech fabric shirt, topped by fleece, topped by sheepskin-lined vest, topped by down jacket. Head band, wool hat, two pairs of gloves, handwarmers, toewarmers, and blanket. I bore a striking resemblance to the Michelin Man ready to go an expedition to Antarctica.
Only thing we did not enjoy during the game, and there is an entire section on the upper deck who will back me up on this, were the Philadelphia Eagles fans, who (as I subsequently learned) are not even nice to their own team. Not far from us sat a whole gaggle of them who were so unbelievably rude, insulting and obnoxious, it was a miracle that they got out of the stadium alive. Hats off to the Pats fans who kept their tempers in check and proofed that they were clearly above such unmannerly behavior. If a fan of the opposing team would exhibit such behavior in my old hometown of Oakland, I don’t think the Raider Fans would show the same kind of courtesy (not really something they are known for).
Well, what I can say. They lost, we won, they gloated about the fact that they messed up the point spread, and we are going to the Superbowl.
The Ice Zone
That would be that little Commonwealth of ours, who has started winter pretty early this year. Temperatures have been quite nippy around here, with the occasional decently temperatured day thrown in for good measure, but today with 10 degrees Fahrenheit (= Minus 11 Celsius) and 35 mph gusts of wind, it was a bit on the chilly side. I was on my way back home on my bike early this afternoon, and was a wee bit worried that my nose might not survive the trip home (fall off or retreat back somewhere) and sans face mask I was not a particularly happy camper. I know I know I could have taken the caaah…. so just shut up….
It is supposed to stay cold; snow and wintry mix is expected late tomorrow or Monday – I guess it is December alright.
Veggie Heaven
A drastic change has occurred this week in Casa Petra. I am now a happy and content member of Boston Organics (www.bostonorganics.com) and every Wednesday, or miracle of miracles, a nice box with fresh organic fruits and veggies appears at my doorstep. Similar in concept to CSAs (community-supported agriculture), where one subscribes to a farm, Boston Organics provides all organic fare, and that all year round. Most CSAs in New England do not deliver during the cold seasons, which can come as no surprise to anyone (remember the Ice Zone? Nothing grows here – the produce sections in the store look as if they have been robbed). When my first box arrived this week, I attacked the fresh Arugula as if I had never seen anything green in my life before and then continued to eat three apples, an orange and a tangelo, just because I was on a roll. My body must have been in complete shock.
Bring me the Damn Quail
Here I was on Thursday night with a group of new friends at Restaurant EVOO (stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil – woohooo) in Somerville
(http://www.evoorestaurant.com/) , where eclectic American cuisine is served, or so they promise. Actually the food was pretty eclectic, come to think of it, I had a soup made from sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes - a tuberous gnarly ginger-ish looking root), a main dish that involved a quail, and a superb Apple Butter Crème Brulee. The wine was decent and priced accordingly, the company mostly entertaining, except for one guy at the table who without missing a beat or even introducing himself to the rest of the gang dove head-first into a story about how his lovely and high-quality wool overcoat was almost stolen in the airplane. This seemed to be quite an important story in his life, as it came up again later as we were about to leave the restaurant, and said coat emerged from the closet. Now the wait staff in this place was somethin’ else – apparently emphasis is placed on eating slowly and savoring the experience, so things moved a little sluggish at EVOO. If you are hungry, this is not the place for you. It took the waitress several attempts just to get the drink orders, and she kept coming back telling us yet again how special and unique the chef was and that everything at EVOO is created “in the moment”. She failed to convince us to order the “in the moment” chef’s special, a kind of mystery meal I guess, and after eating three hand fulls of breadsticks and half a baguette, I was so hungry, I was just waiting for her to come back and say one more time that the chef is spending his time “in the moment”. I felt like yelling across the restaurant “just bring me the damn quail” I was so hungry. She also did not quite get all the orders right, and I had to ask for the crème brulee twice – she may have been “in the moment” and forgot.
“I have no Friends”
Community Running, that wonderful running club of mine (that I have not been running with for 4 months on account of my ongoing plantar fasciitis which shows really no signs of improving at all), hosted one of our monthly trivia runs, and I had kindly volunteered to be one of the quizmasters. 20 Runners braved the chilly weather and ran from quiz station to quiz station in either Cambridge or Boston, and answered questions in a quite interesting variety of categories such as Middle Name of Presidents, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Endangered Species of Massachusetts, Phish, the 1980s, the Wives of Henry VIII and so on. One has to collect as many “smiley face” points, which are then heaped upon your fellow contestants during several penalty point rounds. Whoever ends up with the least amount of penalty points wins. Let me tell you, not everyone plays nice, or as Robin said quite frankly during a particularly rowdy bit - “I have no Friends” (not surprisingly enough she was one of the two winners).
Petra’s Precious Pug Palace
Just a thought, but I would really like to get a pug and name him Walter. Stephanie has agreed to get a pug girl named Penny. We’ll have them breed like crazy, and will all move to the country and open a pug farm. As I said, just a thought.
Aspiring 30-Year Old Artist
To boast a little and toot my own horn, another six of my photographs have been accepted for the next Illuminations exhibit at the MGH Cancer Center. Come February you can see more of my work exhibited there. I will keep the Boston contingent posted as to when the reception is (free wine). In the meantime, I will spend my inheritance at the art store.
I am heading off with Hannah shortly to help someone I don’t know decorate their Christmas tree; we’ll see how that goes.
Stay warm, stay dry.
Happy pre-Holiday season.
Pet
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