Mission Accomplished

I pulled back into my own garage shortly before 5:00 pm last night. I knew I'd be returning to one child who stayed home from school puking. I was in the door 30 seconds before I was accosted by another one trying to convince me that $250 on an Airsoft riffle so he can shoot other kids and be shot by them for fun was a good idea. When I disagreed I watched tears roll down his cheeks for the rest of the evening (this has been an ongoing matter of debate for weeks now). When I sat down to get photos off my camera the third child decided that after weeks of me nagging her it was finally time for her to submit some of her financial aid information, online of course. Then the husband came home in a generally disgruntled mood. If it weren't a 5 hour drive I may have turned around and headed back to Boston. Oh, right...Boston....that's what I am supposed to be posting about. Well, I have some fiddling with picture file sizes to do and to decide which of the 150 or so pictures I took to share. but in the meantime let me give a bit of a summary.

I took off Friday morning and stopped in New York to have lunch with a blog pal who no longer blogs. We pretty began reading each other nearly from the beginning of my blog and although he no longer blogs we've kept in touch via email. It was terrific to meet after all this time and enjoy a plate of appetizers together. Since he was on his lunch hour from work and I was in the beginning leg of the trek north I forgot to pull out the camera and document the meeting. You'll just have to take my word that my lunch wasn't with Harvey the rabbit. Thanks for lunch, A.


My cousin Lisa is a chiropractor. I pulled into Boston about an hour before her office closed for the day. She welcomed me with a hug then an adjustment. Finally, she plunked me into a massage chair which I dubbed "Sven" last year when I visited. Ahhh, Sven, your embrace is a welcome respite from the road and demanding people. Run away with me, Sven. We headed home and chilled out with a quick dinner, a couple glasses of wine, and a kid movie with Lisa's son, Jacob. We scrapped plans to go dancing once again. Jacob smiled up at me with his hopeful eyes and big dimples as he asked me to read his bedtime stories. I was helpless against such charms so we crawled in Lisa's bed (since Jacob sweetly gave up his for me) and he took full advantage of my willingness to read story after story.


The dear boy let his mother and me sleep until 10 the next morning. We moved slowly through what remained of the morning before Lisa and Jacob left for an appointment and I headed out on the train to meet Suldog and his wife at the Pleasant Cafe. Lisa and Jacob met us at the restaurant and a good time was had by all. I have a few pictures and more commentary from that particular event, some displaying my derangement in fairly blatant manner. I will share those in another post. For now, let me just say it was an absolutely fantastic time. Suldog and his wife are gracious hosts and funny, funny people. Funny haha, not funny smelling or funny as in barking mad. Once I show you some of the other pictures you may be inclined to regard me as the one who is barking mad though. After lunch Lisa, Jacob and I went to Castle Island so they could show me one of their favorite spots to walk and play. Between the Pleasant Cafe and Castle Island, Saturday was an example of how I love to visit a place and see it through the eyes of people who live there.





Sunday was the food show for Lisa and me. Once again no cameras allowed. Fancy bread bowls, high tech convection ovens, a wall of free booze, wheels of aged Parmesan, and swag bags of ball point pens clearly pose a threat to national security. It was interesting to note the difference between last year and this year. I guess everyone is taking hits because there was far less variety in the food to be sampled this year. There was a lot less meat, a lot more bread, portions were much tinier, and there was much more hoop jumping required. I began to feel a bit like a dolphin performing for fish...but hey, the smoked trout and salmon were worth a trick or two. No complaint s really because my admission to this even was free. It was just interesting to note the differences. Since I don't have any food show pictures here's a shot of Jacob in his new tie dye I took for him.





After the food show Jacob had a birthday party to attend so Lisa dropped me off at Boston Common and I meandered along the Freedom Trail up to the Charles River until it was nearly dark before hopping on the train to head back to their house. The last time I walked the Freedom Trail I was pregnant with Diana. I must say the lack of available public restrooms at that time made it somewhat less relaxing. This time it was a a nice contemplative walk with lovely doses of history breaking into my thoughts as I arrived at each site along the trail. Walking back to Lisa's house from the T station I was struck by the sight of the houses in her neighborhood silhouetted against the sky with their windows glowing welcomingly. It was a nice punctuation for the end of the weekend.