beowabbit

On Friday,

cathijosephine, and I went to see Eddie Izzard’s Force Majeur show, which was wonderfully hilarious. Can’t possibly do it justice. (And wow, the Wang Theatre is a stunning and stunningly restored venue!)

Beforehand,

plumtreeblossom and I had had dinner nearby at Empire Garden, which was the site of our first date almost eight years ago, and I had a scorpion bowl for the first time.

On Saturday, we went to Johnny D’s for brunch with

vanguardcdk for a late celebration of his birthday, and then headed to the Quincy house. I was exhausted — I’d been a bit underslept all week, and I had had to sleep without my CPAP machine the previous night because some bits were being cleaned — so I had a nice long nap, which is almost unheard of for me. Then I was thoroughly refreshed, and we did a bunch of yardwork (planting and watering our cosmos, and finally managing to take soil samples — previous efforts had been stymied by the weather). We finished just in time to enjoy a brief but torrential downpour from the dry comfort of the porch, had a yummy spaghetti and meatballs dinner, and then watched Ken Burns’ documentary The Shakers, from which we both learned an awful lot.

On Sunday we did a bunch more puttering around indoors and out (I was alternately working on house stuff and PMRP website stuff). I had a nice phone call with my mother

silverlibre (and left voicemail for my sister). Then around 2pm when we started to feel a little eleven-o’clockish,

plumtreeblossom had a culinary inspiration and made me a grilled-cheese sandwich for lunch with Cheddar, blue cheese, cream cheese, minced garlic, and roast beef. It was spectacular! And she doesn’t even like blue cheese herself. Now it’s her turn to take a nap, and she’s dozing in her room (which has become our nap room) while I catch up with the world.

How’s your weekend been?

Propeller aircraft coming in for a landing at Logan

Boston skyline against sunset (detail 1)

Boston skyline against sunset (detail 4)

Revels Harbor Island cruise, 2013-08-14 (selected photos), a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:In August 2013, my darling plumtreeblossom took me on a harbor cruise and sea-chantey singalong put on by the Revels (http://www.revels.org/). We had a blast! These are some of the pictures I took from the harbor.

Last night my beloved wuzzle took me on the Revels’ Harbor Cruise and Sing, and we had a truly fabulous time! Neither of us quite knew what we were in for; we both envisioned something like an smaller, but still concert-like, Christmas Revels performance aboard ship, but it was basically a sea-chantey singalong. It was wonderful! It really touched a chord in me (heh, heh) because I had a group of friends in college who used to get together on a fairly regular basis and sing folk songs (including some of the same sea chanteys we sang last night). It was just wonderful, and very romantic. I love being on the water. And I love my sweet honeywuzzle who knows how to make me so very happy.

(Photos to follow, BTW.)

When I haven’t posted for a long time, it’s hard to get posting again, because I want to fill in all the blanks, but that would be a post so long that (1) I would never get around to writing it, and (2) nobody would ever bother reading it. So I’m going to try to divide things up thematically. This post is about things.

I have a new camera that I am so far very pleased with. It’s a Samsung Galaxy Camera. It does 21x optical zoom (with optical stabilization), and has an automatic mode but also a fully manual mode (except for focus, but you can tap on the part of the image you want the camera to auto-focus on). ( More about the camera. )

I have my car back on the road, which is wonderful! If I’d realized how little it was going to cost to fix, I would have gotten it done a long time ago; I’ve spent several times that much on Zipcars in the interim.

( The car saga, and an auto-body recommendation in Quincy. )

I had assumed the car would be a few hundred dollars to repair. It wasn’t. So today [looks at clock] er, yesterday, I finally bought a powered lawnmower. ( On lawn mowing. )

Had some shopping to do after work. It was raining, and very windy. Windy enough that several of the metal tines in my folding umbrella broke and started hitting me in the face and head in the wind (although they were still attached to the fabric). Rather than potentially get cut or poked in the eye, I threw away the umbrella.

The wind was being driven more or less horizontally, anyway. The front of my jeans, facing into the wind, is as wet as if I’d worn them into a swimming pool.

So I got to the grocery store. On the bright side, they had a wonderful selection of umbrellas, including a nice big strong umbrella that survived the walk home (although I thought I was going to Mary Poppins a time or two). On the less-bright side, I found the empty spots on the shelves where the ingredients I needed would be if they weren’t out of them.

Got home, and the mailbox was wide open. Somehow, the letter carrier manages to close it consistently except when it’s raining or snowing. I think s/he has a vendetta against me. Fortunately, the only thing ruined by the rain was a catalogue; my mother’s lovely and amusing letter came yesterday when it was dry and sunny. And the UPS package that was left in the open on the front steps (instead of on the covered porch), unlike the last two delivered in the rain or snow, was in plastic rather than cardboard.

However, I have a warm dry house, family and friends who love me, and a beloved honeywuzzle who fills my heart with joy. (I should just lay these jeans out in front of her bright warm smile; they’ll dry in no time.)

PS — Also, LiveJournal seems to have completely broken my ability to select a userpic. Assume I’m posting this with my clear-umbrella userpic, ’cause I can’t select it. [EDIT: I was able to pick it when I came back and edited this post a few months later.]

Current Mood: grumpy but loved

It was quite the ordeal. I can now say that I've dug my car out of the snow on the interstate. And the windshield spontaneously cracked on the way here. And oh my holy blessed virgin mother of pearl, the hours-long ordeal of finding a place I could park (thanks,

usernamenumber and

preraphaelite). But I'm here safe and warm in Somervile with

plumtreeblossom. And so is Chickenfinger, although she's been hiding for hours and we don't know where she is. And I just got out of an ecstatically wonderful hot shower. Life is good.

(There are some indications that power may be on again in my neighborhood in Quincy. Hard to be certain, though. And no way I am going out in that again tonight.)

For those who didn't see this on Facebook, which was the only place I could sort of get to last night:

plumtreeblossom and I are stuck in Quincy. Power went out around 9 last night. Heat and hot water stayed on a while but went out (maybe the pilot light blew out?) sometime overnight. I've been shovelling for when the travel ban is lifted (or when I decide we'll freeze if we stay here or I can't manage without my CPAP machine for another night). I've got maybe another hour's shovelling before I'd be able to get the car out; I'm taking a break.

(Another issue about driving anywhere is: Where would I find a place to park? Really wish the T were running.)

Had virtually no internet on my phone until I thought to come up to the second floor bedroom (which is warmer, anyway); up here I have enough to post to LJ and SSH to my mail server.

I'm leaving my phone off most of the time, but feel free to text if you want to get in touch with me.

Hope y'all're staying dry, warm, loved, and safe. Me, for now I'm settling for loved and safe.

plumtreeblossom is here with me in Quincy, and we’re hunkered down for the storm. Hasn’t been bad yet. The snow is sure coming down, though! I brushed it off the car to go pick her up at the T station, and by the time I’d finished, the windshield (where I’d started) was already covered again.

Current Mood: loved

Power: on
Water: flowing and potable
Trees: standing
House: warm
Basement: dry
Cat: sleeping

My work is closed today, and the Boston subway shut down at 2:00pm, but all is well so far in Quincy. I hope things are going as well for everybody reading this.

One of

plumtreeblossom’s and my traditions is Topsfield Fair. This fall is extremely densely packed (among other things with a trip to North Carolina to see my niece and nephew, whom we remembered at the Midway!), and often when we go to Topsfield it’s very crowded, so this year we decided to take a day off work and go on a weekday. By chance, the day that worked for us was today, opening day. The rain made it even less crowded than it otherwise would have been; we got to park right by an entrance. (We’re used to getting satellite parking and having to take a shuttlebus.)

We had a predictably fabulous time. Sheep and goats and cows and vegetables and bees and honey and baby chicks and piglets and oh so much fair food! And I was enjoying it all with my darling honeywuzzle.

Life is good.

Oh, unrelatedly, last night was our first full-cast rehearsal of the one-act play we’re in. This was the first time we’d seen/performed the entire play (as opposed to individual scenes with just the people in them) since the original run-through. It was lots of fun, and I think it was going to be great!

Since last weekend (Circus weekend!), I’ve been busy.

You might need to click this twice; I do, on two different browsers:

Monday was the regular Poly Boston dinner at Bertucci’s. Unfortunately plumtreeblossom couldn’t make it because of rehearsal. It was quite fun, with a bunch of cool new people!
Tuesday I had dinner with xmelancholia near (my) work; she introduced me to a new-to-me restaurant, Mulan. I loved their chicken in chili sauce. More importantly, I loved the opportunity to catch up with xmelancholia. She rocks, and I hadn’t seen her in a while.
Wednesday I usually get together with cathijosephine for dinner, but she was out of town for a funeral (my sympathies to buxom_bey, whose relative’s funeral it was), so plumtreeblossom and I went over to hang out with surrealestate, DD, and little J, and we had a blast. Love that little baby! (Actually, love all of them!)
Thursday I got together with teratomarty, who works near me. Among the impetuses (impetusses? impeti?) for getting together were some biological specimens (small animals, mostly arthropods) in jars that I had aquired, and wanted to pass along to him. I had enjoyed the food at Mulan so much on Tuesday that I suggested we go there again. Had a great time.
Friday morning in the shower I heard that the annual sheepshearing festival at Gore Place was going to be Saturday. Oops! plumtreeblossom and I love that event, and had tried unsuccessfully a month or so ago to figure out when it was. We ended up shuffling some plans around so we could go.
Friday night I drove to the airport to pick up bedfull_o_books, who was arriving at Logan after a very very long series of flights from Beirut. Got to hear about her fabulous visit to Lebanon and Egypt with r_ness, and she brought me some Lebanese coffee with cardamom which I look forward to making.
Saturday I slept really late (needed to; the flight was delayed, and I was sleep-deprived anyway to start with), so we were late to the sheepshearing festival, but we got there in time to enjoy epic fair noms, stroll among the vendors (and make some impulse purchases), and see the border collie demo (border collies managing sheep and goats). I had foolishly forgotten to bring my good camera, but I got a few photos on my phone which I may get around to posting eventually. Afterwards, we had dinner at Blue Ribbon Barbeque in Arlington, which I’d never been to before (although I’ve had it catered at work a few times). The brisket was quite good. (The sausage was good too, but, contrary to the menu’s assertion, it was not at all spicy.)
Today, after sleeping in (which we both needed) and breakfast at The Broken Yolk, I came home to Quincy for a very productive afternoon of yardwork and working on the house. I completed three of my four painting projects; just have a final coat on the office door left to do. I didn’t get as much cleaning done as I’d like, but I got lots of work done on the yard and I have the pleasant aches of a productive day of physical labour.

So, busy and happy (and as always, epically in love with my honeywuzzle).

I’ve uploaded some photos from our day at Nantasket Beach a week ago to Flickr. Here they are. Photos of the two of us, and lots of photos of seagulls.

plumtreeblossom and I went to Topsfield Fair yesterday, as is our annual custom. It was very crowded this time, but that didn’t impair our enjoyment. In fact, it increased it, because we ran into

urban_faerie_ and

clarity_dog and then

ayelle and

zendzian and

ayelle’s sister (whose LJ name I don’t know), and we all hung out and had a blast (and lots of food, including the world’s best macaroni and cheese and a smoked turkey leg almost as big as my head that I couldn’t finish). We’re thinking about taking a day off work so we can go during the work week next year. (And maybe on a weekend day as well — there’s too much to see in one day.)

Life is very, very good. And suckling piglets are very cute.

It is possible that there will be a few photos if I ever get myself organized to post them.

Also, I have a few people coming to look at the room in the next couple days, so I might stop hemorrhaging money quite so rapidly soon.

Another delightful weekend. On Friday, I met

plumtreeblossom at her house (on the late side, because she had a surprise wedding to perform). Neither of us had had dinner, so we grabbed an exceptionally yummy dinner at Sound Bites. At her place we had a great time hanging out on the porch with

vanguardcdk, who is excellent company.

Yesterday, we went to the annual Earth Day festival on the Charles River Esplanade, which included a concert by OK Go. As we arrived, OK Go were performing a really lovely song on handbells. We wandered a bit, and

plumtreeblossom went swagging, said swag this year mostly consisting of food. It looked nommy. I took a little time out and just sat by the river, enjoying the first sunny day after a week of grey rainy skies, while

plumtreeblossom braved one of the muddier parts of the festival.

When we’d wandered through the whole thing, we still had a fair amount of time before we’d want dinner, so we decided to see a movie. We were choosing between Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor, and the schedule favoured Thor, which was what we saw. It was fluffy fun. After all the walking (and free samples) we weren’t all that hungry, so we went to the South Station concourse and got grilled cheese sandwiches from Cheeseboy, a relatively new grilled-cheese stand there, on our way home.

Today, which turned out again to be gorgeous and sunny, we spent a big chunk of the afternoon outside working in the yard.

plumtreeblossom weeded and tended the flowerbeds, and made a new one along the driveway; we sprayed for bugs (since some of the plants are showing signs of depradations), I mowed, and we planted new cosmos seeds. We’ve already got very vigorous lupines from last year. The potted grape and blackberry plants I got a few weeks ago are doing well (although the blackberry is a bit chewed up); the blueberry plant is so chewed up that I worry it might not make it. Then we did a little shopping (during which I got some pachysandra for a particular patch on the front lawn where currently nothing grows but the occasional sparse weed), and I drove

plumtreeblossom home.

Oh, mixed in there was a bit of concern about being able to get the car to start, but we eventually did.

When I got back home, I planted the pachysandra and discovered, perhaps, why that particular spot has trouble growing anything. Well, one problem is that it’s in shade almost all the time, but also, the soil is spectacularly rocky. It’s about half gravel by volume. But even if the pachysandra don’t do very well, they’ll be an improvement.

Oh, and I got enough sleep! That never happens.

So it was a delightful weekend!

Behind the cut, why you should always wear safety goggles when using a weed whacker.

( Why you should always wear safety goggles when using a weed whacker. )

That’s something analogous to a bruise or a blood blister on my eyeball, from a piece of grit getting thrown into my eye at high speed. Whee! It hurt right when it happened, but almost immediately felt completely fine (and still feels fine now several hours later). If it had been a couple millimeters over, though, that might have been a very different story.

Don’t try this at home, kids! Wear eye protection!

PS — And of course after this happened (and I’d taken a look and satisfied myself that the damage wasn’t too serious), I went and found the safety goggles I’d been too lazy to look for before starting.

As previously posted, my darling

plumtreeblossom is stranded in Rochester. Today is her birthday. I wish we could spend it together, but I can’t wait to see her in any case.

Happy 47th birthday, love! Looking forward to your 94th! (Let’s hope you’re not stranded away from your wuzzle for that one.)

plumtreeblossom is out in Rochester visiting her family. She was supposed to be flying back tonight. This morning I got a call from her saying she’d be getting in very late on the bus because flights to Boston are cancelled due to the snowstorm and the trains were all sold out.

A few minutes ago I got a call from her saying that the bus was cancelled. At this point she has no idea how or when she’s getting back to the Boston area.

Tonight after I picked her up was going to be our little Christmas celebration, opening gifts from my family. Tomorrow’s her birthday and we were going to celebrate with dinner. At this point it looks not at all certain that she’ll even be home by any point tomorrow. Poor darling. But wherever she is, she knows I love her.

In other news, I’ve been spending most of this holiday break at work. (When nobody else is around is a good time to do upgrades.) I have to say, I really love being at work with no distractions and nothing in particular I have to do in the evenings; being able to get in when I feel like it, sit down and focus solidly on one project all day, and leave feeling accomplished when I’m hungry or tired or just slowing down. I feel like I accomplish so much more in a quiet uninterrupted day on a holiday weekend than on an ordinary workday. And despite the fact that I’ve gone to work every day, it really feels like a vacation. I really enjoy my job.

I am sure ready to have my honeywuzzle back, though!

Had a truly excellent, amazingly full weekend of adventure and productivity. I don’t have the focus right now to write much, but I will mention that

plumtreeblossom and I made our annual pilgrimage to Canobie Lake Park and went shopping (one of our favourite kinds of dates, oddly enough, especially since ordinarily I find shopping a chore), I discovered that

desiringsubject is quite a good cook, even when trying last-minute to accommodate the dietary needs of some weirdo who doesn’t eat tomatoes, I was reminded how happy I am when driving (especially with the sunroof open, a hand on my honeywuzzle’s knee, a breeze in my ~~hair~~ fuzz, and the sun on my face) and how much I need to get a car again, and I finished mowing the lawn, resulting in my temporary inability to hold anything in my left hand or raise my left arm very far. (Actually, I think that was from the weight of the weed whacker.)

Today I am very sleepy because I stayed up late last night for no good reason (and had an odd dream about a high-school biology teacher I once had giving me a very very strange punishment for political reasons), but I’m still full of joy from the weekend. And being tired doesn’t kill you.¹

¹ And if it does — hey, rest! So, fine either way. :-)

Lots going on over the last few weeks, and I’m so behind in reporting it that I’m just going to do bullet points, in something approaching reverse chronological order:

My beloved honeywuzzle plumtreeblossom is cooking me eggs and ham and toast for breakfast. Om nom nom!
We saw Despicable Me last night and really enjoyed it.
I feel like I’m hitting my groove at the new job, and feeling really good about it.
Talked to bcat1 recently; she and the babies are doing really well. They’ve started rolling over and are just starting the process of learning to crawl. My mother silverlibre is going to visit in August, while papa spacechicken is visiting family in Canada.
The festival went really really well! We sold out most of the nights, which is unusual. (We usually sell out one or two.) The cast party was lots of fun, but judging by the scandalous things I’ve been hearing, we may have left a bit too early. As I posted earlier, I have photos from the show plumtreeblossom directed up, and hope to get photos of the rest of the shows up soon.
Oh, speaking of photos, yesterday after going in to work for an upgrade I took a bunch of photos of the building I work in, also to be posted soon. Practical it’s not, but it sure is pretty.
I love living in Boston. cathijosephine and I have been going to a series of free outdoor classical concerts. Now that she’s done with the semester’s classes, plumtreeblossom can join us for some of them.
I’m really enjoying the summer, with walks along the river and lots of good outdoor time. plumtreeblossom and I are going to the beach next weekend.

I’ve got loads more to say, but that at least lets you all know that I’m still here and still having fun!

Current Mood: happy

So,

cathijosephine is going to be participating in the Three-Day Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure to fundraise for breast-cancer research. Wanna sponsor her? She’s trying to get (at least) 100 people to donate $23.00 each. (She’s going to be walking with her mother in San Diego.)

She’s going to be blogging about her training walks at that link too, so even if you aren’t up for making a donation you might want to check out that link.

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Resources: one time to cry...

Another former LJer, now mostly on Facebook

Entries tagged with outdoors

A wonderful weekend of love, laughs, home, food, and family

Revels Harbor Island cruise, 2013-08-14 (selected photos)

Revels Cruise and Sing

Things

Slightly grumpy; very wet

Safe and warm in Somerville

Only the power and heat of our love

Warm, cozy, and safe with my honeywuzzle

Five o’clock and all’s well!

Topsfield Fair

A busy week in review

Nantasket Beach photos

Fabulous day at the fair

Another delightful weekend

Actually, it’s all fun and games afterwards, too!

Happy birthday to my darling plumtreeblossom

My poor stranded wuzzle!

Excellent weekend; sleepy weekday

Quick update in bullet points

PSA the second — sponsor cathijosephine in Walk for the Cure

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August 2016

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