Life Is Sweet In the Fenway

Hey there...a word about my Flickr page

2010-08-18T22:19:00.002-04:00

Hey again...'just wanted post a link to my Flickr page where I periodically post photos I have taken.

www.flickr.com/photos/ECale80

Check them out...so far, I have posted some pics of a camping trip to Upstate NY; a day trip down to the Mansion district of Newport, RI; revelry during one of our many trips to watch a polo match in Rhode Island over a tailgate; a trip to Virginia; etc, etc.

In recent news, I had my last committee meeting with my advisors last Monday afternoon (8/9). They granted me permission to begin writing my dissertation, which means that everything from here on out is a formality and that I will be granted a PhD within the next 6 months (provided that scheduling of the defense doesn't prove to be a hassle). This means I will walk and be "hooded" next early June! It was a long time coming...

Update

2010-07-07T23:11:00.002-04:00

Since I have decided to take a break from blogging, I have started up a new Flickr page.

www.flickr.com/photos/ecale80

I will try to post with some regularity.

May I include a plug here for a theatrical production I saw last night at the Charles Playhouse. Shear Madness has been playing for a record-breaking 30 years at this location, and has spawned other troupes that have established their own ongoing productions in places like D.C. Bill and I saw the play with our fabulous friend Lynette (of Columbus Cafe, also worth checking out...for its great patio, awesome food, regular clientele, super friendly staff/owners/managers, and delightfully campy interior bar space that plays classic movies all the time) last night, thanks to a friend and regular at the bar, Chandra Pieragostini. The show was hilarious...a comedy whodunnit that engages the audience to interact with the replay of a murder above a Newbury Street barbershop, engage the cast during intermission, interrogate the characters about the murder, and finally vote on the culprit. The show is all about improvisation, incorporating the latest current events and even throwing in a few stabs at people from local places, and allowing the audience to determine the outcome of the play. In other words, no performance is the same!

The show is full of laugh-out-loud comedy, with plenty of inuendos, and an occasional picking at audience members. It's great fun for all ages. While the younger folks may not get a lot of the humor, they are certainly invited to play into the action, asking questions and staying engaged in the storyline. The set also serves the play well...very colorful, intimate with the audience, and fitting for the campy mood. The best part is that every show is different and totally dependent on the audience present and the latest trends in news, commercial advertising, and celebrity gossip. Some of the actors even switch roles from time to time, so a revisit is always worth the ticket.

Check it out...it's always playing (in the same building as the Blue Man Group). Many reviews suggest that this is a great idea for a date, to which I agree. An even more fun idea is to assemble a group to see the play...the seating arrangement in the theatre space is especially conducive for audience interaction, even with the cast (there's also a bar at the rear that is open before and during intermission).

Taking a break...

2010-05-25T22:11:00.002-04:00

Some people have asked me whether or not I have stopped blogging. Well, not intentionally. I've had a pretty busy spring, so this has taken the back burner for a while. Things are going well...I'm writing a manuscript that is about to be submitted for review. After submission (sometime over the next couple of weeks), I will schedule my last dissertation advisory committee meeting, where, unless something goes horribly wrong, I will get the written permission needed to begin the process of submitting my dissertation for defense. Things are only going to get crazier over the next few months, but it's nice to see some sort of line at the end of the tunnel.

So, I'll leave it at that for now. I may, on a whim, decide to start posting more updates, but for now I, like most bloggers I have followed over the years, have grown tired of whining about my life, or bragging about the good times (or posting an opinion that inevitably gets tagged into the wrong forum and ends up biting me back in the ass).

'Hoping everyone has a great Memorial Day. No plans here yet...will be camping with Bill and friends in upstate New York the week following, however. That should be fun.

Boston week of fire!

2010-04-08T23:21:00.002-04:00

With pleasant (and unseasonably dry and warm) weather comes the risk of fire...as you can gather from my previous post, the week started with a spectacular fire in the Fens that left much of the marsh blackened by soot and burned reeds. Luckily, it did not reach into the famed Victory Gardens that abut the reeds on the Muddy River's western banks.

Yesterday (Wednesday), the temperature reached 90 degrees around 2:30PM, a record for April 7th. Our average high this time of year is the low to mid 50s. People were out and about enjoying the dry and warm (and pleasantly breezy) weather that usually befalls us in the middle of the summer. I decided to go home early in the afternoon...on my walk home, I noticed 3 local news station helicopters hovering over the Fenway/Back Bay area...this is usually a sign that something serious is going down. Probably a fire. I called Bill to alert him to the local news as to what was going on. No answer. So, I turned on the local channels once I returned home, to find that there was a major fire in a condo building at the corner of Mass Ave and Beacon Street...a MAJOR intersection in Boston...it caused quite a snarl for those heading into Cambridge via the Mass Ave/Harvard Bridge and those wishing to traverse the Back Bay between Beacon Hill and Kenmore Square. It was a NINE ALARM fire...of the 260-something odd firefighters on duty yesterday afternoon, 180 were called to the scene...one of the largest fires in recent times. 4 people were hospitalized due to the fire, including a firefighter with chest pains. A woman evacuating to the roof collapsed due to smoke inhalation. She was revived by firefighters with CPR and their oxygen supply...she was released from MGH this afternoon after spending the night in a hyperbaric chamber. Luckily, noone died in the incident, although the fire dept admits that some pets probably perished in the blaze. The 10-story condo building is currently uninhabitable.

Today, Bill and I took a long walk past both fire scenes, across the Mass Ave Bridge, and along the Cambridge Esplanade along Memorial Drive to the Museum of Science. It was here that I had a strange pain in my right hamstring (which is kinda rare for this kind of walk...flat and not all that long)...we took the trolley from Science Park, transferred to a D trolley at Park Street, and made it to Hynes Convention Center, when the trolley lost all power. I smelled some smoke (ahh...a brake failure...I commented to Bill, as I have experienced these on the Red Line multiple times). Then, someone shouted smoke!!! Let us out...there's smoke in here! And there certainly was. In a fleeting moment of panic, we all rushed from our seats and made our way to the doors (for a brief moment, I was wondering how quickly we would be able to evacuate the powerless train, as smoke, with the distinct odor of an electrical fire, was wafting from the vents at the center of the trolley). We stuck around on the platform to see what was happening until the smell of the smoke was too strong for us to stand it. We left the station to see the Fire Department and Transit Police arriving at the Mass Ave entrance to the station as we were walking away from the building. I assume all was OK...just caused some confusion and backed-up traffic on the T and Mass Ave (once again). We're still wondering what caused all of that smoke...it was pretty dense!

Three fire encounters in one week...let's hope that is it!

Fire in the Fens!

2010-04-05T22:06:00.005-04:00

Around 6:15 this evening, my friend Derek called me, asking me to come outside and watch what was going down across the street. The phragmites (reeds) that line the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens had caught on fire and were blazing quite intensely. The Boston Fire Department had the fire under control, but not before it had consumed pretty much the entire west bank of the Muddy River from the Boylston Street Bridge to Agassiz Road and the Duck House.

There were TONS of people watching the fire...so many that the police/fire crews did little to prevent them from walking within a few feet of the blaze. Here are some photos taken from the area near the Duck House on Agassiz (viewable to the right), where we first stopped to watch...

I thought those were firemen silhouetted against the flames...upon closer inspection of the photo, those turned out to be spectators on the Victory Gardens side of the river!

The Canada Geese were frantic...poor things, as much as a pest they can be in the area...
I was standing about 10 feet from this area when it erupted into flames, causing me and about 50 other people to rush backward...
...Closer to the Boylston Street Bridge, which was still carrying traffic at the time (not to mention giving a huge crowd a nice view before they were ordered off due to the smoke)...

The aftermath...

Now, for those who witnessed this today and think it has devastated the park...NOT TRUE! Watch the banks over the next few months, and you will see fresh, green phragmites sprouting and thriving in these areas. As it turns out, this kind of brush fire is a regular (yearly, if not multiple times a year) occurrence in the Back Bay Fens. Usually the destruction is not to this scale, however. A small patch burned along Agassiz Road last spring and was totally recovered a few months later. In fact, I thought this was a controlled burn until I walked outside and noticed the scale (and a fire truck stuck in the mud...had to be winched and towed away tonight) of the fire. Never have I seen the park surrounded by fire trucks along Boylston Street, Agassiz Road, Park Drive, and The Fenway like this.

Noone was injured in the fire, and all surrounding buildings were not in any danger. Some geese may be displaced (nests destroyed? I don't know enough about their mating cycles/nesting habits to make any judgments).

Mating habits of a certain Boston demographic, however...well, they'll have to camp out on the other side of the river for a little while, I suppose.

Below: From what I could tell, this is the extent of the damage. BPD and BFD cars/trucks were stationed all around the perimeter of the fire, marked by Boylston St, Fenway, Agassiz Rd, and Park Dr. As you can imagine, the proximity to Boylston, I-90, and the Charlesgate Ramps to Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Rd made for quite a traffic snarl. The Boylston Street Bridge was eventually closed, as was some of the Charlesgate ramps.
Next (perhaps): flooding at Jamaica Pond on Saturday afternoon, 4 days after the storm...nature's opposite disaster.

Incoming Storm over Boston Harbor

2010-03-31T23:18:00.002-04:00

Bill and I took a drive down the South Shore (Route 3A, to be exact) on Sunday afternoon, since neither of us had anything better to do. We wound our way through the shores of Quincy, Hingham, and ended up along Nantasket Beach and Hill. As you can see from the pictures, one has a nice view of Boston from the South Shore peninsulas that jut into Quincy Bay and Boston Harbor.

Below, the city as viewed from Nut Island in Quincy. This land was once a sewage treatment plant that went offline in the late 90s and has since been replaced by a sewage screening facility that sends waste across the Harbor to Deer Island for treatment and decontamination. Flooding from 2 weeks ago forced this facility to flush untreated sewage into Quincy Bay. State legislators are furious. They didn't have a choice, really. It didn't smell. (It was low tide when I took the pic; no, that is not shit in the foreground).
The rest of these were taken from Hull, a bit further southeast down the shore. The storm that dropped 6 inches of rain on Boston is seen swooping in during the late afternoon. The two buildings to the left in the distance are in Back Bay in Boston. The left one is the 750-ft Prudential Tower (see pictures taken from the top posted a month or two ago) and the other, skinnier one is the 800-ft Hancock Tower, the tallest building in New England.

Just across this narrow strait (with amazingly swift currents that a still image couldn't capture) is Peddock's Island, which is accessible during the summer months by the ferry tours around the Boston Harbor Islands. I was eaten alive by mosquitoes on this island when walking around it by myself back in 2006...I had to ask someone summering there in a cottage for some bug spray. Luckily they obliged (it was kinda weird approaching someone with no teeth that I did not know, catching dinner on a somewhat remote island polluted by Boston, for DEET).
The particular location is called Windmill Point (and marked by a 3-foot tall marker, accessible by a spiral handicap ramp, as Pemberton Point) and is home to Hull 1, an energy-producing windmill that has been operating there since the 1990s. There's a newer, larger windmill (Hull 2) further inland. This city is taking advantage of its location for consuming alternate energy...imagine dozens of these off the Cape Cod coast in a few years. Actually, despite its size, it makes the most wonderful, soft, "whooshing" sound that would put one to sleep.

Below, Bill is hypnotized by the windmill's rotation.

The Spring Tease...

2010-03-25T22:45:00.003-04:00

Now that I have finally had a good day this week (the end of the week being nature's oh-so-effective anti-anxiodepressant), I feel compelled to share some images from last Saturday, the official first day of Spring, and Boston's prettiest day yet in 2010. Temps reached into the 70s, and the sun was out (after a terrible Nor'Easter the weekend before that dumped over 10 inches of rain on the area, flooded the Muddy River in the Fens, and forced the sewage works in Quincy to dump raw shit into Quincy Bay).

On Saturday morning, while waiting for Bill to get his ass out of bed and cook something for a rooftop picnic (I threatened him over the phone that I would buy a rotisserie chicken and cook a glop full of Stove Top, which wouldn't have been so bad), I walked around the recently restored Clemente Field in the West Fenway neighborhood (my HOME!!) and caught a bit of a league softball game...
One of the perks of living near this field...men...lots of them...shirtless...with six packs...doing what they do best - playing football. ............................
OK...I'm back now...so Bill followed through and cooked up some awesome cheese-stuffed turkey burgers, cuke and tomato salad, and other goodies. We brought everything down to Matt and Sarah's place on the Riverway in Mission Hill, where we proceeded to enjoy the warm sun on their rooftop until the sun set. We played some card games, took pictures, listened to music on the iPhone, and drank. We used sunscreen (at least I did...).

Below, Sarah with her awesome hair and Bill with his awesome curls...
Ahhh...nothing beats a smogless New England sunset....
I promised to cook breakfast on Sunday (apparently a "homestyle homestyle" one, as I texted him at 1AM Sunday morning). Well, I did NOT come through with that plan. However, we DID take a joyride up to the North Shore (it being too chilly to walk around town, as the temperature had dropped 20 degrees from the previous day). We ended up traveling up Route 1A, which I have not done in a long time...maybe 3-4 years (Phlip, do you remember when?). Below is the seawall at Lynn Beach...

...and the City of Boston skyline visible in the distant center horizon....
Red Rocks Park, where we stepped onto a red rock in a park below the seawall. It was nice...but cold.
This week was...busy. And anxiety-driven. Work has been crazy (I got home at 10 PM today), but productive...all in an effort to graduate soon (well, at least defend...I'll walk next Spring). I'm writing a manuscript for publication at the moment. Half of the results section is done...

We had more rain on Tuesday, along with a fuel oil spill in the Muddy River that has resulted in a petroleum odor in the park and floating containment booms being placed in the river. We are expecting more rain tonight (any time now, as a matter of fact).

Pot smoke is drifting into my window now.

Goodnight.

Out of the flood...

2010-03-16T23:44:00.002-04:00

Boston experienced a pretty bad Nor'Easter this past weekend...continuous rain and wind from Friday night through last night (Monday). We had over 1o inches of rain (as reported in the Globe) as of yesterday morning. The Muddy River in the Fens and along the Riverway reached flood stage (15 feet), which necessitated the construction of an emergency double dam at the portal where the D line enters Kenmore Station (in efforts to prevent a flood similar to one that inundated Kenmore Station back in 1996).

Aside from not being able to venture out for a few days for more than a 15-minute walk (which resulted in me being soaked and my wool coat smelling like wet sheep), the storm didn't impact my activity too much. Yes, I missed the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in South Boston, but that was a small price to pay for keeping dry and warm. The biggest issue was the flooding of my apartment building's basement. It had to be pumped out continuously yesterday (and, given the couple of old sump pump motors sitting next to the dumpster yesterday afternoon, my building may have been more prepared for this than it was). The elevators were shut down due to flooding in the pits for the better parts of Sunday and Monday, and the laundry room was locked down because of overloading of the drains. My superintendent even sandbagged his own apartment door in the basement in case the waters reached the basement floor.

Everything dried out miraculously quickly today, under blue skies and 50 degree weather. We are in for a treat over the next few days, with no rain forecasted until the next week.

As for me, work has been busy and incredibly stressful this week. Bill bore the brunt of my anxiety and snappishness last night while he served a very tasty homemade chicken soup (halfway through I had to duck out and return to the lab for something I neglected to do earlier in the day). My fun came this evening, when we went grocery shopping and I insisted on using the self check-out scanners. It's a riot to see him work one of these things...missed scans, multiple visits by a scanning supervisor to help him with more difficult items, and, on top of it all, checking out and realizing he forgot to scan some of his items. I have never seen someone rip the receipt from a machine more angrily than he tonight. All the while, I was bagging his groceries and laughing through it. Endless entertainment. But, damn, is he a good cook!!!

Early Spring in B&W

2010-03-09T22:57:00.008-05:00

Again, sorry for the lack of posting. Perhaps a lot is due to the winter slump, which has certainly not been without incident this year!

Pictures from this past weekend, when the sun was out, the temps were in the 50s, and my camera was set on B&W. 'Works for many shots; not so much for some others. If they seem dark, that was my intention....

Frog Pond Ice Skating, Boston Common...

Park Street Church steeple...
Views of the South End and South Boston/Dorchester from Top of the Hub, on the 52nd floor (750 feet) of the Prudential Tower, where Bill and I had a couple of beers seated next to the window...Bill pondering over...??....or maybe he was numbed that afternoon as I was...

No, this building is not under construction, and, no, it is not located in Cambridge. Take a wild guess (it isn't that hard!)...
Back Bay Fens...the phragmites that will inevitably burn in a month or two, either on their own or by preventative controlled burning measures...
Long Wharf...ahhh...the seaspray...
Curious public art installation on India Wharf...cargo ship hatches?
Rowes Wharf...
Two months ago, my mom asked me to send pictures of a new coat I had purchased with money my parents had given me for this purpose...as a Christmas gift. It took me until tonight to set up the tripod and set up the shot (under threat of having to explain how I spent the money on something other than the coat, as I found in my email inbox this afternoon). Here it is...(please excuse the state of my apartment...the ladder is not mine and is better stowed away in Bill's apartment, and I am usually better about picking up after dirty laundry. Books are out of control, however...). It is an Andrew Marc coat with faux fur lining! SO SO nice!!!
(I'm wearing my new green Sauconys, purchased on sale and with a hefty coupon last weekend...just in time for St. Patrick's Day!!).

Fenway news, food, and ...

2010-02-24T23:07:00.002-05:00

'Just read an interesting posting on UniversalHub tonight concerning the fate of the famed Peterborough Street block that burned out over a year ago. Apparently, El Pelon Taqueria is opening a new location near BC, but has every intention of relocating back to its Fenway home once it is rebuilt. Apparently the owner of the building, who has promised the neighborhood that he has every intention to bring Restaurant Row back to live, recently submitted plans to the BRA for a 5-story mixed-use building on that block. Not surprising, given what is sprouting all around us over the past 5 years. One can only hope that rents in such a development will not preclude home-spun businesses from returning/settling there.

The burning of Restaurant Row, while immensely heartbreaking to me and to the rest of the neighborhood (god, do I miss Thornton's brunches on the sidewalk), meant a new direction for me...I learned how to cook. I even enjoy it now...sometimes. Yet, nothing will ever replace Rod Dee II's Kai Himmapan (and, no, I don't have the time or energy to go to Brookline just for this dish) or Greek Isles' awesome gyro and friendly staff.

On the note of food...I made another vegetable beef soup today. It was prepared last night and sat in the slow cooker for 7 hours on low for the better part of today. The recipe:

1 can green beans
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can diced potatoes
1 can sweet yellow corn
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 small-medium onions, roughly chopped
1 lb lean (94/6) ground beef, browned
2 cups water
Sriracha...squirt in as you prefer for heat
Crazy Jane's Mixed Up Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Cook on low 6-8 hours

It was very tasty. Be careful with the Sriracha, as the rectal revenge can easily come back to bite you in the ass (literally).

plumbing

2010-02-23T22:55:00.002-05:00

There's a moral to this story...short ending is to prepare for plumbing disasters.

In my lab, my boss holds a meeting with all of the grad students (there are currently 7 of us) every Tuesday morning at 8:30AM-10:00AM. It is my job to schedule who speaks from week to week, and also who brings food for the others. This week was my week to bring the usual sack of Bruegger's Bagels (including one pumpernickel for the boss).

I woke up at 7AM (early but in prep for this meeting and food duty) this morning and showered, being very pleased that the hot water was at a remotely warm temperature today. 'Only thing was that when it was time to turn the tub tap off, it wouldn't shut off the water. It kept pouring out of the faucet at FULL FORCE. I frantically tried to find a way to shut off the hot water from the wall valve next to the toilet, but those valves have no knobs. Once I found a pair of pliers, I managed to move the valve to shut it off, only to find that in the off position, it rapidly leaked black-stained water all over the floor. I had no choice but to turn it back on and bail the tub out into the bathroom sink for the next half hour while waiting for my super, whom I paged (and thankfully he responded), to return to the building after doing errands.

He repaired the tap with the water valve shut off, collecting the leaking water into a plastic bowl (one that I use exclusively for shaving and for tossing aside scraps from chopping veggies while cooking). I returned home to find two newly valved pipes coming from the wall, muddy bootprints in my bathtub, snack leftovers on my kitchen sink, and sand (??) all over the bathroom floor. I'm just glad my bathroom is fixed.

While all of this was going on, I called a bunch of (sleeping) grad students, asking one to bring food in my place while I sorted this all out. The meeting was canceled last night because the boss is in NYC. It just happened that I didn't check my email last night.

*Sigh*

I did some shopping with Bill, Matt, and Sarah on Sunday at Wrentham Village (outlet mall about 45 minutes south of Boston). We fueled up with a breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (I had none other than the Sunrise Sampler, which gives you pretty much everything but pancakes/waffles) before tackling stores. I managed to buy a pair of jeans, a few shirts, and underwear.

I've had a few people at lab (in addition to Bill) tell me that I look like I have a hickey on the side of my neck. As it turns out, a nasty freak head injury from a week ago (it was checked out at the Brigham...all OK) has decided to heal itself by draining yellow/green/brown blood degradation crap down the back of my neck and behind my ear. If only I had bought a few turtlenecks while shopping a few days ago...

I'm here....

2010-02-16T23:19:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's been a long time since I have posted anything. Nothing much has been going on over the last few weeks...same weekday work, same weekend socializing.

I'll refrain from posting the details from a rather adventurous weekend over the past couple of days. Suffice it to say that everything is back to normal, pretty much, and that everything is fine.

I've been watching the Olympics a bit...trying to catch what I can during the evenings. Skating is interesting, and I have a new respect for curling. Let's hope that the Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland opens its doors once again for Olympics enthusiasts to try their own hand at pushing/brushing forward stones.

Warmer weather is soon ahead of us, you all!

UPDATE: As it turns out, Broomstones is having an open house (still costs $10) to try out curling for yourself. Sunday, March 7, 2010: 1-5PM. Check it out on the website here!

Someone commented...

2010-02-01T23:23:00.003-05:00

Thanks, Phlip. I saw it on Break.com a few days ago, and supposedly it was featured on The Soup on E! Here's Boston's favorite weatherman, Pete Bouchard, who recently gained national attention for touting his manhood....

Snowfall Size Matters - Watch more Funny Videos

Hmmmm...

Chelsea, MA and other locations...

2010-01-31T23:21:00.004-05:00

It's been an interesting weekend. The Harvard Immunology Program interviewed its incoming recruits this weekend, and for current students like me, that means lots of free food and nights out drinking. Thursday night...drinks and dinner at the Squealing Pig in Mission Hill. Friday...a cocktail reception at the medical school, then a night out at the Lansdowne Pub next to Fenway Park. Saturday...brunch, an afternoon full of activities (including a housing tour led by me and another student as well as ice skating/tour of the Isabella Gardner Museum/tour of Cambridge/beer tour), and a dinner at a faculty member's house in Newton, where we sampled awesome Sichuan cuisine and listened to an Indian Tabla performance by a student and a recruit. Last night ended with a house party in Mission Hill, where we stayed into the wee hours of the morning playing beer games (or in my case, dancing and watching a flip cup tournament).

Today, I hurt a lot.

I met a lot of amazing people over the past weekend...people from Korea, Slovenia, Singapore, and others from all over the country. Among them were a 17 year-old prodigy and an Olympic swimmer who goes to school in California and swims for his home team in Europe.

To decompress today, I slept in and then rode around the North Shore with Bill, where I saw some places where he used to work (including the now-abandoned Malden Medical Center which is still standing empty). I took some pictures of Boston as viewed from the North Shore, too...some of which you may find interesting.

Below is the Boston skyline as viewed from the parking garage at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett, MA. You can see the Tobin Bridge spanning the Mystic River in front of the skyline of Downtown Boston...Housing in Everett...
The Tobin Bridge spanning Charlestown and Chelsea...you may recognize it from movies like "Mystic River" and "Gone, Baby Gone", in which it is prominently featured.

Chelsea is pretty much defined by its close proximity to the Tobin. It is home to many Latin and South American immigrants, and therefore has some AWESOME ethnic restaurants. My favorite was Cinco De Mayo, introduced to me by my good friend Philippa before she moved to Houston years ago. Unfortunately, I am now reading that the restaurant is closed. Perhaps there is a good alternative option there in Chelsea? Please comment....

Winter Doldrums...

2010-01-21T00:08:00.002-05:00

Thanks to those who have kept checking on updates...I sincerely apologize for the lack of posting over recent weeks.

Truth is that nothing really has been going on here. It's hard to take pictures given the state things are in around town...low light, recent snow/sleet, and cold weather. The highlight from the past few weeks has definitely been the purchase of a new winter coat...an Andrew Marc zip-up with faux fur collar that is infinitely warmer than my previous pea coat, which I purchased in January 2004 and lasted up until this winter...my mother told me that it looks like something I could give away to charity and they *may* accept it for resale...

I've been watching some good movies (Christmas gifts) this week. "Gone, Baby Gone" was awesome, and my second viewing of "Milk" this evening nearly brought me to tears (the first viewing occurring during a game of Monopoly, which was a bit of a distraction). What a fascinating story and an inspiration to those who feel like they have accomplished so little yet have so many years ahead of them...those people including myself.

In recent web news, the famous Puppy Cam is back! It became viral back in Oct-Nov 2008, when a San Francisco couple posted a 24-hour live feed of its Shiba Inu and her new litter of 6 puppies, for the world to watch grow. Well, the same mother just had another litter last Saturday, and the live feed is viewable here. So much thanks to Mrs. Shoes and Mr. Feet (the two responsible for making this live feed possible) for allowing white collar workers slaving at their computers to have a smile for just a few minutes each day....

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Quick Dinner Kit Review - First Edition

2010-01-05T23:23:00.005-05:00

Disclaimer: I have certain friends who would shudder that I would dare offer such a post. Let it be known that this is not to detract from their generous tutelage in cooking in the past, but due to sheer laziness on my part, oh, about once a week or so.

As much as I am enjoying learning how to cook over the past year (since Restaurant Row burned down a year ago tomorrow, just 2 blocks from where I live), there are times when I come home and need a little help out of a box. So, I offer you my first review of a meal that was created partly by plastic/paper/cardboard-enveloped ingredients.

Today's offering: Thai Kitchen Original Pad Thai...
I was excited to find this in the grocery store, since it seemed to require some fresh ingredients, including scrambled eggs and whatever poultry/soy product desired. The directions even left open which veggies to use and how to garnish.

Basic deal: heat noodles in boiled water (off heat), then rinse in cold water. Brown chicken; add veggies (green onions) and egg, then noodles and provided sauce and stir over heat for 4 minutes or so, until noodles soak in sauce. Add cilantro. Garnish with crumbled peanuts.

I cooked this up tonight, and it went fairly smoothly. The noodles were simple, the egg a breeze, and the veggie choices fairly straightforward (I added green onion and cilantro; didn't have any lime or bean sprouts, which would have made the dish more authentic, from my limited knowledge of Thai food). My kitchen, rather than having a ventilation fan over the stove, has 10-foot ceilings, so, of course, smoke was an issue when browning the chicken through in oil.

Overall, it tasted OK, but nothing to write home about. I was expecting a little more flavor given the obvious (and wonderfully stinky) aroma of fish sauce in the provided sauce packet as I was frying up the meal. The box advertises a 15 minute prep, but it took me a little longer (perhaps because I am paranoid cooking with poultry, so I pre-cut the veggies and set them aside before slicing poultry while washing my hands every 30 seconds or so). It was a bit smoky, and cooking that fresh chicken in oil caused a bit of spattering. The red pepper flakes I added in the end probably helped a bit. In the future, I would like it to be a little more spicy, although Sriracha sufficed as a condiment as I ate it.

Simplicity: 4/5
Cleanliness: 2/5
Flavor: 3/5

If you want a REALLY good Pad Thai, check out the Country Style Pad Thai at Thaitation in my neighborhood (Jersey Street in West Fenway) or its sister restaurant, Brown Sugar Cafe on Commonwealth Avenue on the B Line. Although Rod Dee II burned down on Restaurant Row a year ago, its sister location, Rod Dee in Brookline, still exists and offers a great Pad Thai and Pad See You (my favorite dish of theirs is the Kai Himmapan).

Hello in 2010

2010-01-04T22:29:00.002-05:00

Hey all...been a long time since I last posted. I was at my parents' down in Southeast Virginia for a week and returned to Boston last Tuesday morning. Cleaning up Christmas decorations, sorting out a few things at work, trying my hardest to get this computer back from the shop the day before New Year's Eve (a 1.5 hour drive up 93 to Woburn due to traffic, all the while HOPING that the techs were staying late that night or else I wouldn't get it back til the 4th), parties, etc, etc...I sort of forgot about posting here.

Christmas goodies: 5 DVDs (3 Boston related - Blown Away, Next Stop Wonderland, and Gone Baby Gone - and Julie & Julia and Milk); food items, some books (incl. Joy of Cooking - yum), a wonderfully smelling pair of black leather gloves, an iPod touch (!!!), a vintage edition of the Monopoly game, etc, etc. My parents think my pea coat is too small for me (I asked multiple friends and my sister about this...they think it is nonsense...my mother simply doesn't understand that people wear clothes that FIT them up here, not hanging off their shoulders like more people tend to do down in their neck of the woods), and they have greatfully offered to buy me a new one. I have yet to pick one out up here, the selection in Newport News, VA being a little thinned out.

New Year's Eve: 7 of us convened at Matt and Mel's place in the St. Botolph District, where we enjoyed an epic 7-course meal that started with salmon tartare, followed by salad, 2 mains, 2 desserts, and finishing off with my offering of black eyed peas and collard greens (per Southern tradition after midnight...with a little prosciutto added thanks to Mel). 5-hour dining and good times (+ LOTS of sparkling wine).

Bill hosted me, Matt B and his wife Sarah for dinner Saturday night. Bill had a Paula Deener planned and executed with awesome results (pan-seared steak, oven potatoes, deep-fried asparagus, cheesy rolls, etc). Unfortunately, the preparation was a little more hectic than planned. Bill's skillet was a bit too hot for the steaks, and upon placing them in the pan, we were almost smoked out of his apartment (fire alarm going off, Matt flapping a towel at the ceiling to keep it quiet, me holding a large fan in the kitchen window to ventilate the apartment). All worked out, with delicious results. Of course, I had to drop a napkin in the middle of dinner into a votive candle. It ignited immediately, sending flaming embers into the air, which I monitored as they reached the ceiling and curtains before going out. Meanwhile, Sarah picked up the flaming paper towel, using her instinct to blow it out (not such a good idea) until Bill grabbed it, ran with it, dropped it onto his hardwood floor, and managed to pick it up and throw it into the toilet. Aside from Bill's burns on his hands (one of which was 2nd degree), everything turned out OK. Given what Bill was frying earlier in the night, and given our luck, it's amazing we didn't burn the place down with a grease fire!

Anyway, I'm back at work, back to the usual grind (cooking a lot, which is good), and trying to stay warm (luke warm shower this morning; hot water has since been fixed in the building). I paid my landlord a personal visit today at her building at 2 Park Plaza to pay rent and ask for $60 back in overpaid rent for the past 4 months (how this happened, I don't know). I knocked on her office door, I heard a "come in", and I walked to see a desk COVERED in stacks of $20 bills and two old women counting out money in front of a young man (with smashing blue eyes), swooning over him and his Canadian-ness ("oooo, do you play hockey? You probably don't get cold here being from Canada...are you related to any former Bruins players?"). Then the landlord asked me to sit next to her, and as I write a check, I am told how I was unrecognizable since I looked like, "such a young boy when you first came in here to sign the lease." 7 years in grad school does a lot.... I got the feeling that she didn't want me to leave, which made things a little awkward.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy new year, and let's hope the "teens" turn out better than the last decade.

'Been a while...

2009-12-21T23:54:00.002-05:00

I'm still alive...too much going on at night over the past few weeks that I really haven't had the chance to post too much.

Anyway, I am flying out of Boston tomorrow night to revisit my parents in Virginia...my sister and her partner are coming up a day after to spend 3 nights with us. They will not bring their dogs this time, which will be sad, but we anticipate a nice and less drama-ridden holiday as a result.

I am bringing the camera, so hopefully there will be a lot to post. Unfortunately, my computer is in the shop at the moment (having its screen and keyboard replaced...under warranty...mwahahahaha).

I can't believe how well this 1999 Dell laptop works...

Happy Holidays, everyone. Keep an eye out for some updates!

Year in Review

2009-12-09T23:39:00.002-05:00

A brief review of pop culture 2009...please be patient and stick through the 30-second or so ad before the video begins...

This Year in Auto-Tune 2009 - Watch more Funny Videos

Another Christmas Tree...

2009-12-08T22:23:00.003-05:00

A week ago, I put up a small tree (Target, $20) in my apartment and trimmed it with a number of glass ornaments (given as gifts and CVS, pack of 6, $12) that I have accumulated over the past couple of years (that was the requirement to make it onto this tree...each ornament had to be made of glass). Below is the result...

...and, of course, the obligatory self portrait reflected in a Christmas ball (Target, pack of 12, $6).
The Kitschmas Tree that I have put up in years past is sitting in a bag beneath my desk at work; it will go up in the next few days.

The figurines at the base of the tree...$2.69 at the Christmas Tree Shops (paint-your-own). It took 6 hours to paint the set given only 5 paints (red, blue, green, black, and yellow) and one small paint brush. They turned out well (even threw in some mixed purples, oranges, and browns).

Dog Show

2009-12-06T22:49:00.005-05:00

I am on a battle against time because my laptop has a heat sensor issue...it will freeze up momentarily as it gets warmer. This will be a short post with little text.

I went to a dog show sponsored by Pedigree yesterday in Providence, RI. We spent a lot of time in the grooming area but watched the "Best of" contest for the Herding Group. The Bearded Collie won. Below you will see a black French Bulldog looking up at me...he gave me kisses soon afterward.

It's that most wonderful time of the year...

2009-12-01T23:21:00.002-05:00

It wasn't even three hours after I landed at Logan last night that I had completed my grocery shopping, prepared today's dinner (for the crock pot), and was seated at the bar of the Lower Depths Tap Room in Kenmore Square with my friend Bill to enjoy a few rounds of Gansett tall boys and a helping of Kenmore Tots (tater tots fried and then baked with melted cheese, bacon, and chipotle aioli). I have been negotiating with the bartender there for about a month (along with their main cook) that they need to offer real poutine. I even printed out a copy of last week's New Yorker article devoted to the Montreal staple, and brought the article to the bar (yes, we have gotten to know the staff quite quite quite well over the past few months)...hopefully that will make the case stronger (or at least to attract interest to the dish) during a managerial meeting being held there tomorrow, where I have been promised the subject of poutine will be mentioned.

Work was fine today, if a little long. I erected the lab "Holiday Tree"...a 7&1/2-foot, artificial specimen purchased on my boss's dollar last year at Target. I assembled the tree, shaped it (took about 45 minutes...looks pretty good, but being a Target tree, needs a little work out of its small, cardboard box), lit it, hung the ornaments (another hour), and finished it off with an anonymous donation on tinsel. It is MY tree...I was the only one who touched it. MY TREE. A red bow tops the tree in honor of those who have lost their lives to AIDS and those who currently live with this disease.

An aside...Bill and I attended the 24-hour vigil held at the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End this evening, in remembrance of those locals who succumbed to AIDS in the last 20 or so years (today being international AIDS Day). This was part of an art installation project, now in its 18th year (I think) titled "The Medicine Wheel". Make sure you check out the link. In its final year, artist Michael Dowling lined the circular walls of the South End's historic Cyclorama Building with floor-to-ceiling panels of deceased victims of AIDS that were inked onto white paper by woodcut dies. The mood was both somber and animated...strange, especially with the rather hushed yet bustling mood in the space...something that is pretty difficult to put into words. The vigil was held from midnight this morning to midnight tonight, and some people stayed overnight in the space (pillows and mattresses on the floor). There were candles everywhere, many in paper bags that had been stamped with personal memories and wishes and left on the ground, both within the domed space and out on the busy sidewalk. I'm ashamed to say that I did not know about this annual installation until last year (when I couldn't go)...I just feel priviledged to have had the opportunity to see it in person for its last year, and to be in the same room with some people who have been gravely affected by this disease, having lost loved ones to what was once a myserious epidemic that posed a death sentence to anyone afflicted and now is one that we are trying to grapple with in terms of vaccination. This certainly was a moment that put my work into perspective...it's easy to lose the big picture while working with pipets and cell lines.

Anyways.........

(The pictures in this post are of my parents' tree in Virginia, which I took Sunday night)

I have only one more tree to put up for the season, that being a sad little Charlie Brown thing at my desk at work. It is about 1&1/2 feet tall, very fake, and decked out in colored lights and little wooden ornaments.

Oh...I forgot about the 4th tree...the one that is either in the air or sitting in a warehouse right now. This would be the one I purchased in Virginia and shipped up here. This will replace the "Kitschmas Tree" that will be at my desk in the lab this year...the one previously mentioned.

Pictures from Virginny...

2009-11-29T21:27:00.006-05:00

As I write this, Frazer is next to me, enjoying his last night with me before I head back to MA tomorrow....
...some pictures from this past week...

Wallace, the stupid but "sweetest baby," as my mom calls him...
Roy's and Ricky's in Suffolk, VA, where the Smithfield salt-cured ham came from (and where I had an awesome BBQ sandwich in a makeshift restaurant next to the townsfolk...they talked of sports and their work; I hid my pinky ring.)
Suffolk is home to the Planters Peanut Company. Here is their new, modern facility in Downtown Suffolk, home of the brand...

We stopped by an old courthouse. Virginia has many old courthouses like MA. Unlike MA, these old buildings are rarely recognized. The docent implied that we were her first visitors for the day (around 3PM)...
Virginia repealed this form of punishment sometime in...hmmm...the 1970s?
Frazer pondering over the meaning of Thanksgiving and family. Is it a time of celebration for the new Americans, or a time of mourning of the Native Americans? I asked him later, and he said, with his tail wagging, "Are."
Our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday afternoon...traditional, and fast (we were at the table for about a half hour at most).

An old railroad station, built in 1888, that was recently moved across the railroad tracks to its permanent home. It is still sitting of cinder blocks, awaiting its permanent foundation. I always enjoyed riding by this cool old building in the northern parts of Newport News...

Wallace...
I'll be back in town Monday around 5:00 PM. 'Time to get back to the faster pace of my usual life, and I can't wait.

back down South...

2009-11-28T21:19:00.007-05:00

Good Smithfield salt-cured ham from the source on Wednesday (sandwiched with a side bowl of Brunswick Stew), traditional Thanksgiving turkey meal on Thursday, a giant open-faced roast beef sandwich with gravy and onions at a diner called "Monty's Penguin" this afternoon, fresh venison for dinner tonight (my one concession to firearms ownership...my parents' former neighbor is a good shot), a burger at "Sam & Steve's House of Beef" tomorrow afternoon, and turkey hash with leftovers tomorrow night. I have to say, the eating is damn good.

Anyways, things have been quite well down here. Despite my perpetually agitated state, made known to me by my father during a rather heated (and audible) shouting match in a Wal-Mart parking lot on Black Friday (hey, I do as the Romans do down in these parts), I have gotten along remarkably well with my parents (with the nightly aid of Seagrams 7 and ginger ale as my mother watches police dramas and my dad watches shows called "Pawn Stars" and the like).

I bought a new Christmas tree today...3 feet, artificial, pre-lit. I'm excited. It will have to be shipped.

I, with some help from Mom and Dad, also put up and trimmed our 9-foot Christmas tree Thursday night and Friday.

I was really hoping to be able to pick a sprig of cotton for my friend and coworker Piya, who hails from India and thinks Virginians spend most of their time performing war reenactments. There's so much more to Virginia than that. We have cotton fields and ham. There wasn't a parking space in any cotton field for me to stop and pick cotton, and I also remembered that people who own cotton fields also own guns (but also pigs, which make good ham). So, I decided against cotton picking.

Another item crossed off the list...I finished some Christmas shopping for my sister's "Kitschmas Box" at a dollar store the other day. Apparently one can do grocery shopping at Dollar General. Who would have known?

Pictures will be uploaded soon...I have them, but apparently my parents' internet settings won't allow them...I'll work it out tomorrow.

craziness

2009-11-22T23:32:00.002-05:00

I woke up this afternoon to the sunset. My sleep schedule is officially fucked.

A bunch of my friends and I spent last night at the Lansdowne to celebrate my birthday. The cover band was decent, the service was awful (I have no room to complain...the place was packed), and everyone passing through our area where we staked out some bar stools decided it was the best place to fart. I couldn't wait to get out of there, but we did. A number of us ended up at Bill's apt in the Fenway, where we ate lots of tasty junk food and an awesome cheescake. Lots of wine...wine...wine...wine.......

To kick off the evening, 4 of us went out to Marlborough to play indoor miniature golf. I kicked ass...truly did...that's why I asked to do this for my birthday.

Have a good night, everyone. My next post will most likely be from Virginia...I fly down there Tuesday. There will be dog-related posts from there.

Safe travels, everyone!!

Long week...and good food....

2009-11-15T23:23:00.002-05:00

It's been a week...thanks to those who have kept up with my posts...

My apartment smells of bacon right now. I asked my mom to send me a recipe for a very yummy stew/soup-ish recipe earlier in the week, and she delivered. I went grocery shopping tonight for the ingredients (discovering a new generic brand at Shaw's...something called Shoppers Value) and came home to prepare this most awesome sweet-and-savory stew (you readers are not entitled to the recipe, I am sad to announce). It ended up involving cooking 12 ounces of bacon and a pound of lean ground beef, mixed with many beans and other condiments (including various types of sugar). The best part is that it will all cook together while I am at work...all slowly cooking in my Crock Pot. I didn't realize that frying bacon would end up with a 1/4 inch layer of fat in the pan, but that just added to the wonderful aroma experienced from cooking this dish. The grease is now in a soda can in my refrigerator, for later use ;-)

The weekend was great...spent the daytime reading my New Yorker and at night either at my friends' place smoking (ahhh...and now, we are not criminals) and hanging out at the local bar at Kenmore Square debating just how many people who work there are gay. We drove out to Worcester last night with the sole purpose of eating at Arby's Roast Beef, which isn't that common at all around here.

'Have a good week at work, everyone!!!

Autumn Frollicking

2009-11-08T22:42:00.005-05:00

'Twas a rather good weekend. Started out at Cornwall's in Kenmore Sq playing darts and Taboo over drinks before Bill and I headed to the St. Botolph District for a few more drinks with Matt...then back to my place for more drinks.

Yesterday...slow start, but I managed to make it on time for my hair cut appointment. Bill picked me up Downtown to drive to the Burlington Mall, where we met up with the Bootys for the sole purpose of eating Chik-Fil-A. We also happened upon a LEGO store, where each of us bought something. I am now the happy owner of a 66-piece Christmas tree ornament that will grace my parents' 9-foot tree that I will inevitably be trimming in 3 weeks.

Bill and I stopped by the Christmas Tree Shops in Lynnfield on the way home...I bought a bag full of crap, which was so much fun. Much of it will end up in my sister Ellie and her partner's "Kitschmas Box" this year...a tradition we started in 2007. It's my turn this year.

Party last night in a depths of Jamaica Plain. Bill fared worse than me, but I managed to get him up and out of bed for a trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge...America's first garden cemetery and designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior. Enjoy the pics!!!

Tonight's great find: a barf bag (unused) from Lufthansa Airlines...near the front sidewalk to my building.

Interesting Photo...

2009-11-01T22:29:00.004-05:00

I just found this photo on my Facebook account tonight...apparently I log into Facebook so infrequently that I am not aware of when I am tagged in photos.

This was taken back in late August/early September when a group of people at the lab took a grad student out to lunch because she was leaving her program to pursue other interests in NYC. We are at the corner of Jersey Street and Park Drive, just feet away from Thaitation (one of my favorite restaurants), a block from where I live. The cause of celebration is third from right (in all black). My boss is near the center, wearing a green shirt. I am to the far right (yes, unflattering picture in those jeans...they really don't look like that).

Why is this picture odd? I am 5'8", and I am the second tallest person of the group. This is the truth, too...not just because of visual effects from the perspective from which the picture was taken.

As a prequel of pics to come, I offer the following of myself, dressed as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. It involved a little makeup, but the costume was borrowed from my friend Matt, who celebrated his 33rd BDay last night (on Halloween!).'Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! Enjoy the early sunsets from your windows at work at 4:00PM!!!! They are quite stunning of late.

Life is peachy...

2009-10-28T23:51:00.003-04:00

...patient-doctor stabbings at MGH, sodium azide poisonings at the Harvard Medical School NRB, sexual assault across the street from my apartment, and a fortunately discovered window leak at my desk found just as I was walking out of the lab this evening, aside, it's been a good week.

The sun will be out tomorrow and Friday (until 5:30PM)...we get an extra hour of sleep this weekend. And I have a Halloween costume in place for a party on Saturday. All I need to do is figure out if I need to shave the chest...or keep it natural. I'll be Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean"...any thoughts? There will be eye makeup, oh yes.

These are the days that make life in Boston worth living (I keep telling myself, at least). I still think back to the day on the roof in Mission Hill (around August 10th)...ahhhhhhhhh.

More pictures from the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

2009-10-26T22:43:00.004-04:00

Here are the photos I promised (yes, I actually came through this time). We were there in the late afternoon sun, so some of the shots may look a bit dark, but I think it only adds to the effect.

suggestion: cue music: Enya, "The Memory of Trees" (hahaha)

...an underexposed shot for effect. Notice that the sun is to the far left in the photo, behind some tree branches. What appears in the center sky is a refraction of the sun's light in the clouds. I know there is a name for this effect, but it escapes me at the moment....

Nice late afternoon sky...

I found my favorite new plant in a dark, heavily wooded area yesterday. It's called the Harlequin Glorybower. An excerpt from Fine Gardening...

"This large shrub offers a late-summer display of jasmine-like white flowers encased in red tepals and scent. Bright blue berries in autumn are accented by conspicuous bright, pinkish-red calyxes."

Here's the autumnal pink-and-blue display:

The best part...when crushed, the leaves smell like peanut butter.

Other berries nearby:

Autumn continues....

2009-10-25T23:28:00.005-04:00

It's late October, which means one thing...the annual Harvard Immunology Retreat at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, NH. We were all bussed up to the resort Friday afternoon for a weekend full of talks, poster sessions, free food, and parties. I woke up yesterday and today feeling like I had been hit by a truck, but all in all it was a good time. I learned a lot and helped spread some of the usual Harvard lab gossip, which I find really interesting (we may be geeks, but rather dramatic at that).

For instance, we received the following email last Friday about a recent poisoning in the building adjacent to my lab's building...

"As you may be aware, we have been investigating an incident that occurred on August 26, 2009, when six members of our community were seen in the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center emergency room after drinking coffee from the same single serve, manual-fill coffee machine located in an open common area on the eighth floor of the HMS New Research Building (NRB). All reported similar symptoms. Five employees were treated and released that day; one was held overnight and released the next morning.

...

While we do not yet know how this incident occurred, we have recently learned that sodium azide, a preservative commonly used in laboratories, was present in the coffee consumed by the six employees. As the investigation continues, we are being prudent and taking additional precautionary measures to ensure the well being of our community..."

Scary, indeed. I'll think twice before consuming food and drink in common areas. And all this time I thought it was acrylamide...

Anyway, the weather sucked up in NH, with heavy rain and cold weather. This is the best picture I was able to take of the mountains in the mid-afternoon...

Bill and I drove to the Arnold Arboretum this afternoon for some local leaf peeping. Here I present a preview of what the foliage looked like while we were there...the clearer skies make it look more spectacular than the pics from New Hampshire a few weeks ago...those would have been better in the right light. Even so, we have been enjoying a spectacular foliage season this year.

I'll upload more pics in the coming days.

Trivia and how the T cheated me

2009-10-19T22:46:00.005-04:00

I was on Wikipedia tonight and decided to look up events/births/deaths of November 24, which is my upcoming birthday.

What I already knew...Nov 24 was the birth date of Zachary Taylor, who was born in 1784 and served as US President from 1849-1850 (he died while in office from gastroenteritis). What I didn't know: a professional female wrestler named Beth Pheonix was born the same day and year as myself. That's kinda cool. A coworker of mine was also born the same day and year as me, but he was born in the Netherlands. We have tried to figure out who was born first, given the time difference. We were within an hour, figuring that I am a few minutes older...that is, if we have our time differences figured correctly.

Perhaps coolest of all: November 24th is Darwin Day, celebrating the anniversary of the release of The Origin of Species. Better yet...this year is the 150th anniversary of the book. Here's the kicker...I'm related to him. My maternal family tree, which has been well-documented over the past couple of centuries, shows that he is very distantly related, yet, it's still cool to see his name with correct date on the tree.

______________________________________________
A warning to MBTA patrons: think twice before uploading money onto your Charlie Card using the web, which is a new feature of the MBTA's website that was implemented in the last few months. I tried it out when it first went online, only to find that the website told me that my Charlie Card wasn't valid for the web-based system. I tried a more recently procured card that worked (this was a few months ago). The only difference is that the invalid card had a red serial # (I received it within a week of the Charlie Card system's debut, long before the online money uploading feature) while the valid one has a black serial number. Now, yesterday, I uploaded more money on the "valid" one, received a confirmation, and tried to use it yesterday. The transaction had not gone through. So, I try again today, thinking it needed overnight to register with the system. Today, still no dice (I had to manually upload $20 on the bus...thankfully, I had it). I checked my bank account this evening, and the transaction had already gone through. So, basically, the T took $20 from me. Any suggestions? Since I wasn't at a computer with a printer hookup when I completed the upload, I have no receipt. I think I learned my lesson and am currently SOL.

And since I can't find an appropriate picture of the Charlie Card defaced in some hideous way, I instead leave you with a picture of an MBTA bus involved in a minor Boston fender bender. Shit happens. Another day through the gauntlet....

New England Foliage and some updates

2009-10-18T23:11:00.000-04:00

Here I finally post what hopefully will be one of two installments of pictures from my journey up to New Hampshire last weekend. It was peak foliage season in the White Mountains at that time, and knowing this, we chose a less-traveled route than the Kancamangus Highway through the heart of the White Mountains (as it turned out, the traffic there was bumper-to-bumper). Instead, we took I-93 exit 26 just south of the Kanc and followed a circuit route, which is posted here, through the towns of Plymouth, Rumney, Ellsworth, and Campton via Stinson Lake. Along the road, we passed the 1860s home of Mary Baker Eddy (founder of the Christian Science Church), a covered bridge rebuilt in 2001, a quaint New England village with cool, old library, a grass-strip air field, a mountaintop lake, and what appeared most likely to be a Civil War-era family cemetery (lots of teenage boys were buried there). Much of the journey was along an unpaved road past a waterfall that tunneled through a vividly yellow tunnel of forest. I'll try to post the mountain views of Franconia Notch in a future post.

This weekend turned out pretty well, considering the horrible weather. It's been so cold and rainy today that we actually had a decent rain/snow mix for about 3 hours. Gillette Stadium to the southwest was accumulating snow, as was Worcester. As of yet, nothing was accumulating here, except on umbrellas and really cold surfaces (like fallen construction signs).

I was at a party Friday night in Cambridge where everyone carved pumpkins. I haven't carved one myself in probably over 10 years (come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever had before). We had a great time, enjoying the work that goes into these masterpieces while enjoying roasted pumpkin seeds and trying not to slash the hand holding your beer with the carving knife held in the other. There was only one minor casualty during the night...no major injuries, and I escaped unscathed! Below are Bill's design and that of yours truly. I went the safe route, Bill the artsy "tribal" one. His is certainly more impressive, despite that it has a cleft palate and apparently experienced a stroke that was not so well concealed by an asymmetric facelift. Mine...well, just keepin' it simple...
Last night was spent at Matt & Mel's where we were treated to a dinner of lamb stew, brocollini, and pureed turnips. Yummy. We finished off the night playing a few rounds of "Who am I?" and charades.

Today: Bill and I took a pilgrimmage to indulge in a much-touted cuisine of Quebec: poutine. Last night we discussed going to a roadside stand I found about a month ago that served it in West Bridgewater, called "Montreal French Fries". Thankfully, through my research last night, I discovered that it had recently closed (thus saving us a trip in the snow to the South Shore), so I frantically scoured the net for another nearby place that would suffice as a good plan B. As it turned out, a sandwich restaurant in Inman Square (Cambridge) served the dish, "Montreal Style". I was skeptical, especially due to the rare occasion one finds the much needed cheese curds needed to round out the dish (this is mildly-flavored cheese that squeaks against the teeth, hence, "squeaky cheese").

I guess I haven't explained what poutine is...sorry about that. Basically, it's a dish of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy (chicken or turkey makes it authentic; heavier gravies are not customary) and eaten with a fork.

Well, at 4:30 today, we set out in the snow, walking from West Fenway to the Hynes Convention Center bus stop, which is located on an overpass crossing the Mass Pike. It was here, just as I was watching a commuter rail train pass underneath us, that I witnessed a semi jackknife in the middle of I-90, bank into the right and then the left guardrails while crossing all lanes. It lost its entire front fenders/hood, but there was no fire or injury to other drivers. While it looked like it could have tipped for a split second, it didn't, and traffic could still pass. Instant backup. It was quite a spectacle on our level on Mass Ave above the Pike...many saw the sight (and sparks) and all heard the horrific noise.

The poutine was awesome at the All Star Sandwich Bar at the corner of Prospect Street and Cambridge Street. While it may not have been made with real cheese curds (but who am I to know, though...I only had them once in Montreal and I remember them squeaking), the cheese tasted just right, and the gravy was dead on. We're definitely going back. The place was warm and friendly, with the Pats game airing on its TV screens. They had a decent beer list (pretty cheap, too) and also served wine. My "Beef on Weck" sandwich was AWESOME...thinly sliced roast beef with hot horseradish and au jus served on a Kummelweck bun (Kaiser roll topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds).

'Back to the grind tomorrow.

Nor'Easters and Balloon Boys

2009-10-15T23:07:00.002-04:00

Winter is definitely hitting us early this year. This morning marked the official start of cold weather clothing for me...my pea coat came out of the closet...ear warmers in addition tonight. Given the weather forecast for the next few days, I pulled the A/C unit from my window as well this evening, to sit on my living room floor to air/dry out over the next few days before boxing it away in the closet (there's a good bit of bird crap to clean off as well...a family decided to nest next to it on my window ledge earlier in the summer...and early birds certainly keep you awake as soon as the sun rises).

We are in the middle of a Nor'Easter (basically a weak Atlantic subtropical system that tends to dump lots of rain and wind on the Northeast Seaboard during the fall months, and blizzards in the winter. The "Perfect Storm" back in late October 1991 is a perfect example). What this means for Boston is winds, rain, and temps in the 40s through the weekend. Currently, there is snow and ice in the Worcester area, just 45 miles west of us. There was also snow reported in Providence, RI this evening.

As was most of the country, my eyes were glued to the "balloon boy" incident in Colorado this afternoon. I was watching CNN.com live footage of the balloon as it coasted thousands of feet over the Colorado plateau east of Denver before it landed "softly" in a plowed field. The kid is fine, having hid in the attic of his home as the FAA, Denver Air Traffic Control, and authorities tracked the balloon, delayed flights, and searched for the boy's body after having feared that he fell out. Bizarre story, indeed. Arianna Huffington was not so amused.

As a last-minute decision, I will be attending the Harvard Immunology Retreat next weekend at Loon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Am I looking forward to it? Not particularly, but I felt compelled to attend after finding a form in my email inbox from a week ago (while I was in Durham, NC), asking for a formal registration or a formal intent to decline with excuse to the program director and its administrator. Seriously, do I really need to be dealing with this? I'm 28...and having to submit a formal excuse letter is a bit of an insult in my opinion. Maybe I'm just that stuck up. Anyway, I moved my experiments so that I could make the retreat (delaying one study by 2 weeks, which I am not so happy about, but the animals should thank me for not having to be bled next Friday...).

After all, the annual retreat was the start of my facial hair, which I have grown to like (as well as many other peers of mine). (I decline to disclose reasons for my decision to grow facial hair)

Update and a story about a ring...

2009-10-13T22:54:00.002-04:00

'Sorry for the delay in posting foliage pictures. I was sidelined by a great phone conversation with my good friend Phlip (now living in Houston, TX) last night, as well as an issue with my computer's memory space, which is almost maxed out. As soon as I buy some blank CDs and burn over 10 GB worth of photos, I'll have more space to post what I'd like.

Over the past few months (sometime since early July, I believe), I have been wearing a sterling silver ring on my right pinky that was hand-crafted by my good friend Amanda...she was taking a silversmithing class sometime back in the spring. I especially liked the ring because it was hand-made and just happened to fit my right hand pinky just perfectly. It has the typical whitish gleam on sterling silver, and is clearly hand-made given its somewhat rough-hammered appearance, which I especially like.

Well, this past Sunday night, after a night out with Matt and Sarah and a nightcap at Bill's place down the street, I arrived home and found that it was nowhere to be found. I checked all over my apartment, including the trash. Now, it had fallen off of my finger twice earlier in the night while washing my hands, once at Matt and Sarah's and once in Bill's kitchen sink. I figured it had fallen off for good in a street drain or, worse, the trash or toilet in my place. I wasn't too worried about it because it was certainly replaceable, but Bill took the effort to scour the sidewalks and street between his place and mine that Sunday night and texted me at almost 3AM (after I had long gone to sleep) that he couldn't find it.

I was ready to look for a replacement on Ebay last night and decided to give it one more day. As it turns out, Bill texted me this afternoon saying he found it dead-center on the sidewalk last night (at 2AM), in a place where he habitually looks down as he descends the steps to his apartment building and should have found it much earlier last night. Apparently the ring was left on the sidewalk, in plain view, for an entire day for someone to pick it up. Bill was a little freaked out...he swears it was not there all day. I just figured that it was meant to be found, and as a friend of his told him today, he should just "go with it". I feel the same way, indeed. Still, it's cool to think that I now posess a "mysterious", if "disappearing", ring. One that was left on a very heavily traveled Boston sidewalk.

Maybe there's hope that I'll recover the lost High School ring that was thrown from my finger during a snowball fight in front of my dorm at UVa almost 10 years ago. Perhaps I should look up "Warwick 1999 EMC" before I go to bed?

Holiday in New England

2009-10-11T00:23:00.003-04:00

I am totally taking advantage of the long weekend and spending as much time as possible away from the lab and the science.

Today: Bill and I took a long drive up to New Hampshire to view the foliage *away* from the traffic of the Kancamaugus Highway through the White Mountains. We rather chose a country route through a scenic town, a mountain lake, a dirt road by a waterfall, a Civil War graveyard overlooking a mountaintop view, and some of the best views of Franconia Notch. We made it back in time to see a performance at the Colonial Theater of Pam Ann...a standup act featuring a woman sporting 1960s-1970s flight attendant attire and making fun of our local airlines (Susie from Cape Air bore the brunt of the satire, but it all was in good taste). With a theater full of gay flight attendants representing numerous airlines and a great film backdrop, it made for an awesome night for us aviation enthusiasts). Dancers wearing thongs helped keep the crowd entranced.

Pictures of the last day will be posted shortly.

Fenway Movie Set

2009-10-08T22:45:00.004-04:00

Bill and I were walking back from a local bar tonight and caught the end of a *major* film set taking place on my block.
The movie being filmed is currently called "The Zookeeper". It stars Sylvester Stallone and Adam Sandler. Apparently the scene shot tonight featured a fire escape (behind Bill's apt bldg), a street scene (watered down to look wet) on Queensberry Street, and an apartment front with a newly added awning. Lights were everywhere...high booms with daylight lighting, as well as other lights strung above the street. People were everywhere. A security person told me it would be a bad idea for me to try to photograph the scene, so I can't provide pics. Still, it's quite exciting.

A number of films have been shooting in the Fenway over the past month. One, currently called "The Town" and starring Ben Affleck (and also directed by himself) was shooting at Fenway Park a couple of weeks ago...lots of shooting scenes and so forth at the Park (we were warned by the filming crew to expect frequent shooting sounds and helicopters). There's also the "Wichita" project...Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz...being filmed in the South End (and locals observing Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes taking leisurely runs through the Back Bay in the mornings). There was a recent shoot just in front of the SoWa Open Markets (which I have blogged about extensively) featuring him arresting Cameron Diaz.

A recent movie release, "Surrogates", features Bruce Willis. A late scene in the movie was filmed in the St. Botolph District last spring, at the corner of St. Botolph Street and Durham Street. I was able to watch those takes, which was fun.

Boston is experiencing a huge boom in the movie industry, which is good for our image. Don't forget "The Pink Panther II", filmed in part at Copley Square in front of the Public Library (a movie set made to look like Europe).

Other movies shot in the area in recent years..."Glory" (one of my favorites), "Goodwill Hunting", "Mystic River" (awesome), and "The Departed" (the BEST...TONS of filming scenes around Boston that I should post in the coming months).

In other news, my talk went well in Durham, NC. I was taken aback by how nervous I was (I didn't realize it until I started speaking into the microphone in front of 200 people), but all tell me I seemed very confident. It was an upbeat meeting, given the recent positive results of a clinical vaccine trial held in Thailand. That truly saved us in the field, given the huge failure of another trial held 2 years ago by Merck.

In other news, I'm finally back in Boston. The flight yesterday evening in a 40-seat jet made for an interesting descent into Boston, with 20-30 MPH sustained winds. Still, it was a surprisingly smooth landing, and everything ran on time, which was great. I slept in this morning, catching up on sleep (I did not sleep well AT ALL in NC...it was too quiet...I'm used to sleeping with lots of ambient noise, even with the fan and A/C off...something about sirens and planes help me sleep...weird, I know).

Bill and I are going to take a long drive up to New Hampshire Saturday to "leaf-peep". The peak foliage season has arrived early this year, and apparently it is more vibrant than usual given the wet early summer conditions and the quick "snap" of cooler weather we have experienced this year. Keep in touch for awesome pictures. One of our routes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire takes us on some dirt roads!

Still alive...

2009-10-04T23:19:00.002-04:00

'Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I am currently at a conference in Durham, NC, where I am giving a talk to about 300 people Tuesday morning. Fun times. I arrived here at the Sheraton Imperial hotel at Durham around 2PM this afternoon, watched a few documentaries on the National Geographic Channel (Wyoming State Penitentiary, gangs, and a show on the "racist skinheads"). Dinner ("lite bites"), poster session, and 3 hours of drinks at the bar. We are stuck in this hotel building until we are bussed to Chapel Hill for some events Tuesday night, so I better get used to it. The hotel didn't roll out the red carpet for us like they did last year (seriously, they did).

Is the Sheraton Imperial nice? Hmmmmm...I have a king bed all to myself. It doesn't appear that I need to wear sandals into the shower (I've done this in NYC). However, it took me 45 minutes to find a cold drink (after coming off of an airplane, I was parched) because the vending machines on each floor were either broken, wouldn't take bills, or were out of stock. The gift shop downstairs was closed...supposedly the shopkeeper took a lunch break ("oh, he'll be back in 15 minutes.")...he was gone for at least 40 minutes. Oh...and the desk wouldn't pick up when I phoned them for a courtesy van pickup at the airport.

Durham is...special. Nice airport. Ummm...(???)

I'm still here...

2009-09-27T23:04:00.004-04:00

It's been a crazy few weeks, so that is why I haven't posted in a while. I managed to get out of town a few times this weekend. Yesterday, a "brewfest" at my friend Kim's place in Framingham (Bill and I took the commuter rail there), where we indulged in very nice homebrews and excellent food (cucumber slices with onions and sugar and vinegar...awesome). Kim lives in a nice house with water views...of Bracket Reservoir #2...still very scenic despite the name...
The foliage is hitting New England early this year due to early summer rains and warm and humid conditions in the last month. We're in for a spectacular season.

We took the train back into Boston, too. The walk from Back Bay Station afforded some beautiful pictures of the Mother Church of Christian Science...with reflecting pool, stained glass windows, and dramatic lighting of its Sunday School Building and the main, domed church building.

If anything, I will be posting amusing videos from YouTube in the coming days...

Have a good week, everyone!

My thoughts exactly, Mr. Obama...

2009-09-15T23:17:00.002-04:00

This made my day (and perhaps made the last two weeks...really, they have been absolutely horrible).

You may have noticed that I have not posted much over the past week. Well, I won't even bother to explain why so. Let's just say that stress can get pretty ugly at times...

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-07T22:49:00.005-04:00

I had a pretty nice weekend...taking advantage of a day off today, of course. Here are some pictures...

On Saturday night, I had a few people over at Matt and Mel's apartment for drinks. Matt and Mel are currently spending a few weeks in New Zealand and Australia, and they gave me the key to their apartment. I took advantage of this (hoping that they wouldn't mind as long as we kept things outside and at a low volume) and made the most of their beautiful patio. Bill and I brought over a lot of tealight holders to keep things well-lit.

Sunday...the neighbor's Yorkie, behind bars...
'Went to a party/cookout at Mission Hill Sunday night. The weather was cool and breezy, but we ended up having a great time. I still can't get over my friends' view of the Basilica (The Mission Church) where Ted Kennedy's funeral was held last weekend.

NOT enhanced. This was a long exposure shot taken later in the night....
Sarah, Bill, and my friend Derek...

Dmitriy, the host...
Kevin (another host who lives there...)
Hookah time...last night's offering was strawberry...
Today I took these pictures along the Charles River Esplanade...

...and, later, in Kenmore Square...
...and over I-90/Mass Pike, looking westward...

I'm going to bore you now...(as usual???)

2009-09-02T23:47:00.003-04:00

I just found out today that one of my favorite shortcuts to work has recently been reopened to pedestrians. I used to cut across the Fens and through the parking lot of Emmanuel College to get to my lab building. Well, way back in 2007, it was fenced off for construction of a science education building at Emmanuel College. It reached completion about a week ago. This means that the restrictions against access through the construction site have been lifted. AND I can once again walk through Emmanuel's campus to get to work. This saves me 0.05 miles of walking each morning...that shaves off about 1.5 minutes from my walk to work. 1.5 MINUTES!!! That means I can sleep a minute and a half LONGER in the mornings! Hooray for me!

OK...it may not sound like much, but this may make a difference of 5 minutes in the winter, when parking lots at Emmanuel are cleanly plowed when the streets nearby become snowdrift-laced icy patches splattered by bus traffic on Ave Louis Pasteur, awaiting the next unsuspecting victim of bus splatter and the dreaded "corner slush pools" that victimize boot and jeans-cladded calves everywhere in Boston. Rule to keep in mind: if the curb at a corner looks like hard asphalt, it ain't asphalt...it's slush floating on 6 inches of water...heed this advice!

I can't wait for the weekend to come around. Yes, I have to stop into work on Saturday morning AND evening for 5 minutes each time, but it's all for the faith in good science (hopefully).

Boston is alive once again...students are back in town, and the season of "sidewalk vomit" through Boston's streets is about to commence...probably starting this weekend, given that it's a holiday weekend and returning students have nothing better to do than evade their RAs and get tanked on Natty Lite and Boone's Farm (is that even sold up here???).

Boston by Neighborhood: The South End

2009-08-31T22:44:00.014-04:00

My intention is to periodically post a phototour/essay of a particular area of Boston over the next coming months, as the weather makes it somewhat more tolerable to stroll the city streets as we fall into autumn weather.

Yesterday, I snaked my way through the main streets and cross streets of the South End (not to be confused with "Southie", that is, South Boston to the east). The South End is steeped in history, not all of which is the glory found in Beacon Hill's legacy. I quote from a book published in 1970 titled Boston Architecture, printed by the Nimrod Press in conjunction with the Boston Society of Architects and produced/edited by Donald Freeman:

"The South End is the no-man's land through which Bostonians pass when traveling between the Roxbury-Dorchester area and downtown. Much of the traffic that rumbles through its streets has nothing to do with the district, nor do many of the people on its sidewalks have either a home or business in the neighborhood. To many, South End and Skid Row are synonymous. The South End has the largest "rooming house" population in Boston and one of the lowest "school completion" records. In a 1967 Diagnostic report prepared by the Boston Redevelopment Authority on the South End Renewal Area, only 5 percent of the people reported owning their own homes, and although 25 percent had completed high school, less than 5 percent held a college degree. Since the early 1960s, however, a new group has been moving into the South End. These people, to a large extent, are young professions who recognize both the quality of the houses and the proximity to the city center as factors in making a successful urban life," (comment: in other words, these were "the gays") - "and at a cost they could not find anywhere else in Boston. They have quietly rehabilitated the fine old houses from a hodgepodge of run-down rooms and apartments, and have settled in around the small parks and narrow streets with a renewed sense of community pride" (read: PRIDE)."

As these pictures will attest, the neighborhood has transformed into one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Boston today, where the constant din of police and ambulance sirens has been replaced with that of barking pet dogs.

Chester Square along Massachusetts Avenue

...yet there are many parts of the district, particularly those bordering the Roxbury area, that still need some work. Case in point: the former Hotel Alexandra, standing at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue facing Washington Street. It has suffered decline, including a fire, structural problems, and the possible acquisition of the Church of Scientology (not to be confused with the Christian Science church). One can only hope that its quintessential Ruskinian Gothic facade will one day be restored to its original and architecturally significant glory.
Again, despite much progress in the neighborhood, some properties remind one of the South End's sketchier days. Here's a property near Chester Square that remains with broken windows, overgrowth, and overall neglet.

Here's a building that reminds one who is interested in experiencing Boston's rich architecture to always "look up"...even the most boring street-level facades give way to richly ornamented exterior details on floors above...
Closer to Boston University Medical Center, there are still remnants of businesses that have not fared so well over recent years...
Some beautifully restored BU Medical School Buildings along Harrison Avenue...

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, while not the city's most famous (such as the nearby Cathedral of the Holy Cross - home of the archdiocese of Boston - and the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help recently made famous by Sen. Ted Kennedy's funeral service), is one of the oldest. It was completed during the Civil War.

Here's a nondescript (yet quite monumental building - another product of the 1860s) building...Franklin House, facing Franklin Park (see below) along Washington Street. Those who watched the TV series "St. Elsewhere" in the 1980s will recognize the facade as that of St. Eligius Hospital, the setting of the hospital drama series. It never served as a hospital, yet is large enough to convince one watching the show that it houses a cramped and outdated inner-city hospital.

Cathedral Housing...a public housing project that remains as a reminder of the neighborhood's less prosperous days. Again, from the 1970 Boston Architecture book...

"In the early 1950's the Boston Housing Authority had built the Cathedral Project, a bleak group of high-rise yellow brick buildings typical of that period - a mass of some 500 apartment units neatly isolated from the rest of the community by scale and boundary - very clearly reading as Public Housing."

Yes, it remains as public housing and looks quite bleak as described. Fortunately, however, the complex is no longer as isolated from the more affluent surrounding community as it was in the past. The SoWa (South of Washington) district has, in the last 5 or so years, become another mecca (after Newbury Street's precedent) of local artistry, with large, decaying factory buildings being converted into luxury condos, mixed use developements, and art studios.
An example of an old city building being converted into luxury housing...
The South End remains a culturally vibrant and integrated community in some parts...

A walk through the SoWa Open Market and Antiques Market (held underneath the shell of what was once the largest electric power station in the world, when it was built in the 1890s) conveys the breath of fresh air that the arts community has bestowed upon the once bleak and decaying industrial district of Boston...

Many institutions that have benefited the homeless and the poor have remained and prospered through the neighborhood's transition, including the Pine Street Inn...
...and the area is not short of many beautiful churches...
...across the street from the above church...a condo beautifully restored with period lighting fixtures...

Union Park, one of the many "park" streets in the South End that intersect the major thoroughfares through the neighborhood.
Many street corners that were once the antithesis of neighborhoodly refined culture have become secluded, yet popular, eating and shopping places. Below is The Buttery, an example of a popular eatery enjoyed by local residents on weekend afternoons.
...yet others (below: Sahara Syrian Restaurant) nearby remain boarded up and decaying as embarrassing eyesores, entwined in decades-old property rights battles that have kept such buildings standing as they fall apart to Boston's harsh winter and summertime overgrowth cycles...
...other buildings, including a few churches, have been redeveloped into community centers...
...or mixed-use condos or housing for the disadvantaged...
...and other businesses, such as the Miami Cafe on Aguadilla Street, are victim to the recent downturn of the economy. (This was a good place...I'm happy to have eaten here once).

...The Downtown Financial District is not far away...
...and in the opposite direction, one looks towards areas yet to enjoy the redevelopment that the South End has enjoyed over the past few decades. In the near distance with the domed cupola, however, is the Piano Craft Guild, once the largest factory in the world and the home of the Chickering Piano Works. It was redeveloped in the 1970s as housing for the arts community.
Finally...the South End's proximity to Back Bay is hard to miss...
(PT Barnum's old residence)...
...an example of Boston's rich architectural legacy...150-year-old residence buildings closely juxtaposed to modern high-rise and skyscraper developments. It's a small city and population-dense city, after all.

In memoriam...

2009-08-28T00:17:00.003-04:00

Who would have thought that the church I photographed a week ago, from the front stoop of a friend's new house in Mission Hill...

...would end up being the location of the late Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral this coming Saturday morning? All living past presidents (Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and George Bush) are slated to attend the ceremony this Saturday morning at 10:30AM, all to hear a eulogy delivered by President Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to pay my respects to the great Senator Ted Kennedy during the motorcade that made its way through Boston today, nor will I have a chance to visit his casket tomorrow in Dorchester at the JFK Library. I am hoping to make it out Saturday morning to Mission Hill to get as close to the memorial - and celebration - of Kennedy and his service to the people of Massachusetts and the United States over the past 47 years.

May he rest in peace...and may his eternal dreams for the betterment of our nation and its people never die.

A slugfest in Mission Hill, love, and a near slugfest in Roxbury

2009-08-24T22:36:00.005-04:00

I had a good weekend...nothing too eventful (did absolutely nothing until 5:30PM on Saturday...just surfed the internets with the google all afternoon). However, Friday night turned out to be interesting. A bunch of people (5) from the grad school (4 of which are in my program) just moved into a brand new 3-story house in Mission Hill, halfway between Roxbury Crossing and Brigham Circle. It has beautiful rooms, all stainless appliances and granite tops, even a wine cooler...

We kicked off their year in this place with an "empty house" party..."empty" because all the furniture was still out of the unit, waiting to be moved in the next day. Result: waayyyyy too many people in an open room (the keg was kicked before midnight)...but it was fun. Outside...

A true slugfest...here are two copulating.

From wikipedia.org:
Once a slug has located a mate, they encircle each other and sperm is exchanged through their protruded genitalia. A few days later around 30 eggs are laid into a hole in the ground, or beneath the cover of objects such as fallen log.

A commonly seen practice among many slugs is apophallation. The penis of these species is curled like a cork-screw and often becomes entangled in their mate's genitalia in the process of exchanging sperm. When all else fails, apophallation allows the slugs to separate themselves by one or both of the slugs chewing off the other's penis. Once its penis has been removed, a slug is still able to mate subsequently, but using only the female parts of its reproductive system.

So, yes, what you see...that pearl between the two slugs 69'ing, is their goodies.

There were also plenty of snails to go around...

We tried to hook a few up, but they were not interested. This coupling below looked promising for about 10 seconds. You'd be surprised how quickly a snail moves when it has no interest. Eh, they were probably brothers (or sisbros? I don't know if snails are like slugs. I guess I'm a little naive in that kinda way *blushes*).
A nice thing about this place is its proximity to the Mission Church (AKA Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope). This was a 3.2 second exposure shot from my bare, shaking hands hours after consuming vast amounts of Harpoon IPA and Bud Light. Not bad, eh?
(The shrubbery in the foreground briefly served as a very welcome retreat from the party later that night. Apparently one's stomach can only stomach so much beer foam in one night.)

Saturday night was spent at Matt and Mel's place...on their back patio, to be exact. Here, I took pictures of Amanda the Kiwi and Lily the Cat.

"Arghh...bright light...BRIGHT LIGHT."

"Now this is love."

Bill and I met up with Amanda at the SoWa district yesterday afternoon to look at weird crafts, weirder antiques, the small produce market, and passed through some open studios (there was a cool guy doing interesting wire sculptures, some of which are quite anatomically correct, I'm relieved to report. Bashful wire sculptures...that's just wrong).

We spent a few minutes watching dogs in the dog park.

Bill and I encountered a bit of a problem finding our way back from the South End to Kenmore Square, where we grabbed a cheap bite to eat and some Schlitz tall boys. YUMMM. Here's a recreation (courtesy of www.gmap-pedometer.com) of the map on the bus schedule I was carrying with me.

No, the #8 does not travel in circles, although this map would suggest otherwise. Apparently one is supposed to know intuitively in which direction the bus travels going inbound and outbound...knowing this does make a complete difference, as we learned the hard way that one cannot pick up the luxurious #8 (my dad knows this bus...always an interesting ride) from Washington Street to go towards Kenmore Square, even though Wash St is a 2-way street. As we were on Washington Street pondering over the schedule, a nice couple of gentlemen stopped by. The conversation...well, it was brief and messed up...it went something like this...

Guy #1: "Ah...you need help where you are going?"

Us: "We're just trying to figure out where to pick up the #8 bus going inbound to Kenmore Square"

Guy #2: "Oh, well, here's the Silver Line...that will take you downtown."

Guy #1: "Well, they should walk down to Mass Ave...WAYY down there."

Guy #2: "Yes, Mass Ave...that will get you in that direction."

US: "no, no, we want to take the #8 BUS, which takes one from THIS area DIRECTLY to Kenmore Square."

Guy #1 or #2: "Well, downtown may be the way to go."

Guy #2 or #1: "Yeah, the green line goes to Kenmore."

Guy #1 or #2: "Yeah...the silver line goes downtown." "downtown? yes?"

Guy #2 or #1: "Walk WAYY down to Mass Ave...straight down there...that goes there, yes."

Bill: "Thanks for your help. We figured it out."

Guys: "Okayy?? *shrugging shoulders*"

Bill and I ended up walking to Rosie's Place on Harrison Avenue, next to the old Liquor Land, at the border of the South End, Roxbury, and Dorchester...some place I NEVER would have imagined walking to pick up a bus. I did catch these cool photos of an approaching storm, though.

Here's a boot stepping out of the clouds onto a tree silhouette...

...and a turkey walking with wings unfurled. Long live the Fenway turkeys...may they forever be remembered (the authorities had something to do with their disappearance...I saw them one morning with nets and trucks).

Things got even more interesting at Dudley Square (oh, beautiful Dudley it is). We stopped at our platform to pick up passengers, and some guy came walking onto the bus, shouting obscenities as he was tapping his Charlie Card. Soon it became apparent that a verbal altercation occurred between him and a middle-aged woman, dressed in full baby blue and navy regalia, bearing the mark of pride of Boston...the patch of "The T". She came onto the bus, chasing after the man, yelling, "What the fuck is your problem!" She looked like she was ready to get physical with him if he did. The man, back at her, "you fucking cracker bitch cunt whore...you can suck my big black dick." The bus driver quickly escorted the T employee off the bus, all the while with her yelling back towards the other passenger from outside the bus. 'Turns out she was a bus driver, parked at a bus that was standing by to begin another route from the station. We were baffled at what precipitated this whole nonsense, but it was amusing to say the least. We just kept silent, hoping the guy would get off the bus soon. He did, at Ruggles Station. Finally.

Too much excitement! 'Signal that it's time for the work week to begin once again.

MBTA news and other stuff

2009-08-21T00:19:00.003-04:00

I did the unthinkable online today. I actually put money on my Charlie Card...from my computer! The MBTA website has allowed riders to do this only recently. Mind you, it took a couple of tries. Apparently my principal card wasn't "valid on this system", so I grabbed one from my desk and tried again, and viola...$20 updated on the card. The card that worked had a black serial number...the one that was "invalid" (yet worked for me on the system) was printed in red. Nevertheless, I am currently loaded with fares (with some cryptic message that I could update the card on any Charlie Card machine or sales location starting at 5AM the next morning). I would assume that this meant that I could add even more value after that time at an MBTA station...but does it mean that I have to validate my online transaction in person at a station by tapping my card at a Charlie Card vending machine? Whatever...perhaps I overlooked the fine print. I have the receipt saying I payed for the update. We'll see what happens.

Has anyone else noted how annoying the lisp of the automated announcer is on the Green Line? I pointed it out to my friend Bill on a trolley yesterday afternoon...he agreed that the "whistle" with the s's is rather annoying, given how loudly the announcements are broadcasted on the trolleys. "Next stop...Brigham Shr*whistle*rrcle."

'Just enjoying my cooled and dehumidified time in my apartment. Perhaps this weekend will end with a little bang? 'Weather could prove interesting up in these parts, wind and surf-wise?

Stooping

2009-08-16T22:04:00.003-04:00

Friday, August 14; approximately 11PM
Massachusetts Avenue between Columbus Ave and Tremont St

I was at a "stooping" party Friday night, where we all sat out on the front steps of my friend Liz's apartment building overlooking the steady traffic (with lots of ambulances rushing to BMC) and having a few beers. One guest arrived with a vintage Polaroid camera from the 1960s...complete with flash unit (which took bulbs that expired after one fire) and original cartridge-style film. Above is one of the pictures taken with the camera, of yours truly, on the adjacent stoop. Notice that something went wrong with the development...that big white cone coming from the top should not be there. Still, it's a cool picture...and I even had to scan it at work to post it!

The weekend was good. I went wine tasting at Westport Rivers Winery yesterday afternoon (MA may not be wine country...that's why they specialize in bubbly...and very good, award-winning bubbly it is...even featured in Forbes).

Stayed in last night, which was necessary...I have been partying too much lately.

Today...went to the SoWA markets on Harrison Avenue. I stepped into the SoWA Artist Guild on 450 Harrison to step into some studios and chat with some of the artists there. You should definitely check it out sometime...they have a "First Friday" program to boot.

Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (the MFA)

2009-08-14T00:03:00.006-04:00

This past Sunday, I decided to walk through the MFA for a brief couple of hours and take in some of its art. I focused on the Egyptian galleries (I haven't spend very much time in them)...but, of course, the building's architecture grasped most of my attention. Going to the MFA for free as a student is quite a perk....

Here is the European Masters gallery, which was recently restored. Much of the art in this gallery is from the 15th-17th Centuries. If you look closely, the left clerestory windows are currently blocked. On the other side of them is the new wing of the MFA currently under construction. I may actually still be around to see it open...and that will be a special day for Boston.

Of course, nothing compares to the architecture of the original building and its rotunda, adorned with original murals by John Singer Sargent...

Some items from the Egyptian Galleries...

...and from the new wing...I remember seeing a similar installment of these reflective sculptures in the ICA right after it opened.

The dome of the rotunda...
The Japanese Rock Garden...very nice...

Bill and I went to the Sox game Tuesday night, compliments of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ($5/ticket). We watched Youkilis charge the mound and throw Detroit's pitcher to the ground, get thrown out, the Tigers pitcher (Porcello) get thrown out, Terry Francona get ejected, Ellsbury steal multiple bases, Mike Lowell (replacing Youkilis after he was ejected) bat a home run, a 1.5-hour rain delay, a balk that resulted in another run for us, etc, etc. 'Quite a game. Best of all...we were seated behind home plate in handicapped seats...unlimited legroom and our own bouncers keeping the crowd from congregating behind out seats...short beer lines, etc, etc. I love it!

Weekend post #2

2009-08-10T22:46:00.003-04:00

Fun in the sun on Matt and Sarah's rooftop this past Saturday. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Matt took some time to enjoy his pipe...

I was working on correcting a terrible farmer's tan that afternoon. Yes, I know, I look incredibly gay in the photo below...the off-kilter sunglasses...well, that's pretty much the direction I was headed later that day, being sunbaked while having a few cocktails...
Phase 10 and tequila sunrises...yum yum...

Me and Bill, dressed rather similarly that day...Bill offered Matt a tarot reading...

Sunset over Brookline...

Matt and Sarah...

Cheers, everyone!

I am currently battling a Drosophila problem in my apartment. I thought it was the whole building until this morning, when I was in the elevator and saw the little fruit flies crawl out of the trash bag I was about to throw out. Then I realized...perhaps it is best to immediately throw spent raspberries into the dumpster before they accumulate fruit fly colonies. I think it's better now that there isn't anything on which they can feast...but if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of the completely, I am TOTALLY open. Ughhh...

My boss told me that an abstract I submitted for a meeting in October received a high score...increasing the chances that I'll be giving a talk at Duke at that time. That's promising news...I'm waiting to hear back from them later in the week.

Rooftops

2009-08-09T23:27:00.004-04:00

It's been another very eventful weekend...awesome weather on Friday and Saturday made for great outdoor rooftop enjoyment. We began Friday evening with our weekly Immunology Program "happy hour" at the roof of the Baseball Tavern on Boylston Street, across from Fenway Park. This also happens to be where a few of us listened to the MGMT/Paul McCartney concert this past Wednesday night.

I managed to catch this guy pulling an English Bulldog with a pink bow in a Radio Flyer while on my way to the Tavern. Only in Fenway...
The roof of the Baseball Tavern offers awesome views of Back Bay and Fenway Park...

We then moved to Matt and Sarah's apartment overlooking the Riverway...they were hosting a cocktail party on their roof that night. Here's another Matt (not the host) drinking a mammoth Asahi...
As it turned out, Matt and Sarah have a roofdeck that spans three apartment buildings. There was a luau-themed party going on at one end of the deck, another party at the opposite end, and our party in the center. All three parties ended up converging at the luau-themed party...so much fun.
Here's Bill beginning a tarot reading...he was reunited with his two tarot decks that night...having left them at another party a few months ago...

Me, Bill, and Sarah...
Me and Matt...
Sarah seemed to enjoy this...
I'll post other pics from the other two days. In short...yesterday it was back at Matt and Sarah's roof to get some sun. Today: a brief visit to the MFA (compliments of Harvard University), some shopping, and seeing "Julie and Julia", which was very good.

A merry read for you...

2009-08-05T22:13:00.007-04:00

From Boston.com

Act One

(A street in Cambridgeham. Most Exalted University Professor HENRY LOUIS GATES, freshly returned from the Land of the Asian Khan, is rattling the door of his keep. Enter a WENCH.)

WENCH: Alarum! Alarum! A thief is about!

GATES: Peace, ye fat guts!

(Enter SHERIFF CROWLEY)

CROWLEY: Stay, now! Who disturbs our peaceful shire?

GATES: I disturb no man. My key unlocketh not.

CROWLEY: Forsooth, thou breakest and enterest.

GATES (entering his castle): I break not for witless constables. Begone!

CROWLEY: Back speaks no man to the Sheriff; I arrest thee!

GATES: Knowest thou whom I am? That I am coy with the Daily Beastmistress, Milady Tina? That I am most down with Lady Oprah, the Queen of afternoon tele-dalliances? That I am sworn liege to Dr. Faust, of whom Marlowe wrote? That I unravelest literary mysteries at the Greatest University Known to Man?

CROWLEY: Of Tufts you speak? Even so, thou art under arrest.

GATES: Thou detaineth me because I am a Moor!

CROWLEY: Some of my best friends are Moors. Your pleas availeth not.

GATES: You shall rue the day you crost my threshold.

CROWLEY: Thou dost protest too much. (Escorts the handcuffed GATES offstage.)

Act Two

(Inside the faraway White Palace, where KING BARACK and his faithful DUKE AXELROD confer in an egg-shaped hall.)

AXELROD: The people are restless, sire.

BARACK: Aye, I offereth free poultices and physic to every man, woman, and child, but they spurn my generosity.

AXELROD: Their minds are elsewhere, at the ocean strand, or the playing fields of Fen.

BARACK: Yet I promise them health and long life. With but small increases in the annual tithes.

AXELROD: The people need distraction, my lord.

BARACK: A conflagration perhaps? My Israelite allies yearn to strike Nineveh. . .

AXELROD: Nay, the peasants tire of foreign entanglements. Forget not the disastrous reign of the House of Bush. (A page enters, and hands AXELROD a scroll.) What here? A saucy tale from Cambridgeham. The Sheriff has arrested a Moor for crimes unbefitting a gentleman.

BARACK: Stupid sheriffs arrest many Moors.

AXELROD: Perhaps in the Chicagoland of our youthful acquaintance, my lord. Not so many in Cambridgeham. ’Tis a most gentil and parfit place.

BARACK: Who is the man, and what is his crime?

AXELROD: ’Tis the Most Exalted University tutor Gates. Back has he spoken to the Sheriff, unbidden.

BARACK: Gates? I know this man. We have supped together on the enchanted Isle of Martha’s Vineland. I have seen him with Lady Oprah, prating about his ancestry.

AXELROD: Perhaps a photo op, my lord? We invite Gates and the Sheriff here, quaff ale in the summer heat, and proclaim peace and brotherhood among all men.

BARACK: And savor tobacco from the Duke of Marlboro?

AXELROD: Not with the people watching, sire. (Turns to page) Summon them here!

Act Three

(In the garden of the White Palace, GATES, BARACK and CROWLEY are sipping ale, joined by the FOOL.)

FOOL: What? No beer nuts?

BARACK: Silence, Fool! Or back to Delaware with you.

FOOL (sniffing his glass, suspiciously): What beer is this? I smell the filth of Antwerp and Bruges.

BARACK: ’Tis our nation’s finest, lately of St. Louis, now in foreign hands.

FOOL (Aside): ’Tis a light man that drinks a light beer.

BARACK: Enough prattle! We gather to share ale, and indulge in manly talk of harmony among our tribes.

FOOL: This is no manly talk. Women speak of harmony and quilt-making. Men speak of Signors Ortiz and Ramirez, and the forbidden magic elixirs of the Fen.

BARACK: Enough, Fool! (To GATES and CROWLEY) Now let us raise our cups and swear eternal friendship.

GATES (lifting his glass): I hail the Sheriff and the worthy constabulary! But for them, my name would not have spread beyond our shores, even to the Indes, Cochin, and beyond.

CROWLEY (toasting): I hail the learned tutor! That his castle door may henceforth spring open at his touch, and his neighbors mind their own knitting.

BARACK: All hail the new era of hope and change, when Moor and Sheriff like buds are hugging.

FOOL (belching, loudly): Another round, perhaps? We have only started chugging . . .

(Exit ALL, laughing.)

2009-08-03T22:23:00.002-04:00

This video is quickly becoming viral...I found it on Break.com this morning, and apparently CNN has snagged it as well.

"Are you breathing Christian"...*shudders*

Farmer Evan...and other escapades

2009-08-02T23:05:00.005-04:00

What a weekend!

I started out at a farm in Danvers with Bill and his friend Magda. We picked blueberries (and some of us tried picking raspberries....) It was unbelievably hot that we spend most of the time in the shade of the produce market. We did make friends with a llama and a couple of donkeys, though....

...and I got to sit on a tractor...

We had lunch at the Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus...just to make our trip through Saugus complete....
We then went to Matt and Mel's for a cookout in th fabulous St. Botolph District. Etienne was there...mind you, he is special.

Me and Angelique...and Etienne (he's special, you know...)

I do not remember this (and I would assume Matt does not either)...

This is too funny that I have to post it....

2009-07-31T00:17:00.002-04:00

My parent's wheaten (white) Scottish Terrier has some liver tests done yesterday morning in a pet hospital in Chesapeake, VA. A few weeks ago, he had some bloodwork come back with elevated liver enzyme levels. They decided to look into it a little further, with an ultrasound done by an oncologist/liver specialist in Chesapeake. The bottom line is that Wallace will be OK, with perhaps a drug regimen to manage his problems for the rest of his life...we'll see with a few more tests in the coming weeks.

Anyway, my dad sent this humorous email this evening...

"We didn't tell you this one but there was a very funny incident which happened yesterday with Wallace when at the clinic in Chesapeake.

"While Caroline and I waited for Wallace to have his ultra sound we watched a very obnoxious dog ( Schnauzer Mix ? ) act up in the waiting area. The lady that we assumed he belonged to was trying to fill out paper work with the receptionist and the dog kept humping her leg. He just wouldn't stop!! Wild. She would get him off, then try to continue with the registering etc. and he would be back at it.

"Well, later after we talked to the vet and got all reports etc. Caroline stayed in the waiting area and paid for the visit and got more papers for other tests etc. I took Wallace outside for some air etc... This Schnauzer type was outside with the little old lady and was wandering around in front of where we had parked the car. He was still "doing his thing" with the lady's leg. I put Wallace in the back seat of the Accord and proceeded to pour some water in a bowl for him to drink. Instead, he jumped in the front seat, pulled himself up on the steering wheel , looked out and saw this dog acting up as before and proceeded to HONK THE HORN!! at this dog. Not just once but many times until I could get to him to pull him off the horn!! I looked to see what the old lady's reaction was...she was laughing louder than I was!!! It was Wallace being Wallace for sure. Funny!!!

Summer's finally here. Are you happy now?

2009-07-29T22:53:00.002-04:00

72 degree dewpoint when I walked into my apartment tonight at 9:30. It was 78 degrees outside at the time. That means it's disgusting outside.

I walked into work this morning (ok, who am I kidding...it was 12:30PM, still the morning for me) with a buttoned-up shirt completely soaked through. It took me over an hour to dry off (it wasn't as if I was going to take it off or anything...but my friend Matt told me tonight that he hung out in the bathroom without his shirt off for 10 minutes to dry off upon arriving at work this morning). Truthfully, I wouldn't put it past one of my colleagues to pull that off...undressing in the lab. After all, they certainly have no qualms with prancing around the lab in their running spandex...these are males, by the way...and there are more than one of them. Perhaps in another setting it would be a different story, but in the lab...that's just gross.

So I'm back to the days of turning the AC down to 70 degrees and lying spread eagle on the hardwood floor of my apartment wearing nothing but underwear when I come home from work, just to dry off. The thought of sleeping in a bed tonight really disgusts me right now. This is summer...you asked for it. Now enjoy it!

I hope your work weeks are all going well. Tomorrow is the culmination of an issue that has proceeded far too long in the past two weeks. Without getting into details (because I know some of you self-righteous blog readers will construe some warped interpretation of my comments), I personally have been very interested in the recent events involving Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley...not so much for the saga that has ensued but rather out of fascination in how such an incident that began so minor mushroomed into one of national interest...all because a cop, a scholar, the media, and our president EACH handled everything EXTREMELY poorly. Our president will have a Budweiser with said cop and professor over a conversation that will undoubtedly end up being about race relations in his house at 6PM tomorrow. Then, hopefully, this matter will be behind us and our president can focus on more important issues. Not that race relations are unimportant...it's just that race should have had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this incident in the first place.

Disclaimer: That being said, I still do respect Professor Gates (despite his lunacy in recent days), the Cambridge Police ('never thought I would ever type that), and Barack Obama (he'll learn from this...to keep his mouth shut with regard to issues of local jurisdiction).

...how we roll down South...

2009-07-27T22:45:00.012-04:00

Yes, Virginia is part of the South. Quite so, actually...the capital of the Confederacy was in Richmond, VA, about an hour drive west of Newport News (not that I'm proud of that), where I grew up and where these pictures were taken. My sister Ellie and I flew up from Atlanta and down from Boston (respectively) last Thursday night to spend a weekend in our old stomping grounds with our parents, in the very house where we grew up.

The House
...a rancher in which my parents have managed to create a rather nice Colonial/Victorian ambiance, full of ridiculous amounts of period china and fixtures, over the years. Much of the furniture was hand-built by Dad.

The parlor...my mom likes to hang as much china on the walls as possible, as you can see. There was a tragedy a little while back, when a number of pieces crashed to the floor and shattered.
...a quick ode to my family (cue: Cranberries' music circa 1995)...
The Dogs:
My parents own two Scottish Terriers. Frazer (the black one) is 8 years old and is "the most beautiful bully ever...", according to my mom. Wallace (the wheaten one), is "the cutest one" who is quite definitely the dumbest dog my parents have ever owned but is great for entertainment. He's 4 and likes to hide his squeaky toys from Frazer in the most conspicuous places around the house, sometimes while Frazer is watching him do so.
Wallace spends much of his time just trying to figure out just what is going on...
They are both my buddies, but Frazer and I are best buds...

The Car:
My dad owns a 1965 MGB convertible. He bought it in 2003 (he had a 1970 model that he sold, regretfully, back in the day). This car came from Nantucket and was restored quite beautifully...It has refurbished vinyl seating and *original* Austin Healey belt buckles (which operate just like those on an airliner). The buckles are extremely rare these days. He also has the hardtop, softtop, and all documentation from the car's original sale up to the present day.

Dad took Ellie and I out for a spin Friday night. Ellie is seated in the tiny rear rumble seat, sideways...History Overload:
Ellie and I went to Colonial Williamsburg on Saturday to look around the old Duke of Gloucester Street, which was once the capital of Virginia back in the colonial days and is home of the 2nd oldest university in the country, the College of William and Mary (I almost went there for undergrad).
I bought some gifts for a few friends in this and a couple of other stores along the street. I handed over my Visa card, and the cashier told me, "OK, on your letter of credit with Mr. Visa...please make your mark on our ledger"...which was the sales slip.
Even the birds reenact colonial times there...
Ellie and I made a carrot cake from scratch for our dad's birthday, which was Saturday.
She and I then took a drive out to Poquoson (very close to Langley Air Force Base, where all of the astronauts for the Mercury and Apollo programs trained for their space missions and lunar landings) to take a few pictures...
We took a few "artsy" pictures. Ellie asked why she was so small. I said "well, you looked lonely..."
She liked it and took one of me...

The Chamberlin:
Dad and I drove out to Hampton (about a 30 minute drive with traffic) to Fort Monroe, where we presented our licenses and vehicle registration to gain access to the base, which is home to the historic Chamberlin Hotel, built in the late 1920s. We used to have champagne brunch here back in the 1990s on special occasions, but since then, the hotel fell into disrepair and was shuttered (literally boarded up a couple of years ago...as recently as 2007). Thankfully, it was restored to house condo owners and also visitors. They did a magnificent job restoring this place....
Mom's Birthday Card:
Ellie and I put together an over-the-top Victorian-themed birthday card for Mom, who will have a birthday next month. Ellie raided Mom's stash of Victorian stationary, which provided most of the stuff you see in the card. Add a few silk flowers, strange pictures (including the "lonliness" series taken of the two of us in Poquoson), a cheesy haiku (composed by yours truly), a picture of a little girl smoking out of a bong, and some schmaltzy greetings, and it was a hit!
I left Virginia this morning at 7AM. I am SO tired!

Weekend with Dad - Post #2

2009-07-20T23:19:00.008-04:00

These pics were taken on Sunday, July 12. Dad and I began our day at the SoWA antiques and open markets, then walked over to the dog park on Washington Avenue for a brief time to spend with the furry friends. One in particular took a liking to Dad...jumped right into his lap...

I love puggles...this one was barking at the top of his lungs when I took this...
We then caught the Silver Line to the Red Line to the Silver Line (yes, it's as messed up as it sounds...the MBTA is in arrears at the moment) to the Sail Boston Tall Ships Festival in Southie's Seaport District...

...synchronized jet spelling in the air..."Mohegan Sun 'hearts' the Red Sox" and "Geico Geico Geico"...
You can barely make out the jets to the right of the "H" in the photo below...
Boston Harbor with the Tobin Bridge in the distance...

The largest ship...from Russia...

...onward to Feneuil Hall, where there was a vintage Mack fire engine...
Inside the meeting hall of Fanieul Hall, above the shops. History (that escapes me at the moment...suffice it to say it was very significant and had something to do with our independence) was made here....

...dome of Quincy Market, built in the 1820s and designed by Alexander Parris...it became a festival marketplace in the mid 1970s. Before then it was a huge, stinky slum full of rotting fish and meat...

Day in New England Paradise...

2009-07-19T22:57:00.007-04:00

Bill and I drove down to Newport, RI on a whim today. Little did we know that our excursion would turn into a 5.6-mile walk around the city, viewing the famed wharves, mansions, and the impressive Cliff Walk. Here are a few pictures from the few hours we spend there today....

Here's the harbor with the Claiborne Pell Bridge in the distance...

Kingscote...one of Newport's many mansions...

The Elms...this is the best view I could get. Technically, we needed a ticket to visit not only the house, but also the grounds. Too bad...this one is quite something from the opposite side of the property. It's one of the "big 3" in Newport (the other two being the Breakers and the Marble House).
Views from the Cliff Walk...which takes visitors 3.5 miles along the coast, well above the crashing sea and through the back yards of the mansions. This is perhaps the prettiest part of Rhode Island I have ever seen...

...not a mansion for current viewing. Actually, it's the administration building of Salve Regina University. This building was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and built in 1892 as Ochre Court.

...and here it is...The Breakers...once home to Cornelius Vanderbilt II (built 1893).

I still have many pictures from last week (spent with my dad, who stayed up here for 5 nights). I promise to update in the near future.

The Fenway wild turkeys say hi, by the way. (They were out this morning, and chasing me away as I tried to take this picture.)

Weekend with Dad - Post #1

2009-07-16T23:06:00.008-04:00

My dad spent last Friday through Wednesday morning up here with me. We went to the Sox game last Friday night (against Kansas City) with two of his friends from his college days. Great game...seven scoreless innings until the Sox scored a run in the 8th and brought out Papelbon to close it out...awesome awesome awesome.

Dad left Wednesday morning. His flight out of Boston was delayed because the plane was coming in from Newport News (his actual destination), and the captain was arrested IN the cockpit that morning during boarding because of a confrontation ("assault and battery") with TSA officials at the Newport News airport. You can read about it here. It took over an hour and a half for Airtran to scrounge up another pilot who would fly the plane to Boston and fly back down to Virginia.

Anyways, here are a few pictures I took Friday and Saturday of last week...

On Friday, I took my dad on a long drive through all parts of Boston and surroundings, including Beacon Hill and the West End, Back Bay, Downtown/Chinatown/Financial District, North End, Charlestown, Winthrop Bay, Southie, Dorchester, Roxbury through Franklin Park, Arborway/Jamaicaway/Riverway, Longwood Medical Area, Mission/Parker Hill, Brookline, Allston, and back to the Fenway.

Here's a great view of Boston from Deer Island in Winthrop...
Saturday: I walked Dad through my lab and Harvard Medical School.
From there, we explored the Granary Burial Ground (resting place of John Hancock, Ben Franklin's parents, Sam Adams, and Paul Revere, among other revolutionary celebrities...
...We walked the Boston Common by way of the Frog Pond...
...and then through the Boston Public Garden to see the famous and historic Swan Boats and George Washington Monument...
After eating lunch at the Pru, we walked along the Christian Science World Headquarters...
...and then spent some time at Top of the Hub for a nice view of the city from 750 feet in the air. The building was definitely moving a bit that day...
That night was spent at Matt and Mel's for a delicious dinner and dessert provided by Bill (he also brought over bubble gum flavored ice cream...a favorite of mine since childhood. He made it himself, and it is perfect!

'Stay tuned for more pictures around Boston and Cape Cod.

This is too cool...

2009-07-10T07:14:00.002-04:00

Have you ever noticed the hand-drawn wall tiles at the entrance to the Davis Square T Station? Well, the Boston Globe published an article this morning about the Davis Square Tiles Project, which is an ongoing effort to track down the 249 people, all currently between the ages of 35 and 45, who each created a tile back in the early 1980s to be permanently installed in Davis Square station when the Red Line was being extended to Alewife at that time.

There has been a lot of success with the project, and many are recounting their memories of living in Somerville 25 years ago. Take a look at the website...it's a cool look into the area's past through the perspectives of childhood memories.

I'm off to Logan airport to pick up my dad. He's spending the next 5 nights up here with me...lots to cover in that time. I'll try to post something in the meantime...can't guarantee it, though.

July 4th and S-U-N is F-U-N!

2009-07-05T22:52:00.003-04:00

What a weekend! I spent part of yesterday afternoon on the roof of Matt and Sarah's apartment building, soaking up the sun (and damn, did it feel good!). This is a shot of the happy clouds, looking straight up from my position lying on my back...
The very happy couple, Matt and Sarah...

I ended up at Matt and Mel's last night for an impromptu cookout on their back patio. Here is Amanda and Lily the Siamese Cat...
From L-R: my friend Bill, Etienne and Angelique (the Quebecois), Mel, and Amanda
I have a habit of convincing people to give me massages...both at work and while at things like this. Bill obliged last night.
Today: Matt, Sarah, and I drove up to New Hampshire to buy cheap liquor. I bought my favorite single malt, Laphroaig, and a few other things (including a Brancott Pinot Noir from New Zealand that was dirt cheap).

Speaking of New Zealand, here are the latest antics from my favorite airline, Air New Zealand. I flew on a 777 to Auckland 2 years ago for Matt and Mel's wedding.

A behind the scenes look...the good looking gray-haired man in yellow paint is the CEO of the airline...

ENJOY!!!

HOLIDAY!!!

2009-07-02T23:58:00.003-04:00

I found out at the closing of my lab talk on Monday that tomorrow is an official holiday for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center employees. That means that I will not report to work tomorrow (although I will make an appearance for 30 minutes or so to do cell culture work...gotta keep the cells well fed with IL-2 and happily reproducing).

I'm getting a haircut tomorrow on Newbury Street. This will be the highlight of the day...shampoo with neck massage and a haircut overlooking Newbury Street from the 2nd floor salon with great tea and hair products (if I'm lucky, it will be champagne instead). A highlight of every month....

I totally need to buy clothes. I took a shirt off on Tuesday night and ripped the cuff off of the sleeve. It was one of my yellow shirts, too...the one color that everyone compliments when I wear it. I spent two hours tonight trying on old pairs of jeans and shirts. I now have 3 bags in the hallway waiting to be sent to Goodwill. Most of my jeans...I kept. I tried each pair tonight and realized that the gym is working. ;-)

'Had a fun morning waking up to a thunderstorm and showering through it. While some may think it's a risky idea, I rather had a fun experience. Thunderstorms are becoming more of a way of life up here, and it really freaks people out because they are so rare. Thunder up here resonates against the large buildings and makes it very dramatic.

Fog, on the other hand, is becoming routine. I wouldn't mind it except for the flocks of seagulls that raid the dumpsters in the early mornings in the alley behind my building (not to mention the weird birds that decided to build a nest next to my A/C unit...VERY loud in the mornings).

'Looking forward to better weather ahead!

another long Tuesday

2009-06-30T22:40:00.002-04:00

As I'm sure you're tired of hearing about work, I'll refrain tonight. I will just say that I totally rocked a talk I gave yesterday morning to my division (which is about 80-100 people, but attendance was more like 50 yesterday...the boss is frolicking around Paris at the moment). As a result of my presentation yesterday, a faculty member asked me to give a talk in October at a dinner club meeting at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, if it ever happens. We'll see.

The last week has been good...going to the gym more frequently (now that I have found some time and am feeling better after being sick a few weeks ago).

I rediscovered how awesome the Lower Depths Tap Room is this past Saturday. When I had every intention to start my belated spring cleaning in my apartment, a few friends invited me to have beers with them at the Lower Depths in Kenmore Square. You can't beat $1 Fenway Franks (grilled, not boiled as they are at the park...perhaps not as authentic, but damn are they good). Let me continue with my plug for this place...their Kenmore Tots (tater tots topped with cheese, bacon, and chipotle aioli), are to die for. Bring your cash...no credit/debit accepted. However, with all the offerings (my favorite cheap lager is the Narragansett tall can), it's a fun place when it's not too crowded (a good midday stop on weekends).

My apartment looks so much cleaner now. I discovered layers of relics from two years ago beneath a pile on my desk (my current desk is on my lap, as I sit with a notebook PC on my futon). My dad is coming up on the 10th, and he's staying here for 5 nights. This is the perfect excuse to clean out my pad...not that he would be judgemental, but I know my mom will send him up here to report back to her on my living standards. ;-)

As for the 4th, no mature plans yet. I have a few options for cookouts. We caught a great fireworks show this past Saturday night from the patio at Church (the bar/restaurant in Fenway) when Red Sox owner John Henry held his wedding reception at the park...red carpets out from Gate B and all the works.

A few colleagues and I are going to Chinatown for Dim Sum tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait! I suggested Emporer's Garden (or Empire Garden, depending on which side of the sign you read from the street), since it's a cool space (inside an old theatre) and evidently is in the top 3 among Dim Sum Places (other two being Hei La Moon - a favorite of mine - and China Pearl, which made a brief appearance from the street in the movie "The Departed").

Goodnight, all.

Long, dreary Tuesday

2009-06-23T23:19:00.005-04:00

I've given up walking with an umbrella. The mist makes it a lost cause. I'll cope with rain droplets sticking to my contacts (which kinda sucks)...not as unpleasant as wearing eyeglasses, I suppose. Being bathed in a 60 degree steambath can be somewhat soothing at 6AM. At that time, the cabbies actually let you cross the street in front of them, as I have learned from recent weeks. Geese and wild turkeys (and rats at night, as I just learned on the sidewalk outside)...not so accommodating.

I walked into work at 6AM this morning. Let me tell you, working a 15-hour day with just an hour break at the bench and hood with 3 hours of sleep isn't fun. Spending half that time exposed to radioactive isotopes (at right, NOT my picture) makes it much less fun (is my profuse sweating due to my nervousness about having a spill that would effectively shut down the tissue culture lab, or because the stuff is actually "hot"?...the former, I assure you...or maybe it's because I'm hot...people tell me so, I dream).

Yet, my experiment nearly failed, so I made a desperate attempt to salvage what I could, which resulted in me walking out of the lab at 9PM as opposed to midnight. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade...for me, that means having a glass of wine as I type this as I wind down from the day.

Our outing to Newport Polo was a huge success a few weeks ago. I am currently cooking up the "North Shore Experience"...or perhaps better named the "Frolic Over the Tobin", which includes dinner at the Hilltop Steakhouse, drinks at the Kowloon, and miniature golf nearby. The Christmas Tree Shops in Lynnfield is not out of the picture, either. Any suggestions are welcome. Please advise.
Again, NOT my picture.

Gloucester, MA

2009-06-21T22:59:00.007-04:00

I locked myself out of the apartment this morning. I met a few friends at the Harvard Club last night for a few drinks, and since I was wearing well-fitted dress pants, I took my apartment keys off of the main keychain (so that they wouldn't be so bulky). I forgot to put them back on this keychain this morning. Since Denis the superintendent was not in his apartment at the time, I headed out for an aimless drive with my friend Bill. We ended up in Gloucester, MA. It was misty and cool...the perfect weather to view the grounds of what we happened upon...Hammond Castle...

See it?
Better views...
"These buildings were planned and constructed by John Hays Hammond, Jr. to house his medieval collection and his laboratory that developed basic inventions of guided missiles and radio communications."
The castle was constructed in the late 1920s of period elements. It now houses a museum of Hammond's medieval collections and other items from his work pioneering remote control.

A private beach located not too far away...
I regained access to my apartment at 8PM, after my super had come in from a day on Nantasket Beach. I spent 2 hours in Bill's apartment watching British TV and eating very good pasta with sausage (thanks, Bill!). 'Twas a perfect day for beachgoing. When I said this to Denis the Super in the elevator, he replied, "I'm nuts, you know?" Ummmm...

I am packing up my CDs and placing them into a CD notebook. I can't wait to get rid of my dust-collecting CD racks. I'm currently listening to a Chemical Brothers CD that I forgot I owned. 'Interesting and eclectic mix.

News (perhaps what the FAA doesn't want you to know) and other stuff

2009-06-18T22:33:00.004-04:00

Two interesting news stories that will make you ponder a little more over your next flight ;-)

1) A Continental Airlines flight landed in Newark this morning, safely, after its pilot died mid-flight during a trip from Brussels. Luckily, the rest of the flight was flown by the two co-pilots, which landed the aircraft without any incident. I remember this same thing happening a few years ago when another pilot died en route (happened to be a Continental flight, as well). Now, those are pretty tough flying conditions for these co-pilots...having to fly an airplane with their commanding officer laying as a corpse in the cockpit...of course, the body could not be removed into the cabin or else the passengers would have panicked. Very sad for someone to die like this on the job, in perhaps some of the most cramped conditions imaginable in a nonviolent situation, while hundreds are entrusted under their care and expertise. Scary, indeed.

2) Closer to home...another airline incident. Here at Logan International Airport, a US Airways airplane took off with a construction vehicle crossing the end of a runway as the plane was about to roll off the ground this morning around 6:30AM. The two vehicles missed each other by a few seconds. Supposedly Logan has asked, in the past, the FAA for updated transmitters on ground equipment warning drivers of close encounters with moving airplanes. The FAA hasn't acted - yet. However, today's incident initiated immediate action to halt construction at the airfield, and hopefully the FAA will follow suit by improving ground traffic proximity warning systems. By the way, the blame lies on the construction vehicle driver...a one-person error that could have ended in disaster. We all hear that airline accidents occur due to a chain of events leading to the disaster...in this case, it would have been due to a 15-year airport construction worker veteran's poor judgement.

According the the Boston Globe, the FAA has ruled this as a "significant incursion" incident, one in which two planes or a plane and ground traffic are in danger of colliding unless evasive action is taken. There have been 16 of these runway incursions since the beginning of 2008 at Logan Airport...more than at many other major airports due to the crossing runways at this field (other major airports, such as LAX, Atlanta, and Denver, have parallel runways that minimize incursions between departing and landing planes, but, of course, this design does not address the issue of rogue ground traffic). The most serious runway incursion incident to occur at Logan recently was in 2005 (and is perhaps one of the closer calls nationally in recent years), when an Aer Lingus plane and a US Airways plane were cleared for takeoff at roughly the same time on intersecting runways. The US Airways copilot realized the collision course and ordered to keep the plane down, forcing the controls to keep the speeding aircraft on the runway at a point when the plane itself would have naturally gained altitude. The planes passed within 170 feet from each other, and 380 lives were spared as a result of this evasive action. The positive outcome of the incident resulted in the pilot and co-pilot receiving Superior Airmanship Awards from the Airline Pilots Association.

While flying into Boston can be nerve-wracking for many newcomers, given the low approach over the water upon landing or taking off just 100 feet above Boston Harbor (visiting friends have commented that they were not prepared for these kinds of landings), I still have faith that the airport quickly acts upon these issues to prevent them from happening again. Something in the system is working to prevent planes from seeing disaster on these multiple occasions when they are just seconds apart from catastrophe...I wouldn't call it sheer luck. Or, perhaps, the luck lies with US Airways (don't forget the "Miracle on the Hudson" this past January). Still, though, it's widely known that our aviation industry has grown too quickly for its own good.

In other news, I have a bone to pick with Beth Israel's Accounts Payable department. I had submitted receipts for a $575 reimbursement for my travel to a conference to Keystone, CO back in late March. I submitted my claim within a couple days of my return, and I never received my check. I asked one of the department administrators to investigate this matter a few weeks ago (she was upset that I didn't let her know any earlier, and with good reason...given how little money I have as a grad student, I should have pursued this much earlier). Well, I received an email from her today saying that she discovered that the reimbursement check in the correct amount was sent instead to a friend of mine in the lab. My friend had no way of knowing that this was my money that she deposited into her account 2 months ago...BI decided to split her reimbursement checks into random amounts and send them to her unitemized. She had to write me a personal check from her account today, which put her in a difficult situation (luckily she had sufficient funds to do so). What a clusterfuck this turned out to be...now HER reimbursement is lost in the red tape.

Moral of the story: save your paperwork and check your reimbursement checks against your submitted claims. If I were in my friend's position, I probably would have done the same thing she did...I myself in the past have received checks weeks apart from the same claim, all unitemized.

Now I'm following up on not being paid by Harvard Medical School for $300 in grading medical school exams back in April. I'm also waiting for a few blood money checks from BI, as well as a $90 payment for grad student meeting lunch a while back. How can these people expect us to have these expenses remaining in limbo for months, when our monthly rents approach 1/3 of our monthly paychecks? Despicable.

'Sorry for the negative post. 'Just a few thoughts to think about when systems get way too complicated and advanced for their own good that serious matters, and even potential disasters, get lost in the red tape.

Newport Polo, or of wild turkeys and human turkeys

2009-06-14T23:12:00.007-04:00

Thanks to all who made a fantastic weekend possible.

Bill hosted an amazing brunch at his place (just down the street) Saturday morning before the Pride Parade. On the menu was ham, deviled eggs with hummus, IKEA Swedish Meatballs, and the Cracker Barrel's famously cheesy hashbrown casserole (Bill learned about it during a pit stop at a Cracker Barrel on our way down to the casinos last weekend). Amazing, amazing, amazing.

In reference to my previous post, I captured the wild turkey trio on Ave Louis Pasteur in front of my old lab building (visible in the background in some of the photos). You'll notice some were taken up close...these were tricky shots, as this particular turkey was charging towards me - slowly and meekly - while they were taken.

Now, onto an interesting observation of human behavior: Newport Polo in Rhode Island. I arranged an outing to the club Saturday afternoon to see the Newport Club battle against the Yale Alumni Club. Here is an excerpt of the email I sent out Thursday night to pretty much every single person I know living in Boston...

"Dress is casual to ridiculous. It runs the whole gamut. You are encouraged to be "creative" in dress. For those who want to caught up in the occasion, tobacco pipes and cigars are appropriate, as are ascots, scarves, weird hats, any pastel-colored pants, sport coats with sandals, and anything generally available at J Crew or Vineyard Vines. If you bring a pet, by all means dress it as well...sunglasses on small dogs have been sighted, I kid you not. Or you can bring a cheetah (see picture gallery on website). You'll be right at home if you look like a stereotypical douchebag from Nantucket or an average Joe off the street in Lynn."

So, on with the photos...

A crisp glass of Prosecco in hand...
Roasted lamb...yum!!! Thanks, Mel, for preparing this. We also had homemade guacamole, salsa, and strawberries with balsamic (my contribution, with Matt and Mel's $45 balsamic from the SoWa Open Market).
The field was wet, and my light gray beach pants became orange-stained at the knees (Amanda, to the right, fared worse).
Thorsten took my dress code advice to the max!
Jawdat taking a snooze

The Booty's!!! Sarah and Matt...
There was this very sweet doggy from Bristol, a 12-year-old mutt rescued from the side of a road.

"Sigh"...
"Hmmm?"
"Ahhhh"

Matt looking the part with his newly acquired tobacco pipe...
The field was so wet that we had to go out and stomp divots 4 separate times (for the safety of the ponies and players). Stomping divots usually occurs at halftime, after the third chukka. Yesterday...after chukkas 2, 3, 5, and between 6 and sudden death. You would be amazed at how effective this process is...after 5 minutes of stomping, the field looked like new.
Amanda...
Bill sporting a rather snazzy argyle sweater...
Joya stomping divots (I have had a *few* glasses by now so I apologize for the deteriorating quality of the photography).
And here they are...the embodiment of New England douchebaggery...(I'm pretty sure I saw these two guys grinding each other in the middle of the field at one point).

Mel...

Slappin' five with the players after Newport's 9-8 win over Yale in sudden death...
The drive home...well, we took a wrong turn and ended up crossing the Taunton River and in some horrible town called Somerset. We returned a half hour after the rest of the crew. We then drank 4 more bottles of wine (between about 8 of us).

Wildlife Refuge in the City

2009-06-11T22:40:00.014-04:00

A number of friends and I have had a few close encounters with some interesting furry (and not-so-furry) friends recently in the middle of Boston City.

Wild Turkeys: http://www.spiritual-politics.org/Wild%20Turkey.jpg

Now, it's been well established that they hang out at the Longwood D Line T Stop and occasionally attack suit-clad businessmen in the mornings, but apparently a fearless trio have made their way into the Longwood Medical Area recently. One can only surmise that they came out of the Riverway, crossed the field in front of Landmark Center, and have been roosting around the colleges that line Avenue Louis Pasteur. I have seen them every day this week. This morning, they were sitting in front of the Merck Research Laboratory sign on Ave Louis Pasteur. A few friends of mine from the lab filmed them last Saturday between the Harvard NRB and our lab building, the CLS. They thought they were vultures.

I taught someone in lab this week that "vulture" and "buzzard" are pretty much synonymous in this part of the world. Turkeys do not look like vultures. They are just as ugly, though.

Grey Squirrels: http://www.wildlife-gardening.org.uk/Galleries%5CAnimals%5CMammals%5Cgrey-squirrel-jason-alexander-050619.jpg

I received a text from my friend Matt last night asking for suggestions on how to remove a squirrel that their cat dragged into their apartment. Supposedly, it crawled through a small hole under their kitchen cabinet and stayed there through the course of the night. This morning, the rodent hissed and growled as anyone approached the kitchen. Luckily for them, the squirrel left the premesis during the work hours today. Matt and Mel locked their cat in their bedroom for the day. The cat retaliated by puking all over their bed.

On a related note, there is a small family of albino squirrels living at Jamaica Pond.

Bats: http://118.98.213.22/aridata_web/how/b/bat/bat-1.jpg

A common sight in the area where I live...I suppose they hang out in the Fens across the street. They terrorized a rooftop party I held a few summers ago, when they came out of the trees and flew literally a few feet above our heads in their typically erratic manner. At some parts of the year, they are frequently found dead in the alley behind my building.

Hawks: http://yalesustainablefoodproject.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/red-tailed-hawk-flying.jpg

One lives in a nest at Fenway Park. It divebombed an 8th grader taking a school-sponsored tour at the park just before the season opener last year. During said season opener, that very bird carried a dead rat in its talons over the field for all to see. I hear that bird on occasion screeching behind my building in the mornings.

Muskrats: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://eliot.needham.k12.ma.us/technology/lessons/animals/images/muskrat1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://eliot.needham.k12.ma.us/technology/lessons/animals/muskrat.htm&usg=__hW_4cxi5Z0n3g-_gKd0tsFGqRqI=&h=382&w=400&sz=21&hl=en&start=1&sig2=ed_2955JR3I6oDguopbKgQ&um=1&tbnid=vxdGtewxUStFuM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmuskrat%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=qMUxSrPDDOCFmQeCy_X3CQ

Very cute; one swims in the Muddy River across the street. I would venture to guess that it is indeed a muskrat...not a beaver (no damming or characteristic tail), not an otter, either.

Snapping Turtles: http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/posters/Herpetology/Snapping_Turtles/snapping_turtle_4a.jpg

(Didn't this character appear in the Neverending Story years ago, or am I just pulling this out of my ass?)

I photographed one a few years ago in the Fens near the switchback between The Fenway and Park Drive. It was about 2 feet in length and was blocking the street. A gentleman grabbed a stick and tried to lure it away from the road. It snapped the stick in half and literally jumped into the air as it was doing so. I've never heard a reptile hiss so loudly.

Chipmunks: http://www.all4humor.com/images/files/Chipmunk.jpg

I've witnessed one. I accidentally kicked it one morning as I walked out of my apartment building. It scurried off...I think it's ok.

Coyotes: http://www.russpage.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/coyote2.jpg

A major problem in recent years in the Jamaica Plain area. Apparently they like to prey on small dogs. :-(

Heylo thaugh!

2009-06-08T21:40:00.004-04:00

'Been a while, I suppose. The weekend was great...the Liza Minelli concert was awesome. She sang an hour and a half straight and had all the moves down. Her voice was a little rough at first, but once it warmed up, she was solid. She finished the show with "New York, New York", which was awesome; her best performance that night was "Life is a Cabaret", though.

Unfortunately, my photo opportunities were few and far between during the weekend. Photography was prohibited at the concert; casinos are just a poor choice of a place to take pictures, in general (given security and surveillance, and all).

The MGM Grand at Foxwoods was very, very nice (too bad we didn't take advantage of the Vegas-style heated pool outside). The casinos...a sensual overload, at first, but ended up being a tremendous people-watching experience. While Mohegan Sun was just unfathomable until you saw it, I rather thought Foxwoods' casinos were more tasteful. Matt and Sarah both ended up winning some money on the slot machines. I managed to keep myself away from the tables...I don't gamble, and I'd like to keep it that way given my tendency to indulge myself a little too much when it comes to other habits. ;-)

I'm still hacking from the smoke I bathed in over the weekend (the smoking ban hasn't reached CT yet). I'm taking a few days off from the cancer sticks myself.

Warm days and pleasant nights...and lovely evenings having a glass on a terrace with friends. Ahhh...I love summer. 10 cent wings and $3 pints at the Penguin on Monday nights helps, too :-)

Liza with a Z!!!

2009-06-03T23:17:00.002-04:00

I am gearing up for a fabulous night in the sticks of Connecticut this Friday. The gods have answered my wishes and I am going to see THE Liza Minelli IN CONCERT this Friday night at a private VIP show at the Mohegan Sun Arena in CT. My friend Bill procured some comps for the show, and we are going with my good friends Matt and Sarah (Sarah is working on her outfit for the night...I told her that she should wear sequins).

On top of that, we are all staying in the spanking new MGM Grand Hotel at Foxwoods Resort and Casino that night. According to Wikipedia (our most reliable fact resource, of course), Foxwoods is the 3rd largest casino in the world by square footage, after Mohegan Sun (where the concert is) and The Venetian in Macau, China. We will definitely be spending some time at the casino (and maybe see a phantom Craigslist Killer while there? Hmmmm....).

It's going to be an awesome night.

Late night musings after a long day

2009-06-02T23:24:00.002-04:00

'Had one of my 16-hour experiment marathons today, which went as well as could be expected. The plates are in the counter right now, doing their magic over the course of the night and, hopefully, presenting me with a heap of useful data to analyze tomorrow afternoon. I say afternoon, as I have absolutely no intention of getting up early tomorrow after being awake at 5:30 this morning and starting up work at 6:30AM.

You MDs who may be reading this probably think I am a wimp. Well, there are a number of reasons I didn't go to Medical School...one of which was the messed up work hours. I love my "me" time in the evenings.

'Had an excellent weekend. I managed to get out both days, having pretty much recovered from last week's illness. I was sweating bullets the whole time on Saturday, I felt so weak. It was worth it, though...my tan shows it.

I'm working on a "project" of sorts for the time being, so excuse me if I withhold some photos I have been taking over the recent few weeks. My weekend in summary, though:

Saturday: walking around town; haircut on Newbury Street; more walking; meeting up with friends at Pizzeria Regina in the North End followed by Modern Pastry; drinks at Top of the Hub at the top of the Prudential Tower

Sunday: walked to the SoWa open market and antiques market; met up with friends at Chinatown for Dim Sum at Emporer's Garden (AWESOME place...the ornate theatre atmosphere alone makes it worth the trip); drinks on me with Bill later in the night, thanking him for taking care of my requests for food and drink while I was sick in bed.

I've been keeping an eye on the coverage of Air France Flight 447. Wow, what a horrific tragedy this is...'scary thought that a plane carrying that many passengers can be missing for such a long time before the wreckage has been located. Worse yet, the cause is a COMPLETE mystery. We've been talking about it at work. My boss has an interesting story related to airline incidents. He was scheduled to take Swiss Air Flight 111 on September 2, 1998. Luckily he canceled his trip to a conference in Geneva, as the flight's entertainment system sparked a fire that ultimately caused the plane to plunge into the North Atlantic off of Nova Scotia, killing all on board.

What one has time to do while sitting at home...

2009-05-29T22:03:00.004-04:00

1) Watching the live feed of the Clark Rockefeller trial on Boston.com. I was initially fascinated by this case...still am, to some degree. I was coming back from Framingham from a cookout last July when we all noticed amber alerts posted all over the electronic signs along the Mass Pike. 'Turns out a girl was abducted by her father on Arlington and Marlborough Streets that day and taken down to Baltimore. It wasn't too exciting until the guy's story came out in the press...the multiple aliases, the possible involvement in the death of his landlord and wife in California years ago, the freaky thick-rimmed eyeglasses and fake aristocratic accent, him being able to pull off being president of the Back Bay's Algonquin Club until last year, etc, etc. The defense team is relying on the "insanity defense"...an expert has diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder and delusional disorder, grandiose type. We'll see how it holds up.
Today's testimonies were pretty dry, but it was still interesting to see the proceedings unfold and the evidence play out in the case. A few witnesses were from what used to be INS (Clark Rockefeller immigrated from West Germany in the late 1970s as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter). Another was from a precious metals firm in Arlington from which the defendant purchased almost $2 million in gold Krugerrands - later to be traded into American Gold Eagles - in the month before the abduction.

I find it interesting how the defense team, the prosecution, and the witnesses all refer to the defendant by different names. The Defense: Clark Rockefeller; The Prosecutors: Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter; Witnesses: "Gerhartsreiter", "Chichester", "Clark Rock", etc, etc.

2) Catching up on months and months of New Yorkers, and I'm doing a good job about it. Today's readings included essays on why 5-blade razors exist (tied in with evolutionary theory), conservation of contemporary art (the article didn't mention that the tomato-headed sculpture, naked waist-down, pictured in the article has a carrot stuck up its ass...I saw it at the ICA years ago), and an eye-opening article behind the man behind "Two Buck Chuck" (Charles Shaw wines).

Bored out of my mind

2009-05-28T23:18:00.007-04:00

'Still at home. I managed to go into the lab late last night to do some work with fewer people around. That was probably a bad idea...this morning was pretty rough.

My friend Bill brought by some tissues, popsicles, and ginger ale (at my request), plus some magazines, a movie, and homemade chicken soup this afternoon. Wow...thanks, Bill! The soup was awesome, by the way.

I'm on the upswing of this thing...no fever since late this morning (that which kept me up shivering since 4AM).

I've been bored out of my mind, although I did manage to watch some stuff online and catch up on my New Yorkers. Watches, Chief Justice John Roberts, impending extinction of frogs and bats, recruiting lacrosse players, a work of fiction involving an apartment squatter caring for a 3-legged pitt bull in the Upper East Side. I love this magazine.

I checked my email this morning to find that Harvard Medical School is having a showing of the PBS Nova documentary series titled "Doctors' Diaries". First half today, second half showing tomorrow. It seemed interesting to me, but of course I wasn't able to make it. I looked it up online and, lo and behold, the series was posted in entirety online. I watched it from beginning to end, and it was fascinating.

(image taken from the show's website, linked below)

Basically, this Nova producer decided to document the lives of 7 students from the Harvard Medical School Class of 1991 from their first days in class in 1987, and periodically follow their training, personal lives, and changes in life choices over the subsequent 21 years. It was so interesting to see these people grow from, in many cases, naive and awkward 22 year-olds to the established physicians and professionals that they are today. Marriages and many divorces occurred. Some became well-respected professors at elite institutions, others chose to serve the underpriveledged community, while another in particular struggles to maintain work doing emergency medicine while he himself is in terrible health and looks rather like someone who would be giving tattoos.

Why 1987? Well, that was around (if not THE year) that Harvard pioneered the "New Pathway", in which medical education's focus was shifted from packing students' heads with as much information as possible to allowing them to take from their education what they can, learn based on small-group cooperative problem solving, and continue to learn the nuances of their specialties throughout their careers. The medical school buildings were completely redesigned and expanded (the Tosteson Medical Education Center on Longwood Avenue doubled in size) at that time to accommodate this new type of curriculum (the "small group tutorial" areas are still a favorite spot for me to check email when I'm passing through the Medical Education Center).

To watch the series, click on the link below. It's in two parts, with 6 chapters each.

Doctors' Diaries

It's been a long time (well over a year) since I have done any video editing. I've learned a few lessons on being a little more careful of how I protect my work online since the bastards at going.com stole my Santa Speedo Run 2007 video and posted it on their site without any attribution to me. My fault for not stipulating any credits for use of the video, I guess...anything's free on the internet. Anyway, I have a few potential projects up my sleeve...stay tuned for those (if they ever come to fruition).

CNN at its worst...

2009-05-27T12:06:00.003-04:00

Here's a CNN video snippet posted on their homepage this morning. Do I have to explain why I hate Nancy Grace SO SO much?

Seriously, isn't there a more tasteful way to report on serious tragedies than this kind of sensationalistic trash?