then she appeared

Had a good vacation. Perfect weather Sun-Tue in Provincetown, where we ate good food, relaxed on the deck, wandered around downtown and looked at art, and visited the Whydah Pirate Museum (which, frankly, was uninspiring). Still, beautiful weather and fun times. ( There are pictures and a lot more text inside, lots of it about my health... )

As always, more pictures at Flickr.

So as you know, very soon I am moving in with Mom and putting all my stuff into storage in my attic here. I need to be out of my current apartment by the end of January so Patrick can move into it. He really needs to be in a bit earlier than the end of January so he can paint (because I was lazy when I moved in and left the dreadful paint that was already there alone). Which means I need to goddamned get busy cleaning up and packing, right? AND it's also three days before Christmas, where I need to produce presents for at least two people. And when I woke up today I had exactly one small present in hand. So naturally today I...

...went to a museum. That's right. It's been on my list of "FUN" for several years, but for some reason today (TODAY) I was compelled to go to the Peabody Essex Museum (which is not in Peabody at all, nor is it in Essex, although it IS in Essex County — as is Peabody, confusingly. No, the museum is in Salem. You're welcome). I had read an article in the Globe a month ago about how they managed to recently raise $550 million, which put them in the top tier of museums, along par with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. So that totally piqued my interest and got me out of my own way to finally go. I mean, quality museum experience with no city annoyances? Yay!

It has a huge Asian art collection, and has a big maritime history collection as well. The Phillips Library, a separate building, is closed right now for renovations, but has an amazing collection of books, maps, and other written word stuff like ship log books — a selection of which is on display in the main museum building. I have a particular fondness for stuff in museums, rather than for paintings. Show me pottery, tools, weapons, housewares, chests, furniture, jewelry, models, books, and I'm happy. Paintings are fine, but I like to see all forms of stuff.

So I happily pottered around for a few hours. I even bought myself a membership (I am on a "reacquire familiarity with culture" kick right now, and find myself drawn to this kind of thing more and more. Might as well have the ability to go whenever I want to, right?) There's Comida, an awesome taqueria, right next door to the museum, too, so I avoided the cafe and went there for lunch. Nom nom nom, torta! Pretty good.

I then dealt with reality and ran around buying Christmas presents. The stuff I ordered online arrived today, also, so I am basically ready for this holiday madness. Gotta pick up some lottery tickets for Mom tomorrow (her favorite thing), but otherwise I'm done. I've even wrapped everything already. Yay me! STARTING to feel the holiday spirit. A little. Maybe!

Other entertainment: Been haunting Redbox lately. Like I don't already have enough options for entertainment, with my two Tivos, my Netflix streaming, and my Netflix DVDs by mail? I guess I don't, because I managed to rent something like 10 movies from them in the last few weeks. Some were HORRIBLE. I got Green Lantern (bad), the latest Pirates movie (ok), Super 8 (great), Captain America (good), 13 (good in a stylish odd way), The River Murders (bad, with Ray Liotta and Christian Slater, so it could have gone either way but it didn't go a good way), The Lost Future (tv movie, unwatchable even by me, and had Sean Bean so WTF?), 2012 Ice Age (very very bad, done by Asylum so there you go), Transformers Something Something (bad), Catch .44 (bad — and with Bruce Willis and Forrest Whitaker it should have been better), and something I'm forgetting that was also bad. The best thing about Redbox? It's a dollar to watch something bad. Instead of $3 or whatever Blockbuster used to be. And it's right there. But seriously, take my advice and avoid most of what I rented. My takeaway: Just because there's a decent actor in it doesn't mean it's a decent flick. MAN! Also: don't stand there at the machine trying to pick your movie. Do it from the comfort of home, then just go pick them up. Then you can avoid movies like THE LOST FUTURE. Dear god.

As I mentioned before, P and I also saw the lovely Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes, which honestly I have no idea if it held together as a movie, as I am attending merely to drool over pretty manflesh. I think it was fun! Tomorrow we are going to see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and I am hoping that will be excellent fun, also. We are trying to get to see all the movies we want to again.

Made it to 60 pounds lost, finally, since I started this spring. Which means that from my lifetime maximum weight I have now lost 100 pounds. 100 pounds! An entire supermodel and a half! Now I just need to lose another 100 pounds and I will be good. Yay! Halfway. I expect this half will go more slowly. But hey. Took me 47 years to put it on. I can deal with a bit to take it off again.

slideshow of museum pix or click below to see select images.

( photos within of beauteous museum-y stuff )

Done a few fun things this last week+. First up, as I mentioned before, I went to our company's summer outing, and decided to go up in a tethered balloon. That was pretty fun. Now of course I desperately want to go in a real balloon, so I'll have to start saving up for that. Maybe be a good birthday present for next year to myself!



Saw Cowboys and Aliens with Patrick last Saturday. I don't care what the reviews said, I thought it was awesome. Although it's possible that I love it from a more meta perspective. I mean, it was awfully fun seeing James Bond and Han Solo ride horsies and shoot things. And the manflesh was choice. Clancy Brown! Sam Rockwell! Practically everyone else! Mostly age-appropriate, too.

Sunday we tried to get to the Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, but the lines stretched out for a whole block and it was hot and sunny and Patrick had a sunburn, so we decided to bag it and got some lunch instead. Came home and I watched some baseball, then I headed out to hang with Stephen and Val. We went to the beach for a bit. I was a little sad, so I cut the visit short and came home and moped. I'm a bucket of fun sometimes!



Met with a personal trainer on Monday. It was more of a sales pitch for personal training, but it was still pretty decent as far as a workout was concerned. I was sore for three days!

Patrick and I had dinner on Tuesday at On The Border. It's a challenge to eat out, now, because I have to spend time with the internet before I order anything — checking caloric values and what counts as a portion and all of that. Kind of boring, but interesting too. I mean, portion sizes SUCK at restaurants! Way too big. It's scary to look around you and realize that this is exactly why Americans are all fat. We all eat out way too often, and our portion sizes are terrifyingly huge.

Signed up for Audible, finally. I've been listening to audio books for years, but damn, Audible is wicked easy. No ripping the CDs to mp3s and ending up with 3,000 files, no missing bits because the library CDs skipped, just click, click, on my phone instantly. Listening to the second-to-most-recent Dresden book by Jim Butcher. More importantly, is read by James Marsters. Keeping me occupied at the gym and while I drive to work. I was finding the commute left me too much time to fret, so now I am fretless.

Worked at home on Wednesday and wasn't very productive in any way, shape, or form. It was dead at work, and all the supervisors were on vacation, too, so there was no motivation to work on "projects". I didn't even do laundry, which is my usual chore on WFH days. Was going to drive into Cambridge to see Jim Butcher read at the Coop, but decided it would take too long to get in there after work and find somewhere to park — I'd probably miss it. So I skipped it and had dinner with P, instead.

Wanted to go to see William Gibson reading at the Coop on Thursday, but I guess he had a family emergency and cancelled that whole part of the tour, so alas! Very glad I called first. Two reading failures! Instead I beat myself up at the gym and did some grocery shopping.

Friday I went to the MFA. Patrick was supposed to come, but he was sick so I decided to go myself. The Dale Chihuly exhibit is ending Monday so I needed to get there before it ended. I love going to museums by myself — I don't have to go at anyone else's pace, and I don't have to irritate them by stopping every five seconds to take pictures.



So I had a good time. Wandered around a lot of the museum. Was very footsore by the end. Burned many calories!

Today I took the day off from work and took a class at the Boston Center for Adult Education. The class was called Container Gardening, but it was about everything to do with planting, really. Fun, but the woman was flake central. She had us go around the table and explain why we were there. I said something that I thought would be slightly amusing and mostly harmless, as I do. "I'm Laurie, and I have a bunch of plants and really need to learn how to care for them better. I feel bad about pruning, for example, because I think I'll hurt them" -- and ok, poor phrasing on my part, but I meant "i'll prune too much and they'll die" not "oh, their tiny nervous systems SCREAM with each application of the scissors!" but that's of course what she thought I meant, and went into a lengthy explanation that she says a little prayer to the plants when she has to cut them, and apologizes to the bugs when she has to kill them, and on and on. Hilarious! She saw me as this kindred soul for the rest of the class, and of course inside I was dying laughing.

But the class was informative and I have more confidence now (and some new random plant that she made us pot and take home). I had parked in the Boston Common Garage ($11 on weekend days, $8 because I was taking a class at BCAE), so I got to walk both to and from class through the Public Garden. I've been spending a lot more time downtown lately than I have in years, and really I'd forgotten how much I love my city. So beautiful. So walkable! Anyway, between the there and the back I clocked 40 mins walking, so I counted that as my day's exercise. Yay!

I watched the Sox kick some Yankee ass this afternoon, fetched dinner for myself, for Mom, and for Patrick, and then watched a bunch of stored-up Fringe on Tivo. A good evening. Tomorrow needs to be a little productive. But that's tomorrow.

Moving day at work started Thursday and ran into today. We officially aren't in our new hallway until Monday, after the building inspector comes out and ... inspects, I guess! But we've got the cubes up, in theory the electricity is working, and we're almost ready to work. We've been working out of "flex" space in the meantime, and man, can I just stay there? Three people in an office, instead of 12 people in a hallway. Very nice.

A few pix. I'll post more when the cubes are populated. ( pix inside )

This weekend I got to visit Stephen and Val at their rental on the Cape. I got there around 2pm on Sunday, and since it was a little cold and cloudy out we stayed in and watched the Sox game and started on our now-traditional jigsaw puzzle. ( behind a cut, several pictures within )

I voted on my way to work today. I voted to keep income tax, decriminalize pot, get rid of dog tracks. I voted for a bunch of uncontested school board seats. And of course I voted for Obama.

I wanted a photo of my ballot with the circle filled in next to Obama/Biden, but alas, a cop told me no cameras right as I took a photo at the entry door.



I didn't get anything at the bake sale. And they never give us stickers at my polling place, so that makes me sad, but I guess I don't need a sticker to know I did my part today.

Hope you did, too!

Today was our work's summer outing. The powers that be chose the Charlestown Navy Yard, which I probably had been to as a child but honestly don't remember. It's part of the National Park Service, so it's all free, and it's very close to our office.

For our corporate thing, they set up a big tent with a DJ and endless tables of food (lobster, steak tips, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, clam chowder, various salads, corn on the cob, then strawberry shortcake and watermelon for dessert. And italian ice. And an open bar with everything), and they had set up tables for Texas Hold 'Em and areas for various sports. It was pretty good. I didn't play anything, but I did tour the two ships they have there, the USS Constitution, and the USS Cassin Young.

( pictures within )

For those who skip my rantings but are interested in all things geeky, I finally put up some archive pix that I took in 2001, 2005, and 2008 of Neil Gaiman. The 2001 pictures also include a lot of Harlan Ellison, too, in his normal high dudgeon. The quality kinda sucks! Here's the set. And a sample:

Less pretty than my previous post (but certainly interesting), a compare and contrast. Here's the forsythia tree in my driveway May 1, 2007:

( again behind a cut )

I just was messing around with my Treo, and it still works! I can't see anything on the screen, but I can make calls and receive calls just fine. So I guess it's ok to wait. A little while, anyway.



Sadness, part 1

Sadness, part 2

(note: the cracks are on the inside, so the glass itself is totally smooth and not leaking any of the whatever-it-is)

Heh, my bluetooth headset works, too. I wish our phones worked the way the UK phones do, where phones aren't locked down. I'd get this repaired and keep it as a backup.

ETA: Just looked up replacement screens on EBay. $40! And there are videos all over YouTube how to replace the screen. I fixed my own Handspring before, and changed the battery on my old iPod. And it's only $40. Ha, Apple, you might just have to wait for my dosh after all!