Sorry--was wiped out last night and didn't put in an entry. It's there now.

* * * * *
James and I went to Boston today. We'd talked about going to the Computer Museum, but basically ended up just wandering about absorbing the feel of the city. We went up on the commuter train, which we've been doing for a couple of years rather than driving up to Braintree and taking the T: we'd had one too many "garage full" situations.

So guess what happened when we got to the Providence Amtrak/T commuter rail station. Yep, the garage was full! We just found a parking lot and went on.

We had lunch in Harvard Square, doing one of my favorite things, feeding the sparrows. We got sandwiches from Au Bon Pain--alas, Warburton's has been swallowed by them (and Wordsworth only exists as a children's bookstore anymore)--and sat outside and fed bits of the bread to the little sparrows who flocked around us. We attracted the pigeons, too, but managed to lob bread at the sparrows most of the time. They were willing to pounce on the crumbs rather than just stand there and coo like the pigeons. Someone's been feeding all of them, though; they're all plump and well-preened and healthy-looking.

From there we went into the Coop [the Harvard Cooperative Society] bookstore. We were very bad. :-) James found a fat volume about war movies and the print copy of The Grantville Gazette (stories set in Eric Flint's 1632 universe) which has previously been only available online. I bought a New England seasons calendar, a new book about Walt Disney, also Harry Potter and Philosophy and one of the new Images of America books. This one is about the construction of Route 128. I spent many happy Sundays driving up to relatives in Massachusetts via 128, past Jolly Cholly's amusement park and Pleasure Island Park; today it's been overlaid by Interstate 93 on the south side and Interstate 95 on the north. One of the photos in the book brings back other nice memories: Northshore, the shopping center near my aunt's house where my dad bought my tricycle, back before it was a mall. Almost all the store names listed on the sign in front of the mall are now an exercise in nostalgia: Jordan Marsh, J.J. Newberry; S.S. Kresge...

I had a Starbuck's gift card, so James and I both had peppermint hot chocolates and a slice of pumpkin bread. The Starbuck's was full, so we went back to the area near Au Bon Pain to drink and eat. The pigeons and the sparrows either recognized us or they had a sharp eye for food, because soon we were tossing bits of pumpkin bread to the sparrows. They were quite bold and came within six inches of us.

James had found some wonderful space books at the Boston Museum of Science last year, so we took the T out to Science Park--or rather we took the T to Government Center then had to transfer to a shuttle bus because the T is under repair in that area. Alas, they have cut way down on their books and they didn't have any more of those particular volumes.

We decided to eat supper in town and had something at Quincy Marketplace while we peroused our new books. The Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall area was decorated with festive white lights and star ornaments lined the Washington Street area [shopping district], but to my disappointment they had not yet set out the decorations on the Common. Then it was time to head home with the rest of the commuter crowd and read more until we reached Providence again.

We watched the series House for the first time this evening. It's about a grumpy, pain-ridden but brilliant doctor who apparently works at a clinic. It's one of those "mystery diagnostic" type programs (CSI with doctors, with the same weird graphics showing the inner workings of things). In an odd twist, Hugh Laurie, who always played idiot twits in the different Blackadder series, is grumpy Dr. House. It was actually interesting to watch because of the character; I'm not much of a CSI fan.

We also saw Ken Jennings end his long winning streak on Jeopardy. This has been a blast to watch. I love Jeopardy and have loved it since it premiered in 1964; it was one of the best things about school vacations and being out sick. My favorite sequence in Airplane II is the Jeopardy scene with Art Fleming, the original host. They did a special sequence on Jennings on Nightline tonight with clips of the original show.

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:57:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment