#12 Boston - My Meat Loaf is Your Meat Loaf - August 25, 2005

What else are friends for if not for a yummy meatloaf served after one has just completed a 10 K (6.2-mile) run and the huge disappointment of not winning a single one of the 200 raffle prizes offered! My wonderful obliging friend Elaine did just that this past weekend (love ya tons, oh maker of meatloaf!!). I stumbled into her home after completing my first ever road race for that distance (with a laudable time of 9:22 min/mile, a total of 58:11 (12th in my age group)) and stuffed myself silly.

The race was a benefit for the Melanoma Education Foundation out in Medford, called "The Run from the Sun" and the sun did us a bit of a favor and hid behind the clouds, so that we had only the agonizing humidity to deal with. Well, we lived to tell about it, is all I can say. The MEF folks put up a commendable effort, in particular the raffle at the end was quite impressive and seemed to go on for hours. MC for the raffle and awards post-race was the somewhat nonstandard Gary Leavitt, entertainer par excellence, also known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices". Apparently our friend Gary has been dazzling audiences for more than 20 years - http://www.garyleavitt.com/default.php in a cheesy, but loveable, lounge-wedding-singer type act. All the winking at Gary did not help with the raffle, and I saw one case of Harpoon beer after the other disappear into oblivion (and not in my car trunk as hoped).

Anyway, with this road race I fulfilled both of my New Year's resolutions, climbing Mt Washington and doing a 10 K road race, so there you have it!! I am done for the year!! (yeah right, you are saying now.....) Just kidding of course, I followed the whole thing on Monday night with the Arlington 3 Mile "Fun" Run, which is a regular weekly event that I had promised to attend with my friend Ana - and did my personal best time so far. 8:44 min/mile!!! Not too shabby, eh? Of course the "fun" stops when your back hurts and you have to get the Ben Gay patch out, but a couple of days of rest will clear that right up.....
As you know running alone won't do it, so Saturday we got the ball rolling with a little hike. My friend Rick and I headed for the lovely Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, America's first landscaped cemetery, founded in 1831. (http://www.mountauburn.org/) 175 acres of pure joy for the botanically (http://www.mountauburn.org/hort.htm) and ornithologically inclined, and for those who like to visit grave sites of the dead and the famous. Charles Bulfinch, renowned Boston architect rests here, along with visionary Buckminster Fuller, art partron Isabella Steward Gardner, author and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, painter Winslow Homer, US senator Henry Cabot Lodge, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and religious leader May Baker Eddy, just to drop a few names. The trees and plants are wonderful - Rick and I were feverishly trying to apply our "Boot Boutwell Nature Lecture" knowledge, however Rick seems to have some unresolved issues with the maple trees. The highlight of the day certainly was the sight of a red-tail hawk, who was just hanging around and we could not shake the feeling that he liked the admiration and was a bit of a poser....

It is easy to spend several hours there, and after doing just that, it was time for one of Boston's favorite ice cream haunts, Toscanini's on Main Street in Cambridge. Named "best ice cream in the world" by the New York Times (http://www.tosci.com/), they have absolutely dynamite ice cream, with some noteworthy flavors such as basil, burnt caramel, green tea, khulfee (an Indian flavor with cardamom and pistachio) and my choice, a chocolate-coffee-almond concoction called "diesel sluggo". The ice cream had be washed down with some delicious Lebanese food, courtesy of Phoenicia Cafe on Cambridge Street and was walked off doing some serious retailing with my running partner and friend Joanne, who was shopping for an "attend-a-wedding" outfit. The evening was concluded, again, on Cambridge Street at the Hill Tavern, where we drank some beer in honor of the upcoming road race the next day. And considering the stellar time I put up, it worked!!

I am hailing from Washington DC, where I am attending the 4th International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapy. My accommodations are at the very swanky Omni Shoreham Hotel (http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/default.asp?h_id=6) and aside from the conference we will try to have some fun here in our nation's capital. Today we will pop in at the Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/), and tomorrow night my colleague Matt and I will attend a baseball game between the Washington Nationals (formerly Montreal Expos) and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Until next week, be well!!

Petra

#11 Boston - Why is Gene Kelly not Dancing in the Rain? August 19, 2005

OK - It is official! I am declaring myself dazed and confused. Here I was at the Boston Harbor Hotel with my friends Ellen and Patrick (the soon-to-be-married-couple) attending the "Movies by Moonlight" soiree. Now this, my friends, is a lovely affair. You sit outside in a patio-style cafe, eat some nicely prepared hors d'oeuvres or a burger, and watch the movie on the big screen.
Barely avoiding a thunderstorm or torrential downpour that night, this promised to be a very cool thing to do, however confusion set in with me as soon as the movie started. Maybe I had it in the back of my mind that Gene Kelly should be dancing in the rain in every movie he made, but I kept waiting throughout the entire movie "An American in Paris" for the "dancing-in-the-rain" scene to start. Alas, it never happened!! Darn! Why did nobody tell me that that was a completely different movie, huh?? Not only that, at some point I decided that it might be a good time to hit the facilities as the dancing seemed to be going on and on and on..... only to return to the "The End" screen - !!!! Wha' 'appened?? You leave for 2 minutes, and bam! Movie over! Ciao!
Not taking into account my cinematic ineptness it was a most enjoyable evening, enhanced by the presence of two lovely poodles (and their owners), tiny little "Star" and one-eyed, yet charming "Quincy" - both of them were somewhat fond of the movie activity but seemed awfully distracted by some peanuts on the ground nearby.

The weekend continued with some hiking, this time in Southern New Hampshire - starting out at Miller State Park (claim to fame: oldest state park in New Hampshire), located on the 2290 foot summit of Pack (Little) Monadnock, and hiking the Wapack trail. The park itself is named for General James Miller, who was a long-time resident of nearby Temple, NH and fought in a gazillion battles (Chippewa, Niagara, Erie, Lundy's Lane, who knows what else??). We hiked about a third of the Wapack (the entire trail is 21 miles long) and on a blazingly hot day such as this one, being in the woods was the right thing to do. As usual, some minor damage was incurred from mosquito bites, but everyone had a good time, in particular Rick's dog Phoebe, who was much happier as soon as she could romp around some swimming holes along the way. (And yes, I am sparing you the plant highlights this time!!)
After re-fueling on ice cream and driving home, it was time for some movies and a "vegging out" evening at Elaine's house in Charlestown, where we absolutely could not help but watch "Triple XXX". Three women drinking beer and watching Vin Diesel - try to get that picture out of your mind!! One question though: what is up with that flaming fuzzy coat, Vinny??

Now Sunday was something else. I don't know what possessed me, but on the recommendation of my wonderful friend and running partner Joanne, I got up at the crack of dawn and showed up at 7:15 AM (AM!!!!!) in South Boston to go on a run with the L-Street Runners. Not only was I tired and most likely had some remaining quantities of alcohol circulating through my blood, but the weather did me a really big favor and kicked it up a notch. It felt like it was already in the 90s at that time of the day - and choosing these conditions for my first ever 10-mile practice run was maybe not my brightest idea I ever had. But I am never one to back out of a commitment, so there you go. It was painful, people!!! I made it eventually, probably ran 9 Miles and walked 1, with some stops at Seven-Eleven for ice cubes and water. The L-Street Runners themselves also manned a few water stops, where Gatorade, tons of water and miscellaneous sugary items were waiting for me. Nothing perks you up like a handful of Swedish Fish!!!

After a quick visit with my friends Barbara and Anita, who live across the street from the L Street Bathhouse, I went home, and spent the remainder of the afternoon on my couch, watching movie after movie after movie... To end the weekend I peeled myself off said couch in the evening for a quick volunteer thingy with Boston Cares (actually Ellen, Patrick and myself) - arts and crafts (making note cards) with elderly residents at the Hale House in the Back Bay. http://www.halebarnard.org/hhlife.html

The week has been busy as usual, zipping back and forth between my two places of work, and compensating in the evenings with some more zipping (running, that is), quality time with friends and yes - movies again (now that I have freed myself from the "Harry Potter Void").
It has been a week focused mostly on running, actually, as I am planning to attend my first ever 10 K road race - the "Run from the Sun" in Medford on Sunday!!! Monday night: "Fun Run" in Arlington along the Minuteman Bikeway (http://www.minutemanbikeway.org/Pages/intro.html)
- a nice group of some crazy and not-so-crazy runners, good practice for short distance runs (my time: 9:19 min/ mile), enjoyable scenery. Wednesday - out with the hospital's running group, and a very nice post-run meeting at the local watering hole, the "Red Hat" on Bowdoin Street. Thursday night - retail therapy, buying new running shoes - check it out - my new footwear: http://niketown.nike.com/niketown/catalog/pdp.jsp?productId=50890&origin=null&categoryId=303453&_requestid=1476758 . Yes, I do have other hobbies......

I think that about covers it - Before I leave though, a quick shout-out to the lovely Miss Mona Chopra and the equally delightful PJ "Lime Rickey" Agasia, who I was supposed to meet the previous week for the "Movies by Moonlight", but a thunderstorm changed our plans and we most flexibly detoured to Boston's beer heaven, "The Parish Cafe". After a mix-up with the hairdresser and an unfortunate run-in with a glass door (don't ask), the Parish was just what the doctor ordered - treatment was administered in form of the usual convincing beer selection: Allagash White, and my favorite, the Rapscallion Premier; adjuvant therapy involved the cafe's scrumptious celebrity chef sandwiches: (my choice: The Regal Regis - sliced flank steak and Portobello mushrooms in a soy, scallion, balsamic marinade on Parmesan encrusted French bread)!!!

Alrighty then - my friends! It is time to start the weekend - keep your toes crossed for me on Sunday!! Keep on running!

pet:)

#10 Boston - Grassy, Buggy, Spidery Pond - August 12, 2005

"Grassy Pond" actually was the name of our hiking destination this past weekend, but the "buggy, spidery" had to be added in light of the assailment by small insectoid members of the animal kingdom that took place around there. Located in Acton, Mass, 25 miles north of Boston, this 95-acre conservation parcel was quite charming, well maybe except for the spiders, blood-sucking mosquitoes and wayyyy too much poison ivy. (http://town.acton.ma.us/LSCOM/DescGrassyPond.htm). The website says that the pond is "a naturally occurring kettle hole resulting from a glaciers’ retreat, and it exhibits bog characteristics around its perimeter. Nowhere is the Pond more than 15 feet deep, although the level has fluctuated in recent years due to beaver activity". Beavers, again!! I have yet to see one of those darn critters, and I am starting to get really irritated with the cat and mouse game they are playing with me! All I need to see is one! My friend Roger promised me 65,000 of them!!

The hike, or walk was more like it, was yet another Boot Boutwell Nature Hike, stimulating as always, with new exciting plant finds including a lovely little orchid - the downy rattlesnake plantain (http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/goodyerapube.html), a wonderful swamp with dazzling red dragonflies holding on for just a split second to be admired by us, generous patches of skunk cabbage and Boot quoting a poem about duckweed by England's own Alfred Noyes, called "Daddy fell into the Pond":
"Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey. We had nothing to do and nothing to say. We were nearing the end of a dismal day, and then there seemed to be nothing beyond, Then - Daddy Fell into the Pond. And everyone's face grew merry and bright, And Timothy danced for sheer delight. "Give me the camera, quick, oh quick! He's crawling out of the duckweed!" Click! Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee, And doubled up, shaking silently, And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft, And it sounded as if the old drake laughed. Oh, there wasn't a thing that didn't respond - When Daddy Fell into the pond!"
The duckweed was a fascinating little story, it has the honor to be the smallest flowering plant in the world, and it has even some folklore associated with it. The legend of Jenny Greenteeth originated in Eastern Europe - she was a water mermaid who charmed passers-by with her song so that they would drown themselves in the pond or lake at hand. The BBC web site says that "some believe that Jenny was merely an alias for duckweed that could wrap itself around the leg of an individual and trap them under water, a danger to small children if they caught themselves in it." Other favorites for the day included two club mosses, the princess pine and the ground cedar who look just like little miniature pine trees, and the patridge berry, a small creeping evergreen with bright red berries.

After a cup of coffee and some munchkins with my hiking buddy Rick at Dunkin' Donuts (a MUST in Massachusetts - we love Dunkin D's!!) it was time for some real exercise, which due to the continuing heat had to take place indoors in the gym. The evening was closed out with movies courtesy of Netflix and early bedtime, as I was heading to the center of our wonderful Commonwealth on Sunday AM.

My friend Gerald was visiting from Oklahoma, attending a molecular biology workshop at Smith College in Northhampton (http://www.smith.edu/). Smith College itself was founded in 1871 and is one of the premier private liberal arts colleges for women in the US, part of the "Seven Sisters", a league of women's colleges that was seen as the response to the Ivy League Schools and as a statement in the mid-19th century debate about the value of women attending college (Who knows what it could lead to? What's next? They don't want to have children??). Northhampton and Smith College are very charming, with loads of nice places to eat, in particular famous Herrell's ice cream, founded by Steve Herrell, who is considered by many responsible for the renaissance of homemade gourmet ice cream. His business started out as Steve's Ice Cream here in Somerville and eventually relocated to Northhampton. Killer flavors, tons of them (must be a hundred or so), in particular the Dutch Orange Chocolate, which I consumed as a keg-size milk shake. Yumm, yumm, yumm!

The main part of the day though was spent, yes, you guessed right, hiking - this time up Mt. Tom, the resident mountain near Northhampton, which offered wonderful vistas of the Connecticut River Valley, plenty of opportunities to sit and eat blueberries, and for me to throw my newly acquired plant knowledge at Gerald. He is a plant biologist, so he did not mind too much, and we had quite a fabulous time up there. http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/337_mount_tom.cfm. Some of Gerald's not-so-hiking experienced workshop colleagues had enthusiastically decided to go up Mt Monadnock in New Hampshire that day and looking at them returning home, outta gas and utterly sapped, made us feel pretty good about our choice.
I was pretty glad I did my share of hiking, as I got stuck on my way home on the world's biggest parking lot, the Mass Turnpike, for the next three hours and only returned to Boston in the dark.

It has been an interesting week, with the usual exercise routines, running along the Charles River, more visitors (met my friend Frank from my home town for a nice dinner at "The King and I'" Thai restaurant on Charles Street on Tuesday), and an excursion with Wednesday night's running group to the Irish bar "Kinsale" on Tremont Street. We sat out on the patio and got quite a floor show from the Boston PD and some bomb-sniffing dogs who were investigating a "suspicious package" at Government Center.

Work in particular has a different spin for me for the next six weeks as I am helping out at the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects, which is part of the 7-institution cancer center consortium I am involved with (the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center). Until the new director shows up in mid-September, I am managing an office of 12 (with help from some experienced colleagues of course), and it will be definitely an opportunity to "learn and excel" as they say. Very nice people there, which is good, but driving across town every day in Boston traffic has its moments, not all of them good. Mobile Hysteria at its best, to quote Bill Bryson again!

Time to go, but not without leaving you with a word that sums up the week nicely: "There is always one more imbecile than you counted on".

Have a good one!

pet:)

#9 Boston - The Biggest Bang for your Buck - August 4, 2005

Alternatively, my headline this week could have been "What is it with me and the crazies?", but let us start off on a good note. Hiking was on the menu this past weekend, summer is still strong in New England, with some blistering days, interrupted by once-in-a-while refreshing 65 degree temperatures. The Mahis, our loosely thrown together hiking group of people who all met at some point or another through the AMC, or maybe they are complete strangers (I don't maintain the list, what do I know?), headed up to New Hampshire again this past Saturday. Actually it was just Martin, Rick and myself, but we considered that reason enough to go. Three's a hiking crowd, as they say!

Our goal was to go hike the Welch-Dickey Loop in the White Mountains. Two for the price of one, this hike is the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to hiking in the Whites. Both mountains do not exceed 3000 feet, the whole loop is a mere 4.4 miles long, but what a deal! You hike up these giant granite slabs and ledges that look steeper than they are and when looking back at them, you can't help but being impressed by your accomplishment going up there. The views on this day were spectacular - Monadnock, Moosilauke, the Tripyramids, Franconia Notch, you name it. We spent quite a decent amount of time lounging in the sun and stuffing ourselves with blueberries, which were at their peak and sweet as can be! Rick experienced some issues with his aversion to "anything fruity with skin", but after a serious talking to and a mini-intervention he caved in and considered himself converted (at least when it comes to blueberries).
http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/photo_query.pl/object_id/835/sort_by/submission_date.

In preparation for my Sunday hike with Boot, the naturalist, I was spouting off all kinds of wisdom at poor Rick and Martin, convinced that the all-present Jack Pines with their gnarly cones were indeed something completely else. Oh well! It worked for a while, until Rick got his book out of the backpack and put me in my place. http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/herbarium/gymnosperms/pinban_cone01web400gf.jpg Darn!

Sunday then, after a nice 6-mile jog along the Esplanade (in somewhat accommodating weather), it was time to go out and explore the Middlesex Fells with Boot and a pile of nature students. I had dragged Rick and Elaine along for the wild experience, and while I had my moments to shine, a whole new package of botanical knowledge was thrown my way. The naturalist walks are not just to simply stop and smell the "bachelor buttons", there is a whole lot more to them. Just to illustrate: Did you know that said yellow bachelor buttons (also known as tansies) can be used to keep flies away from meat? Actually one website stated that it was used as a main preservative for dead bodies at some point, and another source claims that it was given to Zeus' lover Ganymede to make him immortal. Ha!
Another group favorite was the so-called "Tree of Heaven" (Ailanthus Alissima), prominently featured in Betty Smith's book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - if you rub the leaves together they smell like peanut butter!! Who woulda thunk! We learned what plans smell good (the lemony scent of Sassafras and the wintergreen smell of yellow and black birch, and the almond-oil/ stale cigar smell of cherry trees), we experienced how you can take leaves and blossoms from the Sweet Pepperbush, rub it with a little water and voila! You've got soap!!
Other favorites for the day were the chlorophyll-less Indian Pipe (also known as the corpse plant) http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/indian_pipe.htm, the sweet fern (also known as "naughty girls"), Boot's favorite, the spotted pipsissewa, and a delightful bird, the rufus-sided towhee, who delighted us with his trademark "Drink Your Tea" Song!!

What else is happening in the hub? Aside from the scorching weather, we had the most unbelievable thunderstorm this week, quite impressive - it woke me up in the middle of the night, and made me move away from the window to the couch really quickly. I have not seen such a display of thunder and lightning in quite some time!! Wow!

I don't know what it is this week, the weather, the thunderstorm, Mercury in Retrograde - maybe I am emitting some kind of pheromone that attracts the crazies. Aggressiveness in Boston car drivers is currently at an all-time high, and we had two extremely unfortunate road rage incidents here, both with guns involved and one of them ended fatally. Incidentally, I did have a shouting match as well, with a driver from Boston Animal Control, who I think wanted me to crash headlong into oncoming traffic. I was not really into doing that and voiced my displeasure with his plan quite loudly. Maybe I was lucky that he did not go after me with a stun gun! I will certainly think twice about doing that again. The whole experience left me rattled though, enough to go out drinking with Joanne at McCormick and Scmhick's, adjacent to Faneuil Hall - during the week the bar features a $1.95 menu! Burger and Fries - $1.95, Buffalo Wings - right $1.95!! The food was excellent, and two "Knuckleball" beers from Maine set my mind straight and made the world a better place.

The weekend is upon us, and Sunday I am heading to the middle of Massachusetts to Northhampton, where my friend Gerald is attending some kind of workshop at Smith College. We will explore the area around there, and as usual, you will hear all about it. Enjoy the summer!!

pet:)