#34- Boston - The Biggest Chocolate Cake in the World - January 27, 2006

That would be the ginormous chocolate dessert my friend Christiaan and I ordered at PF Chang's in Boston this Monday - I am convinced the actual cake had its own room in the back and was multiplying, sprouting off little bitty chocolate tarts. The slice of cake was of such proportions that I took half of it home with me (and this was after Chris and I thought we had put a considerable dent in it), and it still took me another two attempts to eat the darn thing. It was the size of a tree trunk and most likely had the caloric value of a dozen donuts at least. Now for those of you who don't know, PF Chang's is actually a Chinese restaurant and maybe not the first place to expect such a delicacy. This was my first visit to the place (http://www.pfchangs.com/) and it was definitely a very enjoyable visit - a "unique combination of Chinese cuisine, attentive service, wine, and tempting desserts all served in a stylish, high-energy bistro" is what their website says, and that pretty much describes it. The food was excellent, the ambience great and the beer was drinkable too! What's not too like?

This very dandy evening was just one tiny piece in this last week's puzzle of events and I have to say I am starting to wear out a bit. Surprised? Well, judge for yourself...

This past Friday night, after a quick 3-mile run, I had decided to be charitable and help out at an event that I was alerted to by Boston Cares -kind of a fundraiser-donate-your-old-clothes-and-save-the-street-kids-of-Calcutta shindig. So I cleaned out my closet, made some interesting discoveries along the way and headed over to "The Place" on Broad Street. Soooo - this is where the young urban professionals hang out! Aaah, it was a sight to behold - the young and dynamic in their suits paired with baseball caps - so cute! It was Friday night, 7 PM, the place was bursting at the seams - the music was hip and funky, and the waitresses - even I wanted to hit on them! Now, in this restless atmosphere - can you imagine a benefit for Calcutta street kids? Let's just say that this was the most disorganized benefit ever! While most of the volunteers showed up at 7 PM (as ordered), the woman running the operation did not make an appearance until about 8:30, and around 9 PM I just handed her my clothes, got a goodie bag and abandoned the whole deal. I would like to have those two hours of my life back, please!

As snow has been remarkably absent this winter, it was time again on Saturday to hit the trails - our area of choice was the Mason Greenville Rail Trail on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border. Rick, Phoebe and myself braved the trail, which was pretty much covered with ice (and a little snow) in its entirety and thank God for the Yak Traks.Starting out near Mason we lugged a solid 11 miles that day, past beautiful Pratt Pond (http://www.prattpond-nh.org/Photo.htm) in New Ipswich and all the way to the remnants of an impressive stone arch bridge that used to lead the trains across the valley.

Not having moved enough, Sunday morning I joined my fellow club mates from the L Street Running Club in South Boston for the Sunday morning marathon training run. Joanne and I opted for the five-mile version of the course (I am preparing for another half marathon in early March), had some nice cold water and icy cold Swedish Fish at the first water stop and then decided to head on back to the Boston Athletic Club for some coffee, bagels, bananas and such. There was a little excitement that morning as one of the runners stumbled, injured herself pretty good and we had to call an ambulance, but all was well in the end.

You would think I'd stop at having hiked/run 16 miles right? Noooo. I quickly jumped in the caah and headed in the direction of Concord to meet Rick and Barbara at Minuteman National Park to hike the Battle Field Road (http://www.nps.gov/mima/). This is where you can retrace the steps of the British soldiers and colonists who fought fiercely in the American Revolution. It is quite a charming place no matter what season during the year, and the sun came out to warm us weary hikers just a wee bit. Of course after 6 miles of hiking (adding up to 22 miles for me for this weekend), I was done - D-O-N-E. I was utterly exhausted, could not feel my legs any more, and even "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" could not keep my attention despite some of its classic movements that do provide a bit of a spark.

Monday night as you know I was out with Chris. Tuesday night I attended a stretching workshop with the MGH Institute of Health Professionals as part of the Running Partners "Improve your Running Performance" research project, and Wednesday night was the regular running club night. Last night I had planned on pulling a double-header: first volunteering at the MSPCA and then off to Ryles for an African jazz concert. I ended up skipping the jazz concert, but did have a lot of fun at the animal shelter (a shout-out to my new feline friends Egor, Inspector Gadget and Lala, my new canine friend - a lovely pit-boxer mix named Bruno- and Bun Bun, the rabbit; no shout-out to the ferret who tried to nip my cheek - tss!). Playtime with the critters was followed by a lovely dinner with Ellen and Patrick at the "S&S Diner" near Inman Square, a veritable Cambridge institution (http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/). The diner's name stems from the Edelstein's grandmother who used to encourage patrons in Yiddish to "ess and ess" (eat and eat).

Tired yet? You don't wanna know what my plans for the weekend are, it will make you dizzy.

I also have been condo shopping, and it looks at this point very likely that I will place an offer this afternoon on a condo in East Cambridge. If this actually happens, the next few months, which are already filled up with three conferences (Amsterdam, Washington and Atlanta) and a skiing trip to Jacksonhole, Wyoming, will be a little more insane than usual. To which I can only quote our old friend Dale Carnegie: "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

There you have it! Get busy!

pet:)

#33 Boston - Subzero - January 19, 2006

Well, well, well - where is the darn winter we were promised here?? New England certainly has lived up to its reputation as the Baskin Robbins of weather flavors and the darn Farmers Almanac who had forecast lots of snow for us - wrong, wrong, and wrong!! Case in point: Saturday evening - temperature at 57 degrees F (13.8 degr Celsius), rainy; Sunday morning: 11 degrees F (Minus 11 degr Celsius); Tuesday AM: back to 52 degrees F (11 degr Celsius). Snow anywhere? Nooooo. At least not anywhere near my house, I would have to drive up to New Hampshire or Vermont or other distant places!




Which is exactly what we did this weekend - Amanda, Chris, Rick, Phoebe the dog and myself braved wind and serious weather to explore Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire. Temperatures ranged from -3 F(-19 C) to -10 F (-23 C) making the experience a chilly one to say the least. The drive up there was taxing, and we had to zip into the first gas station off the freeway to load up on windshield wiper fluid - at this point I was pretty much unable to see anything or not much out of the front window - snow, slush, ice, whoknowswhatelse was thrown at my poor Ella, who started more and more looking like a frosted but very dirty Christmas tree. Bear Brook (http://www.nhstateparks.org/ParksPages/BearBrook/BearBrk.html) is apparently the largest developed state park in New Hampshire - a lovely place and due to the arctic temperatures there were not too many people out there hiking (I wonder why). Snow was abundant, good views as well and we kept ourselves afloat with German gummibears, frozen Snickers bars and semi-frozen sandwiches. The water pipe on my Camelback froze as well, and my additional water supply had serious ice cubes floating in it. Chris, our new German friend, was passionately hallucinating about barbeques, and all the talk about ribs made us so hungry that we could not wait to get back to Boston, and we just had to pull into a very "classy" outfit called "Chantilly's". Guess what we ate?? Meat, heaps of it - burgers, ribs (very tasty), spaghetti with meat sauce - there was no holding back!

Monday (Martin Luther King Jr Holiday) it was time for another hike - this time back to the Blue Hills. Linda, Roger and I decided on a nice brisk walk around my old favorite, Ponkapoag Pond. (http://www.kellscraft.com/photos/2005photos/20050321_11.JPG) It had warmed up to a considerable 23 degrees Fahrenheit, still a bit nippy, but much better than the day before. Again, the hiking achievement was celebrated with a meaty meal, this time at the Piccadilly Pub in Randolph, MA ("The place to meet, the place to eat" - http://www.picpub.com/index2.htm) - another one of the great American food chains. Our original goal was actually to go visit O'Donnell's Irish Pub on Rt 28, recommended by a fellow hiker as a nice local yokel kinda place - but they wanted real money, not plastic (which they announce with a major sign at the door), so we hightailed it over to the Piccadilly, where they were quite happy to charge it up.

Aside from out hiking expeditions, the rest of this nice, long weekend was spent relaxing, watching movies, some running (in the pouring, freakin' rain - why oh why did I go out there?) and some very successful retail therapy. Beer needed to be consumed as well, which made me grab my friends Ellen and Patrick and head for Boston's beer heaven ,the Parish Cafe. I finally have started my "card" there, which requires me to consume every single one of their beers within a year, and if I succeed, I get my own mug with an inscription of my choice. Feel free to send suggestions for the wording on the mug. I will consider them, promise!

As to this week, boy did I have fun - ever had a colonoscopy? Yep, how good can life be, you ask? In addition to that I had an endoscopy at the same time, or as my friend Linda described it - "So, you got jabbed at both ends, eh?" The actual procedure is not that bad, considering that you are out like a light, and they could do God knows what to you, but the preparation for it.... that's a whole different story. It starts with a liquid diet, then some god-awful tasting (but effective) laxatives, and finally a half-day with neither food nor drink. At that point, everything you see starts resembling food, and you start experiencing a light-headedness that may or may not be enjoyable at times. And nothing, my friends, nothing, tastes as good as that first meal once you come home. It could be a three-day old muffin, who cares?? Everything turned out well though, and now I am only left to deal with the remainder of my laryngitis/sore throat, which on account of the procedure has flared up again.

On the athletic front, along with some of my Running Partners friends, I started participating in a study at MGH, which is conducted by the Institute of Health Professions. We are learning all about endurance, interval training, and prevention of running injuries. Next week we are starting with a program on stretching (something I never do, but should) and then we will take it from there. I have a Half Marathon coming up in March, so let's get to it!!

Alrighty, time to go home and blow this pop stand! My friends - enjoy the weekend, there is more hiking on my schedule and as usual, you will hear about it.

Cheers,

pet:)

#32 Boston - A Rat A Day - January 12, 2006

A Rat A Day - that would be the diet for the Great Horned Owl, at least the specimen that lives in the Blue Hills Trailside Museum not far outside of Boston. In nature they are know to eat animals the size of raccoons, but this one here has switched to smaller portions on account of his cushy lifestyle. The owl was presented to us this past Sunday by rangers from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) during a hike where we were supposed to learn about animals and how they survive in winter. The walk itself was a bit of a wash, since the group consisted of approximately 60 people (a majority of them bratty kids) and so any animal that we might have spotted had probably hightailed it all the way to the Cape by the time we barged into their habitat. At the end of the "hike" though we did get to see the owl and a possum, which made up for the disappointing start.

Here are some fun facts about the Great Horned Owl and the possum and some other tidbits that I know you will appreciate (thanks to Rick for taking notes):
* If humans had eyes in the same proportion to the head as the GHO they would be the size of grapefruits. Its eyesight is so good, it could read every word of a newspaper across a football field in the dark.
* Each of its claws can exert 200 pounds of pressure and could easily break every bone in your arm (or elsewhere)
* The horns up top are not the ears (see picture).
* It has two rear-facing hooks on its tongue to help them move food to the back of its throats - that way it can swallow whole mice (or rats that is)
*The possum is a marsupial, not a mammal - http://www.kiva.net/~kiwi/opossum/opossum.htm) and has opposable thumbs. It was rather cute, I have to admit).
*Bears do not hibernate (Ha!) - if the weather is decent, they might get up and roam around. The only three species here in New England that hibernate are the woodchuck, the little brown bat and the jumping mouse.
*We visited a deer yard (that's where they hang out when it's cold), learned that snakes curl up in a ball for warmth in winter (don't want to stumble upon one of those) and that the gray fox can climb trees (the red fox can't).

There you have it! Exhausted from paying attention to the rangers (yesss sir!), we decided it was time to get going, and so we headed toward Ponkapoag Pond (http://www.kellscraft.com/photos/2005photos/20050321_12.JPG) determined to zip once around the lake before the sun went down (about 3.5 miles or so). We toasted our success and this wonderful day in the Blue Hills with a nice beer and some decent meals (including dessert) at the swanky establishment "Ground Round" (http://www.groundround.com/home/) in Nedham, which for a chain restaurant offered some pretty tasty treats.

The weekend rang in the New Year with a whole slew of activities starting out Friday night with a visit to the Huntington Theater for the play "Dangerous Liaisons" (http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=1323&src=t). In the play originally written by Choderlos de Laclos, a beautiful, but devious noblewoman enlists her former boyfriend Vicomte de Valmont (actually I think she still has the hots for him) to seduce a former lover's fiancee. It was a worthwhile and amusing performance - the part of the Vicomte was played convincingly by non other than Michael T. Weiss (http://mtweiss.piranho.com/ ) who some of you may know from the TV drama "The Pretender". I can also tell you that he can accurately name each of the US states in alphabetical order without thinking about it in less than a minute and he can wiggle his ears (although not both at the same time, eh?).

On Saturday, I was invited by my friend Ana to participate in the Associate Member's Kaffeekraenzchen (my name for it) at the Boston Athenaeum (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/), one of the largest private libraries in the country. It was founded in 1807 by the Anthology Society. It is bar none one of my favorite places in Boston, bursting with books (half a million volumes), fine arts, and some very comfortable leather chairs. If there is a heaven for libraries - this is what it would look like! It houses books of stunning value, including George Washington's private book collection.

In other news: It would be easier for me to get a seat on the US Supreme Court than to get a German passport! Unbelievable! As you know, I have reclaimed my maiden name, and all the paperwork here in the US including the renewal of my green card has been as smooth as can be. I have to give a big shout-out to the US Immigration Service - they sent my green card in the mail within 2 weeks! Wham Bam - thank you mam!! D-O-N-E. But (and I mean this in the most heartfelt and kindest way) here comes the determinedly uptight German Consulate!! The paperwork to get my passport (with the maiden name) was thicker than when I bought my first home, including notarized copies of every piece of paper that ever had my name on it - green card, passport, paychecks, divorce certificate, marriage license, you name it. To make it even more fun, they added their own documents, where I had to state that "yes, I do want my name changed" (duh!) and answer a whole litany of questions relating to my divorce - where did you live before you got divorced, after you got divorced, during your divorce, where is your husband now, is he dead? How the hell should I know? Bunch' of turkeys! When they then send me to get new passport photos because my head was not big enough on the ones I brought in, I literally had to turn around, take a few deep breaths and go very quickly to my happy place. Of course, in all the time (and the two visits) it took me to get this straightened out, I owed the Copley Square Parking Garage a small fortune, and will henceforth live off peanut butter and crackers that I am stealing from the kitchen on my office floor.

Back in the real world, where the normal people live, the week has been speeding by at quite a pace, and I am looking forward to the three-day weekend coming up. No snow in sight - just the opposite as Boston has been experiencing spring-like temperatures all week. All is good on the toe front, and I have been hiking, jogging and even been wearing decent shoes for a change.

Hope this email finds you all healthy and happy.

pet:)

#31 Boston - Back to the Grind January 5, 2006

Happy New Year and welcome back to the daily grind! I got back to Boston this past Sunday night, utterly exhausted from a long trip and with a big fat head from the New Year's Eve celebrations at my brother's house. I had warned them to not let me near the champagne, but what can I say! Some of you might recall the effects champagne has on me, I turn into this giggling heap of a person and will laugh myself silly for no apparent reason, hours on end. It is a sight to behold, and maybe not the first thing you would like to experience in the new year.

New Year's Eve is always a pretty cool event in Germany - usually celebrated with a pile of friends, sitting around a fondue pot (with meat of course, what did you think - cheese?), chatting and drinking away, games are being played, and come midnight everyone storms out onto the street to see the neighbors set themselves on fire by lighting fireworks illegally purchased in Slovenia or some other obscure Eastern European country. I am convinced that some of the neighbors spend their entire Christmas bonus on fireworks, and we got a little worried at some point that my brother's birds (he raises them) would fall off their perches with heart attacks. Fortunately they all survived and all was well in general, except for the next morning when my head felt as if someone had inserted barbed wire and installed tiny little loud speakers (this has nothing to do with the birds, BTW). It did not help that we had to get up at the ungodly time of 8 AM to drive to the airport in Zurich where my return flight awaited. It was a quiet ride to sum it up, everyone looked a bit pale, and we all could have used a giant slurpy size coffee just to keep our eyes open.

New Year's Eve ("Silvester" in German) has a couple of nice traditions associated with it - my favorite is to watch a little piece on the tube that has become a bit of a cult thing , and is shown on pretty much almost every major TV channel on New Year's Eve. It is a 15-minute English theater play called "Dinner for One", and is an absolute must-see! This sketch from the 1920s features Mae Warden as Miss Sophie and Freddie Frinton as her butler James. Here is the gist of the story: Miss Sophie is celebrating her 90th birthday with her four best friends - Sir Toby, Admiral Don Schneider, Mister Pomeroy and Mister Winterbottom. Only problem is: all of them have been dead for years. Miss Sophie (sharp as she is) insists on the dinner, and the poor butler not only has to play all four characters, he has to drink for them all through a five-course meal. On his way to desert of course, he gets quite sloshed, and keeps asking Miss Sophie "The same procedure as every year, Mam'?" to which she replies "The same procedure as every year James!" Quotes from this piece have become common language and are used frequently ("I declare the bazaar open") - for my Boston friends, I will glad to have a little showing some time (champagne included) (http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa010101a.htm).

Another lovely tradition is to go visit your neighbors after midnight to toast in the New Year. I have always found that to be a very lovely practice and have tried it once in California, but with minimal success. For some reason people did not want to open their doors there after midnight. Party poopers!

Two weeks in Germany passed quickly, and as mentioned last week, I had a lovely time. On Friday I headed out for one more cross-country ski trip with my friend Joachim, to the area of Malsburg Marzell. On a most gorgeous day with stunning blue skies we hoofed it up the Gleichenspur (mostly uphill and it does not help if you are being passed by a 70-year old woman), and after our skiing expedition we stopped at the SkiClub's cabin (http://www.lipple.de/html/ausblicke_7.html) for some local cuisine. Interestingly enough, on our way home we drove by a sanatorium where I spend 7 1/2 months in 1977 to recuperate from tuberculosis. Not the best of memories associated with it....

Meanwhile, back in Boston - I of course completely had spaced that Monday was a holiday (on account of New Year's falling on a Sunday) and showed up at work with no-one around. After digging through 250 emails I decided to call it a day, go for some retail therapy and then meet my friends Ellen and Patrick for a New Year's lunch in the North End (http://www.northendboston.com/). I love this part of town - most of the time I feel as if someone had stuck me smack in the middle of a "Sopranos" episode. Lovely restaurants, great stores (Polcari's comes to mind with 27 varieties of coffee alone) and if you need some holy water or an Italian soccer uniform, this is the place to go.
In the evening I drove to the lovely Atlantic ocean community of Nahant on the Northshore, about 15 miles north of Boston (http://www.nahant.com/welcome.html) where Oscar had been happily vacationing with my friends Stephanie and Dan. It was time to get "banana boy" home (He told me he had a wicked fabulous time), and I think he was quite contended to see me after all.

I am looking forward to this coming weekend, trying to get the jet lag out of my system, take care of a throat infection, and get in some fun activities, a theater play, a visit to the Athenaeum, condo shopping and a hike are on the menu.

Be well and again, Happy New Year!!

pet:)