CSI at the MOS

Maybe we're just more hardcore CSI fans than most TV viewers, but the Elder Pea and I went to the CSI exhibit at the Museum of Science, and we had a blast. It turned out to be something quite different from what I expected. I thought there would be displays and such, but did not expect to be taking notes and following clues. It was fun.

First, we were photographed. What is going on these days, wherever you go someone wants to take your picture and sell it back to you. We were photographed at the NE Aquarium and at Fenway Park, and now at the entrance to the CSI exhibit. So we knew the drill, and the people lined up ahead of us were doing the usual line-up type pose, so the Pea and I decided to do something more appropriate to the exhibit. A couple in line not far behind us did virtually the same pose. Obviously, I bought these photos.

Next, we were assigned to Crime Scene Two: Who Got Served?, which turned out to be a suspicious drug overdose with some tire treads thrown in to boot. Needless to say, we are SO hired. We went from the crime scene to the various evidence rooms and came to the conclusion that this particular young woman, like so many, had bad taste in friends.

We also saw a live porcupine, a youngish female, quite tame and gorgeous. Another good day at the MOS.

Then my remaining gold crown fell out, so we headed for home.

Jawing the night away

You wouldn't think rheumatoid arthritis would be a problem in your jaw. You would be wrong. I've been having small flares in the left jawbone over the last couple years or more, to the point that sometimes I can barely eat. Not that that is a crisis, lord knows I could stand to lose another fifteen pounds, but it's a drag to have to manually pry your teeth apart just to fit in a small grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Sigh. Overbites suck.

It's a real learning experience, having rheumatoid arthritis. It's really surprising how many 'joints' you have problems with that you never even knew existed. To date, the most surprising one was the pain I had a couple years ago in the manubruim. Who even knew there was enough cartilage in a breastbone to create a problem? Still, it was very painful, especially when I coughed, but even breathing was a pain.

Otherwise, things are pretty good. The pain in my right calf is subsiding, though I really should have that checked out. Tamoxifen is known for increasing the risk for blood clots, especially in the lower leg.

I spent today helping Queenee's boss's wife make some travel arrangements. She admitted she needs to take a class about doing this kind of thing online, which got me thinking. She is my age, and her knowledge of computers and the internet is abysmal, as is her husband's. That's fine, they don't work on computers, so their knowledge doesn't need to be more than minimal, but at times it isn't even that. Maybe one day next week I'll go to the local senior center and see if there is any interest in having a computer class. Just basic stuff, how to use email, how to view family photos, how to navigate the web, that kind of thing. Having taught this kind of class in the past, I'm certainly more than qualified to teach the basics (and way more than that), and I'd feel like I was doing something useful. Something to consider, at any rate.

Laptop Project Set for 2 Weeks in Nov.

Seems this project is moving along pretty good now...

I was hoping that the cost of US kids computers would have been much lower, considering the tax base pays for the schools computers here on our soil.

How about sending some of those $188 computers to the poor children in the mountain coal towns that still have one room schools, and maybe even a teacher from the Peace corps or a Vista volunteer (are they still around?) to show them how to use them along with reading and writing. Why is it always about some other country in need???? This friggin country doesn't want to look in it's own backyard or even acknowledge that it has poverty beyond comprehension!!!

People die in the wonderful USA due to starvation, living conditions, no ways and means to get out of the plight of their life due to illiterate parents, poor schools, minimum wage jobs with no health care, etc. I'm thinking that this friggin government wants them poor and stupid so when the time comes that the government wants their land, it's primed for the stealing.

I don't know what got me on this rant, just thinking about healthcare and what's been going on here in this country I guess. Why don't the rich assholes that spend $500,000 on a wedding for themselves give something back? How about sending some to their fanbase, show some appreciation for their fans who support them in making all that ridiculous money! Maybe lower the ticket prices to concerts and sporting events.

I need more coffee.....

Lymphedema

What a gorgeous day it was, bright blue sky, no clouds, low humidity and warm, but not too hot. The Elder Pea helped me push furniture around this morning and both Peas did some house cleaning for Queenee and me. Queenee is in no shape to be doing much that involves her right arm, since she scratched herself, didn't properly disinfect, and now has a bout of lymphedema to deal with.

I drove her to St. Elsewhere, which was an adventure in itself. We left home at noon, and ran smack dab into the Allston/Brighton Pride parade (not a gay pride parade). What a mess. Most of the major streets going from the MA Pike to St. E's were blocked off. What stupid idiot decided to block three out of four streets that go to and past the biggest area hospital? At one point, as we were sitting in a traffic jam down yet another side street, I asked a cop, "How are we supposed to get to the hospital from here?" His reply was, "St. Elizabeth's? I have no idea." So what are you doing directing traffic in Brighton? Luckily I know the area and we finally finagled our way around and up to the emergency room. Unbelievably poorly planned parade.

Then we got to sit in the hospital for two hours before Queenee finally saw a doctor. The good thing is she isn't in any pain, so we watched the Patriots beat the crap out of the poor Buffalo Bills for some of the time. The doctor was very nice. He had her hooked up to IV antibiotics and wrote a prescription for oral antibiotics that she'll start taking later tonight. She has to go back in tomorrow, and as long as the redness and heat that is evident in her arm has reduced, she'll be kept on oral antibiotics and sent home. We got home around 6pm.

So Queenee and I missed most of the beautiful day, but she wasn't serious enough to warrant being admitted to the hospital. Maybe next time she'll remember to make a dash for the isopropyl alcohol!

Presents

My ability to be at Queenee's Party was a gift from Wabbit, Dawg and Fluffy. Wabbit made some of the arrangements, picked me up and dropped me off so I could get there from Key West. Wow. Besides the expense of it, the thought and time were present enough. What a wonderful surprise for Queenee, and for me to be there with all the family for the party. I miss everyone so much and after the visit this summer it surely was a shock to see me appear once again.

Damcat gave a wonderful party and had everything under control so wabbit and I could relax and party the day away. Having hosted many parties ourselves, we really appreciated being able to come, relax and enjoy without worries of "did I forget something" hanging over us. Thanks for the great time.

And as usual, coming up is always much more than being there. I'm always fed and given the very best care. Always a treat! This past weekend I escaped from my usual housework at home and know that it meant more work for wabbit to make it all seamless, special and a SECRET! Great job, thank you!!

I was able to deliver in person my present to the Queen...three prints by Brian Andreas "Story People". It is always hard to find the right gift for someone you love and always want to give a memorable one. I chose his Wish List, Before Dawn, and Living Memory. I love his work. But nothing you can buy compares to being there to give a hug and kiss yourself. My visual gifts that can be seen daily can't compare to the special weekend Mom had with all her children together.

The Krew was excited to get a virtual tour with the stories and pictures here on the blog. It was great having time with wabbit, I miss my sistah.

And she's off

A sad day for Queenee, Key Dear left for home this morning. It was so great for her to be here for Queenee's birthday, everyone was happy to see her and glad she could be here for the weekend. As usual, she did a lot of work while here - the living room and dining room look terrific, and she reupholstered two chairs to boot! She brought some halibut and salmon from Alaska, and they were delicious.

The Ds and Peas came over for a small birthday dinner last night, and Fluffy stopped in for a quick hello and to say Happy Birthday on the actual date. Dawg is sick as a dog with allergies and ended up having to stay home.

Birthday party videos will be up by the end of the weekend.

Queenee's birthday party

From Queenee's 75th birthday party

Damcat and Deacon hosted Queenee's 75th birthday party yesterday and a grand time it was. Lots of good food, drinks, and friends. Queenee was surprised, having been told it was just a cookout - when we pulled up to the house and she saw her friend Clare, the jig was up! Key Dear managed to get the weekend free and flew up for the celebration.

Things finally wound down around 1am, thanks to a couple very late arrivals. The D's can spend Sunday recovering and getting a day of well deserved rest.

Queenee doesn't look anything close to her 75 years. That's good news for those of us hoping to have inherited that gene! Happy birthday, Queenee, we're looking forward to celebrating your 100th in a couple decades!

Happy Birthday Dawg!

It's the Dawg's happy birthday today! Raise a glass to many more! We had mac and cheese for dinner and a cheesecake for desert - both are among Dawg's favorites, and he took home the leftovers.

Dawg's birthday heralds the start of the busy birthday season for this family. Fluffy, Mr. Bill, the Younger Pea and Miss P have warm weather birthdays. The other ten of us have a sweater or coat weather birthday. Logito is at the tail end, but still a cold weather birthday (ok, we're New England-centric about weather, deal with it).

I suppose we could also be divvied up by hurricane season. Hurricane season birthdays would include the Younger Pea, Miss P, Dawg, Queenee, Key Dear, PopPop and me. Non-hurricane family are the Elder Pea, Damcat, Deacon, Mr. R, Logito, Fluffy and Mr. Bill. That puts us in equal camps, numbers-wise.

The Lone Pear

For the past couple years, we've had a pear thief strip our pear trees just before we got around to harvesting. PopPop was determined to beat him to the punch this year. However, out of the goodness of his heart, and as a slap in the face to the thief, PopPop left one perfect pear behind.

We all hope the thief enjoys his pear.

Maybe we should bring in the butternut squash before he sets his eye on them...

Weather

We finally got some rain. It's been SO dry here the grass was crunchy. Today it poured. Lots of rain, and we needed that. The town put up the water shortage signs last weekend, and even the rain we got won't get us up to snuff water-wise, but it's a start.

I picked Queenee up at the airport Monday night. Her flight out of Philadelphia was delayed by almost two hours because of low hanging cloud cover in Boston. Uh ... radar anyone? It isn't like there were high winds, or heavy rain/sleet/hail/snow. Just a bit foggy. How do they land planes in England, I wonder? The airport was mobbed, I've never not been able to park on the first floor of the garage, and I got the only spot left on the second floor after going around three times.

She said the candy show was good, small, mostly aimed at Mom & Pop type businesses, but it was a very busy show. Washburn didn't have a booth of their own, they shared with Melville Candy, who make all manner of pops and did very well this show. I love their honey pops, perfect in a cup of tea.

I spent the day working at Washburn, so I managed not to dwell on 9/11 events today. I miss New York.

Whatevah

No real news, but I'm overdue for posting something, so here are some recent happenings and thoughts.

PopPop and I have been wondering about the hummingbirds, not having seen them these past couple days. I changed the sugar water in the feeders yesterday and they were still pretty much full. Usually the one near the front walk would be empty and the other at least half empty, but they seemed untouched. We thought the hummers may have decided to migrate early, since it's been a cool late summer. However, I spotted one of the female hummers this morning and again this evening, so at least one is still around. I'll keep the feeders going through early October, in case we get any migrating hummingbirds.

I went to see His Wench today, my friend that gets me website jobs (many many thanks for that, as I am absolutely NOT a salesperson, or really even a people person). Not only did she have cash in hand for me for one job, she had two other jobs for an existing client. Excellent.

Queenee is at the Philadelphia Candy Show (in Atlantic City), and I have been trying to get her return boarding pass for her. I'll print it and fax it to her hotel. It would help if I entered the correct information into the web form, right? Is she leaving FROM Boston? NOOOOOOOOO. No wonder I kept getting an error. Naturally, I didn't figure this out until I had a tech person on the phone. Then it hit me ... D'OH. Many apologies, a few chuckles, and now I'm waiting for the boarding pass to come up so I can print it. USAirways.com is painfully slow.

Finally, those of you keeping track of the furchildren know by now that Sophia has been going outside for the past couple weeks. She's been very good, not heading straight for the street like she used to. Today was a watershed day for her. Late this afternoon, the poncey cat was tossing a dead sparrow around in the back yard. Maybe she managed to catch it last night, as there was a riot in the redbud tree last night just before she came in for the night, but regardless, it is her first outdoors hunting success and she was very pleased with herself. When I saw her, it was around 5pm, and after a couple final aerial tosses and some batting around, the dead sparrow was consumed. No doubt she was sure I was about to come take the bird away and revive it somehow, as past experience has taught her (I've taken several injured-but-not-dead mice from her). She is sound asleep on my lap now and will sleep well tonight, no doubt dreaming of her next conquest. Mind you, for a cat who has spent the better part of her life indoors, she is an accomplished huntress. I can't tell you how many mice she caught in the little house in Jeffersonville, and of course she caught that flying squirrel in the back room here last year. With any luck, she'll stop catching birds and move on to the many moles in the yard.

Touring Fenway

I had to go to Dick Blick Art Supply in town today, so I dragged the Peas along with me. Note the "had to go" part - HA! Honestly, there was nothing in particular I needed, but I thought I'd check out the paper stock and see if they had an etching press on display. No press anywhere in sight, but they do have some nice papers. Not as big an inventory as what I could find in NYC or Philadelphia, but at least they have something more than the Canson paper that is ubiquitous and useless to me. I got a nice fan brush, a large butcher's tray, and a couple very nice pieces of paper for the downstairs bathroom (I want to re-cover the lights). All in all, a worthwhile trip.

While we were in town on another gorgeous weather day and so close to Fenway, we decided to hoof it up the street and do the Fenway Park tour. After a slice and some time in the gift store, we went into Fenway with our group. The tour is pretty interesting. Some of what we heard is well known, like Fenway being the oldest ballpark in the country, but I didn't know it was the only ballpark that still had wooden seats. We learned that Conigliaro's corner seats sell for $25 in honor of his number, and that those tickets go on sale two hours before gametime (the tour guide warned us to bring a chair and a book). We learned that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are the luckiest people in Boston, since they have managed to get seats in the "seat-by-lottery" right field roof deck at least six times this year. We learned that there are two employees who have a method of figuring out whether the Red Sox will win or lose* (it all depends on whether they see each other only once in any given day - more than that, we lose). I think even the Younger Pea, who is less interested in baseball than the Elder Pea, had a good time. I certainly did!

A quick ice-cream stop on the way home and we called it a day. It's a shame Miss P didn't have time to do this, she would have enjoyed it very much. I recommend the Fenway Tour to any baseball fan. Even Yankees fans.

* edit 9/5: I guess they didn't see each other again, since the Sox won 5-3!

The Weekend

Ours was a quiet one also. Unlike last weekend when Logito was gone boating and spearfishing 2 days, he hung around this weekend chillin' with a friend. Mr. R organized a Skateboarding competition, acquiring 2 sponsors for the Saturday event. He had 12 sign up and one kid wowed the competition (much like R did in the past). Prizes were given out and it was a great success. Next time he may have more competitors; it's a small park not like the Vans made ones around the country and it's great that YMCA did the city kids the favor of making one. It's great exercise for strength as well as agility I'm sure. Miss P kept to the city life, working, organizing her apartment and visiting friends.

Sunday we had a few friends over for brunch, mimosa's and into the evening dinner... long day, lots of laughs. No pictures this weekend, what's up with that?

All and all, a nice relaxing time.

Labor Day

It was a peaceful Labor Day here. DamCat and family came over bearing food and drink, so we had an impromptu cookout. Chicken, hot dogs, margaritas ... it was a fine way to spend the day.

The weather has been beautiful lately. Even if hot, it hasn't been too humid, so the heat is bearable. We could use some rain, but we'd be hard pressed to complain about what we haven't had lately!

The Plate reads - U1T12

I'd love to give this car a spin just once ...

Rest assured, this one is going on everyone's Virtual Christmas gift list this year! Along with an oil company and a tire company.