The neighborhood superstar

Should I be pissed that one of my teenage neighbors and his friends think they're rap stars or DJ's or something and like to let everyone in the apartment complex know by hanging out on a porch playing music so loud that I heard it over my vacuum cleaner? Or should I just be happy that he's not out dealing drugs, underage drinking, or something like that?

I fear that I'm beginning to sound like a crotchety old person at age 28, but when I come home from a long day at work I don't wish to hear someone rehearse for their American Idol audition. (Especially when I'm probably being way kinder about their lack of talents than Simon Cowell would be.)

Nature's dandruff?

Arborway rotary

Snow piled up on Arborway over Washington St.

Arnold Arboretum

Plant icicles outside of office building

BIDMC & me

It's weird being on the other side of the gurney.

Roommate2.0 injured his hand on Sunday night, so off we went to the ER at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, because to go to any other ER would be like cheating on BIDMC. And like a fickle mistress, this visit for some banged up fingers took around 3 hours.

When they let me bring Roomie his book, I found him was stuck in a hallway, much like my first visit. Must be something special they do for sprains. (Unless it's a lonely weekday morning.) Roommate2.0 told me that he even spotted one of the nurses from my last visit, and was so bored that he thought about saying hello to her. It was a boring night. We waited for the docs to stop by, read the paper, watched the paramedics and EMT's come and go (had to wonder if one of them was the urban paramedic), and waited some more.

Anyway, we managed to escape the curse of having an ER neighbor with some sort of bodily function issue, when in rolled K_____. He appeared fast asleep (or unconscious) when they settled him in one of the curtain areas nearby. The he woke up. And minor hell broke loose.

Nurse: "Get back on the bed! What are you doing?"

K___: unintelligible grumbling answer

Nurse: "You just peed on the floor!"

K___: "That's OK"

Nurse: "No it's not! Would you pee on the floor at home?!"

K___: unintelligible grumbling answer

Nurse: "Most men use a urinal or a toilet, NOT the floor"

{a few minutes later}

Nurse: "This is a urinal. it's to pee in. NOT on the floor! If you can't handle that, we'll just have to insert a catheter."

(K___'s behavior was rewarded with a new friend to sit (guard?) at the foot of the bed - an imposing man wearing scrubs who looked like he used to be a professional boxer/defensive end/hockey player. )


Oh, and we found a runner up to Hairball Guy - We've dubbed her Exorcist Lady. Only she managed to sound scarier than Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Her "chanting" made every staffer near the central desk area perk their heads up. Then a few of them started saying something about a Psych consult not being there yet.

Jingle Bells & Alarm Bells

A fire alarm went off while I was at the Chestnut Hill Mall today. No one was sure why, but the mall employees ushered us outside until the firemen gave said that it was safe to shop again.

"Don't plow me!"

Those were the words uttered by Carpool Buddy after a near miss with the snowplow on Centre St. (near Faulkner Hospital) as he took his turn cleaning the ice off my windshield wipers. It took us 3 1/2 hours to make what is normally a 45 minute drive from work to JP.



Someone abandoned a perfectly nice car on South St. (near James's Gate), which really helped traffic. Note the police officer who was left to deal with the aftermath.





Things were such a mess at the intersection of Washington St. and Green St. (right outside the police station) that a random pedestrian and 3 firefighters took it upon themselves to direct traffic. I think that cars should not be allowed to make left turns at some intersections during bad weather.

Boston Eats: Rocca

Eat dessert first here, specifically the apple crostada. it bears much resemblance to the apple pie that my (non-Italian) grandma used to make. Everything else was very fresh, but not outstanding. White bean dip that comes with the antipasti was also memorable. So were the potatoes that came with the hangar steak. Steak itself was nothing special.

I felt our server was OK. However, I did hear the server of the table next to us tell them about the nightly specials, which our server server informed us of. Hew also sever brought us bread until we asked for it.

One thing puzzled me - the (sort of) valet parking. Nice idea, but when it's 10 degrees out and you still have to walk across a large parking lot to your car, what's the point of having someone park it for you?


OK. I know that it is weird that this bothers me enough to write about it, but Rocca's interior was very nice. I sat facing the upstairs bar and next to it was this overflowing garbage can. (See terrible cell phone photo below.) Ick. Very unappetizing.

Something's fishy at Patriot Place

The Bass Pro Shop at the new man mall in Foxboro is quite an experience. I suggest a visit to this outdoorsy retail palace. They even have camo recliners - and who can resist those?

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Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

Arborway Castle draws spectators (including me)

I ran into one of the Arborway Castle's neighbors while taking these. He said that his kitchen looks right out onto the holiday light show. Didn't seem too perturbed, but he was diplomatic and polite about the whole display, which I thought was very neighborly of him.

Dispatch from NY - score 1 for the Pats

My cousin, D., a psycho Jets fan since before he could talk (thanks to my uncle), admitted to me that the Patriots are the best football team around. I was so shocked that his pronouncement rendered me speechless (which never happens, since I'm an adorable chatterbox). At first I wondered if his conclusion was due to all of the painkillers from his knee surgery last week. But then he repeated it - "the Patriots are like the best NFL team."

Zooooooooooooooooom

The planes flying over my house seem especially loud tonight. Just thought I'd share with the blog-o-sphere.

Fenway on Fire

I had a funny feeling about the welding going on at Fenway Park while I was snapping these pictures Saturday night.

Yee?

As seen during this morning's commute.

What was South Shore Volkswagen thinking?

Yes, a German car dealership really has the URL

SScars.com

I'm hoping that this was some sort of accidental permutation of South Shore, and not some twisted way to honor the Fatherland and Volkswagen's Nazi history.

Signs of Schilling

The Red Sox have a lot of peeps in the Medfield area. Signs are plastered along Route 109 proclaiming support for the Sox, especially Medfield resident Curt Schilling.





Much thanks to Carpool Buddy for his participation in this art project, snapping these shots from my (moving) car.

Woooosh!

At the begining of tonight's Red Sox game, I heard a huge WHOOOOOSH come from outside. Like a frieght train flying through the air. We get our fair share of planes and helicopters in the skies over JP, but this was different - much louder and deeper. It drowned out TV and the loud neighbors. I ran out to the porch, wondering if that's what a tornado sounded like (people in Kansas say that they sound like freight trains), then thinking that I was losing it, even daring to think that there would be a freak tornado in Boston. Whatever the noise was, it seemed to reverberate and loop through the night sky.

I couldn't see anything unusual (it was sort of cloudy).

How puzzling.

Eventually the giant sucking noise in the sky petered out and I went back inside. Wasn't till I turned back to the game that I learned there would be a fly over, courtesy of the Vermont Air Guard . Those four F-16 fighter jets were LOUD. I now reslove to stop kvetching when the planes from Logan zoom over my house.

T stop gets a makeover

Peer into the pit with me.

This Blue Line station (State) is getting a makeover, according to these workers who were kind enough to let me take some pictures of the work-in-progress.

Arborway stop lives on, sort of

The sign on the Inbound side of the Green Street T tracks still shows the Green Line going to Arborway.

Public Garden weirdness

Some things I'd rather not have seen at the Public Garden - dead rat & naughty statue.