Winter wonderland in JP

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Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

Run Katy Run

See Katy Run the Boston marathon to raise money for cancer research.

Well, I'm definitely awake now

Sometime around 7:35am I stepped out of the shower and heard a horrible CRASH!!! followed by a dozen car alarms going off - I thought a tree had fallen in the parking lot. Then came the deluge. I had no idea it was even raining out. (Of course I'd been awake all of 7 minutes.)

I had to scramble around (in a towel, no less) and close all the windows that were open because my thermostat is on steroids. Roommate2.0 had already left for work, and I was running late, so you can imagine how frantic I was.

Rooommate2.0's window sill, wall, and dormant AC unit were soaking, so I was forced to shut the window and lay down a towel. My bedroom window had a small window fan in it (on HIGH, to help circulate cool air into the house), which was now dripping wet while still plugged in to the outlet. Electrocution is not cool, but I managed to shut it off and unplug it without zapping myself. Then I had to set on the edge of the bathtub to drip dry.

I made it (safely) to work in the 'burbs where a nearby parking lot had morphed into a little lake.

Warm winter day

Images from a city celebrating a mid-winter thaw

Winter heat

I think that I've just sweat off all of the weight I gained during the holidays.

The temperature in my apartment peaked at 88 degrees this morning. That's after keeping all the windows open all night. We kept them open all day too. The temp in here is back down to 85.

UPDATE:
4:06pm
Temp has gone back up to 89 degrees. This is nuts!

Hot or not?

I'm concerned that part of our heat isn't working. The baseboard heaters in the bedrooms are nice and toasty. The ones out front (living room, kitchen, dining area) are not so hot. Actually, they're not even lukewarm. This is puzzling, since the thermostat is now set to the unusually high temperature of 70 degrees... high for our apartment anyway -it's usually closer to 65 when we're home) I guess it's good that we live a few flights up, as absorbing everyone else's heat from below is probably keeping us from getting frostbite. That and running the bedroom heat higher than usual in hopes that it will find its way out here. Roommate2.0 has the oven on for warmth, but I'm going to shut it off soon (it's making me kind of uneasy, since the pilot light tends to randomly go out).

It's not like we have a slumlord, but there's no one in the property management company's office until 9am. And the voicemail tends to fill up quickly (they manage a bunch of properties). There is someone who is sort of like the Super for our apartment complex, but the Company doesn't give out his number.

UPDATE:
Friday, 6:30pm
Just got home. Heat works again. House is VERY warm. Summertime warm. Maybe a little too warm. But I'll take that over no heat.

UPDATED UPDATE:
Friday/Saturday, 3am
It's a sauna in here. Heat in both parts of house is set to 55 degrees. But according to thermometer in kitchen, it's 85 degrees. I'm melting.... I'm melting...

Flashing lights

Can anyone explain the line of cars parked on the shoulder of West Roxbury Parkway (right past the golf course in Brookline) with their hazard lights blinking? There didn't seem to be anyone actually sitting in the cars in question.

Compromise on Jamaicaway?

Have the owner of the Jamaicaway light show and the city councilor reached a compromise?

The free T

Last night's ride downtown on the Orange Line was made up of all sorts of annoying underage drinkers. And screaming about Georgia. I took some cell phone videos. (Sorry for the crappy quality.)

Happy New Year!

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.