James Hook & Co. rises from the ashes

James Hook & Co. as the longtime Boston business rebuilds after a fire in May. (Photos were taken around July 4th.)

The T is chepaer than I thought

They couldn't even be bothered to order correct signs for this Silver Line bus. (Is that the proper terminology for Silver Line vehicles?) I only saw the correct labeling because I was standing this close to the sign.

The real question is, who made the above clarification - the MBTA or a rider who finally had enough of the confusion surrounding Silver Line routes?

Water feature at my office

Office_lake.jpg
Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

The parking lot turns into a lake on rainy days.

Lightning flashed while I was snapping this photo

Interesting (and accidental) timing on my part. Wasn't trying to get lightning on film.


Live at the top of a hill. Went outside to take some pictures of the stormy night skies. Was playing with manual settings and ISO speed on the camera (Canon IXUS 40).

Took some other shots of the rain.

R.I.P. Sad Car

The slow decay has ended. It seems that Sad Car has been put out to pasture.

It's been a little while since I've driven that particular stretch of VFW Parkway, but a friend recently alerted me about the disappearance of the familiar rotting hunk of metal and steel. (The once white sedan can even be seen in the aerial photo on the city's Property Data Viewer).

Sad Car made quite an impression on this West Roxbury (Roslindale?) property.

Without Sad Car guarding the garage like a dedicated sentry, Sad House has lost part of its identity . (J. adds that this "looks like the home where a serial killer lives.")

Alyssa's ark

This morning as I sat in my car in the parking lot, rain pouring down over the windshield, I began wishing for an ark to help me get across the parking lot and into my office. When the rain slowed (sort of), I got out of the car and headed towards the other set of doors, where the current running across that entrance proceeded to pull a band-aid off my foot.

If you look closely, you can even see some whitewater ( which consists of rapids and eddy lines caused by debris washed down the street and into our parking lot).

The water covered the bottom step of one entrance.

La Course des Garçon de Café

Traditional French Waiters Race at the Bastille Day celebration in Harvard Square.

Has JP been annexed?

Since when is Jamaica Plain no longer part of the city of Boston?

At least that what a Boston Globe article makes it sound like:

And communities in Boston's inner belt - including Somerville, Brookline, Newton, and Jamaica Plain - are also doing somewhat better than Cambridge, with their single-family home sales collectively down about 22 percent from the first five months of 2007, he said.

Line for iPhone

Line for iPhone
Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

The lineup for the iPhone outside the Apple Store at Cambridgeside Galleria on Saturday.

(I took the picture with my cellphone and blogged this from inside the Apple Store.)

No more Rojo?

No more Rojo?
Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

Fireworks... finally

My belated (thanks to some computer issues) video montage of Boston's July 4th fireworks spectacular. I was lucky enough to have seen them from high up in the Hancock Building.





(Sorry for the crappy video quality.. compression and all...)

Parking rules n' regs

In my apartment's parking lot, everyone who has a car has their assigned spot. And guests aren't really supposed to park in the lot. (We have more parking spots than cars, so people's vehicles tend to be scattered in a non-uniform manner, leaving us with a few extra spaces near the back fence.) But when they park in someone's spot, and that person comes home, the accepted protocol is to honk your horn as loud and as long as possible. Even if it's the middle of the night.

So it's not a surprise that I drew a crowd with my loud honking after my annoying commute home after a long day of work. People hung out on porches and stared. Eventually some nice ladies from one of the neighboring buildings started ringing doorbells of the building that the offender was most likely visiting - nice to know that neighbors still help each other out.

Turns out that the offending visitor belonged to the asshole downstairs. Who was on his porch sans shirt while his fat belly hanging over his shorts, watching me honk and honk and honk and honk.

(Yes, I realize what I said yesterday. But I'm getting to the point where I don't know how much longer I can live around them anymore (and from what I understand, I'm not the only one who feels this way).)

Not exactly Mr. Rogers' neighborhood...

Won't you be my neighbor?
by Fred M. Rogers

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...


These two postings got me thinking a little deeper about the neighborhood that I live in within the larger context of the city of Boston.

I found a decently priced place to live here and my neighbors are all colors and ethnicities and ages and income levels. You'll find a pretty diverse lot waiting for the Orange Line or walking down Centre Street or waiting on line for ice cream at JP Licks. I have the typical 'neighborly' friendships with some of my neighbors - We help each other clean off snowy cars, take in packages for each other, etc. - despite the fact that we don't always speak the same language (English, PSanish, Portugese, Creole...).

I'm not saying that there aren't problems, issues, and/or misunderstandings sometimes. That's life. As neighbors, we have to be able to live around each other, not be best friends.

Blurry images from Fenway

Manny at ease, on deck.








At bat.








Lefty ready to swing.








Manny warming up.


Last minute tickets to the game - unexpected but very welcome... grateful that the weather eventually turned around and made it a great night.

Down 4-1 for most of the middle innings, the Sox rallied in the 8th to pull ahead 5-4, before a fastball performance by Papelbon in the top of the 9th shut down the Diamondbacks.

Good graphic design: the lower case 'db' on the Diamondbacks jersey sleeves looks like a snake's head.

-j.

Protesters outside the Hynes

They were protesting against Aramark, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.





(Turns out one of them gave J. a flyer when he arrived to meet me at the HealthFit Expo, but he had to seek someone out to ask for it. It didn't help us understand any better.)

Cheap gas causes minor traffic jam

Gas was $3.97 at BJ's in Franklin. It caused a minor traffic jam, even overflowing into the main driveway at some points.

Celtics... the aftermath

Yay Celtics!!!!!


My next door neighbor is out on his porch yelling "Lakers can suck my dick!!!!!"
and that Kobe can lick his "big, huge Puerto Rican dick!!!*" against a cacophony of car horns, sirens, intermittent fireworks, other neighbors screaming, and more car horns. He's also yelling random words just to hear his own echo about 5 seconds later (the delayed effect is kind of neat).

I don't remember the neighborhood getting this loud after the Red Sox won the World Series.

It's 12:41 am.
Please stop honking. I want to go to sleep already.



*This is really what he said, not some attempt by me to stereotype my neighbor.

Crazy crustacean

Largest lobster in the tank at BJ's in Framingham.

100 degrees is too hot

100_deg.jpg
Originally uploaded by LoveLyss

My car says it's 100 degrees outside.