Breathless
Jul. 8th, 2002 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidOr, the weekend too busy to post much.
It's good to have plans and all, but I'm tired.
It was a good weekend, though.
I went with my friend Z (and her baby) down to the Milk St. Cafe to have lunch. I like their food, and since they're only open business days for breakfast and lunch, I rarely get to eat there. (I believe the last time was this winter, when Queue and I had a volunteer afternoon sorting kids' books). Unfortunately, the main location was closed for the day. Luckily, the Post Office Square location was open. Unfortunately, some idiot hadn't thought about how there would be a lot of people wanting food on Friday (with only one location, and lots of people doing touristy things, etc.). By the time we got there, around 1:3 0, they'd run out of a lot of things, including *bread*. Most disappointing.
But it was good to spend time with Z, and make the baby smile (not a difficult task at all, except when attempting to take passport photos of him; the store clerk was not parti cularly good, though he was helpful.). She dropped me off at home just in time to meet
ZZBottom and his lovely wife, J. We walked into Harvard Square, browsing and chatting. A stop at Games People Play netted a copy of Xactica :-), and one of the other misc stuff sorts of stores yielded something else I won't mention until it gets to the intended recipient... [Update 7/10: It was a vintage (1956) copy of Perquackey, which kept saying "Buy me for Treacle_Well's birthday!" repeatedly until I succumbed. Bought on her birthday, given the Tuesday after. :-) ] We walked over to the Garage, and I tried a new-to-me flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the (something)Vermonter (maple and nuts and caramel. yum.) as we discussed the people in an old wedding photo J had bought. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the glories of the Pandemonium book store were explored :-(. It felt it had been too long since the last time I'd seen either of them not at a larger social gathering.
I got home again Friday afternoon, got the new address of N in Worcester, and headed west. I got there with a good 40 minutes before Shabbat, so there was some time to get settled. She's moved for the year, for Intel, from Portland, Oregon, so the company arranged an apartment. It's huge: 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, laundry, lots of closets, a decent kitchen, and a huge cavern of a livingroom/diningroom. It's furnished, nominally, and, as she put it, it's all hotel style stuff, including the bedding. Kinda weird feel still, since she hasn't had a chance to do much to make it theirs yet (there are still stacks of empty boxes in the corner, waiting for someone to come and reuse them, though some have been battered by the kids (ages 9 and 8, filled with energy) making tunnels and forts, etc.).
We had a quiet Shabbat dinner after lighting candles, staying up a while talking after the kids went to bed. She's getting the kids integrated into the local Chabad community, but she herself is much more egal than anything else, and there's not much here for her religiously. My impression is that she'll do fine, but I wish there were a place she'd be happy with.
Shabbat morning, we walked to the Chabad shul. I think it's the first time I've been there for davening. It was ok, the mechitzah (separator) was reasonable, and the rabbi made a point of speaking to both sides during his talk, which had reasonable content, but was not enough compellingly presented to keep my tired mind from drifting...
A sit-down kiddush afterward, with very traditional stuff (herring, gefilte fish, tam tams, bowtie kichel, marble sponge cake, pickles, also watermelon), followed by complex negotiations of which kids would go where. In the end, the boy had a friend over, while the girl went to a friend's house. After lunch, the boys played, and I reread about half of "Ender's Game." ...I really need to reread that and then reread "Ender's Shadow."
Then more walking (we ended up going about 7 miles over the course of the day): to the visiting boy's house (up a hill, of course), stopping to chat with his mom, then to get the daughter (another hill), and more chatting with those parents, by which time we picked up the boy after his "Shabbat party" at the shul, and headed back to the apartment. We went through Elm Park (one of the oldest public parks in the country, supposedly) four times, and got to see not only the ducks, pigeons, and squirrels, but fish and what might have been an otter, too. It wa s a bit more walking than I've been doing recently, and with more hills; my knees were noticing it :-(.
Shabbat slid away as we talked and the kids read. Havdalah, then a quick pasta dinner before the kids went to bed and I headed home, tired but wanti ng my own bed.
I started the day later than I'd wanted, but still somewhat sleep-deprived. I picked up a friend in Davis Square, then we stopped for felafel in Brookline before going out to a gaming day in Needham. I brought a bunch of games, but of those, only Aquarius got played. A couple of people really got into it, being in the mood for something light, especially since it was so humid and hazy. I hadn't realized until someone told me that the day was bizarrely overcast (the light was an odd yellow I associate with just-before-thunderstorms, but had lasted all day) due to forest fires in Quebec. The sun was a glowing flat orange/red/pink disc in the sky...
I also managed to fail utterly at Apples to Apples, getting n o adjectives at all, but having a good time. I watched part of a game of 1000 Blank Cards, drifted between conversations, and just was glad to be around people. Later, there were discussions about planetary peculiarities, and what comics are, and kids' books were read, and yet more food was made and devoured (I want to get the recipe for a carmelized onion and cheese bread pudding that smelled wonderful). A good day, that slid away faster than I realized... I was too tired, by the time I gave people rid es home, to stop by Treacle_Well's gaming event, though I'd wanted to :-(.
And on my porch this morning, I found the first ripe cherry tomato :-). Hooray.
And I can see the dragonflies playing outside my window.
.
It's good to have plans and all, but I'm tired.
It was a good weekend, though.
I went with my friend Z (and her baby) down to the Milk St. Cafe to have lunch. I like their food, and since they're only open business days for breakfast and lunch, I rarely get to eat there. (I believe the last time was this winter, when Queue and I had a volunteer afternoon sorting kids' books). Unfortunately, the main location was closed for the day. Luckily, the Post Office Square location was open. Unfortunately, some idiot hadn't thought about how there would be a lot of people wanting food on Friday (with only one location, and lots of people doing touristy things, etc.). By the time we got there, around 1:3 0, they'd run out of a lot of things, including *bread*. Most disappointing.
But it was good to spend time with Z, and make the baby smile (not a difficult task at all, except when attempting to take passport photos of him; the store clerk was not parti cularly good, though he was helpful.). She dropped me off at home just in time to meet
ZZBottom and his lovely wife, J. We walked into Harvard Square, browsing and chatting. A stop at Games People Play netted a copy of Xactica :-), and one of the other misc stuff sorts of stores yielded something else I won't mention until it gets to the intended recipient... [Update 7/10: It was a vintage (1956) copy of Perquackey, which kept saying "Buy me for Treacle_Well's birthday!" repeatedly until I succumbed. Bought on her birthday, given the Tuesday after. :-) ] We walked over to the Garage, and I tried a new-to-me flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the (something)Vermonter (maple and nuts and caramel. yum.) as we discussed the people in an old wedding photo J had bought. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the glories of the Pandemonium book store were explored :-(. It felt it had been too long since the last time I'd seen either of them not at a larger social gathering.
I got home again Friday afternoon, got the new address of N in Worcester, and headed west. I got there with a good 40 minutes before Shabbat, so there was some time to get settled. She's moved for the year, for Intel, from Portland, Oregon, so the company arranged an apartment. It's huge: 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, laundry, lots of closets, a decent kitchen, and a huge cavern of a livingroom/diningroom. It's furnished, nominally, and, as she put it, it's all hotel style stuff, including the bedding. Kinda weird feel still, since she hasn't had a chance to do much to make it theirs yet (there are still stacks of empty boxes in the corner, waiting for someone to come and reuse them, though some have been battered by the kids (ages 9 and 8, filled with energy) making tunnels and forts, etc.).
We had a quiet Shabbat dinner after lighting candles, staying up a while talking after the kids went to bed. She's getting the kids integrated into the local Chabad community, but she herself is much more egal than anything else, and there's not much here for her religiously. My impression is that she'll do fine, but I wish there were a place she'd be happy with.
Shabbat morning, we walked to the Chabad shul. I think it's the first time I've been there for davening. It was ok, the mechitzah (separator) was reasonable, and the rabbi made a point of speaking to both sides during his talk, which had reasonable content, but was not enough compellingly presented to keep my tired mind from drifting...
A sit-down kiddush afterward, with very traditional stuff (herring, gefilte fish, tam tams, bowtie kichel, marble sponge cake, pickles, also watermelon), followed by complex negotiations of which kids would go where. In the end, the boy had a friend over, while the girl went to a friend's house. After lunch, the boys played, and I reread about half of "Ender's Game." ...I really need to reread that and then reread "Ender's Shadow."
Then more walking (we ended up going about 7 miles over the course of the day): to the visiting boy's house (up a hill, of course), stopping to chat with his mom, then to get the daughter (another hill), and more chatting with those parents, by which time we picked up the boy after his "Shabbat party" at the shul, and headed back to the apartment. We went through Elm Park (one of the oldest public parks in the country, supposedly) four times, and got to see not only the ducks, pigeons, and squirrels, but fish and what might have been an otter, too. It wa s a bit more walking than I've been doing recently, and with more hills; my knees were noticing it :-(.
Shabbat slid away as we talked and the kids read. Havdalah, then a quick pasta dinner before the kids went to bed and I headed home, tired but wanti ng my own bed.
I started the day later than I'd wanted, but still somewhat sleep-deprived. I picked up a friend in Davis Square, then we stopped for felafel in Brookline before going out to a gaming day in Needham. I brought a bunch of games, but of those, only Aquarius got played. A couple of people really got into it, being in the mood for something light, especially since it was so humid and hazy. I hadn't realized until someone told me that the day was bizarrely overcast (the light was an odd yellow I associate with just-before-thunderstorms, but had lasted all day) due to forest fires in Quebec. The sun was a glowing flat orange/red/pink disc in the sky...
I also managed to fail utterly at Apples to Apples, getting n o adjectives at all, but having a good time. I watched part of a game of 1000 Blank Cards, drifted between conversations, and just was glad to be around people. Later, there were discussions about planetary peculiarities, and what comics are, and kids' books were read, and yet more food was made and devoured (I want to get the recipe for a carmelized onion and cheese bread pudding that smelled wonderful). A good day, that slid away faster than I realized... I was too tired, by the time I gave people rid es home, to stop by Treacle_Well's gaming event, though I'd wanted to :-(.
And on my porch this morning, I found the first ripe cherry tomato :-). Hooray.
And I can see the dragonflies playing outside my window.
.
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no subject
Date: 2002-07-08 01:57 pm (UTC)