What a surprise: a rainy weekend
Jun. 22nd, 2003 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidStill, a pretty good one. At least I haven't had to water the plants on the porch much at all...
The longest erev Shabbat of the year, and I didn't have a ton of cooking to do, either, since I'd decided that there would be lots of green salad, fruit, and bread to base a meal or three on, so there wasn't a lot of advance prep, other than making bread and some rice with chickpeas and preserved lemon.
There are a bunch of things I keep thinking it would be nice to do on a Friday afternoon, touristy things I've never gotten around to, but this week I did none of them. Instead, I went to Decelle, in Porter Square, since they're going out of business, and I thought I could probably find *something* of interest. I was wrong, however: there were ugly clothes, and there were not-my-size clothes, and there was pretty much nothing else (oh, except for some sparkly scented orange candles. I'll pass, thanks.). I'd noticed on my way into Porter that Pier 1 was having a sale, and went over there, since it was likely they'd have some kind of table-ish thing I could put plants on on my porch. Success! I got a little round table that has two levels and folds up flat, too. Plus it was on sale for about half price. So I now have a new table on my porch, and in the excitement of having more space, I got the rest of the plants rearranged so there's actually room to sit! Much satisfaction. And I planted some morning glory seeds. I hope they sprout...
Plans for dinner changed over the course of the afternoon, so I ended up taking on Shabbat early and having potluck dinner with friends at their house (hooray for the eruv being up). I was pleased to be able to contribute much of the salad (red leaf, green leaf, Boston, arugula and other 'spicy' greens, basil, tomato, and multi-colored nasturiums), which got a lime-based dressing, along with rolls, hummus, rice, and cherries. There was chicken and couscous with lime, too. A yummy meal, and I was glad that friends got to meet friends.
Cambridge apparently hosts a dance party annually, in the street in front of city hall. This year was the first I'd heard of it, so I wanted to see what it was like. We walked to Central, and could see the lights well before arriving, the music a bit after that.
The DJ was set up on the sidewalk in front of city hall, and there were huge speakers in the street booming the music out. I was fascinated by the fancy lighting: there was a lot of it. There were three different colored lights on top of the Y, shining onto City Hall. There was some kind of spinning light shining into the foliage of a tree, making it look rather mysterious. There were sunbeams rotating around the clock face on the clock tower. And there was a pretty strong black light, too (let's just put it this way: I know that at least one fully-dressed woman there was in a sports bra...).
There was a decent crowd of dancers in the street, and some more acrobatic people on the grass. I was surprised by the range of people, young and old, casual to formal, etc. And pretty much everyone was dancing. At one point there was someone in a silvery cape (Professor McGonagal?), with two Hogwarts students; the dance was ending around 11, allowing them plenty of time to get to whatever their destination was.
Note to self: those black shoes with the buckles have become too thin to walk far or dance in, especially on asphalt.
Thanks to Queue, and indirectly to Hrafn, I got a chance to see the new, updated, revised, edited, larger Aquarium.
It is somewhat different.
The main hall is mostly the same, with the huge cylindrical tank in the middle, and the smaller exhibit tanks around the sides, but they've gotten a lot more space. There's now an IMAX, and some fast food outlet, and the gift shop has moved into the main building, and they've added a more interactive play space for kids, and there's new exhibit space. It was rather overwhelming (though some of that was likely the mobs and mobs of kids with their grownups).
There's a cool exhibit about people and the environment, pointing out all sorts of ways that personal choices can affect others in ways people might not think about. One focus was on turtles, and I felt more knowledgeable than I'd thought, all based on bits from The View From Saturday, a definite surprise. It was also extremely pleasing to see some tiny, cute, jewel-colored, extremely poisonous frogs. They're so fascinating; I think the last time I saw some displayed, they were (a) extremely hard to find, and (b) didn't move much at all, so this was particularly nice, since they were moving about, doing whatever. Two cases, one for the really small ones, and one for the even tinier ones. Beautiful.
We meandered around the penguins, checking out the different kinds. I'm still fond of the ones with yellow punk feathers over each ear (there were some visitors who had similar hair...). Then we meandered up the spiral path, checking out all the denizens of the main tank. There was the enormous turtle, and the skate and boxfish that seemed to be friends. Some kinds of fish wore scowls, others moved by with fins wiggling at a fast pace, much more frenetic than the others, which gave them a worried, looking-for-something sort of air. There was a feeding at one point. The small (dead) fish given out by the diver wasn't a surprise, but the head of red-leaf lettuce wedged in a rock by another was. It seemed totally incongruous, salad in that tank. Side note: lettuce rises very slowly in the main tank.
We went down looking at the outside exhibits. I remember a visit when I was in college included finding a jewfish (a big, rather ugly thing), but this time it wasn't there... we did find a porkfish, so perhaps the jewfish had left rather than be in the same place as the porkfish :-)? There were things with interesting names (orange cucumber something? and a bunch of others not now remembered), and fishes that were incredibly beautiful (bright blue stripes on a black background with bright yellow fins, and some amazing anemones, for instance), but the ones that were most astonishing were the jellyfish. They fascinate me, just watching them move, their translucence. Some kinds were more transparent than others. Some had a long ruffle or two, some had long thin streamers, some were pretty large, others small. I could just watch them move for ages. And the best of all were some smallish ones that were flashing *in different colors*!!! There were paths through them that seemed to flash with electricity as it coursed through. The smallest/youngest ones flashed only in white, but the larger ones had colors, too. Wow. Just, wow.
There were harbor seals, and sea lions, and they were cool, too (mammals! cute aquatic mammals!), but those jellyfish were definitely the highlight.
The longest erev Shabbat of the year, and I didn't have a ton of cooking to do, either, since I'd decided that there would be lots of green salad, fruit, and bread to base a meal or three on, so there wasn't a lot of advance prep, other than making bread and some rice with chickpeas and preserved lemon.
There are a bunch of things I keep thinking it would be nice to do on a Friday afternoon, touristy things I've never gotten around to, but this week I did none of them. Instead, I went to Decelle, in Porter Square, since they're going out of business, and I thought I could probably find *something* of interest. I was wrong, however: there were ugly clothes, and there were not-my-size clothes, and there was pretty much nothing else (oh, except for some sparkly scented orange candles. I'll pass, thanks.). I'd noticed on my way into Porter that Pier 1 was having a sale, and went over there, since it was likely they'd have some kind of table-ish thing I could put plants on on my porch. Success! I got a little round table that has two levels and folds up flat, too. Plus it was on sale for about half price. So I now have a new table on my porch, and in the excitement of having more space, I got the rest of the plants rearranged so there's actually room to sit! Much satisfaction. And I planted some morning glory seeds. I hope they sprout...
Plans for dinner changed over the course of the afternoon, so I ended up taking on Shabbat early and having potluck dinner with friends at their house (hooray for the eruv being up). I was pleased to be able to contribute much of the salad (red leaf, green leaf, Boston, arugula and other 'spicy' greens, basil, tomato, and multi-colored nasturiums), which got a lime-based dressing, along with rolls, hummus, rice, and cherries. There was chicken and couscous with lime, too. A yummy meal, and I was glad that friends got to meet friends.
Cambridge apparently hosts a dance party annually, in the street in front of city hall. This year was the first I'd heard of it, so I wanted to see what it was like. We walked to Central, and could see the lights well before arriving, the music a bit after that.
The DJ was set up on the sidewalk in front of city hall, and there were huge speakers in the street booming the music out. I was fascinated by the fancy lighting: there was a lot of it. There were three different colored lights on top of the Y, shining onto City Hall. There was some kind of spinning light shining into the foliage of a tree, making it look rather mysterious. There were sunbeams rotating around the clock face on the clock tower. And there was a pretty strong black light, too (let's just put it this way: I know that at least one fully-dressed woman there was in a sports bra...).
There was a decent crowd of dancers in the street, and some more acrobatic people on the grass. I was surprised by the range of people, young and old, casual to formal, etc. And pretty much everyone was dancing. At one point there was someone in a silvery cape (Professor McGonagal?), with two Hogwarts students; the dance was ending around 11, allowing them plenty of time to get to whatever their destination was.
Note to self: those black shoes with the buckles have become too thin to walk far or dance in, especially on asphalt.
Thanks to Queue, and indirectly to Hrafn, I got a chance to see the new, updated, revised, edited, larger Aquarium.
It is somewhat different.
The main hall is mostly the same, with the huge cylindrical tank in the middle, and the smaller exhibit tanks around the sides, but they've gotten a lot more space. There's now an IMAX, and some fast food outlet, and the gift shop has moved into the main building, and they've added a more interactive play space for kids, and there's new exhibit space. It was rather overwhelming (though some of that was likely the mobs and mobs of kids with their grownups).
There's a cool exhibit about people and the environment, pointing out all sorts of ways that personal choices can affect others in ways people might not think about. One focus was on turtles, and I felt more knowledgeable than I'd thought, all based on bits from The View From Saturday, a definite surprise. It was also extremely pleasing to see some tiny, cute, jewel-colored, extremely poisonous frogs. They're so fascinating; I think the last time I saw some displayed, they were (a) extremely hard to find, and (b) didn't move much at all, so this was particularly nice, since they were moving about, doing whatever. Two cases, one for the really small ones, and one for the even tinier ones. Beautiful.
We meandered around the penguins, checking out the different kinds. I'm still fond of the ones with yellow punk feathers over each ear (there were some visitors who had similar hair...). Then we meandered up the spiral path, checking out all the denizens of the main tank. There was the enormous turtle, and the skate and boxfish that seemed to be friends. Some kinds of fish wore scowls, others moved by with fins wiggling at a fast pace, much more frenetic than the others, which gave them a worried, looking-for-something sort of air. There was a feeding at one point. The small (dead) fish given out by the diver wasn't a surprise, but the head of red-leaf lettuce wedged in a rock by another was. It seemed totally incongruous, salad in that tank. Side note: lettuce rises very slowly in the main tank.
We went down looking at the outside exhibits. I remember a visit when I was in college included finding a jewfish (a big, rather ugly thing), but this time it wasn't there... we did find a porkfish, so perhaps the jewfish had left rather than be in the same place as the porkfish :-)? There were things with interesting names (orange cucumber something? and a bunch of others not now remembered), and fishes that were incredibly beautiful (bright blue stripes on a black background with bright yellow fins, and some amazing anemones, for instance), but the ones that were most astonishing were the jellyfish. They fascinate me, just watching them move, their translucence. Some kinds were more transparent than others. Some had a long ruffle or two, some had long thin streamers, some were pretty large, others small. I could just watch them move for ages. And the best of all were some smallish ones that were flashing *in different colors*!!! There were paths through them that seemed to flash with electricity as it coursed through. The smallest/youngest ones flashed only in white, but the larger ones had colors, too. Wow. Just, wow.
There were harbor seals, and sea lions, and they were cool, too (mammals! cute aquatic mammals!), but those jellyfish were definitely the highlight.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-23 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-23 04:32 am (UTC)I find it entertaining that there's a Legal Seafood next to the aquarium; after looking at all those fillets on the fin, there they are for dinner... No little sushi place, though :-)