Hot Town Summer in the City

6-24-08 This isn't what I signed up for. Nobody told me it got hot here! I'm in New England; I expected lots of snow and cold weather and I'm OK with that. Heat however wasn't part of the bargain. Last week the sidewalk was so hot poor little Suzie wouldn't put her feet down on it. Then of course there is the joy of commuting when it's hot. In addition to the olfactory delight of being packed stem to stern on a cross town bus, there is also the slight aroma of urine wafting up from the subway as I descend to the station. From my window today I watched a cute little excavator moving a big pile of dirt. As I watched it looked like it just moving dirt from in front of it to behind it and at that rate it would end up "painting itself in" so to speak. When I looked out later the excavator had been replaced by a big orange Caterpillar front end loader whose bucket had almost three times the capacity. I still couldn't figure out what it was trying to accomplish though. It was just rearranging the pile from a short wide one to a long skinny one. This was all happening at the NEIDL site. Earlier, getting back to the heat, they were paving the road that will run behind the NEIDL and there was a brief cloudburst. When it was over a four foot tall cloud of steam hovered over the entire road. It was pretty cool...........You have voted....Blacksburg wins over Boston, but I can't help but wonder if the people in Blacksburg voted for Boston and visa versa :-o There were also two votes for Washington DC. I have told both Obama and McCain that I wouldn't run for VP so I wish they would quit hounding me.

108th Annual ASM June 1- June 5, 2008

ASM was really great fun. I ran into lots of people both from CMMID and also from here in Boston. On Sunday, we all blew off the opening session and had a CMMID reunion cook out at Simge and Erkan's house. As it turns out they only live eight miles from me. That's closer than we were in Blacksburg! Their two little girls are beautiful and charming. Chris' new puppy Jett added some life to the party all on his own. After eating way too much food Erkan made Chris and I some Turkish coffee and Simge read our fortunes in the residue. Chris had a fairly decent one. I, on the other hand, had a slightly dark and disturbing one. Oh well, I guess it just matches my personality ;-) The next ASM is in Philly. We are already planning to descend on Chris. Maybe I'll take my dogs to teach Jett some bad manners. Speaking of dogs, Suzie is not feeling well and we are meeting the new Vet tomorrow. Hopefully she will get better soon and I won't have to sell my soul to the devil to pay for it. Survey says: Mountains are the vacation destination of choice with 100% of the votes.

Memorial Day Weekend: Mission Mattress 2008

5/27/08 I hope everybody had a great Memorial Day weekend. I drove my new Rover to Connecticut for what started as just a regular weekend visit and ended up as Mission Mattress 2008. I was able to convince Mom that it would be safe for me to strap my box spring and mattress on top of the car and drive it back to Boston. Oh trusting Mom.....not only that but I was also able to convince her to ride along with me and take the train back to Connecticut the next day. She could take the bus in with me in the morning and I could take her to Back Bay to hop the Amtrack. Oh trusting Mom...It actually went quite well. It took us 1 1/2 to lash it to the top of the car. First I tied the mattress to the box spring, then tied both to the roof horizontally across the car using the roof rack to secure it. Finally I tied it down to the car front to back from brush guard in front to spare tire in back. I couldn't budge it even an inch. We hit the road and about 5 miles up there was a rope flapping in the breeze. After a brief inspection it turned out to be just a loose end which I re-secured and we were on our way again. We made the entire rest of the trip without a hitch. Upon our arrival the whole set up hadn't moved at all. I'm actully quite proud and I saved a lot of money over renting a trailer. Mom got to sleep in it last night but I get to sleep in it tonight. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed for the first time in 7 months!!! No more air mattress for me. --------P.S------- PC's beat out Mac's in the most recent survey. Go PC!

Back In Boston 5/12/08

I'm back in Boston after a wonder-licious visit to Blacksburg. I will spare you the details. So, I don't know if it's just Monday or a "welcome back day" but first off the bus broke down on the Tobin bridge this morning. The woman sitting next to me leaned over and whispered "maybe we should get out and push". The bus got under way again and we crept into town at about 30 mph. Back at work my internet wasn't working. Come to find out that about half the people ing the lab were affected, me being in the unlucky half. After that I found out that some very important research stuff had been delivered to the wrong lab while I was gone. Of course I need it tomorrow. I also tried to put some new pictures up here from my trip but "the site" is not co-operating.......I wish I were back in Blacksburg ;-)

Patriot's Day 4/20/08

Today is Patriot's Day, also known as Marathon Day, and it is a holiday here in Boston. It was a perfect day for a race and I saw several runners on my way to work. I can only guess that they were headed to a shuttle bus that would take them to the start. Work was pretty dead so a friend and I walked down to the finish line during lunch. We got there just in time to see Lance Armstrong run by. I got a picture on my camera phone which turned out to be a bunch of blurs, but I can tell which blur is Lance. I won't be posting it here however. I saw several more runners on the Blue Line going home. They all got off at the airport stop. I can't help but wonder if they were all flying right home or perhaps they were staying at a hotel near the airport. I want to thank all of you who answered my current question. I got close to the answer I was looking for with "Pilgrims", "June bugs" was good also (was that you Mary?). However "restraining orders" was just one of those answers that make you go "hmmm". There are a couple more weeks left in April so keep those answers coming in! Also, if you have suggestions for my next burning question e-mail me at gretchen@gretchenberg.com Looking forward to Blacksburg next month !!!

3-18-08

3-18-08 I'm home sick today which is just as well since it is snowing and sleeting. So much for me saying that I had survived a New England winter since winter is obviously not over. Yesterday I was urged several times to go home since I have a nasty cold. It was also suggested to me that I might want to stay home today if I wasn't feeling better. People in infectious diseases labs are soooo picky. To tell the truth I am the last one to have gotten this particular bug that was going around so I guess that's not too bad. Still waiting for things to warm up enough to start running outside again. Some days the temperature is pretty good but the wind is too fierce. This is the windiest place I have ever been. Downtown I am almost swept away some days.

I just typed for ten minutes and lost it. Other than that I don't have anything to complain about. I guess I have finally acclaimated to the big city. I have also survived my first New England winter. We have had 50" of snow so far and they say you can't consider winter over until the end of March. I can say that it wasn't that bad. I have also gotten used to getting up at 5:45 every morning to catch the 6:50 bus. There is this microcosim at every turn. At the first bus there are the people from the apartments. About four of us who are regulars and chat. As much as anyone wants to chat that early in the morning. Then it's into the city. I also see several of the same people downtown. Most of them are just regular working people heading off to the job. A few are students going to the Catholic high school. You know who they are because they all wear khaki's and polo shirts. Obviously the school uniform, but they all manage to keep their individuality with hair-do's and jewelry. They seem to be nice kids. Downtown there also are the homeless and indigent who you wish you could help. Most of them seem to be harmless and are just trying to keep warm. So, as the warm weather comes I hope to explore the city more and will keep you posted.