10 on Tuesday

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  1. It hit seventy degrees today, for the second day in a row! It’s beautiful and lovely and sunny and springy…but I hesitate to believe that spring is HERE. The weather has been so up and down all winter that I’m just waiting for the temperature to drop back down to the thirties or forties for a few days before it bounces up to the sixties again.
  2. It’s really hard to sit in the office at home, two feet from the open window that is letting a warm breeze in, and focus on work. I end up daydreaming about all of the different ways that I would rather be spending a warm, sunny afternoon. Yesterday I was so anxious to get out and run that before I could finish what I was working on, I ran to the bedroom to change into my running clothes. Today I was a bit more patient and went for a bike ride after work(it helped that the day started off rainy and grey, so the sunshine and really warm didn’t set in until after lunch).
  3.  I meant to take a leisurely bike ride down to the beach and back, but I ended up taking a nine (point three) mile bike ride to the beach, along the beach, to Marina Bay, back along the beach, and finally home. Around mile six was when I realized I was already saddle sore, at which point I had no choice but to ride the last three miles home. The good news is that now I know it’s about 3 miles and fifteen minutes from here to Marina Bay, so I can plan accordingly when the outdoor bar season starts up again. ;)
  4. Things I saw while on my bike ride today: two dogs splashing through the water, happy as pigs in mud; one child brave enough to wade in what must still be freezing cold water; one sand castle being built; one gentleman leaning casually against his convertible, top down, wearing all tech gear…just like he was doing yesterday when I ran by (he must really get sweaty standing around to need tech gear); one woman pushing a double stroller who was incapable of leaving room on the path for anyone to pass; one impromptu neighborhood meeting; the fattest English Bulldog I have ever seen; one adorable little boy who insisted that his father keep helping him up onto the sea wall, so that he could jump back down again (down is the best part!).
  5. Besides the nice weather, my calendar this week is shaping up to be super fun! I have plans to attend an event at the MFA on Thursday after work with two coworkers, and plans to shovel excessive amounts of fondue into my mouth on Friday after work with some of my favorite ladies. I’m pretty sure that’s the best way to start a weekend.
  6. Instead of upgrading to a sparkly new phone like a normal person, I spent a few hours this weekend rooting my two+ year old phone (you iPhoners would call it “jail breaking”) and then cleaning up all the crap I don’t use but couldn’t remove without rooting it. It has already made a huge difference in how fast my phone is, but now I need to figure out how to actually upgrade the android OS I’m running. I have a feeling that will be much trickier. It is also much more likely to render my phone completely useless if I screw it up. Can’t someone just make a fancy new phone that I actually want?!
  7. Champ has been very chatty lately! She has started to report back after dinner each night, meowing loudly from the kitchen to let us know she finished. Yesterday she was in the (open) window in the bedroom when she meowed to let me know she was jumping down, wandered to the hallway and meowed to tell me how much she loved the window being open, and then jumped back up into the window. Tonight Pete is reading in bed and she has been frequently coming to the doorway of the living room and meowing at me to ask why I’m not in bed yet, too. (Obvs I speak cat and know exactly what she’s trying to tell me when she’s meowing.)
  8. I’ve been reading a lot since I got my Kindle Touch in January, and I’m constantly searching for new books. I’ve been lucky and finding plenty to keep my busy via the local libraries (Quincy and Boston), but lately I feel like every book that I’m looking forward to isn’t available through the library. I think it’s time to start with me “well I read five free books, so paying $10 for this one really works out to less then $2 per book!” justifications.
  9. I bought this t-shirt a few weeks ago and love it so much that I’ve been wearing it almost non-stop. I am surprised that not a single person has commented on it when I’ve worn it in public. Clearly the people I’ve been passing by don’t have very good taste in TV! It’s possible that no t-shirt I ever own will earn me as many comments from complete strangers as my Piggly Wiggly one does.
  10. I also bought new sheets a few weeks ago, and they make me so happy every time I go to bed! If I had realized how happy pretty new sheets would make me I would have bought them a long time ago but I always see how much sheets cost and feel like it’s so expensive, then talk myself out of spending the money. Sometimes money does equal happiness! ;)

I’m in love and it’s a sunny day

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Not that we ever really froze this winter, but we’re certainly starting to thaw! This must have been before we opened the window, because once that happens Barley moves to the windowsill and has his little face smooshed against the screen while he soaks up the fresh air.

Number 5: Ice Skate at the Frog Pond

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My friends Norm and Michelle and I kept trying to get to the Frog Pond for ice skating and being foiled by the few days that we actually did get winter weather this year. It turns out that the third time really was a charm! On the final night of the season, we made it! Just in time for the zamboni to head out and groom the ice while we tied (and retied) our skates and laughed about how it felt to walk in them after so many years.

Pete, despite having grown up in a state with winters worse than New England’s, has no idea how to ice skate and didn’t want to try. He went for a walk and came back just in time to laugh at us as we worked our very cautious way around the rink for the first lap.

One lap is about all it took for me to fall in love with it and regret not having taken advantage of living within walking distance of a free outdoor rink for all the time we lived in JP. By the time we were done, I had decided that next winter I need to get my own ice skates and then buy a season pass for the Frog Pond, because I could TOTALLY ice skate on my lunch breaks at work! And then drag all my friends back to skate with me on the weekends. Friends: consider yourself warned…but hey! Hot cocoa is on me.

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Number 3: Take the BPL Art & Architecture Tour

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I have been wanting to take the Art & Architecture Tour at the Boston Public Library for a long time, but hadn’t found anyone interested in doing it with me until recently. Katie saw it on my Winter To Do List and mentioned she was on board, so we finally got around to meeting up after work for the ~hour long tour (after a stop at Thinking Cup for tea/hot cocoa).

web_3.8.2012_BPL_4bThe tour guides are all volunteers, and ours was great! She certainly knew her stuff, and added to the basic information with anecdotes that were often quite funny. Our group was probably the perfect size – about 12-14 of us total – and the tour was the perfect length. I’m sure there is a lot more to the library than was covered, but any longer would have been a bit overwhelming. My favorite bits were when she talked about recent restoration to the artwork and what it entailed, and hearing about the process behind getting some of the artwork into the spaces.

I can’t recommend this tour enough…for one thing, it’s free! There’s so much to see and do in Boston that I think a lot of people miss out on smaller things like this because they aren’t as well publicized. The tour is just over an hour, and it’s smack in the heart of Back Bay – folks should be able to work it into a trip easily! In fact, I’m interested in taking the tour again if only because I’m curious to see if different tour guides offer different anecdotes.

The next time you’re at the library, for the tour or otherwise, don’t forget to pet the lion’s tail on your way past – rumor has it that stroking the tail of a lion statue will make it come to life!

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Beacon Hill

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I was back at MGH for a follow-up appointment with my hematologist and I stopped on my way out so I could snap a photo of the view from the Yawkey building.