World Tour of America #6: Update 4
Another Friday, another update!
Saturday:
We had arranged to go to Salem today with ftmichael's cousin, Cathy but we'd found out the night before that she was unable to make it. That was quite disappointing; we've been to Salem before but we didn't get to see much of it and we've not had much chance to hang out with Cathy before. Still, she's coming with us to the Harry Potter Exhibition so at least we can still see her then.
Michael went off to karate in the morning so I decided to write out my postcards. I realised I'd not got any stamps yet so I took the opportunity to go and get some! It was very nice being able to walk down to the local post office and buy my own stamps. Unfortunately I got waylaid in CVS next door but at least I didn't spend too much in there.
When Michael got back from kicking people's arses, we had a think about what to do. It was a really nice day, sunny and rather warm too (as I'd discovered when I went out in my hoody and jacket and proceeded to swelter) so we decided to go apple picking. We went off to Shelburne Farm in Stow as it stayed open till 6pm. It was really quite busy when we arrived, the 'car park' field was pretty full. Once we'd parked we went over to the main entrance to the orchards where they had two sizes of bag on offer. We went for the peck (about 10lbs) which cost $16, rather than a half-bushel (about 20lbs) which was $23. There were so many varieties of apple available but we'd done a bit of research into what properties they each had so we had a short list of ones to pick. We started off with Fuji as they're really good for baking; then went to the Jonagold trees which had been pretty much picked clean but we managed to find two huge ones. Finally we went to the Red Delicious ones which are a good eating apple and the one that Michael really likes. We ended up with a decent bagful although we didn't cram it full as we could because there's only the two of us going to eat them all! We also managed to get two good pumpkins ready to carve for Hallowe'en.
Before we left, we had a look round the shop and then had some of their mulled apple juice - the Americans call it hot cider which confuses the hell out of me every time I hear it - and a cider doughnut. The doughnut was seriously small, I think Michael and I got a mouthful each so we decided to go to Uno's on the way home instead. This time I went for their crunchy chicken wrap which was really tasty and for pudding, I had their pumpkin tiramisu. It's pumpkin spice cake topped with a pumpkin mousse, maple-soaked sponge fingers and cinnamon whipped cream, garnished with candied pecans. It was really yummy but it was such a huge piece! It was at least 4 inches by 2 and a good 2 inches high. I couldn't eat all of it so I had to take half home. I do like that it's an option here, there's nothing worse than having to leave half your pudding and pay for the whole thing!
Sunday:
We had to be up early this morning as we going to the Head of the Charles regatta and meeting up with Michael's two youngest kids and their mother. As it turned out, the youngest one had more sense and was at a friend's house sheltering from the rain. The weather was abysmal. The forecast had said that it would be cold and wet which was a shame but I don't think we realised exactly how wet it was going to be. The rain was pretty heavy and didn't let up at all while we were out. We met D14 and his mother K at Harvard Square and she took us down to the river and from there we went into Harvard's mens boathouse where it was dry and we got a really good view of the races. We'd only just dried off when we went back out again to look at all the stalls.
The stalls ran along the side of the Charles and there were far more stalls than any of us had anticipated. Although the first ones were a bit naff - very expensive official merchandise and Micro$oft - the majority of the others were brilliant. And when I say brilliant, I mean 'had brilliant freebies'. We ended up with so much stuff and it was even better than Oktoberfest had been the week before! We got mini bottles of hot sauce, a large box of salad with a tub of dressing each, a small tub of Turkey Hill ice cream, granola cereal and granola bar, various flavours of Lärabars, a dozen packs of gummy vitamins and little packs of biodegradable washing up liquid. Green Mountain had a stall with coffee dispensers and I was stunned to find that they were giving away free cups of coffee! They had several different kinds available and when I got a cup, I was given a sample pack of coffee plus a couple of coupons for $1.50 off! Despite the fact that we were getting wetter and wetter with every passing minute, we were also having a lot of fun seeing what the next stall had to offer us and finding room in our pockets for all our stuff!
Finally we'd had enough. We thought we'd got to the end of the stalls but K said she thought there were more a little further on. We were too cold and wet to bother though, so we went to Au Bon Pain where Michael and I got some really delicious soup - I had chicken dumpling which was So Good. After that, we braved the weather again but this time just to go to the T stop. The rain eased off some time later, but not long after that, it began to snow! I didn't think it had been that cold! I do hope we get some more before I leave, even if Michael thinks it's far too early. Weirdo.
Monday:
We'd arranged to meet up with assiduous1 today but as that wasn't till 5pm, we still had a good part of the day to do stuff. I thought it would be a good time to use up some of the apples we'd picked on Saturday. We'd already decided on making a coffee cake (cake to have with coffee, not coffee flavoured cake) but I had a look through some recipes to find others seeing as we had so many apples. The two Jonagolds will go towards apple crumble, and the 9 Fuji will be turned into an apple walnut type cake, an apple coffee cake, and either baked apples or apple sauce, or possibly both. We decided to make the sour cream apple cinnamon coffee cake this morning, though we had to nip out to get butter, sour cream and walnuts so we got started a bit later than we wanted. It was pretty simple to make as it was mostly bogstandard cake mix with sour cream in rather than milk; the hardest bit was making up the layers. It was done in a ring tin which was dusted with cinnamon sugar, then had half the cake mix on the bottom, topped with sliced apples, walnuts and cinnamon sugar, and then the rest of the cake mix. Plus more cinnamon sugar. It was about 3pm by the time it went in the oven and it took 50 minutes to cook plus it had to be cooled for 20 minutes otherwise it wouldn't come out of the tin in one piece.
We ended up leaving at 4.20 and managed to catch The Slowest T Ever (™) so we were a bit late in meeting up with Aden and his girlfriend. We had a bit of a wander into Chinatown and then went to the Gourmet Dumpling House for tea. It didn't look like all that great a place, it was a bit shabby but it was pretty full, in particular with Chinese people which I guessed meant it must be quite good. I decided to try the chicken and cabbage dumplings which were quite nice but 10 was rather too much to eat in one sitting. There wasn't anything with them, just the dumplings, so it got a bit samey after a while. After that, we went to across the street to Bao Bao Bakery & Cafe for pudding! It had quite a lot of choice and all the cakes were quite a reasonable size but only about $1.95! I finally decided on the cheesecake because I thought we were going to eat it then and there but we didn't. It felt a bit silly to be taking cake home when we'd just spent all day making it! It wasn't too bad, I've certainly had much nicer, but I'm not sure a Chinese bakery is the best place for cheesecake really.
Tuesday:
Michael was working early this morning, and by early, I mean EARLY. He left at 4.30am and got back at about 8.30am! He also had a doctor's appointment later on but as his doctor's is near where slammerkinbabe works, we'd arranged to meet up with her while we were there. We'd arranged to meet in the big huge Boston library but Kylie was running a little late so Michael had to go off and be poked and prodded before she arrived. I wandered round a little bit and took some photos of the amazing interior while I waited. It really is a very grand and imposing building. I usually love libraries and find them very friendly places but this one didn't seem at all welcoming. It was more like an art gallery or something and I was a little afraid to wander too far in case I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to be!
Kylie arrived while I was busy taking photos but Michael was still being poked and stabbed so the two of us went up to the third floor to admire and deconstruct the huge mural by John Singer Sargent that's up there. When Michael arrived, we went to the Rare Books & Manuscripts room as Kylie said there was a Gutenberg Bible and some sketches by Rembrandt and Whistler. We got told that we couldn't go in without being members of the library so Michael and I had to sign up for membership. It amused me though: when he visited Horwich earlier on this year, he joined the Bolton library service and now here I am joining the Boston one! Perhaps it shall become my new hobby, collecting library memberships across the world. Anyway, once we'd had all our paperwork checked by the Guards and been stripsearched - I tell you, they are serious when they mean no phones allowed - we finally went through the airlock and into the hallowed hall that is the Reading Room. Only to find out that the items we wanted to see were unavailable because they were going up into an exhibit in the library. The lady there was extremely helpful, and asked us where we were all from and what our areas of interest where. As soon as I said the magic words, "I'm from England", she sprang into action and offered to show us a mediaeval psalter which was out ready for a school trip later on. It was breathtaking, there really are no words that could accurately convey the illumination in it. Wonderful vibrant colours and such incredibly detailed images. It was amazing to be able to see it so close up and not have it protected by a thick sheet of glass, dimmed lights and several burglar alarms. It was also interesting to see what the lady called 'monk's doodles' which were little drawings in some of the capital letters of the text. I think I impressed her with some of the things that I said, especially when I suggested the the detailing on some of the artwork - I forget what the proper name for this part of it was - was also the monk's doodles as that hadn't occured to her before. She was really friendly and enthusiastic, exclaiming over the whole thing just as much as we were. When we were saying goodbye to her afterwards, we found out that she was the Curator of Manuscripts there! Even though we didn't get to see the items we'd wanted, I still had a really great time. It was so nice to finally meet Kylie and I particularly enjoyed having such an intellictually stimulating few hours. I don't get that enough, I think.
We had to say goodbye to Kylie then too which was a shame but Michael and I spent a bit longer in the city seeing as we were there. In contrast to the highbrow time we'd just had, we decided to go to Newbury Street and be commercial instead. It was disappointing though because all our favourite shops had gone but at least Newbury Comics was still there and I helped out the American economy by spending nearly $50. On belts. As we were walking back to the T stop, we passed the Lindt shop so Michael asked if we needed Lindt. I replied that I wasn't sure so we should go in and check. And what do you know, we did!
Wednesday:
We had a very quiet day today as Michael was pretty tired from having to get up so early on Tuesday. We had to nip out to the bank so I wrote out the last of my postcards and posted them en route. Hopefully they should all arrive soon, unlike last time when they all arrived a good week after I'd got back.
A few days ago, Michael had ordered a replacement battery for my iRiver on eBay so he spent some time this morning replacing it. It was really fiddly and I let him do it because he'd already done his own so had some idea of what to do. I'm really pleased that it's going to be working again, I was getting extremely fed up of it only lasting 15 minutes at a time and I didn't really want to have to buy a new one. It was good timing too as we'll be able to use it this weekend when we go up to Vermont.
Thursday:
And then it was Thursday! Michael had to work today as usual so I also did the same while he was out. I've been asked to do a Powerpoint presentation for the Trans Day of Remembrance so it's meant spending a lot of time going through all the information about the Trans people who have been murdered due to Transphobia. It's been pretty upsetting not just because of reading the details of the horrific violence inflicted on them - generally much more violent than homophobic attacks - but also the sheer amounts of murders there have been. I wanted to focus on all of those from the UK as well as anyone under the age of 25 because that's the age group that my work deals with. I'd found details of nearly 50 young people up to the end of 2008 so I was struggling to decide which people to include. As I was working, the statistics on www.transgenderdor.org were updated to include those who'd died this year so I decided to concentrate on the 22 young people murdered this year and the 8 others just from the UK plus Rita Hester whose death initiated the event in the first place. I was glad when Michael came home so that I could put this all to one side and concentrate on nicer things like him and enchiladas and homemade coffee cake with ice cream. And being glad that I had those things.
So, that has been our adventures this week. Our schedule is starting to get a bit empty now but we still have some things to look forward to:
Oct 23-25: Translating Identity Conference
Oct 29: Speaking gig
Oct 31: Hallowe'en
Nov 1: the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science
We are now off to the wilds of Vermont which are filled with hippies, coffee shops and bookshops. Sounds like my kind of place.
Saturday:
We had arranged to go to Salem today with ftmichael's cousin, Cathy but we'd found out the night before that she was unable to make it. That was quite disappointing; we've been to Salem before but we didn't get to see much of it and we've not had much chance to hang out with Cathy before. Still, she's coming with us to the Harry Potter Exhibition so at least we can still see her then.
Michael went off to karate in the morning so I decided to write out my postcards. I realised I'd not got any stamps yet so I took the opportunity to go and get some! It was very nice being able to walk down to the local post office and buy my own stamps. Unfortunately I got waylaid in CVS next door but at least I didn't spend too much in there.
When Michael got back from kicking people's arses, we had a think about what to do. It was a really nice day, sunny and rather warm too (as I'd discovered when I went out in my hoody and jacket and proceeded to swelter) so we decided to go apple picking. We went off to Shelburne Farm in Stow as it stayed open till 6pm. It was really quite busy when we arrived, the 'car park' field was pretty full. Once we'd parked we went over to the main entrance to the orchards where they had two sizes of bag on offer. We went for the peck (about 10lbs) which cost $16, rather than a half-bushel (about 20lbs) which was $23. There were so many varieties of apple available but we'd done a bit of research into what properties they each had so we had a short list of ones to pick. We started off with Fuji as they're really good for baking; then went to the Jonagold trees which had been pretty much picked clean but we managed to find two huge ones. Finally we went to the Red Delicious ones which are a good eating apple and the one that Michael really likes. We ended up with a decent bagful although we didn't cram it full as we could because there's only the two of us going to eat them all! We also managed to get two good pumpkins ready to carve for Hallowe'en.
Before we left, we had a look round the shop and then had some of their mulled apple juice - the Americans call it hot cider which confuses the hell out of me every time I hear it - and a cider doughnut. The doughnut was seriously small, I think Michael and I got a mouthful each so we decided to go to Uno's on the way home instead. This time I went for their crunchy chicken wrap which was really tasty and for pudding, I had their pumpkin tiramisu. It's pumpkin spice cake topped with a pumpkin mousse, maple-soaked sponge fingers and cinnamon whipped cream, garnished with candied pecans. It was really yummy but it was such a huge piece! It was at least 4 inches by 2 and a good 2 inches high. I couldn't eat all of it so I had to take half home. I do like that it's an option here, there's nothing worse than having to leave half your pudding and pay for the whole thing!
Sunday:
We had to be up early this morning as we going to the Head of the Charles regatta and meeting up with Michael's two youngest kids and their mother. As it turned out, the youngest one had more sense and was at a friend's house sheltering from the rain. The weather was abysmal. The forecast had said that it would be cold and wet which was a shame but I don't think we realised exactly how wet it was going to be. The rain was pretty heavy and didn't let up at all while we were out. We met D14 and his mother K at Harvard Square and she took us down to the river and from there we went into Harvard's mens boathouse where it was dry and we got a really good view of the races. We'd only just dried off when we went back out again to look at all the stalls.
The stalls ran along the side of the Charles and there were far more stalls than any of us had anticipated. Although the first ones were a bit naff - very expensive official merchandise and Micro$oft - the majority of the others were brilliant. And when I say brilliant, I mean 'had brilliant freebies'. We ended up with so much stuff and it was even better than Oktoberfest had been the week before! We got mini bottles of hot sauce, a large box of salad with a tub of dressing each, a small tub of Turkey Hill ice cream, granola cereal and granola bar, various flavours of Lärabars, a dozen packs of gummy vitamins and little packs of biodegradable washing up liquid. Green Mountain had a stall with coffee dispensers and I was stunned to find that they were giving away free cups of coffee! They had several different kinds available and when I got a cup, I was given a sample pack of coffee plus a couple of coupons for $1.50 off! Despite the fact that we were getting wetter and wetter with every passing minute, we were also having a lot of fun seeing what the next stall had to offer us and finding room in our pockets for all our stuff!
Finally we'd had enough. We thought we'd got to the end of the stalls but K said she thought there were more a little further on. We were too cold and wet to bother though, so we went to Au Bon Pain where Michael and I got some really delicious soup - I had chicken dumpling which was So Good. After that, we braved the weather again but this time just to go to the T stop. The rain eased off some time later, but not long after that, it began to snow! I didn't think it had been that cold! I do hope we get some more before I leave, even if Michael thinks it's far too early. Weirdo.
Monday:
We'd arranged to meet up with assiduous1 today but as that wasn't till 5pm, we still had a good part of the day to do stuff. I thought it would be a good time to use up some of the apples we'd picked on Saturday. We'd already decided on making a coffee cake (cake to have with coffee, not coffee flavoured cake) but I had a look through some recipes to find others seeing as we had so many apples. The two Jonagolds will go towards apple crumble, and the 9 Fuji will be turned into an apple walnut type cake, an apple coffee cake, and either baked apples or apple sauce, or possibly both. We decided to make the sour cream apple cinnamon coffee cake this morning, though we had to nip out to get butter, sour cream and walnuts so we got started a bit later than we wanted. It was pretty simple to make as it was mostly bogstandard cake mix with sour cream in rather than milk; the hardest bit was making up the layers. It was done in a ring tin which was dusted with cinnamon sugar, then had half the cake mix on the bottom, topped with sliced apples, walnuts and cinnamon sugar, and then the rest of the cake mix. Plus more cinnamon sugar. It was about 3pm by the time it went in the oven and it took 50 minutes to cook plus it had to be cooled for 20 minutes otherwise it wouldn't come out of the tin in one piece.
We ended up leaving at 4.20 and managed to catch The Slowest T Ever (™) so we were a bit late in meeting up with Aden and his girlfriend. We had a bit of a wander into Chinatown and then went to the Gourmet Dumpling House for tea. It didn't look like all that great a place, it was a bit shabby but it was pretty full, in particular with Chinese people which I guessed meant it must be quite good. I decided to try the chicken and cabbage dumplings which were quite nice but 10 was rather too much to eat in one sitting. There wasn't anything with them, just the dumplings, so it got a bit samey after a while. After that, we went to across the street to Bao Bao Bakery & Cafe for pudding! It had quite a lot of choice and all the cakes were quite a reasonable size but only about $1.95! I finally decided on the cheesecake because I thought we were going to eat it then and there but we didn't. It felt a bit silly to be taking cake home when we'd just spent all day making it! It wasn't too bad, I've certainly had much nicer, but I'm not sure a Chinese bakery is the best place for cheesecake really.
Tuesday:
Michael was working early this morning, and by early, I mean EARLY. He left at 4.30am and got back at about 8.30am! He also had a doctor's appointment later on but as his doctor's is near where slammerkinbabe works, we'd arranged to meet up with her while we were there. We'd arranged to meet in the big huge Boston library but Kylie was running a little late so Michael had to go off and be poked and prodded before she arrived. I wandered round a little bit and took some photos of the amazing interior while I waited. It really is a very grand and imposing building. I usually love libraries and find them very friendly places but this one didn't seem at all welcoming. It was more like an art gallery or something and I was a little afraid to wander too far in case I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to be!
Kylie arrived while I was busy taking photos but Michael was still being poked and stabbed so the two of us went up to the third floor to admire and deconstruct the huge mural by John Singer Sargent that's up there. When Michael arrived, we went to the Rare Books & Manuscripts room as Kylie said there was a Gutenberg Bible and some sketches by Rembrandt and Whistler. We got told that we couldn't go in without being members of the library so Michael and I had to sign up for membership. It amused me though: when he visited Horwich earlier on this year, he joined the Bolton library service and now here I am joining the Boston one! Perhaps it shall become my new hobby, collecting library memberships across the world. Anyway, once we'd had all our paperwork checked by the Guards and been stripsearched - I tell you, they are serious when they mean no phones allowed - we finally went through the airlock and into the hallowed hall that is the Reading Room. Only to find out that the items we wanted to see were unavailable because they were going up into an exhibit in the library. The lady there was extremely helpful, and asked us where we were all from and what our areas of interest where. As soon as I said the magic words, "I'm from England", she sprang into action and offered to show us a mediaeval psalter which was out ready for a school trip later on. It was breathtaking, there really are no words that could accurately convey the illumination in it. Wonderful vibrant colours and such incredibly detailed images. It was amazing to be able to see it so close up and not have it protected by a thick sheet of glass, dimmed lights and several burglar alarms. It was also interesting to see what the lady called 'monk's doodles' which were little drawings in some of the capital letters of the text. I think I impressed her with some of the things that I said, especially when I suggested the the detailing on some of the artwork - I forget what the proper name for this part of it was - was also the monk's doodles as that hadn't occured to her before. She was really friendly and enthusiastic, exclaiming over the whole thing just as much as we were. When we were saying goodbye to her afterwards, we found out that she was the Curator of Manuscripts there! Even though we didn't get to see the items we'd wanted, I still had a really great time. It was so nice to finally meet Kylie and I particularly enjoyed having such an intellictually stimulating few hours. I don't get that enough, I think.
We had to say goodbye to Kylie then too which was a shame but Michael and I spent a bit longer in the city seeing as we were there. In contrast to the highbrow time we'd just had, we decided to go to Newbury Street and be commercial instead. It was disappointing though because all our favourite shops had gone but at least Newbury Comics was still there and I helped out the American economy by spending nearly $50. On belts. As we were walking back to the T stop, we passed the Lindt shop so Michael asked if we needed Lindt. I replied that I wasn't sure so we should go in and check. And what do you know, we did!
Wednesday:
We had a very quiet day today as Michael was pretty tired from having to get up so early on Tuesday. We had to nip out to the bank so I wrote out the last of my postcards and posted them en route. Hopefully they should all arrive soon, unlike last time when they all arrived a good week after I'd got back.
A few days ago, Michael had ordered a replacement battery for my iRiver on eBay so he spent some time this morning replacing it. It was really fiddly and I let him do it because he'd already done his own so had some idea of what to do. I'm really pleased that it's going to be working again, I was getting extremely fed up of it only lasting 15 minutes at a time and I didn't really want to have to buy a new one. It was good timing too as we'll be able to use it this weekend when we go up to Vermont.
Thursday:
And then it was Thursday! Michael had to work today as usual so I also did the same while he was out. I've been asked to do a Powerpoint presentation for the Trans Day of Remembrance so it's meant spending a lot of time going through all the information about the Trans people who have been murdered due to Transphobia. It's been pretty upsetting not just because of reading the details of the horrific violence inflicted on them - generally much more violent than homophobic attacks - but also the sheer amounts of murders there have been. I wanted to focus on all of those from the UK as well as anyone under the age of 25 because that's the age group that my work deals with. I'd found details of nearly 50 young people up to the end of 2008 so I was struggling to decide which people to include. As I was working, the statistics on www.transgenderdor.org were updated to include those who'd died this year so I decided to concentrate on the 22 young people murdered this year and the 8 others just from the UK plus Rita Hester whose death initiated the event in the first place. I was glad when Michael came home so that I could put this all to one side and concentrate on nicer things like him and enchiladas and homemade coffee cake with ice cream. And being glad that I had those things.
So, that has been our adventures this week. Our schedule is starting to get a bit empty now but we still have some things to look forward to:
Oct 23-25: Translating Identity Conference
Oct 29: Speaking gig
Oct 31: Hallowe'en
Nov 1: the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science
We are now off to the wilds of Vermont which are filled with hippies, coffee shops and bookshops. Sounds like my kind of place.