Some stupid plant is busy having sex and it’s making my life miserable. I felt so bad this morning that I had to take a Loratadine tablet and I was falling asleep all day at work. So here I am with a sore back and a head full of cotton wondering what I’m really supposed to be doing. And why isn’t the stuff making me sleepy now that it’s 10PM?

Yesterday, at the gym, I found out that getting hit in the palm while using a wood chipper doesn’t do much for your bench press.

Anyway, I fixed the pictures from my Boston trip (made a panorama even) so scroll down if you want to see them. It’s time for me to examine the inside of my eyelids.

This morning I had a meeting notice where I was to meet with my old manager, and his boss. Seemed a bit scary, but it ended up being just a reorganization thing. Same project, different boss. Still have a job, which is good since I need to pay for those dinners in Boston.

My hay fever has been acting up and I’m really tired, so no fixed pictures yet again. All I can do is imagine more gardening taking place this weekend. What fun!

Things are back to normal. I’m sleepy but I had to balance some accounts and I think I submitted an expense report that is short. Well, I know it was short because I put “$25” for my dinners and I spent a lot more than that. I think my manager thought I was trying the larcenous trick of buying Mickey D’s and saying it cost $25 when it usually cost $65 and I didn’t want to try to expense that. On the weird end, I weighed myself and I lost 5 pounds. Probably just dehydration from the plane trip.

Anyway, bed time for me.

I meet some interesting people on the plane. Seems like there were quite a few people from Oregon visiting Boston over the weekend. I even was told that I need to go BACK to Wonderland and go to Kelly’s Roast Beef for the Lobster Roll. I don’t think I’m letting another 20 years go by without a lobster roll. I even scored a free ticket on the way back home by getting bumped off my original flight. The next flight was only an hour-and-a-half later.

I was going to edit the photos on the last post and even make a panorama, but I’m so tired that I barely remember my name. I had a hard time sleeping in the hotel. In fact, this morning the wake up call came when I was brushing my teeth.

Oh, and if anyone was waiting for the picture of my flipping off MIT:

Like I said, I haven’t been back to MIT since my graduation. This is my fist trip back to the scene of the crime. I walked all the way there, from my hotel through the Boston Common, through the Public Garden, and down Newbury Street. It was raining as hard as it was during my graduation and I was soaked. I was also hung over. After a stop at Starbucks and Newbury comics I got to MIT.

The coffee in Boston is like colored water, by the way, but Starbucks is the same bad coffee everywhere, thank goodness, with the dark being nice and strong. Even Peets Coffee let me down. And Newbury Comics has changed. No more records and not that many comic books.

Anyway, I had lunch at Legal Seafood with Alexander Hansen of the Fink Project and tooled around MIT for a while.

A lot of the rooms and buildings are locked now and you can’t just wander around. We did see the Media Lab and a few odd looking buildings like the AI lab.

and Spongebob Squaredorm.

I even got to go in my old dorm and see the view. It’s no longer an all-male Lord of the Flies kind of place but co-ed. Some of the things that were painted on the walls in our time are still there. (Dr. Michael Malaska, the Mr. Yuk image is still on the wall on the 7th floor McGregor.) I got a picture of the view, too.

What else did I see? The student center has changed greatly, the whole dead factory area north of campus has been revitalized with all sorts of biotech companies, and there are are women at MIT! And not just two or three, but 40%!

After my cathartic (hah) visit to MIT I walked up to Harvard Square to get a present for my sister. SHE BETTER LIKE THE CHOCOLATE. I was still hung over, so I had some disappointing Peets coffee and took the T back to my hotel.

On the T, I met a guy who plays the Euphonium for the US Air Force Band of Liberty. He was impressed that I knew what the Euphonium was and told me about the concert they were having in Faneuil Hall. A day of concerts and his band was playing a special Euphonium piece. I was, however, hung over so I took a nap, went to the Kendall Square Coop to buy my first MIT sweatshirt in 20 years, and only got back in time to hear their last four pieces. I think I’ve decided that it’s better to hear orchestras because loud rock music just sounds like crap to me when I hear them live, loud, and distorted.

So, now it’s five PM and the only thing I have left on my list is a visit to Revere Beach and Wonderland. I mentioned the movie Next Stop Wonderland, right? I got off at the Revere Beach stop and walked to the Wonderland stop. I think you can see the Wonderland shelter in the distance.

You know what I found at Wonderland? (I mean, it was kind of a self-imposed quest.) I found rain pouring so hard that the papers in my pocket were soaked and I found the wind-driven raindrops hitting my face so hard that they stung and I found (though I didn’t take his picture) a kindly older gentleman walking back and forth in the shelter who had the most effeminate Boston accent I’ve ever heard.

And here’s a picture of Wonderland station and the dog track beyond.

Dinner was at a bar, by myself, where I had baked haddock and a couple of drinks. Met a nice couple who live on Beacon Hill who chatted with me towards the end of dinner and even bought me a drink. Dinner “only” cost $42 tonight.

Ah, well. It’s not an ideal story but it’s my story. Next Stop Portland.

First, let me say my dinner at Lucca was fantastic. A $75 half-bottle of wine, tenderloin of lamb with a little bit of greens, and a small plate of cheeses. I felt a little silly being there by myself, and even sillier that I was seated in the DATE SECTION and there were five other tables of couples nearby. Good thing I had the three Sam Adams at the USENIX reception before I even stumbled into the North End of Boston. If anyone goes, by the way, Lucca is extraordinary.

Our two day meeting is over and now I have a day to myself to flip off MIT enjoy Boston. I’m meeting a guy I know online who works at MIT for lunch, and then I think I’m going to Revere Beach because of the movie Next Stop Wonderland. I know I’m not going to meet my Hope Davis, but I want to see the beach.

I could have sworn it was only a 10 minute walk from my hotel to the Prudential Center. Well, it was closer to half an hour or more. It was a beautiful morning to walk through the Boston Common, and I noticed a lot more attractive women than when I was here before (TWENTY YEARS AGO). What poor timing on my part. But I did see the Tealuxe store!

<This is where the picture from my cell phone will go when I figure out how to download pictures from my cell phone>

It was another long meeting day and lunch was from a food court. What a travesty! I’m in BOSTON! There must be better food! Fortunately, dinner was at a much better place but I couldn’t finish it.

How did I finish dinner last night?

Oh, and finally two more questions. Am I supposed to know more about the “Dropkick Murphys” other than that they’re from Boston and they were playing for free in the rain?

And what is it with women and pillows? What the hell are all these pillows for?

I had no big trouble (knock on wood) during my flight across the country. No body probes at checkin, no bumps off of flights, just little things. Like not being able to enter my Mileage Plus number into the e-ticket machine. Or being put in the very last row of the plane next to several (four or more) small children. Or being told that I’d have to pay for food on the flight and having them run out so I got NOTHING to eat. Small things.

The view out my hotel window isn’t as bad as the complaints on the web:

I did get here only a little late and I couldn’t find the German guy I was supposed to meet with. So, instead, I went to Durgin Park

and it’s changed in 20 years. No more sawdust on the floor. No more surly wait staff (I heard they all died since I’d last been there!) But the food was fantastic.

I bought this:

and I bet there’s no way I’m getting Megacorp to pay for it.

When I got back to my room at 10:30PM, the German guy had called. I had to call him on a Paris phone number and the cell phone network routed the call back to Boston. He still wanted to meet, so that was my 11PM-12AM meeting. Or maybe more. I seem to recall hearing a lot of geek information during that meeting. More than would fit in an hour.

Anyway, it’s 1:30AM here (10:30PM to those of us on the left coast) so I better try to get some sleep.

Oh, and I’m supposed to have a meeting with an Em Eye Tee professor on Friday! The guy who forgot to reply to my email! His FIFTH kid was just born last week so he’s been busy!

I haven’t been on an airplane since before 9/11. In fact, I think the last commercial plane I was on was back in 1999 or whenever it was when I last worked for Megacorp. I’m off on a multi-day business trip in Boston, MA. I haven’t been back since 1986 when I shook the hand of Paul E. Gray, ’54 and had him hand me a diploma. I’m spending an extra day there and the thunderclouds will be there to greet me. I’ll be there in my best West Coast finery, a collared shirt and jeans, and looking the part of the tourist that I am. I only have a few things on my list besides work: flip off my alma mater and have someone take a picture of the event, eating at Legal Seafood or No Name or Durgin Park, possibly flipping off Harvard but that seems crass. And, of course, a walk down some semi-familiar streets.

In any case, I’m not the most organized business traveler. My worries usually fall away when the plane leaves the ground. After that I know it’s up to someone else until I arrive at my hotel, and everything I forgot has to depend on my credit card limit.

Wish me luck or something.

Wood chippers are dangerous, and every time I’ve used one I’ve been a little tired. It’s usually on the end of a day of hacking away at my father’s prized trees and rhododendron when I’m in a rush to get rid of all the evidence. And today was Memorial Day, traditionally the first day I notice that the yard is overgrown from all the spring rains.

Anyway, I borrowed a wood chipper from my mom’s crazy mechanic friend and he said it was full of gas. It wasn’t, and of course it ran out while I was stuffing it full of branches. It got so jammed up that I had to take it apart so I could get it restarted. Later I was trying to unjam it again and the piece of wood I was using as a prod kicked back and smacked my right palm. Now my palm is swollen and I’m having a hard time gripping things.

That’s not as bad as yesterday, when I found grey hairs in places that I shouldn’t. Enough about that. At least I convinced my cell phone that it’s a Cingular phone so I can use some more of the Cingular features on it.

Went out to dinner tonight with several of Carolyn’s relatives, but after dinner we went up to the Harris household where all three daughters and their families were in town. I guess I got Papa (Dr) Harris in trouble by writing about all the trips up and down the hill with the wood chipper, but it’s always fun seeing everyone again. Besides that, I have a picture of the rain but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Instead of taking a nap Friday afternoon, I had dinner with my parents, brother-in-law, sister, and Carolyn, and then four of us went to see The Da Vinci Code. It was kinda silly, but also pretty amusing. It was recommended by a Lutheran pastor, and I think I concur. I’m also not sure why some people are boycotting it when it’s so obviously a fictional story. Ah, well, it was fun.

So on the way to lunch we found that my friend’s pickup truck wouldn’t start. We took my car, but he spent the rest of the afternoon out in the Megacorp parking lot trying to fix it. Another guy from another company was there to help and couldn’t believe that NONE of the Megacorp people stopped to help. Now, however, he believes me when I call the employees of Megacorp faceless and unfriendly drones. Ah, well. I guess I’ll just have to try to be more friendly. Obviously women can’t remember me so I must be faceless.