We got quite a snowstorm yesterday. About 12 inches at Amy’s place, and probably 9 or so at mine. Unfortunately, I’ve been coughing pretty much nonstop since last night. I can’t decide if I’m getting sick or inhaled something particularly bad for me.
But that notwithstanding, the Eagles are going to the Superbowl! And since that makes Philadelphia happy, it makes me happy.
Now if only I could figure out what the irritation in my lungs is - viral or otherwise. Bleh.
I finished the second of Jasper Fforde’s books in the Thursday Next series, Lost in a Good Book, last night. While not as much fun as the first book, The Eyre Affair, this book still held me captive for several hours until I’d finished the story. This book isn’t quite as strong as the first because we already know so much about how the world in which Next lives. The brain-wrapping that was required in the first novel has already been done.
That said, there are many strong points to Lost in a Good Book. Next’s mentor, Miss Havisham, displays a side of her personality that I never saw in her primary book of residence. Who knew she was such a crazy driver? Who knew she read smarmy romance novels for fun and pleasure? Who knew that the Queen from Alice in Wonderland was her nemesis? Pickwick, Next’s pet dodo, also provides an amusing side-story (at least for this pet-owner). Her quirky and upbeat personality obviously helps Next deal with the eradication of her husband partway through the book.
I’m on to the next book in the series now, The Well of Lost Plots. I’m hoping that I enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the first two books thus far. If you call me a Thursday Next groupie and a Jasper Fforde fan, you wouldn’t be wrong.
Finally, ALA got it right when they picked Boston for this year’s Midwinter! It’s a small, historic, beautiful, livable city with easy access to amenities, hotels, and sites. Locationally, it couldn’t have been more optimal.
All those folks who bitch about the cold? Deal with it. We get to go to New Orleans and Chicago in the summer, and it’s hot as Hades in both those places, so we can deal with some temperatures in the teens and twenties, and a few snowshowers.
Besides the conference-ing, which was good, I enjoyed the other things I did while there.
Friday night I had drinks with my LSU Ex-Pats at 33 Restaurant and Lounge, followed by dinner and more drinks at Solas, an Irish pub-type place. 33 was great, and Solas gets points for flexibility (if not for quality - who can screw up fish and chips? Harrumph!)
Saturday afternoon I found a very sweet yarn store on Newbury called, appropriately enough, Newbury Yarns. The owner of the store was a very nice woman. The selection of yarns was gorgeous, but it was challenging to actually find a yarn, or to find alternate colors of a particular yarn. See, the bins of yarn were arranged by color, as in “in this bin are all the purple yarns and in that one are all the teal yarns.” There was very little separation by fiber content or weight, which I found difficult to deal with. At any rate, I found a skein of the (sadly discontinued) Mission Falls 1824 cotton in a colorway that I like. It was a little more expensive than what I’ve found around Philly, but not bad. I spent a few hours in there just knitting and chatting with people, and judging from the locals I saw coming in, it seems like this high-end store caters to newer knitters who have lots of money. (Granted, I was only there on one day and didn’t get a totally representative sample of who shops there all the time, but… lots of garter stitch scarf women buying $30/skein yarns!) All that being said, the owner was delightful and was wowed by the Klaralund that I’m making in the reds. I showed her the pattern in their copy of Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton’s book, and probably sold the owner on making one for the store and one for her daughter. Easy! People like this sweater, and it was great fun to talk it up. Later, I met a friend-of-a-friend in there, and we exchanged contact information. I’ll be in touch with her, as she’s was cool.
That night, Beth and I wandered up and down Newbury looking for a dinner spot. We ended up at Kashmir, a stellar Indian restaurant. Yum yum yum. Beth looks great, and it was so good to catch up in person. She found this very cute purse for me in Buenos Aries when she was in Argentina last year, and got me SOCK YARN! I can’t wait to give that a go. 
Sunday was meeting-meeting-meeting-meeting day. For lunch, a group of us found a nice brunch place. The butternut squash/apple soup was excellent. Mmmmm… Dinner that night found many of the same group, plus about 17 more, at Cafe Jaffa, a Middle Eastern place near the convention center. Their baba ganoush was to die for. I drool thinking about it now.
All in all, I had a good conference. Now it’s time to figure out what all I agreed to do while I was there. Off to dig through those files….
Last night Amy and I (and a co-worker of Amy’s and some of her friends) went to see a Philadelphia Phantoms hockey game at the Spectrum. It’s been a few years since I’ve watched any minor or major league hockey, and last night did not disappoint.
The Phantoms lost, but I had a blast anyway. The only thing that really turned me off from the game was the fight with 6 minutes left in the third period. Unlike most hockey fans, I have no fight-lust, and wish they’d do away with it entirely. But that notwithstanding, it was a fun night, and I’d go back to see them again (prov
iding the tickets were free, as they were last night.)
You know life is good when….
Amy agrees to break trail for 3 kilometers through knee-high snow and is still smiling in the midst of it all. For the record, we were cross-country skiing and both smiling at the end of it too - the benefits of breaking 3km of trail going downhill rather than uphill…
You know life is good again when….
Maggie looks so happy after a big rubdown. Blissful pups are the best!
