Day 49: Nerdnite!

We left NH early afternoon today after a morning full of cleaning and more antics. E. and I were charged with the duty of retrieving the canoe that had been overturned by Sarah B. the night before, and it was a success. Throughout the morning, people kept finding various reasons to have to get in the lake, and by the time we were about to leave, I'd even gone in again.

One of the best parts of leaving the city is coming back to it.  As D. joked, he couldn't wait for work this week so that he could finally be getting some sleep at night :).  When we got back, I had to work for a bit, and then I invited some folks to join for a calm evening at NerdNite, an amateur-"expert" talk series that can be found in several large-ish U.S. cities (though I have a strong suspicion that the one in Cambridge is one of the best).  I missed the first talk (wasn't too sorry about that, given that it was about brain-eating organisms found in California... well, ok, dopamine-depleting, but still) but made it in plenty of time for talk 2, which was about the evolution of cities.  Actually it was mostly about using space wisely in cities, and learning to work with what you have. I think. She was a little bit all over the place. Beautiful visuals in her slides, though.

NerdNite made it an early night, and lovely city nightcap to a nature-filled weekend.

Day 48: Mountain time (NH, part 2)

The second day in New Hampshire was even more packed than the first.  After sleeping in just a bit (although the oldest boy told me that it was no longer morning at 10am, since he'd apparently been up for hours), we were up and at 'em. The morning and early afternoon involved a whole lot of piano playing/singing/dancing in the living room (including some serious attempts at some serious Mozart and Schubert duets, because why not?), a whole lot of swimming and splashing around down by the pool, a trip to the grocery for E. and me, and while others went on a walk, the making of many parts of a dinner.  I made the only slightly fancy thing I know how to - fish (grilled, this time, with the help of A.'s brother-in-law) with a red wine reduction butter sauce.  Mm. Fiddleheads and foraged greens were also provided, in addition to grilled veggies prepped by yours truly, residual potato leek vegan soup from the night before, and some rock tripe (including, perhaps, a few rocks).

And then the night antics began.  It started out with just a quiet guitar sing-a-long, a few mysterious card tricks, and some innocent Lady G's... which quickly devolved into Lady B's (when Sarah B. accidentally subbed rum for gin in her drinks) and then Lady M's (when yours truly accidentally subbed vodka for St. Germain...).  So we politely decided to retire to an area farther away from sleeping children, namely, the pond.  Most were going skinny dipping, but E. and I decided that we would neither skinny nor dip, so in our clothing, we decided to take out the canoe.  Of course it was promptly overturned by Sarah B. (under the guise of joining us).  Hooting and hollering ensued, and at this point I decided I was too sleepy for all this, swam back to shore, and lamely went back to take a shower.  Long, nutty, vibrant day.  Not done justice at all here.

We've been on island and on mountain... next up, on sea?

Day 47: "Lady G" (NH, part 1)

This post involves another slight "cheat", as today was spent (as indicated by the title of the post) in the mountains -- and therefore out of Cambridge.  The day began in Cambridge, of course, as E. and I set out on a(n epic) journey with Grainne (or "Lady G" for short) in tow -- he is dog-sitting, and we were invited to a weekend in New Hampshire.  A quandary solved by a friend's simple suggestion to just bring the dog -- something that might never have occurred to me even after hours of contemplation.

So bring her we did!  And the epicness of the car trip came not from the quantity of time of the trip (just over two hours, even with stops), but rather from the quantity of saliva from the lovely vizsla in the back seat, who never stopped panting with excitement the whole journey!  Hurrah for bringing city dogs to the nearby country.

I digress.  "Mountain time" this weekend was brought to E. and me by friends of the folks who brought us "island time" a few weeks ago (see pic above, c/o R.).  Today was filled with laughing kids, curious dogs, yoga-posing/ivory-tinkling/charcoal-grilling/sidewalk-chalking/baby-bouncing/round-offing/music-making/interpretive-dancing/oar-paddling/foraging adults (I'm sure I forgot some key descriptors, there), and so much sunshine.  Not quite far enough into NH to be in the White Mountains, but the lower altitude area pretty close to the Mass. border (near Pleasant Lake, perhaps?) does not disappoint in its views.  More über-positive adjectives to follow in future posts, I am sure.

At the end of the evening, there was a great meal, preceded by some pre-dinner cocktails (think light and summery: gin/St. Germain/tonic).  After a short think, it seemed quite obvious to said cocktail's creators that it should be christened with a name, and that name was "Lady G".