Beowabbit

Having a wonderful weekend with plumtreeblossom. I got to see closing night of the fabulous and very funny Theatre@First production of Twelfth Night. Congratulations to director Ari and to a wonderful cast and crew (including a bunch of excellent actors new to Theatre@First). Then after strike we went to the cast party which was delightful (and yummy, which was good, because I realized on my way out of the house to go see the show that I hadn't had dinner!).

We had to leave a bit early so we could get up this morning early enough to have dim sum with bitty and bubblebabble and a bunch of their friends while they’re in town. (We were still half an hour late to that, but we got to see people, which we wouldn’t have managed if we’d stayed up like the party people we wish we were.) Was wonderful to see them!

And then we went and saw a movie. We went to the theater knowing nothing about any of the films that were playing; one was a sequel to something whose original I had at least heard of, even if I hadn’t seen it and hadn’t realized that there was a sequel, and a couple others that I’d vaguely heard of, or whose franchises I’d vaguely heard of, but then plumtreeblossom noticed that one that was about to start had James Gandolfini in it (in his last lead before he died), so we saw Enough Said, and we loved it! The acting and directing were really good — the dialogue (especially in awkward situations) was very naturalistic, and we left the theater sort of feeling like the characters were a bunch of people we knew. Highly recommended. (And I’m not just saying that because as a middle-aged fat guy I like seeing James Gandolfini as a romantic lead. :-)

Too busy and tired for a real post, but here are a few scattered impressions:

• I’m going to be directing! I’ll be directing audioboy’s staged radio-play adaptation of the 1954 movie Them!. I am hugely looking forward to my first directing experience, and am very grateful to audioboy and the rest of PMRP for the opportunity. [Note to self: Post this to Facebook, too. Also Twitter, ВКонтакте, Friendster, Orkut, G+, QQ, G--, E♭-major, and Compuserve.]
• Work has been exceptionally busy and high-stress lately.
• That said, I took Friday off to make a four-day weekend which was utterly excellent. Much of it was spent with plumtreeblossom’s company, and I got to see lots of other wonderful friends, and it was generally a wonderful weekend.
• ...marred somewhat by plumtreeblossom’s phone dying. For the second time. She gets it through work and so getting it repaired or replaced has some extra layers of bureaucracy and delay. Given how panicky she and I each get when we’re having phone problems, and how flaky her phone and her service have been, I decided it was time to get us an emergency backup to share, so I did, and I’ll be taking it over to her later today.

Had a wonderful and very social weekend, mostly with plumtreeblossom. Friday night was Cards Against Humanity with a wonderful group of awful people. Saturday I slept very late (if a bit fitfully), and Saturday evening we went to a fabulous huge joint birthday party where we both had a blast. I got a bunch of enjoyable conversations on a bunch of enjoyable topics with a bunch of enjoyable people. Sunday morning we didn’t get as early a start as we’d intended, but plumtreeblossom and I still had a lovely morning together, even if most of it was in the afternoon.

And on my way home I got a flu shot, which was the start to a fairly productive (if relaxing) Sunday evening. And soon, blessedly, I sleep!

Since last weekend (Circus weekend!), I’ve been busy.

You might need to click this twice; I do, on two different browsers:

• Monday was the regular Poly Boston dinner at Bertucci’s. Unfortunately plumtreeblossom couldn’t make it because of rehearsal. It was quite fun, with a bunch of cool new people!
• Tuesday I had dinner with xmelancholia near (my) work; she introduced me to a new-to-me restaurant, Mulan. I loved their chicken in chili sauce. More importantly, I loved the opportunity to catch up with xmelancholia. She rocks, and I hadn’t seen her in a while.
• Wednesday I usually get together with cathijosephine for dinner, but she was out of town for a funeral (my sympathies to buxom_bey, whose relative’s funeral it was), so plumtreeblossom and I went over to hang out with surrealestate, DD, and little J, and we had a blast. Love that little baby! (Actually, love all of them!)
• Thursday I got together with teratomarty, who works near me. Among the impetuses (impetusses? impeti?) for getting together were some biological specimens (small animals, mostly arthropods) in jars that I had aquired, and wanted to pass along to him. I had enjoyed the food at Mulan so much on Tuesday that I suggested we go there again. Had a great time.
• Friday morning in the shower I heard that the annual sheepshearing festival at Gore Place was going to be Saturday. Oops! plumtreeblossom and I love that event, and had tried unsuccessfully a month or so ago to figure out when it was. We ended up shuffling some plans around so we could go.
• Friday night I drove to the airport to pick up bedfull_o_books, who was arriving at Logan after a very very long series of flights from Beirut. Got to hear about her fabulous visit to Lebanon and Egypt with r_ness, and she brought me some Lebanese coffee with cardamom which I look forward to making.
• Saturday I slept really late (needed to; the flight was delayed, and I was sleep-deprived anyway to start with), so we were late to the sheepshearing festival, but we got there in time to enjoy epic fair noms, stroll among the vendors (and make some impulse purchases), and see the border collie demo (border collies managing sheep and goats). I had foolishly forgotten to bring my good camera, but I got a few photos on my phone which I may get around to posting eventually. Afterwards, we had dinner at Blue Ribbon Barbeque in Arlington, which I’d never been to before (although I’ve had it catered at work a few times). The brisket was quite good. (The sausage was good too, but, contrary to the menu’s assertion, it was not at all spicy.)
• Today, after sleeping in (which we both needed) and breakfast at The Broken Yolk, I came home to Quincy for a very productive afternoon of yardwork and working on the house. I completed three of my four painting projects; just have a final coat on the office door left to do. I didn’t get as much cleaning done as I’d like, but I got lots of work done on the yard and I have the pleasant aches of a productive day of physical labour.

So, busy and happy (and as always, epically in love with my honeywuzzle).

Last night plumtreeblossom and I had a lovely dinner and drinks with cathijosephine and vanguardcdk at Five Horses, a new upscalish restaurant in Davis Square that pheromone and Dreaming had introduced us to. It was Yum! Mee! And the company was excellent. Was great to get some catching up — I hadn’t seen cathijosephine in a couple weeks, and while I see vanguardcdk on a fairly regular basis, it’s nice to get to sit and have a relaxed chat.

The food was, well, “spectacular” would only be a very slight overstatement. I think “superb” is the right adjective. I love that place. It’s yuppified comfort food. They have bread and butter on their menu — bread and butter — and yes, it’s definitely worth the $4 or so, at least if you like the flavour of goat milk. My Kentucky-fried Cornish game hen (with jalapeño mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese flavoured with pork belly) was as yummy as it was last time, and we all had lots of appetizers to share. And the Old Fashioned I had was very good, very mellow.

And when we got back to plumtreeblossom’s place (also vanguardcdk’s place) she and I put some fruit to drying overnight in her food dryer, so we each have snacks for work today.

Anyway, there’s this morning’s effort at approximating a post a day for a while. :-)

Happy birthday to the twins, R. and G., and happy Valentine's day to their parents, bcat1 and spacechicken! I have the cutest niece and nephew ever.

And a belated happy birthday to joyeous. (I tried to post this yesterday morning but my poor net connection on the train ate it. And sorry I've been a bit lax about these lately.)

Yesterday afternoon I got to see the birthday girls at Diesel, with treasonx and inkedandkinked, and it was great to see them. (Aside: The Diesel has changed a lot since I was last there! I should go some Tuesday.)

Then they went off to a fancy dinner while I met plumtreeblossom for a yummy but much less upscale dinner at Mike’s before the show. Had a great time being all shmoopy with my wuzzle, and then we went across the street to see the New Year’s Eve command performance of The Slutcracker. As with the two other performances of it we’ve seen this year, we got there early enough to get front-row seats and had a fabulous time. This audience was (as one might expect on New Year’s Eve) a bit more raucous than previous ones, and the cast had a lot of fabulous energy. We love our cherished family Christmas tradition!

Then we went to a great New Year’s Eve party nearby, among the highlights of which were a wonderful Buffalo chicken dip, chatting with audioboy about exciting radio theater plans, and especially getting to see surrealestate, DD, and little J. We had a great time.

When we left shortly after midnight and were walking towards the car, we saw this odd light in the sky. It was moving through the sky more or less like a satellite or a very high, very fast airplane, but it was way too bright, and an odd colour — kind of yellowish. (And it was way too long after sunset for satellites to be lit that brightly, and they were moving a bit too fast.) As it disappeared into the distance and we were wondering what it was, we realized that another one was crossing above us, equally fast. And when I looked back in the direction it had come, there were a couple more, coming together. And as each one or two passed overhead there was another one off in the distance following. They all stayed quite bright, but they would dim and brighten a bit, as if they were passing through thin clouds. (Turned out not to be that; see below.)

This all took about five minutes, for much of which we were standing still on the sidewalk just looking at them in bafflement. All sorts of possible explanations popped into our heads, from military jets with searchlights to War of the Worlds.

Finally, we saw one that seemed lower, and seemed to be moving a little bit differently, bobbing a bit. And we saw what appeared to be a short cone of light pointing down from it, showing up in the haze, and pointing this way and that. At that point, I was sure it was something with a searchlight. But it moved more and more erratically, and eventually it became clear that it was not something large and bright and far away but something small and very very close. It was a white approximate sphere a bit less than a yard in diameter, lit by a flickering flame inside, and it was falling, and bouncing around in the breeze. It came lower and landed on the porch roof of a house directly across from us (with the flame still burning). As we were debating what to do (call the fire department, or ring the bell of the house and tell them something burning had landed on their roof), a breeze carried it off the roof and it landed safely in their driveway, still burning but definitely starting to sputter out, and we got to go examine it up close.

Some googling found out that they were these flying lanterns (although the ones we saw used wire to support the fuel). I am really glad that one landed so near us; otherwise, we’d still be wondering! On the other hand, having burning things randomly landing in the most densely populated municipality in New England full of old wooden houses strikes me as a very bad idea. They were beautiful, though!

Then we came home and had a lovely New Year’s Day hangout in the kitchen with vanguardcdk (who had just gotten back from the Slutcracker cast party — he’s their house manager) before going to bed.

It’s less than fourteen hours old yet, but 2012 is really awesome so far. And I’m so happy to be starting it with my wonderful partner plumtreeblossom and surrounded by friends.

plumtreeblossom and I went to Topsfield Fair yesterday, as is our annual custom. It was very crowded this time, but that didn’t impair our enjoyment. In fact, it increased it, because we ran into urban_faerie_ and clarity_dog and then ayelle and zendzian and ayelle’s sister (whose LJ name I don’t know), and we all hung out and had a blast (and lots of food, including the world’s best macaroni and cheese and a smoked turkey leg almost as big as my head that I couldn’t finish). We’re thinking about taking a day off work so we can go during the work week next year. (And maybe on a weekend day as well — there’s too much to see in one day.)

Life is very, very good. And suckling piglets are very cute.

It is possible that there will be a few photos if I ever get myself organized to post them.

Also, I have a few people coming to look at the room in the next couple days, so I might stop hemorrhaging money quite so rapidly soon.

No time for a full update, but:

• On Friday, got together with ifuonlyknew, who is at home recuperating from surgery. Was great to hang out with her.
• On Saturday, my beloved plumtreeblossom and I saw the circus and had a wonderful time. This was also my first opportunity to see her awesome new hairdo! Then we went over to surrealestate's and DD's and got to hang out with them and their adorable month-old baby Julian. That was so fabulous!
• On Sunday, after a lovely morning with plumtreeblossom, I got together with eisa for dinner. Our plans were slightly altered by the fact that the Brazilian barbecue place we were aiming for was closed "by order of the court-appointed receiver". Sad! But we found yummy Indian food in Union Square and got to do a lot of catching up. Always great seeing her.

Must hurry off to work now, but wanted to let you all know I'm still here.

And happy birthday to mud_puppy, who seems to have gotten a new home for her birthday! (Well, a little early, I guess.) I hope your day is fabulous and I can’t wait to celebrate with you!