It's The Great Pumpkin, Boston!

Of course we carved a pumpkin for Halloween! I did the messy "gutting" of the pumpkin and roasted some delicious salty pumpkin seeds while Rick got down to business.

nice spread

Last night was the big yearly BU gala. It was held in the Omni Parker House Hotel. I took the train there all by myself like a big boy. The hotel opened in 1855 and has some history. Ho Chi Minh was a baker there. Who knew Ho Chi Minh was an American baker prior to his career as an Asian trail? Malcolm X was a busboy. Booth planned an assassination. JFK announced his candidacy for congress, proposed to Jacky, and had his bachelor party there. Man, I wish I was invited to JFK's bachelor party.

The food was spectacular, featuring lobster claws with caviar (We'll have your finest food stuffed with your second finest food. Lobster stuffed with tacos it is, sir), mini lamb chops, and filet. As far as free stuff from academic institutions go, this took the prize. Well worth listening to a half an hour's worth of poeple I didn't know being given awards.

Broken Glass, Loose Change

I find myself thinking about strange things as I bike to and from work. Ever since I rode part way out into an intersection through which an ambulance was barreling, I quit listening to my ipod during rides. This leaves my mind dangerously unoccupied and prone to wandering and/or noticing things. For example, did you know it is impossible to ride more than a mile on a St. Louis city street without seeing a discarded chicken bone? It's the truth. Who, when in the market for a snack on the go, thinks "Ooh, chicken wings!" The proper administration of bleu cheese alone would be a logistical nightmare, to say nothing of the mess potential and the obvious dangers of driving with an open beer. Actually, the driving with beer thing isn't that big of an issue in St. Louis. I guess I should just be happy that people aren't falling for the farce that is boneless wings (yeah, I'm looking at you, Chili's). This message brought to you by the Mama Cass institute for safe automotive snacking.

Another thing I've noticed is that the amount of broken glass on the roadway is perfectly negatively correlated with the affluence of that neighborhood. Not surprisingly, about one in every ten cars you see parked in those neighborhoods either has a flat of or is rolling on the donut. I've observed the same pattern here in Boston. Then, it hit me--what if this phenomenon isn't just the result of lower class/education people being more likely to throw bottles out their windows which leads to more flats? What if correlation, twice removed, equals causation? Maybe...broken glass is the cause of poverty.

OK, brace yourself now for what I'm about to drop on you--what if this broken glass/disabled car/low socioeconomic status cycle isn't coincidental at all? What if it's a massive conspiracy to keep us (them) down? Think about it, what better way to subtly subjugate the poor? Pretty tough to get to work or college with a flat tire. And who has time to work anyways when you're taking your kids in for stitches twice a week.

OK, so let's talk suspects. First, who would have the motive to perpetrate this scheme? Who has the means? Well, I guess anyone with access to glass bottles would have the means, so let's focus on motive. My initial suspect was, of course, The Man, possibly acting in conjunction with Whitey. But then I remembered Whitey keeps pretty busy suppressing minority voters this time of year and The Man gets pretty preoccupied with keeping the worker "down" and having "it" "stuck" to him all the time that he'd hardly have time to spread glass shards throughout every poor neighborhood in every major city in the U.S. (Sidenote: The Man is one kinky S.O.B.). So yeah, I'm pretty sure it's an inside job. We're through the looking glass here people, and the looking glass is broken.

October 20th Update

Liz would probably do this normally but since we don't have internet at home yet, the status update will come from me. We left St. Louis at about 11:45 AM last Monday (October 13th) with the back our 24' Budget truck stuffed with stuff, the cab stuffed with Liz, Phoebe and me, and the car in tow. The car was also stuffed with stuff. We had an uneventful drive through IL, IN, OH, PA, NY and MA and made it to Boston in around 23 hrs. We smuggled the cat into a hotel for the first night and bought the house the next afternoon. We got some movers to help unload the truck, two guys names Paul and Lama. Why they didn't name their company Pauli Lama movers remains a mystery (Your furniture and the world in one peace). The only casualty of the move was the handle of our turkey roaster, which Lama, an admitted vegetarian, dropped on the basement floor. Suspicious.

I went to work on Thurs., and everyone here seems nice. It may get a little tougher since my go-to small talk topic lost to the Rays last night. Attempts to hide my glee have been successful so far. Jess, a woman I went to grad school with and who lives a block away from us, showed me an excellent bike path that leads right to my work, leaving only about a mile of Boston roadways to be navigated. I guess if you can drown in 5 inches of water you can get crushed in a mile of road, but that's loser talk. The driving is tricky but we're managing. Helps when you have one person to drive and one to navigate. We may end up taking the advice of some guy we met and--"Get a Gaaahmin."

Liz has been getting stuff put away and scoured. The previous occupants were, we suspect, dirty hippies, as they were musicians, didn't clean any "hidden" areas, and had the whole house painted dark red, pink, and "flesh". Flesh is the worst. We met the next door neighbor and he seems very nice. He offered to mow our ~100 ft2 of lawn for us and told us the Hatians across the street are not to be feared. Liz's cousin Nicole who attends Union College in Schenectady, NY, came to visit Saturday night, so we got out to see some of the town on Sunday. We ate cannoli from Modern Pastry, which is apparently famous. Our cell #s are the same for now. I'll be back to stalk the elusive whitetail in a few weeks and we'll be home for Christmas as well. Out. -Rick

The Most Delicious Town in America

Moving heavy items is not fun.

Luckily, the windows in our St. Louis loft were very large. We were able to lift items and boxes out through the windows and move them right onto our rental truck.