Journal of a Sabbatical

July 17, 2000

fragmenties

Today's Reading: Outside Lies Magic by John Stilgoe, The Herring Gull's World by Niko Tinbergen, A Shallow Water Dictionary by John Stilgoe, Alongshore by John Stilgoe

Today's Starting Pitcher: Jeff Fassero

in this journal in 1998: but daddy said we didn't have to pack

and evidently it was hot today in 1999, and similarly hot way back in 1997 but apparently not hot enough to note in the 1996 entry

I finished reading Outside Lies Magic. Sitlgoe refers twice to an invasive plant called Fragmenties. Couldn't find that anywhere. Did he mean Phragmites? That ever popular scourge of compromised salt marshes.

Which would you rather eat "bait ice cream" or "breakfast substance" ? At least I think it was substance, the sign was kind of obscured. It may have said "breakfast substrate".

BiB left on Saturday. We had a family gathering at La Madre's house Friday night with food from The Chateau, an Italian restaurant in Waltham that has long been a family favorite. I brought a half gallon of Benson's fresh native red raspberry ice cream. We were so stuffed with ravioli and scali bread that we never ate the red raspberry ice cream. We almost didn't eat the Donald and BiB birthday cake either, but somehow we managed after a break for ravioli digestion. The Chateau claims 6 ravioli is a serving for one person. I could not manage more than three. I don't think anybody managed more than three. Kevin and his entourage couldn't come because he had a fever. This meant half the expected number of ravioli eaters weren't there. Or half were there. Either way it's a lot of ravioli. Talk about left over ravioli! I hope La Madre can handle an all ravioli diet for the next month or so.

Besides "Happy Birthday Donald and Bob" (we do spell it Bob sometimes - BiB is an acronym for either Bobby in Bosnia or Bobby in the Balkans depending on which war torn country he's living in) the cake had "Hi Bob" written on it. Darn, I didn't bring my camera.

Benson's gets all its red raspberries from local Boxford farms. Not even North Andover farms. Boxford farms. Of course, there are precious few farms left in either town.

Thomas and Tim took BiB to the Red Sox game Thursday night. They got to see Pedro Martinez's first start after the left oblique injury and the All Star break. And it had a great bottom of the 9th ending. Lucky boys. Me? I listened to it on the radio in my car coming back from a meeting in Cambridge. I cheered my radio loudly.

Had breakfast with Mark at the Deli King on Saturday. We haven't done that in way too long. We hung around Andover, browsing in the Andover Bookstore where we ran into QI, whom I have not seen since his St. Augustine pilgrimage. Must make more effort to stay in contact with people.

Mark and I visited a new art gallery that recently opened on Main Street where Underground Records used to be. They had some photo collages by an artist whose work I really liked. There was one I was tempted to buy but what with going to China and laying out big bucks for a new scope, not to mention the Field Imaging System, I was feeling reluctant to spent money on art. Besides, I have no place to hang it. I have a pile of stuff I haven't hung on my walls yet. A lot of it stuff my decorator didn't like, and a lot of it stuff I've acquired since. Odd that the infamous decorator approved of Lizzy's baby pictures and a stupid Egan coat of arms from one of those "your family's crest" booths at South Street Seaport or some similar tourist mall, and disliked a painting of greens and grays with a shadowy great blue heron in a lake in Nova Scotia bought from an eccentric artist in New Mexico. If that decorator were still in business, and were still working for me (but why would she be?) she'd be horrified at the wild boar painting I brought back from Hungary and the Theodore Jasper print of common goldeneye ducks, and probably the collage in question from this gallery come to think of it. Remind me, if I ever redecorate, to hire someone with taste and a sense of humor.

There's probably more catch-up stuff I should write down just to preserve the memories, but I think I've already forgotten ...