HOC & ALCS

It's quite the sporting weekend here in Boston. First of all the 43rd Head of the Charles Regatta took place right on the Charles River, walking distance from my house. I had the pleasure of seeing races on both days. Here is a photo of the Yale men's team and another boat's swirling wake:


The other huge event of the weekend is the last two days of the ALCS between the Red Sox and the Indians. All I have to say is, Red Sox fans are no joke. While walking through Harvard Square on my way to the Regatta I saw a homeless man sitting on a bench with his bag of belongings and taped to his bag was a sign reading: "Pray for Dice-K" referring to Daisuke Matsuzaka, tonight's Red Sox pitcher. Whoever wins the game tonight will go on to the World Series.

Congratulations Bill and Naomi!

Last weekend I headed out to Buffalo, NY to attend my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and a great reception. It was also fun because I got to see both of my brothers and my parents and tons of cousins and aunts and other family that I don't usually have the pleasure of seeing. A good time was had by all!

Harvard making history

Today will mark an historical moment for Harvard. Drew Gilpin Faust will be installed (it's NOT an innauguration) as the 28th president and first woman president of the University. Needless to say, there has been quite the flurry of activity around campus. And I love the pomp and circumstance. Harvard is almost 400 years old, and they have so much tradition it amazes me. Yesterday I went to the archives to see the original Harvard Charter of 1650. I have to say, I was impressed. They only bring it out on very special occasions and the installation of a president is one of those rare occasions.

Here are the banners on Widener Library with the VERITAS seal:


I'm bummed that I won't be able to attend the ceremony as I'm off to Buffalo for my cousin's wedding. But if you want to watch it live today, it will be webcast here at 2pm today only. I'm sure they'll post it online later and I'll post that link once it's up.

Laundry forgetfulness

So yesterday (on my day off) I was trying to accomplish a lot, and one of those things was doing laundry. So I drove over to the laundromat, put in two loads, ran a couple more errands, switched to the dryer, ran home for a little to hang up my clothes that don't go in the dryer, and then back to the laundromat to fold everything and bring it home. In my rush, and thinking about all the other stuff I had to accomplish, I left a pair of sweatpants at the laundromat. I had dinner with Sylvie and told her I thought I left them there, but it's just an old pair of comfy sweat pants. No big deal.

Well, I woke up this morning and realized that my favorite grey zip-up sweater was missing, too. And I realized that it must be with the sweatpants... So I walked over to the laundry at 7am and sure enough, half a load of laundry was still sitting in the dryer: the sweatpants, the sweater, 2 other pairs of pants including my favorite jeans and a tank top. They were all just sitting in the same dryer I left them in. I hope they weren't too scared being left all alone overnight in the laundromat, at least they had each other...

Honk Fest 2007

OK Folks, HonkFest was just about the coolest thing ever. There was a parade that went from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square and the grand marshals were the Mayor of Cambridge, and Click and Clack, the Car Talk guys! There were tons of bands (one from as far away as Rome, Italy and two from Chicago!), but also organizations like Bikes Not Bombs, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Boston Derby Dames, Veterans for Peace, and many more. It was so fun to walk along with the parade and see the looks on people's faces who had no idea what was going on, and the huge smiles of everyone involved. It was a great day!

Here's Click and Clack riding along in their Pedicab:


This is the Green Bike from Bikes Not Bombs:

Check out this dad with two kids on his bike enjoying the parade:

This is Environmental Encroachment from Chicago:

I've seen this guy riding around Cambridge on his super tall bike:

Josh Ritter at the Somerville Theatre

This was a wonderful show! Josh Ritter is just such a nice guy it makes me happy to see someone who just so excited to play for a room of people who are into his music. This photo is from a solo number he did, but he had a great band with him, including a horn section that was just great.


And the opening band was Old School Freight Train and they were great, too. I actually bought their CD and listened to it this morning and it's top notch.

I accidently deleted the little movie I took during Kathleen, but I'm working on recovering it right now, so we'll see how that goes. I'll post it if it's any good and if I get it back.

The rest of the weekend is looking fun, too. The Honk Festival of Activist Street Bands is going to be in Davis Square all weekend and I'm looking forward to checking that out as much as possible and then to top it off, Veggie Dinner at Paul and Trinity's on Sunday! Woo-hoo!

PS - Recovering the movie from the show is not going so well. I tried a trial run of one thing and it found 7 movies on my card, but then told me I had to pay $40 to download the "real" software to save the files, which I didn't want to do. So I tried a free recovery program and it found zero movies on my card... If anyone knows of a better program, preferably free, please let me know.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

Even though I have a paper to finish (it's not due until Thursday) I decided to treat myself to a movie tonight. I also decided to go tonight because it might only be playing for one week and this is basically the only night I can do it. So I drove to Waltham (getting lost at EVERY turn, I could do an entire post on the lack of street signs in the Boston area) and saw the matinee showing of Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. This movie made me so happy in many ways. It made me realize how special the Old Town School of Folk Music is and made me happy that I had a chance to volunteer and take classes there. I was happy that I knew most of the songs in the movie, either from my family or Girl Scouts or OTSFM, and I can only hope that my nephews and the rest of their generation will have these songs handed down to them. I was happy to know that Pete Seeger is alive and well and still teaching children music and protesting the war and living in the house he built by hand decades ago. It was, overall, an inspiring and spirited film. I highly recommend it.