mini vacations are fab

So much for posting every day, oh well. But I have a good reason for the last few days; gwyn was visiting me and therienne and mollyamory, and we were busy and social and eating all the food for days, with barely a chance to check email and things, never mind post. (Then there was the traditional day-of-collapsing after all that socializing...)

The length of this visit seems to have short-circuited our usual routine; it was long enough to get in lots of our favorite places to eat instead of just having to pick one or two, but not long enough to spread them out. So where normally people come visit us and we spend a lot of time just hanging out talking and watching tv to pimp them into shows, this time we spent a lot of time hanging out talking and traveling to various meals. I think the only things we watched were POI, Elementary, and a few videos (not even vids!).

It was fun, though, with lots of good food, and gwyn got to see a fairly decent array of New England-y-ness, from crowded city things to spread-out wealthy suburbs. She traded us one of her favorite restaurants in return, which we stumbled over unexpectedly during our afternoon in Boston, yum.

It was actually kinda like a mini con; gwyn arrived Thursday and left Monday. We deliberately left Thursday pretty mellow, since she'd come in on a redeye flight and was exhausted. So we just spent the day being lazy and relaxed, chatting away and ordering Thai takeout for dinner.

We three locals were all very torn about Thursday evening; we are HUGE Person of Interest fans, and it was the finale, and we were so stressed out by the previous week's ep! But we were going to be very polite and not watch, until gwyn said she was fine with it, she'd just hang with us and be online while we watched. Yay!

(And then she said she'd seen a few eps but mostly watched with it on in the background, and didn't get x, y, and z, and had to listen to us earnestly explaining the entire show for the rest of the day weekend.)

The weather was in and out, rainy cool days interspersed with warm sunny days, but we made it into Boston on Friday, the nicest day of all, which was lovely. I almost never do the local-tourist thing, but therienne and I thought doing a bit of the Freedom Trail and visiting Faneuil Hall at the end of it would make for a good low-key kinda tourist day, and it really did. The day was perfect for walking around in; we saw a few historical sites and a lot of tour guides in period costume wandering around, and finished off with a fabulous lunch, a visit to the Holocaust Memorial (which I'd never been to, and barely held it together while I walked through - dear god, but that's just. very effective, and affecting.), and then a quick trip to Haymarket to soak in a little rejuvenation in the form of fresh fruits and veggies before getting back on the T to home. (Where I played the Kingston Trio's "M.T.A." for gwyn to explain the why the T's payment system is called a "Charlie card", and why the image on the cards always makes me happy.)

We kept the historical theme going that evening, taking her out to the Wayside Inn, where we ate in the Tap Room (much older -- like, 200 years older -- and more charming than the main dining room), and we even saw a horse and buggy driving around, taking passengers to see the grounds (I think).

( Horse and buggy! )

Saturday we met up with talking_sock for brunch and then hung out with her for a few hours before she had to head home, then we trooped into the office to poke at vidding tech until it was time to go to dinner. We got to show gwyn Premiere for Mac, and at least a fast look at how it compares to Final Cut, and some tricks we've figured out over the years. It's already all blurring even for me, though, so hm, maybe one of these days we should do screenshots and write up some actual comparisons, while we still at least vaguely remember how to use FCP.

And then there was Mexican food and Doctor Who and more talking.

Sunday was a day of rest. And talking. And food. (When we pick a theme, we stick to it.) We had a lovely long brunch at a local restaurant, then later therienne grilled us some burgers for dinner. We made a determined effort that night to get sundaes to cap off the weekend, but alas the place we usually go changed their hours, and we arrived too late, then had to roam around in quest of regular ice cream instead.

Monday was a short day, with only time for one last good brunch, and a quick tour around to look at some churches, including one that had the best birdhouse ever:

( birdhouse! )

Then gwyn left. :( She's off on a fabulous trip to London for a few days, then Cardiff for Vidukon, then back to London, and I'm all jealous.

Me, I'm back to work. This seems unfair!