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Monday, May 26, 2008

Great day for a ride...



This Memorial Day weekend Kevin decided to take some well-deserved time off from work, so I've had him to myself all weekend and its been great!
On Saturday we walked to the hatch-shell by the Charles river for "Earthfest 08". We enjoyed some free health food and a free concert by legendary Ska band English Beat. Kevin busted some great moves and schooled many of the younger generation in the art of Skanking. In the afternoon we picked up some of the kids from the Giants and brought them home for a pizza party and screening of the original Bad News Bears.


Yesterday we brought out the bikes and took our first ride together since Turkey. The day could not have been any more perfect as we rode south-east to Freetown, MA to see our friend Jim run a hare scramble. On our way there, we were consumed on the road by a big procession of Harleys and rode with them for some time. It felt fantastic to be on the road again and I didn't want to stop riding until we crossed a border or something. In fact, I kept checking for our (absent) passports in my pocket! We spent the afternoon with Jim, his girlfriend Dixie, daughter Gianna and nephew Matt.



Then, after we had left the track and were enjoying some Wendy's, our other friend Raoul joined us on his trike.


At night, Raoul, Kevin and I joined our friends Alexa and Scott at the movies to see what turned out to be one of the worst movies of all time: the new Indiana Jones. Wow, I can't even describe what a hunk of junk that movie is from beginning to end. Then, to add insult to injury, we watched a bit of Speed Racer before finally calling it a night only to discover that my car had been towed!!!! After several fruitless calls to the city police dept, state police dept and a few towing companies, we still had no idea where my car had been taken because it wasn't in anybody's records so we started to think for a minute that maybe the car had actually been stolen. Finally, we were lucky enough to run into a state trooper who had pulled someone over for speeding and he gave us the information about where my car had been taken. So, at about 1am we finally rescued my cruiser from the tow lot and were heading home. Even the bad evening hours couldn't ruin the high I had from the day's ride and we all went to sleep happy.


Today we will be joining our friends Mike and Diana for a BBQ at their new place in Waltham. The day is gorgeous and we're looking forward to some great music, good food and lots of stories from past good times.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Baseball -N- BBQ


Kevin had another very busy weekend as a youth baseball coach. The Sound End Baseball league was invited to participate in a tournament against the Back Bay League and Kevin was asked to coach along with three other dedicated coaches. They put together a great team with players from as many teams as possible in order to give lots of kids the opportunity to play. The tournament began bright and early on Saturday morning under cloudy skies, but by the time I walked over to the gorgeous field by the Charles river, the sun was out and the day had turned from drab to glorious! The South End team won both their games on that day, far out-scoring the teams they played. They won one game 17-0! In fact, they were the number one seed going into the elimination rounds on Sunday.

On Saturday night, we headed over to coach Scott's new home (which he shares with his new bride Kelly) for more baseball talk and some delicious grub off the grill. The coaches spent most of the evening going over their "stratigerie". Coach Scott also spent a significant amount of time chasing his crafty cat, Calvin, who escaped from the house every chance he got!


Alas the strategizing was all for naught as the South End team was eliminated after their second game on Sunday in a hard-fought loss against a team from Southie. Final score 4-3. Oh well, you can't win them all!! Just don't tell Kevin.

Monday, May 12, 2008

A play-by-play of Kevin's Giant's latest win...

A pitchers' duel turned into high scoring run fest on Mother's Day at Roche Park.

It started out as a pitching duel between, Joshua Perez of the Giants and Dyvine of the Mariners. A bases loaded walk by God scratched home the first run in the second inning by the the Giants. In the bottom of the third the Mariners were now facing Keson John and they took the lead with their patience at the plate scoring 4 runs despite just one ball being put into play.

In the top of the fourth the Giants put on their rally caps and erupted for 8 runs, led by a grand slam by Jason Pepin, backed up by a Ryan Hernandez home run. But the shorthanded Mariners, who were down to 8 players due to an injury, came back in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 9-9 again with patience at the plate but this time with a couple of run scoring singles by Dante and Dyvine. The Giants brought out Jason Pepin on the mound to get the final out of the inning.

As the sun faded away, the Mariners brought in Francisco in relief for the final inning. The Giants rallied again with Josh Perez getting the big hit, a triple to right. Jason came back in the bottom of the fifth to close the victory with two strikeouts and a nice play at the mound to throw a runner out at first.

On such a tension filled game, that was well played by both teams, it almost goes without saying that GOD SCORED THE WINNING RUN!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Re-connecting with people and earth.





Last weekend my great friend Alex was in town showing off her awesone boyfriend. She and I worked together at the VA back in the days when I was employed (before the BIG trip). Alex moved south to complete her pre-doctoral internship and, much as it happenned with me, she met a fantastic guy (named Jesse) and is happy as a clam! We hadn't seen each other since I left so I was very excited to see her and meet her Jesse. Well, it was all well worth the wait because we had a blast at Cleary's on Saturday night! To top off the good times, there were Mariachis at the club in honor of the upcoming "Cinco de Mayo" and they were handing out beads...two of Kevin's favorite things combined. Needless to say, he was the first to get beads and he was the loudest as we sand along with the Mariachis.


On Wednesday Kevin's little league team, the Giants, played and won their first game of the season against the Nationals. Kevin ahs 18 kids on his team and watching him manage this motly crue of 7-10-year-olds is a thing of comedy and beauty all at once!

This weekend we are re-connecting with mother earth as we plant our first ever batch of tomatoes in the back yard of our temporary home. Kevin and I have worked togehther, although Kevin has worked his butt off, to clean the less-big yard of construction debris and weeds and to sift the good soil out of the bad. Kevin built two large wooden boxes and we filled them with the good dirt. Today I planted the baby tomato plants and I'm very excited to watch them grow and eat their fruit in the not too distant future...especially with the price of tomatoes these days!

Monday, May 5, 2008

The most dangerous place in the world....

Could it be America?

We traveled around the world: Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuala, Turkey, Pakistan, Cambodia. Only place anyone messed with our bikes was in Amsterdam outside the most expensive hotel we stayed in where someone jimmied open one of my boxes.

I come back to Boston, park the bike outside on the sidewalk in front of my house for two days and some jerks steal the BMW emblems off of the sides of my gas tank.

I was at brunch at a local political legends house yesterday, Mel King, and the discussion centered around how we as a society do not respect everyone in the society, especially the children.

Maybe we have things to learn from the rest of the world.