Construction Season! Garden Season! Construction Season!

After the torrential flooding rains in March, April seemed relatively tame. We certainly took advantage of the the sunny weather by picnicking with our favorite people at the Lyman Estates in Waltham.

Uncle Dr. taking his turn at reading to Little E who forgot his sunglasses

They thought this would wear out the child. These gentlemen quickly learned that children have way more energy than can be accounted for in their body mass. Physicists are still working on the explanation.

The Good Mr. Dr. and I were also in D.C. for a weekend for the Association of American Geographers conference. As usual, it was a great conference. We got to meet up with friends we haven't seen in a while, including Dr. B who is now in teaching in Chicago. We had dinner at Lebanese Taverna, which we highly recommend. It's not a quiet restaurant and I would stay away from the grape leaves appetizer. It is a little vinegary for my taste. But everything else was great.

A man and his new toy. It took almost 10 minutes to get the right picture.

We happened to being staying at the Adams Inn, which is a very nice, and reasonably priced, B&B. It is located in the Adams Morgan district, which means that we had our pick of restaurants. We chose to eat at Las Canteras, a Peruvian place. We both highly recommend it. We started with the Tiradito Criollo ceviche. I had the Parihuela, which is very close to cioppino. It was excellent, but it will give you very vivid dreams.


The Good Mr. Dr. had Pescado a la Macho, which was also excellent.


I would only criticize the coffee for being so-so. But everything from the atmosphere, to the service, to the food was awesome. You will leave stuffed, so make sure to be properly dressed to take a long walk after dinner. We highly recommend it to anyone in D.C.

This past week, we took advantage of a short reprieve from the spring rains in order to get started on rebuilding our chimneys and skylights. The guys from the new roofing company started on Thursday and so far have managed to demolish and rebuild one of two chimneys. You might be tempted to criticize them for taking too long. However, you have to remember that we do not have fire escapes or any easy way up to the roof. These guys had to haul all of the new bricks in a bucket up three flights of stairs and then up the ladder through the skylight. And then haul all of the old bricks in a bucket down the same ladder and four flights of stairs into the basement (we are going to try to reuse the brick as part of our new hardscaping in the garden). The Good Mr. Dr. inspected their work on Friday and was only upset that few people would be able to see the wonderful job they did. I will try to get him to take pictures next week.

We are also planning some exciting stuff in the next month for the Garden. We bought four blueberry bushes which will be planted in the ground this week. We'll be starting on some hardscaping too. Lots of work, but it should look great once it is all done.

The only other exciting news is the boil order for 28 cities and towns served by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. There was a massive break in one of the pipes that brings clean water to Boston area cities and towns. Right now, we must boil all water for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes. We can bathe in it, but we shouldn't brush our teeth. We count ourselves lucky that there were emergency reservoirs and that it doesn't affect the plumbing. The boil order is mainly because they cannot guarantee the cleanliness of the water. Washing dishes was an interesting exercise in creativity. But everything was washed and rinsed in clean water. We don't know how long it will take to restore the water. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to cope without the need to buy bottled water.

That's all for now. Two quick shout outs before I end. First, to my mom who gets to keep her job. Whew! And second, to Ms. C who finally moved into a safe and secure place in Manhattan! Woo-hoo!