Boston

The obvious solution to a garbage strike is to leave town. Well, actually we had our trip to Boston planned for at least two months. J. read in the NYT about a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition coming to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), and we realized we had a bit of time in late June, and,continue reading

Eating and drinking in Florence

We are both fans of Italian food and wine — J. being especially addicted to good pastas — so we tried to eat well when we were in Florence, without entirely breaking the bank. Depending on where we went and how much wine we ordered, we were generally able to sit down to leisurely dinnerscontinue reading

Florence

We arrived back from Florence Sunday afternoon after 8 days of art, architecture, and good food. It was my first time in Florence, J.’s third, but with her last trip 15 years ago and with a school group a lot of it was like a new experience for both of us. Practical details. We flewcontinue reading

Flying the friendly skies

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this report from a recent short flight in Africa, sent by Gmail chat: so, we’re sitting there, and the stewardess comes around to give us the spiel about the exit row. she’s wearing a jaunty yellow scarf, is very sincere, and is telling us we better be prepared to opencontinue reading

Hm

This does help explain why dump truck drivers blow red lights so ruthlessly: “Our trucks are supposed to carry 21 tonnes. But every time we are pulled on a scale, it’s around 28, 29, sometimes 30 tonnes in there. “That’s dangerous, not only for the driver, but for everyone else on the road. The brakecontinue reading

Parks Canada encourages geocaching

Pretty cool, even if they are controlling it a bit: Parks Canada caches are located in publicly accessible areas and are accessible from trails and/or roads. Instead of containing trade items, caches contain messages that reveal interesting often unknown aspects of the area where they are located. Parks Canada aims to encourage geocachers to sharecontinue reading