I'm back in Boston. I had a great deal of fun with My sister, niece, brother-in-law, and mom. Maddie is a little ball of energy. Well, not little, she's quite big for a 7 year old. Smart and creative, but I just can't keep up with her.

The day I arrived, Thursday, we pretty much stayed around the house and relaxed. My mom had already been there for several days and was already settled in.

Friday, Christian stayed home while Maddie, Bridgette, my mom, and I went down to Georgetown. We hit Lush and Godiva and went to Dean & Deluca for lunch. While I've seen central meter machines in parking lots, I'd never seen a central machine for street parking before. I guess it is more efficient than having a separate parking meter for each spot, I'm just not used to it. The biggest disadvantage I see with the central machine system is that if it breaks down it disrupts the use of a number of parking spots at once.

Saturday we drove into Virginia through wine country and went to Linden Vineyards (nothing to do with Second Live). That was my favorite part of the trip down. Relaxing doesn't even begin to describe the place. Surrounded by rows of grapes and vine watching the clouds shadow-dance on the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cigar Christian gave me to smoke at the vineyard not only went perfectly with the cheese and wine, but also with the surrounding tranquility.

Sunday, I got up later than I had planned, but not so late that it caused any hassle in catching my flight. Upon leaving, Christian gave me some cigars, along with a 15-pack of Rocky Patel vintage 1992s, one of my favorites. My mom gave me a wonderful dragon cane when I arrived at the house and I was a bit worried about getting on the flight with 2 canes, but I didn't have any hassle and the return trip from Reagan National to Logan went smoothly.

I had hoped to get some good bird pictures, but unfortunately my birding camera is not working. I noticed it my first day there. It seems to be a connection problem with the battery prongs, which should be repairable. But, I was glad to see that Maddie loved birds and birdwatching despite her father's hatred of them.

I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow (well, actually Arlington, Virginia) to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. My mom is already there and are visits have been planned to overlap. As some of you might know, I've been vegetarian for 14 years but have been considering eating seafood for some time. There is a good chance that on this trip I will actually take the plunge. The prospect of ending 14 years of vegetarianism is a bit daunting, and I would be limiting my meat intake to sea-fairing non-cephalopod exotherms. I've gone over it again and again for years in my head, working out the logistics of my personal moral code, and I think I'm okay with it.

Haven't given much of an update lately on what I've been up to.

The weekend before last my sister, Madeline, and Christian came up to visit. I met them downtown on Saturday and my sister took me to get my first ever professional manicure. I had a lot of fun and Maddie is a joy. She is so huge, though! I'd swear she was 10 or 11 if I didn't know she was 7.

Last weekend, invalid_userid came down for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. purpleglitter, invalid_userid waited in the long line in Harvard Square. Usually waiting in lines is boring, but with the crowd I had a great time. There were a couple profiteers who got in the front of the line and walked down it trying to sell their books for $50. I didn't see anyone buying, but I'm sure they found someone when they got near the end (which rumor had it was somewhere in Watertown). I was very excited to get merryperseis's register when I finally got my books, I had thought the odds of that rather slim.

zarthon took purpleglitter, invalid_userid and me out to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the next day. Inevitably a lot of the book was left out, but I think enough critical stuff was missing that someone who hadn't read the books probably wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

Sunday, we all went to the Museum of Science. The exhibits there have enough range to appeal to any level of scientific knowledge. We saw a demonstration of the still very functional original Van de Graaff generator built by Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1933, but my favorite part of the Museum of Science visit was the butterfly exhibit, where a large owl butterfly landed on my shoulder and sat there for a very long time just looking at me and occasionally stretching its wings. Looking into the butterfly's eyes made me regret all the nasty rhetoric I've spouted about exotherms.

Next weekend, our new landlord is coming to visit from California. She has not seen the building in over a year. I'm excited to meet her, she sounds awesome over the phone. She's trying to rent the unit next door, so if anyone is interested in a two-bedroom in Arlington, let me know.

At the end of next month, I will be heading down to see my sister in the Washington, D.C. area. My mom will be visiting there at the same time, so it should be a great trip.

Yesterday evening was a bit of an adventure. purpleglitter bought a huge club chair at the Salvation Army in Saugus on Saturday. There was no way this thing was going to fit in her car. Neither of us could find anyone with an appropriate vehicle to pick it up. Running out of options to get the thing back to Arlington, yesterday she gave in and rented a U-Haul.

However, purpleglitter was very nervous driving it, and I have my vertigo spells - so it seemed a good idea if neither of us drove the thing. We called around to various people who might be able to drive it, but none of them wanted to. Eventually I drove it to Saugus and purpleglitter drove it back. dalious was about to help move the chair into the house, and move it he did. He took it most of the way himself, only requiring assistance to maneuver it through the doorways.

To top off day, purpleglitter was named best employee at her company yesterday. She rocks. Sitting in her new throne with her certificate in hand, she knows she rocks.

We did not venture out for most of my visit, however Friday we did go down to the capital. My sister (ellynx) gave me and Maddie a staff-led tour of the capital building. While we were were still limited to the public areas of the building, we didn't have to tag along with a tour group and were free to go at our own pace. A few of the statues in the statue gallery of the capital building surprised me, I was not expecting to see Robert E. Lee or Brigham Young.

After seeing the capital building, Christian picked us up and we all had tea at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City. I felt a little less Jack Dawson than I have in such settings in the past. The cakes, sandwiches and scones were delightful and the tea was great. Christian complained that the service was sub-par, however I did not notice that myself as I have no real idea of what par at the Ritz Carlton is. I enjoyed it nonetheless, and am glad I got to experience it.

After tea, we went back to the house where later in the evening Maddie made me a wonderful ice cream soup. It's been a long time since I've had ice cream soup, and I must say Maddie's was excellent.

Good morning.

I had a wonderful thanksgiving. In yesterday's post on thanks giving, I wrote about one aspect of thankfulness. However, there are many aspects of thankfulness and there is much I am thankful for. The following is an incomplete list:

I am thankful to have been able to spend a holiday with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. I am thankful to be able to call them family. I am thankful for the rest of my family, both found and blood. I am thankful that I have a home to head to, and that when I get there I will not have to worry about having enough to eat. I am thankful that I can express my thanks online. I am thankful that, even if I have problems with it sometimes, I have access to medical care. I am thankful that I live in a place that I can leave my house anytime day or night and be relatively safe. I am thankful for the kisses I get from Skye. I am thankful for Spy Pond. And, I am thankful that I am not so bitter and jaded that I could not be thankful for the blessing I have received.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States.

Happy Thursday to everyone else.

I'm having a good visit. Maddie is a ball of energy, literally bouncing off the walls. She knocked on my door and got me up around 7:30am this morning showing me a clock that had been set to 9:30. Tricky, but I'm glad I'm up. I don't really like to sleep too late these days.

Dinner last night was good and I loved the port later in the evening. Christian is intelligent and charismatic, making conversation with him generally a pleasure. And, of course, it's always great to see Bridgette. She's made quite the life for herself and has not ceased to amaze me. I'm proud to call her sister.

Heading off shortly. I'm a bit worried about the possibility of falling at the airport. I've been having less vertigo episodes the last couple weeks, but I'm still having at least one severe one daily and I won't have a staff or cane with me at the airport. Most of my time at the airport will be spent sitting and if I'm sitting an episode won't be a problem, so my chances of a good trip are pretty high. Nevertheless, I'm worried. I don't want a huge hassle at the airport. Nothing I can do about it though. Qué será, será.

I just got back from Thom's party. I had a great time.

Thom's place is awesome. He has a 12th floor apartment in Brigham Circle. He has a breathtaking view of Boston's skyline from his balcony. Tonight the dusty red moon peeking through some clouds just above the horizon put the crowning touch on the scene.

Everyone at the party was really nice to me. Very queer crowd, which I liked.

I met a new friend (I met several, but one in particular). Very interesting and intelligent person. He reminded me, both intellectually and physically, of an older version of Adric from Doctor Who. He was quite something to look at, but can't really go there (Lake and all) and he's gay anyway. He lives in Arlington and we're going to go have coffee together at the Diesel Café sometime.

I had a realization about my weight while sitting watching the people at the party. I made it while watching this woman who was quite beautiful, although not by mainstream standards of weight. I decided my problem is that, while I can look at myself as beautiful, my mental image of myself is skinny. All I need to do is change that mental image, not change myself. So I did. Unfortunately I haven't run this idea by Shirley yet, or thought it out sober. But, I did take it as a chance to pig out with no repercussions. We'll see how it plays itself out.

All in all a good night. I'm going to go eat my candy and decide whether I want to stay up or go to bed.

I called the Lahey clinic in Arlington and they told me I need to call the clinic in Burlington for psychiatric care. They were nice enough to give me the number

I called the main number for the clinic in Burlington, waited on hold for 5 minutes, then was told I needed to call the front desk of the psychiatric department.

I called the psychiatric front desk and was told I needed to call the psychiatric scheduling desk.

I called the scheduling desk and was told I couldn't get an appointment without getting a Lahey number and transferring to a primary care physician at Lahey. I needed to call the main number to do that.

I called the main number and changed my primary care physician and got a Lahey number.

I called the scheduling desk back, but the person was not there. I left a voice mail and am waiting for them to get back to me to schedule an appointment.

Although I got the run around for quite sometime, I feel that in the last few days I've made a lot of progress on achieving a more sustainable existence.