Friday

Friday the bloggers came to town. I had (as it turns out, wisely) taken the day off from work. I fiddled around the house a bit and took care of a few pressing chores and relaxed a bit before people were due to start arriving. By the time 4:00 rolled around I had wandered over to the waterfront to meet the first arrival, Tater.

As it turns out he had just got settled in, but was game for heading out to see some of Boston. He had a friend's pass to get into the Aquarium and not having been there for a while, I agreed it would be fun. I love the penguins!

However, just as we were walking up a tour group of students were mobbing their way to the entrance and we decided to rethink this.

Thus began the death march. Poor Tate. I dragged that man through historic Boston, boring him insensible with the history of the city and how it was developed. Through downtown, past the common, through the Public Garden into Back Bay and eventually to our rendez-vous in the South End with Will and the Farmboyz.

We got to the Cyclorama in the South End and I gave Will a call. He had already shown up and was just at the other end of the block and we found each other and started to talk about where to eat. The cell went off and it was Father T calling to let us know they had been delayed in traffic and would be arriving in about a half hour. We had already decided to eat at Picco in the the Boston Center for the Arts, so we went in to get a table. Thus began what was to be a theme for the weekend. Waiting to be seated. We were told it would be about a half hour. It is to laugh. The boys showed up and we waited and waited and waited. Eventually, when we were ready to expire from hunger we were seated and I began the weekend long assassination of my diet.

Once we got seated though, all else was forgotten because T and C started to converse. If you ever need to be entertained by anyone with good conversational skills, the Farmboyz are your men. I got to hear all sorts of interesting tidbits about Father T, C, Tate and Will. Dinner flew by and then the Farmboyz brought us by to see the building they were staying in. Specifically, the lobby, which had been Phillipe Stark'd within an inch of its life. Merciful heavens! I will leave it to T's descriptive powers so for the moment, suffice it to say I was... uh... impressed with the use of plastic.

After a quick tour we went over to meet Atari and Monkey. We were also joined by my friends C and Michele. Will and Atari know each other and people were introduced around. Have I ever mentioned that Atari is a little hottie? Just for the record he is. (Note to Atari, the first words out of La Simpatica's mouth were, indicating you, who's the cutie?) Drinks were ordered. Drinks were consumed. At one point the subject of my X rated tattoo on my back came up and as soon as I hiked up my shirt to show off, the cameras came out. I am assuming that Tate and the Farmboyz will be posting. Will got in on the act and displayed his own rather impressive collection of ink. More drinks were ordered and my friend La Simpatica discovered that fat bartenders in gay bars are somewhat immune to pretty women when he looked straight through her and asked Monkey what he wanted. She was understandably annoyed and frankly so were the rest of us. She did by the end of the evening however win the prize, when she told the really hot barback who was clearing glasses that she wanted his baseball cap. He laughed and told her is was dirty and she told him it could be cleaned up. We all got the impression that he was more interested in her than in any of us. And possibly having La Simpatica demonstrate her cleaning skills. Ain't it always the way?

Not long afterward, people were ready to head off and get some sleep. I got home past my bedtime and went into my over tired 5 year old act and could not get to sleep. The rest of the night was spent up and down, which wouldn't have been bad except I was doing it alone. Sigh.

Next up: Saturday, Reflections on New England weather, and how we spent the day and evening during a Nor'easter.