when we arrive in boston it is after a long night on the bus. ni and i have the morning to ourselves, we plan on meeting ana and toxicfur after their church league softball game. we head straight for MIT.
their museum is amazing. so many cool exhibits, it was so hard to leave the museum in time. the original lisp machine was there, i can hardly believe it can even turn on without shorting out. never have i seen such a mad tangle of thin wires. and yet it did work, and here it is saved in the museum. we admire the flatworms, the stem cells, the zebra fish, the tiny citycars, we fiddle with switches, play with levers and hit buttons. it is really engrossing. we tear ourselves away, i still am lusting after the gorgeous jewelry made out of computing and engineering bits and pieces.

we met up with ana and toxicfur at a pub on charles street. they were now the sub-champions. several jokes about the seriousness of church league softball were made. i can't remember if ni and i refrained from pointing out that the largest race riot in canadian history happened at church league softball championships.
we were forced to play darts, ni tried to hide. i threw the darts with poise and confidence haphazardly towards the dart board.
it was all delightful. i ate delicious pickles and greek salad. we drank dark local beer.

we went out to melrose for the rest of the afternoon and napped chez ana and toxicfur to prepare ourselves for the boston husi meet up.
ana and toxicfur are incredible hosts. they have the coziest house, with a little random mid-stair carpeted mezzanine, too small to serve as anything but a cattery. i give my whole hearted approval to homes with kitten dens. it is something that i require of a house.
there are too many beautiful little things to list them all. the pantry has chip-board walls, but the chip-board has been finished and stained beautifully so it looks opulent and unique. there is wood trim everywhere.
silas, simon and rocky were delightful to meet and hang out with.

we took the mbta into boston that evening. the man who never returned still rides forever neath the streets of boston. his likeness is on the pass cards and subway posters. they call him charlie.

the bar was full of beer and it was a bit loud, and there were lots of people to meet. as is usual for me at these things, the problem of remembering everyone's name is compounded by everyone having two.
i wish to embarrassingly confess that lady jane was too pretty. i could barely even talk to her. somehow, for no reason i really expected her to look like the GI Joe cartoon lady. rugged, skinny, mannish, short hair, fatigues. she so isn't. she is very tall, and all curves. she has brown hair but it's like snow white's... it curled just so over her shoulders, she had red nail polish and lip gloss. swoon! so dear lady jane, sorry i was too much of a blushing fool to actually speak to you. i'm sure you're very nice. hopefully i will be less twitter-pated when next we meet.
everyone else also exceeded my expectations. husi, you are all such wonderful people to meet and hang out with.
i now also have an igrrl crush. i think i am in good company.
as we were getting up to go, mr. goat grabbed ni and held him in a passionate embrace. once they were done making out, mr. goat scooped me up into his arms and thoroughly probed all my virtues and and generally manhandled me. it was awesome. i expressed regret as we left that i don't get such thrilling ministrations from strange men more often. i can't recall if it was toxicfur or who then commented wistfully: "no matter how well i get to know mr. goat, he's reliably always a strange man."

We got to go to the blessing of the animals at ana and toxicfur's church. i loved it. there were so many dogs and cats there. it was really fun. we sang two of my favourite hymns, all things bright and beautiful and i now have forgotten the other one. drat. anyway the service was hillarious, with all the dogs and cats pacing nervously and occasionally barking or howling. the preist read the story of st. fances and the wolf. i particularly liked the part where the wolf gave st.fancis his paw to shake as means of of an oath. the church was lovely. i liked the part where the preist was "blessing" all the animals with holy water. he kind of hesitated and shirked away apologeticly from the now dampened and enraged cats. it was so much fun.
now i also have proof that neither i, nor ni, ana or toxicfur are vampires. it's not like i actually expected to discover i was a vampire, i'd just never actually gotten sprinkled with holy water before. 
we took the pets for walks and hung out some more, ni and i explored boston's downtown and it's parks. we ate an amazingly delicious indian style dinner, and we had to go to bed sort of early to make our bus the next day. i wish i could have stayed longer. i hope to return, and revisit all of you there.
please come see me in edmonton if you are ever out this way.