Dolberry in the town of beans

Well, it started a day later than expected. Got to the airport on Monday night for my 7:50 flight. But American canceled that flight and put me on a 6a flight the next morning. Then they canceled that one too. (I think AA is running some sort of Ponzi scheme now rather than an actual airline ... because they did offer me lifetime distributor rights to sell AA tickets in the E. Apex area ... so if anyone needs a flight ... let me know ...) I was about to punt on this whole trip when AA said they could reroute me thru NYC, but the people in front of me caused a stink and got on a Delta flight at the same time. The lingering bad smell must have caused the gate agent to make me the same offer.

Got to the conference only 45 minutes late after all AA's shenanigans and it was a good conference. I took copious notes, but I'll spare you blog readers that. Here's a picture from somewhere on Harvard's campus.


Because Marriott is running a double miles promotion, I stayed at a hotel 1.5 miles away from the conference. After some of those cold walks, I'm just glad they didn't have a triple miles thing in Worcester, or I'd still be out there no doubt. Here was the view from my hotel room.


There were lots of crew teams out in the Charles River in the morning. Seems like a weird thing. You have 8 rowers, 1 person who sits in the boat doing nothing apparently, one person who drives a motorized boat beside them, and one person on the motorboat w/ a megaphone yelling at the 8 rowers in the boat. So, to recap there's three cushy jobs and eight hard ones.


Yesterday, I walked over 6 miles, back & forth to Harvard (see above) and back & forth to Fenway Park (see below). You cross the Charles at the BU bridge & you get a really good view of downtown Boston.


As expected, Fenway was really cool. You come around a corner & then you see the back of the Monster and your heart skips a beat. You follow the mass of people in their Papelbon 58 shirts onto Yawkey Way, inhaling the swirling scents of hot dogs, sausage and pizza. The inside of the park is very clean and it sure doesn't look 97 years old.


The fans there are equally as impressive as the architecture. The Sox were trailing 6-1 in the 8th and not a person had left. They were on their feet when the Red Sox started to rally (YOUUUUUUUUUUK!), even before the tying run even got to the plate. They still expected to win even down 5 w/ 6 outs left. It didn't pan out that way. Scott Kazmir pitched a great game for the Rays ... shutting down the BoSox the same way we saw him shutdown the Reds last month in Sarasota. The Rays can beat you via small ball (hit & run and a safety squeeze in the same inning) and the long ball (Longoria and Pena both homered). Rays 7, Red Sox 2. They play a lot of good music at Fenway. Here's a bonus countdown for ya: top 3 songs played when Red Sox batters come to the plate:

#3 Jason Varitek: Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
#2 Jason Bay: Alive (Pearl Jam)
#1 Jacoby Ellsbury: Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)

I headed back today and American still didn't want to take me. They said when the agents switched me to Delta on Tuesday, they switched my return flight to Delta as well (w/o telling me). Eventually, they took me though and I was glad to be home. Looking forward to the day off at home tomorrow.