Energy

Spotlight: water main break

Just around the corner. Caused an all day power outage. Currently scheduled to replace original gas lines on our street next month. What could possibly go wrong?

Hohohogie

Harbor walk to Trillium

Home of the free and the brave

Portland Head Light

BBF-Maureen Dowd. Quite the venue.

Just another day on the river #HOCR

Spotlight: Committee Boston

Salute to a new found restaurant in the seaport district. Cindy and I walked around fan pier and emerged in a new neighborhood with harbor facing condos, sailboats and a Mecca of new places to eat. Everyone was eating outside, as the day was warm and filled with a sea breeze.
Committee is a Greek or Mediterranean inspired place. We settled in for brunch. As we looked around it was clear we were the oldest by far. Nevertheless everyone was friendly and enjoying their personal favorite brunch libation.
Oh to be 25 again. (And we are still having fun pretending we are!)
Incredible food, service and atmosphere.

Fan pier stroll

Al fresco in October

Before WeWork

A view across the harbor

A walk in the park...

A Formaggio Kitchen night

Spotlight: Loco Taqueria & oyster bar

Down in Southie, great walk, great neighborhood, great restaurant. Bacon guacamole, tequila cocktails and extraordinary tacos

A sparkly day

When life gives you oranges

Units matter. Go Cuse 😂

Tulips together

A dogs day afternoon...

Avon Drone

Quick drone peek at the surrounding vistas of Avon, Ct.

Literary Lights

Celebrating the Boston public library, and its recent renovation and digitization of 1000s of original manuscripts, paintings and books.
Inspiring and humbling.

Happy Easter

A fun way to celebrate the start of year 5 in Red Sox nation ⚾️#openingday

One Less Reason To Own A Car

Its hard to explain but life in the city is simpler than life in the suburbs or country. We do most of our day to day grocery shopping by walking to one of several regular stores or speciality shops. On days when we need more than a few bags of groceries, there are 3 options for online shopping. Each has a delivery charge or subscription fee, and each charges the same as what you would find in the grocery store. We tend to eat similar foods week to week, and each offers, "Fill my cart with what you think I need", basically looking at common last orders. I usually tip the girl/guy who lugs up all the food 3 floors.
At the end of the day its a bit more expensive than driving to the grocery store, but the time saving and convenience is win. We basically shop on a phone app while eating breakfast, and each delivers to your kitchen.


Peapod: Online ordering, and delivery from a local chain of grocery stores. It has your typical large grocery store feel to the web site, nothing special, but everything has been good that we have ordered. We order staples, meat and produce. There is delivery fee ($7) for orders above $100. This was our first experience with online grocery shopping.  Deliveries can be scheduled for 24 hours or more ahead. 12 hours before the delivery there is a cutoff time from changing your order.

Instacart with Whole Foods: Instacart is not a part of Whole Foods, but rather a pick up service from many stores, Whole Foods, Costco, Petco, et al.  Just about anything our local Whole Foods sells, you can order. This is basically shopping and delivery on demand. You can get  groceries delivered right away. The fee is either subscription based ($100) or ($5) per trip. Prices vary on the per trip depending on demand. You can be thinking about dinner at 4, and have groceries delivered by 5. Its Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) prices, but there is no better quality of food anywhere, including Wegmans. They offer our favorite loaves of bread, and vegan cookies. I was getting messages from the shopper as he made 2 substitutions, asking if it was ok.

Amazon Fresh: The most interesting of all 3, as they offer many choices from local stores that we frequent. Cheese from a local cheese store, or meat from our favorite butcher. Also they are the cheapest for everyday items. The packaging is very nice, all in refrigerated, but collapsable containers, that you return on your next order. The price is an add on to Prime membership of $15.00 per month.

After trying all 3, I suspect we will stay with Amazon Fresh, and use instacart when we need something for an evening meal, and don't feel like walking 10 minutes to go get it.

wework

Compromise: When everyone looses something.

Thats how I feel about cubicles. They are neither private or communal. Something brought to by a forgotten era of work. Fortunately companies are searching for something better. Enter wework, a company the retrofits existing space (usually old factories) into a collection of private offices, very private phone booths, large open floors of desks, and conference rooms. You choose what you want when you need it. There are currently 3 locations in Boston, housing over 5000 people and 100s of companies. Everything from large insurance companies to one man start ups.

My company is looking to experiment for the summer in such a venture. The Doc and I went and got a tour of the locations. They provide the office space, desk, chairs, custodial, internet, food (tea/coffee/water/beer). Thats right each floor has a stocked kitchen. Did I mention local draft beer on tap? Some are pet friendly. The atmosphere in the open spaces is one of soft-spoken nerds discussing who knows what with new found friends. The offices are quiet, but open feeling as they are all glassed in to let natural light penetrate.

Winter in the Public Garden

Downloading the Louvre

Shout out to Meural for the best gadget of 2017. Basically a digital frame that you can download famous pieces of artwork (more than 30,000 pictures currently in the collection) or upload your own.
React to hand gestures to move to the next print, or give you more information about a current piece.

It can be hung on the wall,  or more informally just sitting on my desk.

I encourage you to go to their web site and check it out. Why fly to all the museums, have them come to you?

Below are some collections that I have downloaded. Each picture comes with a description that can be overplayed on the canvas. I've been to the Louvre, this is a better experience.

I love a parade

#rogerthat

Bar Mezzana

In the last year a new neighborhood has formed in the South End. The Ink Block district is anchored by a building that was once the Boston Herald. It is now a new Whole Foods and a series of new upscale restaurants and bars. New city block size condos are being constructed. 
In the last week we dined at 2 of the new restaurants, both outstanding but the new Italian restaurant Bar Mezzana quickly has become our new favorite.
Memorable items were fried smelt, prosciutto with figs, and an eggplant bruschetta.

Go Pats!

Another Great Year #3

Last year we published some of best experiences of living in Boston. We continue this tradition.

Best Restaurant Experience

C/T Kava - A new Greek restaurant around the corner, it "oozes" romance. They have a wonderful outdoor dining space in the middle of a favorite South End neighborhood. We felt as though we had spent the evening in a small Greek village. The music was magical. Pass on the Greek beer.

Best Quote

C - "Strong winds make strong trees" - Dustin Johnson

T - "If you want to accomplish something you will find a way, otherwise you will find an excuse" - Jim Rohn

Best Book

C - The Circle It will be awhile before I purchase Alexa.

T - Triumph of Genius, Edwin Land, Polaroid and the Kodak Patent War  In all of human history, every time anyone has waged a war on science, science eventually wins. 

Best Article

C - A teachers thoughts for students: How to be an American As JFK said, "One person can make a difference, and everyone should try".

T - The Great A.I. Awakening Every educated person should read this to understand where we have been and where we are headed.

Best Drink

C - Check out my Untappd profile. (67 unique beers!)

T - The last beer I had.

Best Entertainment

C - Cindi Lauper Yay for the old girls, and yes we just wanna have fun...

T - Learning to do a flip turn in the pool.

Best thing about Boston

C/T - Sunshine and  the University Club

Worst thing about Boston

C - Its borders, inspiration and passion do not extend to the rest of the world.
T - What she said.

Best Sporting Event

C/T Boston Storm The Beanpot was pretty cool too. 

Best Gadget

C - Arlo Wireless Web Cam

T - Apple iPad Pro with apple pencil and the app Goodnotes 

Women's March-Boston 2017

Mrs Mallard says Go Pats! 🏈

Morning snow in the public garden

...taken in Boston, MA, by  Weatherpope. 

Sent from my iPhone

Oysters + Beer

Down Fort Point way is a new restaurant for us, Row 34. It specializes in fresh seafood and beer, need I say more?

A magical jaunt to Greece via Kava

Down by the River

New Years day drone flight down by the river Charles.  The video starts looking up at Beacon Hill, if you look hard you can see the gold dome of the State House. At 1:50, I goofed and headed back to the city, you can see the Taj, and the duck pond. I thought i was heading back over the river.  Got it all straightened out when I looked. I was being told to find somewhere else to fly because of the wind. Next up drone racing!

Happy New Year '17

Holy Condo

Turning an old church into a condo is a common transformation here. This is going to be magnificent.
Check out the wall thickness on the bottom floor. The website with pictures and a video can be found at http://www.thelucasboston.com