The Ninth Strange Day

The Maryland Transit Administration released a photo today of a suspect in a stabbing last week on a bus in Baltimore, asking the public for help in identifying the alleged assailant.

The photo was taken by a security video camera on board the bus.

The incident occurred Nov. 21, while the bus was traveling in the 2300 block of E. Fayette St. Richard Solli, an MTA spokesman, said the male victim received life-threatening wounds and is still recovering. His identity was not released.

Story and photo.

So I’m doing my holiday shopping, like you do around this time of year, and I’m running out of ideas before I run out of family.

And then I find this….

Wrought Iron Haven.

Mmm. Wrought iron.

They have all sorts of candle holders… table top, wall sconces… things hold votives and tapers and jar candles… things that aren’t candle holders at all…. I wish they had a coat stand and not just coat hooks. I’d love a coat tree. Just, you know, saying.

They ship internationally! I am all for any site that ships internationally because every year I have trouble finding places that will accept a Canadian shipping address and a US billing address.

The prices are pretty reasonable, too. Especially with this little trick… Go to the homepage. Scroll about halfway down and click on the comma in the line that reads “Our Store now has over 1,300 home & garden items for you to choose from!” You get information about a discount. Sneaky, sneaky, kids!

Uh. So, family members? Pretend you didn’t see this, because this might be where your gifts are coming from.

Whew.

The flight back was delayed a little bit which wasn’t bad, except it was hot in the airport and we were getting drowsy and driven insane by the Christmas music.

Friday and Saturday.

Yesterday we got up at six in the morning. We left the house about 6:30, I guess? Got to the airport at OH MY GOD EARLY and then our flight was 45 minutes late. How typical, right? But it wasn’t bad. The airport has WiFi and it wasn’t crowded. But neither of us sat still very long, and wandered around the place.

I think the longest we sat most of the day was the flight, which only took about an hour.

We got to Logan Airport, found the bus to the Blue Line, got the Blue to the Green and actually found our hotel in MINUTES. Which is impressive for us - since I get lost going around the corner.

We checked in and immediately went back out again in a quest for a convenience store of some sort (sodas and the “incidentals” we didn’t pack to speed up the trip through airport security). We walked and counted Dunkin Donuts (yay!) and meandered through Chinatown and found a CVS.

We found our way back to the hotel (score!) and then went out AGAIN to the Museum of Fine Arts. Which is massive. Huge. And it’s also quite large. We were in there for about sixteen days and walked roughly 5000 miles.

Well, I did say it was large.

Seriously awesome museum. It’s like if you combined the Walters and the BMA and maybe something from Washington DC. Although I think I still prefer the Walters. First of all, it’s free. It’s also kind of like home. But still… the amount of Egyptian stuff they had was just amazing. Some really nice presentation, too.

Then we walked and walked and walked and looked at stuff. And then we took the Green line back to the hotel. PACKED. Woah. Massively packed.

Back at the hotel (found three times in a row!), then out again to dinner. An Irish pub (I like Slainte better). Then, finally, to the room. Nine PM.

Lots of time spent standing. Lots of time spent walking. So far I’m still alive.

Today we’re going to wander. There’s a graveyard right up the street at Boston Commons.

It isn’t until you’re packing to go somewhere that you realise every single connection cable you own is black with a USB connector at one end and a different sized plug at the other. Somewhere in this nest of wires is the cable for one of our two cameras and my eBook.

Strangely, I do have the cellphone charger and my headset charger.

I also have a wire for my noise-cancelling headphones…. but no headphones.

One day I will sit down with all these anonymous black wires and sort them and tag them.

Today is not that day.