There’s nothing like a mid-winter vacation to get your mojo back.  Here’s a quick overview of our week off (with details on the most important bits to come over the next few days):

Done

Trip to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (exhibits visited included the two Kyoto exhibits, the exhibit of photography of the human body, and the bits of American furniture that we could find)

Concert at Symphony Hall, Boston, for an afternoon of Mozart: Symphonies 39, 40, and 41, conducted by James Levine

Dinner at Dalya’s, where we had our wedding reception all those years ago.  Excellent food, as always.

Lunches at 31 Main and Helen’s Cafe; takeout Valentine’s Day dinner from Savoury Lane (great bargain, lasted us two meals…).

The required vacation week bookstore visit, to the Concord Bookshop, my favorite independent bookstore.  Remember to support your local bookseller!

A short-lived trip to the Burlington Mall, mostly to get face soap for me and an iTunes gift card for Jim.  Not really our thing.

Made a batch of homemade soft pretzels (yum!), and cooked up some kind of awesome nachos.

Spent a fun evening with Linda & Andy (and Greg), Greg & Carolyn (and Ben); dined on Andy’s awesome vegetarian stir-fry and Carolyn’s yummy cherry pie.

Visited with Jim’s mother and brother; enjoyed her homemade lasagna and birthday cake (happy belated birthday, Bill!).

Seen

High School Musical 3: Senior Year.  Don’t laugh.  I like these movies.  B+ ~ would have been A- if it hadn’t been so uncharacteristically dark.

My Best Friend’s Girl, with Dane Cook and Kate Hudson.  Hard to grade this one, since I’m still not sure what I thought of it.  B+?  B?  Should I take off points for offensiveness, even if it’s very funny offensiveness?

Stardust, with Claire Danes and Charlie Cox, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer as an old (sometimes beautiful, sometimes haggard) witch and Robert DeNiro as a cross-dressing gay pirate (???!!!???).  A- ~ good fun, well done. 

Across the Universe.  Couldn’t stomach this one!  After about fifteen minutes Jim and I both stuck out our tongues in disgust and turned it off.  Blech.

Death at a Funeral.  Very, very funny.  Really enjoyed this one.  A.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  Stopped watching this one a few minutes in, after consulting with my sister the professor, who gently commented that the book is way better than the movie, and I would be doing the book a disservice if I didn’t read it first.

And a few favorite T.V. shows:  “The Office,” “30 Rock” (which I’ve grown to love, surprisingly), “The Vicar of Dibley,” “Chef,” and a few minutes of assorted crap to cleanse the palate.

Read

Envy by Anna Godbersen

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

The Great Tree of Avalon by T.A. Barron (begun, not finished)

This Old House magazine

The Atlantic

The New Yorker

More on the books in the coming days, of course.

Thank goodness for vacations.  The house is clean, the cats are happy, and Jim and I look like ourselves again – fewer stress wrinkles on our well-rested faces.  Aaaah.