Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

You’re kidding me!
This is how you get from the Ruggles T Statio to the Museum of Fine Arts?!

I bought a Not For Tourists Guide to Boston before I moved here. I also bought a thousand other guide books, but the NFT book is the one I’ve ended up taking with me every time I go out. It just has the most helpful information. So last night, I was reading the NFT guide – just learning about my new city – and I noticed that they had a web site. And you know how I feel about web sites.

I went to this site just now, and it is excellent! Why? In addition to a free signup (which you may need to do to use the next links coming up) and many helpful links, they have the entire book online! I’m talking PDFs of every page in the latest version of the book. I have last year’s version of the book, and at first I’m thinking, "Hey! I don’t have to buy the new one at all. Suckers!"

But then I was thinking about how up-to-date all the information is on the new pages, and I was exploring all the cool stuff, and… I think I’m going to have to get myself the brand new one. I really can’t help myself.

I guess my point is twofold: (1) The NFT Guides are seriously handy to have with you, no matter what and (2) When you give stuff away for free, you’re not losing customers, you’re developing new relationships and gaining new customers. Why haven’t the big record execs missed this simple principle of business karma? 

family outing
Originally uploaded by radioflyer007

Bahahahaha!

For the uninitiated, "Make Way for Ducklings" is a children’s book set in Boston, and there are bronze ducks commemorating the book in the public garden.

So I thought my web traffic had dropped off considerably. I know I didn’t blog a lot last month because of the new job and everything, but man, it’s been a wasteland – crickets, tumbleweeds, and the like. I just asked Aaron how to look up the stats over time. I don’t usually do that, but it’s just been so eerily quiet. Anyway, I looked all of this stuff up, and I was convinced that November was this dry period unlike no other. Then I realized that I was comparing a month that only had 4 days in it so far to other full months. My brain wasn’t working right.

Anyhoo, we’ve been a little more social lately, which is a very good thing, I think. My parents were here last weekend. I had a little health scare – a tachycardia while waiting in line for brunch. My heart rate jumped to 150 beats per minute then gradually made it back to normal over about 45 minutes. As a result, I’m wearing a little Holter monitor. It’s kind of cumbersome, but it’s only for 24 hours. They collect that much data, then analyze it to see what’s up. Turns out this happens to people more than I realize. My response has been to cut back on a few of my medications that are notoriously blood pressure increasing. I’m also going to look into seeing if I can join a yoga studio. That’s always good for me in like a million ways.

The Halloween candy is gone, and soon, the leaves will all be fallen from the trees. For now, the fall colors are lovely, and the sky is still often blue.

Did another trivia tonight (after a day of report writing in Cambridge – no appointments with kids, so I got to kinda play hookie). This time, we won third place and a $15 gift certificate to the place for next time. Yay!