what? who?

We hit the road early this morning and drove first to Waltham, to pick up the girls -- DD and her cousin, M, at my older sister's house. Then we parked at Alewife T station and rode the train to Harvard Square, and went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It's a great little museum for the kids, you can see a lot and not be overwhelmed.

Then we traipsed through the steamy weather back to the other side of Harvard Square for lunch at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage, which was excellent except for the decor, which being geared towards college students has a number of less-than-appropriate posters and bumper stickers all over the walls. Nothing raunchy, of course, just the kind of stupid sex and drinking college humor that I don't want to explain to my 8-year-old. But lunch was delicious, and fortified us for our return to the subway and the trip to Fenway Park, where we 1) shopped and 2) did the tour.

It was fun, and somehow the kids remained engaged throughout, even though it was hot when we were sitting in the right field roof seats. The Green Monster Seats are completely fabulous, but I doubt I would be willing to cough up $140 for one. I'm just not that fanatic. ("And you call yourself a fan?" Well, no, I don't -- but I do like baseball.) Doesn't matter,Red Sox Nation will thrive without me.

So after all that, took the T back to Alewife and took the Fresh Pond Parkway-Soldier's Field Road-Storrow Drive route over to 93S (since 128S would be a parking lot by that time) and was just amazed at the lack of traffic -- really, it took us less than 15 minutes to get across town. Back when I lived in Boston, that would've been considered miraculous at any time of day, and obviously impossible at rush hour. Let's hear it for the Big Dig, which did some good after all!

Finally get home after 7PM, argue some dinner into the kids, get them into their pj's, etc. 8:45PM, bedtime is imminent, so what do they ask?

Can we watch an episode of Doctor Who?

(We polished off Season 1 last week, and and are about 4 episodes into Season 2... clearly, my work here is done. In all honesty, I knew I was nearly there when at the NE Aquarium, DS2 bought a small keychain that glows blue when you push a button so it will project a shark image, declaring it a perfect sonic screwdriver...)