We’re at Noreascon 4 in Boston. We arrived today from New York — the trip took a bit less time than it would have if we’d come directly from home, but the door-to-door time was still nearly six hours (35 minutes of which was actually spent in the air).

Things don’t really get started until tomorrow, but folks are trickling in — we saw some of our friends as we were en route from our hotel, the Marriott at Copley Place, to the party/HQ hotel, the Sheraton Boston (the route goes through Prudential Center, so it’s quite possible we won’t see the unfiltered light of day until we’re ready to leave town), and they pointed us at the parties already in progress in the Sheraton. We never quite made it to the party we intended to go to — instead, we stumbled into the Con Suite Preview just as it opened up at 10pm.

But before that, we’d had dinner at Gourmet India in the Pru Center Food Court, where I had chicken vindaloo (I’ve had spicier, but not for a number of years!). After that, I wanted ice cream (and Diane and Jeff were willing to go along with the idea), so we went to Toscanni’s in Cambridge. Walking, of course. I knew exactly how to get there from the Cambridge Marriott (go up Main Street a few long blocks), so we walked across the Harvard Bridge, through MIT, and up Main Street…about 2.5 miles. When we finally reached Toscanni’s, we discovered that they were less than a block from Mass Ave — the trip back to the hotel was only 1.5 miles. Oh, well….

Diane had a hard time deciding on her ice cream — she didn’t think anything she tried had an intense enough flavor. And there certainly wasn’t enough chocolate in anything for her taste. I was happy with the Orange Chocolate; I do not, however, recommend the Chocolate Jack Daniels.

Tomorrow, we plan to do some actual Boston touristing (Freedom Trail, probably) before the con starts. The programming may well keep us busy the rest of the weekend!

We were driving from Richmond, Virginia, to Adelphi, Maryland this afternoon, and it was time for dinner. I suggested that, for old times’ sake, we eat at what we thought might be the only surviving Lum’s restaurant, but I wasn’t exactly sure where it was.

Fortunately, I now have Verizon Wireless Wide-Area Wireless service, so Jeff Googled (hmmm…wonder how long “Google” will need an upper-case letter?) for “Lums Restaurant Virginia” and found the phone number, which Diane dialed, only to hear the dreaded “dee-dee-dee, the number you have called is no longer in service” recording. All at 65 mph (and not one bit faster, in case any state troopers are reading this), which boggles my mind. Good thing I had passengers, though, so I didn’t have to type and drive at the same time!

So instead of getting off the highway in Woodbridge, where Lums used to be, we got off in Springfield. En route to the Springfield Mall, where I guessed we’d find something tolerable, if not good, Diane saw Osaka Japanese Restaurant, and we went there. It was pretty good, and much more interesting than the food court would have been!