office. It's also nice to have a guest room and extra bathroom -- which we didn't have in DC. We've got a total of four bedrooms, and we had people stuffed in all of them. I was worried about how our quirky extra shower would deal with multiple people. No one complained and everyone seemed generally clean, so I guess it was OK. Or else they were all running over to the neighbor's house or something.Earlier in the week, JT sent out an email to the office asking if anyone had an air mattress we could borrow. Of course everyone has an air mattress, because what they don't have is extra rooms. So, a single air mattress on the floor of our smallest bedroom made things cozy for Sea Girl (with us above, having a picnic by the river). She's a trooper for putting up with that room -- I've seen far bigger walk-in closets.
Since she had the fun of staying in her new boss's house, LC, the new intern, got the guest room. (shown at right with Sea Girl, on our way to London.)
And Gonzo Scientist and his girlfriend got the futon in my office.
He impressed us all by arranging to interview someone at the Cambridge Beer Festival. In a pirate hat.At first I was nervous about how I was going to entertain all these people, but they're all highly self-entertaining. Most have been places far more exotic. Sea Girl hit the streets on a bike and remarked that it's impossible to get lost in Cambridge. She even ran into new-found friends multiple times in our wee village. Gonzo lived here briefly years ago, and had meetings lined up nearly the entire time he was here. And it's LC's first time in England, so it was fun to walk around town and see her excitement at things like the red phone boxes and double-decker buses that we already take for granted.
The weeks were filled with a couple of trips to London (one for the football game, of course), a picnic or two, and of course good times at the Cambridge Beer Festival. We didn't even have time to take anyone to some of our favorite haunts outside of Cambridge. I'm just fine with that, actually: This week I've purchased plane tickets to three different countries. All of those trips will happen within 4 weeks of each other. So, with the houseguests all gone and my suitcase about to be permanently packed for the month of June, I wandered down to the beer festival for some quality time that didn't involve coordinating with anyone else's schedule. Here's what it did involve:
I'm well on the road to regeneration. Holland, Lithuania, and Portugal: Here I come.*The title is for the benefit of the family. No, we don't charge you 40 bucks a night.
