To avoid the usual pattern of “arrive at Logan, drive north, get hungry, end up at Applebees eating deep fried gunk,” I availed myself of the restaurant suggestions a smart friend and booked a table for me and Johnny at Hungry Mother in Cambridge. The vagaries of our Delta arrival in Boston — long delay while wheelchairless person sought wheelchair while we all waited on the bus to take us from Terminal A to Terminal E to clear customs — plus punishing Boston traffic meant that my 6:00 p.m. reservation was timed perfectly for our arrival, as long as we skipped my planned outing to The Dutch Bicycle Company.

Hungry Mother was great — a beet salad that knocked my socks off, honey-drenched cornbread and a gnochhi that rivaled the gnocchi-from-heaven that I had last year north of Milan. They also served a very pleasant sweet iced tea, and an excellent cappuccino. They have a great deal that we weren’t in a position to take advantage of: arrive before 6:00 p.m. and get $6.00 tickets at the Kendall Square Cinema next door, and they pick up the tickets for you. In any case, I’m sure to be back for a meal again.

After dinner we headed north and were diverted by the prospect of short-sleeved-shirt shopping at the mall in Burlington, Mass. A mall that now has a Nordstrom. A Nordstrom that had a 30% off sale on house-brand 100% cotton short-sleeved shirts, button-down collar, solid colours. $32. I bought two.

Back in the car around 9:00 p.m. we steamed north-west to Peterborough, NH where we’re now hunkered down at the Jack Daniels Motor Inn, ready to launch into three days of intensive envisioning at Yankee.