resolutions

I'm trying not to dwell.
Christmas itself was sad without my favorite fuzzball around but was still lovely. I loved spending time with my Mom and showing the Boyfriend Buffalo's culinary delights and Polish traditions. But I'm still sad.



On to the present and future...
My present is absolutely wonderful and I'm very excited about it. I'm using my gorgeous new (but antique!) jewelery box every day.

How about a resolution to paint the bedroom? That sounds good. Perhaps in the spring.

Vacation plans: Prague seems to be out of the running. It's just too expensive to fly. Recession? Shmecession. The airlines are still out to gouge us all. And I'm just not the type of personality that can do a last minute vacation from budget-finding websites because the price is right - and really, what kind of 9-5er is anyway? I need to plan plan plan!

Which brings me to the alternative: the Caribbean. To be more specific, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Yes - the DR, Part II - but this time perhaps at a resort. The spontaneous (well, spontaneous because I didn't do the planning, Tour Guide Boyfriend did), earthy, motoconcho-wheeling trip we last took was amazing but requires a good amount of research - and hutzpah. We have neither the time nor (currently) the inclination for that this time around. And we can get a direct flight from Boston - which is KEY when time is short.

My mom offered up some of our RCI credits so that will be an IMMENSE help in making a vacation happen. Mid to late March a la spring break? Sounds good to Kate...

And New Year's Plans are so far a bust. I would like to stay at home with champagne and make s'mores by the fire. Who knows?

Another note: This story telling is... sadly too perfect. And not just for writers.

gi gi

We had to put Gypsy down on Christmas Eve morning.
I did get to say goodbye, and I'm grateful for that.

Don't want to say much more, just that I'll miss her lots and lots.

oh the weather outside is frightful

Today the two of us are headed to Buffalo - fingers crossed for smooth travels. My mom reports that Gypsy is fading fast - so I'm hoping she hangs in there for a while longer and that I can spend some time telling her what an amazing kitty she's always been. I'm anxious to get home...

Here in Boston, Friday was a snow day - a SNOW DAY! Is that not amazing??? I'm still not over it. Let's review: A day ... of snow. You with me? A SNOW DAY. Okay, I'm done.

Mr. Boyfriend and I had planned to travel to his parents farm in NH that night, but we left first thing in the morning to"beat" the storm. And good thing we got there before it hit - because once it started, it DID NOT STOP. It continued to snow (or at least sleet) until Sunday night - so we drove home through the blizzard in white-out conditions. Fun!

Anyway, the impromptu three-day weekend was spent having wintry farm fun. We slept in the newly finished barn to avoid kitties in the house and stave off allergy-induced asthma attacks, which was a cozy adventure.

We also tramped out into the woods to find some Christmas trees, and found great success. Pictures to follow...some day. We romped in the snow with their new border collie, Jim (I miss Jessie - what a wonderful dog) and the hammy mutt Tripp.

And then I shoveled the roof. Single-handedly. With my BARE HANDS and BRUTE STRENGTH. Just kidding, I used a trowel.

We gave Mr. Boyfriend's Parents homemade fudge and exchanged gifts, and had a very lovely time (except for that drive back).

Happy Holidays all!


more animals

laughing all the way

I'm working with one of my coworkers (working, yeah yeah...but it's not what you think!) to start a bookclub! We've gotten some great responses from Craigslist already - and now we just have to figure out WHAT to read and WHERE to talk about it! (The "when" I'm not too concerned about...)

Perhaps we can use a church community room or something. A cafe or restaurant is possible if and only if the other members agree that it's ok to spend a little something each meeting. I certainly don't want to be the annoying crowd that wanders into a pub every few weeks and sits and gabs without providing much business. Um, I'm getting pushy already. Oops.

I'd be happy with a no-frills outlet where I can intelligently discuss a book I loved (or loathed) with people who care enough to share their own opinions with others. But I'd also be happy to meet some interesting locals, wander across to some shelves I've previously avoided (cough, biographies, cough), and find a good excuse to seek out food and drink.

We're promoting the group as for "recovering liberal arts students" who miss their English departments. I think six people would be great, and I have high hopes. High, nerdy nerdy hopes.

12 Days of Christmas Burnout

Let's play Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Good idea: work through the weekend to get comp. time for holidays to travel home to family in Buffalo (with boyfriend in tow!)
Bad idea: work 12 days straight to get comp. time for holidays to go home to family for whom I have not yet had time to gift shop (whining to boyfriend all the way!)

Can't...look...at...computer screen...any...longer...


Oh well. At least the weekend work was fun and festive, and I shall see Miss Andrea next week. And 9 days until Christmas!

Fifty is nifty

Welcome to the 50th Peckish Post Extravaganza!!!

So much to cover - where to start?

Saturday
...featured a trip to Providence - namely RISD and the Dale Chihuly Exhibition.
Look at this.



Okay, now pick up a wine goblet, or look at your vision correction lenses. Heck, look through a window. It's the same stuff. YEAH. I know. And Chihuly's visions make it look effortlessly organic.

I was really excited to bring Mr. Boyfriend, since I tend to run my mouth around "aht" and practice Visual Thinking Strategies on him, and all the poor guy wants to do is have his own pointilistic up-too-close moments, a la Cameron and the Seurat. Viewing the Chihuly exhibition is fun like that - you can just have your moment with these wildly awe-inspiring pieces and let it stand at that.

The rest of the RISD museum was a great surprise - a fair amount of 20th century American and European fine art, and entire wings of Ancient Greek and Roman work... It's definitely worth another trip someday. Especially with reciprocity benefits!

We drove back to Boston and, after dinner, finally saw Quantum of Solace. That was a bit of a disappointment, it just lacked a bit of the finesse from Casino Royale, and it was like they didn't even bother to explain the ridiculously convoluted evil multi-national corporation takes some vaguely-defined aggressive action against innocent peoples plot. By the time the chases peaked and Craig pouted his way across a handful of countries (mourning Vespa's loss just briefly enough to shag a fellow Brit), I was jaded and bored, much like Bond.

Oh well, at least the company was excellent.

Sunday

...Mr. Boyfriend woke me up to show me our FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE YEAR: the first snow! The first one that stuck, anyway. We tossed on clothes and dashed to our favorite brunch spot, Zaftig's, where we beat the rush and had a record 2 minute wait. Take that, Brookline. But if we keep going there, I'm gonna look like this:

But in this weather it would probably help to have the extra warmth. After an amazing breakfast of poached eggs over potato pancakes, spinach, and smoked salmon, I bundled up and waddled through the snow downtown, window shopping along Newbury. Around 1:00 I made it to the Bizarre Bazaar - a sort of hipster craft show featuring mostly New England artists - I got some great holiday shopping done and bought myself a cool headband. Definitely worth the block-long line to wait in the snow. Though, who am I kidding, I loved every minute of it. Yay New England!

Then I came home, we made soup, and curled up to watch In Bruges. The movie was great, odd, dark, and disturbingly funny, and really showcased the city - well, as much as it could have on Kara's favorite joke: the Tiny TV. But - aha! - we hope to soon to be in possession of a 46" Sony flat screen, so keep your fingers crossed that we'll soon be able to see Colin Farrell's unibrow larger than life in hi-def!

Monday
...was a Monday.

Fun to come...
I hope to give the Tiny TV a proper viking funeral on the Charles.
Or, more likely, donate it.
Also, I'm working Saturday and Sunday to earn some comp. time for the holidays. It'll be a long weekend and not very weekend-y at all, but worth the vacation time.

Even to the clouds, if that's what your heart commands.

New colors. I tidied my cube yesterday, so why not my blog today? Ha.

I'm off to Davis and Tufts to see Urinetown with Dave, one of Mr. Boyfriend's old roommates and an all around awesome dude who wears a beard quite well. I hope the show rocks, but not too much to make me jealous that we never did it while I was there.

I'm such a sweetie.

Let's not talk about real life

Thanksgiving had its ups and downs. I wish my mom lived in Boston. And Gypsy was - is? - very sick and spent the whole weekend at the vet's office. She's about 15 years old and the best cat ever.

And today I should have stayed in bed. The same goes for yesterday.

I should probably mention that to cheer myself up last night, I read and read for hours and had Saint Agur while nursing a Chouffe Houblon IPA Triple.

But if I told you I had beer and bleu cheese for dinner while reading Anne Rice, you might judge me.

Bohemia Bagel

I already knew all good things come from Poland. That's a given. Pierogi, Chopin, my people...and bagels!

Well, kinda-sorta for that last one: Slate - A short history of the bagel

What I love, though, is that when I lived in Prague, a short train ride from Poland's amorphous borders, bagels were nowhere to be found in the charming Czech bakeries or sidewalk cafes. My fellow students (in the NYU program) were jonesing for their New York bagels...the rolls were like the red velvet cupcakes for the residents our dorm in Vinohrady - coveted and rarefied by hipsters each convinced there was only one game back home that could really provide the ultimate fix.

There was indeed one bagel purveyor in Praha, a locally-owned chain called Bohemia Bagel. They provided their bagels to another place called Cafe Ebel, so once you knew where to get them, you never had to suffer bagel deficiency. I frequented those establishments easily 4 or 5 times a week. They were open late, served breakfast ALL DAY, and had amazing soups and hummus. Ebel had phenomenal lattes that I still dream about, and not even 1369 in Cambridge can compare.

Kinda funny that bagels may have traveled all the way to the States only to turn around and head back to Eastern Europe, with a slight detour. Dangit I'm hungry.

I don't speak that accent

I have found my abs. Not through yoga, or pilates, or by spotting them on the kitchen floor in front of the fridge. Instead I know where they are because they hurt.

For our 3.5 year anniversary I got the Boyfriend and myself tickets to see Robin Williams, live at the Orpheum. Nothing (not even the obnoxious guffawer behind us - I know, I know, at a comedy show! But this dude was seriously ON something! Or the parents in front of us who brought their TEN YEAR OLD SONS to see one the most creatively foul-mouthed comedians out there) could put a damper on the night.

The show was spectacular. I did not stop laughing once, and Mr. Boyfriend loved it too. The audio technicians cranked up Robin's microphone so he could be heard over the crowds, so nary a word was lost to the guffaws of Woody Woodpecker behind us.

Topics covered included: GPS systems, alcoholism, children, Disney, China, Nazis, drugs (all of them), depression, dogs, sex, the French, Nascar, cloning, cell phones, football, African Olympic runners, cats, Obama, the Irish, doctors, Mr. Williams' hirsuteness, divorce, paraplegics, pole dancers, Scots, baseball, phone ladders outsourced to India, inbreeding, Mormons, Canadians, the South, women's gymnastics, the human body, coffee, Seattle, earthquakes, and Christopher Walken in adult films.

In summation: Holy God that was amazing.

The weather outside is frightful...

The fire inside? Not so delightful.

Ok, it was delightful for about 20 minutes. We finally got our fireplace inspected this month, but November decided to be freakishly warm and deny us any chance to light a fire. Last week's eyeball-freezing temperatures gave us our first chance. There was plenty of dry firewood left by the last owners (thanks, strangers!) and I scavenged some kindling from our wooded property (re: made boyfriend drag a branch from the lawn into the apartment).

Mr. Boyfriend poked around in the hearth for a while, Boyscout/Man vs. Wild/No-let-me-I'm-male style, while I circled offering helpful encouragement ("Where's the corkscrew? I can't find the corkscrew. It was right here, where did you put the corkscrew? Don't worry I found the corkscrew. Where's the red?"). In a few short minutes, thanks to the combined efforts of pyromania and oenophilia, while we had a crackling fire. There was a small hiccup -
Me: Don't break the flue.
Him: I think I broke the flue.
But we persevered and together basked in the warm glow. We sipped the 2006 Fleur Petite Sirah (4.5 out of 5 for taste and value!), gazing into each others eyes and sighing in domestic delight.

Then we started coughing.

Smoke wasn't exactly billowing into the room, but things were definitely getting hazy. The reason? Science. I'll bring Bill Nye in to explain.

Me: Hi Bill Nye!
BN: Hey, Kate. Thanks for the pie. So, why does the fireplace smoke? Could be any of a number of reasons - but your recent cleaning and inspection thankfully eliminate a number of those possibilities, like creosote build up, or physical obstructions or flaws.
Me: So what could it be?
BN: Well, it could be the high winds. Or recent insulation updates may have upset the pressure balance for which the chimney was originally intended. Or even just the cold weather could be to blame! Fixing your (now) broken flue, or reducing the size of the opening to adjust the air volume and flow are likely solutions. Look at this nifty experiment to demonstrate what I mean!
Me: Wow! I understand PERFECTLY from your highly visual demonstration to explain this scientific principle I could not otherwise convey myself through this blogging medium!
BN: Thanks, Kate. By the way, you're looking lovely today.
Me: Bill, what we had is past. It can never work.

So that's what happened. Sorry to get all science-y on you. We gave up on the fire and made dinner and watched "The Painted Veil," which was beautiful and sad and presents an interesting if somewhat flat take on British colonialism and China. For dinner we roasted a leg of lamb, sauteed some broccoli rabe, and had it over quinoa. And I made an apple pie. But Bill Nye ate most of it.

*k2tog, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2, sl1, k1, psso; rep from *

I can finish a hat before Sunday's baby shower, right? Alas, it will definitely be too big for a newborn infant but it's too late I have DVRed plenty of House - the ultimate knitting show because the dialogue is snappy (but not schmaltzy! *ahem* CSI) so the listening is good, and the episodes are generally formulaic enough that I know when to tune in or zone out. Hopefully I can finish it tonight and block it Friday or Saturday.

It was also a great excuse not to cook last night - I needed the time to devote to the hat. Instead we ordered calzones from Pizza 21 for probably the 6th or 7th time since we've moved. Mr. Boyfriend is sick, so it was a break for both of us.

Plus, we've been having a running argument about our cooking - I change it up, reading cookbooks, trying different recipes, and branching out with new ingredients. He just makes whatever's in the fridge/pantry - namely pasta with vegetables xyz and a jar of sauce. I know there are merits to both styles, but I feel like my efforts to serve dishes, when compared to what I've deemed his Kitchen-Sink-Method, go unappreciated.

Still, he cooks - period. So I shouldn't complain.

The more you know

Fun Facts!

1. Sometimes I email myself. And by sometimes I mean almost every day!
   Limitless storage on gmail allows me to send myself reminders and memos - So...my email is full of things like "Me(8) Make quiche tonight/Don't forget to buy more Dryel!" I'm sure there's some sort of schmancy technology by some fruit-named tech giant that would allow me to keep track of these personal notes more efficiently but this seems to work fine!
   
2. I can make a single serving of pretzel sticks last two hours. At work! Because I'm trying to distract myself! But if I'm not careful I'll have one hanging out the side of my mouth like a cigarette and I'll look really stupid when my coworkers walk by my cube!
3. I can never remember if I've unplugged or turned off an appliance so I have to say "I'm unplugging this, idiot" outloud as an auditory cue to help me remember so I don't spend $25 on a taxi to dash home from work to check if I've turned off my flat iron!
4. I have lattice degeneration in both retinas as my optometrist so kindly told me last night. BUT I didn't faint from bad news at the doctor like I usually would because of my medical phobias and (BONUS FACT) proclivity to episodes of vasovagal syncope!
   
5. I miss college. I'm dying for intellectual stimulation but I don't want the homework! Shh! Don't tell anyone!
   

And they're off

Another Monday, another fiscal review...Let's see.

• Flights from Boston to Prague for 2: ~$1000
• Hostels/hotels for 8-9 nights (figure half and half?): $500-1000
• Food for 2 for 7-8 days (~30 per person per day): ~$400-500
• Museums/Concerts/Sightseeing/Souvenirs: ~$200

Totaling as much as $2700? Let's round it up to $3000. For two? Does that even seem right? And this isn't factoring a trip to another city. Probably... Vienna? Paris? But if we fly direct from Boston into our city of choice that would be cool...KLM flies direct to Amsterdam, I believe, and AirFrance to Paris, and BritishAir to London...

My diet of 24/7 ramen begins...now.

I also need to consider that in May or June I want to visit my sister in Rome where she'll do a mini semester at the Vatican studying canon law (a Catholic lawyer...ah the opportunities). Hopefully that can be filed under Family Vacay and my expenses should be minor.

Gooo Sabres!

Oh man.

Have you ever been so excited you wanted to tell EVERYONE about how excited you are but everyone hates hockey? Yeah.

That's what it's like being super excited for the Sabres/Bruins game tomorrow but everyone hates hockey.

Bah. I don't care. At the Garden. In the nosebleeds. With beer. AND POPCORN. It will be awesome. I hope the Sabres destroy Boston, but I'll be happy with an overtime win too.

Change

Yes we can.

I am PERFECTLY CALM

Eesh.

The economy, and by that I mean my bank accounts, are failing.
The election is stressing me out.
It's not quite 5pm and FREAKIN DARK OUTSIDE
All my evenings this week will be spent alone.

Solution? Distraction! Here's a cute article that has nothing to do with current events.
What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage

And countdown 5 days to Sabres/Bruins game. Let's go Buffalo...

BOO!

Happy Halloween!
House is all ready for Kara's arrival! I wonder if I'd ever clean if I didn't have house guests?

Not that I enjoy living in squalor, I just need a good swift kick in the butt to tidy up, and the desire to make visitors cozy and comfy is exactly that.

As for the rest of the time...poor Boyfriend, he thinks that my addiction to books and my hoarding of every scrap of paper I ever write upon/receive means I'm unorganized. It doesn't help that every morning the bedroom has signs of my first, second, and third outfit tries (usually reverting back to the first) strewn about the floor.

I dropped some cash at the Publick House Provisions and my eyes were bigger than my biceps...I ended up waddling back home with a six pack and goodies (Chouffe! Unibroue! and CHEEEEESE I can't remember the name of but is oooo so tasty!) plus the groceries I'd already picked up.

I'm almost done with We Were the Mulvaneys and oy is this a heartbreaking story. Can't believe it's taken me so long to get through it but I've been pretty busy and a lot of my down time has been spent knitting (and tearing apart and REknitting) for a coworker's baby shower gift. And I started writing a bit on my own this week and remembered how much I miss my workshops and late afternoon storytime at Tufts...

For now I'll settle for some ghost stories. I can't wait to dress up as Marilyn (Boyfriend is Andy Warhol, get it?!) and get Kara Jessica Rabbit-ed up...

I'll take Pumpkins for 600, Alec.

PumpkinFest was AMAZING. Pics posted on FB for the curious.

And we made cider Sunday which was equally amazing - our freezer now holds 8 quarts of the delicious stuff. We picked the apples, chucked the rotten ones, washed them, ground them up, and pressed them. About two and a half hours later (from trees to the pressing process in the driveway) we'd make nearly 6 gallons, only about 3 of which were really drinkable from sweet apples - the rest was just too tart and will go toward cooking cider or vinegar.

We also now have a leg of lamb in our freezer, which I will periodically think about and vow to learn to cook, but mostly I'll just take it out and look at it, and pray to Shari Lewis to forgive me.

My hand still hurts from cranking the grinder.

Last night Mr. Man and I went to trivia and even though his coworkers crashed and are idiots, it was exciting to *gasp!* go out on a weeknight!

Tomorrow will be the best Friday ever...field trip to the museum at work, and Halloween, and...KARA'S COMING!


more animals

Cheese and vodka. And then some more.

The Great Pumpkin

So last night I threw a temper tantrum. The general gist was "but I don't wanna go to work in the morning" - not for any job satisfaction reason, in fact, I quite love my job.

But I just hate my morning routine - up at 6:15 and to the gym, showered and ready and out the door by 8:20, 8:30 at the latest. The obvious solution is to get to the gym AFTER work but then I have all day to talk myself out of going instead of a few bleary moments before I wrestle with my sports bra. Once I'm inside that thing, I HAVE to go to the gym. It's like hand cuffs, or like I'm Frodo with that darned ring. Spandex will make you do crazy things.

Some good news...I'm headed to Keene this weekend with Mr. Boyfriend and our friend Tony the Tiger for the Pumpkin Festival! It will be AWESOME and I want to carve a killer jack-o-lantern. I found a pattern for a Roy Lichtenstein-esque damsel, and maybe I'll carve something about the election on a partner pumpkin so she looks all fretful about Republicans. Heh. I also found an Obama print for Mr. Man, but Tony will have to provide his own McCain pattern, I ain't supportin' that one. Find them here.

I'm always super psyched for Pumpkin Fest and to see the ridiculous lengths people go to for the sake of gourd decoration. The organizers set up all the lit jack-o-lanterns on three or four story risers and it's even better than fireworks since it lasts all evening. Plus, there is ALWAYS at least one marriage proposal spelled out in the pumpkins somewhere, and someday I hope to spy the lucky proposal recipient flip out. But it would be kind of tough to hide 15+ pumpkins.

Ah, the promise of all the cider and pumpkin themed treats, plus the donuts and beer...keeping me going until Friday!

the agony and the irony

Argh, I have schlepped to the copy place thrice in two days. I don't like it. It gave me an excuse to go to Au Bon Pain though...which I got a little too excited about and now I have Wrap-Consumption Remorse and will probably break my roll-y chair. Hm. I will just pretend I ate a salad. There, I feel much better.

The T ride today did give me a bit of time to do so some interesting people watching, I saw a middle aged overweight man wearing a wizard hat and reading - Harry Potter? No, Run Rabbit Run. Of course Harry Potter, Prisoner of Azkaban.

But there was a little baby staring at me the WHOLE RIDE from Arlington. It's like this hostile thing - the baby is staring at you and everyone is all cooing "Awwwww little Caleb/Ethan/Gavin finds you fascinating!" but you HAVE to look back and smile the entire time or else the whole train thinks you're a baby hating monster. His giant extended family (taking the baby for a Tuesday T ride with ma, pop, gramma, and grandpa? woo-ee!) thought it was a hoot but in my head I was all Mark Wahlberg-like "Why you gotta stare at me baby? I'm not kiddin around this is serious."

Argh. Say hi to your mother for me.

virginia IS for lovers!

Wooo-ee! What a weekend - Andrea picked me up from the Richmond airport around 8 on Friday and off to Charlottesville we went!

We had plenty of wine (hooray) and cheese (also hooray-worthy) and in general it was fabulous to get my Andrea-fix. Also really cool to see UVA, which is kind of the complete polar opposite of Tufts; and by that I mean they care about sports and science.

We did not find law school students, but we did find that wine and cheese and a mountain named in honor of my boyfriend. I shall be very happy to visit again, but when I find the obsessed crazy who named the mountain after my man, I'll have to kick some butt.

Traveling sometimes messes with my mind: all of the technology involved but relatively little fuss (well, ideally anyway - this is of course discounting the Great Airport Debacle of Summer '07 and The Vacation to Georgia That Never Happened). Sometimes I can't believe that only the day before I was four states away and it didn't take three weeks and a team of horses, not to mention we never had to deal with any "Tom has died of dysentery" or the like.

When I returned I saw our new sofa bed was in place, and it looks great! Also, Mr. Man had cleaned the house (apparently even parts of the bathroom!) and rearranged the living room space. Our home ROCKS.

for roast beef fans

I didn't ask for much: It needed to be soft, and not ugly. But not unpretty. And not $2000.

A sofa bed. A pullout couch. A "sleeper," if you will. Easy enough, right?

But the universe thought that sounds too simple. So let's throw some geometry in the mix. It needs to go up a half flight of stairs and then turn a corner in a narrow hallway and fit through a door no wider than 28".

Craigslist, which was oh-so-helpful for finding our couch and chair-and-a-half (a furniture invention so comfortable if I ever become homeless I will strap wheels onto it and push it to Harvard Square to squat in front of Maggie Moo's) was not coming through with a sofa bed. Additionally, no matter what kind of bargain we found on a perfect couch, we would have had to get a UHaul for an afternoon and wasted a full Saturday in rental Hell.

Enter Jordan's Furniture.

Jordan's Furniture is surreal: one part Disney, one part WalMart, one part your creepy Uncle Jake twice removed on your mom's cousin-in-law's side.

But unfortunately...it was convenient. Earlier in the day, we trekked out to Bolton, MA for apple picking and wine tasting at the Nashoba Valley Winery - the whole experience (resulting in half a peck of apples and no less than six bottles of wine) was perfect in every way except the batteries on my camera were dead. My laziness has made me sad. Autumn is my favorite season, I wish it could be autumn all year round, I'd like to deck the entire world out in gold and orange and crimson...

So thank goodness we were in a good mood when we stepped into the alternate universe of the Natick Jordan's Furniture, complete with a Kelly's Restaurant (for roast beef fans), an IMAX theater (for fans of family matinee screenings of All Dogs Go to Heaven II), and a Bourbon St Mardi Gras New Orleans theme hall (for fans of...disturbing animatronics?).

In the end, we picked out a loveseat with a full-size mattress. We were hoping for a sofa with a queen size mattress, but in order to get up the stairs and around the corner (damn you geometry!!!!) it would've had to be sleek and modern and ugly. I much prefer traditional sofas with padding and cushions and comfort.

So it will hopefully be delivered Saturday while I'm in Virginia, and then we can get started on cozying up the room that has so far been delegated Mr Man's Walk in Closet/Place for Pile of Things I Have to Bring to Goodwill.

Next on the List'o'Projects: Soundproofing the exterior walls to block out the late night Klezmer music coming from the Orthodox congregation next door...

But what if you're not one of their citizens?

"A Great Place to Live for All of Our Citizens." That's the motto of Charlottesville, VA...

Where I shall visit Andrea this weekend!

The good doctor will wine and dine me and take me up Afton Mountain. I'm exceedingly excited to play wing-woman. Perhaps I shall allow one of her gentleman callers to purchase me an alcoholic beverage. Or perhaps we shall just lounge around Andrea's estate, Monticello, and discuss the evolutionary defenses of invasive plant species. She does need a break from all of her courting.

I mean studies.

or just cutting through jello with a very sharp knife

Sorry, I think I was drooling a little bit.

I can NOT get up in the mornings. Maybe it's the later sunrises, or maybe it's a 9-5 rut I've just fallen into - but it's like I have to pull a pile of bricks off of my skull before I can wake up. Caffeine kinda sorta helps, but how to I inject that directly into my face when my alarm goes off?

I blame our bed. It is giant (a queen) and even with the low stance box spring it feels very high. We have a brushed brass headboard attached to the frame, which isn't really my preference (I'd love something in dark stained wood or - to dream! - upholstered in chocolate silk dupioni). But it was cheap - we already had the mattress which I got free from a friend who moved to Texas, and thanks to Mattress Discounters, the frame was under 100, the box spring was 100, and the headboard was 100. Add in the Martha Stewart Bedding on sale at Macy's (plus two euro pillows), and the whole thing was around 400. Very good for furnishing a bedroom from scratch.

So although not up to my design standards due to cost issues (a general theme of the apartment) it's damn cozy and I never want to get out. And I can always get a duvet cover for the bed and change things up. I also want to paint one wall this color.

But back to why I'm sleepy. I used to be a morning person. Back in sophomore year I could wake up at 7 every day, for no good reason other than to quietly creep off campus and go sit in Davis Sq for some coffee and to catch up on lit assignments. Can I have that morning person-ness back please?

PS

If I post that Kara is coming to visit Halloween weekend, does that make it absolutely true?!

compliments of the chef

Last Thursday I enjoyed a much needed after work happy hour with my coworker, J, and we dashed to a lovely cozy distinctly-not-a-sports bar near Fenway. One drink turned into two, and then of course hunger set in. We decided to split two appetizers and enjoy our primo center bar spot amidst the after work crowd.

Shortly after we ordered, two plates arrived laden with food we had not picked out, nor even seen on the menu. When we asked the bartender, she said the chef was sending out small plates to the whole bar, and sure enough, everyone around was receiving the same plates. When our own food arrived, we had a little feast in front of us and had quite a lovely time.

Well, J's roommate happens to work at this bar, and has it on confidence that the chef that evening saw two young ladies, a blonde and a brunette, and felt compelled to send out complimentary dishes...including the whole lounge so as not to create any embarrassment. Coincidence? We got our dishes first.

This week, we're breaking out our Thursday best...

How's the weather?

Mom came to Boston this weekend - sans Dad, predictably. We did the usual dinners and hotel lounging and she helped set up our apartment a little more. I hope she had a nice time.

Andrea's mom was also here, albeit briefly, and she got a museum tour, too.
Here's a cyber, half-hearted apology to Andrea, her mom, and mine, for babbling on and on about everything from the floor tiles to the elevator and everything in between. I'll pare down my schtick soon - I swear.

I'm beginning to wish I'd buckled down on Latin and Greek, ignored Tufts insufferably stodgy Classics department, and gone on to a life in academia pursuing English word derivation. I love Anu Garg's Word-a-Day emails - etymology absolutely fascinates me and even the daily doses from the newsletters aren't enough. I long for the moments when the weekly round-up of reader feedback is posted and people submit their own interpretations and personal connections with the featured words.

Last week featured unusual insults, perfectly in tune with the budding cynicism I've been cultivating, as has recently been pointed out to me. "Policaster," a petty politician, employs the suffix "aster" and can create an insulting diminuitive for just about any word. Poetaster, philosophaster, et cetera... I'm just aiming not to be considered a bloggaster. One reader pointed out the Yiddish way of insulting someone's trade by inserting an "n" into a word: paintner and quiltner were her examples. So many ways to sneer at people, so little time...

22 is not a prime number

Oh frabjous day!

I miss Andrea, she was a wonderful house guest and we had lots of girly fun around Boston and I wish we lived in the same city. But even her short visit was a wonderful birthday present. She got a private tour of the museum, and we had our first Bloody Mary brunch together, and we shopped in the rain until we dropped into a cozy Thai place. And of course Cuchi Cuchi was our Saturday stop and I felt incredibly schmancy with my Blackberry Dahlia cocktail. Next I will have to go visit her in order to get my Andrea-fix, and cause a ruckus at the university.

Aah. This is very exciting. I enjoy numbers that are doubles - 11, 44, 99, et cetera. I'm sure there's a name for that but I don't know it.

My boss gave me Belgian chocolates and I'm in heaven, though a bit sugar buzzed. Tonight? Beer and friends at our house, then Publick House.

The professor and Mary Ann

I went on a Tufts alumni harbor cruise last night. This alumni stuff is killing me. It was lovely to see certain people - but did we have to be trapped on a boat for three hours in order for that to happen? Makes ya "see-sick"...

Work is incredibly busy, and that's good. The days fly by...but then I'm exhausted.

For now, I'm waiting until 5 to head to ColdStone for a free scoop...all donations go to Make A Wish today! The moral of today's story, philanthropy is bad for my health.

This weekend it's Andrea time - and that's tomorrow!

schaedenfreude

(I spelled that right on the first try.)

Ah yes. So those front row seats at Fenway? Actually front row in the third section up. Hehe. Somebody misread their tickets.

Anyway it was a good game, though Cleveland won, 4-3. Obviously if I had been there, I would have been a good luck charm and the outcome would be a little different.

Instead, I spent the evening at home massacring a sweet potato in the microwave and trying to resuscitate it with brown sugar, and watching the newest episode of House - of which the DVR cut off the last two minutes. D'oh!

AND I planted the mimosa pudica seeds (after soaking for 48 hours) that came this weekend in the mail - Dr. Andrea can check my handy work this weekend, and perhaps offer some advice for my fallen fig. If that sounds weird, it is.

Tuesday Good: Today smells like fall. I am wearing tights. Tuesday Bad: Slept through my gym time. And I forgot to pack a lunch.

Maybe if I go stand outside the as-yet-unopened Panera they'll pity me and toss a baguette my way.

PS Three days to Andrea!!! Let's hope the forecast for this weekend changes soon.

there is more to life than processed nut butters (who knew?)

This weekend was pretty nice, wandering in Boston and relaxing at home, and we visited the Cambridge Antique Market which was c-razy cool and I'll surely go back when I
A) have more money and
B) need his/hers Meissen inspired shepherd/shepherdess table lamps.

Oh - and tonight I've got more time to relax...Mr. Man's boss gave him and a coworker tickets to the Sox-Indians game tonight. Just two tickets though. Me, I've never been to a game. Even living/working in such close proximity to Fenway. Yup. Hoooome alone tonight. Oh, and their seats? First row. Behind home plate. Yeah.

But why don't I feel sorry for myself?
Because ANDREA IS COMING TO VISIT THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(picture Kermit the Frog waving his arms and going "Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaay!")

My first house guest in the new place! And what a guest! I'm so excited - I have to get things ready, set out the tiny guest soaps and shampoos and put the tiny hand towels on their tiny racks and make tiny GF hors d'oeuvres...I swear I'm not setting up house for an elf.

And I'll have her all to myself (Mr. Man will be out of town for a tennis tournament. Scoff.) - now I don't have to be scared at night and will have someone to tell me bedtime stories.

But what to do with the weekend?! After I drag her around the museum for one of my patented un-official tours in which I jabber on about everything you never wanted to know about what I can remember to have read or maybe heard about art, we'll go shopping. And drinking. Maybe we'll shop for wine! I need to come up with an awesome itinerary, so this week I'll log some serious Yelp time.

In the meantime, I have reduced fat Skippy to keep me company - appropriately dubbed SuperChunk.

damn skippy

It is 2:27 pm, Monday September 22, 2008.

I am surreptitiously eating peanut-butter by the plastic knife-full straight out of a jar in my desk drawer.

I hate Mondays.

tgifloljkomgttyl8trz

Hooray! Last night there was an event at the museum and I felt super swanky swanning about the "aht" with a glass of wine in hand.

And then I went to IHOP.

I'm so classy I can't stand it.


The last of my boxes are FINALLY unpacked, and we organized the apartment more to make room for a sleeper sofa (or futon) and to actually set up the second bedroom as a guestroom/den. I've got the decorating bug and I'm resisting the urge to get vinyl sticker wall art. I know it seems cute in photos but really my taste is too far on the "traditional" side of "transitional" for that kind of thing.

In other news, my birthday is on a Monday and I hate that. Can someone do something about that please? Thanks.

tofu in a blender

Tuesday Musings...

My favorite pesto recipe involves tofu. I think that might make the Italians angry.

I watched waaaay too many CSIs yesterday. Two and a half. But there's a new season of House starting tonight so I can replace one corny pseudo-medical drama with another, thanks to the wonders of DVR.

As requested by my mom, I'm also going to start writing a novel. So...um, I'll take volunteers for whoever wants to write the reviews on the back. You can use fake names too.

And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten.

I want a pug.

Yeah, I couldn't travel on the weekends like I do now. Yes they shed, and have a litany of health problems associated with the short muzzle and bugged out eyes...

But they're adorable and have great, affectionate, playful personalities without being too hyper. Want one now.

Note to readers: my birthday is coming up.


see more puppies

gimme now

Last post of the day, I promise. Maybe.

Panda chair

Celebrity Sighting

Update: Half the staff at UFood, where I purchased today's lunch, thinks I look like Hilary Duff. Or, more specifically - "That blonde one, in that Cinderalla-kinda movie. For TV."

meat is murder...tasty, tasty murder

Nobel Prize? Please. I wrote my senior thesis on this in high school. I would like my chunk of the prize money now.
Meat: Making Global Warming Worse

This is common sense folks...

I never eat meat - and that's counting poultry and seafood, for the zoology illiterate - more than a few times a week. It helps to be poor. I did consume part of a "Buffalo" chicken calzone (with bleu cheese) last night - and I notate Buffalo that way because it's like consuming "New England clam chowder" at a Denny's in Cleveland.

pencils down

Last night I was up every two hours with sneezing fits. Allergies?! NOW? I never get them this time of year. And during the longest bout of actual sleep I managed to catch I had a terrible stressful dream about a standardized test. Um. First I was seated in the dark, then the proctor yelled at me for trying to move, and then there was some sort of riot. Bad, worse, irrational.

My fig plant is dying. It's drooping (like the Mister when he can't get on macrumors), and I don't think it's getting enough light. Our apartment is very bright and airy, but it doesn't get any direct light, oddly enough. So I put it on the balcony yesterday, and it blew over. I did the same today, because I have no other alternatives, and I'm just praying it doesn't blow right through the railings. Sad sad fig. I thought of bringing it to work, but I'd have to put it in the kitchen where it would inevitably get over-watered. It can't go in my cube, it would probably throw itself off the counter out of pure despair.

I guess all I can do is hope it makes it until Halloween and then use the leaves to be Eve.

I just put two and two together about my dream and the fig. I need a new hobby.

trust falls

Staff retreat yesterday...painless enough but I felt like I was back in a lecture hall, listening to lots of people dole out important information but not truly engaged. Yes yes listening is an important skill and I know two ears, one mouth et cetera...but for goodness sake, if someone asks you a question (and not a rhetorical one!) then it's a lot harder to yawn. Just sayin.

BUT we got out at 2 and I had a glorious freebie afternoon! Ran an errand in the car and decided that my own voice was far more entertaining than anything on the radio, and I sorely missed Kara's karaoke machine. Maybe I'll invent Kar-aoke - where you can do karaoke while driving. DMB "Crash" would be top on the list. And "Ring of Fire." Har har.

Finished "The Book of Air and Shadows." It had a disappointingly happy ending. Really. Gruber pansied out. I wanted him to go for it - half a dozen people get tortured throughout the book, and another dozen or so are killed...but he doesn't describe much of it! There's a scene where someone's brains end up on a coffee table, and he just kind of brushes over the description. He didn't embrace the gore. He's billed as a "thriller" author, and I was not thrilled. Entertained, but not thrilled.

live to eat and read

More reading. This book is so good...well, I admit I have no idea what's going on in the plot right now, but at least I'm enjoying myself. The Man and I spent a lot of this weekend lying on the couches just reading and replacing our blood with tea. He seems to be enjoying the book on Steve Jobs I got him for his birthday, so that's happy. And we look up words we don't know together! Everybody all together now..."Awwww...bleaaaarghphooey."

I broke my Going to the Gym Daily Streak last week because I had crazy blisters/shoe wounds on my heels and couldn't bear to don sneakers and socks. Too bad so sad gonna get fat. I did go today, though, and watched a stupid Rihanna music video on the flat screens and decided her music and look have nothing to do with each other. Pseudo-goth + dance/hip-hop? Nope. And all her songs are the same.

Saw Tropic Thunder - laughed my pants, er, skirt off. I love Ben Stiller's characters - they're all over-muscled, ditzy males with an affinity for head bands. Comedy gold. Except the Focker ones, and Along Came Polly. But did you ever see Heavy Weights? Classic steroidal Stiller. And Disney, to boot.

Tried a new sushi place - awesome! And the tapas place down the street - awesomer! I'm eating the leftover salmon RIGHT NOW for lunch and love it. It wasn't exactly Las Ramblas though because of the loudmouth Russians sitting next to us who talked on a cell phone the whole time. Like, one cell phone, two people, talking to each other, to their caller, and ticking me off. But they did advertise flamenco events...I'll be there.

On to travel talk...I really want to visit Andrea but am trying to get my mom here to visit me and it's all too complicated. And the likely dates are bookended by important work events and I'd like to visit Pittsburgh to see my sister too (more to gawk at her living outside her natural environment)...what to do.

I don't trust books; they're all fact, no heart.

Ever been late to work because you've been reading during breakfast and lost track of time?

I feel like that might happen in the next few days. And this threat is only exacerbated by the fact that I can't ever get a seat on the D line on my way to work, and thus can't read (very well without getting jostled) whilst standing up...so I try to get in my morning lit before the commute. But I do love to eat cereal and read a good book.

I think I would be pretty happy to find out that heaven is an easy chair next to an ever-replenishing bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with whole milk, and a stack of the best books ever written (hopefully Jesus likes himself a lot of Agatha Christie, and a good bit of candy-lit because no way am I spending eternity reading the likes of Faulkner. That would be Hell). There would be kitties, too. Oh, and that guy I like.

live free or die hiking

Can't...type...too...tired.

You know what I'm craving right now? Mall. Pure, unadulterated mall. Indoors, filtered air, people in coordinated outfits stepping on my blissfully sneakerless impracticle-shoe-shod feet. Top 40 music piped in next to artificial plants. And an Auntie Anne's pretzel. And a diet coke. Yeah - eat that Mother Nature.

I prefer my physical activity (if I can say "prefer" and "physical activity" in the same sentence) to be limited to 30 minute blocks. It's manageable, I know I can shower right away, and it means I only have to give up being lazy for half an hour of my day.

So that four hour hike Sunday has all but liquefied my non-existent muscles. We headed up Mt. Monadnock, and I was the most inexperienced hiker there. Lots of families were taking advantage of the perfect weather on this loveliest of Labor Day weekends, so many small scampering six year olds lapped me on that mountain. But enough of those memories, I have the mosquito bites to help me relive that afternoon.

On to brighter news - Joe Biden looks like a saint compared to what the Republicans have dug up - ARGGGGGH it's pro-lifer Evangelical Christian former beauty queen Sarah Palin! Step right up to view the feminist's nightmare: our first GOP viable female VP candidate hate's women's rights! The real cherry on this backwater sundae is that her abstinence-only sex education stance has firmly backfired and she still won't budge to consider that maybe America's kids are smart enough to cope on their own if they aren't kept in a holy water bubble - Palin's own 17 year old daughter is pregnant. Surely, this poor girl has enough to deal with without media scrutiny - but for the love of Kotex - somebody send this family to therapy!

this way to the gun show

I joined a gym.

Good news: it was not too expensive, and it's a three minute walk from my house.
Bad news: Ew. I joined a gym.

Oh well. Here's to working out every morning at 6:15.

Today was awesome at the museum, more teacher training - and I got to see the presentations from half the "class." I'm doing mine next week, so it was good experience to learn from their work. It's very low pressure, but I'm still in school mode and want to "ace" it. By which I mean not make a fool of myself in front of my coworkers.

I'm reading Michael Gruber's "The Book of Air and Shadows." And while I seem to be off to a slow start due to my inexplicably truncated attention span, I'm enjoying it well enough. Aside from cooking up a deliciously complicated plot and hilarious characters (at least the males - so far there are no females who are not sluts or ice queens, so he's on notice) Gruber manages to write characters who google and blog and suffer Blackberry withdrawal without destroying the literary world he's created. For some reason - maybe my affinity for historical fiction - I just can't stand to read about computers in my fiction. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I work on one all day long.

Is it New Hampshire yet?

know when to hold em

So it was Mr. Man's B-day yesterday, the first anniversary of the 21st he said.

I got up early and made us (turkey) bacon and eggs, (5:15 am, which was fine when I was up and doing stuff, but then at work around 2 pm I was in dire need of Nap Time). I gave him his gifts, too, which he seemed to like and dropped him off at the T so I didn't have to worry about being DD at night, which was a good move - after the Harp and some crappy karaoke bar where an old dude sang Kenny Rogers "The Gambler." Does anyone remember that Kenny Rogers used to have a restaurant chain? They had rotisserie chicken and fake homemade nonsense - kind of like a Boston Market. I, of course, loved them when I was nine and was only just cultivating my love of mayonnaises.... back to the night out - I think a good time was had by all, even if we were subjected to karaoke, and it was great to see Mr. Man's old roommate who is back in Boston for the year - hooray!!!

Work was slooooow yesterday but today is kind of awesome. File cleanup day! So we got to dress down and today my main task will be to shred documents. It's loud and paper-cutty but kind of awesome in a cathartic way...you know, destruction and all. And best of all, it isn't database work. And we're getting Upper Crust for lunch.

This weekend we're off to the farm, which I'm psyched about. I'm even prepared to take home an armload of zucchini now that I've researched ways to disguise it.

With summer winding down, I'm really missing not going back to school. There. I said it.

But it's true. I miss Brown and Brew (our cafe, get it? Brown and Blue? Our colors? Ah whatever...), and cheap on-campus eats and over-priced bookstore purchases and breaking in new shoes just because and the glorious resolutions that this-year-I-WILL-get-organized-and-do-my-reading.

why Dan Brown ruined museums

I read it junior year of high school, and it still has me angry. I'll try to explain the above sentiment, or I could just post a link to this article and say "Ditto."

In Praise of First Impressions

The problem with the Da Vinci Code was that it exposed every Tom, Dick, and Harry to the hackneyed idea that every work of art has a specific "nugget of truth" (as an old art history professor used to joke when the class would clam up in front of a particularly abstruse slide). This contributed to a wider trend of "getting" a work, and museum-goers have the idea that "art" is just a contest for who can absorb the most "accepted interpretations" and spew them out when prompted by exposure to an image.

As Smee says in his article:

It's much easier to pretend that art is immaculately conceived, and to focus instead on its "meanings."

Robert Langdon, symbologist? Bah.

When visiting a museum, it's not uncommon to see everyone spending all their time meekly consulting their guides or the mounted placards. A surprising amount of people aren't looking at the art. Is it, as Smee says, really due to a sort of inferiority complex? I think so. We're pretty fixated on trying to discern what we think we should be thinking. So why not accept that a fresh eye is just as valuable as a connoisseur's?

This makes me remember how much I loved my creative writing workshops. We weren't expecting to produce the next great American novel within a semester's time (well, not all of us), but we had fun throwing off the humble-student mantle and enjoying the role of author. Talking about the process was the best - how more often than you'd think you write without an agenda and have these happy accidents and look at what you wrote and are shocked not that it makes you feel a certain way, but that it simply produced a feeling at all.

Wooo-ee. Seems that Teacher Training at the museum has worked it's magic on me.

veeps and sheep

Weekend Update whilst I caffeinate

Kit came, we all ate fries, I got bangs, Kit left, I saw Brendan from Buffalo, and we got a coffee table.

The Olympics are over, and I watched it less than I heard about it on NPR. And that's fine with me. I'm gonna go ahead and say that organized sports are a waste of the human spirit. At least remove the nationalistic pride - take away the veneer of patriotism and let athletes compete for the sake of their games. If you have to assert yourself over every other human on the planet in a contest that betters no individual beside yourself, at least make it about skill and personal achievement, not about entitlement and medal tallies.

Speaking of LOOK LOOK I'M AMERICA... Who is Joe Biden?

Let's look at the positive. Just because I'm not in love with Obama like every other 20-something in Massachusetts, I still have to give Biden a shot. He seems like a good guy. I mean, he was born in Scranton, PA - if you don't know why that is best little city in America then go away right now. And as a Syracuse Law alum - he lived kinda near my people. And Wikipedia mentions his heartbreaking loss of family and the fact that he overcame serious medical issues - twice. He's got history, and chutzpah. Wiki-P also says he's a Roman Catholic - so hooray for RCs. On a related note - NARAL is behind his selection (and even better, Nancy Keenan will be speaking at the Dem's Convention today).

On to the bad...his face looks like an exact composite of W's and McCain's. Seriously. Go look at it. McBush. And Delaware? I hate Delware. I've never even been. And text messages for the announcement?! Please. Thanks Democratic Party, for relegating your definition of America's youth to a predilection for T9. And worst of all, he seems to have the same shady philosophy toward rhetoric that Obama shows. While professing to value integrity and that famous audacity to hope for change, there's still a hint of someone playing by bended rules. Biden's been accused of plagiarism multiple times (starting all the way back in Syracuse). Come on guys...that's not allowed until you have someone hired to write your speeches for you.

Tomorrow is the Mr. Man's birthday! And this weekend we're headed to the farm for a relaxing Labor Day of sheep...so this week will be pretty sweet. Also, I started "The Book of Air and Shadows" by Michael Gruber and 20 pages in I already love it. More on that later. Oooh, someone brought scones...

ty vole

As if I haven't had Praha on the brain enough already, I saw Mr. Smazeny Syr himself yesterday.

I think the weather is making me relive my move to Prague - it was about this time of year and the weather there was exactly the same: perfect temperatures and no humidity, only the occasional big fat fluffy look-like-they-were-drawn-by-a-five-year-old clouds. Now I'm exploring a new place, trying to get my bearings and scoping out the neighborhood, tripping over cobblestones and gawking at architecture, dealing with snobby bartenders - sounding awfully familiar.

I met Adam at The Publick House - officially my favorite place even with a bit of 'tude from the staff. Sitting outside, we established ourselves as Official Jogger Hecklers. No less than two dozen joggers went by as we sat there drinking carbs and dunking deep-fried potatoes into mayonnaise. I think my favorite part of the evening was sharing our table with a couple who confirmed my theory that Everyone Has a Pet But Me. Teddy, their massive golden retriever puppy, got special attention from the staff. The waiter brought out a giant roasted turkey leg, a la Disney World, just for Teddy, and that dog went to town.

I think the waiters liked Teddy better than they liked our human - cash paying - party. Or maybe Adam proffering beer to the joggers put us at a disadvantage.

Tonight Mister's high school friend comes into town before flying off to China for the year, and while I should probably finish the last of the Unpacking and take care of registering for a Mass. license, I think finally getting over to Deep Ellum to try out their patio is a higher priority.

i'm sorry miss duncan

Yesterday was terrible. Just terrible. Until I had a cookie as big as my face and sat down on The Chair to watch Project Runway, moving only to greet the Sig O.

Today is better, but Kara's post about Sassy's birthday is - I feel - orchestrated to maximize my guilt about My Almost Cat. Thbbbbt.

I've been trying to wear the items in my closet now that I actually have room to unpack/unstore all of my clothes, so I'm working on the scarves. I have on a woven tie-dye one, and it's looped once around my neck with the ends hanging in front (helps to hide those coffee stains). But the right end seems to be much longer, no matter how much I adjust it. It keeps creeping downward toward my knees, like it's going to make a break for it. Purse-induced scoliosis strikes again.

It is almost the Sig O's birthday, which means that the file of ideas for Small But Meaningful Gifts that I compile in my head all year long is now - of course - completely empty. I did promise we'd go camping Labor Day weekend but I was clearly under the influence of a brain slug at the time because "Camping" is about up there with "Dentist Visit" on the List of Things for Which Not-Even-Cookies Will Suffice As Bribes. I do have ideas, but they never seem special enough. If I wrapped up his own guitar he'd probably be happier than I've come up with.

Bah.

the cat that almost was

First the good news: I made apple crisp, even though I have incurred an injury I like to call "whisking wrist" from hand whipping some whipped cream. The crisp looked slimy and burnt (wet and dry all at once? weird but true) but was delicious and even Mr. I Don't Have A Sweet Tooth ate some.

Now the bad news: whilst consuming said apple crisp, someone knocked on the door. No, this isn't the bad news, even though the Mister and I looked at each other like deer in tractor trailer headlights we were so surprised to have a visitor. It turned out to be our across-the-hall neighbor. I hadn't met her yet, and after I introduced myself, she cut to the chase: "Would you like to take a little kitty?"

Now, in my head, a choir of angels heralded the second coming of Kittiness. Little cartoon catnip mice floating around my head, and a calendar of Cats in Baskets flashed before my eyes.

Then Reality hit. "I'm sorry, I'd take it, you know, I really would! But we just can't...he's - he's...allergic." Mrs. Neighbor was not impressed. Her coworker is trying to find a home for the cat, and all her prospects backed out. All the other building residents already have pets if they want them.

When I bid her das vidanya, I turned around to see Mr. Immuno-Challenged glowering at me. The fight, predictably, went all night. Personally, I think allergy-induced asthma can be overcome through immersion therapy, but he is not willing to make that bronchial sacrifice.

I know, I know...it probably isn't a good time to get a cat now anyway, what with the moving still kind of winding down, job schedules in disarray, and life in general flux. But what if it was fate? What if that was meant to be my cat??? I just hope it doesn't end up in a shelter.

When I walked out of the house this morning, the first thing I saw was a pug being taken on its morning walk. Maybe the universe was reminding me to stay on track with my squishy-faced dog obsession...

hop on pop!

The "pop"s have it!

"Coke" is clearly wrong. And soda is just ridiculous. Now I have the stats to back up my irrational opinions and regionalistic pomposity.


Visit the site behind this ground-breaking, tooth-rotting research.
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

Tolstoy, you lose

Taxes?! Bah! This weekend was MA's tax-free holiday, and boy-oh-boy did the Sig O and I take advantage of it.

We now have a bed (no more sleeping on the floor!), lovely Martha Stewart bedding to top it (a very good thing) and a bookshelf (which barely houses all my books - sadly, it looks like I'll be selling/donating at least two dozen).

I also got myself some bling from Zales. It goes toward decorating me, and I decorate the house, hence, home decor.

What with the Craigslist couches (superb finds, if I do say so myself) and all of this other goodness, we're starting to LIVE at home, instead of alternately sidestepping boxes and roaming through vacant spaces.

AND the Mister set up general awesomeness with the wireless network - so my backup harddrive is all set up to update without any bothersome cords, and we can play music from both of our computers all wonderful-like!!! I'm not sure what all the details of this technological mystery are but I know it rocks my world, especially my ears.

Sig O and I walked through our neighborhood last night and ogled all of the mansions on the nearby streets. Okay, maybe they've all been converted into multi-family condos like our place, but a home is a home and the architecture just blows me away.

Foodie news: The Publick House is my new favorite spot - and the owners are opening a second restaurant down the street any day now. Fish and chips were heavenly, especially with Maudite Blanche du Chambly. Later on, Emack and Bolio's disappointed (that was the third strike, they're done for me), while Upper Crust delighted.

Cooking-wise, a zucchini/mushroom/onion/kidney bean concoction with feta and olives served over quinoa was a delicious way to work on the mass of zucchini we've acquired (rather too hearty for a mid-August meal, I've got to blanch, and freeze some zucchini for later in the year). Tonight I've got to make a dent in the apples - I don't want to rely on a pre-made crust but I don't have the energy to do one from scratch, so I'll try a crumble or betty instead. That'll do for dinner...

I'm fed up: I'm giving up on Anna Karenina for a while. I hate her and her little son too. So I picked up Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson and am already loving it. I need to give up the idea of literary penance, Middlemarch is taking up an awful amount of room on that precious new shelf... Just fill my life with Dawn Powell and Capote and the occasional Roald Dahl or Margaret Atwood, and I'm a happy - albeit indulgent - camper.

Speaking of camping...looks like that may be in the books for Labor Day. Dare I get excited about bug bites and hiking blisters? I just want an excuse for s'mores and wine sans stemware.

Work is great - besides the usual I'm getting some more museum training and I'm so psyched for the fall programming. Now I just need to cool it on the caffeine routine.

That new car smell

I love writing, and I love the internet. Naturally, I couldn't bring myself to start a blog.

Chalk it up to a writer's neuroses, but the possibilities are just daunting - what do I pick? Theme blog, food stuffs, arts listings, current events, photos, Boston area goings-on... I can't commit. And that's what has taken me so long to get started - first the title (which had to be gimmicky and of course relate to food) and of course the content. And the knowledge that I'll never ever top icanhascheezburger.

But as much as I complained about my columns when I had them, I miss writing on a regular basis. I've resolved to get back in the saddle and pull out all the stops (and - of course - avoid clichés).

Especially now, when I've got a lot of new stuff going on: job, apartment, town... That means everything that goes along with it is new too: friends, watering holes, dry cleaner, commute, dentist, furniture, sleep schedule, soundtrack, shower curtain. That's a lot to keep track of, so here I am to get set all down on... er, rather, put it all up online. I imagine sounding off on the pleasures and perils of this transitional phase will be quite restorative.

So a toast to my first entry! Mmmm, toast...