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...