The last time I saw Jens Lekman he was late for his own show and told the audience that he was walking around admiring the city. By that time we'd already been standing around forever and I wasn't really ready to forgive him. But, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Lekman won me back last night! And it only took an hour and a half! Last night's show at the Paradise was so incredible that I'm still sorta floored.

We were sorta close to the back, so there wasn't much I could do as far as taking good photos, but I got this one:



Anyway, as much as I wish I could remember all the songs they played in order, I can't. Welcome to my memory. He had 7-piece band of six women and one male DJ. There were strings, trumpets, flutes and an all-band dance breakdown. There were two encores. His disconnected his mic accidently at the end and the sold out Paradise was so quiet that you could still hear him address the crowd to thank them. There was lots of cheering and stomping and head bobbing and me singing harmonies under my breath. Thank you for restoring my faith in your live show Jens!

Friday night Hunter and I met near Faneul Hall to see the free National show at Paddy O's. Besides the weird crowd and shoddy sound, we had a good time. We got a little ridiculous maybe. Afterwards we went back to Hunter's house and ended up talking about the south and being a lawyer with Glenn's mom and boyfriend. I sorta loved it.

The Beer Advocate's Belgian Beerfest was last night. The Cylcorama was filled with tables, each with a different brewery giving out 2oz samples. There were around 100 different beers there.. we only made it through about 15 each. We wrote down most of what we tried until we got buzzed. The winners for "favorite beers" of the night go to the Allagash Curieux and Wolaver's Wit, which is brewed with orange peel and coriander.

Abbaye de Leffe
Leffe Brown (Belgian Dark Ale, 6.5%)
Leffe Radieuse/Vieille Cuvee (Belgian Strong Dark Ale, 8.2%)

Allagash Brewing Co.
Allagash Curieux (Bourbon Barrel Aged Tripel, 11.0%)
Allagash Interlude "Single Barrel Aged" (Barrel Aged Belgian Strong, 9.5%)
Allagash Vintage 10th Anniversary (Double Wit, 10.0%)

Brooklyn Brewery
Blanche de Brooklyn (Belgian White Ale, 4.5%)
Brooklyn Local 1 (Belgian Strong Pale Ale, 9.0%)

Cambridge Brewing Co.
Biere de Miel (Belgian Honey Ale, 8.8%)
Golden Ring (Abbey Style Pale Ale, 6.4%)

D&V International
Saxon (no info)
Trobulette (Belgian While Ale, 5.0%)

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Fluckey's Fest (8.0%)
Festina Peche

Harpoon Brewery
Harpoon Quad - Official Fest Beer (10.25%)

Otter Creek Brewing and Wolaver's
Wolavers 10th Anniversary Farmhouse (Saison, 7.3%)
Wolavers Wit (Organic Belgian White Ale, 4.5%)

Sixpoint Craft Ales
Belgian IPA (7.1%)
Sixpoint Tripel (10.2%)

Smuttynose Brewery Co. + Portsmouth Brewery
Brett and I (Dryhopped bret beer, 7.0%)
Gnome (Belgian IPA, 9.0%)

Stone Brewing Co.
Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic (8.5%)
Stone 06.06.06 Vertical Epic (8.66%)

Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
Blasphemy! (Oak Aged Quad, 11.8%)
Muse (Saison, 6.2%)

They were also selling belgian sausage and veggie kielbasa.. AND the most delicious waffles we've ever tasted.

Today we went to the Galleria to pick up Guitar Hero 3 (haaa) and then I went out to MassArt to meet up with Laura and check out the Mass Market. I bought some earrings that are these ridiculous shells wrapped in gold chain. Afterwards we walked around and caught up and went to TJ's (oh how I miss you,..) to get some lovely groceries.

I think the next two weeks will be stellar, stellar weeks. Tonight is The National in tourist city (we can hit up the Bell in Hand after??) tomorrow is the Belgian Beerfest, Sunday is the MassCraft at MassArt (I have some late birthday gifts I need to buy...) Monday is Jens Lekman, Wednesday is the Halloween show at Great Scott (still need a costume,) Thursday is the Weakerthans and then Saturday.. SATURDAY we leave for beautiful Bremerton,WA.

And then it's
Kent
Bremerton
Vancouver
Bellingham
Seattle
Boston

I am writing about the WA trip in here cause I tend to get over excited about things and talk about them too much and I dont think Hunter wants to hear me go on and on about this stuff, even though I know he's gonna read it here, which I guess defeats the purpose, but it's his choice to read it and I'm not forcing it upon him like in an im or conversation.

So ha!

Nellie came over last night and we made pizza and talked about high school. Ahaha. We talked about other things too.

Pre-made thin crust from Shaw's
1 can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion, carmelized
6+ cloves of roasted garlic
1/2 bag of spinach
2 balls of fresh mozzerella, sliced

Side:
aparagus cooked on the george foreman with olive oil, salt and pepper and ground dried garlic

We ate the whole damn thing and then watched an episode of Louis Theroux and some youtube clips about sexy halloween costumes and selling things on the QVC.

Dinner Party of One

Made dinner for myself:

Whole wheat penne
2/3 of a red onion, chopped
1 container of grape tomatoes, whole
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 bushel of arugula
garlic
smoked gouda, cubed

Not bad.

My coworkers surprised me with some post-birthday cupcakes and a card. One of them wrote "welcome to the big person table, it's more fun here." I spent the whole ride home thinking about the fact that I'm 26 and that seems old as hell and I don't even know what the most expensive thing I own is. Car? Don't have one! House? Nooppe. Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Stupid Birthday

I had a great time last night. So great that I've been paying for it all day. Isn't life grand??

Dinner at Oleana was incredible. We decided to sit on the patio, since it was fairly warm outside and it was beautiful. We ate all of the following:

Whipped Feta with Sweet & Hot Peppers

Sesame & Walnut Flatbread, Homemade Mozzarella & Carrot Jam

Spicy Fideos & Chick Peas with Green Chard & Orange Aioli

Ricotta & Bread Dumplings with Red Wine, Porcini and Kale

Lamb Steak with Turkish Spices & Fava Bean Moussaka

Hunter gave me my birthday present! He signed me up for a 3 hour vegetarian cooking class with Helen Rennie in December. I've never taken cooking class, so this'll be super awesome. He also go us tickets to the Belgian Beer Fest next Saturday. Have I mentioned that he is the best?!

Imperial Teen were great.. They played every song I knew I wanted to hear except Year of the Tan. They're middle aged. For some reason this made them even more endearing.

After the show drug Hunter into ZuZu for the rest of the night. Kevin Hoskins bought me a Corona that I did not drink. I took lot of pictures. The end.

Happy Beast Day

It's my birthday. I'm 26. My mom asked me if I felt old and was getting wrinkles. Blah blah blah.

This morning me and Hunter FINALLY went to Masa, whose brunch we've been eyeing for months and months. They just started a $7.95 "Fiesta Brunch" on Saturdays, which includes your choice of tapas with a entree and coffee or tea.. We both got the eggs benedict and I got the empanada..

Santa Fe Style Eggs Benedict Atop Southwestern Biscuits
Avocado, Green Chile Hollandaise and Southwest Home Fries

Granola con Leche and Tropical Fruit

Caramelized Plantain Empanada with Mexican Cinnamon Cream Cheese

I'm a fan of eggs benedict, but this was a little heavy even for me... avocado, hollandaise, egg AND biscuit? I mean, I still ate most of it, but whatever, I was committed to the fattiness. Might try something different in the future. Good price though.. I'll give them that.

Tonight Hunter is taking me to Oleana for dinner and then seeing IMPERIAL TEEN!!!!!!!!!!

We leave for WA two weeks from today and I am excited!! We're going to spend a night in Vancouver at the Opus Hotel, which will hopefully be super awesome and a nice break from all of the family/friend time.

I've been bad with blogging lately. I'm sorry. To make up for it, here are some pictures.

i made dinner last night

Two green peppers, cut in half and roasted at 350 until tender

1 red pepper chopped
½ onion chopped
½ tube Vegetarian sausage
3 cloves pressed garlic
4 okra, chopped

Cayenne pepper
Salt
Black pepper
Cumin

Cook ingredients until tender and sausage is firm
Spoon mixture into bell peppers and put back in oven at 350 for 5 minutes or so

Top with chipotle cheddar cheese and broil until melted

1 can butter beans
½ cup of green onions
2 cloves pressed garlic
Salt
Black pepper

Put it in a pan and heat it up!

Tonight we discovered that CMT has a show called I Want To Look Like a High School Cheerleader Again. I'm not kidding. All of these 30+ year old women get together to try and get back to their weight in high school. The best thing is, some of them weigh less than I did back then. And they're 40. They're on the show with their big boobs and their mom hair complaining that they don't look like they're 17.

WTF?!??!?!??!?!?!?!?!

(that being said, we watched the whole show.)

We ended up stirring up a shitload of dust and garbage today. Our apartment is still a disaster and sometimes I wonder how long it will take to get it into working order finally. Ten steps backward for every step forward I guess.. I have some awesome bruised/swollen arms from moving large boxes of cds to the basement. I love going to work looking like I've been beaten.

I made soup too. Soup from scratch! With cabbage, garlic, onion, zuccini, fire roasted tomatoes, kidney and garbanzo beans, and lots of spices. I was a bit skeptical at first (cause sans recipe usually means sans flavor) but it tastes pretty good. I froze the rest for a lazy evening in the winter.

Today is October 6th and it is currently 78 degrees outside. It's supposed to get to 84.

THIS IS NOT NATURAL!!!!

It was an interesting week for various reasons. The biggest reason shall not be mentioned here. Gladly it's over. Glady some synagogue in New York is going to have a new resident soon.

I saw the High Strung, for one song. Saw Dr. Dog for a few more than that.

Last night we saw Darjeeling Limited. It wasn't my favorite Wes Anderson film, but I will give him credit for making it a feast for the eyes (ughh did I really just type that) as usual. After a quick dinner, we headed to Allston for the Pill's 10 year anniversary. I have been Allston about three times since I moved, and I have to say, I really don't miss it. It has its charms of course, but I think my love and dedication to Somerville will run deep and forever. Anyway, the room was packed and we saw a lot of friends. I drew Tim the bartender a birthday card. The Red Sox won. Someone turned green and passed out on the sidewalk. Ahhh...

Hunter and I went to Johhny D's for their "jazz brunch" where I had the most amazing french toast (and some so-so grits.) Today in Davis Square is the festival of activist marching bands (???) so there was a bunch of dudes wearing dresses and playing the tuba. Regardless of the spectacle, I have a soft spot in my heart for marching bands ( oh Mr Williams!) so we stayed and watched for a few minutes. I didn't know there were so many activist marching bands in existence. We saw at least four.

My birthday is in two weeks. ahhhhhhhhh.

I learned way too much about Technotronic tonight. Thank you wikipedia.

Also, I'm pretty sure this is still my favorite song and video of all time.