It's apparently birthday season (again), so Friday night was another soire, this time at the Washington Sq Tavern in Brookline. The birthday boy was Channing, Hunter's very talented photographer friend. We stayed for a couple hours, chatting with people, including Delia, who lives in LA and did costume design for No Country for Old Men. I got to ask a few questions like "how do you know when the shirt is just old looking enough?!" as well as hear old theater nerd stories from her and Hunter's high school years.

We popped in to Publick House for a late late dinner with Dom and then headed home.

I woke up early Sat and did some work and showed the apartment to a late-40's man who was strange. Luckily he said his furniture to fit in the room so I didn't have to do the evil task of telling him he wasn't the right fit. I hate craigslist sometimes. I got a response today from two people who felt the need to mention how attractive they are. Umm..

Caught up with Eli on his quick trip through town in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the night watching some scandalous episodes of Californication, which strangely, isn't about Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Sunday I went out in the rainstorm to find presents for Hunter since he's up on the 3rd (as is my dad).. I was walking around Boylston texting him that he's impossible to buy for (which he is) but I think I did ok.

He's going to have some people over for his bday and I'm gonna make some tapas.

Ideas so far:
Muhamarra (a dip with roasted red peppers and walnuts and stuff)
Bacon wrapped prawns
Char-grilled artichokes
Spinach and chickpea stew
Spicey Kabobs
Mussels with ham, pepper and tomatoes
Guacamole (his request, because mine is the best)

Obviously I dont eat meat, so I wont be able to taste half of this stuff, but we'll see what happens.

Oh and just because, here's a picture of Hunter with his shirt unbuttoned. THE INTERNET IS FOREVER



I've been seeing some interesting things on my walk to work, and I'm considering carrying my camera to capture it all. First off, when you live in a city, you see squirrels, those stupid brown birds that bathe in dirt and pigeons. That's about it. Littleton is the wilderness as far as I'm concerned. Since starting work there, I've seen a hawk, a bunny, 10 species of mushrooms, canadian geese (ooo,) a deer, huge moths, dragonflies.. You name it. It's like living in the NW all over again. There's also a shooting range right by my office, so it's nature + corporate + guns. What a combo.

Anyway, maybe I'll take some shots tomorrow on my stroll. I've started singing and talking to myself outloud. I'm not sure I should have this much alone time. The train conductors don't even check my pass anymore. I just sit in my seat engulfed in a book and they pass on by.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but a couple of birds built a nest in this hanging candle holder on the porch.. I assumed they'd laid some eggs, but it was too high up to snoop. Then this weekend, I got confirmation, and of course took way too many pics.




Friday after work I rushed back so that I could go meet everyone at Delux before we headed to see Dark Night.. The theater was packed, so we sat in the very front row, which was.. interesting. I'm not a huge comic book person, but the movie was entertaining, albeit a little long. Heath Ledger was pretty incredible, and stole the movie. I'm not sure how he managed to make the character of a psychopathic clown believable, but he did it.

Yesterday was Reid's 21st birthday, so we took him out and used it as an excuse to drink really girly drinks like "birthday cake" shots and a scorpion bowl. I can't remember the last time I got to celebrate someone's 21st birthday, so it was fun taking him around to various bars.. like when we were at Charlie's and the group of people next to us started cheering for him and cheersing his birthday.

I think the hot weather is making everyone crazy.

Here's Reid finishing up the scorpion bowl, which is probably the nastiest drink ever invented to go in an oversized cup.


I won't lie, I've been in my room most of the day with the AC on. I like nice weather but not 94 degree weather where you can't breathe. I'm such a whiner.

Hunter is back from NC and brought Pate back with him. We spent Friday eating pizza and getting to bed early, so that we could go to Six Flags in the morning. We picked up Laura in Allston and headed to mysterious Agawam, MA. Every state has depressing little towns and cities, and Agawam was a choice example. Closed businesses, busted signs etc. But ohh, there was a glorious amusement park.

I'm guessing we picked the busiest day of the year to go, because there were people EVERYWHERE. Let me get the bitching out of the way before I get to the goods.. Ok, so Six Flags is divided into the amusement park and the water park.. you can't store your personal items while you go on rides, so you gotta rent a locker, which are like $11 each for the day. Also, you can't be in the amusement park area without your shirt/shoes etc. Soo... if you want to go to the waterpark, you have to get a locker over there. The thing is, there's not enough lockers (they sold out).. so you have to either hope your stuff doesnt get taken, or just not go to the water park at all. And the water isn't heated. And it's like being trapped in a giant tank of mating seals. Or something.

Anyway, I wasn't a fan of the water park. We managed to go on some rides, about 5 total, after being there from 1-7pm (did I mention the large amount of people?) The BEST ride was of course Superman, Ride of Steel, which brought you up 280 feet (or somethin) in the air and then dropped you down the hill almost all the way before oyu went up and down another. There were moments where I literally felt like I was suspended in air. I was screaming like a girl, it was so delightful.

Long day, we were all exhausted and had half-conversations at THe Independent before we parted ways for bed.

This morning Pate, Hunter and I went to The Neighborhood for breakfast. Best brunch in the summer.

I joined Muxtape.com and put up a mix.. You can just click on the first song and it'll play all the way through. I dont have the best itunes library still, but I picked out some tracks I've been listening to a lot.

I'm going to Baltimore in a couple weeks and Toronto a few weeks after that! Also, visits from Tricia and Mom.. and maybe a few others things.

Right now Boston is like being in a steam room with your clothes on... but without all the sketchy things that happen in certain Boston steam rooms when you clothes are off.*


*this is hearsay.

It's fairly impossible to take decent pictures of fireworks.. or at least it is for me apparently. I was hoping to wow you with photos of the "incredible" Boston light show, but to be honest, after the first few, there was so much smoke that you couldn't see anything else that was happening.




The beginning of the day was spent on the back porch of Dominic's Uncle's house in Charlestown.. Bunker Hill is literally up the street. Dom has a huge family, so there was quite a party going on. We came armed with store-bought cupcakes and jarred salsa, but that was abandoned by the amazing spread they had.. Roasted veggies,
caprese salad, homemade cheesecake.. it was endless. Once it got late, we walked down to the Charles (along with everyone else in Boston) and watched the explosions. After they were done, the crowds were so insane for the T that I ended up walking the 45 mins home. Ridiculous.

Last night I met up with Laura for dinner, dessert and drinks. We tried out this newish tapas place in Harvard called Small Plates.

Japanese Eggplant Cow’s Milk Feta · Pine Nuts · Tomato Basil Sauce

Blue Cheese Raclette Seared Tomato · Fingerling Potatoes

Warm plate: Brie · Port Soaked Apricots, Grilled Polenta · Braised Leeks, Fresh Fruits, Muhammara · Crostini

Everything was good, although the Blue Cheese Raclette was a little intense, even for me. I'm not sure if I prefer it over the place that Hunter and I used to go to in Brookline, but it was decent.

After, we decided to go to Finale and stuff ourselves with dessert..

Caramel Carnivale II
Bittersweet caramel mousse layered between crisp
puff pastry, accompanied by glazed mixed berries,
served with chocolate caramel sauce

Boston Cream
Finale’s version of the famed dessert featuring yellow
cake, cream and chocolate. Also includes chocolate
whoopie pies, a vanilla gelato sandwich with cherry
almond Florentines, apricot sauce and fresh fruit

We dragged our big bellies to Central sq after that, with the intention of going to Soul-le-lu-jah, just ended up at River Gods instead, makin jokes and laughing really hard.

That was pretty much the weekend. I also bought some new shoes and a couple books and got hit on by a creepy guy with long hair, who I then needed to insult because he was such a douche. Also, a drunken man asked Laura and I if we'd ever shot a handgun. I won't even give details of the man in the seersucker suit. Boston is a grand place.