Community Supported Agriculture

We live in a nice little neighborhood off of Mass Ave. I like it bc we're about a 5 min walk from the Porter Sq T stop - I can be out the door and on the train platform 7 mins door to door but it has a bit of a neighborhood feel despite being off Mass Ave and living in an apt building.

Our neighbor across the street has a beautiful garden in his front yard and I've been admiring it all summer and gushing to my dad the gardner about how much he's like it too. 

 Tonight as I was walking home he was out watering the garden so I thought I'd compliment it and let him know how nice it's grown. He was incredibly insistent on giving me some kale, arugula, rhubarb, basil and banana peppers to take home with me. 

It doesn't get much more local than this. :)

Lake Life

Had a lovely trip up to NH this weekend to Eli's lake house near New London, NH. 

Forecast wasn't great for the coast but it was partly cloudy and sunny all weekend. 

We booze cruised on a pontoon boat, played a lot of the little big town song 'pontoon', hit golf balls in to the lake (golf isn't my game) and had dinner at Peter Christian's. 

There used to be a Peter Christian's in Hanover and one of my earliest memories is of the restaurant with my parents. It closed long before I was an undergrad and became the Wrap and Bolocco (which stands for Boston Local btw) but I'd wanted to check out the New London location for awhile. Def a good blizzard bar. :)

Had a bonfire under a cool starry night last night - Van Morrison and James Taylor on the (amazing!) sound system and some Long Trails and s'mores. 

In the words of Don Henley 'I felt it in the air the summer's out of reach' but I love this time of year too especially in NH as summer winds down and you can feel it in the air and the grass and the fields and the birds. Saw one tree on the way up 93 that was starting to turn yellow. The Yankee Magazine foliage report says that it'll be an early foliage season this year due to the crazy weather earlier in the year. I can't wait. 

On the way up to the lake we stopped at the NH state liquor store and there was a roadside stand w cider donuts. They were the most delicious cider donuts we've ever had - going to be a must-do from now on. 

bos vs NYC

ah the eternal question. is the seaweed really always greener in someone else's lake? supposedly we're really bad at predicting what will make us happy, though i'm happy to say that most of the time i'm really happy i now live in boston and not nyc but there are a few things that i miss (besides my friends!) about the big city:

• people that know how to do the subway. i take the train around 8 AM in the morning so it typically isn't that crowded but every once in awhile if i hit it when the commuter rail has just gotten in or it's snowed 10 inches the night before and the MBTA is sucking it can be rough (this is a relative term). people don't step in to the car or readjust after people get on or off to make more room for others. they wear their backpacks ON THEIR BACKS (dumb harvard kids). they stand 5 feet away from other people and then are like 'oh this car is full no more people can get on.' most days i just think about what these people would do if they encountered the 6 train at 77th street at 8:30 on a wed and laugh meanly to myself. 

• coffee cart coffee. most of you know that i like my sugar with coffee and cream aka very weak. in NYC they have those coffee carts on every street corner so in the morning you can grab your cup of sugar water in those little blue paper cups (side note - i've always kind of wanted one of these. never mind that i never have change) for a $1 and a glazed donut. don't get me wrong - i'm very happy with my dunkin donuts and espresso love but every now and again i miss being able to walk up to the cart and grab coffee quick. 

• equinox. this one is kind of a cheat - i mean i miss it but i don't miss paying $180/mth to belong to it. and with my leg out of commission it's not like i've been dealing with sub par gyms for the last 3 mths or anything but i will say that equinox was a wonderful gym to go to when they had tons of locations that weren't always super crowded. really enjoyed being a member there when i didn't think about the cost of doing so. 

• brooklyn bridge park. this one is a no-brainer. having BBP at the end of the street while i lived in bkyln heights was one of the best parts of living there. we're about a mile from the river in cambridge so a bit too far to pop down for a stroll and a run takes most of the run to get down there. loved the landscape architecture, the view of manhattan and the statue of liberty, sitting on the promenade with a book and reading or running through the piers on a 3 mile loop. 

• takeout. take out in cambridge can't hold a candle to take out in NYC. the food isn't as good, it's more expensive and it takes foreverrrrr to arrive. i suppose this should be balanced by the fact that our kitchen is bigger (you know, i have counter tops and storage cabinets) so we can cook at home more easily and don't need to do takeout as much but sometimes you 1. don't feel like cooking and 2. just want some thai or indian or something. all this means that you have to really want the take out and i guess that's good for my wallet and all but yeah. takeout. i miss it.

i will do a post on things i don't miss/love about boston in the near future. :)

dog days

up early on a saturday morning thought it's not too surprising because i'm usually up early in the morning. we feed sammy at 6 and all my clients are in the UK so i try to head in to work around 8 or so. it's earlier than any of my jobs in NYC but leaving the office around 5 makes the days feel much longer.

we're headed up to eli's lake house in NH for the night. sadly it looks like we're in for clouds but it should still be hot enough for swimming and it will be fun to hang out and visit as well. last night i met up with vik for drinks and dinner. he's up here for work fairly often and loves boston after college at BU so we get together every few months. last night we tried a place i've been wanting to check out called wink and nod. it has a speakeasy feel - lots of low lights and club chairs - but they played fabulous 80s music and the cocktails were delicious. as was the food - sort of a thai/new england fusion. we had swordfish belly in red curry, crab meat fried rice, and a fruits de mer with clams, mussels, soft shell crab and squid ink pasta. (side note: i've been craving squid ink pasta a lot recently. i think it's the salt? there's a place in the north end that makes the pasta noodles - may need to pick some up). it was empty at 6 PM on a friday night - fine with us! lulu's coming up to boston in october - i know where we'll be going!

it had cooled off a bit so i walked home through the public garden and beacon hill over to the MGH subway stop. if i can't live in beacon hill it's nice to walk through frequently. and with my knee (really my leg i guess) being in rough shape (i've been calling it a 'drag') i don't get much more exercise than walking so it's a win-win.

wednesday we had a work event day. spent the afternoon running around boston on a scavenger hunt of sorts. you got points for visiting local places and landmarks and taking pictures, as well as points for 'random awesomeness' and taking pictures with tourists in attire from boston colleges. despite initial skepticism and heat it worked out well and i actually got to visit several parts of boston that i had never been to before including harpoon brewery (will be going back soon), m street beach and thomson park. although to be fair i had been to thomson park before - several years ago during st patrick's day at a party in southie we climbed up to see the view of boston. it was good to rekindle the memory. ;-)

wed night we went out on a boat in boston harbor for drinks and dinner. it was a beautiful night to be on a boat - beautiful sunset and sailboats everywhere. even though i know NYC has the rivers and the harbor so it's a port city too boston just feels like the harbor is so much more a part of the landscape than it does in NYC. part of that is the salt water - you can smell the water as soon as you step out of the office - but boston is a more accessible town in general so that's probably part of it.

catching up on several weeks worth of posts we went to jimmy buffett last weekend for my 16th concert and his 59th concert at great woods. it was a smaller crew than in years past - wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of ours - a couple of gals on the town but christine and i decided we just wanted to be there / it wouldn't be summer without jimmy. huey lewis opened, which probably contributed to the fact the tickets sold out in 2 minutes and were so much more expensive this year, but i wanted to see him too. was very relieved when we finally got tickets locked down in early august as ever time i'd hear a huey lewis song on the radio it made me really stressed to know it was still up in the air!

kevin was in town last friday night (cue the katy perry) before heading up to VT for a sig ep wedding. we bopped around harvard sq eating and drinking and then hit up inman sq to visit his favorite bar from when he was a student at BC law many moons ago. his rental car was a black chevy camaro convertible and when he rolled up in it on the tiny streets of cambridge with the top down and looking v LA in a black t shirt and sunglasses i just had to laugh.

the weekend before i was out in the PNW for karla's wedding. i flew to seattle to meet up with laurak and we drove the 3ish hours down to portland on friday. met up with trikiniki (aka nicole mansfield) in the columbia river water gap for a short hike and partial swim in a waterfall (the water was too cold for full immersion but i did ice my leg for 20 mins). great to see her - she's a semi professional whitewater kayaker and wasn't pleased with the amount of water in the rivers out there as of late but otherwise wasn't too different from when we first met her in rip-wood-smith freshman year.

enjoyed bumming around portland, OR but it definitely is a different world out there! not being a bit portlandia fan i didn't know what to expect but hipster and williamsburg like was the answer. we went to pinestate biscuits on a recommendation from nicole and waited in line for 45 minutes at 10 AM on sat. we did make some friends in line - jeremy and emily - who were VERY concerned that we order the right order at pinestate and that we knew the good food places and breweries to visit while in portland. we followed their pinestate recommendation and it was spot on but we couldn't partkae of their other recommendations since we had the wedding that night. we got a kick out of it.

karla's wedding was lovely - very karla and matt. the ceremony was up on a hill in a park. a lovely ceremony but a dingo kept barking throughout to my amusement. the reception was down in the center of portland and karla and matt rode a tandem bike down that laurak and i decorated for them.

music at the wedding was a great success and the dance party was jumping until midnight thanks to yours truly. the other wedding touch i really liked was that instead of a receiving line karla and matt went straight behind the bar and helped serve drinks for 45 mins or so. congratulating and drinking - two of my favorite things.

on the way back to seattle laurak and i took a scenic route up by mt ranier. reminded me a little of driving rt 25 to moosilauke only a different mountain on a different side of the country. got back to seattle and met up with jess for mexican dinner near the university of washington campus before catching a red eye back to boston and the other side of i-90. both jess and laurak are doing well - laurak is heading to sea again with SEA this fall and sailing from the american samoas to new zealand. she's not sure what happens next after that wraps up in november but she's really liking seattle and thinking about staying put for a few more years. based on what i saw i get why people really like seattle - if only it weren't so far away from new england. :)

BCAD

Happy Black Cat Appreciation Day! 

I really appreciate our sweet black kitty. Well except for when he thinks that 3 AM is play time and likes pouncing on our feet under the covers. 

I have to tell him 'it's a good thing he's cute' a lot but he really is our sweet black kitty. :)

And we're going to get him a pumpkin costume for Halloween. :)