Ok, one thing I do miss about living in Davis Square is When Pigs Fly bread. I have a mad hankering for their olive & hot pepper bread, and alas, there’s no way I’m going to get it. We do have an awesome bakery in Salem, but its hours are stupid and foil spontaneous after work bread purchases.

First- I ate fish this weekend! Raw fish! It was... not bad and not good. It was 100% neutral. But I'm willing to try it again.

Second- this show on CartoonNetwork called Chowder is the weirdest, most entertaining thing ever.

Third- thanks to cayetana for recommending this week's This American Life. Jerry Springer's life story turns out to be absolutely fascinating. Harvard Law? Really? I would totally vote for Jerry Springer if given the chance.

Off to kung-fu! We've been plunging ahead really fast with some forms, it's been awesome lately.

What? How is it possible that Kickass Cupcakes is expanding? I do not support this supporting of crappy cupcakes. Speaking of cupcakes- a few weekends ago I tried cupcakes from Patsy's Pastries in Somerville, and I am somewhat happy to report that they were not that good. Lyndell's still wins, which makes me happy because I walk to Lyndell's from home, and I kind of fear finding the Perfect Cupcake someplace outside of reasonable walking distance. I guess if this is one of my concerns in life I'm doing pretty well.

I'm getting weirdly excited by the prospect of shopping at local farmer's markets this summer. I also think that once it gets nice, we may be able to obtain hay within a 30 minute drive for much less than the $50-60 a month we currently pay to get it shipped in from the midwest. But then again, it may not be early cut western Timothy hay, and I can't be serving lame hay to my bunnies. They have discerning tastes.

How much did The Office rock last night? Answer: So much! I want to host a dinner party. But a remarkably less awkward one.

Why is it not Friday yet? My God this has been a long week. Also, why did I not go outside to get my lunch at that delicious Chilean sandwich place? I have made poor choices with my life.

Speaking of food and poor choices, I think tomorrow night may be the night for a foray into Sushi Town. There's a new place in Allston that jawalter has noticed, and from Yelp reviews it looks pretty good (it's called Privus). Can I cajole anyone into sushi-ing it up tomorrow? they also have tempura and other non-fishy items

Finally, I really want to have a Sarah Vowell-esque adventure. I want to research some arcane subject and then visit weird little museums devoted to said arcane subject.

Alright. I have decided that I need to make a valiant effort to get rid of my picky eating habits. If, after a valiant effort, I still don't like stuff, I think I'll have earned the right to not like it. To that end, I made some lamb souvlaki last night. I'll have to give lamb a couple more shots, but there's some sort of weird taste I get from it that is just unappealing. I think I can tolerate mini-lamb chops, so maybe my chunks o' lamb last night were too big and thus too... lamby.

Anyway, so also to that end, I need to make a good faith effort into fish. It would be nice to have some protein options for dinners other than beef/pork/poultry/cheese, and it would also be nice to not have a crippling disgust for a food that's eaten by tons of people in the world. All the advice I'm getting on good old Metafilter is that sushi is the way to go to attempt to get over my fish thing.

So I think sometime soon I'd like to have a sushi dinner at some sort of nice sushi place around here. Because if I'm in polite company I probably won't cry like a baby while eating fish. What? I have a lot of disappointing-others issues tied into eating fish, it's a problem, I know.

Ok, last week for, like, two days there were girl scouts in the T station shilling cookies. And they were kind of loud and obnoxious, as little girls in groups tend to be, so I ignored them. But now I needs me some peanut butter chocolate girl scout cookies. And there are no girl scouts to be found. I actually went onto the web site and entered my information into their cookie finder database. I have no pride left.

And it reminds me of

( this (TSFW, too stupid for work )

Dunkin' Donuts Milky Way Hot Chocolate? Verdict: delicious

I'm glad I got a small, though, it is super rich, I wouldn't need more than this. Friday morning sugar high!

It smells like bacon in my building, and right now there is nothing I want more than a BLT. While I could walk down the street and get one, I'm being a good doobie and eating my homemade cooking light chili. No bacon for me.

So, another thing that I kinda want is to maybe go to King Richard's Fair. I've never been to a ren fair (fayre?) before, and it sounds rather amusing. Would anyone else be interested in the nerd fest?

Why do sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them? I have a perfectly good turkey, veggie, cream cheese, and mango chutney wrap in front of me that sounds good on paper, but it is just not doing it for me, and I'm the one who made it. Meh.

I guess it evens out in the wash, because last night we went to the Porter Square location of Addis Red Sea, and it was delicious. Followed up by a merry jaunt through several towns in search of a Friendly's, but settling on Cold Stone Creamery. Why all this deliciousness and ice cream on a Sunday night? Because today is our two-year wedding anniversary. I don't want to schmoop out too hardcore on you guys. I'll just say it's been a delightful two years. Hee. Insert schmoop here.

Yesterday I skipped kung-fu in favor of sitting on the porch with shandies reading comic books. I think it was a wise tradeoff. I inducted myself into comic book nerdom by purchasing not just Supernatural: Origins, but also two issues of the Buffy season 8 comic. Though they were out of stock on issue #2, so my pre-class mission tonight is to obtain #2. I also read one of Drew's comics called "The Last Man" or something like that, and it was pretty good. Shocking. I made some jerk chicken, coleslaw, and cornbread for dinner, and we watched Venture Brothers until I fell asleep. That was a fine evening.

So it turns out that when I took a preliminary stab at this year's taxes last month I must have futzed up the math, because I finally got 'em completed last night, and we're actually getting a bit of cash back from both the feds and the state. Even though I understand the idea that it's better to owe than to get a refund, since the government basically gets to earn interest off your money all year, I'd still rather get something back than owe.

Yesterday was another round of komos's excellent Iron Chef Challenge. I made up a batch of Caribbean pork chili that I hear came out tasty. I couldn't stand the sight of it after working on it for hours on Saturday, but I'm really glad it was well-received. For all that I was excited to fry up some plantains to go with it, the end result of said fried plantains was that it was too much effort for not enough taste.

Kung-fu tonight! I've been a bad girl and for all of Feb. I only made it once a week, so this week I need to step it up again.

Mmm... burrito. I'd been craving some burrito action all week for lunch, and today, I obtained said burrito. It was tasty, but it was no Picante burrito. Or Baja Betty's.

But still, my burrito needs are well satisfied.

Y'all really needed to know that, huh?

So, an inadvertant part of my Christmas loot was... a bread machine! I am way, way too excited by this. I just started up a loaf of white bread, to see what this baby can do. I offhandedly mentioned that I thought I'd spend a Best Buy card I received toward a bread machine, and lo, Drew's parents gifted me with their old machine that they no longer used. Also received two of the OC soundtracks, which are chock full of indie rock. Well, at least one is, and the other is kinda indie rocky, plus it includes not just "California," but also "We Used To Be Friends," both of which I bopped around to in the car yesterday on our drive back. Speaking of the drive, holy crap, what is wrong with Connecticut?! It seems that every time we drive back from southern climes that involve having to drive through CT, we inevitably hit major traffic snarls. Connecticut, you're totally on notice.

I'm officially hankering for a Buffy marathon at some point soon. Maybe next weekend (as in, not the one coming up, but the one after that)? I have to warn you guys, I've started coming up with a bunch of ideas of Stuff To Do in the near future, as we've been rather hermity lately, and need to remedy that with muchos social time. Plus, it's been a really long time since we've done anything tiki, and I think a tiki party will have to be in order at some point.

Owie. I got a flu shot today and my arm is ouchy. But I'll take a few hours of ouchy over a few days of flu.

So yesterday was Free Money Day. Got my bonus at work (yay!), and came home to a surprise refund check from the student loan that was paid off (double yay!). I'm feeling a little more secure, or at least, less likely to freak out, about the impending holiday wallet-suck.

So last night I did my volunteering, and then got home and made cookies. Cookies! For those of you with Cooking Light, the maple-spice cookies are really good (I did 'em without the walnuts, but I'm sure they're good with them, too).

Time for the obligatory ( weekend roundup )

OMG, I have fallen into such extremes of dorkdom that there's just no hope for me now. Seriously. I have found Buffy/Oz crossover fanfic, and am so enamored with the idea that I'm going to have to write my own. I'm a pretty crappy creative writer, but I'm hoping the awesomeness of this concept can pull me into passably-good writerdom. So, yes, now I'm going to write fanfic. Dear god.

And...well... that segues into what my weekend was like. Friday night we headed to the Second Circle for the ressurection of cheap Friday nights with friends, food, booze, and HBO. Last night tenillypo came over to watch the rest of Oz season 5 with Drew & I. 5 hours of Oz. See? With the problem and the obsession and all? So now I guess we have to make some sort of blood sacrifice to get HBO to actually release season 6 on dvd, or at least on On Demand.

Today I made some Cooking Light cupcakes, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, did laundry, and did grocery shopping. Wow. I'm going to ignore the fact that I've become a stereotype domestic goddess. But I really like making cupcakes, and, well, the other stuff just needed to be done, and I like getting stuff done.

This weekend involved a good deal of domesticity, but it's the season for spending a day baking bread and then spending a day on the couch with dvds. Though I now have a serious OZ addiction problem. We spent all day yesterday finishing up Season 3 and getting into Season 4. I think I've become a little desensitized to the super-violence, but the story arc of the 2 guys involved in Hot Man Kisses is right up there with the Buffy/Spike story arc on BtVS. It's very squee-tastic. I am such a fangirl. I think the problem lies in discovering the internet fandom universe for the show- when others share your addiction it's much easier to keep it going.

Saturday was my bread-baking day, as I had to get a couple of loaves of pumpkin walnut focaccia together for a fall dinner/wine tasting with Beck, Nat, and their crew. It was a huge amount of fun, and I realize that I really need to be better about being in touch with those ladies for non-brunchy get-togethers.

Lastly, Friday we went to see Serenity, which rocked my socks off. So good! I'd even see it again... but on tv, I can't afford to see movies twice in the theater. So that's that.

I'm considering starting a second blog for my cooking endeavors. I have a scary obsession with cooking now. But I'm pretty darn good at it, well, at least in my not-so-humble opinion. I've been cooking from Weight Watchers' Take Out Tonight cookbook this week, and it really is fabulous. Last night I made Greek meatballs with a cinnamony tomato sauce, over orzo, with a side of steamed broccoli. And it was tasty. Yesterday I made chicken chow mein, and it tasted exactly like the stuff you get at Chinese restaurants, except it was all healthy and stuff. I think tonight I have to make more Alton Brown cookies, as we have promised some to the Dot in exchange for her clipping the bunnies' nails, for lo, we are too scared and wimpy to clip them ourselves. Poor little Robo gets all aflustered when we try to hold him down, and Grens just gives up and resigns herself to imminent death, which looks very pathetic.

We've been watching a lot of OZ these past fews days, as Drew went out and got the dvds, so my dreams this week have been about being in prison.

So yesterday I was sequestered away in a class about e-resource statistics in libraries. You may be surprised to hear that it wasn't as boring as it sounds!

There was a librarian from Bates there, too! She's a tech services librarian, so I never knew her at Ladd, but we chatted a bit. Then, a librarian from New Hampshire (or Vermont? I'm not sure which) came over and said he had just hired someone who went to Bates... and it turns out that it's Brenda's sister's then-boyfriend, now-husband. And Brenda's sister is apparantly the head of a public libes somewhere in NH or VT, or wherever they are.

Oh, and the other day I made The.Best.Cookies.Ever. Alton Brown is my hero.

I seem to have come down with The Plague at some point last night, as my head is all stuffed up and gross feeling. Ick. Good think I cooked up some soup for lunches yesterday! Barley and veggies is about all I can handle right now.

So this weekend involved some quality time with my girls. We talked, cooed at aquarianna6's uber-cute little baby, talked more, ate lots of food, and drank tequila. Drew and I also viewed some fine cinematic entertainment, in the way of The 40-Year Old Virgin and Transporter 2.

So I finished The Subtle Knife last night and have started on Amber Spyglass. I think I'm going to have to seek out everything else Philip Pullman has written once I'm done with these, I'm addicted. I should also finish Salt: A World History at some point, as I only have 2 more chapters to go. I have a problem with actually finishing books, I kind of get distracted and flit on to others before I finish lots of them.

Finally, big hugs to all my friends who need them right now. My ears are always here for you whenever you want 'em.

Last night The Doodletown Pipers (that's us) kicked some more trivia ass. We placed third, which isn't too shabby. Next week we are totally taking down Team My Little Pony!

So yesterday I ventured into the den of chaos that is the RMV at Downtown Crossing. The wait there is usually at least an hour, but when you show up at 4:15 and they close at 5, all hell breaks loose. You take a number when you go in, only to have some dude take your number from you and direct you to stand in a line. Then other people think they're standing in line for the slot at the counter that you're actually waiting for, and some old guy comes over and stands waaay too close to you and looks like he's trying to weasel in ahead of you. It's craziness, I tell you. But I only had to wait about twenty minutes, got my spanky new temporary license, and was on my way.

I now have a new Social Security card, and a new license. It feels kind of weird, Jen Moore is no longer a person in the eyes of The Law. Now on to the hassley business of changing bank cards, bills, magazines...

Speaking of magazines, my fellow Cooking Light subscribers (I'm looking at you, mrs_muffin, starflow, and cayetana... is there anyone else?)- have you all gotten your September issues by now? It's focused on "entertaining," and as such, the yields for most of the recipes are insanely huge. I'm thinking we need to have a Cooking Light potluck soon, 'cause I want to try some of theses things, but I don't want to do the math to reduce a recipe that yields 10 servings down to 2. Math is hard, let's have a pot luck instead!

Edit: Non-Cooking Light subscribers who might be interested in the potluck would be welcome, too. I can give anyone who wants it the monthly access code for the website.

So, on Saturday, I discovered the awesomeness that is Haymarket. For you non-Bostonites, Haymarket is a big farmers-market-type-thing. It's not really a farmers market per se, but it involves a whole lot of produces that's sold dirt-cheap. It was amazing. Mind blowing, in fact. I picked up a pound of spinach for $1.00, and 4 bunches of parsley for $2.00. All for the bunnies, of course.

We also checked out the street fair in the North End, which was pretty cool. There was music and food, though the best food was the cannoli I had at Modern Pastry. We later went to Waltham to see Broken Flowers, which I tought was funny as all get-out, but that's probably because I took one little scene and continued it in my head, with hilarious consequences. I was silently hysterical for about 15 minutes, which I'm sure was more embarassing for those with me than it was for me.

Yesterday we lazed around, drank some shandies, and watched more Scrubs. I also attempted to make zucchini bread, but I must have done something horribly wrong, as it didn't rise at all. I have a somewhat tasty brick of bread now. I might have to try it again tonight.

Man, I hate it when I realize that I've got my underwear on inside out. Though it's not as bad as the time I put my underwear on backwards and inside out, and was wondering why it was feeling so annoying. Sometimes I just have my moments.

So, attorneys here often host client meetings here in the building for lunch, which means that the entire first floor (where the library is) usually ends up smelling like fish for a while (I guess fish is impressive at fancy-pants meetings). You know... I'm at the point where I would like to like fish. In a very abstract way. But still, it would be nice to make Drew happy with some seafoody type dinners once in a while. I just can't get over my aversion to all critters from the seas (and rivers, lakes...) Have any of you all successfully killed a serious (very serious, like the smell of the food makes you gag serious) food aversion? I've unloaded most of my veggie baggage (as in, I used to not go near any kind of pepper or mushroom, and even onions sketched me out), and I got over my dislike of dealing with raw meat, but the fish/seafood thing just squidges me out way too much. Advice? Stories? Thoughts?

Man. I got some asian pears at Whole Foods, and was all excited for exotic and different fruit, but I'm not really liking them at all. And I have 4 of them left. Bleh. Anyone really, really like asian pears and want to trade some other fruit for them? I'm such a townie.

I almost missed my stop this morning because I was so engrossed in a book. Artemis Fowl is proving to be a really entertaining read. I can't remember the last I've actually lost complete track of time and stops on the T.

So it's hot. Haven't been doing much as moving results in my being covered with a sticky film of sweat. Yesterday I took a shower at the gym after working out, and had to take another when I got home because walking from Porter made me feel gross. But I was a good little doobie and surprised Drew with the new Eco book- it has pictures! It's also the gift that keeps giving, as I can read it when he's done!

I just started The Book last night, and am about 70 pages into it. Nothing big has happened yet, but *squee* just for how fantastic it is to be so absorbed in a fantasy world that the crowded, slow train melted out of my conciousness this morning. It's kind of bad that I get so into these books that I half expect to see people in the real world doing magic. Heh, after reading several Robert Jordan books back to back a few years ago, I started to sometimes think "why don't you just heal that" when I got a case of the sniffles.

So, my fellow Cooking Light subscribers, I have a recommendation for you. In this month's issue, their feature on grilling a steak and using the leftovers in other recipes is fantastic. Seriously, the steak is good the first night with some garlic mashed potatoes and spinach, but lo, the second night, you must make the Southwestern steak wraps! So good! Most of what I make falls in the good-to-very-good range, but it's really rare to pull off something that gets a wow from both of us, and this was a big wow. I subbed cayenne for the black pepper, 'cause we like things spicy, and used light cheddar instead of full-fat jack because that's what I had, but it was super tasty.

For anyone who cares/is bored enough to check it out, I've posted more wedding pics to my LJ pictures. This time I tried to put more of other people, and not so much of me. ^_^ I think that'll be it, though we have tons and tons of non-digital pictures from the disposable cameras, but I don't think those will make it online.

In other news, why do I want a Crunchwrap Supreme so badly??!! I have never, ever, consumed a Taco Bell product before, but that damn Crunchwrap is calling to me. I bet I can make one myself using soy crumbles. Mmmm... Morningstar soy crumbles.

Ugh, Atlantic Ave. is freakin' Waterworld today. I am soggy.

So, yesterday I picked up my wedding dress from the cleaners, and nearly had a heart attack from how much it cost. Is it normal for it cost $130 to clean a dress? WTF, if I had known it would cost that much I would have just let it sit in my closet with grass stains, it's not like I'm going to be wearing it out ever again. I'm convinced that the minute anything has the word "wedding" attached, dollar signs light up in people's eyes. Rawwwr. So I had my semi-quarterly freak out about money last night, as is my wont, and I think I've decided that I need to put one of my student loans back into forbearance for a year (where it can join the grad school student loan, which I'm not touching until the credit cards are paid off). Debt totally sucks.

But, to end the entry on a high note- Friday I get free sushi. Free! Sushi! I mean, vegetable sushi! Who doesn't like the sound of that?!

I feel so healthy. Lunch is a turkey sammich with baby spinach and tomato on whole wheat/flaxseed bread, and a nectarine. If there's to be pool-ifying in my near future, I'd best get rid of some of my beer, pasty and cupcake pudge for my cute H&M swimsuit.

Oh, ew. I just noticed that my sunburn on my delicate bosomy parts is starting to peel, and that is really quite gross. And now I just shared that with you all. I loaded on the sunscreen before leaving for our Harbor Islands adventure yesterday, but I probably should have reapplied some in the afternoon.

So yeah, this weekend was fun and hot, and... seriously hot. I think we're going to have to rig up a temporary night-time bunny headquarters in our bedroom with the AC if things keep going this way. The poor things are looking really listless and unhappy in the heat.

I have found myself slouching in my seat far too often at work lately, so I've stuck a little note on my computer that says "sit up straight!" I hope it works, as I'm too short to afford crappy posture.

So my class last night was awesome. It involved a sweet but slightly crazy Eygptian guy. He played a few of his cds (as in, cds of him singing). I'd never heard O Sol Mio sung in Japanese by and Eygptian, but now I have. It didn't actually involve us cooking, we just sort of stood around watching him, but it was fun. He made: rutabega stew, sauteed okra, fava bean salad, red lentil soup, and a dessert whose name escapes me. I felt bad for the vegetarians in the group, as he cooked some meat for the stew and kept stirring everything with the meat spoon. He also dumped chicken broth into one version of the stew and mixed up which was which, such that the vegetarians had a few unfortunate mouthfuls before realizing his mistake. I met a girl who's also getting married on June 4th, we chatted for a while. All in all, very fun, and I'll definitely take another class. I think to actually get to cook I'll have to try the Culinary Institute in Porter Square, but sitting and watching is nice, too.

We got our itinerary for our cruise the other day. It's going to be so cool! *squee* They'll even do some grocery shopping for us and load stuff onto the boat before we get there. We could have a boat full of pasties if we want!! Mmm...pasites. I have a problem.

I've been having the weirdest food cravings lately, for thing that I never eat. Yesterday I wanted tator tots like nobody's business. Alas, I was foiled, and only had oven fries. I also really want sloppy joes, for no good reason whatsoever. It's probably because we don't eat much red meat or fat; I have a rule that we can only eat red meat once a week (and I try to weasel out of that whenever I can, much to c_m_i's dismay).

So I was attacked by the Old Guy again on Tuesday. He was complaining about the stove (which, by the way, is immaculate right now, so I know he hasn't seen inside our place since Feb. Why won't he leave us alone?!

Oh man, I am so confused. I think I require komos's help, but maybe someone else knows the answer. So, I thought that an "applewood smoked ham" does not need to be cooked, given that it has been smoked. My Google-fu is failing me on the subject, some appear to need cooking and some don't. I made a German potato salad with a smidge of ham that I just cut up without cooking, as it seemed fine to me. Will we get horribly ill if we eat it?

So we had a pretty good weekend, all things considered. My Sunday was spent on the couch recovering from Saturday, but all is well. Folks came over for Carnivale and chili on Friday. Saturday was the Beer Summit volunteer party. I think I've even managed to come out of my cooking funk. For a few weeks, most of my cooking really sucked, but I think after the chili, yesterday's frittata, and tonight's cajun chicken, I've de-slumped. Grendel is currently being a jerk and bugging Robocop. I'm really looking forward to seeing incandes_flower and the rest of the Bates Girls posse later this week.

Well, that was about as satisfying as a weekend can get. It involved a huge amount of lounging, and lounging is good.

Friday night we headed over to the Second Circle for tv and, um, camaraderie. Yay for camaraderie. Saturday Drew & I spent the day lazing about. I made 2 sad looking loaves of bread. They taste fine, they just didn't exactly rise much... or at all. Now that I think about it, though, I don't remember seeing bubbles in the sugar-water-yeast mix I made, so I think maybe the water wasn't warm enough. I need a thermometer for cooking stuff. Yesterday we hit the Galleria for a little shopping, then went to komos's place to watch him brew.

And that was that. Next Sunday I'm seeing Slint again, and they will rock.

An AskMetafilter question reminded me of the greatness of Tullycraft, and I looked 'em up, and lo, I see that there's a new album in the works! Twee Pop!

I am making Siracha bread. The dough kneading was very satisfying. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my dad baking breads on snow days. It's kind of funny just how much I love cooking- it must be the act of creating something with my hands. Since I can't really do many cute human things with these clumsy little hands, this is the best I can do.

So we think things went ok with the Old Guy last night, but we won't be 100% sure until we get a lease signed. He rambled for a while about his life, our cleanliness, and the rabbits. Apparantly back in the old country, he had a stable, which was overrun by bunnies. Hee. A stable full of bunnies. That must be the cutest thing in the entire world.

Today's adventure:

Wherin our heroine learns that if a recipe calls for cooking on high heat for 5 hours, it does not necessarily mean you can instead cook on low heat for 10 hours. It leaves dinner sort of desicated. Drew is a sweetheart and claims that it's edible enough for lunch tomorrow. Back-up dinner to the rescue.

'Least it's not as bad as pineapple lasagna.

I seriously love Cooking Light so much. That magazine is the best thing ever. Made some meatball subs for dinner that were sooo good. That and a spinach & pear salad. Num num num.

Last night I gave our landlord the pumpkin pie I made on Sunday. He looked skeptical at first and asked if I made it myself; when I said "yes," he had a huge smile. Made me feel all warm & fuzzy to have made someone so happy with so little. I think maybe he's crochety because he's lonely.

So much to do tonight! Then we are off at 7AM. I'm glad we're doing Thanksgiving south this year, as that means we do Christmas north. I haven't seen snow on Christmas in 2 years.

Work is doing such a nice thing to celebrate the Sox, there's pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, tickets they're giving away.... I entered for the tickets, but am abstaining from the fat bombs of food, as last night Drew & I celebrated our anniversary a little early with a meal at Gargoyle's in Davis. It was super tasty, but I'm getting way too used to my own cooking, so anything cooked with more than a tablespoon of olive oil (or, god forbid, real butter and not Benecol) makes my tummy feel squidgy later. Mmmm, fancy-pants dinner.

For those of you who don't read read Drew's journal, here's a picture of our bunnies celebrating Sox pride:bunnies!

Hmmm, what else.... I talked Hollywood Express down to $20 from the $100 late fee. Fear my powers of persuasion!

I need to stay away from Peanut Butter Cups. Seriously. I have a problem.

Never underestimate the comfiness of hanging about the house in a bathrobe.

That said, had a very fine weekend that saw the return (for good and temporarily) of some friends, and had a lovely phone call with halninek this evening. Stuff of various kinds was done, and lo, it was fun.

Apparently I owe Hollywood Express a fine in excess of $100 for Twisted. For the love of all that's holy, I could've kept the damn thing and bought them a new copy for $15. We'll see how this plays out. They are seriously not getting that much money for that crapfest. Seriously. I returned the case, unknowingly leaving the dvd ensconced in the dvd player. I am smrt. I must have given them my home phone number instead of my cell when I signed up, which also meant that I never got any messages they left, since we don't check our home voice mail (note to anyone who might have that number- don't ever leave us a message there). Oy.

There is a hilarious remix of Ashlee Simpson's "performance" on SNL that has her doing the ho-down to the Benny Hill theme. Priceless.

Pumpkin cake in the oven on a fall day is among the best things ever. Walked all over creation today to obtain litter for the bunnies, but it was gorgeous out, so it was well worth the trouble. I think fall makes up for miserable New England winters; it's such a sensual time, so many smells and sounds and sights all popping out.

There's a John Wilkes Boothe special on tv, and it reminds me of the "It Wasn't Me" JWB montage. Heh.

Apologies to cosmicserpent and starflow for sucking out on the plan to go dancing last night. I left the Beer Summit volunteer thingy to come home for dinner, and my limbs were too heavy with sleep to get it together to head out again. I haven't been sleeping well lately, but that's not a great excuse.

Yesterday I did manage, though, to find The Dress. Now I'm a little kurfuzzled, as The Dress is way more expensive than I had hoped (even on discount web sites), and I'm not sure if it's within my dad's price range. We'll see. It's very purty.

I also owe some kudos to tenillypo for lending Good Omens to me. I'm not terribly far into it, but so far it's amazingly good. Thanks!

*happy sigh* I've been experimenting with curries lately. Tonight's was too soupy, but Thursday's was right-on. I've also been experimenting with setting the damn house on fire. Friday night I learned that wax paper, when next to a hot burner, will catch fire. I also learned that my reflexes in such a situation aren't so great, as I just yelled for Drew, then said "fire," and "water." Drew put out the flames. Good lord. It was a good thing I stayed away from the stove all day yesterday. Also met up with cosmicserpent and starflow before hitting the Butterknife show.

Yesterday we ventued up to Vermont/Western MA for some farmy good times. cayetana's sister-in-law put together a great day for the bunch of us, that was the best way to ease into fall. We visited a cheese cave (which is more like a Hobbit house than a cave... yes, I was expecting a drippy dark cave more than a well-controlled basement), a cider farm, and The People's Pint. The Pint was awesome; such good food, all local and organic, and fantastic beer. It was such a great day. By the time we got home we just crashed, and I'm still a wee bit tired from the trip. Spent all day today lazing around. Ran some errands, checked out the new bookstore in Porter Square (it so happens that one of Jeremy's friends, Josh, works there, so it was nice to see a familiar face). The bookstore hasn't received all of its inventory yet, so the shelves are a bit bare, but I'm so happy to have a real, not Buck-a-Book, bookstore in the neighborhood. Drew & I then headed to John Harvard's to read our books and have a few beers. I'm hoping tomorrow brings some quality girl time and more relaxing.

All of the foodie threads on Ask MetaFilter are making me want to cook fancy food. Tonight I'll settle for Herbed Chicken Piccata and Broccoli with Shallot Butter. I've got these shallots that I really need to use- have you ever tried to look for shallots in the grocery store? It's tricksy. I thought they'd be with either the herbs or the onions, but they were hanging above the mushrooms, way out of my line of vision. I really wish I had a MeFi account, as I really wanted to chime in on one thread with one magical word: "Brine!" Brining is amazing. That's all. I've got to nuke myself some lunch now.

I have the most powerful craving for steak ever. I stopped by McKinnons on the way home and picked up so-cheap-it-sketches-me-out filet mignon; we will be dining on steak, potatoes and broccoli tonight. Beeeefy....

Uh. So on my way out of the store, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in ages, which is always cool. What's not cool is that I'm 95% sure who he is, but not 100%. I'm pretty sure he's one of Jeremy's friends, Josh, and I sincerely hope I didn't have that "I'm an asshat who doesn't remember your name" look on my face when I was chatting with him. He was wearing a Bates shirt, which is what threw me off, because he did not go to Bates, but did grow up in L-town and hung with the contingent of Bates professors' kids (that would be "college-age kids"). While I actually have a pretty good memory for faces & names, I have an uncannily lousy ability to actually register that I recognize someone until about 5 minutes after they walk away (this is, of course, only when confronted with a familiar person out of context, if I expect to see someone in a certain place I'm usually set). Drew will point out that I'm just utterly unobservant, which is indeed true.

The house that caught fire a few blocks away last week is now a pile of charred rubble. Freaks me out.

Alright, onward to steak.

Whoooo! That was a fine, fine dinner. Happy birthday to wisdom_seeker! I am so freakin' full of tapas and a bomb of fudgey chocolate cake that I can't get to sleep, despite my extreme tiredness. Too...much...cake. Tonight, I ate bunny. But only 'cause Drew promised to give me $50 for doing so. I'll do anything for $50, that's a lot of money. the bunny was pretty scrumptious

Well, the cold with which I was stricken for the weekend appears to be on its slow way out. I can almost smell again, which means I could almost taste my lunch of leftover veggie quiche. I have discovered that quiche is an excellent way to get rid of vegetables that you otherwise would not have much use for. Specifically, summer squash. I don't mind summer squash, per se, but don't have very many uses for it. Add some spinach, red pepper, and eggs, though, and there you have it. Throw some cool whip, strawberries, and angel food cake together after that, and voila.

So this is what a Saturday really feels like...

Had a blast last night getting curry and then hitting the Tiki Room. I'm so glad you all could come out, I love the feeling of sitting at a huge table surrounded by such awesome peeps. I also love pina coladas. Sorry we jetted early, but I'm feeling so very rested and pleasant that I think it was well worth it to do so. Can I also say that I really hope this newfound feeling of financial security actually lasts, 'cause I really like that for the first time in my life I don't have to feel guilty about buying unnecessary extras at the grocery store, and may even be able to buy some unnecessary new cds.

Oh yeah, if you're interested in catching Anchorman for either the first or second time tomorrow, drop me a note so I know to include you on the planning.

Now I'm going to make pasta salad, chocolate banana bread and mango-banana frozen yogurt. I have a crapload of organic bananas to use up.

I'm so pleased with how this weekend turned out that I'm not even sad to be heading to work this morning. Friday night I succeeded in filling my needs for both delicious curry and hanging out. Saturday Drew & I headed up to my dad's wife's camp in Maine for some wholesome family barbeque time. My stepmom's family is just so normal and sincerely nice that it kind of weirds me out a bit. Or maybe it was the lack of beer at a barbeque. We got to dangle our feet in a pretty lake and see Lake Bunganut (heh). Thanks to the hospitality of ms_ntropy and her mom, we got to bask in a pool, eat too much food, and have an excellent time with a bunch of excellent people on Sunday. I didn't even feel too squidgy about wearing my teeny-bopper bathing suit. Yesterday I killed a lot of brain cells, but not by drinking. Alan, Tenille and I had a little movie marathon wherein we watched The Perfect Score and Eurotrip; the former being a big old pile of crap, the latter being one of the most hilarious films I've seen in a while. I also made some super-tasty chocolate zucchini bread that might just be my new favorite thing ever. All in all, it was a solidly great weekend.

One of my pet peeves is the obsessive focus on "low-carb" products that's the current rage. -I'm not getting all down on Atkins, just the people who are jumping on the bandwagon for all their worth- A particularly egregious example of this is KFC; they had been airing ads that claim that a bucket of fried chicken is good for "low-carb diets," and choosing KFC is choosing "healthy." Heh. I just read that the FTC totally nailed their asses for false advertising. Every once in a while, perusing these legal publications at work yields entertaining results. I will say, however, that their ads featuring "Chicks for Chicken" shirts make me giggle.

Over the past few days I've regained my cooking prowess after some hilarious fiascoes. Corn on the cob with lime-cilantro butter, cherry cobbler, cajun-garlic pork, and oven-roasted sage potatoes are all most excellent things.

Though I swallow my pride a little to admit it, last night I watched For Love or Money 3. Yup. It was pretty entertaining.

Looking at my birth control pill pack, I see that I'm PMS-ing, and that explains some snarkiness and an insane craving for salt. Luckily, the salt arrives in the form of one of those Healthy Choice frozen meals, which probably contain my daily allotment of sodium (and I actually hunt down the lowest-sodium ones I can find). Endorphins have also kicked in from some cardio at the gym, so am feeling better.

Tonight I have an orientation at the animal shelter, and then I will officially volunteer to play with homeless bunnies. I'm totally going to want to bring them home with me. Depending on what time that gets out, I may attempt to make a cherry cobbler tonight.