Restaurant Review: Gourmet House Restaurant

When i was in providence (RI), we went to a yummy, cheap restaurant called Gourmet House Restaurant. It has a pretty boring name, but it serves yummy thai and other asian food. I had some very good curry, and this addicting thai iced tea that was red tinted. I've never had the red kind before... We had probably about six people at the table, and were seated right away, even on a Friday night, and the whole bill was so cheap, although I don't remember the amount anymore. I highly reccomend it and I bet I'll try to eat there again this summer when I live there for a couple weeks.

Great great great great grandfather tortoise

Yesterday I heard about the 250 year old tortoise that died, from John and Wendy on Gabber Jaw (gabberjaw.com) and Corky on Bad Weeds San Francisco (badweeds.com). Since I heard it from two places on the same day, everyone else has probably already heard about it too, and this blog is just boring to you. In case you didn't, there was a tortoise that died last week in India, and he was probably 250 years old. They have paper documentation for at least 150 of the years, and pretty good hearsay information about the other 100. So that means, when this turtle was born, it was the 1700s! That, to me is just unbelievable that anyone could live that long. It's really extraordinary. Just imagine everything that has changed in that one being's life. He used to be the pet of a big guy in the East India Trading company, and he might have sailed around on the ships with him. So this turtle could have come to the US right at our very beginning of being a country. And lived in England, and all over. I wonder what he thought about all of that. Do you think he got tired of being alive? He was in the zoo for the past 100 years or so. I could not imagine being in the same enclosure for that long. I'd be so bored I'd kill myself. That's not what this tortoise did, he died of liver failure. Which makes sense, seeing as it had functioned for so long. He lived as long as a tree! If they could bottle such an essence, to live so long, I think the world would be much worse off. We have overcrowding now, but if people lived two to three times longer, we'd be so crowded. And starving. And bored. These days we need constant stimulation, and the task of finding enough new things for 100s of years to entertain people would be astounding.... My other thought when I heard this was to wonder how many other animals out there are living super long lives, but we don't know it. You wouldn't know that that turtle you see sunning itself in the pond is the same one your great great grandparents saw there too. How could you tell? You couldn't. Animals like the loch ness monster and champ in VT are probably super old like mr. turtle. You'd think... Hmm...

Christmas in March

Even though I don't talk about them much, yes, I do have a family. I was reminded of why I use Jesse's digital camera the other day when the last of my Christmas pictures came in from my old, regular film, camera. So, as I wait for my laundry on this beautiful spring day, let's think back a few months ago, to when it was snowy and cold... Let's travel back in time to Christmas.

Christmas eve, my brother picked me up from my house and drove me to our parents house in NH. Doug lives in SC, so he had been visiting friends in Boston, which was convenient for me. As soon as we arrived, he went and passed out (he'd had way more fun the night before than I had, apparently). NH is pretty boring. I played with the cats.

But I had to abandon my cat Nat when I went to school and he's never forgiven me. I talked with my parents..

Then settled for watching Family Guy on my ipod and Im'ing people. My sister and her boyfriend came over later on, after our yummy corn chowder dinner.

They are very interesting people. It's always fun to see how little they know about the world of popular culture. They are very ambitious and goal oriented people

Very unlike me. But, it's admirable.

Beth, Robert and I shared an airmattress on the floor, and Doug slept on the couch. And in the morning, it was Christmas!

We had tons of presents, and Neta took advantage of the tree to become a Christmas kitty.

It was our first Christmas since our cat Zoe died, so it was weird not having her there too.

We opened lots of presents


And just when we thought we couldn't open any more, more people came! First Auntie Jane, then Jesse, and then my cousin Becky, who got bored being at her dad's house.

Later, we ate dinner, which put Auntie Jane to sleep.

But she woke up when we played a board game. Auntie Jane was nice enough to drop Jesse and I off back in Boston, after we dropped Becky back at her dad's. Then there was just enough time to meet up with Matt, Frank and Brian and go dance at Avalon!

What a nice Christmas... But I'm so glad we're not back in December now. I can't wait for the SUMMER!!!

The strange number

This is a blog that needs comments. While in NYC, we saw a number on a building.


This number is constantly changing, but it's not going down, or up. Only the middle digits of the number change. From what I've heard, one day, this number just got there, and no one knows who put it there. No one knows why it's there, or what it means...
But that can't be true. SOMEONE has to know what this number is. Otherwise, it could be aliens trying to communicate. Or some covert group ready to destroy the world... If you know what this number means, please let me know.

Our NYC Trip

So I'm finally writing my blog about our NYC trip the weekend before last. This was my third time I was in NYC. The first time, I stayed overnight, but didn't get to do anything besides stand in a line. The second time, I was only there a couple hours, to eat at a bland restaurant and go around that street that has the fake purses. EW i dont do fake purses. My designer is real or not at all. So, this time, I got to see more of NYC than the other two times put together.

We left bright and early on Saturday morning and drove to CT, then took the train in for another hr from there. Matt found us a nice cheap place to stay, a suite that everyone except Sydney shared (he got his own hotel room somewhere else). It wasn't a great place, but it suited our purposes, and no one had to sleep on the floor.


If you know us, or if you've been reading these blogs or listening to the podcast long enough, you know we're lazy. Right away, we took advantage of the beds and started lounging. We finally set off, though, to have an early dinner and explore. Here you can see Dave and Matt studying the complicated NYC subway system map. My ticket didn't work and i had to crawl through the turnstyle, but luckily, they didn't yell at me.

We originally were going to go to some drag queen chinese food place, but fortunately it was too overpriced. Nothing against drag queens, but I've had my fill of them over the years and am really done with them. Most of us felt the same way. We got to eat yummy sushi instead (see restaurant review). On the way there, I saw this really cute doggy day care. All these small dogs and puppies playing in a room with slides and toys... They let people stand outside and watch if they want. OOHH SO CUTE!!! Unfortunately, Dave and Preston got sick after dinner. Not because of the place, as they originally thought, but because of the horrible tummy bug that is going around. It is this tummy bug that made it take so long for me to get this blog up. They ended up going back to the room, and Sydney left for his room (where he ended up getting sick too). Which left me, Jesse, Matt and Nikoh to explore.
We walked through such a cute part of the city, with really yummy yummy looking food places, foods from all over. I have to point out that I don't really enjoy american food. If i'm going to have american food, i want it homemade. I hate american restaurants. But i love to try other country foods. mmm. We also passed cute shops, but they had all closed by then. I know it's the city that doesn't sleep, but i guess the shop people have to get home so they can get ready for going out at night. Our shopping ended up consisting of drug stores to get things like juice, energy drinks, razors, cups, etc. And then the liquor store for Matt and Nikoh. After two nights straight drinking prior, I really couldn't handle drinking again. Especially if i wanted to stay awake for the late night NYC clubs. Jesse felt the same way. We were all exhausted.
We got back, and Preston was feeling ok, but Dave was really really sick. Jesse played dj and vj for us, and we watched tv and tried to listen to music.


The tv was so old, it wouldn't hook up to the ipod for sound. So there we were, tired tired tired, and we couldn't even listen to music to get in the mood. Matt's friend Sean, who lives in NYC, came over and found us all lounging once again, under the covers.


Another goal of staking out the drugstores had been to try to find some ephedra, which is legal again. We needed some energy! Picture us skulking around, pretending that vitamins are the most intruiging things in the world, gathering up courage to ask for it. But, no one had any. We had to settle for fake xenadrine.


Look how energetic it made Preston.

Matt had the most energy, as he was delierious from a fever. Here he is with Nikoh, edging us all out the door. Dave had to stay home. We went to Roxy, and the music wasn't as great as I thought it'd be, a little too old, but I had fun. We were all so tired we couldnt see, or move. And we left at 430. Not exactly the big NYC night out we had envisioned. But oh well.
The next morning, we woke up and checked out.


Look how chipper Nikoh and I look. We tried to do shopping and eat before we went home, but the group was a bit big. Some people liked more popular stores while others liked more NYC unique stores. Some people liked american chain restaurants, while others liked smaller different cuisine restaurants. You can't expect to please everyone, after all. Ended up, we walked in circles forever, and got mostly nothing accomplished. We stopped at a mall food court and most people ate. I can't eat fast food. Why waste my $ and tummy? Yes, Jesse and I are food snobs, because we both abstained. Oh well, I had my sushi!
On the way to the train, there was some sort of demonstration. Almost all the people in the demonstration were black. This was really funny cuz lots of the people walking by on the street got freaked out by this. I saw a white guy and his white girlfriend literally run through the crowd. He was pulling her and she tripped and fell. Everyone laughted. I wonder what they were demonstrating about..
The trip back was SO LONG. A long walk followed by a long train ride by a long car ride by a long commuter rail ride then a t ride then we were home. Home sweet home. Yay.

Restaurant Review: Kura-Sushi

While we were in NYC, we ate at one restaurant, Kura-Sushi. I'll bet you can guess, this is a sushi place. It was nice and cute and little, off the beaten path. When we got there, it was a little early for dinner, so it was pretty empty, but it filled right up as we ate. It was really good. They gave so many different combo choices, and the choices were all varied. They had traditional and non traditional sushi choices. There were also the other usual foods as well. I had a special that included the dragon roll, and tempura roll, plus a few of the plain sushi on rice. All were mmmm! And the salad that came with it had such a yummy orange ginger dressing! Another yummy thing, which I tried off of Dave's plate, was the pork dumplings. The prices were nice and cheap, so if you're in NYC, go here. And, around that area, there are a billion of other good looking restaurants which I didn't get to go to, but maybe you can.

More Going Out

We continued our weekend of fun last weekend by going to Nikoh and Preston's house in Providence, RI on Friday. We had fun and played cards, till it was time to go out to Mira Bar. Mira Bar is a strange little club because it plays songs I never hear anywhere else. It tries to be dance music, but it's not, it's just some weird made up songs... This is another club you have to drink to go to, and bring plenty of friends.

Here they are, the best friend roommates sitting on their sofa.

Where they're joined by Dave. Aww. how cute and snuggly!

And look - Jay took a break from always working to come out with us too! You can tell it's St. Patrick's day, Jesse's got his green St. Patrick's Day shirt on that always give him a lot of attention.

Shortly after, we left, and had fun. We only had a little bit of the usual Providence getting lost at the end of the night, but everyone made it home ok.

Dave comes to visit

Not this past week, but the week before now, Dave came to visit from Texas. I had never met him, , so I was looking forward to that. It also gave us a chance to have a fun-filled long weekend. We kicked off the weekend by going to Embassy, which is a club in Boston that plays hip hop/top 40 on Thursday nights. We all know I'm not a huge fan of this type of music, plus the club is always SUPER PACKED, so I don't often go. If you go with a group of friends and you drink enough, it's fun though. And sadly, this club is a thousand times more popular than any dance music club. You can always find people to go to embassy with you.
Before we went, we all pregamed at Matt's house.


Matt's roommate collects fake food, so if you go to his house, it looks like you're at a feast. But you're not. Matt is trying to feed Jesse a cupcake. Little does Jesse know, it's made of some odd waxy plasticy material!! Watch out Jesse!

I was so unphotogenic that night. There are a couple nice pictures of Dave, but me being in them ruined them completely.
What was Preston doing in this picture? Look at Matt's face! Just kidding!


So, one last toast and we were off to go dance. One day, I'm going to get a camera small enough to slip in my pocket at the club.

Restaurant Review: Desi Dhaba

The other week we had yummy Indian at Desi Dhaba in Central Square (Boston). I had the vegetarian thali and Jesse had the meat thali. Both were very good. The thali is when you get a bunch of different dishes in one. We also had the mango lassis, which tasted a bit different than usual, but still good. Plus, for dessert, ras malai, a creamy cheese dessert. We were the only ones in the restaurant, because it was a Monday night, so we got very good service. I would reccomend this restaurant, even though it didn't have too much atmosphere.

Music Rant

Ok, so I never listen to the music channels on cable, cuz I have all the songs I want on my ipod. I was looking for the boring trancey music to help me sleep but gave up and put on the dance channel instead. And guess what, it has the music and djs I like! It's amazing. Why is it amazing? Because here in Boston, dance music is separated on sex and sexual preference lines. Straight people have to listen to trancey music with barely any words. I try to like it, but I really can't. It's sometimes fun to go out to Avalon on Friday nights, but I never really get excited about it. It all sounds the same... Gay guys get to listen to the good music. The house music with words, or it can be trancey but different, not so fall asleepy. And the thing is that not all the gay club djs are even gay, some are straight but play at gay clubs cuz that's the type of music they like to spin. And I keep wondering, what's wrong with me, I'm a girl, I'm not supposed to really love love love the music at the gay clubs. It's not the really gay gay songs I like even. But now I turn on this dance channel, and it's all the same songs and djs I actually know. If only gay guys were supposed to like this music, it wouldn't be on this mainstream thing. So, I have to imagine that in other places, the Peter Rauhoffer song I see on this comcast channel is enjoyed by whoever, irregardless if they're a girl or guy, gay, straight or bi. Because honestly, does it make sense that people would like music based on such things? It doesn't. I know that in other places, the radio stations have this stuff on. Right on the radio! Oh, Danni Minogue, that's too gay clubby even for me! Anyway, that was my rant. I'm sorry if I have gay friends and like to go to gay clubs, but if I could find clubs just like those that are for straight or bi girls then I'd definitely go! And in the meantime, I'll go to boring boring music like Ferry Corsten so I can hang out at non gay places... but I don't have to like it!

Baltimore Day 5: Friday

Yay my last day in Baltimore! I was even more tired at work, especially since no one came to buy books. I got through it though, and Jay came to help me take down the booth. He was great, and we got it done in record time, despite the rude shipping guy breathing down my neck. The Mariott service was unhelpful, as usual. I hate Mariotts, they always cause some sort of trouble... We got to the airport early and had to sit for hours waiting to get on the plane. We were both so ready to come home. We finally arrived here back in Boston at nearly ten pm and did a podcast. Jay and I both were falling asleep in our chairs, so it was mostly a Jesse monologue. Sorry, audience.
To sum up Baltimore, it's an ugly city with friendly people who rarely come out of their houses. I wouldn't reccomend living there, or visiting, if you can help it. But I really did value the people. Thanks Dan and Hector!!! And Carrie, but since you never answered my phone call, I guess you got scared of us... Ha ha.

Baltimore Day 4: Thursday

It should be illegal to wake up at 6am. I was half asleep at work, entertaining myself by singing songs to myself. My UK colleague came late, but then volunteered to do the afternoon shift by herself. I didn't give her a chance to change her mind, I ran back upstairs and went back to sleep.
In the afternoon, we went over to Fells Point, where we had the drinks on Tuesday, and looked in the shops there. That was basically all there was left to do here.


Jay had never been to Hard Rock Cafe, so we went to dinner there. It's the most American, white bread place we could've gone, but that's Jay! (That's not a mean statement, he admits it himself).
We had found the one real liquor store when over at Fells Point, so we got some nips and we finally went out. Hector came with us, and we went to four clubs. The first one, 13th Floor, had live music,


then we stopped for literally two minutes at Red Maple, which had fireplaces and international dance music (like Caprice, for Bostonians). Then we went to Hippo, but it was hip hop night. Hector and I danced for a while anyway, but Jay wasn't feeling it.


We heard they had techno at Grand Central across the street, so we ended the night there. The dj was bad, stopping each song before the next, but it was fun. The music was just getting good (DJ Ander Standing version of We Belong Together) when it closed at 1:45. I enjoyed myself at all the clubs though.

Baltimore Day 3: Wednesday

Wednesday was a pretty busy day, but it didn't start out that way. I slept/read on and off till ten, then woke up and after a while went to the gym. Ther way I often sleep is I sleep a couple of hours, then get up and do something - read, watch tv, computer, etc, for a couple, then sleep again and so on. I guess my lack of attention extends even to sleep. Anyway, when Jay woke up, we had a quick sandwich (and only meal of the day) at his favorite place in the world, Starbucks, and headed over to the Walters art museum.


Walters houses ancient art, and up to the 19th century. Contemporary is in the adjacent museum, which we didn't have time to see. Still, we didn't think we'd be able to get through even this one; I'm used to Boston's gigantic art museum which can take a couple days. Walters was nice, took about 2 hrs. It has a main building and an attached mansion which has Asian art. Jay took lots of pictures of the pieces themselves. I was impressed to see him in an art museum.


Next, we went on an exhaustive search of the city for a liquor store for Jay's beer. People here don't drink. Or they might, but they do it in bars. It's really strange. We did notice how friendly everyone was. People were saying hi to us and we were wondering why. That old Boston unfriendliness kicking in on is.
Then I had work while Jay had a date. The panel at work kept falling down and the chairs were missing and the computer was broken. Aaaah! Plus the British woman didn't show up. So hopefully I can fix those this morning when I head down there in a few minutes.
I got through it, and was off to Federal Hill. Federal Hill is a part of Baltimore with lots of bars. Hector took me to one of them, and for most of the time, we were the only ones there. The bartender and I were talking, turns out he likes techno music. He reccomended a place, and the couple of people who were there at the end said a couple more. They were all so nice! I didn't have my camera with me unfortunately. I forgot it. Then we went to another bar for a couple of minutes and saw some very good break dancers. I twas the first place in Baltimore besides in the conference that I saw people! Hector said that Baltimore doesn't have a lot of hip hop though, just stictly top 40.
After that, I came home and jumped into bed because I was up at 6AM (!) this morning. And now I'm headed down to work for my second to last day here, my last real day here. I need a nap.

Restaurant Review: Amiccis

We ate at Amiccis in Baltimore's Little Italy tonight. Little Italy isn't really like Boston's North End, it's not as old or cozy. It does have colored lights up and some cute restaurants, which are mixed in with apartments.
Amiccis is advertised as the very casual place. Inside, the walls have old movie posters up. There are only a few tables, and the cute waitresses are very attentive, two of them tried to serve us at the same time (later note, Jay felt they should have come over more often, so I guess it depends on your point of view).
The servings were enormous. I had the house gnocchi, with ham and spinach in a white sauce. It was good, but I couldn't make even a dent in it. Dan had chicken marsala, which he scoffed down, so it must've been good. Carrie and Jay had the chicken parm. I didn't try it, but they liked it.
The prices were reasonable, $13-15. There weren't any imaginative dishes, but for good, basic, Italian food, it's somewhere you might want to go.

Baltimore Day 2: Tuesday

So, we're at the end of our second day here. It seems like a lot longer...
We woke up nice and early and went to the National Aquarium. I haven't been to our Boston aquarium in about 10 yrs. It was fun, we saw cute frogs, pretty fish, and even alligators. They advertised an Australia exhibit with loose animals running around. I was excited for the kangaroos. However, the exhibit was so small, and the most interesting things were more alligators and birds. The gift shop was the only place we saw kangroos and koalas. And the kids! So many screaming kids, running all over the place, and even lying on the floor. I really am never having kids. Both of us, especially Jay, were so annoyed! I'm glad I went, though.



After a lunch from Whole Foods and a rest, we set up for the conference (my whole reason for being here). Jay was so nice to help me and put together and organize journals and books.


After a nap and the gym, we met up with some new friends, Carrie and Dan. Dan is actually my friend Laura's friend who used to live in Boston but moved to Baltimore. The four of us had a nice dinner and went to drinks after. Jay thought they should make a tv show like that, join up strangers (only Jay and I had met each other before) and go to eat. They were both really friendly. That's the good thing about Baltimore, people are much nicer, what you see of them. One new bad thing is that you can smoke in bars. I feel all smokey now. Eew! Unfortunately, Carrie declined a picture, so you guys don't get to see her.


Tomorrow I don't have to work till 7pm, so YAY!

Movie Review: Catwoman

I never saw this movie when it came out, or on dvd, but it was on hbo at the hotel. I've always heard how bad it is, and it certainly was laughable at some points, but I still enjoyed it. I usually don't like Halle Berry, but she was ok in this movie. I wish I could wear a cat suit like that, the pants looked great. The special effects were bad, but the cat Midnight was beautiful. I loved the premise, that she's now free. I did manage to fall asleep for a little bit in the middle, so the storyline got a bit confusing, but it overall was good.

Restaurant Review: Philips Harborplace Restaurant

We went to the Phillips in Baltimore. it seems to be a chain fish place here in Maryland. MD is famous for its crabs (the fish, not the VD Bugs). Phillips seems to specialize in crabs. I didn't try any though.. I love tuna steaks, so I got that, with sesame soy crusting and accented gingered veggies. It was good, but I've had better. Jay had the shrimp fettucini alfredo, which he enjoyed, and Drew had the crab dip and fries (someone had to have the crab). All our dishes came with a side of strange corn which was cooked in bacon and onion. They tasted sorta like corn chowder. My house salad was the best, with balsamic vinagrette, pears, gorgonzola and walnuts. Mmm! Salad! The decor was ok, it was fashioned as a house with a deck and outside. You could sit in any section (all really inside). The service was ok. The waiter was very touchy to the guys, patting them every second, which was kind of bad, as he was very ugly and hairy. I think it was a tad overpriced for what it was. You still may want to try it, but maybe go somewhere else instead.

Baltimore Day 1: Monday

Today was our first day in Baltimore. The flight over was really short. The longest thing was waiting in the security line for 45 minutes and sitting at the gate. There were two incredibly unhealthy sized men, but we fortunately didn't have to sit next to them.

When we got here, both Jay and I were dissapointed. Baltimore is one ugly city! We got here in the early afternoon, and after a scary check in wher ethe girl almost couldn't find our payment, and tried to charge each of us the full price of the room, we were here. But- what to do? There's the dental museum, the trolly museum and even museum of public works! These were far too exciting for us, so we settled for walking around and exploring.


Baltimore is very different than Boston. First of all, it's deserted. Most of the stores and bars looked closed. There were hardly any people around. In Boston, there are always people. And these people jus twalked. No cell phone, no ipod, not even cigarettes. Who just walks?
Most of the city is very run down. It reminded me of New Orleans - not the tourist part, but the main part. We walked through a whole section devoted to strip clubs, ful of people who stared at us. Finally, we came upon one semi-nice area, Mt Vernon.
There we saw the Washington Monument.

Jay and I had both corresponded with people before we got here, and one guy Drew that Jay had talked to met with us. We headed back towards the Power Plant area, where the hotel is. There are a bunch of stores that you can find in any city, along with a ton of restaurants we have in Boston. We found one we don't have, Philips, and had a nice meal (see review).
After, we wandered a few shops. There's really nothing to do here Monday nights, so all I managed to do is make plans for later in the week.
After getting back to the room at 8, we all watched tv (Wife Swap!). So far, I'd much rather live in Boston. Everyone here is afraid to walk alone, especially after dark. It's also ugly. The people seem friendly though. Till tomorrow...