Last Night's Dinner

Wyatt heard about this place in Dorchester that's supposed to have the best fried chicken in Boston. I was craving fake mashed potatoes and he wanted to check it out, so we went.

It's called Mrs. Jones'. It's take out only and it's in a half gentrified neighborhood known as the Lower Mills.

They were out of fried chicken but we didn't go hungry. Instead I think I went up a pants size and felt compelled to revisit vegetarianism. It was damn good though. These shots are from about halfway through our meal.







BBQ chicken, ribs, mashed and Mac 'n cheese.







Turkey leg, collards and "unreal" candied yams.

This weekend is my boy Jesse's wedding at a summer camp on Lake Winnipisaukee in New Hampshire so you can look forward to dispatches from that three day party.

It seems like everyone's getting hitched these days. It's fun for me though. I can't complain, especially since now I should actually be able to afford to attend the weddings. Whattup big kid salary! Tonight we had a small Green Corps '08 reunion with the Undiabolical EMC and got excited for the wedding of our fellow classmate Ben Walsh, coming up this October in Vermont. Then I've got two more this summer in Chicago and Nashvegas. Now, if someone could plan a wedding in the Northwest or Southwest so I can finally go there, that'd be great.

I keep learning of people who read the blog. Thanks y'all. Leave me a comment sometime. I'll take requests.

Back to school

I started my new job last Wednesday. It's not quite as pretty as my last place of employment,



But I do get to listen to more music and right now I'm riding the T to get there so I have a lot more time to read and try my hand in the art of crossword puzzles.



To celebrate my transition to the 9-5 workforce, Wyatt took me to a restaurant week special at 647 Tremont in the South End. The food, described as adventurous American cuisine, was interesting and tasty. My favorite dish was a sage encrusted ribeye with sweet and sour kale. The two went together like macaroni and cheese. The music was the best (non-live) I've ever heard in a restaurant in Boston. Lots of soul, Cat Power and other random indie artists. We sat outside. The inside seems a little less awesome, FYI.



This is Wyatt enjoying the s'more brownie dessert.

Friday we joined Kaz and Jonathan on a water taxi to Scups on the harbor in East Boston. The food was good and the strangers we sat with were fun. I had the best BLT ever, complete with pesto mayo and cheese. The place is known for it's empanadas but sadly, they'd run out by the time we got there at 7:30pm. We did get to witness some fun drama between the owner of the restaurant and a customer who refused to move her mastiff out of the way of the waitstaff. The dog owner seemed very offended by the suggestion that her "baby" might be breaching fire code.


There is some cool art in the area, if you like that kind of stuff.


This is a gigantic fish.

I already miss my farm coworkers.



It doesn't get much better than Samara and a staffed jumble berry pie.

Spotted!

Another ghetto cinder block raised bed, in the South End.

I got Romas like weeds

This is just from the last two days!

Catching up is hard to do

I'm sick. Who gets sick in August? It's vacation month! Come on!

The good news is I have two days off before starting my new job. Today I used my free time to achieve my dream of owning a Tempur-Pedic mattress. It has already been delivered and is sitting in my new room. Now I just need to find new sheets. Unfortunately, most of the kids' sheets I really like are not available in Queen size.

Emily has sadly already moved out (and in with her boyfriend) and I am taking over her room. The new room, while porch-less, promises more space, warmth and a greater distance from the sounds of banging doors and people running up and down the creaky steps. I'm most excited about having space for a desk, after being camped out at the dining room table for the last 2 years. With a desk I think I might more regularly direct attention to art projects and computer-centric endeavors such as this blog.

Emily took all the furniture with her and we've been left with nothing but a small kitchen table, an inflatable mattress and our life-size cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama. The new roommate, Aaron, is coming off a year of Green Corps and will surely bring a lot to the house, but probably not in the form of furniture, given that he's Canadian and has been living out of a suitcase for a year. We're hoping to score big on Sept. 1st, the day every lease in Boston turns over. We'll be cruising Beacon Hill in a ZipTruck, trash-picking with the best of 'em.

Other things:
- For many moons we've talked of launching Article Club and now that Emily's moved out and we need an excuse to see each other, it might actually happen. The idea is that it'll be a lazy/buzy man/woman's book club. Instead of reading an entire book, each member will only have to read and article or two, and can still enjoy the benefits of going to different friends' houses once a month to nosh on goodies and catch up on gossip. We're sending out at doodle poll tonight to pick a date. I can't wait to force my homemade pickles on the girls at our first gathering.

- This week is restaurant week in Boston and I was sad to see that there are no Jamaica Plain restaurants on the list. What, Vee Vee and Ten Tables aren't as good as every similar restaurant in the South End? It's probably just a space issue but still... disappointing.

- We recently had our last roomie outing at the Gallows in the South End. It's hard to know how good the food really was, given that we polished off two bottles of wine, but it seemed awesome at the time. Highlights included: the ploughman's platter, corn dogs, potato skin poutine and the best homemade ketchup I've ever had. Our waiter Ariel was really fun too, even if he clearly blew a lot of coke up his nose sometime before bringing us our second bottle of wine. In sum: good food, great service, neat decor, GO.

- My little brother is home from deployment. I tried calling him Saturday but he was too hungover to speak. I'm going to take that as a good sign.

what summer looks like

I start a new job at Harvard, at a desk, in about a week. I'm excited about it but am also sad to say goodbye to being outside all the time.



Gladiolus. Also known as old lady flowers or, in mixed bunches, circus vomit.

I saw Tune-Yards again, this time in the courtyard at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Good news: she still rules. Cambridge natives Drug Rug headlined. They're one of the few guy/girl duo bands I've seen in which the girl totally upstages the guy. They're a little bit surfy at points but can also rock really hard.