updates: along with reading and thoroughly enjoying artemis fowl as winnie mentioned (which incidentally i appreciated for being less cutesy than the harry potter books and for its occasional sly quips aimed at adults) i've also been reading in the heart of america, a collection of plays by naomi wallace. i first became aware of wallace when mit did one flea spare, which i was really impressed with and reviewed. since then i've found out that she's a fellow kentuckian. i've read the first 3 plays so far, and i really liked one flea spare the second time around as well, and there were parts of the other 2 plays that were really nicely done. one flea spare is set at the time of the great plague in london, while the second play concerns the gulf war and the third play concerns three men watching the mexican-american border for illegal immigrants. i'll give a fuller report when i finish the whole book. i'd forgotten how much i enjoy reading plays. on the food front, andy and i went to rouge last sunday. for me it was the last straw, b/c the "daily vegetarian offering" was even more pathetic than usual: marinated beets, succotash (i.e. steamed beans and corn), and steamed spinach. how stupid is that?! for 20 bucks i'd rather get chinese takeout for a week. i was esp. peeved b/c andy's fish came with this much more interesting creamy mushroom and greens mix. i'm f*cking sick of high end restaurants that don't offer anything good that's vegetarian. on the top of my list of higher end places where i can actually get a decent meal: hammersley's, troque, and casablanca (although i've only been to each of those places once), and sonsie. sad but true. blu, tremont 647, no. 9 park, caffe umbra, pretty much the majority of places i can think of in boston ... and the majority of places i've been to in new york, are all -pathetic- vegetarian-wise. i told andy that from now i'm not going anywhere unless i'm assured of getting something at least semi-interesting (and that more than likely means something that doesn't just throw together roasted red peppers and basil and the ubiquitous portobella mushroom although most places can't even manage something as simple as that) or unless it's asian in which case i'm sure to be able to get something decent. i'm afraid i was a bit pissy, but i'm sick and tired of eating second rate food and i'm sick and tired of having to waste time complaining about it. so that's that. so much for adventurous eating. i need to cook more anyway. anyway, in case you were wondering, winnie, rouge wasn't that great, bad vegetarian food aside. patty got a chunk of lettuce with a ranchy sauce for an appetizer while andy got the marinated beets salad (i didn't bother getting anything b/c the beets were already coming w/ my entree zzzzzzzzzzz), and patty's entree was pretty much another salad w/ little bits of trout in a sauce with some hushpuppies. andy had catfish, and he said overall the place is pricey for what it actually is. okay, enough ranting.