on the food front ... went to cafe jaffa on gloucester in between boylston and newbury this weekend. it's middle eastern and i go there every once in a while. the falafel is nice and crunchy on the outside which i like. the grape leaves i had were also nice and lemony, although andy's hummus wasn't garlicky enough to our taste. also got these things called bourekas which are bready on the outside and a mashed potato mixture on the inside, which was all right. i go to nicole's on tremont closer to mass ave more often b/c it's close to andy's, but i'd say overall cafe jaffe is better. don't really remember steve's which is also in the back bay even though i've been several times, so i'll have to go back there again before i can comment on that. also recently went to one of the few ethiopian restaurants in boston. it's called red sea and it's on tremont in the south end near metropolis etc. i've been to the other ethiopian place in central square and from what i remember from the other place i liked this place marginally better b/c the bread was less sour. andy and i agree that ethiopian food just isn't that interesting. some of the spices are tasty, but everything has the same texture, sort of pureed and only slightly chewy. finished listening to the postal service album. i def. liked it better than the latest death cab cd and in general i liked the majority of the tracks, but none of them really bowled me over, with the exception maybe of "such great heights" and "brand new colony". p.s. sorry to hear about your dog winnie :(