there's this super long-bomb hill in boston commons that i've long regarded as my mortal enemy. it starts at the high corner and ends at the low corner (really, you say). most of the hill is pretty tame, but there's this part at the top where it dips down crazy and you pick up all this speed. in about three seconds, you're going faster than you can run, and this is bad, because once you're going faster than you can run, if things get super-hairy and your board gets the speed wobbles, you can't just hop off the board, bail and run it off. this is a point worth clarification to the non-skaters out there. if your trucks aren't tight (ie. if you wanna be able to carve tighter turns), once you get going fast, your board will start carving left and right super quick. it's hard to avoid. there's no analogy in the flora and fauna world, so i use an example from hollywood and point to the red mustang that tried to get inbetween the two semi's in 2 fast 2 furious (a totally cool movie -- awesome to the max!). once it gets the speed wobbles, the board is irreversibly out of control. this is not good. being out of control is never good, unless you're the hulk, in which case that's a good thing, cause then you get to say "hulk smash!" and smash things and have jennifer connelly as your girlfriend (even though you'll never excuse her for that double-dildo business in requiem for a dream). i've always fucked myself up going down this hill, to the point that i have to really pump myself up everytime. this is usually done by alternately flexing my left and right pectoral muscles. no, i'm joking. seriously, though, last time i hit a crack in the pavement and checked myself hip-first into a bench. this, believe it or not, is something i try to avoid. i've heard chicks dig scars, but i've never heard of any who like peanut-shaped and -sized blue bruises. maybe i'm not tapping into the right fetish crowd. whatev. today, i chickened out once again. i got half way down the hill and the board got wobbly. i had no intention of adding a matching bruise/gash/rash/slice/slash/teenage mutant ninja turtle on my right hip, and i was wearing shorts, so i said, fuck it, i'm bailing. i jumped off the board and started pumping me wee little legs as fast as i could. pump legs pump, i told them, pump like you've never pumped before. and so, they pumped away, fast, faster, fastest, except, true to previous experience, you really can't run faster than, say, 40mph. there was a comical moment, shared by the crazy thoreau-reading blanket-wearing coke-bottle-eyeglass-wearing chaw-spitting homeless hippie girl sitting underneath the light, where i did my best impression of speedy gonzalez, taking these bloody enormous steps twice a second and making that noise where you speak into a fan and it sounds like you're darth vader. i'm so fucking precious.

first off, went to kashmir tonight and was reminded of how mediocre this place is. had the malai kofta which was still too tomato-y, and the bhindi which was -really- greasy. the service was really subpar for a place charging $15 for an entree, and the food wasn't much better than a place 1/2 as cheap. as of tonight i'm boycotting it in lieu of samraat which isn't much worse but is much cheaper. i don't post enough pics, so here are two that i've been meaning to post of me and the foo from graduation last year ... hahaha...

more eating! continuing on my quest to visit every eatery within a one mile radius of where i live, i finally went to saffron. it was quite terrible. i vaguely remember it trying to be fusion-y when it first opened maybe two years ago, but i think now it's mostly just mediocre indian food, even worse than such places as bhindi bazaar, probably about on par w/ india quality in kenmore, which is about half as much. the place itself looks nice and it has an outdoor patio, which is prob. why it seems to get a lot of business, but the lunch buffet we had was pretty sad. (then again, buffets are generally not the greatest, but this was particularly bad. maybe it was mostly b/c the food was cold.) funny story, though: i asked the waitress if they had any "chutney", which i described as being "red and usually with onions", b/c i'd only seen the brown and the green sauce by the buffet tables. she looked confused and then came back a little later with little cups of both the brown and the green sauces -- neither of which were red or had onions, obviously. andy quipped: "'maybe if i smile real big when i give it to him he won't notice.'" catfoo and i went to the tibetan place next to korea garden on pearl st. it was my first time eating tibetan food and i found it to be quite bland, and the cilantro was a little too pervasive for my taste. even though my dish was spicy (a tofu vegetable dish), it was the kind of spicy where they just throw in some really hot peppers, i.e. it didn't really penetrate the dish. we also got some fried potato/mushroom balls (w/ cilantro) which were pretty good, some steamed buns (which catfoo says is very chinese), and our food came w/ a little plate of oiled halved cherry tomatoes with onions and a little plate of cucumbers lightly covered in a sort of creamy sauce. catfoo had noodles (i forget what kind) with vegetables, but the noodles were really rather tasteless. she said the other type of noodles they have are better. all in all it was interesting, although i prob. won't be trying tibetan food for a while. catfoo said she had lunch at the buddhist place on mass ave and that it was the best chinese food she's had in boston, so i'm going to have to try that w/ her one of these days (before she moves to SF! :( ... ) catfoo and i reminesced over the gone but not forgotten curious liquids. she said that there has been discussion of closing down manray and putting up multi-story apartment buildings in its place. geeeeeeeeez. if ani were around she'd prob. respond w/ a line like: "the greedy republicans aren't satisfied enough w/ fabricating wars, now they have to attack us on our own soil!!" i don't think i'd say it quite in that way, but seriously, what is up w/ these people who are taking away everything that makes boston worth living in? i may have to start jobhunting in new york if this keeps up, heh ... speaking of catfoo, she's set up a new version of the blog she was doing ... which is good b/c she's my connection w/ what's going on in the world. you can find it here: catbar

this weekend andy and i spent a lot of time together. first off, pride was really pathetic. the parade was pretty half-assed; they didn't have any of the school groups (which might have been b/c pride was about a week later than usual), a lot of the major nightclubs didn't even bother participating, nor did other groups that are usu. there, inc. the policemen, firemen, etc. andy pointed out that maybe this is just a reflection of the fact that we don't need parades anymore b/c being gay is so much more accepted now than it used to be. we talked about how we could make it better, and among our ideas was to get tricycle man to lead the parade. he'd be awesome!!! WHOOOOOO WHOOOOO WHOOOOOOOO ... in food news: went to the metropolis cafe last night. andy got a simple salad and the veal scallopini, which he said was pretty good. it came w/ this vegetable gratin which is what i had. i'd get it again. it had potatoes, leeks, and cauliflower w/ asiago cheese on top. very filling, and nicely done, not heavy. i also had a terrine which came with a salad. the terrine was mostly artichoke, goat cheese, and spinach. it was good, but i didn't find it to be particularly noteworthy. the wait for our food was -really- long, but it must have just been the time we were there (prob. got there around 7 on a sat.) b/c the people who came after us seemed to get their food pretty quick. there was this guy next to us who was really loud and near the end of our evening sort of butted into our conversation. winnie, put this down on andy and my list of restaurant pet peeves: just b/c we're sitting at the bar and you're by yourself does not mean it's acceptable for you to intrude in our private conversation. esp. if you're loud and annoying. andy and i also went to dok bua for lunch today. this was the third time we've been there, and it's prob. my fav place in boston right now to eat. i had the red curry w/ tofu and andy had the pad kee mow. both of our dishes came w/ two appetizers. the main dish was about 1/3 the size of a dinner portion, but in total it was a nice amount, for anly $6. ridiculously cheap. the thing about this place is that the food usually isn't incredibly different than stuff you might get elsewhere in terms of how they put it together, but the end result is -good-. i don't know what little things they do differently, but their food is definitely better than any other thai place around. for dessert they gave us this funny gloopy, gelatinous thing that had bits of corn and chewy bubbles that tasted like sweet rice. no idea what the heck it was, but geez, asian desserts are definitely not asian food's strong point. i've been really into supporting local merchants lately. there's this toy store on harvard ave that's really old-fashioned and i don't really feel like i necessarily need to go there that often, but i love the fact that it's there.

toni tone tony ... the tony awards were this past sunday, and boy it is really really sad that musicals are so bland these days ... the top winner was hairspray, a completely fluffy musical based on the john waters movie, and the majority of other nominees were basically nominated out of default. last year wasn't much better, with the top awards going to the bland confection called thoroughly modern millie (based on the little-known movie w/ julie andrews) and urinetown (which was little more than college sketch comedy set to music). sad sad sad. winnie, when are we going to write our musical that's going to shake the world? any other takers out there?? other comments: hugh jackman wasn't that great of a host, but he was genial and pleasing enough. not as hot as in x2, but still pretty bootylicious. sarah jessica parker and matthew broderick were pretty funny/cute. the kiss b/t the two winners (they're partners) in the second televised award (book and lyrics) was awesome. HAHAHA. was it just me, or did that frog and toad song make them totally sound like they were lovers?? HAHAHA. anyway ...