why has all the stuff i've been posting lately been so fluffy? anyway, here are some slightly more substantial bits on breakfast/brunch places: garden of eden (tremont st in the south end): yet another one of those places that andy and i haven't been to in a while and for good reason. we tried it for breakfast and we were both quite disappointed. the service was as bad as we remembered, and literally all they had was eggs, omelettes, toast, granola, and pastries. no bacon, no pancakes, nada. also, since when do you get plain toast and have to ask for butter and jam? that's just pathetic. scollay square (21 beacon st, beacon hill): kind of new place next door to where my friend roy lives. we went on a sunday and it was pretty empty. i got a really good, albeit simple, portabella sandwich with cress and goat cheese. roy had a spinach and goat cheese omelette and andy had eggs and hash. andy wasn't impressed w/ what he got but said he'd be up for trying it for dinner. in any case both of us have decided that we need to try some of the places in beacon hill seeing as how we've pretty much run out of ones in the south end. --- in other news, i'm currently reading oranges by a guy named john mcphee. winnie would be proud of me, heh. i got it randomly from andy, but it's pretty entertaining. it's exhaustive and a bit tedious at times, but overall it provides loads of useless facts that would be perfect for impersonal cocktail chitchat ... well, among pomologists anyway. a sample of such trivia and some choice quotes: "Oranges ... were the golden apples of the Hesperides, which were stolen by Hercules." The color of the orange has no bearing on how ripe it is Unlike other fruits, oranges don't ripen once picked. "If an orange has five seeds or less, it is called seedless." "Blood oranges grow well in Florida, but they frighten American women." "The sex life of citrus is something fantastic."

someone has been remiss in informing me about funny things in the new york times. yesterday i stumbled across this old slideshow of comedy writers' imaginings of 2004 oscar award acceptance speeches. most of them are dispensible, but the one for sofia copolla by gawker.com is well worth reading.

pluto's, inner sunset, irving and 7th Fresh veggies but generally uninspired. One of these trendy joints that makes you stand in line and carry a 'ticket' that get holes punched in it as you order stuff. I had the sandwich of the day, something with turkey and melted cheese. The string beans were ordinary. In the future, I'd pick a salad instead. or maybe a side salad with a side of meat. citizen cake, hayes valley, grove at gough A rather upscale place -- dinner with wine and dessert ended up being about $40 apiece including tax and tip. The portions are not large, but not skimpy. Decently slow on a weekday, with full tables but no wait -- although we made reservations. I had the duck (which is now my favorite meat), which came with a bit of watercress and some carmelized turnips (or were they parsnips?). The sauce was perfect for the duck. The waitress had recommended the pork chop over the duck, which a couple people got, but those that tasted both claimed that the duck was the winner. We got three parfaits for the table to share -- German chocolate parfait, some banana one with a funky name, and "Je Ne Sais Parfait". The last one came from the dessert menu, the first two from the case up front. The chocolate was by far my favorite. I've also had the shag cake (which is a passionfruit cake) and some other chocolate cake on a separate occasion, and those are heavenly. I'll go back for lunch someday, which is a much cheaper ($10-$15 entrees, compared to the $20-$25 dinner entrees).

in case you haven't heard, every single peanuts cartoon is being published in 25 books. i have to say the modern strips were really mediocre, but the early stuff is really great. the really early stuff is my favorite; they're surprisingly cynical and calvin and hobbes-esque. anyway, here are some excerpts from amazon's description about the first book (which i've already ordered, btw).

50 years of art. 25 books. Over 7500 pages of comics. Two books per year for 12 ¼ years. Each volume in the series will run approximately 320 pages in a 8 ¾" x 7" hardcover format, presenting two years of strips along with supplementary material. The series will present the entire run in chronological order, including dailies and Sundays, in a three-tier page format that will accommodate three dailies or one Sunday strip per page. The Sundays will be printed in black-and-white.

Also, a garden update. K crashed with me for the evening and I put her to work the next morning clearing the next 6 ft or so of the backyard border. I'll move my succulents over there, I think it's warmer and they'll be happier, along with anything else (like the garlic this fall) that doens't want to be too wet. Transplanted the brussel sprouts -- I checked the label and they are dwarf short-season, which means I have plenty of time to start some more from now til July. 'Fall frost' around here is somewhere around December 1. Also planted some blue lake beans to climb up my sunflower plant, and started a few in a container as well. Pulled a radish I'd left in the ground to get bigger, only to discover a squishy slug-like-thing chomping away at it. The first female flower on the zucchini vine bloomed yesterday. A bunch of thin, long, tiny crawlies wandering around inside.

A rather tasty weekend. basil, SOMA either on 7th or 8th st, in between folsom and howard C and I went to dinner at Basil before going to see RJD2 at Club Q (which was amazing). It's a cute little Thai place, there's some sort of construction scaffolding out front so I could barely pick it out, and there's a neon 'open' sign in the window. Minimalist elegance inside, with a pretty intense menu. I chose the julienned roasted duck and pinapple in red curry; C chose a spicy seafood dish that had squid and mussels among other things. We agreed that my dish was the better of the two. I've always been so-so about curries -- I'm not very keen on picking a curry that is identified by its color. But this red curry was rich and delicious and tasted great on their rice, which was somehow perfectly cooked to be moist but not wet. sushi okoze, russian hill, 1207 union at hyde, next to swenson's Really subtle store front. Amazing sushi. Apparently they never have okra -- every time my cousin has tried to order it, they're out. The japanese pickles are as delicious as home made. Very good uni (not sure if that is the correct spelling -- sea urchin roe) which was rich and velvety on the tongue -- much less scary than it looks. I think it was better than the one I had at my favorite sushi joint, whose name I do not know. The waitress suggested the toro which practically melted in your mouth, except for a little bit of fish membrane. We tried the aji which was 'horse mackerel' -- like mackerel except less fishy. The scallops were huge and divine. Wasn't so keen on the maki-style inari, which didn't taste like much to me. Oh -- the discovery of the evening was definitely the mountain yam, which has a clean crisp taste and texture. I'll be ordering that again. My favorite had to be the albacore, which was almost as melty as the toro. Oddly, they play reggae music in the bathroom.

fabulous day for the garden! i walked back there this morning, not having been there for the past couple days. it's misty and gray this morning. But there were two bright bursts of orange-yellow from the zucchini plant, with some gorgeous blossoms. The potato plants have small buds (when they bloom I get to rummage around for new potatoes), the edamame is just peeking through. These nasturtiums I have are crazy -- one is about to bloom, the bud is a bright pink with a couple petals trying to get out -- the bud was on a short stem the last time I saw it, and it just shot up way above the leaves. There's a golden ladybug that lives in my sunflower. Even the tomatoes are budding. This african daisy I nearly killed by not watering it prior to transplanting has formed a ton of new buds -- the runt strawberry plant that i replanted is finally growing larger leaves -- this plant i bought from the arboretum and also nearly killed bloomed for a second time, with more blossoms -- This is insane. Also last night I got my first box from Terra Firma CSA. Oh. My. God. It contained a pint of the most delicious strawberries I have ever tasted in my life. SO sweet, SO juicy, "essence of strawberry" as Naomi put it. Also a pint of bing cherries (yummy, and i don't even like cherries), 6 kiwis, 5 little summer squash, 3 green garlic, 5 beets, and a bag of spinach. That is so worth my 13 bucks.

silly stuff about chips ... here's a bit of a conversation i had over AIM w/ a friend of mine who's spending the year in china and was telling me about how much he misses spaghetti: fred: they don't have doritos over there? mike: they have lays mike: but funky flavour man fred: hahahaha mike: chinese noodle, roasted lamb, hot peppers, beijing duck mike: kinda nasty to tell u the truth fred: those are the flavors?? mike: and the normal kind barely has any flavor mike: some of them are even worse fred: like what?? mike: they have some chinese vegetable flavor mike: so gross man mike: and bean curd my sister sends me random articles. this one (Pringles potato snack to get printed designs) had a really funny quote:

"Pringles is the leader and founder of the stacked crisp category and now we're taking it to a whole new level," said Jamie Egasti, vice president of the firm's North America snacks division. "With the introduction of Pringles Prints, we have developed a new way to delight consumers by adding fun and excitement to one of kids' favorite lunchtime snacks while delivering incremental volume growth for our customers."

you heard it here first.

just finished a mix the other day. here's the tracklisting. this was another of my one-hit wonders mixes, where i hardly know anything about most of these bands and only like one or two of their songs. this time around i concentrated solely on guitar-centric bands, and it turned out to be an interesting mix i think, with a lot of influences from punk and country. so winnie, did i pick the right ima robot track? ;) all that's left behind 5/16/04 1 porcupine tree . in absentia . trains 2 versus . dead leaves . bright light 3 beta band . high fidelity (soundtrack) . dry the rain 4 the sundays . reading, writing and arithmetic . you're not the only one i know 5 rolling stones . forty licks . wild horses 6 fugazi . 13 songs . burning too 7 the getaway people . self-titled . she gave me love 8 the fly seville . carousel . shiny sweet 9 our lady peace . happiness is not a fish that you can catch . thief 10 the old 97's . satellite rides . question 11 the breeders . last splash . invisible man 12 interpol . turn on the bright lights . pda 13 mission of burma . self-titled . academy fight song 14 ima robot . self-titled . 12=3 15 the replacements . camp (soundtrack) . skyway 16 james . laid . one of the three 17 king crimson . thrak . walking on air 18 archers of loaf . icky mettle . web in front 19 tinfed . music from and inspired by m:i-2 (soundtrack) . immune 20 creeper lagoon . take back the universe and give me yesterday . under the tracks

overview of my veggie patch Here's a photo of the main part of my veggie patch -- two side-by-side lots of about 4'x4'. One raised and boxed in with the beginnings of a vertical support. In the box, from left to right: far row: sweet 100 cherry tomato (purchased as a plant from the CA Horticultural Society sale) better boy hybrid tomato (started from seed) baby nantes carrots (too small to see in the photo really) spaghetti squash snow peas (they kind of blend into the background but they are there) 2nd from rear: bibb lettuce & radishes (the rejects of the ones i already ate) onions marigolds (getting ready to bloom any day now) baby carrots more marigolds mammoth sunflower 2nd from front: empty square is seeded with wax beans and argula -- the arugla has sprouted, the wax beans haven't shown up yet. garlic, which is getting too much water and probably rotting. this fall i'll plant some in a corner of the yard that won't be getting water. carrots, some variant with hi beta carotene radish leaf front row: 2 strawberry plants (one on left is the one i dug up and replanted last weekend, in hopes of alleviating the stuntedness) leaf lettuce and radishes (about 2 wks old) nasturtiums. in the unframed lot (hard to see): foreground: 3 potato plants background: 2 zucchini plants, baby bok choy seeded in that lot are various salad greens, swiss chard, spinach, and edamame. it's all surrounded by wheat and rye grasses.

i forget who told me about this site. maybe it was austin. anyway, bizarrerecords.com is a great collection of truly bizarre records with cover pics and some sound clips. for a good cross-section, check out this blog.

The bird of paradise bloomed today!

another photo of my harvest -- here's some radishes (including one that didn't quite make it into a radish shape) and some greens. i had a salad last night from the garden, with the radishes thinly sliced and dipped in soy sauce.

finally, some photos, of flowers from the backyard.. african daisies and lavender nasturtium leaves and some flower i don't know -- but it smells reeeeeaaaalllly good

had jury duty this week in dorchester. this is the second time that i've had it, but it turned out to be fine. unlike last time, this time i actually got tapped to sit on a case, but then after waiting around for a while at the last minute the guy pleaded guilty so i got to go home early. the day turned out to be worthwhile anyway, b/c i found this great vegan place called cafe mosheh in the middle of dorchester right across from the courthouse. (for hours and location see the entry at www.bostonveg.org.) i have no idea how it got there, but i think it might be vegan due to some religious belief. but anyway, it was good. as a snack i had some cold stuffed shells, which instead of ricotta had a tasty tofu mixture. mmm. then out of curiosity i tried the tofu chocolate pie (which looks like they get from someone else) which was also good, although the texture got to be too dry on the tongue. for lunch i had the teriyaki tofu w/ brown rice and collard greens. mmm mmm. i'm def. going to have to trek all the way out to this place again. it's about an 8 minute walk from the shawmut T stop on the redline. this is yet another old thing, but i had to post a scan of this easter candy from CVS. it's so bizarre! but funny. what in the world does the computer have to do w/ easter? looks like our easter bunny is going to email us some easter eggs.

The first zucchini blossom opened up today. It's not very flowery yet, but it did open up and it is a beautiful yellow color. I'm considering a career as an urban farmer, sustinence farming in my backyard.

I have to confess, my green thumb is not so much affected by me as it is the amazing growing climate here. The weather is lovely, I love spending time watching my plants and watering them, and nature takes care of the rest. I am so excited about the radishes, which will be coming out of the ground soon! It's been a month and a day since I planted the seeds. I'm not sure what kind of succulents they are. One is an aloe vera. The others -- well some of them have tags that are somewhat decipherable and some don't. One is a low ground cover type. One is thinner, greener, with orange flowers. One might be a christmas cactus, but I'm not sure -- it's supposed to have really gorgeous and showy flowers. I'm afraid I might have planted them too close to the leaky faucet, but I'll try to compensate by never watering them. I'm also thinking about joining a CSA. A coworker just told me about the Terra Firma CSA she is a member of. It looks delicious. Recently there have been 2 pints of strawberries a week included in the box. fwc, sorry I haven't been taking photos. I just don't have time to enjoy my garden through the camera lens :)

oh my god. i am blinded by this new blogger interface. what the hell? yesterday, I did battle with the backyard. I filled 2+ yard waste bags with overgrown vines, and prepared about 30 sq feet of ground. I planted half a dozen potted plants, 6 small succulents, and a bunch of seeds -- cilantro, salad greens, wax beans, spinach, snow peas, sunflower, swiss chard.. I also dug up and separated a calla lilly that was a gigantic clump -- the first of about 5 or 6 in the yard that desperately need to be divided. the potted plants included some african daisies (i think?), lavender, lillies, and somethings i don't know. I'm not sure who won. I am sore all over and sunburnt today, and couldn't find a position to sleep that was comfortable for both my muscles and sunburn. It was great. I can't wait for next weekend.

here's another old thing that i never got around to posting. a while back i read pablo neruda's the book of questions. the collection consists solely of two line questions, divided into sets of three or four. the content gets to be a bit dull, but every once in a while neruda comes across something startlingly whimsical or proverbial or both. a coincidence is that i had picked up the book unseen rain: quatrains of rumi a few weeks earlier. rumi was an ancient mystical persian poet, and the foreword of the neruda book compared neruda's book of questions to rumi's poetry. i liked neruda much better, although this was not neruda's best work. unlike neruda, the directness and simplicity of rumi's poetry was dull and unenlightening instead of focused and intense. anyway, here are some excerpts: unseen rain: quatrains of rumi (coleman barks translator) Sleep this year has no authority. Night might as well stop looking for us when we're like this, invisible, except at dawn. --- If you want to live, leave your banks, as a small stream enters the Oxus, miles wide, or as cattle moving around a millstone suddenly circle to the top of the sphere. --- the book of questions (william o'daly translator) from XIII Is it true that a black condor flies at night over my country? Es verdad que vuela de noche sobre mi patria un cóndor negro? --- from XV But is it true that the vests are preparing to revolt? Pero es verdad que se prepara la insurrección do los chalecos? --- from LXIV Do we learn kindness or the mask of kindness? Es que se aprende la bondad o la máscara de la bondad?

tomato plants The tomato plants smell so good today!!! I was pinching off the suckers this morning and the air filled with this fresh tomato-picking smell.. ah, I am so in love with gardening!

two more sources of time wastage: art of the mix: upload mix tracklistings (CD or cassette or playlists) and trade w/ others. audioscrobbler: download a plug-in to winamp and some other mp3 players to keep statistics on who you listen to the most. also a good source of "if you like artist A you might like artist B" recommendations. also has loads of useless statistics, like "Top 10 Rising Songs", "Top 10 Falling Songs", "Highest New Artist Entries", and "Highest Artist Non-Movers". yeah! lists! some interesting numbers: Top Tracks: #1 Modest Mouse - Float On #3 The Postal Service - Such Great Heights #7 The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love #9 Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit people are still listening to smells like teen spirit??? geez. the song is just not -that- good. re: the darkness, andy showed me the video for that song and it was great, but in a very kitschy sort of way. it baffles me how some apparently random people hit pop culture from nowhere. i mean, someone told me she heard the darkness's single playing at a super target in indiana. baffling.