What a weekend!

So much happened this weekend. First of all, on Friday night I met up with some folks in Harvard Square to attend the craziness of the midnight release of Harry Potter 7. There were SO MANY people, it was crazy. I'm glad I got mine through the Harvard Book Store. It's an independent, family-owned store that is just great. So after I got the book, I rode my bike home and read the first 2 chapters before I went to bed. It's now Sunday night and I just finished it. This one is really good, folks. I won't be a spoiler, I'll just tell you to read it.


On Saturday night, my friend Lee and I went to Lowell Summer Music Fest and got to enjoy Nickel Creek on a beautiful evening. I brought along my favorite sandwich from Darwin's for dinner and had a little picnic before the show. The music was great, the people who sat next to us talked too much, but besides that it was a really fun evening.


This morning Ann & Lee and I used the rest of the hours we had on the Zipcar from last night to go to Trader Joe's with a car! This is very exciting for those of us who usually shlep to TJs on the T. And I then I used the very end of the 24 hour rental to drive to the laundromat. It felt really indulgent, but it made it really easy, too.

Then, as if this weekend could have anything crammed into it: My Dad stopped by for dinner and a round of mini-golf. This might seem like a somewhat normal thing for a parent to do, but not when they live in New Jersey and you live in Cambridge, MA. He's up for business in Central Mass and made the extra trip into the city. It was great. We went to the All-Star Sandwich Bar and I actually got an excellent salad, Dad got the pulled pork and said it was great. Then we headed out for mini-golf. But on the way there we passed by Harvard's Memorial Hall and there were all of these crazy half-bodied mannequins with suits on sitting on the lawn there. I made Dad drive around the block so I could take this photo:


Pretty creepy, huh?
Dad ended up beating me at mini-golf, but only by two strokes. I think we'll have a match-up at the shore in a couple weeks. Here we are at Hago Harrington's:


After all that, I came back and finished Harry Potter.

Now I have to finish my paper... Oh right, I guess I'm in Grad School...

- B

Sandwiches in Cambridge

Recently I've discovered that my new neighborhood is full of places to get amazing sandwiches. And on hot summer days there is nothing nicer than not having to cook. The best plan is to get the sandwich to go and eat it on my back porch. This makes me very happy. I wish I had photos of these sandwiches, but as a fairly new blogger, I haven't gotten into the habit of carrying my camera around all the time. But you can just imagine how beautiful they were.

The first was from Darwin's Ltd. It's called the Magnolia and I recommend it with the Cheddar cheese. It came on toasted wheat bread and included all of the following: Hummus, Avocado, Apple, Carrots, Tomato, Lettuce, Honey Mustard and Cheddar. It was amazing. It was so good, I might get one for dinner tonight because thinking about it makes me hungry.

The second amazing sandwich came from the All-Star Sandwich Bar, which is a great little place with a good atmosphere, fun staff and good eats. Not to mention free Oreos and pretzels. They have a vegetarian special every day and it's usually wonderful. The best one I've had was Roasted Golden Beets, Goat Cheese and Arugula on toast (I think it was sourdough). I can't describe how those roasted beets are the best thing ever. Who knew? I didn't even know I liked beets, but on this sandwich I could eat them all the time.

The third amazing sandwich I've eaten lately was from Hi-Rise Bakery. It's called Kate's Rough Ride and it has Avocado, Tomato, Cole Slaw, Cucumber, Lettuce and Russian Dressing on their wheat sourdough bread that is amazing! I got half a sandwich and half of their carrot, leek and potato soup and I had to take the soup to go because I was full from the 1/2 sandwich. So worth it.

So that's what I've been up to lately. I'm looking forward to getting my Harry Potter book at midnight tonight. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress on the paper I'm working on so that I can actually make some time to read it before someone spoils it for me. I'm sure I'll have something to say about that tomorrow.

- B

Procrasti-cleaning

My roommate introduced me to the term "procrasticleaning". I've been doing this for years, but now I have a name for it. I have one more week of my intense summer semester and then I get to go to Portland and then down the shore! But I still have to get through one more week. And because it's the last week, everything is due. Thus the procrasticleaning. Just to prove how much of this has been going on, I present you with the following image:


This involved the purchase of Easy-Off and a few sponges and a little elbow grease. Anyone who has used Easy-Off knows two things: a) it stinks and b) you just have to let it sit and it works miracles.

I've also participated in a similar distraction known as procrasticooking (I had to use that really clean oven). Now if only I could work on procrastiblogging! Or maybe just getting my homework done.

- B

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

I had four people email this article to me today. It made the front page of the Sunday NY Times Style section (below the fold, but still...). I'm so happy that someone wrote this, I'm only bummed that Simmons wasn't mentioned, because clearly, we have a pretty good idea of how to have a good time (see 07-07-007 below), even if we don't live in Brooklyn.

- B

07-07-007

Saturday night is always a good excuse to have a party, but when Saturday falls on 07-07-007, there is an even better reason to have a party, and not just any party, but a fancy James Bond/spy themed party. That's what I was up to last night. Sylvie and I finally made it there after a 2 hour pubs trans adventure to go 3 miles. Thanks to Peet who knows how to throw a party, wear a tuxedo and mix a nice gin & tonic. If this doesn't prove that librarians know how to party, I don't know what would. I think the photos speak for themselves:

All American 4th of July

So I went and did the most American thing I can think of: I got in a car and drove around just for the fun of driving around. Granted, that car was not American and I used about 1/16 of a tank, but it was REALLY fun. I have a Zipcar membership and I went and zipped a MINI Cooper for a few hours. I used it to go to brunch at Ann and Lee's house and then I found the greatest little winding curvy road in Boston, along the Arborway, Jamaicaway, Riverway (whatever way) and ended up (after getting lost in Jamaica Plain) at the Arnold Arboretum for a beautiful walk through the park and then back in the car for a zippy ride home. It was so fun!



To top it all off I ended my day playing games and eating cheese and crackers with Paul and Trinity and some of their friends. I headed home around 10:30 in time to mostly hear, but somewhat see the Boston fireworks from my back porch. After a few minutes of that, I ended up turning on the TV and watching them from there. Can't have the 4th without some form of fireworks, right?

- B

Cow in the living room

So I recently moved into a new apartment with new (and fabulous) roommates. Ever since I've lived here there has been this cute little cow on the coffee table in the living room. I didn't really think anything of it until one day I noticed that it had little movable parts, mainly that you could flip its head open and fill it with jelly beans or something similar. So trying to figure this out, I flipped the head back up, and then thought, hey what happens when you push on it? Here is the answer (I apologize for the audio, I had C-Span on because I was watching an interview with the Librarian of Congress and it had already moved on to Tony Blair, maybe it's better without sound):



This thing cracks me up no end! If I can figure out where to get them, I'm getting one for everyone I know. Or at least one to have at my desk at work.

- B