Home Fries, Shepard Fairey, Sweet Treats and Guitar Strings

On Saturday morning Matt and I met up and went to breakfast at the South Street Diner. We ended up grabbing two seats at the bar and had the best view of the grill. The guy running the grill was a master of his craft. The standout part of the whole meal was the side of home fries. They put a secret blend of spices on fried fresh potatoe wedges (not frozen) and they were wonderful. The folks next to us at the bar asked what was in the seasoning and one of the employees said "I'd have to kill my mother if she got her hands on that". And to further throw us all off, it's kept in a canister labeled "Cinnamon".

After our big breakfast of banana pancakes, french toast and home fries, we walked over to the Institute of Contemporary Art. Right at the front of the museum there is a collection of framed, reflective colored glass that is really fun to photograph.

Our main purpose for going to the museum was to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit that is up through August. He's the guy who did the famous Obama poster that's been in the news lately. The show was an expansive overview of his 20+ years of work. There were many rooms with different themes, but one of my favorite rooms had 3 HUGE murals, each on one wall, and then the 4th wall was full of framed posters from throughout his career. I enjoyed sitting on a bench and taking in all of the different posters. I couldn't take photos in the show, by they had this in the lobby of the museum:

We also took advantage of the museum's location on the waterfront to have a snack while looking out at the water. It was a bit chilly though, so we ended up heading back inside.

Lee picked us up at the museum and the three of us headed to Brookline to indulge in some cupcakes, do a little used book shopping and stop at Trader Joe's. We first stopped at the Japonaise Bakery and Cafe to try some of their sweet bean treats.

We were hoping for a donut, but since they were out we settled for this filled cake, which was delicious! The other one is a mellon flavored cake, which was also very good.

We moved on to the Boston Book Annex and were amused to see this as we walked in the door:

We drove a little bit up Beacon Street to Coolidge Corner where we found a great parking spot and went to the Brookline Booksmith (where Matt had never been!). After that we went on to Party Favors, which has won the Best of Boston award for cupcakes many years in a row. Even when I lived in Brookline, I never tried their cupcakes, so it was high time we made the trip.

Lee got a little chocolate one with a purple flower (he picked it out himself) and Matt and I split the special cupcake of the day: Blood Orange and Chocolate.

It was not only beautiful but delicious! It was so good that I couldn't sit down to eat it.

It had a wonderful chocolate cake with an amazing orange filling (and lots of it!). It was one of the best cupcakes I've ever had, and now I understand the hype and why they've won so many awards.

After a successful trip to Trader Joe's, Matt left us for other adventures and Lee and I headed to Mr. Music to get some guitar strings for my little guitar. He insisted that this was necessary when he asked me how long it had been since I changed the strings and I admitted to having never changed them and I've owned the guitar for at least 4 or 5 years. Our stop was successful and I left with a brand new set of Martin Steel and Silk Folk Strings.

We decided to continue our ridiculous day of indugences by heading over to Cuchi Cuchi for a fabulous cocktail. This place is amazing. They make handcrafted vintage cocktails with real muttled ingredients. No pre-mixed drinks here! We sat at the bar and watched the bartenders in action. It was fantastic, one of the women even muttled through the bottom of a glass. As the contents spilled out of the broken glass, she looked at us and said "Do you think I'm a little angry?" It was pretty impressive. Lee got a drink that consisted of Hendrick's gin with blackberries and basil (right) and I got a Singapore Sling (left).


We headed back to Lee's apartment to make dinner and play guitar. Lee made an impressive dinner: Pasta with arugula, basil, brocollini and smoked cheese, topped with grated parmesan. It was very tasty. And the highlight of the evening for me was when Lee changed my guitar strings and made my old, little guitar sound like a brand new lady.

She's still got tons of character, but she's a little easier to play and sounds so much brighter than she did with the old strings. We played tons of fun songs, learned a new Neko Case tune, ate pretzels and again managed to stay up until the wee hours.

Can't you tell I was happy with how my guitar sounded with the new strings?


What a fun day!