.negative.

.feels like -5.

have i discussed yet how much i absolutely love boston winters? yeah... not so much.

.cheers.

.merry.

.merry (late) christmas!.

i was in switzerland for christmas, and couldn't post, but i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate). i'll post pictures from portugal and switzerland when j is back and i can load my pictures.

currently 13 degrees in cambridge, feels like -5. excellent.

oh. and i'll leave you with a picture of c's that i blatantly stole from her (which is why the quality is bad). do i really look like that when i'm taking pictures? yikes.


.cheers.

.food.

.i'm hungry right now.

so i'm thinking about food. and getting antsy about leaving for my trip! until i get back and can post lots of fun pictures, i will leave you with an ode to salads and yummy veggies.




happy holidays, all! hope they're full of family, food, and relaxation.

.cheers.

.red, a tribute.

.sigh.

i miss the farmer's markets of yore. and by yore, i mean a few months ago. this first** snowfall has me in the christmas-y mood, 'tis true (although i keep trying to find a good advent wreath, and i cannot find one anywhere!). but, i do love and miss the fruits and veggies of summer.

and nice red strawberries just scream summer. well, and this children's book. loved that book, and it always made me hungry.

anyway. although i do miss summer fruits, i did eat 6 oranges this weekend. they were amazing. and pomegranates ain't so bad, either.

here's for a long, hard winter

.cheers.


**by first, i mean the first one i am acknowledging. i have completely blocked the snowfall of mid-october '09 out of my memory, and thus it never occured

.so soon?.

.it is snowing.


no, this picture is not from today (thank god) - it's from last february. but, it is snowing. mind you, not the first snowfall of the year. that happened in mid-october (wha??). but, it is snowing, nonetheless.

so, j and i are listening to the smooth sound of kenny g's christmas carols and making cards. well, i am making cards. he is studying for finals.

to be honest, i was a bit relieved. the weather has been so wonky here lately - i think it was up to 70 at some point this past week. so bizarre. so, i am ready for snow. as long as the blizzarding, crappy boston weather holds off until i am back from my christmas trip, i will be fine. maybe not fine. boston winters suck. we'll see. maybe this year will be different.

maybe.

.cheers.

.sugar.

.i have been trying to cut back on my sugar intake.

honestly. and i've actually been really good about it! j has awakened me to this primal food kick, and, being the crazy veggie lover that i am, i'm enjoying it.

however, we all know i have a sweet tooth, and it's been hard for me to let go of the yummy sugary goodness of deserts.


so when i found these pictures from this summer, buried away in my files of images, i almost drooled.

these cupcakes are from sweet, a cupcakery fairly new to harvard square. now, they are not quite as good as trophy cupcakes (because, come on, i will always be a trophy lover), but they are pretty darn good. i must say, i consider myself a fairly good judge of cupcakes. i'm quite picky; i hate crappy, cheap frosting, and dry cupcakes make me gag. and sweet is pretty darn good. the frosting is excellent, and the cake isn't too bad either.


too bad i don't eat sugar anymore.

.cheers.

.pom.

.goodbye thanksgiving, hello advent!.

i have been trying to figure out where i can obtain an advent wreath around here - apparently our church does not sell them? sigh. i want to light the candles week by week; it always makes me feel all festive.

j and i have been buying pomegranates at an alarming rate. i know i have documented my love of pomegranates before, but i wanted to do a brief shout-out again.


they're a lot of work for not much fruit, but honestly, they're so good. so. good.


and so pretty! like little pockets of jewels, all shiny and red.


it's funny when you think about how perfectly they are formed, and how much they resemble honeycomb. very cool.


.cheers.

56 - done!

56. go out to high tea

so, i hadn't even remembered that this was on my 101 in 1001 list until i looked at the list for my last post and realized hey! i did that this summer!

and, the best part? i got to go with this lovely lady.

yep. that's right. i had three amazing females as house guests this summer! it was quite busy and hectic and full, but i loved it. first mom, then m, then bear. she was here the longest, which was great, because i hadn't seen her in a while. boston was her stopping point prior to heading across the pond to lille.

anyway, back to high tea. we went to high tea at upstairs on the square, which is, surprisingly, smack in the middle of harvard square. it is apparently a great restaurant, but this was the first time i had been there (j has had several snooty hah-vahd soirees there), and i loved it! the tea room is very pink and a fun mix of modern and old-fashioned. and the tea service was pretty good!

lots of yummy sweets, and some really good sandwiches. i think my favorite food was the bacon-wrapped date - it was amazing. i had the rose tea, my absolute favorite, and they bring you refills, which is nice.

all in all, a really great high tea experience. it made me think of all the times we used to go to the empress in victoria for high tea. mmm. i love tea.

and i love this little sister.


oh, and sorry for the terrible quality of the pictures - pulled c's pictures from facebook, and mine are just with my p & s. except the last one.

.cheers.

79 - done!

79. force Mary to visit

so, originally this was for me to take m out for drinks at the top of the hub, but when she was here, i completely forgot. oops. sorry buddy :(

anyway, i forced yet another person to come visit me this summer (yes, yes, this post is about 4 months late. another oops) - my best friend since kindergarten. M. she is amazing, and she made the long trek out to boston for a long weekend while i was all by my lonesome this summer.

it was so great having her here! we went to salem, went to one of the harbor islands, got tasty food, went to the mfa, drank beer, and generally had fun. like we always do.

unfortunately, i sucked at taking pictures when she was here, mainly because we were too busy hanging out and catching up. so the trip is not too well documented photographically.

i miss my buddy, but i'm really glad that she journeyed out to the east coast to see me (next stop - DC?)


.cheers.

.ps.

why is the formatting on my blog being all wonky? it's not letting me change the text color. so, i had to make my background ugly boring white. lame. will try to fix later.

80 - done!

80. fly my mom out to visit me in boston

this was one of the items on my list that i was most looking forward to! way back in july, i forced mom out for a visit. just kidding, i know she wanted to see me.

she was here for a little over a week (10-19 july), and it was awesome. so much fun, and i'm glad that she was able to come out and see where i live, and explore boston/ new england a bit with me. i didn't take too many pictures, but here are some (both dslr and my point and shoot).

'dewey cheetham and howe.' fictitious law firm in harvard square. just say it out loud if you don't get it at first. mom got a kick out of this.

harvard law review building, where obama was president of the law review back in the day. mom is down on the chair in the left corner - she's hiding

me and mommy at the law review building.

mom and inger - long-time friend of mom's from their cooperstown days

candid shot of the ladies

beautiful janicki family

mom and inger at the beach

weeee. seagulls

for some reason, i love this beach shot. i think it's the rainbow umbrella

red sox game! mom at yawkey way (thanks doug!)

mom on spectacle island - one of the boston harbor islands. boston in the background

my beautiful mom! on the ferry to the harbor islands

note: contrary to what you might think, looking at these pictures - we did not wear the same thing every day that mom was here. most of the pictures were taken on a few days; i didn't take my camera with me very often when she was here.

anyway, i love my mom, and loved that she took time to come out to visit! the worst thing about living on the east coast is being so far away from family and friends.

love you, mom!

.cheers.

.oops.

.sorry.

i suck at blogging. just so lazy and busy lately.

here, have a flower.

not much new here. let's see, i had a cold, i fainted and had to go to the er, i had a cold again. work work work. mostly, i've just been lazy and not feeling like blogging. oh, and j still hasn't downloaded my summer pictures. damn him.

anyway, it's starting to feel like fall here. i actually love fall - the crisp air, the crunching through fallen leaves on the ground, everything apples (plain, cider, crisp, you know how it goes). we've also been making amazing crock-pot chili every weekend, which is awesome. there is nothing like chili on a cold, sometimes rainy fall day. but, it does make me shudder, thinking that fall will soon lead to snowy, snowy boston winter. sigh. i shall enjoy fall while it lasts, though!

.cheers.

.t is for.

.tomato.

the best part of summer is by far the fabulous array of fresh fruits and veggies. thank god my parents raised me "strangely" compared to many children these days - i rarely was allowed to drink soda, and my snacks were generally fruit or vegetables. c'mon, my favorite food was the lima bean for a very long time. weird, right?

i don't care. now i could eat only fruits and veggies and be perfectly content. a bit anemic, perhaps, but still. happy.

tomatoes especially. i used to eat handfuls of cherry and pear tomatoes at my grandparents' house, plucking them sun-kissed and warm, and eating them like candy. such a little thief.

heirloom tomatoes are the best things ever. i can't wait to have a massive garden with at least 20 different varieties of tomatoes.

mmm. what is your favorite veggie/ fruit?

.cheers.

.heat wave.

.it's been so hot here lately.

not today, necessarily, but this past week or so has just been unbearable. mainly due to the fact that we don't have air-conditioning. so, i have taken to indulging in ice-cold showers, in the hopes of cooling my body's core temperature.

and it works! until i get out of the shower and immediately start sweating again. but let's not get into that.

so, i'm just sighing, and remembering how i complained about the unusually cold summer up until now.


and how i wish it were lovely, cool spring again. until i remember how terrible the winters are here. it makes me want to bottle up this hot steamy weather and keep it in a jar for when it sta

.cheers.

.kiwi.

.my new favorite fruit.


mmm, so good. and so good for you.

i eat one almost every day.

apparently it is technically a berry - it's also known as the chinese gooseberry - who knew? they only changed the name to 'kiwi' as a marketing ploy in the '50s. and, get this, it's originally from china.

learn something new every day.

.cheers.

.butter.

.i've taken to making my own butter.

why, you ask?

because it is amazing. seriously, much better than store-bought. and, it's fun. yes, that's right, fun.

essentially, all you do is pour heavy or whipping cream into a mason jar (or any jar with a tight-fitting lid), and shake until you feel the solids break from the liquids (around 15 mins for 3/4 cup?).

set aside the buttermilk (mmm pancakes?), squeeze the butter to get all liquid out (into buttermilk jar, of course), rinse the butter, and voila! yummy yummy butter. you can leave it out at room temp (in a covered dish) for a day or two, depending on the heat, or leave it in the fridge like you would normal butter.


and that's it. so easy, a 4-year-old could do it.

.cheers.

.fail blog.

.no, i have not started another failblog.

(although it is hilarious and amazing) no, i am simply referring to the fact that i fail at blogging this summer. i will blame my failure to blog on the fact that j has had the only computer that can download my pictures with him in dc all summer. jerk.

anyway, sorry, but it's a short post.

banjo, m's dog. love him.

and some more peony shots.

why are they so amazing?!

i love that they look like frilly girly dresses.

.cheers.