Wawa

There needs to be some Wawas in New England. They've only got them from Jersey down to Virginia. None in this neck of the woods.

Wawa is cool. It's kind of like a 7-11, only nice. They have their own brand of ice cream which is awesome. My dad used to buy the brownie one and it was really good. Whenever I go down to the Jerz to visit my friends I stop at a Wawa. And often I'll purchase a TastyKake.

Concerts

I've always lived in a major metro area. (New York, San Francisco, and now Boston) Because of that, I've always had access to seeing fabulous concerts. My dad is a huge music fan, and he took me to my first rock concert when I was 12. (Elvis Costello)

Matt and I hit it off so well at first because we shared some of the same favorite bands. "How wonderful!" I thought, "He and I can spend summers to going to concerts together!" Last summer we didn't, really, with the exception of the Lowell Folk Festival, attending assorted small clubs featuring live music, and seeing Rush who I decided I find intolerable. And I'll tell you why we don't go to more. MONEY.

Is anyone else outraged about the ticket prices for big name acts? I feel like a sucker even considering paying so much!

I went to the website of the Fleet Pavilion -- oops, I mean Bank of America Pavilion!. Some awesome upcoming concerts...

Mark Knopfler, Elvis Costello (with Emmylou Harris), Crosby Stills & Nash.

Mark Knopfler tickets are $35 for the cheapest tickets. Good god. Same with Elvis. CS&N's cheapest tickets are $36...to be sitting probably a mile away from the performers. And it's not even CSN&Y. Young is vital for them to truly rock 'n roll. I paid $50 to see CSN&Y at a stadium a few years ago. Well, my dad paid it, actually. :-) Anyway, it was fun, but we were SO far away. After that I decided that I'm not a fan of seeing a band perform in such a large venue!

$35 for lousy seats to see TOM JONES at the Fleet!?!?! Come on! I can only think of one person who would enthusiastically see Tom Jones perform. My mom.

The Allman Brothers Band is playing at the Tweeter Center and the cheapest tickets are $30. I love the Allman Brothers. I spent $50 to see them 2 years ago in Berkeley, CA, and they still put on a great show. But I saw them at a general admission venue, so my dad and I weasled our ways down to the front. Great seats.

These classic rock acts are expensive because they know people will pay it. A friend of mine in California spent $100 on a really horrible seat to see Simon and Garfunkel. No way, dude.

These $30-something prices are not bad....but I think they ARE bad when you take into consideration that you are seeing these performers from so far away that you need a pair of binoculars to determine who is who! And when you're sitting that far back, the sound isn't even very good.

And think about the other costs. One pavilion in California does not let people with lawn seats bring in their own beach chairs. You are forced to rent one of theirs for $5. RENT. For five bucks. And don't forget the cost of beer and food, because you're not allowed to bring your own!!

So, give me an outdoor festival (NOT in a pavilion!) or a little club anyday! :-) I can see some awesome performers at the Cantab Lounge on any given night (including Matt and Brian on some Mondays) for free. :-)

Stop 'n Shop's produce

Okay, now Stop 'n Shop generally does have sub-par produce. However, the one at 700 Pleasant Street in Watertown has downright DISMAL produce. You should have seen these pathetic excuses for onions and peppers I purchased today. It was depressing!!!

I do tend to favor Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, but the latter has a pretty bad produce selection as well. (Although their trio of peppers is usually a pretty good bargain and puts the awful Stop 'n Shop ones to shame!)

As far as produce, Russo's is la creme de la creme. Their produce is much higher quality than you can get at your local Shaw's/Star or Stop 'n Shop. The prices are good, and they have all sorts of good stuff. A nice bakery section featuring your Italian favorites. Pre-made food. Cheese. Pasta. Jellies and jam. Beautiful flowers. Good stuff.

I like to support local farmers too, and I plan to begin scoping out farmer's markets. I found a website with a list of Massachusetts farmer's markets. Many of them aren't at the most convenient of times (weekday mornings/afternoons), but some of them, like the Waltham one, are on Saturdays. I'll write more about farmer's markets when I start visiting them regularly.

Bakeries

I really did love Lilly's on Galen Street, but it burnt down back in February. They are supposed to reopen at one point, but they haven't made any progress so far. Whenever I visit my great-aunts, I like to bring some fresh baked goods for us all to enjoy...so I really wanted to find a good bakery. Enter Antoine's at 317 Watertown St in Newton. Fabulous. There's muffins, danishes, cookies, cupcakes, awesome looking cakes, prepackaged panetone, and bags of imported pasta. Recommended. :-)

Hot hot hot!

Just wanted to say that by tomorrow (I HOPE) I should have my blog at krissyinboston.com :-)

Hope everyone is enjoying the hot weather. I am not.

Okay, I don't think anybody reads this regularly, so before I get any regular readers, I'm going to move my blog. I realized how important categories are in the type of blog I want to do. I'm going to use wordpress, but I need to buy a domain name first. I already made a banner I want to use...Stay tuned...

Blogger

Two things that are standard with most blogging software that Blogger does not support: trackbacks and tags. This bothers me. I think tags would be very useful in my blog, but I don't want to have to move my blog again. I don't know, though...I might, because I'd really like to have tags.

Boston and Boulder tops in marijuana use

Article here

In Boston, 12.2% reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days -- that's the highest in the entire country.

Root Beer cough drops

It seems like there's a bit of a flu bug going around here. A lot of my friends are feeling run down, headachey, and just plain sick. Can you get sick from a drastic weather change, or is that an old wives' tale? A forty degree temperature drop is pretty severe!!

I went to Walgreens to get some cough drops because my throat has been pretty scratchy. I had been sick pretty much all winter long, thanks to two regular babysitting jobs. I got so sick of cough drops. Citrus, cherry, Ricola, Halls mentholyptus, the ones from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, Fisherman's Friend...however, today I found something very different.

ROOT BEER COUGH DROPS, by Dad's Root Beer. Desparate for something different, I purchased them. And they're awesome. Now, I love root beer. I especially love all-natural root beers, and Hires root beer...oh, and root beer on tap!

Root beer on tap is different than your typical A&W root beer. It's less fizzy, and a little thicker. More like, well, beer. They have it at places like Wild Willy's, Sunset Grill and Tap, and Big City in Allston.

I bet they'd make good root beer floats.

That was a tangent. I just wanted to plug these root beer cough drops. They are good and they're helping me. And if anyone reading this is sick (if there IS anyone reading this), feel better too. :-)

State rankings

Just read a good blog post at Blue Mass. Group. According to an article at CNN, Massachusetts is the "smartest" state.

Here are the top ten:

1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. Vermont
4. New Jersey
5. Wisconsin
6. New York
7. Minnesota
8. Iowa
9. Pennsylvania
10. Montana

The rest is here:
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/...

I don't like the title to the article "States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest", becausze it's, well...obnoxious. Conservatives are declaring that the list has a liberal bias because, apparently, liberals think they're smarter than anybody else.

It's not what the article is trying to say. It has nothing to do with intelligence, the headline was just poorly named. The rankings have to do with public education and the quality of it. The factors are things such as graduation rates, average class size, per-pupil expenditures, etc. I'm happy to see Massachusetts as being so high.

I did most of my public schooling in New Jersey, and, for the most part, had good experiences there. Small class sizes, mostly good teachers, etc. However, for the last two years I attended public school in California and those schools were absolutely terrible. The textbooks were older than I was, the classes were huge, there weren't enough lockers for even half of the student body, and the teachers were lackadasical. And the school I attended was in an upper middle class area, and considered to be one of the best in the state!

Attn: litterbugs

Litterbugs are a pet peeve of mine. Are people that lazy and disrespectful that they think that it's acceptable to throw their trash on the ground? Back in April, Matt and I did a Charles River cleanup with WUMB and it was amazing how much litter there was. And of course, all of the hard work that we endured cleaning has been undone already.

But here's what I'd like to address...it seems that there are two things people throw on the ground and do not consider it to be littering. Cigarette butts and chewed gum. Why do people think that those do not count as litter? For one thing, it's dangerous to discard a cigarette butt while it's lit...well, not as dangerous here as it is in California because of the dry grass and brush, but nevertheless, it's not safe anywhere. And it's an eyesore. I hate walking around and seeing crushed cigarette butts littered all over the area.

If there's not a place to put out your ciagrette, like an ashtray or a garbage can...just hang on to it until you find something. The world is not your ashtray, thank you very much.

Okay, and the other disgusting thing that people litter and don't think it's really littering: CHEWED GUM! I don't want to step on some ABC gum...it's disgusting. Especially when it's hot, and the chewed gum gets gooey and melty...I accidentally stepped on some chewed gum in Watertown Square the other day, and it was so sticky that it pulled the clog right off my foot when I tried to move.

In the words of Woodsy the Owl, "Give a hoot, don't pollute!"

Thanks! Now enjoy the chilly, rainy day. I've never been so excited about this kind of weather, but I am today! Woohoo!

The Buttafly Gahden and other fun stuff

I have no interest in science, which is ironic since Matt is a biologist. However, The Museum of Science is pretty cool. I've always gotten in for free with the kids I babysit for because they have a family membership...but I think it's definitely worth checking out, whether you're into science or not. It's in a neat location, too...half in Cambridge, half in Boston, which means it's over the river. Very nice views.

They have some pretty interesting exhibits, and one exhibit they have now is The Butterfly Garden. It costs extra to see it, but it's pretty cool. You actually get to go in there with the butterflies...they're really pretty.

The only downer to the museum is that 90% of the employees there are extraordinarily surly. They're as bad as the staff at Newark Airport or the DMV in Walnut Creek, CA. If you choose to eat the overpriced grub in their cafeteria, do not sit on the right side of the cafeteria, the part with the long tables. A big nasty lady might come out and reprimand you for sitting in an area reserved for school groups.

Looking for another fun thing to do when it's too hot/too cold/too rainy/otherwise inclement to hang outside? Paint your own pottery at Made By Me in between Porter and Harvard Square on Mass Ave. I've painted things there about three times...and I love it. It's fun and relaxing.

Lastly, if you want some soft serve ice cream (my ice cream post concentrated on hard ice cream), allow me to recommend Celebrity Pizza on 684 Mt. Auburn St. in Watertown. They've also got subs, pizza, burgers, etc...but I go there for the soft serve ice cream. It's inexpensive, too. They've got parking, outdoor seating, and they're right off the 71 bus line.

A Line

I bet some of you have wondered why there is no "A" line on the MBTA green line. Newton Transportion Guide explains it:

When the MTA/MBTA lines were color-coded, the trolley lines using the Tremont Street subway became the "Green Line". There were 5 branches, labeled A through E from north to south. The Watertown line, which ran from Brighton to Newton Corner (then Nonantum Sq, and the original location of Mt. Ida College and the old Newton Library) from the late 19th century, and to the Watertown Car Yard shortly thereafter, became the "A" line. The Highland Branch became the "D" line.

Fate of the A and E lines: There were soon to be even fewer branches. The MTA had intended to replace all streetcar lines with busses, and ran their fleet of PCC's into the ground. In 1969, the MBTA (name change: 1964) terminated service on the A line, due to severe car shortage. The unexpected success of the D line also contributed to the car shortage. The tracks and overhead lines* remained until 1998, partially due to the influence of Newton's Mayor Mann, who wanted to see service restored. This line is now served by the 57 Bus (Kenmore-Watertown Yard via Newton Corner). In December 1985 service on the E Line to Arborway was "temporarily" suspended; the line now terminates at Heath Street and the 39 bus fills the service gap.

Pretty interesting, huh?

Luck o' the Irish

About a month ago, I wrote this in my LiveJournal:

While waiting for the bus, this little old Irish woman sat down next to me. She kept talking to me, and she saw me fishing in my purse for change, and she offered me a bunch of coins. "For good luck," she said, "because you're a wonderful person." Cute, huh? She was like a little leprechaun.

Today I saw her at the Park Street station and we both got on the green line. I'm sure she didn't remember me, or if she did, she didn't notice me. She was engaged in what appeared to be a pretty heavy conversation with herself. But the leprechaun lady brought me luck a month ago...and I hope today I will have good luck again! Erin go bragh!

I need some luck...because I have some cleaning and much packing to do, but the house is like a sauna.

I love some dim sum!

Whew. What a hot day. The weather forecast has changed since I last posted...it's not really going to cool off like it says. Welcome to summer, folks.

Anyway, Bev and I went to dim sum today. We went to Empire Garden Restaurant at 690 Washington St. in Chinatown. Very tasty. The restaurant was apparently a theater at one point...the decor is really cool, the food is good, and it's actually not outrageously expensive. Bev and I ate a lot, but it only came to $18 total. Not bad at all.

As far as dim sum goes, another good place is China Pearl at 9 Tyler St., also in Chinatown. Matt was skeptical that we'd be able to find some quality dim sum in the Boston area (he spent his whole life in California before we moved here), but there are some places to get some pretty good dim sum. And both places are reasonably priced.

After dim sum, we wandered around Downtown Crossing before the combination of the food coma and the heat exhausted us. We hopped back on the T towards Allston, where Bev lives, and sought out a place to get some bubble tea. We went to a cute place on Harvard Ave. Can't remember what it was called, but I got some refreshing green tea with bobas!

I'll write more later!!

Summertime & the living's easy...

Crazy New England weather. Two weeks ago I was running around in my winter coat, flapping my arms around, and saying, "It's soooo coolllld!" And only a few days later, it became the opposite: lying around lifelessly in a pool of sweat. "It's sooo hottttt."

I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with the weather. Particularly websites like and The Boston Channel. I go to them quite often. I go there to see what the weather will be like so I can decide what to wear. There IS an end in sight, I believe...at least, temporarily until summer officially begins.

And then:
Wednesday: partly cloudy. A chance of rain in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 60s. Chance of rain 30 percent.
Wednesday Night: partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain. Lows in the lower 50s.
Thursday Through Friday: partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s. Lows in the mid 50s.

So, in a mere few days, I will be out in the lows-in-the-mid-50s weather and, again, flapping my arms around and saying. "It's too colllllllld."

Losing interest

I think I'm bored of karaoke. Can ya believe it?! We've gone about nine Wednesdays in a row, and I think we're going to cut down. As tempting as it is, going to a karaoke place with air conditioning when our house is ungodly hot, I think that we've overdone it. We went out with a bang though, Matt's last song was "Chantilly Lace" (Hellloooooo, babbbby!); mine was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".

After Brian's knee begins to feel better, we'll start frequenting the Cantab on Monday nights again for open mic. The Cantab Lounge, in Central Square, also has bluegrass jams on Tuesdays and blues jams on Wednesdays. We'll check out the blues jam, now that we're taking a breather from the karaoke!

What's on the agenda for this weekend?

1) Go to the Jamspot to watch one of Matt's bands, Confucius Says..., practice.
2) Do second draft of my philosophy paper. I am not happy about this.
3) Dim sum with Bev (via Boston People Connection) I went to one other BostonPC group thing with Bev before. Bowling. That was a long time ago though.
4) Pack. We can start moving from Watertown to Newton in a week.

What I'm doing at my internship and other assorted ramblings...

Interested in seeing what I'm working on at my internship? Check it out! We're doing a survey on corporate blogs and we just posted some preliminary results today...interesting stuff.

Blogging is just so cool. I sound like a teenybopper talking about a boy I have a crush on ("like ohmigod, Bobby is just so cool!") but blogging really is cool. I am having a good time with this blog so far, and I haven't even really had it for that long. Hardly anybody reads it, although I hope people will soon, but I just like writing. I like writing and I like Boston, so why not blog about Boston?

The idea of corporate blogging is particularly neat, because it can be used to make an otherwise faceless company seem more personable. It can also help with thinks like marketing and customer service. Plus, it's fun. :-)

I'm writing this from my front porch. It's too hot to go inside. The evening is turning into a nice one though...it's warm enough to sit here comfortably, but it's cooled off quite a bit so it's really nice.

Right now I'm just fending off my desire to indulge in some ice cream after that previous entry.

I scream...

Didja know that Massachusetts has the highest ice cream consumption out of all the states in the US? Those cold winter months don't deter the Massachusetts ice cream eaters...not one bit. And why would they? There's a plethora of fabulous places to chow down on some tasty ice cream.

What's your favorite? Citysearch is doing a poll

Not an easy poll! I love Cabot's in Newton, especially because you can sit down and they'll serve the ice cream to you.

I also love JP Licks, but it is a little expensive...although it is worth it.

Herrell's is another pretty good place, but I find their ice cream to be a little too sweet.

Toscanini's is excellent as well. Quite tasty.

I don't really like Coldstone too much. They give a sickening amount of ice cream, and I also find their ice cream to be too sweet. I'd also rather opt for a more local place. Some of the places are chains, but either Boston-area or Massachusetts chains. Nothing big like the icky Baskin Robbins.

I accidentally voted for Herrell's on that poll. Whoops. Certainly not what I meant to do. But I'm going to say that it's a tie between Cabot's, JP Licks, and Toscanini's.

Oh my. Now I'm craving ice cream. I've got some Cabot's moose tracks in the fridge...what else could get me through this heat wave, if not ice cream?

Bagels

Maybe I've been away from the tri-state area for too long...but Dunkin Donuts bagels aren't half bad. I just had an onion bagel with cream cheese and it wasn't as disappointing as I expected to be. Granted, they're better than the disgusting Noah's chain of the west coast, claiming to serve New York bagels.

So, I just had a DD bagel for lunch. I have decided to embark on a quest to find real bagels in the Greater Boston area. There's gotta be some. Maybe in Coolidge Corner. Do they have bagels at Zathmary's? I haven't been there yet. I know they have smoked fish, so I'm sure they have bagels, but are they any good? I'll ask people on the b0st0n community. I'll taste test different bagels. I'll find a decent bagel if it's the last thing I do.

And a bialy. Must find a bialy.

Cochituate State Park

Matt and I just got back from Cochituate State Park. What a nice place. It's only about 25 minutes from us, and it's a great place to just relax. A very pretty lake. We hung out on the beach, swam a little. We're going to get a season pass to the Mass. State Parks so we can go more often :-)

Sleazy politicians

Argghhh, Mitt Romney, you're an idiot!!

Someone tell me how Romney won, because I don't understand.

Seafood

The Atlantic Fish Company is better than Legal Seafoods. Definitely.

Happy Friday, all. This could possibly be a busy weekend; we might be doing a day trip to Manhattan. We'll see. Otherwise: Nantasket Beach. Yes, that's right folks...the good weather has arrived!

Wednesdays!

I left some vital info out about karaoke. It's on WEDNESDAYS! So come out and sing your heart out. You'll see me there, probably singing the Supremes or "I Will Survive". :-P

Oh, Custom Deluxe -- again!

Custom Deluxe is playing at the Reel Bar again tonight at 9:30. (477 Cambridge St. Allston). I highly recommend checking them out. Afterwards, another jazzy type band called Pocket Sauce is playing.

Come check 'em out. They're fun to see! :-) Aaannd...the Reel Bar is right down the street from Sunset Grill & Tap which has 100+ fabulous beers on tap. And this chocolate souffle dessert thing that comes with THREE different flavors of ice cream! I'm hoping we'll go there afterwards, as we do sometimes.

Sing...sing a song...

I love karaoke. I met Matt at a karaoke place in San Francisco called The Mint. It was the best...we went there weekly and always had fun. After we moved to MA, we began our search for a karaoke place that we really liked. We went to a bunch, but none that we really liked. (I hear The Milky Way in JP is great, but it's on Tuesdays and Matt has band practice that night)

We stumbled upon karaoke night at The Tin Alley Grill by accident, and it is now our favorite place to go. BUT MORE PEOPLE NEED TO COME!!! Some nights there's a pretty good crowd, but then other nights (like last night) there really aren't enough people. But the people are really nice there, the song selection is decent, and it's not too crowded. (Like the Mint, where sometimes you have to wait 2 hours to do your song) And there's a handful of really fun regulars who are always a ton of fun.

The Tin Alley Grill is in Cambridge on Concord Ave. by the Fresh Pond rotaries. Karaoke starts at 9! :-)

Beep beep yeah!

I remember when I was a kid and a big "Sesame Street" fan, there was this one video segment of what the world would be like sans traffic lights.

Around 8:45 AM, it looked exactly like that in Watertown Square. Only the traffic lights were fully functioning.