Krissy In Boston

KrissyInBoston

2005-07-10T20:41:00.000-04:00

Well, I've done it again...I'm at http://krissyinboston.com/ and there to stay :-)

Another fun place to karaoke

2005-07-08T18:20:00.000-04:00

Matt and I discovered a fun new place to karaoke last night. Legends Hall of Fame Grill at 249 Lexington St in Waltham. I felt a little guilty, as if we were cheating on our Wednesday night karaoke pals over at the Tin Alley Grill in Cambridge since we haven't been there in about a month.

Anyway, Legends has karaoke on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. (Yay for a place that has karaoke on weekend evenings!) They also have a pretty decent song selection and a good crowd. Very Bostonish folks there. I mean that in the best way possible, Bostonians are fun!

Legends is a decent place, but their beer selection is pitiful. Pitiful, I say! (Beer snob at your service...I'll have to write an entry about all of the awesome locally brewed beer)

It was a great time. I'll definitely go back there again for a fun karaoke night. :-)

Thank you, with a capital T!

2005-07-08T18:09:00.000-04:00

In April, I had a horrendous experience waiting for the 70 bus going towards Central Square. I waited an ungodly amount of time and got very frustrated. I don't know why I even bothered taking the 70...it's never on time. After I got home, I immediately logged on to MBTA.com and issued a complaint.

In the mail today, I receieved an apology and two shiny T tokens wrapped in plastic.

I am pleased on several different levels. I am an extraordinary cheapskate, so free things make my day. I am also pleased because, contrary to my prior belief, the MBTA does care enough about their customers not to leave them disgruntled and dissatisfied.

Oh, the places I can go with a shiny new T token...

London

2005-07-07T20:53:00.000-04:00

I wanted to write something about the London bombing, but I'm not so good with words when it comes to things like this. Howard Dean said it better than I could.

Thanks to BlueBus for sharing the quote from Dean.

Be well, everybody.

Happy 4th!

2005-07-04T13:35:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone's having a great 4th of July! We're not really doing much today...just BBQing up some Bubba Burgers, lazing around the backyard, and possibly hitting up open mic night at The Cantab.

Kennebunk and Kennebunkport

2005-07-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

My internship turned into a job at Backbone Media and I am quite pleased! To celebrate, Matt and I decided to go up to Maine to enjoy some lobster. We decided to forget the fact that Dubya's vacation home is there, and we drove up to Kennebunk!

We hit a little bit of traffic in New Hampshire...we probably should have waited to go tomorrow, in all actuality, but I'm glad we went. It would have only taken us about an hour and a half had we not got caught in traffic.

Anyway, we stopped at a little sea-themed miniature golf course in Wells on Route 9. It's part of the Sea Vu Camground. I actually got a hole in one -- my first ever. I still lost the game, however, after it took me about ten tries to get one in at a later hole.

Afterwards we went to Gooch's Beach which is one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to. And it has a funny name. I kept trying to incorporate "Gooch's Beach" into conversation with Matt because I liked saying it. Gooch's Beach. Gooch's Beach. He was far less amused than I was.

For dinner, we went to Federal Jack's Restaurant and Brew Pub. Matt got an entire lobster, and I got lobster with linguini. Man, am I glad that I didn't order an entire lobster...because Matt, scientist that he is, felt the need to point out all of the lobster's innards to me. Ah yes, lobster guts.

Downstairs from Federal Jack's, you can buy beer! We bought three JUGS of beer and a box of assorted beers. The latter is for Matt's dad...the jugs are for us. :-)

There's a Gifford's Ice Cream in Kennebunkport. I'm glad I noticed it, because otherwise I would have gone to Ben and Jerry's! Not that I dislike Ben and Jerry's, but I always enjoy supporting more local-ish companies. I've blogged about Gifford's Ice Cream before...they serve it at Wild Willy's in Watertown but it had freezer burn when I tried it there.

Had a great day. Tomorrow we're staying in town, and going to the fabulous record store, Stereo Jack's, that specializes in jazz and blues. It's between Harvard and Porter Square. They've got other genres of music, too...Matt got a Donald Fagen CD there for $2.99. We're hoping to find some inexpensive Ray Charles albums.

We haven't decided what to do on the fourth yet. Hope everyone else has a great weekend!

Livejournal versus blogs

2005-07-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

I'm a blogging veteran. I began my blogging life on Opendiary in June 2000. I finally wound up at LiveJournal, but I think I'm done with LJ. I'll probably phase it out over the next few months.

Livejournal Pros:

-Communities. Even when I stop using my LJ, I'll still keep my account for the purpose of communities.

-Easy to set up and use.

Livejournal Cons:

-Friending/unfriending. I'd rather not know who reads my blog and who suddenly decides to stop reading it. There's also the obligation to add someone back. It's kind of like junior high drama.

-Friends-only journals. I like to find new blogs to read, but if every single one of your entries is locked, I'm not going to read it. I can understand the desire to keep some entries locked, but I don't understand why someone would lock of all them.

-Many people (not my friends of course!) on LJ are just avid attention seekers. They'll post webcam photos of themselves making different facial expressions regularly. They all claim to be bisexual/polyamorous/vegan/cutters.

-No trackbacks. Granted, Blogger doesn't have trackbacks, but I'll be moving my blog shortly to krissyinboston.com and I'll be using WordPress.

-The info and comment pages on LJ users, and how you can't make the former look like the rest of your blog.

Blogs are the winner! :-) A few months ago I was content with my livejournal, but now after working on a blog survey for my company, I realized that blogs are HUGE right now and very cool! And once I am settled in my new blog, it's where I'll be doing most of my writing.

I'm excited about moving my blog to a service that has categories. These are the categories I'll have:

Greater Boston (General)
Greater Boston Restaurants
Things to do in the Boston Area
MBTA
Massholes on the road
Local & State Politics
Local News
New England
New York
New Jersey
My Life
Photos
Work
Music
Organic Living/Environment/ETC
Politics (general)
Current Events (other)
Humor
Blogs
Misc.

I am quite excited.

Border Cafe? No way!

2005-07-01T14:43:00.000-04:00

As a Jersey girl, I'm not a connoisseur of Mexican food, even though I spent seven years in California and I should have had ample time to adjust my palate to appreciate good Mexican food, it just never happened. I found that many Mexican joints were overly salty, with the exception of a place I once went to in San Diego. I still prefered Chevy's, a chain of Americanize Mexican food. They don't have Chevy's up here, but they do have them in NY now. (Two in Manhattan, one in Staten Island)

Matt is from Southern California, and does consider himself to be a connoisseur of Mexican food, particularly burritos. He's disappointed with the lack of authentic Mexican food in the Northeast. He finds it sacrilegious that I prefer places like Chevy's. I can understand, because Matt prefers the types of pizza that makes me, a half-Italian/Mediterranean Jersey girl, weep.

Anyway, it seems like the restaurant of choice in terms of Mexican food is The Border Cafe in Harvard Square. I've lived here for nearly a year and a half, and I've tried this place about four times. Everything I've eaten there has tasted like it was pure sodium. Last night I ordered a tostada salad and I had to go to sleep just to fight of the severe nausea it plagued me with. I thought a salad would have been safe!! The tostada shell tasted a little odd...kind of like a giant crispy Chinese noodle, which wouldn't have been odd if I were in a Chinese restaurant. But I wasn't.

I still live in Watertown right now, and I was taking the 71 bus home...I was so nauseous and spacy that I got confused and tried getting off where there was no bus stop. The bus driver was kind, however, and let me off anyway...I got off the bus across the street from Vito's Pizza and stood there disoriented for a moment. Then suddenly it occured to me where I was, and I walked home. I must have looked somewhat akin to a fool.

What on earth was in that tostada?

Wawa

2005-06-29T15:45:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-28T17:48:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-26T16:40:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-06-25T18:48:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-06-21T21:56:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-19T11:13:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-17T09:01:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-16T09:28:00.000-04:00

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:

Massachusetts
Connecticut
Vermont
New Jersey
Wisconsin
New York
Minnesota
Iowa
Pennsylvania
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

2005-06-15T09:12:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-13T16:08:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-12T16:30:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-06-12T15:48:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-06-11T13:29:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-06-07T19:35:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-06-07T18:52:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-04T17:50:00.000-04:00

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

2005-06-03T09:40:00.000-04:00

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

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

Seafood

2005-06-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-06-02T15:37:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-06-02T11:05:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-06-02T09:22:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-06-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

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.

Okay, here I am!

2005-05-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

I decided I didn't like MSN's blogs. You couldn't really change the layout and it looked like Hotmail. So here's the new blog location! :-)

Testing...

2005-05-31T20:17:00.000-04:00

Just trying to figure this whole blogger thing out...

Wild Willy's Grilled Cheese...

2005-05-31T09:58:00.000-04:00

Thumbs down to the grilled cheese sandwiches at Wild Willy's in Watertown Square. Wild Willy's has above average burgers and fries. However, their grilled cheese is not great. They don't use real bread! They use a hamburger bun, and put the pieces of the bun upside down. Then they don't even cut it in half. And it's $2.50! Rip off! I should have just gotten a burger.

The ice cream they use there, Gifford's, is tasty ice cream, but in my scoop of what would have been yummy chocolate ice cream, there were chunks of ice and freezer burn. Not cool.

Get some normal bread for your grilled cheese, Willy! And do something about that abundance of freezer burn!

Mmmm...produce

2005-05-28T23:24:00.000-04:00

Russo's at 560 Pleasant St in Watertown is the best. I love that place. They have reasonably priced produce, a great bakery section, yummy premade foods, and all sorts of Italian foods. I'm going to go there in a little bit to buy some stuff for lunch!

Donahue's

2005-05-26T13:02:00.000-04:00

I really like Donahue's in h20-town. My sister and her boyfriend are in town from California, and they wanted to go to an Irish-type pub...so we took them there.

It's a cute place, with an extensive menu...their shepherd's pie is really tasty. They also have pretty good deals for lunch and weekday nights. Good stuff, and a decent beer selection as well. I believe they also have karaoke some nights...might have to try that out, but my heart still belongs to the Tin Alley Grill for Wednesday night karaoke.

How do I love thee, DTD?

2005-05-22T19:45:00.000-04:00

Deluxe Town Diner, you continue to be DA BOMB!

My friend Bev and I went to DTD to grab some quick dinner. It was slightly mobbed for a Sunday evening, and the waitress took forever to take our order. And when she came with our food, she forgot my potato salad. However, she was really kind and apologetic...she did not charge me for the potato salad.

AND...we were given two free cupcakes! I assume these were Cosmo's Cupcakes (the folks at DTD also have an ice cream/cupcake shop down the street) and they were not only the cutest little cupcakes ever, but very tasty!

I'll continue to be a customer at DTD, and now I am eager to go to Cosmo's to try some more cupcakes. Not enough places make cupcakes these days.

Mmm...those cupcakes made me tired though. Time to veg out while in my carb coma.

Three fun bands playing on Thursday...

2005-05-22T16:46:00.000-04:00

Custom Deluxe -- jazzy type stuff
Confucius Says... -- Grateful Dead covers + more
Wyld Type Hybrid -- acoustic rock

The Reel Bar 477 Cambridge St. in Allston @ 8PM

US Air Guitar Championship

2005-05-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

Alas, I'll be out of town when this occurs...but check out the air guitar championships at Harper's Ferry on June 4th. It sounds like a blast.

More trivia..

2005-05-19T18:11:00.000-04:00

The Beantown Pub in Boston, Mass is the only place where a person can drink a cold Sam Adams beer, while looking at a cold Sam Adams. The cemetary in which Sam Adams is buried lies right across the street from the pub. Also in this cemetary are John Winthrop, Ben Franklin's family (minus him), Elizabeth Goose (more commonly known as Mother Goose), the five victims from the Boston Massacre, and basically anybody who was anybody from Boston in the 18th century.

Most of Boston lies on landfill. Only a small percentage is original land from when it was once a peninsula. If it is hilly, it is original, if it is wide and flat, it is new.

So far in the $14.6 billion "Big Dig" enough steel has been used to create a one inch think rod that would fit around the equator.

Enough cement has been used to create a sidewalk from Boston to San Fransisco and back...30 times.

It's not a cookie, it's a Fig Newton!

2005-05-18T20:14:00.000-04:00

Sorry to all the folks who read my livejournal...because you saw this posted there the other day.

Anyway, I'm moving to Newton in about a month, and I looked Newton, up on Wikipedia. Lots of interesting tidbits about Newton...

-The Fig Newton cookie is named after the city.

-The Stanley Steamer automobile was manufactured in Newton.

-Based on statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newton was the nation's safest city during 2003 and 2004.

-The Jackson Homestead, now The Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead, was once a farmhouse in the Federal style built in Newton in 1809. It is now a museum with paintings, costumes, photographs, manuscripts, maps and historical artifacts. It was also a stop on the underground railroad.

* Russell Banks, prolific writer, was born in Newton in 1940.
* Edward W. Brooke, Massachusetts attorney general (1962-1966) and U.S.
Senator (1966-1978), was the first black senator to be elected by popular vote and lived in Newton for many years.
* Thomas Bulfinch, bank clerk and author of the famous Age of Fable, was born in Newton in 1796.
* Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, was born in Newton in 1941.
* Jack Lemmon, Oscar-winning actor, was born in Newton in 1925.
* Matt LeBlanc, of the sitcom Friends, was born in Newton in 1967.
* Robert Morse, actor, was born in Newton in 1931.
* Anne Sexton, poet and writer, was born in Newton in 1928.
* Ephraim Williams, Colonel in the colonial militia during the French and Indian War and benefactor of Williams College was born in Newton in 1715.
* Howard Zinn, radical historian and author of A People's History of the United States, lives in Newton.
* Seiji Ozawa, retired director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, lived in Newton.
* Julie Taymor, director of the acclaimed Broadway adaptation of *The Lion King was born in Newton.
* Mark Sandman, (1952-1999) singer/songwriter/poet and member of the alternative rock band Morphine was born in Newton.

Velvet Elvis

2005-05-18T19:59:00.000-04:00

Hey Bostonians! Come to Harper's Ferry this Friday to see Velvet Elvis! They're an Elvis Presley cover band and my friend Jeff is the drummer. So come see 'em if you can. :-) They are lots of fun and Harper's Ferry is a cool venue.

And now for another night of karaoke at The Tin Alley Grill!

Always a good time at the Cantab Lounge

2005-05-17T19:33:00.000-04:00

Last night at the Cantab Lounge was great, as it always is on Monday evenings. For those into acoustic music, it's definitely a fun place to be. It's a mix of old and young folkies...Matt and our dear friend Brian perform there regularly. There's usually an amazing amount of talent, and some people use it to promote other music projects, so it's a great way to learn about other local bands and musicians. And much to the excitement of my hot dog lovin' boyfriend, two bucks will get you a hot dog with fries. Three bucks will upgrade that hot dog to a chili dog.

Pizza & Pasta

2005-05-15T20:22:00.000-04:00

Back from one of our regular trips to the tri-state area to visit old friends!

If anyone is in Central Jersey and wants some good thin-crust brick oven pizza, I recommend Pizza & Pasta on South Main Street in Manville. So yummy and reasonably priced!

New Jersey gets a really bad rap. There are so many parts of Jersey that are really beautiful. But all in all, the Jerz is boring and from where I lived, getting to Manhattan was a truly difficult feat. I'm glad to be back in Boston. :-)

We hit a deer in New Hope, PA yesterday though...in my friend's Paul's car. Yikes. :-[

Okay, I need to rest. I'm exhausted!

Custom Deluxe tonight!

2005-05-12T08:17:00.000-04:00

Bah! I didn't realize that in order for someone to comment on my blog, they need a .net passport thing. Silliness. I might have to get a real blog.

Anyway, tonight: Matt's band, Custom Deluxe, plays the Reel Bar. (477 Cambridge Street, Allston) They come on at 9. Cover should only be a few buckaroos.

Enjoy today's cold front today, fellow New Englanders! Brrr......

Diners in Watertown

2005-05-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

I'm a Jersey girl...NJ has got to be the diner capitol of the world. When living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was constantly in search of a decent diner. Most were kitschy 50s retro diners with overpriced menu items. I once recall paying $9 for grilled cheese. Alameda had two good diners, and the only genuine diners in the area. There was Tillie's which was inexpensive and only a block from my apartment, and Jim's which was expensive for diner fare, but quality food.

The Boston area lacks diners. And the diners that exist aren't true diners to me, because they are generally only open for breakfast and lunch.

Most of the area diners seem to be in Watertown.

My favorite diner is Deluxe Town Diner, or simply "DTD" as Matt and I affectionately call it. It's a cozy little diner in a trailer and it often gets packed on weekends. This diner is actually open for dinner too...I think it closes at eleven. Anyway, this place is great. They have a huge menu and lots of great stuff for breakfast and lunch. They also offer a $10 hamburger made of free range beef. (Awesome) It's a little more expensive than the diners I'll list below (a bagel and lox platter is $9.99, but worth it -- they use good lox!)

On Friday and Saturday nights, The New York Diner opens back up at 11 PM and stays open until 4 AM. I've only made use of this once, after a night out with friends. I had the grilled cheese. (Which wasn't $9!) The food is okay, but it's cheap. And I like the fact that it's open so late. It's the only place in the area that does something like that...the Brighton IHOP is open 24 hours, but...yuck.

Then there's The Talk of the Town Diner at 11 N Beacon St. A sign outside boasts that it was voted best breakfast in Boston. I went there once and I might try it again, but I would certainly never order an omelette there again. It was burnt, thin...and gross. At first I thought it was a pancake. My OMELETTE looked like a PANCAKE. So wrong.

Also in Watertown Square, there is Tresca's Eating Place. I've gone there a handful of times. It's right across a parking lot from my bank, so a few times I've even ordered a sandwich to go. Their food is decent, but a serious turn-off is that if you order something with syrup they just plop a container of Stop & Shop brand syrup on the table. I rarely order things that need syrup unless I bring my own (preferably from Vermont!), but still...can't they put it in a better container? The waitstaff is sometimes surly. But it's inexpensive. It's very green inside too.

Hmmm...there's another cool diner on North Beacon. Can't remember the name. It's more like a luncheonette, but I guess so is Tresca's Eating Place. OH! It's Victor's Diner and it's located at 214 N Beacon St. I like this place...it's cozy, inexpensive, and all of their coffee mugs are mismatched. Cute.

Mmm, now I'm hungry for diner food!

"Hello, world!"

2005-05-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

Here we go!

My name is Kristine. I live in Watertown, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. I have a livejournal, but this blog is going to be quite a bit different. One day I hope to get a domain for it, but alas I am cheap. So MSN will have to suffice.

This blog is going to be largely about the Greater Boston Area. It will be about places to go eat, venues to see cool bands, places I've visited...all in all, just fun stuff to do in Boston!

My boyfriend, Matt, and I also enjoy doing some localish traveling on the weekends. So my blog will not only be about Boston, but sometimes about the Northeast in general. I'm a tri-state area gal at heart, so we do make trips down there fairly often...so I'll write about places to go in NY, NJ, Connecticut, and Eastern Pennsylvania...and because I love New England, I'll write about places I've gone to throughout the New England vicinity.

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty...here are some places I frequent.

-The Reel Bar for Jimmy Nation Nite: one of Matt's bands, Custom Deluxe (a jazzy type band), plays there monthly. 477 Cambridge Street, Allston. It gets packed in there, but they have inexpensive beer, good music, and they let you bring in food from other places.

-The Tin Alley Grill for karaoke. We're there every Wednesday. I've tried a handful of places to karaoke in the area, and this is my favorite. It doesn't turn out to be filled with scantily clad blondes doing obnoxiously drunken renditions of "Baby Got Back", the song selection is good, and everybody who works there is really nice. Come join us for karaoke! 555 Concord Avenue, Cambridge -- by Alewife and the Fresh Pond Rotaries (used to be the Ground Round). No cover charge, either, which is awesome for a cheapskate like me.

-The Cantab Lounge! This place is very cool. I love Central Square and I love live music, so this is a great place to be. Matt and our friend Brian perform at open mic nights on Mondays. It's one of the best open mic nights I've been to (although Club Passim is good the Cantab's is more laid-back). They also have fun blues jams!! AND there's often no cover charge.

Those are some places I frequent; nightlife-wise. My next entry might be about Watertown diners...we'll see. :-)