Behold…
Now here’s the surprising thing. While the Sticky Bun was good… and hot and fresh and oozing with goo, it was the macaroons that stole the show. So I highly recommend a trip into Flour Bakery but be sure to pick up a macaroon.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Best Thing I Ever Ate
If you’re like me you cycle back-and-forth between National Geographic and The Food Network while watching television. I think it’s because I’m either subconsciously thinking about things becoming dinner or because I’m consciously thinking about things becoming dinner. The subject matter of each station is only a couple degrees different and separated by a tiny bit of evolution. It’s only a matter of time before NatGeo begins airing the wildlife equivalent of Top Chef but with more lions and less people crying. So the other night we happen to catch one of our more favorite shows, The Best Thing I Ever Ate. A funny thing about The Food Network is that no one ever plans on watching anything on The Food Network, it just happens. They have an entire advertising model based solely on channel flippers. So it just so happens that we happen to flip to The Best Thing I Ever Ate just in time to catch Bobby Flay talking about his favorite food. Now I’m not the biggest Booby Flay fan but I have to figure the man has tried a lot of food and is worth listening to, especially when he mentions that his favorite food is in Boston. It turns out that Booby Flay’s favorite “irresistible” food is a sticky bun from Flour Bakery in Boston. The show went on to document how the chef made the buns with their fresh rolled dough and tiny pieces of chopped pecan but she had us at “oozing goo” and we knew then that we had to make the trip in-town to try some of these for ourselves.
The Tiny Dictator
I call him the Tiny Dictator. Some people feel this conjures up negatives images of people such as Pol Pot, Stalin and Kim Jong-il. I say, they’re right. Yeah yeah, he’s not into all that genocide stuff and he doesn’t make us call him “Dear Leader” but I dare anyone to not give him a bottle when he’s hungry or pat his back when he’s gassy. Hell to pay. Purple-faced fury.
Never in my life have I had to answer to anyone with such comprehensiveness and urgency. I mean, we’re talking about a 12 pound being that doesn’t know where his hands are much less able to feed himself. Me, I’m a 200 (ish) pound adult that has an advanced degree and spends the majority of my time in stress-filled work situations, yet I am absolutely no match for the Tiny Dictator. The only explanation I have been able to come up with, at 3am and in a daze of sleeplessness, is that nature has intentionally built in a little known weakness into our species that simply cripples us when we hear our children cry. Just like a puppy’s knows it’s only natural defense is cuteness, a baby comes out of the womb knowing that it is in control of it’s parents. It’s like Kryptonyte for Superman and there is nothing we can do. It’s biology. Damnit.
 |
| From Baby Photos |
The saga of the missing cat
“Yeah thats not what I was looking for at all.”
One man’s effort to help a neighbor find her much loved and missing cat
Quotes from “Disorder in the American Courts”
This is from an email chain going around. I don’t usually post stuff like this but these responses are very funny (even if they they may not true)
————-
These are from a book called “Disorder in the American Courts”, and are
things people have actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by
court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually
taking place.
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you
forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his
sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s twenty, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: getting laid
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new
attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition
notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on
dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you
go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And the best for last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check
for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you
began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive,
nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and
practicing law
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
Where was this when I was in High School? This could be the single greatest Shakespearean play ever written. “‘Thou speakest rightly, sir. No man misdeals with Joshua Quince, by Jesu”
Friday
A roller coaster of a week is quickly wrapping up. In our last episode you may recall that my dog had what appeared to be a broken foot but what turned out, instead, to be Lyme disease. Not to be outdone by my sick dog, my 1997 Jeep decided it was a good time to rid itself of all bodily fluid. I was positive-based on my extensive career as an auto mechanic-that I had a cracked head casket but once I researched what a head gasket was on Wikipedia I realized that I had probably not done that. Nonetheless my Jeep was still light a couple of gallons of something so my attention turned to the radiator (again based on all my auto knowledge). Well I was wrong on the Lyme disease and I was wrong on the head gasket/radiator. My water pump was shot. It turns out that what started out as a miserable week was completely rectified by some doxycycline and a new water pump (dog and car, respectively). After two doses of doxycycline the pup has returned to his fully furry fury plus two days of pent up energy.
But just in case the week was looking dull we played host to relatives (not really but as close as you can get) from Denmark. Luckily they were/are very self-sufficeint and had no problem making their way around Boston and to a local grocery store where they stocked up on food to make us an authentic Danish dinner. It did not make me skinnier.
Stay tuned for the next episode where the car decides what will break next and planning for The Great November Ice Backpacking Trip gets into full swing.
Just like any other day
Today’s update: My dog was diagnosed with Lyme disease and my 1997 Jeep started draining itself of radiator fluid as I was pulling into the Vet’s office. Believe it or not this made my day better. I thought the dog had broken his leg and I was sure my car had a cracked head gasket (I don’t even know what a head gasket is). How’s that for a roller coaster of an afternoon?
A Great Week
I am now officially one week into my new job and by all accounts it was a great first week. I’m impressed with the level of talent and the magnitude of their operation at the new company. I’m also fascinated by learning all about the model (this is the first consumer-facing company I’ve worked for) and I think it’s great when friends from around the country call or IM me because they just heard or saw an ad. Besides all the new challenges of the new gig I think the one that will take the most getting used to is the commute. The new company is downtown and while I could drive and park I’ve opted to take the train. This allows me to feel self-righteous about my new, small carbon footprint AND allows me to play “who smells like urine?” on the Green Line. It’s win-win for everyone expect the guy that actually smells like urine. The whole train experience is worthy of it’s own post so I won’t go into too much detail here other than to say how nice it is to be able to get so close to people so early in the morning. Besides the humanity the biggest issue with taking the train also means my life is on much more of a schedule and this is what really takes getting used to. In order to get to work a reasonable time I need to catch the 7:20 am train which means I need to be out of the house by 7:10 am. 7:10 am seems like a fine time except the dog still expects his one hour walk in the morning so this means we need to be out walking by 5:30am in order for this new schedule to work. Have you ever seen 5:30am? More importantly have you ever walked through the woods at 5:30 am? It’s really dark the only things that are awake in the woods at that hour are generally things I prefer not to hang out with. In fact there are no normal people walking at 5:30 am in the morning and it’s hard to not feel like a complete crazy person out walking in the pitch black with a lamp strapped to my head. But sanity is no match for me and so with an eager pup and head lamp into the woods we go and I’m proud to say that not once were we attacked by bears and not once did I miss my train.
Big Baby Einstein
I’ve been on a quest to finish an Einstein Biography by the time my vacation ends. I am half-way through and the contrasts between Einstein’s life and mine are striking. By age 16 Einstein had formulated his first “thought experiment” concerning relativity. He imagined that he was riding along a light beam. At age 32 he had produced the famous formula E=MC^2 and at age 36 Einstein delivered his General Theory on Relativity. To put this in context: At age 16 had formulated a way to get vodka out of my parent’s liquor cabinet and most of my “thought experiments” should probably be kept private. It was another 3 years before I learned how to keep hard alcohol down or mix it with anything. At age 32 I had just graduated from University after producing what is now known as the “Kai=16 years to get through College” formula (the actual formula looks something like: kai=rollins(university of the yucatan)+umass+ccsn+unlv+middlesex+bu).” At age 36 I had nearly completed graduate school and was about to deliver my famous “General Theory of Massive Student Loans” which states that kids should finish school while their parents still pay for such things.
So it is clear that Albert Einstein and I shared many commonalties but I think the one thing that draws the closest comparison is Einstein’s lovable habit of forgetting his house keys, locking himself out of his house and office, forgetting his wallet and/or money when he went out and, my personal favorite, signing correspondence as the person he was actually addressing. For anyone that knows me knows that I have made an art form out of forgetting things and locking myself out of things and … I forget but there was something else.
Sincerely,
Dear Blog Reader
Relaxation Part Deux
The mini-vacation continues in Eastman, Quebec. The Eastern Townships of Quebec are a curious place because they were originally settled by Anglo-Saxons from the U.S. and then later became French speaking. The surrounding towns boast such elegant French names as Magog (as in “Oh Magog”), Granby, and my favorite Asbestos! Yup, Asbestos is a real place where they mine… wait for it… Asbestos. Shocking I know. We are probably going to miss the tour of the world’s largest open Asbestos mine shaft but if anyone wants any souvenirs from the town please let me know. This morning we did trek over to the Saint Beniot Du Lac Abbey to see a local monastery. We sat through a noon service in French and I can honestly say that a Catholic service in French -to me – is about the same as a Catholic service in English. I still don’t know whn to sit, stand up or knee. Now we are off to lunch which, although included in our stay, will undoubtably consist of variations of seaweed, more legumes than I know what to do with, a soup puree that would make most babies drool and a protein dish with all the flavor expertly removed. They tell us that we will be healthier. Health is a dish best served with butter!