Day 138: Night-time picnic on the Charles

In the spirit of yesterday, and since today was technically a holiday (happy Labor Day, everyone), I decided to spend the majority of the morning at Dado, a tea shop on Mass Ave., catching up on writing and (mostly) making a plan for pictures for this blog (meta, right?).  D. joined me for a bit, having just come from Harvard Square, and his eagle eyes didn't miss a thing.  Two abandoned salads somehow made their way over to our table.  After he left, I ended up ordering one myself, and I must say that I was pretty impressed -- I don't know when Dado branched out into fancy lunches, but they did a good job of it.

After Dado, I biked around Cambridge and Somerville by myself for a bit, taking of a bunch of shots of Central/Harvard/Inman in a sort of loop.  It took quite a while, and by the time I was done, it was nearly time to get ready for the dinner D. and I had decided to invite folks to, by the Charles.  Quick trip to Trader Joe's for some picnic essentials, including Sangria ingredients, and then back to prep.

But first, we had a bit of a piano jam session with a friend who is also leaving town soon (though in a slightly more drastic manner -- he's moving to Thailand indefinitely!).  After, he drove us to the river, and under the lights of the Harvard footbridge (by the business school), we had a drop-by-and-say-hi style picnic.  Several people came actually, which was nice.  An amalgamation of groups, of sorts.  The evening ended with D. and one of his friends deciding it was still warm enough outside to jump into the Charles, and that the footbridge was a safe enough place to do it from (there is also photographic evidence of that, but it was slightly too obscene to post here :)).  Gotta love the Muddy Charles.

Day 122: The Max and Irma's of vegetarian food

Down the street from my house lie many restaurants and bars, most of which I have tried several times and few of which remain a mystery to me.  However, one of the newer places to nosh in Central Square, Veggie Galaxy, was a first for me this evening.  After work was our final dress rehearsal for the Mercury Chorus at Sanders Theatre, which was pretty cool.  Got to see a bit “behind-the-scenes”, and singing from the stage was great – it’s got a very interesting lay-out, and the building is beautiful on the inside and out.

I was starved after practice, and D. joined me to wander the streets looking for tasty fare. When the first place he suggested was closing (we realized it was already after 10p), I asked whether that veggie place might still be open – and it was.  Its interior is darling – 50s-style diner, done very tastefully.  We sat in one of the booths placed right in the center (the kind that would drive T. wild, with no side of the booth to the wall).  Even though D. was on-record as not being hungry, he still managed to finish half of  the veggie pot pie that I ordered (which I thought was delicious).

After dinner, I headed out solo to Charlie’s Kitchen to meet up with a group that had convened for T.’s birthday festivities.  Didn’t stay too long, but it was a good scene at another of the diners nearby.  It’s a rare occasion that we experience the diner atmosphere as we usually choose to sit in the beer garden outside in the summer, but it was raining tonight, so the corner table upstairs did us just fine (one of my favorite little spots in Harvard Square – many a nice evening with friends spent there).

Day 118: The hidden outdoors

This blog acts as an existence proof that I really am quite fond of Cambridge.  But I will say this: it could use a bit more green space.  There are some small parks that dot many of the neighborhoods, but it has nothing to counter the likes of Brooklyn's Prospect Park or Boston's Public Garden.  But if you look for it, you can find a few venues which at least have some outdoor seating space (some favorites are of course Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square and Daedalus just south of it).

It was only recently that I discovered that The Field, a nearby pub I've always been sort of "meh" about, has a back deck as well.  Its interest to me suddenly went up about ten-fold upon learning this, and so it was there that I might T., and later E., for an after-work and pre-rehearsal drink this afternoon.  We were joined later by one of our more elusive friends who it was good to see, especially as the summer seems to be rapidly coming to a close.

Tonight's Rumors practice was optional, and ended up being mostly filled with goofing off doing characters in various silly voices, but it was sort of nice to have most of the cast together for a night off, not even trying to be all business.  Also nice to bike from The Field to Arlington with E. for the rehearsal - we made a good biking duo, silent-style.

A final surprise came with C. was returning to Boston from a weekend visit to NYC, and wanted to hang out after practice.  We ended up mostly hanging out on my "stoop" (i.e., my fire escape), another "hidden" way to be outdoors in the city.  A very textured day full of good friends.

Day 114: Alfalfa Farm

For some reason, the phrase "Alfalfa Farm" just seems to roll off the tongue so readily -- and it is our welcome sign on the way to Georgetown, location of the stage where we will perform Rumors in two weeks (! - just two weeks!).  Alfalfa is to Georgetown what alpacas were to Kokomo for me as a child.  Each time my dad would take us to Westfield to eat at his favorite buffet (oh yes, buffet), we would pass the alpaca farm just before arriving in Kokomo on the way back.  Home sweet home... and that's what Georgetown is beginning to feel like, a bit.

Alfalfa screams hippie to me a bit, which is fitting for today, because I finally decided to try to purchase some vegan "replacement" items for my cupboard -- or rather, for the refrigerator at work.  Apparently it's never a good idea to buy soy-based fake cheese product (never again), but almond milk is still OK by my book.  D. was displeased with my ranting about the horrors of replacing cheese, but that was ok, because the result was that he used some _good_ fake cheese (apparently tapioca-based Daiya shizz) to create vegan pizza for the whole cast -- some sort of win-win going on there, I think.

For me, the biggest down-side of having rehearsals in Georgetown has nothing to do with gas money or mileage on my car or time -- but everything to do with missing (or being disastrously late for) B11 LBK at the Asgard. Tonight we missed the singing entirely, though we didn't miss the band, and I chatted with them and hung out at the Asgard for a while before calling it a night.  I sometimes find myself thinking that my rent really isn't too high when I consider I got live-band karaoke for free across the street from my house every Thursday.

Also -- whoa. I just realized when mapping Alfalfa Farm that it's not a farm.  It's a winery.  Well, then.

Day 113: Biking along the Charles

For Day 3 of biking to work, I took the path not through Central and Harvard but rather through Cambridgeport and along the water.  The Charles River has always been my favorite part about the city I live in (I speak loosely hear of course -- I suppose I just mean in gross geographical terms, or something), and I will darn well attempt to see it a lot over the next month.  One time my first summer here I managed to make it out by the MIT sailing dock in time for sunrise -- just gorgeous.

After work, I met E. in our "old place", Thelonius Monkfish in Central, for some sushi -- this time, veggie sushi for me.  (I have never, ever ordered vegetarian sushi before.  What is becoming of me?)

Capitalizing on the nice summer air some more, there was a later venture out to Harvard to the beer garden at Charlie's, and later to a friend's house in Somerville who has something that almost qualifies as a roof deck.  It's definitely a... well a roof.

Boston must be a city with some of the best and most diverse views, honestly.  For having so few really interesting geographic features, to boot -- the river winding through really makes it.

Day 108: The yoga scene

Back in the day when I was a graduate student at MIT and therefore had access to all sorts of delightful perks, I would often go to the weekly group classes at the gym across the street from my building (in the Stata center, which you can see in the background image for this blog).  This mostly involved power yoga, pilates, and something called "PiYo" (an attempt at a pilates/yoga fusion).  Vinyasa yoga was incorporated in most of these (even in the pilates to some extent), but somehow most of the courses managed to avoid the true "hold-this-pose-until-your-muscles-are-burning" part of vinyasa that gives it its punch. [Also probably the case that you don't get the most advanced / difficult classes in the world at the Stata Center.]


When my friend Az asked if I wanted to go with him to a vinyasa class, I was excited -- in fact another friend had just thrown a free class pass my way a few days before.  So A. and I went to O2 yoga in Somerville this afternoon after work, and I must say the 75-minute class really took it out of me.  My body used to feel like a nice happy sack of goo after pilates at MIT, but after this class left me feeling more like a sad sack.  Well, not too sad -- muscles felt used, but in the right way (not the over-stretching way, which is why I used to stick to pilates over yoga), body felt completely mellow, and my brain really felt quieted.  I will have to re-visit.

Even with the very zen feeling, I managed to make the most of the rest of the evening and got to see a bunch of great folks at two of my favorite just-north-of-Central-Square establishments -- the Cellar and Cantab.  [One of my friends brought a girl who looked absolutely terrorized at the prospect of entering the Cantab as we approached the bouncer who was checking IDs and seeing the folks who were entering; we had to pay her cover and coax her in gently.  We all had a great time dancing, though!]

Day 107: Out-of-towners

Today was just another summer 2012 Cambridge Thursday, complete with work (new computer today!), some downtime at home, rehearsal in Georgetown for Rumors, and live-band karaoke after.

Several the usuals were away this week (out of town), so I had no high hopes for turn-out -- but though the crowd was small it was certainly punchy!

Since our own locals were being out-of-towners elsewhere, it only seemed reasonable to interact with some non-local out-of-towners in Cambridge.  P. had already begun to do this by the time E. and I arrived from rehearsal, with someone in town from North Carolina on business.  He was a great karaoke fiend and sang us his son's rendition of the song "I'm sexy and I know it" (hockey-themed: "I'm Gretsky and I know it"); though I was a bit worried when at the end of the night he told us, "I drive better when I've been drinking than when I'm sober.  My wife's always telling me, oh you gotta drive -- better start drinking!" -- just before driving to his hotel five miles away.

Before the end of the night, we decided we'd probably be best off ordering some pizza at Cinderella's, and were somehow approached by the table next to us, a group of brothers visiting, originally from Chicago, spanning nearly a couple of decades in age.  When I mentioned I was from nearby Indiana, the youngest expostulated that he went to school in Indiana, at the best school of the state -- Notre Dame.

I laughed and countered that no -- that school was located in Bloomington, to which he responded with an inflammatory remark by inserting a particularly flexible adverb in between "best" and "school" to describe IU.  After that I was not so interested in conversation, particularly after one of them made some about assuming one of our crew had "just met me tonight."  Perhaps an upshot of the evening was just that I felt lucky to live in a place where the out-of-towners don't make me wish I lived elsewhere?  The Cantabrigians I know are pretty great.

Day 106: The Last Hurrah

 
Some time ago, possibly the day of the most epic photo scavenger hunt known to man (or at least to this hu-man), I ran across a bar called The Last Hurrah.  Even then it spoke to me of the parting of the ways of the four tenants of Jack In The Box (as our place is called), and when I mentioned it to V., she was enthusiastic about it being a part of her last night out in Cambridge. Er, Boston.

So tonight, we went.  I arrived there on the on-time/early side, and E. was already there and well into drink 1.  I joined him at the bar and quickly we were joined by others, and ceded our spots to move to a larger table.  We migrated once more to move to a spot which happened to be directly in front of the television that was broadcasting the Olympics. Luckily the patrons who seemed interested in watching both a) were very nice and b) departed shortly after.

The portion of the night held at the Last Hurrah was (fortunately) fairly short-lived and involved a lot of talk about water conservation.  We relocated to one of my favorite Cantabrigian bars, River Gods, not too far into the night.  On the way we passed a lovely sign entreating us to shred any suspicious evidence [so weird; see above photograph], and once there we were greeted by many summertime lovelies in the form of butterflies hanging from the ceiling and such (River Gods always has bizarre creatures hanging around to celebrate whatever season it may be).

The point: Good-byes are terrible, but a part of life.  I don't know why you say good-bye, I say hello...

Day 105: Have you ever seen the rain? Or, The Importance of Living Above Toscanini's.

Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm.
I know
It's been comin' for some time.


Today was Calliope's second chorus-only practice in a row (well, chorus and orchestra separate, that is) -- and it's always really nice to have Julia (our conductor) to ourselves. The orchestra is amazing, but when it's everyone together there is just so much going on.  Tonight we arranged in small semi-circles in order to hear one another better and get a good mix, and the altos in circle #1 (i.e., the circle I was in!) tore it up.  It was a great rehearsal -- the Bach that so intimidate us a few weeks back is now one of my favorite pieces to sing.


I had ridden my bike into Boston when the sky was only vaguely threatening to do much more than release a light mist, but by the time we were done rehearsing, a downpour had unleashed itself.  After a bike ride over the Harvard bridge, I went back home to dry myself off thinking I might go back out again.  But after a shower and a realization that I could grab ice cream without getting wet, I opted to stay in and play Rock Band with V., who is leaving for Japan on Thursday.

But back to the main point--I realized tonight that I can procure the most delicious saffron ice cream you ever did taste on a stormy Cambridge evening without getting wet.  How many people can say that?  I'd approximate about the 20 that live in my building, and that's it.  Honestly, even without the ice cream (which served as my dinner, mind you), I'd have been happy tonight.  I love summer rain.

Day 104: vegetables.

I don't have any stats on this, but I have always taken it for granted that Cambridge must be one of the most liberal pockets in the U.S. Other than the Bay Area / the west coast in general... Mass. must rank pretty darn high, right?

Along with recycling ease and access to health care, Massachusetts also does a bang-up job of providing access to non-meat-eater-friendly fare.  Just next door to the location of my new favorite veggie burger is the Middlesex, which apparently serves up yummy stuff at non-lunch hours (I never knew!).  Some sort of dumplings with some pretty delicious greens and a water chestnut or two (love 'em) accompanied our evening's treat tonight -- the last Monday of the month brought Nerd Nite again.  This time, the talks were on immunology (and how the immune system might be programmed to fight cancer) and silk (and, essentially, some thoughts on how it might save the world).

Whoever decided to put that vegetable thing on the menu had an idea that didn't suck.  We had two.

Day 95: The importance of having neighbors

Today felt like a very Saturday-y Saturday.

Began at a very Saturday-y time, around 9:30.  Involved some chores, a bit of work, some mild organization for packing, a trip to pick up some belongings which were still at my old apartment, etc.  And even grocery shopping!  And baking a cake -- a delicious Trunchbull (think: Matilda)-type cake, at that -- for my roomie's birthday.  Unfortunately there were a few hiccups in this process.  The last and most minor was the lack of candles (totally spaced it at the grocery store, where I should have attempted to purchase them), but a lighter can always sub in for that bit.

The first and most major was the fact that my cake-carrier still resides in Indiana as my space-cadet self left it at my aunt's in WV and my mom transported it home.  You would think that a cake carrier is one of those things you don't really _need_ -- until you do need it, which I often do, which is why I own one.  How else are you supposed to transport cakes?!

Well, I will tell you one way.  First, you live close enough to your friends that you can carry a cake down the street in an interesting apparatus.  Second, you concoct the idea for the interesting apparatus.  In this case, the first idea was to put the plate that the cake was on into a big metal salad bowl, hoping to stabilize it -- but then there was the problem of how to cover it.  Next there was the idea to simply put the metal bowl over a big plate -- but none of the plates were big enough, so there was no real way to to stabilize the bottom (er, top) of the bowl, as it didn't make contact with the plate.  I am no engineer, but I must say I was impressed with my idea of taking Z's mildly rusted cast-iron which has been sitting on our kitchen floor for approximately 3 months (or more?) and setting the plate inside -- the slightly curved lips of the unbreakable Corell plate fit perfectly in the medium-size cast-iron, and the handles of the skillet protruded out far enough so that the metal salad bowl perched atop them. It pretty much looked like I was either carrying a meal fit for a king or someone's head down the street in Central Square, and the only issue was that the uber-gooey DELICIOUS chocolate icing on this cake pretty much ensured that its two layers would slide all around and drip a bit of the goo on to my hands (though there are worse problems to have than chocolate icing on one's fingers).

At any rate, cake worked out and had a lovely b-day dinner for Pap at G-Dog's house.  The hub of Central Square comes through again, serving as the center for so many folks.

Day 93: Snappy Sushi

Two outings in Davis Square in a week!  After work, E. and I snapped up some sushi at Snappy Sushi in Davis before rehearsal for Rumors in Arlington.  It's too rare E. and I have one-on-one time these days, and even rare that it involves sushi, so it was a welcome treat.

Our read-through tonight was absolutely the best yet in terms of quality (if a little abundant in terms of quantity -- we have quite the chatty crew :)).  I have high hopes for this production.  Something I never got to hope for in high school plays was that they would actually be _good_!

Perhaps I'm becoming a bit of a broken record when it comes to reporting for duty on Thursday nights, but I won't give myself too much grief, because they usually rock.  Post-rehearsal live-band-karaoke this week was a lot of fun.  Ok, bear with me for one nerdy / mundane second while I relay the following boring story.  Boyan (the leader of the ominous, anonymous group B11) had posted online today that there would be three new songs for our live-band-karaoke enjoyment.  If you (yes you, reader) had to pick three current songs that one might add to such a list, which would you pick?  Think songs that are way over-played but somehow you hate to love and love anyway -- ?  If you picked that song by Gotye, the call me maybe song that has been meme-ed to the white house and back [sidebar: I was told I look like Carly Rae this past weekend at the wedding, which was weird until I realized she's not all that young], and the song by Fun that goes like this - "Toonniiiiiight we are yoooouuuuung " - then you are right.  Bnap and D rocked the former (er, the first) and I very much wish I'd passed out business cards with my digits on it for my rendition of Ms. Jepsen's masterpiece.  The best part of all that is that we don't have to do them again.

This reminds me of the best pick-up line that has ever been used on me.  It was at a party in Central sometime last year, and I believe it was perpetrated by a very nice (if exceedingly nerdy) grad student from systems biology or something, and it went a little like this: "May I have the integer representation of your contact information?"  If only I could recreate the voice.  [I facebooked him instead -- such a product of my generation, I know.  Honestly Carly Rae is giving a throwback when she asks us to call her maybe -- why don't we just send her a gchat instead?  So much easier.]

Day 91: The Tab

Tuesday, Tuesday -- so good to me.

Tuesdays have always held a special place in my heart, ever since J. and I decided they were the best day of the school week when we were around 14 or 15 years old.  I don't remember what are criteria were, but I think we pretty much discounted Friday, since it's basically a day of the weekend in disguise.  On Thursday you're just getting desperate; Wednesday is hump day; and Mondays are clearly spent recovering from the week-end's freedom.  But Tuesdays you might just find yourself having a high work ethic or becoming numb enough to the grind of the week that you don't mind it as much (depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist).

Today's Tuesday was probably more like a typical week's Monday for me, except that it still involved Calliope, and therefore still counted as a highlight of my week.  Somehow I always manage to pick only the hottest days in Boston to bike to choir, but there was such a breeze tonight that it didn't seem to matter as much.  We worked exclusively on the Gloria and the Kyrie, which was nice because they are two of my favorites.  Ok, perhaps they're all my favorites (except for the Kedushah... can't wrap my head around that one yet -- but I'm sure I will grow to love it after a bit more practice).

Anyway, after choir there was brief contemplation of a jump into a certain muddy river, but I had made plans to meet some people at the good ol' 'Tab for a friend-of-a-friend's b-day (said friend-of-friend was someone whom I'd hoped to meet for a while), so instead of jumping, there was tabbing, instead.  With a brief pause for some falafel.  Apparently falafel does not mean what I thought it meant -- who knew that falafel was not a generic term for all delicious things coming wrapped up with hummus and other delicious stuff?  Ok, maybe everyone else, but no matter, Falafel Palace has gotten much better since the last time I was there (saying something, given that the last time I was there was probably at like 3am after a bunch of beers).

The Cantab had live bluegrass music (as it does every Tuesday), and Julie (the birthday girl) apparently knew some of the regulars who knew members of the band, which was fun to hear about. Several other friends showed up and it was nice, low-key way to enter back into the Cambridge night scene (they run things differently in Indiana).

Day 89: The Importance of Resisting Harvard Square

You got to hand it to Cambridge when it comes to blending different "scenes" into one coherent atmosphere. Although I stand staunchly in favor of Central (I've sung its praises here ad infinitum), Harvard Square stands as another strong exemplar of a melting pot.  Amongst the Georgian architecture of the university's buildings roam all sorts of folks between the posh restaurants and shops, the bustle of streets artists and buskers, the crowded college-scene bars, and the tobacco shops.  Among other things.  To be fair, in Harvard Square the upscale outnumbers the tawdry (much more so than in Central -- and hence why Central will always come out on top in my book) -- but these juxtapositions make the roaming and people-watching some of the best in the city.


However, if you're like me, you need to remember that you belong with the tawdry, and not so much with the upscale -- important to remember as I shopped briefly this afternoon looking for one of those rare moments of finding an inexpensive-yet-blow-your-mind-great get-up for this weekend's wedding.  I had a close call a couple of times but managed to resist, so it was a pleasant (if brief) bit of time roaming around the square in the lovely evening weather.

This evening we held practice for Rumors at my place, then did the usual Thursday night sing-a-long at Asgard.  A decent crew amassed and it was fun, but I must admit I did a really hack job of Tracy Chapman.  Going on the to-do list soon (the one that is full of things I wish I had time to do) is doing some re-con on San Diego karaoke spots (clearly the thing that should be at the top of my priority list).

Day 82: The 1

This is it -- I've found him!

Just kidding.  The title actually refers to a freaking bus.  However, this freaking bus is pretty useful.  But back to the beginning...

My friend J. has been out of town for the last three weeks in Bolivia for a research field experience (how cool is that?).  Incidentally, he was with my former adviser at MIT and another lab member who was there for nearly all of my tenure in the lab.  They are doing some very cool work on number in cultures who a) are isolated and b) speak languages with pretty unique properties (or absence of properties).  The work basically began in Piraha villages in Brazil, but they wanted a control group where the language wasn't so different, but where the culture was isolated and kids were matched for (lack of) education, that sort of thing. Pretty darn cool stuff.  They needed a Spanish translator, and that's where J. comes in.  So it's basically double translation -- from the local language to (poor) Spanish relayed to J., to English.  Sweet gig, eh?

So J. is back, and I somehow managed to convince him to come with me to a party in the South End (K.'s house).  First we had MoS veggie burgers with another friend who opted to stay back in Cambridge.  Then we were griping about having to take the T... (well at least I was gripey about it) and realized that the 1 would save us.  It's pretty much the only bus in Cambridge that I will agree to ride on a somewhat regular basis.  Mostly because figuring out bus schedules is a pain -- although riding on a bus is typically not as much of a pain as my brain conceives it to be, and honestly, the 1 might be the most pain-in-the-ass bus route in the area (mostly 'coz it's freaking. packed. always. with. crazies -- but that's why we love Cambridge :)).

At any rate, the 1 took us into Boston toward the South End [see goofy picture of us above], and we left just early enough to catch it back into Cambridge.  In between, we chatted with the most business-y of my friends, admired their red, white, and blue, attire, and drank patriotic Budweisers (the KING of beer!).

1 is the loneliest number that you'll ever do... 2 can be as bad as 1, it's the loneliest number since the number 1, hey...

Day 81: Jill Brown-Rhone Park

The thingie in front of my house that I always refer to as Lafayette Square (which it is) contains a park, which, because Cambridge is not New York City, is _not_ reasonably called Lafayette Square Park (which would be cool, right?), but is rather called Jill Brown-Rhone park.  I've no idea who Jill Brown-Rhone is, but I am sure I approve of her because it is lovely to have a little park in front of my house (-ish; it even has some of those tables with chess boards painted right on them).

Ahem. After work, I met up with D. in said J B-R park to hand off the goods... you know what I'm talking about.  *wink wink*.  Ok, fine, I'm not that interesting, and it was some healthy chocolate stuff. Long story.  Point is, why don't _I_ ever think of just going outside and hanging out in the park in front of my house?  Seriously.  I adore Central, I adore Lafayette Square, why don't I go out and enjoy it?  So for about 30 minutes today, I did, and it was fantastic.  Sun was shining, people were oot 'n' aboot, maybe some birds were chirping?  Well, in my mind's reinterpretation of the event, there were some damn birds chirping.

Other lovely C. Square events of the day: DELIGHTFUL foods in the a.m. at Mariposa, a venture to some bluegrass nearby in the evening at Atwood's, and some nice downtime just after work, pre-park.  Maybe someone will read this blog, decide to give me an enormous sum of money for a book and movie contract a la Julie and Julia, and tell me never to go back to science but rather to frolic around and critique Neil Simon-esque plays for the rest of my life.  Eh? Eh?  Drat.

Day 72: Solstice Acrobatics

The summer solstice certainly let us know when she came this year.  After weird weather all winter and beautiful, clear days randomly placed through early spring, summer finally hit hard on her arrival day, with Bostonians and Cantabrigians practically swimming through the humid, 97-degree air.  Tonight was night 1 of try-outs for Rumors (more than after tomorrow), and thankfully S. (director who was hosting at his place) had access to two window-unit ACs and a fan.  At least when it's that hot, even the non-sweaters amongst us are in no luck and we can all be gross together.

After try-outs, I joined up with a friend whose girlfriend is an acrobat -- more precisely, she is fantastic silks and trapeze artist.  Somehow she was supposed to be performing at the Plough and Stars -- a bar I go to occasionally, and which often has live bands, but in which I could not imagine a whole acrobatic troupe performing.  Particularly in 97-degree swampy heat.  But -- there was!  Including a bar-dancing clown (terrifying to me to dance on a slippery bar... but was fantastic to watch!).

At the end of the acrobatics, I had a text from B.Nap (who had been at the auditions earlier) to come join up for karaoke at Highland Kitchen.  I really like Highland Kitchen.  It has a great feel, adult spelling bees on Tuesdays, and apparently the light fixtures look like sex toys, according to E. (I have never even attempted to verify this myself, nor do I ever remember to check when I'm there, and I'm pretty happy with that state of things!).  However, it is located atop Winter Hill, and I am not typically located atop Winter Hill.  That said, I was already so icky at this point of the night, and since I had biked from home to the Plough, I decided a quick nip up a silly hill for karaoke would be worth it.  Which... I *think* it was.  Right?  Song of choice was "Walking on Sunshine" - which yes, have done many times, but seemed so very appropriate for the evening.

Day 68: Go to Casablanca without leaving Cambridge

In addition to going to Hong Kong without leaving Boston, it is also quite possible to go to Casablanca without leaving Cambridge. I believe this was only my second time going there, which is a shame, as it's quite charming and usually fairly empty. Today, there were too many plans to keep straight (festivals in Central and Harvard, two barbecues, etc.) so I opted for what I thought the simplest option with the highest pay-off would be and bike to get hot dogs to grill at my former housemates' place on Plymouth St. near Inman.  After walking there with T. and spending a couple of hours chatting, etc. (in the it-was-supposed-to-be-beautiful-but-instead-it's-kinda-blah weather), we decided to rejoin the rest of our crew in Harvard Square, where they had attempted to enjoy the music festival but found more solace in enjoying Charlie's beer garden.  By the time we got there, people were ready to head to Brattle St. for some Casablanca action.

After a drink or two and some appetizers, it was apparently time for bbq #2 (a "not-the-father's-day"-themed bbq, no less), located in East Cambridge -- a bit of a hike.  We took a cab, and the end of the evening was apparently quite lovely (with lots of food and sing-a-long), but I missed a portion in favor of going to Courtside (seriously like 2 blocks away -- how could I resist?). But the end of the night involved reconnecting with friends and making some new ones, so all in all, a very nice (and actually somewhat relaxing) Saturday.

Day 66: Rod Dee

Of the times in one's life one is happy to have many close friends, the top time must be moving day. Today, several friends and I helped move H., who was moving just a few blocks away. I swear when he moved in to his current place a few months ago he did *not* have as many boxes.  Very little furniture but something like 30 boxes!  Of course the first three people to arrive to help were me, followed by two other (even thinner?) women, but we muscled through carrying all the stuff down (with the help of an elevator, albeit a flaky one :)).  Thankfully some strapping lads arrived in time for the stuff to be moved *up* (walk-up, no elevator).

The best part of moving for the friends of the move-ee is that typically moving someone induces hunger, and given that we did all of these in a period of about two and half hour, there was plenty of time for some Thai food before the nearly-weekly ritual of live-band karaoke on Thursday nights.  I'd never been to Rod Dee in Porter Square before (mostly because I rarely go to Porter Square), but I am now a convert. I thought Pepper Sky and at least Chilli Duck would have it beat, but not at all.  Whatever their version of the Panang curry-esque dish was... wow.  I also love that the place looks like a total hole in the wall, doesn't even serve alcohol (something rare for me to say), has very little wait service, and is really all about the food.  Must get back to this place in the next three months!

Day 64: Close Encounters of the Veggie Kind

Truth be told, I have put great efforts into discovery of the best grilled cheese and the best cheeseburger in Cambridge, but not until recently did I come to believe that a similar quest for veggie burgers might be in order.  Mostly because I feel like veggie burgers are usually crumbly bundles of poorly cohered beans and tofu - not so appealing, right?  Well, I stand corrected.

In addition to providing an edgy yet very Cantabrigian environment (complete with the fixture of a periodic table of burgers and other foods chalked onto its back wall and serving as the menu), the Miracle of Science also serves up a damn good veggie burger.  Saved by the grace of not being a vegan burger, some magical creamy sauce saves the day, and it's delicious.  I stopped by with a friend after our choir practice in the Back Bay, and at first we thought we could get away with splitting one... which turned quickly into two (and I'm pretty convinced he could have gone further if we'd have let him).

After a long day of work, softball (we came thisclose to not losing...), and singing some masterful pieces from a piecemeal mass (more on that later), Miracle was the perfect end to the day.