Two things that make me laugh, for very different reasons.

Here's a thing for those of you who want to know a little more about Jamaica Plain* (it's better than any other plain!).

And here's a thing for those of you who want to know a little more about bending in weird directions.

* Jamaica Plain is my spiritual home in Boston, and where I'd definitely live if it weren't next door to the neighbourhood I grew up in. I will almost certainly end up there if I stay in Boston. Somerville is where The Lawyer lives. She does play lots of sports and eat breakfast food. I, however, am not a vegan.

XOXO

Um, hi.

It's been too long. I know it has. I've tried to stick to an at-least-weekly posting schedule, but the last few weeks have involved a lot of feeling crazy and running around in circles, partly for real reasons and partly because my head broke. Having re-read my last few posts, I don't think that news will come as any great shock, but it's nothing to worry about - it was a quieter break, more of a blown fuse than a full-on outage. I just needed to sit in a dark corner for a while, and with that having been accomplished, I feel a bit more together.

Fall has come crashing down around us, and so far it's been cold, wet and miserable. I'm hoping the weather will pick up and give me some of those crisp, sunny autumn days that feel like apples taste, but for now it's weighing heavily on everyone. Winter's on its way, no mistake, and it's a cunt of a season. Fall also means the end of baseball (no playoff run for the Sox this year), the start of football (Tom, darling, the hair), and a whole new menu centered around butternut pumpkin. In the last week, I have seen three new recipes involving butternut, including an amazing-looking butternut lasagna, and I've had an impassioned plea for pumpkin pie from an unpindownable Floridian refugee who compensates for New England weather by charming baked goods out of people too sympathetic to refuse. She also has a very sweet dog and uses him shamelessly. (Please do not take this opportunity to list the many reasons I should know better. I do. It's out of my hands. The dog's too cute.)

In better news, Lynne and Laura are coming for a visit. They arrive on Tuesday, and we'll kick around Boston until Friday, when we'll head up to Montreal. That's right, kids, I'm off to visit our moose-strewn neighbours to the north. Never thought I'd see the day. Still, I take comfort in knowing that at least the Quebecois are smart enough not to want to be part of Canada either. Either way, I'm looking forward to having some friendly accents about the place.

And in weird food news for the day: carn the pies! I don't know if I'm shitty that they're going to be all the way over in Southie or seriously grateful that I won't have easy access to that kind of calorie bump. Either way, I'm thrilled to bits to have them.

XOXO

Happy birthday, Trace!

You asked for it, and I couldn't but oblige the birthday girl. Let me just say, though, that this shot turned out to be WAY harder to get than I'd expected, and I now have a new respect for foot fetishists.

(Which is not why she wanted this photo, by the way. Come on people, she's a respectable woman. She just wanted to know what your toes look like when you let a Dominican beauty salon loose on them in preparation for back-to-back belly dancing gigs. That is, after all, much more likely.)

XOXO