No more pancakes? :- (

I'm supposed to be writing a bio about myself for my new teaching job, but obviously that's not what I'm doing. I'm having a mental block. I usually have no problem talking about myself so I don't know what my problem is. I'll try again later, right now I'm going to post, while I sip on this nice glass of Riesling.

So, in my last post I was ranting about my stupid wisdom teeth. I dragged myself to Tufts Dental School, preparing myself for a horrible ordeal, but they were actually pretty awesome. It was the best experience at a dentist I've ever had to be honest.  The student dentist assigned to me was super nice. He explained every little thing he was doing and made me laugh a few times. Even the supervising dentist was a sweetheart. My pleasant visit sure as heck didn't have a pleasant outcome though. Apparently, I have to have all 4 wisdom  teeth pulled out, two of which are partially impacted (which means they basically have to operate to remove them). Lucky me! The two top teeth are $100 per tooth and the bottom two (the impacted ones) are $348 per frikin' tooth! Get your calculators out ladies and gentlemen. Then they have to tack on anesthesia. The "student" dentist said I would be fine with IV sedation, which basically gets you all loopy (but still conscious) and you don't remember a thing.. so he claimed. I believed him. He told me that they wouldn't do it today. they would give me antibiotics for the infection, Advil for the pain, and an appointment to come back and have the 4 teeth pulled. I took my little printout to the front desk and the receptionist starts punching numbers, and then looks at me and says "Wait, you're not getting knocked out for this? Oh, honey, you need to be put out for this procedure." So, she tacks on another $214 for anesthesia.

The total comes to $1,164.

Yep, that's what I said.

And the worst part is, that they have no appointments until October 8th (since the operation is done by an actual surgical dentist, not a student... thank baby Jesus!). So I'm supposed to pray my tooth doesn't start hurting again before then, and that I wont get fired for taking a week off of work one month after I start.

Sigh.

In happier news, our garden is thriving! OK, thriving is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's doing really well for our first attempt at gardening.

we have cherry tomatoes!

jalapeños...

cauliflower (not sure if it's supposed to look like that.. it might be dead.)

ONE cute little eggplant..

and a crap load of kale. Note to self: no kale next year.

Well, with the month of August upon us, N. and I have stayed true to our vow to stop being such major hefers. We both got on the scale this weekend, and that sealed the deal. But of course, it wasn't August yet.. and it was the weekend. We decided to have our last brunch at Sorella's on Saturday morning. 

There's N., looking all consumed by the awareness that this will be the last time 

she eats here for a very long time.

Not even a $3.95 mimosa can make her smile.. so sad.

The mimosa really isn't that small. I just have unnaturally large Sasquatch hands.

And there it is... chocolate chip banana raspberry pancakes. Aren't they beautiful? 

How I will miss these pancakes...

No more bacon.. no more dreamy desserts dripping in chocolate.. no more Sorella's brunches. Well, at least until we get this "roundness" under control. I tell you, N. is lucky I'm a wannabe chef, because this diet could be so much worse for her. This is just an excuse for me to get even more adventurous in my culinary endeavors.

Yesterday N. agreed to go walking around JP pond. I tried to get her to do some light jogging, but she shot me a look of a thousand fiery suns and told me not to push it. So, I shut up and kept walking. Today we have an appointment with Billy Blanks in our living room for some Tae Bo! Yes, we're taking it back. The entire box set was $8 at a yard sale and just because he's not popular anymore doesn't mean we won't still break a sweat, so Tae Bo it is.

Namaste bitches!

-D.

Just call us the Lewis and Clark of Roxbury...

I hope everyone had a happy and safe pride weekend! Well, those of you in NY, Toronto or any other place celebrating pride this past weekend. Due to my current financial circumstances, I was stuck here.. in Boston (which had it's Pride weekend two weekends ago, which I also missed). It was also my best friend's 30th birthday (she lives in NY.. Hi T.!), so I was really bummed about not being able to be in NY. Despite the disappointment though, it ended up being a great weekend.

N. had already taken Monday off, since we were supposed to be at NYC Pride on Sunday, so we had a nice 3 day weekend ahead of us. In my quest to find something free for us to do here in Boston, I came across a Roxbury Garden Walking Tour (we live in Roxbury, in the area known as Fort Hill or Highland Park..or as I like to call it: The Hill), given by an organization called Discover Roxbury.

Now, ever since I moved here, I was amazed at the suburban feel of this neighborhood. I'm not even sure "suburban" is the right word. It doesn't look like it's in Boston, let alone a short 5 minute walk up a hill from a bustling urban area. Once you climb that hill, it feels as though you are.. somewhere else. The traffic signals disappear, buildings evaporate and are replaced by large houses with wrap-around porches. Giant hundred-year-old trees shade the sidewalks (if you even want to call them sidewalks, because they are so narrow that only one person can fit on most of them). There are so many birds chirping that it gives you a headache. And it's.. green. Everywhere you look, everything is covered in green. Ivy snaking up houses, whatever sidewalk is even there is half covered by wildflowers and rouge patches of tall grass. Most of the houses are pretty old, some even look tattered and abandoned.. but many have been restored and many newer houses built to replace those that burned down in the fires of the 1970's and 80's. There is still a large amount of empty lots in the neighborhood, many abandoned and overrun by weeds, but some have been turned into beautiful community gardens. Apparently, this area of Roxbury is famous for its gardens and urban/sustainable "farming". There is even a woman, a few blocks away from our house, that has a farm. Yes, a farm.. complete with chickens and rabbits.

I don't know why we haven't really explored our neighborhood. I mean, I walk my dogs to Highland Park all the time. I've seen the pretty houses and caught glimpses of some community gardens from behind a chain link fence... but we never really knew just how amazing this neighborhood was. That is, until Saturday.

The tour started at 10am at a community garden about 2 blocks from us we didn't even know existed. The garden was pretty enough, and we got to hear all about the history of Roxbury. I learned a lot... that is what I could actually hear. There was a Creepy McCreepster guy constantly interrupting with his outbursts about birds. Apparently he's a lunatic bird watcher and thought we would all love to hear him name every single bird that flew by. Weirdo. But, I digress.  We left the community garden and climbed down this steep hill, back out onto the street. We walk down to this "dead end" (well me and N. always thought it was a dead end)... it isn't. It's actually a hidden portal into Wonderland..I sh*t you not.

 

Told you...

So, none of this was just random gardens. These were actually people's homes. It was a cluster of about 3 houses, all with gorgeous gardens. But, none were more amazing than this one. This house and garden is owned by an older gay couple .. with a dog named Bernice (Bernie for short). Bernie came on the tour with us. (Yes, there's "family" in our neighborhood! There was even a lesbian named Michelle on the tour..AND she's originally from Brooklyn !)

We loved us some Bernie.....

OK.. back to the portal to Wonderland...

This is about where my jaw dropped to the ground and I couldn't seem to mutter anything else but, "wow.." and "Oh. My. God." This couple bought this land... land they claimed to be abandoned and littered with trash, broken washing machines and all sorts of filth.. and transformed it into.. THIS. They said there was a big sloping hill they didn't know what to do with, so they decided (just decided, like they were deciding on having chicken or fish for dinner) to build a waterfall and a pond... with a bridge.

This is their backyard, people.. their flippin' backyard.

 

There's a public trail that cuts across their property, so they made a little meditation corner, complete with a Buddha. They made a mistake telling me that, because I have decided to perch myself on that rock at least 3 times a week. I may even bring a tent and just squat in their backyard.

 

We finally left that oasis, and continued the tour back around the hill...

..and ended at the farm. A farm in the middle of Boston... run by a woman who calls herself Garden Girl. It was absolutely amazing what this woman accomplished on 3/4 of an acre of land.. in the middle of the city. She is growing practically anything you can imagine and has a chicken coop.. with real live chickens in it.

She didn't have goats though, so I was a bit disappointed. But, she did serve us fresh honey mint tea, so I'll forgive her.

By noon, we were back at our house, standing in our backyard.. our heads filled with possibilities. I am so building a pond. N. isn't happy about it, but I don't care. I NEED a pond.

Sunday, we went to N.'s mom's house and a couple of hours later were on our way to New Hampshire with $80 of her brother's money to buy him fireworks (we were secretly itching for an excuse to drive there anyway). When we got to the place, we found out everything was 2 for 1, so you know what that means. Yup, we got fireworks too! Looks like this weekend is going to be interesting.

Alright people, this post is definitely long enough and I've probably bored you all to tears (I'm aware that not everyone finds gardening as exciting as I do). Off to bed I go. But before I go, I'll leave you with a photo of my new Honey Moon Beer Security System:

I dare you to try and take one of my beers.. go ahead. ;-)

Namaste bitches!

-D.

Falling off the (food) wagon... again.

So, I totally lied about having fish and veggies for dinner. I even lied about the glasses of water. We had Ethiopian food. And a glass of pinot grigio.

I will point out, however, that I did not intend to lie. I had every intention of eating a healthy meal of fish and veggies. I even defrosted the fish and marinated it. Then I went to pick up N. from work and went to UPS to mail out the painting my friend Julius bought from me (he bought it about 3 months ago, and I'm finally sending it now.. I know. I'm horrible).. and it was hot as heck outside (the last thing i wanted to do was go home and cook!). Then we were driving through the South End and N. started going on and on about this Ethiopian place (Addis Red Sea) she had gotten takeout from once and how great it was and blah blah blah. Well before I knew it, we were parked in front of the place perusing a menu and poof we magically had Ethiopian food for dinner. The fish got banished back to the fridge. I should also probably mention that we made another detour on the way home.. we stopped at Flour and got Creme Brulee, chocolate banana bread pudding and lime cornbread cookies (amazing!).

I told you we have a problem.

N. really liked the Ethiopian food. I wasn't too crazy about it. We got this beef dish called Gored Gored. They serve everything on this huge folded up piece of bread/pancake(it's really like a really big crepe) but the consistency of it is too... rubbery, and absorbed too much of the oily sauce from the beef. The sauce on the beef was really good though, spicy..but good. It came with this potato and cabbage thing and also a  yellow/greenish mush that N. thought was lentils. I didn't try it since I'm slightly allergic to lentils. It also looked grainy like it might have had some chopped up nuts in it or something (I'm deathly allergic to nuts.. which makes my food obsession a bit dangerous!). The place is pretty cool and I would try the food again just to have the experience of eating there. It's on  a lower level so you have to climb down a flight of stairs and walk through a little hallway. It's dim and cavernous. The food is served on these tables that look like round trays and the people that work there are very friendly.

We've been pretty good today... Whole wheat toast with light chive cream cheese for breakfast, and curry tuna sandwiches for lunch (we won't count the Honey Moon I drank with my lunch).  I swear it's fish and veggies for dinner tonight. I'm going to make it early that way we won't be tempted to get takeout. We have to go grocery shopping and that means driving through Somerville. Temptation everywhere. We do our groceries at Market Basket. If you live in Boston and haven't done your groceries here, then get on it! Very diverse options and amazingly low prices. It can get a bit crowded though, so wear steel toed boots and be prepared to elbow people out of your way. We're on  a budget, so just basics today.

On a bright note, our garden is coming along nicely. Soon we won't have to buy veggies anymore!

 We've already harvested Romaine lettuce twice and we've used all of our herbs (except the mint, because this rascally little squirrel keeps coming along and digging it out!). I planted way too much kale so we've eaten some of that, but kale lasts all the way till winter so we have plenty of time. Everything else just started blooming this week. So excited!

This is our little jalapeño plant. Look at all the little baby peppers in there. They're tiny but they're there. Look closer!

 baby tomatoes!

I only planted in this raised garden bed that was already here when we bought the house. The previous owner gave us this song and dance about not being able to grow much because there isn't enough direct sunlight or whatever and she did her gardening at the community garden up the street. Well, I guess she just didn't have a super giant green thumb like I do! I wanted to make sure things would grow before I started tearing up our lawn and turning it into my secret garden (which I will do, you'll see). So next year, our garden will be much bigger. We might even be able to start selling at farmer's markets! 

I want to build a small chicken coop in our backyard and get a goat. N. won't let me though. She threatened to leave me if i get any farm animals. She also said I'm not allowed to get any more pets until one of our current pets kicks the bucket. Apparently two dogs and two cats is about all she can tolerate. She told me this when I tried to convince her that we should totally have ferrets. That didn't go over very well, but I gave up on that mission. The goat, however, is not so easy to give up. I have a thing for goats (no not in a bestiality kind of way you pervs... I just think they are so darn cute). I make N. frequent petting zoo's a lot more often than is normal for to 30 year old (gasp! It hurts to say it.) women. But we'll leave my goat obsession for another post.

I think I can squeeze in a quick yoga session before I have to pick up N. from work. Lord knows I need some serenity before dealing with the mobs at Market Basket.

Namaste bitches! ;-)

-D.