Martha For The Masses

My sister-in-law, Zara, was so excited about the Martha Stewart Collection at Michael's that she called me up to share the news. "I've always wanted a bone folder and now I can buy one from Martha Stewart," exclaimed Zara. Since I live 2.84 miles from the nearest Michael's and I'm pretty sure it's a 2.84 miles that includes unwalkable highways, I checked it out online and it looks pretty awesome. I especially enjoy the "share" collection with all if the cool food boxes. Other evidence that Ms. Martha is poised once again to take over the world, the new Martha Stewart Collection at FLOR. A little blah, but ever so tasteful...gotta love it.

All Moved In

We are finally all moved in. We're waiting for our bed to inflate as we speak so we can get some shut eye. (We have a sleep number bed...awesome) Today was pretty exciting. We had a crew of seven helping us move with the Uhaul. Our friend James (who drove the truck brilliantly) claims it was the easiest move ever. I hope it means that James might be willing to bail us out of driving a Uhaul for the fourth time sometime in the far off future. We then got all gussied up for my old roommate Carin's wedding to Francis. I shed a tear or two of happiness at the wedding, they looked super happy all day which is always a good sign. We enjoyed a Chinese Banquet for dinner and the cake was from Party Favors: vanilla cake with chocolate mousse and raspberry with a buttercream frosting. Delicious!

Levenger Laplander

For my graduation, I received this awesome Levenger Laplander from Zara, Zryce, Zess and Zames. I haven't had the chance to use it much, but this week, the lap desk has been super useful. We've been moving into our new home last two weeks and we're pretty much all moved except for our furniture. Even our cable and Internet is set up, but no desk. I was sitting on the floor checking my e-mail feeling mighty uncomfortable when it dawned on me...the Laplander. I pulled out a little chair, plopped my laptop on the Laplander and now I have myself a nice little setup. Even has room on the sides for my cell phone and a pen plus the Laplander protects my legs from my overly warm laptop. Thanks guys!

What's New at the Somerville Theatre

We discovered all these new additions at the Somerville Theatre last night. They've converted their ticket window into an ice cream stand selling Richardson's ice cream. We enjoyed a very generously sized "kiddie" chocolate peanut butter cup which was more like a small. They've also started to serve beer and wine inside the movie theatre. Here's an ad we saw for the Simpson's movie which they're showing first run this Thursday at midnight.

Where would Homer see THE SIMPSONS MOVIE?

He'd go the Movie-House that sells BEER!

THE SOMERVILLE THEATRE

Serving Beer (and Wine, for you Marge-Types) + Popcorn with real butter (MMMMMMMMM...Butter)

Sweet Sue's

I was having dinner with some of my old roommates last night and they were raving about the cinnamon rolls at Sweet Sue's over in Arlington. Turns out, it's the same place that Adam wanted to go to for the cinnamon roll bread pudding which makes sense since they use the old cinnamon rolls to make the bread pudding. Unfortunately, they didn't have cinnamon rolls this morning since they were backed up in the kitchen. I was supremely disappointed since I'd been excited since last night for this morning at the prospect of yummy cinnamon rolls. Instead, I had the cinnamon french toast, which was pretty good, but I'm still hung up about the cinnamon rolls. They did have this hilarious sign on the wall that cracked me up...

"Unattended children will be given espresso and a free PUPPY!"

Web Cam

Adam's parents introduced us to the world of Skype with web cam last night which was really cool. Papa Zakun was able to show us the crown molding he'd installed which was very impressive indeed. He's gotten quite proficient at it as he said so himself. It was odd, but fun seeing Mama Zakun in the background busy cooking chicken piccata for dinner and we saw how nicely their family room had been decorated. Now we're going to get one for our laptop and hopefully call Zess and Zames on Skype which would be cool to see how big they've gotten. I wonder if I could get Zara to always put them in front of the computer with a ruler in the background so I can measure how big they are. Maybe put boxes of cereal next to their faces so I can see how big they are relative to household objects. The only downside to all this is that we can no longer make funny faces while on the phone. On the other hand, maybe our families would finally get to appreciate the funny faces that we do make...we'll have a whole new funny faces audience.

Fish Carcasses

On our first morning in Tokyo, plasticmom, Adam and I were all jet lagged so we got up early in the morning and trekked over to Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market. I'd been reading Sushi Economy so I was really interested in seeing giant tuna carcasses. The place was utter chaos with people speeding around in these little bitty trucks, others in bicycles and everyone in big rubber wellies since these was fishy water everywhere. I thought we were going to get run over at every turn, but fortunately, we escaped bodily harm. We capped off our morning tour with a delicious sushi breakfast at Daiwa Sushi right in the market.

Here are some of the many photos Adam took at the market.

Little Trucks: very fast and agile

TUNA

Hairspray & Soft Serve

Wheezy, Adam and I went and saw Hairspray last night which was super fun. I'd read a bunch of good reviews and MGDub had given her nine thumbs up to boot. The movie was lighthearted, really likable and made me want to dance to period music on the way out. In fact, I spotted two middle aged women light on their feet boogieing out of the theater. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Wheezy to break out in dance, but Adam did humor me with a little dancing on the way home on Mass Ave last night.

I've also been really into the soft serve vanilla ice cream lately so we stopped by McDonald's for some soft serve. Unfortunately, the soft serve at Mickey D's is just not very good. That's not to say I won't eat it, but I discovered recently that not all McDonald's soft serve is created alike. So much for standardization. I was jonesing for some soft serve in Japan so I bought a cone from McDonald's there. The soft serve is really delicious in Japan: more creamy and much more vanilla-ey. Even Adam agreed it was superior to what we have here in the States.

While it is a bummer not having access to yummy cheap soft serve, there are a couple of places in Boston that I enjoy. I like the Mr. Frosty truck near the Boston Public Garden (corner of Arlington and Boylston) because it's tasty and they have a mural of Make Way for Ducklings painted on their truck. I'm not a big fan of the high prices. I also love the vanilla frozen custard at Chilly Cow in Arlington. It's so delicious, it's not technically even soft serve, it's frozen custard.

Kashi Go Lean [Crunch]

We wanted to stock up on cherries last night since they were on sale this week when we saw Kashi Go Lean on sale.

plasticann: Adam, you're running out of Kashi Go Lean, you should buy like six boxes since it's on sale.
Adam: I don't want to buy too much, the moths might get to them.
plasticann: Well, at least buy three boxes.
Adam: What if I want to eat some other kind of cereal.
plasticann: All you ever eat is Kashi Go Lean. Fine, buy some Kashi Go Lean Crunch, it's on sale too.
Adam: I wonder what's the difference...less fiber, more calories, yada yada yada, more copper.
plasticann: [laughing] MORE COPPER???
Adam: Yeah, that's about the only good thing about the Kashi Go Lean Crunch.

More copper and let's not forget the fact that the crunch version probably tastes better. As for myself, I bought some Captain Crunch...it too was on sale.

I'm Not A Plastic Bag

I was reading about this Anya Hindmarch "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag craze earlier this week and even e-mailed MGDub in jest asking her to buy me one because they were being sold in NYC Whole Foods on Wednesday. Adam, who is charmingly practical and unfazed by trends, fads, etc, asked, "Doesn't Whole Foods sell other canvas bags that people could buy?" and "Do these bags look any different other than saying 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag?" I tried to no avail to explain that the bag is designed by so and so and yada yada yada. The truth is, Adam is totally right, it's just a canvas bag. It's cute, but it kinda defeats the spirit of the bag to get gouged on ebay from bag scalpers.

Blooming Hello Kitty

Though cute, even I have to admit these Hello Kitty bouquets were a little bit odd. We saw them at a flower shop in Ginza that specialized in Hello Kitty flowers. I was curious how they immortalized Kitty in flower form: white carnations, wired in with plastic eyes, nose and bow.

Toeing The Line

We were moving our stuff over to our new home with some friends when we discovered just how close we were to the border between two neighboring cities. We also discovered that we have very friendly neighbors who know each other by name and have "border" parties to celebrate just how close they live to the city border. Our friend Zandy was parking his truck across the street from our new place when some neighbors said that he'd get a ticket since he was technically in another city so the parking pass I'd given him was invalid. We were naturally curious just where the city line was. Turns out, our house is about half a house from the border. The house next door is also a duplex and one side of the house is in one city and the other side of the house is technically in another city so they pay taxes to two different cities. Our neighbor across the street is mostly in one city, but pays about $25 to another city because a sliver of his home is on the other side of the line. Unfortunately, he doesn't get anything in terms of services for his $25. Unbelievable! Fortunately, we don't have to get a visa to cross the border between the two

Cutie Couch

After much contemplation, MGDub got a new couch. Looks comfy...I look forward to sleeping on it next time I visit.

Zoey

As a fun gift, Wheezy planned a fun overnight adventure for her little cousin Zoey. Zoey would sleep over at Wheezy's new place, go on the Swan Boats, maybe eat some pizza, etc. According to Wheezy, Zoey is a very polite child and somewhat indirect. The following are reconstructed conversations that Wheezy reconstructed for me:

Zoey: Have you ever had that snack where you cut up apples and dip them in peanut butter?
Wheezy: Yes! [pause] Would you like that snack?
Zoey: Yes please.

Zoey: Gosh, we've been walking around for a long time.
Wheezy: [pause] Would you like to take the bus?
Zoey: Sure!

I predict Zoey will do quite well in high context indirect cultures like say some Asian cultures.

Air Hello Kitty

plasticmom flew on this adorable jet last fall and bought me an official Hello Kitty flight attendant apron so boy was I excited to get the full Hello Kitty experience myself when we flew on it from Taipei to Tokyo on EVA air. Hello Kitty infused almost every aspect of the flight. Boarding passes, headrests, TV programming, salt/pepper packets, wet wipes, etc. My meal included a slice of Hello Kitty fish cake and the dessert was Hello Kitty ice cream with a little "spoon" shaped like Hello Kitty's bow. (Hello Kitty strawberry ice cream is pretty nasty and artificial, but the little kids probably like it.) However, my favorite was the Hello Kitty barf bag which I saved...unused.

Splitting the Bill

I'd read somewhere recently that splitting the bill at the end of a meal with a friend is reduces the utility and joy one derives from sharing a meal with your buddy. Therefore, they suggested that people should alternate paying for meals rather than splitting the bill on every meal. I proposed the idea a while back to Wheezy since we often go out for lunch together and she readily agreed to the plan. In fact, according to Wheezy, Wheezymom has always thought it was weird that we split the bill since she and her friends alternate. (Wheezymom is quite wise and knows what's up even without reading the article.) The only glitch to this alternate bill paying plan is I can never remember who paid last time and this uncertainty was making me a little anxious since I didn't want to shirk on my share. So at 3am one night last week when I was suffering from insomnia, I came up with a great solution. A little card for my wallet that reads, "I'll get the next one" laminated in packing tape. Whoever has the card pays for lunch and after you pay for lunch, you hand the card to the other person for next time. Problem solved. Now we just have to remember to hand the card back and forth.

New Home

Adam and I just got back late Monday night from a three week vacation to Japan and Taiwan with plasticmom. We had a blast eating our way through Tokyo and Taipei and seeing all the cool sights. Today, we closed on our new condo so we're now officially homeowners. It hasn't sunk in yet, but I do feel overwhelmed by yet another move and I feel intimidated by the responsibility of maintenance. Hopefully, we'll become handy responsible people who water the yard and shovel snow. I've already purchased the Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook which has instructions for everything from washing dishes to exterminating pests.