Lunch Today

Last week, I was all about Asian noodles from Moosewood recipes (yum!).

This week, apparently it's all about the potatoes. Lunch today: Potato leek soup (salt fest from downstairs) and a baked potato with sour cream. MMMMMmmMMmmM potatoes! Getting in touch with my Irish roots. I'm sure I must have some.

I think, though, that I should return to my salad roots. 'Tis the season for fresh local veggies, and I have a fridge full of odds and ends. I just don't feel inspired.

Anyone have some good salad ideas?
.

Upper Crust Boston - Why I will never eat there again

So a friend of mine works at the Upper Crust. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that the guys who own the place are scumbags. They refuse to pay overtime, so if workers go over 40 hours they will fire them.

But more problematically: Previously they were paying these guys in the kitchen for 40 hours but having them work 70 hour weeks. There was a lawsuit and they had to pay the workers the back wages…. but then told the workers that they had two choices: Either pay back the money or be fired. So the workers chose to have the money deducted from their paycheck since they needed the job. Now the workers are bringing another lawsuit against the Upper Crust for this..

So now that I know this about the company, what should I choose to do? I could ignore it, and continue to eat their delicious pizza. Or I could use the power of consumer choice and tell them to f&*@ themselves and get my pizza elsewhere. 

Which do you think I'm going to choose?


Update: Apparently Boston consumers are so outraged that they are calling the Upper Crust and asking them to explain themselves! Sadly the guys responsible aren't actually at the stores. Screw you, Upper Crust!

.

Filene's Basement Does Not Discriminate Against Dogs

Anyone who knows me, knows I love dogs.

I mean, I love them. They're so adorable. And funny. And frustrating. And cute. And I want one.

But even if I had a dog - and one day I will - I will never, ever subject said [large] dog to lingerie shopping at Filene's Basement in downtown Boston. Yes. It happens. I know because I saw it.

Yesterday when shopping for new jeans (because I ripped my previous favorite pair while playing with, you guessed it, a dog), I bumped into a large dog while making my way over to the dressing room. The dog looked miserable - head down, tail down - he was so out of place.

The only acceptable reason for bringing your dog into Filene's Basement would be for an emergency shopping need, like say if you had huge blisters on your feet and needed flip-flops. But this woman was in the lingerie section, so maybe her emergency was that she pooped herself, in which case that totally sucks and I'm sorry for even bringing this up.

But I don't understand why she spent at least 45 minutes there! Not to mention she had to take the dog up an escalator to get there. Maybe that's why he was so sad - escalators are scary for humans, imagine if you were a dog! Actually I read this disturbing book about a boy raised by dogs and he takes an escalator and it scares the crap out of him because he's a dog (in his head) and doesn't understand the escalator.

In conclusion - don't bring your large dog shopping. If you want to bring your purse dog shopping, whatevs, because s/he probably likes shopping. Still - a good rule of thumb - dogs and clothes shopping don't mix. {Edit} Unless it's a service dog. That dog is definitely used to escalators. And shopping. This dog was not a service dog.

Man on the Phone

Say you're a guy.

A guy who has a phone interview.

You might go outside to a little side park to have said phone interview instead of sitting at the desk where you currently work.

Outside, though, it is wild. Yes. Wild. Crazy. Unknown. Especially in Cambridge, MA.

You never know when a pack of yelling first graders is going to walk by with their teachers yelling, "This man's on the phone, now he can't hear a thing, Man's on the phone, and he can't hear a thing." Etc, etc.

This man laughed. So did the HR woman on the other end of the line.

Kids can be funny bastards.

Guarantee the HR woman won't forget his phone interview.  :-)

Side note: This was a male friend. Not me. Though I wish it had been me, only because it must have been so freaking funny.
.

Garlic Outrage

It is Monday.
And outrage over all types of garlic-rottage has inspired outrage.

WTF. I can't even type. 

.

Trick Question

Guys. Yesterday's question was actually a trick question. OBVIOUSLY the reason I drove to work two days in a row was because driving up the spiral parking garage ramp is so much freaking fun in GL0wy (my Mazda3 hatchback).

I'm serious.

It's like racecar driving, only you're in a Mazda. Actually it's more like movie star driving, 'cause the parking garage where I park is where they filmed a scene from Knight and Day. Tom Cruise drove his Volvo around and around and up onto the roof over and over and over again, racing to get to Cameron Diaz in her yellow dress. I know because I watched from my desk while he was doing it.

So when I go 35 mph, tires screeching, maniacally laughing, on my way into or out of the garage, don't judge. Just try it yourself. :-)

Oops, I did it again

This is a test. Please choose the option that best answers the question.

Why did Casey drive to work today for the second day in a row when she could have taken the air conditioned train?

a. She slept in the living room in the A/C on the aerobed and was so comfortable she didn't wake up in time to take the train. But she did wake up with a crick in her neck. At 8:50 AM. Eeek!

b. She left her cell phone at work because she was so out of the day before, so she didn't have her "alarm phone". If anyone at work was there this morning at 7:30 AM, they definitely woke up to the "alarm phone" bells.

c. She dragged T's digital clock into the living room, set the time, set the alarm, and went to [aero]bed... not realizing that she had reversed AM and PM, so the alarm will be going off at 7:45 PM tonight. Again she blames this on lack of sleep.

d. She's a lazy son of a gun.

e. All of the above.

.

Life in the Slow Lane

Weather like this makes me feel sssslllloooowwwww.  It's hard to complete sentences, never mind thoughts.

We spent the 4th on Nantucket with friends. What a lovely way to celebrate our independence - on an island, wearing our best preppy outfits, playing croquet and eating hot wings and pizza and drinking delicious beer.

This morning, I was so tired that I drove to work. I still feel like I'm underwater.

The time may have come for us to buy an air conditioner for the bedroom. No matter how I angle the fan, or spread out my limbs, I feel like I'm suffocating. Then you add another person to the double bed, and it's impossible to sleep thoroughly and deeply.

I wonder what I will say when I get to Home Depot. "Hello, do you have an air conditioner for a room that is 6 feet by 10 feet? No it's not a closet, it's a bedroom. Yes we fit a bed in there. Yes it's 'we', two of us sleep in there. No we are not illegals, we are frugal. And we love our apartment. But we would love it more if we had A/C in the bedroom. Ok fine, A/C in the closet where we sleep."

I mean, do they even make air conditioners for a space that small? Funnily enough the window is quite large. I just don't want to get a big air conditioner because then the room will be an icebox.

Wah, poor me.

What are you doing to cool off?
.