Before I start sharing all the happiness, some of you may be wondering when I'm actually going to go to Boston to do a bit of culinary adventuring, rather than sticking to home-cooked meals and whatever I can get delivered to my hotel in the suburbs... The answer at this point is: in a couple weeks, I hope? I seem to be spending every waking moment apartment-hunting, furniture-shopping, rabbit-adopting, and shopping for other lifestyle and sustenance necessities... Oh, yeah... And working. One of these days after I get settled into my new apartment I'm going to have an afternoon absolutely free, and on that afternoon I will head into the city and find me a spectacular place for dinner. I promise.
This weekend went by way too fast, but it ended with a thoroughly awesome day, so I guess it's OK. I went out exploring Saturday morning and discovered that Home Depot and Costco are both within 4 miles of the apartment I was hoping to get (having not yet signed a lease at that time, I was trying not to think of it as "mine" yet). I also accidentally ended up in a Bose store, at some point, where the pretty pretty headphones seduced me into temporarily confusing my priorities in terms of things I need to buy for the new apartment ("Hmmm... I think it goes first headphones, then a sofa...") but I have no regrets. After about 3 hours out driving around and shopping, I came home to sit around catching up on Lost and waiting to hear whether or not I was going to get the apartment I applied for. I had been really exhausted all week, and I ended taking a 4 hours nap in the afternoon... which was apparently necessary because I felt fantastic on Sunday morning for the first time since arriving here.
On Sunday after playing with my awesome headphones and catching up with my big brother, over the internet phone, I headed out to another suburb to meet a bunch of rabbits who were hoping to be adopted. Holy cow, those were some cute rabbits... I met Crystal (who I mentioned here) and a couple bonded pairs (including Batman and Nala, who were really really hard to leave behind...), but in the end my heart belonged to these little guys:
This weekend went by way too fast, but it ended with a thoroughly awesome day, so I guess it's OK. I went out exploring Saturday morning and discovered that Home Depot and Costco are both within 4 miles of the apartment I was hoping to get (having not yet signed a lease at that time, I was trying not to think of it as "mine" yet). I also accidentally ended up in a Bose store, at some point, where the pretty pretty headphones seduced me into temporarily confusing my priorities in terms of things I need to buy for the new apartment ("Hmmm... I think it goes first headphones, then a sofa...") but I have no regrets. After about 3 hours out driving around and shopping, I came home to sit around catching up on Lost and waiting to hear whether or not I was going to get the apartment I applied for. I had been really exhausted all week, and I ended taking a 4 hours nap in the afternoon... which was apparently necessary because I felt fantastic on Sunday morning for the first time since arriving here.
On Sunday after playing with my awesome headphones and catching up with my big brother, over the internet phone, I headed out to another suburb to meet a bunch of rabbits who were hoping to be adopted. Holy cow, those were some cute rabbits... I met Crystal (who I mentioned here) and a couple bonded pairs (including Batman and Nala, who were really really hard to leave behind...), but in the end my heart belonged to these little guys:
I'm not 100% sold on their current names (which I'll omit here for the sake of their privacy), so if you have any name suggestions please leave them in the comments... The black one is a mini-rex, which means his fur is the softest thing on the entire planet. It's seriously ridiculous how soft this guy is... The grayish one is your average little fluffy mini-lop, and is incredibly cute. They both start to fall asleep in your arms while you hold them and pet them, and they love to play together and groom each other. Words and pictures cannot begin to describe the cuteness. I wished I could take them home that day, but they will be joining me in about 2 weeks when I get settled in my apartment...
...which I was able to sign the lease for right after meeting my rabbits! I seriously love this place, and I can't wait for my stuff to arrive from Portland/Melbourne so I can start settling in. After signing the paperwork and taking measurements for all of the rooms, I went out to do a bit more furniture shopping (now with a concrete idea of what could fit), then came home and made scale diagrams of all the rooms to see where I was going to put my new imaginary furniture.
Feeling celebratory and with a free meal waiting for me, I decided to order from the dubiously named Papa Razzi (conveniently located just a few blocks away). That turned out to be a very good idea... I don't necessarily care for the Italian restaurants you tend to find in subruban America (all those big bowls of uninspired pasta), but I saw a Wood-Roasted Atlantic Salmon Fillet (pictured above) on the menu that sounded pretty tempting (especially served with a big yummy pile of spinach and some roasted potatoes) and made me decide to overlook the name and the Italian-ness and give them a try... In the end I don't really have much to say about the salmon, since I was only hungry enough for a single bite by the time I got to it, but it was really nicely cooked and quite tasty in its own simple way.
One thing that made it impossible to be hungry for my salmon was the crazy-good Caesar salad. The dressing has a nice anchovy accent that's often missing in restaurant dressings, was creamy, delicious, and perfectly seasoned. This is one of the best Caesars I've had in a restaurant, which made its massive size a mixed blessing. (On the one hand, "Yay! Lots of delicious Caesar Salad!!!" but on the other hand "Oh, wait... I ordered salmon, too!?!?")
The other thing that made it impossible to eat my salmon was the "Cozze" appetizer of Price Edward Island mussels steamed in a white wine sauce. I just finished eating the leftovers for dinner, which confirmed the fact that this is definitely one of the best preparations of mussels I've ever had from a restaurant. The sauce was insanely delicious and the mussels were incredibly tender and flavorful. Fan-freaking-tastic.
I must not have been paying all that much attention when I ordered, because I was a bit surprised when my food arrived and I saw that it included a serving of Tiramisu. I don't tend to be a big fan of Tiramisu from restuarants, as it often just tastes like whipped cream layered with sponge cake and a little coffee... This, my friends, was not one of those Tiramisus... At the risk of sounding redundant, this was seriously the best version of this dish that I have ever tried from a restaurant. The flavor of the mascarpone shined through and the balance between the components was perfect. Crazy-good. I will definitley have to order from this restaurant again, even with its stupid name... Next time I'll just know that a salad and an appetizer is more than enough to make me ecstatically happy.
In summary: Sunday brought me a kick-ass apartment, two of the sweetest little rabbits I've ever seen, and the discovery of a pretty fantastic restaurant out here in the suburbs... Definitely made waking up to head in to work on this freezing cold Monday morning much more tolerable...
...which I was able to sign the lease for right after meeting my rabbits! I seriously love this place, and I can't wait for my stuff to arrive from Portland/Melbourne so I can start settling in. After signing the paperwork and taking measurements for all of the rooms, I went out to do a bit more furniture shopping (now with a concrete idea of what could fit), then came home and made scale diagrams of all the rooms to see where I was going to put my new imaginary furniture.
Feeling celebratory and with a free meal waiting for me, I decided to order from the dubiously named Papa Razzi (conveniently located just a few blocks away). That turned out to be a very good idea... I don't necessarily care for the Italian restaurants you tend to find in subruban America (all those big bowls of uninspired pasta), but I saw a Wood-Roasted Atlantic Salmon Fillet (pictured above) on the menu that sounded pretty tempting (especially served with a big yummy pile of spinach and some roasted potatoes) and made me decide to overlook the name and the Italian-ness and give them a try... In the end I don't really have much to say about the salmon, since I was only hungry enough for a single bite by the time I got to it, but it was really nicely cooked and quite tasty in its own simple way.
One thing that made it impossible to be hungry for my salmon was the crazy-good Caesar salad. The dressing has a nice anchovy accent that's often missing in restaurant dressings, was creamy, delicious, and perfectly seasoned. This is one of the best Caesars I've had in a restaurant, which made its massive size a mixed blessing. (On the one hand, "Yay! Lots of delicious Caesar Salad!!!" but on the other hand "Oh, wait... I ordered salmon, too!?!?")
The other thing that made it impossible to eat my salmon was the "Cozze" appetizer of Price Edward Island mussels steamed in a white wine sauce. I just finished eating the leftovers for dinner, which confirmed the fact that this is definitely one of the best preparations of mussels I've ever had from a restaurant. The sauce was insanely delicious and the mussels were incredibly tender and flavorful. Fan-freaking-tastic.
I must not have been paying all that much attention when I ordered, because I was a bit surprised when my food arrived and I saw that it included a serving of Tiramisu. I don't tend to be a big fan of Tiramisu from restuarants, as it often just tastes like whipped cream layered with sponge cake and a little coffee... This, my friends, was not one of those Tiramisus... At the risk of sounding redundant, this was seriously the best version of this dish that I have ever tried from a restaurant. The flavor of the mascarpone shined through and the balance between the components was perfect. Crazy-good. I will definitley have to order from this restaurant again, even with its stupid name... Next time I'll just know that a salad and an appetizer is more than enough to make me ecstatically happy.In summary: Sunday brought me a kick-ass apartment, two of the sweetest little rabbits I've ever seen, and the discovery of a pretty fantastic restaurant out here in the suburbs... Definitely made waking up to head in to work on this freezing cold Monday morning much more tolerable...
3 comments:
Yay to finding an apartment and yay to fining bunnies!!! And I can only assume you will name the bunnies something along the lines of Sir Snugglebottums and Lady Loveleykins.
Hmmm... I do like the Sir Snugglebottums suggestion... (That would have to be the lop, I think... The mini-rex is too dignified for such things.) =)
I think I've figured out their names, but I'm going to have to try them out in person to make sure they fit... I'm bringing them home a week from Saturday. Yay!
yay for bunnies and clean new apartments!
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