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May 26th, 2008
10:19 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0
1. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kaphine's endocrinologist said to her, "Young women don't die of thyroid problems. They get annoyed by thyroid problems." Some of you already know the rest of the story behind this, and for those of you who don't, we will tell you the details next time we see you or talk to you...
2. OVERHEARD CONVERSATION IN CLEVELAND CIRCLE
Older Asian gentleman talking to two young white women, at the foot of an apartment building in Cleveland Circle: "I wash women's hair!" That's all we heard of the conversation, as we were just walking by, but it was an odd thing to overhear, and it's hard to imagine what the context for the rest of the conversation would have been.
3. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
Took ourselves on a date night, after last weekend's crankiness. Went to Oleanna, which has really amazing food and a swanky by laid back atmosphere. Highly recommended. Also, we enjoyed Shabbat dinner on our deck, and had Indian food and beer with a friend on our deck another night. Yay for summer. It's finally here.
4. ENTERTAINMENT
Spent our Memorial Day taking the T down to the Boston harbor, where we hopped a ferry and went out to Spectacle Island, which was beautiful and just the right kind of getaway. Can't believe it's taken us so long to discover the harbor islands. We're totally going back. Also, we watched the entire Indiana Jones series on DVD and took in the newest one this weekend. By the way, in case you don't remember this, the second movie sucked. It should be called Temple of Shit. But the others were fun.
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR?
Yarn. Irish accents. Good beer. Salty sweets. Chocolate. Not having to sit in traffic on holiday weekends. The escapist qualities of explosion movies. realsupergirl's parents. Our friends. Each other.
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May 18th, 2008
11:44 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0
1. ENTERTAINMENT
Saw two fantastic new documentaries as part of the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival: Derek, about filmmaker Derek Jarman, and A Jihad For Love, about gay and lesbian observant Muslims. Spontaneously purchased the entire Indiana Jones series to date, simply because the new movie is coming out and our friend Patrick had never seen any of them before.
2. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR?
Nasturtiums that we started from seed. Message boards that tell us hints about what's going to happen on Desperate Housewives next year. Pumping up the bike for the first ride of the season. Seeing new friends have their first art shows. Living in a city where we can bike 2.5 miles away to see interesting movies or great art. Having friends over for Shabbat dinner on our porch. Homebaked challah by fetteredwolf. Getting our new telephone table re-upholstered after our cats damaged it. Getting things done around the house - finding new organizational systems. Having each other, even when we're too ill-tempered to appreciate each other properly. Celtic victories. Knitting books. Having television to distract us when we're done.
3. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
Stupid fights what happen when we're tired or cranky and feeling overbooked with the Sunday night crazies. It came to realsupergirl's attention in writing group that not everyone is familiar with the concept of the "Sunday night crazies." Is this just something from our world, or does it happen in yours, too? kaphine seems to think it appeared in an episode of Seinfeld once. Also, Whole Foods no longer carries plastic bags, so they are now at a premium in our household, since we use them for garbage.
4. ANNOYING THINGS IN THE NEWS
Ted Kennedy being hospitalized with a seizure of unknown origin. Don't go yet, Teddy. This world still needs you, more than ever. Celtics being unable to win on the road. The Spurs being unable to win on the road - but they still have 1 more chance to change this fortune.
5. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEALS
realsupergirl made her first batch of gazpacho this past week. That's how you really know it's summer. Also, she made delicious challah french toast with the leftover homemade challah...And kaphine whipped up a spontaneous, delicious baked pear recipe that was AMAZING and very simple. No more pears going bad for us.
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April 15th, 2008
11:13 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 12)
1. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
Oh my fucking G-d keys just cannot stay put this week. We both manage to go into panic mode over losing our keys in two separate incidents in one twenty-four hour period. Is that a new record? realsupergirl's turn up under kaphine's laptop case, while kaphine's turn up at the CVS in South End. Mind you, both places had been checked in those locations before they were found there.
Also, lugging heavy stuff is an inconvenience. And so is bleeding, although after a particularly long cycle this month, it's still welcome.
2. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
Two yarzheits this week: kaphine's father and grandfather. She's thinking of dead people she cares about. Also, she had a good phone conversation with TeacherRefPoet. It's good to begin trying to mend some fences. panfreak had a really miserable trip to the ER, and got some bad news this week. Finally, our thoughts are still with txladybug as her brother now battles psychosis as well as cancer.
3. THIS WEEK'S MEAL
It may not count as a meal, but realsupergirl made another batch of the World's Best Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies this week. Delicious! kaphine also whipped up a dynamite spontaneous salad with pea shoots, courtesy of Boston Organics.
4. ENTERTAINMENT
We rented movies and highly recommend Who Killed The Electric Car? - Excellent, excellent documentary. Really shocking and appalling to see images of demolished, full functioning electric cars that hundreds of people offered to buy from General Motors rather than allow them to be destroyed. See it.
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
Manicures and pedicures, and massage chairs while you get them. And little whirlpools for your feet. MMMMmmm. Now we're ready to go to Miami. Having a deck, and a pleasant view. And for spring, which has brought the birds back, including a house finch and lots of sparrows, and made it warm enough to actually want to be outside. We're also grateful that there are plants like morning glories and hostas because they might actually thrive in our low light woodsy little porch/home.
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April 6th, 2008
10:05 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 11)
1. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
On Friday we discovered that our joint checking account was overdrawn, because our lovely, fabulous gym had erroneously charged us $761. They actually charged it earlier in the week, but we didn't discover it till Friday, when our mortgage went through and caused our account to overdraw. They've since credited us back, and what on_reserve calls The Gay Bank of Boston says it's no problem to refund us the overdraft charges, but none of this will go through till Monday, which means we were without joint funds all weekend. We're blessed to have money in our savings (which we wouldn't have had two years ago) and we got free massages(!) out of it courtesy of our gym - so, all in all, it's just a pain in the ass, nothing more. But it was anxiety-producing. And now it's over.
2. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
A mutual friend is "a little bit pregnant" according to early tests, and all fingers and toes are crossed that things stick and progress and all that...we are also hoping her nausea subsides soon. realsupergirl is thinking a lot about museumgirl and txladybug and hoping they're OK... kaphine is overdue to mend relationships with swankette and reached out to her this weekend.
3. ENTERTAINMENT
Karaoke - which turned out to be more fun than realsupergirl expected. When it's not in a bar in front of strangers, and instead is in a cozy room with friends, booze, and food - it rocks. Also, if you put musicals on she can't help but sing. kaphine sang a beautiful version of "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. Later this weekend we had brunch with friends and saw On Broadway, which was pretty good. Oh, and in between all that we re-grouted several tiles in our bathroom and re-caulked our whole tub.
4. ANNOYING THINGS IN THE NEWS
After going a whole year without a murder in our neighborhood of Boston, we ended that streak this past week. Also, kaphine found more evidence that the Bush regime is as evil as she always thought, provided by the March 28th "This American Life" on NPR. Link available on her blog.
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
Being more financially stable than we ever have been in our lives. Star Wars action figures. Buttons. Chocolate. Massages. NPR. New Yorker magazine.
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March 27th, 2008
10:39 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Weeks 9/10)
1. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
We've been too distracted by consecutive visits by juliet_abroad and ferocious_hog to be able to do our Mount Hood Road Index for two weeks. But it's been so nice to share our home with old friends, with out-of-town friends.
But also, txladybug's brother appears to taking a turn for the worse in his battle against his brain tumor. If anyone who believes in anything wouldn't mind - send out a prayer for him, for her, and for their family. Please. One shouldn't have to battle a brain tumor when they're in their 20's.
2. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
juliet_abroad was not able to get contact lenses because they didn't have a sample pair in stock at Lenscrafters, and they wouldn't give her contacts if she couldn't put in a sample first. Totally stupid. Apparently Hungary charges way too much for contact lenses, because, you know, our economy is pretty much in the shithole. Thanks to Bush's war, which has officially taken 6 years, over 4,000 American soldiers, and cost more money than any war since World War II. And did we mention that it shows no sign of ending?
3. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
Well, we've had house guests, so we seem to be eating out a lot. Publick House, Bamboo, Johnny's, Trident...but realsupergirl has also managed to squeeze in time to make another loaf of banana bread, and Boston Organics has continued to mean we've had a lot of veggies when we do cook.
4. ENTERTAINMENT
For realsupergirl: Scrabble and more Scrabble. That's what having juliet_abroadin town has meant. It's a good thing. Scrabulous is just not the same. For kaphine: Making baby clothes and buying toys. And appreciating how absolutely adorable toddlers are. (Except when they're screaming the background when you're trying to talk on the phone).
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
Advil. Friends. Sleep. I'm sure there are more things, but for now we're fried.
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March 11th, 2008
12:00 am - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 8)
1. OVERHEARD CONVERSATION ON THE WASHINGTON STREET T PLATFORM
Well-dressed woman, 20-22 years old, with a outdoorsy, casually-dressed man, maybe a little older. She turns to him and says, "So, Ho Chi Minh was a Communist?" He replies, "Indeed he was." Assuming they were on their way to one of Boston's fine universities, isn't it good to know our higher education system is working so splendidly?
2. ENTERTAINMENT
Driving out to Warwick to see an_gadhar. Road trips are always good, and seeing him is even better. We spent six hours hanging out, talking, cooking, eating, and helping him hang prayer flags in front of his house. Also, we saw a movie, The Counterfeiters, which won the Oscar for best foreign film this year. Quite good, though intense and sad. But quite good. kaphine hates Holocaust movies, although she admits they're often well-done. realsupergirl is drawn to them like Alvie Singer. Who wants to come over and watch The Sorrow and the Pity with us?
3. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
If anyone is actually paying attention, this the one category we have reported on every week, because we love food, and talking about food. We went out for delicious sushi at Mr. Sushi this week. It's always surprising how much sushi can fill you up, and how expensive it can turn out to be. realsupergirl used up the unused bananas from Boston Organics and made two loaves of banana bread, and kaphine reprised her "gringo veggie enchiladas."
4. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
Menstruation. One of the side effects of girl-girl relationships is that you get two girls whose cycles sync up. Fun! Happy happy joy joy. Also, cat litter. It's an inconvenience. No, really, it's a royal pain in the ass. Makes one wish girlsnqueers would start offering classes on teaching your cat to use the toilet.
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
This would be the other category we do almost every week, so it seems fitting to say that we're grateful for food. We really appreciate good food. Also, we appreciate discovering that we have both mysteriously lost exactly 4 pounds this week, according to the gym scale. kaphine is grateful to have a job that doesn't make her miserable - she's started to have office nightmares again.
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March 3rd, 2008
11:35 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 7)
1. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
kaphine is grateful for yarn. Although, she's about to start telling people when they can have babies so she can keep up with the demand for baby sweaters. And some of the existing babies will just have to stop growing until she catches up. realsupergirl is grateful for the emergency radio/flashlight given by her mother-in-law last Christmas, because it comes in handy when all the power goes out on your street.
2. OVERHEARD CONVERSATION ON THE B LINE
Boy: "He wants to go from sleeping together to courting? Isn't that kind of backwards?"
Girl: "No, it goes 'meet, sleep together, figure out each other's names, courting'"
Boy:"I guess I'm doing it all backwards. I started on step 4."
Girl: "Yeah, you skipped all the fun stuff."
3. ENTERTAINMENT
Returned from Baltimore on Monday night, knitting group for kaphine and writing group for realsupergirl on Wednesday. Christine's farewell party on Thursday night. Shabbat dinner Friday night. Dinner with glitteryjewdyke and panfreak on Saturday, and dinner with Jess and Schmoo on Sunday night. We were very busy this week.
4. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
realsupergirl tracked down the spicy dark chocolate rice crackers for kaphine, who repaid her by baking her scones on request. Food is love.
5. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENENCES
Travelocity is digging themselves deeper into a hole as they STILL have not refunded the money they've twice said they would. American Express is refusing payment, and will continue to do so hopefully till that refund shows up. kaphine went to the dentist and learned that a medication she's been on makes her gums bleed, and they wouldn't stop. Fortunately, she wanted off that medication anyway, but they still hurt, 14 hours later.
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February 26th, 2008
10:26 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 6)
1. FOUND OBJECT OF THE WEEK
This was my fortune inside the piece of Dove chocolate I had on my birthday. It was my pre-birthday cake appetizer:
2. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
Snowstorm shut down Logan, which shaved off a day of realsupergirl's birthday weekend. But we had a lovely brunch on Saturday, and a great couple days in Baltimore once we got there. Travelocity continues to fuck up - first they canceled the reservation without fully explaining the options, promising a partial refund, now that refund has yet to materialize. Fortunately, American Express rocks, and they've frozen the whole charge in order to investigate. Also, kaphine does not have eight arms, and therefore cannot knit four sweaters at a time. She says 'this is a problem.'
3. ENTERTAINMENT
Running around Baltimore. Driving over "speed humps" which is endlessly amusing, because we're 12. Gawking about Tilda Swinton's dress at the Oscars, which seems to have been missing a sleeve. Visiting one of the coolest museums we've ever been to. Having a spontaneous gathering to eat birthday cake, because our friends rock.
4. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
kaphine is grateful for a large box of yarn that showed up on our doorstop. Retail therapy is good. realsupergirl is grateful for all the birthday messages on in her email, on her voice mail, and on her Facebook page...makes a girl feel loved.
5. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
So many contenders - the mushroom barley soup, vegan "crab cakes", vegan jambalaya, and blue corn muffin with maple-infused butter at One World Cafe, the creamy gnocchi at Germano's Trattoria, the Italian pastries, the cupcakes, the birthday cake...man, it was rich and delicious week. And an expensive one. Did we cook at all? We can't remember.
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February 20th, 2008
08:44 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 5)
1. ENTERTAINMENT
Lots of parties. Lots of good food. A couple good brunches and dinners with other friends. Lots booze that realsupergirl couldn't partake in because she had the stupid on-call phone. Grrr. We're also continuing to enjoy re-watching Twin Peaks. We did mention that we have the entire series on DVD, right?
2. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
Again courtesy of Boston Organics, we made stir fried baby bok choy with ginger and fake beef. It was delicious, and that's even though the ginger wasn't fresh and the bok choy got a little overcooked. Next time it will be even better.
3. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
Totally bummed that Christine is moving to southern California, although it's good for her. Also, she's found a sexy boy to get laid with until she leaves, and that's good for her, too. We're very pleased to learn that all of panfreak's medical tests went well. realsupergirl is experiencing a mass exodus of co-workers at work this week.
4. ANNOYING THINGS IN THE NEWS
kaphine says "we voted weeks ago, yet the primaries just seem to drag on and on and on...who cares about those other states anyway?" realsupergirl says, "what's with Clinton suddenly wanting the delegates for Michigan and Florida, now that she's behind and sinking fast? Get over it already."
5. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
Yay for a three day weekend - apparently it was necessary to catch up with everybody. We're grateful for the color orange because we're just so pleased with how it looks in our kitchen. We're grateful for now having two out of three resident owners on our condo association board. We're grateful for Michael and Patrick, because they throw a good Valentine's Day party and we like being around lots of queer boys.
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February 12th, 2008
10:43 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 4)
1. OVERHEARD CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK
While walking through the display of swords in the Arms and Armor room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a mother was heard telling her child: "Look, these were the first light sabers!"
2. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
realsupergirl made a new recipe, courtesy of Boston Organics: Broccoli Bread Soup. It's basically French Onion soup with broccoli instead of onion, but it's simple and delicious, and only 204 calories a bowl.
3. ENTERTAINMENT
Took a road trip to New York City for the day, just to see fawnapril and pnsm. Got to catch up on our Harry Potter CDs along the way, and got to eat good food and see great art as well. All in all a successful trip. Plus, we attended eeka13 and violacat's re-gifting party and had a good time.
4. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
We're both grateful for the opportunity to spend time with great friends. We're also both grateful for having a fixed car and a fixed, repainted kitchen. We're grateful for getting our car back in time so that we could drive to New York City. Also, this week we're grateful for having decent coats and our heating included in our condo fees, because it's been fucking cold.
5. ANNOYING THINGS IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
One of us is annoyed that her candidate isn't winning the Democratic race. The other one of us is annoyed that the Republicans are suddenly looking so clear about who their candidate is. Both of us, however, are delighted to not have to utter the words "President Romney" for at least four more years. Also, in the sports world, one rich team in a high profile market (L.A.) is allowed to steal a top tier player from a team that is on the verge of collapsing (Memphis)? Is it just a coincidence that the two general managers negotiating this wink, wink deal are both affiliated with L.A.? I think not. And Coach Popovich agrees.
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February 3rd, 2008
06:01 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 3)
1. FOUND OBJECT OF THE WEEK
We found multiple copies of this posted to the community board in the fabulous crepe place Cafenation, where the food is spectacular and all the employees are really attractive.
2. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
kaphine finally perfected her recipe for satisfying vegetarian enchilada filling. It contained brown rice, pinto beans, mixed bell peppers, cilantro, fresh garlic, and corn. Topped off with Hatch green enchilada sauce and monterey jack cheese. Total calories for a serving of 2 and a half enchiladas was only 472.
3. OVERHEARD CELL PHONE CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK
Riding the B line home, we heard a woman who looked like she was 19 and acted like she was 14 saying, three times, in increasing volume: "I'm going to go home and get changed and then I'm going out with Dee Dee." Then she went on to say "Do you miss mommy? Did you eat today?" and finally signed off with "Be a good girl for mommy!" I'm not sure we can describe how and why this seemed so odd. But it was.
4. ENTERTAINMENT
kaphine found a convenient knitting group, and it was nice to get back to knitting. It's close to where she works, it's at a good time, and the people seem friendly. She's looking forward to getting to know them more. We also spent several hours play-testing Greg's new game, Restaurant Row, and it's fabulous, and we got a round of Chez Geek in while we were there. On our way home, we discovered that Mike's Movies in the South End is going out of business (according to one employee because of some sort of mismanagement) and so we purchased five DVDs for $10 each. Limiting ourselves to only 5 was tough, but we came away with some real steals, including Almodovar's Law of Desire and The Terminator.
5. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
realsupergirl had a spontaneous, mid-week lunch date at Athan's with Christine, and also caught up with txladybug, whose brother is really struggling in his fight against his brain tumor. Online political conversations have turned ugly and kaphine is not quite ready to untangle it all yet.
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January 27th, 2008
09:44 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0 (Week 2)
1. THOUGHTS FOR FRIENDS
We're thinking about realsupergirl's old high school friend Christine, who is preparing to leave us as quickly as we found her. She's moving to California to be closer to her family. We're thinking about our friends Patrick and Michael, who are always good to be around, and who we don't see nearly enough.
2. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
We'd have to give it to Village Sushi, which we enjoyed with Patrick and Michael. Excellent sushi place in Roslindale with an amazing selection to choose from. A closer runner up would have to go to Not Your Average Joe's in Watertown, which has amazing desserts and which we enjoyed with glitteryjewdyke and panfreak. Another close runner up goes to the delicious kale with garlic that realsupergirl prepared for us alongside Trader Joe's green chile tamales. We ate well this week.
3. RANDOM THING WITNESSED ON THE T THIS WEEK
Picture this: Boy blocks aisle on the subway car so that the woman behind him couldn't get a seat, while he offers the available seats to two other women who were on the far other side of the train. A seething kaphine (the woman behind the boy) gets to stand the entire time. Lovely.
4. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL THIS WEEK?
kaphine is grateful for being the top-ranked zombie out of all the people on her Facebook profile. And for being able to breathe through her nostrils. Mostly. Kind of. realsupergirl is grateful for having a warm condo to come home to and a spouse who puts up with her even when she's a pain in the ass.
5. ANNOYING THING IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
kaphine thinks it's annoying that she's not completely satisfied with any one candidate and is also annoyed with all the bickering. realsupergirl thinks it's annoying that she finally comes to settle on a candidate that she likes and then he can't even win his home state. And it's annoying that this outcome is likely because he's the only candidate who agreed not to accept any soft money.
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January 21st, 2008
09:06 pm - Mount Hood Road Index 2.0
So, we've been brainstorming ideas for how to do the Mount Hood Road Index this year. What we've come up with is this: Each week we'll answer 5 different questions. We've come up with a master list of 10 questions already, but each week we'll only do 5. We needed something new to keep this process fresh.
Obviously we've already missed most of January, so let's get going:
1. WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR THIS WEEK?
kaphine is grateful for drugs, because without them she'd be a total mess, rather than a little tiny mess. Antidepressants rule. Winter darkness sucks. realsupergirl is grateful for snow days and three day weekends, of which we've had two in a row, and for people who still have the energy to come up with new, hopeful ideas, like this guy.
2. OVERHEARD CELL PHONE CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK
While walking along Mass Ave between Newbury and Huntington, we heard a woman right behind us saying, "Mom, just wanted to call and let you know I got here okay..." which really begs the question - was she referring to downtown Boston, or referring to her arrival in the general Boston area?
3. LIFE'S LITTLE INCONVENIENCES
Big blizzard on Monday - we thought it was so great that we could walk to work and not have to worry about digging our car out. But then we discovered that a large pile of branches had snapped and landed on the roof of our car. We never would have thought frozen water and tree limbs could bend the metal of a car roof like that. Fortunately, we have full coverage insurance, but we'll still be paying the $500 deductible.
4. ENTERTAINMENT
We went and saw a great concert Sunday afternoon at the New England Conservatory. They offered the premiere of a new composition by the Israeli composer Lior Navok entitled "And The Trains Kept Coming." It was more of a performance art piece than anything, but a fascinating, well-composed piece of music with various textual sources trying to understand the moral question of why no one intervened earlier during the Holocaust.
We've also seen two great movies this past week: Juno and Persepolis. We highly recommend both.
5. THIS WEEK'S BEST MEAL
kaphine says "adding fat always makes food better." She took a dish we already know and like (pasta with veggies and fake chicken) and added a little bit of pre-made alfredo with sun-dried tomato sauce. Delicious!
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January 1st, 2008
04:59 pm - 2007 Mount Hood Road Index
Here's how the year shaped up to be:
* kaphine's father died. MINUS 10
* With this terrible loss, we learned how crazy and dysfunctional grief can make families MINUS 2
* But on the plus side, she spent part of her inhereitance on an accordion and her very first computer PLUS 2
* kaphine started off the year unemployed, but wound up in a job that makes her much less crazy than her previous office job PLUS 2
* kaphine also wound up making twice as much money as she was making before, which allowed her to rehabilitate her student loan PLUS 1
* realsupergirl also got a significant raise last year PLUS 1
* Attended two weddings, one in Portland and one in Vegas PLUS 2
* Two new children were born into our extended family PLUS 2
* kaphine found a therapist she likes a lot better than her last one PLUS 1
* Places visited: Miami, FL; Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; San Antonio, TX; New York, NY; Tumwater, WA; Northampton, MA; Warwick, MA; Rockport, MA; and Elizabeth, NJ PLUS 8 (Tumwater doesn't net any points, given the circumstances, and Elizabeth was only worth it for the company)
* People who came to visit us: fawnapril, pnsm, lulumanzana, museumgirl, realsupergirl's parents, our friend Jill, kaphine's sister PLUS 6
* People who we went to visit: fawnapril, pnsm, shanamadele, txladybug, ferocious_hog, kaphine's cousin Suzie and realsupergirl's cousins Bruce and Nancy PLUS 7
* Purchased our first cell phone PLUS 1
* Purchased a first cell phone for realsupergirl's parents PLUS 1
* Saw a number of theatrical productions this year: Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q, The Nutcracker plus some local theater PLUS 3
* Bought new home furnishings: A tortilla warmer, a fridge, a sofa, a telephone table, a desk PLUS 5
* Learned more about portion control desserts, and began making plans for having a family PLUS 2
* The State of Texas executed Johnathan Moore, 34, for something stupid he did when he was 19 MINUS 2
* War in Iraq continues, more deadly than ever and with no hope for a resolution MINUS 5
* Bush is still in office. MINUS 1 because the end is almost near.
* Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire take steps toward becoming "free states" in terms of marriage equality PLUS 3
* Boston Celtics acquire Kevin Garnett and look like the team to beat in the East PLUS 1
* Red Sox win their second World Series in four years PLUS 1
* The Patriots go 16-0 in the regular season and look unstoppable PLUS 1
* The San Antonio Spurs win their fourth NBA title in nine years. PLUS 1
* Lost the following people in 2007: Kurt Vonnegut, Marcel Marceau, Tillie Olsen, Dan Fogelberg, Lady Bird Johnson, Benazir Bhutto MINUS 6
LAST YEAR'S TOTAL=PLUS 21
THIS YEAR'S TOTAL=PLUS 25
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December 31st, 2007
09:11 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Weeks 51/52
* Tipsy weekly indexing PLUS 1
* Jet Blue sinks a few points as they come close to canceling our flight to Austin, but instead take off four hours late, and then only offer us lousy $50 vouchers in repayment for our time. MINUS 2
* Got to see txladybug and ferocious_hog in San Antonio, as well as realsupergirl's parents and lots of her old high school friends. PLUS 5
* Explored the San Antonio missions and the South Texas hill country. PLUS 2
* Saw a Spurs game live in San Antonio, and also the retirement of Avery Johnson's number. PLUS 1
* Caught up with panfreak and glitteryjewdyke after a few weeks without seeing them. PLUS 1
* Had fun making and sending out holiday cards this year. PLUS 1
* kaphine slipped on the ice and hurt her knee. MINUS 1
* kaphine discovers Facebook and is now obsessed with feeding her pet tofu and checking her profile every 37 seconds. EVEN
* kaphine's ex-boyfriend called to say his wife is having a baby, due next month. We're both excited and jealous. PLUS 1
* Pakistan's prime minister Bhutto is assassinated. MINUS 2: One for the death, and one for the political instability.
* kaphine's employer no longer has a thyroid, but also no longer has cancer (we hope!) and has a great big slash across her neck. MINUS 2
* The greed fest continues: Came home from our trip to San Antonio and opened presents from kaphine's family. But it wasn't overdone this year, we didn't get anything that wasn't wanted, and it wasn't overwhelming to find places to put everything away, so PLUS 2.
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 12
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 7
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December 16th, 2007
10:32 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Weeks 49/50
* Winter hits New England in full force. Thursday's blizzard causes all sorts of headaches and lost productivity, but Sunday's ice storm creates a cozy day at home filled with movies, zucchini bread, and catching up with fawnapril. EVEN
* Free money! kaphine's iPod rebate came. Unfortunately she'll be using it to pay for her stupid speeding ticket, but it still helps. PLUS 1
* The snow removal people our condo association hired are idiots who can't seem to remember where the bounds of our property are and what a plowed parking lot looks like. MINUS 1
* Our condo association also informed us of another special assessment to cover heating costs. We don't remember voting on that. Oh wait, that's because we're nine months overdue for our required annual association meeting. MINUS 1
* However, our union-organizing skills kicked into action, and we have begun to campaign to enlist our fellow owners in a fight for homeowner rights. PLUS 1
* Went to see The Nutcracker, which was magical and ornate. kaphine loves costumes and sets, and enjoyed her Hannukah gift from realsupergirl very much. PLUS 1
* In general, we made out like bandits for Hannukah this year - new earrings, new purses, new luggage, new books, new cookie cutters, new magnets, Zombie Fluxx, and more. PLUS 1
* Eva, an old friend of realsupergirl's from college, comes for an unexpected visit. We take her to brunch and subject her to Zombie Fluxx. PLUS 1
* Had a delicious Italian dinner with girlsnqueers and Margaret, and got to see their new condo in East Boston. PLUS 2 - the food was so good we don't want to tell you where it is because it's small and it will crowded.
* Had a lovely Shabbat dinner with fetteredwolf and the_meanwhile and then we all went out to see I Am Legend. PLUS 2
* Had a fabulous Hannukah party with our congregation, and another Hannukah celebration on the last night with Christine, who gave us another impromptu puppet show. Of course we gave her puppets for Hannukah. The girl needs more toys. PLUS 2
* We also had a Hannukah party with pumpkin-tinis and latkes. Mmmmmm. PLUS 1
* Tis the season for holiday parties - we also attended a holiday party for realsupergirl's co-workers. PLUS 1
* Jodie Foster finally comes out. Like this was any great surprise, but at least now it's official. A false rumor has Queen Latifah coming out and marrying her girlfriend. She shuts that rumor down but doesn't completely go back in the closet. Hmmm. EVEN/b>
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL=MINUS 4
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 12
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December 3rd, 2007
10:01 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Week 48
* realsupergirl's trusty iMac spent a week on the fritz, culminating with an ultimately fruitless trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar. MINUS 2
* However, she planned carefully enough to be able to afford to buy a sexy new iMac, good for a PLUS 1.
* kaphine suffered a massive attack of Cold Sores from Hell. Amazingly enough that Abreva shit actually does work, but unfortunately it's expensive as all fuck. Cold sores are now gone, but it's all scabbed over and it hurts and cracks and bleeds when she smiles or tries to floss. MINUS 2
* Bad car week: realsupergirl bumped a parked car and nicked the bumper, kaphine hit a stationary wall inside a mall parking lot, and then got hit by an asshole trying to cut her off while she was pulling out of a CVS parking space. Thank G-d only one of those fenderbenders caused any injury (the parking garage incident gave us headaches and soreness for a couple hours.) Still, all total MINUS 3.
* Had to decline on meeting up with shanamadele in New Jersey. We'd just been doing too much driving and running around and we were exhausted, plus we had made another commitment already. MINUS 1 because it's always disappointing to not be able to do everything. MINUS 1
* Attended glitteryjewdyke and panfreak's housewarming party. They've been living there for six months, but who's counting? PLUS 1
* Saw a good movie, I'm Not There. Even if you have no interest in Bob Dylan and interesting ways of telling a "biography", it's worth seeing because Cate Blanchett makes one sexy as hell Bob Dylan. PLUS 1
* Discovered that holiday mail order catalogues ("only the ones with lots of food in them"> really get kaphine off. PLUS 1
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 13
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL=MINUS 4
Man, that's quite a free fall this week. Yikes.
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November 27th, 2007
09:47 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Week 47
* realsupergirl 's fantasy teams are not doing as well as she expected. Somehow, her team with Dwight Howard, Rasheed Wallace and Tim Duncan lost in rebounding last week. Miraculously, kaphine remains calm throughout this upset. MINUS 1
* The Celtics plow on to an unbelievably good start, including winning at the buzzer in a game they should have lost in Charlotte. PLUS 1
* Thanksgiving delivers us a three-day work week and time to reflect on our blessings. PLUS 2
* We manage to shorten it even further: kaphine took Tuesday and Wednesday off work to stay home sick in bed, and realsupergirl joined her on Wednesday. Being sick sucks, MINUS 3. But being in bed is nice, PLUS 1.
* We celebrated a Tex-Mex Thanksgiving with hosts Anna and Dennis and also Christine (realsupergirl 's recently rediscovered high school friend). Mmmmmm for enchiladas, chili rellenos, stuffing, pumpkin empanadas, pie and ready whip. PLUS 4
* On Leftover Day (TM) we took off for a mini-vacation to Provincetown with Jess and Schmoopie!!! We rented a little cottage in town and played games, watched movies, drank booze, ate and shopped. We both enjoyed getting silly drunk, which we don't do often, and enjoyed Schmoopie's generosity with bar and restaurant tabs. Vacations good. Friends good. PLUS 4
* Sunday afternoon, after packing up the car and parting with our pals, we took a bike ride in Provincelands National Park. It was a beautiful day, and we timed the warmest part of the day just right. After our ride, we hung out for a little bird watching. A kind stranger gave realsupergirl a handful of birdseed, and she got to enjoy letting the black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice eat from her palm. PLUS 2
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL = PLUS 11
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL = PLUS 13
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November 18th, 2007
09:34 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Week 46
* Still have fruit flies. Or are they gnats? Either way, they're driving us nuts. MINUS 1
* kaphine's baby sister comes to visit. It was the first time we've seen her since their father died. And the first time she's seen our apartment since we got real furniture. PLUS 2
* Tried to go bowling with her, but it was too crowded, so we went shopping at Whole Foods and bought booze instead. EVEN
* We played The Game of Real Life. kaphine's character was a rich but unhealthy prat who died of embarrassment when his father killed an Olympic wrestler. Dawna's character was a poor boy who was hit by a truck. realsupergirl's character was an impoverished shaman who died in a nursing home, after a long and happy life. PLUS 1
* Had a fabulous pancake brunch celebrating a year of living in our condo. panfreak, glitteryjewdyke, fetteredwolf, the_meanwhile, girlsnqueers, an_gadhar, tsuki_no_bara, and 9 other people who don't have livejournals. PLUS 2
* We discovered, among other things, that fetteredwolf wins the Crazy Family Contest. We haven't decided what his prize should be yet. PLUS 1 cause a great person came out of it anyway, proving genes aren't everything.
* kaphine notes that seeing our bed under a ton of coats makes her feel loved. PLUS 2
* realsupergirl notes that a bed under a ton of coats means it's undeniably winter now. MINUS 1
* kaphine finally makes vegetarian cabbage rolls that she's satisfied with. Also, she managed to use up our entire head of cabbage from Boston Organics. Impressive! PLUS 2
* realsupergirl went out for lunch during the week with her long lost high school friend, who was in the New York Times last weekend. PLUS 1
* Topped off our weekend with a Scrabble date: Vegan pizza, beer, and Scrabble. Add sex, and you have the perfect evening. PLUS 1
* realsupergirl catches up with fawnapril with a nice long phone call. It had been far too long. PLUS 1
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL=MINUS 1
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 11
Pretty good bounceback from last week, hmmm?
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November 12th, 2007
09:34 pm - Mount Hood Road Index, Week 45
* First Election Day in our new community. We got up early to go to the poll, only to discover we went to the wrong one. kaphine didn't wind up getting a chance to vote, and realsupergirl did, but unfortunately her effort was not enough, because one of the two reasons she wanted to vote (Felix Arroyo) lost his bid for re-election to Boston City Council by a very small margin. MINUS 2
* Missed the GLBT committee meeting because we didn't process the email from our rabbi informing us of the change in time. What's worse: Between the two of us, we re-read the email four times, and still didn't process the time change. MINUS 1
* Stood up realsupergirl's friend Anna because even though she had written down Saturday, in her head she thought Sunday. MINUS 1
* Fortunately she forgave us, and was available on Sunday night for beer and good food at the Publick House. PLUS 1
* Saw What a Wonderful Place, part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, after enjoying dinner and dessert with glitteryjewdyke, panfreak, and fetteredwolf. PLUS 3
* kaphine has a new psychiatrist. This one isn't out in Chelmsford, but she really liked her old psychiatrist. Trying some new meds - so far so good. EVEN
* Cold, cold weather. MINUS 1
* Yoga class for realsupergirl, a brisk, cold walk for kaphine. PLUS 1
* We had a spontaneous date night at Zocalos's. Mmmm, sangria. And the food was good, too. It was nice to make special time for each other on a weeknight. PLUS 1
* kaphine had a spontaneous date with herself while realsupergirl was in writing group. She reminded herself how much she likes beer, and how good blue cheese can be on a burger sometime. And how different it feels to go out alone - she felt more open to the world, and really felt like she was living in an urban place. PLUS 1
* Fruit fly infestation! First we had a bunch, then we cleaned a lot, and then we still had some, and can't figure out how to get rid of them. Grrr. MINUS 2
* realsupergirl seems to have lost her iTrip. Theoretically, it has to be in the car somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be there. MINUS 1
LAST WEEK'S TOTAL=PLUS 4
THIS WEEK'S TOTAL=MINUS 1
Damn fruit flies and politics, they put us in the hole this week. Oh well, next week's gotta be better.
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