THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

A girl, her dog, and his chicken.

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

Hey! By Christmas, great things are coming in bears... in 3D...Do you think the marketing guy was in on this?

...Dunki Nuts... oh I get it.

Best finds in Boston.

Boston Ramble

This weekend we had a mega ramble through Boston with some friends from Tex-ass. A ramble is basically a drinking walking tour through different neighborhoods in the city. Areas we hit included Union Sq., Inman Sq., Harvard Sq., Central Sq., Back Bay, Boston Commons, the South End and then all the way back home.

Shown clockwise is our friend from Tex-ass John with a complete stranger dressed like George Michael; Missy and Daniel; John again with his lady Virginia; and cougar magnet Dereck... I just noticed my friend Ben did not get his picture taken... sorry Ben.


Farmer's market in Union Sq.


Sunflowers in the city


"Nantucket Rapist Island" who knew...


Harvard Sq. & South End


Cheers!

images courtesy of engineer boyfriend's iPhone.

Daily Memory

It's electric
Boogie woogie, woogie

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

This is not so much my experience, but of the friend that I was with.

Recently my friend ended up getting a disastrous hair cut at another salon and was looking for a new place nearby to correct it. Well, this salon is close to our office and we went down to check it out during lunch. What a joke!

We walked in to see only one customer, an elderly lady having her 'helmet" coiffed and no one else. We approached the receptionist who didn't even put down her book when she asked what we wanted not if she could help mind you. Well my friend goes on to ask if they have any stylists who work with curly hair and before she could continue the woman behind the counter who STILL had not put down her book snaps "you don't have curly hair!" when my friend went to explain that it was simply pulled back in a bun the woman then smacks her gums and says "it's not as curly as most people with curly hair." WTF?

The fact that we continued to stay is beyond me as the whole situation just got worse when she continued on her quest to truly provide the WORST customer service in West Roxbury by rambling on about how many years she's worked there (how is that possible with this attitude?) then identifying the nationality of each stylist as if it's the bloody U.N. and finally let us know that my friend is to blame for her bad hair cut.

My friend had been patient and tolerant the whole time with this woman but had enough and when we thanked her she swiveled around in her chair and simply snaps "yeah" as though I could not have figured out that she was ghetto trash.

We left, tore up the business card and looked at each other as though we just couldn't believe what happened. If the receptionist is this crappy, I can't even imagine what a hair cut would look like. Three words; 1) Oh 2)Hell 3)No.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but I really like mindless action movies, especially ones based on video games and when I heard that Prince of Persia was being adapted I thought “I want to go to there.” Much like my favorite movie, Doom, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time knew what it was and didn’t try to be more than that, it was a light hearted action fantasy with a lot of sand… and Bubble Boy.

PLOT A narrator gets everyone who hasn’t played the video games a little back story about the protagonist who turns out to have been a street urchin named Dastan who the king saw one day and thought that he had moxie and adopted him into the family. Well Dastan grew up with the king’s two moxie deficient sons and like all imaginary families he was welcomed and loved as one of their own. But not all is well in Persia as the neighboring sacred city of Alamut is selling weapons to enemies, like we do, and they plan for an attack that Dastan leads with his monkey wall climbing skills. The city is taken over and Dastan’s brother plans to take the Princess Tamina of Alamut as his bride. Everything goes downhill for Dastan who now holds in his possession a very magical knife that pretty much everyone wants and after he was tricked into gifting his father with a cloak that was made with acid thus killing him, he and Tamina go on the run together.

On the first night of their journey, Dastan discovers that the knife manipulates time. By pressing the jewel at the top, cool swirly things cause the rewind button to be pressed. Thinking that this would be the proof needed to clear his name he could show this to his uncle proving that that this was the reason that the attack on Alamut happened and the weapons were planted to fool the Persians. Tamina who is the guardian of the knife is constantly lifting it from him so that she might bring it to sanctuary where it would be safe from evil doers like Dick Cheney… I mean Dastan’s uncle.

FINAL THOUGHT It was formulaic and fluffy but I have an undeniable urge to watch it again. Prince of Persia, I just can’t quit you.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World can be summed up in one word; Hipster. Whether you love hipsters, hate hipsters, are a hipster or have no clue what a hipster is, one thing is obvious; this movie rocked… or whatever. Scott Pilgrim was created first as a graphic novel which is the neck beard way of saying “comic book” for grown-ups by Canadian Cartoonist Brian Lee O’Malley. Never understanding the concept of comic books (words or pictures people, you can’t have both!) I knew squat about the story but that was unnecessary as I only needed a basic knowledge of Old School video games, Rock and Hipsters and have at least one working eye.

PLOT The plot is simple, Boy likes girl, girl has seven evil exes, boy fights evil exes and how much do you want to bet that someone with a PBR tattoo is thinking “I am totally going to start my own League of Evil Exes.”?

We meet our protagonist Scott Pilgrim Played by Michael Cera who is basically playing Michael Cera, as he is defending his new 17 year old high school girl friend to his fellow Sex Bob-omb band mates (yes, named after the adorable little bomb in Mario Bros.) Ah the flush of new love and an overage hipster with his Asian underage girlfriend. Anyway, Knives Chau, other than having the best name, becomes quickly wrapped up in the glow of older-in-a-band-boyfriend and is instantly Sex Bob-omb’s first and biggest fan. All is working well for our couple until Scott has a dream about a pink haired beauty in rollerblades. Things get complicated for Scott when he discovers that this dream girl is one Ramona Flowers and once he meets her he is immediately smitten… oh poor Knives.

Ramona is perfect for our Scott who is now faced with the task of dumping a high schooler and after “skimming” over an email from one of Ramona’s evil exes that he will have to defeat them in order to get to Ramona or something. The first confrontation occurs at the Battle of the Bands when Mathew Patel arrives to little fan-fair as Scott deleted the email after being to bored to finish reading it but miracle of miracles, a fight ensues and for a waif of a guy Scott turns on his inner Ryu and kicks ass. Adorably with each defeat he earns points and coins ala Mario.

The brilliance of the Evil Exes is that each one is a caricature of someone considered “really cool”. We have the action star/skateboard champ played by the Human Torch. And who knew being a vegan gives you super powers? We’ll our third evil ex did, hey, didn’t he play Superman? Followed by her “curious” phase when she dated a lady followed by two Asian DJ’s and finally, the one that she could never really have.

FINAL THOUGHT This movie is clearly for the younger/Gen-X crowed as everything would be lost on a baby boomer. Scott Pilgrim was a feast, with its nostalgic charm, remarkable action sequences and the magical dialogue the viewer will most certainly see themselves or someone they know in one of these many characters. I am pretty sure that I was Julie Powers, the one with the censored potty mouth.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

It was a bit of a toss up between BAD or UGLY today but just when I thought that Arizona could not get any more heinous, up pops another Bush (the first one) remnant in the form of Dan Quayle's son, Ben. So I am trying to figure out if the man who is the spawn of the worst vice president has any right to to make the claim that Obama is the worst president? Really? I think it is simply time for him to shut-up and sit down.

Little factoid: When we moved to Virginia from London I was told that Ben had been a student the previous year at the middle school I was attending. The reason why was removed not because he was the son of the vice president, but because he was picked on relentlessly by his peers regarding his fathers almost constant moronic moments. I think like "W", Ben may have a few daddy issues of his own he needs to work out. Why can't he do it in therapy or a crack den like a normal person and spare us from being subjected to yet another retarded politician?

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

Best Google random search image E-V-E-R!

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

For those who don't know me, I am vision impaired and have been since high school. That is until my fabulous birthday gift was redeemed. My fabulous and generous and thoughtful boyfriend gave em the gift of sight in the form of Lasik Surgery. Having never been able to afford this operation myself he decided to gift it to me. and what a gift it is, 4 days after the operation I can see already at 20/15 and yell out street signs that are far away to strangers on the street.

If you can stand the smell of smoking eyeball, you too can have corrective laser eye surgery! I realized later that this is why they give you Valium.

The Rose Cocktail

Aptly named for it's rose-like colour and created in the early 1920's, the Rose Cocktail is a sweet summer mix made out of far too many ingredients if you ask me, but it was easy to drink and worthy of a second.

1 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz apricot brandy
1/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz grenadine
Combine the ample amount of ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and mix well. Serve in a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Hepburn Trousers

No one could wear a pair of high waisted slacks like the icon of all icons, Katherine Hepburn. I fell in love with her glamour and moxie the moment I watched Bringing up Baby with the man of my dreams, Cary Grant. After extensive internet searching, I finally found a pattern of her iconic trousers, I only hope I can do them and her justice.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

If my obsessive disdain for the Twilight franchise wasn't enough, Barbie had to create a line of mongoloid dolls to represent these simpering Mormon twits. One major fail, Bella looks far too perky and let me see if I have this right, Jacob is a poor Native American living on reservation and therefore can't actually afford a full wardrobe. Well if you are a character that ends up falling in love with an infant, I repeat, AN INFANT one should just be thankful that Barbie made these dolls eunuchs and pass the toy isle completely when shopping with a 'tween.

Goat's Delight

Looking for a cocktail with five ingredients? Look no further, here is the Goat's Delight named for no one knows what but for a drink with this many liquors, you would think the taste would be more complicated. In fact it is a smooth and subtle concoction that leaves you a bit lightheaded in the end.

3/4 oz brandy

3/4 oz kirsch

1 oz cream 

1/4 oz orgeat  

1/4 oz pastis 

Combine everything into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously to prevent the cream and orgeat from collecting at the bottom of the glass.

A day at the beach

Today the weather was so perfect in Boston that our friends invited us up to a beach in Ipswich MA. called Crane Beach. Other than the astronomical parking fee which I never once had to pay at a beach in VA. we ooooh'd and ahhhhhh'd at the perfection of this place. So it was full and we forgot to bring beer we all agreed that this was a perfect day.


My new 1940's bathing suit.

Every button including the straps need to be unbuttoned when visiting the little girls room. Seriously, fashion is hard.

Our friends Patrick and Virginia.

So Patrick (seen above) decided to show his Southern roots for the camera and decided to white trash it up, but the tattoo over his heart of the state of Virginia is for his wife Virginia. Sweet right?

Virginia's angry art.

Me enjoying a strawberry.

Corpse Reviver #1

I love the fact that there are cocktails that have been created specifically for the effects of drinking to much the night before. The Corpse Reviver actually has 3 iterations and they are all numbered for convenience, which is nice when you need the hair of the dog that bit you and you want zombie themed choices.

Looking up this recipe on the internet lead me to some interesting mixes but I'm going to direct you to the below measurements which are from a reputable cocktail book from the 1930's when the drink was actually created.
2 oz Brandy
1 oz Apple Brandy
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine and shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Yum.

The Kamikaze

This is NOT the Bro/Ho version of this classic drink, if that is what you want, find a bar full of popped polo collars. If you are looking for a sour summer sipper I would suggest you try the Kamikaze this way:
1 1/2 oz Vodka
2 teaspoons Cointreau
1/2 oz lime juice
Combine ingredients, Shake vigorously. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass.

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

If you can't go to the vintage, make the vintage come to you and let the laughter ensue. The app is called Old Booth and is for the iPhone. basically it works like those large cutouts on boardwalks and it places you face in a perfectly framed head.

Unfortunately I am not hip enough for an iPhone but and will simply sneak Engineer boyfriend's phone to take a few candid yesteryear photos.

Seriously, I look hot.

The Gimlet

I was craving one all day, so the first thing I do after I take off my shoes is to mix my first Gimlet. Great for a summer day. Unless you like tart drinks, if you don't have Rose's and are going to use fresh limes, don't forget to add a bit of simple syrup or you might find your face puckered.

2 oz dry gin
2/3 oz lime juice(fresh or Rose's)
Combine Gin, Lime juice and cracked ice into a shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass. Now you are puckered for life.

The Daiquiri

Unless you are a "Bro" or "Ho", you should drink a Daiquiri like this.


2 oz light rum
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Voila!

Party like it's 1929!

1930's Deco Dress from So Vintage Patterns... Probably should have ironed the dress after wearing it all day.

The Tom Collins

Modified from the original, we decided to add fresh fruit thus creating a raspberry/blueberry Tom Collins.
1 handful of berries
1 oz simple syrup
1 oz lemon juice
3 oz gin
Muddle the fruit in a tall glass with lemon juice and simple syrup. Add gin, ice cubes and top wth soda water. Stir till mixed.

Happy July 4th!

today's preferred drink; the Negroni.

1 oz gin
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz Campari® bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass 3/4 filled with cracked ice. Add a splash of soda water if desired. Garnish with a half slice of orange.

The Bonnie Parker Dress

Okay, maybe not an actual Bonnie Parker dress but I did make it from a sewing pattern from the 1930's. It's the bees knees.

Late night cocktails and electric tea lights...

a mixed blessing.










use liquor wisely.