Best Cookie Ever, at This Moment: walnut, dried cranberry, dark chocolate and white chocolate.

Best Overhead Shout by Clerk Where Sandwiches are Named After Women: "Josephine on whole wheat! Josephine on whole wheat!"

Best Sudden Vernal Bloom: Boston, MA

Billy Bragg: awesome, awesome, awesome concert. He came on at 9 and finished his last encore at 11:30pm. Sure, a lot of that was talk, but who cares when he's that funny and intelligent and sincere. For the first encore he ripped out a song he wrote during the sound check. The lyrics were propped up on a music stand. He played the guitar for ( Read more... )

I just noticed my sweater's on backwards. I left the house hours ago ( Read more... )

- finishing my federal taxes ( Read more... )

The new Neko Case album is out today. I never get this excited about new releases but I can hardly contain myself. Blacklisted was my soundtrack for months and months in 2003.

No pressure on Ms. Case or anything.

And, not like I'm seeing her in concert soon, or anything.

Payne ascended the stairs of the bank building to the county treasurer's office. He was looking for a job. The stairs circled above the green skylight of the bank on the first floor. Somehow the whole beastly building started to bulge, started to throb. And he dropped his briefcase through the skylight. A file clerk looked up at him through ( Read more... )

I'm at MIT taking advantage of the free wireless while I wait for sun_set_bravely to arrive via the Fung Wah Chinatown bus. Hopefully it won't catch fire like some of 'em do. We're going to the semiannual 50%-off-everything sale at The Garment District and, like Pink Floyd, you wish you were here. Or, uh, something ( Read more... )

A coworker just asked what I did over the weekend. "School stuff," I said. "And I watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle."*

I also watched Slingblade**, read Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life*** (although that counts as "school stuff"), sat in on a Scrabble game, cleaned out the pantry and threw out two-year-old almonds, and went to MIT ( Read more... )

I'm about to go to a brunch celebrating the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

I pulled out a handful of CDs I haven't listened to in years: Queen's A Day at the Races, the Ghost World soundtrack, and Billy Bragg's Don't Try This at Home. The latter is playing in the kitchen while I simmer black bean mushroom chili on the stove. Mentally I'm dipping into 1995 and a semester in England, being glad to have lived it and yet ( Read more... )