They took the wheels off of Benny’s Cadillac…

Last night we wentto Moe’s Alley Blues Club in Santa Cruz. What a cool place! Anyway, we saw The Iguanas there. I’ve seen the Iguanas quite a few times…the first time being 10 years ago in Philly. That was also the first time I saw Wilco.

Something bad did happen last night, however. MATT GOT CARDED AND I DID NOT. How did that happen??? What was the bouncer guy thinking? Do I really look OLDER than Matt? My parents and I did not get carded, Matt and my sister did. AHHH!

Anyway, we got to talk to the bassist of the Iguanas. The Iguanas are from New Orleans, and they were on tour in the Northeast while Hurricane Katrina. The bassist was the first person I actually met from New Orleans since Katrina. Hearing it from him was surreal; he told us about how his family NEVER leaves New Orleans, but luckily they did this time.

We also went out for dinner at a place called Charlie Hong Kong which is boasts “organic Asian street food”…I had some yummy curry. I’ll be heating up leftovers soon.

Only a few more days before my vacation comes to a close. Today we’re going to San Francisco then hanging out with our friends Adam and Grace. Tomorrow night we’re going to a party in Alameda, where I used to live. Then the bluegrass fest is on Saturday. On Sunday I am going home! Matt will still have an extra week.

Pizza

Matt and I had pizza for lunch. Nothing makes me more angry than pizza in California.

We ordered a pie at a place called Village Host Pizza. We ordered a large pizza to bring to his grandmother’s house and it was $19.95. A little expensive, no? So, we were waiting for them to finish making the pizza, and they brought it out for us. It was TINY!!!! It was about 11 inches.

The pizza itself was OK…Matt likes it, but I found it to be painfully mediocre. It didn’t really taste like my idea of pizza. And it was twenty bucks!

I could get a 14 inch pizza for less than $15 at Sweet Tomatoes in West Newton Square and the pizza is WAY WAY WAY better.

Still, nothing beats places like Grand Avenue Pizza in Queens, but, man…I feel like a fool paying twenty bucks for a mediocre, small-ish “large” pie!!

Hello from the West Coast!

Here I am in Palo Alto, California.

We got in on Saturday night around 7:30. Matt’s brother, Chuck, took us to my parents house, where we had a nice party. Yummy Italian food, wine, beer, and dessert…including a flan from the fabulous COSTCO! We stayed up really late that night; it was 1:30 AM Pacific time, but 4:30 to us! We were so tired.

On Sunday we went to San Francisco for some really delicious dim sum. Afterwards we trucked on out to Oakland and saw the most grotesque new Wal-Mart shopping center ever. It frightened me. Then we went to Chuck’s music studio for a jam session. Matt and Chuck played bass/guitar/drums and I sang a few songs with them. It was pretty fun. I sang Steely Dan, the Allman Brothers…and I forget what else. But it was fun.

Yesterday we went to In ‘n Out Burger for lunch. Matt still mourns the loss of In ‘n Out in his life. It’s good food for fast food, I’ll give them that. Afterwards we took Cal-Train to San Francisco (one sloooooow trip) and walked by the Embarcadero getting lost repeatedly. We made it to the Gordon Biersch Brewery where I had a hefeweizen and split the “Oktoberfest Platter” with Matt. Matt and I were the only ones who were not blatantly yuppies, but it was still pretty fun.

Snapped a few cool photos of the Bay Bridge. I’ll post them when I get home.

What else is on the agenda for this week? Tomorrow we’re going with the fam to see a band called the Iguanas! They’re lots of fun to see live. We’ll continue to visit more friends and family, and then on Saturday we’re going to Golden Gate Park for The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2005!

I’m really excited for that — some bands I’m really excited about seeing are:

The Del McCoury Band
Steve Earle
Gillian Welch
Los Super Seven

It will be a pretty good time. Then the next morning I’ll fly back to Boston. I sure hope the leaves haven’t begun to change without me…

I’m gonna see the folks I dig, even kiss a sunset pig, Califoooorrrrrnia….

Going to California tomorrow. I’ll probably post while there. I’ll be gone until October 2. :-) Ciao!

Krissy-with-chefs

I’m partaking in a rather eccentric-sounding project that I could use a little help with!

It all started at Puglia’s in NYC. (On Hester St, off Mulberry) I left the restaurant and found myself very amused by the chef statue standing outside. I asked my friend to take my photo with the chef.

A few weeks later, I was at a restaurant in Jersey, and saw that the place had not only ONE fake chef, but THREE! I got my photo taken with all of them.

I have now made it my goal to get my photo taken with fake chefs whenever possible. I noticed a pizza place on Main Street in Waltham that has a fake chef outside; I need to get my photo taken there.

Can you help me with my project?! If you know where there are fake chefs, let me know.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. To welcome me into my 25th year of life, I was greeted by two humungous pimples in the mirror! Can you believe it? Because I can’t. Ten years ago I would have DIED to think I’d still be battling skin problems in my MID-TWENTIES.

Oh my. I’m in my mid-twenties.

To celebrate my birthday, I am going to share something with you, my precious blog-readers. Something that I share with so very few. I shake at the idea of posting this on the internet, but it is time I’ve come to terms with my…past.

OK, folks. I am about to share a picture of myself from ten years ago. September ‘95, during a vacation in Vermont.

I looked like THIS:

The lighting is not that good there, and alas it’s the only photo of 14-year-old-me I have on these computers…so, allow me to more appropriately illustrate the mess that I was ate the age of 14:

I had big hair. People called me FRO GIRL and nobody wanted to sit behind me in class because my hair blocked the blackboard. I had very big hair.

And this was WELL AFTER big hair STOPPED being cool, mind you. This was 1995, the cool haircut was this:

But instead, I looked like this:

Like Roseanne Rosannadanna. It’s always something!

And THAT’S why my hair is so long now. Because it weighs it down. It’s taken ten years to get it this long. I began growing it out nearly ten years ago. So happy 10th birthday to my hair, too.

And we went here for dinner. Yummy Indian food in Newton Centre. ;-)

Apple picking in the North Shore

Today Matt and I went to Russell Orchards in Ipswich.

We picked a peck of apples, wine tasted, befriended some farm animals, ate cider dougnuts, and got 12 bottles of wine/cider!

Our new house!

Hey California friends…check out some pictures of our new house.

Time to make the donuts!

I watch a lot of television growing up. Once we moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey and got cable it was mostly Nickelodeon and Nick-at-Nite, but also a bit of PBS. (Sesame Street, 321 Contact, Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Captain Kangaroo)

There’s one show that I used to watch that nobody remembers. People swear that I made it up. It was this show with these two hippie chicks who lived in a garden. I think the flowers talked…and I remember a giant phonograph. I really liked that show — I wonder if this is it…if it is, it was mostly shown on WPIX, a NY station (channel 11) so maybe I just need to find someone who lived in/around NY. The only other person who seems to remember it is from Long Island.

How do I get on these tangents? Anyway, I was thinking about how I still remember commercials from my youth. Nowadays, we have Tivo so I fast forward through the commercials, aside from Bernie & Phyl’s — I always stop fast forwarding for those commercials.

Who else remembers these commercials?

- Craaaaazy Eddie! His prices are insane!!! I remember when Crazy Eddie’s finally closed down and everything was on sale. My dad and I went to the liquidation of one of the Crazy Eddies and he bought me a cassette of “Silly Kids Songs”. It had the Muppet song “Mannah mannah”.

- Encyclopedia Britannica — remember that kid? “Hi. Remember me? I had a report due on SPACE.” I despised that kid. I hated that commercial.

- Time to make the donuts! These Dunkin Donuts commercials should come back on the air. They were great — they totally sold me.

- Carvel! These commercials were creepy….there was the one with a Cookiepuss flying around and then there was the other one [paraphrased]: “Hi, I’m Tom Carvel. This holiday season, surprise your family with a Cookiepuss. Ice cream and cookies all in the shape of an attractive clown face.” Last Thanksgiving my family suddenly grew very amused by Cookiepuss and we talked about it throughout our entire vacation. We actually wound up finding a Carvel ice cream place in Upstate NY and brought it to our friend’s house.

That’s the Cookiepuss from Thanksgiving weekend 2004.

What other funny old commercials do you remember?

Grey skies are gonna clear up

It is one of the cloudiest days I have seen in recent memory. It’s like there’s a grey blanket over the sky. We’ve got tropical storm warnings, hurricane warnings, and flood warnings…although, I think it’s probably more applicable for the Cape. I feel bad for all the folks who went up to the Cape from New Orleans and might have to deal with another hurricane. It’s probably just the National Weather Service acting cautious after the New Orleans devastation, but still, everyone be careful out there.

And tomorrow’s our housewarming BBQ…90% chance of showers. Hurrah.