Weekend Report

Friday- After work, I joined a birthday celebration for my friend Liz at Jury's in the Back Bay. We had food and drinks at Cuffs- the food was great (tasty bar sandwiches) and the bar was packed on a sunny Friday evening, but the service was gawd awful. I then headed out to Silvertone to meet up with my roommate Ern, who had completed her very last day of law school. (For the record, I will not be done with grad school for another couple of years, so please don't ask. The lack of a finite ending can be rather depressing.) More drinks and much merriment ensured. After the celebrated guest headed home, the rest of the party continued on to the Last Hurrah (hotel bars are so HOT right now), where I tried a crazy liquor called chartreuse. This potent cordial is manufactured solely by the Carthusian Monks of France, and the color chartreuse is named after its distinct yellow-green hue. I kid you not.

"Only two monks have been entrusted by the Order with the secret of producing the liqueurs. Only these two know the ingredients. Only these two know how these ingredients are prepared for incorporation into the base of wine alcohol. What little is known is that some 130 herbs, plants, roots, leaves, and other natural bits of vegetation are soaked in alcohol for an unknown length of time, then distilled and mixed with distilled honey and sugar syrup before being put into large oaken casks and placed into the world's longest liqueur cellar for maturation."

It's tasty and goes down smooth, but these monks don't mess around. The shit is STRONG. The mere vapors coming from the glass felt like a slap to the face, and after a few sips, I went from pleasantly buzzed to totally effed up. I believe my skin was the color of chartreuse when I finally dragged myself out of bed on Saturday morning. Um, afternoon.

Saturday- Played soccer, then I went to a Brazillian restaurant named Muqueca in Inman Square with Carolina, Oscar, and Juan Martin. I had the speciality dish, moqueca, a seafood stew baked in a clay pot. Delicious! We also sampled fried yucca and sausage for an appetizer and tried the flan for dessert. The food was great, but the restaurant is small and crowded, and oddly, has no music or liquor license. The friendly staff and tasty, traditional meals make for a popular spot. When we arrived, the crowd was mostly Americans, but later on, we were the only non-Brazillians. I always consider it a good sign when an ethnic restaurant is packed with people from said country.

Sunday- Went for a long run along the beach, then spent the rest of the day in the lab. I'm planning to cook a special Mother's Day dinner for my parents tonight.