Some confusion

Early in our relationship Kristine began an ongoing text and image email based narrative titled The Adventures of Yellow & Pink, my favorite comic. Thank you!

:) O OO OOO (:

Stanley!

It really does look as though the elephant took a whiz on the sidewalk. I wonder if any passersby thought the same thing.

While walking along Madison’s parade of elephants Stanley decided to pee in the middle of the walk and blame the elephant!

Super cute – even while consuming all of our donuts. One of my favorite pics of Kristine.

The jimmie covered donut was much tastier than their version of my ultimate favorite DD boston creme. Although I did only consume the chocolate topping, I give the bakery a score of 1 out of 5 stars.

My rating system is as follows:

5 stars: I have no problem eating there for breakfast, lunch, dinner and any random snack times throughout the day… No mater where it’s located!

4 stars: Have some favorite things on the menu that I will crave at least twice a week.

3 stars: A place where I know I’ll enjoy my food when I can’t decide on what to eat.

2 stars: I’ll get a craving every 3 months or so and then realize why I never frequent the place intil I completely devour my order.

1 star: Will never step foot inside again until I had forgotten how undesirable it was. But when I take the first bite I’ll swear I’ll never go back… until I forget again.

The majority of our food consumption this weekend was UNhealthy and tasty.

Thursday

O’Sullivan’s dinner: Buffalo burgers, fries, beer.

Brown Cow desert: Mint ice cream cone, large – we ordered a small – pumpkin creamaccino

Friday

Portillo’s lunch included: 2 Italian beef sandwhichs (one cheese, one with hot peppers), a large lemonade, CHEESE fries, chocolate cake, and a chocolate cake shake.

Earlier in the week Kristine treated me to some home-cooked Quintana Filipino BBQ; a pork roast marinated over a bed of fluffy white rice. Succulent, tasty, and healthy.

Stanley in the Shade outside of Starbucks on Madison.

Pumpkin seemed to be the theme for this weekend. Earlier in the week, Matt consumed a non-thick pumpkin ice creamaccino ( one star ) at Brown Cow ( typically a dependable local vender of frozen treats ) , at Starbucks a pumpkin spice latte and then later in the day 2 scoops of pumpkin ice cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cone ( Oberweis Dairy, 5 stars ). That reminds me, I need bring Stanley to a pumpkin farm for this year’s pic of Stanley atop a pile of pumpkins. And maybe stick him in a jack-o-lantern!

Stanley outside of Starbucks.

Our walks usually takes us pass the open doors of a local bakery while they are preparing donuts, pastries, cookies and other baked goodies; usually the bakery is closed but the doors are kept open to cool the bakers and tease any nose that passes. Returning from morning coffee we decided to finally enter the bakery for fresh donuts – chocolate covered custard ball for Kristine and a multi-colored cake donut for me.

A ball of wrinkles, snorts, fur, sloppy licks, and a whole bunch of love.

A Kristine, Matt and Stanley totem pole!

Following our gluttonous frenzy at Portillo’s we walked around Chicago: strolled around the Gold Coast, walked along the beach, and visited the Newbury library’s bathrooms.  We entered back into the city near the Art Institute for a brief stop at the Walgreen’s adjacent to the Water Tower ( only structure to survive the great fire ) for Fiji water and pomegranate Vitamin Water ( to replenish energy expired along the walk ). Before entering into the subway Kristine brought me to her favorite church; an architectual space of great beauty with soaring pillars and a fanning pipe organ. Outside of the church we were surrounded by tall emotionless concrete structures filling our field of vision with effortless height. We were located, alone,  in a seemingly grand space infinitely taller than any surrounding structures,  isolating us from the sounds and chaos of the city. We were, for only a few minutes, alone together in Chicago.

Last night we were sleepy and snuggled on the couch, the two of us and…Stanley and his chewy hide treat. While laying on the couch Stanley would walk all over us to find an optimal spot for himself. Small, cute, and smells awful when he dusties!

IL–>MI–>OH–>PA——>NJ->NY–>CT–>RI->MA->RI->MA->RI…

Our trip began in Chicago, Illinois on Friday evening (9pm) with tasty fish and some turkey-Spam, a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, chocolate glaze and sprinkle donuts, and the new Kanye…

Towards the East Coast, our diet was not the best but also not as junky as I thought it was going to end up. Included was beef jerky, Burger King’s sausage breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns, Starbuck’s latte and iced skim milk caramel macchiato (kudos to Matt for getting that order right). Am I forgetting anything? And 2 Red Bull’s Matt consumed to stay awake but also was the cause for multiple bathroom breaks.

On our way East, we took a little detour through Michigan seeing that Matt’s never visited that state ever Realizing we needed to be on I-90 and not the I-94 we were currently zooming down, we stopped at a gas station off the interstate. The woman behind the counter was no help at all so we purchased a Trip ‘n Guide off the counter. She tried to help by directing us toward a country road that would get us to the I-90 faster. She tried to calm my fears of dark country roads by telling me it was a bit “hilly” while doing up and down motions with her arm and to not “be scared, it’s just the country.” Matt and I thought it was safest to stay on I-94 until we hit I-69 (hehehe) which would then reunite us with I-80/90.

PA morning mist

Together in PA morning!

Brownie bits and crumpled wrappers.

When we arrived in Tiverton, RI, we hopped back into another car for dinner. I had the scrumptous lobster and asparagus salad, Matt and his mom enjoyed the crab salad and Matt’s dad ordered the scallops with cusabi sauce.

Even though Matt still had not yet slept, we drove to Providence to the Fire Walk Water Fire. Baskets of wood set in the middle of river that runs through downtown Providence were set aflame in the night. It was definitely a couples required event.

Enjoying a cool bay breeze.

While pondering a Del’s, cabinet, or AwfulAwful (below).

Chocolate cabinet with jimmies.

A cabinet is what Midwesterners call a milkshake. What Rhode Islanders call a milkshake is a drink with milk and flavored powered shaken up. Needless to say, I was really excited when I my ordered included the words Awful Awful, cabinet and jimmies.

Awful Awful with jimmies .

It actually says Jimmies on the Awful Awful menu!

Kristine & Manish 0n Chetan’s roof in DOWNTOWN Boston.

Our first afternoon was spent in Boston with Manish – a communication error prevented the afternoon to include Jmac Manish’s initial idea was pancakes at Sophie’s; a long line redirected our path towards Newbury Street where Camper, Puma, and Johnny Cupcakes prolonged our walk towards breakfast.

Kristine became giddy the moment she saw Johnny Cupcakes, directing us into the store with the false expectation of warm fluffy cupcakes waiting for us. My anticipation of a Boston area Sweet Cakes lasted for several strides before I realized we were entering an urban apparel boutique. My disappointment is not with Johnny Cupcakes’ store (cool layout) or the products (other than price); I was expecting fluffy cupcakes -remember, we were entering the afternoon with no breakfast in our bellies.

I was digging two shirts – the cupcake and cross-bones and cupcakes clouds with lightning – and later (via online catalog) the baseball theme belt buckle. Had I noticed the Hippo shirt featured on the Johnny Cupcakes site I may have broken down and purchased it (for Kristine of course).

Too much $$$ for a fun shirt.

I like the design minus the

blue talk bubble.

A fun belt I did not notice until I visited the online catalog.

Hippo shirt from Johnnycupcakes.com

Kristine purchased superhero red fundies and a packet of buttons that she distributed to Manish and me.

With empty bellies we exited the faux bakery and discovered a Camper store! We spent a saturday afternoon last month searching for a Camper store in Chi-town, sadly there is no longer one I tried on a pair of Campers too find the correct fit (46) in hopes of preventing a hassle with returns when I ordered my Caper Peus online. The sales associate that attended to us provided one of the most pleasant and informative sales experiences in my [minimal] clothes shopping history.

Atop Chetan’s stellar rooftop, Manish, Matt and I smoked cigars, ate the delectable Great Wall of Chocaolate cake from our P.F. Chang’s lunch and had some fun on the comfortable hammock. I can’t wait to visit again when they install the hot tub!!!

Kristine meeting a Rhode Island quahog for the first time

Kristine has always claimed a preference for the Cubs before the Sox. Hmm.

Yes, I did buy the Sox Jersey shown above. It’s okay! They hardly ever play the Cubs during the regular season.

We spent the afternoon in Cambridge with JohnnyMac; we began sharing a dozen Beaver Tail oysters from Legal Seafood (yummy); with a belly full of oysters and wine we went to Cambridge Galleria ‘s Best Buy ( to locate a web cam ), a walk around the square, ice cream at Herrell’s ( chocolate whip cream (double yummy)), a walk along the Charles river, and concluded with an impromptu Red Sox game – who is going to pass on $25.00 tickets?

That was the best day I’ve ever had. Never had I thought I’d see a Red Sox game in Fenway Park this summer. And to see it with Matt (and JMac) made it even more special. I’ll always have a great memory attached to my cute Sox (Red, not White) jersey.

Jmac and Kristine as monkeys on the super cool gym on Oxford!

Almost there…

Shine!!!

A pirate and her ship?

Mmm…

Kristine, hand puppet, and Newport.

Cliff Walk in Newport.

Cliff Walk in Newport + PERFECT weather.

During Kristine’s first daytime drive through southern Rhode Island’s back roads (old farm land) she noticed one of my favorite attributes of the “rural” landscape: stonewalls. Once functioning as property boundaries and walls of livestock pens, these amateur structures formed by hand as farmers cleared rocky soil for harvests. …

Tastes:

The Bayside

http://www.thewestportbayside.com/