bikram tennis

it's that time of year in new england when folks aren't really sure if it's time to turn off the heat just yet. it's a strange phenomenon where anywhere indoors - offices, movie theaters, stores, bars - is just a little too warm for comfort.

our new tennis club is no exception. the other day, while the outdoor temperature was a pleasant 63 degrees, it was a stifling 83 degrees in the tennisphere. perhaps it wasn't actually 83 degrees, but even standing still would have brought on a good sweat in the heat of that dome let alone chasing a little yellow ball from one end of the court to the other.

outnumbered

lately ann and i have been outnumbered.

since willhelm entered our lives this past year, he's opened up an entire world of gay men that we hang out with on a regular basis. it's not uncommon for us to be the only girls in a sea of boys, boys, boys. if we didn't before, we now know all the lyrics to "hedwig and the angry inch", and the pet shop boys' greatest hits.

on friday night, we were seriously outnumbered by pregnant women. out of five women there that night, only two didn't have a bun in the oven- and those two were us. now we know all about strollers and pre-natal yoga.



here are two out of the three expectant moms. we won't show you the shot we got of their growing cleavage. because we promised we wouldn't.

it being march madness that night, we were also outnumbered by basketball fans. being generally unfamiliar with sports that don't involve racquets or clubs, we needed a full explanation and run down of this spring phenomenon. now we know that a "bracket" is like an oscar ballot, but for basketball.

rock n' roll homebodies

it amuses us to no end that we wound up backstage at avalon on saturday night. you know we hardly go out, and even more rare are the occasions when we see live music. but our new neighbor/friend tom happened to know some of the decemberists, and kindly got us some last minute tickets for this weekend, so off we all went.

the band sounded great live (they even had a crafty whale that paraded around the stage during "the mariner's revenge song." you know we love that stuff.) and the band members we met afterwards were really nice. ann might have even wrangled nate query into playing golf with her the next time he's in town. but maybe not.





we liked them so much we invited them to brunch the next day, at our house, and guess what? chris CAME. we loved that he came, and brought his lovely family along with him. and we got the chance ooh and ahh over his beautiful daughter, scout, in her adorable sweater dress that was just too much. ann kept eyeing it wondering if it came in adult sizes.

to ashbloem and davey

we debated whether or not to post your wedding gift on this blog, but we got too excited not to.

click HERE to take a peek.

congratulations to the happy couple!

when ann and i get lazy

feidler has developed a new weird habit of refusing to chew his bones unless we hold them for him. we think he just likes the angle that only we can provide. he loves his bones, so it's just wrong to deprive him, but sometimes we don't have the patience to sit there for an hour while he gnaws away.

enter the c clamp and the coffee table.

sneak peak

it has been months in the making. here's a sneak peak at the upcoming mogo website. click to embiggen.

new homepage


new featured goods page

good thing about bad weather

the good thing about bad weather is that occasionally you get surprise visits from a friends in transit who are stuck at the airport. so the plan to stay in all weekend... BLOWN, thankfully.

it was this bonus visit from said friend that got us out into the fresh air for a nice hot lunch on saturday, a couple of drinks later that evening, a leisurely game of bowling at the end of the night, and delicious dimsum the next morning. (we won't mention daring carrrrrrrmen to bump and grind with the poor man or woman dressed as a bowling pin. incriminating photos? where are you?)

bah himiny

just when we were ready pack away the down coats, winter weather has struck again. as thoughts of florida still dance in our heads, it is snows horizontally. WAAAH!

this turn of events has made us cancel all social engagements, hunker down with a pile of netflix movies, and nest. just when we thought this made sense, we receive this email from a "friend":

Oh you guys....

One day I will come knock on your little red door, and you will come squinting into the light, and you will have developed your own language, and I'll look at you quizzically, and then we'll communicate through the longest charades game ever.

to that we say, "bah himiny jip fassolia."

spring cleaning

we've sworn to ourselves that, this season, we'll do some spring cleaning. not the wipe the fridge down and call it a day cleaning. but the deep down type of organizing that will help ann sleep throughout the night. THAT "get life in order" kind of cleaning.

1. our finances

we pay our bills on time. we sent our tax papers off already. so, we're not horrible when it comes to dealing with this stuff. in fact, it wasn't until dabney set foot in ann's life did a system come into existence, but the system could be better. we could finally convert from an excel spreadsheet to quicken. we could finally have a filing system for our bills, so that they no longer languish with the yet-to-be-recycled crate & barrel catalog from october '06.

2. our legal issues

thanks to a friend, mogo got off and running on a healthy legal foot. but beyond that, we haven't taken the steps needed to get our personal legal stuff in order. wills, health care proxy, blah, blah -- that's all on the agenda. today, we took our first step in that direction with the help of this man.



sure, he may look like a pirate, but when he's not in costume, he's an actual lawyer and essential to getting this part of our world in order.

3. our apartment

our apartment is comfortable enough to live in on a daily basis. if you came over for a dinner party, you wouldn't leave with ecoli. we're good at the "surface clean." sure, we could keep living here and theoretically be fine, but soon enough the stuff we cram into every drawer and every closet would eventually just burst. people would wonder why they hadn't seen us in days, week, months, but in reality, they'd just find us and the dog buried under a giant pile of clothes, mail, books and magazines.

being a longtime fan of the website, apartment therapy, ann recently purchased a copy of the same name. not what you'd think it would be, perhaps a coffee table picture book of oh-so-chic flats that just give you a case of envy beyond belief - instead, it's a self-help book of how to "heal" your home by giving it heart, mind, soul. sound new agey? well, we're about to tackle the eight-week "cure." stay tuned for posts on progress (or lack thereof).

tennisphere

fresh from florida, ann and i are having a hard time letting our warm weather lifestyle die. for the past month, we've been playing tennis, riding our bikes, and kayaking the florida rivers in search of manatees.



now back in boston, it's just not acceptable to return to the dreaded gym, or suffer quietly in the tomb that is our apartment. sometimes, new rice cookers are just not enough.

so, this week, we went in search of indoor tennis courts, and we found them, by way of a tennis club in charlestown. now, when you think tennis club, what do you envision? is it wood paneled locker rooms, and towel service perhaps? genteel men and women, dressed in white knickers?

ladies and gentlemen, we give you our tennis club. also known as the tennis biosphere. or, just the tennisphere if you like.



that's the women's locker room, first door on the right. it's a 75 yard sprint (in cold weather) across the parking lot. to access it, you need to borrow a key with a wood block attached, much like a gas station key.



but the truth is - we LOVE it. the courts are in great shape, we have access to balls and ball hoppers, hardly anyone is on the courts, and a ball machine ("the lob-ster") is ready and waiting for us to use. all for $100 a year, which goes to support their youth programming. we've spent about 4 hours there over the past two days.

the guy that runs the place is so totally nice, and will give us tips while we are there.

when it sings "twinkle, twinkle, little star" it's done

if there's anything i've learned from my parents it's that real rice can't be made the old-fashioned way - that is, in a pot. rice is made in a rice cooker. as an adult, i've never been without one. it was one of the earliest things i bought my first apartment, even before a futon, i think.



it was that same twelve year old rice cooker that had to be demoted recently. we took it down to florida and then, just abandoned it. now, we have this compact, stainless steel clad, bubular-looking thing. while it can be set to cook at any time of day and sing a melody to let us know when rice is done, we downgraded as far as size. instead of five plentiful cups of rice, we can only cook a measly three. come to think of it, i don't think we've ever cooked more than that. check in for future porridge meals!

home again

back in boston and it is so. freaking. cold. why did we do this to ourselves?

we were welcomed home by dabney's solar-powered lucky cat waving us in and a giant pile of mail.

other than the weather, we are happy to be back in our own digs - though feidler not so much. he misses non-slip carpet and weird carpet-like bermuda grass.


scene from the ride home. biker with requisite bag of oranges.

the umbrella series by ashbloem

circa 2005