Last night I met darxus, cathijosephine, and her father for dinner at Shabu-Zen. I confess I’d been a little dubious about the concept when I heard about it, but it was very, very good! The tables have a hotplate in the middle of them with a boiling dish of broth on it, and they bring you all your food raw and you cook it yourself by dipping it in the broth. The meat is sliced very thin, so it cooks almost instantly. It was really amazing.

Then we (less darxus) went to Jake Ivory's, a raucous and fun sing-along piano bar near Fenway Park. I enjoy it there, but I always feel like there’s something oddly circular (but effective) about the pianists’ patter about how much fun the audience should be having. They’re trying to create an environment where you feel good about the fact that you’re feeling good. A noble endeavour, but I’m kind of surprised it works. The music was fun, and ranged from the Muppet Show theme through “Ring of Fire”.

Oh, and I went back to the eye doctor’s today and (1) had my follow-up contact lens exam and ordered lenses and (2) picked up my replacement glasses. So when you next see me, one way or another I won’t look nearly as silly as I’ve looked over the past few months in the many-times-bent old glasses that don’t fit me properly. I really like the way the new glasses look, but I expect I’m mostly going to be wearing contacts from now on.

And for those of you who are not in the Greater Boston Bastion of Civilization, the weather has been gorgeous lately! The walking we did last night was exceedingly comfortable (at least for me, who hadn’t been doing it all day long), and today I left my coat in the car while I wandered around Newbury Street and enjoyed the sunshine. I got a burrito for lunch and ate it outside. It can stay this way for a while, as far as I’m concerned.