julie came by today to pick me up to go to lunch at the kendall cafe. riding in the car she was eager to relay the details of the drama that was happening at her happy home in davis square. we found parking a block away from the cafe, besides metropolitan pipes. walking across the kendall cinema, we stumbled across an old lady looking for the theatre. "oh, it's there," julie and i both told her. i asked the woman what movie she was going to walking. "bowling for columbo [sic]," she replied. both julie and i agreed it was a good movie. later, when the woman had turned into the theatre, julie was enamored with the old lady's cuteness and wanted to keep her. when we got to the kendall cafe, we saw that it was closed. a woman walking by told us they don't serve lunch anymore (she should know, she used to work there), contrary to what it says on their website. disappointed, we brainstormed a second option which brought us to inman square. there, we tried magnolias, a cajun restaurant. our unlucky streak continued, as this restaurant was closed as well. finally, across the street, we saw sweet chili, a thai/japanese restaurant, and decided to go there.

i've been to sweet chili before, there's another one the next town over in arlington. i went there once to pick up some takeout for julie when she was stuck doing retail duty.

the arlington sweet chili is nothing special in terms of interior design, but the cambridge version is very spacious and beautiful inside: a lot of windows, a lot of plants, trellised drop ceiling. sweet chili is also one of those places where everything on the menu looks good, we had a hard time deciding what we wanted to get. i ended upordering the spicy noodle soup, julie got the drunken chicken. our meals came with soup, a shrimp wanton affair with watercress, along with mini crispy spring rolls and a fried triangle (sort of like a crab ragoon). the spicy noodle soup was infinitely delicious, a tom yum guy broth with udon noodles and shrimps flavored with mouth buzzing hot sauce and bit and pieces of other natural ingredients. even more, 12 hours later, i still can't stop thinking about it, so that's a pretty good sign it was really good. i had to ask for chopsticks, they didn't bother giving them to me, and when we were done with the food, julie had to ask for the check, they seemingly having forgotten about us in our windowed corner table.

after lunch, i went with julie on a little adventure to what she called "this part of arlington with a lot of stores," which upon closer inspection turned out to be a small stretch of commercialism in west medford. dejected, we took a circuitous route back to cambridge via arlington center (hey look, it's sweet chili again!). while driving, julie suddenly got an itchy foot and was stomping feverishly, which made me think about buckling up. we ended up making a quick 30 minute stop at china fair on mass ave, an inexpensive version of crate & barrel without all the frills, a store that julie raves about all the time, a store i've never been to before. without buying anything we left, julie then dropping me off at my place.

mail greeted me when i came into the house and i saw my nstar energy bill, my monthly report card that i get so nervous about before opening. this month's damage: $160, $20 more than the month before. i'm going to be pretty happy when this cold winter is over, i look forward to saving at least $100/month in heating bills. after a shower, i went back out to cash a check at the nearest atm in porter exchange and then go to the star market to buy some ground beef for a pasta sauce. i came home and shortly afterwards fell asleep on the couch, waking up after 8pm. not feeling especially cooking creative after that sudden nap, i just heated up a can of chicken soup and called it a evening, watching the celtics beat the pacers while i ate. dessert came in the form of fresh strawberries dipped in sugar.