Cook's Illustrated has a version of turkey tetrazini (and probably one of tuna casserole) with homemade bechamel and sauteed button mushrooms instead of cream of mushroom soup, but as much as I trust that their version is a vast improvement over the canned-soup kind...it's still a casserole made out of leftovers. And making a bechamel, as easy as it is, seems like the kind of work I want to do for real food, not laziness-comfort food.

Oh. I'm having a thought. Now I'm having a plan.

makes shopping list

And now I'm having a wiggins.

Plei, I approve of your purchase. Oh, yes. (Though, of course, I have *current* Batgirl and Robin in mind, because I'm just built that way. And they belong together in their freaky silent craving-approval-of-the-scary-Batgod way.)

t edit And damn it, why isn't there more Tim/Cass being written?

t edit again And Plei, I got your e-mail and fully intend to reply, but lo, I am lazy.

Nora - did you know a Whole Foods just opened (or is just about to open) at the Charles River Plaza (I think that's the name)? It's about a 5 minute walk from North Station, especially if you know the extra-double-secret back way in.

Ooh! I am still a little sktchy on the geography there- it's changed so much over the past 10 years, with the Garden/Fleet Center thing, Big Dig, and putting the T underground...

How do you get to Charles River Plaza?

Is that strange, to be happy that one has no meatspace friends?

I'm finding more and more that meatspace friends are harder to deal with. The ones that I have the easiest time with are the ones I have through here. People I see on a regualr basis.

Steph wins for most edits.

And also answers this:

Plei, for those of us at work, what is your OIAL purchase?

As she said, pervy Robin and Batgirl a la Thrillkiller (the BEST ELSEWORLDS EVAH!!1!) pencils.

We don't keep the stroller in the house. It lives in the trunk of the car.

Also, I dislike going for walks by myself. I tried it, to see if it would be nicer with the baby, but it was just as much of a spinich outing as it ever was. I get more pleasure from doing basic exercises in front of her, and she giggles as I count my reps. I don't know what's so funny about me counting to ten, but it appears to be comedy gold.

I need to find my pilates mat (basement. somewhere.) so that I have a better place to do said exercises than the kitchen floor.

Is that strange, to be happy that one has no meatspace friends?

I have meatspace friends I've known since high school (actually, junior high in some cases) but a lot of what keeps us together is history. But none of them watched BtVS, for instance, or even know what slash is. They would raise their eyebrows at the idea of wearing a tiara, and they don't, for the most part (sob) read. I think cyberspace makes finding like-minded people easier, because you're casting such a wide net, but you can also be so specific -- one post about Spike, or fanfic, or a particular brand of shoes, or whatever, and you're automatically on a wavelength.

The Internet, she is a good thing.

My ex-the-doctor and I decided all of these type recipes fell into the category of Cooking With Soup, which by our reckoning was one of the few universal constants defining the American working class (from which we both sprang).

DH and I have talked about throwing an Iron Chef White Trash party, theme ingredient cream of mushroom soup or maybe velveeta.

I love my invisible friends, but without meatspace I'd go insane. Krav is marvellous, because it's like a rotating buffet of people. Some familiar, some becoming more familiar, some fading away -- the amount of interaction over a three year period has been amazing.

Of course, I also like going to places where I don't know people, so there's that.

All that, and yet still a misanthrope. It's a balancing act.

How do you get to Charles River Plaza?

Regular route: walk out of North Station, take a right, walk up to Cambridge Street and take another right. Walk two blocks and it's right there set back from the street (there's a brand new shiny building where the parking garagette for the Plaza used to be). It's kitty corner from a CVS.

Sneaky way. Same directions, but take a right on the street just before Cambridge Street (you'll pass a bunch of mailboxes on one side). Walk down to the elbow of that street, and there's an alley way/walkway that comes out between the Whole Foods and the CVS.

I'm not 100% that sneaky route still works after all the construction, but when I passed by there on the other side of Cambridge street yesterday, it looked like the Whole Foods was open and that that walkway was still accessible.

Popping in to say thank you to Deena for making the Bitchlist a reality.

Calli, I'm so happy for you. I'll still keep fingers and toes crossed for your mother.