July already?

How is this summer flying by so fast? JULY?????

My girlfriends and I kicked off the new month with a fun night of girlie talk, Chinese food, and ice cream! The 8 of us get together a few times a year, and craziness always ensues!! You might recall another of our parties from this entry.

We decided to keep it low maintenance this time, especially since one of our ladies is due in August!! :) :) We headed to P.F. Chang's by the Boston Common and met by the bar. The girl-talk begins instantly, of course, and doesn't stop for hours.

These pictures did not come out AT ALL, but we shared the Chicken Lettuce Wraps as an appetizer. For my entree I had the Buddha's Feast, which has a stir-fry of tofu and veggies in sauce and served with brown rice. YUM!Now, this news might be a bit distressing to some of my vegan/vegetarian readers, but I have to let it out. I had a chicken lettuce wrap. And, I had a turkey sandwich yesterday. And, can I just say that I feel better? I have REALLY mixed feelings about vegetarianism, and as you all know, I gave up red meat and poultry for Lent, and and continued on until this week. I also haven't had any eggs or seafood that weren't organic, cage-free, or wild-caught. But about a month or so ago, I started to just feel HUNGRY. Like, hungry and never ever feeling like I was eating what my body wanted. Weird, right? Now, I was never a huge meat eater, and I think I'm going to just try eating more eggs and fish (because even though I allowed them in my diet during Lent and beyond, I just didn't eat them very often...) and see how I feel. But, I saw the turkey sandwich on the menu and it just looked sooooooo good. And, yes, it tasted good, too. Of course, I can't help but think about the turkeys, and then I feel bad! And, goodness knows whatever chicken was in the P.F. Chang's appetizer probably spend its entire crummy life crammed into a cage without any sunlight or space to stand up and fluff it's feathers. Bleh. :( Anyways, more on that later....

For dessert we headed directly next door to Emack & Bolio's! Love this place!! I haven't had ice cream here in a really really long time. I have this great memory of a summer day back in grad school, walking around on Newbury Street, and I had this amazing waffle cone dipped in marshmallow and rolled in Fruity Pebbles. Seriously! So, I had to have that... with Banana ice cream. Yum. Too big, but delish!! I had to eat all of the fruity pebble part of the cone, of course!Earlier in the day I stopped in for a soy latte at Espresso Royale near Boston University. My gf was recording an aria to use as an audition cd when she moves to Paris (!!!!) so I needed a little late afternoon boost. Look how pretty my foam was! :) The Espresso Royale guy has some talent- and he was super smiley when he saw me photographing it.By the way, look who loves her new apartment?! Eloise is officially out of hiding, and loves sleeping up on the radiator cover near a window. Terrible lighting- what's up with my usually awesome camera- but still cute! Ok well, I need to down this Green Monster and then I'm off to the Charles Plaza Farmer's Market at Harvard. I am in serious need of a Farmer's Market. How is it July before I've had a chance to go to one??? TRAGIC!!!!!