This Is Framingham

 
Walkable from my house is the Asinayo Market, an Asian grocery store which is great to have close by and is one of the few reasons I walk downtown.
Unlike at Skazka, I’m not ignored because I don’t speak the language of the store’s products. It’s usually the same guy at the register but sometimes there’s a woman and they’ve both always been so nice and cheery and are happy to help me find something I’m looking for. ivermectina para animais serve para humanos

They have fresh greens and sprouts in the fridge, dumplings and seafood in the freezer and a very well stocked store of sauces, teas, rice, soups and anything else you can think of. ivermectin sheep drench for goats?  

They also have novelty snacks and chopsticks by the bundle, really anything you’re looking for I can’t imagine it not being there.
This is what I bought there on my last trip:

Nice to have Asinayo in the neighborhood – Ichiban!

 
Yet another place I’ve gone by 100 times and never stopped in is the Framingham Baking Co.
I’ve always noticed they had a nice sign right on 135 and kept meaning to check it out so I finally did.
The entrance is around the corner from the sign and inside its pretty much a counter with an open kitchen.

There are some shelves with some items like breadcrumbs, Fannie’s salad dressing and the day old bargains too.
There were cookies, breads and croissants but I decided to get some pizza since I was on my way home from work and figured we could try it for dinner.
I don’t know what style you call it but they sold it by the rectangle. I got three kinds: plain, pepperoni and a “white” pizza with broccoli.

I re-heated these in the oven and split them up with Ethan. Normally I don’t eat this style pizza because it’s usually cardboardesque but they do something right with the dough.  The bottom was a little crisp, and the rest was moist enough not to be like cardboard but cooked enough not to be doughy.
They were all good but surprisingly we thought the plain tasted the best, maybe “less is more” since the dough was so good or maybe the sauce and cheese they use makes the difference.
I’ll definitely go back to try some of their other stuff.

Yesterday I stopped by “sad plaza“and took a look around St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store.  I go in there about once a month looking for interesting house wares or old corduroys.  There can be a lot of junk in there but occasionally I’ll find something that catches my eye like this yarn picture and even though I don’t smoke, I just had to have this ashtray.
Yesterday I saw something that stopped me in my tracks.  In 1978 my mom brought my sister and I to a store like Kmart or Two Guys and I guess they were demonstrating the latest Kodak instant camera.  My mom had them take a picture of my sister and I and they put the photo in this little sleeve/book to remind you what awesome new camera took the picture. ivermectin topical dosing children head lice
  
Of course she didn’t buy the camera but this photo has been kept in the sleeve and is a permanent part of the picture collection we’ve kept through the years.

As I was looking through the thrift store I saw a familiar image.  The yellow background an colorful letters spelling out “Colorburst”- it was the Kodak Colorburst 300, in person!  I stood there gazing at it and I heard James Blunt’s “Beautiful” in my head.

There was someone standing in front of it looking at stuff on another shelf. action of ivermectin   I thought “Oh my God, please don’t look down!”  I had this nightmare scenario that this lady would look at it and say “Oh WOW!  A Colorburst 300, I can’t believe it!” she would scoop it up and walk by me, hugging it with a big smile on her face but she soon got out of the way and I went over and grabbed it.
I brought it home and got out the Colorburst picture I’ve kept for 28 years, I was just so thrilled with this great random find and it was only $5!

I couldn’t wait to show Ethan, as soon as he got home I said “GUESS what I found at the thrift shop!” and pointed over to it on the counter.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone less impressed with something as he was with that camera.  It wasn’t even disgust, it was just this pure “could not care less” vibe. revectina 6mg 4 comprimidos
I even tried convince him it was cool to have, showing him the picture and saying “THIS picture was taken with the same type of camera and I found this camera at the thrift store!”
He just stood there for a second and then asked “Are you going to keep it?”

I guess it’s just me, but I was so happy with my little treasure, it’s beautiful to me. : ) 

My little sister and I have a dissagreement about Honey Dew, I think they’re good and she can’t stand the sight of them, or even the mention of them. While I was here taking this picture she happened to call my cell phone and asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was taking a picture of Honey Dew and she said “Ugh, why?” I laughed and asked her if she wanted me to pick up anything from there for her, I got a loud “NO!” back.

I’m not a die hard Honey Dew person and I get coffee at Dunkin Donuts more often but I like this particular Honey Dew because they still have a counter.  It doesn’t seem that long ago (but I guess it is) that Dunkin Donuts used to have counters with a waitress who would come over and take your order and serve you coffee in a ceramic cup as well as your donut on a ceramic plate.  I understand that times have changed and they needed to conform to commuters who need to dash in and out and watch CNN while they’re waiting in line, however Honey Dew gets kudos for keeping their counter.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to having a counter, Honey Dew also still makes Chocolate Creme donuts.  My twin sister and I love these.  She moved to Oregon a few years ago and misses a lot of things form home, these donuts being one of them, so I wanted to mail her some and went to the Dunkin Donuts down the street and they didn’t have any. I found out the don’t make them at all!  I called the other Framingham Dunkins and even some in Natick before giving up and none of them make Chocolate creme anymore.  I know I had seen them at a DD in New Hampshire so it must be a regional thing not to make these donuts, although at certain Worcester locations they have them too.

Long story short, if you’re in our fair town of Framingham and want a Chocolate Creme donut and want to sit at a counter, Honeydew is your place.  The Pumpkin Spice coffee is great too.

Warehouse Wine and Spirits is on Route 9 right next to Whole Foods. The employees are always pleasant and helpful. Last year I tried ordering my most favorite beer in the world, Blackened Voodoo, but the New Orleans based brewery that makes it was destroyed by Katrina and what was left had been sold out from all of the distributors they tried.

Last night I went back in there and asked if there was any news on Blackened Voodoo being available again but it’s not…yet.
So I asked the guy who orders the beer what he would suggest being a runner up to Voodoo and he took the time to show me what he thought would be a close match. I was in a beer mood so I got couple of his suggestions plus some pumpkin ales to try.
Here’s the line up.

He said the closest match would be “Old Peculiar” and I have to say it was pretty close.

I have ONE bottle of Blackened’s sister, Crimson Voodoo, which is also amazing but I’ve had it since last Halloween so I doubt it’s good but I can’t bring myself to pour this precious brew down the drain.

Warehouse Wine and Spirits is very helpful and really went the extra mile trying to hunt down someone to get any remaining Voodoo last year. The beer guy said he heard on the radio that they are currently trying to get the brewery going again but jerks keep breaking in there and stealing the equipment but he’ll call me when they can get it again.

So incase anyone is wondering (because I would), I don’t just go out to eat, I actually belong to (and attend!) the gym that is on Fountain St., Focus on Fitness.  This used to be “The Vertical Club” but they changed the name for whatever reason.

I like this gym a lot because of the windows in front of the treadmills.  I took pictures at 5:20am so the sun isn’t out yet but it’s a nice view of the pond when the sun is out.
They have a pool too, which is great because I sometimes I get sick of the running/elliptical/weights stuff and it’s nice to have the option of something different to do rather than not going at all.

The other crazies that get up as early as I do are so nice.  From my first day there the other members were so friendly and introduced themselves- just because they wanted to.  They’re just sincerely nice people.  For some reason it’s only the early morning crowd that’s like this. I went after work a couple of times and the gym has such a different feel, which is fine, but I just like going when they open in the morning. 

Plus sometimes I catch a nice sunrise on the way there.

 

 
When I was age 4 through 9 my uncle and father owned an auto part store right at the corner of 126 and 135.  My sister and I would hang out there all the time and noticed “The Happy Swallow” one storefront away and wondered what it was. I remember I couldn’t even read yet but there was a bird on the sign with a martini glass, I didn’t even know what a martini glass was but I thought since it had a bird on there it must be a good place.
They have since replaced the martini glass with a beer mug on their new sign and I finally went to go check it out.

I gave Ethan the night off and dragged my friend Mike to go with me.
It was just what I thought it would be like: old, somewhat dingy and in a weird way “homey”. 
Mike and I went up to the bar and got a couple of beers and I asked the bartender if we should order though him if we want something to eat.  He said to hold on a sec and went over to the kitchen and asked the guy in there “What are we doing about food?” he came back and said someone would be over in a few minutes so we sat down and checked out the menu posted above the pick-up window.

5 minutes later an older man comes over to our table and asks “You wanted some food?” and we ordered a couple of burgers.  Then Mike saw lettuce and tomato was 50¢ extra and we hadn’t asked for it but wanted it so he went back up to the window to ask for the kitchen guy to add that and the guy said “oh, you could have told me that before- that’s ok, that’s ok” Which was kind of funny since he hadn’t even started making anything yet.
I thought it was interesting that there are no stools at the bar, people just stand.  There are stools at the tall tables but they aren’t bolted down like adamg described, perhaps in their wilder days though.

There was some guy sitting at a booth by the door and played some song on the jukebox (I can’t remember) and as he was walking back to his seat the song started playing and everyone at the bar started yelling at him really loud (some with thick Boston accents): “FRANK!  FRANK!  GO HOME! GET OUTTA HEAH FRANK!”
They were laughing like it was an old joke or maybe he notoriously plays bad songs but Frank just ignored this and just shuffled back to his booth.

When our burgers were ready the kitchen guy yelled “Cheeseburger Hambuger!” and we went up to the window to get them.  When I was paying the kitchen guy looked at me and said “Were you in here last week?” and I said “No, I’ve never been in here before” and he said “Because you look just like someone that was in here last week” and I said “Yeah I get that a lot, I think I just look like a lot of people so people always think they’ve seen me before” He squinted at me like he was inspecting my face and said “Yeah I guess so- ok, enjoy.”
The burgers were pretty good, I guess were expecting the worst but I think they really were pretty good.

Mike went to the bathroom and took a picture because he was weirded out by the urinal that reached the floor.
While Mike was in the bathroom, the kitchen guy was leaving for the night and walked by the bar where the bartender yelled out “Have a good one Fred” (or Red or Ted).  When he walked by my table he stopped to look at me and said “Goodnight, girl”gave a little smile and walked out the side door.
By the end of the night we decided that this is a good place to go to. I don’t know if we happened to go on a quiet night but we really enjoyed it and no one got beaten up like thought we would : )

P.S. They also have live music on the weekends, I’m curious to see where they fit the musicians.